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PART I

Buddhism in Time

A vision awakens us

From the depths of ancient history

Buddha’s enlightenment

Dispels the shadows of mystery

—C. Alexander Simpkins

Buddhist philosophy spans twenty-five centuries, with millions of adherents throughout the world. The journey began in a shadowy past, before recorded history, when a legendary man named Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, through dedicated effort and commitment to all human beings, made a wondrous discovery: that life can be good, and so can we. As you follow the evolution, the veil over these shadowy beginnings lifts, revealing a brightly lit pathway of inner discovery, open for all to walk.

CHAPTER 1

The Founder Plants the Seeds

Be a lamp unto yourself.

—Buddha

EARLY YEARS

Buddhism can be traced back to one man, known to the world as the Buddha, “The Awakened One” (563-483 B.C.). He began his evolution as Siddhartha Gautama, a member of the Sakya clan of a small republic in northern India. During this time, India was divided into many small, independent kingdoms, each ruled by clans. Buddha’s father was the raja, or leader, of the Sakya clan area, and his family was wealthy.

Suddhodana, Buddha’s father, gave his son every opportunity to learn and grow, teaching him all the skills a prince should have, bringing in the best tutors, who taught young Siddhartha the Hindu classics. He rode his own horse, practiced martial arts, and played the popular sports of the day. He led the active and happy life of a child of privilege.

Siddhartha’s gentle-hearted nature began to emerge early. One day, young Siddhartha was playing in the garden with his cousin Devadatta. As a flock of wild swans flew overhead, Devadatta drew his bow, aimed at one of the swans, and shot. The arrow hit the bird’s wing, bringing it down. Siddhartha ran over to the struck bird and gently held the bleeding creature until it became calm. When Devadatta claimed the bird as his conquest, Siddhartha refused to give it up. They argued, but in the end, Siddhartha won. He took care of the bird until it was healed and then set it free to rejoin its flock.

Siddhartha continued to remember the bird’s suffering. Suddhodana saw his son’s mood and tried to protect him even more from anything unpleasant. He lavished on Siddhartha all that he could give, including beautiful houses and delicious foods. He arranged Siddhartha’s marriage to Yosadhara, the most beautiful girl in the kingdom.

DISCONTENT

Siddhartha lived happily with Yosadhara, never leaving the confines of his comfortable palace. Although he doubted the importance of the pleasures that filled his everyday life, he continued to feel happy.

One day Siddhartha went outside the palace gates with his servant, Channa. An emaciated man, wracked with pain, appeared on the roadside. “Alms for the poor!” the man called out. Siddhartha stopped the chariot and asked Channa, “What is wrong with this man? Why does he suffer so?”

Channa answered, “This man is ill, my prince. Many suffer from illness. This is the way of life!”

Siddhartha, who had only known good health, felt deeply troubled. They continued along and came to an old man, bent over, shaking, leaning on a twisted cane. “Now, what is wrong with this man? Why does he suffer so?” asked Siddhartha again.

“This man is old, my prince. We all grow old and die eventually. This is the way of life!”

Siddhartha returned to his palace but felt no peace of mind. He could not stop thinking about the suffering he had encountered. All the beauty and joy of life was only transitory! People grow old, perhaps even become sick, and die. Was there nothing more permanent, more real to life? Day after day, night after night, he wrestled with the problem of suffering. Despite his love for his wife and their baby boy, Rahula, he resolved that he must leave the palace to seek answers for his people, to help them.

YEARS AS AN ASCETIC

At the age of twenty-nine, Siddhartha crossed through the palace gate for the last time. He joined a group of ascetics who had denounced worldly pleasures to seek higher truth through a form of Hinduism. The ascetics viewed the human body as the enemy of the soul. They believed that the body could be tamed through absolute denial of physical pleasures, freeing the soul to soar.

Siddhartha found a teacher, Alara Kalama, who taught a form of meditation that attempted to reach beyond the everyday world to a state of nothingness. Siddhartha soon mastered this technique, achieving a state of nothingness, but found that even though he could achieve this state, it did not solve the problems of suffering and death.

