Buddhism highlights

Siddhartha Gautama is presented to us as a son of Prince Shuddhodana, of the Gautama family and the Sakya clan, established in Kapilavastu, near Varanasi, in northeastern India, an area close to the Himalayas and the Ganges, where Magadhi was the language spoken. He was born around 560 BC. He was married to Yasodara and was the father of Rahula. He carried the name Siddhartha until the age of thirty, when he left his home to become a monk, and called himself Sakyamuni. He experienced the life of mendicant monks and ascetics, but saw that to stay locked in these states did not provide a path of hope to men; thus he continued his personal quest until he reached, ten years later, in Bodh Gaya, sitting under a tree, his own enlightenment, at which time he was called Buddha, "the awakened", “the clear seer”, “the lucid”, "the enlightened", "the wise”. He died in Kusinagara around 480 BC.

The Sangha, the community of monks and nuns (bhikkus and bhikkunis) gathered around the Buddha, governed by the Vinaya or discipline, transmitted the preaching of Buddha, which constitutes the Dharma (in Sanskrit; Dhamma in Pali). The Dharma is presented through sutra (in Sanskrit; sutta in Pali), dialogues between the Buddha and a disciple (the title of each sutra is the subject of the debate or the name of the disciple). Later, already at the time of emperor Ashoka, the fundamental doctrine of the sutra was synthesized in the Abhidharma, a set of books that contain the essence of the teaching of Buddha. So that it was considered that the classical texts of Buddhism, written in Pali, gathered in three baskets (pitaka): the one of the sutra, the one of the Vinaya and the Abhidharma, forming the three baskets (tripitaka). The symbol of Dharma is a wheel with eight rays, since it is considered that the day the Buddha exposed for the first time his doctrine to his five companions and first disciples, “the wheel of Dharma started to turn”.

The core of the Buddhist Dharma can be found in the “Middle Way”, the way that has to permit people to free themselves from suffering. The Middle Way, the way of harmony, of not exceeding oneself in neither extreme, of “not too much of anything” – the guitar strings should not be neither too tense nor too lax, they have to have the right tension in order to give the right note - is centered in the "four noble truths":

a) First, that life is suffering (dukkha): "To be born is suffering, old age is suffering, illness and death are suffering, to unite with something not desired is suffering and to separate from something desired is suffering and not obtaining what is desired is suffering; i. e., that the quintuple attachment to senses is suffering." The five components of life (skandas: the body, sensations, thoughts, feelings and consciousness) are sources of suffering. This suffering derives from a separation between life and reality.

b) Second, that the origin of suffering is to believe that we are an "I" isolated from the rest: "It is the will of life which takes from birth to birth, together with luxury and desire, which find their gratification here and there; the thirst of pleasures, the thirst of being, the thirst of power." The cause of dislocation between life and reality is tanha, usually translated by “desire”, but it refers specifically to the desire of intimate satisfaction, of satisfaction of the “I”. Tanha breaks our capacity to behave generously, which is the source of freedom; it is egoism, the desire for oneself to the expense of the other forms of life. It is because of the “I” that we suffer.

c) Third, that the extinction of suffering passes by the suppression of this "I": "The extinction of this thirst through the complete annihilation of desire, letting it go, expelling it, separating from it, not giving it shelter." To overcome tanha, to leave desire behind.

d) Fourth, that there is a way to reach this extinction of suffering, a way specified by the “noble eightfold way”:

           i.  Correct belief: the proper or fair vision, a good understanding of what we are and what we are not.

         ii.  Correct aspirations: proper or fair intention, not the one coming from the interests of the small "I", but from totality.

        iii.  Correct language: proper or fair words, expressing reality and not false or fictitious worlds. To avoid false testimony, useless small talk, gossip, calumny and injury; subtle despise, “accidental” lack of tact, the mordacious saying.

        iv. Correct behavior: proper or fair actions, not damaging anyone. Five basic precepts: 1) not to hurt any living being, no killing; 2) not taking anything that has not been offered to you, no stealing; 3) not abusing of sensual pleasures, not being sexually pervert; 4) no lying; 5) abstaining from all stimulating or mind confusing or intoxicating substance or drink; no drugs.

