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The Buddha on Belief
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it."
Buddhism emerged two and a half thousand years ago in the central plain of the River Ganges and has since been transmitted to many other countries undergoing exciting new phases of development and absorbing much local tradition. However its Indian elements have always remained central and fundamental.
During the period of formation of Buddhism there were at least three major sources of religious authority in India:
Many in the last two groups did not adhere to Vedic tradition. From the naked ascetics developed the religion of the Jains, whereas Buddhism was more closely related to the third group.
It should be noted that the majority of the fourteen major Upanishads are post-Buddhist and influenced by Buddhism.
Buddhism emerged from an alternative and different religious stream, the ancient Yogic tradition which predated the Aryan invasions of India. This had no professional priesthood or formal organisation and placed primary emphasis on direct personal penetration of the ultimate mysteries of life. Archaeologists of the ruined cities of the Indus Valley found very ancient images of such yogis sitting cross-legged in the lotus position.
The word 'Buddha' means "one who has woken up" or "one who knows" the basic truth of things or Dhamma. It is generally reserved for an individual who has fully awakened in the right way, an individual of great cosmic significance and therefore extremely rare.
The historical Buddha remains fundamental despite the many developments through which the religious tradition that bears his name has gone. He is both the founding genius and trail blazer, the archetypal spiritual seeker who pursued the difficult and daunting quest for liberation to its ultimate conclusion.
Buddha was born in the second quarter of the sixth century BCE and was a contemporary of the founder of Jainism. At the same time Cyrus the Great was completing the extension of the Persian Empire and Greek Philosophical tradition was beginning to emerge.
Siddhartha Gautama was a prince born near the present day border with Nepal among the Sakkas. Soon after he was born he was scrutinised by Asita, a Holy Man, who foretold that he would become either a great world leader or great religious teacher. His father, who wanted to see him follow in his own privileged footsteps, was dismayed and in order to turn his mind away from religion created an environment of pleasure and luxury. The young Buddha grew up knowing little of the realities of life but boredom and dissatisfaction led him to seek the outside world. Despite attempts to prevent upsetting sights from coming to the prince's sensitive nature, Siddhartha saw things that had a deeply traumatic effect on his overprotective consciousness. He was initiated into the reality of suffering in three of its most poignant forms: old age, sickness and death. Realising for the first time that he too must be one day subject to these fates he became dark and withdrawn, even in his palaces - life was no longer tenable.
On his fourth visit to the outside world Siddhartha met a Sadhu, or Holy Man, who despite his homelessness and extreme poverty possessed a certain air of calmness and nobility that suggested to Siddhartha that he had come to terms with old age, sickness and death.
The point of crisis was reached and Siddhartha left his palaces, giving up wealth, privilege, clothes and his family.
He spent the next six years on an intensive spiritual quest learning meditation with one of the foremost yogic teachers of his day and eventually coming to the conclusion that first, concentrative meditation does not lead to complete liberation, and secondly, that there comes a point where teachers can teach no more and we are left to seek the true source in our own heart centre. He tried experimenting with extreme ascetic practices, bringing himself to the verge of death. However he realised he had still not found what he was looking for and he would die if he persisted so he abandoned his austerities and began to eat. His disciples were so disgusted by this action (Siddhartha has taken to the easy life!) that they abandoned him.
Alone and in extremis Siddhartha sat under the Peepul tree - the Bodhi tree - at Bodhgaya, determining to sit on that immovable spot until he found an answer to his problem or would die in the attempt. During an introverted state of meditation he began an in-depth exploration of his own inner being but he did not allow himself to be distracted by it. Instead, he watched his own mental life pass with cool alertness and so he neutralised its seductive power (personified as the temptations of the evil Lord of Illusions, Mara) and its contents passed away.
When the Lord of Death and Illusion, Mara, had failed in his attempt, the Buddha recalled, in the first watch of that night, the multitude of his former lives and thought 'all existence whatsoever is unsubstantial' and subsequently felt compassion for all beings. In his search for the past beyond sorrow he had already marked out the middle way between devotion to pleasure and to pain and now he was experiencing a further reach of the middle way, namely on one hand realisation that all beings are without a self and yet simultaneously a compassion for all beings. Thus we have the fundamental posture of the Buddhist mind, where the serious commitment of the western mind to the concerns and value of a living person is dismissed, but the usual eastern concern for the soul is also dismissed; there is no reincarnating soul to be saved, released or found, all life is sorrowful and yet there is no self, or being, or entity, or sorrow. There is no reason therefore to feel loathing, shock or nausea before the spectacle of the world, but only compassion.
Buddha clearly saw that where there is birth there is inevitably old age, disease and death; where there is attachment there is birth; where there is desire there is attachment; where there is perception there is desire; where there is contact there is perception; where there are organs of sense there is contact; where there is an organism there are organs of sense; where there is incipient consciousness there is an organism; where inclinations derived from acts there is incipient consciousness; and where there is ignorance there are inclinations; therefore ignorance was the root and by discontinuance of ignorance the sufferings of every existing being could be discontinued. Thus this is the twelve linked chain of causation (pradityaisanutpada):-
Buddha saw how all people circulated through the cycles of birth and death and that Karma determined their later births; he considered how the defilements that cause suffering could be extirpated and by seeing that it was indeed possible to do so he was himself freed. His true self was beyond the dualities of pain and pleasure, space and time, life and death and this was Nirvana. At dawn he woke and saw the morning star rise with new eyes, the eyes not of Siddhartha Gautama but the Buddha, the 'one who is awake', the 'one who knows'.
The Buddha, when he had achieved this illumination thought "how shall 1 teach a wisdom so difficult to grasp?" and this is the point - that Buddhism cannot be taught. What is taught are ways that lead from various points to the Bodhi tree. To see the tree is not enough; even to sit beneath the tree is not enough; each has to find, in solitary thought, the passage into himself which is nowhere at all. For the main point of the doctrine is that since all things are without a 'self' no-one has to attain extinction, everyone is already extinct and has already been so; whereas ignorance leads to the notion an experience of an entity in pain.
So began a forty five year ministry, during which the Buddha wandered between towns, villages and cities in the Middle Ganges Plain proclaiming his teaching to his disciples at Isipatana near Benares and spending the rest of his life giving spiritual instruction to the public at large and to an ever-growing body of disciples.
At his death, at eighty one, his following was large and well organised.
He made a conscious effort to avoid the dogmatism of competing religious systems. He aimed to teach only what was essential for spiritual development and excluded from his system everything that was not relevant. The result is radically unusual. The Buddha set out a 'middle way' based mainly on pragmatic considerations. Materialist views of life and spiritually oriented beliefs in personal immortality were considered misleading; extreme goals of self-satisfaction through indulgence, or self-purification through ascetic discipline were also mistaken; extreme forms of superstition and ritualism as was naïve materialism which sought to deny the real experiences of the spiritual path were opposed.