Disappointed, Siddhartha sought a new teacher, Uppaka Ramaputta. Siddhartha had heard that Uppaka taught a meditation system that brought about a state of neither consciousness nor unconsciousness. Siddhartha worked diligently at this method and eventually reached this state, but he did not feel any closer to eradicating suffering.

So Siddhartha decided not to look for another teacher and traveled alone instead. He walked southward into the kingdom of Magadha where he met five other seekers. They recognized his intensity and decided to join him in hopes of learning from him. They all lived in the woods.

Siddhartha experimented with many kinds of meditation, always pushing the limit. He tried austere practices, restraining his body, reducing his food to one grain of rice per day. He tried suppressing his breathing to the point of convulsive pains. Day after day he sat motionless in meditation. He endured heat, rain, wind, hunger, and fatigue. He sat so still that birds perched on his shoulders and squirrels sat on his knees.

ENLIGHTENMENT

Seven years passed. Siddhartha had endured the elements without wavering in his self-denial, yet he felt he had made no progress. Instead of finding truth, his mental powers were dimming, his life was slipping away. One evening he was struck with a realization: If he continued, he would die without relieving his people’s suffering. How could his mind reach farther?

That night Siddhartha took some fresh milk and rice from a kindly woman. He sat down under a bodhi tree, a type of fig tree known as ficus religiosos, that has come to mean “wisdom tree.” With renewed strength and hope, he sat down and resolved to meditate until he found the answer to suffering.

As the sun rose, Siddhartha was illuminated with inner wisdom. The answers to all his questions became crystal clear. He experienced a wordless realization, a dissolving of suffering, an intuitive understanding of life and death. He arose radiant and strong, fully enlightened. From then on, Siddhartha Gautama became known as the Buddha.

DEVOTION TO TEACHING AS BUDDHISM GROWS

Buddha hesitated at the bodhi tree following his enlightenment. At first he considered remaining silent. He knew that most people, because they were entangled in worldly attachments, would be unwilling to take his advice. But his compassion for humanity drove him back to the world. After all, he had finally found the answer to suffering. His enlightenment brought him absolute relief and happiness. He wanted to share his wisdom with others.

Buddha sought the five ascetics who had shared many years with He found them living in the Deer Park, located three miles north of Benares. When he approached them, they refused to recognize him as enlightened. From their perspective, he had proven himself too weak to adhere to the strict ascetic path. But Buddha confidently explained his basic insights, and what he said has come down through the centuries as his first teaching, the Sermon at Benares. Neither the ascetic path of deprivation that made him sick, he said, nor the way of complete indulgence that made him dull, could bring an end to suffering. He had come to realize that the body must be optimally fit and healthy to withstand the mental rigors required to reach enlightenment. The Middle Way, the path between, was the true path. Buddha laid out the method by which to follow this middle way in the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path (see Chapter 6).

Buddha. China, Northern Wei dynasty, Limestone, 500-525. Gift of the Asian Arts Committee, San Diego Museum of Art

Four of the five ascetics reluctantly sat around him to listen, yet after he expressed his realization to them, they were all converted. They joined him and began teaching his path, thus marking the birth of Buddhism.

Buddha and his small band of disciples walked from place to place, spreading the message and gathering followers. Their days were spent traveling, begging for food, eating, bathing, and then listening to talks from Buddha before traveling on.

On the journey from Benares to Rajagriha, another large city in northern India, Buddha met Kasyapa. Kasyapa and his two brothers were leaders of a large fire-worshiping sect of over a thousand ascetics. At first, Kasyapa did not believe that Buddha held any special knowledge. Buddha convinced him with a discourse that has come to be known as the Fire Sermon. The entire group sat together in an area called Elephant Rock overlooking Rajagriha valley. Just then, a fire broke out in the jungle on a nearby hill. Buddha seized upon this natural occurrence to teach.

Like the fire that was consuming the trees, plants, and animals, so our passions consume us, he said. Whenever we see something, it ignites an inward reaction of either pleasure or pain. Our sensations fuel these inner fires, consuming us in a never-ending inferno of desire for pleasure and fear of pain. Buddha taught that the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path free us from these fires. Then we can see without craving, free to be happy. This sermon convinced Kasyapa that Buddhism offered a true path for him.

