Reviving Right View — Exposing False Doctrines

 REVIVING RIGHT VIEW — EXPOSING FALSE DOCTRINES AND THE JOURNEY BACK TO THE SOURCE

Topic: The Truth About the Historical Buddha and the Long Drift of "Deification"

Dear friends,

How long have you knelt before Buddha statues, praying amid clouds of incense, while your heart remained filled with doubt and suffering?

I am not writing these words to attack anyone's faith. Rather, I invite all of us to undertake a great spiritual examination. The time has come to clearly distinguish between Truth (Dhamma) and Religious Literature Born of Devotional Tradition.

Much of today's confusion arises because many people do not distinguish between two different streams: Early Buddhism (the Original Teaching) and Later Developed Buddhism (later traditions and developments).

Today, let us begin with the very first foundation:

Who was the Buddha?

I. The Historical Foundation: The Buddha Was a Human Being, Not a Deity

The first point—and the one that must be firmly remembered—is this:

The Buddha's Teaching is not a religion based on the worship of an almighty god.

According to historical and archaeological evidence, together with the Nikāya Canon (the textual tradition closest to the Buddha's lifetime), Siddhattha Gotama (Siddhārtha Gautama) was a real human being.

His background: He was born as a prince, the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Māyā, in Lumbinī (present-day Nepal).
His human life: He was born, grew up, married (his wife was Yasodharā, and his son was Rāhula). He was also subject to the universal conditions of birth, aging, illness, and death. He grew old, suffered physical ailments including back pain, became seriously ill with dysentery, and finally passed away—attaining Parinibbāna (Final Nibbāna) at the age of eighty between two Sāla trees.
His abilities: He did not possess the power to grant blessings or inflict punishment upon people. He could not turn a poor person into a rich one, nor instantly heal illness by a mere wave of his hand.

So where does his greatness truly lie?

His greatness lies not in supernatural magic, but in unsurpassed wisdom.

He was the first person in human history to discover, through his own direct realization, the cause of suffering and the path leading to the complete ending of suffering—without relying on any creator god or supreme being.

He is the Teacher (Satthā)—the One Who Shows the Way.

Consider the example of a skilled physician. The physician correctly diagnoses the disease, knows the proper medicine, and prescribes the treatment. But whether the medicine is taken, and whether the patient recovers, depends on the patient.

The Buddha cannot take the medicine on our behalf.

Yet much of what people today identify as Buddhism has transformed the Buddha into something resembling an Indian version of a supreme heavenly ruler. Layers of mystical glory have been added around him, and he is treated as an all-powerful being to whom people pray for wealth, success, health, and countless worldly desires.

From the standpoint of the Early Theravāda teachings preserved in the Nikāyas, this is a departure from the Buddha's role as the Fully Enlightened Teacher who points out the path of liberation through wisdom and practice.

II. The Historical Turning Point: The Emergence of "Buddhas of the Ten Directions"

From the foundation that "the Buddha was a human being," we now come to the issue that I have repeatedly discussed in my previous writings: the appearance of Amitābha Buddha, Medicine Buddha, and numerous other Buddhas.

Based on the history of Buddhist thought, I state the following:

Throughout the forty-five years of teaching by Gotama Buddha, the Nikāya Canon does not record him mentioning a Buddha named Amitābha or a Western Pure Land called Sukhāvatī.

So where did Amitābha Buddha come from?

According to this perspective, Amitābha belongs to the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (Northern or Developed Buddhism), whose scriptures appeared several centuries after the Parinibbāna of Gotama Buddha.

Origin: As Buddhism spread into new regions—including northern India, Central Asia, and later China—later Buddhist traditions developed new Buddha figures and cosmological teachings alongside their transmission into different cultural and religious environments.
Nature: From this viewpoint, Amitābha ("Infinite Light") represents a symbolic figure associated with the ideas of immeasurable light and immeasurable life. According to this interpretation, these developments reflect a devotional direction that differs from the teachings preserved in the Early Buddhist Nikāyas.

Consider this question:

If Gotama Buddha taught Anattā (Non-self)—that there is no permanent self—and Anicca (Impermanence)—that all conditioned things constantly change—how should one understand the concept of an eternal Pure Land adorned with gold and jewels, where beings enjoy everlasting existence and every wish is fulfilled?

