The History of Buddhism
Dr. C. George Boeree
Shippensburg University
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Soon after Buddha's death or parinirvana, five
hundred monks met at the first council at Rajagrha, under the leadership
of Kashyapa. Upali recited the monastic code (Vinaya) as he remembered
it. Ananda, Buddha's cousin, friend, and favorite disciple -- and a man
of prodigious memory! -- recited Buddha's lessons (the Sutras). The monks
debated details and voted on final versions. These were then committed to
memory by other monks, to be translated into the many languages of the
Indian plains. It should be noted that Buddhism remained an oral
tradition for over 200 years.
In the next few
centuries, the original unity of Buddhism began to fragment. The most
significant split occurred after the second council, held at Vaishali 100
years after the first. After debates between a more liberal group and
traditionalists, the liberal group left and labeled themselves the
Mahasangha -- "the great sangha." They would eventually evolve into the
Mahayana tradition of northern Asia.
The traditionalists,
now referred to as Sthaviravada or "way of the elders" (or, in Pali,
Theravada), developed a complex set of philosophical ideas beyond those
elucidated by Buddha. These were collected into the Abhidharma or "higher
teachings." But they, too, encouraged disagreements, so that one splinter
group after another left the fold. Ultimately, 18 schools developed, each
with their own interpretations of various issues, and spread all over
India and Southeast Asia. Today, only the school stemming from the Sri
Lankan Theravadan survives.
Ashoka
One of the most
significant events in the history of Buddhism is the chance encounter of
the monk Nigrodha and the emperor Ashoka Maurya. Ashoka, succeeding his
father after a bloody power struggle in 268 bc, found himself deeply
disturbed by the carnage he caused while suppressing a revolt in the land
of the Kalingas. Meeting Nigrodha convinced Emperor Ashoka to devote
himself to peace. On his orders, thousands of rock pillars were erected,
bearing the words of the Buddha, in the brahmi script -- the first written
evidence of Buddhism. The third council of monks was held at Pataliputra,
the capital of Ashoka's empire.
There is a story
that tells about a poor young boy who, having nothing to give the Buddha
as a gift, collected a handful of dust and innocently presented it. The
Buddha smiled and accepted it with the same graciousness he accepted the
gifts of wealthy admirers. That boy, it is said, was reborn as the
Emperor Ashoka.
Ashoka sent
missionaries all over India and beyond. Some went as far as Egypt,
Palestine, and Greece. St. Origen even mentions them as having reached
Britain. The Greeks of one of the Alexandrian kingdoms of northern India
adopted Buddhism, after their King Menandros (Pali: Milinda) was
convinced by a monk named Nagasena -- the conversation immortalized in the
Milinda Pañha. A Kushan king of north India named Kanishka was also
converted, and a council was held in Kashmir in about 100 ad. Greek
Buddhists there recorded the Sutras on copper sheets which, unfortunately,
were never recovered.
It is interesting to
note that there is a saint in Orthodox Christianity named Josaphat, an
Indian king whose story is essentially that of the Buddha. Josaphat is
thought to be a distortion of the word bodhisattva.
Sri Lanka and
Theravada
Emperor Ashoka sent
one of his sons, Mahinda, and one of his daughters, Sanghamitta, a monk
and a nun, to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) around the year 240 bc. The king of Sri
Lanka, King Devanampiyatissa, welcomed them and was converted. One of the
gifts they brought with them was a branch of the bodhi tree, which was
successfully transplanted. The descendants of this branch can still be
found on the island.
The fourth council
was held in Sri Lanka, in the Aloka Cave, in the first century bc. During
this time as well, and for the first time, the entire set of Sutras were
recorded in the Pali language on palm leaves. This became Theravada's
Pali Canon, from which so much of our knowledge of Buddhism stems. It is
also called the Tripitaka (Pali: Tipitaka), or three baskets: The
three sections of the canon are the Vinaya Pitaka (the monastic law), the
Sutta Pitaka (words of the Buddha), and the Abhidamma Pitaka (the
philosophical commentaries).
