God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World (28 page)

Begins

With

A

Wheel

Running us in

Circles.

Get off.
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Theravada and Mahayana

There is some question about whether Buddhism is a religion, but as with Confucianism this question reveals more about our own assumptions about religion than it does about Buddhism itself. Some who find Confucianism lacking on the God front try to reduce it from religion to ethics. With Buddhism the temptation is to reduce it to psychology, or therapy.

The earliest forms of Buddhism did not speak of God or stress the supernatural. They saw the Buddha as a human being. So if religion is about “belief in Spiritual Beings,” as the classic definition by British anthropologist E. B. Tylor puts it, Buddhism was not in the religion family.
¹⁸
It wouldn’t be very Buddhist of Buddhism to remain forever the same, however. And it did not. As a child of India, Buddhism inherited Hinduism’s absorptive strategy. In India, it picked up most of the typical trappings of its religious kin, not least an elaborate pantheon of Buddhas and other spiritual beings with all the supernatural powers of Kali and Shiva. In Tibet it picked up some of the magic of the indigenous shamanism of Bon. And in China it adopted some of the naturalness, spontaneity, and simplicity of Daoism.

There was an early effort to fossilize the tradition, to set it in stone. At its First Council, held hard by the Buddha’s death in the fifth century
B.C.E.
or so, his followers agreed on a canon of the Buddha’s teachings known as the
Tripitaka
, or “Three Baskets.” At the Second Council, held about a century later, Buddhists split over a variety of matters, including how strictly monastic rules should be interpreted and enforced. This was Buddhism’s Reformation, in the sense that it opened the door to the mad diversity that characterizes Buddhism (and Protestantism) today. This diversity is likely endemic to any tradition that subordinates “Is it true?” to “Does it work?” When new teachings or scriptures come along—and this tradition has produced both at a dizzying pace—Buddhists, rather than rejecting them as bastard children, adopt them as long-lost kin (assuming they can pass the pragmatic test of eliminating suffering).

The beginning of the Common Era was a period of extraordinary religious activity that saw the birth of Christianity, rabbinic Judaism, and bhakti-style Hinduism. This period also gave the world bhakti-style Buddhism, known today as Mahayana.
Maha
means “great” and
yana
means “vehicle” so
Mahayana
means “greater vehicle,” and today it
is
the most popular Buddhist school. But in the beginning this name was a boast rather than a demographic observation. “I am the greatest,” bragged heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Mahayana Buddhists said the same thing. Much as Ali taunted Joe Frazier, they referred to their opponents as Hinayana, or “lesser vehicle.” These opponents, however, disagreed, and one group that survives today is Theravada (“Way of the Elders”).

Mahayana Buddhists claimed they were greater than Theravada Buddhists and their kin for many reasons, but one of their biggest claims to fame was their egalitarian bent. Theravada Buddhism was a monastic tradition. For Theravadins, the only way to achieve nirvana was to withdraw from the worlds of family, work, sex, and money into the celibate life of a monk or nun. For this reason, some refer to the Theravada path as “Monastic Buddhism.”
¹⁹
The Mahayana branch also had its monastics, but here renunciation was optional. Ordinary husbands and wives, employees and bosses expressed their devotion to new Buddhas by visiting new stupas and reading new scriptures. And though many of these laypeople contented themselves with the proximate goal of a better rebirth, some now began to hope for the ultimate goal of nirvana, without giving up on either love or worldly success.

Mahayanists attacked Theravadins on many grounds, but the blow that hit hardest was the accusation that their predecessors were selfish. Theravada Buddhism was all about individual enlightenment, Mahayanists argued. The Theravada exemplar was the
arhat
, who distinguished himself from the rest of humanity by wisdom (
prajna
) alone. So Mahayanists disparaged the arhat as smug, self-seeking, and self-centered. How could he cling to his own spiritual advancement when there was so much suffering among those he was leaving behind?

