-2- Answers to Questions about the Scriptures
~ By Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
Where can you find answers to questions about the Scriptures? At the library, from certain monks or from myself. We will be glad to answer questions about the Scriptures. We have been familiar with them for decades and know quite well about what is said and where to look for answers in them.
In another instance, we can help explain or interpret the meaning of the associated text. Don’t think that you can understand every word in the Tipiṭaka. There are some obscure points which require right interpretation. If one read the Tipiṭaka and understood it right away, there would be a lot of arahants (perfected ones) around. You need to know the right meaning of the text before you can take it and use it for practice. Remember this as the general principle. There are many parts of the Tipiṭaka that were wrongly interpreted and thus useless. You need to have the right interpretation, which will be useful in practice, so that the Tipiṭaka will be beneficial.
As a matter of fact, the Tipiṭaka is in the people’s mind. The real Tipiṭaka is in life, in events in human life. The one in the form of the Scriptures is just a record of what has been said, thought about, and taught so that people can profoundly understand the Tipiṭaka of life. What is passed down to us needs to be studied and interpreted for the right, profound meanings and for the benefit of our lives. Anyway, if it’s about the Scriptures and time allows, we will try our best to help or answer the questions.
(From "Benefits You Should Get from Coming to Suan Mokkh," a talk given by Tan Ajahn in December 1988 at the request of Tan Dusadee Bhikkhu, as translated from the Thai by Aj. Mongkol Dejnakarintra.)
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“24 Benefits of Suan Mokkh,” is a series of weekly posts published to commemorate the 88th anniversary of the foundation of Suan Mokkh in May 1932 in Chaiya, southern Thailand.
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For other Dhamma teachings by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu (audios, free ebooks, interviews, poems), please visit Suan Mokkh – The Garden of Liberation.
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Photograph from the Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives collection (Ref. N-235)
