Buddhism 101

by Arnie Kozak

  A Simple Life

  It might be easy to imagine the Buddha surrounded by riches and adored by many, much as some religious leaders are today. However, the Buddha remained a mendicant monk, and he frequently lived outside, among the mango groves, begging for his meals. He also spent a lot of time in the palace of his childhood friend, the then King Pasenadi of Kosola. He and the sangha also dwelled in structures built specifically for them to spend the rainy seasons, the three-month monsoon that visits India each year.

  His demise was particularly upsetting to his long-time companion Ananda. Ananda wanted to know who would take over for the Buddha, who would be the next in line to continue the teachings. But the Buddha knew that no one needed to take over. Each person would be a “light unto himself.” By practicing the principles the Buddha had set forth, each could become self-reliant and work toward awakening. The sangha did not need an authority figure. The Buddha had taught them all they needed to know.

  Final Days

  The Buddha was growing weak and tired. He was ready to let go of his life. It can be inferred that he made a conscious decision to die when he ate some tainted pork, but he did not allow others who had received the offering to do so. While the story of eating tainted pork is widely recounted, the Buddha may have actually died from a more serious medical condition, one that the contaminated food worsened.

  Teacher of Kings

  * * *

  S.N. Goenka says in the introduction to the Pali Canon that the Buddha gave teachings to hundreds of thousands during his dhamma (dharma) wanderings (carika). He was also pragmatic and political in his teachings, giving counsel to kings, for example: “The king should protect his subjects in the same way as he protects his own children.” And, of course, he inspired the great King Ashoka to implement a righteous rule.

  * * *

  He reminded the sangha that he had only taught them things he himself had experienced and had taken nothing on the word of another. He told them to do the same. They should practice the disciplines he had taught them and should always, most important of all, live for others with lovingkindness and compassion for the entire world.

  The Buddha partook of his last meal, a meal of spoiled meat given to him by a blacksmith named Chunda. Chunda placed the meat into the Buddha’s alms bowl, and out of gratitude the Buddha ate it. The Buddha insisted that no one else present eat the meat he ingested, and he made them dispose of it after he was finished. In order that Chunda not feel responsible for the Buddha’s illness and impending death, the Buddha called Chunda to his side and told him how grateful he was for the meal.

  Dying Buddha

  * * *

  Reclining Buddha statues represent the Buddha on his deathbed. The Buddha said, “Each of you should make himself an island, make himself and no one else his refuge; each of you must make the dharma his island, the dharma and nothing else his refuge.” Some of these statues are quite large and beautiful such as the Manuha Paya in Burma from the ninth century.

  * * *

  The Buddha, ill with food poisoning, traveled on to his eventual death site, Kushinagara. He then asked the sangha if they had any questions for him, if there was anything yet they did not understand. Right up until the end of his life, the Buddha served others and thought only of what the sangha needed. But no one came forth to ask any questions.

  The Buddha then asked if perhaps they were not asking questions for which they needed answers out of reverence for him. If this was the case, he said, they could ask their questions through a friend. When still no one came forth the Buddha knew they were well versed in his teachings and, as Karen Armstrong tells us in Buddha, he uttered his last words: “All individual things pass away. Seek your liberation with diligence.”

  The Buddha died after teaching the dharma for forty-five years. Crowds gathered around the great sage to witness his passing and hear his last words. It is said he died with a smile on his face.

  The Buddha was cremated according to custom and his remains were distributed amongst his followers along with other relics and enshrined in stupas. You can still visit some of these relics in India today. While the Buddha did not present himself as the founder of a religion, his relics and pilgrimage sights have been treated as holy for the past 2,500 years.

  In India, Tibet, and Southeast Asian countries, stupas are usually dome-shaped with a center spire. In China, Korea, and Japan they became multitiered structures known as pagodas. They have traditionally been regarded as places of peace, sending out pacifying energies into their surroundings.

  The Followers

  The Buddha had taught his students well. His emphasis on self-reliance left the sangha in good shape. He had left behind his teachings, the dharma; and the sangha knew the dharma would guide them if they followed it.

  However, shortly after the Buddha’s death, one of the newly ordained bhikkus, Subhadda, rebelled. He suggested that now that the Buddha was gone—the one who oppressed them by telling them how to do this, how to do that—they had the freedom to do whatever they desired. They had the freedom to choose.

  One of the Buddha’s greatest students, the Venerable Mahakassapa, became very upset at Subhadda’s statement. He decided that a council should be called to recite aloud all the Buddha’s teachings. He knew well that if they did not establish the Buddha’s teachings soon, it would not take long for all to be corrupted and lost.

  THE COUNCILS

  Establishing the Canon

  According to the modern-day edition of the Pali Canon, over the past 2,500 years there have been six Dhamma (Dharma in Sanskrit) Councils (Dhamma-Sangitas) or “Dhamma Recitations.” The process was as follows: “The basic teaching of the Buddha were first recited by an elder monk and then chanted after him in chorus by the whole assembly. The recitation was considered to be authentic when it was unanimously approved by all of the monks in attendance.” The recitations were committed to writing at the Fourth Council some 500 years after the Buddha’s death.