The Three Jewels of Buddhism are Buddha, Dhamma and the Sangha. Buddahood is achieved in human circumstances as the culmination of many lives but the penultimate life is always divine, the result of striving for perfection for countless lives, reborn in many different forms and conditions of being. Traditional Buddhism understand by the word Buddha neither man nor God but one who has far transcended the nature of both - the teacher of Gods and men.
Dhamma is the law of the cosmos, the true nature of things, their intrinsic lawfulness. It is the law of the mind, of the good life and of the spiritual path.
The Sangha is the third of the three jewels. This is the community, particularly the holy community of the Noble Ones who have realised transcendental Dhamma, and more generally the community of religious mendicants. The most distinctive feature was the adoption of a compromise between the settled lifestyle of many orthodox Brahmans and the wandering characteristics of the other traditions mentioned above. By establishing fixed residence for three months in the rainy season the Buddha ensured that the life of the Bhikkhu (religious mendicant) would provide for the establishment of local centres of operation and for the retention of something simple necessitated by the life of a wandering religious beggar. This inherent compromise is natural to the Buddhist 'middle way' and characteristic of the training rules of such communities. Authority is collective rather than hierarchical, although a certain minimum observation was enforced. Only the breach of four specific rules led to expulsion: the act of sexual intercourse, taking human life, theft, or dishonest claim to some spiritual attainment.
There are three major traditions, each with its own component schools and sects in Buddhism.
The Hiniyana is composed primarily of the Pali Canon or Tibitaka with its code of rules and instructional discourses and philosophical ideas. The Buddhist scriptures were not committed to writing until the first century BCE but the earliest independent evidence for Buddhist ideas is found in the inscriptions of the Emperor Asoka of the Mauryan Dynasty in the third century BCE. The Emperor turned to a serious commitment to Buddhist practices as a result of revulsion at the horrors of war. As his authority extended over the greater part of South Asia, his prestige greatly aided the wider extension of Buddhism and Asoka is portrayed as the ideal Buddhist ruler. He worshipped at Buddhist shrines, enlarged Buddhist monuments, went on Buddhist pilgrimages and expressed adherence to the Sangha. He always spoke of Dhamma in his edicts but avoided the more abstract forms of Buddhist teaching. He evinced a concern for animal and human welfare, both on a practical and a moral level. He adopted vegetarianism but was not an outright pacifist. He was hostile to animal sacrifice, even though that was not welcomed by traditional Brahmans. He was, above all, concerned with moral purification and self-awareness.
A considerable body of oral literature developed in vernacular middle India after this, later organised into three sections - the tipitaka. The vinaya-pataka, or basket of discipline, is concerned with the order and discipline of the Sangha; the Sutta-pitaka consists of discourses attributed to the Buddha organised in five nikayas or agamas (traditions). The text contain much repetition of stock passages and formulae consistent with these being preserved oral traditions but allowing considerable variation of the exact form. The Abhidhanna-pitaka is later than the other and classifies experience in terms of events constituting the truth realised by the Buddha. Strictly speaking they are changing events, not static realities. This leads to a process-orientated view of experience where there is no permanent or unchanging soul or ground of being in man or the universe; the aim is to produce a changed perception of reality. The whole subsequent history of Buddhism is covered by this third section of ancient Buddhist canon.
The Theravada method of teaching consists of a step-by-step discourse - giving, precepts, kamma, the defects of the senses and the four noble truths.
Theravada Buddhism is severe, strict and conservative with salvation offered for the few who, with relentless effort, seek Enlightenment by their own abandonment of everything else in life. With such a daunting prospect there are many attractive qualities to Mahayana Buddhism which accommodates peoples aspirations and offers a less rigorous way of attaining Nirvana. It presents the bodhisattva figures; saints who themselves attained the state of Nirvana but, because of their self-denying sacrificial love, have deliberately withheld from going there in order to offer merit and assistance to lesser mortals who could not get there through their own striving or on their own merits. In Theravada Buddhism it is only possible for monks to attain to Enlightenment and be released into Nirvana. In Mahayana Buddhism the gate of salvation is open for all.
It is clear from the emphasis of Theravada Buddhism in the Pali Canon that re-birth does occur but without the transmigration of the previous persons personality or soul. Such impact of one non-self in a past life with another non-self in the present could be compared to the impact of billiard balls upon one another. Each conditional re-birth conditions subsequent re-birth but there is no silk thread of continuity which will link the individual pearls of personhood on a string of subsequent existence and thus re-birth in Buddhism differs from reincarnation as understood by either western Paganism or Hindu theology.
As the Buddha was radically superior to his enlightened disciples, the path to Buddhahood must necessarily also be superior. This later became the path of the bodhisattva - that person who had achieved Buddhahood but returned to the mortal world to aid lesser beings - this path is based upon compassion. The same general tendency led eventually to the introduction of the Buddha image in the early centuries of the Christian era, whereas before it had been represented by symbols. It was from this early milieu that the new Buddhism, the Mahayana, arose. It adopted the heroic ideal, a new cosmology related to visualisation practices, and a philosophical expression based on the emptiness of insight meditation.
The heroic 'ideal' of Bodhisattva path was not new, but was new was the claim that it should be adopted by all. Immediate personal enlightenment (the way of the Arhat) was now seen as an inferior goal and greater stress was laid on altruistic action based on skill in means and compassion.
The Mahayana took the earlier meditational elements and combined them in a new way of visualisation, particularly on the new figures of Buddhas and spiritually advanced Bodhisattvas. The philosophy of emptiness developed from earlier insight meditation and the aim was dissolve rigid views and bring a fresher perception of the world. This emphasised the complete emptiness of all phenomena, including all parts. Nothing has real existence as nothing exists independently and nothing that has come into being has any permanence. It is this very non-fixity which makes liberation possible, in fact, liberation is precisely the recognition of this emptiness.
Another point of difference between Mahayana and Hiniyana is the way of living in the world, rather than retiring, of acquiring an experience and knowledge of the truth of egolessness through giving selflessly to one's life task. For as Buddha has said, "it is by meritorious acts that everything is achieved. Everything subject to causation is like a mirage, a dream, the moon beheld in water, an echo: neither removable nor self- subsistent. And the wheel of the law itself is described as neither it is, nor it is not. Now having heard this law and welcomed it with joy, go forever in happiness, for this is the Mahayana set forth by all Buddhas". By worshipping the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas and the Arhats a man will generate in his mind the idea of Buddhahood and proclaim the law in good works, so that where this pure doctrine prevails, even the householder dwelling in his house becomes a Buddha. As one Buddhist monk has said, "Buddhists are optimists because, though the world is full of sufferings, yet to a Buddhist there is a way out of it":
In contradistinction to Mahayana was Hiniyana, the lesser wheel. In later eastern and northern Buddhist usage it is a distinction of spiritual level - Mahayana the greater wheel, superior in motivation (greater compassion), goal (Bodhisattva) and level of understanding (supreme wisdom). The Hiniyana is seen as selfish in motivation, inferior in goal and lacking depth of understanding. Too often these distinctions have been uncritically applied to early Buddhism and southern Buddhism but southern Buddhists, although aspiring to the perfection of the bodhisattva do not consider this suitable for all and they do place a high value on the motivation of concern for others.
