Buddha_A Very Short Introduction Read online

  The story of the Buddha’s death is recounted in a long text (D II no. 16) which, shorn of its mythical elements, portrays the last journey of an old man. Accompanied by his now continual companion, the loving but, as the text portrays him, rather bumbling Ānanda, the Buddha made his way northward over hundreds of miles, plagued by illness. Finally the Buddha was struck down by food poisoning and came to rest in the obscure village of Kusinārā.

  When Ānanda realized that the Buddha was about to die, ‘he went into a house and leaned against the doorframe weeping’. The Buddha called Ānanda to himself and told him,

  do not mourn, do not weep. Haven’t I told you that we are separated, parted, cut off from everything dear and beloved? … You have served me long with love, helpfully, gladly, sincerely, and without reserve, in body, word, and thought. You have done well by yourself, Ānanda. Keep trying and you will soon be liberated.

  Note on quotations

  Abbreviations

  References to works in the Buddhist canon are to the Pali Text Society editions of the Theravāda canon. The letter refers to the appropriate nikāya (collection), the first number to the volume within the nikāya, and the second number to the page in the volume. Thus a reference to the Majjhima Nikāya, second volume, page 91 would be written M II 91. Where I have referred to a whole discourse I have given the number of the discourse, e.g. MI no.15. The following abbreviations are used:

  D Dīgha Nikāya

  M Majjhima Nikāya

  A Anguttara Nikāya

  S Saṃ yutta Nikāya

  Other references are to the Udāna (U) and the Paramatthajotikā (P), also in Pali Text Society editions; and to the Bṛhadāranyaka Upaniṣad (B) and the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (C), which are cited giving book, chapter and section number so that any edition may be consulted.

  Translations and terms

  The translations are almost entirely my own. Anyone who wishes to trace citations to their context will find that the Pali Text Society’s English translations are keyed so that one may light more or less on the appropriate passage, though one’s aim is better if one can consult the Pali. A little experimentation will be necessary.

  The technical terms are in Pali, except where I have noted that they are in Sanskrit.

  Pronunciation

  To avoid really embarrassing mistakes in Pali pronunciation it need only be borne in mind that c is equivalent to English ch, so cetanā is pronounced very roughly chay-tuh-naa; and that h after a consonant means only an extra breathiness in pronunciation, as in the English pithead or doghouse. Those wishing to pronounce Buddha correctly will need to know that the doubled d is pronounced as such, rather as doubled consonants are pronounced in Italian. Thus it is roughly Buddhuh, not Booduh.

  The special symbols that appear above or below certain letters in Pali and Sanskrit words transliterated in the text affect the pronunciation of those letters roughly as indicated in the following table of equivalence:

  ā ah

  ś half-way between s and sh

  ñ ny as in canyon

  ṭ ḷ ṇ instead of the tongue touching the back of the teeth, as in English, it is taken further back towards the roof of the mouth

  ṣ sh

  ṃ ng

  Further reading

  A great deal has been published in English about Buddhism, some of it very technical, some of it misleading, and some of it very good indeed. These are suggestions which will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the Buddha, of his teaching, and of the history of Buddhism.

  Quite a different approach to the Buddha’s biography was taken by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli in The Life of the Buddha (Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, 1972), which is available from the Society in Kandy, Sri Lanka. He tells the story of the Buddha entirely through accurate translations from the Pali texts themselves. This book is perhaps the best introduction to the Pali texts, with their peculiarly meticulous and laconic style. Yet another approach was taken by Michael Pye in The Buddha (Duckworth, 1979). He conveys a vivid sense of the Buddha’s life as well as of the stories and myths through which the early Buddhist community came to see the Buddha. Both of these would very usefully supplement the picture I have given.

  For the Buddha’s teaching there is nothing better than Walpola Rahula’s What the Buddha Taught (Gordon Fraser, 1967). This combines lucidity with a warm advocacy of Buddhism from the point of view of a practising monk. Nyanaponika Thera has written a similarly lucid book on insight meditation, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (Rider, 1969). These are both based on the Theravāda tradition.

