..续本文上一页e eyes of the world and would therefore fall short of any practical purpose. As realization of the Truth constitutes being the Sangha, it therefore follows that without the Sangha, both Buddhahood and the Dhamma, which in the ultimate sense are one and the same, would lose much of their meaning and value. It is the Sangha that preserves and spreads the Dhamma. Since the Dhamma is the essence of Buddhism as revealed by the Buddha, and the Sangha provides it with a definite form, it is not difficult to see that without the Sangha the religion would not have been established in the first place, or if it were founded, it would not have continued for long after the historical Buddha was gone.

　　Buddhists regard the Triple Gem with the highest veneration. We pay respect to the Triple Gem by practicing the Dhamma and conducting ourselves in accordance with the Buddha”s teachings. We also support the Sangha so that the Dhamma will be further preserved and promoted for the welfare and benefit of the world.

　　Buddhist practice and goal

　　 Buddhists believe in the cycle of birth and death, called Samsara in Pali. This belief is based on the recognition of the continuity of a series of lives from the past to the present and from the present to the future. The present life is not the only one, and it does not dissolve into nothingness at death. Samsara means that there existed lives prior to this one, and other existences will continue after its termination. The process and the continuity of life are sustained by the force of kamma, willful action based on desire, attachment and ignorance. This instinctive clinging to life, which is a universal attribute, is a determining factor for the continuation of existence. Samsara also implies a plurality of different realms of existence, in which rebirth takes place according to the nature of kammic energy. Some planes of existence are painful, and are a result of evil and unwholesome kamma, while others are filled with happiness and pleasurable experiences, and are attained through the positive energy of wholesome kamma. The human realm is one which contains a mixture of experiences, both pleasurable and painful, and this realm is shared by animals of different kinds. Samsara can be also interpreted to refer to the changing states of consciousness within the mind. Some scholars construe Samsara to signify the stream of experiences that come within the sphere of perception. Thus, according to these interpretations, Samsara may either be viewed simply as a state of consciousness, or the many experiences with which an inpidual becomes involved. It follows then that there may be many births and deaths occurring from moment to moment in different planes of thought or experience.

　　The ultimate goal in Buddhist practice is to be free from this cycle of birth and death. Samsara is considered undesirable as it lacks security and is liable to the vicissitudes and uncertainties of existence, such as old age, disease, death, pain, and suffering. Freedom from Samsara is called Nibbana (Sanskrit: nirvana), metaphorically described as the other shore, or the transcendental state beyond the confusion of worldly existence. It is the state which is completely free from conditionalities and limitations and is therefore not subject to all the conditions in mundane existence. Nibbana is a transcendent state, unconditioned and absolute.

　　The cycle of birth and death is perpetuated by the force of kamma-producing defilements (kilesa), chiefly by ignorance, craving and attachment. To achieve Nibbana, these defilements must be eliminated from the mind. This is by no means an easy task. The Buddha himself, even after his enlightenment, hesitated over teaching the Dhamma for some time, for he knew how his teachings went against…

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