Kasyapa, along with his two brothers and many of his followers, joined Buddha in his travels. Kasyapa became Mahakasyapa, one of the primary disciples who organized the Order after Buddha’s death. Through his travels, Buddha continued to gather followers and supporters from all levels of society. His willingness to accept anyone, no matter what their caste, was a radical departure from traditional Hindu protocol. Usually religion had been taught in Vedic Sanskrit, a language used only by the upper castes. Buddha felt that teaching in Vedic Sanskrit would make it impossible for anyone from lower castes to understand his sermons. Thus he always used the common language.

When the group arrived in Rajagriha, they were met by the ruler of the area, King Bimbisara. On hearing Buddha lecture, the king offered Buddha a residence in one of his nearby bamboo groves. Buddha and his disciples spent many rainy seasons in this grove, and it was here that Buddha delivered some of his most complex speeches. During his first year there, Buddha converted Sariputra, who was later involved in many conversations with Buddha, recorded in the sermons. Sariputra joined the community, called the sangha.

Buddha’s father had kept track of his son’s progress through the years, and eventually he sent a message asking Buddha to make a visit. Buddha decided to return to his home with his entire company. They arrived in a local park and, as was their custom, went from house to house begging for food. The town watched, somewhat horrified to see their prince dressed in simple robes, extending his begging bowl. Suddhodana walked up to his son and confronted him, “Why do you disgrace the family?”

Buddha replied, “Your lineage is of princes; my lineage now is from buddhas who have always begged for their food.” Still, Buddha did not want to hurt his father, nor did he wish to show him disrespect. He continued, “When someone finds a treasure it is his duty to give it to his father. And so, I offer to you, Father, my most precious treasure: my doctrines.”

After listening carefully, Suddhodana could see that his son was following an honorable path. Without uttering a word, Suddhodana took his son’s bowl and gestured for him to enter the palace. The entire household honored him, solidifying their bonds in a new way. Eventually, many of them joined Buddha’s group.

For forty-five years Buddha preached, traveled by foot around the area of northern India, and returned during each rainy season to the bamboo grove. Although many people accepted his teachings without question, some voiced objections. Devadatta, Buddha’s childhood companion, tried to convince Buddha to become stricter. He believed monks should be required to live outdoors, wear rags, eat no meat, and never accept invitations to join people for a meal. Buddha said this was unnecessary. As long as people were not overindulgent, it was not important where they slept, how or where they ate, or what they wore. Dissatisfied with Buddha’s answer, Devadatta founded his own conservative order, and gathered many supporters. Throughout Buddha’s career he encountered people who objected to aspects of his message. These dissenters were the precursors to the divisions that would take place years after Buddha’s death.

BUDDHA’S FINAL DAYS

During the rainy season of his eightieth year, Buddha became ill and realized that his life was drawing to a close. He gathered all his followers around him. Speaking earnestly, he directed them to continue following the way he had set out so that the teachings could live on. He told his disciples, “Mendicants, I now impress upon you, decay is inherent in all component things; work out your salvation with diligence!” (Rhys Davids 1890, 83). These were the last words he spoke before he slipped away, peacefully. The year was recorded as 483 B.C.

CHAPTER 2

Buddhism Takes Root

The disciples of Gotama are always well awake, and their mind day and night always delights in meditation.

—Dhammapada

THE FIRST COUNCIL

The funeral ceremonies began, but the monks in attendance agreed to wait for Mahakasyapa to return from his travels before they performed the cremation. Meanwhile, Mahakasyapa met a group of monks in the village of Pava who informed him that Buddha had died. One of them remarked, “Don’t be unhappy. We are finally free to do as we wish without being reprimanded and corrected all the time!” Concerned about the rebellious sentiment, Mahakasyapa hurried back to the funeral site to complete the rites.

