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Christian Churches of God
No. B7_7
Mysticism Chapter 7
Buddhism
(Edition 2.0 19900910-20001215-20071010)
This chapter takes the Buddhist system from its rise in India to the spread of the Theravadin
system and the developments of the subsequent Mahayana and Hinayana systems.
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Page 2
Mysticism Chapter 7
Buddhism
Liberation Theology
The Upanishadic view of liberation or the
path to Moksha became the ultimate goal of
Vedantic meditation. The Upanishadic view
was ultimately negative and was further
complicated by the now fully-developed
belief that there was an endless cycle of
existence (Samsara), "of rebirth, redeath and
rebirth" (Wolpert, p. 47). "Desire, deeds,
‘action' (Karma) of any sort came now to be
considered hindrances, snares, delusory traps
in the soul’s search for moksha. The Law of
Karma emerges linked to the concept of
Samsara as a distinguishing axiom of Indian
civilization" (ibid.). The law posited that
every action, good and evil, had repercussions
or consequences of like kind at some future
date. According to Horner:
Good Karma and bad Karma which are at once the
result of previous deeds and the causes of new
effects; work independently of each other and are
not to be balanced the one against the other in any
kind of scales" (I.B. Horner, Buddhism: The
Theravada in The Concise Encyclopedia of Living
Faiths ed. R.C. Zaehner, Hutchinson, London,
1959, p. 283).
Because of Karma the world revolves and creatures
revolve; it keeps them bound to the wheel of
Samsara as the axle holds a rolling chariots wheel
"(Suttanipata 654, ibid)...If there were no Karma
there would be no Samsara: In a sense it is life, for
it operates only where there is volition (ibid.).
By the exercise of his own Karma, a man can
exercise control, crushing the covetousness,
malevolence and harmfulness leading to
rebirth.
Somehow the Aryan Sat (the real or true)
became displaced in the woods of Bihar by a
pessimistic view or faith in the "pre-Aryan
darkness chaos, or nonbeing, the asat of
demonic Vritra which now more closely
resembled the ultimate goal of Indian reality,
than did either the world of mortals or Gods"
(Wolpert, p. 48).
Thus the Upanishadic view leads logically and
inexorably into that of the Buddhist.
The Buddha
The Sakyamuni, or the sage of the Sakyas,
Sidhartha
Guatama
the
Buddha
or
‘enlightened one’, was born around 563 BCE
in Kapilavastu into the hill tribe of the Sakyas,
who were centred east of Sravasti, capital of
the Kosala region near the Himalayan
foothills. Magadha, in the Eastern Gangetic
Plain, and Kosala, west of Magadha and north
of the great river artery of Aryan settlement,
were the most powerful of the mahajanapadas,
or great tribal regions.
The Sakyas were brought into the ambit of the
Kosala Aryans and became tributary to them.
Siddhartha was a tribal prince who led a
relatively easy life of reasonable wealth
within this ‘civilised’ Aryan system, being
established in the Kshatriya class, but
politically he was faced with the same
problem as the Upanishadic teachers who
preceded and, no doubt, influenced the
philosophical transformation he created and
led. The ruler of Magadha, Bimbisara (ca.
540-490 BCE), became the patron of the
Buddha. The relative wealth of the area
doubtless prompted the acceptance of the
more rational and logical Buddhist position.
The Buddha was involved in the Upanishadic
struggle for Varna primacy. Logically, the
only way of immobilising this oppressive
system was to attack the notion of the
inheritance of piety and the priesthood. This,
of itself, has a difficulty in the concept of the
law of Karma. The Buddha taught that, "only
a person who ‘behaved as a Brahman should’
deserved to be treated like one" (Wolpert, p.
50). The Brahmans exercised a priestly
monopoly of wealth and claimed the exercise
of magic, in tradition similar to the Shamanic.
The Buddha aimed to substitute a faith based
around a monastic order exercising virtuous
conduct, non-violence and poverty. By
bolstering
Kshatriya
and
Vaishya
expectations, he launched a peaceful
revolution.