In a series of new scriptures, which they attributed to the Buddha but their opponents attacked as fakes and forgeries, the Mahayanists championed a new exemplar called the
bodhisattva
. This term literally means “awakening being,” but the key virtue of this Mahayana hero is compassion (
karuna
). Instead of focusing selfishly on his own private nirvana, the bodhisattva uses his huge storehouse of merit to assist others. “All the suffering in the world comes from the desire for happiness for oneself,” writes the eighth-century Indian poet-philosopher Shantideva in his
Guide to the Bodhisattva Path
. “All happiness in the world comes from the desire for happiness for others.”
²⁰

Like Hinduism’s jnana yogis, Theravada Buddhism’s arhats stood in the self-help tradition. They, too, believed that the only way to get the religious goal was through one’s own merit. So achieving nirvana was extraordinarily difficult. In India, the easier path of bhakti yoga developed inside Hinduism right around the same time the Mahayana path was first charted. As of the beginning of the Common Era, it was possible for Hindus to get moksha through other power rather than self-effort: if you are devoted to a god of your choosing, your god will do the heavy lifting. Mahayana Buddhism worked in much the same way. With the rise of bodhisattvas, who walked and talked like Hindu gods, it became possible to get nirvana through outside assistance rather than self-reliance—through devotion to a bodhisattva, who would use his merit to take away your suffering. In this way it became much easier to achieve nirvana, and laypeople became fuller participants in the Buddhist community.

The bodhisattva is typically described as someone who has a crisis of conscience while standing on the threshold of nirvana. “How can I enter into nirvana when so many other beings are suffering?” he asks. And the compassionate answer is, “I cannot.” So rather than renouncing the world, the bodhisattva returns to it, promising to postpone his own final nirvana out of compassion for others. This promise takes the form of the Bodhisattva Vow. Though this vow is different in different scriptures, it always includes a healthy dose of megalomania:

However innumerable sentient beings are, I vow to save them;

However inexhaustible the passions are, I vow to extinguish them;

However immeasurable the Dharmas are, I vow to study them;

However incomparable the Buddha-truth is, I vow to attain it.
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When I try to explain the psychology of the bodhisattva to my students, I describe the bodhisattva as someone standing on the front porch of nirvana, holding open the door while waving others into the party ahead of him, refusing to enter until everyone else has entered first. By introducing time and space into a situation that is said to be beyond both, this image may conjure up an unhelpful picture of a massive logjam at Buddhism’s analog to the Pearly Gates. But it underscores the extent of the bodhisattva’s compassion, patience, and resolve.

In addition to the bodhisattva, Mahayana Buddhists gave the world a radically new interpretation of the Buddha. While Theravadins saw the Buddha as a pathfinder and a human being, Mahayanists came to see him as eternal and omniscient—a supernatural being who could answer prayers and reward devotion. Moreover, Mahayanists spoke not just of one Buddha, but of many—a vast pantheon of wonder-working Buddhas on call 24/7 to lavish grace and favor on ardent devotees. Eventually Mahayanists came to believe that trying to become an arhat was simply aiming too low. Why hope for anything less than Buddhahood itself?

The ready availability of meritorious Buddhas and bodhisattvas changed the playing field for laypeople seeking either the proximate goal of a better rebirth or the ultimate goal of nirvana. In the Theravada model, laypeople received merit from monks in exchange for food and clothing. And while that merit might help you to a better rebirth, it could never get you nirvana. In the Mahayana model, laypeople received merit from Buddhas and bodhisattvas in exchange for their devotion, and while that merit would likely only propel you to a better rebirth, it could also transport you to nirvana.

