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Merit welcomes the doers of goodA man long absent and returned safe from afar his kinsmen, friends and well-wishers welcome on his arrival. Likewise, his good deeds will receive the well-doer who has gone from this world to the next as kinsmen will receive a dear one on his return.Piya vagga - The Dhammapada

Understanding Dhamma : 

Dhamma is the nature of things

by Kingsley Heendeniya

Several readers inform me that the short regular pieces I write on the Teaching of the Buddha are appreciated.

My style in writing is to stimulate the reader to think.

I leave blank spaces, as it were, to be filled by discussion and study. To benefit from what the Buddha taught, the necessary conditions are virtue, commitment, informed learning, investigation and striving. Beginning today, I shall present some essays as a Q & A.

Q. What is the meaning of dhamma?

A. It is a portmanteau word. An ancient Pali Dictionary used by student monks in the Pirivenas listed the following meanings: nature, teaching, doctrine, wisdom, intelligence, justice, right way, truth, normal, usual, primary condition or state, merit, meritorious deed, the knowable, the field of knowledge, virtue, good conduct, civility, concentration, mental discipline, non-being, non-self, transgression, breaking a Vinaya rule, reason, cause, and so on. [From Walpola Rahula]. Venerable Nanavira and venerable Nanamoli discussed the meaning and translation of the word in a long series correspondence and finally agreed on things. It refers to each and everything, material and immaterial that is experienced.

The sky, the sunrise, mountains and rivers, land, wealth, family, friends, books, happiness, sorrow, hatred - all things one experiences in life are dhamma. And each thing has its dhamma or nature or way, just as it is the nature of water to flow downstream.

Q. What is the meaning of the word Dhamma?

A. Venerable Nanavira explains it thus. In its most general sense, a dhamma or thing is whatever that is distinct from anything else and more precisely, it is what a thing is in itself, as opposed to how it is.

It is the particular essence or nature of a thing distinct from all others. If a thing is a solid pleasant shady tree for lying under that I now see, its nature is, precisely, that it is solid, that it is pleasant, that it is shady, that it is a tree for lying under, and that it is visible to me. The pleasant that I now see is a thing, a nature or dhamma as also each item severally: solidity, pleasantness etc.

They are distinct from each other though they may not be independent, and in the immediate experience, are all particular. How a thing is matter of structure or intentions of intentions [cetana] or determinations [sankhara].

The normal mode of practicing the teaching of the Buddha is reflexive, mindfully and aware, as in satisampajanna. When this attitude is adopted, the pleasant shady that I now see is as it were put in brackets and we arrive at the nature of the particular experience.

Instead of solid, pleasant, shady, tree for lying under, visible to me and so on, we now regard them reflexively as matter [rupa], feeling [vedana], perception [sanna], determinations [sankhara], consciousness [vinnana] and all the things such as aniccata that the Suttas speak of. These are common or universal to all particular things.

For example, eye-consciousness is common to everything one has seen or shall see. These dhamma then make up the Dhamma. The Dhamma is the Nature of Things which is what the Buddha teaches. Dhamma is therefore the Teaching of the Buddha.

The Dhamnar Cave Complex at Chandwasa of Madhya Pradesh

by Rohan L. Jayetilleke

The Buddhist cave complex carved out of rocks in a pit.

The cave complex is situated on the flat topped laterite hill of Dhamnar about 20 Km west of Shamgarh railway station, on Delhi-Mumbai Railway route. This area of the caves is a small township. One of the glorious aspects of the ancient Indian art and architecture was the creation of monoliths that were hewn out of solid rocks, as is the case of Ajanta with 31 caves.

Historians have confirmed that these are Buddhist monasteries where meditative Bhikkhus lived, supported by the villagers in the environs, going on their alms rounds.

The first historian to study these caves was the British historian James Todd in 1821 and called them Jaina caves, as he was under the guidance a follower of Jainism Yati Gyachandra. He found 237 caves carved in a horse-shoe shape hill range.

Another historian James Ferguson considered only 60 to 70 caves as important from an architectural point of view.

Despite these claims by the Britishers not learned deeply in Buddhist scriptures or Vedic literatures, these caves located on the precipitous faces near the top of the Dhamnar hill are residences of Buddhist monks.

