Man's position, according to Buddhism is supreme. Human being is his own nature, and there is no higher being or power that sits in judgement over his destiny. "One is one's own refuge, who else could be the refuge?" said the Buddha. He admonished His disciples to be "a refuge to themselves" and never to seek refuge in or help from anybody else.

He taught, encouraged, and stimulated each person to develop himself and to work out his own emancipation, for man has the power to liberate himself from all bondage through his own personal effort and intelligence. The Buddha says: "You should do your work, for the Buddhas only teach the way" (Tumhehi kiccam Atappam Akkhataro Tathagata).

If the Buddha is to be called a Savior at all, it is only in the sense that He discovered and showed the Path to Liberation, Nirvana. But we must tread the Path ourselves. It is on this principle of individual responsibility that the Buddha allows freedom to His disciples. In the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the Buddha says that He never thought of controlling the order of monks, nor did He want the monks, to depend on Him. He said that there was no esoteric doctrine in His teaching, nothing hidden in the "closed fist" of the Teacher.

The freedom of thought allowed by the Buddha is unheard of elsewhere in the history of religions. This freedom is necessary, because, according to the Buddha, emancipation depends on one's own realization of Truth, and not on the benevolent grace of a God or any external power as a reward for one's obedient good behavior.

Once the Buddha told the bhikkhus or monks that a disciple should examine even the Buddha himself, so that he might be fully convinced of the true value of the teacher whom he followed.

Not only the freedom of thought, but also the tolerance allowed by the Buddha is astonishing to the people studying the history of religions.

Once in Nalanda a prominent and wealthy householder named Upali, a well-known disciple of Nigrantha Nataputta, the founder of Jainism, was expressly sent by Mahavira himself to meet the Buddha and defeat him in an argument about certain points of the theory of Karma. Ending the discourse, Upali begged the Buddha to accept him as one of His lay disciples. But the Buddha asked him to reconsider it and not to be a in hurry, "for considering carefully is good for well-known men like you." When Upali expressed his desire again, the Buddha requested him to continue to respect and support his old religious teachers as he used to.

The Ven Dr Walpola Wimalagnana Thero is a Buddhist monk from Colombo, Sri Lanka.