From the standpoint presented here, such descriptions differ from the teachings of Dependent Origination (Paṭicca-samuppāda) and the Four Noble Truths as taught in the Nikāya tradition. This interpretation views them as later devotional developments that encourage reliance on external saving power rather than the demanding path of personal cultivation.

III. A Significant Shift: From Self-Reliance to Reliance on External Power

In my previous writings, I have consistently emphasized the distinction between Early Buddhism (Theravāda) and later developed Buddhist traditions (Mahāyāna). From this perspective, the difference is not merely one of outward form but concerns the fundamental approach to liberation.

Early Buddhism (Theravāda)
Principle: "Be an island unto yourselves; be your own refuge."
Method: Cultivate and purify body, speech, and mind through moral discipline (Sīla), concentration (Samādhi), and wisdom (Paññā).
View: No one can liberate us except through our own practice. Our Kamma (Karma) is created by ourselves, and its results must be experienced or transformed through our own cultivation.
Later Developed Traditions (from the perspective presented here)
Principle: Rely upon the vows or compassionate power of Amitābha Buddha, Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, and other enlightened beings for salvation.
Method: Recite the Buddha's name, perform devotional practices, make offerings, pray, burn votive paper offerings, conduct elaborate repentance ceremonies, and related practices.
View: Faith combined with recitation at the time of death may lead to rebirth in the Pure Land.

From the perspective of this essay, the teaching of rebirth while still carrying unpurified karma is regarded as a doctrine that may encourage dependence rather than diligent practice. The law of Kamma taught in the Nikāyas is presented as precise and impartial. Every intentional action bears corresponding results, and liberation cannot be obtained by bypassing the natural law of cause and effect.

IV. The Consequences of "Following Anyone"

I have previously warned that choosing a teacher and choosing a path are as important as choosing the right medicine.

Taking the wrong medicine may destroy the body.

Accepting wrong views may obscure wisdom and prolong wandering through Saṃsāra.

Today, when many people enter a temple, what do they encounter?

Discussions of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the Noble Path are often less prominent.
Teachings may instead focus on spirits, astrological rituals, ceremonies for removing misfortune, or accumulating merit through constructing statues and bells.
Many later scriptures are widely circulated alongside the Early Buddhist Canon (their origins will be examined separately in later chapters).

From the perspective presented here, the blending of Buddhist teachings with elements of folk religion, Daoist traditions, and Confucian traditions has created a highly mixed religious landscape.

Many people follow whatever they see others doing—they bow because others bow, they chant because others chant—without clearly understanding what they are venerating or reciting.

According to this essay, this represents religious devotion without careful examination through Right View.

In this chapter, I have presented two central points:

The historical Buddha was a human being, not a deity.
From the perspective of the Early Theravāda tradition preserved in the Nikāyas, teachings that emphasize salvation through external power differ from the original emphasis on personal effort, moral discipline, meditation, and wisdom.

Topic: The Scriptural Matrix — Distinguishing “The Buddha’s Word” from “Religious Literature”

Dear readers,

In the Buddhist world today, there is a painful paradox:

People chant many scriptures, yet understand very little of the Buddha’s actual teaching.

Why is this so?

According to the argument presented in this essay, much of what they chant is not part of the earliest recorded teachings of Gotama Buddha. Instead, it consists largely of literary, philosophical, and devotional works composed by later Buddhist teachers and subsequently presented under the title of “Buddhist Sūtras” in order to give them scriptural authority.

Let us examine this substitution more deeply through the following points.

I. The History of the Buddhist Councils: The Truth About “Mahāyāna Scriptures”

You must clearly understand this historical timeline so that no one can mislead you.

The Early Period
From the Buddha’s Parinibbāna to the Following Centuries

The Dhamma was initially preserved through the collective memory and oral recitation of senior monks, including disciples traditionally regarded as Arahants.

The teachings were later committed to writing on palm leaves and preserved in collections such as the Pāli Nikāyas and the corresponding Āgamas.

According to the perspective of this essay, these collections contain the earliest and most direct records of the Buddha’s teaching, expressed in a plain, practical, and disciplined manner.

