A Practical Guide 
 

Right Understanding is the beginning and the end of Buddhism, without which one's vision is dimmed and the way is lost, all effort misguided and misdirected. Right Understanding, in the context of the layman's Dhamma provides a sound philosophy of life. 
 

Right Understanding, the first step of the Path, is seeing life as it really is: the objective understanding of the nature of things as it truly is (yathã bhûtã ñãna dassana). All things that have arisen, including the so-called being, are nothing but incessant change (anicca), therefore unsatisfactory (dukkha) and productive of suffering. It follows then that what is both impermanent and pain-laden cannot conceal within it anything that is solid, substantial or unchanging - an eternal soul or an immanent abiding principle (anattã). 
 

Right Understanding implies further a knowledge of the working of kamma - the moral law of cause and effect. We reap what we sow, in proportion to the sowing. Good begets good and evil, evil. Kamma operates objectively, and the results show themselves here or in the hereafter. That is to say, consequences follow causes whether one believes in kamma or not, even as a fall from a height will result in injury or even death, irrespective of one's personal belief or disbelief in the force of gravity. 
 

Kamma is intentional or volitional action; vipãka is the fruit or result, and every action affects character for good or bad. We know that actions consciously performed again and again tend to become unconscious or automatic habits. They, in turn, whether good or bad become second nature. They more or less shape or mold the character of a person. Likewise, the unconscious or latent tendencies in us, including inborn human instincts, are merely the results of actions done repeatedly in innumerable past lives extending far beyond childhood and the formative years of the present life. Kamma includes both past and present action. It is neither fate nor predestination. 
 

A Buddhist views life in terms of cause and effect, his own birth included. Existence (life) was not thrust on him by an unseen Deity to whose will he must blindly bend nor by parents, for the mere fusing of two cells from mother and father does not by itself produce life. It was of his own causing of his own choice: the kammic energy generated from the past birth produced life - made real the potential, in the appropriate sperm and ovum of his human parents at the moment of conception, endowing the new life with initial consciousness (patisandhi viññãna), using the mechanism of heredity, duly modified, if necessary. 
 

The arising of a being here then means the passing away of another elsewhere. This changing personality that constitutes "me" - the physical and mental make-up that is "I" - the very environment into which I was born, in which I acted and reacted is more of my own doing, of my own choice, of my own kamma. One receives the results of one's own kamma, of one's past actions and thoughts. It is just, it is fair, it is right; what is, is the sum of what was, effects exactly balance causes. One gets precisely what one deserves, even as the sum of two plus two is four, never more nor less. 
 

Enough of the past that is dead. What remains is the everpresent now, not even the future that's still unborn. The past is dead, yet influences the present, but does not determine it. The past and the present, in turn, influence the future that is yet to be. Only the present is real. The responsibility of using the present for good or bad lies with each individual. And the future, still unborn is one's to shape. The so-called being which, in fact, is merely a conflux of mind and matter, is, therefore, born of, supported by, heir to, his kamma. 
 

One is driven to produce kamma by tanhã or desire which itself is threefold. Where there is tanhã, there is ignorance (avijjã) - blindness to the real nature of life; and where there is ignorance, there is tanha or craving. They co-exist, just as the heat and light of a flame are inseparable. And the beginning of ignorance (avijjã) cannot be known. 
 

Because of this lack of understanding of things as they truly are, we, often unmindful of the rights of others, desire for, grasp at, cling to, the wrong sort of things:  the pleasure. that money can buy, power over others, fame and name, wishing to go on living forever. We hope that pleasures will be permanent, satisfying and solid, but find them to be passing, unsatisfying and empty - as hollow as a bamboo when split. The result is frustration and disappointment, dis-ease and an irritating sense of inadequacy and insufficiency. If we don't get all our wishes, we react with hate or take shelter in a world of delusive unreality or phantasy. 
 

To remedy this, we must correct our understanding and thinking, and see in our own experiences, so near to us, things as they truly are, and first reduce, and finally remove all shades of craving or desire that are the causes of this restlessness and discontent. This is not easy, but when one does so by treading the noble Eightfold path, one reaches a state of perfection and calm (Nibbãna) thereby bringing to an end the pain-laden cycle of birth and death. 
 

