THE RELEVANCE OF TRI-LAḲṢAṆA

Abstract

Today, Buddhism is the fourth largest religion being followed in the world. It is a heterodox School; therefore it is a pragmatic religion which rejects the authority of Vedas, existence of god or any supernatural being, theologies and different varieties of metaphysical speculations. Buddhist teaching doesn’t involve themselves into any sort of religious superstitions and worship of any Deities. Instead, it straight forwardly aims at the human condition and their wellbeing for a better society. The teachings of Buddha are considered to be very practical because he always taught teachings based on his own observation about how things are and passed on the teachings to his disciples. He used to encourage his disciples to verify his observation first and then only follow the teachings. His observation was constructed after several years of rigorous practice where Buddha was kept on searching solutions to end all human suffering. For this he firstly practiced extreme austerities and ascetics. He also performed different kinds of religious activities and fasting which increased more suffering instead of solving it. He thus concluded that such extreme paths are not correct ones in order to find solution of human suffering. Therefore, he proposed a ‘Middle Path’ a path between extremes. This path avoids two extremes points in human life that is extreme austerity and extreme indulgence in sensual pleasure. According to Buddha the middle path was the only right path which leads one to wisdom and freedom from all sufferings. Based on this Buddha developed his teachings. The paper aims to analyse the main teaching of Buddha which is Tri-laḳṣaṇa and its relevance in today’s world.