Buddhism: The Basics

Cathy Cantwell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781135284497
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Buddhism: The Basics provides a thorough and accessible introduction to a fascinating religion. Examining the historical development of Buddhism and its presence today, this guide covers:

• principal traditions

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• practices and beliefs

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• ethical guidelines and philosophy

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• religious texts

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• community

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With helpful features including a detailed map of the Buddhist world, glossary of terms and tips for further study, this is an ideal text for students and interested readers wanting to familiarise themselves with the Buddhist faith.

Cathy Cantwell is an academic researcher at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford. She specialises in Tibetan Buddhism, and has worked on eleventh century manuscripts, an eighteenth century scriptural collection, and contemporary Buddhist ritual manuals and practice. She has taught widely in UK Higher Education and is joint author of Early Tibetan Documents on Phur pa from Dunhuang.

1
THE BUDDHA AND THE ROOTS OF THE BUDDHIST TRADITION

Muslims have rejected the terms Muhammadism/Muhammadans as labels for their religion and its adherents, and these Western categories have now fallen into disuse. Contemporary Buddhists have made less fuss about the terms, Buddhism/Buddhists, even though similar objections could be made about them, and they do not neatly correspond with any Asian Buddhist category. The Buddha-Dharma is one term for Buddhism or Buddhist doctrine, which has universal currency in Buddhist countries (albeit often translated into local languages). Here, as in the Tibetan word for a Buddhist practitioner, which could be translated as a ‘Dharma-ist’, one who follows the Dharma, the emphasis is on the teaching, doctrine, or path, to which the word Buddha may be added as an adjective to clarify whose Dharma is at issue. Yet the fact that Buddhists have not objected violently to the newly invented terms indicates that the figure of the Buddha – the first of the Three Jewels – has a central place in Buddhists’ understanding of their religious tradition.

HISTORY AND RELIGIOUS MYTHOLOGY

Buddhism derived from and grew out of the teachings of the historical Buddha, who lived for some eighty years most probably during the fifth century BCE. In modern scholarship, we are interested not only in how the figure of the Buddha came to be understood or portrayed by the Buddhist tradition, but also in the historical facts about the Buddha’s life and his teachings. We have two problems here. The first is that this is not where Buddhists themselves would traditionally begin in seeking to understand the Buddha, and the second is that our historical knowledge remains limited. First, Buddhism has developed rich and inspiring hagiographies (religious biographies) of the Buddha, many of which brilliantly use accounts of the master’s deeds to inspire faith in him as the Enlightened one of the current world system. They illustrate the pertinent points of his teachings, as well as generating an ideal model for the spiritual life. Aspects of these stories have entered also into symbolic and ritual traditions. Just as sequences from the Gospel accounts of the ministry of Jesus may adorn Christian Churches, and key events such as the Baptism and the Last Supper have been immortalised in the Christian sacraments, so, the principal Acts of the Buddha have taken on a powerful symbolism in Buddhism, even if the Buddha is not exactly seen as a saviour figure and nor are his Acts considered to have saving grace in quite the same way as Christianity teaches about Jesus.

Given the religious value of the hagiographical stories of the Buddha’s life, we should not be surprised if historical realities have been considerably re-worked and embellished. This is not simply a matter of adding in a number of miraculous feats or dramatic encounters with demons or gods. Modern sensibilities have led to some new Buddhist presentations of the Buddha’s life which may have been purged of miraculous elements, yet otherwise preserve the same essential structure. The trouble with this is that apparently ordinary or plausible events in the stories may be equally constructed or take on symbolic significance to the same extent. For example, the early texts seem to indicate that the Buddha came from an elite family in a Republican area, his father perhaps an elected chief. Yet the later hagiographies have him as a noble prince, the heir to his father’s kingdom, and one who had the potential either to become a great ruler or an enlightened buddha. Clearly, by juxtaposing the two alternatives, the story adds to the drama and it makes it clear that the Buddha’s choice to renounce worldly life did not stem from an unfortunate or unworthy alternative but was made despite the strongest possible worldly incentives.

Moreover, it demonstrates that in an important sense the Buddha is the religious equivalent of a world ruler, a similar symbolism to Christian associations of Jesus as a king. Unpacking such symbolic connotations of traditional accounts of the Buddha will teach us a good deal about Buddhism, but not necessarily very much about the historical Buddha himself.

