What-the-Buddha-Tought.pdf

W hat the Buddha ToughtRichard Gombrich * What the Buddha T hought Oxford Centrefor Buddhist Studies Monographs Series Editor: Richard Gombrich The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies promotes teaching and research into all Buddhist traditions, as found in texts and in societies, and is equally open to the study of Buddhism by methods associated with the humanities (philology, philosophy, history) and the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, politics). It insists only on using sources in their original languages and on aiming at the highest scholarly standards. Previously published by Routledge Richard F. Gombrich, How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings, 2nd edition Soon-il Hwang, Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana Tse-fu Kuan, Mindfulness in Early Buddhism: New Approaches through Psychology and Textual Analysis, ofPali, Chinese and Sanskrit Sources Karma Phuntsho, Mipham's Dialectics and theDebates on Emptiness: To Be, Not To Be, orNeither Peter Alan Roberts, The Biographies of Rechungpa: The Evolution of a Tibetan Hagiography Noa Ronkin, Early Buddhist Metaphysics: The Making ofa Philosophical Tradition Sarah Shaw, Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Textsfrom the Pali Canon Will Tuladhar-Douglas, Remaking Buddhismfrom Medieval Nepal: The Fifteenthcentury Reformation ofNewar Buddhism Alexander Wynne, The Origin ofBuddhist Meditation Published by Equinox Venerable Seongcheol, Sermon of One Hundred Days: Pari One What the Buddha Thought Richard Gombrich equinox LONDON OAKVILLE First published in 2009 by UK: 1 Chelsea Manor Studios, Flood Street, London SW3 5SR USA: DBBC, 28 Main Street, Oakville, CT 06779 www.equinoxpub.com © Richard Gombrich 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 1 84553 612 1 (hardback) 978 1 84553 614 5 (paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gombrich, Richard F. (Richard Francis), 1937What the Buddha thought / Richard Gombrich. p. cm.—(Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies monographs) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-84553-612-1 (hb)~~ ISBN 978-l-84553-614r5 (pb) 1. Gautama Buddha—Teachings. I. Title. BQ915.G66 2009 294.3'63—dc22 2008049777 Typeset by S.J.I. Services, New Delhi Printed and bound in Great Britain by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd, Plymouth, United Kingdom Brahmin Terms as Social Metaphors 13. Assessing the Evidence 8. The Buddha as Satirist. Is This Book To Be Believed? Appendix: The Buddha’s Appropriation of Four (or Five?) Brahminical Terms Notes Bibliography Index vii xi xvi 1 19 29 45 60 75 92 111 129 144 161 180 193 202 207 227 233 . Nirvana 11. The Buddha’s Pragmatism and Intellectual Style 12. More about Karma.2* CONTENTS Preface Background Information Abbreviations 1. and Its Social Context 3. Everything Is Burning: The Centrality of Fire in the Buddha’s Thought 9. The Buddha’s Positive Values: Love and Compassion 7. Causation and Non-random Process 10. Introduction 2. Language. Jain Antecedents 5. What Did the Buddha Mean by ‘No Soul’? 6. The Antecedents of the Karma Doctrine inBrahminism 4. Cognition. For Geoff Bamford and Sarah Norman. fellow enthusiasts . Karma is a process. The book is based on the Num ata Lectures which I gave by invitation at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai. gives a much richer picture of his meaning. and that his thought has a greater coherence than is usually recognized. and hence even to Buddhism itself. since many of the Buddha’s allusions can only be traced in the Pali versions of surviving texts. moreover. Morally. Incidentally. but relating them to early brahminical texts. karma both provided a principle of individuation and asserted the individual’s responsibility for his or her own destiny. in autumn 2006. While the book is intended to serve as an introduction to the Buddha’s thought. the book establishes the importance of the Pali Canon as evidence. especially when his satire and irony are appreciated. His theory of karma is logically central to his thought. London University. These ideas about karma he generalized to every com ponent of conscious experience . they are by far the greatest .PREFACE T his book argues that the Buddha was one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of all time. he did not found his arguments upon it like earlier thinkers: his capacity for abstraction was an intellectual breakthrough. not a thing. it also has larger aims: it argues that we can know far more about the Buddha than it is fashionable among scholars to admit. it is neither random nor wholly determ ined. and also to ancient Jainism. the liberation from that chain of experience. I am extremely grateful to the Num ata Foundation. His ethicizing older ideas of rebirth and human action (karma) was also a breakthrough for civilization. for financing those lectures.except nirvana. Interpreters both ancient and modern have taken little account of the historical context of the B uddha’s teachings. I gave ten lectures under the general title ‘The O rigin and G reatness of the B uddha’s Ideas’. Though the Buddha used m etaphor extensively. This book is intended to be read through.even though it does not fully cater for those who have no idea whatsoever about the Buddha’s teachings. I thank Dr Tadeusz Skorupski and Dr Kate Crosby for inviting me. perhaps even excite. who taught me much of what I understand of early Buddhism. enabled me to improve my material. The tide of this book is a gesture of homage to the late Ven. rather than dipped into. . perhaps. entitled ‘Background Inform ation’. I have included. the book is ambitious in being intended for two audiences. On the other hand. for easy reference. readers may find a brief guide to its contents useful. since it contains some quite complex arguments and builds up the case for the Buddha’s coherence and brilliance as a thinker cumulatively. also intended to reach a wider public . nirvana. but there are also places where I cannot convey my message without discussing Pali words in detail. from such books as What the Buddha Taught by the Ven. W alpola Rahula or The Buddha’s by the Ven H. I have tried to make the book accessible by not using foreign words in the body of the text when it is not absolutely necessary. Nevertheless. some of which have. the text of a handout which was distributed at the lectures. The lectures were open to the public. It contains much that is new. I hope. Saddhatissa. I have used initial capitals for some English words to indicate that they are standard translations of Pali fixed terms. I trust it will not be taken amiss if I admit that at the same time I not only wish to supplem ent his book by approaching the subject more from a historical angle. As I explain more fully below. After introductory remarks. Like the lectures. experts in the field. It is. I do hope that those discussions will not deter non-linguists. and I am particularly grateful to members of the audience who cam e long distances and asked excellent questions. Chapters 3 and 4 then deal respectively with the brahminical and the Jain backgrounds to the Buddha’s ideas. they should not. however. anyone remotely interested in Buddhism .in fact. I have not used up space by providing the rudimentary knowledge which can be picked up from any work of reference or better. venture to clarify what I fear is a somewhat m uddled presentation. Dr Walpola Rahula. so that I dare to hope it will interest. but even on one topic.viii PREFACE patrons of the study of Buddhism in the world. the first two chapters are mainly occupied with karma. I owe enormous intellectual debts. In arriving at my own ideas. because those are not only more colourful but also (particularly Chapter 11) im portant for getting to know the Buddha’s extraordinary mind and personality. The centrality of the theme of karma in the Buddha’s thought is summarily reviewed in the final chapter. I would have cited her at length. but here at least I have surely failed. T h ou gh the B ud d ha d isen tan g led them . in which she shows how from the recorded beginnings of Indian thought. the Buddha’s view of love and compassion. Jo a n n a Jurew icz’s o th e r discoveries are no less momentous. it aspires to show by example how my approach. existence and consciousness are intertw in ed . had I felt it appropriate to devote more space to cognition in Chapter 10.Chapter 7 then discusses the method I have exemplified in Chapter 6. Should any readers feel so discouraged that they lay the book down. Her demonstration that the Buddha is always talking about experience chimes beautifully with JoannaJurewicz’s early work on the Rg Vedic ‘Hymn of Creation’. as a historian of ideas. and gives my view of the evidence for what I am saying. Chapter 6 is a case study of a very important topic. I wonder whether any . H er discovery of belief in rebirth in the Rg Veda also makes the entire early history of Indian religion far more plausible and coherent. above all to Joanna Jurewicz and to Sue Hamilton. I realize that it is unusual not to explain my m ethod until halfway through the book. as one m ight call it. 8 to 10. The next three chapters. can cast fresh light on the Buddha’s thought. this philosophy of experience. I would have liked to make my text as accessible as What the Buddha Taught. one might even call them his ‘philosophy’. in particular. but I hope it keeps people reading. because I have to deal with some sophisdcated and unfamiliar ideas. I hope th at they will nevertheless persevere with the remaining chapters.PREFACE ix Chapter 5 shows how some of the Buddha’s main concepts relate to concepts in the Upanisads and thus how they relate to each other. I am conscious that my text does not adequately convey how much I owe to Sue Ham ilton’s insights. Not only has she deciphered the original meaning of the chain of dependent origination. present what I take to be the main ideas underlying the Buddha’s teaching. influenced him profoundly. Teachers can have no greater reward than to find their pupils reaching higher by standing on their shoulders.X PREFACE other single scholar in the last hundred years has made so important a contribution to the field. I must also make special m ention of my comparatively recent students Noa Gal Ronkin and Alexander Wynne. . This is central to the process of conjecture and refutation which I regard as the only way forward. BACKGROUND INFORMATION "\^Tou are advised to read this through quickly. The oldest extensive Indian inscriptions. see my introduction. writing was first used in India in the third century bc. . constitute the Pali Canon. The sacred texts of the Theravada tradition. put up by the em peror Asoka in the mid-third century bc. some of these texts must be our oldest evidence for Buddhism. entitled “What is Pali?”. It is an Indo-European language. also known as Southern Buddhism. Though not immune to change over time. and therefore is related to English. Pali (P) is a Prakrit language. The oldest texts in Sanskrit go back to the second millennium bc. but fairly close to it. are in Prakrit. but through an oral tradition (therefore very hard to date). and then use it for X reference. LANGUAGES Sanskrit (S) is native to India. the brahmins. For more on Pali. Some words in Prakrit are the same as in Sanskrit. P rak rit is the Indian term for languages directly derived from Sanskrit. to Wilhelm Geiger’s Pali Grammar (1994). It is not exactly what the Buddha spoke. The oldest texts are called the Vedas (see below) and were preserved as sacred by the males of a hereditary priesdy group. His family name was Gotama (P). Buddha (S /P ) is. but ‘dispensation1 captures the purport better. collectively known as the Vinaya (S/P) ‘discipline’. . place trust in them. the Dhamma and the Sangha. nuns and novices of both sexes. The Sangha is governed by rules. in orthodox Theravada the female Sangha is extinct. it is not unfair to say that Buddhists have faith in the Three Jewels. the law of the universe. So a Buddha founds a sasana. empirical phenom enon. Dhamma translates ‘Buddhism’ if by the latter is meant the system of ideas. They are also known as the ‘Three Refuges’. but the dhamma is a set of truths. meaning that Buddhists rely on them. This term may refer to the rules or to the texts containing those rules. It is both descriptive and normative. But by far its commonest use is to refer to the ordained: monks. Dhamma (P) or Dharma (S) is what the Buddha taught (according to Buddhists: w hat all B uddhas teach). Non-Buddhists simply regard the Buddha as the founder of Buddhism. a title. Sangha (S /P ) m eans ‘com m unity’. strictly speaking. (However.) The term may refer to the monastic community as a whole or to a particular local community. Buddhists use a different word. The term has many applications and many translations.xii BACKGROUND INFORMATION BASIC DATA ON BUDDHISM The Three Jewels Buddhism consists of the ‘Three Jewels’: the Buddha. This word also means ‘teaching’. For Buddhism as a historical. eternal but sometimes forgotten. according to context. The Buddha may originally have used it to refer to all his followers who had reached the first stage of spiritual progress. sasana (P) or sasana (S) (accent on first syllable). Though many dislike calling Buddhism a ‘faith’. This term too has several applications but they are not hard to distinguish. Literally it m eans ‘Awoken’ but we tend to use ‘Enlightened’. For Buddhists he re-founded it in the area and period of the universe in which we are living. there are other similar Buddhas who do the same when an d /o r where Buddhism is extinct. While the early schools have the main texts of the first two pitaka in common. strictly speaking they stand outside the Canon. He must have died round 405 bc. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL BACKGROUND Time Since the Buddha lived well before writing was used in India. and a few other verse texts from the Sutta Pitaka. ‘Three baskets’. The two codes of disciplinary rules for individuals (one for monks. containing teachings. Vinaya Pifaka. including an explanation of the limits of possible precision. they differ in abhidhamma (S: abhidharma). it is not surprising that the various Buddhist traditions differ widely about his date. Many are in a narrative setting. so that they are embedded in it. They are (the order matters): 1 . in . For a while m odern scholarship dated this to 483 bc or thereabouts and this dating is still found in many reference works. the rules for the Saiigha. they have a kind of supreme status. because one cannot receive full ordination (at least in theory) without knowing the pdtimokhha by heart. sutra is S. A sutta is a text. Though much of the Vinaya Pitaka is a commentary on these rules. But it is too early. When one says something like ‘the early canonical texts’. 3. both for individual members and for the whole community. For more detail. the teachings analytically rearranged into a systematic and wholly literal presentation. Sutta Pitaka. prose or verse or both. 2. see my ‘Dating the Buddha: a red herring revealed’. The main collection of the Buddha’s sermons is in the four Nikaya. collections arranged mainly on form al criteria. the four Nikdya. one for nuns) are called the pdtimokhha (P)/ pratimoksa (S). Abhidhamma Pitakat ‘h ig h er teach in g s’. Sutta is P. one is usually referring to most of the Vinaya Pitaka.BACKGROUND INFORMATION xiii Fundamental texts The Pali Canon is in Pali called the Tipitaka. The canonical account of his death says that he passed away aged eighty. ). (We ignore the prehistoric Indus Valley civilization. Modern Benares (Varanasi in Indian languages) already existed.269 to c. 2006. T heir leadership was.xiv BACKGROUND INFORMATION The Dating of the Historical Buddha/Die Datierung des historischen Buddha. The em peror Asoka. contested by the new political and mercantile classes. (‘Heterodox’ means not accepting the authority of the Vedas and hence of their brahm in interpreters. pp. Brahmin religion and society Brahmin ideology posited a hierarchic social structure which we call ‘the caste system’. 2000. who tended to support heterodox teachers. 9-25. H einz Bechert.231 bc. and a great increase in trade. in Lakshman S. then came the nobility (S: ksatriya or rajanya). Buddhism for the New Millennium. was founded soon after his lifedme. London: World Buddhist Foundation. editor (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht. who was largely responsible for the spread of Buddhism. Jainism. see my ‘Discovering the Buddha’s date’. IV. which was to be Asoka’s capital. mostly monarchies. Perera (ed. The brahmins (S: brahmana) were at the top. 2nd edition. For a less technical account. into a tribe called the Shakyas. A com plex religious and cultural system had already been articulated by the brahm ins. See my Theravada Buddhism: A Social History. however. ruled from c.) With this arose larger and better organized states. London: Routledge. According to this. 2). though he did not found. . pp. society had four strata. 1992). he taught. Social environment The Buddha lived when the first cities were coming up in India. 237-59. which led to contact with the world beyond India. a religion still alive today.) The Buddha’s contemporary Mahavira was one of them. which they called ‘colours’ (S: varna). Part 2 (Symposien zur B uddhism usforschung. He spent his life in the part of north-east India now known as Bihar (the name is derived from the Buddhist word for ‘monastery’) and the eastern UP. Chapters 2 and 3. Space The Buddha was born close to the modern border between India and Nepal. Patna (ancient name: Pataliputra). which did not then exist. and then the sudra. Kings were supposed by the theory to enforce its rules. artisans and labourers. though not necessarily in exactly its present form. The latest genre/stratum is that of the Upanisads. This brahmin theory is first m entioned in the tenth book of the Rg Veda. The Theravada regards only the Pali Canon as authoritative. which is confusing.it is am biguous. Mahayana in East and Central Asia. Early brahmin religious literature is vast. Kinds of Buddhism T h ere are two m ain B uddhist traditions in the world today: Theravada and Mahayana. It is internally stratified by genre and to some extent the genres also constitute a chronological sequence. so it must antedate 500 bc. enforcem ent has always been extremely variable. the Mahayana arose around the beginning of the Christian era and venerates many other texts. Further details are not relevant to this book.028 hymns. and is all in an ancient (but not uniform) kind of Sanskrit. It all carries the name Veda. originally stock-rearers and farm ers but by the Buddha’s day primarily traders. The Rg Veda. Even below these came the outcastes. Theravada is a Pali word ( Theravada) m eaning ‘Doctrine of the Elders’. Mahayana is a Sanskrit word (Mahayana) and means either ‘Great Path’ or ‘Great Vehicle’ . a collection of 1. however. m eaning ‘know ledge’. The oldest genre is sometimes known in the West as the Vedas. which was certainly known to the Buddha. who in theory were associated with u n clean work dealing with corpses a n d /o r excreta. These were composed over several centuries. is the oldest text in this genre. Theravada is dom inant in most (not all) of South and Southeast Asia. In fact. . the oldest and longest is the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad.BACKGROUND INFORMATION xv then the vaisya. Vism. DN J MUD MN PED RV S.ABBREVIATIONS AN BAU CL Up. Ud. Thg. Dhs. Dhp. Anguttara Nikaya Brhad-Aranyaka Upanisad Chandogya Upanisad Dhammapada Dhammasangani Digha Nikdya Jataka Middle Length Discourses Majjhima Nikdya Pali-English Dictionary Rg Veda Satapatha Brdhmana Samyutta Nikdya Suttanipdta Therigdtha Uddna Vinaya Pitaka Visuddhimagga . SN Snip. Vin.Br. are so diverse that some scholars scoff at the very notion that one can talk about ‘Buddhism’. to the Buddha himself. goes back. Buddhism itself. whom I consider to be one of the greatest thinkers . but I maintain that the Buddha belongs in the same class as Plato and Aristotle. My admiration is for the Buddha. the giants who created the tradition of western philosophy.and greatest personalities .1 It would be astonishing if over such a long time. And that admirable part of the Buddhist tradition. in my view. Ranking people in an order of merit is a pursuit fit only for parlour games. I disagree. and insist on using the word in scare quotes. . or traditions if you will. it would be extraordinary if I did. I think that his ideas should form part of the education of every child. Moreover. This does not mean that I consider that all the Buddha’s ideas were correct. both gentler and more intelligent. my admiration extends to a great deal of what those bom into the Buddhist tradition think and do.of whom we have record in human history. I believe th at my understanding of his ideas makes me at least as sincere an admirer of the Buddha as the millions who identify as Buddhists. if it has to be used at all. Granted. the world over. I therefore do n ot call m yself a B uddhist. is subject to the B u d d h a ’s d ictum th a t ‘All com pounded things are im perm anent’.Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION have been motivated to write this book mainly by two feelings: Iadmiration and exasperation. which have lasted for over two and a half millennia and extended over a vast geographical area. However. Those Buddhist traditions. Given the distance between the Buddha and me in time and space. I disagree with some of his theories and do not subscribe to all his values. and that this would help to make the world a more civilized place. as a human p h e n o m en o n . as it moved to different regions and cultures. the Buddha was not asking the same questions as his opponents. In many cases. To illustrate this will be one of the main themes of this book. He did not always follow the unspoken rules of what philosophy.. registers imperceptible to the literal-minded.2 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT it had not undergone vast changes. until we arrive at the trunk and root. Naturally. the various streams of the Buddhist tradition have been joined and adulterated by streams from other cultures. the Buddha himself. was supposed to be about. even well before Buddhism becam e im planted in countries beyond India. But the historian should be able to trace every branch of the tradition back to another branch. Yet I think that in most traditions . texts sacred to the brahm ins. this led to m isunderstandings after his death. The Buddha was startlingly original. which have done most to shape hum an history . for there was no other. Vedic thought. and significantly differed from them only in attacking the caste system. Again and again I find propagated in modern Indian university teaching and publications the view that the Buddha taught virtually the same as the Upanisads.or at least in the scriptural traditions. but to put them across. I believe I have an answer. Let me give a salient example. Moreover. he infused old terms with new meanings. is the oldest institution in the world. A nother salient example may clarify this. and easily recognizable as the same institution from age to age and country to country. Many of his ideas were formulated to refute other ideas current in his day. but they may protest that Buddhist beliefs today are hopelessly diverse. They may grant that the Buddhist O rder of monks and nuns.it is what owes its origin to ancient Buddhism that preponderates. was much concerned with ontological questions: what exists? The . those attacks were conducted mainly by using m etaphor and irony. or systematic thought. Many will remain sceptical. especially among those who knew his teachings only partially or superficially. But more needs to be said. whose influence must likewise be analysed. and ask why. so he used their own terms to attack them. The orthodox tradition. or indeed as the successors of his opponents in India down the centuries. This inevitably led to misunderstandings. the same has happened to every hum an tradition. he had inevitably to use the language of his opponents. To change the m etaphor from trees to rivers: on their way. As I shall explain at many points in this book. This arises from the fact that the Buddha’s main ideological opponents were brahmins of Upanisadic views. the Saiigha. that must be beyond the scope of this book. The Buddha will thus stand as the source for a successful history of Buddha ideas . are very complex or difficult to grasp. if taken in isolation. seem to be ambiguous on this matter. the Vijnanavdda. may be beyond the powers of any single scholar. gave his teachings a realist interp retatio n. the abhidharma. an idealist interpretation. Moreover. the great difficulties of translating Indian texts into Chinese. I find the Buddha's ideas extraordinarily powerful and intelligent. I do not think those powerful ideas. When Buddhism reached China. However. soon led to mysticism: mysticism in the sense that the Buddha’s teaching was held to transcend rationality and to be inexpressible in language. While I shall show in this book that I agree that the Buddha held the goal of the religious life to be an experience which language has no power to express. I strongly disagree with interpretations of his teachings. particularly if one highlights certain texts and ignores others. properly understood. it is possible to derive both these interpretations from the early Canon. ano ther. which are of course expressed in language. One major school. I therefore hold that a successful interpretation of the Buddha will make clear not only the ideas he expressed but also how those ideas lent themselves to the various interpretations which are in fact historically attested. But this was too much for his followers. even in outline.INTRODUCTION 3 Buddha said that this is a wrong question. particularly in the school known in the West by its Japanese name. I can put the matter even more plainly from another angle. Before many centuries had elapsed. There are indeed also texts which. things went even further than this. a work of genius. difficulties both of a practical character and inherent in the vast difference between the cultures of the two countries.even though to compose such a history. MISUNDERSTANDING AND PSEUDO-PROFUNDITY The above paragraphs may give the reader a first hint of why one of the motives that drives me to write is exasperation. this view has been dom inant in Far Eastern Buddhism. Yet Buddhists and nonBuddhists alike persist in regarding the B uddha’s thought as . Zen. as being mystical in the vulgar sense of defying normal logic. Though not the only view. one needs to try to reconstruct its historical context. my use of evidence. Just as traditional exegesis of the Four Gospels has not taken much account of Jesus’ Jewish background. Therefore to understand what anyone is saying.and I confess that 1 am one of those . My method is therefore historical. Aristotle and Hume. Jesus or Mohammed. But to stress that can be a hindrance in the educational systems of today. but there is something in that nevertheless. particularly if it transcends the banal.4 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT immensely ‘deep’ in the sense of complex and therefore difficult to understand. historical context did not appear to have any relevance! T hat may excuse the blinkered approach of the early commentators. Why do I th in k th a t the B u d d h a ’s th o u g h t has been so undervalued? I would not go so far as to say that the undervaluation is in proportion to the veneration. derive their meaning largely from context. obviously. he saw himself as teaching a path to salvation. but it will not serve for modern scholars. For me. I shall follow the same path in this book. It is of course a fact that he founded what we call a religion. . in his terms. before one has witnessed the practice.e. i. indeed. But let us not thereby exclude him from the category of thinkers like Plato. Statements. I am not disputing that as the founder of a religion the B uddha can be classed with Moses.feel that they must begin with a chapter on what they call methodology.e. How Buddhism Began. I think that regarding the Buddha purely as a religious teacher can be unhelpful. if he preached eternal truths. a civilizing influence. I do not share this view. ‘How do I set about writing this book?’ For historians this usually means how they find what they consider relevant evidence and how they treat it. once the reader has had a chance to see how my method works. After all. I have taken first steps in this direction in the early chapters of my book Theravada Buddhism: A Social History. While I consider that Buddhism has been by and large a great force for good in hum an history. i. and gone further in my next book. For this reason I discuss my method. only halfway through the book. but I hope not too much. this will lead to my repeating myself a little. and I find it boring and unhelpful to read about how something can or could be done in theory. traditional exegesis of the Buddha operated in almost total ignorance of his historical context. Naturally. the proof of the pudding is in the eating... Most books written by academics . 2 The oldest extensive evidence for the Buddha’s ideas.even more closely than Italian is related to Latin.INTRODUCTION 5 TERMINOLOGY AND CLARITY One of my teachers. I agree. and the closest Chinese word may. cover a broader or a narrower range than ‘cup’. is found in large parts of a huge collection of texts known in English as the Pali C anon. the Ven. For most purposes one can expound Indian Buddhism equally well whether one uses the Sanskrit term s or th eir Pali equivalents. Italian cosdenza can be either ‘conscience’ or ‘consciousness’. Dr Walpola Rahula. Nevertheless.do not refer to external objects. such as nose. The problem becom es far worse w hen the ideas one is trying to understand are expressed in the original by relating one to the other or even explaining one in terms of the other. because the C hinese traditionally have a different range of utensils from English-speakers. in the Buddha’s lifetime (unless it be that there was a system of writing num erals). it is often no problem to convey what it refers to with enough precision to serve the needs of communication. though in the case of abstractions the ambiguities and semantic range of a term may well baffle translators and those dependent on their translations. ‘spirit’. but they are mosdy irrelevant to the contents of . And yet at the same time I have always held that if one wants fully to grasp the meaning of a Buddhist text. German Geist can be ‘souP. They are abstractions. once the word ‘cup’ is used in a context. cup. tree. ‘ghost’. for instance.3 Pali is a language derived from pre-classical Sanskrit and closely related to it .and probably in any system of ideas . Linguists understand that there are very few words which have precise equivalents in a n o th e r language. Let me give two simple examples. I hold. one needs to read it in the original language. so far as we can tell. What do I mean? The key terms in Buddhism . It is also closely related to the language (likewise derived from Sanskrit) that the Buddha himself must have spoken. Of that language we have no direct record. except sometimes in a closely related language: the word ‘cup’ will not have a precise equivalent in C hinese. ‘m ind’ or ‘wit’. The translation of abstractions is much more problematic. there are a few exceptions to this. This is not just because the terms do not have precise equivalents in foreign languages. because writing was not used in India. was given to saying that one could teach Buddhism to a non-Buddhist audience in their own language without using any foreign words at all. but unless I am very careful to make clear what I am doing. From this point on. I had better stick to the task of decoding what the Buddha said by recognizing when he is speaking figuratively. the discussion will use only Sanskrit (S) and Pali (P) terms. because that wrongly suggests long-w indedness or evasiveness. Removing the figurative use of language which fills and enlivens his discourses is likely to make them less vivid and interesting. and preferably also understanding why. besides. of course. this word means ‘way round’ and so ‘indirect ro u te’. But simply to ignore the metaphors is to lose an essential part of the meaning. on the other hand. with a text which is to be taken literally. try introducing metaphors of my own.6 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT this book. Pariyaya refers to metaphor. it is not useful in this context to stick to either S or P consistently. in other words. On the other hand. is mainly delivered with what Pali calls pariyaya. T O l? / M ? I f f T A T\TJM r\T* I oHi DUULInA a ¥U afi XJSf Mfi l ArtlUK The preaching recorded in the suttas. particularly when the subject matter is religious. this runs the risk of distorting the message. and to gain insight into the meanings of Pali words one needs to compare them not to Sanskrit in general but to the Sanskrit of the Buddha’s day .4 Literally. literally. The translation ‘circumlocution’ will not quite do. A text delivered ‘with pariyaya' is contrasted with one delivered without. the texts containing the Buddha’s sermons and discourses. it is always debatable to what extent that which is expressed by a metaphor can be conveyed by its literal equivalent. In the early canons. but it refers to a ‘way of putting things’. any use of speech which is not to be taken literally.what is generally referred to as late Vedic Sanskrit. Sanskrit has a very long history and many different genres of texts. I can. parable. allegory. it is the abhidharma texts which are ‘w ithout pariyaya' and thus claim to give us the B uddha’s meaning literally. particularly because our own world is so far removed from that of ancient India.5 What does this mean for us? It is the primary task of a modern expositor like myself to present in our language what the Buddha meant. . In the Mahayana.. in turn. and . but what it stands for is found all over them . As T. W. an action is something which takes place in the physical world. So when the Buddha said. Skill in Means (S: updyakausalya) acquired the status of a technical term. The Buddha avoids an adversarial stance. This. Regardless of what kinds of action the word is used to refer to. The word ‘karma’ itself* offers a perfect example.and then to carry on.INTRODUCTION 7 SKILL IN MEANS The Buddha’s use of metaphor is linked to what became known as his Skill in Means. When the Buddha’s interlocutor has spoken. It is a noun derived from one of the commonest of all Sanskrit roots. What he does after his initial agreem ent is to take what has apparently been agreed on and turn it upside down.’9 he was doing something logically analogous to saying that he chose to call black ‘white’. the Buddha hardly ever initiates a discussion or begins by putting forward his own views. Though every Buddha was thought to have attained moral perfection in a whole set of virtues. meaning ‘to do* or ‘to make*. When he took a word for sacrifice which the brahmins m eant literally. from which anyone can learn. expectations and capacities.7 this reminds us of Socrates. to their prejudices. The way in which the Buddha infuses new meaning into accepted terms is so bold that in some instances one might almost call it outrageous. many examples of the latter procedure. two were of param ount importance: compassion and wisdom. ‘Yes . the Buddha’s normal technique is to agree . Rhys Davids pointed out a century ago.6 The term refers to the Buddha’s skill as a communicator. this m atter becam e explicit in the Buddhists’ view of their own tradition. who always got discussions going by asking the other party to state their views. we are on more familiar territory. or to call left ‘right’. He says... ftr. That term is not found in the early Pali texts. and turned that into a metaphor.’ This is a wonderful bargaining or diplomatic tactic. This example is so extreme that perhaps it does not describe it adequately to say that what his opponents m eant literally he took metaphorically. There are. Sanskrit karman and Pali kamma thus mean ‘act. action. is manifested by the Buddha’s ability to adapt what he says to his audience. When he encounters non-Buddhists.. ‘It is intention that I call karma. Already in ancient times. however. One of his main ways of doing that is to m ake the words used by his o pp onen t mean something quite different. Odd . deed’. it was being expounded by and to Christians. the prime instance of his compassion was his preaching. But as an explanation of what the Buddha was teaching. this is still totally inadequate.’ Many people are so used to sentences like this. and thus show to all living creatures the path to liberation from rebirth. True. DECODING AN IDEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE The meaning of Buddhist texts is never going to be clear to us if we stick to reading word-for-word translations. in the cultures where it was known. but he was kind enough to do so. Here is a typical statement of one of the Buddha’s basic teachings: ‘The Buddha taught that living beings have no self. the denial of a self or soul has been the . normal English. The only way fully to explain matters to an English-speaker is to use clear. the salient doctrine of Buddhism. When Buddhism was discovered by the West (mainly in the nineteenth century). and that ‘aggregates’ translates S: skandhah (P: khandha). that they read (or listen) on without a m urm ur of complaint. a large part of the explanation will consist of dealing with those terms. which besides ‘self can be translated ‘soul’. its most distinctive feature. or exegesis which clings closely to such translations. the Buddha’s compassion consisted above all in helping others to help themselves. which are so obscure as to be meaningless. was held to be the doctrine of No Self or No Soul. However. but what we think of as the self in fact consists of five aggregates. briefly postponing the ‘aggregates’. the teacher making such a statement may well have explained that ‘self here corresponds to S: dtman (P: atta). but for modern scholars too. And it was his wisdom that provided the Skill in Means which made his preaching so effective. This will not be possible through just translating terms or sentences containing those terms.8 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT as it may sound to our ears. both literal and metaphorical. it must be their fault! Of course. exploring their semantic range and discussing their uses. There was no necessity for him to preach. Let me begin with the ‘self. Both these two-word English phrases translate S: anatman and P: anatta/anattd. who were no less struck by Buddhism’s denial of a supreme creator god. Throughout ancient times. Some even fancy that if they cannot understand such profundities. Consonant with the idea of individual responsibility. So for the moment it must suffice to point out that the Buddha is not primarily concerned with what exists . Yes. So the card in al teach in g becom es: ‘N o th in g in the w orld has an unchanging essence.’ On the one hand. he thinks that is a red herring .and this is my most fundamental point we are dealing with a system which is not merely coherent but interlocking. the introduction would become the whole book. it may be helpful to substitute ‘people’ or ‘hum an beings’ for ‘living beings’. It will be easiest to grasp my argum ent if I come straight to the main point. so good. the doctrine is far wider. we should now go on to explain what is meant by ‘normally’.) So far. the word 'soul' becomes inappropriate and one wants a word like ‘essence’.’ or 'There is no unchanging essence in living beings. In fact. what exists and the contents of experience are the . For his purposes. these are simple.but with what we can experience. Thus each statem ent of the doctrine leads us on to another. One can say.INTRODUCTION 9 m ost striking characteristic of Buddhism and of the teaching ascribed to the Buddha. In other words . there are several ways of expressing this doctrine clearly and accurately in English. If Buddhism is just a way to gain salvation. but to understand it correctly you have to know how the entire set of key terms is being used. so that the two-word English phrases become ‘no unchanging self and ‘no unchanging soul’. intelligible statements. in that linguistic environment. however. It is perfectly understandable. It applies to everything within our normal experience.’ or ‘There is nothing in our normal experience that never changes. Thus. ‘in the world’ has been equated with ‘in our normal experience’. In this broader context. On the other hand. to add a word meaning ‘unchanging’ would have been red un dan t. Thus. I shall explore the matter in detail later in the book. but here it suffices to say that for the Buddha’s audience by definition the word atman/alta referred to something unchanging. and say baldly that all the fuss and misunderstanding can be avoided if one inserts the word ‘unchanging’.’ (Since the main concern is with people. it seems enough to know that this applies to us hum ans. for example. for the Buddha ‘the world’ is the same as ‘that which we can normally experience’.in fact. But if we were thorough about following from link to link. ‘There is nothing in living beings that never changes. what can be present to consciousness. 10 WHAT THE BU DDHA THOUGHT same. and we shall return to it in Chapter 5. To go a step further: this accords with what is known as the First Noble Truth.which is not to say that all the implications are straightforward - . and again. We have already seen that since by definition self is unchanging. simpler way of saying that all phenom ena exhibit nonrandom change is to say that everything is process. the first and third hallm arks are virtually tautologous. This ‘truth’ is expressed as a single word. This may not be obvious to us. Even if we and everything around us change all the time. But now the question must surely be: if the Buddha was saying something so simple and straightforward . The hallmarks of what? Of life as we can normally know it. A nother point which we must for the m om ent be content to gloss over is the ambiguity between not being a self or essence and not having a self or essence. the ambiguity hardly matters.e. nothing im perm anent could be fully satisfactory. in other words. dukkha (S: duhkha). n o t/ without self/essence’. But is change random? Surely not. unsatisfactory. in my view. Traditionally. if we want a label. For the purposes of this summary exposition. dukkha. is not random. Another. to ‘exist’ is not to change: existence and becoming are defined as opposites. The Buddha axiomatized this in the proposition that nothing exists without a cause. The most basic point of the Buddha’s teaching that we have so far displayed is that everything in our lives changes: that most of us have no experience of anything unchanging. At this level. The change. this is expressed in a single Pali word. anatta: ‘im perm anent (i. Thus we arrive at what is known in Pali dogmatics as the tilakkhana. and indeed it sets the bar for satisfaction far higher than many of us would want to. Moreover. this is a fundamental postulate. That is indeed. The hallmarks are that it is anicca. not a sen ten ce. the Buddha’s position. But what is being expressed is that life as we normally experience it is unsatisfactory.. and thus looks m ore like an exclam ation than a proposition. we shall see. In Chapter 5 we shall show that the same applies to dukkha: that in the terms in which the Buddha was thinking and preaching. his doctrine looks like pragmatic empiricism. there has been a lot of argum ent over how to translate the word dukkha. ‘the three hallmarks’. the choice of translation must depend heavily on the context. Again. life could not go on if we did not recognize continuities at every step. in this view of the world. ever-changing10). but for the Buddha. For those who consider the soul to be the locus of good and evil in the individual. . but also a kind of lynchpin which holds the rest of the basic tenets together by providing the perfect example of what they mean. of course. in virtually any of its forms. by contrast. this suggests the alarming consequence that there is no moral responsibility. it is not clear how the term ‘continuity’ can there apply. for exam ple.INTRODUCTION 11 why is this not what we read in every book about Buddhism? I am going to suggest that this may well be because Pali and Sanskrit lacked a word which closely corresponds to the idea of ‘process’. doom ed to continual change. It is time. is that the idea that Buddhism denies personal continuity could not be further from the truth. while for both him and his loved ones the great change of life to death is forever looming. believe in personal continuity over an infinite series of lives. and perhaps in a second life in a place or state of reward or punishment. I also believe that the word samkhara. I can introduce karma as a positive doctrine. a heaven or a hell . since that is often considered to be ‘outside time’. indeed. KARMA AS PERSONAL CONTINUITY It is time to return to where I began this summary exposition: to the hum an being.although. the suffering individual. I believe that it is not only fundam ental to the Buddha’s whole view of life. Buddhism probably has the strongest idea of personal continuity found anywhere. this makes Buddhism bafflingly incoherent. let alone appeal to millions? The answer. Rather than begin with a demolition job. Buddhists. shows that this cannot be the correct interpretation. Karma is my favourite point of entry to the Buddha’s world­ view. to say more about karma. believe in personal continuity through just the one life that we live here on earth. In fact. How did such an illogical religion ever survive. because Buddhism teaches that when people (or other beings) die. they are reborn according to their moral deserts. But the slightest acquaintance with Buddhism. and had to express it figuratively. Christians. as I did when I showed that the common understanding of No Soul is severely deficient. often comes closer to ‘process’ than has hitherto been recognized. If the doctrine of No Soul means that there is no personal continuity. which is translated in an astonishing variety of ways. (The Buddha advised against spending time on racking one’s brains about this. the five sets of processes which constitute o ur lives. In the traditio n al ord er. In this latter sense it is part of the same metaphorical structure as nirvana (P: nibbana). feelings (as of pleasure and pain). We are thus heirs of our own deeds over an infinite num ber of lives. samkhdrd and consciousness. The best-documented series of lives in Buddhism is that of the person whose last life was as the Buddha. they form an integral part of Buddhist culture. which means the going out of a flame. I have left the fourth untranslated. (The Buddhist term for someone who takes such a resolution is bodhisattva. Karma is not the only element of continuity in our lives. So. the word should not be detached from a word that precedes it in a Pali com pound. Samkhdrd in this context refers to those mental processes not covered by the second. like the world. painted on temple walls and dramatically recited or re-enacted. Gotama Buddha. I shall explain this metaphor in Chapter 8. In fact.) All of us have already lived infinitely many lives. Common translations are ‘mental formations’ and ‘volitions’. Far the most im portant of these processes is intention. the focus is on intentions which are morally good or bad. One who has attained nirvana. While it is admitted that some intentions are morally neutral. according to the Buddha. Those lives have five sets of components. because it is a pun of which one meaning is a metaphor: ‘a mass of burning fuel’. we need only note that these five masses of burning fuel are. and that compound is complicated. because the Buddha established that nothing can come into being without a cause. however. and each of these five sets is denoted by the term which above was translated by the English word ‘aggregate’. For the moment. . life cannot have a beginning. This person resolved to attain Buddhahood a vast num ber of years ago. have an end: that is achieved by the attainment of nirvana. apperceptions (perceptions which serve to identify objects). metaphorically. and they are indeed emotions and volitions. will not be reborn. these five are: interactions with the physical world through the five senses. the series can have no beginning.12 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Infinite? Well. third and fifth categories.) Stories of more than five hundred of his previous lives (called Jdtaka) are retold in scriptures11 and sermons. upadana-khandha. The series can. and for that agent to suffer consequences would be completely unjust. the individual is autonomous and the final authority is what we would call his conscience. reap a character. It is far from random . If it were. carried out. but it is not wholly determined. Metaphorically they were often referred to as purity and impurity. Morality and immorality are mental properties of individuals.INTRODUCTION 13 The Buddha taught that all thoughts. is thus only one of the elements of continuity in an individual’s life (and beyond). who can take the blame for our decisions. becomes a propensity. Similarly. The same applies to bad qualities. is presented as a process. Each good deed makes a person purer and thus makes it slightly easier to repeat such a deed. from the intention behind them. We have free will and are wholly responsible for ourselves. There is no external agent. Further. INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY AND RESPONSIBILITY Since ethical value lies in intention. ethical volition. this responsibility extends far beyond this present life. But the basic criterion for m orality is intention. from the religious point of view it is the most important. For instance. reap a habit. moreover. reap a destiny. This does not make the effect of actions irrelevant: Buddhism is no less familiar than is modern law with the idea of negligence. the volition could not be the responsibility of its agent. but each time I do so the generosity will come more easily. A proverb cited by Damien Keown in his little book Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction12 puts it admirably: ‘Sow an act.’ Though karma. I may find it a wrench to give money away the first time. positive or negative. An intention. While I shall have more to say about karma and determinism below. As a general rule. such as cruelty. the moral rules laid down for . This volition. a monk could not be disciplined for an offence to which he did not admit. words and deeds derive their moral value. sow a habit. So we are entirely responsible for our moral condition and what we make of it. sow a character. it suffices here to say that the entire Buddhist ideology depends on the proposition that karma is on the one hand conditioned but on the other not strictly determ ined. and is partially conditioned by preceding volitions. such as a God. and indeed make nonsense of the very idea of volition as a separate category of thought or mental event. The Buddha. The point of ritual lies in doing. The very term sva-dharma. This single move overturns brahminical. not in intending. But since acting is really mental. One of the Three Fetters which tie men to continued existence in this world was declared to be infatuation with ritualistic observances.14 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT the laity (which also apply. In meditation. the Sanskrit word m eaning one’s own particularistic duty. caste-bound ethics. doing a good act is actually purifying o n e’s state of m ind. is absent from the Buddhist Canon. following his custom of putting new meanings to old words.13 clinging to the letter rather than the spirit of actions. The system is all of a piece. such purification is undertaken directly. Introductions to Buddhism written for westerners tend to begin by quoting the Buddha’s advice to a group of people called the . It is not normally forbidden. and thus articulates personal conscience. In fact. It has no moral and hence no soteriological value. In Chapter 2 I shall suggest w hat socio-econom ic conditions m ade this possible .though certainly not inevitable.14 A great deal of modern education and psychotherapy consists of making people aware that they are responsible for themselves. to the Saiigha) are formulated as personal undertakings: the B uddhist laym an declares. For the intention of a brahmin cannot plausibly be claim ed to be ethically of quite a different kind from the intendon of an outcaste. It is ‘purifying action’ (punna kamma) which brings the good Buddhist rewards in this and future lives. and hardly less remarkable that he found followers. Thus ritual is ethically neutral for the Buddhist. but it is certainly not commended. we consider that it constitutes a large part of what we mean by becoming a mature person. This shows why the Buddhists claim m orality to be a prerequisite for meditation. At least in theory. a fortiori. It is amazing that someone should have prom ulgated this idea in the fifth century bc . ‘I undertake to abstain from taking life’ and so forth. Thus there is a logical continuum between the moral actions of a man in the world and the meditations of a recluse. unless it involves an immoral act such as killing. even the recitation of the words is useless and pointless unless one is consciously subscribing to their meaning. The Buddha took the brahm in word for ‘ritual’ and used it to denote ethical intention. Intention can only be virtuous or wicked. often asked his followers to substitute m oral for ritual practices. without any accompanying action. you had better have the brains to make good use of it.15 They had complained to him that various teachers came and preached different doctrines to them. Scholars have debated which of these translations is m ore appropriate in Buddhism. at least on the intellectual level. Naturally. I have little doubt that ‘skilful’ fits the bill. In every traditional society. and in particular for deciding which teaching to follow. The Buddha’s views on politics are fascinating. The Buddha even made a monastic ruling that . One should not take any teaching on trust or external authority. If people are responsible for their own decisions. wholesome’ or ‘skilful’. But it is astonishing to find it in the generally hierarchic society of India. Perhaps one need n ot really decide betw een them . but since I have virtually n o th in g to add to w hat I have w ritten about them elsewhere.INTRODUCTION 15 Kalamas. the implication is that people would then find out for themselves that it was the Buddha whose teaching their experience showed to be correct. and that morality is closely linked to intellectual ability. ‘The teacher says I must think for myself/ we cannot blame the Buddha for that. let me concede that it may make sense to ask which metaphor was uppermost in the Buddha’s mind. but test it on the touchstone of one’s own experience. education consists largely in parroting what the teacher says. It is natural and appropriate for m odern authors to highlight this teaching: its im plications for tolerance and egalitarianism . this sets a high premium on intelligence. but the second less so. The usual term that the Buddha seems to have used for a morally good act was a word. including that into which the Buddha was born. The attitude was not unique in the ancient world: one can imagine the same advice coming from Socrates .16 I shall leave them out of this book. My answer is that for him kusala primarily means ‘skilled’. and they were confused about which to follow. So let me at this point draw attention to his egalitarianism: that the only true criterion for ranking people is moral. Nevertheless. kusala. If later some Buddhists parroted. which in Sanskrit17 can mean either ‘healthy. resonate with post-Enlightenment thought.though not from Plato. The Buddha replied that everyone has to make up their own mind on such matters. because a good moral choice is an intelligent and inform ed choice. for the ambiguity could have been intentional and words may be selected not only for their literal meanings but also for their overtones.IH If you have intellectual autonomy. The first of these propositions may remind us of Christianity. I have used No Soul and karma (moral causality) as my points of entry. I have m entioned the First Noble Truth. has at least to be taken in conjunction with the doctrine of karma. has few parallels in world history. but whether and how this happened was a hody contested issue. I think. that all living beings experience suffering. I would argue. They took rebirth for granted. the following two chapters will deal with the views of karma and rebirth which led up to the Buddha’s own. what I consider to be the most important of the Buddha’s ideas. Why? Because the Buddha was preaching to an audience who already had a set of preconceptions. It turns out. but neither did I make it my point of entry. the concept of ‘no soul’. commonly held to refer to the most characteristic Buddhist teaching. WHY HAVE I STARTED HERE? In this Introduction I have tried to summarize. briefly but I hope clearly. I see the two as closely connected: everyone is ultimately responsible for themselves and has to use their intelligence to make their own choices. probably most of them believed that the cycle of rebirth could be brought to an end. The Buddhist tradition is unanimous that the Buddha began by preaching the Four Noble Truths. but that that central entity would somehow survive eternally. Though the B uddha’s advice to the Kalamas may not follow logically from his doctrine of karm a. quite a lot hangs on where one begins. they believed in some enduring entity at the cen tre o f each h um an being.19 That. So I have had to make these preconceptions explicit from the very outset. most of them very different from our own. and indeed. .16 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT one of the duties of a pupil towards his teacher is to correct him when he is wrong on doctrine or in danger of saying something unsuitable. Thus. an entity w hich transmigrated from life to life. after I have explained the Buddha’s view of karma in more detail in the next chapter. Some of them believed that the form in which one was reborn was affected by how one behaved previously. nor have I yet explained the other three Noble Truths. I have shown that to take the key concepts in isolation is almost bound to lead to misunderstanding. which deal with dukkha (let’s call it ‘suffering’). that if one wants to expound the Buddha’s core teaching. ethical values. to claim that these ideas could just have accumulated among Buddhists as time went on. and indeed hardly any texts that we have were written down even that early. however. that brain was strongly influenced by . Firstly. I hope. and . some 150 years after the Buddha’s death. The owner of that brain happens to be known.20 the same sceptics claim that we can know nothing about Buddhism before it had already split into schools and sects. appropriately.INTRODUCTION 17 V irtually everything I have so far w ritten requires fu rth er elaboration. Moreover. O ther im portant features of the B uddha's teaching and practice. knowing nothing about the Buddha or his ideas. and I have not even touched on such im portant matters as nirvana. of course. in my view. as the Buddha. That means. XHIS? I have mentioned above that some scholars do not like to talk of Buddhism in the singular at all. and provided it with ideas and institutions. it makes no sense to assume that Buddhism could have arisen without a historical person who founded it. the ‘Awakened’. Surely this defies common sense. the Buddha’s view of language. must remain almost entirely outside the scope of this book. (About the ideology of the institution I shall have som ething to say in Chapter 11. we can know nothing ab o u t him . unless it be in scare quotes. that I have done enough to show that the ideas here presented are not only powerful but also form a coherent system. and that their coherence is a matter of historical accident. is the view that if such a historical figure as the Buddha existed. SUMMARY: DID ONE PERSON REALLY THINK OF AT T. such as m editation and the monastic Order. A cadem ics who are prey to this fashion for ‘deconstruction’ are reluctant to consider anything in a Buddhist text to be older than that text itself.perhaps most im portant of all . as I began to show in How Buddhism Began and will further demonstrate below. at least in the United States.) It is equally implausible. One remarkable brain must have been responsible for the basic ideology. Probably even more common. On this view. Since it is most unlikely that any text was written down before the reign of the Emperor Asoka in the middle of the third century bc. Buddhism emerges into the light of history from impenetrable darkness. It is because exegetes have had too little such understanding that the ideas have often been m isinterpreted. The ideas were original and brilliant.18 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT ideas current at a certain place and time. b ut fully to u n d erstan d them requires also an understanding of what preceded them. . literally ‘god’s justice’. if our actions are rigidly determined. intentional action. however. and that often babies who cannot yet have done wrong suffer and die too. All the world religions face the problem known in theology as theodicy. by a law of nature. we are not ethical agents and the rest of the Buddha’s teaching makes no sense at all. the idea of karma is inextricably connected with the idea of rebirth. it must steer between the extremes of determinism and randomness. If we have no free will. analogous for us to a law of physics.2 The time between the act and its fruit is unpredictable. It seems that sometimes wicked people die without having got their comeuppance. For karma to work as an ethical doctrine. Good karma would bring good effects for the doer. He saw karma. This evidence from our common experience would seem to refute the doctrine of karma . the model was agriculture. It would not be right to call these rew ards and p u n ish m e n ts. So it is not surprising to find in the Pali Canon his condemnation of the determinist doctrines of the Ajivaka teacher Makkhali Gosala* and . there is a time lag during which some mysterious invisible process takes place. This is also known as the problem of suffering. rather.Chapter 2 MORE ABOUT KARMA.if people had only one life. For the Buddha and others in ancient India. The effects are produced. though its main concern is with apparently unjust suffering. Karma works as a theodicy by claiming that the explanation for both trium phant rogues and suffering babies lies in what they have done in former lives.1 because there is no rew arder or punisher. as a matter of cause and effect. AND ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT F or the Buddha. bad karma bad effects. The result of an intentional act is in fact normally referred to as its ‘fruit1. and then the plant pops up and can be harvested. One sows a seed. often the first example of unjust suffering that comes to mind is the child bom with AIDS. On the other hand. there is an im portant sutta in the Samyutta Nikdya. ‘Granted that we create our own futures. would call it a change in the w eather. . he seems to be saying that ascribing good or bad experiences to karma is only suitable when no medical or common-sense explanation is available. (We. the very reverse of what the Buddha meant. is the result of karma.20 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT others. the tendency has always been. phlegm and wind. The first five are perfectly clear and refer to the medical knowledge of those days. whether pleasure. is ‘This is the result of my karma. says that medical conditions are to be explained by medical causes without having recourse to karma. is the result of what one has done. First there are the three hum ours: bile.surely it was not my fault?’. it is easy for belief in karma to become a kind of fatalism. ‘How did I get into this mess .) The sixth the PED translates as ‘being attacked by adversities’. to be taken as an answer to the question ‘How should I behave?’ Since people are lazy. backwards. Thus. and it is commonly accepted. The Buddha replies that this view is wrong and goes beyond both what one can know for oneself and what is commonly accepted to be true. one can ask. says the Buddha. and tend to be more interested in saying. The fifth is a change in season. For the middle way between determinism and randomness.7 Only the eighth cause. He lists them. In other words. ‘This is my karma’. just quoted. to use the original terminology. probably from the Buddha’s day until now.5 but I think the reference is still medical and it means inappropriate or inadequate care or treatment. with our m ore variable climate.’ Still. to see the same doctrine from the other end.4 A non-Buddhist renunciate called Moliya Sivaka asks the Buddha what he thinks of the view that everything one experiences. In this perverse form of the doctrine. when what they mean. that feelings arise from eight causes. T he fo u rth is a combination of these three. to what extent are things that happen to us the result of our own acts in this or a former life?’ The Buddha’s answer to Moliya Sivaka. So it is intended to be seen from the front. But does this always apply? When we pose the problem of theodicy. the teaching is equally flawed unless actions have consequences. One can know for oneself. pain or neutral. But is this logical? The Buddha’s teaching of karma was a moral exhortation. people say.6 The seventh seems to mean ‘caused by an act of violence’. and if that fails try Ayurvedic m edicine adm inistered by a village specialist. or they may result from natural causes such as eating the wrong food. promising him some present or service if he recovers. it is. These causes interlock and cannot be rigidly schematised. much more likely. will serve to give us a picture of how the Buddhist view of the results of karma probably has always operated: Bad karma means that one is due for misfortune . He may ascribe it to hum an agency (black magic) and employ suitable counter­ measures (white magic). But no. If the remedy does not work this may be due to a wrong diagnosis. and banish or appease them by more or less elaborate exorcistic ceremonies.. the cause behind causes. He may ascribe it to the actions of a god.. for karma and the other causes cited are not on the same level. and he is due to suffer longer. He may ascribe it to demons of disease or to malign planetary influences ..8 In practice. The account that I wrote in my first book. what use is karma as a theodicy? It seems that karma operates on a grand scale. men or devils who operate as freewill agents. and make the god a vow.gods. One must realize that karma must operate through some specific cause. one starts saying that this must be an effect of bad karma. or rather the failure of that god’s protection. for example. A man who falls ill will probably first try western medicine at the local hospital. or. In that sense the Buddha’s answer to Moliya Slvaka is misleading. At first sight the example of the child with AIDS may appear to contradict this. Specific misfortunes are caused by other beings . because thinking about them will drive . it may be because the m an’s karma is too bad. If that fails his next resort will be determined by his sub-culture and individual temperament.. The Buddha himself listed the effects of karma as one of the four things which are not to be thought about. people tend to apply the theory backwards: when one has an illness and no treatm ent seems to do any good. as it were. AND ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 21 Does the fact that this is a condition of which we understand the medical causes mean that it is not a case of karmic causation? If so. The theories and rem edies listed are not mutually exclusive.MORE ABOUT KARMA. based on fieldwork in a Sinhalese Buddhist village. in determining where one is born and when one dies. But we would never have heard of the Buddha and there would be no Buddhism had not a lot of people accepted his ideas.9 Presumably this warning is directed to unenlightened people. Traders kept accounts. The larger towns (still very small by modern standards) developed into city states. It has no plausibility for those whose food supply depends on the vagaries of the weather. at least for a few generations? My claim is not that the Buddha’s conceiving these ideas was determined by the society and the economy in which he lived. W hat. And what he saw convinced him that nothing could be as urgent as putting a stop to the whole process. A high rate of morbidity must also be demoralizing.) This urbanization must have come about through the production of an agricultural surplus. and this in turn led to contact with more distant societies and a broadening of cultural horizons. and it is their acceptance which I think can be attributed to their material conditions. kings enforced laws.11 . in societies where power is very unequally distributed.l0 So he witnessed the workings of karma. All historians agree that Buddhism arose early in India’s second period of urbanization. nobility and an adm inistrative class. Very rarely in human history have people accepted that they are wholly responsible for themselves. were the ex cep tio n al circumstances which allowed the Buddha’s teaching of individual responsibility to take root in a large segment of society. Most people have lived under such conditions that this teaching has no plausibility. because the second of the three knowledges which are said to come with Enlightenm ent is the ability to see how beings are reborn in accordance with the moral quality of their deeds (yatha-kammupaga) .22 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT you crazy. but we cannot. The surplus agricultural production led to trade on an ever increasing scale. Equally im portant. with courts. for I think that remarkable individuals are capable of generating ideas under almost any circumstances. 