By Eric Vandenbroeck
The story of
Buddhist's past and at least one possible future.
While opinions in Europe
and North America tend to view Buddhism as some sort of unified religion the
origins and spreading of Buddhism tell a different story.
Whereas initially
Buddhism remained confined to northern India for two hundred years it began to
spread under King Asoka’s power (274–232 BC).
Over time, Buddhism
developed into several
distinct branches. Theravada Buddhism, the most conservative school, is
prominent in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka, and
Myanmar. Mahayana Buddhism, the more liberal, is practiced in East Asian and
South Asian countries such as China and India. Vajrayana Buddhism is most
prevalent in Tibet and other Himalayan countries.
In India, Buddhism
began to wane in the sixth and seventh centuries CE when devotional Hinduism
replaced Buddhism in the south and Hephthalite Huns invaded and sacked
monasteries in the north. By the thirteenth century, repeated invasions by the
Turks ensured that Buddhism had virtually disappeared. By this time, however,
Buddhism was flourishing in many other parts of Asia.
As early as the first
century CE, Buddhist monks made their way over the “Silk Road” through Central
Asia to China. By the seventh century, Buddhism had made a significant impact
in China, interacting with Confucian and Daoist cultures and ideas.
It is also here that
we see one of the examples of the syncretic nature of Buddhism. Thus were in
the beginning Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism vied with one another for the
hearts and minds of the populace, over time they
began to blend together.
In the eighth
century, Buddhism, shaped by the Tantric traditions of northeast India, spread
to the high mountain plateau of Tibet. There, in interaction with the
indigenous Bon religion, and with forms of Buddhism that had traveled to Tibet
from East Asia, a distinctive and vibrant form of Mahayana Buddhism emerged
known as Vajrayana,
the “Diamond Vehicle.”
These streams of
Buddhism are differentiated to some extent by their interpretations of the
Buddha and the Buddha’s teachings, the scriptures they hold in special
reverence, and the variety of cultural expressions they lend to Buddhist life
and practice. It would be a mistake, however, to identify these streams of
tradition too rigidly with either specific ideas or specific geographical
areas.
Western ideas also
influenced other forms of syncretism. Thus, for example, the Buddhist doctrine
of rebirth was read in terms of
contemporary biological insights: humans are but one of many life-forms, they
are not biologically privileged or different, as certain religious creation
myths suggest, but are instead part of a more extensive web of life. Buddhist
cosmologies, according to which there are multiple “world-systems” that are
effectively similar to our own, were read in terms of the findings of modern
astronomy, which posited the existence of innumerable planets orbiting
innumerable stars throughout the universe. Buddhist ontological theories based
on the idea that all phenomena are constituted of tiny, invisible particles
were read as anticipating and according to the worldview of contemporary
physics and chemistry.
For their part, Asian
Buddhist apologists who were subject to polemical arguments from Western
Christians and from Asian modernists who embraced the new scientific theories
and their related technologies and applications tended to resist those
pressures by reinterpreting Buddhist teachings and worldviews according to the
latest findings of science. Charges that Buddhism was unscientific, backward
superstition were countered by Buddhist leaders who argued that Buddhism, properly
understood, was a scientific tradition.
But with current book
titles like "No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to
Buddhism" (2019) it is the emerging field of psychology that Buddhism is
believed to most closely resemble.
Enter the era of Nationalism and Zen Buddhism
Similarly the
combination of Westerners seeking a religious tradition that accorded with
their worldviews and values and of Asian Buddhists promoting a vision of
Buddhism that was in line with those values resulted in the widespread
perception that Buddhism is, among other things, a religious tradition that is
essentially dedicated to peace and nonviolence. Whereby I have detailed how Buddhism very well lends itself to
Nationalism and even war.