Their central teachings include:

The Four Noble Truths
The Noble Eightfold Path
Non-self
Kamma and its results
Dependent Origination
The cultivation of morality, concentration, and wisdom

In these early teachings, liberation is not presented as something obtained merely through devotional belief or reliance upon an eternal heavenly realm. The emphasis is placed upon understanding suffering, abandoning its causes, realizing its cessation, and cultivating the path.

The Later Developmental Period
Several Centuries After the Buddha’s Parinibbāna

During this period, Buddhism underwent extensive doctrinal and institutional development.

Different communities began to produce new philosophical systems, religious ideals, cosmologies, Bodhisattva traditions, and collections of scriptures.

The tradition that later became known as Mahāyāna, meaning “the Great Vehicle,” emerged within this changing religious environment. Earlier Buddhist schools were sometimes grouped under the term Hīnayāna, meaning “the Lesser Vehicle”—a label that many Theravāda Buddhists consider inaccurate and derogatory.

According to the critical position presented in this essay, new scriptures were composed to support these later doctrinal developments.

Many famous texts associated with Mahāyāna Buddhism—including the Lotus Sūtra, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Kṣitigarbha Sūtra, and the Amitābha Sūtras—are not found within the early Pāli Nikāyas or the corresponding early Āgama collections.

These scriptures appeared in different historical periods, many of them being preserved in Sanskrit, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Central Asian languages, Tibetan, or Chinese translations. A number of them also underwent significant transmission, translation, interpretation, and editorial development in China.

Now consider this question carefully:

How could teachings claimed to have been spoken directly by the historical Buddha appear in written form only several centuries after his passing?

Some Mahāyāna traditions explain that certain profound teachings were not publicly preserved at first because people were not yet spiritually prepared to understand them. Traditional accounts sometimes state that such scriptures were safeguarded by celestial beings, Nāgas, or other non-human guardians until the proper time for their revelation.

From the critical standpoint of this essay, however, such explanations resemble religious legends rather than verifiable historical accounts.

Therefore, the essential question is this:

Are these truly the spoken words of the historical Buddha, preserved from his lifetime? Or are they later religious compositions attributed to him in order to grant them greater authority?

This is the distinction that every serious student of the Dhamma must examine with care, reason, historical awareness, and Right View.

II. Examining the Content: When Philosophy Overshadows Practice

Why do I refer to many later scriptures as expressions of a "developed form of Buddhism"?

Because, from the perspective presented in this essay, their content has moved far beyond what is understood to be the original purpose of the Buddha's teaching.

The Process of Deification (Devotional and Supernatural Emphasis)

In the Early Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha teaches about the realities of suffering: birth, aging, illness, death, separation from what is loved, association with what is disliked, and not obtaining what one desires.

In later scriptures—such as the Kṣitigarbha Sūtra or the Universal Gate Chapter—what do we often encounter?

Stories of terrifying hells, spirits, miraculous powers, supernatural manifestations, and, importantly, encouragement to make offerings or recite scriptures in order to obtain merit and blessings.

According to the viewpoint presented here, these elements reflect religious influences that differ from the practical emphasis found in the Early Buddhist Nikāyas.

This perspective argues that spiritual practice can gradually become understood as a kind of religious transaction:

"If one recites a scripture enough times, one's unwholesome deeds will be erased."

From the standpoint of the Nikāya teachings, however, such an understanding is viewed as inconsistent with the principle of Kamma, in which intentional actions naturally produce corresponding results.

The Move Toward Increasing Philosophical Abstraction

The historical Buddha taught in a practical way.

He compared himself to a physician who removes a poisoned arrow from a wounded person. He did not encourage endless speculation about questions that do not lead to the end of suffering.

Later Buddhist literature—including works such as the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras and the Diamond Sūtra—places much greater emphasis on philosophical concepts, discussing ideas such as:

"Form is emptiness; emptiness is form."
Suchness (Tathatā)
Buddha-nature

These teachings have profoundly influenced later Buddhist philosophy.

From the perspective of this essay, however, philosophical understanding alone does not immediately reduce greed, hatred, and delusion.

One may believe that one understands profound doctrines, yet still respond to everyday situations with anger, attachment, and confusion.

Accordingly, this essay argues that intellectual understanding should never replace direct cultivation of morality, meditation, and wisdom.