The statue of  God Vishnu  in the Dharmarajeshwar temple	A view of  the Shiva temple	A statue of  the Buddha  at a cave entrance

They are connected in many places with the courts in front of the caves by means of rock cut stairs. It is evident that the court was the meeting hall for Buddhist monk's religious rites, such as Uposatha, chanting of pirith, meeting visitors, partaking of alms and assembly hall for meeting and discussing the Dhamma by the resident bhikkhus.

In these caves there are no sculptural embellishments as in Hindu temples on the walls, and point of entry. The images of the Buddha are carved on rough surface of the rock, for the purpose of worship or to sit in lotus posture in front of the statue and meditate on the Buddha's qualities.

With the synchronization of Buddhism with Hinduism, this complex's main attraction called the Dharmarajeshwar temple or Dharmanatha (Buddha the Monarch or Buddha, the Saviour) as now a Hindu shrine associated with the two sects of Vaishnavism and Shaivism. This temple is carved out of a 54 metre long, 20 metre wide and 9 metre deep rock. Main temple with the Shikara (pinnacle) is in the middle and seven small shrines encircle it. In the same model, recently Archaeological Survey of India excavated, the tallest stupa in the world; Kesariya, at Ujjaini.

This temple had been built by Dharmarajeshwar King of the Gupta period. The sculptural beauty of this temple is very extraordinary as the restrictions of carving a shape out of the rock, is indeed a super human task with the chisel and the hammer.

This is a living picture of the skill of the stone masons of India then as now. The Kailash temple at Ellora in Maharastra, has a sculptural affinity to the artistry of this cave temple. The Kailash temple at Ellora being carved out of fine grained trap rock, while the Dharmarajeshwar temple is hewn out of laterite rock, explaining why the sculptures are not so fine as of Kailash temple.

Hindus absorbed Buddhism into Hinduism and referred to the Buddha as the seventh incarnation of Vishnu and named the Buddha as Buddha Baghawan. Hindus in millions visit Buddhist shrines even today and venerate the Buddha as Buddha Baghawan, the seventh incarnation of God Vishnu, the president god of the Hindu pantheon.

The temple of Dharmarajeshwar became a Vishnu temple. Later it was transformed into a Shiva temple, installing a Shivalinga (phallax symbol) in the main temple, beside the grand stature of Lord Vishnu on the western wall of the temple. The main temple is composed of a rectangular garbha griha (sanctum sanctrum), and a square mandapa (pavilion).

Seven small temples (Devalayas) encircle the main temple. Quiet distinct from rock cut temples at Masrur in Himachal Pradesh where the small temples are not separate from the main temple, the Devalayas of Dhamnar are separate from the main temples.

One of the seven small temples has a sculpture of Shiva's tandava dance and saptamatrikas. In other shrines, Lord Vishnu reclining on a serpent, Sheshbanaga and his Dasa Avatara (ten incarnations) are carved in other shrines. Three shrines are without any statues, probably they would have had the Buddha statues in the pre-transformation of these temples to Hindu shrines.

The Sri Lankan archaeological icon of old, Dr. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was of the view that Dharmarajeshwar temple is the most explicit of Nagara style. He dates the temple to the 8th to 9th centuries AD, on the strength of the sculptural embellishments, probably the period the transformation from a Buddhist site to a Hindu site came into existence.

Every year on the occasion of Sivarathri in February a massive fair is held here. Devotees from all parts of India congregate on this occasion to venerate Lord Shiva. The ideal time to visit this Buddhist-Hindu cave complex is from March to July-August. As the name Dhamnar suggests, Dhamma is Buddhism and 'nar' is city, as is the case with Kusinar - City of Kusi.

Fear of death and its absence

Buddhist mirror by A.G.S.Kariyawasam

In Buddhist India there was a brahmin named Jaanussoni (meaning the one with a raised knee-cap), who was an extremely rich individual belonging to the Mahaasaara group of brahmins, to which category belonged those brahmins possessing a safely deposited wealth of 800 million kahaapanas while for their day-to-day expenses they had one-and-a-half pots of those coins (silver or gold) as ready cash.

He ranked with the eminent brahmins of Buddhist India such as Canki, Pokkarasaati, Todeyya etc. and was living at a village called Icchaanangala close to Savatthi. He was a devoted follower of the Buddha, of whom he was a great admirer.

