Can an uneducated person ever understand the teaching of the buddah.

Question

I am new to buddhism, I had read about the buddahs life and was fascinated,  I then came across yuttadhammo talking about the dhammapada stories which I enjoyed,  after that I started doing the noting meditation,  I have no goals or expectations,  I just do it. I do however get confused with lots of words I don't understand and now I'm starting to wonder is that all the buddah taught when I hear about other meditations, its so confusing and Im starting to think buddhism is only for intelligent people, its sad if this is the case and even a bit elitist. In the stories about the buddah he didn't seem elitist, he seemed like a man that wanted good things for everyone.

Answer 1

Intelligence is different from wisdom. During the time of the Buddha and even after, many uneducated people became enlightened. There was a monk called Culapanthaka who couldn't even learn one verse of Dhamma in four months. But he became enlightened after receiving some brief instructions from the Buddha. Try the Satipatthana meditation taught here and ask questions if you have doubts.

Comments

Thankyou for taking the time to answer.  Very kind of you.

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You're welcome!

Answer 2

I have zero qualifications and have understood buddhas teachings. Including metaphysical concepts like shunyata.

In reality "educated" and "uneducated" is just a societal construct. In our societies this relates to something along the lines of "if you have a PHD you are educated" and if you don't you are uneducated.

Intelligence, wisdom and being intellectual are all separate phenomena. None of which actually rely upon being educated.

That being said public libraries and the internet give free education. As well as with buddhas teachings, actual practice and self inquiry is the tools needed to understand. Not belief, faith or education. One could spend their entire life studying buddhist sutras and get no more closer to freedom that another who meditated on 1 subject.