OCR BuddhismThe Buddha

Taking Refuge

Samsara

The three marks of existence

The four noble truths

Meditation

The development of Mahayana Buddhism

Madhyamaka and Prajnaparamita

Buddhism in the Far East

Buddhism in the West

Engaged Buddhism and Activism

Buddhism and Gender

The BuddhaThe importance of Brahmanism in the Buddha’s contemporary culture; his criticisms of the Brahmins and their ideas; his use and adaptation of Brahmin ideasThe Buddha’s experience of Sramana movements and teachers; his use and adaptation of their ideas

Siddhartha’s birth and hedonistic upbringing

The four passing sightsare old age, sickness, death and the renouncer/sage/holy man. the four signs as a whole symbolise the Buddha’s awakening to the problem of dukkha, and are thus an important way of indicating the beginning of the Buddha’s journey to enlightenment.

these four signs demonstrate the three marks of existence and so demonstrate the key factors the Buddha was addressing in his later teachings.

the sight of the renouncer, and the way in which this raised the Buddha’s awareness that there might be an answer to the problems demonstrated by the other three signs.

Arguably that the Buddha is unlikely to have never experienced death or suffering before he left the palace. The four signs cannot therefore be true and must be seen as a symbolic or mythological truth.

The Caste system gives specific roles to the lowest castes for dealing with pollution so that higher castes did not see it and are polluted by it which may be why the Buddha (as a member of a higher caste) may not have witnessed illness and death.

The account is arguably a way of explaining that the Buddha became aware of these truths at a certain age and thus can be considered true in some senses.

The account could be considered a conflation of various events in the Buddha’s life, recorded in a story like version.

Renunciation

Asceticism

Enlightenment

Teaching career

Siddhartha’s life

Arguably the Buddha’s teachings are of importance rather than his life story, e.g. his teachings lead to nirvana

Arguably focusing on the life of the Buddha would demonstrate attachment or delusion and therefore be harmful to a Buddhist’s following of the path rather than helpful.

Arguably for some people using the life of the Buddha as an example makes the teachings more real and accessible.

Arguably there is a relative value of looking at the life of Buddha for different Buddhists, or at different stages of the Buddhist path could be profitable.

Arguably the Buddha’s life exemplifies his teachings and can be used to understand or demonstrate Buddhist concepts, therefore having as much value as the teachings themselves.

Siddhartha’s life as an illustration of the Middle Way

The limitations of the Buddha as an example to Buddhists

The importance of self-reliance and the idea of ehipassiko (come and try) not blind faith and devotion

The Buddha’s cultural context

The social and economic conditions at the time of the Buddha led to challenges to the existing religious beliefs in India.

Increasing affluence led to more free time for many people, and this had implications for how they spent their free time, including their religious obligations.

Increased trade led to new ideas about religion being introduced through the trading routes.

The increasing development of cities and the move away from village life bought challenges to the caste system.

The change from tribal republics to monarchies changed social hierarchies, and again could be challenging to the status of some within the caste system.

The Buddha’s intellectual context

The Buddha’s rejection of the caste system was reflective of the cultural milieu and mirrored in other sects which formed at the same time.

Aspects of the Buddha’s teachings might be argued to have developed independently of the cultural changes around him.

whether the Buddha was preaching an eternal dhamma, which would have been the same regardless of the culture in which he was placed.

The influence of Brahmanism in the Buddha’s contemporary culture; his criticisms of the Brahmins and their ideas; his use and adaptation of Brahmin ideas

The Buddha’s experience of Sramana movements and teachers; his use and adaptation of their ideas.

whether the development of the Sramana lifestyle was part of a wider cultural movement adopted by others.

Jainism.

Taking RefugeTaking refuge refers to mentally finding shelter and assistance for a Buddhist in their path of cultivation of virtue. There are three refuges/jewels: The Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.

Taking refuge in the Buddha jewel involves a return from our avidya (ignorance) to reliance on an awakened and understanding mind.

The sixth patriarch of Zen, master Huineng, described the three refuges as awakening, proper understanding and purity, instead of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. He was concerned that people would misunderstand the refuges/jewels for things external to themselves; such as a Buddha statue for the Buddha, a sutra for the Dharma and a Buddhist monk or nun for the Sangha. The true meaning of refuge is to find these things within yourself.

It is not in the Buddha you take refuge, but in your own Buddha-nature.

Taking refuge in the Dharma jewel involves a return from incorrect views to proper views and understanding of life and reality. The Dharma jewel is the infinite innate knowledge and wisdom of nature, also called Prajna wisdom. It corrects our inaccurate beliefs, speech and behaviour. We cannot immediately recover our innate Prajna wisdom however and so following teachings such as the Sutras functions as guidance. If our thinking aligns with it, we are correct. If our perception of what is good or bad deviates from the teachings of the Buddha, our thinking must be affected by avidya (ignorance).

Taking refuge in the Sangha jewel involves

SamsaraKarma is the law which determines the progression of the parts, including humans, towards Enlightenment or reunion with the Whole. Buddhist teaching holds that existence is a complex web of interrelated events and actions. The entire mass is symbolically represented as an eternally turning Wheel of Life. This is Samsara. This wheel has twelve sections called Nidanas, which are the various aspects involved in the Wheel’s eternal turning. They are:

Jati – birth. The cause of Jati is the becoming into being, which is caused by:

Bhava - rebirth by Karma, which is caused by:

Upadana meaning attachment, craving for and clinging to life.

Rhys David: Upadana “typifies attachment to worldly things which the human being ignorantly grasps at, supposing they will quench this craving thirst which has arisen from sensation”. It is caused by:

Samsara is a Sanskrit word meaning ‘round and round’ in a cycle of becoming.

The cycle of birth, death and rebirth through the law of karma.

punabbhava (rebirth)

Various realms of rebirth: hell, hungry ghost, human, deva realms.

The three fires/poisons

At the centre of the process of samsara are ignorance and delusion, greed and hatred which cause rebirth into the physical world in ignorance again and again. The three poisons keep the wheel of samsara in motion.

Delusion can lead to attachment and craving, which leads to rebirth within the wheel of samsara. E.g. failure to understand anatta for example leads to a sense of ego and thus greed. failure to understand anicca leads to hatred when an understanding of anicca would encourage acceptance of a temporary situation. The first noble truth also backs this up.

Arguably it is craving or hatred which blind us to a true understanding of the world however

Arguably delusion leads to either craving or hatred but not both.

craving or hatred leads towards feelings or sensations can lead to attachment or aversion, which might then lead to rebirth within the wheel of samsara.

dependent origination illustrates how the three poisons maintain the cycle of samsara

Arguably good kamma may lead to an end of the cycle but it is bad kamma (perhaps brought about by the three fires) which keeps the cycle going.

Karma

Importance of Samsara:

The Buddhist way of life is affected by this belief by giving Buddhists a motivation to escape this possibly endless cycle by developing good karma.

The law of karma is fundamental to the process of samsara as the karmic effect of unskillful / wrong / harmful thoughts and actions keep all beings trapped in the wheel of samsara.

Ignorance of the fundamental truths of dukkha, anicca and anatta also keep beings trapped in samsara.

Good karma is developed though adhering to moral precepts.

The eightfold path of morality, meditation and wisdom is the means of overcoming samsara.

This belief would encourage Buddhists to practice morality, meditation and to fully understand the teachings of the Buddha.

A belief in samsara would enable Buddhists to accept some of the suffering and injustices of present existence.

A belief in samsara might be an incentive to become a monk to devote one’s life to gaining wisdom and insight and freedom from the law of karma and samsara.

Pratityasamutpada (dependent origination)

Karma is the cause and condition for the arising of all mental and physical phenomena including the future both in this life and beyond, therefore concluding Karma and rebirth are inextricably linked. This some may suggest is what the 12 links of dependant origination show. The 12 links (nidanas) can each bring good or bad karma, and therefore be a cause of the next link.

The Tibetan Wheel of Life includes an explanation of karma and samsara and the second noble truth that suffering is caused by attachment and craving. It explains why all beings are trapped in the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. Ignorance of the true nature of reality causes beings to crave for sensual satisfaction instead of breaking the cycle of ignorance and craving.

Twelve causal links or ‘nidanas’ explain the causes (origination) of ignorance, karmic formations, consciousness, mind and body, six sense bases, contact, feeling, craving, becoming, birth, aging, death and sorrow.

These are expressed on the Tibetan Wheel of Life by particular symbols. Each of these links in the chain of origination inevitably depend on the other as they are causally linked. Karma, the law of cause and effect fuels the cycle of dependent origination indefinitely. Beings are trapped in the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth, (samsara) until they break the causal links through elimination of the three poisons, which are the causes of suffering / cycle of dependent origination represented by the cock, pig and snake at the centre of the Tibetan Wheel of Life.

6 realms of rebirth: hell realm, hungry ghosts, animal realm, human realm, happy gods and angry gods (pretas) are the result of karma (expressed pictorially in the Wheel of Life). Sentient beings rise and fall through different realms according to their karma (depicted on the Wheel of Life).

Importance of the dependent origination doctrine:

is too complex and difficult for most Buddhists to understand. Buddhists today place little value in abstract theories preferring to apply Buddhist teachings to moral behaviour and the improvement of society.Other teachings have more value for lay people eg the teachings on generosity, merit-making and karma.

Today scientific theories can challenge the Buddhist notions of causality based in the mind and consciousness.

However:

It has great value in providing an explanation for human suffering and dissatisfaction and the mental and physical processes which cause unhappiness. It has value as a theory of causality which can be applied to a range of phenomena.The beliefs in karma and samsara are derived from this teaching and have importance and relevance in the lives of Buddhists. For monastic Buddhists and those seeking deeper wisdom the doctrine of dependent origination has great value in answering many of the ultimate questions of life.

How important samsara and its associated ideas are in Buddhist everyday practice

Which actions cause karma and which do not; karmic seeds and fruits

Should Samsara be understood metaphorically, psychologically or literally?

Literal Samsara:

Buddhist scripturederives its authority from religious experiences so suffers the same criticisms.

Religious experience subjective and unverifiable and/or better explained as the result of natural causes

near death experiences

memories of past lives.

rebirth /reincarnation raises issues concerning continuing personal identity. However, both Anatta and the wheel of becoming stress continuity through change.

But how?

The Buddha suggested testing truths by experience, but ironically scientific empiricism may undermine Buddhist doctrines while following that advice.

Literal belief in Samsara often has immoral results, such as viewing disabled people as deserving their affliction because of the belief that it must have resulted from sins in a past life.Samsara and the six realms of existence

Psychological interpretation of Samsara

David McMahn argues that the attempt to frame Buddhist cosmology in modern psychological terms is a ‘demythologization’

Arguably the two truths doctrine suggests that Samsara is unreal and empty in the absolute sense but exists in the conventional sense for those whose minds are karmically attached. This could suggest it is just psychological rather than literal. Or at the very least its literal interpretation is confined to the conventional sense.

Gethin claims that Buddhist cosmology is both a map of the different realms of existence but since they relate to certain states of mind it is also a description of possible experiences.He points to the Buddha’s quote ‘it is “intention” that I call karma; having formed the intention, one performs acts (karma) by body, speech and mind’

Paul Williams claims that traditional Buddhism cannot hold that the realms are only psychological, however, since then rebirth would always be into the human realm or there would be no rebirth at all.

Arguably the actual human realm contains a variety of psychological modes humans can be in, however, which could account for the different realms.

kammic seeds/formulations and kammic fruits/consequences

the Buddha identifies kamma with volition. This makes kamma a mental event. The mind seeks to actualise the mind’s drives, dispositions and purposes which then come into being through body, speech or mind. However, it is not the actualising of the volitions that creates the kammic consequence by the very volition itself. This leaves an impression on the mind so that the mind may be more disposed to create this thought again. Intentional actions are driven by kleshas (disturbing emotions) or tanha (craving) which create impressions, tendencies or seeds in the mind. These impressions, or seeds, will ripen into a future result or fruit.

kamma leads to future consequences. This is often called karma - phala, or the fruit of action. They might suggest that any given action may cause all sorts of results, but kammic consequences are only those results which are a consequence of the intention behind the action. The law of kamma shows Buddhists that good moral actions lead to wholesome rebirths, and bad moral actions lead to unwholesome rebirths. Kammic consequences can be felt almost instantly as well as throughout life and for lives to come. One is about the intention behind the act whilst the other is about the consequences of an act. Neither is about the act itself. Buddhists cannot do anything about the kammic consquences but they can control the volitional side and this can be found in the Buddha’s teaching of the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. They are different sides to the same coin linked to the Buddha’s teachings about right view.

The three marks of existenceQuestions:Is all of conditioned experience truly subject to the three marks? Are the three marks true?Is Buddhism optimistic or pessimistic?Assess the relative importance of the three marks, are any more or less important?

Humphreys: “The Buddha based his teaching on no assumptions, least of all on the two which dominate the western mind from earliest childhood, an absolute yet personal God, and an immoratal soul which must be ‘saved’ … with the assistance of this God”.

Huphreys: the clear and logical view of Buddhists is that “Whatever reality may be, it is beyond the conception of the finite intellect; it follows that attempts at description are misleading, unprofitable, and waste of time.

The Buddha therefore recommended ‘a noble silence’ about reality. If there is anything beyond our ability to perceive, then there is simply no point talking about it.

The Buddha claims all forms of life have three characteristics in common; impermanence, suffering and no soul which separates them from other forms of life.

All is impermanent, including the soul. What is separated from the unity of being by avidya (ignorance), knows suffering. When the three fires of attachment, hatred and illusion are put out, the Self is freed from the bondage of the self.

Anicca/anitya (impermanence). Buddha points out that nothing is what it used to be. Even the ‘everlasting hills’ are slowly being eroded. Everything is in a state of change. Anicca is cyclic; there is birth, growth, decay and death. All things, man-made or naturally occurring, exist in this dynamic.

The nature of it, including the gross and subtle momentary level. It’s link to Dukkha and anatta.

Relative importance of Anicca

Anicca leads inevitably to the concept of anatta, making it more important.

Is conditioned experience truly Anicca?

Anicca is true because everything we experience is constantly changing. some things are permanent (as nirvana is, ultimately).

Dukkha/duhkha (suffering)

Different translations and understandings of Dukkha

The first of the Four Noble Truths. There is no single English word that adequately defines the full range and subtlety of the term dukkha . There have been many translations such as; stress, unsatisfactoriness or suffering. The Samyutta Nikaya (56.11) states that "Birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, death is dukkha." It arose out of the Buddha’s experience of the four sights, old age, sickness and death.

The three categories

These are various forms of dukkha; dukkha, viparinama -dukkha and sankhara -dukkha. Dukkha -dukkha is the dukkha of experiences that are painful in themselves. This is where the translation of dukkha as “suffering” most frequently applies. There is the obvious suffering caused by war, violence, hunger, natural disasters, political and social oppression, and injustice. There is also the

inevitable pain of the body, starting with childbirth, and then sickness, injury, ageing and death. This form of dukkha also includes suffering in the mind, such as feelings of fear, jealousy, anger and hatred.

viparinama -dukkha-anicca is the unsatisfying, unreliable nature of all things. This is the suffering inherent in pleasant situations as we realise that these pleasant situations and the feelings we get from them do not last and that nothing can therefore be depended on to bring lasting fulfillment. This means that there are times of association with what we don’t want and separation from what we do want.

samkhara -dukkha-anatta. Suffering associated with attachment to self and ignorance of nature of self as ever changing and impermanent. This relates to the Buddha’s suggestion that people experience an underlying anxiety about the future. This worry and anxiety is a manifestation of life's inherent unsatisfactoriness due to its impermanent nature. Each moment arises due to certain conditions, then it just disappears. There is nothing lasting or substantial in daily life, thus it leaves a general feeling of insecurity, angst or anguish.