The differences between Theravada or Hiniyana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism are as follows:
Theravada
Man as an individual.
Man on his own in the universe (emancipation by self-effort).
Key virtue wisdom.
Religion a full-time job, primarily for monks.
Ideal - the Arhat.
Buddha - a saint.
Echews ritual, confines prayer to meditation, conservative.
Tight discipline.
Mahayana
Man as involved with others.
Man not alone (salvation by grace).
Key virtue - compassion.
Religion - relevant to life in the world (for lay people as well).
Ideal - the bodhisattva.
Buddha - a saviour, includes ritual, includes petitionary prayer, liberal or perceived freedom.
When Mahayana Buddhism in its turn began to lose its first vitality, Tantra entered the Buddhist mainstream and stimulated a third turning of the wheel of Dhamma, another phase of revitalisation and renewal. By the seventh century CE it had become well established and is now called Vagrayana, the Vagra being a Buddhist symbol derived from the mythical thunderbolt of the Indian God Indra: a massive discharge of protean energy that blasts away delusion and inaugurates Enlightenment. The Tantric path is claimed by its devotees to be a very speedy one accomplishing in one lifetime what may take countless lifetimes in the Hiniyana or Mahayana.
The aim of Tantric practice is to transform one's body, speech and mind into those of a fully enlightened Buddha by special Yogic means. To this end a variety of ritual and magick methods have been devised involving the use of specialised forms such as Mandala (symbolic models of the cosmos), Mantra (sacred chants and formulae), and Mudra (hand movements), and accoutrements such as the Vagra the ritual dagger (Phurba) the Bell (Ghanta) and the Hand Drum (Damaru). The power of such things lies in the fact that in Tantra everything is invested with cosmic energy. A single sound may, therefore, by virtue of it's inherent quantum charge produce powerful spiritual effects. Practitioners also work with specific deities (known in Tibet as a Yadam) which may be benign or wrathful but are always imbued with enlightened qualities.
According to the Tibetan tradition there are four categories of Tantra: action Tantra (Kriyatantra), performance Tantra (Caryatantra), Yoga Tantra (Yogatantra) and Highest Yoga Tantra (Anuttarayogatantra). Highest Yoga Tantra is divided into three sub-categories: Maha Yoga, Anu Yoga and Ati Yoga making a six fold theme in all. According to the Dali Lama "the highest Yoga set of Tantras is superior to the lower ones" and it's method make it faster because the mind depends upon the body; precisely the Yogi works with the subtle body through which cosmic energy circulates by way of mystical channels and centres, by reversing the energy the Yogi pacifies the mind.
Tantra has its own arcane texts and scriptures but it places primary importance on the Guru, the guide who steers the student through the perilous, phantasmagoria of the psycho spiritual world to the safe shore of Enlightenment. Tantra is also veiled in secrecy and practice cannot begin without the rite of initiation when the initiate steps into the Mandala of his chosen deity.
What Tantra brought into Buddhism was practical Yogic and Magickal elements. Magick operates by invoking less developed, but no less powerful, strata of the psyche including the emotions and instincts; in the magickal phase the internal and external worlds interpenetrate, imagined things are just as real as material ones from which came the proverbial power of mind over matter. Inevitably as the Tantric Buddhists tradition established itself steps were taken to sanitise and organise it. It was then reconciled with orthodox Buddhist philosophy and practice and integrated systems were evolved which placed Vagrayana at the apogee of a three tiered hierarchy and the other traditions of Buddhism, the so called "Sutra" traditions - below. However the very thing that gave Vagrayana its regenerative power, that is its anarchic quality, has to a large extent been reformed away in the interest of creating a kind of safe Tantra.
Can Tantra ever be safe, or indeed can authentic spirituality ever be safe? If we look to the example of the Buddha himself we see that he could not progress spiritually by staying put in his luxurious palaces enjoying high privilege and status but he had to let go of everything and venture out into the great unknown to confront mystery and dangers. His true spiritual heirs are then those lone Yogis like the Tibetan Crazy Men and the early Zen masters who went off into remote places to find their own unique ways rather than those who join institutions and other groupings.
Buddhism gradually went into decline in India after the seventh century CE; by the thirteenth century it was to all intents and purposes dead in India, destroyed by the Moslem invasions, perhaps the degenerative influence of Tantra and the revitalisation of the Hindu tradition and the fact that it was concentrated in the monasteries.
However the decline and fall of Buddhism in India was not the end of the story; Buddhist teachings and practices were transmitted far beyond the confines of India, south to the south east Asian areas, north to Tibet, China, Mongolia and Japan and west in the last one hundred years to Europe, North America and Australia.
Although Mahayana and Vagrayana were introduced centuries ago, the brand of Buddhism that predominates in South East Asia is the Theravada, the way of the Elders, which traces it's origins back to the pre-Mahayana school. The Theravada Buddhism, as influenced by Ceylon, is now the predominant tradition in Thailand and has been from the fourteenth century CE, it is highly hierarchic and organised and comes under a degree of state supervision with the King being the supreme patriarch. The surrounding countries of Laos and Kampuchea have also adopted Theravada Buddhism as have the Buddhists in Indonesia, which incidentally boasts the largest Buddhist monument in South East Asia, the massive Stupa-Temple of Borobodur on Java.
The northern transmission of Buddhism has become the realm of Mahayana and Vagrayana. Buddhism reached China in the first century CE, carried along the silk route by merchants and Buddhist monks. Royal blessing and support of the literati ensured it's success, and by the sixth century CE it was a major religious path in China practised alongside the indigenous traditions of Taoism, Confucianism and folk cults.
The Zen school arose in China in the sixth century CE to grapple with the problem as to how to make the leap between learning about Buddhism from a scholastic and philosophical way to actualising the teachings, to make them live in our own daily lives. The early Zen masters provided iconoclastic methods for pushing practitioners beyond thought and discipline where they could see into the great mystery of things for themselves.
Generally the Zen school look positively at the great mystery at the heart of things. What is it? is one of the classic questions that practitioners are urged to address with unlimiting energy. The masters grappled with and answered it essentially coming directly from the heart. In the end we must let go of all thought and verbiage, let everything go in fact so that the great mystery may live through us.
In 845 the Buddhist establishment which now had riches and power to eclipse those of the emperor himself was subjected to a draconian blow from which it never fully recovered. It was not actually outlawed but monks and nuns were required to go back to My Lai, monasteries and temples were closed and monastic lands, slaves and treasuries were seized; just as happened to the Catholic Church in England under King Henry VIII when he broke with the Pope. Chinese Buddhism went into an almost fatal decline and the communist revolution has dealt it further savage blows. The main Chinese schools which have later influenced Buddhism have been the Flower Adornment School, the White Lotus School, the Pure Land School and the Zen School. In Vietnam there has been a highly successful blend of Pure Land and Zen schools.