III. Examining Several Well-Known Later Scriptures

Drawing upon the historical perspective developed throughout this series, I now discuss several well-known examples that, according to this viewpoint, illustrate the influence of later Chinese religious and cultural traditions.

The Ullambana Sūtra

According to this perspective, the Ullambana Sūtra reflects a strong emphasis on filial piety that resonates with traditional Chinese Confucian values.

The story of Mahā-Moggallāna rescuing his mother serves as a powerful moral lesson encouraging gratitude toward one's parents.

However, this essay questions the idea that making offerings to the monastic community can, by itself, remove the consequences of another person's unwholesome kamma.

In the Early Buddhist Nikāyas, the Buddha consistently teaches personal responsibility:

Each individual inherits the results of his or her own intentional actions.

From this standpoint, merit may be shared as an expression of goodwill and compassion, but it does not simply erase another person's past unwholesome kamma.

According to this interpretation, practices that later developed around elaborate rituals—including ceremonies intended to liberate the deceased or various folk customs—represent historical religious developments rather than the original emphasis of the Nikāya teachings.

The Liang Emperor Repentance Ritual and the Water Repentance Ritual

According to the historical perspective presented in this essay, texts such as the Liang Emperor Repentance Ritual and the Water Repentance Ritual originated within the religious and ceremonial traditions of imperial China.

They were composed for devotional and liturgical purposes and became important parts of East Asian Buddhist practice.

From the standpoint of the Early Theravāda tradition, however, they are regarded as later religious compositions rather than discourses spoken by the historical Buddha.

V. The Consequences of Following the Wrong Scriptures

If you use the wrong map to search for a treasure, the only possible outcome is that you lose your way.

Wasted Time

According to the perspective presented in this essay, many people spend thousands of hours reciting scriptures whose meaning they do not understand. They simply repeat the words until their mouths grow tired and their minds become drowsy.

The author argues that the same time, if devoted to observing the breath, contemplating the mind, cultivating mindfulness, and practicing meditation, could instead become a direct foundation for the development of wisdom.

The Growth of Wrong View

From the viewpoint of this essay, when people come to believe that merely reciting scriptures automatically produces merit or guarantees the Buddha's protection, a subtle shift takes place.

When difficulties arise, instead of investigating their causes and cultivating the path that leads to their cessation, they may rely primarily upon chanting and prayer.

If their problems remain unresolved, disappointment may follow, and they may even conclude that "the Buddha did not help."

According to the Early Buddhist teachings preserved in the Nikāyas, liberation is achieved through understanding, ethical conduct, meditation, and wisdom—not through expectation of supernatural intervention.

Neglecting the Root While Pursuing the Branches

This essay further argues that some people dismiss the Early Buddhist Nikāyas because they appear "too simple" or "too straightforward."

Instead, they become attracted to teachings that seem mysterious, profound, or esoteric.

Yet, according to the Buddha's earliest recorded teachings, truth is remarkably simple:

There is suffering.
Suffering has a cause: craving.
Suffering can cease.
There is a path leading to its cessation.

From the standpoint of this essay, these fundamental truths are already a complete path of practice, yet many people overlook them while searching for increasingly elaborate doctrines.

Dear readers,

I realize that these words may be difficult to hear.

They challenge beliefs that many people have inherited from childhood, from parents and grandparents, and from long-standing religious and cultural traditions.

Yet sincere examination often requires us to question what we have long taken for granted.

Throughout this discussion, I have presented the following conclusions from the perspective of this essay:

The historical Buddha has, in many later traditions, come to be regarded as a divine figure rather than as the Fully Enlightened Teacher.
Later Buddhist literature has expanded far beyond the earliest preserved teachings of the Nikāyas.

However, according to this viewpoint, the most significant transformation is found not merely in doctrine, but in religious practice itself.

Why is it that temples have become increasingly numerous, while many people feel that moral standards in society continue to decline?

Why are there countless practitioners, yet so few individuals widely recognized as having realized the stages of awakening described in the Early Buddhist Canon?

According to the perspective developed in this essay, the answer lies in what it describes as the increasing commercialization and secularization of religious rituals—a subject that will be examined in the following section.

Topic: Manipulation Through Religious Rituals and the Crisis of Confidence in the Vinaya

Dear readers,

The Buddha's Teaching is a path of practice. It is a path of training, of transforming the mind, and of bringing suffering to an end through direct cultivation.

