The dictum, "First do no harm," from the Hippocratic Oath mimics the Buddhist tenet of "Ahimsa," which also means to do no harm. The Buddha, like a doctor, sought to heal illness and ease suffering and his teachings are therapeutic.

A Brief Synopsis of Buddhism in Simple Terms

Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment and taught in India over two thousand years ago, yet his teaching remains refreshing and relevant today. No matter who we are or where we live, we all want happiness and dislike suffering. The Buddha recommended that in working to overcome suffering we should help others as much as we can. He further advised that if we cannot actually be of help, we should at least be careful not to do anyone harm.

Part of Buddhist practice involves training our minds through meditation. But if our training in calming our minds, developing qualities like love, compassion, generosity and patience, is to be effective, we must put them into practice in day-to-day life. Being more concerned for the suffering of others instead of your own is truly to follow the spirit of all the great religions including Buddhism.

The purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit all sentient beings, including human beings.   And therefore it is more important to think of what contribution we Buddhists can make to human society according to our own ideas rather than trying to convert other people to Buddhism.   The Buddha gave us an example of contentment and tolerance, through serving others unselfishly.

I am often asked whether the teachings and techniques of Buddhism continue to be relevant in the present day and age. Like all religions, Buddhism deals with basic human problems. So long as we continue to experience the basic human sufferings resulting from impermanence, attachment and wrong view, there is no question of its relevance. The key is inner peace. If we have that we can face difficulties with calm and reason, while keeping our inner happiness. The teachings of love, kindness and tolerance, the conduct of non-violence, and especially the Buddhist theory that all things are relative are a source of that inner peace.

-Dalai Lama, Address to the 1st International Conference on Buddhism and Literature, February 15, 2001.

The Buddha claimed that the practices he advocated in the quest for enlightenment avoided the extremes of sensual self-indulgence on the one hand and self-mortification on the other.

“And what, monks, is the Middle Way realized by the Thus-Come-One, which gives vision and understanding, which leads to calm, penetration, enlightenment, to Nirvana?

It is just this Noble Eightfold Path, namely: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.” – The Buddha, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

The Middle Way is a central element to all forms of Buddhism.  Buddha, or the “Thus-Come-One,” delivered the above quote in his very first sermon over two and a half thousand years ago in North India.

The Buddha gave his Noble Eightfold Path the alternative name of the Middle Way. (Majjhima patipada)

Later, when the Buddha witnessed a group of temple dancers singing to a stringed instrument, he realized if the strings were too loose, they would not play and if they were too tight, they would break.  It was this realization that the Buddha would use to elucidate the wisdom of the Middle Way as an enlightened way of life that avoids extremes in favor of moderation.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama writes,

“Moderation should be applied even to our daily meals:  our stomach would be glad if we adopted moderation, because too much food makes it ill, and too little damages it.  We should never fall into excess in either direction:  to be too conservative is not good, and to be too radical isn’t either.  The Buddhist philosophy of “the middle way” is to find the happy medium.”  -H H Dalai Lama The Little Book of Inner Peace, 2009

Buddhism teaches respect and tolerance for other religions and speaking ill of anyone for their philosophy or religion is a transgression of the Dharma.  Not only does the Dalai Lama respect other faiths, he doesn’t seek converts.  His Holiness states, “People from different traditions should keep their own, rather than change.”

To a man who asked to become a Buddhist, the Dalai Lama replied, “Please don’t. Stay in your own religion, and meditate.”  Further , he has stated, “It is better to stick with the wisdom traditions of one’s own land than to run from them pursuing in exotica what was under your nose all the time.”

After all, love and compassion are the basic elements of every religion. Yet, His Holiness writes in The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace, “For certain people, Buddhism may simply not be an answer.  Different religions meet different people’s needs.  I do not try to convert people to Buddhism.  What I try to explore is how we Buddhists can make a contribution to human society in accordance with our ideas and values.”

His Holiness divides Buddhism into three categories: Buddhist science, Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist religion. Buddhist religion, he says, is the business of Buddhists, but Buddhist philosophy and science have universal application and need to be made available to the world.

“In conclusion, those who like myself, consider themselves to be followers of Buddha, should practice as much as we can. To followers of other religious traditions, I would like to say, “Please practice your own religion seriously and sincerely.” And to non-believers, I request you to try to be warm-hearted. I ask this of you because these mental attitudes actually bring us happiness. As I have mentioned before, taking care of others actually benefits you.” writes the Dalai Lama in Generating the Mind for Enlightenment.

Life, as an impermanent phenomenon, is subject to the suffering of change.  John Len Chapman (aka Memphis_Slim ) lays down the bare facts about Impermanence and the great democracy of death in his song, Mother Earth.

Mother Earth

You can high hat me all the time.
You may never go my way.
But Mother Earth is laying for you,
Because there’s a debt you gotta pay.
You know, I don’t care how great you are
And I don’t care what you’re worth.

Because When it all ends up,
You’ve got to go back to Mother Earth.

You may own half a city
Or even diamonds and pearls.
You may buy an airplane, Baby,
And fly all over this world,
But I don’t care how great you are
And I don’t care what you’re worth

Because When it all ends up,
You know, you’ve got to go back to Mother Earth.

