Breaking the Chains
Page 3
Any investigator into these matters could be forgiven for reaching the conclusion that Zen has absolutely nothing at all to do with Buddhism or the Buddha. Investigators are informed that Zen is a fusion of Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism, and although it is clear that Taoism may have been the brainchild of Lao-tzu, a librarian, it is not clear whose brainchild Mahayana Buddhism was. In fact, what is known of Mahayana Buddhism appears to contradict the message of Theravada Buddhism, the only tradition among the so-called Eighteen Schools of early Buddhism to survive the first few centuries after the Buddha’s demise.
The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (563?-483? BC), left no written record of his teaching, and it was not until several hundred years after his death that a written account of his dharma (teaching) appeared - written accounts of Buddha’s teaching began to appear from about the 1st century BC. The full collection is known as the Tipitaka (Three Baskets)
and only survives in Pali, a dialect derived from Sanskrit: a language related to the Indic and Dard groups of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. The first ‘basket’ (Sutra Pitaka) contains a collection of discourses, the second ‘basket’ (Vinaga Pitaka) contains the code of monastic discipline, and the third ‘basket’ (Abhidharma Pitaka) contains philosophical, psychological, and doctrinal discussions and classifications. These three ‘baskets’ comprise the Theravada orthodoxy, which originated with the Theras (Elders). Theravada Buddhism traces its descent from the original sangha (monastic community) that followed the Buddha, and claims to abide by his original teachings. Although a few Theravada scriptures list other Buddhas (Enlightened Ones), most Theravada traditions emphasise that no universe would be able to tolerate more than one Buddha without shattering.
So, who was the Buddha and what did he teach? As all of the surviving accounts of his life were written centuries after his death it is now impossible to separate fact from fiction. Nevertheless, it would appear probable that he was the son of a member of the warrior caste (Sakya) with the family name Gautama. The title, Gautama Buddha, is a combination of Siddhartha’s family name plus Enlightened One - from the Sanskrit term Buddh (know). Siddhartha was also known as Sakyamuni: Sage of the Sakyas. Not unnaturally, Siddhartha’s father expected Siddhartha to follow in his footsteps and become ruler over his little kingdom in what is now Nepal. However, Siddhartha ran away from home to find the truth when he was about twenty-nine years old. Over the next few years Siddhartha took instruction from various Hindu masters and adopted a life of asceticism, which he eventually gave up in favour of a middle path between indulgence and self-denial. In 528 BC, when he was about thirty-five years old, while sitting under a Bo tree near Gaya ( now Buddh Gaya) in the state of Bihar, Siddhartha underwent what his followers describe as the Great Enlightenment. Shortly after that event Siddhartha, the Buddha, gave his first lesson in the Deer Park near Varanasi. This lesson contained the substance of the Buddha’s teaching. Over the next forty-five years Siddhartha travelled and taught. On the way, he established sangha (monastic communities) that admitted anyone irrespective of their cast. The Buddha died, after eating infected pork meat, in Kusinagara, Nepal. He was about eighty years old.
Gautama Buddha taught that life is suffering; that suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and the craving, attachment, and grasping that results from such ignorance; that suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment; that the path to the suppression of suffering consists of right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindedness, and right contemplation. Together these ideas constitute what Buddhists refer to as The Four Noble Truths, and The Noble Eightfold Path. According to some Hindu traditions it was the god Vishnu who was born as the Buddha; in order to mislead, corrupt, and ultimately destroy some dangerous demons who could never have been destroyed while they continued to practise orthodox Hinduism.
Strictly speaking there is no such religion as Hinduism. In the 5th century BC the Persians applied the term Hindu to the people of the land of the Indus. The word, Hindu, is derived from the Sanskrit term for the Indus river: Sindu. Hinduism is more accurately defined as everything the people of the land of the Indus have done and believed. Very few Hindus practise or believe the same thing. Nevertheless, some customs are common to most Hindus: a deep religious respect for priests (Brahmans) and cows, marriage within the cast, abstention from eating meat (beef in particular), and chanting the gayatri hymn to the sun at dawn - no agreement exists about what other hymns or prayers should be chanted.