When the teachings themselves become altered, it is inevitable that the practice built upon them will also change.

According to the perspective presented in this essay, much of contemporary Buddhism has shifted away from emphasizing Kamma, meditation, and mental cultivation, and has increasingly become a place where psychological concerns and worldly needs are addressed through elaborate religious ceremonies.

I. A Crisis of Integrity: The Decline of the Monastic Community

According to the viewpoint presented here, confusion in Buddhist practice begins with those who guide others.

Departure from the Original Vinaya

In the Early Theravāda tradition, monks and nuns are expected to observe the Vinaya with great care.

One well-known principle is that monastics are not to possess or handle money directly. The purpose of this discipline is to free them from attachment to material wealth, allowing them to devote themselves fully to practice and liberation while living a life of simplicity and renunciation.

From the perspective of this essay, however, many Buddhist institutions today present a very different picture.

Magnificent temples are constructed on a grand scale, sometimes resembling royal palaces. Some monastics are perceived as living with considerable material comfort or administering substantial financial resources.

According to the author, this represents a departure from the original ideal of the wandering mendicant monk described in the Early Buddhist Canon.

The essay further argues that when monastics fail to uphold essential disciplinary principles—particularly in relation to wealth and material attachment—they no longer embody the ideal of a field of merit (puññakkhetta) for lay followers.

Instead, the author contends, religious activity may gradually become institutionalized around maintaining large organizations and supporting increasingly elaborate ceremonial practices.

The Influence of Later Mahāyāna Developments

As discussed earlier in this series, the emergence of later scriptures and doctrinal developments is presented here as involving not only philosophical evolution but also institutional growth and expanding religious influence.

According to the perspective of this essay, when new schools develop their own scriptures, doctrines, and distinctive forms of practice, they naturally attract dedicated communities of followers and supporters.

The author argues that this process can contribute to increasing diversity among Buddhist traditions while also creating institutional competition and gradually drawing attention away from what is regarded here as the original Dhamma preserved in the Early Buddhist Nikāyas.

II. Rituals of Divine Intervention and the Commercialization of Kamma

According to the perspective presented in this essay, many religious ceremonies commonly practiced today are not found in the Early Buddhist Nikāyas. They are understood here as later developments arising through the interaction of Buddhism with elements of Brāhmanical religion, Daoist traditions, and Chinese folk beliefs.

Astrology-Based Rituals for Removing Misfortune

The author states that rituals performed to "remove misfortune" through the influence of auspicious or inauspicious stars are not part of the original teaching of the Buddha.

According to this viewpoint, these practices originate from traditional astrology and Daoist cosmology, in which celestial bodies are believed to influence human destiny.

Why does the author consider this harmful?

From the perspective of this essay, such practices encourage people to place their confidence in fate or supernatural forces rather than in the law of Kamma—the principle that intentional actions produce corresponding results.

Instead of cultivating wholesome conduct and transforming the mind, people may come to believe that unfavorable circumstances can be removed through ritual alone.

The author therefore argues that spending money on such ceremonies reinforces dependence upon wrong view rather than confidence in personal responsibility.

Ceremonies for the Deceased and the Dedication of Merit

According to this essay, ceremonies performed with the expectation that elaborate rituals or financial offerings can directly rescue deceased relatives or guarantee their liberation have become one of the most widespread forms of religious service.

The author argues that this understanding is inconsistent with the Nikāya teaching on Kamma.

Each individual inherits the results of his or her own intentional actions.

A monk who chants the Dhamma creates wholesome kamma through his own practice.

Those who listen respectfully create wholesome kamma through their own intention.

According to this viewpoint, merit is not a commodity that can simply be bought, sold, or transferred as though it were a financial transaction.

The author further explains that, in the Early Buddhist tradition, the Buddha encouraged descendants to cultivate generosity, virtue, and wholesome qualities themselves, and then dedicate the wholesome intention arising from those actions for the welfare of departed relatives.

If those departed beings are in a state where such rejoicing is possible, they may benefit through their own appreciative mental response.

From the perspective of this essay, this differs fundamentally from the idea that an elaborate ceremony can erase another person's past unwholesome kamma.

Releasing Animals (Life Release)

The original principle behind releasing living beings is compassion and non-harming.

