The Universal Teaching of the Buddha

　　by S.N. Goenka

　　Most Venerable Bhante Dhamma-Ratanaji, devotees and admirers of Lord Buddha, you are all assembled here this evening to understand the universality of the teaching of the Buddha. A Buddha always teaches Dhamma, nothing else but Dhamma. And Dhamma means truth, nature, the law of nature, which is universal. Dhamma can never be sectarian; it is the universal law of nature. There were many at the time of the Buddha, contemporaries of the Buddha, and there were many before Gotama Buddha who tried to teach the same thing, but they were not successful.

　　I come from a family, from a tradition, of very staunch conservative Hindus, and because I come from that tradition, I know the background of Indian spirituality, I know the teachings. When I went to my teacher for the first time to take a Vipassana course, nothing seemed new to me. Buddha taught sila (morality), and the conservative Hindus, and also the Jain tradition of India, give importance to sila. Buddha taught samadhi, mastery over the mind, and I found that this was there also. Every tradition teaches how to control the mind, how to develop mastery over the mind. Buddha teaches panna, wisdom; and it seemed that that also was not new to me. In the tradition from which I come, one has to work to purify the mind - to come out of raga, i.e. craving; to come out of dosa, i.e. aversion; to come out of moha, i.e. ignorance. Nothing was new, and yet everything was new. Every step that I took was wonderful.

　　And why

　　 Let me explain why.

　　Like many teachers of different religions Buddha also taught about sila, the five precepts, the panca sila, and like others he explains to people, in different ways, why they should observe sila. You should not kill. Why should you not kill

　　 If somebody comes and kills you, you certainly don”t like it. Therefore when you try to kill somebody, that person won”t like it. What you don”t like, others don”t like. So refrain from actions which, if performed by others towards you, you won”t like. You should not do something which will hurt or harm others. Therefore don”t kill.

　　If somebody steals something belonging to you which is very dear to you, you won”t like it. Certainly you don”t like it. Therefore don”t take something belonging to somebody else, which is dear to that person. You don”t steal it because you don”t like that to be done to you.

　　If someone commits rape or adultery with a member of your family, you don”t like it. So you should not do something like that.

　　Somebody speaks lies and deceives you. You don”t like it. Therefore you should not do a thing like this which others won”t like. You may agree to these four precepts-"Yes, I understand I should not kill. I should not steal. I should not commit sexual misconduct. I should not speak lies and yet when you get intoxicated you might commit all these four. You are helpless. You are a slave of the intoxicant. You are not the master of yourself. Therefore don”t take any intoxicant. Wonderful!

　　Another way of explaining: if you don”t break any one of the sila, after death you will get this heaven or that heaven.

　　Again wonderful!

　　Another approach: you are a human being and every human being has to live in society. A householder has to live with the members of his own family, members of the society. Even if someone renounces the householder”s life, yet one remains in contact with the society. As a member of the society you should not do anything which will disturb the peace and harmony of the society. You cannot enjoy peace and harmony if all around you there is no peace and harmony at all. If you want to live a life of peace and harmony, that means you must encourage peace and harmony around you. If you are surrounded by burning fire, don”t th…

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