Download Word - John Provost, PhD

Buddhism
Lecture Objectives: After learning this material you will be able to:
1. Outline the traditional life and essential teaching of the Buddha.
2. Discuss the major schools of Buddhism and how they spread to various
parts of Asia.
3. Present the importance of practice, especially meditation, in Buddhism.
4. Talk about why Buddhism can be thought of as a particularly
“psychological” religion.
5. Discuss the role of and attitudes toward women in the major schools of
Buddhism.
6. Discuss Buddhism’s impact on the American religious landscape.
7. Interpret Buddhism in terms of the three forms of religious expression.
8. Show through what forms a religion ultimately focused on individual
liberation also functions as a religion for society.
9. Explain basic Buddhist teaching: the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths,
the Eightfold Path, No Self, and Nirvana.
Introduction
Buddhism is based on the life of the historical Buddha, which we will study below.
But it is also the result of many influences from many cultures. As Buddhism has
traveled to different countries it has taken on many local aspects and customs so
that the Buddhist world can look very simple and serene in certain settings, such
as a Zen monastery, and elaborate and almost tribal in other contexts, such as in
the Tibetan culture. “Buddhism is not rooted in a single culture or area, as is
Hinduism, but is an international religion, a movement introduced in historical
time into every society where it is now at home. It has deeply pervaded these
cultures and deeply identified with them” (Robert S. Ellwood and Barbara A.
McGraw, Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women and Men in the World Religions,
Seventh Edition, [Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002], p. 122.
Hereafter referred to in the lectures as MPMF.) But always it returns for
inspiration to the basically simple and straightforward teaching of Siddhartha
Gautama, the historical Buddha.
My own interest in Buddhism goes back to my early interest in meditation. For if
Buddhism is about anything, it is about meditation. And while all religions have a
meditative aspect to one degree or another, with Buddhism meditation will take
the primary place as the single most important thing a person can learn. There
are many different types of Buddhist meditation taught and if meditation is
something that really interests you then you might want to check out a Buddhist
practice for your final exam project.
Buddhism emerged in Northern India, but for a variety of reasons it did not
remain a strong movement in its native land. “Buddhism has a somewhat
different atmosphere than the Hindu context out of which it emerged. Buddhism
always combines something of the Indian spiritual tradition with very different
cultures. However, instead of the rich, heavy “biological” flavor of Hinduism,
Buddhism has a more psychological thrust” (MPMF, p. 122.) It is no surprise that
many people who are involved in psychology in one fashion or another are often
attracted to Buddhism. When you realize the important place meditation plays,
you see that Buddhism looks inward. In the process of this inner examination,
Buddhist philosophy developed some profound insights into the nature of the
human psyche and how it works.
This psychological orientation can even be seen in Buddhist art and symbols.
“What is distinctive about Buddhist altars is that, instead of portraying the
archetypal hero, mother, or cosmic pillar, as do Hindu altars, the image
communicates a unified psychological state - profound meditation, warm
compassion, or even unambiguous fury against illusion. Buddhist practices, too,
are focused on strong and clear states of unified consciousness. Either they
produce clear states, or they draw power from beings who have achieved
unfettered clarity” (MPMF, p. 122.) This peaceful and clear state of
consciousness is often seen in the simple and clean design of meditation
centers. Everything has its place and there is no clutter. As we will see,
meditation includes the process of letting go of the clutter in the mind and
emotions.
Given the fact that Buddhism is so psychological and meditative one might easily
wonder if Buddhism is not the religion of solitaries only. But this is not true.
Buddhism is also about the samgha, that is, the Buddhist community. Buddhists
realize as well as everyone else that we need each other. It is difficult to practice
alone and it can even be dangerous to practice without receiving feedback and
guidance from others. The goal of Buddhism might be said to be enlightenment,
but as we will see, enlightenment is not a static state of blissing out, but a state
that is dynamic and demands expression in service and compassion. In other
words, the more enlightened someone is the more loving he or she will be. And it
is not so easy to be loving, to express love, on your own. Enlightenment must be
shared.
There are many ways to share this enlightened perspective. As Buddhism has
spread around the world it has taken on many new forms and incorporated them
into itself. For example, as Buddhism entered China it found the Taoist religion
and what emerged was a Taoist version of Buddhism that we now know as Zen.
“Buddhist practice is immensely varied. But it centers around three foci: the
imaged ideal of the Buddha, the transformation of consciousness, and the
transformation of karma or practical destiny. The Buddha is revered and
presented to the world as the fully realized being who teaches and epitomizes
the true nature of all other beings. He attained realization through profound
psychological self-analysis and self-control. Buddhist practice for transformation
of consciousness works in the same way and so is most fully expressed in
meditation, but it also includes chanting and ritual. Interaction with the Buddha,
with his symbols, with the samgha, and following the ordinary moral teachings
exposes even people not yet ready for full enlightenment to karma that shapes
destiny for good; theirs may be equanimity here and a better rebirth later as a
king or god” (MPMF, p. 123.) And part of the idea of a better birth has to do with
having a birth where you are more likely to have the time and health to practice!
Being born as a human being is a rare and precious opportunity to “wake up.”
While Buddhism begins with a very simple teaching it has led to an immense
amount of philosophical speculation. Once you connect with the idea that the
truth can be found within, then you start to think about how this inner truth relates
to the very nature of reality. “Buddhist theoretical expression is concerned with
the meaning of the Buddha, how consciousness is transformed, and karma.
Above all it is psychological in point of departure, for it is concerned with the
analysis of human perception and experience” (MPMF, p. 123.)
“Buddhist thought is not a vague diffuse mysticism but a sharp precise
intellectualism that delights in hard logic, and numerical lists of categories. It
holds that ordinary life is unsatisfactory, for it is based on ignorance and desire,
resulting in the inability to realize that there is no “self.” All entities within the
universe, including human beings, are impermanent compounds that come
together and come apart. The answer is a different kind of mind, a “wisdom
mind,” which finds the “middle way” between all attachments, uniting all
opposites - being, like the Buddha, free of partiality toward any segment of the
cosmos - and is therefore, in its unclouded clarity, open to all omniscience, all
skill, and all compassion” (MPMF, p. 123.) With that brief introduction it is now
time to start at the beginning with the life of the Buddha. But keep in mind what
we studied about Hinduism, because the Buddha was born into a Hindu world.
The Life of the Buddha
The Buddha was born in the north of India in what is now Nepal in about the year
563 B.C.E. and lived for about 80 years until 483 B.C.E. His father was the king
of a small community and named his son Siddhartha Gautama. Legend has it
that the Buddha’s father was told in a prophecy that his son would be either a
great religious teacher or a great world ruler. Being of a worldly mind the
Buddha’s father wanted a great ruler for a son, not a religious leader.
In order to have his way the father decided to do everything he could to seduce
the Buddha into loving this world and find no interest in the spiritual world. To
facilitate this he built the Buddha a pleasure palace that had all of the things a
young prince could want. The Buddha was never allowed to see anything that
would cause him unhappiness or suffering, nothing that would cause him to
wonder about the meaning of the world. In the process, Siddhartha virtually
became a prisoner.
However, the Buddha decided to sneak out with a servant whenever he could so
that he could see whatever else was going on. Perhaps he had it so good that he
became bored. Legend tells us that he escaped four times and each time he saw
something that would cause him to rethink his view of the world. These are called
the Four Passing Sights. The first time he went out he saw a very sick man. He
had not been allowed to see anyone who was ill and he had to ask his servant
what was wrong with the man and his servant told him that the man had a
disease. The Buddha was even more shocked to realize that anyone could catch
a disease and so could he. Well this painted a different picture of his future than
what he had come to expect and he returned to his pleasure palace deeply
disturbed.
The next time he went out he came across a very old, bent, and wrinkled man.
The Buddha again had to ask his servant what he was seeing because he had
not been allowed to see older people as he was growing up. Only the young and
the beautiful had surrounded him. Needless to say, the Buddha was shocked to
learn about aging, to realize that this old person had once been young and
healthy and the crisis that was beginning only got worse when he was told that
he too would get old one day (if he didn’t get sick even earlier!). Despite these
heavy blows the Buddha was still interested in escaping from his father and
seeing a bit of the world.
The next time out the Buddha saw a dead man being carried to the river to be
cremated. And this was the final blow. The Buddha realized that he could get
sick, that he would grow old and that eventually he would die. And of course this
meant that everyone he loved and cared about would also be lost, many of them
before he went. And so the full existential crisis was on. This is something we all
have to face. This is the humanism and the psychology of the Buddha already
showing up in these first stories. This is not some exotic teaching, but simply the
reality of everyday life. So the Buddha was deeply disturbed and having trouble
sleeping when he once again went out with his servant and saw the fourth sight.
The fourth sight was a Hindu wandering holy man. A yogi of some school, but of
which path we don’t know. When he asked his servant who this man was his
servant had to explain that this man was seeking liberation. Liberation from what
asked the Buddha? Liberation from the wheel of death and rebirth, liberation from
suffering. At this the Buddha was stunned. You mean that not only is there all of
this suffering, leading only unto death, but there is also a path, a way for a
human to be liberated from all of this trauma? Once this was confirmed the
Buddha decided that he would dedicate his life to the pursuit of this liberation.
The Buddha made his final escape one night, leaving his wealth, position, and
family behind him forever. He wandered the country for several years, stopping
to receive training from the various holy teachers he would meet and travel to
see. This was the time when he essentially practiced the forms of Hinduism that
were available to him at the time. And of course we must remember that 2500
years ago Hinduism did not have the variety and depth of practices it has today.
In fact, many of the improvements of Hinduism were a direct result of Hinduism
incorporating some of the Buddha’s basic insights into their own way of
understanding the world and spiritual practice. One of the ways the Buddha took
very seriously was the practice of a very strict asceticism. In this way of
understanding, the body was a problem. The more you could do to deny it and
discipline it the better off you were. At one point the Buddha fasted so much that
he nearly died of starvation.
But as the years went by and the Buddha made some spiritual headway in his
journey, he also sensed that he was stuck. Something was preventing the final
breakthrough. Hindu philosophy and practices were not the final door he needed
to walk through. Much to the disgust of some of the companions he had practiced
with the Buddha decided to strike out on his own.
Awakening
The traditional story continues: “Then, late one afternoon, as he wandered not far
from the banks of a river, he felt that the time had come. Purchasing a pallet of
straw from a farmer, he seated himself on it under a huge fig tree. He placed his
hand firmly to the ground and swore by the good earth itself that he would not stir
from that spot until he attained complete and final enlightenment. All night he
remained there, sunk in deeper and deeper meditation. Mara, an old god,
buffeted him with furious storms and sweet temptations, but a wave of the
Blessed One’s [Buddha’s] hand was enough to dispel them. His consciousness
refined itself by moving through the four stages of trance, beginning with the
calmness of the passions that concentration brings and ending with
transcendence of all opposites” (MPMF, p. 124.) The Hindu holy men he had met
along the way taught these first stages to him. But now he went pass what he
had been taught and discovered something new.