There are five main schools whose teachings survive more or less in their original form. Tien-Tai was an intellectual school placing great emphasis on traditional meditation; it posited a hierarchy and a plurality of levels of both thought and attainment; it's most important scripture is the Lotus Sutra which is regarded as perfection. In Japan it is known as the Tendai school.
The Hua-yen school is based on Avatamsaka Sutra, a philosophy of totality in which it is recognised that everything is harmoniously related to everything else and that everything is contained in everything else. Again, it is highly intellectual but it did not last as a school but rather as an influence in China and in Japan it became the Kegon sect.
The third school, Chen-Yen is based on Vagrayana Buddhism. It is full of ritual and uses Mantra, Moojra and Mandala and a complicated cosmology that is understood only by the initiate. It transferred successfully to Japan as the Chingon sect.
The Pure Land School is dedicated to meditation on the figure of the Maitabha Buddha in his pure land of Sukhavati (the land of happiness or the Mahayana Nirvana); the practice involves reciting the name of Amitaba over and over in order to reach a state of grace; it's basis is the Amitaba Sutra and commentaries on it. Pure Land with it's emphasis on divine help in order to achieve realisation is far removed from the original teachings but under the eclectic umbrella of Buddhism this does not matter.
The Chan School differs in almost every degree; it is mystical and insightful; there are no scriptures, transmission is through the mind master to pupil; it emphasises spontaneity in iconic lesson to break down the barriers to enlightenment; it offers no routine practice, adherence to routine is as binding as desire. The influence of Taoism is much discerned in it's teachings and it is best known in it's Japanese incarnation as Zen.
In the sixth century CE Japan also received Buddhism, primarily from China, and once again royal favour initially assured success. Buddhism came to terms with the indigenous Shinto cult whose priesthood initially put up a vigorous resistance. The golden age of Japanese Buddhism was the turbulent Kamakara period (12th - 14th century CE) when the Samurai ceased power from the decadent imperial aristocracy and established the Shogunate; they found the teachings of the anti-philosophical, no nonsense Zen School suited their needs and they adopted it with vigour and specifically influenced them with their Samurai values and training schools, particularly those of the Rinzai (Lin-Chi) school and the Soto school. In modern times, following the trauma of Japan's defeat in World War II, the lay-oriented Michiren sects, particularly the Soka Gakkai. have attracted mass followings.
Buddhism was transmitted to Tibet first in the seventh century CE and the second one in the year one thousand CE with a damaging anti-Buddhist persecution launched by King Lang Darma in the mid ninth century. The major school here is the Tantric Fragrayana school. After Indian Buddhism had been wiped out the Tibetans saw themselves as custodians of these hallowed traditions but their one thousand year custodianship imbued Vagrayana Buddhism with a new tone and colour preserved almost intact until the middle of the twentieth century. This makes the Chinese decimation of Tibetan Buddhism during the cultural revolution all the more poignant.
The Tibetan style of Buddhism spread into Mongolia, parts of China and even into Russia.
Buddhist teachings reached the west back in the mists of antiquity but lasting connections were not forged until the nineteenth century, ironically due to imperialism. European administrators and scholars and missionaries took an interest in the lost or declining Buddhist traditions and the archaeological sites and translated their texts from Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and other languages; only then did the western world and, to a large extent the eastern world, become fully aware of the panoramic grandeur of Buddhism.
At the same time the failure of western religion to provide real spiritual nourishment and the growing disillusionment with science and materialistic values caused many to begin to explore the eastern religions. Theosophy, an ambitious syncretism devised by Helena Blavatski emerged proclaiming the great religion of the New Age, but instead eroded remnants of a great wisdom religion that once existed and which Buddhism most closely approximates.
In the early twentieth century western Buddhists disentangled themselves from the theosophical swaddling clothes and started to study the teachings with a view to putting them into practice. The trauma of World War I increased interest and during the inter-war period new societies flourished and missionaries from the east arrived, particularly D T Suzuki, the man who brought Zen to the west.
For some time after World War II Buddhism continued to be a middle class preserve of intellectuals, artists and professional people but in the sixties this changed dramatically when enormous numbers of people from all walks of life gravitated to Buddhism, particularly young people disaffected with conventional materialistic values and affluent enough to be able to explore and experiment with alternatives. With the Diaspora of lamas after the Chinese take-over of Tibet in 1959 there was access to Tibetan Buddhist teaching, whereas before Theravada and Zen had been the most available and most popular. There was a new commitment to practice, especially to meditation, and new seriousness arrived. There is even talk nowadays of the development of a western Yana or vehicle, a western transformation of Buddhism.
Today, although there is ample Zen and Tibetan Buddhism there is little orthodox Theravada Buddhism in the United States but there is a new 'lay' movement basing itself on Vipashyana meditation and centring on the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts. However the most successful and fashionable Buddha sect at the moment is the Nichiren Sho-Shu whose this worldly emphasis and successful chanting practice has won it a mass following particularly in California.
Western Buddhists are beginning to address other issues which have not been of concern as yet to oriental Buddhists. In oriental society women are accorded a very subservient role and this tendency fully infiltrated Buddhism. In all Vinaya based traditions a Buddhist nun of many years standing is deemed inferior to a monk ordained for just a few hours. Some oriental traditions transmit the notion that it is difficult, if not impossible, for women to become enlightened; the best they can do is accrue sufficient merit in this lifetime to qualify for a future male re-birth. In the present climate of sexual equality such attitudes raise considerable difficulties.
Another pressing issue is that of social action. Traditionally Buddhists have been socially and politically acquiescent, prepared to coexist with ruthless regimes. Western concepts like democracy, justice and freedom of expression were largely unknown in the east; feudalism predominated. Following this tradition politics has been regarded as a dirty word in some western Buddhist circles, as if it will contaminate the pristine purity of the Dhamma. Many western Buddhists feel, however, it is impossible to turn their backs on issues such as repression, economic exploitation, racism, militarism, environmental destruction and genocide and have found much inspiration in the life and teachings of the expatriate Vietnamese monk Thich Mhat Hanh, originator of the term "Engaged Buddhism" who now works in France to alleviate the suffering of his people and promote the cause of peace.
Finally Buddhism in the west must take cognisance of the distinctive features of the western psyche, especially individualism and the developed sense of ego. In Japanese Rinzi Zen the teacher/pupil relationship echoes that of the Samurai clan boss and his subservient retainers; there is little scope in such context for concepts like independence of thought and action, the individual has been regarded as a passive unit in a collectivity directed from above. Modern westerners can only conform to such situations by performing psychological contortions or else regressing to a kind of adolescent parent/child stance and avoiding adult responsibility. Real and positive development therefore demands that the mature ego be given a place in today's western Buddhism.
Giving is the foundation of Buddhist practice. It is a charity and hospitality, it is a religious act performed with great care and purpose, usually directed towards a purpose of religious commitment such as the Buddhist Sangha. It has future effects on subsequent lives and it produces possessiveness and selfishness leading naturally to sensitivity for the need for others.