  For a broader introduction to the breadth of Buddhist philosophy and history Richard Robinson and Willard L. Johnson’s book, The Buddhist Religion (Dickenson, 1982) is especially good. This may then be followed by Heinz Bechert and Richard Gombrich (eds.), The World of Buddhism (Thames and Hudson, 1984), which is composed of articles on Buddhism and the Buddhist order in each of the Buddhist countries. Though written for a general readership each article represents the latest scholarship on each area.

  It would be well to supplement such reading with an acquaintance with the Buddhist texts themselves, which can be consulted in Henry C. Warren’s Buddhism in Translations (Atheneum, 1963) or in Stephen Beyer’s more recent Buddhist Experience: Sources and Interpretations (Dickenson, 1974).

  Many of these books have useful bibliographies which will then lead the reader further into the subject he or she wishes to study. My own interest has been in the actual practice of Buddhism in Buddhist lands today. On this Holmes Welch’s The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900–1950 (Harvard University Press, 1967) is particularly thorough. My own understanding of Buddhism is based on field work in Sri Lanka, and I have written of that in The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka (Oxford University Press, 1983). This picture of strict meditative practitioners is complemented by Richard Gombrich’s Precept and Practice (Oxford University Press, 1971), which concerns the beliefs and practices of popular Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

  Index

  Page numbers in italics refer to

  illustrations.