The Dharma
The concept of the Dharma, or the wheel of
the law, was introduced in his first sermon
Buddhism
about 527 BCE after receiving enlightenment
in a deer park in Sarnath. That sermon on the
four noble truths became the philosophic core
of the Theravada (Teaching of the Elders)
Buddhism. This was later named Hinayana, or
the Lesser Vehicle, by the post-Christian era
Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhists. The
first two of the four noble truths are:
 Suffering (dukkha), which is bound up in
all existence.
 Ignorance (avidya), which is the basic
cause of all suffering and involves an
ignorance of the fundamental nature of
reality.
Differing from the fundamental Upanishasdic
sages, he posits a sorrowful, transient (anicca)
and soulless (anatta) world. It is the soulless
world that differentiates Theravada Buddhism
from
either
idealistic
Upanishadic
Brahmanism or Jainism. These forms may
have been related to other materialist schools,
such as the Ajivikas (Non Soul) and Charvaka
or Lokayata (Peoples) schools. As we have
virtually no surviving teaching of these,
comparison is impossible.

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






Probably following on from Indian
medical thought of the period, which was
advanced, was the promise that any "ill"
which was understood could in fact be
cured.
The fourth noble truth was the eightfold
path to the elimination of suffering by
holding, practicing and following:
right views
right aspirations
right speech
right conduct
right livelihood
right effort
right mindfulness and
right meditation
By correct interpretation of the right function,
by carefully following this path, one could
reach nirvana, which means, "the blowing
out" as of a candle’s flame. Pain and suffering
would finally be overcome. Thus Nirvana was
the equivalent of Moksha, "a paradise of
escape, rather than pleasure" (Wolpert, p. 51).
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Monasticism in Buddhism
Because of the numbers of disciples the
Buddha attracted, he established a monastic
order (Sangha) which operated throughout the
world after his death. The initially all-male
Sangha
had
three
vows:
chastity
(brahmacarya), non-violence (ahimsa), and
poverty (aparigrapha). These vows became
integral to Hindu concepts of piety. Nuns
were admitted to the Sangha shortly before
the Buddha died.
The Buddha’s attitude to women was summed
up in his advice to his disciple, Ananada. He
advised him "not to see them" and, if that was
unavoidable, "not to speak to them".
Anada questioned: "but suppose it was
impossible to avoid speaking with them?"
“Then keep alert, O Ananda!” The Buddha
warned.
Through Sila, or right discipline, yogic
concentration and thoughtful study, nirvana
was pursued.
Renunciation of family and goods and the
begging of food daily bestowed merit, thus
turning a symbol of shame into one of virtue.
According to Wolpert, the idea of
monasticism achieved such popularity that it
attracted religious leaders in other parts of the
world, spreading west to the Near East and
thence to Europe, wandering north and east to
China and Japan. The monastic orders in
China and Japan achieved martial power and
wealth. In India they became a formidable
ideological and political force against
Brahmanism.
The initial experimentation of the Buddha in
establishing the noble path to Nirvana
involved a form of rigorous self-denial, which
was experimented with by other ascetics. That
Buddhism was a product of its time was
attested to by another Kshatriya prince of the
Jnatrika tribe, Vardhamana Mahavira (ca.
540-468 BCE), who established the Jainas,
advocating extreme asceticism, including selftorture and death by starvation as the surest
paths to salvation.
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The Buddha rejected this as devoid of value
after some years in experimentation, although
suicide is not denied to the Buddhist if
correctly motivated. A similar position was
developed in the I Ching and commented on
by Confucius, as being devoid of worth
leading to misfortune. The Jains taught that
each individual has an immaterial, immortal
soul called jiva.
The Aryan disciple recognises that through
Karma, deeds do not stay with the doer of
them. In a new birth, the doer is not
substantially the same as he was, nor totally
different, and yet there has been no
discontinuity between death and rebirth. The
disciple is not himself transmigrating or being
reborn. The dependent conditions exist which
determine that contingent personalities arise
and cease to be.