1 have described all this in Chapter 2 of my Theravada Buddhism and many others have done so in more detail. irrelevant to our story. it is natural to believe that the world is run by a god or gods. th en . and those with little or none of it depend on the goodwill of their overlords. Radical changes in society and the economy ensued. (The first was the Indus Valley civilization. the term vaisya (P: vessa) is rare in B uddhist scripture.but not a brahmin. It is far easier to get from a villager an estimate of how many such units there are in an area than of the total num ber of hum an beings. Traders were by no means the only people who were largely self-employed. the other families do not count socially. they are referring to heads of families of the top three varnas'.. It is clear both from the early texts and. the peasants now had ‘private property in farm animals. unless specifically said to be so. in land and its produce’. i. It is from these ‘h o u seh o ld ers’ th at such in stitu tio n s as village councils have always re c ru ite d th eir membership.MORE ABOUT KARMA. Kosambi writes: The existence of new classes in the Gangetic basin of the sixth century is undeniable... such as traders. Moreover. from archaeological evidence that Buddhism particularly appealed to the new social classes... To this day in Indian villages people think of the population very much in terms of family groups or ‘houses’. The term which constantly recurs is gahapati. a bit later. A household includes not only close kin but servants and other dependants. and because clan organization had broken down there was no obligation to share that surplus. ten ant or land-owning peasants. w hich literally m eans ‘m aster o f a h o u se ’. The existence of free. it occurs only w hen discussing brahm in classification. When ancient texts mention householders. not as the natural designation for someone’s primary social status. It is clear that the canonical gahapati is the head of a respectable family . .13 The canonical texts can give us an idea of the social composition of the Buddha’s lay support. . [L]arge-scale slave labour was not available.12 Trade gave the farmers an incentive to produce a surplus.. each one with its head. Indeed. is clear from the texts . AND ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 23 I suggest that in this period an unusually high proportion of people must have lived relatively free from oppression. ‘householder’. The neo-Vedic pastoral class of vaisyas within the tribe was replaced by agriculturists for whom the tribe had ceased to exist.. The free peasants and farmers were one. the term must refer mainly to heads of families which brahminism classified as vaisya. since brahmins and ksatriyas can have formed only a small part of the population.e. ’14 I have been made aware of an even more im portant line of interpretation too late to do it full justice in this book. and hope I can discuss its wider implications for early Indian thought elsewhere. a large-scale British research project. Sometimes they are also in business. In fact. ‘There is a striking similarity with what I have argued to be the socio­ economic preconditions for the (roughly contemporary) beginnings of western “philosophy” (in my Money and the Early Greek Mind). has conducted surveys and undertaken surface archaeology in the relevant parts of India. but they usually have labourers to do the physical work. perhaps with a town house. We must distinguish between reference and meaning: the meaning of gahapati is simple and unvarying. most of them evidently own land. they illustrate how it is in the first instance wealth derived from agriculture which provides business capital. To quote from an abstract of a lecture given by Dr Willis: they conclude. use the term gahapati to refer to urban merchants. On the other hand. I should add that since I first began to write about the socio­ economic background to the rise of Buddhism. inter alia. after reading my Social History. H ere let me just quote the passages which I find most relevant to the Buddha’s karma theory. where Buddhism flourished in the early centuries ad.24 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Who were these people in terms of class or profession? In the Canon. Richard Seaford was kind enough to write to me. but the reference shifts with the social context. functioning both as constituents in a new polity and lay supporters of Buddhism.'' I find his book fascinating.’ and ‘that a new social class of landed farmers were important instruments in the whole process. led by Dr Michael Willis and Dr Julia Shaw. The ‘metaphysics of money’ involves ‘the belief that we are primarily individual agents and only secondarily (if at all) members of a larger [social] entity . ‘that the appearance of Buddhism and its relic cult in central India coincided with the building of a vast hydrological system which radically changed both agrarian production and the immediate environm ent. and their research has helped to fill in the picture I have been sketching. inscriptions in the western Deccan. This concerns the radical effect on thought of monetization. The average gahapati who gave material support to the Buddha and his Sangha thus seems to have been som ething like a gentlem an farmer. in turn. my claim is that this teaching could only succeed because so many people found it did not run counter to their experience. However. although he may find useful and desirable the personal relations of kinship and friendship (reciprocity) as well as participation in collective sacrifices (redistribution). The power of money can increase hum an ind epen den ce even from deity. Obviously this fits well with a doctrine of free will: it attempts to put the teaching that everyone is fully responsible for themselves into practice.18 Buddhist karma doctrine is just as much for the laity as for the Sahgha.MORE ABOUT KARMA. as Obeyesekere demonstrates. those who controlled the econom ic resources to support the Sahgha and who also.involved were the heads of households. and told monks to rely on themselves. The Buddha. refused to appoint a head of the Saiigha. num ber of years since full ordination. as it has been in Theravadin cultures... because everywhere all beings are placed according to their deserts. Human beings. not on external authority. If this is generalized into a view of the world.e. relying instead on the im personal power of money . For a modern audience I should perhaps repeat that the ‘people1 primarily ..17 it has often been noted that the organization of the Buddhist Saiigha was modelled on that of a tribal republic or oligarchy: the only ranking principle was that of seniority. the whole universe becomes an ethical arena. In sum. Since it is explicitly stated in a canonical text.. but since they owe their position to their virtue they may be expected to exercise that power justly.though not exclusively .. .6 This fits Buddhist karma perfectly.. KARMA THEORY’S BEARING ON SOCIETY AND COSMOLOGY If karma is completely ethicized. according to the same text. Gods are more powerful than human beings. i. both increasing as one proceeds (literally) up the universe. AND ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 25 The individual with money. no doubt. can frequently do w ithout them . it means that ultimately power (including the power to enjoy oneself) and goodness are always perfectly correlated. set the religious tone for the rest of their families. are better and . but if they try to go further. but resided in the hearts of its . nature. and it is hardly surprising that Buddhism as it developed after the Buddha’s death became rich in ways of obscuring or escaping such an intransigent law of the universe. It appealed largely to new men who did not fit well into the four-vama system of brahm in ideology. Disputing with a young brahmin.26 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT aJso better off than animals. distinctions of gender. In much the same period (though they started somewhat earlier) the Greeks were making the distinction between phusis. The Buddha probably began with an advantage in that he was born and bred in north-eastern India on the very margin of Vedic civilization. Buddhism. spread over half the ancient world and took root in quite disparate civilizations. I would suggest that it acquired this adaptability not by chance. neither to shrine nor to hearth. But he was also addressing audiences among which were men who had acquired the same perception when they had travelled on business. and nomos. awareness of foreign cultures had a truly liberating effect. and located in the mind.like mercantile wealth—was not ascribed but achieved. Obeyesekere has also shown19 how it is logical that the ethicization of a society’s eschatology should lead to its universalization. and it happens on occasion th at m asters becom e slaves and slaves m asters/0 As has happened several times in history. Logically it solves the problem of theodicy. but in its belief that there is really no undeserved suffering it can also be harsh. often at the cost of logical consistency. Buddhism . Many have found this solution as unbearable as the situation it resolves. age and social class becom e irrelevant. the Buddha points out that in the far north-west and other distant countries there are only two varna. Despite huge setbacks. but at a price. even demons are only rationally punitive: they can be the instruments to give people their just deserts. and drawing similar conclusions. Buddhism was attached neither to community nor to locality. man-made rule. in origin an Indian ideology. and could show that what brahmins believed to be ingrained in nature was nothing but convention. let alone demons. but because the Buddha himself was able to see that local mores were man-made. master and slave (or servant). like an over-zealous policeman. Moreover. Moreover. Once ethics is reduced to the simple values of right and wrong. it is still spreading. som ething common to all hum an beings. they will themselves be punished for it This p icture of a universe u n d e r control is from one angle reassuring. the belief in the law of karma. The Buddhist value system can travel and adapt itself to other cultures. an exception is made21 for the monk who is in a caravan or on a ship . Making the individual conscience the ultimate authority is both a liberating and a dangerous move. It suited people who moved around. and if that was not to be obviously falsified by every cot death. no matter what its sexual mores. in some contexts the canonical texts have the Buddha say that he has no views (diuhi) at all. T hat is why it was immensely im portant for the Buddha. One soon has to qualify this.as indeed I have done . however.that he asked people to use their own judgem ent. even if one finally assesses the claim as disingenuous. to go by their own experience and take nothing on trust. to keep stressing that the law of moral reckoning worked throughout the universe: that good would be rewarded and evil punished in the end. is also why the Buddha made belief in this law of karma the first step on his noble eightfold path to nirvana. to attracting and perhaps converting laymen. Hence it spread along trade routes. He is there talking about metaphysical speculation. But when it comes to preaching to the public. and indeed for the whole tradition that followed him. by saying that there was one belief which he held himself and relied on in his teaching. this can be used in any society.MORE ABOUT KARMA. w hether changing residence from village to town or travelling on business. What if someone acts on wrong moral reasoning? Society needs a sanction. I suggest. the Buddhist layman vows ‘not to act wrongly in respect of sense desires’. one very often stresses at the outset . . T here is an interesting inconsistency here in the B uddha’s presentation. W hen one introduces the B ud d ha’s teaching to a m odern audience. it was readily transportable. It is striking that though monks were not normally allowed to travel during the rainy season. for it is just a promise to abide by those mores. he cannot avoid making clear that there is one ‘right view’ without which his entire edifice collapses: that the law of karma ensures that there is justice in the world. That. samma ditthi What this refers to is precisely accepting this tenet (in Pali: being a kamma-vadin). Steven Collins8' has discussed and explained the fact that while the Buddha often commends ‘right views’ and condemns ‘wrong views’. For example. AND ITS SOCIAL CONTEXT 27 adherents.presumably accompanying Buddhist merchants. that only other people have views. and it is not hard to see what he means. The first step is called ‘right view’. One tends to add. . I hope I have shown that this is the very reverse of the truth. that these were beliefs that the Buddha inherited and simply could not shake off.28 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT it had to entail belief in rebirth. perhaps in an apologetic tone. The Buddha’s version of the law of karma was entirely his own. but to accept it was the leap of faith he dem anded of every follower. scholars have thought that when people (in fact. But where did it come from? The oldest Upanisads. which can be avoided by providing the ancestors with daily libations.. By this same agreed account. if not the very oldest. it was presumed that they stayed there. The word karma is first mentioned in connection with rebirth in two brief passages in the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad. of the Upanisads. having a good time. they went upwards to join their ancestors. who were known as ‘fathers’ (pitaras) and lived in the sky. In this chapter I shall be dealing with brahminism. Towards the end of the text. O ther aspects of brahminism which fundamentally influenced the Buddha are postponed till Chapter 5. i?VX. only men are explicitly referred to) died and were cremated. is found in the Brahmanas. Basing themselves on the ‘Funeral Hymn’. or more precisely in the sun.cA Chapter 3 THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM this chapter and the next I shall try to outline the earlier Indian Inideas of rebirth and karma which led up to those taught by the Buddha. but only those aspects of it strictly relevant to that theme.16. the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad has a longer . the idea of a cycle of rebirth first appears in the early Upanisads. Until very recently. The idea of a second death. a stratum of religious texts generally thought to be several centuries younger than the Rg Veda. one of the oldest. all scholars have agreed that the Rg Veda shows no signs of a belief in rebirth. Since no more was said about them. have been tentatively dated to the seventh or sixth century bc. texts which follow the Brahmanas. apparently are reborn too. of which the salient characteristic is ethicization. Let me begin by p u ttin g Ju rew icz’s discovery in a w ider framework. which describes three destinations for men at death. of whom little is said. but I could never understand how it was imagined that a group of people could develop and transmit such a religious theory while keeping it secret from their own priests. the middle group go via the moon and are reborn on earth. This will include a brief account of rebirth in Jainism. people fall into three groups: the best go up to the sun and are not reborn. I shall then show the major stages through which a theory of rebirth according to o n e’s karm a developed.) This passage appears with only very slight variation in another Upanisad.2 Confining myself to essentials. the Chandogya. indigenous population. (Women are again not mentioned and it is doubtful whether they are included. develop this simpler kind of belief into som ething m ore com plex.1 From the agreed account. and consider that they make better sense of the early history of Indian religion. Luckily. In this account. whom they served as priests. In this chapter I shall first report the discovery by Jurewicz that the agreed acco u n t is w rong: th at the Vedic fu n eral hym n has been m isinterpreted and does indeed refer to rebirth. of which India is perhaps the best example. G ananath Obeyesekere has shown3 that a belief in rebirth has been found in many small-scale societies round the world. the ksatnyas. known as the ‘five fire wisdom’ (pancdgnividya) . This theory arose because in the Brhad-aranyaka and the Chandogya the ‘five fire wisdom’ and some other doctrines are said to be taught to brahmins by kings. or something very close to it. it is a puzzle to conjecture how the notion of rebirth suddenly appeared in the brahm in tradition. by the wonderful recent researches of Gananath Obeyesekere and Joanna Jurewicz. the third. One theory has been that the brahmins learnt it from the royal class. must have antedated the Buddha and exercised an im portant influence on his ideas. . in the following chapter I shall explain in more detail why in my opinion Jainism. because of their religion we know absolutely nothing. I regard her arguments as conclusive. with their uncomfortably racialist overtones.30 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT passage (see below). we have been saved from such idle speculations. Only a few societies. but that is an even more desperate guess. but usually follows a certain pattern. Another theory has held that rebirth was an idea which started am ong the non-Aryan. the Trobriand Islands. With the exceptions already noted. one goes there. In the rebirth theories of small-scale societies. for example. such persons are punished by being denied a hum an reincarnation. Occasionally there is a place where violators of taboos and those guilty of heinous acts such as incest and sorcery are confined.. and that by and large the ethical quality of one’s conduct has no bearing on one’s rebirth. which may. be just over the horizon. introduced as the scale of society greatly expanded. entry . The fundam ental idea of reincarnation is that at death an ancestor or close kin is reborn in the human world. In such small-scale societies people sooner or later come to know of each others' good and bad deeds. In such theories rebirth has nothing to do with ethics. In principle such a cycle of rebirth. this is not so with the idea of a hell or a similar place of punishment. but there is no hell to which the bad are condem ned. may go on forever. Moreover. The theory of karma. I may die or go to some place of sojourn after death. one is reborn here. Most often . believe that rewards and punishments come only in this life. and this in turn led to further new ideas. one oscillates between this world and another very like it. ethicized this process.4 Typically. In such societies. most theories of rebirth. rebirth is a m atter of moving between this world and another very much like it: when one dies here. so that rewards and punishments are meted out in this world. alternating between two worlds.THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM 31 What exactly does this mean? Though all societies have ethics. Entry into the other world rarely depends on the ethical nature of one’s this-worldly behavior. whether or not there has been an interm ediate sojourn in another sphere of existence or after-world.. and the far north-west of Canada. and when in due course one dies there. Although the idea of a world of ancestors (paradisical or otherwise) is omnipresent. Sometimes the other world is known as ‘the world of the ancestors’. in societies as far apart as West Africa. one is usually expected to rejoin the same family or clan. notably a theory of how one could escape from the cycle altogether. but eventually I must come down and be reborn in the world I left. when one comes back to this world. I use the term ethicization to conceptualize the processes whereby a morally right or wrong action becomes a religiously right or wrong action that in turn affects the person’s destiny after death. That is what he calls the ethicization of rebirth.5. unseen. why ‘again’? She then takes pitrbhyo as an ablative.* It is only when societies transcend a certain scale. and translates ‘Release him down. wanders according to his will.we learn from other verses in the Rg Veda they live in the sun . which grammatically is equally possible. he will rejoin his family (offspring). Jata-vedas9!M(J This fits O beyesekere’s p attern for small-scale societies to perfection.16. X.6 This is w here the karm a theo ries of B uddhism and Jainism come in. All previous translators took the word pitrbhycP as a dative and understood the verse as a request to the funeral fire (personified) that he send the dead man again ‘to his ancestors'. The dead person goes to join his ancestors . from [his] fathers. Jurewicz begins by asking.32 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT into that other world is a privilege available to all. Jurewicz then goes on to show that the form in which the dead person returns is the rain.but this has nothing to do with his moral qualities. Let him join his body. that enforcing moral rules becomes a worry. Let me turn to Jurewicz’s discovery of rebirth in the Rg Veda? Her argument begins with a radically new translation of a verse in the ‘Funeral Hymn’. Obeyesekere argues. This perfectly accords . and takes a body. When he comes back. Let him who wears life come to his offspring. and this entry is achieved by the correct performance of the funeral rites. poured into you. which is ‘sown’ and produces barley. Agni. Then there arises the theory that some other. [him] who. force in the cosmos will ensure that people’s crimes do not go unpunished. Ethicization deals with a thoroughgoing religious evaluation of m orality that entails delayed punishm ents and rew ards quite unlike the im m ediate or this-worldly compensations meted out by deities or ancestors. so that often justice is not seen to be done in this world. what characterizes all the Indian soteriologies brahm inical/H indu. There are two special dimensions to the Indian developments. this one and the other one.79) th at once the w orld is thus ethicized. By a different but equally common metaphor. Let me call this a binary cosmology. in the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad. the cycle of rebirth is generally called samsara. the sphere of action. so that release from it is called ‘liberation’. and the process has nothing to do with one’s good or bad actions. But Indian religions have seen three possible destinies at death: heaven. There are two fundamental differences between rebirth in the Rg Veda and all the later theories of rebirth. Jain and Buddhist . it is precisely such an escape that constitutes salvation.THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM 33 with part of the earliest full account of rebirth. ‘There can no longer be a single place [after death] for those who have done good and those who have done bad. So to the binary cosmology is added the idea of escaping from the cosmos altogether. a word which suggests the meaning ‘keeping going’. However. the other world is the arena of pay-off. you come back to this world and start again. this is felt to be a kind of slavery or imprisonment. Nor is any end to the process envisaged. While each religion has its own terminology. All traditions agree that since a good . if we ignore purgatory). When the pay-off is complete.is that they add to rebirth the idea that one can escape from the cycle. and the other world is bhoga-bhumi. the basic model remains simple. one’s karma. In the Rg Veda one oscillates between just two worlds. the sphere of experiencing [the results]. the ‘five fire doctrine’. O beyesekere suggests (p . There are Sanskrit terms for the two arenas in this model: this world is called karmabhumi. which is to say escape from rebirth. and the d iffe re n t relig ion s have arran g ed these in d ifferen t permutations. The other world must minimally split into two. a world of retribution (“hell”) and a world of reward (“heaven”). on any interpretation of what exactly that term refers to. in fact. This world is the arena of action. This looks like an unending cycle. referred to above (see below for further details). the cognate words moksa and mnkti are the commonest Sanskrit terms. When rebirth is first ethicized. hell and neither.’ The ‘minimal split’ describes traditional Christianity (at least. of which this is the first. The theory underlying the commonest category of rituals is that they are necessary in order to purify human beings of impurities which inevitably arise from their very nature as animals. to escape rebirth altogether is seen as extremely difficult. for determining one’s destiny: ritual per se was utterly irrelevant Brahminism and Hinduism. preventing it from attaining liberation by floating to the top of the universe. The binary cosmology remains the underlying Hindu model. only what we call morality was relevant for soteriology.because the only final one .is liberation. this escape from rebirth is brought about or helped by one’s God. and the distinction betw een heaven and escape from rebirth becomes blurred. As Will Johnson demonstrates. by contrast. For them. but that does not affect the basic system) only experience the results of what they did on earth. and when they die they go to a heaven or a hell to be rewarded or punished. The second special Indian dimension concerns the relationship between ethics and ritual. but that is not what people envisage for themselves. On the whole the inhabitants of heaven or hell (which may be subdivided and multiplied. the best solution . I believe. (This will be further explained in the next chapter. impurities connected with bodily functions such as excretion and menstruation. There are exceptions in mythology: gods commit sins (typically out of lust) and are cursed to suffer for them . but ultimately the best destiny. Most people aim for a rebirth in a heaven or a good station on earth. Although the word basically m eans ‘a c t\ in brahm inical literature ‘karm a’ refers first and foremost to a ritual act One could even claim. and return once that process is complete. (In the monotheistic sects. Perhaps the most important characteristic of both Buddhism and Jainism was that they made an absolutely clear-cut distinction between the two. for almost all action is liable to involve injury to living beings.) The same binary pattern characterizes early Jainism.34 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT rebirth will inevitably come to an end. that to this very day ritual and ethics have not been entirely disentangled in the mainstream of H indu tradition. or conversely an asura (an anti-god) may do som ething virtuous and be blessed for it.) . the earliest form of Jain doctrine considers all karma to be bad. but in a remarkable variant. The karma will then stick to the life monad (the jiva) and weigh it down. It is humans and the higher animals who are moral agents. never decisively took this step. Similarly." It is only in Buddhism that the binary model of the sphere of action and the sphere of experiencing the results is superseded. but they are of no importance for our present purposes. ‘J ust as one welcomes the arrival of a beloved relative. This begins a series of four verses with the same structure and the same word ‘in both places’.V1 The context of this idiom always . In other words. is hardly admitted . The Aydranga Sutta 1. Indeed. However. to accept this is ‘right view’ (samma-dilthi). he grieves after death.6.. And again: ‘The man who understands both worlds (ubho loke) is therefore called a sage’ (Dhammapada 269cd). according to the Buddha’s teaching all sentient beings throughout the universe are morally responsible and can be reborn in a higher or lower station because of the good and evil they have done. This is evidently so em bedded in the idiom that no doctrinal shift can quite dislodge it. for instance. the evil-doer grieves in both places (ubhayattha) ’ (Dhammapada 15ab). what is largely absent from the earliest texts is the idea that there is any gradation or progression through a series of births to ultimate liberation. those kinds of ascetic restraint which will ensure that there is no further rebirth. apparently considers that there are only two possibilities at death: 1) birth among hellish beings and animals. However. whether householder or monk.2. Instead. the other world exists’. conversely. and 2) moksa [liberation]. The latter will be the condition of ihe jiv a o t the ideal monk. it is interesting to note in passing that the Pali Canon here and there preserves a verse which still assumes the old binary model of ‘this world and the next’. what is emphasised is the critical nature of the present birth and. and the former that of the jivas of everyone else. for the Buddha characterizes as ‘wrong view’ (miccha-ditthi) the denial that ‘this world exists. [T]hat any rebirth is relatively undesirable remains a constant com ponent of [Ja*n l doctrine.THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM 35 The prospect of a better rebirth in heaven or on earth.. necessarily (since these texts are addressed to ascetics). and the whole universe is ethicized. as a result of good activity which attracts good karma.. inconsistencies in the general pattern. There are in fact some minor exceptions to this. the same old model is found in prose discourse. his good deeds welcome the man who has done good when he passes from this world to the o th er’ (asma loka param gatam) (Dhammapada 220). For instance: ‘He grieves here. However. dtman. First. purusa. Some Buddhists hold th at th e gods do not m ake merit because life in heaven is too comfortable. the ‘self or ‘soul’. (I think this began to happen around the time of the B uddha’s death. the other parts of the universe are there for pay-off. with the ‘person’. One might say that the central concept of this text. according to which it is only this earth which is the arena of moral action. is that of the dtman. who transmigrates.36 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT concerns karma: to accept that this world and the other exist is to accept that good and bad karma performed in this life will surely bring results sooner or later. A detailed account of rebirth. but precisely reversed the original Jain view that karma consisted in action. T here is a widespread belief that the gods in the heavens cannot or do not make merit. It begins by equating the self. One can trace a development within this rather long and varied text. This is clearly a relic of the archaic binary cosmology which I have expounded above. we must revert to tracing the history of these ideas in the brahminical literature. and similarly those suffering in a hell are not generally considered to be active as moral agents.) Transferring merit to the gods was then justified by the archaic theory that they could not make merit for themselves. that will be further explained below. . not intention. The main exception to the total ethicization of the Buddhist universe does not im pinge on the m oral teaching. however. are found in the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad (BAU). I know of no textual evidence (though there may be some) that the Buddha himself exempted denizens of heaven from moral agency. In the next chapter I shall present my hypothesis that the Buddha was deeply influenced by the Jain doctrine of karma and samsara. so they forget about the Noble Truth of suffering. I think that the Buddha probably only concerned himself with the morals of those on earth and that the idea that gods too are moral agents only become operational once the socalled ‘transfer of merit’ had invaded Buddhist practice. and indeed of all the Upanisads. I start with a passage which is still based on a clear binary cosmology. and rudim entary references to karma. 