“He also passed through several stages of awareness. First, he saw all of his
previous existences. Then, he saw the previous lives, the interlocking deaths and
rebirths, of all beings, and he grasped at the karmic forces at work; the universe
became like a mirror to him. Finally, he saw with full understanding what
principles underlay this web and how extrication from it is possible. He saw the
mutual interdependence of all things and how egocentric ignorance leads
sentient beings inevitably through desire to suffering, death, and unhappy rebirth.
The Four Noble Truths appeared in his mind: All life is suffering; suffering is
caused by desire; there can be an end to desire; the way is in the Eightfold Path”
(MPMF, pp. 124-125.)
Of course we don’t know if it happened exactly like this, but the story shows the
intended point that the Buddha passed through everything Hinduism could teach
him and he went on until he found the final gate that would release him from
suffering. More importantly for the world, the Buddha was not simply liberated,
but he was able to trace back how this happened and therefore able to pass this
teaching on so that we still know today the steps that must be taken if someone
is interested in testing the Buddha’s way.
The story tells us that as dawn broke the Buddha realized the truth about himself
and all of reality. And in that moment the whole world became silent as for a brief
moment everything recognized the significance of what had just occurred.
“Siddhartha Gautama was now a Buddha, an “Enlightened One,” or “One who is
awake.” He is also called the “Tathagata,” an expression difficult to translate,
meaning something like “He who has come thus and gone thus,” in the sense of
“He who passed beyond all bounds; one cannot say where he came from or
where he is but can only point in the direction he went,” referring to his
overcoming of all conditioned reality in his enlightenment to become
“universalized.” He was one with the universe itself and not any particular part of
it in principle. And after death and entry into Nirvana, he no longer continued to
have a physical body” (MPMF, p. 125.)
After the Buddha stabilized this new awareness he started traveling. He soon ran
into his companions, the ones who had given him a difficult time for leaving the
path they had all been practicing together. But to their credit, they realized that
the Buddha had found what they were all looking for. They became his first
disciples and he taught them the Middle Way, the path between the indulgence
of his youth and the strict asceticism of his earlier practice. The Buddha’s way
was to be a way between extremes.
Within a short time the Buddha had sixty disciples and it became necessary to
organize things. And once that happened, we have the religion that has become
known as Buddhism. At first Buddhism was strictly a monastic order for men
only. Eventually a monastic order for women was founded and then there were
also practices accepted for lay people to follow. And this has continued until this
day where there continue to be Buddhist monastic orders and there is also a
strong lay movement of people who are married, with children and working in the
world, while practicing Buddhist precepts and meditation as part of their regular
lives.
These first disciples took three simple vows that are still taken today. “The Three
Refuges or Three Jewels refers to three fundamental points of orientation in
Buddhism, three things that a Buddhist affirms. They are expressed in the form
of these assertions: I take refuge in the Buddha; I take refuge in the dharma; I
take refuge in the samgha. The dharma here means the Buddha’s teaching; the
samgha is the order of monks” (MPMF, p. 125.) Taking refuge in the Buddha
means to have faith that within yourself you can realize your own Buddha nature.
Taking refuge in the dharma means that you will follow the Eightfold Path and the
steps laid out by the Buddha so that you too “can wake up.” Taking refuge in the
community, the samgha, means that you realize your mutual dependence on
others and will help them just as they help you. The Buddha would spend more
than forty years after his initial enlightenment traveling around and teaching the
people. This will prove important for any number of reasons, but it also serves to
show that enlightenment always leads to service if it is true to itself.
The Buddha died when he was about eighty from food poisoning. His last words
were “Work out your own salvation with diligence.” This has always been taken
as final proof of what the Buddha taught all along, namely that he was not divine.
The Buddha was always clear that he was not to be worshipped or looked to for
salvation. He was human and had found the way. He was only a teacher. Any
one interested in the Buddha’s way needed not faith but rather determination to
practice and seek enlightenment on his or her own. Now it is time to look more
closely at some of the basic Buddhist teachings.
Basic Buddhist Teaching
The Middle Way
In his first sermon to the ascetics who had ridiculed him the Buddha explained
why those extreme austerities had been not only unnecessary, but actually a
block to the enlightenment they all sought. “Those foolish people who torment
themselves, as well as those who have become attached to the domains of the
senses, both these should be viewed as faulty in their method, because they are
not on the way to deathlessness. These so-called austerities but confuse the
mind which is overpowered by the body’s exhaustion. In the resulting stupor one
can no longer understand the ordinary things of life, how much less the way to
the Truth which lies beyond the senses. The minds of those, on the other hand,
who are attached to the worthless sense-objects, are overwhelmed by passion
and darkening delusion. They lose even the ability to understand the doctrinal
treatises, still less can they understand the method which by suppressing the
passions leads to dispassion. So I have given up both these extremes, and have
found another path, a middle way. It leads to the appeasing of all ill, and yet it is
free from happiness and joy” (MPMF, p. 127.)
It is easy to at least get a sense of this by an example as simple as how much we
eat. If we don’t eat enough and are feeling really hungry we can become
obsessed with food. It is all we think about. We might also find our blood sugar
level drops and we become upset and irritable. On the other hand, if we eat too
much we become slow and sleepy and maybe our stomach aches. Either way
the body brings grief. But if we feed our bodies just the right amount then the
body will cease to draw attention to itself and let us try something like meditation,
without distracting us so much with its desires and needs.
But the Middle Way is not concerned with only how we treat the body. It is a
condition of how we think about everything. “The Middle Way becomes on its
deepest levels an attitude that seeks to find the delicate, infinitely subtle point of
absolute equilibrium between all extremes and polarities, from the obvious
balancing off of asceticism and self-indulgence, to the recondite metaphysical
reaches of eschewing attachment either to life or death, to desire for being or
desire for nonbeing. Everything comes in pairs of opposites, the Buddha taught,
in our world of partialities, multiplicity, and conditioned reality. The senses, the
desires, the unexamined life get hung up on one side or the other in these pairs
of opposites, thinking one side or the other is better. The way of wisdom is to
find a balance in the totality that includes them both - and so have the
permanence and invincibility of the totality. The person of wisdom is stable like
the sky, not like clouds now blown this way, now that, and finally dissipated”
(MPMF, pp. 127-128.)
Another way to look at this is to use the metaphor of an athlete. An athlete might
really push his or her body to do something difficult such as running a marathon.
But in order to do this extreme thing, they need to really watch things like their
diet and their sleep. They need to drink enough water, but not too much. Well,
seeking enlightenment is kind of like this. It will take an extreme effort and a deep
commitment, but in order to do this we must keep everything else in balance so
that the meditative journey is properly supported. The Middle Way supports the
encounter with the Buddha’s basic insights into the nature of why we experience
the world the way we do. This insight, on which so much philosophy has been
written, is called the Four Noble Truths.
The Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths teach both a diagnosis and prescribe a cure for the
human condition. What is the problem? Why do we experience so much
suffering? Many of us experience a great deal of pain. And yet if we are lucky
enough to be free of suffering there is still a subtle suffering in that we know
everything and everyone we love is passing away. Nothing will stay the same.
The Buddha faces this directly by stating: “All life is suffering (or ill, or pain, or
anxiety, or bitter frustration). Suffering is caused by desire (or craving, or
attachment)” (MPMF, p. 128.) Those are the first two truths.
What did the Buddha mean by suffering? Obviously he knew life was not always
painful. It seems he was talking more about the human condition itself. “The first
Noble Truth - that all life is suffering - tells us that there is something
unsatisfactory, something anxious, frustrating, incomplete about all life as it is
ordinarily lived. It does not mean that all life is excruciating pain or that there are
no pleasant moments. The Buddha, who supposedly lived his first 29 years in a
round of extravagant pleasure, could hardly have said that. But what he does say
is that there is something frustrating and unsatisfactory in life, and it can get
worse and worse” (MPMF, p. 129.) Everything is impermanent. Our pleasures
last only for a while and then we look for another pleasure. It is difficult to be
content in the moment because we are looking toward the future with fear and
anticipation.
We suffer, but we may not realize why. The Buddha says the cause of our
suffering is desire. So we need to spend some time with this word. What did the
Buddha mean by “desire.” It seems that what he was really talking about was our
attachments. We are attached to people, places, and things. We are attached to
having things go our way, to looking the way we wish, to having other people
behave the way we think they should.
We are attached to material things, but we can also be attached to spiritual
things like certain ideas, practices, and symbols. We want things we don’t have
and we are afraid of losing the things we do have, especially the people we love
and care about. All of this craving to have our own way and wishes is what the
Buddha means by the word “desire.” And it is not so much that wanting these
things is wrong in a moralistic fashion. It is just that they don’t “work.” We might
think they do, but the Buddha will teach that we will ultimately be disappointed.
People and things will let us down.
If all of this doesn’t make sense to you then Buddhism will not be very appealing.
But if you are at the point in your life when you can say that this is your
experience of the world then you become interested. “O.K., so my life is full of
suffering. Is that it? Is there no hope?” But the Buddha does not just give a
pessimistic view of things.
After he describes what he perceives of the human condition he goes on to give
us the third and fourth of his truths. “There can be an end to desire. The way out
is the Eightfold Path” (MPMF, p. 128.) We don’t have to be stuck in our
attachments is the good part. But it will not be easy to get rid of them. That is the
tough part of the story. We have our work cut out for us and that work consists in
taking up the path of the Buddha.
Some people are taken aback by the early focus on suffering, thinking it is too
negative. But this teaching is really only trying to come to terms with the human
condition. All of the religions we study have to deal with this in one way or
another. Hinduism called our ordinary experience of the world samsara and
Buddhism calls it being stuck in the state of desire.
The idea is that we have to see something clearly and know what is wrong before
we can fix it. “Buddhism is sometimes thought of as a pessimistic religion, but
that is so only in its assessment of the ordinary life governed by the suffering and
desire of the first two Noble Truths. Buddhism is one of the most optimistic of
religions in its vision of the ultimate potential of humankind once that syndrome is
broken. For the third of the Noble Truths says suffering can be ended by the
stopping of craving; at this point the vicious circle can be halted. One can throw
sand in its gears and pull the plug on its turbulence” (MPMF, pp. 128-129.)
Buddhism would be pessimistic if it stopped with suffering. But it does not. Let us
look at this “desire” a little more closely.
Desire is something that is two-edged. It arises on its own. That is part of the
human condition. We find desires just arriving in us. That is one part of the
equation. But the other part of the equation is that we feed our desires and thus
they increase. “Craving, or desire, the Buddha said, is like a fire, and any fire
requires fuel. If fuel is taken away, the fire must die down. The many things to
which the senses are attached fuel the fire of desire.
