Miss Buddha

by Ulf Wolf

  I am not sure I agree.

  Nirvana

  The ultimate goal of the Buddhist path is release from the round of phenomenal existence (samsara) with its inherent suffering. This goal is named Nirvana (Pali: Nibbana) which means to blow out; an enlightened state in which the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion have been forever stilled.

  Not to be confused with total annihilation—though far too many Western scholars do not make this distinction—Nirvana is a state of consciousness beyond definition. After attaining Nirvana, the enlightened individual may continue to live, burning off any remaining karma until a state of final Nirvana (pariNirvana) is attained at body death.

  On paper, the goal of Nirvana is attainable by anyone, although it may only be a realistic goal for members of the monastic community.

  In Theravada Buddhism an individual who has achieved enlightenment by following the Eightfold Path is known as an arhat (Pali: arahant), or worthy one—a solitary saint.

  For those unable (or unwilling, in this life) to pursue the ultimate goal of Nirvana, the proximate goal of better rebirth through improved karma is an often pursued option. This lesser goal is generally aspired to by lay Buddhists in the hope that it will eventually lead to a life in which they are capable of pursuing final enlightenment as members of the sangha.

  A life that leads to Nirvana is, as a rule, detached and inner-oriented, and involves cultivating four virtuous attitudes, known as the Palaces of Brahma or the Heavenly Abodes: loving-kindness (or benevolence), compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

  The ethic that leads to better rebirth, however, is centered on fulfilling one’s duties to society. It involves acts of charity, especially support of the sangha, as well as observance of the five precepts that constitute the basic moral code of Buddhism. These precepts prohibit killing, stealing, harmful language, sexual misbehavior, and the use of intoxicants. By observing these precepts, the three roots of evil—lust, hatred, and delusion—may be, if not extinguished, at least overcome and held in check.

  Early Development

  Shortly before his death, the Buddha was asked by his disciples to appoint a successor. He refused this request; instead, he told his followers to work out their own salvation with diligence.

  At the time of his death, the Buddha’s teachings existed only as oral tradition and it soon grew apparent that a firmer basis for maintaining the purity of his many lessons was needed. To solve this, the monastic order met periodically to reach agreement on matters of both doctrine and practice.

  Four such meetings (major councils) have been recorded.

  Major Councils

  The first such council was held at Rajagrha (present-day Rajgir) shortly after the Buddha’s death. Presided over by a monk named Mahakasyapa, its purpose was to recite and agree on the Buddha’s actual teachings and on proper monastic discipline.

  About a century later, a second great council met at Vaishali. According to records, its main purpose was to confront and decide upon ten now questionable monastic practices—the use of money, the drinking of palm wine, and other irregularities—of monks from the Vajjian Confederacy. The council declared these practices unlawful.

  Some Buddhist scholars ascribe the origins of the first schism within Buddhism to this event, holding that the accounts of this council refer to a rift between the younger Mahasanghikas, or Great Assembly, and the stricter, older Sthaviras, or Elders. Other scholars find it more likely that the split between these two groups occurred (and was formalized) at a subsequent meeting held some forty years later as a result of the continued growth of tensions within the sangha over disciplinary issues, the role of the laity, and the nature of the arahant.

  In time, as the human species is wont to do, other disagreements arose, and further subdivisions within these groups resulted in 18 distinct schools that differed not only on philosophical matters, but on religious questions, and points of discipline as well. Of these 18 traditional sects, only Theravada—which some still call the original branch—survives.

  A third major Buddhist council was held at Pataliputra (present-day Patna) in the 3rd century BCE. This council was called by King Ashoka, the Buddhist emperor of most of India. Convened, at Ashoka’s request, by the monk Moggaliputta Tissa, it was held in order to purify the sangha of the large number of false monks and heretics who had joined the order because of its royal patronage.

