BUDDHIST REVELATIONS
FOR THE MODERN WORLD
Letter to the World’s Intellectuals from Bhiksu Duc Nhuan
Translated into English by Pham Kim Khai &
final edit by Chris Dunk.
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Introduction
The Most Venerable
Thich
Duc
Nhuan
was a highly accomplished and respected Buddhist Monk, leader and
scholar of International significance during the tumultuous changes
experienced by Vietnamese Buddhism from the 1920’s and into the 21st
century. His life was led to the background events of his country
throwing off of the colonial domination of the French through its war of
independence prior to and after WW2, the Japanese occupation during WW2,
and the division of the country into North and South Vietnam in the
1950’s. He lived through the political turmoil and religious suppression
during the Vietnam War era in the 1960’s and 70’s, and the re
unification under the Communist Government since 1975. Since then the
impact of political events globally and contemporary technology has
impacted on once isolated countries world wide with far reaching
consequences. His publication
Buddhist
Revelations for the Modern World
is a work that was written around some thirty years ago but his ideas
concerning contemporary life are still relevant and display his
connection to contemporary life and internationalism. His realisations
on the impact to traditional culture of technological change and
multi-culturalism and its challenges to us, are written with the aim of
enabling us to surmount those challenges using Buddhist philosophy and
practice to further humanise us into embracing this new contemporary
culture.
Most Venerable Thich Duc Nhuan was born in 1924 at Lac Chinh Village,
Nam Dinh Province in the North of Vietnam. He left his family to become
a Buddhist monk in 1937, and was trained at many Buddhist Institutions.
In 1949 he began his work for a as the Deputy Chairperson of Nam Dinh
Buddhist congregation. In 1954 he left the northern Vietnam for the
south. From 1956-57 he was he worked as the Executive Officer of the
Northern Sangha Buddhist Association in the South. In 1959 to 1961 he
was the Commissioner for Culture of Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation.
From 1960 to 1961 he was re-elected as the Executive Officer of the
Northern Sangha Buddhist Association in the South. In 1962-63 he was
the General Secretary of the Vietnamese Buddhist Sangha Congregation. In
1963 he was an member of the group Buddhist Monks that protested and
was active in opposition to the Republic of South Vietnam Diem
Government’s anti Buddhist policies and repression of the Buddhist
Sangha.
In 1964 to 1965 he was the Commissioner for the Censorship of Buddhist
publications for the Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation. From 1955-66 he
was the Chief Editor of the Van Hanh the monthly Buddhist research
magazine This magazine was a collaboration by all scholars,
professionals, poets artists and others, and was the primary publication
developing culture and Buddhist philosophical discourse in Vietnam. In
1969 and 70 he was Professor at the Buddhist and Oriental Philosophy
Department at Van Hanh Buddhist University. From 1967- 1973, he was
the General secretary of the Sangaharaja Institute of the Unified
Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation. From 1969-1971 he rebuilt the Giac
Minh Temple the central headquarters of the Northern Buddhist Sangha
Association. From 1971 to 1972 he was the Chief Editor of Hoa Dao
monthly magazine of the Dharma promotion department the Unified
Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation. From 1975 to 1981 he was the Abbot
of Giac Minh Temple. From 1985 to 1993 the Communist Government of
Vietnam imprisoned him due to his perceived opposition to Government
policies. He was released in 1993 and spent the remainder of his life at
Giac Minh Temple where he continued his work and dedication to the
future of Vietnamese Buddhism. In 1999 to 2002 he was invited to keep
his position as Advisor to the Leadership Committee of the Unified
Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation which he retained to the time of his
death that year.
At the end of 2001 The most Venerable Thich Duc Nhuan felt ill and his
disciples took him to the Thong Nhat hospital in Saigon. He was given
great care by the medical staff but his condition worsened due to his
advanced age being now 79 years old and he passed away in peaceful
circumstances at 4.55 on the 21st January 2002.
Throughout his life from he was devoted to his country and the
development of Buddhism. His life was an example of devotion strength
and determination under adverse conditions. He promoted and published
widely and his writings illuminated and provided explanations concerning
Buddhist life, ideas and philosophy to many people in Vietnam and
elsewhere. To this day, his legacy of work that he left us still
provides a clear path to our own enlightenment.
The
most Venerable Thich Duc Nhuan published works includes :
Spiritual wind
(poem), Published by Van Hanh 1959
Essential Buddhism a combined doctrine.
Published by Van Hanh 1960. Republished many times in Vietnam and the
USA.
Transformation
of Buddhism for the Modern World.
Published by Van Hanh 1967.
Buddhist Revelations for the Modern World.
Published by Van Hanh 1969. Republished 1995 in USA and in 2002 in
Australia.
The Mission of Buddhist Followers for Nation and Buddhism.
Published by Vietnamese and International Philosophical Institute
California USA. 1995.
Planning for Buddhist Civilisation
Published by Vietnamese and International Philosophical Institute
California USA. 1996.
Buddhism and Vietnamese History.
Published by Vietnamese and International Philosophical Institute
California USA. 1996 republished Saigon 1997.
