Renewed interest in Buddhism by Westerners was stimulated by the birth of the discipline of Indology (Indic studies) in the eighteenth century. It was in September of 1893, a few days after the closing ceremony of the Parliament of Religion, which had been convened in Chicago, that the first Westerner was admitted into the Buddhist order on American soil. Today there are an estimated 500,000 Buddhists in the United States alone.
II. THE GREAT TEACHING OF THE SMALL VEHICLE— HÎNAYNA BUDDHISM
The Literature of Hînayâna Buddhism
From the standpoint of the historian, the original teaching of the Buddha can no longer be identified with absolute certainty. However, considering the strong mnemonic tradition of India, there is good reason to believe that much of what has been handed down—first orally and then in written form—as the Buddha’s Pali sermons (sutta), in fact contains the words of that extraordinary teacher. The Pali canon, upon which the Hînayâna branch of Buddhism bases itself, is known as the Tipitaka (Sanskrit Tripitaka, “Three Baskets”).
The first basket, called Vinaya-Pitaka, contains the rules of monastic discipline (vinaya), which were recited from memory by Upali, the Buddha’s oldest disciple, at the first council of the Sangha, shortly after the master’s parinirvâna.
The oldest doctrinal information is contained in the Sutta-Pitaka, the second basket (pitaka) of the Pali canon, which was recited in full by nanda, the Buddha’s cousin and personal attendant, who was blessed with a prodigious memory. It consists of the (edited) sermons or suttas (Sanskrit: sûtra) of the Buddha, which are arranged into five collections: the Dîgha-Nikâya (containing 34 long sermons), the Majjhima-Nikâya (containing 152 medium-length sermons), the Samyutta-Nikâya (containing 56 sermons organized by topics), the Anguttara-Nikâya (containing 2,308 sermons arranged according to the number of their themes), and the Khuddaka-Nikâya (containing 15 short works, including the famous Dhamma-Pâda, the Udâna, and the Sutta-Nipâta).
The third basket is known as the Abhidhamma- Pitaka, comprising seven scholastic books, all belonging to the pre-Christian era. The original version of this basket of teachings was recited by Kassapa (Kashyapa), who presided over the first council in Râjagriha. The Pali term abhidhamma (Sanskrit: abhidharma) means “relating to the teaching” and is usually understood as signifying “higher teaching.” It stands for the systematic philosophical treatment of the Buddha’s dhamma. The word dhamma (Sanskrit: dharma) means something like the “teaching that reflects the true law or order of the universe.” For dhamma stands for both the teaching and the unchangeable reality, or law, expressed in it. Moreover, in Buddhism, the term can also signify an objective “thing” or a “real.” In his outstanding work A Survey of Buddhism, the British Buddhist monk Bhikshu Sangharakshita makes this pertinent comment:
Dharma (Pali: dhamma) is the keyword of Buddhism. So great is the frequency with which it appears in the texts, and so numerous the vitally important ideas connoted by its various shades of meaning, that it would scarcely be an exaggeration to claim that an understanding of this protean word is synonymous with an understanding of Buddhism.5
In addition to the canonical scriptures written in Pali, there are also numerous extracanonical texts recognized and used by the Hînayâna community. Among these works are the Paritta (a collection of twenty-eight texts used for magical purposes), the well-known Milinda-Panha (a dialogue between the Buddhist Nâgasena and the Bactrian king Milinda or Menander, who lived in the second century B.C.E.), the popular doctrinal manual Visuddhi-Magga of Buddhaghosa, and numerous commentaries and subcommentaries.
The Four Noble Truths
The following discussion of Hînayâna Buddhism is based on the Sutta-Pitaka rather than the Abhi- dhamma-Pitaka, which some schools do not regard as giving authentic teachings of the Buddha. In this particular section, technical terms are in Pali, followed by their Sanskrit equivalents in parentheses.