Another example of
this is the Venerable Master Taixu (1890-1947) after
the military conflict between Chinese and Japanese troops in Jinan in 1928, Taixu became a critic of Japanese Buddhists who, according
to him, had detracted from the true Buddhist path by conniving with and
supporting Japanese aggression against China, yet he spared no effort to
persuade them against Japanese imperialistic policy. Meanwhile, he urged
Chinese Buddhists to prepare themselves for and participate in resisting
Japanese invasion, and justified his call as the
way to revive Buddhism.
Following see also Taixu’s
letter to Adolf Hitler:
According to
Buddhists scripture, only Buddhists count as human beings and there is no
moral or karmic issue with killing non-Buddhists. Here, as in other Buddhist
sources, the prohibition against violence is superseded by the imperative to
disseminate and preserve Buddhism.
Beyond such
rhetorical support for violence and warfare, there are also multiple examples
of fighting Buddhist monks. The Buddhist monks of Shaolin Monastery are perhaps
the most well-known examples of warrior monks. Depicted in numerous kung-fu
movies, the Buddhist monks of Shaolin Monastery are renowned for their skill in
the martial arts. Historically, the monks of Shaolin Monastery came to
prominence in the seventh century when they fought on behalf of the Chinese
emperor to defeat Wang Shichong (567–621), a claimant
to the Chinese throne who was defeated by the founders of the Tang Dynasty
(618–907). The fighting Buddhist monks of Shaolin are not an anomaly. The sōhei or “warrior monks” of Japan were effectively monastic
troops that fought on behalf of their resident monasteries against other
warrior monks. They also fought in the Genpei War
(1180–1185), a civil war that resulted in the establishment of the Kamakura
shogunate in Japan. In the massive Buddhist monasteries of traditional Tibet,
monks called dap
dop served as a police force and militia. The dap dop were recognized as
monastic Buddhists, though they carried weapons and did not observe standard monastic
discipline. Perhaps the most striking example of Buddhist involvement in
violence and warfare is the role of the Japanese Buddhist establishment in the
war efforts of imperial Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Buddhist monks in Japan supported the wars by providing
justification for the invasion of East Asian nations and the slaughter of their
people as an expression of benevolence and compassion, officers were trained in
Zen Buddhist establishments in order to make them effective soldiers, and
Buddhist monks even formed fighting units. Although Buddhism was presented and
received in the West as an essentially peaceful tradition, several of the early
and most important representatives of Japanese Buddhism in the United States
had ties to the Japanese war effort; Shaku Sōen and
D. T. Suzuki (the latter as we will see further below) had actively promoted a
nationalistic, prowar version of Buddhism, for example.
Similar examples could recently be seen in Myanmar which is contrasted
by the western syncretism of Zen Master Thich Nhat
Hanh who was teaching comparative religions at Princeton University and went on
to become a lecturer at Columbia University which led to another form of
syncretism, that of Buddhist
environmentalism.
As for Zen Hundreds
of books have been written that apply the principles of Zen Buddhism to a wide
range of activities. These “Zen and the Art of . . .” or “Zen in the Art of . .
.” books seemingly cover every possible human endeavor like Lawrence M.
Kahn Zen and the Art of Hiring a
Personal Injury Lawyer (2010),Cary Black and Don Black Zen and the Art of Cooking Beer-Can Chicken
(2007), with other titles like “Zen in the Art of Slaying Vampires”, or “Zen
and the Art of Public School Teaching”, just to name a few. These books reflect
the fact that the principles of Zen may be applied to any activity—from
traditional flower arranging and the preparation, serving, and drinking of tea
to archery, small engine repair, and, evidently, cooking beer-can chicken. Phil
Jackson (1945–), the former coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers,
applied the principles of Zen to professional basketball and won a record
eleven NBA titles as a coach (Jackson 2014).
Along with books applying the principles of Zen to any action, the
market is saturated with “Zen” products. These include shoes, lamps and lights,
vacuum cleaners, guitars, ceiling fans, furniture, bassinets, makeup and beauty
products, toothpaste, energy drinks, herbal supplements (for both humans and
dogs), e-cigarettes, and liqueur.