  This council refuted offending viewpoints and expelled those who held them. During this council, a full compilation of the Buddhas extant teachings, the Tipitaka (meaning three baskets—those holding the stacks of palm leaves containing the finalized writings), was begun, if not completed. The finished record (the Pali Canon) survives to this day.

  Other scriptures compiled at, or shortly after, this meeting included the body of subtle philosophy known as abhiDharma, as well as a finalized version of the monastic code of discipline—known as vinaya—that had been recited at the first council.

  This third council also dispatched missionaries to various countries.

  A fourth council, under the patronage of King Kanishka, emperor of much of Northern India, was held about 100 CE at Jalandhar or in Kashmir. This council aimed at creating peace among the various feuding sects, including the Mahayana and Theravada factions; but the Theravada Buddhists refused to recognize the authenticity of any branch other than their own and so the schism prevailed.

  Buddhist Literature

  For several centuries after the death of the Buddha, the teachings recited, agreed upon, and finalized at the councils were transmitted orally. These were finally committed to writing about the 1st century BCE.

  Some early schools used Sanskrit for their scriptural language. Although individual texts are extant, no complete canon has survived in Sanskrit.

  However, the full Theravada canon survives in Pali, a popular dialect derived from Sanskrit, and most likely spoken by the Buddha and his immediate followers.

  The Tipitaka

  The Theravada Buddhist canon is known in Pali as the Tipitaka, meaning “Three Baskets,” because it consists of three collections of writings: the Sutra Pitaka, a collection of the Buddha’s discourses; the Vinaya Pitaka, the code of monastic discipline; and the AbhiDharma Pitaka, which contains philosophical, psychological, and doctrinal discussions and classifications.

  The Sutra Pitaka is composed both of discourses held by the Buddha and of dialogues between the Buddha and other people.

  The Sutra Pitaka consists of five groups of texts—Nikayas (meaning collections in Pali): Digha Nikaya (Collection of Long Discourses), Majjhima Nikaya (Collection of Medium-Length Discourses), Samyutta Nikaya (Collection of Grouped Discourses), Anguttara Nikaya (Collection of Discourses on Numbered Topics), and Khuddaka Nikaya (Collection of Miscellaneous Texts).

  The fifth (and largest) group, we find the Jatakas, comprising stories of former lives of the Buddha, and the Dhammapada (Religious Aphorisms), a summary of the Buddha’s teachings on mental discipline and morality—possibly the most translated and read of all Buddhist texts.

  The Vinaya Pitaka (the Basket of Discipline) consists of more than 225 rules governing the conduct of both Buddhist monks and nuns. Each such rule is accompanied by a story explaining the original reason for the rule.

  The AbhiDharma Pitaka (the Higher Teachings) consists of seven separate works, including a detailed classification of psychological phenomena, metaphysical analysis, and a thesaurus of technical vocabulary.

  In addition to the Tipitaka, there are two non-canonical texts that have gained great authority and influence within Theravada Buddhism: the Milindapanha (Questions of King Milinda) and the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification).

  The Milindapanha dates from about the 2nd century CE and is in the form of a dialogue dealing with a series of fundamental problems in Buddhist thought.

  The Visuddhimagga, from the 5th century CE, is nothing short of a masterpiece of commentary by the most famous of Buddhist commentators, Buddhagho
sa. It is a large compendium summarizing Buddhist thought and (primarily) meditative practice.

  Theravada Buddhists consider the Tipitaka to be the remembered (and later recorded) words of Siddhartha Gautama. Mahayana Buddhists, on the other hand, do not limit their scriptures to the teachings of this historical figure, nor has Mahayana ever bound itself to a closed canon of sacred writings.

  Thus we find that different scriptures have held sway over different branches of Mahayana at various periods of history, including: the SadDharmapundarika Sutra (Lotus of the Good Law Sutta, popularly known as the Lotus Sutta), the Vimalakirti Sutta, the Avatamsaka Sutta (Garland Sutta), and the Lankavatara Sutta (The Buddha’s Descent to Sri Lanka Sutta), as well as a group of writings known as the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom).