        v.  Correct way of life: proper or fair occupations, excluding for example money trade, weapon manufacturing and trade, living beings trade (slaves, prostitution) and the manufacturing and trade of alcoholic drinks (we would now probably say drugs). In the spirit that to work is a mean to survive, not the purpose of life.

        vi. Correct effort: the proper and fair effort, the one that does not create tension, the balance between doing nothing and burn or exhaust oneself. A low level of will, a simple wish unaccompanied by effort and action to obtain it, is not enough.

      vii. Correct attention: proper mentality, correct or fair thought, the one taking us away from ignorance and from illusions and false worlds. “All what we are is the result of what we have thought.” (Dhammapada, 1). To be attentive of what goes on in consciousness.

      viii.  Correct ecstasies: proper or fair concentration, allowing us to focus on what is worth, leaving aside futilities.

Following these paths Nirvana (in Sanskrit; Nibbana in Pali) can be reached.

The pillars of early Buddhism are meditation and the Dharma-Vinaya, systematized shortly after the Buddha's death by a council of 500 monks in Rajgir (or Rajagraha), chaired by Mahakassapa. One hundred years later, a second council was held in Vaisali, summoned by the old monk Yasa and attended by 700 monks. Some tension appeared between a more Orthodox monastic Buddhism (sthaviras, the ancient ones, which tended to a literal and dogmatic approach to texts; their model of life was the arhat, the "worthy", the one who fully adhered to the law taking it literally) and a more flexible and secular Buddhism, the Mahasanghika (which emphasizes the notion of bodhisattva, the one owned by the light, which differs its entrance to nirvana in order to help others).

Buddhism developed in parallel to Judaism, being its first five centuries the period for its basic crystallization. Around 300 BC there was a division, giving birth to the Pudgala-vadin school. This school claims the existence of the person as a real entity, reflecting the weight of the Hindu tradition of transmigration and karma, which allows to preserve justice (if the person does not survive, ¿how can it be rewarded or punished in a future reincarnation for what it has done, thus imparting a justice that if not could not be exerted? Then there would be no reason to act honestly, and chaos would be generated). Many monks, however, opposed this view, maintaining the doctrine of anatta (there is no "I", the "I" is an illusion).

A major milestone is the reign of Emperor Ashoka Maurya in Magadha (269 BC - 232 BC). He was the grand-son of Chandragupta, who had defeated the troops of Alexander the Great. Ashoka became a Buddhist eight years after reaching the throne, and respected and supported also the other religions of his domains. Buddhism became more widely spread following the expansion of the empire of Magadha to the eastern part of the valley of the Ganges, and beyond, thanks to the delegations sent by the emperor to distant lands like Sri Lanka (where Buddhism expanded quickly), the Himalayas, western India, southern India and Southeast Asia. Also Buddhism reached Kashmir and Gandhara, the latter having a Greek government. Through Gandhara Buddhism could have had an influence in the Mediterranean area (King Milinda or Menander, a Greek from Alexandria who ruled in Gandhara, was very interested in Buddhism).

During the reign of Ashoka the third Buddhist council was held in its capital, Pataliputra, chaired by monk Moggalipputa Tissa, who refuted the doctrines of the sarvastivadins or panrealists, which were confronted with the sautrantikas. For the latter, disciples of Kumaralata, when present becomes past it ceases to be real, it disappears (anicca: everything is instantaneous, transient). Nothing comes out of the past; the instantaneous, deciduous, being constitutes the nature of reality (although every moment comes out of a previous moment, so there is moral continuity: we are determined by our antecedent). They gave priority to the sutras over the Abhidhamma (and that is why they were called sautrantikas: those for whom the sutra are the anta, the final word). The sarvastivadins, to the contrary, believed that when present became past it did not became unreal, but still had a real existence and produced real effects. Similarly, the future was also real (hence the name "panrealists"). They gave precedence to the Abhidhamma over the sutra. They went to the west, becoming strong in Kashmir and Gandhara.

In connection with the tension already expressed in the second council in Vaisali, and favored by the expansion of the Sangha, which implied the addition of more people of brahmanic origin, takes place the emergence, towards the first century AD, of Mahayana Buddhism (Great Vehicle, because their positions could be accepted by more people, since they gave less importance to discipline and monastic life, although they practiced it also). It scattered mainly in southern India (where it received the influence of the cults to the mother-goddesses) and northwestern India (where it received the influence of Persia and Greece). It replaced the traditional Pali by Sanskrit. The Mahayana puts emphasis on the "great compassion" (mahakaruna) towards all living beings.

