..续本文上一页erfect One with the highest veneration of all. Therefore, Ananda, train thus: "We will live in the way of the Dhamma, entering upon the proper way, and walking in the Dhamma."”" (Ven. Ñanamoli”s translation).

　　There is no doubt that the practice of giving (dana), moral conduct (sila), meditation (samadhi) and wisdom (pañña) are the best way of honoring the Buddha — they are called the puja of practice (patipatti-puja), but offerings and chanting are found useful by many people as it stimulates practice. It is only when sakkara-puja, the puja with material offerings, supplants patipatti-puja that there is the danger that peoples” "Buddhism" becomes mere ceremonials. In time, these tend to become complex, like a strangling vine overgrowing the majestic tree of the Buddhasasana.

　　2.Añjali, in many Asiatic lands, is the common form of greeting, just as shaking hands is in the west. The latter custom is said to have been derived from the need to show that one had no kind of weapon in one”s right hand, while añjali perhaps derives from a gentle attitude towards other people. This respect becomes reverence when añjali is made to religious teachers, and so by extension to the objects symbolizing the Teacher of gods and men (the Buddha), such as images and stupas. In the Buddhasasana it does not have the significance — that of prayer — given to it in western religion.

　　3.This is not "surrender," as such an action might be in a "devotion-only" religion, nor of course is it an abject debasement of oneself, a sort of fawning of favors, since Buddhists do not approach their shrines with such ideas. And of course it is not "bowing down to idols." It is rather the bowing down of one”s own idol — self-pride — to Enlightenment.

　　4.Bhagava: a very frequent term of respect for the Buddha (usually translated, "Lord," "Blessed One," "Exalted One") is hard to render in English. It means: "The compassionate Lord who by his skillful means apportions Dhamma which exactly corresponds to the needs of those who hear."

　　5.See The Three Refuges, Wheel No. 75, B.P.S, Kandy.

　　6.The Pali of the Going-for-Refuge (etc.) is in the Appendix at the end of this book. Where "Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha" are felt to be more meaningful, they can be used in place of "The Enlightened One," "The Way to Enlightenment," and "The Enlightened Community."

　　7.See The Five Precepts, Wheel 55, BPS, Kandy, for the precepts explained, also the excellent article, "Sila in Modern Life" in The Buddhist Outlook by Francis Story, BPS.

　　8.See the Appendix for the Pali.

　　9.See the Appendix for the Pali.

　　10.See the Appendix for the Pali.

　　11.See the Appendix for the Pali.

　　12.See the Appendix for the Pali.

　　13.The lotus posture is made by placing the feet, soles up, on the opposite thighs. In the half-lotus one foot is on the opposite thigh, the other under the opposite upper leg. In the lion posture, one lower leg lies over the other, the foot on the knee, or slightly behind it.

　　14.For this in greater detail, see: "The Path of Purification," Ch. VIII, para 145ff, and "Mindfulness of Breathing," both translated by Venerable Ñanamoli Thera (from BPS, Kandy).

　　15.For this in greater detail, see: "The Path of Purification," Ch. IX; The Practice of Loving-kindness, Wheel No. 7; and The Four Sublime States, Wheel No. 6.

　　16.An LP record of Pali chanting in Sinhalese style may be had from the Buddhist Missionary Society, Brickfields Buddhist Temple, Jalan Berhala, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tapes of chanting (morning and evening services, paritta, etc.) can be had of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, 33 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 11, Thailand. These are in Thai styles of chanting.

　　17.In "The Entrance to the Vinaya II" (Mahamakut Press, Bangkok, BE 2516) we read: "It is p…

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