Precepts is the act of undertaking training rules, accepting the Buddhist guides and doing to others as you would be done by. In southern Buddhism the emphasis is on avoiding harm, either to oneself or to others. The five precepts represent the fundamental discipline of external behaviour to which the Buddhist aspires, these entail refraining from destroying life, taking what is not given, wrong behaviour in regard to the sense pleasures, untrue speech and causes of intoxication such as wine, beers and spirits. Additional precepts are taken with varying frequency in different areas - for example on the lunar full moon - these involve temporary restriction of adornment, entertainment and physical comfort and are intended as an opportunity for the ordinary person to partake in the lifestyle of the Sangha, to create conditions which favour a better state of mind.
Giving and the precepts are only fully effective when accompanied by appropriate understanding. Each 'act of will' is considered as seed which will one day bear fruit in results of like kind to the original act. In modern terms both environment and genetic inheritance are the result of past actions. Comprehension of this law is known as "knowledge of the ownership of deeds" and is known as Kamma (Karma in Sanskrit). Such understanding liberates the mind from fatalistic views for past actions, environment and heredity do not totally determine an individual's fate. He himself creates his own future. If the 'laws of the mind' are comprehended it is not necessary to imagine constant 'supernatural' intervention.
The world of sense is now discussed in the step-by-step discourse. The aim is to show how the attractions of colour, sound, smell, taste and touch take possession of the mind and distort it, so too in dream and imagination. The search for wealth and possessions leads to envy or possessiveness and is the ultimate cause of violence, dishonesty and theft undermining generosity. Compared with higher achievements the sensual is inferior, even as a source of pleasure; the mind preoccupied with it loses contact with its own central nature. To free it from too much concern with sensory experience brings real advantage, for the mind is no longer obstructed with graspings which interfere with spontaneity of action; free from cares it returns to a simpler kind of functioning with greater openness towards other living creatures. This is summed up in the four Dharma abidings of loving kindness to all beings, compassion for their sorrow, joy in their joy and balanced observation of their faults and virtues.
Monks - What is the noble truth about suffering?
Birth is suffering, old age is suffering, death is suffering, grief, lamentation, discomfort, unhappiness and despair are suffering; to wish for something and not attain it is suffering; briefly the five factors of attachment are suffering.
Monks - What is the noble truth about the origin of suffering?
Just this craving, leading to re-birth, accompanied by pleasure and emotion and finding satisfaction now here, now there; namely the craving for sense-pleasure, the craving for new life and the craving for annihilation.
Monks - What is the noble truth about the cessation of suffering?
Just the complete indifference to and cessation of that very craving, the abandoning of it, the rejection of it, the freedom from it, the aversion toward it.
Monks - What is the noble truth about the way that goes into the cessation of suffering?
Just this noble eight fold way, namely right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration (The Buddha).
These truths bring one to true nobility obtained by inner purification. The first truth is suffering, or what most of ordinary life is at present, for even the most pleasurable experiences are seen as suffering implying subject to change and loss. It is suffering which arouses samvega, an inner stirring, which motivates the individual to spiritual effort.
The second truth is the cause of suffering, explained as craving for sense pleasure, for being and for non-being. It arises because we desire to have or control things, to experience in one way rather than another. These likes and dislikes generate attachment and regeneration and rejection.
The escape is nirvana, the supreme bliss and final liberation which is the cessation of suffering.
The fourth truth is the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering, the eight fold path, which is perfect view, perfect thought, perfect speech, perfect action, perfect livelihood, perfect effort, perfect mindfulness and perfect concentration. The normal method is to take kham, or samatha, as one's vehicle and first develop the higher states of consciousness which lead to the Brahma realms. The samatha meditator purifies his mind from distractions and hindrances in order to reach mental absorption. The alternative is to take insight, or vipassana, as ones mode which needs a self-observation, remaining slightly detached; with clarity and alertness greater awareness of mental and physical events and processes arise, leading to experiential knowledge of the four truths.
Right knowledge, a recognition of four noble truths; right thought and approach to all things with an attitude of peace and goodwill, leaving behind all negative emotions including sensual desires; right speech, always truthful, wise, conciliatory, never inflammatory; right action to live according to true moral precepts, stealing, adultery and murder are totally forbidden; right livelihood to carry out an occupation which does not do harm to others; right effort, always to promote good intentions and to stifle the bad so that right thought is ever in the mind and action; right mindfulness and awareness and consideration of everything and to not give in to any desires that surface; right composure or concentration which allows further progression on the path.
These eight precepts fall into three categories - the three fold discipline: right speech, right action and right livelihood concerned with morality (Vinaya); effort, mindfulness and composure with spiritual discipline and meditation (Dhyana); and right knowledge and right thought with insight (Prajna).
Taken as a whole this is a balanced yet uncompromising attitude to life and it is apposite that Buddhism is also known as the 'Middle Way'.
Focussing on the step-by-step discourse allows modern Buddhists to minimize ritual and worship, resulting in a relaxed attitude to traditional devotion. Southern Buddhists recognise three kinds of object of worship; relics of a Buddha, relics of use and relics which remind one of the Buddha. Southern Buddhism has its own traditional lunar calendar and the full moon days have special association in the life of Buddha or the history of Buddhism. Most Buddhist festivals are taken in a more serious or less serious way with much festivity and merry-making and colourful and careful decoration. Pilgrimage has largely fallen into abeyance after the Muslim conquest of North India although it has revived considerably in the last century.
The Buddhist conception of the universe is of worlds organised into a hierarchy of galaxies and super-galaxies, inferior levels are the four descents of the assuwers or fallen devas, the dead, animals and hell-dwellers. The other levels accommodate the vast variety of the spirit world and animal kingdom and superior levels contain the formless Brahmas who have transcended the limits of bounded existence.
Buddhism has little difficulty in accommodating a large number of local beliefs concerning various Gods, Spirits and the like. There is not seen to be inconsistency between believing in the law of Kamma and at the same time making offers to a deity to obtain some desired result, it is seen as no different as asking aid of a king or a doctor.
Suffering is classified into three basic categories and five groups of grasping. The cause categories are:
Actual existence as an individual human being is defined in five groups of grasping called Skandhas; when they all come together at one time they are what can be defined as the nature of humanness, they are:
Traditionally Buddhist teaching is also broken into three categories:
All three should be developed simultaneously to avoid imbalance.
Wisdom is the beginning and end of the path. Wisdom at the beginning is that of Buddha's basic teachings; it was the problem of Duhkha (suffering) rather than abstract questions such as who made the world and what happens after death, that shocked the Buddha into his own spiritual quest; it covers the whole spectrum of psycho-emotional states from a mild sense that things are not quite right to intense physical and mental pain; this leads to the step-by-step discourse.
The Bodhisattva cultivates specific virtues to perfection, these are:
There are five ethical precepts that the Laity are required to keep:
Refrain from theft, this includes borrowing books and failing to return them and all other kinds of 'sharp' practice which may have been socially acceptable in our 'go-getting' society; in general obtaining anything for oneself in ways that cause others to suffer is regarded as immoral even if no law is breached technically.