  A

  Āḷāra kālāma 29

  Absorptions, four (jhāna) 32–3, 35–6, 37, 49–50, 74, 80

  Aggañña Sutta 12

  ahiṃsa (non-violence) 26

  Ājīvikas 69

  Ānanda 98

  anatta (non-self) 44–5

  Anuradhapura 1

  asceticism see renouncers; selfmortification

  assembly, fourfold 85

  ātman (Self) 25–6, 31, 35, 39

  knowledge of 39–45

  awakening (sambodhi) 1, 3, 12, 35–6, 48–50, 53–78, 81

  awareness 32, 49, 70

  B

  Basket of the Disciplinary Code

  (Vinayapiṭaka) 5

  Basket of Discourses (Suttapiṭaka) 5

  begging 24, 28

  Benares 82, 84

  body and mind 56–9, 67–8, 96

  Bon religion 79–80

  Brahman 41

  Brahmaṇas 9, 15

  Brahmans 9, 13, 14–19, 22–4, 38, 54, 90

  Buddha, Gotama

  appeal of 1–2

  appearance 12

  character 12

  and chronology 8, 28

  death 3, 6, 8, 72, 98

  early life 2, 12–13, 49

  and legends 48–9, 81–5

  teachings see liberation; meditation; monks; Self; self-mortification; suffering

  see also awakening; renunciation

  Buddhism

  and laity 83–7

  schisms 7, 72

  spread 79–80, 87

  see also monks; scriptures

  Burma, Theravada Buddhism 8

  C

  Carrithers, Michael 77

  caste theory 18, 80

  causation, law of 21–4, 54, 65–9

  celibacy 22, 24, 70, 84

  cetanā 66

  China 7, 79

  Chinese, and scriptures 7–8
<
br />   choices 66–7

  Christianity, and Buddhism 80, 88

  Cicero, Marcus Tullius 10–11

  cities, rise of 9–10, 14, 16, 87

  clinging (upādāna) 64

  co-origination, dependent (paṭicca samuppāda) 68–9, 71

  compassion 82, 84, 89–90, 94

  concentration 30, 31–3, 36, 49–50, 57, 70

  Confucianism, and Buddhism 79

  consciousness

  and Meditative Planes 34

  and Self 42–3, 46, 57, 59, 64, 67–8

  context, social 8–11, 12–13, 19–27, 84, 87, 94–5

  cosmography, Buddhist 33–4, 54, 97

  cosmopolitanism 10, 20, 80, 92

  craving (taṇhā) 62–5, 70–1, 75–6

  moral significance of 65–9

  D

  delusion 65, 66–7, 70, 93

  desire see craving

  desirelessness 22

  detachment 32, 45, 90

  Dhammapada 60

  Dharmaśastra (Science of Law) 17

  E

  equanimity 33, 50–1, 70–1, 78

  estates, social 14–19, 22–3

  experience 4, 5–8, 37–9, 49–50, 53–4, 80

  and craving 63–4

  and five aggregates 59–60, 63

  and liberation 75–6

  and meditation 49, 50–2, 57, 71

  and mind and body 58–9

  and morality 91–3

  and suffering 56–7, 59–60, 64–5

  F

  feeling (vedanā) 57–8, 59, 64

  Fire sermon 62

  five aggregates (pañcakkhanda) 59–60, 63

  Four Noble Truths (cattāri ariyasaccāni) 54–9, 60, 64, 67, 69–70, 71, 82–3

  G

  Ganges civilization 12–13, 15, 20, 23–4, 90–5

  Gautama Dharmaśastra 17

  Gotama see Buddha

  Great Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness 50

  Greece, ancient 9–10, 88, 96

  H

  harmlessness 22, 26, 70, 75, 87, 88–9

  Hinduism 9, 41, 79

  humanism, liberal, and Buddhism 80

  Husbandmen (vaiśya) 15–17

  I

  ignorance 65, 68, 69–70

  images of the Buddha 1, 12, 47, 73

  impulses (samkhara) 59, 63–4, 66, 68

  India 4–5, 7–8, 79–80, 96

  small kingdoms 13–14

  social system see society

  see also Ganges civilization

  insight meditation (vipassanā) 52, 53, 57, 59, 61–4, 70, 72, 76

  intention 43–4, 66, 68, 90

  Isipatana Deer Park 82–3

  J

  Jainism

  and merit 85

  and self-mortification 26, 46

  texts 9, 16, 18, 24

  Japan 80

  jhāna (Absorptions) 32–3

  jīva (life, soul) 48

  K

  Kālāmans, Discourse to 90–5

  Kapilavatthu (birthplace of Buddha) 12

  karma 66

  karman 21–2

  Kesaputta village 90

  kingship 13–14, 16–17, 96–7

  knowledge 53, 65

  of Self 39–45, 46, 49

  Kosala state 13, 91, 94

  Kusinārā village 98

  L

  laity 21–2, 83–7, 83, 86, 88–95

  Lévi-Strauss, Claude 2

  liberation 3, 4, 36–7, 38, 45, 53–4, 69, 72–4, 81–2, 90