In a very real
sense, Sri Lanka's monks may be credited with saving the Theravada
tradition: Although it had spread once from India all over southeast
Asia, it had nearly died out due to competition from Hinduism and Islam,
as well as war and colonialism. Theravada monks spread their tradition
from Sri Lanka to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Laos, and from
these lands to Europe and the west generally.
Mahayana
Mahayana began in
the first century bc, as a development of the Mahasangha rebellion. Their
more liberal attitudes toward monastic tradition allowed the lay community
to have a greater voice in the nature of Buddhism. For better or worse,
the simpler needs of the common folk were easier for the Mahayanists to
meet. For example, the people were used to gods and heroes. So, the
Trikaya (three bodies) doctrine came into being: Not only was Buddha a
man who became enlightened, he was also represented by various god-like
Buddhas in various appealing heavens, as well as by the Dharma itself, or
Shunyata (emptiness), or Buddha-Mind, depending on which interpretation we
look at -- sort of a Buddhist Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!
More important,
however, was the increased importance of the Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva
is someone who has attained enlightenment, but who chooses to remain in
this world of Samsara in order to bring others to enlightenment. He is a
lot like a saint, a spiritual hero, for the people to admire and appeal
to.
Along with new ideas
came new scriptures. Also called Sutras, they are often attributed to
Buddha himself, sometimes as special transmissions that Buddha supposedly
felt were too difficult for his original listeners and therefore were
hidden until the times were ripe. The most significant of these new
Sutras are these:
Prajñaparamita
or Perfection of Wisdom, an enormous collection of often esoteric texts,
including the famous Heart Sutra and Diamond Sutra. The earliest known
piece of printing in the world is, in fact, a copy of the Diamond Sutra,
printed in China in 868 ad.
Suddharma-pundarika
or White Lotus of the True Dharma, also often esoteric, includes the
Avalokiteshwara Sutra, a prayer to that Bodhisattva.
Vimalakirti-nirdesha
or Vimalakirti's Exposition, is the teachings of and stories about the
enlightened householder Vimalakirti.
Shurangama-samadhi
or Hero's Sutra, provides a guide to meditation, shunyata, and the
bodhisattva. It is most popular among Zen Buddhists
Sukhavati-vyuha
or Pure Land Sutra, is the most important Sutra for the Pure Land Schools
of Buddhism. The Buddha tells Ananda about Amitabha and his Pure Land or
heaven, and how one can be reborn there.
There are many, many
others. Finally, Mahayana is founded on two new philosophical
interpretations of Buddhism: Madhyamaka and Yogachara.
Madhyamaka
Madhyamaka means
"the middle way." You may recall that Buddha himself called his way the
middle way in his very first sermon. He meant, at that time, the middle
way between the extremes of hedonistic pleasure and extreme asceticism.
But he may also have referred to the middle way between the competing
philosophies of
eternalism and annihilationism -- the belief that the soul exists forever
and that the soul is annihilated at death. Or between materialism and
nihilism.... An Indian monk by the name of Nagarjuna took this idea and
expanded on it to create the philosophy that would be known as Madhyamaka,
in a book called the Mulamadhyamaka-karika, written about 150 ad.
Basically a treatise
on logical argument, it concludes that nothing is absolute, everything is
relative, nothing exists on its own, everything is interdependent. All
systems, beginning with the idea that each thing is what it is and not
something else (Aristotle's law of the excluded middle), wind up
contradicting themselves. Rigorous logic, in other words, leads one away
from all systems, and to the concept of shunyata.
Shunyata means
emptiness. This doesn't mean that nothing exists. It means that nothing
exists in and of itself, but only as a part of a universal web of being.
This would become a central concept in all branches of Mahayana. Of
course, it is actually a restatement of the central Buddhist concepts of
anatman, anitya, and dukkha!
Yogachara
The second
philosophical innovation, Yogachara, is credited to two brothers, Asanga
and Vasubandhu, who lived in India in the 300's ad. They elaborated
earlier movements in the direction of the philosophy of idealism or
chitta-matra. Chitta-matra means literally mind only. Asanga and
Vasubandhu believed that everything that exists is mind or consciousness.
