“Bāhusaccan ca sippan ca - vinayo ca susikkhito
subhāsitā ca yā vācā etaṃ maṅgalamuttamaṃ” [1]
(To have much knowledge, to be skilled in crafts, to be well-trained in discipline, and to have good speech. This is the highest blessing.)
Education is the best way to find an appropriate solution for current social problems. Among the categories of Education, Dhamma Education must get an extraordinary place in the educational scheme because it not only concentrates on providing knowledge but also develops the ethical aspect of human life. Unlike other educational schemes, Dhamma education emerged through humanity and social values. Therefore this paper mostly discusses the requirement of Dhamma education for youngsters in the current world, with new anticipation to build a stable and peaceful world. There are five sub-topics that need specific consideration to establish a proper Dhamma education for a peaceful society.
1. Dhamma Education in the educational scheme
2. Importance of providing Dhamma education
3. Requirement of providing Dhamma Education in the current world
4. Techniques to give Dhamma Education for youngsters
5. Ethical development through Dhamma Education
Dhamma Education in Educational scheme
Today in the Competitive society, Dhamma Education has a deficient eigendom in the educational scheme. Due to the rapid economic development, most students are attracted to marketing subjects. Therefore with economic development, Dhamma Education is ill-treated in the educational schemes.
Buddhist countries have Dhamma Schools for which they use different terms but with one aim. In Sri Lanka, it is mentioned as “Sunday School” as “Peace school” in Uganda as “Yin Kye Hmu/Thin tan” in Burma and as “Pariyatti Śikśā” in Nepal. It has been used in different terms but the common aim is to provide Dhamma knowledge and ethically developed people to the society.
Due to economic development, Dhamma Education gets one step back than other formal Education. Most parents want their children to become doctors, engineers, and lecturers rather than becoming human beings with spiritual qualities. Therefore people in the current society are considering Dhamma Education as an unimportant subject for their children.
To summarise the ideas of this sub-topic, Dhamma education has to deal with these kinds of ideas and objects while walking to the journey of success. Most people in society also venerate those people who have money and power.
The importance of providing Dhamma Education
“āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithunaṃ ca
sāmānyaṃ etat paśubhir narāṇāṃ
dharmo hi teṣāṃ adhiko viśeṣo
dharmeṇa hīnāḥ paśubhiḥ samānāḥ”
(Eating, sleeping, sex, and defense; these four principles are common to both human beings and animals. The distinction between human life and animal life is that a man can understand what is good and what is bad but an animal cannot. That is the difference. Therefore a man without that Dharma is equal to an animal.)[2]
Agreeing with the above point, which is quoted from Hitopadesha, this article discusses the importance of providing Dhamma Education for youngsters. Considering the Sri Lankan history, since 1505, the Dhamma Education was a long felt necessity, at the period the country was governed by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. They were non-Buddhists, who did their best to despise Buddhism and collapse it. Especially their converting battles, for the conversion of Buddhists to their relevant faiths, were so powerful. Many Buddhists were converted to their relevant faiths, by a weapon or by the prize.
Col. Henry Steele Olcott came to Sri Lanka in 1880, it was the period of a religious revolution. He was pleased with Buddhism during that period. Col. Olcott arrived in Sri Lanka, and openly declared his conversion to Buddhism, on May 25, 1880, by reciting the five moral precepts in front of the Ven. Akmeemana Dhammarama Nayaka Thera, of the Vijayananda Pirivena in Galle. Vijayananda Privena, was the first Dhamma School established to educate Buddhist children with the knowledge of the Dhamma, as the foundation for moral living, which is essential for the socio-religious progression of the community.
In contemporary Sri Lanka, Dhamma Schools are conducted on both Saturday and Sunday. Its determination is to train the young generation to do well and avoid evil while striving for spiritual development. Most parents do well with their children when they are small, but run into problematic situations when it comes to controlling when they become teenagers. They are unmanageable to their parents, and at the same time appear rowdy, disobedient, and rebellious, and quite often dislike domineering by parents. This situation arises when the children are not taught to behave with moral awareness. If they have been to Dhamma Schools when they were young, it would be easy to manage them at home or elsewhere because of ethical and morally they are well developed. In addition, parents have expectations to make their children well-disciplined, obey elders, and follow the right track in their life. Therefore they send their children to Dhamma School to make them worthy citizens of the country, which is almost similar to having a house with a solid foundation.
The teachers of Dhamma Schools are not salaried and they do their honorary services. There are many temples with setting up facilities for purpose of teaching Dhamma to those who enlist in their classes with the aim of training them to become good civilized, true Buddhists, not only by names but by their actions as well. Through the Dhamma, Education youngsters develop their daily life, with exertion, sympathy and equanimity, purity, wisdom, and compassion, as the five cardinal virtues, which may be called the flowers of Buddhism.
Elders must realize that sending children to Dhamma Schools, is a very wise move, to protect them from immorality. A child who has received Dhamma education will never turn to be incorrigible. Dhamma education fosters a child to love their parents, elders, brothers, and sisters, and at the same time, to look into their health, especially during the sunset of their lives. This is a good sign worthy of amelioration by others. Let us remember the Buddha’s saying “Dhamma haveRakkhati Dhammacari” (Dhamma protects him who is devoted to the Dhamma).
