More and more of my time is spent teaching the Dhamma to school children. Not only do they benefit, but I do too. Regardless of the age, my format is nearly always the same: introduce the Hermitage and myself, explain the symbolism of the candles, flowers and incense, tell them the life-story of the Buddha, teach them about the Four Noble Truths, spend a few minutes meditating, and then walk around the grounds. Depending on their level of understanding I emphasize different aspects: if they’re younger I’ll ask them to imagine having a conversation with an ant on the floor; if they’re older we’ll talk about why we’ll never have enough Nintendo games.
The questions are always a highlight. Some, as you’d expect, are rather inappropriate: ‘What do you wear under….?’ Others move you with their profundity. ‘Why is it that wisdom can’t be found in books?’ And others require some tact on my part and some imagination on theirs: ‘Why don’t monks get married?’ (She was very concerned.) I pointed her to the First and Second Noble Truths and left the rest to her.
One of the questions I never tire of answering is this one; ‘What do Buddhists believe in?’ These children will be doing the mandatory rounds of the religions. They’ll have found out that Christians believe in this and Jews believe in that and Hindus believe in the other. And now it’s the Buddhists’ turn: ‘What do you believe in?’
‘Well’, I say, ‘Buddhists don’t believe in anything.’ That was not the answer they were expecting. ‘When you believe in something’, I ask, ‘Do you know it?’ ‘No’, they say. ‘Well, Buddhism is not about believing; it is about knowing. The word ‘Buddha’ means ‘The One Who Knows’ – not the one who believes, but the one who knows. And that is what we are trying to do too: to know.’
Say I was holding an apple. And I told you that this apple is the most delicious apple in the world. If you believed me you would say: ‘That is the most delicious apple in the world.’ Then you might go and tell your friends: ‘That lucky monk is holding the most delicious apple in the world.’ And then those people might spread it around too. And before long half of the planet would believe that I was in possession of the most delicious apple in the world! Of course, the apple might actually be utterly disgusting. But they wouldn’t know that. The reality and their belief are totally different things.
Several years ago I attended a meeting of the Warwick District Faiths Forum. It concluded with a Muslim man giving a talk on Islam. I had no idea what Muslims believe so I was curious to find out. I don’t remember much of what he said – I was too busy frowning and yawning – but I do clearly remember when he listed, by rote, like a seven-year old boy who’s reciting his ten-times table – what he and Muslims believe in: ‘We believe in God. We believe in heaven and hell. We believe in the Angel Gabriel. We believe in Adam and Eve…’ And so it went on. I could not believe my ears! How can a grown man think this? It was disturbing to consider that not only did he believe this stuff, but that he believed it without question.
How different, I thought, is Buddhism. Can you imagine giving a talk on the Dhamma in the same way? ‘We believe in the Buddha. We believe in the Four Noble Truths. We believe in the Noble Eightfold Path. We believe in impermanence…..’ The Buddha would not have been impressed.
There is a celebrated occasion when he was once teaching someone with the Venerable Sariputta in attendance. After he had finished he turned to Sariputta and asked him: ‘Do you believe what I just said?’ ‘No’, replied Sariputta. Now we may think that was rude, but the Buddha praised him. Sariputta than said that he could not believe it because he had not yet seen for himself whether or not what the Buddha had said was true.
And until we see for ourselves, neither do we. The Buddha didn’t want it any other way.
.
More and more of my time is spent teaching the Dhamma to school children. Not only do they benefit, but I do too. Regardless of the age, my format is nearly always the same: introduce the Hermitage and myself; explain the symbolism of the candles, flowers and incense; tell them the life-story of the Buddha; teach them about the Four Noble Truths; spend a few minutes meditating; and then walk around the grounds. Depending on their level of understanding I emphasize different aspects: if they’re younger I’ll ask them to imagine having a conversation with an ant on the floor; if they’re older we’ll talk about why they’ll never have enough Nintendo games.
The questions are always a highlight. Some, as you’d expect, are rather inappropriate: ‘What do you wear under….?’ Others move you with their profundity. ‘Why is it that wisdom can’t be found in books?’ And others require some tact on my part and some imagination on theirs: ‘Why don’t monks get married?’ (She was very concerned.) I pointed her to the First and Second Noble Truths and left the rest to her.
One of the questions I never tire of answering is this: ‘What do Buddhists believe in?’ These children will be doing the mandatory rounds of the religions. They’ll have found out that Christians believe in this and Jews believe in that and Hindus believe in the other. And now it’s the Buddhists’ turn: ‘What do you believe in?’
