Buddhism

One afternoon, as I spotted a loaf of whole wheat bread in the bakery of a very fine hotel in Shanghai, I expressed my delight by saying, “I’m in heaven now!” The girl behind the counter replied, “Well, if you’re in heaven, then I’m in hell.” When I inquired what she meant, she said, “We are all Buddhists, here, and the first level of our ‘hell’ is like what Christians believe about heaven.”

That same night, sitting only a few yards away in the lobby of that same hotel, I conversed for several hours with a retired engineer who had just returned from a retreat at a famous Buddhist monastery. Though his words reflected a far more sophisticated and learned faith that that of the young woman in the bakery, he would have identified himself with her religion. A few years later, in a vegetarian restaurant in Beijing, another professor told me how he meditated at least two hours a day while focusing on the Diamond Sutra.

Buddhism has exerted profound influence upon Chinese civilization since its introduction from India around fifteen hundred years ago. You see its impact on art (including sculpture and painting), architecture, literature, and even music almost everywhere you go in the Chinese world.

A faith with many faces

As shown by the examples above, Buddhism has expressed itself in a variety of forms, or schools, most of which are practiced in China: Theravada; Mahayana; Tibetan (or, Vajrayana), and Zen (Chan). Let’s look at these, beginning with Theravada, the earliest.

Theravada Buddhism

The history of this great religion begins when Siddhartha Gautama (586-483 B.C.), a prince in India, was struck by the presence of suffering in the world and sought to discover its cause and cure. Leaving his wife and child in the palace, he wandered for many years in search of an answer, but with no success. Finally, after sitting in silent meditation under a tree, he received sudden enlightenment. Over time, others recognized his remarkable insight, and called him the “Buddha” or Enlightened ( Awakened) One. His disciples soon numbered in the thousands, and today hundreds of millions call themselves Buddhists. As we have seen, many Chinese consider themselves followers of the Buddha, though their beliefs and practices often differ markedly from those of the founder.

According to later accounts, the Buddha sought to introduce a “middle way” that avoided both luxury and austerity. He taught what are called the Four Noble Truths. Life inevitably involves suffering and change. Suffering comes from the desire for temporary things, caused by spiritual ignorance, and leading to an endless cycle of rebirths. Suffering can be overcome by the elimination of desire, which enables one to escape the cycle of rebirths and enter Nirvana. Lastly, the way to freedom from desire is to follow the Eightfold Path.

The first five obligations of this Path are to abstain from harming living beings, stealing, sexual misconduct, untrue speech, intoxicating beverages and drugs. On special days, three more obligations undertaken by pious disciple include not eating solid food after noon, not engaging in frivolity and not taking high and luxurious seats.

Traditional Buddhism teaches that one earns merit (good karma) by avoiding evil and doing good. The accumulation of enough merit brings eventual salvation, though this may take countless re-incarnations. Certain rituals also produce merit. These include giving alms, contributing to the support of monks, and participating in religious festivals.

Traditional Theravada Buddhism affected India (before it was expelled), Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Cambodia.

Mahayana Buddhism

Building upon, and claiming to remain faithful to, the teachings of Theravada Buddhism, this “Larger Vehicle” added other beliefs and practices. The Buddha is seen not so much as an historical individual as a universal cosmic principle of compassion. Rather than seeking to enter nirvana for personal enjoyment, the ideal follower, who becomes a bodhisattva, delays entrance to eternal bliss in order to help others achieve salvation. Two bodhisattva who appear frequently in images are Amitofu (male) and Guanyin (female); the latter is called the Goddess of Mercy, and plays a role similar to Mary in Roman Catholic religion. You can find pictures of them hanging from the mirrors of countless Chinese taxis, to ensure safe driving on Asia’s dangerous streets. As one driver told me, each person has the Buddha nature within himself, and thus the potential to become a bodhisattva. When I asked whether he knew of anyone who had attained to this status, he mentioned the Dalai Lama and Pope John Paul II.

In the more refined versions of this scheme, enlightenment is held to come suddenly as a result of meditation, and to consist in the realization that all that we perceive is really illusory. Thus, any attachment to things seen is futile. Once we realize that, we attain full liberation from the world, the desire for it, and thus suffering.

Mahayana Buddhism – in one form or another - spread to Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, and Japan, and forms the basis for most formal Buddhism among the Chinese worldwide.

Tibetan Buddhism

What we now call Tibetan Buddhism began in India as a form of Tantric Buddhism. Tantrism is a devotion to natural energy, based on manuals filled with magical and spell-making information, and the belief that passion can be overcome by indulging it to the utmost. The great forces of the universe, including the gods, are a combination of the male and the female elements. Sexual activity plays a vital part in Tantric Buddhism, for by it union can be attained.

One attains to Nirvana by a long process of fasting, prayer, repeating the sacred mystic syllables, and the use of imagination to visualize a sacred personage. This can be done within one’s own lifetime, thus removing the need for successive reincarnations. Within this system, offerings and sacrifices, prayers, and elaborate patterns of esoteric hand positions play a vital role.