Light of the Faith
(poem), Published by Vietnamese and International Philosophical
Institute California USA. 1999
The Forty two Chapter
Sutra, Published by Giac Minh Temple, 1980 and republished in 1995
The Nirvana Sutra,
Published by Giac Minh Temple, 1980 and republished in 1995
Philosophical concepts of the Avatamsaka Sutra,
Published by Vietnamese and International Philosophical Institute
California USA. 1999
Heading
towards the Modern Age, Published by Vietnamese and International
Philosophical Institute California USA. 2000
By Thích Nguyen Tang
Melbourne, Summer Retreat 2002
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BUDDHIST REVELATIONS
FOR THE MODERN WORLD
The more we
struggle to survive, seek meaning in our lives and increase our efforts
to keep up with the constant rate of change inherent on today’s life,
the more exhausted and further depressed and disheartened we become,
feeling more helpless and hopeless. All this contributes to greater loss
of confidence in one's self and the world. The effects of this
contemporary social phenomena has left its imprints on all and every one
of us, and most deeply in the minds and hearts of those of our youth
facing an uncertain future.
At this difficult and
challenging time in history, it is the intellectuals and others who are
expected to lead us all out of this impasse of the culmination of time,
they are expected to bring relief and lighten the load on the
disheartened among us, to bring light into modern life to create
significance, meaning and faith. It is essential then to reform our
knowledge of, and understanding of this world and phenomena of life
itself as it seems for I believe that our common understanding
and prevalent views of life in this world is a deformed view created by
historians and others that is a ‘one-eyed’ view restricted due to
restricted consciousness. Buddhism on the other hand I am convinced is a
supreme philosophy to lead men to happiness and meaning and truth within
contemporary life and will widen that view.
Looking at our
collective history we certainly have shared serious problems due to our
debased nature and also due to being governed by those who have led us
into insane, collective massacres of fellow human beings through
political and economic conflicts. Often these events are motivated by
the ill-will of a minority of powerful decision makers and for their own
interests, they have bartered other peoples blood and life
indifferently, causing human blood wasted in struggles for political
power, financial gain and private interests exploiting class, race and
cultural issues. Their need for their own survival over the greater good
motivates their indifference to others. They seem not to feel what they
cause, nor care.
I am convinced that it
is not until man is enlightened in the Buddhist sense and has lost all
those insane cravings within our narrowly perceived self and its needs,
that we will remain imprisoned within that endless delusional struggle
at the expense of others further increasing the social inequality and
historical misdirection we have all inherited through time.
The Buddhist idea,
that of enlightenment is a concept more commonly heard of nowadays than
ever before due to the spread of eastern philosophy world wide. It is
however greatly misunderstood and poorly explained leading to a
perverted view of what it actually means Commonly, enlightenment is
thought to be being aware of individual or of class rights and other
things of similar earthily meaning. Unfortunately nothing is said of
enlightenment, that of being aware of one's own human condition, our
relationship with the world, and our responsibilities in society and for
life at large and as a whole. There are barely any spoken or written
texts in publications or in other media that shed light on what
enlightenment actually is. There are plenty of well-meant and
well-considered information but still they seem to express views
restricted through selfishness privilege, power and pride. Noble
enlightenment, on the other hand as Tagore expresses it, is when blow
upon blow, pang upon pang you are to be awakened by the spiritual call:
"Atmaønam viddhi” Know thyself. (R. Tagore 1917)
Prior to any possible
personal freedom, one must first remove from themselves feelings of
prejudice, pride and selfishness. One's self-liberation must depend for
its full realization, upon the removal of this common cause of our
suffering. Without this grand vision, we can only go halfway at most or
be lost. Self-indulgence our great enemy naturally means one’s excessive
attention to one’s self, indifferently shutting out all problems of
others and of common life. Individual selfishness, self-indulgence and
aloofness are not the signs of an enlightened person. Actually, an
enlightened person who has the perfect knowledge, kindness and wisdom,
pertaining to Buddhist dharma (law) must do all and everything for those
living the common life, have must have an understanding of the causes of
suffering and attempt to alleviate that burden through the right
thoughts, motivation and action towards lifting that burden.
A harmonious world
must be founded upon self-understanding, of self-awareness and of our
noble transformation through dharma of the Buddha. The life of Buddha,
the enlightened one, reveals that his was the right path, due to and of
his right speech, his right thought and his right conduct. His immense
sacrifice to obtain what he achieved, his great renunciation of the
restricted world of form and of deeply questioning suffering. The
immaculate purity of his life left an indelible imprint upon the minds
and hearts of generation after generation of Asian people. It became a
message to the whole world, and as suggested by Gandhi “For Asia to
be not for Asia but the whole world, it has to relearn the message of
the Buddha and deliver it to the whole world” (Gandhi’s speech
Harijan, 24.12.1938)
As long as we are
Buddhists then, and our lives owe such inspiration derived from his, we
cannot keep silent and motionless within Buddhism with such infinite
problems facing the world of this life and the effects the planet and
all its living things. We must act towards doing something about them.
By
their fruits shall ye know them.
Through this
Jewish/Christian biblical saying we can also apply it to Buddhism
meaning the fruits of Buddhist thought, the spirit of realism,
compassion, wisdom equality and altruism that has conferred many great
benefits upon societies wherever it has gone. Buddhism has contributed
greatly to persons recovering their inner peace, in resettling social
disorder and in creating greater material and social prosperity. By its
fruits then people have come to know Buddhism as a tree that bears great
rewards for all.
History and human
culture today, is on the threshold of a great synthesis. Today through
the impact of information and technological revolutions we live in a
significantly shrunken world, isolatio is now impossible and problems
once isolated over much of the globe and from various cultures are
overwhelming national boundaries affecting us all. Contemporary people
are required to have great personal insight and great tolerance to rid
themselves and society at large, of religious, racial and class
prejudices and to enable them to remake societies based on greater
justice and freedom in a new world. Today many different ethnic groups
live side by side in modern cities, and in multicultural nations,
greater intercultural tolerance is essential.
Personal freedom,
that is to be free to be one’s self, is an essential life impulse and
whose natural destiny is to find right expression.
However the
spiritual force that is beyond one’s personal individualism, unites us
all as a whole and permits the power of the universe, to be
simultaneously manifested within all individuals as a whole.
Every person has
their right to think, ponder and choose how they wish to live, serve
others, and in being creative. This idea, may seem to pave the way for
an excess of individualism but really it means to be tolerant of others,
in accepting others freedom of thought and expression within social
bounds.
We owe people as social beings the
safety of a certain amount of diversity of thought and expression that
naturally, does not deny others their own rights through being
excessive. These rights needs to be an expression of tolerance and
affection as the Indian poet Tagore, said in a letter to Gandhi in 1919:“Give
me the, supreme courage of love, this is my prayer, the courage to
speak, to do, to suffer at thy will, to leave all things or to be left
alone”. This message of responsible tolerant individualism
was revived through Radhakrishna's inaugural address to the “unesco
Tagore's Centenary Celebrations in Paris".‘We must take our
responsibility to help the coming generations build a new life rational,
civilized, human, by destroying the springs of man’s actions, which lie
deep in Ignorance, Hatred and Selfishness’.The
Agamas Sutram said, of the forces of cause and effect acting on life;
‘What we are longing
for is supreme compassion in action. Upon such a basis can we maintain
firm and lasting justice and social equilibrium? When social order is
upset and freedom is violated, or vice versa: Let this be, and so will
that be. One being less makes the other nothing. Let this be born, and
so will that, born. That this dies makes that ending’
Buddhist teachings
assert that life is a result of cause and effect, and that these are in
keeping with nature’s universal laws. This supreme rule is what Buddhist
must always keep in mind, and moreover, for the sake of a modern society
where conflicts are stilled and harmony pervades, material needs,
ownership, individual and family needs and visions need be in tune with
national and international outcomes, as only then can nations live
within international humanist ideals. Only then can war come to an end,
when living conditions over the world become more level, as reduced
class rivalries and conflict within communities and beyond is reduced.
Once hostile feelings are negated, cravings gradually become calmed,
then, it is only then, that the way to true freedom will be revealed to
us as the true religion flowers, through all acting with right action.
The glory and full bloom of humankinds transcendental self nature will
then be experienced.
Buddhism has been known
for its universal compassion, its humanity, its love, its
self-perfection and self-understanding, and especially upon its emphasis
upon individual experience, human energy and free will towards ones own
self-realization. It’s concern with a grand vision of cultural synthesis
and merging of ideas. Buddhism is adaptable, peace loving, earthy and
practical as well as possessing an imaginative and speculative spirit.
Buddhism then can and must bring forth to the modern world greater
significance and happiness for all of us.
By
the way, who are those lead us people to the blissful state?
The first and foremost
are Buddhists or “Buddha’s-to-be”. Whether Buddhism can be useful and
fruitful to contemporary times depends not upon some canonical
scriptures or sutras, but mainly upon those intelligent intercessors
that preach the Dharma law as it relates to contemporary times, and
adapt themselves to today’s social circumstances. They have to emphasize
how to make Buddhism up-to-date, they must help to enrich it and enliven
it, conveying it to all persons of all walks of life intellectually and
socially speaking. Buddhism today can only last if it is adaptable and
works harmoniously with the essential demands of modern times.
We have heard it that
persons of ideological bias or laymen who interpret Buddhism as a
religion or philosophy without sympathy as atheistic and nihilistic.
Buddhists are described
by such persons as standing aloof from secular society, and are
therefore, reactionary and anti-humanistic. It is fair and right to
question Buddhism but consider that Buddhism is not an arrogant dogma
that attempts to induce people to believe in it as the only possible
belief system.
Buddhism must be
understood then as the guide that leads people from blindness and desire
towards the blissful state of supreme liberation within themselves. Man
is to be the master of his own desire. This truly emphasizes
one's individual efforts for self-salvation of mastering our more
debased self, emotions and desires. The survival and spread of Buddhism
over Asia for more than two millennium and its lively adaptation into
the Western World and contemporary technological society, provide
conclusive evidence against the shallow criticism levelled at Buddhism
by its critics, obviously there must be something in it that attracts
people to it. Endowed with a deeper insight to human nature, we
Buddhists believe we can reveal a greater truth to all, and must do our
best to make the teachings understood and inspire the world with the
right-view and right-understanding of Buddhism and its harmonious
relationship with most aspects of secular life. Buddhism would,
certainly rejects extreme self-indulgence and certainly finds great
problems and objections to this our saha-world. This realm of desires
and sensual love, people are constantly disturbed from within and
without by bodily desires, personal needs and are driven social
influences towards further insatiable unrealisable struggles.
This world, as the
Buddha called it, the “world of desire”, namely Kamadhatu, that brings
forth all suffering such as birth, existence, decay and death. Superior
to this our saha-world is the “world of pure form” namely Rupadhatu a
place of deities and fairies whose life rises above all desires to the
sphere of interplaying motives of form.
A yet higher world or
existence exists, that of no-form or Arupadhatu a place which excludes
all and every desire and form - but mind still exists, which is still
subject to redemption, within that sorrowful Samsara cycle of re-birth.
It is not until one has
been elevated from all these stages, will one attain the
‘blissful state of enlightenment’, that perfect purity free from all
mortal spheres free from Samsara the cycle of rebirths; the realm of
birth and death.
In this “world of
desire” in which we ordinarily live, the Buddha lived a life much same
as ours, the difference is that during his lifetime he had undergone a
long fight to counter his self-indulgence searching for the
transcendental love he attained finally upon his enlightenment to emerge
with compassion, wisdom and his all-giving nature for which he became
famous during and beyond his life. His love was not the kind that we
associate with being in love with an attractive woman, nor that of
self-love, or that of ownership, or of wealth, or that of a filial
relationship (love towards a parent). His, on the contrary, was a love
extended and meant for all and was one aimed towards alleviating pain in
all sorrowful suffering being.
His compassionate
love emerged of his transcendental self. If not being such a devote
person he might not have practiced self-restraint, nor renounced the
world of luxury he had inherited, nor would he have he been so
restlessly concerned with the suffering of the world and all in it. He
was so concerned with this existence where people pursue their lust for
life so indulgently and without concern for others and that they refuse
to pay any attention to their approaching deaths as if they are going to
live forever. It is through this man and through his true love we can
find the true meaning of the transcendental self, that is of
transcending ourselves to something greater than we normally perceive.
To criticize
Buddhism as atheistic is harsh and far from the truth. You may not find
in any of the Buddhist realms an omnipotent god with the love and hatred
that is associated and projected upon gods by the human imagination but,
if you set on a search for the ‘god’ as the eternal basis that governs
all phenomena in the universe and is in all and every one of us you may
be on to something.
This
Divine-omnipresence is the essence of the world and, though not openly
expressed, is latent in all and everything, extant or not extant. It
transcends all categories and limitations; however, it will only be
revealed to those being free from the veil of illusory phenomena, those
who fight and win pure love and wisdom over earthily desires obtain this
inner-self to be one with that of the universal.
Buddhism as such
may somehow be conceived as theism whose Deities (or devas) are not far
from man but as a nucleus latent in every living creature. They only
come into being and in sight of those who have possessed a universal
vision. All such Buddhist terms as “Buddha-hood” (the nature of Buddha)
or “Such ness” or “Blissful State” or “Nibbana” are various names of the
One Absolute Heart incarnate in all, even though each of
us has no experience of such an absolute experience trapped as we are in
the Saha world of desire.
Potentially, each
of us is a Buddha and everyone, therefore, may attain Buddha hood
through the arduous path of one's self-restraint, self-perfection and
self-understanding. In principle, Buddhism thus gives way to a far
higher human status and contributes nothing towards debasing to human
dignity. All men are equal, on the way to the supreme perfection. A vast
difference of value among beings however concerns their personal
“burden of Karmic actions” or record of morality (past and present).
People of course due to our reasoning and ability to reflect, are the
most elevated creature in the sphere of “Samsara” (suffering), and
possess the best faculties to enables us to free from this infinite
cycle of re-birth and redemption. This complete, description and
explanation of Buddhism conveys the true meaning its purpose in
promoting "humanism”, to use a term in vogue today.
It is Buddhism that has
put consciousness for most and utmost into practical life despite the
tragic conditions of life as is generally experienced by us all.
Buddhists has never
given way to defeatism, neither praying for external aid from deities or
gods, nor leaning upon other persons, heroes, and politicians and others
etc to free us from the human condition. The true Buddhist tries their
best to get rid themselves of self-bondage through their own efforts.
Let us imagine a child sleeping by its mother and dreaming that a
powerful lion is attacking it. Can the mother save her child from danger
or kill the lion in that dream? No, she can’t; she cannot enter into it
that dream nor do anything except wake it up from that dream. To be
awakened, the child will be freed from the perception of being attacked
by a lion. So such is it through enlightened awakening that the Buddhist
frees himself instantly from ‘the sufferings arising from ignorance
of the law of ceaseless change within the Six Realms’.
Without
self-realization, one cannot understand such things as these statements.
We can only save ourselves through our own effort, no one and nothing
can help us not even a Buddha nor a god can deliver us. They may provide
us with an example and inspiration but it is up to us to pay our dues to
pursue and complete our self-perfection by our own efforts. Outside
help, if any, cannot outrun the inner motives or wish of liberation
within a person. (You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it
drink as the saying goes). It is this emphasis upon the subjective, that
is of there being only deliverernce through of our own inner world and
its the concern with self-liberation that has attracted critics of
Buddhism as being selfish, individualistic or that Buddhist are
irresponsible and aloof not concerned with the world beyond themselves.
However providing Buddhism keeps promoting the personal initiatives of
reflection, self effort, and self-mastering and self liberation it must
be seen as positive and not pessimistic, nor a set of abstract
intellectual philosophies far removed from social life or the concerns
of people in their daily lives, its just that it stresses that the
effort towards positive social and self outcomes must come from within
our on efforts.
Buddhism has its own
way of serving society and people and there is, for each one of us, an
individual way to self-realization that is not devoid of the great
compassionate heart but is in fact totally dependent on it.
However, due its very
adaptability and tolerance Buddhism has been subjected to criticism due
to its all embracing loving kindness and forgiveness. The only thing a
Buddhist can and must do is to do good on behalf of all beings. A
Buddhist; in spite of his own “burden of karmic action and desires”, is
supposed to make great effort to tame themselves and do the right thing,
to reject wealth and pride, to remove lust from themselves to reject
discrimination and to be ready to serve humanity in doing whatever
possible for others. This supreme sacrifice has to be willingly made and
such action causes the Buddhist to embrace loving kindness and
forgiveness due to that sacrifice towards a greater good and personal
liberation.
To criticize Buddhism
as has been done, saying it is an obstacle to the course of historical
evolution, is to say that the Buddhist ideals which were first preached
over two millenniums ago, and that are still fresh today should not have
survived the test of time.
Since the Buddha's
first sermon the earliest call of liberation for an assessment and
improvement of personal values and for self-realization, especially for
the intellect to be freed from the socio-theocratic bounds of early
India, Buddhism has been closely associated with the evolution of
personal and social freedom. In Buddhism, deeply lies the nucleus of all
recent revolutions of modern societies towards greater human outcomes,
for individual freedom and humanism.The Buddhist revelation to the
modern world involves the rediscovery of a coherent view of life, of a
quality of life that prevents the materialistic civilization from ending
in disaster. Societies now are at the door of an end game, and have come
to a climax of cultural change and transition as never before
experienced in human history. The progressive quality of modern
philosophy science art, technology and information depends on the
application of such towards human outcomes in the purpose, the
compassionate initiatives born of such human endeavours and our creative
power for coping with life as a whole. Buddhist philosophy and culture
stresses those responsible applications of human creativity and
endevour.
To a great many
people, Buddhism is an ancient religion of an age old cults, of Buddhist
icons, carried out and promoted by those half-dreaming monks devoted to
dozy, monotonous praying for salvation from suffering and the human
condition. They see believe in the Buddha in the same way as in other
religions such as like that of the Jewish god Jehovah or the Hindu god
Brahma. They worship the Lord Buddha as the Almighty and beg him for
blessings, salvation, and other earthily favours. This misunderstanding
has created a veil of religious myths and fictions that conceal the real
nature and spirit of Buddhism and its true law. It is this reason why
Buddhism has been conceived as “a religion both profound mid profane”
We Buddhists must take
the responsibility to reveal what is profound in Buddhist teaching
otherwise Buddhism will become a yoke preventing followers attaining
spiritual freedom, social prosperity, self realization and preventing
the achievement of world salvation through its message.
The following story
illustrates this point.
There once was an enlightened, Most Venerable Monk, an Abbot, living in
a serene life in a cave monastery. He lived with his disciples many of
whom had attained Buddha-hood by his revelations. One of the Junior
Monks was a most excellent man, known to the whole monastery for his
good behaviour, faithfulness and kindness to his teacher and his fellow
monks, but unfortunately was still far from ultimate success in become
an enlightened one.
Year after year the
disciples one after another had reached supreme knowledge and left the
monastery for their Buddhist propagation trips into the world, but
nothing was happening to the long trained obedient and righteous
disciple despite his qualities. The teacher, after a very long time of
studying the situation, came to realize, when a sudden snowstorm ushered
in winter to the area, that the mind of his student had reached a point
when “One More Step” or one final thrust is required to attain
enlightenment.
The cave was filled
with winters freezing cold at that moment when the teacher’s heart
warmed up at the thought that it was possibly that the right moment for
his disciple to be awakened within himself. After a walk around the
monastery, the venerable returned to his patriarchal teaching seat;
there which was the only fireplace in the cave with so dim a fire that
it seemed to be nearly extinct. The need for a warming fire was was
urgent and he called that disciple to him and gave him an order: "It's
necessary now to find some wood to keep the fire going it’s so cold. Go
and see if you can get some my son.”
His disciple obeyed and
left, but he knew the wood storeclose by was already empty. Heavy snow
now had blocked all the ways down to the lower forest where he could get
more wood and he had tried his best in vain searching the cave for fuel
before he returned with empty handed.
Sadly, he said, ‘I am
sorry, sir; but there is not a single piece of wood around and the storm
outside is so strong that I can’t can go out and get more’. The
Venerable Monk replied kindly “But how about searching all over the
inside, first. If you see anything made of wood or other inflammable
material and bring it here, will you?” The younger monk obediently bowed
and went on searching but found nothing that could be burned within the
rocky cave. He presented himself to the teacher at last and exclaimed
desperately, ‘I can’t find anything to burn, sir!’ The Venerable Monk
then said, “Oh, worthy one! I believe you will find one thing made of
wood which is right inside this cave but only if you look carefully”.
In spite of the Junior
Monks overwhelming disbelief and despondency, he made a decisive
exertion to survey all and every corner of the monastery and go as far
as the main shrine of the Buddha. Under the throne of the statue, he
knelt down and prayed for his revelation before going on a last search.
Despite looking everywhere, there were no wooden things except the
Buddha statue itself; everything else was unburnable. He came to the
very climax of dejection and finally was found kneeling before the
Venerable Abbot with fear and trembling from head to toe. He said: “Oh,
sir, there is nothing of wood at all except the Buddha’s statue! “ The
Abbot said “Well, its wood isn’t it?’ The junior monk replied “Yes
master the statue is made of wood, but it is our Lord Buddha!’
Initially, the master seemed to loose his temper and scolded loudly:”You
ignoramus! Why don't you just shut up all your non-sense and bring it
here, that wooden thing immediately understand!” Startled, filled with
doubt and bewilderment, he went to the Buddha statue and prostrated
himself before it expressing his utmost respect and fear to the statue
in disturbing it from its high place in the meditation hall and then
lowering it down from its high throne carried it back to the Abbot An
expression of compassion and calmness, then, reappeared on the of the
enlightened Abbots face and in his eyes, as he picked up an axe, raising
above his head and with all his strength, chopped down at the glittering
gold-plated Buddha statue into pieces, just as the mental cataclysm of
the faithful disciple broke as he witnessed such a seemingly
sacrilegious event preformed by the Abbot.
Sweat streamed down
from every pore of the junior monk, his body trembling, his eyes
streaming tears, he watched in shock as his master quietly threw the
broken wooden statue piece after piece into the fire. It was then, as
the flames grew, the rocky hall was so brightened with warmth and light
the vision effected the junior monk’s consciousness, and as a
mind-flower blooming immediately within him, he experienced
enlightenment. It was such a blissful moment, as the monk made the
connection and his mind awakened from the dream of what we normally take
for reality.
His attachment to the
trappings of Buddhism, the ceremonial, the statues, the ritual had
prevented him from his own realisation of the spirit of Buddhism within.
Enlightenment then is that inter connective ness that completeness
beyond the divisions created by the mind and as Russian physiologist
Pavlov, announced in a famous essay on Esprit Scientifique Russell
(p.55), that; “We have now come to the point where we are obliged to
consider the spirit, the soul and the physical form as an indivisible
unit.”
It is then time for us
to make the Buddhist beholder forsake all illusory manifestations of the
Buddhist religion so that the essential reality is revealed to all. Only
in this sense will Buddhism become the most active and realistic,
enabling the intelligentsia and the general public to find satisfactory
answers to all spiritual needs they require within Buddhism. They will,
re-discover therein the powerful motivation for the growth to a golden
civilization with the accompanying physical and material progress that
will be in harmony with transcendental humanism. Buddhism has been
formed as a crystallization of various schools of thought from the
philosophies of ancient India. Buddhism came to life to bring forth a
great synthesis all the former theological, religious and ideological
tendencies of Vedic tradition. His Noble Way is a complete expression of
the human philosophical science ever known to history. In Buddhism are
included all fundamental problems of existence, great and small. That
Buddhism has not been conceived as such, as being misunderstood so badly
is often due to ambiguous translations in varying languages and
ethnocentric cultural conventions that are imposed onto Buddhism as a
result of preconceived or ongoing biased ideas often influenced by
ethnocentric ideas.
As modern exponents of
Buddhism, we have the task of revealing the real essence of Buddhist
thought to take its place within this contemporary world of technology,
science art and learning, to unite with the supreme unity of all
realities, the physical and spiritual. Our human tragedies due to our
limited conciousness, war and conflict, of our uninformed vision of life
we normally behold, our inability in not seeing an interconnected whole
in its reality as as an indivisible unity, must end. We must agree with
professor Nguyeãn- Ñaêng-Thuïc’s note of this noble unifying vision of
life: “that human society is now experiencing a terrible moral and
physical crisis can be explained by the lack of the moral conditions for
this unification... the present phase will be one of control of the
inner self’.
In the magazine, Asian
Culture, Vol. III, No.2, it was stated that ‘Experimental science,
with its democratic character and with the experience of religions of
the East will help the average man master his desires”. Buddhism,
due to its adaptability to meeting the needs of men of diverse mental
cultural and racial backgrounds, will contribute enormously to social
progress and spiritual freedom of people everywhere. This great
synthesis was originally expressed by the Buddha the highest human
creative spirit against the backdrop of the lofty Himalayan Mountains
and in the forests of India over 2000 years ago. His thought ceaselessly
probed into mysteries of the Hindu religion seeking enlightenment, an
explanation to the origin and deliverance from suffering. The belief of
Indians then was that of Brahma, a God of a religion filled with
superstition and magic. They had established Brahmanism with the basic
concept of reincarnation namely that of Samsara, the transmigration of
souls or “metempsychosis” that created the social system known as the
caste system.
Later, the Upanishad
school of thought appeared to promote almost an ultimate negation of the
powerful deity Brahma and did raise doubt on nonsense and of useless
magic ritual within the religion. This inquiring spirit was the source
of all the following religious philosophies.
Vedantism drew Brahma
down into every personal being and championed the cause of human
equality. The materialistic philosophy of Vaisesika also provided
vigorous opposition to former theologies. An eclectic (diverse) tendency
opened the way of Samkhyaku, proposing the dual existence of both a
transcendental self and an individual self; the transcendental self the
“Own will of the Absolute One” to become one with all and every
individual soul, explained Samkhya philosophy, and had created this
world of illusion. Should this “Will” be nullified, all illusion would
consequently cease, and there is revealed the Identity of Atman and
Brahma.
More than two thousand
five hundred years after these philosophical events, the Buddha was
born, reconciliation of all former lasting philosophies into that of
Buddhism founded on compassion and the belief in the potential of human
enlightenment, spiritual liberty, independence and self realization. The
Buddha revealed to the world a realistic and attainable means to a
perfect life concerning both the spiritual and practical aspects of
means to attain enlightenment.
The Great Master had a
profound look at everything in existence as it really is, finding at its
core the phenomena, which he described within his threefold principle
that describes all things:
1. Every
phenomenon is impermanent.
2.
Every existence is selfless.
-
Such is eternity.
This is the nature of
all things, “An-sich-sein” or “Nomos” (a—b) to use Heidegger’s language
and is the key for humans as it is the threshold of the immense treasure
of universal secrets, the very original source of this world and
existence. This understanding of thing in itself assists
us to unload our ignorant attachments one by one, and get closer to our
transcendental self. The world of phenomena is a component of the system
of universal causation. Those who make the effort to probe into the deep
mysteries of life and universal evolution must know this noble law, that
of “cause-and-effect”. They in making their supreme effort to
turn the Wheel towards finer moral status, to create the conditions for
human salvation will be triumphant eventually. One’s own Karmic record
of life makes us suffer in life, sufferings, originate from sensual
cravings that never cease to increase day by day. It is only by
following the Noble Eightfold Path (Ariastaniga Margama-ni, namely:
Right view. Right thought, Right speech. Right action, Right Livelihood,
Right effort, Right mindfulness and Right concentration) can one
realize that blissful state of Nirvana. Buddhism starts from its
spiritual point of view to make its way through the six-realms (the six
existences) towards the ultimate liberation from human bondage. However
the point of departure, i.e. Buddhism, is not the absolute truth,
but only a means, provisional and non-real, like the “finger that points
to the moon” a symbol of the true reality.
The most emphasized in
Buddhist concepts are the personal value and the freedom of thought that
help it be developed and embellished by generations one after another.
The freedom of thinking is the most essentials of all and no wonder
Buddhism has been widespread and welcomed all over the world as it
should be noted that no wars have been fought throughout the history of
its religious propagation anywhere.
German historian
Dietrich, Seckel, p.18-19 in his “The art of Buddhism” expresses
his convictions as such when he writes: “It will be appreciated that
this was not the foundation upon which one could establish an obligatory
dogma. Hence Buddhism could easily adapt itself to alien ways of
thinking, doctrines and cultural conditions, without sacrificing its
basic concepts. This of course meant that it had to renounce the lives
and thoughts of the people under its sway... It was presumably this
modesty in its claims that enabled it to spread peacefully into such
vast areas, where the cultural pattern was so different”.
Over two
millenniums of its existence with peace-loving peoples in the eastern
world, Buddhism never ceases to develop, its ideological culture opening
up new dimensions of spiritual life, thoughts and feeling.
Since his
enlightenment through the art of literature the Buddha’s first speech,
was artistically expressed. His eloquent teachings were highly
appreciated and have lent themselves to artistic expression throughout
the world. His metaphors delivered to his disciples were recorded in the
“Sutras of one hundred examples” each skilfully conveyed
the deep meaning of his message of salvation. It provides various good
descriptions of sufferings of humanity, the cause of sufferings, and
also presents a moral conclusion for each story to suggest to every one
of its characters a definite outlet according to every particular
circumstance. This enables religious beholders to understand and, as a
result, carry the good examples out in their practical life.
The Buddha’s attitudes
and noble behaviour provided the foundation founded the very Buddhist
rituals and conventions still with us today. His solemn voice in
preaching was the prototype of later rhythmic praying and such art forms
within Buddhism as religious prose and poetry, ritual and music. The
fine arts produced thousands of stupas, pagodas and icons of Buddhism
for the sake of religious contemplation as well as the means of
propagation of the Dharma. Some hundred years before Christ, Buddhist
painting and sculpture had gradually developed, but were not fully in
bloom until the first century after the birth of Christ. This
literature, the sacred writings, music, painting, sculpture and
architecture, and drama are more accessible to more people due to modern
communications, cinema and television being available almost everywhere
and the message of Dharma Law of the Compassion and Wisdom of Buddhism
and the Buddhist service to humanity, is more readily propagated.
Buddhism’s adaptability onto the native arts in countries where it has
spread, has adopted native embodiments of its concepts and metaphors as
it has done since it first moved beyond India. Elaborate, wealthy forms
and expressions have appeared in places where the standard of living is
high and persons have contributed money to these forms of expression
moved by buddhist motivation. As a rule Buddhism, when it penetrated
into the soul of a community, serves to raise its culture and
civilization to the higher horizons of the Buddhist world-view. In many
instances it was only with the coming of Buddhism, and only through the
stimulus it provided, and the aspirations it awakened, that art forms
associated with it could fully develop and reach the high standards that
it reached throughout Asia. Thanks to Buddhism the various art
traditions, which until then had been largely regional, were able to
establish contact elsewhee at the international level. Moving along the
trade routes the exchange of ideas and cross fertilizing of the arts and
cultural matters across the huge areas, were influenced by Buddhist
thought due to its social merit. Concerning the greatest of
contributions Buddhism have made to the arts of Asia, Professor Seckel
writes: “Buddhism succeeded in solving one of the major problems of
Asian art: the problem of rendering the sacred in a human form of
universal validity and appeal”. It is in the third century B.C. that
Buddhist art as an art form in itself first appears.
Buddhist
literature records Buddhist knowledge and its fusion and freedom of
thinking developed within its philosophy evolving, through participation
of generations of intellectuals, into a magnificent treasury of sacred
books which has been described as “Oceans of letters, forests of
bibles”. The sacred books are divided into three main sources, namely;
The Buddhist
Bible or “Sutram”, The Law “Vinayah” and The Philosophy "Abhidharma".
The source of Sutram
includes all spoken teachings by the Buddha as reported by his disciples
in, the five Great Sacred Books.The source of Vinayah, is the system of
essential disciplines that are to be exercised, by both the Sangha
(Buddhist Monks and Nuns) and the Buddhist believers. It serves as the
substratum of the Buddhist order.
The source of
Abbidharma, are philosophical essays that explains and develops the
essential meaning of the original Sutram. This great treasury of
literature owed its due to successive generations of Buddhist authors.
After the Master’s Parinirvana, the first council of the Sangha was
organized to gather his original teachings and basic religious laws as
the cornerstone, of the Buddhist order. This was the meeting of about
500 disciples or so, taken place at Raøjagriha city. The Bibles were
written both in Pali, and Sancrit under Ananda’s dictation, and the
Books of Law under Upali. The Essays or Abhidharma were later written as
the further development from the former bibles. Two books, namely Agamas
sutra and Eighty-Gatha Vinaya hence came into being as the output of
this gathering. A century later, a second meeting was organized at
Vesali aimed at a general review over the former bibles and law; and in
the mean time, to clear out all elements of strange conceptions and
evils scattered inside the Buddhist community. This was also conceived
as a turn of the ideology toward divergences into a variety of schools.
It has been said that
Master Mahadeva with his fivefold revolutionary manifesto had launched
the first blow of a movement that split the early Buddhism into two
schools namely the conservative of Hinasanghika school and the more
liberal 'Mahasanghika school. Both still under went many further
sub-divisions (2). These complex events manifested into an interesting
wealth of Buddhist literature on the one hand, but otherwise such
literature may lead learners into a world of letters, with their great
variety of confusing and contradictory views. It is up to the more
contemporary writings based on these older written treasures to clear up
such confusions.
Buddhism in India was
geographically divided into the Northern school of Mahayana Buddhism and
that of the Southern school of Therevada Buddhism before spreading
abroad. The Northern, Buddhism left metropolitan Gandhara as point of
departure and travelled north then eastward into China through Central
Asia, known as the Silk Road also as the Highway of Buddhism. From
China, Buddhism moved in various directions to Mongolia, Manchuria,
Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The Southern school on the other hand, spread
out from Ceylon to reach Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos and touched
on parts of western Vietnam. On its travels, Buddhism adapted itself to
native belief systems incorporating them into its metaphors and symbols.
Buddhist intellectuals
all over the world and the representatives of Buddhist nations are now
engaged in their best for the efforts towards greater unity within
Buddhist schools of thought towards the common cause of world peace and
happiness.
After the past two
millenniums of polarization, Buddhism today is at the very
threshold of the long-fought reunification and synthesis as has been the
case within Vietnam’s Unified Buddhist Church that came into existence
in 1963. We expect this reconciliation of the Northern and Southern
Buddhist groups in Vietnam will contribute towards to unification of the
various Buddhist schools of thought through out the world. Towards
building and achieving great harmony within the Buddhist world, the
followers of the Buddha are encouraged have an open mind and welcome
change towards greater understanding and realization of the Buddha’s
ideals while gaining deeper insight into the noble content of the Great
Master’s teachings.
Buddhism and Science
It is impossible for
Buddhism to answer satisfactorily all the problems faced by humans due
to the rapid development of technology and its impact on traditional
life. Concerns such as maintaining material wealth and productivity,and
our power to organize a technological system that does not threaten
social order due to rapid change and social breakdown needs to be
balanced. We need to look deeply within ourselves as to being
responsible in the application of these forces, inventions and economic
events to preserve human dignity and prevent social breakdown. On the
other hand, Buddhism has a realistic attitude towards essential
usefulness and principles of science. Science should be perceived as the
very output of man’s thought and consciousness over the experimental and
practical problems culminated over time. Scientific theories provide the
substratum of the civilization within the world today. But as Indian
scholar Kantilya, said: “Philosophy is the lamp of all sciences, the
means of performing all”. In other words we need to be guided by
philosophies that lead sciences to positive human and social outcomes.
It is interesting that
the further science is proceeds into and beyond the atomic age and into
macro world of space and the universe, and into the micro world of
atomic and sub atomic particles, the closer science expresses ideas,
theories and thoughts related to Buddhist concepts. The Buddhist
viewpoint of the existence of phenomena seems to on good terms with
modern scientific explanations of existence. Hundreds of years before
the modern astronomers discovered the existence of the multitude of
other worlds in outer space, the Buddha had, from beneath his Boddhi
tree of Enlightenment, taught of the Trisaharasramahasahasro lokadhatu
or of another three thousand worlds that exist in the universe beyond
our world. It was quite impossible for such a radical concept to be
acknowledged by his contemporaries and it has been only recently through
sciences such as astronomy that such ideas have reaffirmed by modern
science.
There is no question
that the philosophical questions and concepts of early Buddhism are some
of the most original “ideas” which the history of philosophy can hark
back to. In its fundamental ideas and essential spirit Buddhism relates
remarkably to the advanced scientific thought of the nineteenth century
onward. The modernist so called pessimistic philosophies of the German
nationals Schopenhauer and Hartmann, seem only a revised version of
ancient Buddhism and Indian Philosopher, S Radharkrishnan described
Buddhism as a means to reconcile religion and science “As far as the
dynamic conception of reality is concerned, Buddhism is a prophecy of
the creative evolutionism of Bergson. Early Buddhism suggests the
outline of a philosophy suited to the practical wants of present day and
helpful in reconciling the conflict between faith and science”.
Buddhism then is
thus not only as a philosophy or a spiritual philosophy religion and
movement, is also has a functional relationship and basis in the
sciences. Besides a way of salvation, Buddhism still expresses itself as
the realistic ideology that is capable of evolving into a complete
development of modern culture due to its ability to accommodate the
arts, learning, science and technology. These times are right for
Buddhists endowed with the heritage of wisdom from our Lord Buddha to
put His Noble Truth into action. Let’s transcend human conditions and
establish a finer better living in a harmonious secular yet religious
system on this planet. To those ends Buddhism will adapt to the variety
of intellectual ideas of these times.
As to dealing
with Buddhist culture here in this essay, its history, it’s of its
ability to merge with other cultures ideas and ways of life through over
two millenniums, as a general survey I have provided but a short and
inadequate description. The most essentials I covered areas follows.
First, we coincided the
modern world, contemporary life and its challenges, the problems of our
situation at this flux of civilization, this blending of technological
and cultural change, and its deliverance by the Buddhist insight,
motivation and conscious action.
Secondly we dealt with
the misunderstandings that people and critics have levelled against
Buddhism. Thirdly, we dealt the fundamental principles of Buddhist
teachings.
Last but not least we
dealt with the of Buddhist culture and ideas or Buddhist consciousness
in relation to science and technology and as a force that should be
brought into our lives toward the good of all and the propagation of
Dharma Law.
May the Light of
Compassion be with us all.
Thich
Duc Nhuan