Following Buddha’s death, many members of the Order dispersed. There was nothing to keep them together. Mahakasyapa recognized that something had to be done to formally set out the rules and teachings of Buddha to keep the Order gathered. Three months after Buddha’s death, Mahakasyapa called together the five hundred who remained. They gathered at a place near Rajagriha into what has come to be called the First Buddhist Council.

All who gathered had reached enlightenment except Ananda. Ananda had been continually at Buddha’s side for the past twenty-five years and knew all of Buddha’s sermons by heart. Therefore, the monks agreed that Ananda should be included at the council.

Ananda desperately wanted to become enlightened. According to legend, the night before the council convened he stayed up all night trying to reach enlightenment. Unsuccessful, he finally decided to give up and go to bed. When he lay down on his bed, so the legend goes, his head mysteriously lifted off the pillow and his feet raised from the bed. He became enlightened.

The five hundred monks spent the three months of the rainy season gathering Buddha’s teachings, preserving them in three sections: the words of the Buddha, called the Doctrines of the Elders (Thera Vada), the rules of the Order (Vinaya), and the general precepts for both the monks and the laity (Dharma). Ananda recited the sermons as he remembered them, beginning each one with the words: “Thus have I heard,” which is how the earliest sermons, later known as sutras, begin.

The entire council recited all the information together to commit it to memory. According to the custom of the time, nothing was written down. Our respect for the written word was not shared by early civilizations. Originally, people believed that sacred words would be trivialized, their deeper intent lost, if they were written down. Important information was best preserved when learned by heart. As a result of this belief, for several centuries Buddha’s lectures were perpetuated solely in the memory of the monks.

The monks continued to walk the Eightfold Path that Buddha had shown. Through meditation that helped them recognize impermanence and give up desires, they sought to find enlightenment. They became known as arhats, followers of the saintly, noble way, and they lived in seclusion so as to foster and develop their enlightenment. Through deep meditation on the Eightfold Path, they escaped the problems of sickness, death, and suffering. The reputation of arhats as absolutely pure beings grew.

BUDDHISM DIVIDES INTO SECTS

For the next hundred years, differences that had always been present, even during Buddha’s lifetime, became more pronounced. Some followers felt that the traditional rules and practices set out by the First Council were too strict. A second council of seven hundred monks was called at Vaisali to resolve the divisions and set down the rules and teachings as they had developed. One contingent of more liberal monks requested what was called the “Ten Indulgences,” asking for the loosening of the rules and restrictions on alcohol, money, and behavior.

In the end, the council upheld the conservative version of the rules without change. Dissatisfied with the council’s decision, members of the liberal faction, under their leader Mahadeva, held their own meeting, which they called Maha Sangiti (the Great Council). This was the origin of a new sect of Buddhism, the Mahasanghikas, which paved the way for Mahayana.

After the Second Council, the monks continued to wander around the countryside in groups, teaching the doctrine from memory. Each member tended to specialize, becoming expert in one sutra. Inevitably, variations began to occur. People and groups not only lived in different parts of the country, but also learned different doctrines. At first, the groups got along amicably, recognizing that they were simply traveling different paths to the same goal. But gradually, distinctions became disputes that grew more frequent and intense. At least eighteen separate sects formed.

Since all the orders depended on the general population for support, the liberal Mahasanghikas wanted to relax the strict rules about who could be enlightened so that everyday people could be included. Mahadeva argued, “Why not put your faith in the Buddha who achieved perfect enlightenment and remains forever in Nirvana?”

The conservative sect adversarial to the Mahasanghikas called themselves Sthaviras, meaning Elders. In Sanskrit, this name translates as Theravadins, one of the Buddhist groups that continues today in Southeast Asia. Theravadins claimed that they had seniority and were the keepers of Buddha’s original orthodoxy. They tried to stay with the early traditions without changing them. To let go of passions, discover wisdom in meditation, and then become an arhat continued to be the highest goal for these followers.

The sects disputed other issues, but the major division was between the Elders and those who preferred a more liberal doctrine.