The types of unavoidable suffering

Relative importance of Dukkha

The three marks of existence are connected. “Material shape is impermanent. What is impermanent, that is suffering. What is suffering, that is not the Self. What is not Self, that is not mine, that am I not, that is not my Self (Samyutta Nikaya, ibid,. p.156).

Dukkha is only coherent if one first accepts the concept of anicca, as it is change and the inability to accept this change that causes suffering.

Dukkha leads to an acceptance of suffering as the natural result of karmic actions in present and past lives.

A belief in dukkha explains why suffering is inherent in life and is to be expected and responded to with fortitude. It gives motivation to cease from suffering by overcoming the three poisons/ fetters of greed, hate and delusion. There is arguably value to suffering as an incentive to seek deeper understanding of the causes of suffering. Intention to avoid or reduce suffering through living life in accordance with the middle way. Compassion to those who suffer.

Dukkha is in agreement with The first two Noble Truths as dealing with the nature and cause of suffering. Knowledge: An understanding of suffering is essential before the other truths can be fully understood. Incentive: Without a knowledge and experience of suffering there is no incentive to follow the Buddhist Path. Buddha’s teachings: The focus on suffering is fundamental to the Buddha’s teachings. Transcending suffering is the main goal of Buddhism.

Nirvana is the most important concept and is the opposite and cessation of dukkha.

Dukkha is rooted in experience rather than an abstract concept. The Buddhist way of life can be seen to be dominated by generosity and compassion. Beliefs are less important than actions.

Is conditioned experience truly Dukkha?

Dukkha is the only one of the three marks which is true because it is the only one which is consistent with our experience of the world. It would not be possible to deny the existence of suffering in the same way as you could deny the other two marks.

Arguably at an ultimate level none of the three marks exist. Emptiness.

Anatta/anatman (no self)

anatta/anatman (no self) is the doctrine that nothing which exists, including humans, have a permanent soul or aspect which makes it different from anything else or any other form of life.

Humphreys points out the difficulty in understanding this point, because it is the self which is trying to understand itself, and indeed that it is not a self. Humphreys argues for this reason this doctrine is better learned through experience rather than understanding.

The rejection of both eternalism and annihilationism

Atman means soul in the Hindu religion, which the Brahmen of the Buddha’s day would have believed in. They believed it to be the element of humanity which enables people, on rare occasions, to become aware of their oneness with the universe, since the Atman of the universe and the Atman of humans are the same. The soul is therefore not a human soul, but the soul of all reality.

This doctrine of the Atman over time was degraded into a belief in an immortal soul as the part of humans which made them different and separated them from other humans.

The Buddha only denies this degraded version of the Atman doctrine.

Humphreys argues that some scholars of Theravada Buddhism, in their rejection of a separate immortal soul, go too far and “interpret the Buddha’s silence concerning the self as denying the whole of the Atta doctrine in its original form, and with it the evolving character. Humphreys points to some quotes from scripture which he thinks shows that to be false:

“Let a Bhikkhu reprove himself by the self, and examine himself by the self, so that he will live happily” (Dhammapada, v 160

“Self is the Lord of Self and the goal of self. What other Lord can there be?” (Dhammapada, v 379-80)

Humphreys: “Anatta may be described as the doctrine of ‘non-independence’”. No thing/person, is independent from any other thing/person because there is no immortal soul behind it which gives it a unique character.

Anatta is translated as no soul, no self, or non-self. It is a rejection and challenge to the Hindu notion of a permanent, eternal, pure nonmaterial essence within every living being. The Buddha’s teaching denied the existence of a permanent, substantial, metaphysical self (atman) and proposed the truth of the ever changing dynamic of mental and physical elements which constitute each living being.

The five Khandas are the elements of ever-changing mental life. They are the bodily and mental aggregates of craving and clinging. Some also suggest they characterise the personality.

Humphreys points out that the ego or self is distinct from the soul.The ego which says “I am” is merely an aggregate of skandhas – sensations, ideas, thoughts, emotions and volitions. It is not a permanent unchanging entity behind these. The skandhas are the elements of our bodily existence.

While the word ‘I’ remains the same, its meaning changes as the skandhas change.

Form (rupa) material forms by which all phenomena can be categorizedFeeling (vedana). Sensory experience of an object, either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.Perception. The process by which we register, recognize and categorize things. Volition. Mental imprints and conditioning triggered by an object.Consciousness. Discrimination, discernment, awareness of e.g. objects and its aspects.

These constituent parts temporarily come together and constantly interact, evolve, change and affect each other to create a sentient being.

An understanding of the khandas enables Buddhists to understand the teaching of anatta. It links to the four noble truths or teachings about kamma or rebirth. Understanding of the five khandas might make grasping less likely, or enable people to let go of their ‘selfishness’. A failure to understand the 5 Khandas indicates a failure to understand issues relating to anicca and anatta, and could make it impossible to follow Buddhist teachings effectively.

The explanation offered by the chariot analogy in the Questions of King Milinda

Relative Importance of Anatta

Rhys Davids says that failure to understand Anatta leads to suffering: “Sorrow is in fact the result of the effort which an individual has to make to keep separate from the rest of existence”

Without understanding the nature of the self or lack of self we could not understand the Buddha’s teachings e.g. the five Khandas or Nirvana.

The idea of no-self helps people to avoid attachment to what they think is their real self. The idea of impermanence may teach people to be less attached to material objects such as money or property because it will not last. These first two link with suffering. This means that people suffer because they do not see that all things change and cease to exist and therefore that they should not be attached to them.

Anatta shows that all things exist dependent upon something else so gives rise to awareness of causality and responsibility for ones actions. Suzuki describes the developed Mahayana doctrine on

Anatta: “each soul is not only related as such to the highest reality, but also to one another in the most perfect network of infinite mutual relationship.”

In dependent origination doctrine the teaching of anatta is central in the assertion that all things that have a beginning will have an end giving rise to an attitude of acceptance of change.

Attachment to the idea of a permanent self is a delusion and causes suffering as all physical and mental processes are subject to the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Reduces the development of an ego / egoism and selfish attitude towards life. Greater acceptance of the process of life, death and rebirth as all elements are constantly changing, coming into being and dying away. Recognition that all living beings are connected, ‘we are the same human race’ as we are made of the same constituent elements thus leading to a more compassionate attitude towards all beings.

Anatta is less evident in conditioned experience than Anicca and Dukkha which are present in life’s difficulties.

This shouldn’t make Anatta less important though, especially considering it’s importance in dealing with those difficulties.

Anatta is a difficult and complex idea to understand as it requires an understanding and acceptance of the teaching of the five skandhas.

The concept of anatta is not relevant to lay Buddhists as their priorities are how to live a life based on the moral principles of Buddhism.

Anatta is less relevant than other truths such as dukkha (suffering) and anicca (impermanence) which are more evident in the experience of life’s adversities.

Most lay Buddhists are more concerned with the practicalities of life rather than speculations on the nature of existence.

Anatta is relevant as a reminder that mind and body interact and affect each other.

The more profound aspects of anatta can be understood through the insights gained through meditation which is practiced by many Buddhists.

Anatta explains the futility of being attached to worldly success and material gain as these are ultimately of no value.

For monastic community the doctrine of anatta is relevant as an understanding of this leads to nibbana because it removes the obstacles of attachment and pride.

The scriptures state that when the wisdom of understanding anatta is attained that nibbana will be realised.

Is conditioned experience truly Anatta?

Dukkha (suffering) and anicca (impermanence) are more evident in the experience of life’s adversities than Anatta.

The concept of anatta is theoretical and not always experienced as a reality in daily life.

anatta is not true as there is something that moves between existences and it contains the fruit of past karmic actions, which is not dissimilar from personality.

However, this cannot be proven empirically and therefore anatta could be seen to be true.

The other teachings are equally if not more important. Anicca (impermanence) and anatta (no permanent self) are the three signs of existence and dukkha is only one of these.

Buddhist teachings provide evidence for Annata, e.g. the chariot analogy in the teachings of King Milinda, or analogies which demonstrate the process of rebirth.

Arguably anatta does not make sense by referring to alternative views (such as the existence of a soul/Self) which are better supported.

Issues related to rebirth might disprove Anatta

Zen master Dogen claimed that to study the Buddha way is to study the self, which is to forget the self, which is to be actualised by myriad things, which causes your body and mind as well as those of others to drop away. ‘no trace of realisation remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly’.

Pessimism vs optimism vs realism

Humphreys: “Whether or not we dislike the face of truth, the truth remains the same. Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic; both are extremes, and in all things the Buddha proclaimed the Middle Way”

Humphreys: “If the doctrine of suffering is stressed in Buddhism, there is good reason for this emphasis.

Humphreys argues that the first two noble truths – to face the existence of suffering and understand its cause as desire – were considered alone, Buddhism would appear pessimistic. However, to be consistent, the teaching of the Way to liberation from Samsara as an opportunity open to everyone has to then be considered optimistic.

Humphreys: “If Buddhism … seems to advocate a supreme contempt for this life, about whose beauty and glory the poets of the world have sung, it is only with a view to achieving a true perspective. For poets, who are men of vision, praise not the things of sense for themselves but for the beauty of the life within them.

Rhys Davids: Buddhism enhances, perhaps more than any other creed, the value of life, when life is taken not in breadth and length’. The implication here is that Buddhism enhances the value of life in a deeper less superficial way.

Christmas Humphreys – Theravada Buddhism is “By the ignorant … described as pessimistic. If this were true, and it is quite untrue, it is strange that its adherents to-day, the Sinhalese, Burmese, Siamese and Cambodians, are among the merriest, happiest people on earth.”

Ven. Ajahn Amaro said ‘I’m determined to fully realise nirvana in this lifetime; I’m deeply weary of the human condition and determined not to be born again’.

Contrast Buddhism’s marks to Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence based on his amour fati and own doctrine of interconnectedness.

overall Importance of the three marks

The three marks of existence are important because they cover all aspects of life and reality and introduce many of the key themes that run throughout the Buddha’s teachings.

Arguably the three marks is the starting point for understanding the teachings of the Buddha and without it the four noble truths would be far more difficult to understand.

Criticism of all three marks:Ito Jinsai, a Confucianist, claimed that Confucianism grows out of our nature. He thought love and social relations were part of the fundamental nature of all things. Confucianism does not have to be taught, he claimed, unlike Buddhism which, if its adherents disappeared, so would it. It only exists because people revere it, not because of its relation to our true nature.

How did the Buddha discover it then, and what about other Buddhas who attained enlightenment with no teaching or guidance?

The claim that Confucianism is closer to our nature is arguably not the good thing Jinsai thinks it is. Robert Wright argues we need Buddhism to overcome the reflexive dissatisfaction evolution has programmed us with.

The four noble truthsCan the goal of Buddhism be understood?Is the Buddhist idea of detachment positive or negative?Are any of the Truths or stages of the eightfold path more or less important than the others?

The Four Noble Truths as the foundation of Buddhist teaching

The doctor analogy: the illness, the cause of the illness, the truth that there is an end to the illness, and the prescription

The outline given in the Deer Park Sermon

The historical background to the sermon is that it was the first teaching given by the Buddha after enlightenment. It’s related to the story of Brahma, who asked the Buddha to share his ‘precious wisdom’ with others. The teaching was given to five of his former companions who all gained enlightenment as a result of the teaching. This was the beginnings of the first sangha. This teaching is often referred to as ‘The Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma’ because it is the starting point of the Buddha’s teaching. This gives it significance because it is the re-introduction of the true dharma into the world. This teaching contains the four noble truths and eightfold path, the foundation point upon which the rest of the Buddha’s teaching rests.

The path of disciples and arhats/arhants who follow the teachings.

The noble truth of suffering Dukkha/duhkha (suffering)

It’s relation to the other three truths and its role as the ‘sickness’ to be cured

Relative importance/comprehensibility of the 1st noble truth

The noble truth of the origin of suffering tanha/trishna (craving)

The different types of craving (e.g. for: material pleasures, existence, non-existence) and how they lead to suffering

Tanha as one of the 12 nidanas (causes)

Relative importance/comprehensibility of the 2nd noble truth

The main goal of the Buddhist path is to undermine craving as the source of personal suffering and suffering in the wider world.

Craving is such an inherent and conditioned aspect of human nature that almost impossible to remove it.

Most of the positive drives to achieve and enjoy life share some of the qualities of tanha and it has a positive aspect. It is essential for human beings to attach themselves to others and ideals or beliefs so it is too difficult to be completely non-attached.

There are many levels and forms of craving and good karmic actions will reduce its power and results.

Following the eightfold path will inevitably reduce the power of craving.

The attainment of nibbana means the end of craving for existence and Buddhist believe this is possible.

Even nibbana could be a source of craving.

The noble truth of the cessation of suffering Nibbana/nirvana (enlightenment)

Nirodha as the ‘cutting off’ of craving through detachmentThe issues raised by the 79th and 80th dilemmas of The Questions of King Milinda

It is the highest and ultimate goal of all Buddhists traditions. It is the third truth, cessation of suffering and fourth truth is the way to attain it. ‘The farthest shore’ which is beyond all the suffering experienced in this world; the complete cessation of dukkha (suffering).. Freedom from the cycle of rebirth and samsara. The highest bliss and a transformed state of consciousness. Karma ceases to operate. Blowing out of the fires of anger, greed and delusion, of desire and craving. Attained during one’s lifetime as a transcendent timeless experience as well as in the future or beyond this life (paranibbana).

Nirvana is the gaining of freedom from dukkha, kammic formations, the three poisons, ability to ‘see the world as it really is’ – for example understanding of dependent origination and the three marks of existence.

However Nirvana involves still being subject to all five khandhas, kammic consequences and still being alive and present in our world in a conventional sense. Paranirvana is nirvana after death and involves the cessation of even those three things.

Some schools of thought, especially Mahayana emphasise the otherness of nibbana as beyond understanding, whereas Theravada focuses on nibbana as a lived and profound experience. Meanings of nibbana are often debated and discussed and no definite answers prevail and it is sometimes claimed it is not possible to fully understand until one is enlightened.

Gethin’s view of showing nirvana from 3 points of view: i) extinguishing the 3 fires ii) the condition of a Buddha after death iii) The unconditioned realm known at the moment of awakening - two of which are describable.

Can the goal of Buddhism be understood?

Is the goal of Buddhism something that can be conceptualized/understood or must it simply be worked towards and then experienced?

Can Nirvana be understood?

Some texts seem to refer to Nirvana as a place, with physical qualities, it is the ‘abode of the arhat’ or like ‘a mountain top’, it has a perfume and a lustre, it is somewhere those who escape the cycle of samsara enter after death.

However, a Buddhist may be ‘in Nirvana’ in this life so it is clearly not a place one goes to after death. Other parts of the Milindapanna make that clear, so it seems that there is an element of paradox (apparent contradiction) in the accounts.

Nirvana as a state of consciousness may be indescribable to those who have not experienced it, but some of the descriptions in the Milindapanna appear easier to relate to. The Milindapanna compares Nirvana to qualities of water, food and medicine, for example, but also describes it as ‘incomprehensible’, Nirvana ‘has nothing similar to it’. The descriptions may help in understanding the effects of experiencing Nirvana (in this life and/or after death) but does not describe Nirvana itself. Nirvana is the end of suffering, of death and rebirth, it causes delight, it is a condition in which no evil can grow. However, these seem to be descriptions of the effects of Nirvana, not of Nirvana itself,

However, it may be that Nirvana and its effects are actually the same. That doesn’t mean we can understand it though, unless we can truly appreciate what the end of suffering, death and rebirth would be like. The text uses a comparison between the impossibility of understanding Nirvana and the impossibility of understanding how much water there is in the ocean and how many creatures are in it. The suggestion is that it’s possible to know just beyond our current ability to grasp.

All terms used to describe Nirvana are (of necessity) drawn from the conditioned world of samsara – the realm of constant change, but Nirvana is said to be the antithesis of this world – it is unconditioned. Tihch Nhat Hahn claimed that teachings are a guide not the destination, like a finger pointed to the moon, which one must not mistake for the moon itself.

