RETHINKING DHARMA FOR A SECULAR AGE.

A well-known story recounts that Gautama-the Buddha- was once staying in Jeta's Grove, his main center near the city of Savatthi, capital of the kingdom of Kosala. Many priests, wanderers, and ascetics were living nearby. They are described as people "of various beliefs and opinions, who supported themselves by promoting their different views. "The text enumerates the kinds of opinions they taught:
The world is eternal.
The world is not eternal.
The world is finite.
Body and soul are identical.
Body and soul are different.
The tathagata exists after death.
The tathagata does not exist after death.
The tathagata both exists and does not exist after death.
The tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death.
They took these opinions seriously.
"Only this is true", they would insist. "Every other view is false!" As a result, they fell into endless arguments, "wounding each other with verbal darts, saying, "The dharma is like this!" "The dharma is like that!"
The Buddha commented that such people were blind. "They do not know what is of benefit and what is of harm", he explained. "They do not understand what is and what is not the dharma". He had no interest at all in their propositions. Unconcerned whether such views were true or false, he sought neither to affirm nor to reject them. "A proponent of the dharma", he once observed, "does not dispute with anyone in the world". Whenever a metaphysical claim of this kind was made, Gautama did not react by getting drawn in and taking sides. He remained keenly alert to the complexity of the whole picture without opting for one position over another.
Dharma cannot be reduced to a set of truth-claims, which will inevitably conflict with other truth-claims. Only by letting go of such views will one be able to understand how dharma practice is not about being "right" or "wrong".
It is notable that the last six of the ten listed views have to do with the possibility (or not) of life after death, which suggests that the topic was much debated. Although the Buddha may have presented his ideas in the context of multiple lifetimes, this oft repeated passage implies that he did so for cultural and pragmatic reasons alone. "Of that which the wise (pandita) in the world agree upon as not existing", he said, "I too say that it does not exist. And of that which the wise in the world agree upon as existing, I too say that it exists". On such matters, Gautama is content to accept learned consensus. To have affirmed the view that the mind is different from the body and will be reborn after death in another body would have made him no different from those wanderers and ascetics he declared to be blind.
In contrast to those who base their behaviour on metaphysical truth-claims, the practitioner of the dharma as Gautama envisioned it takes into account the totality of each situation and responds in accordance with the principles, perspective, and values of the dharma. Since each situation in life is unique, it is impossible to predict in advance exactly how such a person will respond. Instead of asking, "What is the 'right' or 'wrong' thing to do?" the practitioner asks, "What is the wisest and most compassionate thing to do?"
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