  THE FIRST COUNCIL: THE COUNCIL AT RAJAGRIHA

  Three months after the Buddha’s death, 500 senior monks (arhats) gathered together at Rajagriha in what has come to be known as the First Council. Rajagriha was the capital of Magadha, which was one of the four great kingdoms (in addtition to Kosala, Vansa, and Avanti) in ancient India. Their hope was that they would be able to establish the Buddhist canon and create the definite teachings of the Buddha.

  Ananda and Upali each took on a special task at the council. Ananda, as the longtime companion of the Buddha, was responsible for the recitation of the Buddha’s teachings. It was felt that since he had spent so many years by the Buddha’s side, he would have heard the teachings most frequently. Upali was given the task of setting forth the rules of discipline for the sangha (vinaya).

  Worthy One

  * * *

  Arhat means “worthy one” in Sanskrit. An arhat is one who has attained enlightened mind and is free of desires and cravings. An arhat has nothing more to learn and has absorbed all of the Buddha’s teachings.

  * * *

  Each of the arhats recited the teachings, examining the words to ensure they were accurate. They recited them over and over again, and each repetition was checked to make sure they all agreed that it was correct. The First Council lasted seven months.

  The members of the council carried the memorized teachings away with them to all parts of the country, wherever disciples of the Buddha were to be found. Thus, the oral tradition of passing on the Buddha’s teaching was established and remained so for many hundreds of years.

  THE SECOND COUNCIL: THE COUNCIL AT VESALI

  One hundred years after the First Council, the Second Council took place to settle disagreements regarding the monastic rules. This council was held at Vaishali (Vesali) and 700 arhats attended. The elders of the council felt that certain members of the sangha were taking some of the Ten Precepts (the Five Precepts for ethical living, plus additional precepts) too lightly and that there was a general slacke
ning of discipline.

  A group of monks put forth a series of changes in the precepts, making them more lax than they had been previously. For example, they felt it was acceptable for the members of the sangha to accept money, and they debated the need for the precept that forbade them to use money.

  The assembly of monks thereby discussed the validity of the Ten Precepts. The dissenting monks, the Vajjians, were outvoted. They refused to give in, however, and seceded from the group of the council of elders. Thus, Buddhism was divided into two schools of thought: Theravada and Mahayana. The elders belonged to the Theravada school; Vajjian monks split off to create the Mahayana school, which differed in the interpretation of the precepts and philosophy.

  KING ASHOKA AND THE THIRD COUNCIL: THE COUNCIL AT PATALIPUTRA

  The Third Council convened in 326 B.C.E. with 1,000 monks working on it for nine months. The need for this council arose as debate was being carried on about both the dharma and the precepts. At this time, King Ashoka was ruling a vast empire in India, created by his grandfather Chadragupta Maurya in the wake of Alexander the Great. He had taken the throne in a bloody war and was a ruthless leader with many violent triumphs to his credit. But during the eighth year of his rule, after a particularly gruesome battle at Kalinga, King Ashoka became shaken by the bloodbath—upward of 100,000 people are said to have been slaughtered—that set the stage for a powerful change within Ashoka.

  Ashoka and the Spread of Buddhism

  * * *

  King Ashoka was largely responsible for the spread of Buddhism beyond India’s borders and its emergence as one of the world’s great religions. He sent emissaries as far as Greece to the west and China to the east. He practiced tolerance and respect for other religious disciplines, promoted peace instead of war, and established schools, hospitals, and orphanages for his people. He was living proof that it is possible to rule a great nation with kindness and open-mindedness, promoting peace and goodwill.

  * * *

  Ashoka ran into a monk who told the mighty king that he could use his power for good instead of evil. The monk was a Buddhist. Ashoka soon exchanged his sword for the dharma.

  He stopped hunting and fighting, and started meditating and doing humanitarian work. Instead of soldiers he had missionary monks, who spread the dharma wherever they could, reaching out past the boundaries of India and into the neighboring nations. He built 84,000 stupas and thousands of monasteries throughout the land. King Ashoka inscribed his new beliefs on rocks that can be found throughout India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

  These inscriptions would come to be known as the Edicts of King Ashoka and included such promises as moderate spending, proper schooling for children, medical treatments for everyone, and promotion of proper behavior. He promised to practice the dharma until the end of time, to always be available—no matter what he was doing—for the affairs of his people; he promoted respect for everyone and all religions.

  Living by His Principles

  * * *

  “Dharma is good. But what does dharma consist of? It consists of a few sins and many good deeds, of kindness, liberality, truthfulness, and purity.” So said Ashoka, and he expected his officials to live according to these principles (imagine if Congress ran like this?). Ashoka was a dharmaraja (just king), a chakravartin monarch who promoted the dharma through his rule and example.

  * * *

  Because he practiced such spiritual generosity, many less-devoted practitioners entered the Buddhist practice and the purity of the practice was diluted. Ashoka sought to weed out these weak links from the monasteries he had created and called a new council with the genuine, steadfast monks who were left.

  At the Third Council, the teachings were reviewed and a new, purified collection was set forth. Nine missions of arhats were sent out to spread the dharma into different areas of India and across its vast borders into other countries.