However, according to the author, many contemporary life-release activities have become commercial enterprises.

Animals are captured specifically to be sold at inflated prices to Buddhist devotees, who then purchase them for ceremonial release.

The author argues that this practice can produce several unintended consequences:

It creates demand for the continued capture of animals.
It encourages profit-driven exploitation.
Many released animals are unable to survive in unfamiliar environments or are captured again shortly afterward.
The Consequences

From the perspective of this essay, such practices no longer represent compassion in its original sense.

Instead, the author argues that they risk becoming outward displays of religiosity motivated by the pursuit of reputation or the expectation of acquiring merit, while failing to address the deeper cultivation of wisdom and genuine compassion taught in the Early Buddhist Nikāyas.

III. A Word of Caution About Choosing a Teacher

In my previous writings, I have repeatedly emphasized the importance of choosing a spiritual teacher with great care.

A teacher is someone who guides you from the shore of confusion toward the shore of awakening.

If the teacher has lost the way, those who follow may lose their way as well.

A Teacher Should Live by the Vinaya

According to the perspective presented in this essay, a genuine teacher should faithfully uphold the Vinaya, the monastic discipline established by the Buddha.

If a teacher habitually violates the discipline or becomes deeply attached to material comfort and worldly possessions, the author argues that such a person cannot authentically teach the path of renunciation and the abandoning of craving.

A Teacher Should Teach the Dhamma

According to this viewpoint, a true teacher should teach the core principles found in the Early Buddhist Canon:

The Four Noble Truths
The Noble Eightfold Path
Non-self (Anattā)
Kamma and its results

Such a teacher should encourage students to examine the teaching through their own experience, in accordance with the spirit of Ehipassiko—"Come and see for yourself."

The author contrasts this with approaches that ask followers simply to accept teachings unquestioningly or to depend primarily upon sacred texts, supernatural intervention, miraculous powers, or devotional assurances such as:

"That scripture is very powerful. Just recite it sincerely again and again."

According to the perspective of this essay, such encouragement should never replace direct investigation and personal cultivation.

The author further advises that if a teacher claims to possess miraculous powers or promises to solve every problem through charms, rituals, or recitation alone, one should exercise great caution.

In the Early Buddhist Nikāyas, the Buddha repeatedly emphasized wisdom, ethical conduct, and direct realization as the path to liberation. He also established disciplinary rules governing the public display of psychic powers, so that extraordinary abilities would not become a means of attracting followers or inspiring blind faith.

Remain Awake

Dear readers,

Through these three sections, I have attempted to examine what I regard as the major transformations that have taken place in later forms of Buddhism—from doctrine and scripture to religious practice and institutional development.

My purpose is not to leave you discouraged.

Rather, it is to encourage you to awaken, to investigate carefully, and to have the courage to return to what this essay presents as the earliest foundations of the Buddha's teaching.

Disappointment can become a powerful source of determination when we realize that, according to the perspective of this essay, the True Dhamma has never disappeared.

It is still there.

The author concludes that it has simply become obscured beneath layers of later religious traditions, devotional practices, and superstition, waiting to be rediscovered through careful study, wise reflection, and sincere practice.
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The Way Back to the Source: The Noble Path Is the Only Way Out

Dear friends,

If you truly consider yourselves followers of the Buddha and do not wish to continue living in delusion and regret, then you must return to the very essence of the Buddha's teaching. That essence is not found in a Western Pure Land, nor in philosophical scriptures spanning thousands of pages. It is found in two teachings that are profoundly simple, practical, and direct: the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

I. The Four Noble Truths: The DNA of the Entire Teaching

The Four Noble Truths are the anchor and the central foundation of the original Theravāda teachings preserved in the Early Buddhist Discourses. If any teaching or practice contradicts the Four Noble Truths, then it is wrong view (micchā-diṭṭhi), no matter how attractive or beautiful its name may sound.

The Noble Truth of Suffering (Dukkha): Life is suffering. Suffering is not simply the lack of money. It is birth, aging, illness, death, separation from what we love, and association with what we dislike. This is the truth that must be fully understood.
The Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering (Samudaya): Suffering arises because of craving (taṇhā), rooted in greed, hatred, and delusion. Craving is the source of the entire cycle of rebirth. This is the truth that must be abandoned.
The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (Nirodha): Suffering comes to an end when craving comes to an end. This is the goal that must be realized.
The Noble Truth of the Path (Magga): The way leading to the end of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path. This is the path that must be cultivated.

