The Dharma: the Teachings and the Path

The Dharma means the unmediated truth as experienced by the Enlightened mind, and the teachings that communicate that truth. These teachings aren’t an abstract philosophy; they’re a guide to the truth and a path of practice.

Better than a thousand useless words is one useful word through which one finds peace.
The Buddha, Dhammapada

Seeing things as they really are

Buddhism suggests that our ordinary, unenlightened experience is like being asleep, and because we’re unconscious we cause ourselves to suffer. The purpose of the Dharma is to wake us up. 

For example, it’s hard to fully absorb the fact that all of us will die, sooner or later. So Dharma practice includes reflecting on that, and discovering what happens when we live with this awareness. That means asking how we can understand impermanence in our bones, not just as an idea. 

If that sounds gloomy, people who practice the Dharma typically find that seeing things as they really are brings peace, liberation and meaning. When we are no longer at odds with life other dimensions of experience become available to us.

"All created things are impermanent. When a person sees this with wisdom, they turn back from suffering." The Buddha, Dhammapada

Following the path

As well as formulating its understanding in concepts, Buddhism uses images. The best known is describing the Dharma as a path that we can follow step by step.

The simplest form of the Buddhist path is the ‘threefold way’ which includes ethics, meditation and wisdom. We start with our actions, making a shift through ethical action from behaviour that harms ourselves and others to acting in ways that express kindness, contentment and understanding. Through the transformative practice of meditation, we foster states of mind that are aware, free from distractions and emotionally positive. Ethics and meditation are the basis from which we can develop wisdom. 

The Buddhist teachings often come in lists that can sound rather dry, but they describe practices that we have to engage with as individuals, using all our intelligence and experience. We need to make them our own and find out what they mean for us. 

"Truths have to be continually rediscovered, they have ever to be re-formed and transformed, if they are to preserve their meaning, their living value or their spiritual nutritiousness." Lama Anagarika Govinda

Spiritual growth

Another way of speaking about Dharma practice is as a process of growth or development. The Buddha imagined humanity as a bed of lotuses at different stages of unfoldment - ‘some immersed in the water; some level with the water; and others again rising up out of it.’ That image encourages us to approach the Buddhist path as a process of unfoldment and enrichment. Buddhist practices are intended to help us develop these qualities.

"What really matters is to feel – through the concepts, images and symbolism – that which informs and gives life to them all: the experience of emancipation… We should feel ourselves living and growing like a plant when the rain falls and the sun shines." Sangharakshita, 'Symbols of Life and Growth'

The Buddhism FAQs section has answers to some of your questions about Buddhism.


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'What is the Dharma?' by Sangharakshita<br>'What is the Dharma?' by Sangharakshita
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