How does one pull back the senses from these attachments? By concentration
or meditation, the last and culminating point of the Eightfold Path, which focuses
one’s awareness on something other than objects of desire and so lets the
senses quiet down from burning for things they can never really have ” (MPMF,
p. 129.) So while desires arise in us unbidden, we can learn to work with them by
first not feeding them, and then learning how to let them pass through us just like
clouds floating through the sky. We do not need to become attached to them. But
this is a long and difficult path even though what Buddhists are attempting is
pretty simple.
No Self
Before we go further into the Four Noble Truths we need to have an
understanding of the Buddha’s teaching about what it means to have (or not to
have) a “self.” Remember that in Hinduism the Buddha would have been taught
that the inner self was the Atman. “One of the fundamental points of Buddhist
psychology, and a key to understanding the whole system on a deep level, is
“Anatman” - “No Self.” This Buddhist teaching can be compared to the
Upanishadic doctrine that the Atman, the innermost self or soul, is really identical
with Brahman. The Buddhist negative expression Anatman, or “No Self,” is a
difference of emphasis rather than a contradiction, for if the “Self” is simply the
one universal Brahman, it is also “No Self” in any individualistic sense. But the
difference points to the Buddhist tendency to psychological analysis rather than
ontological statement (that is, a statement about reality)” (MPMF, p. 129.) The
psychological emphasis is seen by simply trying the experiment of looking for
yourself. Literally see if you can find yourself. The Buddha said that when we do
this we tend to see things like a stream of thoughts and emotions, but no actual
self.
How does this tie in with the truth that desire is the culprit in terms of being the
cause of our suffering? “Reflection on the idea of No Self provides a line of
insight into the meaning of the Four Noble Truths, the Middle Way, and the
Buddhist experience. This is because the fundamental craving, or desire, that
keeps us in the suffering-desire syndrome, ultimately, is the desire to be a
separate individual self” (MPMF, p. 129.) Our fear of death, for example, is a
result of not wanting to go extinct. We have a real sensation of being someone
and we don’t want that to just disappear. Likewise we don’t want anyone we love
to disappear. But the Buddhist concept of the Anatman is like our concept of a
river. We call something like the American River a river like it is a stable thing.
Closer analysis reveals however “that you can never step into the same river
twice.” The water will always be different.
Because the water that moves on is always replaced by water coming
downstream we have the sensory experience of their being “a river.” In reality it is
simply a flow of moving water. When the water empties into the sea the water
becomes one with the ocean, but the river does not end. The river keeps going.
This is the Buddhist metaphor for the self. We are a stream of thoughts and
emotions and sensations, but in ourselves we have no lasting identity. We are
simply made up of droplets of water, all of which have the same chemical make
up, H2O.
If desire is the problem, then the person who has desire must be worked with.
This is where the teaching on no self becomes fascinating. If there is no self then
who is suffering? “According to Buddhism, the false premise that underlies all
other delusion, suffering, and grasping is that one is a separate, independent,
individual self - rather than a transitory compound of several elements that is
completely interdependent with the whole universe” (MPMF, p. 129.) Three of
these independent compounds are the sensations, thoughts and emotions I was
speaking of above. Some Buddhist meditations will spend a great deal of time
helping people relax into the greater awareness that is not identified with these
passing emotions, thoughts, and sensations but can watch them just as you can
watch a cloud pass through the sky.
I mention three parts because it is simpler and easier to remember, but in official
Buddhist psychology there are five parts of us that taken together are considered
ourselves. “The five parts that make up a human being are called “skandhas;” the
word “skandha” means “bundle” and reminds us that these constituents
themselves are collocations of dharmas, the pointlike primary particles that flash
out of the void. The human skandhas are the form (the physical shape), the
feelings, the perceptions (the “picture” the mind forms out of data transmitted by
the sense organs), the inherent impulses (karmic dispositions), and the
background consciousness” (MPMF, p. 130.)
To use the water metaphor again, a Buddhist would emphasize that the water
has no inherent self. It is made up of oxygen and hydrogen. Take away one or
the other and you have no water. Keep them together and you have some water.
So if you take away the parts of a human being that we normally think of as
ourselves, such as our body, emotions, or thoughts, is there an underlying self?
No matter how you answer this, I bet you can agree that it is an intriguing
question! Let’s look closely at the first skandha, the body.
The body gives us our most tangible sense of ourselves because even though
the body is always changing we don’t see these changes easily. It is only when
we see pictures of ourselves taken over periods of time that we can start to see
the changes. Or if we haven’t seen someone in a few years, we will notice
changes. But this sense of the body being stable and permanent is an illusion; it
is a faulty perception. The body is undergoing all sorts of changes all of the time.
And because our bodies are experienced as separate from other bodies it is easy
to assume that the separation is real and necessary. But even this everyday
“truth” is “not really true, for even the physical body is in continual and necessary
interaction with the environment in the course of breathing and eating. It is only a
certain perspective that makes me include the stomach when I say “myself,” but
not the field that grows the food it digests or the sun that makes that food grow”
(MPMF, p. 130.)
In other words, we have conventions of thought that reinforce our perceptions of
ourselves as separate bodies moving around in space. But the Buddhists teach
that while this is our everyday experience of the world, it is a faulty perceptual
experience not based on the truth of how things really are. Hindus, as we saw,
say something very similar to this.
The second skandha is our feelings. It is very easy for us to identify with our
feelings. We say things such as “I am mad.” But what does that mean? It means I
am experiencing certain emotions. But if I can look carefully, I will see that these
emotions come and go all day long. They are fleeting. They are not me. They are
simply like waves of energy that move through me. “But these feelings are not a
“self” - they are just something that comes and goes like billowing waves in
response to data fed in by the senses, interpreted by the perception, and
probably conditioned by the karma of patterns of behavior toward that person, or
similar persons, carried over from the past along with much else)” (MPMF, p.
130.)
A meditation I will give in the conclusion to this class as an experiment for those
who want to try consists of saying things to yourself such as “I have emotions,
but I am not my emotions.” I could write on and on about this subject, but
sometimes saying more does not necessarily help this make more sense. This
Buddhist teaching is very subtle and it is not so much understood by the mind as
it is intuited in a flash of insight.
Even after all of this it might still be easy for a disciple of the Buddha to say that “I
may not be my emotions, but what about the very awareness of the emotions. I
must be that awareness.” “But the human capacity for self-consciousness is not
itself a “self.” It is just the skandha of consciousness that accompanies physical
form, feeling, perceptions, and impulses - for it can neither generate nor erase
the latter four; it is only a mirror in which they reflect as they act and react”
(MPMF, p. 130.)
Now if you were to persist and say that you actually were that awareness, the
Buddha might agree, but he would argue that analysis of that awareness would
show that it is not individual and personal, but much more objective and
transpersonal. Then it would be more in line with Hinduism that “Atman is
Brahman.” But when the Hindus say that, they are also aware that the individual
self with all of its petty concerns and selfishness is not Atman. It simply
participates, or is a part of, Atman. Sometimes we refer to this small, often petty
self, in the modern psychological term “ego.” When we say that someone has a
large ego we often mean it in the negative sense that they are too caught up in
themselves, too selfish.
So if the Buddha is correct and we are not a stable individual self, that is, if we
are more like a river, then what keeps the river moving? If there is no self, then
what keeps the stream of skandhas together? After all, eventually these five
skandhas will fall apart as does everything else. The Buddha taught that it is the
energy of karma that holds “us” together. Just as when we studied Hinduism we
saw that karma was like the waves in water after a stone was dropped into a
pond, so we are like the waves. We come together for a while as a “wave” due to
the karma of whatever stones have been dropped in the past, but as the karma is
burned up so will we disappear just as when the energy is used up in the waves
on the surface of a pond, the pond once again becomes still.
Karma is “the force of universal action and reaction that keeps everything
moving and changing. Your activities, mental images, and thoughts, even your
desire to perpetuate yourself as a separate individual self, set up “waves” in the
cosmos around you as you try to gain this object or fulfill that dream. No energy
is lost, and sooner or later the waves based on the false premise will come back
to afflict and finally shatter the compound” (MPMF, p. 131.) The teaching on no
self brings up some other interesting problems.
One of these problems concerns reincarnation. If there is no self then what or
who reincarnates? “In one sense, of course, the answer is nothing. But karma
also means that you get what you want; or rather, you continue to be what you
think you are. Every cause, including the illusion of being a separate individual
“Self,” has an exactly corresponding effect. The illusion then becomes selfperpetuating, life after life” (MPMF, p. 131.)
Essentially the Buddha taught that you don’t have to keep reincarnating. Once
you “wake up” you will no longer be susceptible to that dream. You will be awake
and aware that what had been your experience is like the reality of a dream. It
seems real while we are asleep and then when we wake up in the morning we all
of a sudden realize “Oh, that was just a dream.” So one day we will wake up from
our ordinary life and see that everything we took so seriously and thought was so
real was, in fact, not the way we thought it was.
Another metaphor (because sometimes metaphors help us get to the heart of this
material easier than straight discourse): Think of a forest fire. As the fire moves
along, kept burning by the “karma” of wind and dry material, do the individual
flames last? Where do they go? And even though individual flames “burn up” and
disappear, the fire itself goes on burning until there is no more material, that is,
until all of the “fire karma” is used up. So what reincarnates as “new flames” is
the fire itself. But the individual flames come together for a short time and then
disperse. So it is with humans. We have a moment where we experience
ourselves as separate flames, but we are really just aspects of the fire, never
separate, but never the whole of all fire itself.
If this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you don’t worry about it too much!
These are very deep and profound teachings. To really “get it” takes a long time
we are told. These teachings come out as the fruit of the Buddha’s awakening
and as long as we are asleep they will never make complete sense. But the
Buddha does not ask us to believe him. He starts us off with the Four Noble
Truths. And that is what we have been looking at. These truths end with a path,
and it is the following of that path that will allow us to verify whether what the
Buddha taught was true or not.
The Eightfold Path
The Eightfold Path could be a whole lecture in itself, but I will not spend much
time on it except to point out that Buddhism tries to be practical. It is a training
program. If you want what the Buddha is offering then there are steps you have
to take. The eight steps are right view, right intention, right speech, right action,
right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. While
these steps are eight in number they are not hierarchical. That is you don’t
complete one step successfully and then move on to the next. They are all
working together and in this way they are a support to one another. A Buddhist
will be practicing all of the steps at the same time.
Right view is the beginning and end of the path. It simply means to see things
truly, to not be caught up in the illusions and ignorance that are the hallmarks of
a “sleeping” human being. Learning to see things as they are is both a matter of
study and practice.
Right intention talks about our being committed to the process. If you want to
learn something well such as playing the piano then you need to practice for a
minimum amount of time everyday. And you practice more when you can. The
only way to sustain this is by being committed.
Right speech is the beginning of Buddhist ethics. This step and a few others like
it refer to moral discipline. Many people think Buddhism is only about meditation.
But this is not true. The Buddha taught that the path of meditation is not going to
be worthwhile if you are not at the same time trying to live a good life. The
Buddha taught that how we speak says something important about where we are
in our spiritual journey. The Buddha meant that we are not to lie, of course, but
he also meant that we are to speak with kindness and mindfulness. That is we
are not to use our words to hurt others through such things as gossip.