ASOKA, THE BUDDHIST KING

Asoka (ruled 274-236 B.C.) began his career as a military leader. After conquering Magadha, Asoka was crowned king, and each of his six brothers was given his own city to rule. Asoka, however, did not get along with his brothers and attacked their kingdoms repeatedly. Eventually, he was victorious, brutally killing all six. He continued his murderous rampage until the entire territory was his.

Many legends tell of Asoka’s cruelty. He believed that the more people he killed, the stronger his kingdom would become. He built a sacrificial house where executions were performed and decreed that anyone who entered the house was to be killed. He was said to have slaughtered thousands of innocent people (Chattopadhyaya 1981, 54).

One day a young Buddhist seeker named Samudra, who had not yet found enlightenment, wandered into the sacrificial house by mistake. Raising his sword, the executioner approached the monk. Samudra asked innocently, “Why are you attacking me?”

The executioner explained, “Now that you have entered this house, I am obliged to kill you.”

Samudra said, “I will accept that, but leave me here for seven days. I will not move from this spot.” The executioner agreed and left. The monk sat down amid all the blood and began to meditate. He could see the remains of the many lives that had been cut short. Suddenly, as he realized the impermanence of all things, he was enlightened.

On the seventh day, the executioner returned to kill Samudra. Thinking of a new way to accomplish this chore, the executioner placed Samudra in a cauldron of burning oil for a whole day, but Samudra was now impervious to harm. Hearing about this strange event, the king strode into the house to see for himself. The executioner looked visibly upset. “Sire! You have entered the house, and now by your own order, I must kill you!”

But Asoka cleverly countered, “Ah, but you entered first, so I must first kill you.”

The monk interrupted their arguing. “I have miraculously been able to endure this burning oil because of my meditation!” In a persuasive speech about the benefits of Buddhism, he urged the king to repent of his sins. Deeply moved, the king underwent a complete conversion. He destroyed his slaughterhouse and put all his efforts into learning and practicing Buddhism.

King Asoka did more than any previous ruler to spread Buddhism. He urged his citizens to follow the guidelines of Buddhism: to become moral, act justly, and live lives filled with love and compassion. People should obey their parents, respect living creatures, tell the truth, and revere their teachers. Not only did he build Buddhist temples and monasteries all around India, but he also established hospitals for both people and animals, and planted gardens. He even denounced war, asserting firmly that the only conquest left for him was the dharma, Buddhist teachings. Asoka’s story can be an inspiration to anyone on the wrong Path. Redemption is possible. Some historians believe that a third council was called by Asoka and took place around 237 B.C., at Pataliputra, lasting for nine months. Asoka donated funds to allow the Theravadins to write down the sutras and rules of the order for the first time. The sutras were grouped together in the Sutta-pitaka (sutra basket) and were actually kept in a basket at first. The rules of the Order were collected into the Vinaya-pitaka (ordinance basket). The commentaries written soon after Buddha’s death, explaining and developing his teachings, were called the Abhidharma-pitaka (treatise basket). The three baskets together were known as the Tipitaka, the Law Treasure of Buddhism. These texts, written in the Pali language, became the literature of early Buddhism, which included Theravada. They are considered the record of the teachings of Buddha and are the oldest written works of Buddhism. They are separate from the later Sanskrit writings of the Mahayana, done in the first century A.D.

Asoka sent missionaries throughout India and neighboring countries to convert people. Even his eldest son, Mahinda, was a devout Buddhist monk. King Asoka sent the prince and his disciples south to transmit Buddhism to Sri Lanka. Mahinda and eight other delegations spread Theravada Buddhism in the Pali language. It was widely accepted and spread to Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, where this form, Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism, is still practiced widely today.

BUDDHISM OF THE ELDERS SPREADS

According to most accounts, the first country outside of India to receive Buddhism was Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. However, the Sinhalese chronicles and commentaries on the Pali scriptures, written by the ancient people of Ceylon, relate how Buddha personally traveled to Ceylon three times to give them the teachings directly. Early Burmese and Thai Buddhist writings also contain legends, much like the Sinhalese, that claimed Buddha had visited their countries. They believed some of the Indian Pali sutras secretly referred to people and places in Southeast Asia.