‘Well’, I say, ‘Buddhists don’t believe in anything.’ That was not the answer they were expecting. ‘When you believe in something’, I ask, ‘Do you know it?’ ‘No’, they say. ‘Well, Buddhism is not about believing; it is about knowing. The word ‘Buddha’ means ‘The One Who Knows‘ – not the one who believes, but the one who knows. And that is what we are trying to do too: to know.’
Say I was holding an apple. And I told you that this apple is the most delicious apple in the world. If you believed me you would say: ‘That is the most delicious apple in the world.’ Then you might go and tell your friends: ‘That lucky monk is holding the most delicious apple in the world.’ And then those people might spread it around too. And before long half of the planet would believe that I was in possession of the most delicious apple in the world! Of course, the apple might actually be utterly disgusting. But they wouldn’t know that. The reality and their belief are totally different things.
Several years ago I attended a meeting of the Warwick District Faiths Forum. It concluded with a Muslim man giving a talk on Islam. I had no idea what Muslims believe so I was curious to find out. I don’t remember much of what he said though, as I was too busy frowning and wincing. But I do clearly remember when he listed, by rote, like a seven-year old who’s reciting his ten-times table, what he and Muslims believe in: ‘We believe in God. We believe in heaven and hell. We believe in the Angel Gabriel. We believe in Adam and Eve…’ I couldn’t believe my ears!
How different, I thought, is Buddhism. Can you imagine giving a talk on the Dhamma in the same way? ‘We believe in the Buddha. We believe in the Four Noble Truths. We believe in the Noble Eightfold Path. We believe in impermanence…..’ The Buddha would not have been impressed.
There is a celebrated occasion when he was once teaching someone with the Venerable Sariputta in attendance. After he had finished he turned to Sariputta and asked him: ‘Do you believe what I just said?’ ‘No’, replied Sariputta. Now we may think that was rude, but the Buddha praised him. Sariputta then said that he could not believe it because he had not yet seen for himself whether or not what the Buddha had said was true.
And until we see for ourselves, neither do we. The Buddha didn’t want it any other way.
.
The next teaching will be on:
The half-moon day, Wednesday 25 November
.
Dhamma Diary 
Usually, when people find out that I am a Buddhist, they ask me “what do Buddhists believe?” & actually, much of the time I’m not always sure I’m giving the right answer. I guess depending on the character of the person asking, I will either mention something about dukkha/4 Noble Truths or accentuate the 3 characteristics of existence (anicca, anatta, dukkha) in a similar sort of way…nonetheless, I often do find myself stuck for words although in my heart I feel I have atleast a basic level of intellectual understanding of the teachings. I’d be interested to know how to summarise the answer to that question? I also often reflect on the verse from the Dhammapada “To abandon all evil, to do only good and to purify one’s mind, this is the teaching of the awakened one’s.” Perhaps this is a good response!?
With metta.
It’s true, we can’t just get away with ‘We don’t believe in anything’, but we do need to make the point about belief being anathema to Buddhism. After doing that we can outline the the Four Noble Truths. The verse from the Dhammapada is also an excellent short answer – custom made!
As you say, though, circumstances and the person’s character will dictate how we answer.
Metta
Tahn Manapo
Dear Ajahn
Thank you so much Venerable Brother for sharing on this fascinating site…
Just found you and the Hermitage online today for the first time
It’s good to have examples of how to share the Buddha’s teachings with children, especially – so important, to get to them while their minds are still open!
Also, good examples of how to cope with the ‘belief’ question.
One I often use what is a fundemental BELIEF
in the potential of human beings to become enlightened …
and that one historically did, whom we call the ‘Buddha’.
Ofcourse I try to judge the speakers level, etc. as you rightly point out….
Thanks again!
The thing about believing and knowing, I agree, and I would like to be a Buddhist who really knows the path she’s treading. But I still think a certain dose of believing is necessary in order to propel yourself into the next step. A bit of belief at the beginning makes me want to know further, and to try to see whether what I’ve heard are true. At least that’s what happened to me. Like Ajahn Jayasaro said “a working hypothesis”. I belief in kamma, that prompted me to attempt at awareness of my intention, with which I hope to later see for myself kamma-saka, kamma-dayada, kamma-yoni, kamma-bandhu, kamma-patisarana. Without believing first, I wouldn’t have tried to observe anything.
I don’t know to what extent I believe, but I believe the path shown by the Buddha would be good, so I wish to learn further.