Living with the Devil

by Stephen Batchelor

  114 “Whatever is contingent . . . is naturally at ease”: MMK 7.16.

  114 “living beings are naturally nirvanic”: BCA 9.103.

  114 You just wait in the abyss of perplexity: On waiting and expecting, see Batchelor, Faith to Doubt, pp. 46–7; Heidegger, Gelassenheit, p. 42. (English: Discourse on Thinking, p. 68); also Eliot, Four Quartets, “East Coker,” Collected Poems, p. 200.

  115 “If you seek Buddha”: LC, p. 21.

  115 sensual desire, ill-will, restlessness, torpor, and doubt: These are the classic five hindrances of Theravada Buddhism. This presentation of them follows SN 46.31–40, pp. 1589–93. Here the Buddha presents them as what are overcome by the seven factors of awakening: mindfulness, discrimination of states, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity; “lead away from nirvana”: SN 46.40, p. 1593; the mind quickly loses its natural suppleness and radiancy: See SN 46.33, p. 1590, where the Buddha compares the mind to gold and the hindrances to base metals that corrupt it; “encirclers of the mind”: SN 46.39, p. 1593.

  THREE: LIVING WITH THE DEVIL

  16. An Ordinary Person’s Life

  122 Rather than gaining insight: See Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs, pp. 3–13, for a fuller account of awakening and the four truths.

  123 “I have stopped . . .”: MN 86, pp. 711–2.

  123 “How dare these southern devils say”: Ferguson, Zen’s Chinese Heritage, p. 196–7. I have also incorporated some of the wording of this story from Cleary and Cleary, Blue Cliff Record, vol. 1, p. 24.

  125 “What is awakening?”: Ferguson, Zen’s Chinese Heritage, pp. 198–9.

  126 “In this lump of raw flesh”: LC, p. 3; Kasulis, Zen Action Zen Person, p. 51. My translation has been further checked against the Chinese by Martine Batchelor.

  17. “Do Not Hurt Me”

  130 A core paradox of human existence: This is the central theme explored in Batchelor, Alone with Others.

  131 “he is not a point in the world net of space and time”: Buber, Ich und Du, p. 15 (English: I and Thou, p. 59).

  131 “The first word of the face”: Levinas, Ethics and Infinity, p. 89. I am indebted to this idea of Levinas for inspiring much of what is written in this section of the book.

  132 “do not kill me, do not rob me”: This is a Levinasian restatement of the Buddhist doctrine of the ten unwholesome actions (Pali: akusala kamma patha).

  132 These pleas are the foundation of an ethics: Avoiding the ten unwholesome actions is to observe a “natural morality” (Tibetan: rang bzhin gyi kha na ma tho ba), while refraining from what is prohibited by lay, monastic, bodhisattva, or tantric precepts is to observe an “entailed morality” (Tibetan: bcas kyi kha na ma tho ba).

  18. The Anguish of Others

  136 “For I was hungry, and ye gave me meat”: Matthew 25.35–6, 40.

  137 “the mind reaches a stage”: Thurman, Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti, pp. 164–5.

  137 “Why does the hand protect the foot”: BCA 8.99.

  137 “If the foot could speak”: From the sermon “See What Love,” translated in Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, p. 132. This ancient metaphor of the body and its parts was used by Paul in I Corinthians 12 as a way of describing the Body of Christ, to which Eckhart is alluding in this sermon.

  138 “When someone steps on another’s foot”: Quoted in Schürmann, ibid., p. 153.

  138 “This separated member believes itself”: Pascal, Pensées, no. 352, p. 227 (English: no. 372, pp. 136–7). As with Eckhart, Pascal is also commenting on I Corinthians.

  139 “is just like feeding oneself”: BCA 8.116.

  19. Incarnation

  142 “At that instant . . . drowning in the charmlessness of the body”: Kundera, Immortality, p. 3. I have modified the second sentence in accordance with the French translation: Sa main s’était envolée avec une ravissante légèreté. Given the importance of sensuality and lightness in the Kunderan universe, the English “bewitching ease” seems unsatisfactory.

  144 “is a material vestige of its subject”: Sontag, On Photography, p. 154.

  144 “All novels are concerned with the enigma of self”: Kundera, The Art of the Novel, pp. 23, 31, 25, 28. Tereza is a central character of Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

  145 “This dharma I have attained is profound”: MN 26.19, p. 260.

