Rahula wrote:When looking at present day Buddhism it's hard for me to have faith in Triple Gem just like that. There are so may add on's, traditional and cultural influence, mis-interpretations etc. It's filled with mythology and brahmanism. If you ask me to have faith in Dhamma as it is, I'd rather forget about it.
All of the extraneous detritus that you're talking about is not the Dhamma. I'm not suggesting that you put faith in those "creeping things", far from it. The Triple Gem is sublime and I'm suggesting to have faith in that sublimity.
Have faith that the Buddha is the perfectly and rightly self-awakened one, the best of men, the greatest teacher.
Have faith that the Dhamma was realized by the Buddha via direct knowledge and that he taught it for the absolute happiness of you, of me, and of all beings.
Have faith that the Sangha has practiced well and realized the truth of the Dhamma. And that you, too, can eventually attain that state with dedicated practice.
That's all I'm suggesting.
Limitless is the Buddha, limitless the Dhamma, limitless the Sangha. There is a limit to creeping things: snakes, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, lizards, & rats. I have made this safeguard, I have made this protection. May the beings depart. I pay homage to the Blessed One, homage to the seven rightly self-awakened ones.
AN 4.67