  Conflict and New Groupings

  In the early years following the death of the Buddha, many conflicting interpretations of the master’s teachings appeared, which resulted in the traditional 18 schools of Buddhist thought.

  As a group, these schools eventually came to be seen as too conservative and literal minded in their attachment to the master’s message. Among them, Theravada was accused of being too individualistic and insufficiently concerned with the needs of the laity.

  Such discontent led a liberal wing of the sangha to break away from the rest of the monks at the second council in 383 BCE.

  While the more conservative monks continued to honor the Buddha as a perfectly enlightened human teacher, the liberal Mahasanghikas developed a new concept: Deciding that the Buddha, rather than a man, was, in fact, an eternal, omnipresent, transcendental being; they speculated that the human Buddha was but an apparition of the transcendental Buddha, created for the benefit of humankind.

  This Mahasanghika concept came to inform Mahayana.

  Mahayana

  The actual origins of Mahayana are obscure. The names of its founders are unknown, and scholars disagree about whether it originated in southern or in northwestern India. They do agree, however, that its formative years fall between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE.

  Speculation about the eternal Buddha (Buddha Nature) that had begun by the Second Major Council continued well after the beginning of the Christian era and culminated in the Mahayana doctrine of his threefold nature, or triple “body” (trikaya).

  The three aspects are: the body of essence, the body of communal bliss, and the body of transformation.

  According to the Mahayana tradition, the body of essence represents the ultimate nature of the Buddha: beyond form, it is the unchanging absolute and is spoken of as consciousness or the void.

  This basic and essential Buddha nature does, however, manifest itself, taking on a heavenly form as the body of communal bliss. Here, the Buddha sits in godlike splendor, preaching in the heavens.

  In the third nature, the Buddha now and then appears on earth in human form to convert humankind as the body of transformation. It is said that the Buddha has taken on such an appearance countless times. Thus, Mahayana considers the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, only one specimen of the body of transformation.

  These new Mahayana concept of the Buddha paved the way for concepts such as divine grace and ongoing revelation that are nowhere to be found in Theravada.

  In fact, this belief in the Buddha’s heavenly manifestations led to the development of a significant devotional strand in Mahayana that some scholars have described the “Hinduization” of Buddhism.

  — Bodhisattva

  An important new concept in Mahayana was that of the bodhisattva, or enlightenment being, as the ideal toward which the good Buddhist should aspire.

  A bodhisattva is defined as an individual who has attained perfect enlightenment but voluntarily delays entry into final Nirvana in order to make possible the salvation of all other sentient beings.

  In order to affect this salvation, the bodhisattva, whose key attributes are compassion and loving-kindness, transfers merit built up over many lifetimes to less fortunate creatures; something, so Mahayana maintains, the selfish arahant of Theravada would never do.

  Some beg to differ.

  Theravada

  The Theravada school, the more conservative of the two current sister schools (the other being Mahayana) traces its descent from the original sangha, or monastic community, that first followed the Buddha.

  Its canon of scripture consists of the Tipitaka, the first great compendium of Buddhist writings, composed in the Pali language, also known as the Pali Canon.

  Theravada tends toward doctrinal conservatism, exemplified in a cautious interpretation of its canon. Because of this, it has been given the pejorative name Hinayana (Sanskrit for “Lesser Vehicle”) by its rivals, who call their own tradition Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”).

  The goal of the Theravadin is to become an arahant, a sage who has achieved Nirvana and will never be reborn. As mentioned above, Mahayana traditionally prefers the figure of the bodhisattva—who, out of compassion, helps others toward salvation—to the arahant, who (according to the Mahayana devotee) is concerned chiefly with his own salvation.

  Some trace the origins of Theravada to the events following the second great council of Buddhism at Vaishali, India, in 383 BCE, in which novel interpretations of doctrine were condemned by conservatives—the Theras (Elders)—who thereby became the originators of Theravada orthodoxy.