Despite these stories, historians believe the first contact with Buddhism came well after Buddha’s death, when King Devanamispiya was introduced to Buddhism by Asoka’s son (Lester 1973, 68). The Ceylonese king liked Buddhism so much that he built a monastery at the capital city, Anuradhapura, and established Theravada as the official form of Buddhism.

Later, King Asoka’s daughter, Sanghamittla, brought to Ceylon a branch from the original bodhi tree where Buddha attained enlightenment. With this important symbol of the Buddha himself, she founded an order of nuns that lasted for many centuries. However, nuns were given a lesser role in Southeast Asian Buddhism, and the order eventually died out.

Over the centuries, Buddhism enjoyed royal patronage. The sangha had a close relationship with the governments of Ceylon, Burma, and Thailand. This strong interdependency helped Theravada Buddhism, later renamed as Hinayana, to develop in new directions.

HINAYANA’S NEW ROLE FOR MONKS AND THE LAITY

The tradition that developed over the centuries altered Hinayana’s original narrow application as a philosophy only for monks. Hinayana became a large religion with a definite place for the general population. Monks continued to pursue the Path to become arhats. But a new way developed for people to practice Buddhism even if they stayed with their families, owned property, and pursued a career. Hinayana Buddhism guided the general public to live ethical, fulfilling, and happy lives with the promise that they would be reborn in a happier state in their next life.

Goals for the layperson were more modest than were the goals for the monks. First, just like the monks, people must sincerely follow the precepts not to kill, steal, be lustful, lie, or take intoxicants. They also were to take refuge in the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha. Taking refuge in the Buddha meant they were to respect and revere Buddha as an enlightened guide to wisdom.

Taking refuge in the dharma involved learning about the teachings of Buddha, although laypersons did not go into as much detail as the monks. They did learn about mindfulness meditation and control of desires, but they followed these teachings more moderately. The monks taught people meditation and rituals that could set them on a gradual path to enlightenment. Once a week people went to the monastery to meditate and perform rituals that helped them become more alert and aware, calmer and happier. On this day they were to eat nothing after noon and wear simple clothes without any jewelry. They sat on the floor, refraining from the comforts of plush furniture or modern conveniences. In a moderate way, people learned to overcome their suffering by lessening desires and becoming more aware.

Taking refuge in the sangha involved helping the monks and the monastery with financial support. When people gave food and money, they earned merit toward a higher rebirth in their next life. Thus, laypersons were encouraged to work and accumulate wealth, so long as their work did not violate the precepts. Commensurate with the amount of wealth people acquired, they were expected to share some of it with the sangha, who relied entirely on the public for support.

Kings, like the common people, were expected to give generously to the sangha, building monasteries and donating financial support. In return, monks taught meditation to the kings and offered an enlightened perspective to help them rule wisely so that the kingdom could thrive.

The close relationship between the monastery and the government put new responsibilities on the monks. The rulers expected the monks to help the people by running Buddhist schools where children could learn reading and writing along with Buddhism. During the rainy season, when no farming could be done, sons were sent to the monastery to live as monks. They shaved their heads and wore the robes. Sometimes they even gave up their regular form of livelihood to join the sangha and become monks. Usually they returned home, but often enriched by the experience.

Hinayana Buddhism is still practiced in many Southeast Asian countries today, where centrally located monasteries are an important part of everyday life. But along the way, Buddhism’s path took a dramatic turn as the liberal form developed into Mahayana.

CHAPTER 3

The Blossom of Mahayana

What makes the limit of Nirvana

Is also then the limit of Samsara

Between the two we cannot find

The slightest shade of difference.

—Nagarjuna

BUDDHISM EVOLVES

At first, conservative and liberal interpretations were not fully opposed. The monks from both perspectives lived and taught side by side for close to four hundred years. Gradually, though, Buddhist doctrine began to change; by around A.D. 100, a new literature and a new rationale for the dissenting doctrine emerged.

This new literature revealed a doctrine that creatively reinterpreted the historical words of Buddha. Over time, these interpretations became more clearly defined, and sentiment grew among the liberal monks to make a formal separation from the conservative Elders.