Right action is similar to right speech. In this step we are to follow the basic moral
guidelines taught by all the world’s faiths. That is, we are to try and be a good
person. We are not only to stop hurting others, but we must try to be a positive
blessing in their life as well.
Right livelihood means that what we do for a living impacts our spiritual practice.
This step makes a lot of sense to me and I like its practicality. I don’t see the
same emphasis in other religions placed on the importance of what we do for a
living. But when you think about how much time we spend at work we realize that
it takes up a whole lot of our life! Therefore the Buddha wants us to work jobs
where what we do does not prevent us from spiritual practice. Some work is
prohibited outright. Employment as a drug dealer or a weapons dealer falls under
the Buddha’s ban. Traditionally, the “job” of being a monk is the best work a
person can do. Usually, however, the vast majority of jobs are neutral and it is
what we bring to them and how we do them that really matters.
Right effort means not only being committed, but also being committed in the
right way. It means learning to use our energy in a good and appropriate way.
For example, we are told that we have all of the energy we need to not only meet
all the demands of our daily life, but also for spiritual practice. If this is true then
why are so many people too busy and too tired for spiritual practice? Because,
according to the Buddha, we waste our energy, especially on negative emotions.
It is these things that tire us out. Right effort means we learn how to use our
energy and not waste it in the wrong areas.
Right mindfulness means learning to use the mind rather than having the mind
use us! It just takes a little attempt to meditate to see very clearly how unruly the
mind is. Right mindfulness has much to do with learning to see things as they are
without having to have a constant commentary going on, especially negative
judgments. It is the practice of awareness.
Right concentration refers to the development of meditative states of
concentration. Right concentration is using the various meditative techniques to
help the mind focus its energy like a laser beam on the task at hand rather than
flit around all over the place in useless and often negative thoughts and
emotions.
Buddhists make a lifetime study of these steps, but hopefully you will see the
point I wanted to make. Namely, the Eightfold Path is the Buddhist spiritual path
and way of life. While monks have many other rules they need to follow, all
people, monks and lay people, must follow the Eightfold Path if they are serious
about their Buddhist practice. Let’s look at one other major Buddhist term before
we look at the development of Buddhism throughout history.
Nirvana
A Buddhist is working toward what is called enlightenment. Sometimes it is
referred to as waking up. But the Buddhist word for this state is Nirvana.
“Nirvana [is] the state absolutely transcending all pairs of opposites, and so all
conditioned reality, by the blowing out of all flames of attachment. In Nirvana, all
conditioning and, therefore, attachment including the notion of being a separate
individual self, is gone utterly beyond” (MPMF, p. 132.) This state cannot really
be described.
Sometimes it is easier to state what it isn’t rather than what it is. “It must not be
supposed that Nirvana is simply a state hardly distinguishable from annihilation.
It is rather the opposite - universalization, the falling away of all barriers so that
the mind becomes undifferentiated from horizonless infinity. The full, attractive,
positive nature of Nirvana must be stressed. The word “Nirvana” is said to mean
“extinguish” or “blow out,” like blowing out a flame, yet it does not mean
disappearance in a negative sense, but rather the blowing out of all the fires of
desire that constrict us” (MPMF, p. 132.)
“It does not mean extinction of consciousness but extinction of desires that cage
and enslave consciousness. Our present consciousnesses are usually bound up
with relishing sensory input and the accompanying mind-fogging cravings and
self-delusions. It is virtually impossible for us now to know what Nirvanic
consciousness, genuinely free of all this, would be like. Nirvana is truly the
opposite of life, as we know it. But for all that, or rather because of that, in
Buddhist literature it is portrayed as the Otherness that is utterly desirable, a
sparkling and golden light, calm beyond all imagining” (MPMF, p. 132.) The
Buddha would rarely say anything directly about his experience except to say it
was “bliss.” That sounds pretty good!
The problem with describing this state is due to the constraints of our language. If
our language is based on the perception of a fundamental duality, then how do
we describe a state of unity? “All language comes out of making distinctions and
so is bound up with the pairs of opposites that rack the conditioned world”
(MPMF, p. 132.) If we experience a state where we know that we are not
separate from other people, how do we describe this? Once you encounter this
problem you then recognize why so many attempts have been made to
communicate what this experience is like. Paradox is often the chosen
expression.
Sometimes people think that the state of Nirvana must be passive and
uninvolved. After all, if you see through all the conditionings of life why would you
bother to get involved? But this is not the way the Buddha understands this state
nor is it the way he lived his life. Once you are free from selfishness and a state
of “sleep” then you are for the first time truly ready to live. “For, freed from the
shackles of self, one can live purely on the level of universal compassion and
oneness with the joy of all beings” (MPMF, p. 132.) We waste a tremendous
amount of energy on negative emotions such as fear, guilt, and worry. Imagine
what you could if this energy was not dissipated but was free instead to be used
in creative and compassionate ways!
When we see the difficulty the mind runs into when it tries to describe the
experience of unity we will begin to grasp the importance of meditation. In
meditation you are not using the mind to study the experience of unity, you are
opening the mind to the experience of unity itself. “So the method of meditation
leading to Nirvana does not involve the mind trying to comprehend through the
senses and reason, but the awareness breaking through their finitude” (MPMF, p.
132.) This becomes simpler to grasp if you realize that there is a part of you that
can watch yourself thinking. This part is not thinking. It is simply watching, that is,
it is just seeing. What is this part of us that can just see without getting caught up
in what we see? Meditation is suppose to help us find this awareness and relax
into it so that we are less concerned with what we see and more interested in the
experience that we see!
The Buddha existed in his state of enlightenment for more than forty years. But
he was able to live in such a way that he created no more bad karma for himself
and he served people even in his dying, because it is believed that his death also
set in motion forces that can be helpful to us. “According to Buddhist belief, when
the Buddha died, or rather attained Nirvana absolutely, an effect occurred that
can only be called an implosion on the spiritual level. An implosion is the
opposite of an explosion; it is what happens when a vacuum is suddenly created
and all surrounding molecules of matter rush in to fill the void. The Buddha made
no karmic waves, as we do trying to grasp at things to fulfill desires. But his
passing was like an implosion in the karmic field - suddenly there was nothing
there - and a stream of karmic force (good karma) is still rushing in, striving to
enter the gateless gate through which he had passed” (MPMF, p. 133.)
I sometimes look at this using a sports metaphor. Let’s take some amazing feat
like climbing Mount Everest. People wanted to climb this mountain for maybe
thousands of years, possibly ever since humans first looked upon it. Finally, after
many failures someone does it! And once they do it somehow becomes easier
for the next person to do so and before you know it many people have done so.
There is a sense in which the Buddha opened a way for others to follow and this
sense of help given by the Buddha rather than simply his teaching will lead to
further developments and refinements of Buddhist philosophy. So let’s look at
some of these developments and, in the process, we will look at some Buddhist
history as well. The first Buddhists were not so concerned with what the Buddha
did (and its possible significance for others) as they were with what he taught.
Theravada Buddhism
The oldest form of Buddhism is Theravada Buddhism “The Buddhist world is now
divided into two great traditions. Theravada (“Path of the Elders”) Buddhism is
found in the nations of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), Myanmar (formerly Burma),
Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Mahayana (“Great Vessel”) Buddhism has
spread throughout China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan,
Vietnam, and corners of India and Russia” (MPMF, p. 133.) Most Westerners are
more familiar with Mahayana Buddhism because it is the Buddhism of Zen and
Tibetan Buddhism, the most popular forms of Buddhism in the United States and
Europe. But historically we must start with Theravada Buddhism.
Any time you have a religious teaching there will be some confusion as to what
the teacher meant when he or she said any given thing. As long as you have the
master alive and present you can ask questions and try to figure things out. But
once the teacher is gone, and especially when you are relying mostly on an oral
tradition, it becomes necessary to figure out what the “core teaching” really is.
You can even see this in a political metaphor. In the United States the “core
teaching” is the constitution. All of the courts and laws are all about trying to
figure out how to put the constitution to practical use. In other words, the concern
is how to live out the principles of what this core document has to say.
Well, in religion it is no different. “Theravada Buddhism grew out of a perceived
need in approximately the third century B.C.E. (more than 200 years after the
death of the Buddha) to reassert an authoritative Buddhist teaching in the face of
growing divergences in the movement” (MPMF, p. 134.) Theravada Buddhism
was so successful at this process that we don’t know a whole lot about the other
versions of Buddhism that were floating about. This is similar to Christianity.
Shortly after the time of Christ there were different understandings about what
Jesus meant. Over time and after a number of church councils the core message
was codified and presented in a creed as the dogma of believing Christians.
Concepts like the Incarnation and the Trinity needed to be defined once and for
all according to most theologians. And this is the process that happened with
Theravada Buddhism.
This impulse to “get things right” is a noble impulse of protection. It is all too easy
for false teachings and stories to enter a tradition. It is not surprising that people
want to be sure about what the Buddha taught and then preserve it for all time.
“The Buddha’s teachings had been transmitted throughout the centuries by oral
tradition, and they continued to be so even after this development for another
200 years when, sometime during the first century B.C.E., they were compiled as
what has been known as the Tripitaka or “Three Baskets.” The Tripitaka, written
in the Pali language (a variation of Sanskrit) held to be the language in which the
Buddha taught, deals with the Buddha’s life and his basic teaching in three parts:
the rules of monastic conduct, the Buddha’s discourses, and doctrinal principles”
(MPMF, p. 134.)
One of the first things you will notice about Theravada Buddhism is that it is
monastic Buddhism. The Buddha, after all, was a monk and set up communities
of monks, the samgha. Mahayana Buddhism would be more open to lay people
being serious about their Buddhist practice, but in Theravada Buddhism it was
felt that the monastic way was the supreme way.
Monasticism was so important to Theravada Buddhists that until recently every
young man was expected to spend at least a part of his life as a monk. For
women it was more of an option as there were far fewer women monks for
reasons that will be explained below. “Most of the monks are young, for in all the
Theravada countries except Sri Lanka it is a custom (not always observed today)
for every young man, from prince to peasant, to spend a year of his life as a
monk. This experience serves to stabilize one’s religious life and is an initiation
into manhood. A youth will not marry until after he has served as a monk, and his
closest lifelong friends are likely to be those with whom he shared this
experience. But the great majority of men, of course, do not remain in the
cloister. However, among the morning mendicants will be a few gentle old
veterans of the monastic path, and they are afforded great respect” (MPMF, p.
135.)
This idea is not usually practiced in Western religions, but you see something like
it among Mormons who are expected to give a year or two of their youth to
missionary work for their church. Recently, some Roman Catholic monasteries
are encouraging younger people to try the life for a while without necessarily
taking final vows to stay forever.