You may play the horse races.
You may own a race track.
You may have enough money
To buy anything you lack,
But I don’t care how great you are
People and I don’t care what you’re worth.

Because when it all ends up,
We’ve got to, you’ve got to, go back to Mother Earth.

Memphis Slim

Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda writes, “Buddhism teaches that we must seek harmony on a more profound level. We must achieve a state of compassion deep enough to enable us to find our common humanity and transcend distinctions between ourselves and others.”

After all, we all share the commonality of life itself.  We find ourselves contemporaneously born into this miracle of creation.  We all seek happiness to avoid suffering.  And ultimately, we’ve all got to go back to Mother Earth.

“My confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation:  if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims of Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.” -Dalai Lama from The Universe in a Single Atom 2005

“Buddhism and science have increasingly been discussed as compatible.  Some philosophic and psychological teachings within Buddhism share commonalities with modern Western scientific and philosophic thought. For example, Buddhism encourages the impartial investigation of nature (an activity referred to as Dhamma-Vicaya in the Pali Canon) – the principal object of study being oneself. A reliance on causality and empiricism are common philosophical principles shared between Buddhism and science.”  -from Wikipedia article, Science and Religion.

Buddha: Consider others as yourself.

Jesus: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Mohammed:  Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.  That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind.

The Talmud:  What is hurtful to yourself do not to your fellow man.  That is the whole of the Torah and the remainder is but commentary.

Egyptian Late Period Papyrus:  That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.

Epicurus: Neither harm nor be harmed.

Confucius: Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.

The Golden Rule is also known as the Ethic of Reciprocity.  It is considered to be the most consistent, moral teaching throughout history.  It is told in story form in the Gospel of Luke in the  Parable of the Good Samaritan.  It has been deemed to be the integral tenet of many of the world’s religions, and officially so in 1993 at the Parliament of World Religions. Today, most countries have some form of Good Samaritan Law.

“Every religion emphasizes human improvement, love, respect for others, sharing other people’s suffering. On these lines every religion had more or less the same viewpoint and the same goal.” -The Dalai Lama

Do not underestimate good, thinking it will not affect you.  Dripping water can fill a pitcher. drop by drop; one who is wise  is filled with good, even if it accumulates little by little.

Buddha

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds (more…)

“The destructive effects of hatred are very visible, very obvious and immediate.  For example, when a very strong or forceful thought of hatred arises within you, at that very instant, it totally overwhelms you and destroys your peace of mind… it obliterates the best part of your brain, which is the ability to judge between right and wrong and the long-term and short-term consequences of your actions.  Your power of judgment becomes totally inoperable.  It is almost like you have become insane.  So this anger and hatred tends to throw you into a state of confusion which just serves to make your problems and difficulties so much worse.  Even at the physical level, hatred brings about a very ugly unpleasant physical transformation.”

Investigators, such as Dr. Redford Williams at Duke and Dr. Robert Sapolsky at Stanford University have conducted studies that demonstrate that anger, rage and hostility are particularly devastating to the cardiovascular system.  So much evidence has mounted about the harmful effects of hostility, in fact, that it is now considered a major risk factor in heart disease, at least equal to, or perhaps greater than the traditionally recognized risk factors such as high cholesterol or (more…)

Once you accept the fact that compassion is not something childish or sentimental, once you realize that compassion is something really worthwhile, realize it’s deeper value, then you immediately develop an attraction for it, a willingness to cultivate it.  And once you encourage the thought of compassion in your mind, once the thought becomes active, then your attitude toward others changes automatically.  If you approach others with the thought of compassion, that will automatically reduce fear and allow an openness with other people.  It creates a positive, friendly atmosphere… That kind of openness at least allows the possibility of having a meaningful conversation.  But without the attitude of compassion, if you are feeling closed, irritated, or indifferent, then you can even be approached by your best friend and you just feel uncomfortable.

Dalai Lama The Art of Happiness

Learn  how compassion brings a calm mind, speeds learning, and eases anxiety,   http://www.seedsofcompassion.org/event/

Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill… I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together...

-Marcus Aurelius Meditations

Perhaps, if Marcus Aurelius tunic were orange and he was not a military leader, he might have made an excellent Buddhist!  See the article on War and Buddhism. His reputation is further besmirched by his fierce cruelty in the persecution of Christians.  His troops brought the plague home from Mesopotamia which killed him and the Pax Romana died with him.

But is this an accurate assessment of society?  The Dalai Lama reiterates,

“Our mind is full of anger, jealousy, and other negative feelings, and we do not realize that such feelings are incompatible with inner peace and joy.  Our intelligence, which is the glory of human beings, is used only to deceive others and to gain more for ourselves at others expense.  At the end of the day we find only suffering and, as the ultimate absurdity, we lay the blame for this on other people.“

The cart is before the horse, so to speak.  Enlightened self-interest from a Buddhist perspective involves thoughts and acts of kindness toward others.  His Holiness explains,

“We cannot be useful to ourselves unless we are also useful to others.  Whether we like it or not we are all connected, and it is unthinkable to be happy all by oneself.  Anyone who is only concerned with his own well-being will suffer eventually.  Anyone who is concerned with the well-being of others takes care of himself without even thinking about it… Let us be intelligently selfish- let us help others!“

-Dalai Lama Advice From the Heart