As long as there is desire, birth leads to death, and death to birth, even as an exit is also an entrance. Each subsequent individual born is not the same as the preceding one, nor is it entirely different (naca so naca añño) but only a continuity; that is to say, each succeeding birth depends upon, or emerges from, the preceding one. And both, birth and death, are but the two sides of the same coin, life. The opposite of life is not death, as some fondly believe, but rest - the rest and peace of Nibbãna, in contrast to the restlessness and turmoil that is life. 
 

Kamma, as we have seen, is volitional action. It implies making choices or decisions between, broadly speaking, skilful (kusala) and unskilful (akusala) actions. The former are rooted in generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom leading to happiness and progress, and therefore, to be cultivated again and again in one's life. The good actions are Generosity, Morality, Meditation, Reverence, Service, Transference of merit, Rejoicing in others' good actions, Hearing the Doctrine, Expounding the Doctrine and Straightening one's views. The unskilled actions are rooted in greed, hate and delusion, leading to pain, grief and decline, and therefore, to be avoided. There are ten such actions - killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, slandering, harsh speech, gossip, covetousness, ill-will and false views. This division of actions is a natural outcome of the Universal Law of Kamma; Kamma is one of the fixed orders of existence. 
 

Life is like a ladder. The human being occupies the middle steps. Above are the celestial worlds of bliss, below the woeful states of sorrow. With every choice, one moves upwards or downwards, ascends or descends, for each one is evolved according to one's own actions. Beings are not only owners of kamma but also their heirs. Actions fashion not only one's fortune, how one shall be born, dividing beings into inferior or superior, in health, wealth, wisdom and the like, but also shapes one's future, where one shall be born, whether in the human, heavenly or animal world. In short, one can progress or regress from the human state. 
 

A proper understanding of the Buddhist doctrine of kamma and rebirth can, therefore, improve and elevate the character of a person. Buddhism teaches, above all, moral responsibility -- to be mindful of one's actions, because of the inevitability of action being followed by reaction. One therefore, strives one's best to avoid evil and to do good for one's own welfare as well as for the benefit of others. This conduct leads to peace within and without. It promotes soberness of mind and habit together with self-respect and self-reliance. Finally, this teaching fosters in us a feeling of all-embracing kindness and tolerance towards all living beings and keeps us away from cruelty, hate, and conflict. 
 

Man, as a whole, has not made a steady progress towards moral and spiritual perfection. But the individual can pursue the ideal of a prefect man - the Arahant - free from greed, hate, and delusion by treading the Noble Eightfold Path comprising Sublime Conduct, Mental Culture and Intuitive Insight (or wisdom). It is the perfection of human living by perfecting one's understanding and purifying one's mind. It is to know the Truth, do the Truth and become the Truth. Such a one has gone beyond the force of all rebirth-producing kamma, skilful and unskilful. He has attained the highest-Nibbãna. 
 

As the Blessed one teaches with incomparable beauty: 

Sabba pãpassa akaranam, 
kusalassa upasampadã 
Sacittapariyodãpanam 
etam Buddhãnusãsanam. 

To avoid evil, 
To do good, 
To purify the mind, 
This is the advice of all the Buddhas.

This, in brief and simple outline, is the Teaching of the Buddha as it affects the householder's life. It is at once an ideal and a method. As an ideal, it aims at the evolution of a perfect Man synonymous with the attainment of Nibbãna in this very life itself, by one's own efforts. As a method, it teaches us that the ideal can become real only by the systematic practice and development of the Noble Eightfold Path, at the two levels - that of the monk and that of the layman. Each develops according to his ability and each according to his needs whereby man, using the instrument of mind, by his own endeavour comes to know himself, train himself and free himself from the thralldom of base desire, the blindness of hate, and the mist of a delusive self, to win the highest of all freedoms - freedom from error and ignorance. 

In this Noble Teaching, there is no intellectual error based as it is on reason, and in keeping with the finding of science, no moral blindness for its ethics are truly lofty together with a rational basis for such an ethic, namely, evolution in terms of kamma. 

That Buddhism is eminently practicable is clearly shown by the example of the great Indian Emperor Asoka, when Buddhism became the shaping ideal of the State, and Buddhist ideas and ideals were used to build a just and righteous society ushering in a period of great prosperity:  material, moral and spiritual. It is the only true solution to the manifold problems in the modern world. To this we must now turn.