Being a monk is not simply a rite of passage. The goal must always be kept in
mind and the goal is enlightenment. “Upheld by the Three Jewels, the monk
knows he is to emulate the silent image of the Buddha in the temple, with its
serene and inward gaze. He is to explore and know through meditation the
inward realm, and finally he is to break through it into the Unconditioned Nirvana. He is to become an arhant, a perfected and enlightened one who has
attained Nirvanic consciousness” (MPMF, p. 136.) And whether the person
remains a monk or not, he or she needs to always remember the importance of
practice and try to find time to meditate even in a busy lifestyle consisting of
family and work obligations.
But it is understood that lay people will not have the kind of time to spend in
meditation as monks will. And therefore other practices have been developed as
well. “Theravada laity do not generally expect to make formal meditations in the
manner of monks. Rather, for them the tableau of the Buddhist map of the
invisible world - its temples, pilgrimage places, and cosmic lore - become ways
they can align themselves with streams of good karmic force set in motion by the
implosion of the Buddha’s Great Departure. Buddhism, for them, comes as a
noble instrument for making merit, which will transform destiny to bring good
things in this and future lives” (MPMF, p. 137.) Buddhism plays more the role
traditionally found in other religions. It provides for people’s social and ritual
needs and serves as a locus of meaning.
Every religion provides “directions” on how one should live. Buddhism is no
different in this regard. Monks have many rules, or precepts, to follow. But due to
the nature of their lives, lay people cannot follow so many rules. Nevertheless,
they are expected to follow certain basic principles. “The layperson tries to follow,
as well as possible, the five precepts: not to take life, steal, engage in sexual
misconduct, lie, or take intoxicants. He or she tries also to exemplify the four
unlimited virtues: unlimited friendliness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and evenmindedness. Through the four unlimited virtues, one can be reborn in a divine
heaven” (MPMF, p. 138.) In addition to this, lay people provide much of the
material support for the monks. This is considered good karma and helps one to
build merit. In Hinduism it was also considered good karma to help and feed the
holy wandering monks. This tradition continues in Buddhism.
The monks and the lay people provide help to each other and mutual support.
The monks serve as teachers and examples, and the lay people serve in any
way they can. Both sides are believed to benefit greatly. “The monks and
monastic life are like a reservoir of merit. The Buddha, the teaching, the order
and the laity are like concentric circles going around the absolute center, Nirvanic
consciousness. Every ring profits through interaction with its neighbors
especially the one next in” (MPMF, p. 139.) Theravada Buddhism provided a rich
understanding of the Buddha’s teaching, but due to its stress on the monastic
life, it was only a matter of time until a broader form of Buddhism would emerge
and it is to that that we must now turn.
Mahayana Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism is almost as old, but it tends to be less conservative and
more open to adaptation then the “Way of the Elders.” “The northern tier of
Buddhist countries, including the great and distinctive Buddhist cultures of Tibet,
China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, are in the Mahayana tradition” (MPMF, p.
140.) These Buddhists wanted to be more open to lay people and they wanted to
be able to incorporate some of the teachings that surrounded them, such as
Taoism in China and the native Bon religion in Tibet. These Mahayana Buddhists
also tended to see the Buddha as a supramundane and perfect being, moving in
the direction of making the Buddha into a divine being.
But even though there were different emphases and practices between the two
kinds of Buddhism the defining difference is really a textual one. The Mahayana
Buddhists accept more literature as scripture. “They accepted not only the
Tripitaka, but also a growing body of Sanskrit scriptures called sutras.
Acceptance of the body of sutra literature, rather than any particular doctrine, is
the formal test of a Mahayanist” (MPMF, p. 141.)
Even though we now understand the sutras to have been written over several
hundred years, it was believed that the historical Buddha spoke these words. It
was even said that some of the Buddha’s words were hidden on purpose until
people were ready for them. This belief that a master would have a private and
personal teaching for his closest disciples that was different from the public
teaching for the masses is not unusual. Some of the Gnostic Christians, for
example, believed the same thing about Jesus.
What makes these sutras so interesting? “These scriptures start from a universal
rather than a historical perspective, holding that there is a universal true reality
everywhere - known variously as the Void, Nirvana, Buddha-nature, dharmakaya
- that is capable of being realized by anyone. Gautama Buddha realized it at the
moment of his enlightenment, and so he manifests it and comes from it - but
there are an infinite number of other Buddhas, too, and in a deeper sense
everyone is actually an unrealized Buddha. Any means of attaining this
realization is acceptable insofar as it works; the gradated practice of Theravada
may be dispensed with, and techniques of devotion, chanting, even quasi-magic,
brought in from bhakti, Tantrism, and folk religion, can be employed” (MPMF, p.
141.) So you can see that this type of Buddhism is pretty universal and
accommodating to new and different practices.
One of the most profound changes happened in regards to what is called a
bodhisattva. In Theravada Buddhism, the goal was on reaching enlightenment.
And with the emphasis on monasticism the focus would often be on the individual
becoming enlightened and there was not so much emphasis on how this might
influence others or be part of a compassionate plan for service.
In other words, if there was no check on the system some people might accuse
Theravada Buddhists of being selfish and only concerned with their own
enlightenment and not concerned about the world and all of the suffering that
was in it. Mahayana Buddhists wanted to correct this tendency. “In all of this the
key figure is the bodhisattva, who becomes for Mahayana the ideal in place of
the Theravadin arhant, and in many ways sums up the Mahayana vision. The
bodhisattva is on the way to Buddhahood but holds back at its very threshold out
of compassion for the countless beings still in ignorance and suffering; the
bodhisattva dwells both in Nirvana and in the phenomenal world, having the
power and reality of both. As a borderline figure, he or she also imparts grace
and receives devotion” (MPMF, p. 141.) And this idea of grace brings Mahayana
Buddhism more in line with other world teachings that state that help (grace) is
available to those of us who reach out for it.
How did Mahayana Buddhists justify this teaching? They did it by understanding
where the Buddha was coming from. That is, after enough disciples of the
Buddha were able to realize enlightenment for themselves they were able to
understand his teaching from the “inside” so to speak. And what they discovered
can be described as awareness, mindfulness, wakefulness or consciousness.
“All of Buddhism is built on the Buddha’s experience of infinite consciousness at
the moment of his enlightenment. Buddhism is all the various methods of getting
at the way he saw the universe at that moment, which is the way it really is”
(MPMF, p. 141.) The focus moves from the historical Buddha to a state of
consciousness and what we can do to facilitate this greater awareness. “In
Theravada, this means “entering the stream” left by the historical Buddha.
In Mahayana, there is more emphasis that the world perceived by the Buddha at
enlightenment is the true reality everywhere present at all times, and so it can be
apprehended directly by a number of different means and through a number of
mediators” (MPMF, p. 141.) In other words, if something helps you find
enlightenment then it is good, if it holds you back from enlightenment then it is,
obviously, more of a problem. The Buddha is understood to have lived at a
certain time and place and if other ways not taught by the Buddha are seen to be
helpful then it is assumed that the Buddha would approve.
The Buddha himself was willing to break away from the traditional paths that he
was taught under the Hinduism available in his day. This then becomes the
model. Do not let traditions, even from the Buddha himself, trap you into not
exploring and trying things. “This reflects that Mahayana is, in effect, a
“multimedia” way to Buddhahood. The “turning of the head” needful to see one’s
true Buddha-nature is not something that must be done only one way. Because
it relates to the ungraspable, it cannot be put into a box. Thus, Mahayana has
many methods, some very complex and some so simple as to seem insulting
until one realizes that the simplicity is the point. Mahayana disdains none of the
senses and no “level” of religion - from peasant folk faith to the most advanced
metaphysical system” (MPMF, p. 142.) The Buddha is a model of openness and
the Mahayana Buddhists want us to remember that.
One of these Buddhist scriptures makes this perspective very clear. “The Lotus
Sutra, one of the most important of all Mahayana texts, tells us that a simple
offering of flowers or of a tiny clay pagoda, presented by a child to a Buddha, is
of far more worth than all the proud efforts of an aspiring arhant. For any
distance we can advance toward Buddhahood by our own self-centered efforts
would be only as an inch to a thousand miles, but if one just forgets oneself in a
childlike sense of wonder and giving, one is already there, for in that moment
one’s high walls of ego have vanished away” (MPMF, p. 142.)
There is an inbuilt relativism that says if it works use it and if doesn’t work let it
go. This calls for discernment and flexibility. For example, you may find that
something works for you and this is great only to find that it stops working after a
while. Then you have to be willing to let it go. And this is not so easy because we
can become attached to not only obvious things like money and people and our
health, but also to spiritual practices.
This relativism can be very disconcerting. And it can get out of hand. People can
keep changing a system to the point where it has nothing in common with the
original and important teachings of the Buddha. That is why you need
conservatives. You need the people who want us to be cautious about change
and who want to preserve what is good and holy. But then you also need the
progressives because they are the ones who will challenge a religion to make
itself relevant to the current times and not to become so rigid that it becomes a
fossil and breaks. Neither side has all of the answers but hopefully they manage
to balance each other enough so that Buddhism is able to maintain its own
Middle Way through these two tendencies that we now know as Mahayana
Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism. It is now time to look at some of the further
development undergone by Buddhism.
Nagarjuna’s Two Basic Principles
One of the world’s most important philosophers, even though he is not well
known in the Western world, is Nagarjuna. “The greatest philosophical force in
the emergence of Mahayana was the teaching of Nagarjuna (c. 150-350 c.e.).
His two basic principles are that samsara (the phenomenal world) and Nirvana
are not different, and that the most adequate expression for this totality is “Void”
(MPMF, p. 143.) Sometimes this word “Void” is described as “emptiness.”
Emptiness, like Nirvana, is not a negative word, but it is hard to describe. The
main focus is on relationship. Things and people receive their meaning from their
relationships rather than from their own independent existence. Think of
something simple such as a beach. It is a beach because of the ocean meeting
the land, not because it is a beach in and of itself, nor because it is the ocean or
the land all by itself. It is relationship and the context it provides that becomes the
focus in a teaching on emptiness.
Nagarjuna also changed the focus on what it means to be a seeker. The seeker
is often seen as the person looking for enlightenment, looking for Nirvana. But
that very search implies that the seeker does not have enlightenment yet. It is
somewhere off in the future. I am not enlightened now, but I will be some day (in
the future). Nagarjuna said this understanding was wrong. “That samsara is
Nirvana and Nirvana is samsara means that one does not “go” anywhere to
“enter” Nirvana. It is here and now; we are all in it all the time, and so we are all
Buddhas. Experiencing getting up, walking down the street, or washing dishes as
Nirvana rather than as samsara is simply a matter of how it is seen” (MPMF, p.
143.)
It is very ironic because there is a paradox here. On the one hand, there is
nothing to search for. It is already happening here and now. And yet it takes a
long search to discover this for yourself! And ultimately, from a Buddhist
perspective, you are not supposed to believe this. You are supposed to check it
out and verify it for yourself. This is where it is important to keep your sense of
humor!
