Dharma

Category: Three Jewels

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Chinese :  法 fǎ
• Pali :  Dhamma
• Sanskrit :  धर्म   dharma

Dharma means Natural Law or Reality, and with respect to its significance for spirituality and religion might be considered the Way of the Higher Truths. Dharma forms the basis for philosophies, beliefs and practices originating in India. For practicing Buddhists, references to Dharma in the singular, particularly as The Dharma, is used to mean the teachings of a Buddha, and is sometimes referred to as the Buddha-Dharma. This latter signification has nothing to do with the personality of the spiritual teacher Siddhartha Gautama but rather signifies the importance of the attitude of mind that enables an adept or practitioner to re-harmonise his personal nature with the underlying principle of Dharma behind natural phenomena leading towards the undoing of all egoistic falsehood and ultimately release in nirvana - the peace of liberation (moksha).

The status of the Dharma is regarded variably by different traditions. Some regard it as an ultimate and transcendent truth which is utterly beyond worldly things, somewhat like the Christian logos. Others, who regard the Buddha as simply an enlightened human being, see the Dharma as the 84,000 different teachings (the Kanjur) that the Buddha gave to various types of people based on their needs.

Dharma usually refers inclusively not just to the sayings of the Buddha but to the later traditions of interpretation and addition that the various schools of Buddhism have developed to help explain and expand upon the Buddha's teachings. For others still, they see the dharma as referring to the "truth" or ultimate reality or "the way things are" (Tib. Cho).

The Dharma is one of the Three Jewels of which practitioners of Buddhism seek refuge in (what one relies on for his/her lasting happiness). The Three Jewels of Buddhism are the Buddha (mind's perfection of enlightenment), the Dharma (teachings and methods), and the Sangha (awakened beings who provide guidance and support).

The Teaching of the Buddha - the Dharma has six supreme qualities:

1. (Pali: svakkhato) The Dharma is not a speculative philosophy, but is the Universal Law found through enlightenment and is preached precisely. Therefore it is excellent in the beginning, excellent in the middle and excellent in the end.
2. (Pali: saṃditthiko) The Dharma can be tested by practice and therefore he who follows it will see the result by himself through his own experience.
3. (Pali: akāliko) The Dharma is able to bestow timeless and immediate results here and now, for which there is no need to wait until the future or next existence.
4. (Pali: ehipassiko) The Dharma welcomes all beings to put it to the test, come and see for themselves.
5. (Pali: opāneyiko) The Dharma is capable of being entered upon and therefore it is worthy to be followed as a part of one's life.
6. (Pali: paccattaṃ veditabbo viññūhi) The Dharma can be perfectly realized only by the noble disciples who have matured and enlightened enough in supreme wisdom.

Knowing these attributes, Buddhists believe that they will attain the greatest peace and happiness through the practice of the Dharma. Each person is therefore fully responsible for himself to put it in the real practice.

Here the Buddha is compared to an experienced and skilful doctor, and the Dharma to proper medicine. However efficient the doctor or wonderful the medicine may be, the patients cannot be cured unless they take the medicine properly. So the practice of the Dharma is the only way to attain the final deliverance of nirvana.

These teachings ranged from understanding karma and developing good impressions in one's mind, to how to reach full enlightenment by recognizing the nature of mind.

Dharma in Phenomenology

Other uses include dharma, normally spelled with a small "d" (to differentiate), which refers to a phenomenon or constituent factor of human experience. This was gradually expanded into a classification of constituents of the entire material and mental world. Rejecting the substantial existence of permanent entities which are qualified by possibly changing qualities, Buddhist Abhidharma philosophy, which enumerated seventy-five dharmas, came to propound that these "constituent factors" are the only type of entity that truly exists. This notion is of particular importance for the analysis of human experience: Rather than assuming that mental states inhere in a cognizing subject, or a soul-substance, Buddhist philosophers largely propose that mental states alone exist as "momentary elements of consciousness", and that a subjective perceiver is assumed.

The Buddha taught that everything (physicaly, phenomenoly and psychologicaly) is marked by three characteristics, called the Three Dharma Seals, which are :

• Anicca (impermanence), refers not only to the fact that all conditioned things eventually cease to exist, but also that all conditioned things are in a constant state of flux. A convenient way to visualize this would be to recall that the cells that constituting our body are constantly being replaced.
• Dukkha (unsatisfactoriness, pain or stress). Nothing found in the physical world or even the psychological realm can bring lasting deep satisfaction.
• Anatta (impersonality, or non-self). The human personality, the soul, or self, is only a conventional appellation applied to the assembly of physical and psychological components, each individually subject to constant flux; there is no central core or essence self.

By bringing the three seals into moment-to-moment experience through concentrated awareness, is to achieve wisdom and understanding of the true nature of the universe.

There is also a fourth Dharma Seal :

• Nirvana, is the liberation to the other shore from the Three Dharma Seals of samsara.

The Mahayana also considered compassion as a Dharma Seal, that is to help all beings on the path to nirvana.

In the Prajna Paramita Sutra :

• (Sanskrit: sūnyata laksana) is mentioned as Seal of Emptiness.

Buddhist philosophers, Nagarjuna would question whether the dharmas (momentary elements of consciousness) truly have a separate existence of their own. (ie Do they exist apart from anything else?) Rejecting any inherent reality to the dharmas, he asked (rhetorically):

śūnyeṣu sarvadharmeṣu kim anantaṁ kimantavat
kim anantam antavac ca nānantaṁ nāntavacca kiṁ
kiṁ tad eva kim anyat kiṁ śāśvataṁ kim aśāśvataṁ
aśāśvataṁ śāśvataṁ ca kiṁ vā nobhayam apyataḥ 'tha
sarvopalambhpaśamaḥ prapañcopaśamaḥ śivaḥ
na kva cit kasyacit kaścid dharmo buddhena deśitaḥ|

When all dharmas are empty, what is endless? What has an end?
What is endless and with an end? What is not endless and not with an end?
What is it? What is other? What is permanent? What is impermanent?
What is impermanent and permanent? What is neither?

Auspicious is the pacification of phenomenal metastasis, the pacification of all apprehending;
There is no dharma whatsoever taught by the Buddha to whomever, whenever, wherever. --Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, nirvṇānaparīkṣā, 25:22-24

Dharma as righteousness

According to S.N. Goenka, teacher of Vipassana Meditation, the original meaning of dhamma is “dhareti ti dhamma’, or “that which is contained”. Dharma in the Buddhist scriptures has a variety of meanings, including “phenomenon”, and "nature" or "characteristic". Dharma also means ‘mental contents’, and is paired with citta, which means heart/mind. The pairing is paralleled with the pairing of kaya (body) and vedana (feelings or sensations, that which arise within the body but experienced through the mind), in major sutras such as the Mahasatipatthana sutra. Dharma is also used to refer to the teachings of the Buddha, not in the context of the words of one man, even an enlightened man, but as a reflection of natural law which was re-discovered by this man and shared with the world. A person who lives their life with an understanding of this natural law, is a “dhammic” person, which is often translated as “righteous”.