Buddhist 101

Start here, honestly

Many people arrive assuming Buddhism is mostly chanting, vegetarian food and not harming animals — and that meditation means sitting still for a long time. Those things exist, but they are not the centre of it.

The temple's own beginners' course starts somewhere else: with a man, a problem, and a method.

Who the Buddha was

The Buddha was a human being, not a god. Born a prince in what is now Nepal, he left his household life to understand why life contains ageing, sickness and loss, and what — if anything — can be done about it. After years of practice he awoke to that understanding, and spent the following forty-five years teaching it.

He is not worshipped here as a saviour. The flowers, light and incense offered before his image are gestures of gratitude and respect to a teacher, and the flowers fading by evening are themselves part of the teaching.

The three refuges

Buddhists “take refuge” in three things, together called the Triple Gem.

Taking refuge is not a conversion ceremony you must complete before you are welcome. You can attend anything here without it.

The Four Noble Truths

The heart of the teaching, and the reason it is often described as a diagnosis rather than a creed.

1. Dukkha — life as we ordinarily live it contains unsatisfactoriness, stress and suffering.
2. Its cause — that suffering arises from craving and clinging.
3. Its ending — because it has a cause, it can end.
4. The path — there is a way of practice that leads to that ending.

The Noble Eightfold Path

The fourth truth, set out in full: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. These are usually grouped into three trainings — ethical conduct (sīla), mental cultivation (samādhi) and wisdom (paññā) — and they are practised together rather than in sequence.

The Five Precepts

The ordinary lay commitments, undertaken voluntarily rather than commanded: to refrain from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxicants that cloud the mind.

They are training rules, not commandments. People undertake them, fall short, and undertake them again.

Kamma and rebirth

Kamma means action — specifically intentional action, of body, speech or mind — and the principle that intentional actions have consequences that shape future experience. It is not fate, and not a system of reward and punishment administered from outside.

The Brahma-Vihāras

Four qualities deliberately cultivated: loving-kindness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā). The Metta Suttanta, the loving-kindness recitation, is chanted regularly at this temple.

What Theravāda practice looks like

Theravāda means “the way of the elders”, and it is the school that preserves the Pāli Canon and the earliest surviving form of the monastic discipline. It is the tradition of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia — and of this temple, founded from Sri Lanka in 1960.

In practice, at Mangala Vihara, it looks like: a daily round of pūjā, the study of the discourses and the Abhidhamma, meditation of both calm (samatha) and insight (vipassanā), the observance of precepts, and the support of the monastic Sangha through offerings.

How a newcomer starts here

There is no first step you must take. But if you want one:

Come to a pūjā. The Sunday public service is at 11am, and the Shrine Hall is open daily 7am–9.30pm. Sit at the back if you prefer. Daily & full-moon pūjā →

Take a course. The Buddhist and Pāli College runs an Introduction to Buddhism course written for people with no background at all. In Mandarin, the six-year Theravāda Buddhist Studies in Chinese course starts each January.

Learn to meditate. Meditation classes are open to beginners.

Ask. Nobody at this temple expects you to know the words.

[PLACEHOLDER, temple to supply: whether there is a recommended first book or booklet for newcomers, and whether the Introduction to Buddhism course still runs and when.]

Words you will hear

What to expect on a visit → Getting here →