When imported into Tibet, Tantric Buddhism absorbed, and was influenced by, the native religion, which centered upon the fear of demons and the desire to be protected from them. Evil spirits could be frightened away by the even more fearsome images of gods and their consorts (Tibetan gods all had spouses), and by constant prayer. That is where the prayer wheel comes in: Driven by wind, water, or a hand crank, this device wafts prayers to the wind continuously, ensuring the protection and prosperity of the worshiper.

Tibetan Buddhism is sometimes called Lamaism because of the central role played by the lamas, or priests. Originally, they were allowed to marry, and huge monasteries were ruled by hereditary orders of monks. Later, celibacy became the norm. Thus, the leading monk’s successor had to be found elsewhere. The remaining belief in reincarnation was invoked at this point: the new leader would be the reincarnation of his predecessor, and could be found through a complicated and sometimes drawn-out process.

Tibetan Buddhism extended its influence to Mongolia through one of the wives of the Great Khan, then on to northern China and Siberia. The Manchu rulers of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) were ardent devotees of this esoteric religion.

When China began to exercise influence over Tibet, the emperor in Beijing assumed the right to appoint the two most important religious leaders, the Dalai Lama (who had political power) and the Panchen Lama (who wielded more spiritual authority). Chinese leaders today still attempt to name these two great lamas, though they are opposed by many Tibetans who are faithful to the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet when the Communist Chinese invaded their country in 1950.

Today, Tibetan Buddhism presents three rather different faces, though two of them merge in the person of the Dalai Lama. First, he represents a government-in-exile, and travels throughout the world seeking support for the freedom from Chinese control. Meanwhile, the Chinese government suppresses all dissent in Tibet, retains a firm grip through its military, encourages the migration of Han Chinese to sparsely-populated Tibet, and – as we have seen – recently appointed a Panchen Lama.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama also disseminates his religious views through world-wide teaching and numerous publications. In these, he promotes universal peace and harmony through the recognition that all mankind are essentially united and need not go to war with each other. He espouses an ethic of kindness, compassion, and non-violence, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Back in Tibet, in the border regions of northern India where thousands of Tibetans have fled the Chinese, and in a growing number of centers around the world, traditional Tibetan Buddhism flourishes, with all the prayers and paraphernalia of this thoroughly pre-modern religion.

Chan (Zen) Buddhism

Though usually classed – as here – with other Buddhist schools, Chan (Zen) stands apart as a separate way of attaining “salvation.” Disdaining ritual, good works, and discursive reasoning, practitioners of Zen rely instead upon sudden insight gained from concentrating upon one’s own heart to find the Buddha inside.

There is a legend that Zen was brought to China by an Indian who had received it from a succession of masters, the first of whom derived instantaneous insight during an encounter with the Gautama Buddha himself. In reality, however, we know of no actual Zen teacher or practice until it appears in China in the 6th century A.D.

Beginning as “simple living and stern self-discipline as the preparation for meditation and the inward vision, it “disdained all scriptures and was rigorously individualistic, iconoclastic, and averse to regarding the ultimate Buddha-principle (‘Nothingness’ ‘the Void’) as in any sense definable. Gradually, however, the old aids to the religious life were reinstated and in a moderate way made use of.”

Later, different schools were formed, and Zen was taken to Japan, where it became quite popular. It declined in China after having had significant influence upon society in the Sung Dynasty (960-1279), though one aspect of Chinese Zen – the worship of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy – has persisted and flourished up to the present.

Problems

Buddhism contains several problems for thoughtful critics and potential adherents:

(1) The “Scriptures” on which it is based are of late origin, and thus not reliable as historical accounts of the life and teachings of the Buddha. Over the years, these documents have multiplied into a bewildering variety of often-contradictory books.

(2) The conservative view, which teaches that all of what we see is merely illusion, contradicts common experience. The later, “Mahayana” school has invented a mythology of multiple deities in a religion difficult to distinguish from the profuse polytheism of Roman paganism or popular Chinese religion.

(3) Its ethical teachings, while admirable, are impossible to carry out. For centuries, the rigid distinction between monks and laity sustained what were in fact almost two separate religions, the former seeking Nirvana through rituals, the latter pursuing peace and prosperity on earth. This second form attracts the pragmatic Chinese, and merges easily with traditional Chinese folk religion.

(4) Zen Buddhism, though widely popular in the West, defies rational examination and does not offer much practical guidance for private or corporate life.

Readings

Chang, Lit-Sen. Asia’s Religions: Christianity’s Momentous Encounter with Paganism.

Fisher, Mary Pat & Bailey, Lee W. An Anthology of Living Religions (Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2000).

Noss, John B. and David. Man’s Religions. 7th Edition.

Partridge, Christopher, General Editor, Dictionary of Contemporary Religion in the Western World: Exploring Living Faiths in Postmodern Contexts (Downers Grove, Illinois, 2002).