pp. 64 - 68 (5)
incl.: Rule of the Fishes
p. 59 Henpecked Monk
p. 65 Enlightenment
Buddhism: The Middle Path

In the sixth century B.C.E., a new doctrine appeared in northern India that soon began to rival Hinduism s popularity throughout the subcontinent. This new doctrinc was called Buddhism. The historical founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama, was a native of a small principality in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains in what is today southern Nepal. He was born in the mid-sixth century B.C.E., the son of a ruling kshatriya family. According to tradition, the young Siddhartha was raised in affluent surroundings and trained, like many other members of his class, in the martial arts. On reaching ma­turity, he married and began to raise a family. But, according to Buddhist tradition, at the age of twenty-nine he suddenly discovered the pain of illness, the sorrow of death, and the degradation caused by old age in the lives of ordinary people and exclaimed: "Would that sickness, age, and death might be for ever bound!" From that time on, he decided to dedicate his life to determining the cause and seeking the cure for human suffering.

     To find the answers to these questions, Siddhartha abandoned his home and family and traveled widely. At first he tried to follow the model of the ascetics (a popular recourse at that time for sensitive upper-class Hindus disgusted with the hedonism of elite lifestyles), but he eventually decided that self-mortification did not lead to a greater understanding of life and abandoned the practice. Then one day after a lengthy period of meditation under a tree, he finally achieved enlightenment as to the meaning of life and spent the remainder of his life preaching it. His conclusions, as embodied in his teach­ings, became the philosophy (or, as some would have it, the religion) of Buddhism. According to legend, the Devil (the Indian term is Mara) attempted desperately to tempt him with political power and the company of beautiful girls. But Siddhartha Gautama resisted:

Pleasure is brief as a flash of lightning
Or like an Autumn shower, only for a moment . . .
Why should I then covet the pleasures you speak of?
I see your bodies are full of all impurity:
Birth and death, sickness and age are yours.
I seek the highest prize, hard to attain by men—
The true and constant wisdom of the wise.

How much the modem doctrine of Buddhism resem­bles the original teachings of Siddhartha Gautama is open to debate, since much time has elapsed since his death and original texts relating his ideas are lacking. Nor is it certain that Siddhartha Gautama even intended to found a new religion or doctrine. In some respects, his ideas could be viewed as a reformist form of Hinduism, much as Martin Luther saw Protestantism as a reformation of Christianity. Siddhartha accepted much of the belief system of Hinduism, if not all of its practices. For example, he accepted the concept of reincarnation and the role of karma as a means of influencing the movement of individual souls up and down in the scale of life. He followed Hinduism in praising nonviolence and borrowed the idea of living a life of simplicity and chastity from the ascetics. Moreover, his vision of metaphysical reality—commonly known as Nirvana—is closer to the Hindu concept of Brahman than it is to the Christian concept of heavenly salvation. Nirvana, which involves an extinction of selfhood and a final re­union with the Great World Soul, is sometimes likened to a dreamless sleep or to a kind of "blowing out" (as of a candle). Buddhists occasionally remark that someone who asks for a description does not understand the concept.

     At the same time, the new doctrine differed from existing Hindu practices in a number of key ways. In the first place, Siddhartha denied the existence of an individ­ual soul. To him, the Hindu concept of Atman—the individual soul—meant that the soul was subject to rebirth and thus did not achieve a complete liberation from the cares of this world. In fact, Siddhartha denied the ulti­mate reality of the material world in its entirety and taught that humans' physical surroundings are an illusion to be transcended. Siddhartha's idea of achieving Nir­vana was based on his conviction that the pain, poverty, and sorrow that afflict human beings are caused essentially by their attachment to the things of this world. Once worldly cares are abandoned, pain and sorrow can be forgotten. With this knowledge comes bodhi, or wisdom (thus, the term Buddhism and the familiar name of Gautama Buddha, or Gautama the Wise, for Siddhartha Gautama).