The liberal groups proposed an explanation for how their ideas were authentic Buddhist doctrine. They said that while the Hinayana sutras were being codified at the First Council, another assembly of monks hid a number of new, more progressive sutras for safekeeping. Five centuries later, these hidden sutras were rediscovered and brought forth as the Mahayana scriptures.

Much like King Asoka, who championed the older form of Buddhism, King Kanishka (A.D. 78-103), a conqueror from northern India, helped to spread the new Buddhism with passionate zeal. He called a council of five hundred monks and collected their new texts into a group. They called their new form Mahayana, the Great Vehicle, formally separating from the traditional Buddhism of the Elders, naming the older group of Buddhists Hinayana, the Lesser Vehicle. Now Mahayana Buddhists distinguished themselves as their own separate form of Buddhism.

In northwestern and southern India, Buddhism was exposed to Hellenistic influences as well as Iranian and Mediterranean cultures. The more liberal and inclusive Mahayana was open to other cultures, helping it to spread to China, Japan, Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, and Korea.

DOCTRINAL CHANGES FROM HINAYANA TO MAHAYANA

Mahayana Buddhists developed what they considered to be an expanded, superior, and higher doctrine than that of Hinayana. The new doctrine replaced Buddha as the center and originator of Buddhism with a wider conception of Buddha. In Mahayana, Buddha, temporarily incarnated in the earthly person of Siddhartha Gautama, became Dharmakaya, the embodiment of the dharma within a succession of Buddhas over the millennia, to be followed by other Buddhas in the future. Buddha became all Being, the meaning within all phenomena, now supernatural, timeless, and spaceless. Buddha could not be found in spoken words, doctrines, or learning. The dharma body, or Dharmakaya, was transcendent, and thus Buddha’s exact words and rules as memorized by Ananda and the early disciples were only a temporary embodiment, not the permanent one.

The bodhisattva replaced the arhat as the ideal role model. Bodhisattvas live with compassion, kindness, and patience. According to the Mahayana, wisdom is virtue, and thus being compassionate, kindly, and patient was the correct interpretation of the Buddha’s teaching, not that of becoming a wise, dispassionate arhat. Bodhisattvas did not withdraw from society to find nirvana. Their altruistic ethics encouraged good works in the interest of the whole world.

Mahayana added many long discourses on metaphysical subjects, replacing Buddha’s silence in the earlier sutras. Our experience of an apparently real world, Mahayana taught, is illusion. The true nature of reality is emptiness, which is explained in the next two sections on the Madhyamika and Yogacarin Sects of Mahayana Buddhism.

The highest value was placed on what the Mahayana called upaya, skill in means, which meant that there were many ways to reach salvation. This allowed for a much broader repertoire of theories, techniques, and methods that could be included in Mahayana Buddhism than had been allowed in Hinayana. For example, people were permitted to worship images of Buddha with rituals, thereby finding enlightenment with faith and not simply by wisdom as in Hinayana.

Mahayana tended to be more charitable and warmer than Hinayana. Practitioners could be more emotional, personal, and interactive with other people. They produced ornate art, literature, and ritual. Hinayana continued to be more monastic, secluded, conservative, and less emotional, viewing all passions as delusions.

Mahayana now could appeal to a larger variety of situations and people. They were less strict, more inclusive with regard to women and monks of lesser attainment, as well as opening the potential for enlightenment to householders.

TWO SCHOOLS OF MAHAYANA

Two major schools of Mahayana developed with their own doctrines, called Yogacara and Madhyamika. The Yogacarin philosophy, or mind-only school, believed that our minds create reality as we experience it. The other main root, Madhyamika or middle way school, held that we cannot ever know whether reality really exists. People should remain in the middle and take neither side. Mahayana doctrine became formalized as systems through these two schools. They would become the taproots for all later Mahayana forms of Buddhism that would be carried around the world.

