Download file - Punahou School

Danny Kwok lecture Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Someone ask about the characters for "crisis" (危机 weiji；机会 jihui)
BUDDHISM:
Pie chart of religions of the world (Buddhists, 6%)
B an impossible religion to teach, talk about
Beginnning with portraits of 2 monks, 1 Japanese, 1 SE Asian monks
Map of Theravada and Mahayana traveled from India throughout Asia…the spread of B
[one exercise about the spread, including an okay map:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/06/g912/buddhism.html]
Spread easily, rich in the number of languages which carried it…
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Gautama Sakyamuni 566-486 Siddartha
o Part of the 2nd caste, satriya
Symbols: Lotus—birth (beauty, purity coming out of the muck); Bodi tree (Pipal tree)—
life; stupas; wheel of law/teaching (his first sermon)
Taught for 45 years
After death, ashes collected and covered in a mound (stupa)…developed later into
pagodas later
Major points of early Buddhism
Four Noble Truths: life is full of suffering; root of suffering is desire; release from
suffering is from riddance of desire; by the eight fold path one can get rid of desire
Eight Fold Path: right belief; right aspiration; right speech; right conduct; right means of
livelihood; right endeavor; right memory; right meditation.
Five precepts: not to kill, steal, lie, drink intoxicants, be unfaithful or unchaste.
Kharma, dharma, sangha, nirvana, Karuna (compassion, the central tenet for Buddhism)
Transmigration, samsara…all heavily influenced by Hinduism…
Meditate, living, taking refuge in the three jewels (dharma, sangha, )
Impermenance
Buddha, not a religious figure, but a teacher…
Point of reference was the human being and how that person could deliver himself from
the chaos and problems of life
483 b.c.e. the first world council of Buddhism
Teachings compiled by his disciples after his death (tripitaka, "three baskets")…the three
baskets in order of importance:
o Basket 1: sutras, the Buddha's own teachings and sayings
o Basket 2: the vinayas, rules of conduct for the Buddhists
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o Basket 3: abidharma, the discussions of his students and disciples
240 b.c.e. the second important world council of Buddhism…sponsored by the emperor
Ashoka (converted from Hinduism to Buddhism)…sponsored lots of temple building and
encouraging monks to go through India and preach…with his impetus, monks traveled to
Ceylon and took the Hinayana tradition to SE Asia
vernacular tradition (Pali)
fourth council of Buddhism Kaniska (Pushan empire coincides with the Han empire)…in
Kashmir…great debate at this council about how Buddhism should be taught,
spread…great attempts to try to fuse Buddhism and Hinduism…
o role of central Asia and the silk road…
o talk of Alexander the Great…pillar "Alexander the farthest" thought he was at the
end of the earth…
o tribal movements (Xiongnu [the Huns], Yuezhi [camped in the NW part of
China])…Xiongnu pushed the Yuezhi to the West and out of their position…
o Han, emperor Wu (the martial emperor of China, became emperor in 140
b.c.e.)…took war to the Xiongnu…in 119 b.c.e, sent an emissary to find the
Yuezhi to use them to fight the Xiongnu…Yuezhi has changed from a nomadic
people to an agricultural people and didn't want to fight the Xiongnu…POINT:
warfare caused the Yuezhi to switch from being nomadic to being agriculture.
o Chinese moved westward and established military outposts and hoped to open up
the Silk Road
o Greek influence in Kashmir by the time of the fourth council
o Buddhism became anthropomorphic…took human form…first portrayals show
Greek influence…Gandara Buddha
o Doctrinally, agreed upon there being 2 schools: Hinayana and Mahayana
 Mahayana—greater wheel—Sanskrit was the primary language
 Hinayana (Theravada)—lesser wheel (tighter)—Prakrit, Pali were the
main language
 Not so concerned with converting people…
 Focus on monks/nuns
 Theravada's "Thera" means "elder"…probably the oldest surviving
school
 dominant in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, minorities in SW China
 lots of variations between schools, locations
 rituals important
 social action important
 mediation (solo???)
 magical practices
 Buddhist Nationalism
 No notion of sin, but of defilements, things that corrupt you: anger,
ill will, aversions, greed, jealousy, hatred, obsession, passion,
anxiety, ….
 Three levels of defilements
 Defilements harm oneself and the others around you, and therefore
it is important for the self to avoid these and get rid of them
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Can achieve Nirvana in one life time.