Here we meet our second problem: our factual historical sources tell us very little. One academic introductory book on the Buddha begins with a short section on ‘the bare bones’ of his history. Unfortunately, a skeleton may give few clues about the living human’s appearance, let alone his or her personality and abilities. Something is known of the historical context in which the Buddha lived. Archaeological work has helped to give us some understanding of the development and character of early Buddhist shrines and institutions, and critical analysis of early Buddhist texts has enabled some distinction to be made between earlier and later strands. But the fact remains that we are dependent on Buddhist sources in the attempt to build up a picture of the historical Buddha. In addition, early Buddhist texts were preserved orally in the first centuries, so that they were only written down many generations after the Buddha’s time. Besides the question mark over their reliability for historical purposes, such memorised scriptures do not tend to include much which might be considered extraneous to the main business of expounding the Buddha’s teaching. There are no very early biographies: the earliest were composed on the basis of scattered comments reportedly made by the Buddha where his own experience illustrated some point in the teaching.

Some scholars have appealed to a principle of giving greater weight to stories of incidents which would have been of marginal interest to the religious tradition or which expressed sentiments with which the tradition would have been uncomfortable. If the story or anecdote did not fit well with the developing religious mythology, perhaps it might have been recorded and preserved simply because it was true. However, this reasoning at best increases the plausibility of a limited number of events. Since it focuses on matters considered less relevant by the tradition, by the same token, it is unlikely to help us in understanding the central aspects of the Buddha’s life, let alone the early development of the religion. For this, we need to make the best of the available sources, bearing in mind their limits. Besides seeking to place the Buddha in his historical context, we can gain some sense of a likely historical scenario by examining the legacy of the early teachings attributed to the Buddha and the emergence of the monastic order, a then new kind of religious institution which almost certainly bears the imprint of the Buddha’s own vision of the religious life. At the same time, examining the fully blown mythology of the Buddha’s life can enable us to appreciate what the Buddha became for later generations of his followers and, just as importantly, how the Buddhist tradition has conceptualised the most exemplary spiritual path.

THE SCRIPTURAL SOURCES

The earliest sources on the Buddha’s life story available to us are the Pa-li canonical ‘discourses’ of the Buddha, the suttas (= Sanskrit sūtras) and texts on monastic discipline, the vinaya. Equivalent texts were preserved by the other early orders, and some of these survive in Sanskrit, but not a full collection. Recently, scholarly work on the Chinese Āgamas, a collection of translations of early ‘discourses’, has been advancing our understanding of the earliest heritage, since the Pa-li and Chinese parallel texts can be usefully compared. Discrepancies can identify areas where the textual transmission has been corrupted or where editorial intervention has introduced emendations. But for our purposes here, the early Pa-li scriptures are the most accessible materials for the more ancient traditions, while later Pa-li texts and texts in other Buddhist languages can help us to understand developments.

THE BUDDHA’S CONTEXT AND HIS OWN CONTRIBUTION

Buddhism is sometimes said to have emerged out of Hinduism, and to have inherited Hindu concepts and practices. However, the Buddha’s era was before the development of the philosophical systems of classical Hinduism, the widespread adoption of detailed prescriptions for segregating castes, the popular practices of Hindu temple worship and its associated Epic mythologies, and even the various systems of yoga practices which became distinctive of Hindu ascetic groups. The germs of all these religious features were present, however, and it makes more sense to see Buddhism as growing up alongside other Indian religious groupings including Hinduism. During more than a millennium of Buddhism’s presence in the sub-continent, at each stage, it influenced and was influenced by those other religious traditions. In the Buddha’s time, there were two main religious contexts against which we can usefully see the Buddha’s teaching:

(1) The dominant religious culture in much of the area where the Buddha lived and taught is generally referred to by scholars as Brahmanism, based on the heritage of a hereditary religious elite preserving a body of exclusive religious practices and oral scriptures called the Vedas. Early Buddhism absorbed a good deal of the religious vocabulary of Brahmanism, although it reinterpreted and in some cases lampooned its concepts and practices. In particular, Brahmanism’s ritualism, exclusivity and hereditary principles were rejected for an emphasis on universalist ethical principles and reasoned argument, with acts judged on the basis of the extent to which they reflect virtue and wisdom.