What we think of as physical things are just projections of our minds,
delusions or hallucinations, if you like. To get rid of these delusions,
we must meditate, which for the Yogachara school means the creation of
pure consciousness, devoid of all content. In that way, we leave our
deluded individual minds and join with the universal mind, or Buddha-mind.
Tantra
The last innovation
was less philosophical and far more practical: Tantra. Tantra refers to
certain writings which are concerned, not with philosophical niceties, but
with the basic how-to of enlightenment, and not just with enlightenment in
several rebirths, but enlightenment here-and-now!
In order to
accomplish this feat, dramatic methods are needed, ones which, to the
uninitiated, may seem rather bizarre. Tantra was the domain of the
siddhu, the adept -- someone who knows the secrets, a magician in the
ways of enlightenment. Tantra involves the use of various techniques,
including the well-known mandalas, mantras, and mudras. mandalas are
paintings or other representations of higher awareness, usually in the
form of a circular pattern of images, which may provide the focus of
one-pointed meditation. Mantras are words or phrases that serve the same
purpose, such as the famous "Om mani padme hum." Mudras are hand
positions that symbolize certain qualities of enlightenment.
Less well known are
the yidams. A yidam is the image of a god or goddess or other spiritual
being, either physically represented or, more commonly, imagined clearly
in the mind's eye. Again, these represent archetypal qualities of
enlightenment, and one-pointed meditation on these complex images lead the
adept to his or her goal.
These ideas would
have enormous impact on Mahayana. They are not without critics, however:
Madhyamaka is sometimes criticized as word-play, and Yogachara is
criticized as reintroducing atman, eternal soul or essence, to Buddhism.
Tantra has been most often criticized, especially for its emphasis on
secret methods and strong devotion to a guru. Nevertheless, these
innovations led to a renewed flurry of activity in the first half of the
first millenium, and provided the foundation for the kinds of Buddhism we
find in China, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere in east Asia.
China
Legend has it that
the Chinese Emperor Ming Ti had a dream which led him to send his agents
down the Silk Road -- the ancient trade route between China and the west
-- to discover its meaning. The agents returned with a picture of the
Buddha and a copy of the Sutra in 42 Sections. This Sutra would, in 67
ad, be the first of many to be translated into Chinese.
The first Buddhist
community in China is thought to be one in Loyang, established by
"foreigners" around 150 ad, in the Han dynasty. Only 100 years later,
there emerges a native Chinese Sangha. And during the Period of Disunity
(or Era of the Warring States, 220 to 589 ad), the number of Buddhist
monks and nuns increase to as many as two million! Apparently, the
uncertain times and the misery of the lower classes were fertile ground
for the monastic traditions of Buddhism.
Buddhism did not
come to a land innocent of religion and philosophy, of course. China, in
fact, had three main competing streams of thought: Confucianism, Taoism,
and folk religion. Confucianisim is essentially a moral-political
philosophy, involving a complex guide to human relationships. Taoism is a
life-philosophy involving a return to simpler and more "natural" ways of
being. And the folk religion -- or, should we say, religions -- consisted
of rich mythologies, superstitions, astrology, reading of entrails, magic,
folk medicine, and so on. (Please understand that I am simplifying here:
Certainly Confucianism and Taoism are as sophisticated as Buddhism!)
Although these
various streams sometimes competed with each other and with Buddhism, they
also fed each other, enriched each other, and intertwined with each
other. Over time, the Mahayana of India became the Mahayana of China and,
later, of Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
Pure Land
The first example
historically is Pure Land Buddhism (Ching-T'u, J: Jodo). The peasants and
working people of China were used to gods and goddesses, praying for rain
and health, worrying about heaven and hell, and so on. It wasn't a great
leap to find in Buddhism's cosmology and theology the bases for a
religious tradition that catered to these needs and habits, while still
providing a sophisticated philosophical foundation.
The idea of this
period of time as a fallen or inferior time -- traditional in China -- led
to the idea that we are no longer able to reach enlightenment on our own
power, but must rely on the intercession of higher beings. The
transcendent Buddha Amitabha, and his western paradise ("pure land"),
introduced in the Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra, was a perfect fit.
