And Dhamma means truth, nature, the law of nature, which is universal. There were many at the time of the Buddha, contemporaries of the Buddha, and there were many before Gotama Buddha who tried to teach the same thing, but they were not successful. I come from a family, from a tradition, of very staunch conservative Hindus, and because I come from that tradition, I know the background of Indian spirituality, I know the teachings. When I went to my teacher for the first time to take a Vipassana course, nothing seemed new to me. Buddha taught samadhi, mastery over the mind, and I found that this was there also.
Every tradition teaches how to control the mind, how to develop mastery over the mind.
Nothing was new, and yet everything was new. Every step that I took was wonderful. Let me explain why. Like many teachers of different religions Buddha also taught about sila, the five precepts, the panca sila, and like others he explains to people, in different ways, why they should observe sila. You should not kill.