(2) A sub-culture which the Buddha joined when he renounced worldly life, was that of a movement of itinerant ascetic hermits, the

. The Buddha is referred to in Buddhist sources as the Great

or the Great Ascetic or Renouncer. The ‘homeless life’ extolled in early Buddhist sources suggests a continued self-identification with the ascetic tradition, and an opposition to the Brahmanical householder model for the religious life. Other

groups included the Jains, who were also successful in the long term and whose emergence was a little earlier than that of Buddhism. Jainism’s principal exponent, Mahāvī-ra, was already known as a famous master when the Buddha was teaching. The

groups shared an ascetic code of conduct, similar ascetic and perhaps yogic disciplines, as well as ethical universalism, spiritual and philosophical experimentation and innovation, with room for individual spiritual seekers regardless of social background. At the same time, the Buddha seems to have distinguished his approach from the wider renouncer movement. The Buddhist monastic order was to represent a ‘Middle Way’ between the hermit and householder life, with its emphasis on monastics as a community in a close relationship with lay patrons, and a philosophical approach which was frequently contrasted explicitly with the views of rival ascetic traditions.

The social and economic setting for the new religious movements was one of rapid economic growth in the area of the middle Gangetic plain where the Buddha lived, bringing urban development, alongside social and political change, with the expansion and consolidation of the larger regional kingdoms, and their incorporation of the small-scale republics, which included the Buddha’s own homeland. The rise of an urban mercantile class who lacked a stake in the older status quo may have been one reason for Buddhism’s success. Trading and other well-to-do urban families provided sponsorship and recruits for the early Buddhist order, and, in the longer term, associations with large-scale trading corporations played an important role in the international expansion of Buddhism. In an environment in which political units were growing and perhaps integrating more diverse populations, the political elite seems also to have been exploring alternative role models for rulers than those specified in Brahmanical sources. The Buddha is reported to have advised rulers on their best strategies for successful rule as well as spiritual well-being suggesting, for instance, equanimity and non-attachment in defeat, along with upright conduct in all circumstances, including restraint and generosity even towards defeated foes.

THE BUDDHA’S LIFE STORY

PREVIOUS LIVES

For the Buddhist tradition, the starting point is innumerable lifetimes in the distant past prior to the Buddha’s final birth in the world. A Buddha is one who has fully awakened to the truth of the cycle of life and death, whose Enlightenment has brought final release from that cycle, and who can illuminate the spiritual path he had rediscovered to bring others to the same realisation. An enlightened follower may share exactly the same insight, but a special quality of a Buddha is the ability to go where others in the world concerned have not gone before, and to shine the torch of the spiritual teaching. To perfect the necessary capabilities for such an achievement is considered to take vast periods of time, spent with single-minded dedication to the heroic pursuit of virtue and wisdom. According to the hagiographies which developed along with the Buddhist tradition, the story begins many aeons ago, with the Buddhāto-be as the ascetic Sumedha, setting forth on the path through meeting and being inspired by a Buddha called

. On making a firm vow to work for the complete Enlightenment of a Buddha, Sumedha thus became a bodhisattva, a being intent on Enlightenment, and

recognised the force of his resolve, predicting his eventual Enlightenment in our world system.

This story is known throughout the Buddhist world, as are many of the Jātaka tales, a whole class of Buddhist literature consisting of stories of the Buddhāto-be during his previous lives, meeting desperate challenges and adversities with noble determination, wisdom and compassion, thus perfecting the virtuous qualities necessary for the final climax of the spiritual path. These stories, some of which were popular fables derived from non-Buddhist sources, and some which were composed with Buddhist themes in mind, became significant pedagogic tools in Asian Buddhist cultures, expressed not only in story-telling but in temple art and in dramatic performances and operas. The most well-known stories include tales of the bodhisattva as an animal king, acting, for instance, to help members of his own species from the machinations of some evil humans, and in the end teaching those humans to reform their ways by his example. The anthropomorphism hardly fits comfortably with modern scientific models of ecology. Nonetheless, contemporary Buddhist...