  145 “with little dust in their eyes who are wasting”: MN 26.20, p. 261. For the sake of simplicity, I have called this god “Brahma,” whereas the text refers to him as “Brahma Sahampati.” In Buddhist polytheistic cosmology, “Brahma” denotes a class of gods who inhabit the realm of pure form (rupaloka). Buddha encounters several gods from this realm in the discourses, each of whom has a specific name. Yet they all share in common the tendency to inflation, which manifests itself in believing themselves to be the greatest of Brahmas, i.e., God. Throughout the canon, Buddha ridicules this claim, either by demonstrating his superior knowledge or by caricaturing them as fools who mindlessly repeat their claim without understanding what it means. See MN 49 and DN 11.

  147 “Mara took possession of a member of the god’s assembly”: MN 49.5, p. 425. This Brahma is called “Baka.”

  147 “I know you, Evil One”: MN 49.6, pp. 425–6.

  149 “who speaks is not who writes”: Quoted by Susan Sontag, “In Jerusalem,” New York Review of Books, June 21, 2001, p. 22.

  149 “It’s Borges, the other one”: Borges, Collected Fictions, p. 324.

  20. A Culture of Awakening

  152 “Wander forth, O monks, for the welfare of the multitude”: A commonly cited refrain. See, for example, SN 1.4.5, p. 198. The final sentence is not italicized in the original translation.

  152 “The sage who wanders alone is like the wind”: Sn 1.12.213, p. 23.

  153 “hemmed in . . . set off alone, without a companion”: Udana IV.5, Naga Sutta.

  153 “To become independent of others”: This phrase is used to describe one who has become a “stream entrant” (sotapanna), i.e., has gained direct experiential insight into the four ennobling truths and embarked on the eightfold path.

  154 “send some men to take the monk Gotama’s life”: Nanamoli, Life of the Buddha, p. 261. The story of Devadatta is found in chapter 7 of the Cullavagga of the Vinaya (monastic rule) section of the Pali Canon.

  155 “bodily feelings that were painful, sharp, racking”: Ibid., p. 263. See also Buddha. SN 4. 13, p. 203.

  155 “Mara came to him and addressed him in verse”: Ibid.

  155 “a wastrel, a clot of spittle”: Ibid., p. 259.

  155 Devadatta now conspired to create a schism: This discussion follows ibid., pp. 266–8.

  156 “For where God built a church”: From Luther, Colloquia Mensalia, ch. 2.

  156 “And the devil did grin, for his darling sin”: This poem, originally co-written with Robert Southey, was first published on September 6, 1799, in the Morning Post and Gazetteer. It was revised by Southey in 1827 and Coleridge in 1829 and 1835.

  156 “Through aping me”: Nanamoli, Life of the Buddha, pp. 271, 270.

  157 Buddha did not refuse him because he had someone better qualified in mind: See ibid., p. 259, where Buddha replies to Devadatta’s request to turn over control of the community, “I would not hand over the community of bhikkhus even to Sariputta or Mogallana. How should I do so to such a wastrel, a clot of spittle, as you?”

  158 “grass, twigs, branches and leaves” and following quotations: MN 22, p. 228.

  158 Rather than preaching an ideology: This principle finds classic expression in the Kalama Sutta as well as in the oft-quoted example of testing what Buddha taught with the same thoroughness as a gold-smith tests a metal to see if it is gold. Although Gotama did not make a formal distinction between an “idea” and an “ideology,” his ambiguous use of the term ditthi (“view”), which he uses approvingly as in “right view” but disapprovingly as in “the thicket of views,” sugges
ts an awareness of how even liberating views can harden into obstructive opinions. A striking contrast exists between the suggestive but technically imprecise way in which Buddha speaks of meditation practice in the early discourses, and the highly technical manner it is presented in the meditation manuals of many contemporary Buddhist schools.

  159 to paraphrase Max Weber, the routinization of awakening: Weber spoke of the “routinization of charisma” as a stage through which religions pass as they move from being anarchic, charismatic movements to established churches.

  21. The Kingdom of Mara

  162 Bimbisara is presented as a powerful but humane ruler: Cf. Nanamoli, Life of the Buddha, pp. 67–9.

  162 “Formerly, men were long-lived, now they are short-lived”: Ibid., pp. 260–1.