The Denial of Independant Existence
The Buddha developed the concept of
dependant origination as Dharma. It was "an
abstract law of contingency denying
independent existence to finite things though
not denying their total reality. Such reality, as
they have, is conditional on the occurrence of
something else that has already taken place
and is conditioned by it. There is therefore
order in this world of relations and not
anarchy" (Horner, ibid., p. 285).
This we have seen as Karma and Samsara,
within past, present and future. In the past,
from ignorance arises the Karmic formations
and hence consciousness. From consciousness
in the present, we have name and shape
conditioning the six sense fields, sharing
impact on the senses and hence, feeling. From
feeling ensues craving then grasping, resulting
in continued becoming.
The future then becomes birth and hence old
age, dying, grief, sorrow, suffering, limitation
and despair and anguish. The four Aryan
truths are obtained by wisdom, which
prevents the arising of Karmic formations and
hence continued being.
For there to be being, there are five Khandha
or aggregates. The body (rupa) is composed
Mysticism Chapter 7
of the four primaries, symbolically
represented as earth, water, heat and wind.
The non-material parts (or nama) of being are
feeling, perception, the volitional activities or
habitual tendencies, and consciousness. Thus
the being of the nama rupa.
These five Khandha comprise a group, which
is self- and pleasure-seeking, grasping and
speculation, rite and symbolism, and the
theory of a persistent self. These act as fetters
confining the being to the wheel of birth,
arising over time as varying, contingent
personalities.
Some parts, such as those within the
Puggalavadin, such as the Vajjiputtakas and
the Sammitiyas, "held in distinction to the
Theravadins; that a ‘person’ (puggala) was a
real and ultimate fact without positing which,
though it was neither the same as the Khandha
nor different from them, rebirth was
incomprehensible." (Horner, ibid., p. 287).
The Sautrantikas held that the puggala is a
subtle Khandha among the five Khandhas and
it is this that is reborn. "The fact of rebirth
after dying was accepted by all the Buddhist
sects. They only differed in their attitudes as
to how it took place" (ibid.).
The release from the recurrent wheel of birth
and death is achieved by attaining the final
stage of nirvana or freedom. This profound
knowledge (the attainment of Dharma that is
the mark of Arhantship) is accomplished only
by a gradual process of discipline. "There is
no sudden attainment except for a few isolated
instances, which, as recorded in the Pali
Canon, no doubt betoken sustained resolution
and energy in anterior births” (ibid., p. 289).
There are five cardinal virtues in Buddhism:
faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration and
even-mindedness. These form the five powers
so that virtue becomes power. In this concept,
Buddhism differs from Christianity only in
that the spirit confers power through faith.
Bhakti as Faith and Infallibility
The concept of faith is initially within the
Guru-cela, or master-student, relationship and
in this respect is merely an extension of the
earlier Aryan thought. However, it is claimed
Buddhism
that this is not bhakti (or devotion to a
person). By hearing Dharma, or truth from his
master, he must test it and prove it and then
by personal resolution within the processes
listed above, he may realise Dharma. The
concept of testing and proving is arguably a
process of agreement rather than actually
proving all things, and is all too common in
religious mentality. Within Buddhism, the
concept of faith (Suaddha) is really a
conception that the teachings of the Buddha
are true, before the believer has had the
chance to test them himself. The concept of
teaching as an indoctrination was developed
into a formal system within the Indo-Aryans
and, as examined elsewhere, it was found
throughout the Brahmanic and Bhakti cults. It
is also endemic in modern cultic reasoning.
The concept of unquestioning faith or belief
found in the guru-cela relationship – and
developed to the proposition that the teachings
of the Buddha are true even before the
adherent has had the opportunity to test them
himself – has been examined by B.G.Gokhale
in 'Bhakti in Early Buddhism' in Lele, J. (ed.)
Tradition and Modernity in Bhakti
Movements.