6. He travels across both worlds. This looks like the old binary cosmology. Rg Vedic idea. Yajnavalkya says (in verse). ‘A man turns into something good by good action and into something bad by bad action’ (3. back to action. the place of dream where the two meet. the one that consists of perception among the vital functions (prana). this person has just two places . Sometimes he reflects. he becomes united with bad things [papman]. because the other world. for the passage continues: . Here we cannot tell w hether g o o d /b a d action (karm a) refers to ritual or ethical goodness. of whatever he has done in this world From that world he returns back to this world. The first mention of karma in the Brhad-aranyaka is tantalizingly brief. Now. but I think rather unlikely. these visible forms of death. it is possible th at ‘bad ac tio n ’ refers to incorrect performance of sacrifice.13). When at birth this person takes on a body.this world and the other world. This sounds much like the non-ethicized. that place serves as an entryway to the other world. which is unitary. being common to both. for in a second passage. Now.4. he sees both those places . The sage Yajnavalkya takes his questioner Artabhaga aside to tell him. But with a difference. and as he moves through that entryway he sees both the bad things and the joys.this world and the other world. And there is a third.THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM 37 [The self] is this person. sometimes he flutters. Reaching the end of his action. No mention of karma here. 4. A man who’s attached goes with his action to that very place to which his mind and character cling.13 The text goes on to give an account of dreaming. he gets rid of those bad things. and when at death he leaves it behind. Possible. Standing there in the place where the two meet. the one that is the inner light within the heart. for when he falls asleep he transcends this world. seems to be a happier place than this one.2. and when the results have been reaped one repeats the cycle.38 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT That is the course of a man who desires. ‘I am Brahman. who is freed from desires. because I believe it to be the older. (The reasons for this will appear in due course. Even if ‘action’ refers primarily to ritual action.who is without desires. and attains brahman in this world. understanding and totally internalizing the realization. O n this point there is the following verse: When they are all banished. the ‘five fire wisdom’ found in the last book of the same Upanisad gives a much more elaborate ethicized account of rebirth. it does not envisage any further good or evil action in the next world.his vital functions do not depart. Escape comes through gnosis: that is. we therefore first need to understand the concepts of atman and brahman. MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM Brahmin speculative thought had for long been playing with the fundamental supposition that there was a systematic correspondence .) This text describes people acting in this life and finding an appropriate destiny hereafter.’ To understand the central message of the five fire wisdom. but my exposition will take the Brhadaranyaka version as primary. Now a man who does not desire .’14 This is the same as realizing that ‘My self (dtman) is B rahm an. whose desires are fulfilled. in which this world is the scene of action and the other the scene of reaping the results (see above). merely either repetition of the cycle or escape from it. Here then we have not only rebirth but the possibility of escape from it. Brahman he is. we have here a very simple ethicized theory of rebirth. Almost the same text occurs in the Chandogya Upanisad. whose only desire is his self . But what about ‘Brahman he is. and to brahman he goes. and to brahman he goes’? Though it does not use the word ‘karma’. those desires lurking in one’s heart. Then a mortal becomes immortal. This idea that a good action is one performed without desire was to be of crucial im portance in the history of Indian religion. the macrocosm. i. It seems likely. it is worth m entioning here. and it is customary to refer to the human being as the microcosm.e. Although different schools of thought thus gave primacy to different elements. this mesocosm was constituted by the sacrifice. n o t with m ystical correspondences. the universe.very much as happened in early Greek philosophy. some of which blended and survived while others fell away. and the world as the macrocosm. clearly. so that if one understood the whole one could easily grasp the parts.. so far as I can see. It is about co rresp o n d en ce betw een the m esocosm and the macrocosm. though the pre-Socratic philosophers were concerned only with the evolution of the w orld. The word dtman was from the time of our earliest records the Sanskrit reflexive pronoun. the cosmos. is not relevant for understanding the Buddha. as if air were its very breath of life.THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM 39 between the hum an individual and the universe. in air and in fire . because the text begins by explaining the esoteric meaning of the horse sacrifice. though more .. At the same time. though many philologists do not consider it proven. This idea has been found elsewhere in the world.’ What on earth is that about? you may wonder. they produced many ideas. In the Upanisads.15 Erich Frauwallner gave a brilliant summary exposition of how this vital principle was variously sought in water. the same ordered system on a large scale.e. because anyone inspired by this book to read Patrick Olivelle’s fine translation of the BAU may well be puzzled by the first words of the text: ‘The head of the sacrificial horse. However. that the word dtman is connected to the German verb atmen ‘to breathe’. and indeed upanisad was one of several terms for such a correspondence. In the brahminical development of this idea. this too was sometimes referred to as dtman. was also taken to have a vital principle. this ‘self was reified and taken as the core of each individual living being. As probably happens in every culture. i. and thus translatable in appropriate contexts as ‘self. The esoteric knowledge which brahm in teachers passed on to their pupils consisted largely in understanding the correspondences between these ordered systems. the ordered system on a small scale. the same ordered system was also to be found at an intermediate level. but certainly something which was of crucial importance. is the dawn. The idea then grew up that there must be some central principle in both macrocosm and microcosm. In his History of Indian Philosophy. The mesocosm. something from which perhaps the systems originally grew. Obviously the universe has only one dtman. Being beyond duality. In the Upanisads. As against this neuter brahman. brahman is the term for ultimate reality. who is masculine. turning a single central figure . Brahman is the spirit immanent both in the universe and in individual hum an beings. and grammatically is neuter.17 Though in principle Brahma too must. if the universal dtman and the individual dtman are the same. which means precisely ‘life’. one would think. permeating it as salt permeates seawater. brahman can of course have no gender. but luckily that is not relevant here. Moreover. to iheVeda. All that can be predicated of brahman in this sense is being. The message was summarized in the formulation: ‘I am brahma1:16 to know this was the salvific gnosis. using the masculine nominative singular. life is a single concept applicable equally to every instance. the universal dtman. though what exactly was meant by this equation varied from one metaphysician to another —which for us means from one textual passage and its interpretation to another. the god Brahma transcends the world. Through the equivalence of macrocosm and microcosm. be singular. I shall return to this in Chapter 5. Though of course one can pick holes in this argument. it more or less follows. Though this must initially strike us as strange. indeed. that each individual dtman is the same as every other. W hile the n eu ter B rahm an is im m anent in the universe. as does each living being. More or less by definition. he is not always and entirely exempt from a Hindu tendency to multiply gods. because in some ancient Indian schools of thought. a name which means ‘Lord of Progeny*. and lengthy m onographs have discussed its original meaning. and the individual dtman were equated. notably Jainism. it seems a good analogy. Brahma is the creator god. am ong other things. It has become customary in European books to refer to this god as Brahma. equated with Prajapati. there is a god called Brahman. alias brahman. the only ultimate reality. consciousness and bliss. brahman can also have no plural. one way of thinking of it would be to see the dtman as something like life: though your life is not the same as my life from a pragmatic point of view. in order to differentiate him from the neuter brahman. The word brahman originally referred.40 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT often the term for it is brahman. the word for the vital principle in each individual was not dtman but jiva. We return to the five fire wisdom. they seem (whether all or just some of them is not clear) to live in the jun g le. where we would perhaps talk of different aspects or emanations of a deity. the cosm ology has becom e m ore complicated. the formula occurs twice in a short passage.20 The second group consists of those who have offered sacrifices.3) this group consists of those who. from these months into the world of the gods. They do not return. both ways of seeing it are no doubt valid and correct. from the world of the gods into the sun. Indeed. Indeed. and from the sun into the region of lightning. This subtle ambiguity is crucial to u n d e rsta n d in g why the B uddha d isag reed with Upanisadic soteriology. A person consisting of mind comes to the regions of lightning and leads them to the worlds of brahman. living in villages. (In the Chdndogya version (5. The first and best are those who know and understand the five fire wisdom. and in this resp ect rem ains archaic. includes in this group those who practise austerities. given gifts and perform ed austerities. abstraction. Presumably the more sophisticated process. in o th er words to live as renunciates. they pass into the flame. People are divided into three groups.18 and the first time is naturally read as neuter. which is very similar indeed.. W hen they are crem ated.B The Chdndogya Upanisad version.10.) At cremation . from the flame into the day. but the second time might seem more likely to be masculine (Brahma). from the fortnight of the waxing moon into the six months when the sun moves north. from the day into the fortnight of the waxing moon. make offerings at sacrifices. O ne can regard the god Brahm a as a personification of the supreme principle brahman.THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM 41 into a plurality. or one can consider brahman to be a more sophisticated expression of the thought that created Brahma. Though it does not envisage that people can do good or bad acts in the next world. These exalted people live in those worlds of brahman for the longest time. produced the duality in the first place. But one can also presume that the god was more popular than the ontological principle. The phonetics of the formula ‘I am brahma' (aham brahmasmi) are such that here brahma could be either neuter or masculine. they pass into this very sky. This says: People whose behaviour here is pleasant can expect to enter a pleasant womb.. plants and trees. from the sky into the wind. from the night into the fortnight of the waning moon. the gods feed on them . Reaching the moon. however.23 But people of foul behaviour can expect to enter a foul womb. as they tell King Soma. and from the rain into the earth. they become food. from him one comes into being again.. from these m onths into the world of the fathers. The Chandogya then adds a short passage about this second group which has no parallel in the Brhad-aranyaka. On earth they spring up as rice and barley. become worms. There. The Brhad-aranyaka says: ‘Those who do not know these two paths. insects or snakes.21 The Chandogya version of this path contains even clearer wording: . and from the world of the fathers into the moon. the Ksatriya or the Vaisya class. We also recall particularly that the dead person returns in the rain and is sown as barley. [a cloud] rains down. like that of a woman of the Brahmin. they circle around in the same way.42 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT they pass into the smoke. Reaching the earth. from which it is extremely difficult to get out. sesame and beans. from the smoke into the night. Rising up once again to the heavenly worlds. a pig. As in the Rg Veda. the version of heaven these people attain is the world of the fathers. they become food. or an outcaste woman. the m oon: ‘Increase! Decrease!’ When that ends. from the fortnight of the waning moon into the six months when the sun moves south.’25 The Chandogya is a little more helpful: those proceeding on neither of these two paths —they become the tiny creatures revolving here . like that of a dog.24 Both the Brhad-aranyaka and the Chandogya then briefly mention a third group. They are again offered in the fire of man and then take birth in the fire of woman. When someone eats that food and deposits the semen. from the wind into the rain.22 This group perfectly fits the pattern of rebirth found by Jurewicz in the Rg Veda. The Chdndogya version is a strange kind of hybrid. The vague term ‘pleasant behaviour’ obviously extends beyond ritual. The word ‘karma’ does not occur in the five fire wisdom.are then sub-divided into those whose behaviour is ‘pleasant' (ramanlya) and those whose behaviour is ‘stinking’ (kapuya. Here perhaps a proper funeral would mean a cremation according to brahminical rites. . if we take it as approxim ating to morally good action. “Be born! Die!” . The third category. if we do not seek to differentiate the meaning of karma as ritual from that as morally charged action. the third class of people must be far the largest. high-caste people who follow their ritual obligations . So it must comprise nearly all those people who are not brahmins or. One recalls Obeyesekere’s remark that the basic requisite for rebirth in its widespread non-ethicized form is a proper funeral.that is a third state. Those who make offerings at sacrifices . however. those who stay worms and insects forever. a very rare word). which is evidently confined to very few. for it comprises those who neither have sacred knowledge. perhaps. By and large. and have better or worse rebirths accordingly. But it is an account of how a man's destiny at death is determined by his karma. We have glimpsed in one passage in the Brhad-aranyaka the idea that a good action is one done without desire. ksatriyas. and this is a point that the Buddha would have agreed with.THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE KARMA DOCTRINE IN BRAHMINISM 43 ceaselessly. and those who do not have that privilege are condem ned to being worms or insects forever. even though it now looks anomalous. is clearly inherited from the Brhad-aranyaka and therefore cannot be dropped. his making karma a matter of intention created a vast gulf between his thought world and that of brahminism.’21’ It strikes one that although so litde is said about them. As a result that world up there is not filled up. my hypothesis about funeral rites would fit this interpretation well. while there are considerable resemblances between his thought and that of the Brhad-aranyaka in certain other respects. while an elite escape from the cycle of rebirth altogether.in other words. nor perform brahminical sacrifices. then the pattern starts to look something like that of Buddhism: people have good or bad rebirths on earth. that these steps had already been taken by Jainism . If they are universal.44 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT The primary purpose of brahm in ritual was to purify. Buddhist discourse is perm eated by talk of purity and purification. The next chapter shows how that may have happened. ‘rite o f p u rific a tio n ’. however.the sole criterion for which was morally good intention. Norms are thus particularized. . in due course. In ritual. One could claim. etc. and is not affected by who the agent is. literally means ‘defilem ent’. but invariably that is a metaphor which refers to improving one’s mind ethically and. This term the B uddha red efin ed as good or meritorious action . lies only in the act itself.. i. whether positive or negative. and we are dealing with the same metaphor: a bad person’s mind is said to be dirty. Perhaps the commonest of all Buddhist words for vice. kitesa.for the B uddha considered intelligence to be a virtue. and vice versa. acts are enjoined or prohibited according to the agent: what is right for a man may be wrong for a woman. In my opening chapters I have shown that Buddhism both ethicized karma and universalized it. intellectually . what is right for a brahmin may be wrong for an outcaste. the moral value of an act.e. not universal. and for b rah m in s punya karma m ean t ‘purifying a c t’. or the lack of it. However. Certain broad similarities between Buddhism and Jainism are so obvious that the earliest European Indologists to discover Jainism took it for an offshoot of Buddhism. who is sometimes considered to be the founder of Jainism. the D igam bara. Jain tradition ascribes the split to some historical event. lived in the same town. ‘ford-m aker’. Not surprisingly. a m etaphor that means that they have found. how to cross the ocean of samsdra.1 Since very early times the Jain tradition has been split into two b ranches. way out. which is hardly surprising given the extremity of his austerities. the endless cycle of rebirth. rather than any abrupt doctrinal split. That is indeed the easy. D undas w rites: ‘T he archaeological and inscriptional evidence suggests that there was a gradual movem ent among Jain monks towards a differentiation based on apparel. Rajagrha. for lack of both time and space I said too little about it there. Our evidence for early Jainism is distressingly meagre and difficult to evaluate. It is well known and firmly established that the Buddha and Mahavira.’2 Jainism and Buddhism are alike in claiming that the figures whom modern scholars have considered to be founders of their respective religions were not founders but re-founders: that each was part of a chain of great religious leaders who appear on earth at vast intervals of time to promulgate the truth and the ideal way of life. Jainism calls these leaders Tirtham kara. whose m onks go naked. maybe a couple o f cen tu ries after M ahavira.Chapter 4 JAIN ANTECEDENTS T hough I mentioned Jain influence on the Buddha in my Social History. now Rajgir in modern Bihar. and were approxim ate contem poraries: M ahavira was younger than the Buddha but died before him. and the Svetambara. whose monks wear a white garm ent. and showed others. perhaps even the prudent. these . but they do think that something very like the Jainism we know already existed before Mahavira. but they have to be deduced by putting together various bits of evidence. is that modern scholars have come to accept the Jains’ own view that Mahavira was not really a founder of a religion. they accept that the ford-maker before Mahavira was called Parsva and that he had a community of followers.. Mahavira insisted that monks go naked. A very early form of this doctrine appears to have held that Mahavira was twenty-fourth in the sequence of ‘ford-makers’. Elsewhere I have tried to dem onstrate that the doctrine originated with the Jains and was copied by the Buddhists. Exactly what changes can be ascribed to Mahavira is controversial. very few of them.. These facts seem probable.4 In particular. the oldest texts preserved are not the original canon: that has been lost.3 What is much more important. however. that the texts preserved do belong to . and the Buddhists held that the Buddha was twenty-fifth in their series.5 According to the Digambara tradition. analogous to the Buddha or Jesus. This is because. who writes: . [A] 11biographies of Mahavira portray him as. This is not to say that scholars now accept that th ere were twenty-four figures like Mahavira spanning many centuries before him. or even parts of them. I find very convincing the conjecture by Dundas. unlike all other fordmakers.. A passage which occurs in three suttas of the Pali Canon records that as soon as Mahavira had died.6 It seems to me highly unlikely that such a tradition would have been invented. renouncing the world alone . but Parsva’s followers probably did not. In particular. but rather a reformer.. although many Jain texts survive. A tentative explanation might therefore be that early Jainism coalesced out of an interaction between the cosmological [I would add: and soteriological] ideas of Parshva and a m ore rigorous form of o rtho praxy advocated by Mahavira. whereas one can easily understand the motivation behind the opposite view. seem to go back even to within a couple of centuries of Mahavira. his followers began to disagree about what he had actually preached.46 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT leaders tend to have stereotyped biographies. and there is never any suggestion that he entered an already existing ascetic corporation. taken by the Svetambaras. round the turn of the Christian era. from then on Theravada monks have had to choose to be either vipassand-dhura (literally: ‘yoked to insight m editation’). relevant to this theme.JAIN ANTECEDENTS 47 the original canon. and therakappa (‘the way of an elder’9). in this as in other matters. The following teachings. I believe. The Svetambaras divided monks into two vocations:7 jina-kappa ( ‘the way of a J in a ’fi). however. . The Buddha’s organization of his Sarigha was. it is the Jain texts themselves that have far the most information. but that way of life was now obsolete. The jina-kappa monks. At this early stage the Jains had a greater problem than the Buddhists in preserving their texts because they spent all the year except the rainy season as solitary itin erant m endicants. Moreover. Even the Svetambaras. however. tell us things about Jainism before that split occurred. that I have significant things to add.10 The Theravada Buddhists introduced a very similar formal distinction in Sri Lanka. taking meditation as their primary duty. which encompasses heavens and hells as well as many forms of life on earth. My main theme is karma and rebirth. are likely to have been as central to Jainism before Mahavira as they were to the Jainism attributed to him. The Buddhist texts. by contrast. Samsdra: all living beings are caught in a perpetual cycle of rebirth. There is some excellent m odern scholarly literature on what we can learn about Jainism from Pali Buddhist texts12 (and indeed vice versa13). solitary wandering ascetics striving for liberation in this lifetime. hold that some of the original canon has been lost. but it is terribly difficult to know how to date that. whose main responsibility is to preserve the scriptures. so I shall try not to repeat what can be found there. in conscious reaction to this. they held." Of course. After a while the Jains came to learn from the Buddhists. none of those texts is accepted as authoritative by both the Digambara and the Svetambara traditions. In fact much of our best evidence for early Jainism comes from texts in the Pali Canon. went naked like Mahavira. professional monks concerned to preserve the scriptures. I would argue. or gantha-dhura (literally: ‘yoked to books’). When one does agricultural work. but here it denotes something which has certain of the properties of material. The cycle is ethicized: the quality of one’s rebirth is determined by the moral quality of one’s actions (karma) in earlier life/lives. This lies at the root of Jain asceticism. Hylozoism.’17 Thus ‘the earliest detectable Jaina .’14 A jiva is naturally pure and buoyant. This word basically means ‘life1. even these insentient beings may themselves cause pain. I suspect that the idea of karma in Jainism uses the same m etaphor and the word itself carries the connotation of ‘work’. ‘[TJhere is not a single space point . which clings to the jiva and weighs it down. there is not one single point in a pen full of goats which has not been covered with droppings and hair. All matter contains sentient life in the form of jiva.. from eating down to m ere m ovem ent. I observed at the beginning of C hapter 2 that in general the operation of karma is conceived by analogy with agriculture.. Paul Dundas calls it a ‘life m onad’.16 No wonder there is more pain than pleasure in the universe! And in order to minimize the harm one does it is necessary to curtail all one’s activities. this is most commonly compared to escaping from bondage. and if left inviolate will float to the top of the universe. So to gain release one has to scrub off all the old dust and not let any new dust gather.. fire and water) each contain their own jiva. for it occupies the same space as the body it inhabits. Even microscopic particles of the four elements (earth. “hurtful” and thus binding. ‘[G]iven the ubiquity of jivas. suffering outweighs pleasure. almost any activity is liable to be harmful in some way or other. ‘[F]or the early Jains physical activity is. just as . so it is desirable to gain release from it. by definition..especially in India! It is hylozoism that underlies the particular ethical emphasis for which Jainism is famous: the param ount importance of non-violence. injury and death. in which a jiva has not entered or left an existence. where it can remain in eternal bliss.48 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Liberation: in this cycle. air. Moreover.’15 Even the forms of life generally considered insentient have the sense of touch and hence the capacity to suffer pain. one sweats and dust adheres to one’s body . Every act attracts something analogous to dust. ahimsa. But karma binds the jiva to samsara. a few references to m erit (punya) and gaining a better rebirth. and indeed an early Jain text boasts that it is the toughest that has ever been taught or will be taught. some doctrine of intention or motive as being. probably the next one. I have always stressed in my previous publications that for the brahm ins karma primarily referred to ritual. more karmically significant than action alone would have been required. In Jainism.negligence is taken into account). is mental. All activity. w hatever its instrument.’1* This is an extreme doctrine. The Buddha most often related his teaching. in Buddhism good karma is the essential first stage of spiritual progress. and this must be closely tied to the fact that these texts were composed by and for renunciates. But there is also . is liable to cause suffering and death. such ideas were p art of the general cultural furniture’ and had to be taken into account. only in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad do we find brief suggestions that it can refer to ethics. however well-intentioned.19 Only renunciates can aim to lead such ascetic lives . even from one life to the next. however.’20 That crucial doctrinal move was made by the Buddha. In the earliest Jain texts there is little said about good karma. For the real possibility of a better rebirth for an ordinary lay person to be theoretically established. each state of mind influencing the next.’ Karma. and has its effect through the agent’s mental condition. This is indeed of param ount importance and I shall have more to say about it in Chapter 6. though without ‘any systematic doctrinal concessions to that view. There are. a matter of the agent’s intention (or lack of it .JAIN ANTECEDENTS 49 doctrine of karma leaves no room at all for the idea of meritorious action. and Johnson suggests that ‘meritorious action and a better rebirth on earth or in heaven as a result of it were concepts familiar to the householders with whom the early Jaina ascetics had their minimal contact. I repeat his words: ‘By karm a I m ean in te n tio n . even good karma impedes liberation by weighing down the soul. at some level. to brahminism.which ideally end in starving oneself to death. and the law of karma means that this will bring retribution to the agent in a future life. both explicidy and implicitly. One effect of this shift to intention is that in Buddhism there is more of a symmetry than in early Jainism between good and bad karma. But there are also several passages in the Pali Canon where he argues with followers of MahavTra (and of course always wins). and injury. grief. speech.. Despite this. perhaps (at least in part) one of the two oldest Jain texts preserved. and does not see even a dream. scholars seem (so far as I can see) to have treated Jainism only as a teaching con tem porary with the B u d d h a’s and not to have considered that it was something older which had an influence whether positive or negative . even the Middle Way enunciated at the beginning of the First Sermon. harm..2)'JI The formulation is indeed very reminiscent of rules in the Buddhist monastic code. Though these beings have neither mind nor speech. without an internal organ or organ of consciousness). which regularly list conditions. but was a direct response to Jainism . (2.4. perhaps at the m om ent w hen he m ade that bald statement he did primarily have the Jains in mind. T hough the doctrine that everything that m atters happens in the mind is of a piece with the rest of the Buddha’s teachings. and if he is unaware of the workings of his mind.50 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT another side to the story of the antecedents of Buddhist karma.e. (2. Several texts in the Sutta Pitaka show the Buddha interacting with Mahavira’s followers.4. which argues against the Buddhist view that there is no evil action without intention.upon him. injury is injury.9) . etc. which is thus represented: If his mind. he does not perform evil actions. if he is mindless (i. I cannot fully account for . Thus even senseless beings are reckoned instrumental in bringing about slaughter of living beings . damage. (2. and body. evidently alludes to Jains and other ascetics like them.. yet as they cause pain. in which the B uddha condem ns m ortification of the flesh as unprofitable. the Jain side. such as madness. There is a passage in the Suyagadanga Sutta. In otherwords.10). if he does not kill.22 To me this suggests that the Buddha’s insistence on calling action intention was not a wish to be paradoxical. The Jain text disagrees.. and body are free from evil. whatever the modve or lack of motive which accompanies it. under which an act does not constitute an offence. To begin with. they must be regarded as not abstaining from causing pain. speech..4. so one could not hurt them. Be that as it may. he offered no explanation for life as such. . we can go further and suggest that the credit for the first ethicized karma theory should go to the Jains. the Buddha accepted the first three. The same was true. it now seems to me that we both missed the wood for the trees. we simply treated this as an argum ent betw een contem poraries. It is only with the development of a consistent theory of bondage and liberation that the stress switches from the fact of injury to o th ers to its co n seq uence. W. said by the Jains to be the ‘ford-maker before M ahavira.. in the earliest Jain doctrine. I suggest that the positive influence of Jainism on the Buddha was massive. one could only aim to eliminate the bad. Moreover.. while my friend Johannes B ronkhorst and I published argum ent and counter­ argum ent24 about how to interpret some passages in the Pali Canon which show the Buddha reacting to Jain ideas and practices. self-injury thro u g h bondage. early Jainism has ‘ethical. was a historical figure. plants were insentient. Though we brought out interesting points of detail. not the Buddhists. but he did not accept the existence of life-monads. If Will Johnson is right (as I think he is).JAIN ANTECEDENTS 51 this. (Indeed. but not the first. compassionate roots’ in its doctrine of ahimsd: . As Will Johnson writes.*3 and since then Jain studies and Buddhist studies have tended to go their separate ways.25 Indeed. there was no possibility of good karma. nam ely. Buddhism can thus claim to have a b etter ro u n d ed (and indeed m ore plausible) ethicized doctrine. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that though Jacobi argued in 1880 that Parsva. but not the fourth and fifth. of the desirability of getting out of samsara.) For the Buddha. T. that to which the Buddha was reacting. Buddhists and Jains were at one in their opposition to the animal sacrifice which was integral to the Vedic ritual system. afortiori. injury is bad in the first place because it is injury to others. he accepted the doctrines of samsara. and the role that ethics played in making that escape possible. That is to say. Rhys Davids disagreed. of what we would call inorganic matter. Of the five Jain doctrines listed above. the sense of touch. but this m eant that they trod on lots of fresh grass (the term ‘with one sense organ’ is used) and killed tiny insects.28 Jains seem to have set the standards according to which the public form ed their expectations of renunciates. It is therefore quite a surprise to read in a stock list of the B uddha’s moral characteristics that he abstains from violence against plants. because . there is a monastic disciplinary rule that monks and nuns should avoid destroying plants. and this had a major influence on the Buddhist Saiigha. O ther sects. Plants were not. Gods.29 They classified living beings by the num ber of their sense organs.32 Though the rule itself perhaps tells us nothing new. by contrast. so when his bowl was broken a certain m onk did not ask for a replacement. and even on the B uddha himself. The Buddha disapproved of his receiving food in his hands like a member of another (unspecified) sect (titthiya) and laid down that under such circumstances monks were to ask for replacem ents. avoided this by settling in one place for the monsoon. We have seen that the Jains believed that all matter was alive.the Digambaras follow this rule even today. Jain monks were not allowed alms bowls but could only receive food in their bare hands .52 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT On the other hand. Initially there was a vinaya rule that monks could not ask for a bowl. I shall examine the text. even grass and leaves. Consonant with this.27 There is an analogous ruling about begging bowls. The Vinaya says that originally they kept moving all the year round. Things we normally consider insentient. The Buddha. including plants. have only one sense organ. People took them for Ajivikas. An amusing story tells that once some monks had their robes stolen by highway robbers and arrived at their destination naked. He strongly disapproved of the lifestyle of Jain monks and wanted to be sure that his monks were not taken for Jains or similar groups.26 The Buddha ruled that in such a quandary one should cover one’s nakedness with anything. the Buddha also reacted against Jainism.3’ We find that often the reason why the B uddha formulates a vinaya rule is to placate public criticism. The Buddha therefore decreed that his Sahgha should do likew ise. they said. a group closely associated with the Jains. humans and other higher animals of course have five. and might then ask a householder to supply a robe (such a request normally being forbidden). was only concerned for the purposes of his moral teaching with whether something was conscious or not.30 The same reason lies behind the Buddha’s establishment of a rains retreat for the Sarigha. The words I have translated could equally mean ‘People think there is a life m onad [to use Paul Dundas’s translation] in a tree.’ He then laid down that it was an offence to cut down plants. he learnt to have an O rder of nuns besides that of monks.’ which would be true about Jains. ‘For people think there is life in a tree. Scholars th in k th at m any of these introductory stories were composed ex post facto. There are quite a few texts in which the Buddha talks to a tree deity. suggesting that she move to another tree. who is feminine and generally benign.33 I think that there was Jain influence on a much grander scale in the way the Buddha set up his Sarigha. they would go and formally ask the perm ission of the deity who lived in it. It seems to be a popular belief throughout the subcontinent that every impressively large tree is inhabited by a deity. adapted inherited material. so that when the Buddha came to hear of it he declared that in future that act would co n stitu te an offence.^) There is particularly interesting evidence in the Thera-theri-gatha. When I did fieldwork in Sri Lanka. This is a collection of poems.JAIN ANTECEDENTS 53 it is a charm ing exam ple of how the B uddha. T he B uddha congratulated her on having avoided an evil act. Let us pause a moment to appreciate the Buddha’s subtlety. a book in the Pali Canon. and pointed out another tree to which she could move. and knocked (a euphemism?) the arm of the deity’s baby. However. Each rule is introduced by a story of how a monk or nun did something which was not at that time an offence but which was justly criticized. but she thought better of it and d ecid ed to com plain to the B uddha instead. but the monk took no notice. the story is that a monk was cutting down a tree. I found that before the village carpenters cut down such a tree. Positively. (I am convinced by the arguments of Ute Husken that the story of the Buddha’s reluctance to allow nuns into the Sahgha does not date from his lifetime. Her first impulse was to kill him in revenge. The Buddha scolded the monk for cutting down a tree with the sentence. and ‘People are aware that there is life in a tree. both members of the public and virtuous monks criticized the monk for depriving a living thing with one sense organ of life. He is therefore being intentionally ambiguous.’ which would satisfy Buddhists. who believed in tree deities but not in moral duties towards things with only one sense organ. In this case. The deity who lived in that tree protested. or possibly his followers. most of them . in which each author briefly describes his or her spiritual experiences. . attributed by the commentary to individual monks and nuns (some anonymous). Then she met the Buddha. a name which makes it almost sure she was a Jain. The Vinaya gives us a picture of how the rules gradually evolved. She saw fault in blameless things and no fault in blameworthy things. It could be that all these poems come from a period after the Buddha had permitted his own O rder of nuns to be founded. The com m entarial tradition could not possibly have been unaware of these facts. The most interesting case is the author of verses 107-111 in the nuns’ section. it is even logically possible that the Buddhist O rder of nuns existed before the Jain one. who has had the misfortune to be abandoned by three husbands. nijjard. and it is far more plausible to give the texts the straightforward interpretation that the Jain O rder of nuns already existed when the Buddha founded his Saiigha. for this process. declares her intention of expunging her evil karma. not very long after his Enlightenment. This is corroborauve evidence for Ute H iisken’s thesis that the story that nuns were allowed into the O rder only at a late stage is a forgery. ‘Come. It is never logically possible. to convince a determined sceptic.35 however. which was soon superseded as the Buddha saw the need to lay down a procedure by which any body of monks could bestow ordination. her father persuades her to become a Buddhist instead. in due course a person who had been o rd ain ed in a n o th e r sect had to un d erg o a probationary period before full adm ittance. At verse 427 in the nuns’ section a lady called Isidasi. using the Jain technical word.54 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT quite short. encounters a nun called Jinadatta. Bhadda begins by saying she used to pull her hair out. Ordination by the simple formula of saying ‘Come’ is the very earliest form. Moreover. but the text was allowed to survive unexpurgated. a lady called Bhadda. This the commentary explains as m eaning that she was attached to pointless physical austerities but neglected moral qualities. Bhadda. that is a very contorted hypothesis. According to K. Norman. be covered in mud and wear only a single garment. when dealing with ancient history. Isidasi. who ordained her as a nun by simply saying. However. whom the commentary specifically calls a former Jain (purana-niganthi).” 7 This is utterly fascinating.36 two of the monks and at least two of the women in the collection are claimed by the commentary to have converted to Buddhism from Jainism. R. impressed by Jinadatta. Jain monks and nuns have to confess any transgressions to their teacher. In a standard a c co u n t. but I think that ‘corruptions’ will do . but from a basic item of doctrinal terminology. but that does not mean that it may not have occurred.3” I think that the very term pdlimokkha betrays Jain influence. Naturally. means ‘purgative’. while it says in the Vinaya19 that the Buddha had to stop certain monks from confessing daily. The Vinaya makes it mandatory for all monks and nuns to assemble once a fortnight to confess to each other any infringements of this code. there is one p&timokkha for monks and one for nuns. an even m ore vivid metaphor. and last thing at night). ‘retracing one’s steps’. one gets back on track. The Jains had such an obligatory communal ceremony only when they m et at the end of the annual rains retreat. The Jain term for this is padikkamana.) which looks early. that the organization of the Jain Sangha was too loose for it to be an effective instrum ent in preserving the doctrine. My reconstruction is of course only conjectural. we would say. M odern scholars have not reached a consensus how to translate this technical term. By confessing a fault one goes back to where one was before one deviated. but the basic idea is surely the same. the B uddha describes his own Enlightenment by saying that his thought became freed from the dsavas. The Pali record tells us of Jains converting to Buddhism but not vice versa. however. and to confess transgressions against it. He regulated his own Sangha accordingly. but I trust it is convincing.JAIN ANTECEDENTS 55 This is not to say that all statements and all silences should be taken at face value without any further exercise of judgem ent. patimokkha. ‘going back’. such a thing would not be m entioned. The Buddha perceived. The word refers both to the set of rules governing the personal conduct of each member of the Saiigha and to the ceremony of its recitation. on return from the alms round. Another small piece of evidence in its favour may be that Jain monks and nuns are supposed to confess to their teacher three times a day (first thing in the morning. As I have w ritten elsew here. and linked confession to community: he made it a strict rule that all monks within a given territory had to meet at least once a fortnight in o rd e r to recite th e ir disciplinary code.J. I believe that the most striking piece of evidence to show that the Buddha was influenced by early Jainism comes not from the Vinaya. The Buddhist term for this act of confession. and ‘knowledge’ the same word as Pali nana. In any case. that which likens it to dust which clings to something damp or sticky. While this is logically possible.45 It is not clear a priori why this stock term uses two words.’ ‘Insight’ is the same word as Pali dassana.’42 It has been claim ed43 that the use of the word asava in both Buddhism and Jainism shows not direct influence but that both drew on a common background. which is literally correct. but it is striking that in Jainism both this word for ‘knowledge’ and this word for ‘seeing’ constitute part of liberation. so I prefer the hypothesis that the Buddha was influenced by Jain usage. ‘to flow in’. . a noun from the verb d-sru.41 in which most instances of asava ‘concern relating to what is external with wisdom and restraint. which refers to attaining nirvana. we are about to see why. So here one sees a parallel to the move from an emphasis on overt action (Jainism) to inner intention (Buddhism). they are three: sensual desire (kama). On the other hand. but there they have distinct referents. since the knowing and the seeing would seem to be the same. My choice has no regard for the word’s etymology. The Buddha says that his asavas have waned away (khina). Thus asava has often been translated ‘influx’. as in Buddhism there is nothing which ‘flows in’ on one. that is precisely how the Jains envisage the operation of karma. Peter Harvey has kindly drawn my attention to the Sabbasava (‘All the corruptions’) Sutta.4f> T h e path to liberation is perfect insight. knowledge and conduct. My view that the Buddha associated the term with the Jains is buttressed by a canonical sutta in which the Buddha converts a Jain by making play with two words. The Pali word asava corresponds to Sanskrit dsrava.56 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT nicely. the urge to continue in existence ( bhava). According to the classic Jain summary of doctrine. But the term makes no sense. and ignorance (avijja). this would be an instance of his adopting a term from opponents and infusing it with a new meaning.see below.AA A similarly suggestive use of terminology concerns the common expression ndna-dassana. in the Pali texts khinasavabecomes a stock epithet of any enlightened person . there is no evidence for it. This idea of an impure ‘influx’ fits what Dundas says (p.83) is the oldest of many similes for karma. (Sometimes there is a fourth: speculative views (ditthi). The shortage of reliably ancient evidence again must make this conjectural. the Tattvdrtha-sutra.) In fact. asava and samarambha. literally ‘knowing and seeing’. The commonest Buddhist term for an enlightened person is P: arahat. Jaini explains that what is m eant is a combination o f‘insight into the nature of reality (along with faith in this view) ’ with ‘critical knowledge as outlined in the scrip tu re’. ‘to be worthy’. this has always struck me as a rather feeble term for the highest spiritual status. According to the Khandhaka. The Buddha occasionally used the title Jina of himself. In lainism one of the terms for the same supreme status is clearly related. even metaphorically. as later in brahminism. The metaphor is the same one that gives us Jina. anger. S: arhat. S: arhant. ‘Conqueror’. I am a Conqueror. I cannot think of any other title in Sanskrit or Pali which is a present participle. hatred and confusion) was evidently dom inant from the first (see Chapter 8 below).) In Jainism. and is likewise traditionally interpreted to mean ‘worthy (of worship)’. But there is a grammatical oddity which is even more jarring. If one asks ‘worthy of what?’ the answer comes ‘of worship'. confusion.47 I conjecture that a technical term has been borrowed by Buddhism even though in its original context it draws a distinction which is not relevant in their own system. soon after Enlightenment he told a wondering renunciate called Upaka. arrogance and stinginess. The strong stem of these words is P: arahant. the words arahant and khinasava . but is indeed found in the Jain tradition: it can be analysed as a compound to mean ‘killer’ (hania) ‘of enemies’ (an).49 While it is possible for arihanta to be just a phonetic variant.52 whereas arahant was.150 (Upaka was apparently not impressed. I have an even bolder suggestion. S: arha. These are present participles derived from the Sanskrit verbal root arh.51 Maybe the Buddha also found it tasteless to refer to himself as a killer. the enemies are listed as desire. S. Thus the vices were not usually personified as enemies. so. Nevertheless. another interpretation of the word is not only possible. as the title of MahavTra and the other Jain spiritual leaders .JAIN ANTECEDENTS 57 but P. Moreover.and hence the very word ‘J ain’. greed. Buddhism lacks this particular list. So arihant was not used in Buddhism. ‘I have conquered evil states of mind. as the B uddha’s m etaphor of the three fires (desire/greed. Upaka. but has two forms: arahanta and arihanta™ The former is the same as P: arahant. Why use a present participle? In fact. There is a perfectly good adjective which would supply the same meaning: P: araka. as noted above in the discussion of asava. I th e re fo re th in k th a t arakant was appropriated from Jainism. nor were such practices necessarily confined to Jains. The text does not specifically identify those austerities with Jain practice.) Early Jainism had nothing to offer the householder. O ur particular concern is how the Buddha’s ideas of karma and rebirth related to the Jain ideas which he knew. in the sense that it applies to everyone. is called into question by the earliest Jain texts. it is hard to believe that Jainism would have survived for long.53 Had this ideology not been modified. in a sense everyone who knows anything at all about the life of the Buddha knows that he tried Jain practice and then rejected it. but we know that they were the kinds of things that Jains did. The Jain ethic may thus be universalized. but it is hardly designed for universal adoption! The Buddha’s great innovation. SUMMARY O f course. and his First Sermon. was to make ethical value dependent not on what is overt but on intention. he may well have been influenced by brahminism. and indeed even in the texts Jains are described as doing such things. and a call for the practice of the middle way between them. between his renouncing home and family and his final discovery of the salvific truth. Even the idea which one readily assumes to be pan-Indian. as I have already recalled. At the very end of the previous chapter I m entioned that Jainism ethicized and universalized karma. It was only when he saw that this was fruitless and began to eat again that he was able to achieve Enlightenment. (In this. However. he learnt meditation under two teachers without reaching his goal. The B uddha’s great insight was that everything that matters happens in the mind. and then practised the most extreme austerities. since renunciates were dependent on the laity for their food.58 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT o ften o ccur to g eth er. and in this respect probably anticipated the Buddha. began with a rejection both of self-indulgence and of such austerities. that giving is meritorious. it seems that the Buddha introduced a symmetry between good and evil karma which early Jainism lacked. But the Buddha rejected these austerities. These included fasting almost to death. In the six years of wandering. because they dealt with externals. we have seen. as he rejected brahmin rituals. In due course Jain doctrine came to accommodate meritorious action and . JAIN ANTECEDENTS 59 to envisage karma that would cause one to have a good rebirth. . The Jains built their ideological edifice on karma. It is not surprising that the results of failing to make the m ind somehow superordinate to the senses were clumsy and unsatisfactory. In a nutshell: I wish to argue that the Jain influence on the Buddha’s thought and practice has not so far been given enough weight.110 . the m ind. which is surely an abstract noun.e. even though he considerably developed and changed their doctrines. though not until Umasvati’s Tattvartha-sutra was intention given an unambiguously decisive role. but in terms of the history of ideas the Jain concretization of simple abstractions was naive literalism 3 . the Buddha added a sixth. In many ways the Buddha reacted against Jainism. as he did against brahminism. our organs of perception. karma and non-violence owe a great deal to the Jains.CL cDQ. The Buddhist handling of abstraction was still sometimes crude. and its perception of those abstractions was held to be on a par with the workings of the other five faculties (indriya). were due to Buddhist influence. On another level. O ne could arg ue th a t th e ir reinterpretation of karma was no less radical than the Buddha’s when he called it ‘intention’. not merely to have a physical effect but also to be so m ething physical itself. But his ideas about the cycle of rebirth. To the normal gam ut of five senses.. in heaven or in a favourable position on earth.C3 . At much the same time. intention came to play a part in the Jain assessment of what constituted good and bad karma.54 I would guess that both these developments. we can contrast Buddhism with Jainism because of the B uddha’s capacity for abstraction. i. but they took ‘action’. a (J. the symmetry between bad and good karma and the im portance of intention. which we use for perceiving abstractions (dhamma)'. which means ‘every aspect of life as we normally know it’ . their meaning. they can be interesting in their own right. But they do not further my present purpose. he was alluding primarily to teachings in the early Upanisads. that ‘everything’ . teachings which are usually known as Vedanta. The teaching of No Soul or No Self has often been compared to the philosophy of David Hume. though usually he did so obliquely.an idea th a t has an im p o rta n t metaphysical aspect but is above all an ethical principle. a term which literally means ‘Conclusions of the Veda’. With some of these teachings the B uddha agreed. Indeed.I t - Chapter 5 WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY NO SOUL? d u c tio n s to the B u d d h a ’s th o u g h t usually begin by I nh igtrohlighting two of his ideas: the First N oble T ru th . The historical record shows that he was adverting almost entirely to brahminical terms. and to other western philosophies of a pessimistic tinge such as that of Schopenhauer.is suffering has made those who look for historical parallels com pare the B uddha’s preaching to Stoicism. . So far I have devoted only a few short sentences in the Introduction to those ideas. for. almost a maxim. These comparisons are by no means stupid. and the teaching of No Soul or No Self. especially the BAU. that ‘everything is suffering’. the Buddha had to talk in terms with which his audiences were already familiar. There 1 showed that in my view the key to the Buddha’s thought is the doctrine of karm a and the idea that we are all resp o n sib le for ourselves . not illuminate. we tend to obscure. In order to make himself understood. others he criticized. The statement. by uprooting the Buddha’s words from their historical context. still individuated by most of that person’s characteristics. then. being dead. WHAT IS IT THAT TRANSMIGRATES? I suppose the most basic questions encountered by every philosophy or system of speculative thought are: What exists? and How do we know anything? In ancient India the belief in rebirth added to these a third question: What is it that continues from life to life? Obviously.in fact.. but it became fundam ental for the entire history of brahm inical and H indu thought. T he answer to the question of what transm igrates had less philosophical origins. In the Vedanta. even though it finds no place in Christian dogma. ontology. probably the majority. Since this is a paradox. so there is no need to explain further. is the spirit of a departed person. from the moment of birth. the question of how we know anything.perceptible to human senses.. or even from the m om ent of conception. In Rg Veda X. 129.at least under certain circumstances . Christian theologians also tend to say that a ghost is perceptible to the senses . became intertwined. In very many cultures. This is what we call a ‘ghost’. great neatness and economy are achieved if the answer to all these three questions turns out to be the same. ‘Then there was neither existent nor non-existent . in such a way that each one presupposes the other. just as Geist in German means both ‘ghost’ and ‘spirit’. existence and consciousness are considered somehow to originate together. paradoxical. which was the first seed of m ind. it needs to be at the same tim e m aterial and im m aterial. Initially there came upon that one desire.WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY NO SOUL ? 61 GIVEN TRANSMIGRATION. Seers searching with wisdom in their hearts found the connection to existence in non-existence/ This is. That which is a vehicle for the characteristics of a dead person is also often called a ‘soul’. If the function of a ghost is to act as a vehicle for the characteristics of someone who no longer exists. a dead person is thought to linger on in a form which is disembodied and yet . It is significant that in pre-m odern English ‘ghost’ and ‘spirit’ are often synonyms (rem em ber how a priest was described as a ‘ghostly father’). of course. the text often called ‘The Creation Hymn’. and epistemology. A ghost. sophisticated theologians try to find a way round it. Belief in ghosts. the question of what exists. A soul usually differs from a ghost in already belonging to an individual during life . is very widespread in Britain and other western countries. and Christians in the Platonic tradition thus see it as separable from body and mind. Thejains had a coherent theory of the mechanism of transmigration. which is how it has always been rendered in English. This clings to the jiva. often m islead people. even though they do not accept Plato’s view of transmigration. moves from one being to another as death and rebirth follow in endless sequence. In brief. Thus karma. there is on the whole less agreem en t about the soul than there is abo u t ghosts. As explained in the Introduction. which also explained how karma carried over from one life to the next. I therefore try to avoid using the word ‘soul’ in discussing the topic. however. Plato considered the soul to be a transmigrating entity. and in such a context I must admit that I see no better shorthand expression than No Soul.which is karma. . that is totally wrong. very much like the modern plastic product called cling-film. as in India. on the other hand. in my exp erien ce. What makes it impossible. The jiva. In fact it does. We have already seen in Chapter 4 that Jains got round various problem s with abstractions by making them concrete. they reify as a kind of dirt or dust. Aristotle. and stays there until it is expunged by austerities. which became a virtual label or catchphrase. meanwhile. which is sticky. such confusion surrounds our own use of the term ‘soul’ that to translate the Buddhist concept of anattd as ‘no soul’ is at best uninformative and at worst utterly misleading. It can manage to do this because it is infinitely adaptable in size and shape. the soul gives each person their individuality. to follow this policy consistently is that Buddhism in India became identified with the teaching of anattd. down to particles of dust) is called the^ua. literally ‘life*. the jiva floats to the top of the universe. omniscient and freed of all negative qualities. However. because they ten d to understand it as denying a principle of continuity. The essential com ponent of a living being (and we recall that for Jains that includes everything. Once all the karma has been scrubbed away. for in Buddhism there is an extremely strong principle of continuity .62 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT but a soul only to reason. A formal cause is what makes a whole more than the sum of its parts. defined the soul as the formal cause of the individual person. action. his lifebreath departs with him. a system of religious philosophy which evidently has roots approximately as old as the Upanisads.’ This has two points of interest. As he is departing. Secondly. in which the self oscillates between this world and the next via dreams. so this bodily self (sdnra alma). goes along groaning as he is breathing his last. this passage has the archaic binary cosmology. came to regard the dtman as something so radically different from the empirical self that it could never be involved with (or sullied by) karma. In Sdmkhya. Firstly. The term purusa. in that its only true nature is to be conscious. the Buddha was familiar with this passage: I have published a short article to show that he alludes to it when he feels that he himself is close to death/1 As the man dies.2 the sage Yajnavalkya gives an account of dying. and som ething like the mind. in the passage beginning: ‘[The self] is this person. the one that consists of perception among the vital functions (prdna).WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY‘NO SOUL’? 63 In other ideologies the self which endures through a series of lives which ends only with liberation is called the purusa. and occasionally in the Upanisads the term is used to refer to the individual dtman. Brahmins. the word dtman is now so qualified as to be clearly used in two meanings: the body. saddled with the self of knowledge (prajnena atmana). ATMAN /BRAHMAN IN THE BAU This dissociation of karma from a transmigrating entity seems to have come about by stages. the one that is the inner light within the heart. He travels across both worlds. . and the individual must strive to rid his purusa of all other attributes in order to be liberated. Straight after the passage just alluded to. the purusa is very like the Jain jiva.'1 As there remarked. and with that light the self exits through the eye or the head or some other part of the body. It begins: ‘As a heavily loaded cart goes along creaking. a word which in ordinary Sanskrit simply means ‘m an’. however. Then the top of his heart lights up. is of Vedic origin. ‘his vital functions throng around him . An example of this has been quoted in Chapter 3. And as his lifebreath departs. being common to both. all his vital functions depart with it.’ They gather in his heart. however. the predication of consciousness to existence goes back to the ‘Creation Hymn’. I there explained that there is some ambiguity about whether brahman is a principle. was an illusion. In Chapter 3 I gave the ‘five fire wisdom’. Brahman is existence.. For Sankara this im plied that everything but brahman. not their opposites. after it has knocked down this body and rendered it unconscious. the BAU. For these philosophies. was many centuries later to becom e the view upheld by the theologian Ramanuja (twelfth century) against the monistic Sankara (probably seventh century ad ). or (a less sophisticated reading) that Brahman is the supreme deity.4 The text goes on to say that the dtman is brahman and as such consists of everything (sarva-maya) —examples are listed.64 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT He becomes pure awareness (vijnana). reaches out to a new foothold and draws itself onto it. . and salvation lies in returning to one’s primeval conscious nature. and is of course found in many philosophies round the world. i. reaches out to a new foothold and draws itself onto it. so the self (dtman). In part he relied on the negative description of the dtman given three times in the same BAU:5 that it is simply ‘not thus. indescribable. This reification of existence goes back to the ‘Creation Hymn’. in other words. consciousness. Similarly. That brahman is everything in the world. which occurs in the sixth and last book of the same text.e. The view espoused by Sankara was different. not thus’. This account by Yajnavalkya in the fourth book is clearly different. it is unconsciousness and ignorance. bliss’. and we have seen that a similar thought survives in the Jain and the Samkhya concepts of the soul. which require an explanation. But he also relied on such statements in the Upanisads as ‘I am brahma\ and the description of brahman as ‘existence. and showed that according to that passage those who have realized their identity with brahman go to brahman when they die. but this seems to go further than is intended in the Upanisads themselves. a kind of pantheism: brahman is here the world itself. when it comes to the tip of a blade of grass. rather than a single entity underlying the w orld’s apparent multiplicity. not the principle immanent in the world. As a caterpillar. including all individuality. which is a ghostly replica of the dead person. (O ne is again rem inded of the Jain jiva. Maybe it originated in what we m ight call mystical experience: fully to realize on e’s identity with brahman and hence one’s imperishability is presumably blissful. there called the ‘self of knowledge’.if we think truly. In brahman. solid bodies.7 The logic of this argum ent seems so frail that one is tem pted to seek the origin of the idea that brahman is bliss elsewhere. but the mechanism of transfer into a new body is not. if we realize that we are brahman. In the excellent formulation of Charles Malamoud. In the possession cults which . We have just seen above that in Yajnavalkya’s account of death. Death is minutely described. when it can perform feats which are physically impossible for our more familiar. the dtman is itself said to be breath. or at least one aspect of it. existence. traditions explain the mechanism of rebirth? We have seen that in the BAU this mechanism is not clear. the famous philosophical texts have little to say about it. does just what we would expect the subtle body to do.6 Existence. Suffering and unhappiness are considered invariably to be due to a lack of something.) As if aware of the unsophisticated origins of this concept.that truth when we die. the dtman. and in due course the Hindu. but also for the exercise of magical powers.Hbut then the term mainly used for breath becomes prana. It is of our essence that we exist. or diving into the ground. Once the dtman had become so rarefied. because once x changes into y it no longer exists. a ‘subtle body’. and in the context of death and rebirth prana is closely associated with consciousness. in this ideology. That is why existence is conscious (cit). such as flying. but appears to be associated with the life-breath. there can be no lack.WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY‘NO SOUL’? 65 T ruth (satya) is at the same time existence {sat). implies absence of change. as it was for the Greek philosopher Parmenides. The subtle body.in the sense of ‘make real’ . There is a further step which may strike us as rather odd. we shall realize . however. We are what we think we are . or rather consciousness (vijnana). walking on water. how did the brahmin. Very early in that text. and therefore no suffering: hence brahman is bliss. but also that we be conscious of that truth. is relevant not only at death. Existence is a plenum (the opposite of a vacuum). We can gather from later texts that the function of carrying karma from life to life came to be performed by what the tradition variously calls a linga sarira or a suksma sarira. The Buddha will have none of this. does not constitute an offence. the Buddha replies: ‘T he b rahm in who has attain ed nirvana always lies comfortably. tho u gh a few such equivalences occur when B uddhist cosmology is m odelled on meditative states. We can begin with his title. THE BUDDHA’S RESPONSE Let me now outline how this influenced the Buddha. and the identical achievement which is one way of expressing what constitutes Enlightenm ent for any Buddhist. and indeed far beyond. His achievement. being an involuntary action. is commonly known as ‘seeing things as they are’ (yatha-bhuta-dassana) . The Upanisads construct a hierarchy of conscious states. dreaming is said to be inferior to dreamless sleep. This is wideeyed awakeness.) The Buddha also has no interest whatsoever in equivalences betw een m icrocosm and m acrocosm . where dreaming can give one a sight of the next world. there is widespread belief that the officiants can leave their bodies and go on journeys by means of ghostly replicas of those bodies.’9 (See Chapter 12 for more on his referring to himself as a brahmin. Building on that. Buddha. which is the merging of one’s consciousness into brahman. It is notable that the Pali Canon has nothing to say about dreaming. One gets the impression. except to rule that for a monk to emit semen during a dream. just as waking is inferior to dreaming. Asked how he has slept.) It seems that the shamanic notion of a duplicate body with miraculous powers may have helped adherents of the great soteriologies to imagine how the mechanism of rebirth is effected. (This is often labelled sham anism . whether this is to be attributed to the Buddha himself is moot. that the Buddha himself does not dream: references to his sleeping simply refer to his ‘lying down’. indeed. This begins in the BAU. and finally later Upanisads top the hierarchy with what they simply call ‘the fo u rth ’ state (turiya). however.66 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT are found throughout the villages of South Asia. the awake or awakened one. . it was duration in lived . The word loka. the Buddha saw our experiences as an ever-changing process. In my view. he accepted the conceptualization of ‘being1 as the opposite of ‘change’ or ‘becoming’. common to Sanskrit and Pali. when he m entioned such things as duration. whereas the Buddha was talking psychology. however. is usually translated ‘world’. or it may refer to satta-loka. Thus. The Buddhist tradition has various ways of expressing this. and that reminds people of the Buddhist principle of impermanence. But we are talking physics.) Discussion of ‘the world as receptacle’ was of no relevance to what concerned the Buddha and should concern us. and irrelevant theorizing is as silly as refusing to receive treatm ent for an arrow wound until you know the name of the man who shot the arrow. He declares that there are three major fetters (samyojana) binding us to the cycle of rebirth. and it was our experience that he considered to be a causally conditioned process. a stream of consciousness . ‘the world as [conscious] beings’. Nor did he hold the opposite view. AS AGAINST WHAT ‘REALLY’ EXISTS The Buddha was influenced by the Upanisadic theory of ‘being’ on two levels. On a more abstract or philosophical level. in other words the space in which we have our being. he rejects the reification of ‘being’. Today we see the world as in perpetual motion. (We can compare the use of the French monde in such phrases as ‘tout le m onde’. I shall have more to say about this pragmatic approach in Chapter 11.WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY ‘NO SOUL’? 