Arguably Nirvana is not the ‘opposite’ of the conditioned world, it is our normal understanding of life but minus Dukkha.

As one of the three marks of existence, it is impossible to imagine conditioned existence without Dukkha without it ceasing to be this world.

Arguably, while it is impossible to understand existence without Dukkha, since we can understand that Dukkha is bad we can know that nirvana is a good goal, which might be understanding enough to motivate us effectively, at least.

The idea that Nirvana is Samsara / emptiness.

Thevia negativa e.g.Udana 8.1 (the Nibbana Sutra). Contrast this with, the Ituvuttaka 43 which states: ‘The escape from that is calm, permanent, beyond inference, unborn, unproduced, the sorrowless, stainless state, the cessation of stressful qualities, the stilling of fabrications, bliss.’

Can the Four Noble Truths be understood?

A mere intellectual understanding of the four noble truths in themselves have little effect unless they are put into practice through following the eightfold path as stated in the fourth truth.

Believing the Four Noble Truths gives meaning and purpose to the Buddhist way of life.

The four Noble Truths explain suffering and enables Buddhists to have an ultimate goal to strive for.

The Buddhist way of life might be more affected by the moral aspects of the eightfold path than an analysis of the nature and cause of suffering.

Without a belief in the Four Noble Truths there would be little point in practicing the eightfold path.

The Four Noble Truths contain accepted wisdom which gives Buddhists faith to persevere in the following of this path.

The Buddhist way of life is influenced more by the culture of the country in which it is practised than philosophical beliefs.

Buddhists may be more concerned about generating good karma by good deeds than understanding the Four Noble Truths.

Nonetheless it may be understandable.

Relative importance/comprehensibility of the 3nd noble truth

Most Buddhists attempt to follow the noble eightfold path of morality, meditation and wisdom which is the way and the means for attaining nibbana. Even if they do not attain nibbana in this lifetime their intentions and actions are aimed at attaining it in a future existence.

Buddhists may have many aims in life and nibbana may not be the main one as it can seem to be too difficult to attain.

The monastic tradition in Theravada Buddhism is set up to provide the ideal conditions for attaining nibbana. If this aim was not in their lives there would be little point in following the Buddhist path.

It is only certain monks who aim for nibbana and these are not the majority

Most Buddhists are making progress towards nibbana rather than achieving it in this lifetime. So, they hope for a better rebirth rather than the liberation of nibbana. Their aim is developing good

karma in every way through moral actions and devotional acts. Nibbana is a remote and long-distance aim for most Buddhists.

The noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering magga/marga (path)

The Noble Eightfold Path

its goalThe eight stages and three sections (wisdom, ethics and meditation)The stages as inter-reliant, not linearThe ninth and tenth ‘acquired’ stages of wisdom

Prajna (Wisdom):Right view. The correct grasp of the law of kamma and of the true nature and cause of suffering.Right intention. The intention of renunciation, the intention of good will and the intention of harmlessness

Sila (virtue and moral conduct):Right speech. Abstaining from false speech, slanderous speech, harsh speech and idle chatter.Right conduct. Abstaining from unwholesome actions.Right livelihood. This is a livelihood based on correct action; the ethical principal of non-exploitation.

Samadhi (Meditation):Right effort. The fourfold development of skilful or wholesome mental states from unskilful or unwholesome mental states.Right mindfulness (Satipatthana). Full and clear attention to sensations and experiences in the present moment. Four kinds: body, feelings, thoughts and consciousness. Applied to standing, sitting, walking and lying down. Overcoming hindrances of sense, desire, aversion, doubt, sloth and torpor. Right concentration (samadhi). One-pointedness of mind. Unwavering and un-distracted mind. Ability to place attention on chosen object and maintain attention. Sometimes refers to the levels of jhana from applied attention, energisation and one-pointed mind with equanimity.

The three parts of the path support each other and create a virtuous circle. Behaving ethically (sila) frees the mind of negative thought processes associated with greed and hatred. This allows samadhi to be practised effectively, which leads to improved wisdom.

Improved wisdom makes ethical behaviour more likely. Failure to follow one part of the path has negative connotations for the other aspects of the path, leading to a vicious circle.

Relative importance/comprehensibility of the 4th noble truth and Prajna, Sila and Samadhi

Thich Nhat Hanh claims the eight fold path is the central tenant of Buddhist teaching but that it has been adapted to suit the different social and cultural environments that Buddhism spread into from the second century BC onwards. The finger pointing at the moon analogy shows that all teachings are just ways to gain enlightenment and therefore none are of especial importance.

The Buddha called his teaching a raft. To cross a turbulent river we may need to build a raft. When built, we single-mindedly and with great energy make our way across. Once across we don't need to carry the raft around with us. The teachings are tools not dogma. This suggests the most important thing is getting to the other shore; nirvana.

in order to understand the eightfold path a Buddhist must first understand the first three noble truths which include understanding dukkha, nibbana, dependent origination, kamma and samsara. Therefore, the teachings need to be taken as a whole not as individual parts and therefore no one teaching is more important than another.

the eightfold path, like all paths in Buddhism, is a tool for achieving nibbana, and that placing special importance on it defeats the point of the concepts within the path.

The characteristics of the eightfold path can be found in the concepts of wisdom and compassion as well as in the bodhisattva path and the six paramitas, showing that they are the fundamental basis for all paths to achieving enlightenment

Sila is most important.

Sila is the easiest aspect of the path to begin with since moral codes can be followed even if the reason for them is not fully understood.

However, following moral codes without understanding the reason for them can be harmful, especially with the Buddhist emphasis on intention.

Societal expectations can aid people in following sila regardless of their beliefs.

Prajna is most important.

Wisdom maintains a focus on the path and a reason for following it.

Samadhi is most important.

Without the insights gained from meditation the other parts of the path, morality and wisdom would not be appreciated, understood or practised.

Without the stillness and clarity of mind gained through meditation practice, the other aspects of the path would be undermined or less effective.

Meditation leads to an understanding of impermanence (anicca) and no permanent self (anatta) which is the wisdom aspect of the eightfold path.

Meditation clearly reveals the effects of thoughts and actions and leads to better moral judgement and actions.

Meditation leads to the ability to choose and alter mental states so they produce good karma.

Meditation

Whether meditation has to be a religious practice

Mindfulness is a natural part of human capacities, is used in psychotherapy and so is not necessarily a meditation practice.

Mindfulness is offered as a very successful therapy by the NHS and has proved to help those suffering from anxiety and depression.

However, mindfulness is only one aspect of the Buddhist practice of meditation and its calming or therapeutic results are only a part of the benefits of meditation. Some meditation exercises aim at character correction, and the final goal of Buddhist meditation is enlightenment.

Gautama Buddha is sometimes described as a doctor for the ills of the world and meditation is part of his prescription for ending suffering, so it is clearly a therapy in that sense.

However, it can also be seen as a way of developing mental abilities, including concentration. Concentration is not simply valuable as a way of calming the mind, but also as a tool that allows the development of insight. Insight meditation can be said to have the aim of realising that the sense of self is an illusion – the truth of Anatta. This is very different from being a therapy, and working towards realising this can be mentally and emotionally stressful.

The Buddha taught that all his teachings aimed at overcoming suffering and that the benefits of following the Buddhist path would be evident in this life. Meditation is said to develop detachment which allows people to deal with change, and to be the basis of a healthy attitude to life.

Bhikkhu Bodhi claims that as Vipassana meditation has gained popularity, it has subtly changed. Traditionally it was taught as part of the Buddhist path yet is now often taught as secular with benefits relevant to material existence rather than spiritual, e.g. better job performance, better relationships, greater compassion and awareness, less anxiety. Bodhi agrees such benefits are valuable in themselves but points out they are not the final goal of such training according to the Buddha, which is “Nibbana, the destruction of all defilements here and now and the deliverance from the beginningless round of rebirths”.

Bodhi argues that the perhaps “most powerful pressure” on vipassana to secularise was the need to divorce it from its “traditional matrix of Buddhist faith and doctrine” in order to exist in a secular environment. Bodhi is open to some aspects of this. He acknowledges it might be a good first step for non-Buddhists that they be invited to “explore for themselves the potential inherent in the practice”. Bodhi goes as far to suggest that having the “full agenda of Buddhist doctrine thrust upon them from the start” might be the “last thing they need”.

However, while Bodhi accepts the validity of the secularised form of Vipassana as an introduction to Buddhism, he thinks that eventually practitioners will “inevitably arrive at a crossroads” where they must choose to continue the mediation in a secular context or to “transpose the practice back into its original setting of Buddhist faith”. Continuing in the secular context might deepen and increase the benefits, but Bodhi thinks that in “viewed against the Buddha’s word they remain incomplete”. Bodhi thinks Vipassana falls short of its full potential when secularised.

Bodhi argues that secularised Vipassana lacks the complementary pair of faith and right view. Saddha (faith) means a willingness to accept on trust certain propositions that we cannot, at our

present stage of development, personally verify for ourselves”. Examples include the nature of reality and the existence of stages of development higher on the path than we are.

Traditionally faith is the first step a Buddhist takes and practice comes second. The canonical texts make no mention of the possibility of a faithless person practicing Vipassana and getting benefits, which today in the west is widespread and results in meditators “first contact with the Dhamma” occurring secondarily as a result of Vipassana meditation “and then to use this experience as a touchstone for assessing their relationship to the teaching”.

The practical issues of meditation being compatible with western secular society.

The practice and development of meditation is not only possible but essential for living in today’s world. People need to find methods of training the mind to reduce stress and find peacefulness within themselves. Meditation gives a broader perspective on life and enables people to cope with the demands of modern life.

Today’s world is characterised by high pace and stressful living so it seems impossible to find time and space for the practice of meditation.

The stimulus of the internet and fast communication of mobile phones etc are so stimulating to the mind and emotions that meditation is impossible. Tech companies develop persuasive technologies to subtly manipulate and addict users to devices like smartphones.

The western world can be seen to be dominated by materialistic values and success so the purpose of meditation is not appropriate or relevant. Or if it is attempted, meditation is itself just seen as another commodity.

Today’s problems are solved by economic and scientific measures rather than spiritual ones like meditation.

Meditation has little impact on social and economic problems.

Whether meditation is the most important element of Buddhist practice

Mindfulness has a varied importance in different types of meditation. Since meditation can be varied, that could suggest it is not vitally important. Samatha meditation which develops concentration and a still quiet mind is regarded as a preliminary to mindfulness in vipassana mediation. In metta meditation the essential element is having a compassionate heart.

Morality is more important than meditation for Buddhists today.’ How far do you agree?

Morality is the fundamental basis of Buddhism and accepted by all Buddhists, and the other aspects of the path are more optional. All Buddhists whether lay or monastic must observe the moral precepts before any progress on the path to enlightenment can be made.

Meditation is an essential and integral part of the eightfold path and just as important as morality.

Attaining nibbana is a goal only achievable through good karma and good moral behaviour.

It is not possible to practise meditation without a secure moral base.Without meditation the Buddhist cannot develop the right kind of mental and emotional states to follow the moral precepts. This is why the aspects of the eightfold path are interdependent rather than stages.

Morality is more important because it is based in actions in everyday life which is experienced and practised by all Buddhists today.

Today the effects of right speech, right action and right livelihood are very important in human relationships and in social and economic circumstances.

In countries with a predominantly Buddhist culture the practice of morality is much more widespread and important than the practice of meditation.

Meditation can be seen as an individual and almost selfish goal whereas morality is based in selflessness.

Meditation is the main concern of monastics rather than the majority of lay people.The value and benefits of meditation especially mindfulness in the areas of psychology and emotional wellbeing are more widely appreciated and understood today so it has increased in importance for all Buddhists.

This is mainly a western increase however.

Engaged Buddhism aimed at social action and welfare programmes are considered to be an important aspect of Buddhism today, especially in the west. Meditation doesn’t seem helpful to that.

To those who have chosen the Buddhist path in the west today there is more interest and emphasis on meditation than morality

Arguably the westerners interested in meditation as a hobby or commodity are not the western Buddhists who are interested in engaged Buddhism.

For the laity in many countries, mediation is not as important as the daily alms round or puja, for example.

It’s debatable whether in Pure Land the nembutsu and visualisations are meditations or not, and if so, how important they are.

The Zen attitude to meditation and whether the prevalence and importance of meditation make it more important than other practices. Contrast with koans or ethical practices in importance, though Koans are arguably meditative practices.

Peter Harvey suggests that the goal is to develop ultimate wisdom, which sees things as they really are. Meditation is therefore a means to an end.

Whether meditation encourages an unhealthy ‘inward looking’ approach to life

There are stories of meditation masters who are sexual preditors

Ito Jinsai, a Confucianist, claimed that Buddhism failed to promote justice and righteousness. Although Buddhism teaches compassion, nirvana is the ultimate goal.

Ito Jinsai, a Confucianist, thought moral action required moral sentiment or emotion. He thought that the Buddhist ideal of a mind like a bright mirror or calm like still water was lacking in the moral emotions required to be and act virtuously. To eliminate passions in pursuit of nirvana was therefore a mistake, he argued.

The nature of samatha and vipassana meditation

Mindfulness is full realisation of the coming into being and falling away of all bodily and mental states. Focuses on the rising and falling nature of all volitions, mental and physical to give insight into the truths of dukkha (suffering), impermanence (anicca) and non-self (anatta). Mindfulness is used to watch states of mind and label each state, eg holding, rising, placing. Mahasatipatthana Sutta is the main text. In it, the Buddha explains one should be mindful of four things.

1 – the body. The Buddha starts with the body because of its immediate accessibility, especially mindfulness of breathing. Also mindfulness of the body’s posture. Being mindful that we are sitting down, lying down or standing. There is also mindfulness of the sensations the body feels – pressure, tightness, tension, tingling, vibration, heat, cold. The whole range of physical sensations can become the object of mindful meditation.

The body produces feelings in the mind. This gives the additional possibility of being mindful of the mind as an additional layer or second step in mindfulness.

2 – feelings in the narrow sense of being aware of having feelings. pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, mindfulness of mental states.3 – the mind. skilful and unskilful thoughts, and mindfulness of consciousness4 – the Dhammas/Dharmas. Insight to meaning and implications of experience in relation to karma.

Mindfulness is developing the capacity for present moment awareness which is the necessary basis for further developments in meditation practice. All forms of Buddhist meditation particularly Zen, metta, samatha and vipassana require mindfulness as a starting point and a fundamental basis.

Vipassana meditation. Develops mindfulness and its related insights. Vipassana in Pali literally means ‘to see things clearly’ which means, among other things, seeing without the filter of greed, hatred or delusion. The methods of vipassana create the mental conditions for a fully awakened mind. The practice of mindfulness within vipassana is used to identify mental states then develop pure awareness and attention to experiences as they happen. Vipassana applies mindfulness to all actions of walking, standing, eating and sleeping. It is especially applied to mindfulness of breathing and walking meditation.

Goals

How they complement each other

Examples of practice

The role of mindfulness in Buddhist practice

The importance of personalised practice

Meditation as a stage of the Eightfold Path

The benefits and effects of meditation, including its use in secular, therapeutic contexts

Experiences of jhanas/dhyanas

Ken Jones claims that Buddhist training makes certain types of people neurotic and mentally imbalanced.

The development of Mahayana Buddhism

The development of Mahayana Buddhism

This movement changed the style, tone, content and mode of enactment of Buddhist practice in significant ways.

It emerged in the Indian Buddhist community in the beginning of the common era. It then spread to China, Tibet, Korea and Vietnam.

Mahayana means great vehicle as opposed to hinayana, meaning the lesser vehicle which proceeded it.

In Theravada, laypeople are considered less likely to attain any growth let alone enlightenment. Theravada is mainly a monastic tradition. Mahayana involves the laity must more though, and claims laypeople can grow through following the Bodhisattva path.