If all things are known by their relationships more than by their own inherent
worth this says something important about the nature of reality. “The nirvanic
vision, then, is to see all things, including (and this is perhaps the most difficult
angle to get) oneself, the observer, equally and as an endless series of
interdependencies and interrelationships. This universe neither starts nor stops
anywhere. In it all things are continually rising and falling and moving in an out of
each other, and nothing is stable except the totality itself, the “framework” in
which this frameless and endless moving picture is situated” (MPMF, p. 143.) We
can even see some of these ideas in the way we picture physical reality.
Reality appears hard and made up of things. But when we explore we see that
reality itself is made up of mostly space. The atoms are mostly space moving at a
very fast speed and when something dies it does not simply go out of existence;
rather it changes forms. Energy is never lost; it just changes. The atoms that
make up all of our bodies as well as the computers we are working with in this
class all came from some distant star. It is truly amazing how much our picture of
reality is changing as we learn more about it.
To grasp this with the rational mind is not so easy. It is more of an intuitive insight
that is needed. Nagarjuna called this prajna. “The secret is the insight-wisdom
called prajna. It is able to see things as they are without being attached at the
same time to any structure of thought or theoretical concept. Theories try to
make it possible to see things by interpreting them, but the use of such tools also
twists them out of shape” (MPMF, p. 143.) Our mind is useful for so many things.
But that does not mean it is useful for everything.
This gets back to my first lecture where I wrote about the prerational, the rational,
and the transrational. The transrational is not stupid. It is not asking us to not
think. It is saying there is something on the other side of the rational and to get
there the mind can sometimes be a problem just as not using the mind is so often
a problem.
Mahayana Buddhists talk about six paramitas or areas where one can practice
and find Buddhist perfection. One of these is the path of wisdom or insight. This
is like Jnana Yoga in Hinduism. “The supreme paramita [of Buddhist perfection]
is prajnaparamita: It must be built on the foundation of perfection in the other
paramitas. But it is prajna that gives the lightning flash of final insight uniting one
firmly, invincibly through every corner of one’s subjectivity with the marvelous
Void itself, and so makes one as secure as it. This is prajna-paramita, the
“wisdom that has gone beyond” or the “perfection of wisdom.” The earliest
distinctive Mahayana literature deals with it. Indeed, in devotional Mahayana,
prajnaparamita (like wisdom in the biblical Book of Proverbs) came to be
personified as an initiating maiden greatly to be desired” (MPMF, p. 145.)
If we are seeking wisdom, where might we turn? There are the teachings; that is
for sure. But it is also good to find a teacher. And the best teacher of all is a
bodhisattva. So I want to return to this concept and take a closer look at it.
The Bodhisattva
The bodhisattva is to Buddhism what the avatars and gurus are to Hinduism.
That is, they are a living example of everything we wish for. They show us it is
possible and therefore they offer not only teachings and practices, but hope as
well. “The great key figure in Mahayana thought is the bodhisattva
(“enlightenment being”) (MPMF, p. 145.) They are almost like savior figures to a
certain extent, because if you remember, these are the great enlightened beings
who could disappear into Nirvana but who decide to stay and help. They refuse
to fully enter Nirvana until everyone else goes in ahead of them. In this sense
they are great symbols of compassion.
As a result of this, the bodhisattva is the central element of Mahayana Buddhism.
In fact, this is so much so that most Buddhists of this persuasion take a
bodhisattva vow. This means they dedicate the fruit of their practice and their
own enlightenment to the welfare of other beings. “Virtually everything that is
distinctive and of general interest in Mahayana is related to the bodhisattva and
the bodhisattva’s path. To understand this class of being, his or her meaning and
methods, is to have the surest key to understanding Mahayana teaching,
symbols, and practices” (MPMF, p. 145.) The nature of Buddhist focus becomes
compassion rather than enlightenment, service rather than wisdom. But it is only
a change in emphasis. It is not that enlightenment and wisdom are no longer of
extreme values, for they are. But the perspective has changed.
The bodhisattva teaches by example the importance of the reality of emptiness.
“First, the bodhisattva epitomizes the ideal of samsara and Nirvana being not
different, for the bodhisattva lives in both simultaneously. The bodhisattva is in
the world, but without attachments, and therefore is able to see everything as it
really is and to work with all power. Thus, the bodhisattva lives on the level of
Void-consciousness” (MPMF, p. 145.) The bodhisattva shows us that it is
possible to live a life of compassion and joy while at the same time continually
letting go of everything. The paradox of caring deeply about everything while
understanding nothing matters is brought to life. The paradox of trying to end
suffering with all of one’s being while at the same time understanding that
suffering is an illusion becomes the teaching. These things are almost too hard to
grasp and that is why we need bodhisattvas to demonstrate this truth to us.
The bodhisattvas also teach that meditation is not the only way to enlightenment,
and that meditation without compassion might just be the ego disguised as a holy
person. “Mahayana lore tells us that the bodhisattva is one who has taken a
great vow to attain supreme and final enlightenment, however long it takes and at
whatever cost, but at the same time to practice unlimited compassion toward all
sentient beings, remaining active in this world without passing into absolute
Buddhahood until all other beings are brought to enlightenment. Its fulfillment
requires great sacrifice and suffering on his or her part. The Lotus Sutra portrays
the bodhisattvas as superior to the Theravada arhants and “private Buddhas,”
who allegedly attain enlightenment for themselves only, falling short of the ideal
of universal compassion” (MPMF, p. 145.) Enormous energy is freed up when
you are able to turn the focus from yourself to another. It is the energy of
realizing interrelationship, the true nature of reality.
When you realize the value of interrelationship you realize that to work for others
is to work for oneself because there is no self separate from the one reality emptiness- that is the “suchness” of everything. “In the bodhisattva’s work in the
world for liberation of other beings, the bodhisattva is activated by two principles,
skill-in-means and compassion. Both of these derive from unconditioned
awareness of the total interrelatedness of all things. Compassion is the ethical
consequence of this knowledge; it is merely stating the fundamental Buddhist
realization of “dependent coorigination” in ethical terms” (MPMF, p. 145.)
If you take away nothing else from this lecture, I hope you will remember with
gratitude all of the many thousands of people who have taken bodhisattva vows.
In doing so they are dedicating their lives and practices to the welfare of all of us.
“The concept of the bodhisattva, whose beauty has moved hundreds of millions,
is the supreme achievement of Mahayana Buddhism. It superbly exemplifies the
ultimate meaning of the Middle Way by dwelling at once in samsara and Nirvana”
(MPMF, p. 146.) To live in two worlds seems to be part of the human mystery. All
religions teach in one way or another that we are both animal and spirit and that
is our problem, but it is also our glory. There was a further development on the
thought of Nagarjuna known as Yogacara, and it is to that we now turn.
“Mind Only” (Yogacara)
Some philosophers felt that to call the world empty was not helpful. They thought
there must be a better way and their search led them to see reality not as
physical in the typical sense, but as consciousness manifesting in the multiple
ways we can see with our senses. But beyond, above, and behind these
“appearances” there lays the ground reality and this is consciousness.
“A new tradition, found in the Avatamsaka and Lankavatara Sutras and the
thinkers Asangua and Vasubandhu (c. fourth century c.e.) said that what
Nagarjuna had called Emptiness or Void is more like mind, like pure
consciousness in which particular forms or thoughts rise and fall” (MPMF, p.
147.) If you think of anything physical like an airplane or a building you must
realize that this thing first existed in the mind of the designer. So all of reality
springs form consciousness according to the Yogacara School. The goal is for us
not to get stuck in appearances, but to break through to the underlying reality.
This way of thinking had a profound influence and it is the underlying philosophy
to both Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, which as I mentioned above, are the most
popular forms of Buddhism in the Western world today. “Mind Only holds that
fundamentally only one clear mind or field of consciousness exists, the Buddha-
nature or Nirvana. It is the basis of each person’s own existence - we are
therefore all Buddhas. But we do not realize this because we each “project” an
apparent world of many different things which we think we see outside of us but
which actually is in our heads. It is really like an illusion made by the
preconceptions and habitual but false modes of perception in which our individual
karmas have bound us up and blinded us” (MPMF, p. 147.)
What is ultimately real are not the things we are aware of, but the awareness
itself. The things we are aware of (people, places, and things) are always
changing. They are born and die. Nothing stays the same. Except awareness.
Awareness, according to the Mind Only school, is always already there. And
therefore practicing awareness is the most important thing. Normally we are so
distracted by what we see that we forget to ask fundamental questions such as
“who is seeing?”
Buddhist psychology plays an important role in making this clear. On the surface,
it appears that our “illusions” are real. After all, I can say, “do you see that person
over there”? And if you say “yes,” then it is obvious that I am not making it up,
because we are both seeing it. But going past the surface, looking deeper might
tell us a different story. “One might ask why, if each of us projects an individual
“movie,” we all seem to see the same world. Actually, this is not strictly the case;
the world appears different to a child and to an adult, to people of different
language and culture, and in subtle ways even to brothers and sisters. Yet
admittedly there is general consensus about the “lay of the land.” Mind Only
philosophy says that this is because we carry over shared past impressions from
collective as well as individual experience. This is called “store consciousness.”
Perhaps it would not be too much amiss to translate the concept by saying that
the way we “see” the world is formed basically by human and community input,
such as the common experiences of birth and having parents, language,
education, and culture. What is added by individual karma is only like frosting although it may be very important for individual destiny” (MPMF, p. 147.)
We are back to the idea of interrelationship! Nothing is as separate as it appears
to us in our ordinary minds. Various Buddhist practices teach us that these types
of statements about “mind only” or “interrelationship” are not to be believed as
dogmas, but experienced and verified for ourselves. “Mind Only, like most
Eastern philosophies, is not just a theory. It is also a practice, as it is a path to
transformation of consciousness” (MPMF, p. 147.) One can study various
practices and then work with them to increase our ability to relax into this mind
only awareness.
There are many different meditation and mindfulness practices from quiet sitting
and watching to intense visualization exercises. “One method, developed by
Chan or Zen, is found simply through still meditation - “sitting quietly, doing
nothing” - settling down until one lives beneath the coverings and projections”
(MPMF, p. 147.) This is usually our image of the Buddhist, sitting quietly in
meditation. But there are other ways starting to be better known. “Another
method, developed by Vajrayana, is a kind of experiential shock therapy where
one experiments with different “reels of film” by putting in one after another. This
is the role of the psychic experiments and the visualizations of Buddhas and
bodhisattvas, characteristic of the Tantric-influenced “esoteric” tradition in
Mahayana” (MPMF, p. 147.) If you ever have a chance to visit a Tibetan service
or even to watch a film about Tibetans you will see this rich variety of practices
and realize that there are many sophisticated ways to study consciousness and
practice awareness.
Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism practices a form of Mahayana Buddhism called Vajrayana.