     Achieving this understanding is a key step on the road to Nirvana, which, as in Hinduism, is a form of release from the wheel of life. According to tradition, Siddhartha transmitted this message in a sermon to his disci­ples in a deer park at Sarnath, not far from the modem city of Benares (also known as Varanasi). Like so many messages, it is deceptively simple and is enclosed in Four Noble Truths: life is suffering; suffering is caused by de­sire; the way to end suffering is to end desire; and the way to end desire is to avoid the extremes of a life of vulgar materialism and a life of self-torture and to follow the "Middle Path." This Middle Path, which is also known as the Eightfold Path, calls for right knowledge, right pur­pose, right speech, right conduct, right occupation, right effort, right awareness, and right meditation.

     Buddhism also differed from Hinduism in its relative egalitarianism. Although Siddhartha accepted the idea of reincarnation (and thereby the idea that human beings differ as a result of karma accumulated in a previous existence), he rejected the Hindu division of humanity into rigidly defined castes based on previous reincarnations and taught that all human beings could aspire to Nirvana as a result of their behavior in this life. This egalitarian message undoubtedly proved advantageous for the new doctrine as it competed with the powerful tradi­tional force of Hinduism for support among the down-trodden peoples at the lower end of the social scale.

     Buddhism also differed from Hinduism in its simplicity. Siddhartha rejected the panoply of gods that had be­come identified with Hinduism and forbade his followers to worship his person or his image after his death. In fact, many Buddhists view Buddhism as a philosophy rather than as a religion, citing Siddhartha's alleged comment that to discuss metaphysics is like building a castle in the sand—it will be washed away at the first high tide. In one respect, Siddhartha Gautama was unable to transcend the social prejudices of his day, at least as his life and thought have been interpreted in Buddhist texts. Like many of his contemporaries, he was reportedly re­luctant to accept women as the equal of men. In a convernation with his disciple Ananda, he remarked: "Women are soon angered, Ananda; women are full of passion, Ananda; women are envious, Ananda; women are stupid, Ananda. That is the reason, Ananda, that the cause, why women have no place in public assemblies, do not carry on a business, and do not earn their living by any profession."

     One reason for Gautama's suspicion of women was probably his concern that sexual desire could seriously undermine the monastic life and an individual's concen­tration on the search for wisdom. Spiritual manhood re­quired an abandonment of man's sexual nature. When Ananda asked the Master, "how shall we behave before women?" their conversation proceeded as follows:

"You should shun their gaze, Ananda."
"But if we see them, master, what then are we to do?"
"Not speak to them, Ananda."
"But if we do speak to them, what then?"
"Then -you must watch over yourselves, Ananda."

As time went on, Ananda's appeals had some effect, and Siddhartha Gautama agreed to accept women into the monastic order, but their inferior position within the order had been established and characterized Buddhist attitudes toward women down to modern times. Still, the position of women tended to be better in Buddhist societies than it was elsewhere in ancient India.

      After Siddhartha Gautama's death in 480 B.C.E., the Buddhist message was spread by dedicated disciples who traveled the length and breadth of India carrying his message. Buddhist monasteries were established throughout the subcontinent to promote his teaching and provide housing and training for monks dedicated to the simple life and the pursuit of wisdom, while temples and stupas (stone towers housing relics of the Buddha) sprang up like mushrooms in the countryside.

     During the next centuries, Buddhism began to compete actively for followers with prevailing Hindu beliefs, as well as with another new faith known as Jainism. Jain-ism was founded by Mahavira, a contemporary of Siddhartha Gautama. Resembling Buddhism in its rejection of the reality of the material world, Jainism was more extreme in practice. Where Siddhartha Gautama called for the "middle way" between passion and luxury and pain and self-torture, Mahavira preached a doctrine of extreme simplicity to his followers, who kept no possessions and relied on begging for a living. Some even rejected clothing and wandered through the world naked. Perhaps because of its insistence on a life of poverty, Jainisn failed to attract enough adherents to become a major doctrine and never received official support. According to tradition, however, Chandragupta Maurya accepted Mahavira's doctrine after abdicating the throne and fasted to death in a Jain monastery.