It could be therefore that Mahayana is a reaction to the practical realities of needing to be relevant to the laypeople, especially in China where it was first properly established in a country.

An Arhat is someone who has attained enlightenment and escaped samsara through their own efforts without any external help, just like the Buddha.

Mahayana teaches the concept of everyone, perhaps all things, having a Buddha nature.

Possible reasons & context for its emergence

The Mahayana texts themselves trace their own origin to the second turning of the wheel of the dharma on the vulture peak during the time of the Buddha himself. The texts claim to be teachings of the Buddha himself delivered to a special assembly of bodhisattvas from which the other Buddhist practitioners of the hinayana are not present. The texts then claim that they were concealed from the world for several centuries until it progressed into sufficiently receptive state. People weren’t ready to hear it until then. They were then spread across India.

Gary Gach claims the Bodhisattva ideal emerged out of a need for the lay people, who donate, to have more representation in the religion.

Scholars are uncertain about the true origin.

Some think practitioners fasted and meditated in order to receive revelations from great Buddhas of the past. Some of the early texts may have come as such visions they interpreted as revelations.

This seems harder to claim of the more elaborate literary sutras however as they don’t have the quality of visionary experience.

Other scholars suggest the texts arose from lay people who were worshipers at shrines where the relics of the Buddha were.

This view is discredited by most scholars as they think it had a strong monastic basis from the start.

Theravada practitioners sometimes claim that their Pali cannon is the ‘original’ scripture and that the Mahayana is not the true words of the Buddha.

Others claim that some Mahayana sutras were written within a hundred years of the Pali Canon.

Arguably this is impossible to determine historically either way.

Theravada Buddhists sometimes claim that the Pali texts are ‘pure’ Buddhism.Noa Ronkin argues that the Buddha himself and the Abhidhammists were syncretic however, as were the Mahayana texts, therefore they are equal in that regard.

The bodhisattva ideal

The bodhisattva vow and way

Bodhisattva means ‘buddha-to-be’. It is one who has ‘blown out’ their desires and is ready to pass into nirvana but out of compassion for others vows to stay in this realm out of compassion for the suffering of living being, or perhaps even until all creatures are ready to pass into nirvana. Bodhisattvas can become Buddhas however, they simply aspire to become a Buddha for the sake of all other beings.

All of us can be understood to be on the path to Buddhahood and thus anyone could become a Bodhisattva.

They cultivate wisdom, a contemplative virtue understanding the self and world, and compassion, actively seeking the well-being of others.

For Mahayana Buddhism the eightfold path is an important teaching but can be characterised in the development of compassion (karuna) and wisdom (prajna). Compassion and wisdom also form the basis of the bodhisattva path, which is the development of virtues (six paramitas).

The six paramitas are the stages of the Bodhisattva path. Paramitas means to cross over tothe other shore. It is usually translated as perfection, perfect realisation or reaching beyondlimitation. They are attributes which must be

Generosity

Ethical conduct

Patient endurance

Effort and enthusiastic perseverance/courage

Concentration

Wisdom

The six perfections in the Mahayana tradition is the initial stage of the Bodhisattva path. It begins with the arising of 'bodhicitta' the aspiration to strive for buddhahood for its own sake and the sake of helping others. The bodhisattva practises the perfections at an ordinary level before becoming a Holy person. There is one perfection specially dealing with moral virtue, the others link into this and support its development.

Perfection of generosity (dana) giving away wealth and all that is precious to one's own life for the benefit of others. Linked to ethics in development of selflessness and concern for welfare of others.

Perfection of moral virtue (sila) until his conduct is spontaneously pure. He attains the ten good paths of action, three physical, abstention, stealing and sexual misconduct, four vocal, abstention from lying, slander, insulting and frivolous speech, and three mental, freedom from greedy desire, malice and false views. In perfecting these, the bodhisattva practices their opposites i.e. cherishing life and saving life etc. The bodhisattva also commends this morality to others and becomes their teacher, guide and protector.

Perfection of patience (kanti) aided by meditation on loving kindness, compassion and forbearance in adversity. This provides the emotional basis of ethics and ensures good intention. • Perfection of vigour/energy in which mindful awareness is accomplished. Links to ethics in the clarity of understanding of the cause and result of actions.

Perfection of meditation (jhana) in which the four holy truths are accepted and the ability to move between conventional and ultimate truth is accomplished.

Perfection of wisdom. Full insight into conditioned arising, non-self and emptiness.

Last two perfections link to ethics by giving the practitioner a deep and sound philosophical understanding of the nature and purpose of their actions in the wider perspective of nirvana.

Comparison with the Theravada Arhat.

It could be argued that the individualistic focus and the collectivist focus each have their own usefulness depending on the circumstances and are potentially equal paths.

Celestial Bodhisattvas

The Mahayana universe is much bigger than a small group of monks trying to emulate the life of a human being. Celestial Bodhisattvas exist in realms other than ours which have greater powers than we have and can intervene and save people in our realm. They are advanced practitioners of the Bodhisattva path.

These may seem similar to the Hindu Gods and certainly have similar powers. Mahayana Buddhists claim, however, that celestial Bodhisattvas have gone so far past the Hindu Gods in power and understanding that it’s not right to think of them as Gods at all.

Avalokitesvara is described as a celestial Bodhisattva which takes on many forms to manifest compassion to people in this world, especially those who call on his name.

This expression of human piety in the face of the divine is a common feature in religions. This could suggest Mahayana is being influenced by things the Buddha did not teach.

The Dalai Lama is supposed to be a form of Avalokitesvara.

Manjusri is the manifestation of education, carrying a sword and a book which embodies the perfection of wisdom. It is the counterpart of the Hindu counterpart goddess sareswuty (SP!?), celebrated by school children.

Maitreya is a celestial bodhisattva who is capable of stepping into this world and saving somebody from trouble. He is portrayed as the fat laughing Buddha in the Chinese tradition.

Upaya and its application to the original teachings of Siddhartha.

Upaya is creatively and imaginatively using the categories of this world to move someone along the path to salvation. It is demonstrated in the Lotus sutra in the parables of the burning house and the magic city.

The Buddha in the Pali canon sometimes teaches different things to different people or in different situations. Upaya is the skill to give the teaching appropriate to the student and situation at hand. There is no point giving a teaching that is too profound to a student not yet capable of appreciating it. Since students and situations are so diverse, teachings to fit them must therefore also be diverse. This is arguably another reason for the development of Mahayana Buddhism and its multiple forms. It also backs up the idea that Buddhist practitioners should do whatever works for them.

Christian theology deals with the seeming contradictions in the Bible by devising context-dependent explanations of some or coming up with a theoretical framework in which the contradiction might be logically reconciled. Why is upaya more or less valid than that approach?

Some versions of Mahayana have ten paramitas, with upaya as the 7th and the highest possible for a human being, the higher ones being attainable only by higher beings. Upaya is higher than wisdom because the proper appropriate application of wisdom depends on upaya.

The burning house is a parable showing how Mahayana relates to and distinguishes itself from Theravada. A house with children in it is on fire. Their father asks them to come out as there is a fire, but they don’t listen as they are having a great time and don’t see why they should leave. The father then decides to claim he has toys – carts, a deer cart; whatever they want, he has for them. The children come running out of the house but the Father says it’s great they are outside and have saved themselves but doesn’t have the carts he promised. Instead he says he has an even better cart, a great vehicle.

This is partially a reference to the old traditional view of the world on fire and Buddhism as the solution.

The disciple vehicle and the solitary Buddha vehicle.

The text says that the father did not lie. To skilfully lure someone along the path to salvation is not to tell a falsehood.

As the story comes to an end it says the great vehicle is the one great vehicle, the real teaching of the Buddha. Those that came before are preliminary exercises that get people started on the path but not the final teaching.

The children were pre-occupied and focused on satisfying the desires and couldn’t see why they would focus on anything else. This seems to represent the noble truths, that the larger picture they are blind to is how their clinging to attachment and desire will burn and harm them in the long run.

The father tempted the children out by appealing to the sorts of things they found desirable in that clinging state. This implies that the Theravada texts appeal to people’s attachment and clinging to desire. Is that really true though? Are the disciple and solitary Buddha vehicle really on the same level as those who are clinging? It seems the parable of the burning house requires not just that they are equally bad, but in fact worse, since the children stopped the clinging they were currently engaged in and rushed over to do what presumably must therefore have provided an even deeper opportunity for clinging. That does not seem accurate.

The magic city is a parable in the Lotus Sutra which purports to show how the Arhat ideal is just a skilful means to the Bodhisattva path.

A guide (the Buddha) is leading a group (Buddhist practitioners) along a dangerous and difficult path (The bodhisattva path) to a city with jewels (the Bodhisattva ideal). Eventually the group becomes tired and wants to give up (the difficulty of the path). The guide creates a city by magic for them (the arhat ideal), and they are happy and rest there (enlightenment for the individual). Once they are rejuvenated, the guide removes the magic city and says it was just meant to give them a rest, now they can continue on the path to the bodhisattva ideal.

This Parable is often interpreted as suggesting that those who seek happiness for their own sake are following the arhat path.

However, the magic illusionary city seems just as real as the one symbolising the bodhisattva ideal. Why is it self-centred to be fulfilled by one but not the other?

Arguably the reason is that they accepted the magic city as a response to their own personal difficulties on the path.

Couldn’t the precious jewels in the real city just as easily symbolise self-centred desires though? Unless they are planning to use them to enrich others this seems like a strange symbol to use.

The magic city parable also suggests that the Arhat ideal is based on some sort of illusion. For Mahayana Buddhists, that illusion is usually thought to be a failure to appreciate interconnectedness. The Arhat mistakenly thinks they can achieve enlightenment for themselves, failing to appreciate their interconnectedness with all other beings.

Does interconnectedness really entail the impossibility of the ‘blowing out’ (nirvana) of desire of an individual person, however?

Arguably it is only suggesting that thinking of the Arhat ideal as the highest endpoint is an illusion.

Wouldn’t that mean the Arhat is clinging to an illusion, which seems incompatible with true arhatship, thus making it impossible? Mahayana Buddhists usually do not maintain that but arguably this parable suggests it.

The hidden gem

Criticisms of Upaya

Perhaps Upaya is itself merely upaya?

How are we supposed to trust anything if it might merely be upaya?Arguably we don’t need to trust, only to follow.

Isn’t it dangerous to allow certain Buddhist teachers to use upaya? It might be a vehicle for corruption. Or perhaps it’s simply too much to rely on a teacher’s ability to use it successfully, given the chaos and indeterminacy of the world.

Upaya and Mahayana texts in general depend on the claim that people were not ready for certain truths. Is that really true?

Vimalakirti used skilful means to achieve the salvation of humans. Wealth to help the poor, virtue to help precept breakers, patience to convert the lazy and diligence to convert the lazy. Calm meditation to help the confused and wisdom to help the ignorant. He lived a household life but wasn’t attached to the world. He had a wife and children but practiced the religious life. He had a household but loved solitude. He ate and drank but delighted in meditation. He went to gambling halls but worked for the salvation of humanity. He knew all the texts of the world but loved the writings of the Buddha.

The early tradition was about monks and nuns who engaged in renunciation and persued the monastic life like the Buddha did. Vimalakirti shows how the lay Buddhist can still nonetheless pursue a Buddhist path, the Bodhisattva path.

The Chinese were always suspicious of monastic life as it seemed to turn its back on the values of the family, but Vimalakirti shows how they may both be integrated.

The bodhicitta means the mind that seeks enlightenment (wisdom) in order to bring it to others (compassion). To start on the Bodhisattva path this aspiration is required. There is a moral aspect of wanting to help others, but also the cognitive understanding of your interconnectedness with others, which changes your self-perception. If you feel that aspiration it is an expression of your own Buddha nature within you. Therefore, focusing on and cultivating it will further bring out your Buddha nature. The desire to help others is a common feeling most people have at least occasionally. It contains within it the full enlightenment of the Buddha. It is the preliminary stirring of your own Buddhahood. Choosing to focus on cultivating it is the first step on the Bodhisattva path.

The trikaya

The truth body. The dharmakaya or truth body is the embodiment of nibbana itself. It is the ultimate and perhaps most subtle of the three bodies and is often understood to have no boundaries or limits. The dharmakaya bodies of the Buddhas are often perceived to have the same unifying features, and to embody the same eternal dhamma.

The heavenly body. The sambhogakaya or enjoyment body could be explored as a more celestial body. This body is the eternal and transcendent form of a Buddha. It is sometimes seen as a form which manifests pure light.

The earthly body. The nirmanakaya or transformation body is the earthly manifestation of a Buddha. This is the body which appears to us in human form and might be seen as having some form and physical state. Siddhartha Gautama is a nirmanakaya.

Madhyamaka and PrajnaparamitaThe practical implications of the concepts of prajnaparamita, sunyata, the two truths and the identity of samsara with nirvana for Buddhist life.

The value of Madhyamaka teachings on samsara and nirvana for those following the Buddhist way of life. The Buddhist way of life is more concerned with moral and devotional acts rather than contemplation of abstract concepts or understanding the nature of reality. Such notions do not necessarily help Buddhists to cope with the vicissitudes of life. The Buddhist way of life is based in cultural practice and relationships in the home, work and community rather than the more elite and specialised concern about aspects of truth. These concepts are only of interest and relevance to those following a spiritual life as a monastic or lay people on retreat.

These teachings provide the basis and perspective on life from which all actions and intentions follow.

At times in life such as serious illness or death the deeper questions about meaning and ultimate purpose have great relevance and importance.

The Buddhist way of life is based on morality, meditation and wisdom and all are necessary to live the way of life.

Sunyata and how Buddhists live their lives.

Buddhists who believe in sunyata will reappraise their priorities in life which will affect their attitude to the danger of attaching too much importance to material possessions and success. Believing in sunyata will encourage Buddhists to develop good karma through observance of moral precepts which aim at reducing egoism.

The concept of sunyata is so abstract and difficult to understand that most Buddhists do not believe in it.

Only philosophers and highly committed monastics will explore the meaning of sunyata and this belief is not the concern of lay Buddhists.

Buddhists today might regard ‘engaged Buddhism’ ie social action in the community as more important and relevant than contemplating deep and abstract truths like sunyata.

Believing in sunyata fully reveals the truth and reality of the characteristics of existence of anicca (impermanence) and anatta (non-self) which will affect the way Buddhists live their lives today in various ways.

Sunyata enables Buddhists to accept the ever-changing nature of reality and not cling to certain attachments as if they were permanent.

It might encourage Buddhists to practise meditation in order to understand and realise the meaning of sunyata.

A belief in sunyata can give a better meaning and purpose to life than the theories of contemporary science.

How far Madhyamaka teachings are separate from, and discontinuous with, the teachings of the historical Buddha.

If words and teachings are merely conventions, whether or not they still have value.

Nagarjuna’s development of Medhyamaka philosophy and prajnaparamita (perfection of wisdom)

The importance of the Prajanaparamita Sutras, including the content and interpretation of the Heart SutraTo what extent is the Heart Sutra the most important prajnaparamita text?

The Heart Sutra belongs to the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana thought and that is one of a number of perfection of wisdom sutras which also include the ‘8000 lines of perfection of wisdom’ and the ‘Diamond-cutter’ sutras.

The central concept of the Heart sutra as ‘sunyata’, an important concept to the development of Mahayana ideas in general. It is often chanted by Chan and Zen Buddhists.

However, scripture is not important in Chan and Zen Buddhism.

Many Buddhist schools do not use this text at all such as Pure Land Buddhists.

The text is not seen to be as authoritative as other texts. For example, there is no extant Sanskrit version and the text seems to be of Chinese origin.

The Heart Sutra does not purport to be the words of the Buddha instead it describes the experience of liberation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. Unlike the Diamond Sutra which starts “Thus I have heard”.

