Religions, it is often observed, are products of fear. This fear
is in turn based on ignorance. With the dawn of wisdom and the
ever-expanding horizons of knowledge, faith and confidence in
religions begin to evaporate, like morning mist under the rising
sun.
As William Macquitty puts it, "With the advance
of science and psychology many of the older faiths have suffered.
Their beliefs went against the new knowledge and the new knowledge
won."
Not so with Buddhism.
Buddhism is a result of the human quest for the ultimate truth, an
aspiration for that which is the highest and noblest in life. It is
based on the Buddha's wisdom, on his enlightenment, attained
through the complete eradication of ignorance, fear and all other
defilements from his mind. His teachings, called the Dhamma
(Sanskrit: Dharma), have stood the test of time for more than
twenty-five centuries.
It is with deep faith and conviction in the Buddha's teachings that
Francis Story, a British scholar, asserts:
"The doctrines of Buddha Dhamma stand today, as
unaffected by the march of time and the expansion of knowledge as
when they were first enunciated. No matter to what lengths
increased scientific knowledge can extend man's mental horizon,
within the framework of the Dhamma there is room for the acceptance
and assimilation of further discovery."
One of the most outstanding features of Buddhism is its total
independence of divine elements. It is a religion of
self-help. According to Buddhism, human beings should
learn to be self-reliant and to have faith in their own
ability. Buddhist philosophy is anthropocentric in its
outlook and practical implementation, placing man at the center of its metaphysical and
ethical systems. It is a religion that insists
primarily on man's own effort and perseverance to achieve his
goals, be they material or spiritual, rather than prayer or wishful
thinking.
As Venerable Dr. H. Gunaratana points out, "Buddhism as a whole is quite different from the theological
religions with which Westerners are most familiar. It is a
direct entrance to a spiritual or
divine realm without addressing deities or other agents. Its
flavor is intensely clinical, much more akin to what we would call
psychology than to what we would usually call religion. It is an
ever-ongoing investigation of
reality, a microscopic examination of the very process of
perception. Its intention is to pick apart the screen of lies and delusions
through which we normally view the world, and thus to reveal the
face of ultimate reality."