Dhamma and Morality

1. What is the place of morality in Dhamma?

2. The simple answer is, morality is Dhamma and Dhamma is morality.

3. In other words, in Dhamma morality takes the place of god, although there is no god in Dhamma.

4. In Dhamma there is no place for prayers, pilgrimages, rituals, ceremonies, or sacrifices.

5. Morality is the essence of Dhamma. Without it there is no Dhamma.

6. Morality in Dhamma arises from the direct necessity for man to love man.

7. It does not require the sanction of god. It is not to please god that man has to be moral. It is for his own good that man has to love man.

—The Buddha and his Dhamma by Dr. B.R.Ambedkar