“Form is empty. Emptiness is form.” The other five Khandas are equally declared to be empty.

Nagarjuna on sunyata (emptiness)

Different interpretations of sunyata and what it means for all things to be empty of svabhava (own being)

Middle school founded by Nagarjuna in 1st century CE. Perfection of Wisdom literature arose out of debates in Theravada schools about such doctrines as all phenomena (dhammas) are impermanent (anicca) and without self (anatta). The doctrine of emptiness received its fullest elaboration with Nagarjuna. Nagarjuna claims that a proper understanding of the early scriptures leads inevitably to seeing everything as empty. The abhidhamma of Theravada considered the emptiness of phenomena to lie in their impermanency while entities are subject to process of almost instantaneous change, they are less substantial and possessed of a true self nature. Nagarjuna claimed that this notion of self, albeit momentary, was at variance with the Buddha’s teaching on non-self. The true nature of any phenomena was to be empty of self-essence of any kind.

In early Buddhism the term sunyata is primarily used in relation to doctrine of anatta (non-self) and the view that the five aggregates (skandhas) are devoid of a permanent soul or self. Madhyamaka challenged the notion of the substantial reality of dharmas. This notion came to be applied to reality as a whole so the whole universe is void of self. Twenty kinds of emptiness are recognised including the emptiness of emptiness. It is impossible to discover or uncover the eternal ‘I’ or ‘not I’ thus there is emptiness. Each phenomenon lacks an inherent nature and so are all said to share an empty non-nature as their nature.

Nagarjuna on the two truths

The distinction between relative and ultimate truths and why recognition of this distinction is important for liberation.

Teachings are part of conventional reality, ultimate reality is beyond mental understanding.

Finger pointing to the moon analogy

Raft analogy

Nagarjuna on Samsara and nirvana

Examine the meaning of samsara and nirvana in the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy.

In previous Abhidharma thinking samsara is the conditioned world of causality. In contrast nirvana is the unconditioned state of existence free from causality, karma and defilements. In Madhyamaka philosophy nirvana and samsara are ultimately seen as the same or identical. According to Madhyamaka conditioned dharmas are impermanent, unborn and unoriginated and without differentiation because they lack own-nature. Nirvana is 'the calming of all representations and verbal differentiations'. It is the going beyond the conceptualising activity of our everyday minds, not dependent upon another and without diversity. Nirvana cannot be conceptualised as it is neither existent nor non-existent. There is nothing differentiating nirvana from anything else and there is nothing differentiating samsara from nirvana. Both are constructed conditioned concepts.

Ito Jinsai, a Confucianist, argued against emptiness. He said that Buddhism held that the mountains, rivers and land masses were all unreal. Phenomenologically they seem real, however, and indeed have sustained life, including human life. Jinsai argued that the emptiness Buddhists speak of is really the result of their emptying their minds during meditation and confusing this state for a reflection of reality.

Buddhism in the Far EastBuddhism was introduced into Japan in the 6th century. The ruling nobles accepted it but it did not spread among the people so easily due to its complex doctrines. There was some minor conflict with Shinto but that soon resolved and the religions became complimentary.

Shintoism is the traditional religion of Japan. It involves rituals which connect the present-day Japan with its ancient past. Japanese people view Shintoism as related to the positive aspects of life and Buddhism the negative. About 80% of Japanese people are married in a Shinto or Christian ceremony but 90% have a Buddhist funeral ceremony.

Japanese people are less exclusivist than westerners and feel able to belong to multiple religions. Since the 17th century, Japan divided Buddhism into the sphere of religion, Confucianism into the moral and Shinto into state politics.

Tendai (Tiantai) introduced by the monk Saicho, considers the Lotus Sutra to be the most important text that best expresses the Buddha’s teachings.

Chinese Buddhism used the Ekayana doctrine of one vehicle to make sense of the diversity of Buddhist schools. Saicho held that all forms of life are equal in their ability to attain Buddhahood, even those of other religions, including for example practitioners of Shintoism. Tendai attempts to incorporate the teachings of other schools by finding a middle way between disagreements.

The law in Japan in Saicho’s time was that Buddhist monks had to accept the Theravada precepts to be ordained. Saicho’s followers managed to get that law changed after his death.

Saicho also established the Buddhist education centre at Mount Hiei.

Pure Land Buddhism.

Amitabha.

Jodo Shu was founded by Honen and it based on the Chinese Pure Land school. Before Honen, Pure Land Buddhists had argued their teaching was the best method for sinful people in this sinful age, but Honen went further and claimed that the Final Dharma age meant that people could no longer achieve liberation through merely following the precepts, meditation & study. Instead people required otherworldly powers. Faithfully chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha will serve that function as it allows devotees to be reborn in the Pure Land closer to Nirvana, so Amitabha vowed. This practice is called nenbutsu.

Jodo Shinshu was founded by Shinran, Honen’s disciple, who became a layman after Honen was exiled and founded Jodo Shinshu as a school of Buddhism for laypeople.

Traditional Japanese Tandai buildings were converted for use for the nenbutsu practice. At Mount Hiei the ritual of copying the Lotus Sutra was replaced with copying the three Pure Land sutras.

The mappo era. Honen used the Chinsese Master Daochou’s criticism called rijin gemi meaning that that traditional methods were profound but beyond the ability of ignorant sinful deluded persons of the mappo (degeneration) era. He claimed that chanting the nenbutsu is the only practice which accords with Amitaba’s vow and that it should replace all teachings of pursuing liberation through self-power, the difficult practice that led to attainment of the non-retrogression stage of the bodhisattva path and the practices not connected to Amitaba.

Honen claimed that if Amitabha truly intended to save all beings, their salvation could not be dependent on practices beyond their ability such as studying sutras, commissioning stupas or keeping the precepts. Some of Honen’s followers claimed those who embraced the Lotus Sutra would fall into hell. They claimed that practicing, following or chanting the Lotus sutra is like a small boy trying to wear his grandfather’s shoes; or like a person lacking in physical strength trying to use a stout bow and heavy armour. They claimed that karmic connection with the Lotus Sutra prevented rebirth in the Pure Land.

Chanting the Lotus Sutra with the hope of being reborn in the Pure Land was a common practice in Honen’s time, which might explain his follower’s criticism of it as required in order to make their sect exclusive. This was therefore based on a tribal desire for exclusivism rather than theological reasoning, arguably.

Nichiren agreed that the mappo era had arrived but claimed the Lotus Sutra was not too profound for people in that final dharma age since it states a single moment of faith in its message is greater than the following of provisional teachings for countless kalpas. The Lotus Sutra also says it was meant for an evil time after the Buddha gained Nirvana.

Pure Land slanders the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren claimed that those born in the first two ages could benefit from provisional teachings as they had apprehended the Lotus Sutra in the past, but those born in the final dharma age have not come across the seed of the Lotus Sutra in the past and therefore cannot benefit from the provisional teachings such as the

Pure Land doctrine. The Lotus Sutra itself says those who speak negatively of it, slander it or don’t have faith in it will be cast into Avici Hell.

Pure Land practitioners insist they are not speaking negatively of the Lotus Sutra, they are in fact praising it for being profound but maintain it is beyond the ability of mappo era dwellers and thus connecting with it will be done falsely and so prevent rebirth in the Pure Land.

Nichiren expanded the definition of speaking ill of the Sutra to include not having faith in it in response.

Is that an honest response or just ad hoc reasoning?

There was widespread belief in Japan that the mappo era had arrived. This view was significantly responsible for the spread and popularity of Pure Land Buddhism. The attitude of many individuals was that although they had a desire to study The Way, they were incapable. They wanted an easier way suitable to them to make a link to the Buddha and attain awakening in a future life.

Dogen (Zen) disagreed with Nichiren, Pure Land, and this widespread belief in the mappo era as he argued that there were no dharma ages. Dogen claimed that view is ‘totally wrong’ because the distinguishing of the three ages in Buddha Dharma are just a ‘temporary expedient’ (Upaya). He pointed out that the monks in the time of Shakyamuni Buddha were ‘not necessarily superior’ to those today, some having ‘incredibly despicable minds’. Also, the Buddha prescribed precepts for the sake of ‘inferior people’. The implication is that the Buddha’s age was not actually superior to the current age and therefore the claim that a degenerated age was coming or has come must have been provisionally said as upaya rather as a final truth. Dogen claimed that therefore practice in accordance with the Dharma can enable anyone to attain the Way. ‘All beings within the human realm are vessels [of the Buddha Dharma]’.

The means were not that skilful if they confused so many people to join Pure Land Buddhism. This is the kind of theological chaos that can result from the concept of upaya.

Who knows though, maybe things would have been far worse than the mere confusion over Pure Land if the skilful means of teaching that there were three dharma ages had not been employed.

Nichiren’s criticism of Pure Land

Universal Buddha nature. Nichiren argued that aspiring to a Buddha land separate from your own body and mind went against the teachings of both Hinayana and Mahayana sutras that Buddhahood is attainable within each body. One key message of the Lotus Sutra was that anyone could become a Buddha, whether women or evil men.

Pure Land as a provisional teaching. Nichiren claimed that the nenbutsu was a lesser provisional teaching surpassed by the Lotus Sutra because the Buddha said of the Lotus sutra that before preaching it he had not revealed ‘the truth’ and that now disregarding such ‘expedient means’ (upaya) he will now ‘preach only the unsurpassed way’.

The Mahayana concepts of emptiness and interconnectedness are the ontological basis for the view that everything is capable of realising Buddhahood. Nichiren claimed that the ten dharma realms are interconnected such that each possesses all the others, including the Buddha realm. For Nichiren, therefore, any teaching which doesn’t accept this must be skilful means made before the Buddha revealed the unsurpassed way.

The Pure Land sutras, however, do not teach the total interconnectedness of the buddha realm with the nine lower realms. Nichiren claims this makes Amitabha Buddha a provisional buddha and the correct view of the Pure Land teaching is that it is something to be realised in this life.

Lotus Sutra as a necessary foundation for Buddhahood. Tandai scholars thought that the provisional sutras could allow attainment of Buddhahood but Nichiren rejected this view. He claimed that the Buddha’s symbolic message to his disciples regarding sowing, cultivating and reaping a harvest meant that the Lotus Sutra performed the function of the seed. It looks like some attain Buddhahood without the Lotus Sutra but this can only be if they have come across it in a previous life. Yet this gives the false impression that it is not the necessary seed. The Buddhahood attained by other sutras are therefore the cultivation or harvesting phases built on from the seeds of the lotus sutra apprehended in a previous life.

Zen Buddhism was introduced to Japan by Eisai but most established by Dogen. It rests on the view that we all have a Buddha nature so awakening requires managing to connect with it. That can be done by throwing off illusions and transcending the intellect so the mind functions by intuition. Zen is Jiriki meaning self-effort, as distinct from Shin or Pure Land Buddhism, which favours Tariki – salvation by the power of another.

Zen Buddhists are opposed to the usual methods of religion. Zen does not use scripture, ritual or vows. Some Mahayana Scriptures such as the Lankavatara Sutra and the Diamond Sutra are used in Zen monasteries during services of Sutra reading, but it is regarded as unnecessary with no essential value. A painting could be used for devotional inspiration, but might be thrown in the fire if the room is cold. Chanting and robes might attract people, but they are ultimately childish and to be surpassed.

Transcending the intellect. C. Humphreys claims the purpose of Zen is to break down “the bars of the intellect that the mind may be freed for the light of Enlightenment”.

Zen Buddhists believe in fostering a mental ability of immediate perception and intuitive awareness which they think occurs when the perceiver and the perceived become one. This is called Buddhi. To communicate such knowledge, however, would be to degrade it into concepts which are agreed upon common meanings. That is what words are, but then words are hopelessly inadequate.

Humphreys: “As Satori lies beyond the intellect, which alone can define and describe, one cannot define Satori. It is that condition of consciousness wherein the pendulum of the opposites has come to rest … Silence alone can ‘describe’ it.

The intellect has some uses for Zen Buddhists, however its use is limited when it comes to spiritual matters.

Everyone has the faculty of direct awareness, but it requires development from mere intellect which cannot see its limitations, according to Zen. The intellect has to be seen as just a means to an end. Zen is the path to direct enlightenment. Everything must be relinquished before the end is found – even the fact of seeking and the will to find.

Wordless transmission & The Flower Sermon. Dogen claimed that when a practitioner follows a master and matches their mind, they receive ‘authentic transmission of the subtle Dharma … this is beyond the comprehension of Dharma-teachers who study words.’

The Flower Sermon involves the Buddha holding up a freshly picked lotus flower yet the gathered crowd didn’t understand why. However, after a moment the Buddha’s disciple Mahakasyapa smiled as he had received the message. This is interpreted by Zen Buddhists as showing the Buddha transmitted his message without speaking but only one person can receive it at a time.

There is a problem interpreting an action for which no words were given to describe it. There is no justification for viewing words as an impediment to enlightenment in general merely from the one case of Mahakasyapa. In fact, the words Mahakasyapa used throughout his life before the flower sermon may have been necessary preparation for his wordless enlightenment. That interpretation of the story contains just as much justification as the standard Zen one.

Even if the Zen interpretation of the flower sermon is correct, arguably they have no basis for thinking that wordless transmission is the only or even the superior method.

The Buddha did not gain enlightenment by transcending his intellect, rejecting words or engaging in koan use, but by defeating Mara and the three poisons.

Mahakasyapa did gain enlightenment without words, however.Nonetheless, the Buddha used words to warn against the three poisons so he clearly intended others to attain enlightenment in a similar way to him at least in addition to the method Mahakasyapa did.

Suzuki claims that ‘Zen has nothing to do with letters, words or sutras.’

Zen technique. The goal of Zen is to cancel out the excesses of the intellect and pass beyond it into direct immediate awareness. The sixth Patriarch Wei Lang said that “What I do to my disciples is to liberate them from their own bondage with such devices as the case may need”. The essential and fixed aspect of Zen is the end goal then. The means and methods by which it is achieved can depend on the person and situation. They are not part of the Zen doctrine, which simply suggests doing whatever works.

A master of Zen said that when you want Zen as much as a man whose head is held under water wants fresh air, you are truly seeking; and nothing less is the spirit of Zen.

Rinzai & Soto. The Rinzai sect of Zen is the oldest and the Soto sect the larger. The difference is a matter of emphasis, Rinzai ascribing to the ‘sudden’ technique of its founder and Soto prescribing a gentler method.

In the Rinzai Zen sect the two popular methods for the ‘sudden’ path to Satori (the Zen word for Enlightenment are:

The mondo – a speedy question and answer session between student and master aimed at quickening the process of thought to the point where it is suddenly transcended.

The koan – a word or phrase which is nonsensical to the intellect, often a shortened version of mondo.

There are hundreds of koans in use in Japan today, E.g:

‘Is there Buddha-nature in a dog?’ asks a monk. ‘Mu’, said the Master, which was a koan meaning no but was a statement of spiritual fact to be intuited by the Buddhi, not understood by the intellect.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

A man hangs over a cliff by his teeth, biting into a tree branch. His hands are full and his feet cannot reach the cliff edge. Someone leans over to him and asks ‘What is Zen?’. What answer would you make?

The tendency is for our intellect to construct a conceptual scheme which layers itself over direct experience, preventing it from being accessed by the Buddhi.

The Soto school encourages members to discover the koans in everyday life

Humphreys: “Hence Zen is largely a breaking into the closed doors of the mind to let the light without flood in, and any and every process which will shock the mind into such an opening is useful … A laugh, an oath, a shout, a shaking, even a blow may do what years of ‘meditation’ have failed to achieve. Asked why he meditated all day long, a pupil replied the he desired to become a Buddha. The Master picked up a brick and began to rub it. Asked what he was doing, he explained that he wished to make a mirror. ‘But no amount of polishing a brick will make a mirror!’ ‘If so, no amount of sitting cross-legged will make thee a Buddha’.