  The reformers, in turn, accused the conservatives of being too self-absorbed and dogmatic. This ideological split was confirmed at the third council, convened by King Ashoka at Pataliputra (now Patna, India) in about 250 BCE. After that, Theravada is said to have been carried to Sri Lanka by Ashoka’s son, the monk Mahinda, where it eventually became a national creed, centered at the great monastery of Mahavihara and closely associated with the Sri Lankan monarchy.

  Ashoka’s missionaries also spread Theravada Buddhism to Myanmar and Thailand. For much of the 1st millennium CE, Theravada existed alongside Mahayana in all these areas.

  While other early sects died out or were absorbed into Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada retained its identity. Similarly, when Buddhism died out in India after the 12th century CE, Theravada kept its hold in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. In about the 10th century, a Theravada reform movement began in Sri Lanka that consolidated the kingdom as a Theravada monarchy.

  This reform movement later spread to Burma and Thailand, where it revitalized the Theravada tradition and ensured its supremacy over other Buddhist sects. Reformers also carried the creed into Cambodia and Laos, where the geographical limits of Theravada predominance were reached.

  However, despite some Theravada followers in Vietnam and elsewhere, Mahayana Buddhism became the dominant tradition in the rest of the Buddhist world.

  Recently, Theravada has found a new home in India by the mass conversion to Theravada Buddhism of Harijans (the so-called Untouchables, who fall outside the traditional class divisions of Hindu society), who are attracted by Buddhism’s indifference to Hindu concepts of caste.

  Theravada also has a notable tradition of forest-dwelling hermits who exist outside the monastic organizations. In contrast to Mahayana Buddhism, since about 500 CE, Theravada has had no orders of Buddhist nuns. There is limited participation in the sangha by women and lay people, who generally wear white robes and take up asceticism (self-denial) without entering a monastic order.

  — Doctrine

  Theravadins abide by the original teachings of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, and their doctrine reveres the Buddha as a single, supremely gifted, yet mortal teacher—in contrast to the succession of transcendent beings postulated by Mahayana.

  The Dharma, or teachings, of the historical Buddha are usually regarded as being contained in the Tipitaka, and unlike Mahayana, which has generated a vast number of additional Sutras—consisting, one must assume, not only of assimilation of local lore and mysticism, but also of a host of opinions and “improvements” upon the Buddha’s teachings—Theravada confines i
tself to this core Dharma (the Pali Canon).

  Lamaism

  Tibetan Buddhism is the predominant religion of Tibet and Mongolia, and is also referred to as Lamaism. It is essentially of the Mahayana school, with elements of modified Hindu Shaivism and native ritualistic shamanism.

  As history tells it, in 747 CE, a Buddhist monk and scholar named Padmasambhava (Sanskrit for “born of the lotus flower”) journeyed from northern India to Tibet, where he established the first order of lamas, or monks. From there Buddhism spread throughout the rest of the country.

  Tibetan Buddhist practice consists mainly of reciting prayers and sacred texts and of chanting hymns to the accompaniment of horns, trumpets, and drums. For this worship, which takes place three times a day, the clergy are summoned by the tolling of a small bell and are seated in rows according to their rank.

  The scriptures of Tibetan Buddhism are divided into two great collections: the canon—the sacred books, and the exegetical commentary.

  The canon, consisting of counsels and injunctions of the Buddha rendered from Indian and Chinese texts, contains more than 1000 works, which in some editions fill more than 100 volumes of approximately 1000 pages each.

  The commentary is likewise voluminous, but does not have the canonical authority of the canon.

  Since 1950, in the wake of Chinese invasion and repression, many Tibetans have emigrated. Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal continue the traditional practice of their religion. In both Europe and North America, a number of Tibetan lamas have emerged as influential religious teachers.

  Zen

  Zen or Chan is Buddhist blend of Mahayana and Taoism. This school developed in China and later in Japan as the result of this fusion.