Refrain from irresponsible sexual activity; sex is always highly charged karmically and therefore should be regulated but cannot be safely repressed for sexual activity is prohibited for Buddhist monks and nuns and generally Buddhism is not very positive on this matter. The Buddhist Sutras and other works speak very disparagingly of this very natural instinct, basically because it was seen as the primary means whereby people become entrammeled in family life which afforded restricted opportunities for spiritual practice and the ability to 'let go'. The Buddha remonstrated with the monk, Sudinna, who lay with his former wife at his parent's request who wanted grandchildren by saying "misguided man, it were better for you that your penis should enter the mouth of a hideous, venomous viper or cobra, than it should enter into a woman". Shanti Veda the author of the guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life resorted to strong aversion therapy techniques; "If I am attached to what is unclean, then why do I copulate with the lower parts of other's bodies which are merely cages of bones tied together with muscles, plastered over with the mud of flesh? I myself contain many unclean things which I constantly have to experience; so why because of an obsession for uncleanliness do I desire other bags of filth?" In general the Buddhist message is 'If you are serious about living a spiritual life then transcend sex'. The exception is Tantra which characteristically takes it's stance at the opposite pole and seeks to integrate sexuality and use its energy as a means for gaining enlightenment. As the psychologist C G Jung has pointed out, spirituality and sexuality have for too long been at odds, not just in Buddhism, and a reconciliation is called for. Given that Buddhism is non-dogmatic and dynamic it may well be that this kind of reconciliation is something that will be attempted, probably in the west.
Refrain from wrong speech, this includes lying, slander, malicious or idle gossip, misrepresentation, blackmail and so forth; anything that causes harm to others and creates disharmony. If we are serious about living the spiritual life we must keep a firm grip on truth, on what is, otherwise we may too easily loose our bearings and fall victim to fantasies, mainly to aggrandise ourselves.
Refrain from substances which befuddle consciousness particularly alcohol and mind altering drugs, they impede awareness which is essential for meditation and clear seeing. Again Tantra has its own attitude to these things.
And for many, there is also a sixth:
Right livelihood, this means earning our living in ways that do not harm, deprive or exploit other people, animals or the environment.
Implicit in all these precepts is the age-old Indian principle of Ahimsa: not harming - either others or oneself which can be extended to the environment, the world as a whole and even to outer space; nothing should fall outside our sphere of moral responsibility. However these precepts are ideals or guidelines to be used with flexibility and good sense. Tormenting ourselves with visions of hellish punishments for failure should not occur, the Buddha was opposed to guilt ridden practices or rigid fundamentalist behaviour where the letter of the law is demanded with strict adherence to principle but the spirit is missed. Most immorality is ego-serving and operates directly at the expense of others and the universe in general; morality is therefore a primary curb on the ego and a first step towards liberation from that whole nexus of compulsions.
Meditation is about developing that kind of acute awareness where we see the world as it really is and doing so without becoming attached to the objects of observation out of desire or rejecting them from aversion. It means becoming the dispassionate watcher, the one who knows.
The basic form of meditation that the early texts describe the Buddha as teaching is not sitting meditation but something to be done as one goes about normal business consisting of specific applications of mindfulness "a monk fares along contemplating the body in the body, ardent, clearly conscious of it, mindful of it so as to control covetousness and dejection in the world; he fares along contemplating the feelings in the feelings, the mind in the mind and the mental objects in the mental objects, ardent, clearly conscious of them, mindful of them so as to control covetousness and dejection in the world." (Buddha). Later compilers of Buddhist meditation manuals subdivided meditation practice into Samatha (developing concentration with the ability to maintain focus of attention one pointedly and with calming and stabilising the mind) and Vipassana (an active analysis and investigation of all phenomena preceded by Samatha qualities).
The brand of Buddhism attracting the largest number of new followers in the west is regarded by many as the least representative Buddhist of all the schools; this is the Nichiren Sho Shu school, the most successful of the various sub-schools that trace their roots back to the Kamakura era Japan and a Tendai monk named Nichiren Shonin (1222-1282CE). Nichiren Sho Shu propagates an attractive form of "designer Buddhism" with an uncomplicated central chanting practice that draws pop and soap opera stars, fashion and media operators and hordes of young people. Nichiren was convinced that he was living in a degenerate age but he became convinced that the Lotus Sutra embodied the true teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha and that complete faith in it is the sole key to salvation. Not that one had to deeply study and reflect upon the Lotus Sutra however, the text's title encapsulated the totality of truth in the universe and as such was an embodiment of Shaka Yumooni Buddha; as a practice therefore Nichiren described the Daimoku, or chanting of the formula, Namu-Myoho-Reng-Kyo (homage to the Lotus Sutra of the True Law). Nichiren not only unrelentingly denounced the other schools but called upon the authorities to suppress them. Schisms arose within the school after the founder's death, one cause being relations with other schools; some groupings favoured a more moderate approach while others advocated the hard line of neither to receive nor to give and it is of the latter that Nichiren Sho Shu traces it's spiritual roots. It's leader is now Ikeda who has founded a political party, the Komeito (clean government party), and teaches that our destiny lies in our own hands; we must take responsibility for our own lives and make the necessary positive moves to settle our problems and realise our full potential. To these ends members are actively counselled, helped and supported and encouraged to take up a three-fold practice involving faith, study and chanting. Faith is in the power of the Gohonzon, a scroll on which the Namu-Myoho-Reng-Kyo is written in Mandalic form, the original being penned by Nichiren himself and lodged in a temple at the foot of Mount Fuji. Gongyo involves chanting Namu-Myoho-Reng-Kyo and selected passages from the Lotus Sutra at least twice daily. Finally there is study of the Buddhist teachings as re-formulated by Nichiren and his successors, all of which can be carried out without renouncing the world, indeed worldly success is valued within Nichiren Sho Shu although it is taught that it cannot lead to lasting happiness. It also maintains Nichiren's old tradition of vigorous proselytising.
Zen is about being. In everything the experience is at one with the person experiencing it. Being in the centre of being is important, but man moves from the centre, he looks for an abundance of self for whatever it is that he feels defines him, most obviously in the accumulation of material goods as the definition of happiness, he loses contact with his centre, his point of humanness. Zen is not about giving up part of the self, it is a question of coming back to the centre where everything is transcendent yet very ordinary. To start on the path there must be a will to start; openness with no preconceptions is required. Anyone who starts on the path to Zen must be prepared for unquestioning obedience to his master, but it is obedience with thought, merely a tool to subjugate the dominating ego and to cultivate the mindfulness required in every aspect of life; this frees the mind just when it is least expected.