Various sutra preferences
Way of monastic life important
Concept of temporary monkhood (only found in certain places, not
in Sri Lanka)
 Vajrayana (Tantric)—e.g. Tibetan (Bhutanese, Mongolian, some parts of
Russia) and Japanese Shingon (the two major sub-groups)—sometimes
called the Diamond vehicle—esoteric, secretive ways of teaching
 Tibetan Buddhism began to thrive in the 7th c., corresponds with
the Tang dynasty
 Shingon 真言 (Kukai)…don't like to share with the other
Mahayana schools
 4 purities: to see one's body as the body of the deity, seeing one's
environment as the mandala or the deity (the Pure Land),
perceiving one's enjoyment as the bliss of the deity (free from any
other attachments), perfoming one's actions only for the benefits of
others (altruism)
 techniques (come from concentrated meditation, Samadhi)—guru
yoga, deity yoga, death yoga…all have to be guided by the leader
(guru)
 Boddhisattvas, Tripitaka
 Each area has various schools with variations (hard to generalize)
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Reference to a book by the Dalai Lama that lays out an easy to understand version of
Buddhism (see the list of resources???)
What about the non-monks? ...someone who may not understand the teachings…
Differences between Buddhism and Hinduism
o Buddhism reaches out to more levels of society
o B more democratic
o B rejected the sacrificial ritual of early Hinduism
o B goes beyond India, larger spread
o B influenced Hinduism
 Made Hinduism an axial age –ism
 Made Hinduism more humane
 Negated some of the aesetic traditions of Hinduism
o Made Indian culture exportable as B became a world religion
BUDDHISM IN CHINA
 No exact route or date for the entry into China…probably the Silk Road, sometime in the
1st century
 Until the 19th century, the only important foreign influence
 Until the 13th century, the only major things linking China and the outer world (before
the Mongols)
 Enriched Chinese culture, made China kinder
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Created reciprocal importance…spread from China into Korea, Japan, and SE Asia…and
therefore it helped to link China and these other areas…monks traveling back and forth,
etc.
What are the traditional reasons for explaining the movements/spread of world religions?
o Warfare (sword)
o Missionaries and Merchants…economic and nationalistic elements (imperialism)
o Differences in cultural levels (flowing from more civilized to less civilized
peoples)
o Timliness…people want to spread and others are ready to receive it
o Pilgrims…different from missionary…carries the religion himself, not preaching
to others…
For the spread of B to China, basically due to timeliness and pilgrims
Contrast of B and its otherworldliness to China and its this worldliness…celibacy vs.
family, mendicancy vs. responsible life, …
Timeliness…period of disunion in China, C not strong
B became anthropomorphic, images, pantheon of buddhas and bodhisattvas, textual
tradition…all more acceptable/appealing to the Chinese
3 major periods of B in China
o To 400 c.e.—Mass borrowing An Shigao (1st c.), Kumarajiva (344-413), Fa Xian
trip 399-411
 Initial translations not good, as a result Sanskrit studies began to flourish
 A Sythian brought to Loyang…translated a lot
 401 Kumarajiva, captured and taken to Changan, the greatest
translator…the most and most accurate
 Chinese monks, like Fa Xian, began to travel to India to learn and gather
sutras, brought back many, wrote a memoir:
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/faxian.html
 374 c.e. the entire Korean Kingdom was converted to B
o 5 and 6th centuries—Resistance and Refinement—Toba Wei (Turkic) support—
time of the great caves: Yungang and Longmen, Dunhuang
 In the South, persecution
 confiscation of monstatic lands and property
 forcing monks and nuns back into lay life
 by 517, the entire Tripitaka had been translated into Chinese
o After 6th century—Buddhism domesticated. Travels of Xuanzang (629-645) 28th
Patriarch; dhyana/chan
 Part of Xuanzang's writings:
http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/xuanzang.html
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 Development of schools
 Prince Shotoku
Huiyan (334-416)—Pure Land (Jingtu, Jodo, O-Mei tofuo, Amida
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Tiantai—Zhiyi (538-597)…the first real Chinese school of B (Tendai, Korean:
Cheongtae)
o Three tiers…one focused on scholastic
Huanyan—Flower Garland Sutra (also distinctly Chinese)…5 founders…Japan: Kegon;
Korean: Hwaeom
o Highly metaphysical teaching…mutual containment and interpentration…all
phenomenon are contained in each other and interpenetrate each other…one thing
contains all things…good and evil, too, contained in and penetrate one
another…paradoxes similar to Koans (related)…Four Dharmadhatu (四法界)
o Xuan…mystery 玄
Chan—Bodhidharma (dhyana, turning inward without reliance on teachings), developed
in China by Zhu Daosheng (397-434)
o Non-cultivation…teaching is not to teach…indirectness, teach by shocking
o Merged with Daoism as one of the great stimulants to many fields
o Major influence in Chinese art, literature…
B in Japan
o Kamakura Shogunate
o Reaction to the Fujiwara; Taira & Minamoto a response to the effete Fujiwara,
warriors invited to Kyoto
o This period, the Japanization of Japan…
o Yoritomo, devout Buddhist.