Providing Dhamma Education for youngsters, which aims to build a peaceful society. This will develop ethical values and establish gender equality. The aim of Dhamma education for youngsters is to make a respectable, responsible, and virtuous person who can understand the value of parents, teachers, and elders more than money. The foremost significance of Dhamma education can be seen after they become mature and it reflects their attitudes through behavior.
Requirement of providing Dhamma Education in the current world
In the current world, crimes are rapidly increasing without fright and limit. Most people are committing crimes to fulfill their desires. Most of the time, there is no value for righteousness in society and unrighteous leads the current world. Due to these reasons, most people are living with fear and worry. The religious leaders do their best to decrease the corruption but the nature of humans is committing crime again and again until they get the results of their deeds. The Dhammapada has mentioned it as,
“Madhuvā maññati bālo
yāva pāpam na paccati
yadā ca paccati pāpaṃ
atha dukkham nigacchati”.
(As long as the evil deed does not bear fruit, the fool thinks it is sweet like honey; but when his evil deed does bear fruit, the fool suffers for it.)[3]
In the current world, the young generation is addicted to wrong deeds such as g drugs, alcohol, rape, assassination, and robbing, etc… I personally believe that the main reason for committing a crime is not giving proper Dhamma education to youngsters. The responsibility of parents to guide their children in the precise path should be highlighted in this corrupted situation. It simply means that the elder generation also needs to open their eyes more widely and find a quick and efficacious solution to protect the future of the world.
Techniques to give Dhamma Education for youngsters
Due to swift economic development, Dhamma education is less attracted by the current world. Therefore youngsters are not paying attention to grasp the Dhamma knowledge. Not only that but also Buddhist lessons are taught by teachers in Dhamma Schools in the same manner by using the traditional method. What is taught must be couched for them to understand the spiritual side of the lessons, especially to practice well manner and avoid evil. A syllabus should be adopted which is practical and not fully theoretical.
Considering those weaknesses in proving Dhamma education for youngsters, we need to have new techniques with strategic management to grasp the student’s attraction. Such as
1. Dhamma School must be altered institute than formal schools.
2. The knowledge of Dhamma must be used on ethical development not competitive development.
3. The lessons must be related to solving current social problems with practical knowledge.
4. The teacher should be a rationalist but not a traditionalist getting premise by the Buddha.
Using these techniques and strategic management together can achieve the best results through having Dhamma education. As well as this is not a target that can fulfill within one day and this is a gradual process of development.
Ethical development through Dhamma Education
The aim of providing Dhamma education is to establish a peaceful society with ethical development and finally to attain Nibbāna.
“Kāyena saṃvuta dhīra atho vācāya saṃvutā
Manasā saṃvutā dhīra te ve suparisaṃvutā”
(A person controlled by body, word and mind. Finally, a wise person controlled by all) [4]
With an emphasis on the above stanza, Dhamma education must be based on knowledge as well as ethics. The modern competitive education system leads to unwholesome mind states such as jealousy, anger, hatred, etc... Currently, parents want their children to earn a degree, ensure a better social status with sufficient money. Unfortunately, they rarely expect to improve ethical manner of their children. Consequently, the children lose their ethical conduct and become part of the competition in the society. Most parents have already decided what would be their children’s future status such as becoming a doctor, engineer, businessman etc... Finally, most of the children become robots without emotions. The foremost significance of Dhamma education can be seen in their character. When they engage with the society, crime level should decrease while using Dhamma concepts in a practical way which bases on the ethics and morality.
To conclude, the main focus of this paper is to clarify the importance of providing Dhamma education for youngsters in present world and establishing peace in the world. If we can consider above topics such as Dhamma Education in educational scheme ,The importance of providing Dhamma education ,Requirement of providing Dhamma Education in the current world, Techniques to give Dhamma Education for youngsters and Ethical development through Dhamma Education, it will lead younger generation to a better future and eradicate most of the current world crises. A peaceful mind is the root of harmony. In a competitive world, Dhamma education teaches that the actual sense of wining is not to win worldly matter but to conquer himself.
“Yo sahassaṃ sahassena
sangāme mānuse jine
ekan ca jeyyamattānaṃ
save sangāmajuttamo”
(A man may conquer a million men in battle, but one who conquers himself is, indeed, the greatest of conquerors.)[5]
End Notes
Bibliography
Khuddakapāṭhapāḷi. (1978). London: Pali Text Society
Anguttara Nikaya IV. (1979). London: Pali Text Socity
Dhammapada. (1993). London: Pali Text Socity
Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A., Burma Pitaka Association, Rangoon, Burma 1986
Chanting in the Theravāda Buddhist Tradition, http://www.buddhanet.net/pali_chant.htm , Accessed on August 10, 2014 at 03:25 am
Buddhist Attitude to Education, Bhikkhuni Dhammananda Nguyen-Huong, http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha294.htm ,Accessed on August 10, 2014 at 03:40 am
http://WhatBuddhaSaid.net/Canon/Sutta/KN/Dhammapada.Verse_69.story.htm, Accessed on August 10, 2014 at 07:35 pm
Burma Tipitaka Association at http://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/ , Accessed on January 06, 2014 at 08:15 pm
The Hitopadesha: A Collection of Fables and Tales in Sanskrit by Vishnusarmá (1830)
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