It is difficult to see how modern scholars can
salvage the concept of Bhakti in Buddhism
from the identification of syncretic fusion
with the earlier Animistic Shamanism. Indeed,
the attempts that have been made to isolate the
concepts seem to run in the compartmentalist
school (identified by Terwiel and referred to
elsewhere, which include Wales, Amyyot
Rabibhadana and Bunnag) and have quite
aggressive and peculiar support in some
Australian Universities. It is arguable that the
guru-cela relationship, whether in Hinduism,
Buddhism, Christian sects, later Islamic
Sufism, or the primary or syncretic forms of
Shamanism, is of itself an enslaving and
limiting exercise.
The conception that the teachings of the
Buddha are true, before the believer has had a
chance to test them himself: develop from the
premise that the Buddha or Tathagata has
eliminated all confusion and delusion, hence
achieving truth as, "truth is Dharma"
(Samyutta - Nikaya 1:169) and "truth is one,
there is not a second" (Suttanipatas 884). The
Page 5
Tathagata, fully self-realised to the might of
his para nirvana in the element of nirvana, in
which none of the groups for existence
remains, becomes truth "in that interval all
that he spoke, declared and explained is
exactly so and not otherwise". (Dighe Nikaya iii 135) (I. B. Horner, 'Buddhism: the
Theravade' in The Concise Encyclopedia of
Living Faiths, ed. R. C. Zaehner, Hutchinson,
London, p. 283).
Hence, infallibility is an attribute of the
Buddha. Incoherence is merely an inadequacy
on the part of the student, not of the fully
enlightened Guru, the Tathagata or Buddha.
The absoluteness of the guru-cela relationship
developed because Bhakti, or adoration, is
essential to overcome the incoherence of the
system.
Arhants and the Mystical Ascent
There are thirty-seven constituents of
Arhantship (or 31 if the eightfold way is
counted as one and adding purity in ethical
behaviour, etc.).
After mastering the four jhana of the material
plane, he then breaks through to as many as
five meditations on the immaterial planes. The
final stage of having no further volition allows
the Arhant to break away and the remainder of
his actions generate no more Karma.
Thus, by faith he ascends the nine (or seven)
heavens of meditation, achieving Arhantship
and, hence, potentially either to the Brahma
worlds where like this world nothing is
permanent, or to Nirvana.
Conviction by faith endows resolution,
thereby developing powers of meditation.
Like Christianity, Buddhism sees faith as a
seed (Suttanipata 77) from which further
growth will spring. However, this is not on
election; indeed, the Buddha has rebuked
disciples for failing to instruct to the potential
of the mind spoken to.
The Samgha or community stands as an
example of the faith to inspire lesser mortals
to emulate and thus develop their faith.
Page 6
Within the Theravada scheme, the ritual of the
temple is symbolic of impermanency in the
flowers and lights displayed. The words
uttered are not prayers but reminders of the
qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Samgha
(ibid., p. 293).
The gradual approach to find attainment is
applied by all, even certain Arhants.
The earlier concepts of Hell are replaced
within Buddhism as Niraya Hell on a level as
a sorrowful state, with birth as an animal, a
departed one, or a demon (asura).
Through unwavering confidence, the faithful
will not commit heinous offences (which rank
creating a schism in the order with
patricide/matricide or killing an Arhant or
wounding a Buddha – they cannot be killed).
At most, the faithful adherent will be born
seven times as a man before he wins Nirvana.
Prior to his final birth, he is born as a
sakadagamin.
In his final birth, he is an anagamin, having
destroyed the five fetters. After his death he
becomes a denizen of one of the highest deva
worlds and attains Nirvana there, when the
residual karma that led to his deva birth has
expended itself.
The fourth stage is to become Arhant, who by
his efforts on this Earth has achieved freedom
of mind and freedom through intuitive
wisdom, and has done what is necessary to
shed the burden of self, exhausting his Karma
while he still lives and achieving final
liberation involving no future state.