Ch'an
Another school that
was to be particularly strongly influenced by Chinese thought was the
Meditation School -- Dhyana, Ch'an, Son, or Zen. Tradition has the Indian
monk Bodhidharma coming from the west to China around 520 ad. It was
Bodhidharma, it is said, who carried the Silent Transmission to become the
First Patriarch of the Ch'an School in China:
From the very
beginning, Buddha had had reservations about his ability to communicate
his message to the people. Words simply could not carry such a sublime
message. So, on one occasion, while the monks around him waited for a
sermon, he said absolutely nothing. He simply held up a flower. the
monks, of course, were confused, except for Kashyapa, who understood and
smiled. The Buddha smiled back, and thus the Silent Transmission began.
Zen Buddhism focuses
on developing the immediate awareness of Buddha-mind through meditation on
emptiness. It is notorious for its dismissal of the written and spoken
word and occasionally for his rough-house antics. It should be
understood, however, that there is great reverence for the Buddha, the
Dharma, and the Sangha, even when they are ostensibly ignoring, poking
fun, or even turning them upside-down.
Zen has contributed
its own literature to the Buddhist melting-pot, including The Platform
Sutra, written by Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch, around 700 ad., The Blue
Cliff Record, written about 1000 ad., and The Gateless Gate, written about
1200 ad. And we shouldn't forget the famous Ten Ox-Herding Pictures that
many see as containing the very essence of Zen's message.
The Blossoming of
Schools
During the Sui
dynasty (581-618) and T'ang dynasty (618-907), Chinese Buddhism
experienced what is referred to as the "blossoming of schools." The
philosophical inspirations of the Madhyamaka and Yogachara, as well as the
Pure Land and Ch'an Sutras, interacting with the already sophisticated
philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism, led to a regular renaissance in
religious and philosophical thought.
We find the
Realistic School, based on the "all things exist" Hinayana School; the
Three-Treatises School, based on Madhyamaka; the Idealist School, based on
Yogachara; the Tantric School; the Flower Adornment School (Hua-Yen, J:
Kegon), which attempted to consolidate the various forms; and the White
Lotus School (T'ien-T'ai, J: Tendai), which focused on the Lotus Sutra.
All the Chinese
Schools had their representatives in neighboring countries. Korea was to
develop its own powerful form of Ch'an called Son. Vietnam developed a
form of Ch'an that incorporated aspects of Pure Land and Hinayana. But it
was Japan that would have a field day with Chinese Buddhism, and pass the
Mahayana traditions on to the US and the west generally.
Japan
Again, we begin with
the legendary: A delegation arrived from Korea with gifts for the Emperor
of Japan in 538 ad., including a bronze Buddha and various Sutras.
Unfortunately a plague led the Emperor to believe that the traditional
gods of Japan were annoyed, so he had the gifts thrown into a canal! But
the imperial court on the 600's, in their constant effort to be as
sophisticated as the courts of their distinguished neighbors, the Chinese,
continued to be drawn to Buddhism.
Although starting as
a religion of the upper classes, in the 900's, Pure Land entered the
picture as the favorite of the peasant and working classes. And in the
1200's, Ch'an, relabeled Zen, came into Japan, where it was
enthusiastically adopted by, among others, the warrior class or Samurai.
Zen was introduced
into Japan by two particularly talented monks who had gone to China for
their educations: Eisai (1141-1215) brought Lin-chi (J: Rinzai) Ch'an,
with its koans and occasionally outrageous antics; Dogen (1200-1253)
brought the more sedate Ts'ao-tung (J: Soto) Ch'an. In addition, Dogen is
particularly admired for his massive treatise, the Shobogenzo.
Ch'an has always had
an artistic side to it. In China and elsewhere, a certain simple, elegant
style of writing and drawing developed among the monks. In Japan, this
became an even more influential aspect of Zen. We have, for example, the
poetry, calligraphy, and paintings of various monks -- Bankei (1622-1698),
Basho (1644-1694), Hakuin (1685-1768), and Ryokan (1758-1831) -- which
have become internationally beloved.
