The Age of the Sages

by Mark W Muesse

  View of Time

  Mahavira believed the world was never created and will never be destroyed. Thus, cosmic time is infinite, but it follows a cyclical pattern. Each cycle is divided into two halves, a period of decline and a period of ascendancy, and each half cycle is further divided into six unequal, immensely long phases. One half cycle, called avasarpini, is a time of decline, and during the first part of this period, people are enormously tall and live long lives; they are extremely happy, wise, and virtuous without the need for ethics or religion. All their needs are provided for by wish-granting trees. As the cycle proceeds, conditions get progressively worse. The world and life are characterized by gradual corruption and deterioration; ethics and religion are introduced; writing is invented because people’s memories begin to fail. It is during these stages that the Tirthankaras appear. At the lowest point of the cycle of decline, people will be only three feet tall and live only twenty years. They will dwell in caves, like animals, and pursue all manner of immoral activity.

  When time reaches its lowest point, it begins to ascend, and the world gets increasingly better. This half cycle is called utsarpini. People begin to live longer, healthier lives, conduct themselves in more compassionate ways, and enjoy greater happiness. When this cycle reaches its apex, time begins its downward descent once again. This pattern repeats again and again, forever. According to Jain belief, we are presently in the fifth stage of the cycle of descent, a time when things are bad yet will get worse. The current era began a little over 2,500 years ago and will continue for a total of 21,000 years. At the end of this period, Jainism will be lost but reintroduced by the next Tirthankara after the half cycle of ascent begins.

  View of the World

  The physical world comprises three levels: the underworld, the earth’s surface or the middle realm, and the heavens. The underworld is the location of a series of seven or eight hell realms, each colder than the next. The hells exist to punish the wicked as a way of removing negative karmas. The Jain hells are more like a purgatory than a place of ultimate condemnation. When souls have suffered enough for their sins, they may be reborn in another realm. The middle level is the home of life and is known by the lovely name Jambudvipa, or “the island of the rose-apple tree,” a name also used by Buddhists and Hindus. The upper level of the world is the home of the gods. It consists of sixteen heavens and fourteen celestial regions. Souls with insight may be born in one of the higher celestial regions; those without insight may be born in one of the heavens. Above the universe’s ceiling is a crescent-shaped structure where the Tirthankaras and the completely liberated souls dwell. This is the ultimate destination of those who attain moksha.

  Life

  Like the sages of the Upanishads, Mahavira believed the soul was real, not illusory as the Buddha thought. Mahavira conceived of the soul as unchanging in essence, although its characteristics were subject to change. He also thought there were an infinite number of souls, each an actual, separate individual, akin to what Leibniz called a monad. Thus, Mahavira would not have accepted the Vedantic idea that the soul and ultimate reality are consubstantial, since that view denies individuality. Furthermore, all souls are of equal value; one is not better than another. Souls may be embodied in gods and humans, as well as animals, plants, and even, according to some, stones, minerals, bodies of water, fire, and the winds. The souls of fire and wind are very tiny but nonetheless alive. One of the early Jain scriptures admonishes followers to avoid using fire altogether:

  The man who lights a fire kills living things,

  While he who puts it out kills the fire;

  Thus a wise one who understands the Law

  Should never light a fire.[5]

  In its pure state, the soul has perfect perception, knowledge, happiness, and power. But at present, all souls except the completely liberated ones are defiled because they are embodied and stained with karma. The Jain view of karma is unlike any we have studied thus far. The Jains understand karma as a fine, material substance that clings to and stains the soul. Karmas are imperceptible particles, floating throughout the world. As a soul commits a karmic act, it attracts these fine particles, which adhere to the soul and weigh it down. These karmas accumulate and color the soul. If we could see souls—which we cannot because of our defiled state—we could easily detect a soul’s moral and spiritual quality. The worst souls are stained black, and the purest are white. In between, from bad to good, the soul may be colored blue, gray, red, lotus pink, or yellow. As in Buddhism and Hinduism, karma determines one’s future births and keeps us in bondage to the material, samsaric world.

  Because they are entrapped in matter, embodied souls are not omniscient, as they are in their pure state. Karmic defilements distort our perceptions and limit our knowledge of the world. These distortions prompt the soul to seek pleasure in material possessions and temporary enjoyments, which further lead to self-centered thoughts and deeds, anger, hatred, greed, and other negative states of mind. These in turn result in the further accumulation of karmas. The cycle is vicious.

  The limitations caused by karmic defilement also mean we are unable to comprehend the incredible richness and complexity of reality. The Jains say reality is anekanta, or many sided. What this means is that the world is composed of an infinite number of material and spiritual substances, each with an infinite number of qualities and manifestations. Because of the complexity of the universe and the limitations of our knowing, all claims to truth must be tentative. The Jains refer to this principle as nonabsolutism, which means refraining from making categorical or unconditional statements. We must be humble about our knowledge and acknowledge that we could be wrong.