Let me emphasize this clearly: No Buddha, no Bodhisatta, and no one else can eliminate your craving for you. The task that belongs to you is to recognize and uproot greed, hatred, and delusion through your own practice of the Noble Path.

II. The Noble Eightfold Path: A Practical Training

The Noble Eightfold Path is the one and only path—the practical path that the Buddha himself walked and then pointed out for others to follow. It is the complete solution for those who have grown weary of superstition.

I have already written in detail about the Noble Eightfold Path, so I encourage you to study that separately. Here, I will simply provide a brief summary.

The Path is traditionally divided into three trainings: Morality (Sīla), Concentration (Samādhi), and Wisdom (Paññā).

A. The Training in Wisdom (Paññā): The Foundation of Right View

This is the first and most essential stage. It is the work that both you and I are engaged in.

Right View (Sammā-diṭṭhi): Understand the truth of the Four Noble Truths, impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). Learn to distinguish the True Dhamma—the Buddha's teaching—from doctrines introduced by later generations. This study is intended to serve as a tool to help establish Right View.
Right Intention (Sammā-saṅkappa): Cultivate thoughts of renunciation, non-ill will, and harmlessness. Let your thinking be guided by wisdom rather than emotion.
B. The Training in Morality (Sīla): The Foundation of Wisdom

Without morality, wisdom cannot arise.

Right Speech (Sammā-vācā): Refrain from false speech, divisive speech, harsh speech, and idle chatter. This is the foundation of harmony within the family and society.
Right Action (Sammā-kammanta): Refrain from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct.
Right Livelihood (Sammā-ājīva): Earn a living through honest and harmless means, avoiding occupations that cause harm to living beings (for example, trading in weapons, poisons, or slaughtering animals).
C. The Training in Concentration (Samādhi): The Foundation of Mental Stability
Right Effort (Sammā-vāyāma): Make diligent effort to prevent unwholesome states from arising, abandon those that have already arisen, cultivate wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and maintain and develop wholesome states that have already arisen.
Right Mindfulness (Sammā-sati): Maintain continuous awareness of the body, feelings, mind, and mental phenomena in the present moment. This is the core practice of Vipassanā (Insight Meditation) in Early Buddhism.
Right Concentration (Sammā-samādhi): Develop deep mental collectedness, culminating in the meditative absorptions (jhānas), providing the stable foundation from which liberating wisdom can arise.

III. A Final Call: The Courage of Self-Reliance

Dear friends,

You have now seen that "modified Buddhism" is presented here as a dangerous mixture that can lead people toward spiritual complacency—encouraging dependence on imagined saviors, the recitation of scriptures of uncertain origin, and participation in rituals believed to bring liberation without personal cultivation.

The path of the True Dhamma is not easy. It asks you to:

Let go of idolization: Regard the Buddha as the Teacher, not as a god.
Let go of spiritual laziness: Do not wait for someone else to save you or to purify your mind on your behalf through transferred merit.
Focus on the present life: Work to abandon greed, hatred, and delusion here and now, instead of postponing liberation by hoping to be reborn in another realm after death.

The essential difference is this:

Early Theravāda Buddhism teaches you to become responsible for your own destiny and for the ending of your own suffering. In contrast, what is described here as "modified Buddhism" encourages reliance on external powers, rituals, and promises that cannot replace personal practice.

What should you do next?

Stop reciting scriptures of uncertain origin that promote dependence on supernatural authority.
Stop participating in commercialized religious ceremonies such as astrology-based rituals, elaborate merit ceremonies for the dead, or animal-release practices that cause harm.
Begin studying the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path through the Early Buddhist Discourses preserved in the Nikāyas (and their corresponding Āgamas).
Practice Vipassanā (Insight Meditation) to directly observe impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā) within your own body and mind.

I sincerely hope this article will serve as a compass to guide your journey.

Please remember these words:

The Buddha's teaching is a path of wisdom, not a path of superstition.

May you be peaceful, and may Right View always arise within you.

— True Dhamma —