BUDDHISM IN ASIA
The Revolution
The Hinayana tradition was to develop into
eighteen schools, seventeen of which were
wiped out by Islam when it swept into
Northern India. The Theravada tradition
became the sect of the South as the national
religion of Ceylon, Burma and Siam.
The North, including Nepal, Tibet, China,
Korea and Japan is nearly all Mahayanist. The
Mysticism Chapter 7
Mahayana "revolution" was brought about not
only by further non-Indian Syncretism, but
also by the weakness in Theravada in its
relationship with the laity. The faith seems to
have suffered from a decline in the spiritual
calibre of the monks and their capacity to
produce acknowledged Arhants. These
people, venerated as a form of saint, fitted
well into the animistic system. When the
production of Arhants was seen to be in
decline, it was replaced by the Bodhisattva
ideal. Primarily, the theological revolution
was precipitated by an arrogant, seemingly
dissipated clergy. The Mahayana re-developed
the faith to give the layman more importance
in the system and forced the clergy into more
socially useful positions, which more closely
follow the animistic practices and beliefs that
formed the base religion of the mass.
Monks in the north were to become involved
in professions serving the people "as
astrologers, exorcizers, weather makers,
physicians etc., (they) inserted themselves
into the magical side of their lives" (E. Conze
- Buddhism The Mahayana, Zaehner, ibid., p.
297).
Thus, the monks assumed the positions of the
Shamans in the animistic system they had
refined in the south, after inheriting it from
the same source as these northern tribes. The
main contributions they were to make were
the non-violent ideal with the Bodhisattva, or
enlightened being, expanding and preaching
compassion and wisdom. Motivated by the
desire to win full enlightenment and become a
Buddha, he selflessly postpones entry to
Nirvana to help suffering creatures.
The system holds that others are aided by the
gift of the Dharma and contemplation. Thus
Mahayana and Buddhist countries generally
fall far short of productive social and material
welfare, because the technical organisation of
a modern society made spiritual life
impossible and therefore was often
disregarded. A great deal can be said about the
reasons for the failure to care for the society’s
needs, but what should be considered is the
effect of supra-rational thought processes
generated by animistic Shamanism that were
Buddhism
coupled with the law of Karma, which, of
itself, stifles compassion for others.
The Bodhisattvas were able to more
prolifically satisfy the animistic necessity for
saints as objects of reverence or intercession.
This was to become common to all forms of
Buddhism.
The Development of Mystical Thought in
Buddhism
The Diamond and Matrix Systems
From the Diamond Sutra:
“The past mind is unattainable, the future mind is
unattainable and the present mind is unattainable.
If so what is the mind which you wish to
punctuate" (i.e., t'ien-hian (refreshments) literally
means to punctuate the mind). (Question to Teshan (790-865) the Chinese Buddhist Sage by a
Teahouse Keeper as recounted by D.T. Suzuki,
Mysticism Christian and Buddhist, p. 75).
The unattainable is something that remains
after every possible negation. Horner’s
explanation of crossing to the island of
Nirvana is misleading in that "those who do
not know how to transcend time will naturally
find it difficult to attain Nirvana, which is
eternity" (ibid., p. 76). This posed a problem
for the west also within the soul doctrine and,
for this reason, Hegel struggled with the
negation of the negation and Heidegger finally
gave expression to the concept from Hegel's
falling into time. Einstein expressed this
scientifically in the concept of energy, matter,
space, time and gravity, being equivalent
expressions of a single fundamental essence.
This theory was foreshadowed by the problem
that successive ostensions, which provide
samples over the spatial spread, inevitably
consume time and make space and time
inseparable. (This difficult concept is
exclusively a philosophical problem, which is
analysed in Creation: From Anthropomorphic
Theology to Theomorphic Anthropology (No.
B5).)
The immediate knowing of the early Zen
masters was only a reaction, in part, to the
concept of negation. The development of the
sects in the North was a reaction to the
philosophical problems of this negation.