o Zen paramountcy, Noh, Bushido, architecture, scrolls, landscape paintings
(influence of B: simplicity and strength)
o Switch in Japan from scholar monks to the more common people in this period
 Pure Land (Jodo)…Honen, Shinran (True Pure Land)…crucial to Noh
drama…simple way to salvation
 Nichiren (1222-1282)— the only one is purely Japanese…nationalistic,
militaristic (word to be spread by the sword)… taught national unity,
 Zen…the religion of the warriors, overshadowed the other two…also
enriched/enlivened Japanese culture…brought by monks who traveled to
China…Chan masters in Song China taught Japanese Myozen Esai (11411215) who introduced Rinzai Zen—emphasis on Koan; and Dogen Kigen
(120-1253), who introduced za zen—sitting mediation. The Soto sect.
Dogen the most noted Zen figure in Japan.
 Strong in Japan, but died out in China
Buddhism traits
 Carried in many languages
 Tendency to mix with local traditions, which leads to great variation
 Mazu religion (the mother religion), big in SE coastal China…Daoist influences,
Buddhist influences, by the object of worship is a woman (Lin Mo-niang)…a goddess of
fisherman
 Incarnations of Guan Yin or Guansiyin (Kannon & Kanzeon)…twin track of names
through different languages…originally a male Bodhisattva, but becomes female in
China…multiple manifestations…doesn't differentiate the sexes…goddess of
mercy/compassion…the original person in India was a Prince…in China often seen with
a boy and a girl, sometimes with a basket and a fish (South Seas Guanyin, associated with
the oceans, but not Mazu)…also seen as a fertility goddess…sometimes draped in Tang
dynasty robes…
o Guanyin of a 1000 arms and eyes…never resting from saving people…given her
more arms and eyes by Amitaba Buddha to be able to help people better.
o Legend of Miao Shan…Guanyin as the daughter of a cruel ruler who wanted her
to marry a rich man, but she only agreed to do so if 3 conditions (misfortunes )
could be met: aging, being ill, dying…the father then asked her how these could
be met…only by a doctor (meaning she would only marry a healer)…treated
cruelly thereafter, she begged to enter a temple, okay, but the father told the
monks to work her hard, which they did, but she was such a good person that the
monks began to help her, this angered the father, who then tried to burn down the
temple…she put it out with her hands and suffered no burns…the father was
scared and had her killed…but she was saved by a supernatural tiger, taken to
hell, where she played music, got flowers to bloom, and turned hell into
paradise…variations…stories of compassion and kindness…
 One copy of the legend:
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/miao-sha.html
 POINT: the spread of Guanyin, and the mixing of her story with local
legends
 Birthday of 19th day in the second lunar month
o Story of Shan Zai and Long Nu
 Shan Zai…an invalid boy sent to Guanyin to get help, saved from falling
off a cliff and was cured…story of a Dragon King when his son (a fish)
was thrown on a shore, Shan Zai saved the fish and put it back in the
ocean
 Long Nu…sent to Guanyin to present her with the pearl of life, but
Guanyin didn't accept it and instead helped her????
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Buddhist and Art and Literature
Theravada variations
As unifying or linking factor?
Buddhism in the modern world?
What is happening with Buddhism in Communist and former-communist nations…freer in China
(alive but not completely), Mongolia, and a little in Vietnam
Fa long gong (Daoist, Buddhist)
A major force in Sri Lanka and Myanmar
Korea, Taiwan, Japan thriving in its traditional forms and in new forms as well…
In the West…Shopenhauer (influenced), Thoreau (simpatico), Hesse, Theosophical Society
(1875, Alcott?)…Alan Watts…