As has been described
in William Theodore De Bary, Donald Keene, George
Tanabe, and Paul Varley, eds. Sources of Japanese Tradition. Vol. 1, From
Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press
2001,this perception of Zen may be traced in part to the creation of “New
Buddhism” (Shin Bukkyō 新佛教) in Japan in the second half of the nineteenth
century.
This New Buddhism
emerged in response to political and social changes attending the Meiji
Restoration. This period of time in Japanese history was initiated in 1868 when
Emperor Meiji (1852–1912) reestablished actual imperial rule and Japan was
rapidly modernized. These moves toward rapid modernization were included in the
so-called Charter Oath (Gokajō no Goseimon
五箇条の御誓文) that was issued upon Emperor Meiji’s enthronement.
Consisting of five articles, the Charter Oath outlines a new direction for the
Japanese government and society. The final two articles of the Charter Oath
articulate the new emphasis on modern science, technology, and worldviews and
the intended abandonment of practices, views, and institutions that were not in
accord with modern, scientific models. Article 4 states that “Evil customs of
the past shall be broken off and everything based upon the just laws of
Nature.” Article 5 reads: “Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as
to strengthen the foundation of imperial rule” (De Bary
et al. 2001, p. 672). Effectively, these articles of the Charter Oath announced
a withdrawal of political and economic support for traditional religious
institutions and a new emphasis on pursuing foreign knowledge, chiefly
scientific and technological knowledge. In response, Japanese Buddhists
reframed their religion in order to argue that Buddhism made important
contributions to Japanese society, supported imperial rule, and was consistent
with modern Western science and technology. Domestically, Japanese Buddhists
began to argue that Buddhism was an essential aspect of Japanese culture, that
Japanese Buddhism was, in fact, the only “true” Buddhism in the world.
Not unlike as was the
case with the above mentioned Venerable Master Taixu
a book by Brian Daizen Victoria titled “Zen at War”(2006)
traces Zen Buddhism’s support of Japanese militarism from the time of the Meiji
Restoration through the World War II and the post-War period.
One of the most
influential person in establishing Zen Buddhism in the Western imagination was Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki
(1870–1966), or D. T. Suzuki as he is commonly known who along with his
popularizer, Alan
Watts, first really brought the West’s attention to Zen. Published in 1934,
Suzuki’s An Introduction to Zen Buddhism is still in print and widely read
today. Therein, he presents Zen Buddhism as a “unique order claiming to
transmit the essence and spirit of Buddhism directly from its author” (Suzuki,
An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. New York,1964, p.2). But also here Ichikawa Hakugen, a Rinzai-priest and a scholar who taught at Hanazono University in Tokyo, saw D. T. Suzuki as “most
responsible for the development of imperial-way Zen”, but in no way standing
alone in this development. Hakugen traces this
development to pre-meiji developments. (Victoria, Zen
at War, 2006, p. 167.) Or as Suzuki himself wrote: A good
fighter is generally an ascetic or stoic, which means he has an iron will.
This, when needed, Zen can supply. (As quoted from Daisetz
Teitaro Suzuki, Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on
Japanese Culture, 1938, p. 62.)
A priest named Mindar
And at least one
possible future of Buddhist syncretism can be seen in the priest named Mindar holding forth at Kodaiji,
a 400-year-old Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. Like other clergy members, this
priest can deliver sermons and move around to interface with worshippers. But Mindar comes with some ... unusual traits. A body made of
aluminum and silicone, for starters. Mindar is a robot who is predicted he
could one day acquire unlimited wisdom.
For related subjects
see:
Buddhist Dream-Yoga in Tibet, P.1
Buddhist Dream-Yoga in Tibet, P.2
Buddhist Dream-Yoga in Tibet, P.3
The Dance of Lives: The Tulku Game
For updates click homepage here