“Vajrayana [means] the “Thunderbolt Vessel” or “Diamond Vessel.” Today this is
the Buddhism of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and Mongolia, and it has much affected
some schools in China and Japan. But like so much else, it originated in old
India. It stems from a confluence of Mind Only Buddhism with the same forces
that went into Hindu Tantrism, and it can be thought of as Buddhist Tantrism”
(MPMF, pp. 149-150.) In order to facilitate this way, Buddhists had to be very
open to challenging the mores and customs of the day. Due to disapproval and
misunderstanding they often kept these ways secret.
It is one thing to believe that the Mind Only school is accurate in its assessment
of reality; it is a whole other thing to put it into practice! “Buddhist Tantrists took
very seriously the dictum that samsara is Nirvana. To them this meant that
nothing in the samsaric world is intrinsically evil and that everything can be used
as a means to liberation. Above all, this is true of the passions, and the most
potent among them is clearly the sexual. Rather than seeking to circumvent the
passions, which only leaves them lurking behind in one’s psyche as potential
depth charges, adherents to Vajrayana hold that one should wrestle with them,
master them, and then deliberately arouse and direct their energy as dynamos of
force for the breakthrough to the ultimate goal” (MPMF, p. 150.) Needless to say,
if people were not both mature and ready for this kind of program they could
easily get lost in it.
Eventually, however, Buddhists found ways to work with these energies that was
also conducive to other aspects of Buddhism such as its ethical stances on
various issues. “By the early Middle Ages, Buddhist Tantra, as Vajrayana, had
attained a literature and scholastic exponent. It became the prevailing form of
Buddhism is some areas. Inevitably the rough edges were smoothed off;
practices that violated conventional Buddhist morality were (because mind is all)
translated into subjective meditations, restricted to marriage, or otherwise
legitimatized, save in fringe groups. But it never quite lost its wildness either.
Tantric adepts have always tended to be fierce, vivid, shamanlike characters,
given to heroic spiritual strife deep in mountains or jungles, shunning the more
staid academic and religious circles, and leaving behind beguiling tales of
wizardry” (MPMF, p. 150.)
In fact, the stories are as intense as any you will hear about the far out exploits of
some Hindu yogi’s who can supposedly sit in the snow naked and stay warm and
other amazing feats demonstrating the power of the mind over the body. “But the
true goal is enlightenment--realizing that all is mind--all gods, bodhisattvas, and
Buddhas, and all souls and phenomena, arise out of mind and sink back into it”
(MPMF, p. 151.) If a Buddhist were to get all caught up in psychic powers and
phenomenon and forget his or her purpose then they would just be falling for
another illusion. Buddhists teach that there is a spiritual materialism just as
insidious, if not far more so, than regular monetary materialism
Because of the fame of the Dalai Lama and the problems between Tibet and
China, you may be familiar with Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet has always held a
fascination for people because it has been isolated at the top of the world for
most of human history. “The unique Tibetan spiritual culture was essentially a
combination of indigenous shamanism with Tantric Vajrayana Buddhism
imported from India and allowed, by the unusual degree of isolation Tibet’s
geography afforded, to develop in its own way” (MPMF, p. 153.)
“From shamanism came the desire of the adept of power to undergo initiation,
demonstrate courage and vision, explore the infinite new worlds of the psychic
plane, and manifest accomplishments through preternatural talents. From
Buddhism came a sophisticated philosophical framework by which to explain
these things. One has acquired unlimited full power because one has become
one with the universal, invincible void; one travels to strange realms because one
is realizing that one creates all one sees out of the karma-twisted mills of one’s
own mind” (MPMF, p. 153.) If you ever get the chance to see the movie “Kundun”
I would highly recommend it. It is about the Dalai Lama when he was young and
still living in Tibet. It is beautiful in many ways, and it brings Buddhism and
Shamanism together in a way where you can really see how they mix and
interpenetrate.
Another thing you may have heard of is the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It is
another brilliant combination of Shamanism and Buddhism. “The Tibetan Book of
the Dead is Tibet’s most famous contribution to the world’s religious thought. The
Tibetan Book of the Dead is essentially an account of the experience of a
deceased person between death and, if destined by karma to be born again, the
next entry into a womb. In it all levels of the Mahayana Buddhist cosmos are
touched. The deep Vajrayana teaching that we create our lives, and our own
heavens and hells, out of “Mind Only” is expressed” (MPMF, p. 153.) Not
surprisingly, this book is especially helpful when you are dying. It “talks you
through” the process and allows you to work with your conscious awareness at a
very important time. You are about to go through the ultimate letting go and
Buddhist believe this is the supreme moment to practice deep mindfulness.
The goal is to not identify with the body. You are not your body or your thoughts
or your emotions. But most of the time we forget this. We have a strong belief in
a fundamental dualism that I am this but not that. This is the final illusion. But
because of this it also holds the key to the final breakthrough. Death in this sense
is our greatest opportunity. And sex is probably our next greatest opportunity.
These are the things that really trip us up. “For the greatest power comes from
the union of all opposites. And, psychologically the deepest polarity that needs
to be rejoined is our partiality toward the male and the female” (MPMF, p. 154.)
By not shying away and instead working with both our sexual interests (and fears
and problems) and our fear of death, Tibetan Buddhism plunges us right into the
fire of awareness.
There is a great modern commentary on this important Tibetan text called The
Tibetan Book of Living and Dying that is very popular in the hospice movement
among other things. I would highly recommend this book as well as the film
“Kundun” if you were interested in these things. “This account [in the Tibetan
Book of the Dead] of the experience after death really expresses what Buddhism
is about, for in the end all of its language, symbols, and practices are
expressions of the union of opposites, the reconciliation of all polarities. From
the Buddha’s delicate balance between indulgence and asceticism, life and
death, being and nonbeing, to the Tibetan vision of coupled father-mother gods
in the Bardo sky, we have met with pointers to an experience of oneness. That
experience makes one aware that it is a self-made shell of ego encrustations that
keeps one from full consciousness; out of this egg one has to break with a shout
of awakening” (MPMF, p. 154.) The goal is always the same as with the historical
Buddha and that is to wake up. But we have traveled far from the original setting.
But there is still one more version of Buddhism I want to mention before we move
on and this is Chan or Zen Buddhism.
Chan or Zen Buddhism
If Buddhism combined with Shamanism in Tibet to form Vajrayana Buddhism,
then what would happen if it moved to China and combined with Taoism? Out
would pop Chan Buddhism! Chan is better known under its Japanese name, Zen.
It comes from the Hindu word for meditation, dhyana. “For Chan and Zen,
enlightenment arises unexpectedly, often suddenly, in the course of “sitting
quietly, doing nothing” in meditation, or perhaps in response to the
unconventional teaching gesture by a master. This is the Chan or Zen expression
of Mind Only philosophy where one’s goal is to embrace the Void that is the
Really Real underlying all projections” (MPMF, p. 155.) Zen is also the form of
Buddhism you are most likely to think of if you picture a person sitting in the lotus
posture on their cushion meditating.
One of the interesting things about Zen is that it relies least on the scriptures.
What it wants is a “direct seeing” into the nature of reality and to facilitate this
intuitive leap into nonduality you need a master to help you. Often the master
uses humor to get you to have this breakthrough. “A Chan master was once
asked what the “First Principle” is. He replied, “If I told you, it would become the
Second Principle!” (MPMF, p. 155.) Sometimes they use koans, which are
puzzling questions used to frustrate the ordinary mind to the point where it will
finally “break open” and allow this direct awareness, this pure seeing to shine
forth.
This work with a master is traced back to the Buddha himself who is said once to
have held up a flower and smile. Only one monk of many who were there smiled
back because in that moment he “got it.” What did he get? The whole teaching!
Everything all at once. Chan traces itself back to that moment. The Buddha’s
giving the monk “the flower and smile conveyed a universe of wisdom indefinable
by any words or books” (MPMF, p. 155.)
Of course there is an irony here. On the one hand the enlightenment is “sudden,”
but on the other hand there is a good chance that the monk experiencing sudden
enlightenment has been practicing Buddhism and meditation for many years. But
part of the suddenness is that the experience, we are told, is like waking up in the
morning. One moment you are dreaming vividly and all caught up in it and it
seems so real and the next moment you are awake and the dream is gone. Does
anyone teach you to awake? No, you just do it.
Chan Buddhism is very wary of words. Words can be deceiving because we
might think we understand simply if we can repeat the words. That is how
supposed “spiritual masters” can set themselves up when they are only
charlatans. “Once again, the truth prior to words, which Chan and Zen radiate, is
that one is the Buddha and in Nirvana now, in the “unborn mind” before thought,
and that this realization is attained not by effort but by “doing nothing” and seeing
who one is when one is not oriented toward doing anything” (MPMF, pp. 155156.) Thus one learns to sit and breathe and watch and let go of the need to
comment, evaluate and judge everything that goes on. Instead one just is. In the
freedom of that moment a breakthrough is possible simply because we are not
standing in the way.
Sitting in meditation works the same as sitting with koans in some ways. It is a
technique to help the mind let go of its ordinary activity. “The real point is that
such conundrums [koans] bring the ordinary, rational “monkey mind” to a stop.
They stop its perpetual chatter by feeding it something it cannot handle in its
usual way. Perhaps, Chan says, if the relentless mental process can be quashed
for a just a moment, the mind will have a chance to see what it is when it is not
chattering and chewing” (MPMF, p. 157.) Once again we are back at the heart of
Buddhism, especially the Mind Only School. And that is to see that the true
nature of things can only emerge when we let go and allow reality in.
There are other developments of Buddhism, such as Pure Land Buddhism, that I
won’t be going into in this lecture but encourage you to see what you think about
it when you read about it in our text. It has an interesting correspondence to
Christianity in that the Buddha comes across as a savior figure in some ways.
The hope is that by chanting the Buddha’s name one will acquire a state of mind
and consciousness through the grace of the Buddha so that in one’s next life you
will be born in the “pure land” where enlightenment is virtually guaranteed. And
we could talk about some modern interpretations of Buddhism, but we have to
draw the line somewhere and I now want to look at some modern issues before I
finish this lecture.
Women in Buddhism
People often assume because Buddhism is so sophisticated psychologically that
it must have avoided the patriarchy that has blighted so many of the religions of
the world. But, alas, this is not so. If we keep things in context we will see that
Buddhism did do some remarkable things for its time, but that it is also playing
catch up now as well.
Not only psychologically, but philosophically as well, there is no justification for
the suppression of women in Buddhism. “Arguably, Buddhist philosophy supports
a more egalitarian role for women than previously had been known in Hinduism.
The concepts of “no-self,” “codependent origination,” and the illusory nature of
distinctions and polarities provide a fundamental basis upon which to argue that
“maleness” and “femaleness” are illusory categories. To contend otherwise is to
be ego-attached - valuing one over the other. Still, the practical and sociological
manifestations of Buddhism over the centuries have perpetuated feminine
stereotypes to greater and lesser degrees, making true equality as yet
unachieved” (MPMF, p. 158.) The scriptures make many things possible and we
are now seeing more and more women embrace Buddhism with love and change
it in the process. Many famous Buddhist teachers are now women.
