Tripitaka

I am finishing up two months of studying Theravada Buddhism. I have been doing a weekly interview of a well-read devout orthodox Thai Theravada Buddhist as a part of my studies. My seminary class starts in a week and I will need to focus on that so I will set this study aside for a season. I do not have the freedom to share much of what I have discovered and how I feel about it. It is an extremely sensitive issue to broach here. 

What I read in the พระไตรปิฎก Tripitaka surprised me. I had Western understandings and expectations, I’m afraid, and although I have learned about Theravada Buddhism from Thai adherents, I thought perhaps the Tripitaka readings would be different, that perhaps what I had been hearing were distortions and unorthodox expansions. I was mistaken. Reading it in Thai was certainly different than reading it in English. It is possible that in translation there are elements that the translator knew would be rather unpalatable for the Western mind and so perhaps interpreted the passages in a less jarring way. Perhaps there are more accurate or at least more direct translations in English that I did not come across, it is certainly possible. In any case, it was eye-opening to read the Tripitaka in Thai. 

One of the more startling readings in the Tripitaka was the teaching about how a human’s past lives affect his present life. For example, if he is born an attractive person with nice skin in a family with money and position, he must have collected good karma in his past life/lives. If a person is born malformed with bad skin in a poverty-stricken family, it is because of his previous bad karma. I had been hearing this for years, as I had mentioned before, but to read it for myself and see it written out so directly was surprising. 

Another surprising reading had to do with the merit one is able to acquire when providing food and drinks for the dead. Here is a quote, "Offerings should be given for the dead. In this way the proper duty to relatives has been shown, great honor has been done to the dead, and monks have been given strength: The merit you've acquired isn't small." Again, I thought this was a Folk Buddhist practice that was not specifically written about in the Tripitaka. I was wrong.

The detailed explanations and descriptions of the levels of heaven and hell were very interesting. I was surprised at the many warnings and admonitions about hell as well as the graphic depictions of specific tortures for specific sins. 

I will continue my studies eventually, and look forward to doing more interviews as well. Eventually I will need to look more in-depth at Folk Buddhism, but I would rather get a better understanding of orthodox Theravada Buddhism first.