Page 7
Thus, the Shingon doctrines (which became a
form of Buddhist Gnosticism) distinguish an
exoteric and an esoteric teaching, where "by
way of the latter it is possible even in this
earthly body composed of the six elements to
attain the absolute knowledge which is
Nirvana, or in other words, to become
Buddha" (G.F. Moore, History of Religions,
vol. 1, p. 127).
In this system, the supreme being of the
Dharmakaya is Vairocana, one of the Dhyani
(Contemplative) Buddhas of the Mahayana.
"He is the great sun around whom are grouped four
other Dhyani Buddhas; each of these Buddhas has
as sattelites a group of Bodhisattvas; these in turn
have their satellites and so on in infinitum." (ibid.)
Shaka (Sakyamuni) is wholly subordinate to
the sun being, as is Amida, the only one of the
four Buddhas of the diamond world to
reappear in the matrix system.
In the matrix system there are eight
emanations from the sun Buddha, Vairocana.
These form the petals of a lotus. This ninefold system is the repetition of the nine-fold
system of the Shamans again appearing.
"To attain the supreme enlightenment it is
necessary to ascend step by step ten rounds of a
ladder of thought, which, originally corresponding
to different classes of beings, was adopted by Kobo
to the various sects, the highest; the stage of mystic
enlightenment in which man recognises for the first
time the source of his own thought and while still
in the body becomes Buddha, being attained only
by the followers of the Shingon. The practical
methods of achieving the great end are an
adaptation and development of the Indian Yoga, as
on its speculative side the doctrine returns to a
pantheistic type of Brahmanism" (ibid.).
This sect is a return to the animistic demon(now Buddha-) controlled world of the
Shamans.
This is opposed by the Tendai sect (founded
by Chi K'ai, d.597) which claims:
"that all beings are capable of becoming supreme
Buddhas, because they are all partakers of the
Buddha nature" (ibid., p. 129).
The Buddha is eternal, and the historical
Buddha is only one of the innumerable
incarnations of this entity. His death was only
Page 8
a device to lead men to obedience. In his own
words (from the Saddharma Pundarika):
"I am the father of the world, the self existent, the
healer, the protector of all creatures". (ibid.)
Thus, the Buddha claimed to be The
Brahman, The All Father, The Self Existent.
By this, he was not just contemporaneous with
the creation, he was the creator. We have
returned full circle to the doctrine of the
Babylonians with the pantheon of gods
renamed, with the eternal spirit, creator and
protector from the Sun figure in the former
system, and the external cosmos in the latter.
From this system, men are immortal as part of
the eternal spirit. Promotion is by repetition of
ritual within mystical contemplation.
The Medieval Systems
During the eleventh to the thirteenth century,
the older monastic orders were in decline in
Buddhism. In Europe the Church fell into
perversion, avarice and cruelty during the
Albigensian crusade and the attendant
Inquisition, and saw the consolidation of the
monastic orders. The reformation that took
place in Buddhism saw new sects develop.
These included the Zen (Dhyona) founded by
Eisai about 1187, and various sects emanated
from this.
The Jodo sects founded in 1175 by Genku,
and the Shin founded by Genku’s disciple
Shinran about 1224, are quite different to the
types of schools dealt with previously. This
school teaches that salvation is "not achieved
by man’s own striving in the ‘Holy Way’, but
is bestowed by the Grace of Amida Buddha
on those who call upon him in faith." (ibid., p.
123).
Thus, Amida Buddha is differentiated from
the Sakyamuni Buddha, and on him is
conferred a power in faith, similar to Christ.
This is an important step in the development
of Buddhism and may well be a syncretic
adaption from the Nestorians. This sect
created vigorous opposition in Japan and
provoked Nichiren to found, in 1252, the most
reactionary and intolerant of all the sects. This
was the equivalent of the counter-reformation.
Through all the new sects the abbots became
Mysticism Chapter 7
great feudal lords, some with whole
provinces, and "one of them could even dream
of making himself master of all Japan" (ibid.).