NAGARJUNA AND THE MADHYAMIKA SCHOOL

Nagaljuna (b. A.D. 200) was an Indian philosopher who founded the Madhyamika school of Buddhism. Nagarjuna’s school taught philosophy as an alternative to meditation, for breaking the chains of becoming. Correct philosophical understanding is the approach to freedom from attachment, to find the Middle Way. Nagaljuna’s writings led away from idealist separation from the world, and away from classical disputes in philosophy. Nagaljuna offered an alternative to the two mainstream beliefs of his time, which were the oneness of the universe and the denial of the universe.

The Fourfold Negation Leads to Emptiness

Nagarjuna proposed a dialectic method of questioning called the Fourfold Negation. It consisted of four possible positions: (1) no position is tenable; (2) absolute versus relative existence accounts for the phenomena of existence; (3) the foundation for phenomena is emptiness; (4) codependent origination of phenomena accounts for the existence of phenomena. The Fourfold Negation can be restated as a logical paradigm, best shown in this chart:

	Is	Is Not
Is	is, is	is, is not
Is Not	is not, is	is not, is not

Nagarjuna believed that concepts were inadequate to convey the essence of enlightenment, yet concepts were still essential—that is, concepts were both inadequate and essential. Paradoxically, all four combinations of is and is not are equally possible and impossible at the same time. Recognizing that all phenomena are interconnected, no philosophical position can be taken without being refutable. Nagarjuna showed how no philosophical position can be supported without question, without bias. No ultimate certainty exists. This leaves us with only one option: emptiness, which we cannot even call emptiness without error! Emptiness is the unifying basis for all philosophies, an ultimate ground that all philosophies share.

Nagarjuna’s critique of theories was neither conceptual nor cognitive because words and thoughts inevitably deceive us. Nagarjuna’s approach leads to giving up thought, letting go of conceptual boundaries and definitions, indeed, of existence or nonexistence itself. By the use of thought and logic, he leads the mind of his student to recognize the futility of thought and logic. If no basis for taking a philosophical position can be conclusively demonstrated, then why take one? Madhyamika is critical of all positions, including Hinayana. This opened the way for later developments in Mahayana.

VASUBANDU, ASANGA, AND THE YOGACARIN SCHOOL

The founders of the Yogacarin movement were two brothers, Vasubandu and Asanga. They lived in A.D. 400 in northwestern India. Asanga believed in Mahayana from the start. But his brother Vasubandu began as a Hinayanan. It was while translating some Hinayana texts that Vasubandu began to find fault. He then found new inspiration in Mahayana and became a spokesman with his brother for Yogacarin.

Both brothers believed that mind is the basis for enlightenment. The Yogacarin view of the world of phenomena is that it is all in our minds. Our thoughts make the world seem real. Yogacarins used meditation to reach a state of no-thought to escape the illusion.

Vasubandu also worked out an interesting new logic. He defined an existent thing by a specific example of what it is, what it does, and then he gave an illustration of what it is like and what it is not like. He always used specifics, never general or abstract categories. For example: (1) This fireplace has a fire in it (what it is); (2) because there is smoke, there is fire (what it does); (3) so it is a woodburning furnace (what it is like) and not a pond (what it is unlike).

This example reflects a Buddhist perspective of understanding each thing as it is in its particularity, not as a member of a class or category, as is done in Aristotelian logic. Lists of attributes are only temporary and relative. In Buddhism, abstraction is an illusion. Thus when we read Buddhist descriptions, it is puzzling from the Western perspective, where the class of something can help clarify a single individual case. From the Buddhist point of view, the class is empty, and the individual case is an example, an expression of the universal Buddha nature, which is empty of distinction. A form of logic known as Buddhist logic evolved the implications of Yogacarin further into a system.

PARAMARTHA: FINDING TRUE MIND

Paramartha (499-569) is one of the more renowned later Yogacarins who came from eastern India. He brought the school to China (A.D. 546) and translated seventy-five sutras and works of Yogacarins into Chinese. He was very outgoing and traveled around the country lecturing and teaching. As a result, he gathered many devoted students who carried forth the tradition.

One hundred years later, Hiuen-tsiang (650), who was taught by one of Paramartha’s students, taught Chi-k’uei (632-685), who brought Yogacara to Japan and called it the Hosso sect.