It is of course impossible to distill the many distinctions between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism down to one thing, but the crux of it is that Theravada Buddhists think we awaken on our own, while Mahayana Buddhists think we awaken in relationship with others. Or, as Buddhist psychoanalyst Mark Epstein puts it, “we need partners in order to realize who we are.”
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Zen and Other Ways to Blow Your Mind

With the emergence of the Mahayana school, Buddhism moved undeniably into the family of religions, since its vast (and growing) pantheon of bodhisattvas and Buddhas offered devotees all the grace and magic of other religions’ gods. Just as bhakti Hindus could win moksha through the grace of Shiva or Krishna, Mahayana Buddhists could win nirvana through the grace of a Buddha or bodhisattva of their choosing. Many of these supramundane beings now have followings rivaling those of St. Jude or the Virgin Mary. The most popular bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara, embodies compassion and, like Krishna, is said to come to earth repeatedly to save people in peril. Known in Tibet as Chenrezig, he switches genders in East Asia, into the all-merciful Guanyin (in China) and Kannon (in Japan).

The most popular post-Gautama Buddha is the Buddha of Infinite Light—Amitabha in Sanskrit and Amida in Japanese—who is able to create out of his immeasurable storehouse of good karma a celestial abode of bliss—the Pure Land—that makes the Christians’ heaven and the Muslims’ Paradise look like Disneyland at closing time. This Buddha was popularized in Japan by Honen (1133–1212), the founder of the Jodo Shu (Pure Land) school, who promised that if you just chanted the name of the Amida Buddha—“
Namu Amida Butsu
”—he would issue you a one-way ticket to the “Western Paradise” or “Pure Land” from which nirvana is ensured. Nothing else was required. No meditation. No austerities. No study. All you had to do was demonstrate your devotion by chanting those three words, and the Amida Buddha would do the rest.

The epitome of this bhakti path of faith, grace, and devotion came a few decades later with Shinran (1173–1263) and his Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land) school. This Japanese reformer said it wasn’t necessary to chant the name of the Amida Buddha incessantly, as many of Honen’s followers were doing. All that was needed was one sincere invocation. Today this other-power tradition is the most popular Buddhist school in Japan and has taken up residence in the United States as the Buddhist Churches of America.

Another Mahayana reformer from medieval Japan, Nichiren (1222–81/2), distinguished himself by the scripture he read rather than the Buddha he worshipped. Like Honen and Shinran, he was a chanter rather than a meditator. But his chant was to the Lotus Sutra:
Namu myoho renge kyo
(“Hail to the Marvelous Teaching of the Great Lotus”). Various Lotus Sutra schools emerged out of Nichiren’s reforms, but the best known is Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a power-of-positive-thinking organization that has spread from Japan to Brazil, Singapore, and the United States, where it is the most racially and ethnically diverse of all American Buddhist organizations.

While many Mahayana schools echoed the Nichiren schools in organizing themselves around a scripture, one school did an end run around scriptures altogether. Popularized by Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers during the 1950s (though Kerouac himself was actually partial to the “Mind-Only” Yogacara school), Zen Buddhism takes its name from
dhyana
in Sanskrit, which became
Chan
in Chinese and then Zen in Japanese. Each of these words means “meditation,” so Zen is a meditation school. Zen is best known, however, for two distinctive practices. The first, developed by the Soto Zen school, is
shikantaza
. In this deceptively difficult practice, you just sit. You don’t try to follow your breath or to see into the nature of reality. You just sit idle for a time without thinking. (“Are you not thinking what I’m not thinking?” reads a
New Yorker
cartoon of two Zen monks in the lotus position.
²³
)

A second Zen practice, developed by the Rinzai Zen school, is the koan. A Zen master will pose a puzzle to a student: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Or “What was your face before your mother and father were born?” Or (my personal favorite), “What would the Buddha have said if there was no one to hear and no opportunity to teach?” The student will then try to offer a response that is genuine, spontaneous, and unrehearsed.

Zen grew out of the interaction of Buddhism with Confucianism and Daoism during the Tang dynasty in eighth-century China. Practitioners, however, trace their tradition back to the Buddha himself. Their oft-told tale speaks of an assembly of monks eagerly awaiting a discourse from the Buddha. When he arrives, however, he says nothing. He turns a flower in his fingers, he smiles, but he does not speak. Everyone is confused. Everyone, that is, except for one monk who smiles back, whereupon the Buddha announces that this monk had received his transmission—a teaching that is direct and ordinary, transmitted outside of words.