The Buddha’s teaching—generally referred to as the dhamma (dharma)—proceeds from the observation that life is sorrowful or dukkha (duhkha). This is the first of the four noble truths. The idea behind this insight, which the Buddhists share with the Hindus and Jainas, is this: Because everything is impermanent and does not afford us lasting happiness, our life is, in the last analysis, shot through with sorrow and pain. Thus we compete with others and even with ourselves, always in search of greater happiness, comfort, fulfillment, or security, and we feel dissatisfied even in our attainments.
In the final analysis, suffering is the tension that is intrinsic to our effort to survive as separate, egoic personalities, or individuals. But that individuality is merely a carefully maintained illusion, a convenient psychosocial convention. In truth, says the Buddha, there is no inner self. The doctrine of “no-self’ or anattâ (anâtman) is fundamental to his teaching. It is probable that the Buddha emphasized the inessential nature of the human personality and of existence in general in order to counter the idealism to which the Upanishadic teachings had given rise. By insisting that the ultimate Reality was identical with the innermost core of the human being, the Self or âtman, the Upanishadic sages indirectly encouraged the delusion that there is, after all, an immortal personal essence. The Buddha rejected all conjectures about an immutable selfessence as futile and entertained the same position in regard to metaphysical speculations in general. However, it is evident from his recorded sayings that he occasionally availed himself of a language reminiscent of the Upanishads. On this point, Mahâyâna Buddhism is far more easygoing than the Buddha himself.
In any case, the Buddha’s pragmatic approach exemplifies what is best in the tradition of yogic experimentalism, and it is in this spirit that the first truth, about suffering, as well as the other three truths must be understood: They must be deeply felt rather than merely thought about in abstract terms, so that they can make their point in a person’s life.
The second truth is that desire, the thirst or tanhâ (trishnâ) for life—corresponding to Nietzsche’s “will to live”—is the cause of the universally experienced suffering.6 Our very cells are genetically programmed to perpetuate the biological conglomerate that we call “our” body-mind: We desire to be alive as individuals, and yet our very individuality is the factor that complicates our existence, because we separate ourselves from everything else and then look for ways to reduce or overcome the resulting sense of isolation and fear. We approach the matter from the wrong end, however. We tinker with our experiences rather than allow our understanding to penetrate to the root of our separative disposition and its accompanying survival motive. Since desire is anchored in ignorance of our true nature, the Mahâyâna teachers look upon ignorance rather than desire as the cause of suffering.
The third truth affirms that it is through the radical elimination of that innate craving, or thirst, that we can remove all experience of sorrow and win through to what is real and true. It is not enough to modify or reduce desire, because even a modified or reduced desire is still a binding force. Desire must be completely eradicated if we want to find inner peace and freedom.
The fourth truth states that the means of eradicating our craving is the noble eightfold path declared by the Buddha. That path consists in the gradual “disillusionment” of our egoic personality; that is, the step-by-step undermining of what we presume ourselves and the world to be, until the truth shines forth. Upon attaining the supreme condition of nirvâna, all suffering is transcended, because the illusory entity that is the source of suffering is fully abrogated. The force of desire is neutralized. In other words, the enlightened being is no longer an individuated person, even though the personality continues to manifest its typical (if purified) character.
Closely connected with the doctrine of the universality of suffering is the doctrine of moral causation or kamma (karma) and the correlated teaching of rebirth. Both hold a central position in Buddhist metaphysics and ethics, though the Buddha’s teaching can be said to remain valid even when these are rejected. Buddhism distinguis
hes between two principal forms of kamma, namely wholesome kamma and unwholesome kamma. It is the interaction between these two types and their total effect on the individual that keep the wheel of existence in incessant rotation. As in Jainism, there is no God who could interfere in the nexus of birth and death or to whom beings are ultimately responsible. Instead, it is the mental activity of each individual, whether expressed in action or not, that alone determines his or her future through the moral law of causation inherent in the universe.