Like many others of his elk, he was used to engage in intellectual discussions with the well-known teachers at the time. One such discussion he had with the Buddha, as recorded in the Anguttara Nikaya (PTS. Vol I, p. 173) has "fearlessness of death as its theme. We thought of familiarising ourselves with this discussion which is an ethical one, with its contents being applicable to all times and claims and as such it's becoming topical at any time.

For, there cannot be life without death. But it becomes specially relevant to today's Sri Lanka, where fearful deaths by murder have been fast becoming the order of the day in this Island of virtue - (Dharmadipa), once upon a time", as it were.

Current trend

Natural death of a person who has lived his or her normal lifespan is quite acceptable, and is inevitably so. But, when unnatural and fearful deaths by murder becomes so common as it is today in our country, it calls for deep investigation and quick remedial action.

It is true that preaching sermons cannot arrest the current trend. But, if the general attitude of the people to life and death can be made more realistic and at least somewhat enlightened, this situation can be changed. This is in addition to efficient and quick preventive and remedial action by the law-enforcement authorities.

In unexpected sudden murders the fear of the victim is, although it can be acute is instantaneous, without any prolonged suffering.

The fear of death thus becomes very much important with the timely and welcome measure taken by the government in the restoration of the death penalty. When the sentence of death is passed on a criminal by a law-court or any such judaical authority, the accused becomes the hapless victim of the 'fear of death' on a major scale.

The victim has to keep on counting his numbered days, in fear and repentance, which of course are one's earned deserts. Here lies also the punitive measure against serious crime. Its re-imposement is bound to show a marked reduction in the grave crime rate as the fear psychosis it generates is endowed with sufficient strength to make a criminal think twice before he takes his lead. The fear experienced by the death-row occupants represents a heightened stage of the fear of death.

Coming back to our story after this apt diversion here, the brahmian Jaanussoni directly questions the Buddha saying that in his view there is no mortal who does not fear death.

The Buddha utilizes the occasion to show that while maintaining the assertion of Janussoni, he clarifies how one can also create a situation wherein one can remain fearless in the face of death. In other words, although people in general fear death invariably, there is available to man a way to face death without any fear. The way recommended by the Buddha is the most profitable lesson to a crime-ridden society as unfortunately found in contemporary Sri Lanka.

Contentment

People fear death only if they have committed evil deeds in word, deed or thought. Ethical purity in the negative sense of non-commission of evil coupled positively with the performance of wholesome activity is the best assurance and safeguard against the fear of death.

Lust for quick wealth, for all the available modern amenities etc. being a major cause of crime, unless the people learn the ethical discipline in these mattes it is difficult to solve the problem.

Unethical behavioural patterns of man in the acquisition of these requirements cannot be disciplined unless man himself acquires and assimilates the quality of contentment praised so heavily in Buddhism as in the often-quoted Dhammapada line santutthi paramam dhanam.

According to the discourse under reference the persons who hankered after all the desires of his senses will, in the face of death, wail and weep because those pleasures will leave him and that he shall also have to leave them. How deeply involved is he in the samsaric tangle to think so.

Yet another such an individual in the face of death thinks and worries about the fact that his physical body, as the medium of enjoyment and acquisition, will leave him which mean that he has to give up that body which he had been exploiting for his pleasures so far. He too wails and laments as before - for losing his physical body as a means of pleasure.

Yet a third person who is also subject to this fear of death is the one who has not performed anything good and wholesome, who has thus made no shelter for himself but has done only what is evil, 'crooked wicked and frandulant. At the moment of death it is too late for any remedial action because his prospective evil destiny begins to threaten him menacingly.

Fearless death

The fourth type of individual undergoing fear before death is the one who entertains doubts and perplexities as per the good Dhamma, and accordingly has not arrived at a certainty in it. He too begins to lament in the face of death just as the above three types.

After enumerating these four types of individuals who become terror-stricken before death, the Buddha explains that those who are free from these four weaknesses are the people who face death without any fear.

They have no fears of losing the sensual pleasures because they do not live for mere pleasures of the senses. For the same reason they have no attachment to their physical bodies as media of enjoyment. They have understood life's realities and are on the way to the transcendental state of Nirvanic freedom in their pilgrimage of life.

For practical purposes what the above discussion shows is that a person desiring a "fearless death" should avoid doing what is generally regarded evil, bad, immoral and fraudulent.

None lives for ever. Till death comes one day it would be beneficial to be mindful of it and act accordingly. That would be the best assurance for the presence of that rare and elusive virtue covered by the term conscientiousness.

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