Did anyone here get polio? Raise your hand if you ever got the disease polio, shriveled up legs, or you might have died. OK, none of you got polio. Why? For most of you, anyone my age or younger, you got a vaccine so that you would not get polio. The vaccine is so important, it stops millions of people every year having shriveled up legs or dying. It's a wonderful thing. The doctors who give it to us, the nurses, whoever they are, they are wonderful people. Can we feel thankful to them? Have any of you ever felt thankful and grateful that you never got polio? Most people never even thought about it, they just took it as their right.
Who is it that found the vaccine for polio? Dr. Salk did, in 1955. He was a real live people who lived and discovered something that has helped each one of us. Have you ever felt thankful in your heart to Dr. Salk? Most humans have not. Can we generate that, though? That's what we'd like to do. Can we be thankful for anyone who has ever helped us in our whole life? And will we be thankful to our teachers, even for those that weren't very good, if we just got a little bit of something from them? We can be thankful for our parents, for our friends, for whoever else. Can we generate that? It's very important to develop thankfulness and respect towards whoever has helped us in our life.
Now, historically, the Buddha was a real-life person. That is recorded in history. There are stone slabs with his name engraved in India, some hundred years or so after he died. He was a recorded real live human being, similar to how we have records of Dr. Salk (although with Dr. Salk we've got nice photos of him because he only died eight years ago). He lived a long time after his vaccine was discovered. To deny that the Buddha existed would be a mistake. We don't have to absolutely believe that he was perfectly enlightened. You don't have to if you don't want to, but he is the man who is credited with starting these teachings. That's where we develop the connection to the Buddha. He is the one who has helped us. He helped us. So it doesn't matter if he was perfectly enlightened, it doesn't matter if he was a man or actually, if he really was a woman. It doesn't matter if he was an Indian or if he was born in South Africa. All of that doesn't really matter. There was somebody who started this. Looking at the records, he is called Siddhattha Gotama. He was born in Nepal. He lived in India.
So can we be thankful, can we develop that feeling of respect and gratitude towards him as a human being who started these teachings, and combine that with respect towards the Dhamma, which is our vehicle? You're using the Dhamma, his teachings, all the time; it's the whole practice. This respect and thankfulness is what we reflect on when we take refuge, now we've got the first two.
Can we combine that with respect towards everyone else who has understood this practice really well, and continues to practice? We don't have to worry about whether they were totally enlightened are not, we don't have to worry about that. It has been written that many people did. So if we're thinking about taking refuge in what is called the Triple Gem - the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha - it is not about belief in enlightenment, but rather respect and gratitude towards them.
As to definitely stating that the Buddha was perfectly enlightened, you know, that's beside the point. That's not a problem with regards to developing refuge in the Triple Gem, as we see how much we are grateful to the three of them. In that way, the feeling of refuge, the gratitude, the respect, that's how we're going to feel part of a community with others who are Buddhists.
It can be helpful to know that when we talk to Thai people, we have never been asked directly in Thai, "Are you a Buddhist?". That would be phrased "Kuhn ben chao poot mai?". They don't ask that. They don't say "Are you a Buddhist?" They don't ask "Are you a Christian?", "Are you a Jew?" They don't ask that. They say, "Napt tue Sasana poot mai?", which means, "Do You Respect the Buddha's Teachings?" So it's a matter of respect to be feeling part of a community. And if you do respect whoever it was who started all this, and you respect the Dhamma, and you respect the Sangha, the people that keep it alive, then you are already a Buddhist, and you're welcome in the community.