גלות רוחנית : spiritual exile

There is little new in this text in terms of scholarly research, but it is, I think, a good introduction to Buddhism for those who know little or nothing about it. Obviousely the first chapter is very basic, but I trust most of you would find the that the last one contains new information.

I divided the article into chapters, which appear in different posts. They are:

A Brief introduction to Buddhism (this post)
Liberation and the Self
What the Buddha taught: The Four Truths
Sects and Texts: The Context of the Abhidhamma
Reference lists are at the end of each chapter

General Introduction to Buddhism: The Three Gems

Though the word ”Buddhism“ is an English word traced back only to 1801, but it is derived from much older Sanskrit word ”buddha“ which means ”awake“. The Sanskrit word (and its Pāli equivalent) became an epithet of a person who has gone a radical transformation and has become fully awakened (buddha) to the true nature of reality. Such a person is believed to have lived in India around the 4th century BCE, and Buddhists consider themselves followers of his teaching. For them to be a Buddhist means to ”take refuge“ in three ”gems“: The fully awakened person (buddha), its teaching which accord with the true nature of reality (dharma, Pāli: dhamma), and the community of fellow followers (sańgha).

Buddha

Before becoming fully awakened, the Buddha-to-be was an ordinary person like you and me who strove to completely overcome suffering. Unlike most of us, he actually succeeded. Though Buddhists may believe in gods, in their view the god’s powers are limited, and their knowledge does not reach the depth and completeness of the knowledge gained by a Buddha. Only Buddhas have the kind of final knowledge that leads to complete liberation from suffering. Therefore, only Buddhas can teach the way to liberation. Buddhist may relate to gods for various reasons — for example it is quite common to see Buddhist giving money to Hindu temples with the wish to receive healing or financial prosperity — but they would not rely on or ”take refuge“ in a god for salvation.

The liberating knowledge Buddhists seek is shortly described as ”seeing things as they really are“ (Pāli: yathā-bhūta-dassana). The use of the verb dassana (or Sanskrit darśana), ”seeing“, indicates that reality has to be experienced personally by the individual; it cannot be obtained through grace or direct transmission from a Buddha, and cannot be achieved on the basis of mere intellectual speculation.

When Buddhists want to stress that Buddhism is scientific in nature, they usually refer to this point about the primacy of experience. Indeed there is an element of personal verification through the instruments of experience in science. Scientists who claim new knowledge are expected to do so on the basis their seeing the results with their own eyes. Buddhism and science, therefore, share criticism of blind beliefs and encourage exploration that is based on personal encounter with the elements of reality.

The crucial differences between Buddhism and science are in (a) the way each system thinks of evidence, (b) the status of theory in each system, and (c) they ways evidence are related to theories in each system. The differences originate from the different goals of science and Buddhism. While science is chiefly about new and true knowledge, Buddhism is chiefly about personal transformation of the individual.

The preoccupation with personal transformation means that Buddhism is a soteriology: a system of personal salvation or liberation. But, for example, unlike Christianity, it is totally humanistic and does not depend on godly grace. Buddhist texts stress that even the highest powers in the Indian divine system are not truly liberated and does not exceed the Buddha’s wisdom. Unlike Marxism, it is also not interested in the liberation of groups of people, or even the liberation of society as a whole — salvation for Buddhism is above all a transformation of the individual’s experience through his or her own endeavour. Taking refuge in buddha means to accept the possibility of such a final liberation and to be inspired by the human ability to become completely free and awake.

The Historical Buddha

It is generally accepted both by Buddhist traditions and in scholarship that the Buddha existed, i.e., there has been a historical Buddha. However, beside this general statement there are very little facts about his actual life. Indian culture of 2500 years ago left us no substantial archaeological evidence, definitely not anything related to the Buddha himself. In general this ancient culture seems disinterested with writing or history. The Buddhist scriptures that we have today were written down for the first time at least some hundreds of years after the Buddha’s death — a date that is by itself a subject to controversy.

Many Buddhist texts give accounts of the Buddha’s life. These accounts are at times similar, and at times quite significantly different. Having compared many sources, Michel Carrithers concludes that though one might doubt even the simplest life story, most scholars would accept at least a very condensed version as true: birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching and death (Carrithers, 1983 p.23).

The question regarding this problem of the historical Buddha is: does it really matter? Paul Williams (2000 p.22) notes that whether the Buddha existed or not, his historical existence is a question of little doctrinal significance. Unlike the crucial importance of the existence of Jesus to Christianity, the Buddha has no soteriological role in the Buddhist religion. What is important for Buddhists is what the Buddha taught and for that reason it does not matter whether the dharma has been found by this person or another. It might as well have been found by someone else, or even by a group of people. Liberation, the soteriological goal, is not prevented by the fact that the Buddha does not walk among us today. In fact if it were, there would be no sense in Buddhist practice. In short, the dharma is the dharma not because it was discovered by the Buddha; The Buddha is the Buddha because he discovered the dharma.

Therefore, the story of the Buddha is better seen as hagiography, a genre dedicated to writings on the lives of saints, rather than history. It serves a doctrinal purpose and does not limit itself to report historical events. Treating the story as hagiography takes the historical burden of our shoulders and lets us concentrate on the content of the teaching and the way it is presented. This seems to be not only convenient for contemporary academic research, but also in accordance with the spirit of the Buddhist tradition itself.

Dharma

Dharma, the second gem in which Buddhists take refuge, is a central concept in Indian culture in general and in Buddhism in particular. In the Buddhist contexts it points to the essence of a Buddha’s teaching. But Buddhas do not invent or create the dharma. They reveal it.

The tradition has it that the current Buddha, Śākyamuni (the sage of the Śākya clan) who lived approximately 2500 years ago, is only one in a series of Buddhas all of which have managed to find the same truth (dharma) through their own endeavour. Therefore the dharma has two faces. In the ultimate sense it is eternal and complete, as truth cannot be partial and relative. The dharma is there, waiting to be revealed by special human beings who are then ready to help others in their quest for liberation.

In the particular sense it is the teaching as proclaimed by the 5-4th century BCE Śākyamuni Buddha. The teaching of this specific master is of course in fully accordance with the truth.

Saṅgha

The third gem is Sańgha. It means ”gathering“ or ”community“ and refers to the community of followers, namely Buddhist monastic community that practices and not less important preserves the dharma. In a deeper sense the sańgha is a noble community (ariyasańgha) of those who actually attained one of the stages towards liberation and embody the fruits of the Buddhist path to liberation. When Buddhists take refuge in the Sańgha, they connect to and rely on those who preserve and embody the practice and truth proclaimed by a fully awakened human being who has found the way to overcome suffering.

To Chapter Two: Liberation and the Self >>
Books mentioned in this post:

Carrithers, M. (1983). The Buddha. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Buy it with Amazon

Williams, P., & Tribe, A. (2000). Buddhist Thought: a Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition. London: Routledge. Buy it with Amazon