Nobunaga was to crush them because of their
worldliness and degeneracy.
The reappearance of the Buddha as the
Maitreya, was foreshadowed by Sakyamuni,
probably from the Brahman teachings of the
reincarnation of Vishnu in the last age of Kali.
The reappearance of the Buddha Maitreya is
visualised as different from the evil
incarnation, which comes as the destroyer of
the Earth. The Messianic destruction of the
nations, foreshadowed in Revelation, might
well have been seen as the incarnation of Kali.
The Maitreya would be a seductive influence
indeed against this background.
The Intrusion of the Mother-Goddess Cult
into Buddhism and the Development of
Animistic Practices
Tara
The cult of the Goddess Tara had developed
from a goddess of the Hindu Pantheon. In
Assam (Kama rupa), the Saviouress Ugratara
was one of the ten Mahavidya goddesses (G.
Sarma, Mother Goddess Kamrupa Kamakhye,
Gauhati, Gauhati University Press, 1978, p.
29).
There is little doubt that Tara, the Sakti of
Avolokitesvara, was known in the sixth
century Nalanda. Her cult soon spread from
Eastern India to Western India and the Deccan
(M. Gosh, Development of Buddhist
Iconography in Eastern India A Study of Tara,
Prajnes of Five Tathagates and Bhrikut, New
Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1980, p. 31).
According to B. J. Terweil, who delivered a
paper (entitled The Goddess Tara and Early
Ahom Religion) to the seminar on Minorities
in Buddhist Polities (at Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, on 24-28 June 1985),
she may be seen as the East Indian Buddhist
version of the Chinese Guanyin (Kuan-yin), or
the Hindu Goddess Durga, both of whom
preceded her in time (p. 20). What is of note is
that she is a development of the MotherGoddess figure as saviouress within
Buddhism. Tara's later dominance in Assam,
Buddhism
within Ahom religion, may be a logical
extension or adaption to the original cult there
of Durga, especially in her aspect of the
Buffalo-demon killer, Mahisasuramardini
(again a Bull-Slaying divinity). The only
bronze Tara found there, five miles south of
Gauhati, appears to have been imported from
Bengal or Bihar.
The Tara cult spread from India via
Buddhism. Her image is found in votive
tablets in early Pyu sites of Sri Koetra,
possibly dating from the seventh century CE.
Luce reports three sculptures of the goddess in
Burma dating from the eighth, ten/eleventh
centuries. (P. G. A. Luce, Old Burma - Early
Pagan, vol. 1, New York, JJ Augustin, 1969,
p. 15 and pp. 197-198).
From a picture and description of the Javanese
dated image published in H. Sastri, (The
Origin and Cult of Tara, Memoirs of the
Archaeological Survey of India, No. 20,
Calcutta: Government of India, Central
Publication Branch, 1924, Plate iv and pages
11 and 19), the goddess cult had taken root in
Java during the later part of the eighth
century. These Javanese artists appear to have
made or inspired the making of the ninth and
tenth century Tara image now in the Songkla
National Museum in Peninsular Thailand.
Also, according to Terwiel, another Tara
image dated to the tenth century, “may have
had East Bengal provenance" (Terweil, p. 22).
A late tenth- or early eleventh-century
depiction
of
the
goddess
beneath
Avalokitesvara carved at Lopburi, indicates
that Mahayana Buddhism was known in some
circles in Dvaravati times, early in the 11th
century, however, although indicative that she
was known in the Chao Phraya lowlands,
there is no real evidence of a proper cult being
established there by that time (Terwiel, p. 23,
from M. C. Subhadradis Diskul, Three Carved
Stone Slabs of Lopburie Style in the Bangkok
National Museum in Art and Archaeology in
Thailand Bangkok, Fine Arts Dept., 1975, pp.
27-35).
The Goddess and Tantric Mysticism in
South-East Asia
Page 9
These examples indicate that Tara had spread
throughout South-East Asia in a relatively
minor way and was not "accepted there as the
Supreme goddess as was the case in
Vajrayana Buddhism" (Terwiel, p. 23).
