Expert: Justin Choo - 3/25/2006

Question
How is it to become a real Buddhist? As people said even if you pray to Buddha's altar and respect Buddha you're still not a true Buddhist but just a respector of Buddha.

Answer
Hi Lee,

Thank you for asking me.

The Buddha discovered the way to peace and happiness through realizing the true nature of life and this universe. The Buddha through harnessing the power of his mind realized that if man is to be free of greed, hatred and delusion, he had to look inward into his mind, and start cleansing his inner defilements. If one reduces one's defilements, one would experience peace and happiness. He discovered that the whole world had certain characteristics and that life continued to exist because of certain causes. This world is very uncertain and very unsatisfactory because we cannot be fully satisfied in life and that nothing is permanent. He also pointed out that because of our craving for permanent and complete satisfaction, we were always miserable.

Based on the above premise, a real Buddhist is one who puts in continuous effort to reduce the 3 roots of defilements, namely, greed, hatred and delusion.  The more we reduce these defilements the more peace we experience.  The worldly conditions, especially the bad ones, become more bearable because we now understand its real nature.  When we follow the teachings of the Buddha, we become more mindful of the exigencies of life.  Our character changes for the better and we become more tolerant and forgiving.  We become noble, harmless and more confident.

Your last comment is correct.  The Buddha is gone, but his teachings are here for us to follow and benefit from them.  When one practises the Dhamma, the Dhamma protects one.

Smile from justinchoo :-)