ASOKA, A BUDDHIST MONARCH

Buddhism, on the other hand, received an important boost when Asoka, greatest of the monarchs of the Mauryan dynasty, converted to Buddhism sometime in the third century B.C.E. Chandragupta Maurya had ruled successfully for a quarter century and then, according to leg­end, he retired to a monastery and turned over his throne to his son Bindusara. Little is known about Bindusara, but his son and successor, Asoka (269-232 B.C.E.), is generally considered to be the greatest ruler in the history of India. According to historical accounts, like many before and after him, Asoka began his reign conquering, pillaging, and killing. But after his conversion to Buddhism, which preaches the doctrine of nonviolence, the king began to regret his bloodthirsty past. From that time on, he attempted to rule by benevolent means. According to one of his edicts, which is still extant:

When the king, Beloved of the Gods and of Gracious Mien, had been consecrated eight years Kalinga was con­quered, 150,000 people were deported, 100,000 were killed, and many times that number died. But after the conquest of Kalinga, the Beloved of the Gods began to fol­low Righteousness (Dharma), to love Righteousness, and to give instruction in Righteousness. . . . The participation of all men in common suffering is grievous to the Beloved of the Gods. . .

In general, Asoka appears to have lived up to his reputation. He directed that banyan trees and shelters be placed along the road to provide shade and rest for weary travelers. He sent Buddhist missionaries throughout In­dia and ordered the erection of stone pillars with Buddhist inscriptions to instruct people in the proper way. According to tradition, his son (or, according to some, his brother) converted the island of Sri Lanka to Buddhism, and the peoples there accepted a tributary relationship with the Mauryan Empire.

The Rule of the Fishes: India after the Mauryas

After Asoka's death in 232 B.C.E., the Mauryan Empire began to decline. In 183 B.C.E., the last Mauryan ruler was overthrown by one of his military commanders, and India slipped back into disunity. A number of new kingdoms, some of them perhaps influenced by the memory of the Alexandrian conquests, arose along the fringes of the subcontinent in Bactria, known today as Afghanistan. In the first century C.E., Indo-European-speaking peoples fleeing from the nomadic Xiongnu warriors in Central Asia seized power in the area and proclaimed the new Kushan Kingdom. For the next two centuries, the Kushanas extended their political sway over northern India as far as the central Ganges valley, while other kingdoms scuffled for predominance elsewhere on the subcontinent. India would not see unity again for an­other five hundred years.

     Why had Kautilyas dream of a vast centralized empire throughout the Indian subcontinent failed to endure? After all, despite the ethnic and caste divisions, most Indians by now had a common sense of culture that had penetrated to a certain degree from the Indus valley in the northwest to the southern part of the Deccan Plateau in the south. Nor were the geographical barriers insurmountable, as the Mauryan conquests had demonstrated. Moreover, Indian tradition contained a strong desire for order and regulation, expressed through the concept of an ancient Golden Age characterized by universal adher­ence to the sacred dharma, while disorder and chaos were strongly condemned.

     Some historians suggest that a decline in regional trade during the first millennium C.E. may have contributed to the growth of small land-based kingdoms, which drew their primary income from agriculture. An­other possible reason might be the tenacity of the Aryan tribal tradition and its influence on the political behavior of Indian elites. This tradition, which traced back to the nomadic past, survived virtually intact into the Indian period. Although the Mauryan rulers tried to supplant tribal institutions with a more centralized pattern of organization, clan loyalties once again came to the fore after the collapse of the Mauryan dynasty. Despite the modern impression—fostered in part by the pacifist Mahatma Gandhi—that Indian society prizes nonviolence, Indian history has more often been characterized by the rule of force than by the rule of reason. Furthermore, the political behavior of the ruling class was characterized by what Indians call the "rule of the fishes," which glorified warfare as the natural activity of the king and the aristocracy. The Arthasastra, which sets forth a model of a centralized Indian state, assumed that war was the "sport of kings"

     Whatever the reasons, the consequences for India were often unfortunate and sometimes tragic. Internal divisions not only undermined government efficiency and social stability, but also opened the door to foreign conquest. Up to the twentieth century, India would rarely be united under the rule of its own indigenous leaders.

p. 59
The Henpecked Monk

This passage is from the Sutrakrtanga, one of the sacred books of the Jain religion. While the object of concern is technically not that familiar figure of ridicule, the henpecked husband, the passage indicates the concern that many men in ancient India felt when exposed to the wiles of their female contemporaries.