67 WHAT WE EXPERIENCE. he did not see an object like a stone or a table as changing from moment to moment (see below). But Buddhaghosa explains11 that this word may refer to the bhajanaloka. and the first of these is the view that there is a category ‘being’.the literal Pali equivalent of that expression does occur. True. Fam ously. namely.of life.that the Buddha was focusing on.10 Accordingly. We shall see in Chapter 8 what he puts in its stead. ‘the world as receptacle’. the Buddha does not seek for a single essence either in the world or in the living being. Firstly. if you like . O ur problems are urgent. Here let me just reiterate that it was our experience of the world . Such an analysis of the world outside our minds was to him irrelevant and a mere distraction from what should be commanding our attention. the inhabitants of the world in the other sense. escape from samsara. the B u d d h a’s ap p ro ach to life ’s problem s was pragmatic. being. or OK.12 THE BUDDHA’S ANSWER TO ‘BEING.) The B uddha also agreed that such concepts as change and dukkha make sense only if they can be contrasted with their opposites. is forever unchanging. that all we can normally experience is suffering. rx-in M* ' IcJ nl n i usK d t tc c* JLtIrircc JC*ih?iih9y IJJLmI iJ Where the Buddha is positively influenced by the Upanisads is in his form ulation of the basic conditions of existence. ultimate reality. But there is no escape from pain/W ithout reaching the world’s e n d . Hence his first Noble Truth. he did not agree merely on the logical point.68 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT experience that interested him. the arising of the world. the cessation of the world. similarly covers the range from not being quite OK. somehow unsatisfactory. whereas everything else is the opposite of bliss. In the Canon he says: I do not say that there is a world’s end to be known or seen or reached where one is not born. Moreover. For this his name was nirvana. dukkha. (Of course. and that therefore it is not bliss but the opposite. Moreover. its opposite. They are attempts to translate the pair of opposite nouns. to extreme pain and suffering. The Buddha agreed that the world we normally know and experience is forever changing. and the way leading to the cessation of the world to be in this very fathom-long carcase with its percepdon and its mind. . What translation is appropriate depends entirely on the context. sukha and dukkha. Never can the world’s end/B e reached by travel. For the Upanisads. the words bliss and suffering are both misleading. to bliss. Yet I do not say that suffering can be ended without reaching the w orld’s end. and it is bliss. dukkha. and that this experience would liberate one from the round of rebirth. But it was typical of the Buddha’s own mode of expression to use the word loka as a metaphor without spelling that out. does not age or die or pass on or reappear. I declare the world. he also agreed that one m ight even experience their opposites. Sukha covers the whole positive range from being pleasant. (I shall have much more to say about this in Chapter 8. the hallmarks of phenom enal existence. transcendent and changeless. he of course rejected the ideas of dtman and brahman to which those concepts were fundamental. and im m anent in the world he has created and sustains. consciousness. then the soul too becomes an unmoved mover. It is the triad referred to as ‘the three hallmarks’ (P: ti-lakkhana). bliss’. and by that token they cannot be the dtman.) Since the Buddha rejected the Vedantic concepts of being and its inherent consciousness. If it/h e is also the Creator. unsatisfactoriness. In oth er words. In fact. consciousness. The order betrays the Upanisadic reasoning. consciousness was a process we all experience and one which he analysed. He likewise rejected the concept of consciousness that w ent with it: ju st as being was a process. absence of self. that is. this paradox remains throughout the Hindu theistic tradition: God has to be both beyond the world. These reasons convinced the Buddha that to convey what he m eant by nirvana it was best to keep to negative language.. if anyone. These are im perm anence. the purity of his ‘being’ is com prom ised. and by that token they are not satisfactory. There is what we may think of as a Buddhist answer to the triad ‘being. bliss. And since he rejected m acrocosm /m icrocosm equivalence. The Buddha rejected ‘being’ as a reified category: for him there is no such thing as ‘existence’. In fact. We need not bother with such theoretical questions as who. the atm an/ brahman equivalence had to go too. we encounter the paradox of what in the Christian tradition is called ‘the unmoved mover’. I must postpone its full discussion until Chapter 10.13 Moreover. i. if the highest truth is that brahman and dtman are one. Things are im perm anent. all that matters is to understand that we are responsible for ourselves. A further problem lay in the serious ambiguity about brahman. Since the problem was that of each individual person. n ot a thing. so was consciousness. he cannot but be involved with change and becoming.e. However. the Buddha saw no need to bring ‘God’ into it at all. . I should here indicate why the Buddha did not accept such statements as ‘I am brahman Brahman is being. ever-changing. was or is responsible for the universe.WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY NO SOUL ? 69 To do justice to the topic of nirvana. their calming is happiness. and changes while it is there. he says that it is evident (panhayati) that each of the five khandhas arises. in the past) as ‘not having a self or essence’. and in the context applies it to all human life.16 There is also a short sutta17 in which he says in the same terms that all com pounded things (samkhata) have three hallmarks ( lakkhana): arising. pronounced a verse: Alas. and even in between it changes. Like many things that he said. m et the fate of being taken m ore literally than I believe he intended. 38. At SN III. they are destroyed. the king of the gods. After arising. it is doubly misleading. of a nature to arise and pass away. Both Pali gram m ar14 and a comparison with the Vedanta show that the word means *is not atman rather than ‘does not have atmari. Sakka. the first hallmark of phenom enal existence. IMPERMANENCE When the Buddha died.70 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT The third hallmark is very often mistranslated (sometimes by me too. However. the Buddha’s observation that everything in life is impermanent. I would interpret this to mean that at a certain point each thing arises. Comparison with the Vedanta further shows that the translation ‘self is appropriate.1* This merely amplifies the general principle of impermanence. even such things as mountains. even that of the Buddha. This verse is so famous that whenever someone dies in Sinhala Buddhist society. so that it becam e the one-word expression of the Buddha’s anti-essentialism. as the reference is to living beings. the com m entarial tradition unfortunately took it to mean that things all pass through three distinct phases: . but that was not its original meaning . com pounded things are impermanent. as time went by the term was taken as a possessive com pound and also taken to refer to everything. and change of what is there (thitassa annathattam). passes away.in fact. later it comes to an end. That is indeed how later Buddhists came to interpret it. However. little leaflets are distributed and displayed all over the community announcing the name of the deceased (sometimes with a photograph) and headed by the first words of the verse: anicca vata samkhara. passing away. Although the Buddha considered all ritual to be meaningless. duration (thiti) and passing away. even though it sounds very much like it: it is derived from paitrya. It is astonishing how long religious ideas and institutions survive in India after the complex in which they made sense has been superseded.18 I am sure that this is an anachronistic misreading of the Buddha’s intention. who were called ‘fathers’ (pitaras). in particular recently dead. once it had entirely got rid of the need for positing some entity which would carry karma or other elements of the personality from each life to the next. this word is paitrycL In Pali ‘the realm of the departed’ is called petti visayo. every culture seems to have a need for ghosts. individual spirits who offer some concrete rem inder or reassurance that death is not the end of all. So the realm of the departed is at the same time the realm of the fathers. But the double tt shows that petti is not really derived from peta.19 Besides. and then further subdivisions and attempts to quantify them. surviving for centuries. In Sanskrit there is an adjective form ed from the word for father. even millennia. he did not try to abolish rites to which people attached great significance. m eaning therefore ‘connected to a father or fathers’. These fathers were to receive daily offerings from th eir male descendants. ANCESTORS AND GHOSTS Let me now show what Buddhist doctrine made of earlier concepts of the soul. this is particularly true of ideas about death.WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY ‘NO SOUL’? 71 arising. T he obligation to make these offerings has persisted to this day. In Pali these are known as peta. in Sanskrit as preta. producing a kind of atomism of tim e. in due course this led to a subdivision of duration. Both words literally mean ‘departed* and are used just as in English: ‘departed’ can mean dead. But the words also carry an important possibility for punning. the introduction of the doctrine of rebirth. . We have seen that in the Rg Veda a dead man went to join his paternal ancestors. These factors were the ingredients which produced the Buddhist category of living being generally known in English as ‘hungry ghost’. He explicitly permitted the laity to continue mortuary rituals known as sraddha (P: saddham). and logically . like the brahminical linga sarira. But in a sense it is the other way round. And what was that? He spoke about these categories of beings and did not dem ur when others spoke about them. smell bad. however. This is the name of a kind of spirit in Vedic mythology. deprecates the use of such powers and in particular deprecates their use for showing off and impressing p eo p le. one presumes. A Buddhist who has mastered the four jhana is said to be capable of creating a ‘mind-made’ (manomaya) body which can perform the standard set of shamanic feats. No one. alth ou g h the d ep arted are listed as if they were a g en eral cosmological category. and suffer from a hunger and thirst which they cannot quench.pretas can be anyone’s relations. both ancient and modern.72 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Then it turns out that in actual usage. of whom people usually think and with whom they interact are their own dead relations. Exactly the same idea survives in Buddhism. The question of whether . and in particular recently dead relatives. what is it doing here? Perhaps such a concept of a carrier of karma was felt to be needed by the unsophisticated. for the logic of the Buddhist system demands that when funeral rituals are held and merit is transferred. they are in fact dead relatives. What did the Buddha himself think about petas? Probably the same as he thought about gods. the only pretas. who by the power of the merit will be reborn in a better condition.21 The Buddha. Though of course karma moves from life to life without any kind of physical vehicle. that merit is to accrue to the waiting peta or petas. they lurk in dark corners. would really like their dead relatives to be reborn in this condition. so that they remain a kind of dead end. even about interacting with them. This is quite curious. not much better off than if they were in hell.’20 I noted above that the brahminical subde body also comes into play with the performance of such magical feats as flying. These recently dead relatives. there is a famous text23 in which the Buddha says that for conception to take place a gandhabba has to arrive. As I have written elsewhere: ‘Although cognitively . of both sexes.22 He regards them as having no religious value. like gods. are in a state of torment. because their mouths are as tiny as the eye of a needle. while leaving much detail to later chapters. JtL JV IvJ 1 1U IN AIXN U UNDERSTANDING Near the beginning of this chapter I m entioned the three basic questions of early Indian philosophy: What exists? How do we know anything? What is it that continues from life to life? It may be helpful if I here give approximate answers to these questions. The answer lay not in objects but in processes.lN. A TFl BH. since they do not believe in rebirth. For the Buddha the answer was likewise to be found in a process: karma. . The Buddha. The very word karma. as we have discussed at length. Maybe he was so true to his own principles that he thought it pointless to ask himself the question. I am sure that the fully developed cosmology that can be found in the Pali Canon cannot be attributed to the Buddha himself. he let it go at that. But then. I am no less sure that some featu re! of that cosmology arose through misunderstandings. if one goes back to its simple root.WHAT DID THE BUDDHA MEAN BY ‘NO SOUL’? 73 such beings exist is not among the ‘unanswered questions’. The Buddha agreed with most modern p hiloso p hers in rejecting the first q uestion as pointless or meaningless. ‘believe in’ gods or ghosts? I doubt that we can ever know. So did the Buddha privately. 111H iU Ni LKrLAi p ™ T . a process not a thing. a quest which still baffles modern philosophy. means doing rather than being. in his heart of hearts. in line with his general pragmatic policy of concerning himself only with matters directly relevant to attaining nirvana (see C hapter 11). the Buddha rejected all questions of the type ‘Does x exist?’ He rephrased it: ‘Can we experience x’? Since evidently those around him were experiencing gods and petas. he substituted for it: ‘What do we experience?’ His answer was what we might also call his answer to the second question. singled out the process of ethical intention. It was not an attempt to find the origin of consciousness.r1 W tL. an attem pt to describe what experience is like. The question of what continues from life to life does not arise for western philosophers today. the brahm in super-god (see Chapter 12). if only because that would so flagrantly contradict his deprecating any concern with such matters. such as taking literally some of the Buddha’s hum orous references to Brahma. 74 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT and he made it the principle of continuity not just from one life to the next, but from one m om ent to the next throughout our lives. As we have seen, the three basic questions very early gave rise to a fourth: How can one escape from the cycle of rebirth? The Buddha saw that normal experience is vitiated by the transience of all worldly phenom ena, a transience which must sooner or later render them unsatisfying. O ur experience of their transience can only successfully be handled, he argued, by coming to terms with it: we should not want permanence, for ourselves or our loved ones, because we are n o t going to get it. We need, of course, to u n d erstand this fundamental fact if we are going to stop our vain desires. So we have both to control our emotions and to train our intellect; and Buddhist meditation is designed to achieve both goals. We have to adapt our entire mentality to reality, the reality of what life is like, including the fact th at we ourselves and o u r loved ones all must die. When the Buddha preached, two rival analyses of life’s problems were already on offer. On the one hand the Upanisads had a gnostic soteriology; our basic problem is a lack of understanding. For convenience 1 call this the intellectualist approach, though I know that far more than intellectual understanding is involved. On the other hand, Jainism and related sects saw our basic problem as involvement with the world through desire: the answer lies in acquiring total self-control. Let me call this the em otionalist approach. Though the Upanisads also deprecated desire and Jainism also advocated understanding, it was the Buddha who found the perfect combination of the two approaches. You cannot see things straight because you are blinded by passion, and you allow your emotions to control you because you do not see things as they are. If one wanted to argue with this, it is not easy to see how one would begin - though of course many have tried. T he m ain point, however, is that in outline this position was acceptable to both emotionalists and intellectualists. This versatility has proved to have great value for survival. Chapter 6 THE BUDDHA’S POSITIVE VALUES: LOVE AND COMPASSION T his is an ambitious chapter, because in it I wish to illustrate simultaneously several different dimensions of the Buddha’s thought and teaching; one of them I regard as of central importance. In the next chapter, I am going to set out my method, and above all my justification for claiming that the evidence favours our ascribing these ideas to the Buddha, a single person. As I have already written, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I believe that my case will carry conviction if I can demonstrate how my method produces results. Let me set out the main features of my approach which will be on display in this chapter. 1. My m ethod is historical. I shall thus be showing how the Buddha’s message should, wherever possible, be understood by setting it within its historical context. 2. I argue that the B uddha’s thought is characterized by the importance it gives to ethics. I have already argued that ethics are substituted for ritual. In How Buddhism Began, especially C h ap ter 2, I sim ilarly arg u ed th a t the B uddha often substitutes ethics for metaphysics; of that, this chapter will itself offer evidence. 3 and 4. In the Introduction, I have explained that the Buddha in his preaching made extensive use of metaphor. I have also shown his capacity for abstraction„ Thus, while in crucial respects he accepted the early Jain doctrine of karma, the Jains took karma to be som ething physical, whereas he argued that it was intention, an abstract concept. Turning som ething which other people take literally into an abstraction can be at the 76 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT same time to take it metaphorically: the two dimensions, abstraction and metaphor, overlap. 5. A further dimension which I use here is that of sophistication, or the lack of it. While this third dimension overlaps heavily with the previous two, I believe that using it will serve to make my meaning clearer. SOPHISTICATION Let me take a simple example of what I mean by sophistication. Traditional Christianity has a picture, often conveyed to us by artists, of God in heaven: an old man with a white beard sitting on a golden throne in a beautiful garden. Surely I am not insulting anyone if I say that millions of Christians have taken this picture literally. On the other hand, in modern times Christian leaders have encouraged l-Vt A i r ri il o/ \ cr lk/ cs cjriCsiir y i K1/ (1 f1 i1 ti xn i u r c L u fVi m ii n Kcf /•' t o iiiQ t i / i ft rniL u tiS? m u i n nor »f cl s o p o iu L iC v ii> v O } terms. Heaven is something much more like a blissful state of mind, and God is not even visible in a form like a human being, let alone with a white beard: that is recognized as a personification of a principle which both transcends and infuses hum an beings. The wise old man in the garden is merely a m etaphor.1 Almost throughout the history of Hinduism, a more sophisdcated and a less sophisticated view of a supreme god have existed side by side; they have their roots in the two views of Brahman presented in Chapter 3. In the case study that occupies most of this chapter, this has to be kept in mind. When the Buddha was presenting his argum ents to brahmins, he took their references to brahman as references to a creator-god - something analogous to presenting the Christian God as an old man in the sky. W hether or not this was always entirely fair, it certainly does accurately reflect what is said in BAU 1.4.5-6, a passage with which, as we have further evidence to show, the Buddha was familiar.2 This chapter will argue that the Buddha saw love and compassion as means to salvation - in his terms, to the attainm ent of nirvana. This is no minor claim. For the past two thousand years or so, it has been spread about that the Pali texts present the B uddha as THE BUDDHA'S POSITIVE VALUES 77 teaching a religion which is selfish. This religion, on this widespread view, provides a guide how to attain one’s own salvation, but the path it teaches is essentially a solitary one. Paradoxical though it may sound, this view claims both that the religion teaches one to understand that one has no self, and that the religion is selfish. It is agreed, of course, that the Buddha made ethics the foundation of his soteriology, but that ethics is presented almost entirely in negative terms, as abstention from vice and from other misguided thoughts and behaviour. True, there are a few texts, and undeniably early ones at that, which extol the practice of kindness and compassion. Certainly their opposites, hatred and cruelty, are vices; but the positive virtues of kindness and compassion appear almost incidental. Indeed, even the Pali tradition itself does not make the claim that their practice can lead one to nirvana, but on the contrary specifies in which heaven the practitioner will be reborn. For a Buddhist, rebirth in a heaven, any heaven, falls very far short of the ideal religious goal. Most, if not all, modern controversies about Buddhism have been anticipated in ancient times, usually within the Buddhist tradition itself; and this one is no exception. There exists a sutta in the Pali Canon3 in which a brahm in called Saiigarava comes and criticizes the Buddha, saying that the sacrificial rituals which he him self performs and has others perform benefit many people, whereas what the Buddha teaches will only benefit the individual practitioner. The Buddha refutes him by saying that, on the contrary, his teaching causes thousands of people to leave home. He has himself found and dwells in the supreme state of immersion (ogadha) in brahman conduct (brahma-cariya) and he teaches them how to do likewise. By saying ‘brahman conduct’ he is of course taking a term from the brahm in’s own religious vocabulary; for the latter, that would be a goal even higher than what could be achieved by sacrifice. The Buddha has appropriated the term to make it refer to nirvana; for detail, see the Appendix. In this reply to Saiigarava the Buddha bases his defence on his teaching. Throughout the history of Indian Buddhism the Buddha’s kgreat com passion'{maha karuna) was considered to reside and manifest itself first and foremost in that teaching; this is as true of the Mahayana as of the older traditions. Should adherents of a theistic tradition find this somewhat bloodless, they should recall that the doctrine of karma holds that each person is responsible for his own destiny; in the end, no one can save anyone else. The nearest 78 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT thing to a saviour that the karma doctrine allows is a teacher who gives good advice - and that was the role the Buddha played. The Buddha was defined as what we might call a ‘Buddha with a capital B \ a sammd sambuddha, by the fact that he had not only discovered (or rather, re-discovered) the truth but also agreed to teach it, thus re-establishing Buddhism in the world. This being so, I find it a trifle odd that the Mahayana has repeated Saiigarava’s criticism, applying it to the early Buddhists.4 The earlier Buddhists, technically called the ‘listeners’ (savaka), had been guided to nirvana by hearing the Buddha preach and so by definition could not themselves have preached to re-establish Buddhism: it was there already. I thus cannot help finding this Mahayana criticism illogical. But perhaps I should not leave it there. After all, does religion always follow logic? Maybe one should concede that, by saying very litde about love and compassion manifested in ways other than teaching, the early Buddhists did allow their religion to appear somewhat lacking in warmth. What I shall now establish, however, is that this deficiency, if it is one, may be laid at the door of the early Buddhist tradition, but cannot be ascribed to the Buddha himself. My claim is that, so far from teaching a path to salvation which did not include kindness and compassion —what Christians call ‘love’ or ‘charity’5 —he actually preached that such positive feelings were themselves direct and effective means to the attainment of nirvana.6 This has, however, escaped notice, and his p reach in g on the subject has been misunderstood, because he expounded the teaching to brahmins by using their language. In so doing, he was but employing his normal technique of Skill in Means, but on this crucial occasion his own traditio n u nfortu nately failed to u n d erstan d his use of metaphor and took him literally, with disastrous consequences. THE FOUR BOUNDLESS STATES There is a set of four states of mind which the Buddha highly commends: kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity. How the four relate to each other we can learn from the great commentator Buddhaghosa: one becomes like a m other with four sons, namely a child, an invalid, one in the flush of youth, and one busy with his own affairs; for she But this is ambiguous. by joining brahman. The text recounts how such people. Does one somehow fuse into a neuter principle. though historically the developm ent may have been the reverse.makes it real . wants the one in the flush of youth to enjoy for long the benefits of youth. or meet and stay with a god called Brahman? The answer to this question. when cremated. I have explained above that brahman is a name for the religious goal of the brahm ins. What does that gnosis consist of? The passage seems to be saying that the content of the gnosis is the five fire wisdom itself.7 These four states have two names: they are called ‘the boundless’B and the brahma-vihdra.since the form of the word allows either interpretation . The locus classicus for this idea of salvation has been quoted in full in Chapter 3. the m onistic principle posited in the Upanisads. embark on a complicated journey. As the monistic principle brahman is neuter. Why they are called ‘boundless’ will appear later.at death. I believe. the state of salvation. wants the invalid to get well. a supreme god. W hether one regards that brahman as personal or impersonal. A vihara came to be the word for a Buddhist monastery hence the name of the Indian state of Bihar. A person consisting of mind comes to .for a brahmin ‘staying with brahman’ is the ultimate goal. one realizes it . being there’. masculine or neuter . What does this mean? That the essence of the individual and the essence of the universe are but one and the same. In that passage the Brhad-dranyaka Upanisad proclaims a special fate after death for those who have achieved gnosis. and is not at all bothered about the one who is busy with his own affairs. From other passages in both this and other Upanisads. The Buddhist term brahma-vihdra thus carries an inescapable reference to brahminism.THE BUDDHA’S POSITIVE VALUES 79 wants the child to grow up. It means ‘monastery’ because it means ‘a place to stay’. and the noun can just mean ‘staying. The noun derives from a verb which simply means ‘to spend time. to stay’. depends on the level of sophistication of the inquirer. If one realizes this in life. Its last stages are: from the world of the gods into the sun. and from the sun into the region of lightning. but there is also a masculine Brahman. we gather that the gnosis is starker and simpler: it can be expressed as ‘I am brahm an’. for it means ‘staying with brahman". whom one might regard as a personification of the neuter principle. however. U nfortunately. this looks like an attem pt to tidy up. and could even be plural .80 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT the regions of lightning and leads them to the worlds of brahman. however. At this point the Chandogya Upanisad reads simply 'brahma'.to two young brahmins. and to know all three by heart (necessarily by heart. no English translation can preserve the full ambiguity of the Sanskrit. but far fewer with certainty to the contents of the Chandogya. the Buddha is talking . . The word brahma.) Since several other allusions by the Buddha to the contents of the Brhad-aranyaka have been traced. The word ‘worlds’ is definitely in the plural. and indeed that word literally means ‘knowledge’. since there was no writing) entitled a man (it was always a man) to be known as ‘having three knowledges’. In that text. for the brahmins. brahma-lokdn. (The significance of this point will appear below.it seems a better word than preaching . that there is no return is explicitly mentioned only in the Brhad-aranyaka. not in the Chandogya. were the jRg. They do not return. Moreover. a com pound noun. however. as with the other differences between the two versions m entioned in Chapter 3. These exalted people live in those worlds of brahman for the longest time. The very term te-vijja in the title of the sutta is an example of the Buddha’s revalorization of terms which lies at the core of my argum ent. 9 I think we can assume that it was the Brhad-aranyaka version that the Buddha knew and responded to. which has in effect becom e a heritable title. the only thing that counted as true knowledge was the Veda.so that the phrase could mean ‘the worlds of the Brahma gods’. Sama and Yajur Vedas. The three knowledges. In the Sanskrit the exalted people are led to the worlds of brahm an. but the locus classicus is the Tevijja Sutta}0 We shall see that this must be the context in which the concept and the term originated. To this day many brahmins bear surnames such as Trivedi. However. The Buddha had. with no m ention of ‘w orlds’. unam biguously n eu ter singular. The four brahma-vihdra occur in several canonical texts. For brahmins in those days. could be either neuter or masculine. Literally te-vijja means ‘having three knowledges’. though it is clear that the destination of joining brahman is a final escape from rebirth. regardless of birth. by the brahm ins’ account. and keeps all the rules of conduct and morality. because the Buddha must have known that to take those paths one had to have o n e’s corpse b urnt first. He gives a standard account of how someone comes across the Buddha and his preaching.now referred to as a monk .pervades every direction with thoughts of kindness. and compares this. he makes fun of brahm ins for claiming to teach the way to a goal they have never seen. This leads to a long conversation. whom they claim they will join because they resemble him.THE BUDDHA S POSITIVE VALUES 81 redefined the three salvific knowledges as knowledge of o n e’s former births. in which the Buddha teases them ." There is nothing inherently triple about these accomplishments. to declaring one is in love with a beauty queen without having the faintest idea what she looks like. he asks to hear it. jocular.. compassion. the same description is repeated for each of the four kinds of thought. so how can they claim to match him? The Buddha then tells his brahmin interlocutor that he knows the brahma-world and the way to it as well as if he had lived there all his life. I suspect that his remark about the sun and moon is a jocular allusion to the Upanisadic two paths at death. among other things. Then he describes how this person . but that actual term is not . they do not even know the way to joining them . He contrasts the moral imperfections of real live brahmins who claim to know the three Vedas with the picture they draw of Brahma. The four (in Pali metta.let alone the way to Brahma. The two young brahmins in the Tevijja Sutta have been arguing about the direct way to what they call ‘companionship with Brahma’. in the usual repetitious style of the suttas. but they are not.12 to a brahmin this would carry a pointed message that the way was open to anyone. that he formulated them as ‘three knowledges’ was surely no accident. Brahma. karund. The young brahmin replies that he has indeed heard that the Buddha teaches the way to companionship with Brahmas (note the plural). who she is or where she lives. knowledge of the rebirths of others. It is worth noting that this ‘som eone’ is described as a householder (gahapati) or a householder’s son or someone of some lower status. and decide to ask the Buddha. muditd and upekkha) come to be referred to in other texts as brahmavihdra. The Buddha says that though they can see the sun and moon. sympathetic joy and equanimity. and knowledge that o n e’s corruptions had been elim inated. is morally pure. obviously because of this context. renounces the household life. The Buddha proceeds to describe the way. when it has been thus developed. but final salvation comes at death. no bounded (i. In another sutta. Any gnostic soteriology is bound to envisage salvation as a two-stage process. Then kindness (followed by the other three in turn) is described as ‘release of the m in d ’ ( ceto-vimutti). once realized. It is compared to the noise made by a powerful conch-blower.. Convinced by this. we meet them as monks. so that it is possible (thanam etam vijjati) that he joins him at death. finite) karma remains there. The salvific realization. allude to being in those states as euam-vihdn . interpreted Upanisadic doctrine in the unsophisticated way: taking the ideal destiny after death as ‘com panionship with brahm an’ (brahma-sahavyatd) is obviously an unsophisticated understanding of the five fire doctrine. nirvana for the Buddhists was a realization attained during life. the Aggahna. the gnosis. and the thought is said to be ‘extensive.13 Three words based on the word for ‘all’ (sabba~) are used to stress the entirety of the pervasion. and having attained it guaranteed that at death one would experience something which was also known as nirvana. the two young brahm ins convert to Buddhism.15 The B uddha’s two young brahm in interlocutors.