  163 “felt fear and terror and his hair stood on end”: DN 2.10, p. 92.

  163 “Since you have acknowledged the transgression and confessed”: DN 2.99, p. 108.

  163 “The king is done for, his fate is sealed”: DN 2.102, p. 109.

  164 “who are intoxicated with sovereignty”: SN 3. 25, p. 192.

  164 On hearing of Pasenadi’s battles: See SN 3.14–15, pp. 178–9; Nor does Buddha disapprove: SN 3.11, pp. 173–4; On learning that a great animal sacrifice is being prepared: SN 3.9, pp. 171–2; “a great mass of people . . . concern for wives and children”: SN 3.10, p. 172.

  165 The only time his behavior is seen to be changed: SN 3.13, pp. 176–7; 3.25, p. 193.

  166 “If I reprimand [the king] for such a terrible deed”: SN 1, p. 410, fn. 257. The translator, Bhikkhu Bodhi, argues that “the story does not fit well, and I would add that it even detracts from the solemn dignity of the Buddha’s discourses.”

  166 “And now we depart”: MN 89.20, p. 733. This discourse (the Dhammacetiya Sutta) recounts in detail the last meeting between Pasenadi and Buddha but only hints at the events that follow. The events of Buddha’s final months are told in the Discourse on the Great Passing (Mahaparinibbana Sutta) (DN 16, pp. 230–77). For other historical material I have followed Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism, pp. 11–12.

  167 “miserable little wattle-and-daub town”: DN 16.5.17, p. 266.

  168 “I am a Kosalan and you are a Kosalan”: MN 89.20, p. 733.

  168 “I shall not enter final nirvana”: Although this episode with Mara does not appear as such in the Pali Canon, it is preserved in the Sanskrit Canon of the Mulasarvastivadin school, in chapter 4 of the Catushparishat Sutra. The episode is referred to, however, in DN 16.3.34–5, pp. 250–1, where the passage cited here also appears in full. Thanks to Jenny Wilks for this information and the translation from Sanskrit.

  22. Hearing the Cries

  170 the consul Menenius Agrippa: See Schürmann, Meister Eckhart, p. 153, who says of this doctrine: “Ever since [Agrippa], it has served to justify bondage under corporations and established hierarchies.” See also Popper, Open Society and Its Enemies, I, p. 294. This episode likewise serves as the opening of Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus (Act 1, scene 1).

  170 “His mouth became the Brahmin”: O’Flaherty, Rig Veda (X.90.11–12), p. 30.

  171 When Shantideva uses this same organicist metaphor: For the use of this metaphor by Shantideva, Eckhart, and Pascal, see above, pp. 137–8.

  171 In the light of modern biology: I am indebted to biologist Mark Mescher for these examples.

  173 “the organ of hearing to quiet the mind”: Lu K’uan Yu, Surangama Sutra, p. 142. This discourse is attributed to Buddha but is understood by modern scholars as an apocryphal text composed in Chinese. See also Batchelor, Faith to Doubt, pp. 47–9.

  175 “Freedom consists in being able to do whatever”: Morange, La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme, p. 118.

  177 “No one is born a brahmin”: Sn 3.9.650–2, p. 75.

  23. The Anarchy of the Gaps

  180 “If the doors of perception were cleansed”: Blake, Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 14.

  181 The Sanskrit term translated as “nature” is garbha: The Sanskrit for “buddhanature” is either tathagatagarbha (“womb of the tathagata”) or buddhagotra (“buddha lineage”) or buddhadhatu (“buddha element”). There is no exact Sanskrit equivalent of “buddhanature.” (Note that in the Pali Canon none of these terms are ever used.) The English “buddhanature” has gained currency due to the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit terms as fo-shing (“buddha-nature”). For further details see King, Buddha Nature, pp. 3–5 and 173–4.

  181 the Pali term appamada, which can be translated as “care”: This term is variously translated as “diligence,” “heedfulness,” “vigilance,” “zeal,” “conscientiousness.” Ernst Steinkellner, in his German translation of Shantideva’s Guide, opts for wachsame Sorge, which would translate as “watchful (or wakeful) care.” See BCA 4 for Shantideva’s treatment of care.

  182 “The careful do not die”: Dhammapada, v. 21, p. 38.