The Sutrakrtanga

A celibate monk shouldn't fall in love, and though he hankers after pleasure he should hold himself in check, for these are the pleasures which some monks enjoy.
If a monk breaks his vows, and falls for a woman, she upbraids him and raises her foot to him, and kicks him on the head.
"Monk, if you wont live with me as husband and wife,
I'll pull out my hair and become a nun, for you shall not live without me!"
But when she has him in her clutches it's all housework and errands:
"Fetch a knife to cut this gourd!"
"Get me some fresh fruit!"
"We want wood to boil the greens, and for a fire in the evening!"
"Now paint my feet!"
"Come and massage my back". . .
"Get me my lip salve!"
"Find my sunshade and slippers!"
"I want a knife to cut this string!"
"Take my robe and have it dyed blue!"...
"Fetch me my tweeters and my comb!"
"Get me a ribbon to tie my hair!"
"Now pass me my looking-glass!"
"Put my toothbrush down beside me!". . .
"Fetch the pot and the drum and the rag-ball, for our little boy to play with!"
"Monk, the rains are on the way, patch the roof of the house and look to the stores!'
"Bring me the chair with the twine seat, and my wooden-soled slippers to go out walking!"
So pregnant women boss their husbands, just as though they were household slaves. When a child is born, the reward of their labors, she makes the father hold the baby. And sometimes the fathers of sons stagger under their burdens like camels. They get up at night, as though they were nurses, to lull the howling child to sleep, and, though they are shamefaced about it, scrub dirty garments, just like washermen. ...
So, monks, resist the wiles of women, avoid their friendship and company. The little pleasure you get from them will only lead you into trouble!

p. 65
How to Achieve Enlightenment

One of the most famous passages in Buddhist literature is the sermon at Benares, which Siddhartha Gautama delivered to his followers in a deer park outside the holy city of Varanasi (Benares). Here he set forth the key ideas that would define Buddhist beliefs for centuries to come.

The Sermon at Benares

Thus have I heard: at one time the Lord dwelt at Benares at Isipatana in the Deer Park. There the Lord addressed the five monks:

"These two extremes, monks, are not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the world. What are the two? That conjoined with the passions and luxury, low, vulgar, common, ignoble, and useless; and that conjoined with self-torture, painful, ignoble, and useless. Avoiding these two extremes the Tathagata has gained the enlightenment of the Middle Path, which produces insight and knowledge and tends to calm, to higher knowledge, enlightenment, Nirvana.

"And what, monks, is the Middle Path, of which the Tathagata has gained enlightenment, which produces insight and knowledge, and tends to calm, to higher knowledge, enlightenment, Nirvana? This is the noble Eightfold Way: namely, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This, monks, is the Middle Path, of which the Tathagata has gained enlightenment, which produces insight and knowledge, and tends to calm, to higher knowledge, enlightenment, Nirvana.

1. "Now this, monks, is the noble truth of pain: birth is painful, old age is painful, sickness is painful, death is painful, sorrow, lamentation, dejection, and despair are painful. Contact with unpleasant things is painful, not getting what one wishes is painful. In short the five groups of graspings are painful.

2. Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cause of pain: the craving, which tends to rebirth, combined with pleasure and lust, finding pleasure here and there; namely, the craving for passion, the craving for existence, the craving for non-existence.

3. Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of pain, the cessation without a remainder of craving, the abandonment, forsaking, release, non-attachment.

4. Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the way that leads to the cessation of pain: this is the noble Eightfold Way; namely, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

"And when, monks, in these four noble truths my due knowledge and insight with its three sections and twelve divisions was well purified, then monks ... I had attained the highest complete enlightenment. This I recognized. Knowledge arose in me, insight arose that the release of my mind is unshakable; this is my last existence; now there is no rebirth."