Zen is a practical method of realising Buddha nature, a body and mind discipline that requires great effort, perseverance and faith in both the possibility of enlightenment and in one's own ability to attain it. It is simple, direct, practical and concerned with the here and now. When asked by a monk "What is the meaning of Zen?" a Zen master replied "Have you had your breakfast?", "Yes", said the monk, "Then wash your bowl" said the master. Everyday actions are vested with the same importance as worldly ambition. Umon, a Zen master, when asked how to act in accordance with our true nature replied "When walking just walk, when sitting just sit, above all don't wobble". The essence of Zen is most directly conveyed in the language of everyday experience and not in the phrases of a theologian or academic. The pragmatic aim is to lead the practitioner to a direct experience of life in itself and to eliminate all dualistic distinctions such as I/you, true/false, subject/object and to come to an awareness of life unconditioned by words and concepts. The Zen method is to demonstrate Reality, not to describe it in words. Ask a Zen teacher "What is Zen?" and he is liable to answer "Who are you?" Zen is first and foremost the experience which the student must recognise in his or her own life. Books and lectures convey a certain amount of useful interpretation instruction but they have limitations which will be constantly pointed out. As the Zen master Mumon said "endeavouring to interpret clearly you retard your retainment". The word Zen is an abbreviation of Zenna which is the way the Japanese read the Chinese characters for Ch'an-na which is in turn Chinese for Dhyana, a Sanskrit word that describes both the act of meditation and non-dualistic consciousness.
One of the most illuminating methods of Zen teaching is wrestling with koans, obtuse questions or riddles which have no answer that can be divined by normal methods; the master asks the student "In clapping both hands a sound is heard, what is the sound of one hand?" Another is, "Does a dog have a Buddha nature?" the master answers "moo" (which means nay, or nothing or none existence). The pupil must put all of himself into solving this problem until the solution arrives and he is as one with the koan, only then will he realise the difference between explanation and understanding.
Understanding is involvement, explanation or observing is detachment and yet both detachment and involvement are the ultimate in which identification, not only with self and with others but with everything, is total. Concentration, meditation, koans, letting go, involvement, mindfulness, lead to satori (the blinding flash of Enlightenment). This is illustrated by the story of the Zen master Gesarn asking his young student to bring him a pail of water to cool his bath; the student brought the water and after cooling the bath threw what remained onto the ground; "You dunce" the master scolded him, "Why didn't you give the rest of the water to the plants? What right have you to waste even a drop of water in this temple." The young student attained Zen in that instant and changed his name to Tekisui, which means a drop of water.
In an instant the connectedness of everything may be understood but it is inexplicable and there is no description. The explanation for the experience must never be taken for the real thing, the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon, experience is the only way.
Another koan from the collection called Mumonkan; there is a record of an interview between Nansen (748-834CE the 36th patriarch of Zen) and Joshu (778-897CE one of the greatest Zen masters of China). Joshu asked the master Nansen: "What is the way?" Nansen answered "Ordinary mind is the way". "Then should we direct ourselves toward it or not?" asked Joshu. Nansen said "If you try to direct yourself toward it you go away from it. Joshu then continued "If we do not try, how can we know it is the way?" Nansen replied, "The way does not belong to knowing or not knowing; knowing is delusion, not knowing is blankness; if you really attain to the way of no doubt, it is like the great, so vast and boundless, how can there be a right or a wrong in the way?" At these words Joshu was enlightened.
A commentary on this follows:
The phrase 'ordinary mind of the way' could perhaps be better seen as 'natural mind'; 'ordinary' gives us that it is what we are commonly accustomed to: with 'natural mind' we all know we are not very natural. It is more truthful that the way is natural mind; it is ordinary mind too but our common-sense understanding of ordinary mind is not very ordinary, it is filled with all kinds of vanities, greed, ambition, jealousy and so forth; when you really get to that 'ordinary mind' it is not what we are commonly accustomed to (Genpo Merzel Sensei). 'Mind' here refers to shin, not just 'mind' in the sense of brain, but the heart mind or spirit. Joshu asked whether he should search for the ordinary mind. Nansen said by searching he would stray for it. The trouble is, as Joshu's persistent questioning of Nansen demonstrates, it is not enough for the beginner simply to be told this, if one's life is a mess it is very hard to accept that one is the Buddha already. Joshu was looking for a way to become Buddha and, on the face of it, his persistence was quite legitimate; however his idea of what Enlightenment was the very thing that was keeping him from realising it. From the 'absolute' point of view Joshu was already Enlightened, from the 'relative' point of view he didn't see it. The way does not belong to knowing or not knowing, it just is.
The foundation of Zen practice is Za-zen meditation and it's specific aim is to lead the practitioner to a full realisation of his or her true nature, or seeing things as they are. The characteristics of Zen that set it apart from other Buddhist traditions are that enlightenment is directly transmitted from master to pupil outside of orthodox teachings; that there is no dependence on scriptures or other sacred writings; and that Zen teachers point directly at the human heart; a direct assault upon the citadel of truth without reliance on concepts of God or soul or salvation.
Za-zen is seated meditation. The requirements are:
The three essential elements of Zen practice are:
Za-zen is likened to settling the pond of muddied, turbulent water. Mumon Yamada Roshi said "To find the jewel one must calm the waves; it is hard to find if one stirs up the water; where the waters of meditation are clear and calm the mind jewel will naturally be visible". The first step in Za-zen is to develop Joriki concentration, bringing the attention into appreciation of each moment of experience. Through Joriki we appreciate the relationship between mind and body and the importance of Za-zen posture.
The next stage is Kensho-Godo, or awakening to Satori, a feeling of joy and liberation. Finally, by simply sitting in awareness from moment to moment during Za-zen we are perfectly manifesting the realisation of the Buddha in our lives. At this stage we speak of practice for the sake of practice without goal or purpose; this is Mujodo Eno Taigen, the purest manifestation of Zen because body and mind are completely forgotten and we are a complete one with the whole universe.
Soto Zen developed independently of Rinzi Zen which became very popular with the ruling Samurai class of Japan. In 1236CE Dogan founded his own temple and is now revered as one of Japan's greatest religious geniuses. He had nothing to do with the military of aristocratic power struggle of his day and this, combined with his insistence that women and men were all equally capable of accomplishing the Buddha way made Soto tradition truly classless.
There is no cohesion of dating in Buddhist countries, the Theravaden countries make use of BE the Buddhist era dated from the death of Gautama; Chinese and Tibetan Buddhists use a 60 year cycle in which a combination of the five elements and twelve animals revolve in turn, which is now well known to the western world as Chinese Astrology. All Buddhist calendars are a combination of solar and lunar influences so the working out of the dates of festivals is an expert business; most Buddhists rely on almanacs for this information. The festivals are as follows:-
Uposathadays: almost equivalent to the Christian Sunday, originally held on the new and full moons and a time for the monks to recite the ethical precepts; they are now used by the laiety to spend a day in deeper religious observance.
Rains Retreat: this is strictly observed for three months in the year in the Theravaden countries roughly July to October; its history resides in the almost complete impossibility of travel during the monsoon period in northern India; for this reason the Mahayana countries do not celebrate it. At the end of the retreat the Kathena ceremony there are celebrations with the laiety offering a new robe to one monk chosen by the abbot. In China the Rains Retreat became the Summer Retreat and takes place from June to August.