  182 “Conditions are subject to decay”: DN 16.6.7, p. 270. This final sentence was translated by T. W. Rhys Davids (following Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2.12) as “Work out your salvation with diligence,” and subsequently cited by T. S. Eliot in his play The Cocktail Party (Act 2). Maurice Walshe renders it “strive on untiringly”; Nanamoli has “Attain perfection through diligence.” Another rendition might be “Accomplish everything with care.”

  182 Buddhist analyses of care describe: I am here drawing on Mahayana sources based on Asanga’s Abhidharmasamuccaya. See Rabten, Mind and Its Functions, p. 133.

  182 “a keen concern for engagement and letting go”: Zangpo, Legs par bshad pa’i rgya mtsho, p. 56.

  183 “always to be a student of everyone”: BCA 5.74.

  183 “There is nothing whatsoever that is not to be learned”: BCA 5.100.

  185 “The world was all before them”: Milton, Paradise Lost, Book XII, lines 656–9.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Not all the texts listed here are cited in this book. I have included a number of works that I either consulted or read in the course of the writing that in one way or another helped shape the narrative.

  Abe, Masao. Zen and Western Thought. Edited by William Lafleur. London: Macmillan, 1985.

  Ashvaghosa. Buddhacarita. E. B. Cowell, translator, in Buddhist Mahayana Texts [1894]. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1974.

  Barthes, Roland. La Chambre Claire: Notes sur la Photographie. Paris: Le Seuil, 1980. English: Richard Howard, translator. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. London: Vintage, 2000.

  Batchelor, Stephen. Alone with Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism. New York: Grove, 1983.

  —. The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture. Berkeley: Parallax, 1994.

  —. Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening. New York: Riverhead, 1996.

  —. The Faith to Doubt: Glimpses of Buddhist Uncertainty. Berkeley: Parallax, 1990.

  —. Flight: An Existential Conception of Buddhism. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1984.

  —. Verses from the Center: A Buddhist Vision of the Sublime. New York: Riverhead, 2000.

  Baudelaire, Charles. Les Fleurs du Mal (1861 ed.). Edited by Claude Pichois. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.

  Baudrillard, Jean. La Transparence du Mal. Paris: Galilée, 1990. English: James Benedict, translator. The Transparency of Evil. London: Verso, 1993.

  Beckett, Samuel. Stories and Texts for Nothing. New York: Grove, 1967.

  Berlin, Isaiah. Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969.

  Blackmore, Susan. The Meme Machine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  Blake, William. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Introduction and commentary by Sir Geoffrey Keynes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.

  Blanchot, Maurice. The Space of Literature. Translated by Ann Smock. [1955] Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

  Borg, Marcus, editor. Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel
Sayings. Berkeley: Seastone, 1997.

  Borges, Jorge Luis. Collected Fictions. Translated by Andrew Hurley. New York: Penguin, 1998.

  Boyd, James W. Satan and Mara: Christian and Buddhist Symbols of Evil. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975.

  Buber, Martin. Ich und Du. Heidelberg: Lambert Schneider, 1979. English: Walter Kaufmann, translator. I and Thou. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1970.

  Buddha. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. 2 vols. Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000.

  —. The Dhammapada. Translated by Juan Mascaro. London and New York: Penguin, 1973.

  —. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya. Translated by Maurice Walshe. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1987.

  —. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. Translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995.

  —. The Sutta-Nipata. Translated by H. Saddhatissa. London: Curzon, 1994.

  —. The Udana: Inspired Utterances of the Buddha. Translated by John D. Ireland. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1997.

  Buswell, Robert E. The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983.

  Chuang-Tzu. Basic Writings. Translated by Burton Watson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.

  Cleary, Christopher, translator. Swampland Flowers: The Letters and Lectures of Zen Master Ta-hui. New York: Grove, 1977.

  Cleary, Thomas, and J. C. Cleary. The Blue Cliff Record. Boulder and London: Shambhala, 1977.

  Comte-Sponville, André. Présentations de la Philosophie. Paris: Albin Michel, 2000.

  Conze, Edward, translator and editor. Buddhist Scriptures. London: Penguin, 1959.

  —. The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom: With the Divisions of the Abhisamayalamkara. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.

  Cupitt, Don. Emptiness and Brightness. Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 2001.