  The Path to Liberation

  With this outline of the Jain worldview, we can now consider Mahavira’s discipline for attaining liberation. The objective of the Jain path is simple and has two components. The first part is to stop the accumulations of new karmas. The second is to eliminate the old karmas that have already accumulated and weigh the soul down.

  To reach the first goal, Mahavira advised his followers to fulfill five mahavratas, or Great Vows. The first and foremost of these is ahimsa, not to harm any living beings. The Jains take this precept further than the Buddhists, who drew the line at sentient life, not life itself. The Jains believe that even unintentionally injuring another creature generates negative karma. For Buddhists, an act must be intentional to be karmically relevant. In accord with these convictions, Jains are vegetarians and refuse to use leather or other animal products. Most avoid farming—the plow might inadvertently cut a worm in two—and other occupations that might cause harm to life forms. Some, especially the monastics, use a cloth to cover a glass while they drink to strain out insects that may have gotten in the liquid, and they sweep the pathway before them as they walk to avoid stepping on bugs. But ahimsa involves more than just avoiding physical injury to life. It includes what the Jains call ahimsa of the mind and ahimsa of speech. Ahimsa of the mind is practicing right thought. Evil thoughts and imaginings are believed to generate negative karma. Ahimsa of speech is speaking in a nonhurtful way, using gentle, compassionate language. The practice of nonviolence is not entirely altruistically motivated. Abstaining from violence prevents harm to a potential victim, to be sure, but it also prevents harm to the potential perpetrator. In this sense, the practice of nonviolence is enlightened self-interest.

  The other four vows all relate in some way to ahimsa and the cessation of karmic accumulation. They include always to speak the truth (satya); not to steal or take what is not given (asteya); chastity (brahmacharya), which is interpreted as celibacy for the monastics and faithfulness in marriage for the laypeople; and finally, nonattachment to people and material things (aparigraha).

  Stopping new karmas from staining the soul is the first step to liberation; removing the stains of old karmas is the next. The elimination of accumulated karmas principally involves good deeds and asceticism. Like Mahavira, those who would attain perfect enlight
enment must practice fasting, meditation, penance, yoga, and studying and reciting scripture. These observances purge the soul of its karmic residues. The ultimate ascetic practice, undertaken by many throughout Jain history, is fasting to death (sallekhana). The fast symbolizes and promotes absolute renunciation: prior to this point, the ascetic has given up all else but food, water, and the body. Now, in a deeply meditative state, these too are gradually given up, ending for good all attachments to samsara. This fast is not considered violent but an act of compassion, since there is no anger or pain associated with it.

  The elimination of all karmas restores the soul to its pure, undefiled state of perfect knowledge, perception, and power. No longer weighed down by the heaviness of its karma, the soul rises to the very ceiling of the world, where it enjoys the bliss of nirvana in the company of other liberated beings.

  Like the Buddha and the Upanishadic sages, Mahavira preached a path of self liberation. Because each soul is accountable for its own karmas, only the individual can reverse the karmic accumulations. The monastic community was established to provide a favorable context for the pursuit of nirvana. Because the Jain quest of nirvana involved a more austere asceticism than the Buddha’s Middle Way, becoming a monk or nun was more vital to ultimate realization in Jainism than in Buddhism. The monastics were also responsible for preserving Mahavira’s teachings, first in oral tradition and then in writing.

  There were, of course, numerous disagreements among the monks and nuns concerning matters of doctrine and practice, but most of these were minor. The only major division in Jainism resulted in two different orders of monastics: the sky-clad, or Digambaras, and the white-robed, or Shvetambaras. This split probably occurred between the fourth and second centuries bce. The disagreement that led to this schism was not doctrinal but practical. The Digambaras, as their nickname implies, argued that it was essential to renounce clothing to attain liberation, as Mahavira himself had done. The Shvetambaras contended that nudity was optional for the monk and not necessary for moksha. But the Digambaras also maintained that women could not reach liberation as women; they would have to await rebirth as a man for that. Part of their argument was that it was inappropriate for women to renounce their clothing. Digambara nuns, therefore, wear white robes, like the Shvetambaras. The Shvetambaras, conversely, believed that women were capable of perfect enlightenment and that one of the twenty-four Tirthankaras was a woman, a claim the Digambaras rejected. The division led eventually to further differences, one of which is that the two groups now have substantially different sets of scriptures. As the monastic communities continued to grow, other disagreements arose, and new subsects were established. Some of the main disputes included debates about venerating images of the gods and the Tirthankaras and whether or not it was even appropriate to use temples.

  Although these conflicts still exist, they should not be overemphasized. According to contemporary Jain scholar Nathmal Tatia, all Jains agree on Jainism’s central message, which is nonviolence, nonabsolutism, and nonattachment. These practices are basic elements in the Jain quest for personal liberation from samsara and their collective goal of peace throughout the world.