Rinzai said “Do not get yourselves entangled with any object, but stand above, pass on and be free”. All things, including Buddhism itself, are mere means to the end of the Buddhi knowing.

Zen meditation involves …Tiantai Chan-jan claimed that because Zen monks are unguided by sutras their meditation is at best concentration meditation but cannot be insight meditation. Concentration meditation causes positive states of mind but does not lead to the introspective insight that can free one from the three poisions.

Hui-neng claims that by transcending mental fixations like the self and other, sacred and profane and so on, concentration (samadhi) and insight (prajna) are gained simultaneously such that truly having one is to have the other.

Dogen’s criticism of Pure Land involved claiming that no virtue is ever gained from ‘reciting names of buddhas’. He claimed trying to gain enlightenment through ‘action of the mouth’ is like hoping to go south by pointing a carriage north.

Arguably Kones are actions of the mouth however?No, their true function is to transcend the intellect.

Arguably the nenbutsu also has a true function, the action of the mouth being an inaccurately superficial framing of it.

Dogen also criticised the reading of Sutras without engaging in practice, claiming this never gave rise to virtue and is like a student of medicine forgetting how to make medications.

Nichiren was a monk who founded Nichiren Buddhism. He studied at Mount Hiei and came to believe that the Lotus Sutra contained the complete teachings of the Buddha.

Nichiren thought the Buddha’s teachings were losing their impact due to the complexity of the doctrines and monastic practices. He invented the daimoku as a solution. It’s a short phrase which is meant to capture the spirit of the Lotus Sutra. The daimoku is a practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. The short version of its meaning is: devotional respect to the mystical enlightenment-dharma of the lotus-flower teaching. Daily chanting will supposedly awaken our buddha nature allowing us to achieve enlightenment in this life.

Arguably Nichiren’s eventual development of the exclusivist daimoku practice as a single chant accessible to all is very similar to the nenbutsu. Nichiren also thought the Buddha’s teaching was losing its impact, though he clearly didn’t go as far as Honen. Arguably it is the Lotus Sutra version of the Pure Land. Honen had introduced exclusivism into Japan but arguably in countering it, Nichiren fell prey to the exclusivist temptation and also yielded the same practice focused around a single chant.

Nichiren claimed that through the daimoku we can achieve enlightenment in this life due to our Buddha nature, however, so arguably that background to the chant makes his school significantly different to Honen’s.

Nichiren claimed other schools of Buddhism were not teaching the true Dharma, especially Shingon, Pure Land and Zen. He even blamed them for earthquakes and famines, claiming they resulted from the Buddha’s spiritual energy withdrawing from Japan due to the spread of corrupted doctrines. Nichiren claimed only his school could fix things.

Nichiren vs Zen

Nichiren claims that Zen views itself as a teaching ‘transmitted apart from the sutras, and hence speaks with scorn of the Lotus Sutra’.

Arguably Nichiren only views Zen as being so scornful of the Lotus Sutra because of his arguably unwarranted level of devotion to it.

Zen claims that words, doctrines and religious practices make us get stuck in the intellect prevent us from transcending it. Nichiren thought some doctrines were too complex and unhelpful but that Zen went too far in completely rejecting them. Nichiren claimed firstly that this would be a practical impediment to carrying on the Buddha’s work but also self-contradictory since Zen teachers have to use words to express their view that we should set words ‘aside’.

Arguably Zen is only encouraging us to see that words are fundamentally instrumental in their value, not that we should set them aside completely.

Zen & war

Buddhism in the WestThe reasons for the spread of Buddhism in the west

The religious tolerance of the west both allowing for Buddhism to propagate and the arguably congruence between it and the and the relative religious tolerance of Buddhism compared to other religions, especially western religions.

Multiculturalism

The compatibility of Buddhism with secular culture.

The portrayal and popular understanding of Buddhism in the west

19th century. Buddhism in the west and its reaction to Hinduism was first viewed like Protestantism’s reaction to Catholicism. It was understood in a category which fit the preconceptions of the west.

This also occurred in the context of colonialism. Hinduism was not viewed favourably in the 19th century west. Buchanan called it ‘the most abominable, and degrading system of oppression, ever invented’.

Buddhism, however, was celebrated as a rational religion like Protestantism. Arnold’s ‘The Light of Asia’ published in the late 19th century introduced a western audience to the story of Siddhartha Gautama’s life. It did so by suggesting Siddhartha was ‘the Hindu Luther’.

Alexander Cunningham said the Buddha was ‘a great social reformer who dared to preach the perfect equality of all mankind and the consequent abolition of caste, in spite of the menaces of the most powerful and arrogant priesthood in the world’.

Secularization & romanticism. The media traditionally disseminated information on politics, economics and society, but in the run up to and during the 21st century it shifted to include entertainment, thereby mixing serious information with the unserious and blurring the line between them. Celebrity culture in the west sits on this fusion and so both disseminates information as well as entertains. This explains why Buddhist celebrities are such a powerful method of spreading a non-western religion in the west. However, the blurred line between fact and entertainment also explains why the result is a distorted perception in the western cultural consciousness.

After secularization, the western mind became dominated by these themes:

The individual as the source of authorityPersonal choice as the method of identity creationConsumer capitalism

Secularisation and the enlightenment project have disenchanted nature and promoted rational, scientific thinking. However during the mid 20th century there was a re-enchantment thesis which was the legacy of romanticism. It introduced these themes:

Marrying for loveThe beauty and power of natureThe authority of personal experience

Eastern religion fit with this development of the authority of personal experience.

Romanticism started in the late 18th century as a response to industrialisation. This is similar to the westerners use of Buddhism as a method for liberation from consumer culture.

Buddhism does not really fit with the focus on nature however?

The place of Saints as role models in society morphed into 21st century celebrity culture.

Whereas personal identity traditionally was determined by family, religion and community, 21 st century westerners construct their identities from secularism, consumerism and the media.

Consumerism shifts our focus from inner character to external superficial presentation. Identity was traditionally stable but is now in flux as people derive it from different ‘sources of the self’ (Taylor 1989). The self has become a commodity we curate by consuming.

However, the consequence of this is that Buddhism is arguably often seen as an exotic ‘source for the self’. Such westerners view Buddhism as something to consume and add to their self’s image, like a shiny badge on a bag.

D. McMahn claims that the notion summed up by western popular books on Buddhism are ‘the idea that the dharma is merely a raft useful for crossing a river but of no further use once it is crossed; that all truths are relative except for the one universal Truth beyond all language and concepts; that Buddhism does not accept assertions that are contradicted by science; that all teachings, even Buddhist ones, must be verified by personal experience.’

Some scholars argue that such religious conceptions are valueless and superficial. Others point to the benefit of spiritual, political and social issues no longer being controlled by elites.

Maybe this shows why people needed elitism after all though.

Secularisation and the void.

The decline of religion in the west leading to a void many want filled.

Nietzsche argued that the west had a nihilistic void of meaning and purpose due to its ‘killing’ of God.

Buddhism might seem attractive to westerners because it fills that void. However Nietzsche criticised Buddhism for being nihilistic at its core. If he’s right, that could be the reason for its attractiveness to westerners instead.

Alternatively it might be the congruence of Buddhism with new-age paganism

Unfulfilling but addicting consumerism.

Western lives are the most privileged in the world in terms of their physical needs being met. There are also countless opportunities for entertainment. Nonetheless rates of mental health issues are rising. Does collecting possessions really make you happy? Is that really all we are here for? Existential angst.

Suzuki was a Zen practitioner who translated Buddhism into English and was significantly responsible for its spread in the west. McMahn claims that Suzuki ‘placed Zen firmly within modernity’s constitutive tensions between rationalism and Romanticism, aligning it with Romaticism but also implicitly claiming to supersede it’.

Suzuki became friends with and influenced writers involved in the Beat & Hippie movement such as Allen Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac. This movement was already against the conservative traditionalism of the west and so was in the mood for experimentation with alternative forms of life.

Suzuki was also influential on academics who were critical of the enlightenment like Carl Jung.

Buddhism was finding its way into the west through cracks and fissures in the west’s intellectual and cultural framework which had been caused by disagreement and debate.

Arguably fitting Buddhism into western debates results in an instrumental use of Buddhism for other purposes rather than a preconception-free understanding of it. So Buddhism would be distorted by this method.

Arguably Zen relies on essential teachings less however, which makes it less susceptible for distortion. The question would be more whether western Buddhism works rather than whether it holds to traditional precepts.

Justin Whitaker responds to McMahn by claiming that Buddhist Modernists may indeed appear to have similar idea spectrums to the western romanticism/enlightenment dichotomy, but this may be because 21st century Buddhists are reacting to the social changes like economic growth that 18th century westerners were reacting to when the romanticism/enlightenment fissure developed. Buddhism’s modernisation might be due to intrinsic features of modernisation rather than adulteration with western ideas. McMahn suggests a Hedelian ‘flow of the Geist (spirit)’ whereas Whitaker suggests a Marxist ground-up understanding of how economics affects history and society.

Viewing the self as in flux might seem similar to anatman, however arguably the clinging to consuming sources of the self is arguably the true self inculcated by consumerism, a persistent identity underlying all who have been conditioned into it, regardless of the appearance of difference which is but skin deep.

Western social science and philosophy views ‘the self’ as culturally influenced rather than a metaphysically determined essence like the Hindu atman. So, while the function and nature of the self is undergoing radical change in the west, nonetheless each person conditioned by consumerism is clinging to a self.

While the western perspective on Buddhism is skewed in part by misunderstanding, arguably it is also skewed because the western perspective is correct. Western intellectual culture often adopts methodological naturalism.

Western science and Buddhism.

Media stereotypes

Buddhist role models – Dalai Lama

Western ‘inculturation’. The interaction between Buddhism, western science, ideas and culture.

Secular Buddhism

Stephen Batchelor

Stephen Batchelor: thinks something can be secular but still religious

Former Buddhist monk in north India in Tibetan communities, studied in the Zen tradition. Had an influential experience in a 10 day retreat in the Vipassana tradition.

Batchelor: traditional Buddhism is about being freed from the cycle of rebirth, but westerners are drawn to the idea of rebirth as it’s like an afterlife.

Batchelor: Buddhist metaphysics is outdated, a reflex of classical indian cosmology and a pre-modern view which, since discovering evolution and the relationship between consciousness and the brain it becomes very difficult for it to have a place.

Batchelor: “The Buddha’s teaching is primarily a teaching on how we can learn to flourish fully as human persons in this world in our societies in the human community in the community of all living beings … if there is a future life then that would be the best way to prepare for it and if there is not a future life then we have done the very best we can in this world … there are early Buddhist texts which actually say that … I’m recovering texts that have often been marginalised in traditional Buddhism because they don’t fit the standard view of death and rebirth and Karma and so on which to me is far more to do with Indian religious tradition than it does with what … the Buddha taught”

Why does Batchelor actually care what the Buddha emphasised though? Caring about that it seems could only matter to a traditionally religious Buddhist who has faith. A secular Buddhist like Batchelor surely can merely take what he thinks is correct from Buddhism. Why does he care about suggesting a ‘correct’ view of Buddhism at all.

Batchelor’s response: Batchelor thinks that it’s useful to isolate out the Buddha’s teachings which can be applied just as effectively today as they could have been then. Emphasising the humanity of the Buddha is a hermeneutic approach to separate the ancient Indian ideas from those which came from the Buddha’s own personal experience.

Batchelor thinks the Buddha was more like the practical philosophies of ancient Greece like Stoicism than he was like religious thinkers.

“The concept of rebirth was the way … Indians saw how the world worked … it sprung from an agrarian understanding of the cycle of life … so I don’t think it’s remotely to do with anything essentially Buddhist, but the fact is that Buddhists over the centuries have taken [rebirth] as a primary kind of doctrinal belief and it’s become imbedded and integrated into Buddhist teaching in ways that are actually quite difficult to disentangle it from the rest of the philosophy and practice but I think we’re in a state now where we really have to go back to these early sources and rethink what the Dharma is actually offering us.”

Batchelor’s summary of secular Buddhism is a re-reading of the four noble truths:

Embrace (suffering and life in all its dimensions)Let go (of the instinctive and conditions patterns of fear and greed)Stop (that behaviour and come to rest in a clear and non-reactive state of mind)Act (ethically, as a result)

Batchelor: Mindfulness is about being able to stop and look rather than just reacting. However, the Satipatthana sutta doesn’t say that. It doesn’t say stop and live in the moment.

Batchelor response: It doesn’t say live in the moment, but it does say ‘The monk will go to the forest and sit at the root of a tree and when he’s breathing out long he knows he’s breathing out long and when he’s breathing out short he knows he’s breathing out short’. Batchelor thinks that’s “pretty much” the same thing.

However the sutta says many other things not often heard at western meditation centres like to think about your corpse after you’re dead.

Batchelor puts emphasis on the adaptation of spiritual traditions to the time in which they are being practised. Buddhism has to be adapted to modern times.

Batchelor: the Buddha did not say there was no self, that was a later Buddhist development. He says you are not your body, feelings, perception or consciousness – do not think of as these things as you. However the Buddha doesn’t follow that your self does not exist. When directly asked whether there is or is not a self, the Buddha remained silent. When asked why he was silent, the Buddha said that he if said there was a self that would lead to the view of eternalism – permanence. If he said there wasn’t a self that would lead to nihilism.

Many Buddhists argue however that the doctrine of selflessness metaphysically leads to the doctrine of selflessness ethically.

Batchelor agrees but only in the respect the Buddha stated, regarding not identifying with the body, feelings, perception or consciousness.

Batchelor: the secular Buddhist view of the afterlife is that it is irrelevant.

Sam Harris

Robert Wright

Christianity and Buddhism

Paul Knitter

Knitter says his primary identity is Catholic but is also in some additional sense Buddhist.

Knitter was attracted to Buddhism because of its tendency to not justify itself by authority but by encouraging you to test it by your own personal experience.

Double belonging is when someone finds ‘they can be genuinely nourished by more than one religious tradition, by more than their home tradition of their native tradition.’

Knitter thinks this is becoming more common in parts of Europe and north America.

Knitter quotes Fr Michael O’Halloran, formerly a Carthusian monk now a priest who also teaches Zen who said that Christianity is long on content but short on technique. Buddhism provides technique where Christianity lacks, for entering ‘more experientially into the content of what they believe’.

Knitter thinks Christians are often dissatisfied with the conception of God as radically other than us and want a way to realise ‘the mystery of the divine of God in a way in which it is more a part of our very selves’. Knitter thinks Christians want a ‘non-dual way’ of relating to God as a reality certainly different to us but a part of our being nonetheless.

Knitter claims Buddhism is non-theistic rather than atheistic. The Buddha and much of Buddhism, Knitter thinks, is more concerned with experiencing ultimate reality than defining it and naming it.

Knitter thinks Thich Naht Hanh’s ‘interbeing’ idea helps him understand what the new testament meant by ‘God is love’. What Knitter imagines and feels when saying the word ‘God’ is an interconnecting energy that is not a person, but is very personal, surrounding and containing him with which he is in contact in the Eucharist, in liturgies and in meditation.

Knitter thinks Catholicism should make an eights sacrament he learned from Buddhism: silence. The importance of silence is that some things, like the mystery of God, cannot be understood by thought.

In sacramental theology, each sacrament contains matter and form. In the proposed eighth sacrament of silence, the matter would be the breath and mindfulness of it.

Knitter was inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s claim that in order to make peace, we have to be peace. Knitter reversed Pope Paul VI’s claims to if we want justice, we have to seek peace. Knitter was an activist against death squads in El Salvador but studied at a Zen retreat on his way upon which Zen teacher R. B. Glassman told him that to stop the death squads he would first have to meditate and realise his oneness with the death squads. Knitter thinks Buddhism teaches that even as we have to oppose oppressors and perpetrators of evil we have to realise we are one with them. He interprets Nhat Hanh as meaning this by peace within ourselves; overcoming our ego that separates us from the evil ones.

