Shravasti Dhammika quotes

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Shravasti Dhammika (1951- ) was born in Australia and ordained as a Theravada monk in India. He has written over 30 books, many of which are available to read completely online at no cost. He currently resides mostly in Sri Lanka or Singapore. He has written several excellent books for beginners such as Good Question, Good Answer and Buddhism A to Z and also books on pilgrimage to Buddhist sites.

Quotes

  • Buddhists do not consider the Tipitaka to be a divine infallible revelation from a god, every word of which they must believe. Rather, it is a record of the teaching of a great man that offers explanations, advice, guidance and encouragement and which should read thoughtfully and respectfully. Our aim should be to understand what the Tipitaka teaches, not just belive it and thus what the Buddha says should always be checked against our experience. You might say that the informed Buddhists's attitude to the scriptures is similar to a scientist's attitude to research papers in a scientific journal. A scientist conducts an experiment and then publishes his or her findings and conclusions in a journal. Other scientists will read the paper and treat it with respect but they will not consider it valid and authoritative until they have conducted the same experiment and got the same results.
  • The Buddha founded the order of nuns during his lifetime and for five or six hundred years, nuns played an important role in the spread and development of Buddhism. But for reasons that are not clear nuns never commanded the same esteem or got the same support, as monks and in India and Southeast Asia the order died out. Today in Sri Lanka steps are being taken to reintroduce the order of nuns from Taiwan although some traditionalists are not very enthusiastic about this. However, in keeping with the Buddha's original intention, it is only right that women as well as men have the opportunity to live the monastic life and benefit from it.
  • Many people find that as they develop in the Dhamma that they have a natural tendency to move toward vegetarianism.

References

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