What does appear, however, is the persistence
of the mother-goddess figure, even as the
goddess of storms and sea, and hence the
princess of the Southern Ocean. This aspect of
the deity was known in the west as Stella
Maris, who was the star Sirius (associated
with the cult of Isis) and which transferred
itself to Christianity in Mariolatry through the
Mystery Cults there. The same syncretic
fusion, which established Mariolatry in
Christianity, adopted the little tradition
goddesses, expressed in varying forms in
Hinduism, into Buddhism with similar roles.
Thus, the ancient concepts of faith were
superimposed on the Buddhist system.
The invasion of India by the Muslims saw a
persecution of ferocious zeal of Tantric
specialists at the end of the 12th century.
These tantric monks and specialists fled north
to Tibet and Kashmir and, according to the
Tibetan Historian Taranatha, into Burma and
Cambodia (Terwiel, p. 25).
According to Than Tun, a Buddhist
movement spread down the Chindwin River
valley from Upper Burma to Pagan during the
first half of the 13th century. This movement
was characterised by ritual sacrifices of
buffaloes, oxen, pigs, goats, and deer, as well
as by the ritual consumption of amounts of
alcoholic beverages. These rites clearly
indicate that this was Vajrayana, or Tantric
Buddhism (Than Tun, "Religion in Burma,
AD 1000 - 1300, Journal of the Burma
Research Society, Vol. 24, December 1959,
pp. 47-69 and Than Tun, Mahakasapa and his
Tradition, Journal of the Burma Research
Society, vol. 42, December 1959, pp. 99-118).
The drinking of rice beer and the sacrifice of
animals were essential to pre-Buddhist Tai
Religion. (B. J. Terwiel, Laopani and Ahom
Identity; An Etho Historical Exercise, a paper
presented to the 31st International Congress of
Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa,
Tokyo-Kyoto, 31 August-7 September 1983,
Page 10
and Terwiel, The Tai of Assam and Ancient
Tai Ritual, Vol. II). Orthodox Theravada
Buddhism disallows both these practices and
would therefore have been much more alien to
the Ahom, who were residing at that time in
the Hukawng Valley in the upper reaches of
the Chindwin River. It can be seen that
Tantric Buddhism was much more akin – and
indeed was probably a syncretic adaptation of
the mother-goddess religion – to the Buddhist
system. This Tantric system entered SouthEast Asia from Java to China and, because of
its animistic basis, was adopted by the mass.
Thus, two separate concepts developed and
indeed became two faiths. In his work, A
Model for the Study of Thai Buddhism
(Journal of Asian Studies, vol. xxxv, No. 3,
May 1976), B. J. Terwiel presents an analysis
of the magico-mystical base of the religion
and the animistic order of the system at
Wadsaancaw, the monastery and area of
study. The use of protective amulets and holy
relics with the animistic spirit cosmology is
similar to that found in Java and elsewhere in
Indonesia and South-East Asia. From page
403 he shows two distinct types of view.
Firstly, the syncretist, which incorporates
Mysticism Chapter 7
Buddhist concepts and beliefs into the
animistic world view. This system is found
amongst the lower wage earners, farmers,
fishermen, servants and unskilled workers.
Secondly, the compartmentalists, where the
upper-class bureaucrats, church dignitaries
and the wealthy, see Buddhism as superior to
the animistic, and tend to compartmentalise
religion. However, these are the minority.
Terwiel acknowledges that the model is
incomplete, however, the diversity of
conceptions also explains the disparity of
approach between scholars such as the
Syncretists (de Young, Ingersold, Anuman
Rajadhan and Wright).
"Compartmentalists such as Wales, Amyyot
Rabibhadana and Bunnag may well have had
access to quite different sections of the population,
and reflect the position of the Buddhist elite in their
works" (Terwiel, p. 403).
The basic structure of the Buddhist system is
modified by the wholesale influence of
Shamanism and its mystical derivatives.
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