  * * *

  Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism, 2nd. Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.), 5.↵

  http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html. Accessed 26 April 2013. ↵

  Gandhi exchanged letters extensively with Srimat Rajchandra, a Jain scholar, and was influenced by him. Erik Erikson in his book Gandhi’s Truth writes this about Srimat Rajchandra: “Young Gandhi had met a genuine seeker after truth, and we shall find essential elements of Jain thought in Gandhi’s later ideology.” Erik Erikson, Gandhi’s Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence(New York: W. W. Norton, 1970), 163. ↵

  Diwali is also a popular Hindu festival, celebrating the triumph of good over evil rather than Mahavira’s nirvana.↵

  Sutrakrtanga I, quoted in “The Basic Doctrines of Jainism,” Sources of Indian Tradition, vol. 2, ed. William Theodore de Bary (New York: Columbia University Press, 1958), 61.↵

  3

  East Asia

  16

  East Asia before the Axial Age

  The final destination on our journey through the development of Asian religions in the Axial Age is the civilization of the Yellow River in the northeastern region of present-day China. The name China is actually an anachronism for this culture during the Axial Age. The people we will be discussing would not have called themselves “Chinese,” because the term China derives from the name Qin, one of many ruling dynasties of this region, which was not established until late in the third century bce, right at the close of the Axial Age. Therefore, to call this part of the world China or to refer to Chinese culture is to use language that would have been strange to the people of the time. Nonetheless, we will continue to use these terms because it is convenient and appropriate in view of the historical continuity with what later came to be called China.

  Throughout most of its recorded history, China has been home to three major religions: Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. According to conventional belief, the founders of these three traditions were contemporaries. Postaxial Chinese art often depicted Confucius, Laozi, and the Buddha taking a walk or having a pleasant conversation together. Such an event could never have happened historically, of course, but the purpose of such images is to indicate the compatibility of these three major traditions by depicting the friendship of their founders. These portrayals, though, probably exaggerate the harmony among these religions. Confucianism and Daoism had contrasting philosophical outlooks and led to fundamentally different ways of life, and Buddhism struggled with overcoming the perception that it was a foreign religion espousing values contrary to traditional Chinese virtues. Nonetheless, it would not have been unusual for an individual to participate in some manner in all three traditions. One might take part in Confucian rituals as a government official or public citizen, go to a Daoist priest for medical needs, and depart the world with a Buddhist funeral.

  Our next several chapters will discuss Confucianism and Daoism, the two of the three traditions that are indigenous to China. Although Buddhism played a very significant part in Chinese religious history, it did not arrive in China until the first centuries of the current era, well after the close of the Axial Age.

  Before we can begin to make sense of these two traditions, though, it is necessary to grasp what Chinese life was like before they developed. In the present chapter, we will discuss the elements of preaxial Chinese culture insofar as we are able to cobble together a picture of it. As with the preaxial cultures of Central, West, and South Asia, we are often in the position of making educated conjectures based on slim archaeological and literary evidence.

  The Legendary History of China

  By tradition, the Chinese trace their history as far back as some five thousand years ago. Legends speak of an era of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors several millennia before our current era. During this ancient period, according to the traditions, the basic features of Chinese civilization were established, including such things as hunting and fishing, agriculture, boats and carts, religious rituals, silk, centralized government, and writing. Today we have no written or archaeological evidence to confirm that this period was anything more than legendary.

  Whether or not there really was such a period, this epoch has held very important symbolic value for the Chinese. This mythic era helped explain why things were the way they were and provided standards for the people of later times to use in judging their own values and behavior. Almost always, when people hold up the past as a moral yardstick, contemporary life is regarded as sorely lacking. American poet Robert Penn Warren once said, “The past is always a rebuke to the present.”[1] Confucius was one among many who thought the China of his day had strayed from the mores of an earlier golden age, and he believed a return to those old ways was the only option. In this sense, at least, the actual historicity of
these epochs is not nearly as significant as what people believed about them.

  The Religion of the Shang Dynasty

  The earliest period that can be historically substantiated is the Shang dynasty, which began sometime in the fifteenth or fourteenth century bce in the northeastern region of China. For many years, scholars believed the Shang dynasty was also part of the mythic “prehistory” of China, simply because there was no tangible evidence from the Shang period.

  Then, very late in the nineteenth century CE, someone noticed curious items being sold as medicine in certain Chinese pharmacies. The items, which the pharmacies called “dragon bones,” were used to concoct remedies by traditional Chinese doctors. After some investigation, these dragon bones were determined to be the shoulder blades of cattle and the shells of tortoises inscribed with an early Chinese script. These animal artifacts, along with some bronze ritual implements from this same period, confirmed the historicity of the Shang dynasty and shed light on Chinese religious beliefs and practices prior to the Axial Age.

  Divination Practices

  Modern scholars have since determined that these bones and shells had been used by Shang rulers to communicate with the gods and ancestors. The inscriptions inquire about a wide array of concerns: the best time to plant or harvest a crop, why a particular person had fallen ill, why a military expedition had failed, the meaning of a dream, the best location to erect a building, and whether a sacrifice had been pleasing.