One last Japanese
innovation is usually attributed to a somewhat unorthodox monk named
Nichiren (1222-1282). Having been trained in the Tendai or White Lotus
tradition, he came to believe that the Lotus Sutra carried all that was
necessary for Buddhist life. More than that, he believed that even the
name of the Sutra was enough! So he encouraged his students to chant this
mantra: Namu-myoho-renge-kyo, which means "homage to the Lotus Sutra."
This practice alone would ensure enlightenment in this life. In fact, he
insisted, all other forms of Buddhism were worthless. Needless to say,
this was not appreciated by the Buddhist powers of the day. He spent the
rest of his life exiled to a remote island. The Nichiren School
nevertheless proved to be one of the most successful forms of Buddhism on
the planet!
Tibet
Finally, let's turn
out attention to the most mysterious site of Buddhism's history, Tibet.
Its first encounter with Buddhism occurred in the 700's ad, when a Tantric
master, Guru Rinpoché, came from India to battle the demons of Tibet for
control. The demons submitted, but they remained forever a part of
Tibetan Buddhism -- as its protectors!
During the 800's and
900's, Tibet went through a "dark age," during which Buddhism suffered
something of a setback. But, in the 1000's, it returned in force. And in
1578, the Mongol overlords named the head of the Gelug School the Dalai
Lama, meaning "guru as great as the ocean." The title was made
retroactive to two earlier heads of the school. The fifth Dalai Lama is
noted for bringing all of Tibet under his religious and political control.
The lineage
continues down to the present 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, born 1935.
In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of
his people and nation, which had been taken over by the Communist Chinese
in 1951.
The West
It was in the latter
half of the 1800's that Buddhism first came to be known in the west. The
great European colonial empires brought the ancient cultures of India and
China back to the attention of the intellectuals of Europe. Scholars
began to learn Asian languages and translate Asian texts. Adventurers
explored previously shut-off places and recorded the cultures. Religious
enthusiasts enjoyed the exotic and mystical tone of the Asian traditions.
In England, for
example, societies sprang up for devotees of "orientalia," such as T. W.
Rhys Davids' Pali Text Society and T. Christmas Humphreys'
Buddhist Society. Books were published, such as Sir Edwin Arnold's
epic poem The Light of Asia (1879). And the first western monks
began to make themselves know, such as Allan Bennett, perhaps the very
first, who took the name Ananda Metteya. In Germany and France as well,
Buddhism was the rage.
In the United
States, there was a similar flurry of interest. First of all, thousands
of Chinese immigrants were coming to the west coast in the late 1800's,
many to provide cheap labor for the railroads and other expanding
industries. Also, on the east coast, intellectuals were reading about
Buddhism in books by Europeans. One example was Henry Thoreau, who,
among other things, translated a French translation of a Buddhist Sutra
into English.
A renewal of
interest came during World War II, during which many Asian Buddhists --
such as the Zen author D. T. Suzuki -- came to England and the U.S., and
many European Buddhists -- such as the Zen author Alan Watts -- came to
the U.S. As these examples suggest, Zen Buddhism was particularly
popular, especially in the U.S., where it became enmeshed in the Beatnik
artistic and literary movement as "beat Zen."
One by one, European
and Americans who studied in Asia returned with their knowledge and
founded monasteries and societies, Asian masters came to Europe and
America to found monasteries, and the Asian immigrant populations from
China, Japan, Vietnam and elsewhere, quietly continued their Buddhist
practices.
Today, it is
believed that there are more than 300 million Buddhists in the world,
including at least a quarter million in Europe, and a half million each in
North and South America. I say "at least" because other estimates go as
high as three million in the U.S. alone! Whatever the numbers may be,
Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world, after Christianity,
Islam, and Hinduism. And, although it has suffered considerable setbacks
over the centuries, it seems to be attracting more and more people, as a
religion or a philosophy of life.
Resources
:
Snelling, John
(1991). The Buddhist Handbook. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.
The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion
(1994). Boston: Shambhala.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica CD
(1998). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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Update : 01-04-2003
