Now, the Buddha does not, as we shall see in more detail later, teach that one should believe in any kind of God or in the immortality of the soul. In fact, dwelling on such things is considered to lead only to a spiritual dead-end. Instead, the Buddha wished to impress upon those he taught the basic causal structure of life and the need to be responsible for one’s own actions. Without these basic presuppositions, nothing else that the Buddha taught would make any sense. In fact, it seems that the Buddha even had a standard remedial talk on basic Vedic cosmology to insure that his listeners were ready for the Buddha Dharma itself. One example of the Buddha using this standard remedial formula can be found in the Upali Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya:
Then the Blessed One gave the householder Upali progressive instruction, that is, talk on giving, talk on virtue, talk on the heavens; he explained the danger, degradation, and defilement in sensual pleasures and the blessing of renunciation. When he knew that the householder Upali’s mind was ready, receptive, free from hindrances, elated, and confident, he expounded to him the teaching special to the Buddhas: suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path. (Ibid, p. 485)
When correlated with his discourse to the brahmin householders of Sala and with the discourse to the Kalamas, this progressive instruction that prepares people for the teaching special to the Buddhas can be seen as a condensed version of the incontrovertible teaching and the four assurances. So, the talk on giving would cover the merit to be gained from giving donations, offerings and sacrifices, especially to support the needy or virtuous. The talk on virtue would cover the belief in the fruit of good and bad actions, and the gratitude and respect due to one’s parents as well as the discussion with the Kalamas on the harmfulness of greed, hate and delusion. The talk on the heavens would cover the rewards of the next world for actions done in this one, the spontaneous births in the heavens, the testimony of the virtuous recluses and brahmins with direct knowledge of their existence and also instruction on the four divine abodes. The explanation of the defilement in sensual pleasures and the blessing of renunciation could also be a reference to teachings like the four assurances. So, in each case, the Buddha instructs people so that they may recognize the value of charity, self-control and freedom from the poisons of greed, anger and ignorance. The importance of this progressive instruction of the Buddha becomes apparent in the Dhammapada, where in Chapter 14, verse 5 it is stated in a slightly different way and asserted to be the teaching of all Buddhas. The verse reads, “Avoid all evil,/ cultivate the good,/ purify your mind:/this sums up the teaching of the Buddhas.” (The Dhammapada, p. 132) This teaching might seem too obvious to bother stating, but the Buddha knew that very few people truly take these things seriously enough to make them a priority in their lives. In a sense, the Buddha was simply trying to reawaken the basic values that people already hold but neglect, and by doing that he was preparing them for the deeper insights to come.