Knitter claimed ‘for Buddhists, selfishness is not so much sinful as it is stupid.’ Our buddha nature is not selfish but our ignorance of our buddha nature causes us to be selfish.

Knitter was influenced by his teacher Karl Rahner to think that Christians have to become mystics or they will disappear. Our identities must be based on personal experience of God in order to have the strength to endure.

Knitter and pluralism

Cardinal Ratzinger expressed concern that Knitter represented a tendency that could easily slip into relativism.

Knitter acknowledges he is working in a controversial area which is ‘how Christianity can understand itself in the light of other religions’. He found it hard to believe that Jesus was the fullness and final revelation of God’s truth. Knitter thinks exclusivism makes no intellectual sense but is also politically dangerous as it justifies religious persecution.

The second Vatican council in the 1960s calls for Christians to engage in dialogue with people of other faiths. Knitter thinks you can’t engage in a genuine open dialogue if you believe in exclusivism. There’s a tension between the proclamation to engage in dialogue with the theological dogma on exclusivism.

Knitter sees dangers in the perennial philosophy in that it might be used to justify religious persecution since there’s nothing lost in destroying a religion. However, he favours the perennial philosophy over the postmodern view that all religions are fundamentally different.Knitter thinks that the religions are entering a new age ‘in which they can recognize the need to collaborate rather than to compete … each religion … has to give up its claim to supremacy … no religion is supreme.

Exclusivist theologians claim that we merely need tolerance however, not a radical shifting of religion into the western pluralism model which seems to presuppose relativism.

Knitter thinks that dogma gets in the way of the humility required for tolerance however. The Abrahamic religions have a tendency towards chosenness in the case of Judaism, finality in the case of Islam and exclusiveness in the case of Christianity.

Arguably Knitter is adopting double belonging due to the political pressures of living in a pluralistic society.

Engaged Buddhism and ActivismEngaged Buddhism

the distinctive features of Engaged Buddhism, including:the meaning of the term ‘Engaged Buddhism’, and the origins and aims of this form of practicethe significance and ideas of Thich Nhat Hanh, including the Fourteen Precepts

Buddhism and social activismwhy a Buddhist may feel social activism is an important part of Buddhist practice examples of Buddhist activism in the following areas:environmental awareness and actionopposition to oppression and injusticewar and peace

14th Dalai Lama argued that “It is not enough to be compassionate. You must act.” He said there are two aspects to action. One is to act on mastering your own mind out of compassion. The second is to rectify social wrongs.

The Dalai Lama here is outlining a central belief of Engaged Buddhists, that for compassion to find its fullest expression it must lead to action.

Engaged Buddhism became a popular term in the late 1900’s when Buddhists expanded their practice into their social and ecological environment. Such practice has a long history in Buddhism, however the modern age saw the rise of the social agency and historical consciousness of the individual person with power to create social change as an important function of citizenship. This modern picture of a person’s place and role in society combined with ancient Buddhist teachings resulted in Engaged Buddhism.

Engaged Buddhists, although clearly within much of the tradition of Buddhism, nonetheless therefore find themselves critical of other elements of Buddhism such as the tendency to quietly seek enlightenment without getting involved with anything external.

Engaged Buddhists sometimes argue that the 21st century consumer culture is a threat to the non-engaged Buddhists because it could turn their inward-looking focus into narcissistic consumerism.

Kenneth Kraft, a developer of Engaged Buddhism, argued: “an exclusively inner transformation, however profound, is not the end of the trail. Greed, anger and delusion … need to be uprooted in personal lives, but they also have to be dealt with as social and political realities”

Ken Jones, founder of Engaged Buddhist organisations in the UK, argued that the Buddhist focus on the interconnectedness of all things means that all Buddhists should be engaged with social problems. Jones argued this should be called socially engaged Buddhism, to make clear what the ‘engagement’ of ‘Engaged Buddhism’ actually means. Otherwise, Buddhists could claim they are engaged in other ways without actually engaging with social problems.

Thich Nhat Han argued that we all “inter-are”, meaning that everything that happens or has ever happened is connected to us.

Maitrisara argues that Engaged Buddhism is effective because it reduces the amount of greed, hostility and confusion in the world. She points out that most of the terrible decisions people make which negatively affect communities of people have been made as a result of such negative mental states.

Some argue that Buddhism engaged for peace and social commentary is the only way Buddhism actually benefits the individual development of the uneducated masses for whom Buddhism otherwise offers merely social programs no more beneficial than the programs that many socially aware governments run.

The view that suffering is the karmic result of immorality in a previous life results in a sickly unhelpful acceptance of the social and structural causes of that suffering. Engaged Buddhism is required to solve this issue.

Buddhism and the environment

Donald Swearer writes that the Buddhist principle of interdependence undermines anthroprocentricism because it makes individual entities, including humans, ‘by their very nature relational’.

Interconnectedness is also compatible with ecological systems theory – an environmental theory which claims that a state of environmental health is the result of an intricate web of interrelated forces.

Indra’s Net illustrates this. Imagine an infinitely large net. At the connecting point of every thread with another there is a sparkling multifaceted jewel. If you were to look at each jewel, you would see a reflection of every other jewel. Each sparkle of light in one jewel then becomes reflected in every other jewel. Thus, are the multitude of things in the universe interrelated.

Our shopping habits such as a desire for cheap products influences the economies of developing countries, creating exploitation of those who make them. The chemicals factories use to produce the things we want pollute the seas and the air. The waste we throw away ends up somewhere. It is failure to appreciate interconnectedness that causes us to feel separate from these our effects.

Some argue that the purpose of Buddhism is salvation and an attempt to re-interpret its purpose as ecological amounts to a distortion of Buddhist philosophy. However in response, Buddhists motivated by ecological concerns point to the Bodhisattva ideal which teaches that the supreme purpose is compassion for all beings, not salvation for oneself.

Buddhism and War

The early Buddhist texts speak against the mental states that cause violent behaviour.

Nonviolence is a significant theme in the Pali Canon. The early texts say killing is the height of immorality and that the ideal ruler of a state would be pacifist. The early texts also however view war as a fact of life and state that an army is needed for defence. The sangha are discouraged from involvement in military matters however. Later Mahayana texts, in line with their tendency to extend rules for the sangha to all people, do so with that principle too.

Some argue that a sutta in the Gamani Samyuttam prohibits all Buddhists from being a soldier. A soldier asks the Buddha if soldiers killed in battle are reborn into the heavenly realm. The Buddha responds, with some reluctance, that a soldier killed in battle while their mind is captured by an intention to kill will have a negative rebirth. The early texts claim that the mental state on death has a large effect on karma and rebirth.

Some Buddhists point to the Kosala Samyutta as allowing defensive warfare. King Pasendai, who was liked by the Buddha, learns his kingdom is about to be attacked. He leads his army into battle to protect the kingdom. That battle was lost but the war overall was won. Pasendai captured the King of the enemy but let him go. The Buddha then claimed Pasendai was “a friend of virtue, acquainted with virtue, intimate with virtue”, while the opposite was said of the King who led a non-defensive attack.

Theravada commentaries prescribe five criteria of which all must be satisfied for an act to count as both killing and be karmically negative:

1 – the presence of a living being, human or animal2 – the knowledge that the being is living3 – the intention to kill4 – the action of killing 5 – death occurring

Dr Babashaheb Ambedkar claimed that the Buddha made Ahimsa a principle but not a rule, giving freedom to act.

Buddhism and genderThe Buddha on female ordination

The Buddha at first refused but eventually agreed to allow the ordination of women after persuasion by his aunt, though he claimed that it would limit the survival of his teachings by half.

Arguably the Buddha is claiming female priests would only be half as good, not a complete disaster.

There might be practical reasons for the Buddha thinking female priests would be half as effective at perpetuating his teachings, such as most cultures being sexist and therefore not listening to women. So, he might not have been impugning the priestly capabilities of women.

Ordination of women was done by other religions such as Jainism however, so it’s not obviously a practically inhibiting practice.

However, Dr. H. Nakamura claims that the ordination of women in Buddhism ‘was an astonishing development in world religious history. No such female order existed in Europe, North Africa, West Asia or East Asia at the time. Buddhism was the first tradition to produce one.’

The Venerable Dhammananda claims that what made the Buddha ‘the first feminist’ was that he stated clearly that women could achieve enlightenment as ‘no other religion said something like that’.

The Buddha might merely have been protective of women who faced dangers when not protected by a father or husband.

The Buddha’s stated concern was for the duration of his teaching, however.The victimization of bhikkunis might have been the cause of that halved duration, though.

But how?

Some Historians have argued that the story involving Ananda was written in later since Ananda was still a child when the first nuns were ordained so it’s not clear how he could have been in a position to advise the Buddha.

The Buddha eventually said he will not achieve final Nirvana until he has bhukkunis and female desciples who are ‘accomplished’ and will teach the Dhamma. So arguably he became even more pro-equality over time.

The Buddha on female attainment of enlightenment

Ananda debated with the Buddha and asked if there was any reason women could not achieve enlightenment and Nirvana as well as men. The Buddha said there was not. ‘Women, Ananda, having gone forth are able to realise the fruit of stream-attainment or the fruit of once-returning or the fruit of non-returning or arhantship.’

Although the Buddha said that women could attain enlightenment, arguably it might still be that realistically there would be difficulties or impediments to female awakening. The fact that the Buddha thought female ordination would reduce the duration of his teaching raises the question of whether that was due to an intrinsic inferiority which might make enlightenment realistically more difficult for women, though we know The Buddha at least thought it possible.

The Buddha recommended against thinking yourself superior to others, which could suggest men are not superior to females

However, pride and arrogance being a form of clinging and thus inhibitory of awakening doesn’t mean that men aren’t superior to women in some respect, only that they shouldn’t fixate on or identify with that superiority.

Are female bodies inferior?

The five obstacles, women are unable to become a Brahma king, sakra, king mara, cakravartin or Buddha.

In various prayers and the hundred thousand songs of Milarepa, it claims that bad karma can result in being reborn in an ‘inferior female body’.

A Tibetan term for woman ‘kye men’ means ‘low rebirth’. This might make attainment of enlightenment more difficult in practice.

In ancient India women were viewed as inferior, at times on the same level as the Sudras, the lowest of the four castes. That might be an ancient Indian influence on Buddhism.

In Thailand women often believe their being born female was the result of bad karma.

14th inscription from Sukhotai shows a queen mother hoping that founding a monestary will allow her to be reborn as a man.

Theravada and Mahayana texts claim it’s more difficult for women to attain enlightenment.

There are various debates about whether women or female bodies are inferior, which is often thought, implicitly or explicitly, to have consequences for how realistic or even possible female attainment of awakening is, as well as female aptitude for ordination. The purported reasons for the inferiority of female bodies/birth are: that they are the result of bad karma, the practical social effect of being a woman, biological traits and psychological reasons.

Karmic inferiority. This is the view that female bodies are the result of bad karma without any

Dhammapada (Theravada) contains a story where observing the beautiful skin hue of the bhikku Mahakaccayana, Soreyya had the wish to have him as his wife or that his wife might have a similar skin color. This impure thought suddenly turned him into a woman. He then had to experience life as a woman, even having two sons, until he asked forgiveness of Mahakaccayana, upon which he is turned into a male again. He was then asked whether his sons he had while a male or those he had from his own womb while a female were more loved by him, and he said those that came from his own womb. Later in life after he attained Arahatship and the analytical insight, he changed to favour none of them in particular. The Buddha claims this is because his Arahatship allowed him to attain a well-being which cannot be gained from mere fatherhood or motherhood.

While some interpret this passage as suggestive that being made a female is the result of bad karma, arguably the purpose the Buddha makes of it in the end is to show that Arahatship is beyond such distinctions as motherhood or fatherhood.

Nonetheless, it could still be read as impure thoughts leading to bad karma leading to becoming a woman.

However this is actually not rebirth, it’s changing of sex within one lifetime. Arguably the story also claims women have an attachment issue regarding their children which requires transcending.

The practical social consequences of female birth. This refers to the difficulty women face in society due to prejudice and marginalization. This is not it itself an intrinsic inferiority since many women are able, through great ability or being born into privilege, to overcome it. Enlightenment for them may be just as easy as a man. However, many women who lack privilege and/or special ability are more likely to be susceptible to internalising social prejudice in what is called internalised misogyny,

ending up believing themselves to be inferior even though they are not. Yet, it is like a self-fulfilling prophecy as the presence of that ignorance and clinging to their gender might make enlightenment realistically more difficult.

The commentary on the sutta-nipata, the Paramatthajotika, mentions the desire of a woman to be reborn as a man as she finds being a woman powerless such that even the daughter of a wheel turning monarch would be under the control of men and thus desire to be reborn as one. The woman then overcomes the evil actions of her past life to become reborn a man.

The dynamic of persuading women their inferior social status is the result of bad karma and that the method to overcome it is to accept their status and try to be good regardless so as to be born a man is arguably merely an expression of patriarchal control either masquerading as religious doctrine or merely being religious doctrine.

Biological traits. Some argue that female bodies are viewed as lower birth than male ones because of the pain women go through in child birth which is sometimes compared to a man going to war. E.g. Amitabha Buddha allows women who have faith in him to be born in his realm as a man.

Arguably being mothers provides a superior opportunity to develop compassion, however.

Psychological inferiority.

The Flower Garden Sutra states ‘Women are messengers of hell who can destroy the seeds of Buddahood. They may look like bodhisattvas, but at heart they are like yaksha demons.’

Arguably this merely illustrates the way that women are potential objects of lust for men which might interfere with male awakening. It might merely be skilful means to think of women as demons inside rather than a factual claim about their being psychologically evil. This fits with an exercise Bhukkus sometimes do when viewing an attractive female, where they imagine her skin were transparent so they could see their internal organs, to counter the feelings of lust. The female skin is not really transparent but it’s skilful means to imagine it as such.

Women are said in Theravada and Mahayana texts to have more desires, wild thoughts and be more prone to doubt than men. The Buddha said doubts and desires are unhelpful.

Celebate monks are described as embodiments of the dhamma while women are described as lustful embodiments of samsara.

Theravada and Mahayana views with reference to the Dragon King’s/Sagara’s Daughter (Lotus Sutra, Chapter 11)

Theravada views:

Already been covered

+ The doctrine of anatman arguably suggests there is no male nor female essence. Or arguably it merely shows it’s not enduring.

Mahayana views:

There are a few Mahayana texts, such as the Longer Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra, which contain a passage usually interpreted as meaning that women must be reborn as men to enter nirvana.

The Silver-colored woman sutra, written by a 6th century monk from India, says ‘Even if the eyes of the Buddhas of the three existences were to fall to the ground, no woman in any of the realms of existence could ever attain Buddhahood.’

Sunyata. The doctrine of emptiness could fit with the feminist view of anti-essentialism, that there is no male or female essence. Nagarjuna claims that emptiness is what enables change. Transformation of gender norms should therefore be possible. Even if it’s true that females are unable to attain enlightenment, that should be transformable due to emptiness.

The Vimalakirti Sutra (Mahayana, Tibetan & Zen), however, teaches that the Buddha said ‘In all things, there is neither male or female’.

Tara’s vow is a story about a princess called Tara who was devoted to the dharma and meditation practice. When she was close to enlightenment, a Bhikku said to her it was a shame she was in the body of a woman since she would be unable to reach enlightenment until she was reborn as a man. The princess responded: ‘here there is no man; there is no woman, no self, no person, and no consciousness. Labelling ‘male’ or ‘female’ is hollow. Oh, how worldly fools delude themselves’. Tara then made the vow to help beings in a woman’s body due to the disproportionate help those in the body of a man receive.

A Tibetan view is that ordinary women can never be enlightened but some women are dakinis, meaning a female embodiment of wisdom.