  and monks 85, 88–9

  theories of 74–8

  loving-kindness 89–90, 93–4

  Lumbini (Kapilavatthu) 12

  M

  Magadha state 13–14

  Mahabharata 35

  Mahāvagga 81

  Mahavira 26

  Marxism, and Buddhism 80

  materialism 25

  materiality 59

  Mauryan empire 9, 14

  meditation

  and Buddha 3, 4, 12, 13, 26, 28–31, 35–7, 39–45, 46, 49–52, 70

  and concentration 30, 31–3, 36, 49–50, 57, 70

  and four Absorptions 32–3, 35–6, 37, 49–50, 74, 80

  insight (vipassanā) 52, 53, 57, 59, 61–4, 70, 72, 76

  Meditative Planes (āyatana) 29–31, 33–4, 35, 36–7, 40, 74

  and morality 70–2

  posture for 30, 31

  and the Self 26, 39–45, 64

  mendicancy 24, 28–9, 70, 84–5

  merchants

  and Buddha 84, 87

  and estates theory 14, 16, 17

  merit 85, 87, 88

  Middle Path 48–52, 75, 82

  mind and body 56–9, 67–8, 96

  mindfulness 50–2

  monks

  early 3, 5–6, 74–5, 82–3

  forest 76–8, 77, 83

  and laity 81, 83–7, 83, 86

  rules for 96

  training 74–8, 89–90

  morality 4, 28, 36, 82, 87

  and craving 65–9

  and experience 91–3

  and law of causation 21–4, 54, 65–9

  and meditation 70–2

  and skilfulness 88–90

  N

  Nepal 12

  Nirvana 72, 73

  Noble Eightfold Path 70–1

  non-self (anatta) 44–5, 46

  non-violence (ahiṃsa) 26

  nothingness 29, 34

  nuns 85

  O

  oligarchy 13, 96

  one-pointedness 33, 50

  P

  Pali canon 7–8, 53

  paribbajakas (wanderers) 20

  Pasenadi, King 12

  perception 34, 50, 58, 59, 71–2

  perfection 21, 87

  politics 95–7

  posture, for meditation 1, 12, 30, 31

  Poṭṭhapāda 42–3

  poverty 22, 70, 87

  pragmatism 37–9, 42–3, 49, 60–1, 75, 87

  Prakrits 7

  predestinarianism 25, 69

  R

  rationality 93–4

  rebirth 25–6, 97

  and craving 63, 65

  and merit 85

  release from 3, 22, 35, 74

  and suffering 22–4, 35, 53–4, 67

  reflection, thorough (yoniso manasikāra) 75, 88, 91

  reincarnation see rebirth

  relativism, cultural 95–8

  renouncers 18–19, 20–4, 26, 28–9, 55, 63–4, 70, 82–3, 87

  renunciation 3, 19–24, 28, 70, 82

  Rhys Davids, T. W. 44–5

  S

  sacrifice 14–15, 25

  Sakya people 12–13, 14, 91

  Sallekha Sutta (Discourse on Complete Expunging) 35–6

  samaṇas (spiritual strivers) 20

  saṃkhata 43–4

  saṃsāra 22

  sangha (Order) see monks

  Sanskrit 7, 8, 9

  satisampajañña (self-possession) 50

  scepticism 25

  schism, early 7, 72

  scriptures, Brahmanical see Upanishads

  scriptures, Buddhist

  languages of 6–7

  and meditation 36–7

  Pali canon 7–8, 53

  preservation 5–7

  and yoga 25

  Self (ātman) 25–6, 31, 35, 58–9

  knowledge of 39–45, 46, 49

  and meditation 26, 39–45, 64

  and non-self 44, 46

  and rebirth 67–8

  self-mortification 46–8, 47, 49, 70, 75, 82

  and Buddha 3, 26, 47

  and Jainism 26, 46

  self-possession (satisampajañña) 50

  sermons of the Buddha 5

  Servants (śudra) 15–17, 22–3, 54

  Setting in Motion of the Wheel of the Teaching 82

  Shinto 80

  skilfulness (kusala) 88-90, 91, 93–4, 95

  society 8–11, 12–13, 19–27, 84, 87, 94–5

  four estates 14–19, 22–3
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  Socrates 9–11

  soul see Self

  Sri Lanka, and Buddhism 1, 8, 76, 79

  suffering (dukkha)

  and the Buddha 1, 3–4, 38, 55, 60–5, 66–9, 93

  and craving 62–5, 67–9, 71

  cure for 69–74

  and experience 56–7, 59–60

  and non-self 45

  and rebirth 22–4, 35, 53–4, 67

  see also liberation

  Suttapiṭaka (Basket of Discourses) 5

  T

  Taoism 79

  Thailand, Theravada Buddhism 8

  Theravada/Theravadins 8

  thirst see craving

  Tibet 7, 79–80

  Tibetan, and scriptures 7–8

  trance 3, 34

  transmigration see rebirth

  U

  Uddaka Rāmaputta 29–31, 46

  universalism 80, 90, 92, 96