The Doctrine of Dependent Origination
The important idea of moral causation is given formal expression in the well-known Buddhist symbol of the wheel of life or bhava-cakka (bhava-cakra), which has the following twelve links:
ignorance or avijjâ (avidyâ) leads to
action-intentions or sankhâra (samskâra), giving rise to
consciousness or vinnâna (vijnâna) from which arise
name and form or nâma-rûpa; from this originates
the sixfold base or sal-âyatana (shad- âyatana), that is, the objective world, which, in turn, yields
sense-contact orphassa (sparsha); this leads to
sensation or vedanâ, which effects
craving or tanhâ (trishnâ), and this gives rise to
grasping or upâdana, which leads to
becoming or bhava, from which results
birth or jâti, and then
old age and death or jarâ-marana.
This ancient Buddhist formula bears the name pat- icca-samuppâda (pratîtya-samutpâda) or “dependent origination,” and it explains the relationship between the individual links of the nexus of cause and effect, which is meant to elucidate the sequence of births and deaths. It is important to realize that this whole process is thought to take place without a continuous entity, or soul, experiencing it. As I have noted, according to the Buddha, there is no abiding self that suffers repeated births. As Hans- Wolfgang Schumann puts it:
Since there is no immortal Self which runs through the various lives like a silk thread through a string of pearls, it cannot be the same person who reaps the fruit of kammic seeds of past existences in rebirth. On the other hand the reborn person is not completely different, for each form of existence is caused by, and proceeds from, its previous existence like a flame which is lit by another one. The truth lies between identity and isolation: in conditional dependence.7
How this is possible becomes clear when it is understood that in Buddhism the continuous being that we ordinarily perceive ourselves or others to be is a mental construct. In reality, it is an unstable configuration of five distinct and short-lived factors or groups (khandha, skandha):
body (rûpa)
sensation (vedanâ)
perception (sannâ, samjnâ)
mental activity (sankhâra, samskâra)
consciousness (vinnâna, vijnâna).
Factors 2-5 are also collectively referred to as
“name” (nâma), which is the counterpoint to the human “form” (rûpa), or body. Both name and form must be transcended, which is a teaching found already in the earliest Upanishads.
The Buddha’s denial of a transmigrating soul, or essential self, has led many students of Buddhism to the assumption that he rejected a transcendental Reality outright. This is not the case. Many passages in the Pali canon describe the ultimate condition of nirvâna in positive terms. It is also called “shelter,” “refuge,” and “security.” But, more typically, the ultimate Reality, and thus also the enlightened being, is described in negative terms. In the words of the Buddha, recorded in the Sutta-Nipâta:
As a flame blown out by the wind goes to rest and is lost to cognition, just so the sage (muni) who is released from name (nâma) [i.e., mind] and body (kâya), goes to rest and is lost to cognition. (1074)
And:
There is no measure for him who has gone to rest, and he has nothing that could be named. When all things are abandoned, all paths of language are likewise abandoned. (1076)
Thus, the rational teaching of the Buddha terminates in the ineffable condition of nirvâna. Concepts and words can be helpful to spiritual seekers until they have discovered what is Real for themselves. Of course, language can also be a hindrance, because it entices us to “thingify” concepts, to treat words as if they were objective things. After enlightenment, however, language loses its fascination and is never again confused with reality.
III. THE YOGIC PATH OF HÎNAYNA BUDDHISM
The description of the theoretical foundations of Buddhism may have given the impression that the teaching of the Buddha is schematic and philosophical rather than practical, but nothing could be farther from the truth. The Buddha was a dedicated yogin with a passion and unique gift for meditative absorption, and his teaching was primarily designed to show a concrete way out of the maze of spiritually ignorant and hence sorrowful existence.
Like Patanjali’s Yoga, the Yoga of the Buddha comprises eight distinct members or “limbs” (anga). Hence it is known as the “noble eightfold path.” The Buddha also referred to it as the “supermundane path” (loka-uttara- magga),8 because it is meant for those who are seriously committed to self-transcending practice—that is, for monks and nuns. The Buddha was convinced that a person could attain enlightenment within seven days of “setting forth,” that is, of taking up the life of a mendicant monk or nun.