Mahayana Buddhism is confronted with Hinayana (Small Vehicle, because the way to reach enlightenment is in it narrower, more demanding). Since this term could seem a little derogatory, its followers preferred the term Theravada (the doctrine of the Thera, the “ancient ones”; “the way towards the ancient ones”), considering it the initial form to interpret the message of Buddha, the closest to original Buddhism, gathered in the initial texts, the Pali Canon. It will be the form of Buddhism that will spread to Sri Lanka and part of South-east Asia.

Some confrontations can help to better define the distinction between these two major branches of Buddhism: 1) For Theravada, spiritual advancement depends on the individual, on his understanding and his will, humans liberating themselves through their own effort, without supernatural help, humanity being alone in the universe (there is no god to help it overcome difficulties, it can only rely on itself); for Mahayana, individual destiny is linked to the one of life in general, it is not divisible, and can count on assistance by divine powers and on the grace they grant; there is an unlimited power driving everything. 2) For Theravada, the main attribute is wisdom, the deep perception of the nature of reality; for Mahayana, the main attribute is compassion; meditation can confer a personal power of destructive nature if it has not been deliberately preceded by the development of compassionate concern for the others. 3) For Theravada, Sangha is central, monasteries and convents are important, and monks and nuns are much respected; for Mahayana, “lay” people are more important. 4) For Theravada, the ideal of human aspiration is the arhat, the perfect disciple that goes alone searching nirvana; for Mahayana, the ideal of human aspiration is the bodhisattva, the person that, having arrived next to nirvana, goes back and makes efforts so that everybody can reach enlightenment, leaving in a second level its own personal realization. 5) For Theravada, the Buddha was a saint, a supreme wise man that, through his efforts, reached truth and became an incomparable master, but his personal and direct influence ended with his death; for Mahayana, he was a savior that continues to attire towards him all creatures in order to liberate them. 6) Theravada gives little importance to theoretical speculation and to rituals, the contrary of Mahayana. 7) Theravada focuses on meditation, while Mahayana includes demand prayers and the invocation of Buddha’s name. 8) Theravada is more conservative and disciplinary, and has a political dimension, proposing a certain vision of society; Mahayana is more liberal and flexible, and leaves more aside the proposal of a specific model of society.

Within the Mahayana, in the second century AD a South Indian Brahmin that had converted to Buddhism, Nagarjuna, founded the Madhyamika school, which explores the relationship between Samsara (the empirical world of the senses) and Nirvana (transcendental reality): he considers Nirvana is present in Samsara but humans cannot recognize it and penetrate it because of the false constructions they erect over the world; the aim of religion is the suppression of these constructions (the Dhammapada will say: “I have gone round in vain the cycles of many lives ever striving to find the builder of the house of life and death. How great is the sorrow of life that must die! But now I have seen thee, housebuilder: never more shalt thou built this house. The rafters of sins are broken, the ridge-pole of ignorance is destroyed. The fever of craving is past: for my mortal mind is gone to the joy of the immortal Nirvana (153, 154)”. The other major school of Mahayana is the Yogakara ("yoga practitioner"), school founded in the third century AD by Maitreyanatha and deployed by his disciple Asanga in the fourth century AD. For them, only consciousness is real, and external objects are only real in the consciousness of the subject.

Also in the second century AD begins the expansion of Buddhism in China through trade routes, taking advantage of the vacuum left by the decline of the Han Dynasty and despite the reluctance of Confucian scholars. Chinese people appreciated Buddhism for its religiosity, its consistency and its moral stature. The Chinese monk Hui-Yüan (334-416) initiates the devotion to Buddha Amitabha (in Japanese, Amida); its devoted followers hope to be reborn in the “Pure Land”, an interior state of lucidity and full realization. Amitabha’s intermediary is bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (“the one who hears the claims of the world”), represented with many arms to signify his great helping capacity.