New Year: all Buddhists celebrate New Year, not necessarily as a religious festival, the timing of celebrations are different of course, in Sri Lanka it is 13th April where people go home, give presents and have parties; in Thailand it is the 13th-16th April; in Burma 16th-17th April and both countries celebrate with water throwing ceremonies. In Tibet the first fifteen days of the year commemorate the early life of the Buddha and is used for administrative tasks and for examinations for monks and on the final night there are displays, sculpted in butter, of scenes of the life of Buddha and puppet shows.
All Buddhist countries celebrate the Buddha's birth, Enlightenment and death, mostly in May and June and in Sri Lanka, Burma and Tibet the Buddha's first sermon is celebrated in July.
For the most part Buddhist festivals centre around the Sangha and take place in temples or monasteries.
Enlightenment in Buddhist understanding does not extend to knowing everything in terms of scientific knowledge, but rather a special mystic intuitive knowledge that reaches beyond the rational and the empirical and the limits of conscious intellectual exercise; it discovers specific answers and rejects the whole idea of concept of there being a God as creator or saviour. Buddha's teaching makes no claim to special divine revelation but implies that if there was an originator behind this bewildering state of affairs called the cosmos, then whoever it was who created such a mess should be given the name of 'ignorance' for who, with a grain of intelligence, would produce such an endless round of sickness, sorrow, suffering and sadness? Buddhist Enlightenment therefore concludes that there is no God, no creator and there are no answers concerning the origins of the universe for it does not seek them; it is looking for cure rather than cause; it is concerned primarily with the fact of suffering, it's effects and how to resolve the problem of endless cycles of existence. Enlightenment was perceived as a special intuitive religious knowledge derived from Gautama's own personal experiences and perceptions based on his own reactions to the indulgence of excessive extravagance during his youth on one hand, and the subsequent extreme self-mortification on the other. Buddha had discovered the only alternative - the middle way.
Another factor is Buddha's conviction that since he discovered Enlightenment by his own self efforts and others had not found it by other means, then logically Enlightenment could only be attained by others in the same way - their own self effort.
"Therefore be ye lamps unto yourselves, rely on yourselves and do not rely on external help … hold fast to the truth as a lamp, seek salvation alone in the truth, look not for assistance to anyone beside yourselves. Those who are either now, or after I am dead, shall be a lamp unto themselves, relying upon themselves only and not relying upon any external help but holding fast to the truth as their lamp and seeking their salvation in the truth alone, not looking for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who shall reach the very topmost height."
Nirvana for the Buddhist is described not as a place but as a state of 'being' or 'non-being'. To be in Nirvana is literally to be extinguished with no birth, no re-birth, no attachment, no desire, no ignorance, no passion or anger; it is a stateless state. Nirvana defies description, it has been called the deathless, the other shore; being uncompounded, it is not subject to the three characteristics of compounded things, impermanence and substanceless; it is compared to the wind, it is made of nothing at all. One cannot say of Nirvana that it arises or that it does not arise, or that it is to be produced, or that it is past or present or future, that it is cognisable by the ear, nose, tongue or body (saddhatissa).
The average Buddhist has no real aspiration to reach Nirvana because it is generally accepted to belong only to those devotees who are already ordained into their priesthood, who spend all their time in meditation and good works of merit. In popular Buddhism there is another place called Heaven (Sawan), an intermediate state between death and Nirvana in which there are apparently various levels of bliss, as well as various levels of hell, with increasingly intense experiences or levels of torment. Few laymen are so sophisticated as monks in terms of their religious belief or practices. For the religious sophisticated the abstract pursuit of Nirvana is available. Most laymen view the goal of their Buddhist religious actions to be a sojourn in paradise (Sawan). Nirvana is extremely difficult for any to achieve, the layman focuses on more immediate and attainable goals (worship).
There are certain forms of joint activity which may determine worship but it is not worship on a personal God but on the Dharma. In midst of such times of worship it is easy to slip from loving the Dharma and reverencing Buddha as a past memory to speak of him as though he was still alive. For those of the Mahayana tradition there is a seven-fold devotion called Puja (worship), commonly also used in Hinduism. The seven aspects of this devotion are:
Such petitions amid a session are easier for Mahayana rather than Theravada because they address their prayers not only to the Buddha but to the Bodhisattvas and other divine beings who may be able to help.
The attitude to women of Buddhists is well illustrated here. Ananda said to the master "Lord how shall we behave towards women?" The master replied "Not see them". Ananda asked again "And if we have to see them?" And the master again replied "Do not speak to them". Finally Ananda said "And if we have to speak to them?" The master gave his answer "Keep your thoughts tightly controlled". And yet the most prominent single figure in the ornamentation of the early Buddhist monuments is the Lotus Goddess, Shri Lakshmi of the popular Indian Pantheon, who variously appears standing or sitting on a lotus, elevating lotuses in her hands, with lotus buds arising around her. In fact, not only is the lower body of the Lotus Goddess naked, but the leg is often swung wide to reveal the lotus of her sex.
Buddhism has continued to gain greater popularity, enjoying greater prominence and acceptance within religious debate. It has been championed by respected intellectual figures such as Christmas Humphries and Alan McGregor who formed a Buddhist lodge under the auspices of the theosophical society but later seceded. The most famous handbook published by Humphries was The Twelve Principles Of Buddhism; these principles encapsulate the essence of Buddhist teaching and has become so popular and is regarded as so definitive and informative that it is considered to be the basis for a future world Buddhism which, hopefully, incorporates the three streams of Mahayana, Theravada and Zen.
The archetypal saviour biography tells of
Note that in the Christian legend the culminating episodes are represented by the fast of forty days in the wilderness and the confrontation with Satan.
Following this conquest of the antagonist the world saviour
It is useful to look at the comparisons of the Christian legend with that of Buddha. Christ was a scion of the line of David, born of a virgin, whose birth was proclaimed by a famous star, and whom Simeon prophesized a world saving message. The apocryphal gospels proclaim his childhood deeds.
Although Christ did not marry and beget an heir he certainly appointed Peter as his heir and was awakened to his proper task when he went out into the wilderness and finally confronted and overcame Satan.
This was followed by the performance of many miracles while he became a wandering teacher, preaching his particular doctrine of salvation to disciples and lesser initiates, and the one who was less quick to learn - Peter - was later given charge while Judas betrayed Christ and finally in number (xiv) the death and transformation of the saviour or the performance of the 'world saving' act occurs.
Buddha was also the scion of a royal line being a prince, who was the last of innumerable lives of a reincarnating soul. He was woken to his proper task and after many struggles the Buddha was victorious over Maru beneath the Bodhi tree. He then performed miracles, became a wandering teacher and gave charge to the slow learner, Ananda, but was on a number of times endangered by the treacherous devadatta. However, in Buddha, life was a peaceful passage at the end of a long career for the main point of Buddhism is not the physical emulation of the saviour but is 'awakening' to the truth and release from illusion.
Whereas the God/man system of the West is of seeing the universe in terms of a good father, creating a bad son who sins and must be atoned; in the East the anthropomorphic order is the foreground of a larger structure where man's earthly condition is not interpreted as a punishment for something, nor is its end in any sense atonement. The aim is not to satisfy a supernatural father, but to awaken natural man to truth.
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