The Buddha himself had to deal with many issues concerning women and he had
to do it in the context in which he lived. “It is important to recall that early
Buddhism developed in India at a time when Indian women led lives that were
severely restricted by the dictates of Hindu religious law and custom. Women
were focused on (and in many cases bound to) the home and generally were
uneducated. Consequently, when the Buddha decided to include women in the
samgha, it was nothing less than radical. Although the Buddha’s dharma
supported an egalitarian view toward women and men, these ideas were in
conflict with an existing cultural bias in favor of female subjugation to male
authority. The tension between the dharma and socio-cultural attitudes toward
women was, therefore, present from the beginning” (MPMF, p. 159.) So we know
the Buddha included women much more than Hinduism did at the time, but it also
made those women have to exist under the authority of men. There were more
rules for them to follow. So there were issues, but we always have to keep in
mind the progress.
Women had it best in Vajrayana Buddhism because this kind of Tantric
Buddhism was open to the body and this world. Whenever spirituality has seen
this physical world as a problem it has demonized both the body and women.
“Accordingly, unlike in many other religions (including other forms of Buddhism)
where the human body is eschewed as an obstacle to spiritual perfection, in
Vajrayana Buddhism the body is celebrated as the vehicle through which one
may realize Nirvana in this lifetime, and this results in praise for the female body”
(MPMF, p. 164.) We must remember, however, whenever women were a part of
Tantric activities there was always the possibility of abuse.
Another important sign of change is that women are now being ordained and this
means that they do not need to be under the authority of men. “Significantly, the
Dalai Lama has ordained nuns and thus supports nuns’ ordination in the Tibetan
tradition” (MPMF, p. 168.) Because of the Dalai Lama’s influence, this will
probably have a domino influence on other Buddhists who might be more
patriarchal.
Some of the slowness in trying to change things is actually because of Buddhist
philosophy in an ironical way. “Part of the problem in restructuring Buddhism (or,
as some would say, reviving the original intentions of Buddhist thought) is that
Buddhism has tended to be focused on spiritual advancement and not on the
social problems of this world, including the relative status of women. Hence,
women arguing for “equal rights” can be criticized as being “attached.” The result
is that their efforts to better their lot in life can be maligned as evidence of
ignorance of the Ultimate Reality, which knows no such distinctions” (MPMF, p.
168.) The focus on the spiritual can and often does lead to neglect of the physical
and natural world because it is not considered important enough. Thankfully,
many modern Buddhists today are trying to find this new Middle Way of honoring
the world of conditioned reality as well as the world of unconditioned reality. After
all, they are equally manifestations of emptiness.
Buddhism in America
Buddhism is a fairly new religion in the United States, but it is having a profound
influence on American culture. Buddhism was first brought to the United States
by Chinese laborers during the California Gold Rush of 1849. And the same
interest in Indian literature that influenced American intellectuals also sparked an
interest in Chinese and Japanese philosophy, much of which was Buddhist. But it
wasn’t really until the second half of the Twentieth Century that Buddhism really
made a large impact on America, especially through Zen.
Zen Buddhism first influenced popular culture through the Beat writers, for
example, Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder. During “the 1960s a number of
Western Zen centers were organized in the United States. Another form of
Japanese Buddhism, the Nichiren Shoshu school, then promoted by Soka
Gakkai, also became widely popular among non-Asian Americans in the 1960s
and after. Other styles of Buddhism also reached American shores in midcentury and after. The devastation of Tibet by Chinese Communists sent many
Tibetans, including learned lamas, into exile. Some taught in American
universities, some established centers where Tibetan Buddhism was presented
to the general public. Helped by the immense prestige of Tibet’s spiritual leader,
the Dalai Lama, Vajrayana or Tibetan Buddhism, seen as a difficult but rewarding
spiritual path by many Westerners, became popular in the second half of the
twentieth century” (MPMF, p. 169.) You can find Buddhist temples from many
different schools in most American cities at this point. And there are often
Buddhist retreat centers located in the countryside outside of the cities.
When the Dalai Lama comes to the United States to teach he is known to say
that he will teach Tibetan Buddhism if Americans will teach him American
Buddhism! This is a profound statement because it is reminding those interested
in Buddhism that Buddhism has been changed as it has entered other cultures
just as it has changed them. What will American Buddhism look like? What new
philosophies might emerge? Certainly American love of democracy and freedom
will have some influence, but the focus on Buddhist inner life and meditation will
counter American materialism and the focus on outer success. It will certainly be
an interesting phenomenon to watch!
The Negative Side of Buddhism
Buddhism has many positive things going for it. For example, it is probably the
least violent of all the world’s great religions. But it is also made up of people and
that means that there will be problems as long as some of us are unenlightened
and not free from our egoistic issues. As we just saw, Buddhism emerged during
patriarchal times and so it too has some baggage regarding the history of how it
has treated women.
Related to how women are treated is how every social issue has been treated.
And that is that there is a tendency to ignore problems. Just as in India great
suffering was accepted because it was seen as being perhaps the person’s fault
and their suffering needed to be accepted as part of their karma, Buddhism also
failed to adequately address certain social problems. It is difficult to take
problems of ecology or poverty seriously if you think it does not make any
difference whether the earth survives or not. This is where the philosophy of
compassion has a corrective role to play.
Another problem was the disregard for the lay people in many cases. Even with
many efforts at correction Buddhism remained a monastic tradition. The focus,
again, was not on this world and its problems, but on waking up and reaching
enlightenment. Monasteries acquired great wealth and property, beautiful art and
libraries, while lay people might live in great poverty while still giving the little they
had to the monks who they were expected to support.
Religious scholar Andrew Harvey writes about Buddhism with great love, but he
has also made some important critiques as someone who has intensely studied
the sacred feminine in the world’s traditions. He writes: “I came to understand
how rooted in his own autobiographical experience the Buddha’s teachings were.
They reflected and enshrined as law the circumstances of his own awakening,
which took the form of a very “masculine” rejection of home, marriage, sexuality,
and householder responsibility in favor of a heroic search beyond the confines of
relationship or society. I became conscious of what I call an “addiction to
transcendence”--and a kind of unconscious dualism that resulted from it, even in
mystical philosophies that seemed to celebrate the unity of reality. How could a
philosophy that rejected much of earth life and a great deal of the feminine
authentically reflect divine unity?” (Andrew Harvey, A Walk with Four Spiritual
Guides, [Woodstock, Vermont: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2003] pp. 49-50.
Hereafter referred to in the lectures as Harvey.) Harvey is making the point that
not only were women not given the same opportunities and status as men
politically, but that there were fundamental philosophical problems with putting
life in this world into a negative context.
Harvey continues: “Explaining away important issues surrounding the denial or
denigration of the sacred Feminine in the Dhammapada [an early Buddhist
scripture]--and by implication in the whole range of the Buddha’s teachings--does
not serve either the interest of truth or the Buddha’s own realization. Didn’t the
Awakened One enjoin us to take nothing on trust, even from him, and to test his
statements in the crucible of our own experience? Didn’t the Buddha say on
several occasions that his teachings were to be used as a raft to get to the other
shore, to be discarded or modified when the truth had been reached?” (Harvey,
p. 50). Even though the Buddha went out of his way to have people not look up
to him too much and make of his teaching a rigid orthodoxy, there is always just
this tendency. In an effort to preserve the authentic teaching of the Buddha there
is also a tendency to make it rigid and unchangeable. This seems to be part of
the human condition and something we have to be aware of in all of the traditions
we study.
Summary
We have come a long way in forty pages. As usual I hope it only wets your
appetite to go out and read some of the great Buddhist books and do some
exploring on your own. It will be interesting to see how many of you choose a
Buddhist center to do your final. Buddhism began in India, but it has spread
around the world and has a growing influence in America. “Buddhism can be
thought of as a religion with a psychological emphasis. It teaches the
transformation of consciousness from attachment to ego, suffering, and objects
of craving to the unattached bliss of Nirvana. Its fundamental teaching is that the
Buddha, through his enlightenment, showed the way out of the wheel of rebirth or
conditioned reality created by ignorance and attachment; its fundamental practice
is meditation and comparable methods of transcending attachment; its
fundamental sociological expression is the samgha, or order of monks in the
succession of the Buddha’s disciples” (MPMF, p. 170.) In the process of
covering all of this information we studied the life of the Buddha, learned the Four
Noble Truths, studied the Middle Way, the Eightfold Path, and learned about the
concept of No Self.
We also studied the two main branches of Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana,
and some of the branches of Mahayana Buddhism such as the Zen and Tibetan
schools. In doing this we looked at important concepts such as the Void or
emptiness and especially at the important Mahayana insight concerning the
bodhisattva. With the bodhisattva we saw a new emphasis enter Buddhism
where the focus was not so much on enlightenment as it was on compassion and
the ending of suffering.
Finally we looked at the role of women in Buddhism and saw how Buddhism has
had its own struggles with patriarchy but how at the same time it has been and
continues to be a liberating force. We studied the negative side of Buddhism and
saw how it, like many Eastern philosophies, can so put down life in this world and
life in a body that it can undermine the basic goodness of earth, family, and
sexuality. Tantric Buddhism serves a corrective in this area. And finally, we saw
how Buddhism is a growing influence in the United States.
Summary Based on Joachim Wach’s Three Forms of Religious Expression:
MPMF, p. 134
Fundamental features of Buddhism
THEORETICAL
Basic Worldview
Reality is an indescribable unity. Humans find
themselves in a realm of suffering governed by
karma.
God or Ultimate Reality
Unconditioned reality beyond all opposites:
Nirvana, the Void.
Origin of the World/
Destiny of the World
While the cosmos may go through
cycles, it has no known beginning or end.
Origin of Humans
An individual is a process of cause and effect
rather than a self; to this there is no beginning.
Destiny of Humans
Unending lifetimes in this and other worlds,
good or bad according to karma and merit.
One then breaks through to attain the Nirvana
state.
Revelation or Mediation
Between the Ultimate
and The Human.
Through the Buddha, who attained full
enlightenment, and the scriptures
attributed to him.
PRACTICAL
What Is Expected of
Humans: Worship,
Practices, Behavior
To do good. Religious and moral
works that gain good rebirth. To
seek Nirvana by meditation or
related practices.
SOCIOLOGICAL
Major Social Institutions.
Temples; the samgha, or order of monks.
We will now stay with Asian religions as we continue to head east and study the
philosophies of China next week!
Bibliography:
Robert S. Ellwood and Barbara A. McGraw, Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women
and Men in the World Religions, Seventh Edition, [Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002]
Mary Pat Fisher, Living Religions: A Brief Introduction, [Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002]
Andrew Harvey, A Walk with Four Spiritual Guides, [Woodstock, Vermont:
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2003]
Lewis M. Hopfe and Mark R. Woodward, Religions of the World, Eighth Edition,
[Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001]
Huston Smith, The Illustrated World’s Religion: A Guide to our Wisdom
Traditions, [New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994]