In the fourth century Buddhism was already strongly rooted in China. At the beginning of the fifth century, Kumarajiva translated into Chinese a hundred Buddhist works. In 520, Bodhidharma went to China, where he founded the Ch'an school (Zen in Japanese; ch’an derives from dyana, the Sanskrit word for “meditation”), which will become one of the major schools of Chinese Buddhism. In this school an important role is played by Huineng (638-717), who begins to emphasize awareness (wu, satori in Japanese: "to understand", that will be used as the equivalent of “enlightenment”). Chang Po (720-814) introduces koans and considers compatible to be a monk and work. With the T'ang dynasty (618-907), the situation of Buddhism in China goes through ups and downs, with a strong chase in 845 at the time of Emperor Wu Tsung (841-847) (who had persecuted Manichaeism in 843, whereas other T'ang emperors had welcomed Christian Nestorianism). Buddhism was protected by the Sung dynasty (960-1280), during which Ch'an Buddhism consolidates.

Around 550 Buddhism was introduced in Japan. Prince Shotoku, who governed Japan from 593 to 623, gave it a strong boost and proclaimed it as state religion. It lived in harmony with local traditions, which constitute the Shinto. In the Heian period (794-1185) the Buddhist Tendai School bloomed in Japan, driven by the monks Saicho and Kukai and characterized by universalism (all conscious beings can attain salvation) and good rapport with Shinto.

In parallel, Buddhism went into recession in its native India. Around the eighth century the Tantra stream bloomed (after an earlier rather discreet development), combining Buddhism with more or less magic traditional practices of the peasantry of India and yoga techniques. Tantra means “net”, in reference to the interconnection existing between all forms of energy, so that it is possible to exert an influence on this net and orient it towards the well-being of all creatures. This stream was also named Vajrayana Buddhism (Diamond Vehicle, brilliant as a diamond).

In the seventh century Vajrayana Buddhism was able to penetrate into Tibet, through the preaching of Padma-Shamba; later, it weakened significantly, until in the eleventh century a new preaching by the Bengali monk Atisha (980-1053) turned it into the dominant religion in Tibet, replacing the bon religion. The personality of Milarepa (XI century) had a prominent role in it. In 1244 a Buddhist abbot became regent prince of Tibet under the protection of the Mongol Khan; he will be the first Dalai Lama, the first Buddhist lama to assume simultaneously a temporal and a religious power, a tradition that is practically maintained until 1959, when the fourteenth Dalai Lama was expelled from Tibet by China, finding refuge in Dharamsala, in India. The present Dalai Lama belongs to the Gelugpa School, initiated in the fifteenth century.

Regarding the spread of Buddhism to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, even if in 1200 Buddhism was no longer a major feature of the Indian scene, it kept growing in Tibet, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia, in these last ones thanks in part to the influence of Sri Lanka. In China, Buddhism will decay from the thirteenth century, in correspondence to the crisis in India, traditional inspirer of Chinese Buddhism. Long time after, there will be a small rebirth of Buddhism in China with Taixu (1890-1947), who in 1929 organized the "Chinese Buddhist Society," which in 1947 had 4.5 million members.

Eisai (1141-1215) introduced in 1191 Ch'an Buddhism in Japan; the Rinzai Zen he inspired will become a success among the military elite, the shogun. In 1228 something similar happened with Dogen (1200-1253), who also returned from China boosting the more popular Soto Zen. In the Kamakura period (1192–1333) Buddhism approached Shinto, giving birth to the Shinto Ryobu, which considered that Shinto deities (kami) were manifestations of Buddhist divinities; for centuries this will be the predominant religious approach in Japan. But in 1868, with the advent of the Meiji dynasty, Buddhism was attacked and separated from Shinto. Buddhism, however, survived this persecution, as well as a decade of opening of Japan to the world; when Japan reacted against Europeanization and Christianity, Buddhism got back its reputation as a philosophy compatible with modern philosophical thought and a major religious tradition of Japan.

In the twentieth century Buddhism had some rebirth in India, derived from three independent factors: first, the arrival of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhist monks driven out of Tibet by China, which were welcomed by India. Secondly, the conversion to Buddhism in 1956 of part of the “untouchable” community, following the example of their leader B.R. Ambedkar (1891-1956); in ten years, there were already four million converts. Finally, the recognition of Indian intellectual classes towards Buddhism, reflected in the publication in 1956 of a volume to commemorate the 2500 anniversary of Buddhism, with foreword by the President of India.

Also in the twentieth century, Buddhism began a significant expansion in the Western world.