  THE FOURTH COUNCIL: ONE NORTH, ONE SOUTH

  There were two Fourth Councils. One is believed to have taken place in Sri Lanka in 29 B.C.E. with 500 monks writing down the orally transmitted teachings for the first time. Another council is said to have been held in India in the first century C.E. This council was led by Kanishka, ruler of what is today Pakistan and northern India. King Kanishka loved the teachings of the Buddha and often had bhikkus in to teach him the dharma.

  He soon found that they were not in accord on the teaching of the dharma, and he was very distressed over the differences he heard. At the advice of another, he convened a council to sort out the differences. Five hundred monks compiled a new canon at the Fourth Council.

  This was the start of the Mahayana scriptural canon: the collection of Mahayana teachings. Theravada Buddhists, however, do not recognize this council.

  In the Theravada tradition, the Fifth Council took place in Mandalay, Burma, in 1871. Two thousand, four hundred monks labored for five months inscribing the Tipitaka (“Three Baskets”) onto marble slabs. The Sixth Council took place in Rangoon in 1954, with 2,500 monks from all the Theravada countries.

  EARLY BUDDHISM

  Scriptures and Divisions

  During the time of the Second Council, Buddhism started to splinter into different schools of thought. Then, as the dharma spread to other countries and cultures at the time of King Ashoka, different traditions arose. There arose the Hinayana and the Mahayana traditions. Hinayana was the tradition that spread under King Ashoka.

  Hinayana refers to a group of eighteen Buddhist schools, of which only one is currently in existence, Theravada. Mahayana Buddhists, who called their tradition “the Great Vehicle,” named the other traditions of Buddhism “Hinayana”—meaning “Little Vehicle”—which is not considered a favorable term by many Buddhists. Today you would not use the word Hinayana to refer to the Theravada tradition of Buddhism.

  THE PALI CANON

  One version of the canon in the original Pali language has been published by the Pali Text Society in England; the other is published by the Vipassana Research Institute in India. These volumes represent the teachings of the Buddha. Known as the pitakas (“baskets”), the Pali Canon was written down on palm leaves at the Fourth Council and was thus passed down intact to future generations of scholars and the sangha. These original transcripts have since been lost.

  The canon consists of the three “baskets.” The Vinaya (monastic code of discipline) covers daily practices on how to maintain harmony among the monks and nuns. The Suttas (the popular discourses) contains the collection of the central teachings of Theravada Buddhism, including all the Jataka tales, the Dhammapada, and various discourses. There are more than 10,000 discourses. The third basket is the Abhidhamma that are manuals of Buddhist psychology compiled after the life of the Buddha from his teachings in the suttas.

  Spread of Theravada Buddhism

  * * *

  Theravada Buddhism spread to Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Mahayana spread to China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tibet, and Vietnam. The Theravada that survives today was derived from the elder monks at the Second Council.

  * * *

  The discourses typically start with, “Thus I have heard . . .” to emphasize the direct link to the Buddha. Also noted are the location and the audience the Buddha was addressing. The sutta (sutra) section of the Pali Canon includes the Digha Nikaya (Long Discourses), Maijhima Nikaya (Medium-Length Discourses), Samyutta Nikaya (Connected Discourses), Anguttara Nikaya (Numbered Discourses), and Khuddaka Nikaya (Small Texts).

  The Abhidhamma is “a compendium of profound teachings elucidating the functioning and interrelationships of mind, mental factors, matter, and the phenomenon transcending these.” In Pali, abhi means “ultimate,” so Abhidhamma meant the “ultimate truth,” or ultimate teachings. The Abhidhamma can be thought of as a view of the world from the perspective of ultimate enlightenment.

  The Pitaka was the written version of the oral tradition that persisted at the time of the Buddha and in the years
after his death. Recitation of the canon persisted even after it was written down and continues to do so to this day. Over the centuries, the Pali Canon has been preserved in Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Cambodia. The versions that emerged in these different countries are meaningfully the same, attesting to the validity of their contents.

  MAHAYANA SCRIPTURES

  The Mahayana Buddhists had their own scriptures, which were written in Sanskrit. These texts included:

  1. Sutras (the words of the Buddha): including the Heart Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, and the Diamond Sutra.

  2. Shastras: the commentary on the sutras.

  3. Tantras: mystical texts.

  As Mahayana Buddhism grew, new texts were added. The Mahayana asserts that emptiness (similar to anatta or “no self”) permeates everything and that the earlier texts were not explicit enough on this point, a criticism of the Abhidharma. The Mahayana asserts that nothing is fixed—everything is empty, including nirvana. Nirvana is not a thing that can be attained. All concepts can lead to attachment and thus become a pitfall preventing you from experiencing prajnaparamita (“perfection of wisdom”). The Mahayana sutras explore such themes as emptiness.

  The Lotus Sutra is another prominent Mahayana text that was very influential in China. The oldest surviving copy was translated in 286 C.E. The Lotus Sutra, in contrast to the Heart Sutra, is a long discourse with twenty-eight chapters. According to Professor Mark Blum, the Lotus Sutra covers three themes: