KAMALIKA PIERIS

This essay is a preliminary to the study of the modern Sinhala Buddhist civilization of Sri Lanka.  This essay draws attention to   those aspects of Asia’s Buddhist civilization, which are not well known and have not received much attention in Sri Lanka.

Buddhism, which originated in north India in the 6th century BC, spread over most of South and Southeast Asia, creating a vast Buddhist civilization, which included many sovereign states of today. Sri Lanka played an important role in   preserving Buddhism and in spreading Buddhism within this region.

Buddhism held a monopoly position in Asia until the 16^th century. In the 16th century, South and Southeast Asia went under Muslim rule and then Christian rule. Sri Lanka had 450 years of Christian rule, during which Sri Lanka’s Buddhist heritage came under attack. Buddhism returned to its ‘rightful place’ after independence in 1948, to the open resentment of the other religions, which had been given entrenched positions by the foreign rulers.

Buddhism is the only atheist (non-God) religion among the three world religions[1]. This makes it unique. Buddhism does not speak of a God and   does not call for the assistance of a God in human affairs.    It did not say, as other religions did, that a God figured in the creation of the world.  Buddhism has no theory of creation.  In addition, Buddha   said he was not a messenger, incarnation or a prophet of God. He was not a supernatural being at all. He was plain human and if he could achieve Buddhahood, so could others.

Buddhism was very much a product of the Indian thinking of its time. India in the 6^th century BC was teeming with various philosophical ideas.  It was in a veritable religious and philosophical ferment, said Ananda Guruge.  The public changed faith frequently and there was competition for followers.  When they met, people asked each other, ‘who is your teacher’.

The most important contribution of Buddhism to this medley was its focus on the individual, on analytical thinking  and on   the control of the mind. However, concentration of the mind is only a means to an end. Buddhist teachings are a raft to be abandoned later, said the Buddha. Buddha played a pioneering role in concept formation in Indian philosophy, said Guruge.

Buddhism begins with the present, with the empirical observations of human existence. But these were given a new twist. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said ‘one cannot step twice into the same river’. Buddha said ‘the same man cannot step twice into the same river’.

Nirvana was the goal, but that was far away. What were Buddhists to do till then? Lay Buddhists were advised to carry out duties and obligations which ensure harmony and common good. Buddha was as    concerned with saving and investment of capital as with the duties of a ruler and duties one owes to ones parents, family, friend, and even servants, said Guruge.

Buddha found it advisable to build on the existing knowledge and use the vocabulary that existed. Buddha   incorporated some of the existing philosophical ideas into his own doctrine. These include the theory of samsara, rebirth, Karma and meditation. Anthropologists have sneered as Sri Lankan Buddhists saying that they imagine that Buddhist concepts, especially Karma, are unique to Buddhism.

Buddha    used the existing vocabulary, as well, but gave the words new meanings. He used ‘Tevijja’ to mean Buddhist knowledge not the three Vedas. He gave new meanings to ‘arahant’, ‘dharma’, ‘atman’, ‘Samadhi.’

Buddhism arose long after Brahmanism was established in India. The Vedas had been organized into the three Samhitas and the Vedic literature, such as the Upanishads, had been written long before Buddhism appeared.  But it is doubtful whether the Buddha was exposed to the full impact of this literature, said Guruge. The Vedic teachings   were known only to a limited group. and the part of India in which the Buddha lived was on the periphery of the Vedic civilization. The Buddhist canon therefore shows only a vague acquaintance with the Vedic literature, said Guruge.

Buddha’s preachings were directed towards the intelligent listener. The doctrine of Anatta was not intended for those who are dull, because they will fall into the error of nihilism, Buddha said. Buddhist learning consisted of progressively difficult mental exercises. Buddha had designed    individualized courses of meditation for his disciples   according to each ones personality.  In Majjhima nikaya, Buddha compared his teaching to training a horse or elephant,   learning archery or accountancy.

Buddha was a skilful teacher. His discourses were planned with meticulous care. There was an orderly presentation of ideas, said Guruge. Beginning with an attention catching statement he analyses a Buddhist concept into its constituent elements. He posed a battery of questions aimed at convincing and leading his listeners gradually to his point of view. He sets tasks which made people arrive at conclusions, by their own efforts.

Buddha’s teachings had been committed to memory and classified during the time of the Buddha itself.  Scholar monks recorded the utterances of the Buddha and his disciples and classified them, said Guruge.    Commentaries  began to appear in the Buddha’s life time. And when the first Buddhist Council was held within three months of the death of Buddha, disciples were able to have a ‘general rehearsal’ of all teachings and examine its codification and classification, reported Guruge. A body of knowledge divided into Vinaya and Dhamma had  emerged.  

There was other literary activity going on. Indices, tables of contents, summaries and annotated references were prepared to keep track of the growing mass of sayings, sermons, discourses, debates, clarifications, interpretations, elucidations, expositions as well as poems.  There were mnemonical summaries to facilitate recall and a proper system of indexing. All this literary activity commenced in the time of Buddha, presumably under his direction, said Guruge.   

Buddha used the  Magadhi language  for his teachings. These  sermons were later converted to Pali language .  Pali  was a literary language , not a spoken one  and it showed many divergences from Magadhi , said Guruge. The word Pali means  ‘text’.

Guruge gives us information on Gautama Buddha as a person. The Buddha was not the austere person some western scholars have attempted to show, Guruge said. Buddha could appreciate good music and had commented favorably on a love lyric.

Buddha had a fine aesthetic sense. He saw the beauty of a well laid paddy field and ordered the monks to sew their robes in a similar design. Buddha chose beautiful sites for his stops during missionary activities.  Donors should construct beautiful monasteries and gift them to the monks, Buddha said in the Chullavagga.

The Buddha was a persuasive orator, whose powerful verbal onslaughts on opponent and lucid and eloquent explosions of moral and spiritual values were worth of record and repetition. Similes drawn from everyday life made his discourses picturesque. He delved into legend and history for anecdotes and illustrations. He made apt use of dramatization and visual aids drawn from the environment. 

He was a poet of extraordinary talent, whose picturesque language, figures of speech and simple metrical compositions had a permanent appeal, said Guruge. Buddha presented his ideas in metre, usually a quatrain of 32 syllables. Around the Buddha was a galaxy of equally gifted poets.

 Buddha was a great story teller, and his repertoire, judging by the Buddhist literature, was enormous, continued Guruge. He could create or recall a story to suit every occasion. Buddha delved deep into the vast folk literature of India for stories and anecdotes which he cleverly adapted to illustrate doctrinal points.  The Jataka stories are a collection of 547 Indian stories which become Buddhist only because the main characters are connected to the Buddha.  The Hindu and Jain stories are also based on this common source of Indian folklore, Guruge added.

Buddha did not appoint a successor,  nor did he create an ‘administrative set up’. Buddha had no pre conceived plan for the Sangha either. The    Sangha evolved gradually. Rules were laid down  for the Sangha as and when situations arose. But a vibrant Sangha was  created. It proved to be a resilient  organization with a proven capacity for self regeneration.

The Sangha were effective teachers. Moggalana had illustrated a talk on dependent origination using the diagram of a wheel. This became a popular motif in Nepal and in the Tangka paintings of Tibet.Monks and nuns prepared their own sermons and even composed poetic appreciations of their way of life, as in Thera-theri gatha.

Monks were expected to have a good memory, legible well rounded hand writing, and clear speech.In all Buddhist countries parents sent their children to  the  Buddhist temple to learn akuru, said Guruge.

 Monks also had a wide range of manual and technical skills. They knew something of wood work, masonry, and metal work. In Tibet monks studied carpentry, masonry, sewing and embroidery as well as their religious subjects.

The Sangha consisted of women as well as men. The bhikkhuni order was created soon after the bhikkhu order.In the  Vinaya Pitaka there is a separate Bhikkhuni vibanga. A  collection of scriptures concerning the role and abilities of women in the early Sangha is found in the fifth division of the Samyutta Nikaya, known as the Bhikkhunī-Saṃyutta . A number of the nuns whose verses are found in the Therigatha also have verses in the book of the Khuddaka Nikaya known as the Apadāna.

An important feature of Buddhism was the creation of monasteries. Settled life within monasteries promoted the pursuit of study , debate, discussion teaching and research. There was  intellectual liberalism. The Buddha asked the monks to  avoid tradition, dogma, subject everything  to critical examination, including his own teachings.

 A distinctive feature of Buddhist education in the monastery  was its individual centered learning. The  teacher met each pupil individually, not  in  a class taught collectively.  The student spent time in self learning, using commentaries,  glossaries, indexes and lexicons. He had to provide an original composition in the final exam.However, no student was considered a failure. The  average student was  given  the task of memorizing  material or printing texts for dissemination.

As Buddhism evolved into an organized religion, there was a need for a permanent record of its activities and the donations received. This led to the well known Buddhist tradition of record keeping.

There was a substantial Buddhist literature.The missionary outlook, the monastic organization and the intellectual interaction of highly motivated men and women provided an ideal climate for intensive literary activity, observed Guruge.

 In addition to the Buddhist philosophy, the literature consisted also of  secondary material. Thera gatha”  is written by monks, starting with those who lived during the time of the Buddha. The collection has continued to grow until at least the Third Buddhist Council. Many of the verses  are  on the attempts of monks to overcome the temptations of Mara. One set of verses is recited by the reformed killer Angulimala. Verses mirror contemporary secular poetry of their time, with romantic lyrics replaced with religious imagery.

Theri gatha is a collection of short poems by senior  Bhikkhunis. They also  start in the  late 6th century  BC and go on for the next 300 years. They were composed orally in the Magadhi language and were passed on orally until about 80 BC when they were written down in Pali. It is the earliest known collection of women’s literature composed in India.

The Therigatha contains passages reaffirming the view that women are equal to men in terms of spiritual attainment . It also contains verses that address issues of particular interest to women in ancient South Asian society. There are verses of a mother whose child has died ,a former sex worker who became a nun, a wealthy heiress who abandoned her life of pleasure and even verses by the Buddha’s own aunt and stepmother, Mahapajapati Gotami .  One verse is spoken by a woman trying to talk her husband out of becoming a monk. ( continued)

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[1] Christianity, Islam  and  Buddhism. Hinduism is not a world religion. Hinduism failed to take  root abroad. it is confined to India.