The dragon king’s daughter shows that enlightenment can be attained instantaneously, without careful practice over a long time. It also shows that women can achieve enlightenment. Finally, it shows that the first person to achieve this instantaneous form of enlightenment was a woman.

Other interpretations?

Contradiction with flower garden and silver-colored woman sutra? How might it be resolved?

This is sometimes called the teaching of non-discrimination as it teaches that women and even evil people as illustrated by Devadatta, can attain Buddhahood. This is often thought to be due to Buddhahood being a state intrinsic to all things, also called the Buddha nature.

Some feminists Buddhists argue that the doctrine of interconnectedness serves to undermine the male-female distinction.

However then arguably it could be used to undermine all distinctions, including nirvana and avidya. The more plausible interpretation is that reality is a set of different things which are nonetheless connected in a sense which does not eradicate their individuality.

Arguably nirvana and avidya are not ‘things’ subject to interconnectedness.

The impact both of societal changes over time and the differing cultural contexts Buddhism encountered during its spread across the world.

Western Buddhism has the most equality in terms of the representation of women in the priesthood. This may be because of greater education and financial independence, which women in Asia have less of.

In the 2009 UN report on gender equality, only one Buddhist majority country made it into the top 50; Singapore.

Eihei Dogen brought Soso Zen from China to Japan and is a highly revered master in the history of Zen. Dogen claimed that ‘in acquiring the dharma, all acquire the dharma equally. All should pay homage to and hold in esteem one who has acquired the dharma. Do not make an issue of whether it is a man or a woman. This is the most wonderous law of the buddha-dharma’.

In the Himalayas, practitioners of the fasting practice of the Bodhisattva of compassion (Nyungne) are mostly women, who crowdsource to build their own temples, hold retreats and choose mentors from amongst themselves.

In Japan, a pioneer of the feminist movement there, Raicho Hiratsuka, saw her practice of Zen Buddhism, especially its concept of deconstruction, as enabling her feminism.

In Confucian societies of east Asia, Buddhism has enabled literacy and spiritual agency for women.

In the West, feminists were attracted to Buddhism over Judaism and Christianity. Sam Harris, in comparing the treatment of women under Buddhism with that of Christianity, said ‘The Buddha was no great purveyor of women’s rights, but he wasn’t that bad’ [as Christianity]’.

Modern views on the capacity of women to achieve enlightenment.

Bernard Faure, a modern scholar, believes that Buddhism as it is practiced results in gender inequality. He claims the traditional teachings on equality often merely amount to ‘rhetoric’ rather than equality in practice. He points how how Japanese Zen master Dogen claimed that ‘both men and women can realize the Way’. However, in his old age as Dogen’s focus shifted from theology to monastic life, he stopped emphasising his theory of equality.

Faure recommends that women who want to be Bhukkunis should ‘simply bypass’ the traditional male-controlled orders and create their own religious experiences to ‘assert the right of women to appropriate the Buddhist teaching outside of a monastic framework.’

Faure thinks that overcoming gender inequality in Buddhism will require a change in the notion of awakening itself; ‘moving away from … the sudden overturning of heaven and earth or the abstract negation of all duality, toward a more humble, down-to-earth, gradual realization of the beauty and mystery of life, a world in which some differences remain to be enjoyed, while discrimination is forever abolished.’

This could be seen as patronizing to women, suggesting their awakening is more humble. It also seems to conflict with the stories of women like Tara attaining awakening.

Faure claims that Buddhism’s bias against women ‘cannot be understood without reference to large societal developments, like political ideology, the history of the family, of children, of the aged.’

Rita Gross, a modern feminist professor of Buddhism, argued that Buddhism as a religion often fails to live up to the Buddha’s teaching on equality of the sexes. She thought Buddhism as it is often practiced therefore required a feminist critique. Gross believed in propagating ‘androgynous Buddhism’ where adherents would actively pursue freedom from gender roles.

R. Gross states that obstacles can aid a practitioner in their awakening as learning to work with them skilfully can lead to wisdom and compassion. However, Gross claims that throughout Buddhism’s history, female birth has been viewed as an obstacle that makes awakening difficult rather than a potential aid. Buddhist women have been taught not to seek awakening but to acquire enough good karma to be reborn as a man. Gross acknowledges there have been exceptions to this but nonetheless claims the tendency in Buddhist practice overall is towards the view that female birth makes awakening difficult, perhaps to the point where realistically it should not be aimed at.

Gross believes that clinging to gender makes enlightenment more difficult. Since gender is conditioned into people’s identity and falsely thought to be linked to natural biological sex, it becomes a way for us to cling to our ego. Gross references the Zen master Dogen that ‘to study the buddha way is to study the self, and that to study the self is to forget the self’.

Gross does not mean that we should just forget about gender. Globally there is an imbalance of harm based on gender. Even though gender is illusory, the harm based on the illusion is real. Gross thinks we have to gain a deep understanding of gender in order to stop clinging to it. The more difficult someone’s life circumstances make it to understand their gender, the most difficult it might be for them to stop clinging to it.

Gross argues that male scholars interpret certain texts in ways which diminish the role of female disciples. She claims the male commentary on the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya minimised the arhatship and parinirvana of Yashodhara (Siddartha’s wife) for political reasons to discourage bhikkuni ordination.

Gross does not accept the term ‘women’s enlightenment’ since it implies clinging to gender identity is compatible with attaining enlightenment.

Some Buddhist maters have vowed to gain enlightenment specifically as a woman however, e.g. Tara & Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo.

Such vows might be bodhisattva actions rather than clinging to gender, however. It could also be skillful means meant to inspire women to seek awakening.

Gross argues that men have issues clinging to gender as well, however their clinging is more difficult to detect because one of the hallmarks of privilege is not seeing yourself as having it. Men rarely give much thought to their privileged status, they just accept it as the way the world is on a conditioned instinctual level of their mind. Since Gross thinks we must understand our gender in order to let go of it, men might find it difficult since their gender is not brought to their attention as there are not injustices caused by it which might bring it into consciousness. In fact, it is a feature of privilege that it is disguised from the attention of those who have it.

Lama Tsultrim Allione, the first American woman to be ordained as a Tibetan Bhukkuni, claims Tara’s vow shows ‘the absolute truth of the emptiness of gender’ as well as ‘the relative truth of a real historical misogynist attitude in Buddhism’. Allione claims that meditation cuts through the concept of gender.

Allione makes the feminist argument that the rights of women, their freedom, safety and protection are essential to the survival of the human species. ‘How can any of us thrive if the voices of half the population are not heard and valued?’ She claims it is female voices which have historically spoken ‘overwhelmingly on the side of nonviolence, peace, and protection of the earth.’

Modern Buddhist women in the west often view sexism in the dharma to be an infiltration from Asian culture which can and should be removed.

However, that its doctrines could be subject to such immoral cultural influence points to a deeper criticism of Buddhism. It casts doubt on the rest of the dharma, which might also be influenced by culture. It’s merely morally neutral doctrines, or even positive ones, might also be the result of some cultural influence rather than ‘truth’. So, removing sexist doctrines from Buddhism due to cultural influence but keeping the rest seems inconsistent as it thereby arguably designates the rest as potentially culturally influenced too, since we’ve admitted the sexist doctrines were.

Arguably there are clear reasons why misogyny might infiltrate religious doctrine, however. Since those reasons do not obtain for other doctrines, there is no justification for tarring them with the same brush.

female monasticism

The Buddha’s aunt, sister of Maya, Maha Prajapati Gotami, asked him if she could join the Sangha as a Bhukkuni. The Pali Vinaya states that the Buddha refused at first so Prajapati and 500 women followers cut off their hair, dressed in monk robes and started walking after the Buddha. When they caught up they were exhausted and told Ananda they wished to join the Sangha, who said he would speak to the Buddha about it.

The Rev. Patti Nakai of the Buddhist temple of Chicago argues that Shakamuni’s refusal of Pajapati was a ‘declaration of the mental inferiority of women, saying they lacked the capacity to understand and practice the teachings of non-attachment to self’.

Nakai argues that the historical Buddha was a man of his time, conditioned to see women as inferior, but Pajapati broke down his ignorance. Nakai claims that if the Buddha’s prejudices had not been countered at that time, he would have been unable to relate to Kisa Gotami in the tale of the mustard seed or Queen Vaidehi in the Meditation Sutra.

If the Buddha achieved enlightenment and entered Nirvana, however, how can it be right to call him ignorant?

Secular Buddhism might be able to do that.

Nichiren, 13th century Buddhist monk whose teaching inspired the Soka Gakkai International, believed that chanting ‘Nam myoho renge kyo’ will awaken our buddha nature. The short version of its meaning is: devotional respect, mystical enlightenment-dharma ignorance, lotus-flower teaching. Nichiren claimed that ‘There should be no discrimination among those who propagate the five characters of Myoho-renge-kyo in the Latter Day of the Law, be they men or women’. In 13 th century Japan, women were dependent on men, so claiming there should be no discrimination was revolutionary. Nichiren also points to the dragon king’s daughter as showing that women can attain Buddhahood which he claims is the ‘foremost’ teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

‘When I, Nichiren, read the sutras other than the Lotus Sutra, I have not the slightest wish to become a woman. One sutra condemns women as emissaries of hell. Another describes them as large snakes … Only in the Lotus Sutra do we read that a woman who embraces this sutra not only excels all other women but surpasses all men.’ Nichiren wanted to spread this hopeful message to Japanese women.

The role, origins and controversies surrounding the gurudharma (specific monastic rules for women)

The Buddha in the end only agreed to let Pajapati into the Sangha if she agreed to eight gurudharmmas (heavy rules).

The Vinaya-pitaka states the rules for being a monk (bhikku) or nun (bhikkuni). A bhikkuni has more rules than a bhikku, the most important of which are called the eight garudhammas (heavy rules). These include:

A bhikkuni, even if ordained for 100 years must respect a bhikku, even if they’d been ordained for only one day.

A bhikkuni must live 6 hours journey from a monastery where bhikkus who can give them advice are.

On observance days a bhikkuni should consult the bhikkus.

A bhikkuni must spend rainy season retreats under the orders of both bhikku and bhikkunis.

A bhikkuni must live her life by both the orders.

A bhikkuni must on two years obtain the higher ordination (Upasampatha) by both orders (of bhukkus and bhukkunis?)

A bhikkuni cannot scold a bhikku.

A bhikkuni cannot advise a bhikku.

In total the Pali Vinaya-pitaka lists around 250 rules for bhikkus but 348 rules for bhikkunis.

Some scholars argue there is inconsistency between the Pali Bhikkuni Vinaya and other versions of the texts and claim that some of the rules were added after the Buddha’s death. The Tipitaka was written 500 years after the Buddha’s death and adulterations would have been easy to introduce.

This raises the question of the appropriate method of interpretation of Buddhist texts. Literalism seems to be discouraged by this observation, as does overly focusing on one particular part of it. Perhaps instead we should argue for an interpretation that captures the spirit of the Buddha’s teachings, rather than one which strictly conforms to the letter of the law. The strict adherence to the ordination rules might be thus criticised from this interpretative method. However arguably the story of the dragon king’s daughter might thereby also be undermined since it is just one passage and arguably quite unique.

Nonetheless, the gurudharmas arguably discouraged women from seeking ordination.

The difficulty of ordaining women in the Theravadin tradition and the role of ‘eight precept women’

The ordination rules. The Buddha made the rule that both ordained bhikkus and bhikkunis be present at the ordination of a bhikkuni. After most orders of bhikkunis died out there were none available to ordain new bhikkunis. This further catalysed the already declining numbers of ordination of women in Theravada orders of southeast Asia, where women were stuck at the novice level. Buddhist leaders in Tibetan and Theravada traditions have been unwilling to change this rule as they claim they lack the authority to alter the Buddha’s rules on ordination of women.

Arguably the Buddha’s rules were historically contingent. He clearly intended for women to be ordained so

Additionally, what is the purpose of a bhikkuni being present at the ordination of a bhikkuni? What job is the female doing there that a man cannot? Unless we admit that women add something to the ordination that men cannot, an admission not likely to be made by any opposer of female ordination, then the Buddha’s rule seems purposeless. We might then abandon it as obsolete, or even speculate that sexism motivated his creation of it in the first place.

Dhammananda claims that the traditional interpretation of the ordination rules as requiring ordination by both monks and nuns was based on a poor understanding of the Pali language. She claims that in the event of there being no Bhikkunis to ordain a new one, ordination by Bhikkus is enough.

In 2003 Dhammananda became the first Thai Bhikkuni to be ordained in the Theravada tradition by traveling to Sri Lanka. Upon returning to Thailand much of the Theravada Sangha rejected her.

In Sri Lanka, an important home to Theravada Buddhism, there were invasions and purges of Buddhists and only a few Bhikkus survived. Siamese Bhukkus were requested to come and restore the sangha, but not Bhukkunis. After 1000 years an order of Bhukkunis was re-established, however neither the government nor Theravada bhikku sanga have formally recognized it.

Mahayana female monastic traditions and lineage

There is an order of Mahayana bhikkunis in China and Taiwan whose lineage traces back to the first ordinations of bhikkunis.

Some Theravada bhikkunis have been ordained in the presence of Mahayana bhikkunis which seems to satisfy the ordination rule, though this is controversial in Theravada Buddhism.

The differing status of female monastics (and ‘eight precept women’ in different societies, for example Thailand and Myanmar/Burma

Thailand is 95% Theravada Buddhist and typically do not think woman can be ordained due to the ordination rules. Bhikkunis are tolerated but technically illegal and risk being charged with the crime of impersonating a monk, though that is rare. Bhikkunis are not allowed to participate in state or public rituals not receive any state subsidy.

Tonsakulrungruang claims that the loss of Bhukkunis was ‘natural and unfortunate’, not the result of intentional sabotage.

In Thailand women can become lower-level nuns called mae chi. They shave their heads but wear a white robe, do not live inside a temple and are under the authority of a monk. Now there are a couple hundred Bhikkuni and around a hundred mae chi in Thailand. They are typically welcomed by villagers. However, they do not receive government subsidies for medical treatment or education. One Mae chi claimed that ‘In Thailand, feminism and demands for women’s human rights are typically regarded as egotistical and aggressive, and are consequently viewed with suspicion’.

Local cultural attitudes in Sri Lanka and Tibet arguably led to the denial of ordination to women.

The role and aims of the Sakyadhita (Daughters of the Buddha), the international association of Buddhist women

Sakyadhita international association of Buddhist women was formed in 1987 under the patronage of the 14th Dalai Lama at the first International conference on Buddhist women, held in India. Inspiration for the conference came from Bhukkunis and the then Thai professor, now Bhukkuni, Dhammananda.

They note that the Buddha affirmed the capability of women to become awakened and started what may have been the first order of female nuns in world history. Yet despite this, gender inequality in Buddhist societies remains.

“The aim was to work together to benefit Buddhist women, to reduce gender injustice, and awaken women to their potential for awakening the world”

To establish an international alliance of Buddhist womenTo advance the spiritual and secular walfare of the world’s womenTo work for gender equity in Buddhist education, training, instutional structures, and ordinationTo promote harmony and dialogue among the Buddhist traditions and other religionsTo encourage research and publications on topics of interest to Buddhist womenTo foster compassionate social action for the benefit of humanityTo promote world peace through the teachings of the Buddha

The reasons for the difference in the condition and treatment of women in Buddhism across the world.

In Taiwan the status of bhukkunis is the most progressive and equal, however only two leaders of orthodox sects publicly reject the Garudhamma stating that all nuns are more junior than the youngest monk.

In Taiwan, Bhukkunis interpret and practice a form of engaged Buddhism called ‘Buddhism for the human realm’. This was influenced by social conditions which required laywomen and bhukkunis to collaborate over medical treatment, resulting in nuns being more likely than monks to take the role of healers.

No order of bhikkunis was ever established in Tibet, though there are some female Tibetan lamas.