Following are the eight limbs of the path, which 6. should not be viewed as stages or rungs of a ladder:
Samma-ditthi (samyag-drishti9) or “right vision” is the realization of the transiency of conditioned existence and the understanding that there is indeed no self.
Samma-sankappa (samyak-samkalpa) or “right resolve” is the threefold resolution to renounce what is ephemeral, to practice benevolence, and to not hurt any being.
Samma-vâcâ (samyag-vâcâ) or “right speech” is the abstention from idle and false talk.
Samma-kammantâ (samyak-karmantâ) or “right conduct” consists mainly in abstention from killing, stealing, and illicit sexual intercourse.
Samma-âjîva (samyag-âjîva) or “right livelihood” is the abstention from deceit, usury, treachery, and soothsaying in procuring one’s sustenance.
Samma-vayama (samyag-vyayama) or “right exertion” is the prevention of future unwholesome mental activity, the overcoming of present unwholesome feelings or thoughts, the cultivation of future wholesome states of mind, and the maintenance of present wholesome psychomental activity.
Samma-sati (samyak-smriti) or “right mindfulness” is the cultivation of awareness of the psychosomatic processes by means of such practices as the favorite Theravâda (Hînayâna) technique of satipatthâna, consisting in the mindful observation of otherwise unconscious activities, like breathing or body movement.
Samma-samâdhi (samyak-samâdhi) or “right concentration” is the practice of certain techniques for the internalization and transcendence of consciousness.
The first two members of the noble eightfold path are said to deal with understanding (pannâ, prajnâ), the next three deal with behavior (sila, shîla), and the last three with concentration (samâdhi). The first five can also be grouped under the heading of socio-ethical regulations, while the remaining three members are specifically yogic. Exertion and mindfulness can and should be practiced throughout the entire day, but concentration (samâdhi) represents a special discipline for which undisturbed quiet is essential.
Samâdhi—in the Buddhist sense of intense mental collectedness—comprises the meditative phases from sensory withdrawal up to ecstasy, known as jhâna in Pali or dhyâna in Sanskrit. There are eight such jhânas:
jhâna accompanied by discursive thought and the feeling of rapturous joy (pîti-sukha, prîti-sukha);
jhâna unaccompanied by discursive thought, but still suffused with the feeling of joy;
jhâna in which the experience of joy has yielded to the subtle joy of tranquil mindfulness;
jhâna in which any kind of emotion is stopped and all that
remains is utter mindfulness;
the mystical realization of the “sphere of space-infinity” (âkâsa-ananca-âyatana, âkâsha-ananta-âyatana10);
the mystical realization of the “sphere of consciousness-infinity” (vinnâ-ananca- âyatana, vijnâna-ananta-âyatana11);
the mystical realization of the “sphere of no-thing-ness” (âkincanna-âyatana, âkim-canya-âyatana12);
the mystical realization of the “sphere of neither cognition nor noncognition” (neva- sannâ-na-asannâ-âyatana, naiva-samjnâ- asamjnâ-âyatana13).
The first four are called rûpa-jhanas or meditations with “form” (rûpa), or cognitive contents, while the last four are technically known as arûpa-jhânas or “formless” (arûpa) meditations. Beyond these eight stages lies, as the Udâna (80) has it, nibbâna (nirvâna) itself:
… a realm where there is neither the earth nor water, neither fire nor air, neither ether nor consciousness … neither this world nor any other world, neither sun nor moon.
The yogic nature of the Buddha’s path is further evinced by the use of such techniques as posture (âsana) and control of the life force (prânâyâma). The technical Pali term for vital force (prâna) in Buddhism is kâya-sankhâra, which means literally “bodily constituent.” As opposed to the Hindu schools of Yoga, Hînayâna Buddhism does not advocate the stoppage of the vital force in the form of forced breath retention, which might do violence to the natural body. Instead, the practitioner is advised to follow the movement of the breath with the mind. This is a particular application of the technique of mindfulness (sati, smritti). This technique, known in Pali as sati-patthâna, is widely employed in modern Theravâda, the oldest surviving school of the Hînayâna tradition.
The Yoga Tradition Page 34