‘staying like that’. but still masculine) in his moral qualities.82 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT used here. A monk who lives like that (evam-vihdn) matches Brahma (singular. and can indeed be said to have attained it. w ith o u t h a tre d or ill w ill’ ( vipulena mahaggatena appamanena averena avyapajjhena). The text does. whether singular or plural.e. with its . that identity became a more literal reality at death. is considered to be infinite and to pervade all space. though it could be differentiated from the first nirvana by adjectives. The text repeats the last p o in t for em phasis. can obviously only occur while one is alive. In exactly the same way. evidently rather recently ordained. These five adjecdves am ount to saying that it is pure unalloyed kindness and infinite in extent. unlike the objects of the other senses. O ne’s aim in life was to realize one’s essential identity with brahman'. (The Brhad-aranyaka version.14 This is the way to companionship with Brahmas (plural). The point of this is that sound. boun dless. The Upanisads taught a soteriology of this type. however. however. which I shall discuss in Chapter 12. m agnified. One is then assured of salvation. We can assume that once converted they are no longer interested in joining Brahma. and by the same token joining brahma at death is a metaphor for the nirvana which follows the death of an arahant. If one thus understands the context.THE BUDDHA’S POSITIVE VALUES 83 mention of 'brahma worlds’. karma. brings its result.) It is karma. According to that ideology. em pathetic joy or equanimity as ‘liberation of the m ind’. even life in heaven does not last forever. which may mean either ‘to think’ or just ‘to be conscious’. Brahman pervades the entire universe as consciousness (cit). In the narrative context of this sutta. but his real target is the sophisticated version. one will see that joining brahman at death is not to be taken any more literally than is the B uddha’s introductory teasing prom ise to show the way to the brahma-world. The Buddha is responding to the brahmin ideology of the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad. but it is an ethicized consciousness. but not the kind of karma that is finite: that he has transcended. Having transcended the finitude of normal (‘typical’) karma. easily allows for this interpretation. but that result is finite. moreover. this will be the topic of Chapter 8. . The term for liberation is vimutti. to join brahman at death.) This interpretation did not leave an obvious role for the gnosis during life. a word which in all religions indigenous to India. H ere the Buddhist m onk is pervading the universe with his consciousness. going one better. To escape this finitude requires gnosis. then one may join brahman. he is resp o n d in g to it in its unsophisticated form. it is derived from the root cit. In enlarging his mind to be boundless (metaphorically. the prerequisite for thinking. But the Buddha presented such a gnosis to them in terms that they could understand despite their lack of sophistication. so far as I know. like the brahm in gnostic. T he B uddha has d escrib ed the atta in m e n t o f total love. every significant act. which may possibly reflect a real event. of course) he is emulating the brahmin gnostic who identifies with universal consciousness or rather. for the way to nirvana in this life. an activity. Even the vacillation between the singular and the plural of Brahma seems to echo the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad. but a process. the Chdndogya wording does not. showing the brahm in what he really should be doing. infinite in space and time. borrowed from the interlocutor. compassion. refers unambiguously to salvation consisting of escape from the cycle of rebirth. he is fit. which could just as well be translated ‘thought’. is not a thing. The way to the brahma-world is ju st U panisadic language. The word for ‘m ind’ is here ceto (S: cetas). (His consciousness. often occupying more than half of the sutta identically worded. let alone by the commentators. that inhabited by Brahmas. and his progress through the four meditative stages called jhana is described. which is known as the Sila-kkhandka or ‘Section of moral rules’. the last in the first section. the tradition said no. a person hearing him preach and deciding to leave the world and follow him. what follows the long catalogue of moral rules is that the person starts to practise meditation. though none is perfectible alone. Even if one can argue that the brahma-viharas transcend this pattern by incorporating something of all three. In the first twelve suttas. The ceto-vimutti they took as a metaphor. unsatisfactory and devoid of essence. paiind. On the other hand. this flouts the traditional systematization. whereas joining Brahma at death they took literally: they got it precisely the wrong way round. which means seeing all empirical phenom ena as impermanent. provided that one gave quite new values to the key terms and reinterpreted what was meant by ‘staying with brahman’. Why? Because in this context understanding has a very lim ited and specific meaning: it refers to ‘seeing things as they are’. in the Buddhist form ulation. But in this sutta the four jhana are not mentioned and the practice of the boundless states precisely takes their place. i. the tradition holds that these states cannot be considered to be understanding. Thus. While his twisting of language . All thirteen contain a long passage . paiina). Spiritual progress. samddhi. which begins with a Buddha being born in the world. I think that probably later generations were also confused by the text’s failure to conform to the standard dogmatic pattern.84 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT However. concentration. Alex Wynne has found another argum ent in favour of my interpretation..e. and then how that person follows a path which leads finally to his attaining nirvana. this was not understood by the compilers of other suttas. In particular. all the others in the section. though the text clearly says that the kind monk is released. he was reborn at a specific level in the universe. understanding (sila. In brief: I am claiming that the Buddha used his customary Skill in Means to persuade brahmins that what they had been taught to regard as the supreme goal of life was indeed that. Each is a prerequisite for the next.1*’ The Tevijja Sutta is the thirteenth sutta in the Digha Nikaya. This probably is due quite simply to the fact that they did not know the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad or the five fire wisdom. has three com ponents: morality. than his saying that by karma he m eant intention. Obviously. and Buddhaghosa’s insistence that compassion refers only to feelings towards people who are suffering seems a bit pedantic. for me it is an example. this is non-erotic love. I think our instincts in this matter are correct. ‘friend’. Though this is certainly defensible. I am referring to the transfer of merit. of the tendency to invent a kind of Buddhist technical vocabulary which makes the subject retain an alien flavour in English. but is gaining merit by empathizing with the satisfaction of those who have done something meritorious. but for a wider public. whereas the Mahayana stresses the compassion. the word metta'is the abstract noun derived from mitto. empathizing with the happiness of others. This only goes to show again that a set of English terms may not precisely match the closest Pali equivalents. and yet this reflects no difference in substance. Thus I prefer to follow my policy of inconsistency. I submit. a brief reflection on how the four boundless states are related. so for an audience of theologians. ‘love’ is an overused word with too wide a range of meanings. The word used is not identical19 but the emotion is.17 and to use ‘love’ and ‘kindness’ indifferently. HOW THE FOUR EMOTIONS ARE RELATED Before I adduce more textual material to bolster my argument. like St P aul’s agape. however. with love at the bottom and equanimity at the top. it was no more audacious. I am not aware of any discussion in the Canon of how the four states relate to each other qualitatively. while there are some unimpressive attempts in canonical texts to rank the four states. .THE BUDDHA’S POSITIVE VALUES 85 was certainly audacious. albeit a m inor one. but to some that may sound too weak. the apparent recipient of merit is not in fact playing a passive role. ‘love’ is appropriate. because the Theravada tradition stresses the kindness. It has become customary to translate this as ‘loving kindness'. so that ‘friendliness’ is a possible translation. The Pali word for the first state is metta. Strangely. and I think became even more so after the Buddha’s lifetime. To our way of thinking. I introduced them above by quoting the commentator Buddhaghosa (fifth century ad ). On the other hand. is distinctive to Buddhism.18 To single out the third state. kindness and compassion are almost the same. but I understand that some of the early church fathers were likewise concerned about the relation between love. apparently. and particularly perhaps psychiatrists. that doctors by tradition never treat seriously ill members of their own family: their emotions would be too much involved. The climax of the text reads: Towards the whole world one should develop loving thoughts. one should be as alert as possible and keep one’s mind on this. boundless: upwards. . We have already mentioned how Buddhaghosa expands on this idea to cover all four of the boundless states. and equanimity. but purged of any elem ent of attachment. a title which one could translate T h e Text on Kindness’.86 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT It is the relation between the first three states and the fourth which we probably find the m ost puzzling. It is for this reason. sitting or lying. The ideal. because they recite it every day at school. agape in Greek. is that the love and compassion must be not merely unselfish. sideways. I think that our culture may offer a parallel in the professional ethos expected of doctors. Standing. after all. however. They call this divine living in this world. First. In the Pali Canon20 there is a poem called the Metta Sutta. walking. let me show that that message is not confined to the one text. without restriction. It has traditionally been used by Buddhist meditators. usually (I believe) at the end of the school day just before going home. This text both exemplifies and extols having kind thoughts towards the whole world. ataraxia. enmity or rivalry. Not taking up ideas. and I shall return to what that tradition made of the Tevijja Sutta. Most of the poem prescribes how one should love all living beings as a m other loves her own child. downwards. virtuous. OTHER TEXTS EXTOLLING KINDNESS AND CjO ft^lJ ? S 1 0 1^1 To claim that love or compassion can be salvific does go against the Theravadin tradition. who must do everything for the patient that benevolence would dictate and yet maintain detachment. and in m o d ern Sri L anka it has becom e for S inhala B uddhist schoolchildren a kind of functional equivalent to the Lord’s Prayer. I am com pletely ignorant about early Christianity. This conclusion to the poem surely corroborates that the whole poem is about how one may become enlightened. which is generally considered to date from before the Christian era. higher than us in the universe. if it is taken in isolation. But there is no such scope for ambiguity in ‘the peaceful state’. which is to say that one will have attained nirvana. The poem does not clearly state that kindness alone will produce salvific results. Presumably the most famous of all Pali canonical texts is the Dhammapada. Moreover. A scholiast familiar with the full development of Buddhist cosmology could object that there are forms of life. The verse is in fact saying that kindness is salvific. and it is surely no coincidence that the term for nirvana. one need not attach much weight to the fact that the verse says ‘may attain’ (in the optative) rather than ‘will attain’ (in the indicative). of course. Moreover. with faith in the Buddha’s teaching. the collection of m ore than four hundred short stanzas on morality. There is a list of other virtues m entioned at the beginning. Thus the author of the Dhammapada verse apparently interprets the Metta Sutta to mean that it is kindness which will get one to nirvana. the blissful cessation of conditioning/ As philologists of Sanskrit or Pali will know.THE BUDDHA’S POSITIVE VALUES 87 with perfect insight. the phrase at the beginning of the poem. in which rebirth is not via a womb but spontaneous. So it seems clear that the purport of the whole poem is that kindness is salvific. is the same as that used at the opening of the Metta Sutta. I find it strange that num ber 368 has not attracted more attention. and the last verse too speaks of other qualities of great importance. by controlling greed for sensual pleasure one does not return to lie in a womb. in the version of this verse preserved in the Mahdvastu. as referring only to escape from the grosser forms of rebirth. Tradition holds. .‘J1 a text of another school. may attain the peaceful state. it is natural to interpret ‘not returning to lie in a womb’ as meaning that one will have escaped altogether from the cycle of rebirth. that the author of both poems is the Buddha himself. It says: ‘The monk who dwells in kindness. notably insight and self-control. the verb is in the indicative (adhigacchati). Thus it is possible to interpret the end of the poem. ‘the peaceful state’. ' A series of parallel statements leads on to the conclusion that to know the self is to know everything. knowledge which will make her immortal.24 The Buddha is again turning brahmin metaphysics into universalizing ethics. This being so. In a short canonical sutta23 King Pasenadi reports to the Buddha a conversation which he has had with his wife. which makes it too cumbrous to explain in this context. He devotes Chapter IX of the Visuddhi-magga to the four brahma-viharas. It is not for the love of a wife that a wife is dear. Queen Mallika.88 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT There is yet another text in the canon in which the Buddha preaches the importance of kindness by making a playful allusion to a passage in the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad. but no higher. This is the conversation between the sage Yajnavalkya and his favourite wife Maitreyi. they have agreed that no one is dearer than the self . a fortiori there had to exist a part of the universe that was the Brahma world! I am by no means sure that the Buddha believed in the existence of a brahma-world in any literal sense at all. the Buddhist tradition took the Tevijja Sutta literally and henceforth built it into their dogm a that som eone who successfully practised the brahma-viharas was reborn in the Brahma world. THE TRADITIONAL. Elsewhere I have shown the inconsistency of the efforts then made to line up the four boundless states with levels of the cosmos in which the practitioner would be reborn. The Buddha replies in a verse which concludes that because everybody loves themselves one should do no harm to anybody. But he is clearly not at ease with such a devaluation of kindness and the rest.which is what Yajnavalkya said. but it was by this literalism of his interpreters that Buddhist cosmology was given its final shape. on canonical authority. LITERAL INXERPREXAXION QF THE TEVIJJA SUTTA Despite all this. But after he has explained.22 Maitreyi asks her husband to tell her what he knows. exactly how high in . and some of it is very dry indeed. it is binding on Buddhaghosa to accept it.23 Since this is canonical material. He begins his teaching: ‘It is not for the love of a husband that a husband is dear. The verse depends on wordplay. but for the love of self (dtman) that a husband is dear. but for the love of self that a wife is dear. readers who want the details can read my explanation elsewhere. was it originally intended to be taken? This is one of those cases where to pose a question is halfway to answering it. he seems to change gear in an eloquent final paragraph. but somehow has a guarantee that he will be reborn in a situation from which he will attain nirvana directly. The fundamental idea is that good karma in this world will bring you a rebirth in heaven. has at most seven more lives to live and will never be reborn lower than as a human being. the ordinary heavens.is not one of those heavens. In effect.but only for his own didactic purposes. But how seriously.’2* And he goes on to apply this to each of the Ten Perfections. ethicized and elaborated. of the old binary cosmology. the stream-enterer. how literally. However. then you are reborn somewhere lower down. by dislike of beings’ suffering. the moral qualities which every Buddha is held to bring to their highest pitch. This could be described as overcoding the cosmology of the five fire wisdom. and you stay there until its effect is exhausted. The brahma-worlds have to be situated above the ater/a-worlds. I suggest that the non-returner comes from the same source as the entire brahma-world: the five fire wisdom in the Brhad-aranyaka . The lowest of these grades. he says. the brahma-world . He writes: ‘For the Great Beings’ minds retain their balance by giving preference to beings’ welfare. I think that the brahma-worlds. These states. He will never return to life on earth. What is the sphere of desire? A historian’s answer must be that it is the Buddhist version. In what are evidently early canonical suttas it is mentioned that those who have entered on the Buddhist path have four grades of attainment.THE BUDDHA S POSITIVE VALUES 89 the universe each of the four states in turn can take you.which in due course itself came to be subdivided . the arahant. has attained Enlightenment and will not be reborn. Buddhaghosa is bypassing the problem of exactly what role the four divine states play in the spiritual development of an ordinary practitioner and saying that for a Buddha they are fundam ental. which are within the sphere of desire (kamadhatu). ‘bring to perfection’ all the other good qualities of a Buddha (here called a ‘Great Being’). the highest. but a kind of super-heaven. and the functions they perform. rose from the Buddha’s dialogue with brahmins in which he took their cosmology literally . But just below the arahant is the non-returner (anagami). by desire for the various successes achieved by beings to last. And I would like to push this a bit further. and by impartiality towards all beings. but that does not strike me as a blow to my hypothesis. the systematizers. was o f p aram o u n t im portance. is a negative virtue. named after states of advanced meditation. were added on to accom m odate him. do actually define love (metta) as absence of hatred. So how do bodiless beings have locations? One begins to suspect that the non-returner began his career as a figment of satire. CONCLUSION These evasions of the true m eaning of the text are. empathetic joy and equanimity to be direct routes to nirvana. their inhabitants can have no bodies. the compilers of the abhidhamma. and the weirdly abstract strata of the so-called formless worlds. Since those worlds are form less. It comes as no surprise to find that this inauthentic liberation plays no part in the rest of the system. Indeed. and never lost sight of that. and it follows that when the text says that by practising kindness and the rest he attains liberation. The Buddhist non-returner is said in post-canonical sources to be reborn in worlds still higher than the brahmarworlds.29 Although the same passage says30 that metta is a com ponent of every skilful (kusala) thought. ahimsa.27 the non-returner needed something better. The Buddhist tradition was always clear that non-aggression. he obviously cannot be an arahant. I have already published something on how the question ‘When is liberation not liberation?’ led to the invention of a liberation which is only temporary . But non-aggression. however. On the one hand the systematizers felt that metta had . it cannot really m ean that.which is what is needed to explain away this passage. so in principle it is unfocused benevolence. the supreme bliss and the escape from rebirth. however admirable and important. I think. By that time the brahma-worlds themselves had been banalized and made much more like ordinary heavens.90 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Upanisad. of interest mainly to the specialist.26 We must not allow them to detract attention from the positive message: that the Buddha declared love. If the monk described in the Tevijja Sutta is reborn in a brahma heaven. compassion. I have m entioned that the account of the person who reaches the brahma-loka after death ends by saying that he will not return. It has to be admitted. that metta need have no specific object. that by misunderstanding this sutta the early Buddhists missed the boat. because on the one hand a Buddha is no longer a mortal hum an being. but on the other they rendered it somewhat bloodless. and on the other hand the very existence of ben efactors and those they b en efit is problem atized by th eir doctrine of em ptiness.none of this attem pt to improve Buddhism by giving it more heart would have been felt necessary if the Tevijja Sutta had been understood. which would make them too become Buddhas and therefore equally compassionate.THE BUDDHA’S POSITIVE VALUES 91 to be given a fundamental role.an audacious thought . the bodhisattva path. Perhaps . such as throwing himself off a cliff so that a hungry tigress could feed h erself and h er starving cubs. The Buddha’s followers were exhorted by the Mahayana to follow a path. . The rationale for this in the Mahayana becomes tangled. however. The later tradition in India obviously felt this too. Stories became popular in which the Buddha performed great acts of self-sacrifice out of compassion. and it is often appropriate to explain which method or methods one is using. the Nobel Prize-winning biologist who for many years . let me quote the views on this topic of a couple of people whom the world has honoured for their distinction. Mediocre academics like using long words. and that when they write up that research they should start by explaining their methodology. When the police want to find out who committed a crime.Chapter 7 ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE A BOGUS SUBJECT U nfortunately. nowadays students are taught that when they embark on research they first have to learn methodology. guarantee success in their quest. In case any reader thinks that my view is idiosyncratic. it is true that when one tries to Find som ething out. This needs to be unravelled. they are often led to believe that there is such a subject as methodology. But what m ethod or methods they use will depend on the circumstances of the case. This is always true: the m ethod one uses to try to find something out must always depend on the particulars of the case. I begin with Professor Max Perutz. one uses one or m ore methods. Obviously. there is no guaranteed road to success. There is no such subject as methodology. that is a dream . But alas. Even worse. they use various methods. Thus I have written at the beginning of the previous chapter that my m ethod is historical. Naive people hope that such a study might reveal to them how to take a short cut or. But there is no such thing as a general study of ‘m ethods’ which will reveal to one which m ethod is appropriate. and a childish dream at that. even more alluring. such as taking fingerprints or appealing to the public to provide information. OM. and at some time in the past generation som eone decided it would be m ore impressive to call m ethod ‘m ethodology’. including the discovery of the structure of DNA by Francis Crick and James Watson. Gombrich.’3 .. They neither shared a subject area nor felt bound by a line of approach . However. ‘is that there really is no m ethod..2 One more brief quotation.. with a pupil list which reads like a Who's Who of today’s top performers. [a] star pupil .. and had chosen a topic of real interest. There is more than one way of doing good science...ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 93 headed the Cambridge laboratory where many great discoveries were made. Elsewhere he wrote: . like Leonardo.. when the notion of colleagues is extended to the broad scholarly and scientific com munity. was one of the world’s foremost violin teachers. my father. like Puck. in the University of London. ‘asking and receiving help from one’s colleagues’. the structure of DNA. yet again from an obituary. who has died aged 84.. he had a refreshing aversion to programmatic imposition in scholarly research. His students never formed a ‘school’. [I]t was enough for Gombrich that a prospective candidate was seriously committed. as in the arts. Dorothy DeLay.1 That was from a great scientist. in unexpected corners. his response. and the expectation and provision of help is translated into a mutual one . Of Crick and Watson Perutz wrote: I thought they were wasting their time.. b ut hierarchical organisation. they sometimes achieved most when they seemed to be working least. W ell-run laboratories can foster it. ‘Her m ethod. academically competent. And their apparent idleness led them to solve the greatest of all biological problems. b ureau cratic rules. Most of his career was spent at the Warburg Institute... as in life. about the ‘W arburg m ethod’...’ observed . cannot be organised. H. and m o u ntains of futile paperwork can kill it.. It arises spontaneously from individual talent. inflexible. creativity in science. was not a frivolous one .. In her obituary of him Elizabeth McGrath wrote: Q uestioned . Discoveries cannot be planned. they pop up. Now let me refer to the famous art historian E. The origin of a conjecture has absolutely no bearing on its value. People seem unwilling or unable to take in that there is a basic asymmetry here. for example. on the other hand. If one is less talented than Crick and Watson. has shown that this is ultimately wrong. certain principles.such as that the texts are not m odern forgeries. but are then unwilling to extrapolate. It is using what Karl Popper has called ‘conjecture and refutation’. because this principle of induction. extrapolation is but another term for a theory which attempts to make a deduction from available evidence. However. but their certainty can never . and is thus necessary if knowledge and understanding are to advance. What has happened is that on the basis of any num ber of examples you have built a hypothesis. on the other hand. Some people fancy that you should form your conjecture only after assessing all relevant evidence. even the apparently well-established data themselves depend on theories . that all swans are white. which they tend to call ‘going beyond the facts’. may make them more and more probable. Most of these principles are simply virtues: one should try above all to be truthful and honest. following David Hume. On the one hand. theses. You can never know that you have access to all relevant evidence. about Sanskrit texts. by discovering that what was believed to be a black swan is in fact no swan at all. that the sun rises every morning. for instance. O r you may think. The weight of evidence. there is one which applies particularly to research. theories. or simply guesses . Some scholars in the humanities have drawn a wrong deduction from this.94 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT CONJECTURE AND REFUTATION There are. W hat people think of as ‘facts’ or ‘d ata’ are themselves theories. on the basis of seeing thousands of swans. it is also a good idea to work hard. as it accumulates. but then you find black swans in Australia. These principles apply at all times.the principle is the same. which transcend methods and apply to all of them. cannot yield foolproof results. but then you travel to the Arctic Circle.4 W hat this m eans is th a t know ledge advances by m aking conjectures and then testing them against the evidence. This is not to deny that a refutation may itself be refuted. It does not m atter whether you call the conjectures hypotheses. They gather a body of data. You may think. as it is called. on the basis of your experience every day of your life. but Popper. but a single example is then enough to refute it. 6 Rather than be unwilling to make bold guesses. In many cases. or indeed of indifference. in this case. when dealing with Sanskrit or Pali. considers a candidate to have translated correctly or incorrecdy. But this is not relativism. there is no final certitude: all knowledge is provisional. COPING WITH SCEPTICISM The first issue to deal with is scepticism. That is why I have already presented many ideas and the evidence for them before proceeding to discuss my m ethod ~ which is to say. But the very idea that there exists one correct translation. history or physics. and its correctitude will endure forever. But this is not worthy of serious . for exam ple. we should simply understand that in an empirical subject. What I have just written is much more important. It is evident that knowledge does advance: for this modern medicine and technology stand as sufficient proof. you will get nowhere. be it philology. Take the matter of translation. If you try to build a com puter or a rocket on the basis of nineteenthcentury physics. is fallacious. and which to use becomes a matter of judgem ent. There is a literally infinite num ber of possible incorrect translations of a sentence. And I find it fairly futile to discuss such matters in the abstract without giving examples of how one’s approach works in practice. there are very few examples of possible perfect translations. or even more. if one could only find it. I know that most readers will expect me to discuss the evidence for the picture I draw of the B uddha’s ideas. before assessing the evidence I use. there may seem to be two possibly correct translations. in my eyes. and indeed they may well have expected me to start with that. and a very few which have a high probability of being correct. Let us leave aside the problem that. It is as easy as falling off a log to tell students that ancient texts are untrustworthy and perhaps even to poke fun at a professor who join s pious believers in considering that the ancient texts they venerate may be telling the truth about certain historical matters. let us suck to what an examiner. than what I am going to discuss in the rest of this chapter. So the fact that our theories may always turn out to be wrong should not at all depress us. since hardly any words have a perfect equivalent in another language. But it is rather a hackneyed topic.ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 95 be finally established. but on the contrary make us realize how exciting intellectual work can be. no one should be employed to teach it . among a vast array of possible examples. Like citizens. There will be innumerable such cases and all kinds of reasons. to disbelieve them is at the same time to have a theory that their authors have conspired to hoodwink their audience. and in each case where we do not believe it. It should go without saying that we are not bound to take what a Pali text . or doubt it. Moreover.says at face value. If there is no subject. When I claimed to have discovered the date of the Buddha. simply because they took the lazy attitude of general scepticism. But surely intellectual honesty demands that we take each case on its merits.and good riddance. Let us recall. On the other hand.6 no one found anything wrong with that evidence and I suspect that few have bothered to scrutinize it in detail. I found the world in general and colleagues in particular reluctant to accept my claim.7 I hope I have said enough to explain why I agree with Alex Wynne in calling this ‘a hermeneutic of laziness’. . I must say that the Pali chronicles do not enable me to prove the date of Buddha: they merely allow me to put forward a theory which has a better chance of being correct than any o th er p ro p o u n d ed so far. Thus it comes about that I have heard contemporary American scholars recommend that we approach the ancient Buddhist texts with what they call ‘a herm eneudc of suspicion’ ~ a term they have misappropriated from Paul Ricoeur. how very tenuous are our sources for A lexander’s invasion of India and his m eeting with Candragupta Maurya. we must produce our reasons for doing so. and published a full account of the admittedly rather com plex evidence and reaso n in g which had led me to my conclusion. sources must be considered innocent until proven guilty. events I do not think it reasonable to doubt. there is no subject.’ they chanted. Facile scepticism is a boomerang. As a man of scruple.96 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT scholarship. I cannot prove that the chronicles which supplied my evidence are telling the truth: there is no ultimate defence against scepticism. since they build up through many details a consistent story which seems to have been compiled over a long period. ‘The sources are unreliable so the date is not discoverable.or any other text in the world . But if we just dismiss what the texts tell us a priori. But our initial working hypothesis has to be that the text is telling the truth. I have had too much experience of this facile scepticism during my career. But the same weapon can be turned on all our sources. for example. As I have already m entioned in Chapter 4. there are some references to Buddhist ideas in early Jain literature.it is alleged . There are no references to the Buddha in non-Buddhist texts which can plausibly be dated to less than half a millennium after he lived. relevant inscriptions do not exist. At one point G erard Fussmann took a strong line on this. However. and Gregory Schopen has made the same point. IS THERE BETTER EVIDENCE FOR THE EARLIEST BUDDHISM THAN THE PALI CANON? In recent times some scholars of Buddhism have decried the value of texts for our study and urged us to turn to inscriptions instead. I believe that Buddhist ideas began to exert an influence on brahminical ideas not very long after his death. Let me make clear once and for all that that is not my position. some influence was positive. that there are famous passages in the Bhagavad-dtd which are framed as a reply to Buddhism. because . amounting to tacit acceptance. It has been very plausibly argued. Since this book concerns the Buddha and his antecedents. So of course we should make full use of them . Inscriptions do have the advantage that we usually know where they come from. the only inscriptions which can have any bearing at all on the Pali canonical material are those of Asoka. for works of art and architecture. there is nothing in these non-Buddhist texts to show that the influences to which they are responding emanate from the Buddha himself rather than from his followers in later generations.I accept what the texts say. My position is that I accept what the texts say as an initial working hypothesis. Just as is the case with the influence of earlier ideas on the Buddha himself. . The same goes.ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 97 I know that among scholars of Buddhism I have sometimes been labelled an extrem e/nai've/eccentric conservative. alas. and sometimes they are also dated or at least roughly datable. and am as interested as anyone in finding out where the tradition cannot be correct and why. probably impossible to date with any accuracy but nevertheless carrying an air of authenticity. and I do not know of any a priori reason for assuming them to be more veridical than other texts. This puzzles me: inscriptions are texts too.8 However. while much of it was negative. were translated into Tibetan. have been rather trivial. some of them in more than one version. what western scholarship has called the Canon. But an overwhelming majority of these differences. The locations at which the Buddha is said to have delivered specific sermons are very often different. But I have yet to see another version of a Pali text which makes me interpret it differently. They are perfectly right to do so. Scholars are currendy working on them. but most of them probably not from Pali. One substantial part of the canon. I would be the first to agree that to have all this material to hand in a form which makes comparison easy should be a top priority of Buddhist scholarship. . these new finds will have no effect on our view of the Buddha and his ideas. Most of these have been discovered quite recently in the area known in ancient times as Gandhara. True. There is a complete version of this Canon in the Pali language. A few manuscripts containing versions of suttas found in the Pali Canon survive in other Indian languages. The Chinese translations were made from Indian languages. Very few of the old suttas. But it is easy to convey a misleading impression of what such comparisons have so far achieved. and the great majority of texts in this version survive also in Chinese translation. One also finds that doctrinal lists tend to be slightly longer in the Chinese.98 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT For information on what the Buddha said and did we are thus dependent on the Buddhist texts. Texts are differently arranged. the Chinese version tends to omit it. literally thousands of differences between versions come to light. with which I suspect the Chinese translators tended to ‘correct’ the suttas. These may date from the second century ad and thus be the oldest Buddhist manuscripts ever found. w hether they be G andharan m anuscripts or Chinese translations. namely. is vast. Scholars are much given to emphasizing how important it is to compare the Pali versions of canonical suttas with other extant versions. The largest body of Chinese translations dates from the fifth century ad. One thing that has struck me is that when a Pali expression is obscure to us. often I would attribute this to the influence of the abhidhamma. though there are a few earlier and many later ones. So far as I can tell. so far at least. which stretched from the Kabul valley in the west to the Indus valley in the east. has survived not merely in four Chinese versions but in a Buddhist Sanskrit version and a Tibetan version closely related to it. however. its importance for evaluating the earlier canon is negligible. known as the Kanjur. both with regard to each other and internally. although the Tibetan Buddhist canon. So. Moreover. the Vinaya. therefore. Very few Pali manuscripts anywhere are older. This oldest witness consists of four leaves of a canonical text. There are vast num bers of manuscripts of the Canon. Of course. we must remember that we are worried here about points of detail. I wonder whether it ever will. Most of the Pali manuscripts that survive in Sri Lanka and Burma were copied as late as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. the Canon as a whole was first committed to writing in Sri Lanka in the first century n 'r n m r m r t l 'n c o r \ t n ? *~± 1 i o t~ T £> ir i£ ir i 1 *r t t n a c t c y ~ \ r i /*» # . The situation is far from satisfactory. especially of the suttas. How did these docum ents originate and how well have they survived the passing of time?y Let me tackle the latter question first. Still. it is in Kathmandu and scholars have dated it to c. thus exercising considerable influence on how the language was written thereafter. to have been copied from a north Indian original some centuries older. most of them unstudied by m odern scholars. 800 ad. but so far as I know we are still quite unclear about how many archetypes the extant manuscripts are derived from and when those archetypes are likely to date from.ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 99 THE PALI CANON AS WRITTEN EVIDENCE On my view of the subject. however. once a text is corrupted.10 This may give the impression that our evidence for the readings in Pali canonical texts is alarmingly modern. both in Burma and elsewhere. it is absurd not to give these our fullest attention. analysis of the only Pali manuscript to antedate those graiuniariaris snows a language iQcnucai in most respects to cnax preserved by the later manuscripts. It seems. It is some consolation that most of the text is supported by two kinds of testimonia: firstly. not about whether whole texts and doctrines have been added or changed. In northern Thailand there are many manuscripts dating back to the sixteenth century. an enormously high percentage of the text is repeated and found in more than one place in the Canon. and hence in how it developed. misguided scribes may carry the corruption over into parallel texts. and if we are seriously interested in how Buddhism began. However. According to the Pali chronicles of Sri Lanka.o f o t . and secondly very much of the text is quoted in commentaries and subcommentaries. In Burma in the twelfth century gram m arians system atized Pali gram m ar and prosody. Does this impugn their reliability? Scholarship has not yet advanced far enough to give a full answer to this question. the Pali version of the suttas and Vinaya stand unrivalled as our oldest evidence. The tradition holds that the texts of the sermons were formulated at the meeting which the monks held soon after the Buddha’s death. or vinaya rules. though in some cases the serm on is ascribed to a leading monk. The suttas were first recited. but the term translated ‘council’13 really means ‘communal recitation’. Each Buddhist tradition preserves its own version of exactly what happened at this First Council and there is little agreem ent on who did what or other details. THE EARLIEST ORAL TRADITION Whatever the precise date at which the Pali canonical texts were first written down. This meeting is known in English as ‘the First Council’. but this is not the case with any of the suttas. and do we have anything like the original compositions? The texts that record the Buddha’s sermons are for the most part narrations in which the Buddha plays the leading role. To p u t it slightly differently. 11 It is reasonable to assume that some texts may have been written down earlier. It is quite clear that. There are a few texts which at various times and places have been either included or excluded from the Canon. thus beginning the tradition of oral preservation of the teachings. in response to questioning. all do agree that there was an event of this kind.i 00 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT b c . by Ananda. even if we confine ourselves to what we are calling for convenience ‘the early canonical texts’ (they are listed in ‘Basic . The Vinaya was similarly recited by Upali. and I do not see how any coherent body of literature could have come into being without some such event. The act of writing down the Canon presumably played a part in stabilizing it. but exactly in what language we cannot know. However. what matters most to the historian who wishes to find the B uddha is to what extent he thinks he can trust the transm ission of m aterial before th at date. who as an ex-barber had had the task of shaving ordinands and thus had presumably been present at all the early o rd in atio n cerem onies. either in India or in Sri Lanka. particularly as it drew a line between what counted as canonical12 and what did not. W hen Upali and A nanda had formulated the texts. they were rehearsed by all the monks attending the council. when were these texts com posed. the monk who had been the Buddha’s personal attendant during the latter half of his forty-five-year preaching career. 16 a greater num ber than appears to have come down to us.whichever they were . it could be the Buddha himself. Most of them are short. The body of sermons preserved in Pali is very large: the Buddhists themselves count them as 17. about sixty years is probably closer to the correct figure. mainly in prose. namely. and the corpus is full of repetitions and redundancies. and that education could last up to thirty-six years. Learning the texts by heart was virtually coterminous with their education.17 They had also already divided into schools (called ‘branches’) which specialized in particular texts.14 but in the present context the discrepancy is not important. and it could be a combination of these. since not all the poems need be by the same author. A few sermons even m ention people who are known to have lived after the Buddha. presumably in the Buddha’s lifetime. the monk recites the whole Atthakavagga (a section of the Sutta-nipata) and the Buddha commends him. it could be yet other monks. THE CREATION OF STABLE TEXTS On the other hand.1B The Buddhist Sarigha must have operated in a very similar manner. Either at the outset or very early on. orally. the body of sermons was divided into four collections and monks and nuns specialized in learning by heart one of the collections (or another part of the Canon) in order to preserve it. by increasing length. The cultural similarity did not stop there. The Vinaya Khandhaka concludes with the Second Council. the texts which were recited at the First Council . The text does not say who originally composed the poems of the Atthaka-vagga. who was a reputed preacher. the Vedic texts.ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 101 Information’ at the front of the book). it is a massive body of literature. which is alleged to have taken place a hundred years after the First. There is an episode recorded in the C anon15 in which the Buddha asks a young monk whom he is meeting for the first time to tell him some Dhamma.505.must have had some kind of existence before that. . and arranged on the principle followed both in the Rg Veda and in many other parts of the Pali Canon. Even so. these were not all created in their present form at the First Council. the brahmins had already for centuries been preserving their sacred literature. Mahakaccana. At the time of the Buddha. it could be the young monk’s teacher. But what is clear is that this set of sixteen poems was collected early. No doubt some or all of the six people present on that occasion rem em bered what the Buddha talked about. let alone sound recording. Since in the time of the Buddha there was no writing.just as in the case of the Veda. and in due course passed it on to others for them to memorize in their turn. of a sutta . It is generally known as ‘Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Teaching’ (Dhammacakka-pavattana) . In their case this was motivated.102 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Long after the invention of writing. of miles apart in India. a selfauthenticating experience. In his article ‘T he oral transm ission of the early B uddhist literatu re’19 Alexander Wynne presents a series of what seem to me to be powerful arguments for his thesis that improvisation of the kind familiar to us from studies of oral epics played little part in the formation of the early Buddhist texts.once someone had decided to create such a fixed entity. I might add. The first topic in the sutta is the Middle Way between indulging and m ortifying the flesh. modern scholars have collected texts orally preserved hundreds. memorized it. at least in part. this fits the biographical narrative very well. b u t this title is n o t fo u n d before the commentaries.for example. This probably blended in memory with what he ‘should’ have talked about in order to introduce others to the insight he had had which constituted his Enlightenm ent. It was delivered to five disciples who became the first five monks after the Buddha himself. by a wish to keep them away from people not entitled to know them: women and people of low caste. given that the tradition stretches over more than two and a half millennia. but astonishingly few. The Buddha’s First Sermon can stand as an example of what I mean. In the case of the Vedic tradition. Buddhists seem to have tended to do the same. but on the contrary every effort was made to preserve them verbatim . a set of words could only have assumed the status of a ‘text’ . There are certainly some variants. even thousands. the brahmins were reluctant to write down Vedic texts and continued to preserve them orally. I even found this to be the case in traditional village temples in Sri Lanka when I did fieldwork there in my youth. w hich is the way th a t leads to Enlightenment. Logically one could also argue the other way round: that the biographical . and gone on relying more on memory than on written texts. Even without that motivation. for surely no one at that stage made a ‘text’ of it. like ‘the axis of evil’ or the ‘shock and awe’ policy. and that he had thoroughly learnt it. I have referred to . but the Buddha had not yet told anyone why he was using this metaphor. The Noble Eightfold Path is. that it is highly improbable. that he realized he should learn it thoroughly (we might say ‘internalize’ it). this can never be certain. to express Enlightenment. so that it appears to be an allusion to something already familiar to the audience. because the second half of it is so tedious. Jts eight constituents. not expounded in any detail. So what we have been given so far is just headings. in presenting the first Noble Truth he uses the expression pane’ upadana-kkhandhd. However. The Buddha now enunciates the Four Noble Truths. The Middle Way is briefly stated. it was remembered that the Buddha began his preaching with the Middle Way. the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. the ‘first serm on’ that has come down to us is chock full of m etaphors and technical terms which the Buddha at that stage had not yet explained. Because the three processes are applied to four truths. This reeks of the systematizers who produced the abhidhamma and before that certain other doxological texts like the last two suttas in the Digha Nikdya. but nothing is added: the list of eight items is merely repeated. which modern scholars tend to translate as ‘five aggregates of grasping’. With many synonyms the Buddha says of each truth in turn that he glimpsed it. more precisely articulated than a lifestyle which finds the happy medium between indulgence and asceticism. the going out of a fire. Similarly. Each is first given its name or title and then briefly expanded. R. but this is such an uneconomical explanation. In my view. however. a very different concept. Moreover. and is then said to be the same as the Noble Eightfold Path. from ‘right views’ to ‘right concentration’. K. the doctrine of the Four Noble Truths has twelve aspects. not content. When one reads the First Sermon with students or finds it in an anthology. Norman has published an article20 which demonstrates on purely linguistic grounds that each Noble Truth is indeed just being introduced by title.ASSESSING TH E EVIDENCE 103 narrative was shaped to fit the First Sermon. what he said about them on that occasion was not clearly remembered. In no case is there a word of explanation of what is meant by ‘right’. but it is perfectly plausible. which leads into many complications. are then listed. it often ends here. The fourth Noble Truth is the Noble Eightfold Path. we are told. The word nibbana is here with several synonyms. But without some explanation (which we find elsewhere in the Canon. version. quite likely buttressed by the Buddha while he was still alive. Such textual passages. I must postpone to Chapter 9. and shall show in Chapter 8 that it is a poor translation. is also found near the end of the Samyutta Nikaya*2 which makes me surmise that that collection was not closed until about the same time. and there is good reason to think that that was composed ‘shortly before or after’ the Second Council. Another feature due to its oral origins is the fondness for num bered lists. to describe it with a standardized pericope. and that the entire text rested on a memory in the Saiigha. Pericopes vary in length from a few words to several pages. probably shorter. In sum.104 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT this in the Introduction. following biblical scholarship. that those were the topics he talked about on that occasion. Another problem with the First Sermon is that its content does n ot m atch w hat it says at the end th at the Ven. in the account of how the Buddha began his preaching career. however. the disciples who made up the original audience could have had no idea what the Buddha was talking about when he used these terms.21 Exactly the same text. In building up the larger units we call suttas there was a strong tendency. which contained the gist of the present version. this is exactly what one would expect of oral literature. my view of the composition of the First Sermon is that the version we have probably dates from as late as the Second Council. This. because the term is based on the same fire metaphor as nibbana. K ondanna understood it to mean and was com m ended for understanding. PERICOPES The Pali Canon is immensely repetitious. perhaps at the Second Council itself. because the Buddha did give it later). because it is largely composed of pericopes. w henever a topic cam e up. The description of the Noble Truths (including the listing of the parts of the Eightfold Path) is thus presented in the form it had acquired once it had come to constitute a ‘text’. I am sure that there was an earlier. still without its later title. On the other hand. Why just then? Because it is em bedded in the Vinaya Khandhaka. to . we can call pericopes. Verse often helps one. through its metre. THE COMMENTARIES The commentaries on the Buddha’s sermons and on the Vinaya are all ascribed to one man. called The Path to Purity (Visuddhi-magga)t which summarizes Theravada Buddhist doctrine in so masterly a fashion that it has remained authoritative to this day. But that is not to say that one then suspends all critical judgem ent and takes inquiry no further. I have illustrated this in an article called ‘Three souls. This is important: it seems to be an undeniable case in which neither the canonical corpus nor the com m entarial corpus can be m ade to yield homogeneous authorial unity. I have cited this text in Chapter 6: it is the sutta in which a brahmin called Saiigarava is criticizing the Buddha. I do not myself think that they . Buddhaghosa also wrote a huge book. later people who did not understand it have given more than one interpretation of it in the commentaries. so num bered lists can serve that purpose. and other. people who did not fully understand the expression have used it in the creation of canonical texts. whom we know to have been active in Sri Lanka at the very beginning of the fifth century ad. In only one of these does it make perfectly good sense. as it seems to suggest that ascetics can ‘blow out’ a self . a set of phrases nine words long. the expression looks very strange. but prose does not. as has unfortunately been the practice of some leading Pali scholars even in recent times. one or none: the vagaries of a Pali pericope’. Even so. Once lifted out of that original context. which occurs in five texts in the Pali Canon. Buddhaghosa. Not only do the commentaries on this expression in its secondary contexts have trouble in explaining it: their explanations are themselves discrepant. The monks and nuns who composed the texts with the building blocks of pericopes were not all of the highest intelligence.ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 105 realize when one has om itted an item. In fact. The previous paragraph alone suffices to prove that this is simply not a viable approach. for sometimes they inserted pericopes inappropriately.23 It concerns an expression. So what of the commentaries? In interpredng a canonical text.whereas the Buddhist position is that one has no such ‘self in the first place. in other words. Sometimes the other commentaries refer to The Path to Purity for amplification on a topic. the first thing one must do is to see what the commentary says about it. one scholar who studied them . nothing of importance was added. Tradition also holds that when the Canon was written down in Sri Lanka in the first century bc the commentaries were written down too. N. but obviously they take us back earlier than the time of B uddhaghosa himself. claims that it stretches right back from the texts we now have to the time of the Buddha himself. For that there would surely be no parallel recorded in human history. These have all been lost. W. lost or otherwise changed. but one cannot too often stress that in ancient India the brahm in culture was hegemonic and deeply influenced all other traditions. but it is beyond dispute that he often explicitly cites older commentaries. E. but that is not relevant here. What emerges from all this is that the Theravadin tradition of exegesis. the commentaries at that stage were probably in Sinhala. I see no reason to consider this implausible. the local language. What the evidence seems to show beyond doubt is that they were not closed earlier than that. T he brahminical exegetical tradition made explicit the principle that revealed texts had only one p u rp o rt. preserved in the Pali language.106 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT are all the work of Buddhaghosa. According to tradition (embedded in those same commentaries). for they do not have the sanctity of being ascribed to the Buddha himself. mostly written in Sinhala. the exegetes hom ogenized and system atized the fo u n d e r’s message. To what extent Buddhaghosa (with possible colleagues) is the author and to what extent he is the editor of the commentaries may never be fully known. Adikaram. while the com m entaries were transmitted orally (at least to begin with). these were the missionaries who introduced Buddhism into the island.24 deduced that they were closed in the second century ad . N or was th e re any cu ltural scruple to inh ibit changing the commentaries. a period of about eight hundred years. their substance goes back to the First Council and was brought to Sri Lanka in the middle of the third century bc by a group led by Mahinda. The anthropologist M. son of the emperor Asoka. But this is entirely different from positing that over those eight centuries. translated and edited.23 No such principle was explicitly formulated in Buddhism. W hether this is true or not. Srinivas . SHORTCOMINGS OF THE COMMENTARIES As has happened in every learned religious tradition. 27 One sort of relevant discrepancy is when a word or expression in a text sounds odd and seems hard to interpret. All these three shortcom ings in the trad itio n al B uddhist in terp retatio n of the B ud d ha’s serm ons . a later creation. one must not be hasty in jum ping to conclusions: an obscurity or difficulty is not necessarily a discrepancy.hom ogenization. The pericope about apparently . the easy one an attempt by the tradition to smooth over the difficulty. This homogenization is the first of three systematic defects which I find in the Pali exegetical tradition. The third deficiency in the commentaries. I contend that in more ways than have yet been explicated. Buddhism was ‘sanskritized’ over the centuries of its development in India. particularly in Chapter 6. literalism. Of course. I have provided several examples of this in my book How Buddhism Began. and a technical significance was ascribed to some quite normal and innocent expression. that im portant aspects of the Buddha's message are formulated in terms set by the early brahminical scriptures. one may then hypothesize that the latter context is the original one and the other is secondary. and ignorance of the Vedic background .'^ Once the texts had been formulated. especially the Brhad-dranyaka Upanisad. but then we find it in another text where it fits the context perfectly. The second is excessive literalism. One must never forget the editorial principle that it is the difficult reading which is likely to be the original. their words were carefully preserved. DISCREPANCIES It is not merely legitimate but necessary for the student of the Pali Canon to employ the same alert eye as any other textual critic in order to spot discrepancies. is that they have largely lost the memory of the Buddha’s historical context. a failing that the Buddha himself foresaw and warned against. Sometimes too much was read into them. both where he agrees and where he disagrees with the brahmins. and this commentarial homogenization could be seen as an instance of that process. and I shall revert to the topic later as well. I have been at pains to show above. from our point of view.are no less prevalent among modern scholars than they were in ancient times. and that we lose a whole dimension of his meaning if we are unaware of this context and argument.ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 107 called this ‘sanskritization’. let alone the content. it could be later by a month. but Anuruddha says not so. so the whole account must be an ideological construct. juxtaposes earlier and later material. only deals with relative. the Buddha spells out the Noble Eightfold Path in terms which the . The Buddha then retraces all nine steps. it is usually only sections of texts. chronology. larger textual units may well contain both earlier and later material. have been carefully compared. not with absolute. Sometimes this almost stares you in the face. In the First Sermon. This is surely true of no great thinker of whom we have good historical records: it suffices to recall the discussions about early Marx and later Marx. of course. Then he climbs again. Exegetes ancient and modern have homogenized the tradition because people are reluctant to admit that a venerated figure may have changed his mind. going back down to the first jhana. In some passages it is transparent that the Mahaparinibbana Suita. Obviously onlookers could not tell which meditative state the Buddha was in. so the simpler version. then through the five ‘form less jha nas’ culm in ating in the ex tin ctio n of apperception and feeling: a series of nine steps in all.108 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT ‘blowing out the self. To show that A is later than B. cited above. as I shall show in Chapter 11. or later by a century. Even without this comparison.28 an analysis facilitated by its being the longest of all suttas. the account of the Buddha’s last days. the Vinaya tradition is built on the Buddha’s changing his mind and adapting to circumstances. the Pali one and several emanating from other early Buddhist traditions. we must jettison the idea that during a preaching career of forty-five years he never changed the form. At this point A nanda says to A nuruddha that the B uddha has passed away (parinibbuto). the Pali text alone has tell-tale incongruities. The account of the Buddha’s actual passing away29 has him first going through the ranked set of meditative states: from the first jhana up to the fourth. and on leaving the fourth jhana he dies. is likely to be the older. Or rather. is an example of this. This is true even though. Normally one would expect the later version to come second. This is one of the few texts of which different recensions. that with just the four jhanas. however. of his teachings. Moreover. I believe that if we are concerned to uncover the Buddha’s own views from the canonical material. It seems to me that we must have in the text before us a combination of two versions of the Buddha’s death. but in this case the content makes that impossible. two constructs. to which this kind of reasoning can be applied. we have seen. pericopes. right view. the Buddha appears to have changed his mind though on a formulation. F o r me this very inconsistency is a virtual guarantee of authenticity: no imitator would have dared to innovate like that. in the Maha Parinibbana Sutta™ The ancient commentators therefore had a hard time fitting the three into the eight. Why should anyone who is not blinded by piety not accept that the Buddha first formulated the path as culminating in concentration and then. Later it seems he was more given to proposing a threefold sequence: morality. This appears many times. The form and language of the . Certainly. he also agrees with the brahmin Sonadanda that morality and understanding go together and enhance each other. right intention (samma samkappa). This may suit the first step.ASSESSING THE EVIDENCE 109 tradition never changes: the final step is Right Concentration. By calling the Noble Eightfold Path a path. for example. But it is no less absurd to insist a priori that stratification is impossible. and some form ulations of the threefold practice of morality. if one allows some prejudice about what the Buddha must have originally said to run away with one. by eight stages and by three. regardless of logic or evidence. because I can see no reason why the inconsistency or change of metaphor would have mattered to him or to anyone else. Let me summarize my view on stratifying canonical material by coming at the topic from a slightly different angle. he uses a metaphor which implies that its constituents form a sequence. decided that it would be better expressed as culminating in gnosis? In this case there does seem to have been a temporal sequence: in other words. not a matter of substance. meditation and wisdom carry the same implication. Each is the prerequisite for the p ro per developm ent of the next. concentration. using each hand to clean the o t h e r . There are other cases where his formulations seem to be somewhat inconsistent but I would not argue for a change of mind. On the other hand. Earlier attempts at finding strata in the Canon have been so crude that they have earned the very idea of stratification a bad name. sammd samadhi. The whole attem pt to harmonize the two formulations. but virtually ignores the second. They had to say that the First two stages of the Noble Eightfold Path were a kind of preliminary wisdom and that after reaching concentration one comes back to the first two stages to make the wisdom perfect.31 which according to this revision should be the climax of the whole career. as when one washes o ne’s hands. is contorted and indeed pointless. as his ideas developed. this can turn into a wild-goose chase. wisdom. To conclude this chapter on how I set about my research on the Buddha. we may well be able to reason out that only one is authentic. particularly m atters of form ulation. the Gombrich of the next generation. I return to its opening theme: conjecture and refutation. Gombrich liked to remark that one advantage afforded by a long life was the opportunity to change one’s m ind.110 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT texts have probably been reworked so often that formal criteria are in my view likely to be of very limited use: we must rely on content. and that science can progress . for it also stresses the fact that knowledge can grow. More important. this will be briefly discussed in Chapter 11. An example would be his both claiming and denying that he is omniscient.'” So finally let me once again quote from Elizabeth M cGrath’s obituary of my father. My analysis of the Chain of D ependent Origination in Chapter 9 concludes with a clear-cut hypothesis of this character. ‘While he habitually expressed his views with great firmness. Popper writes of his theory of knowledge: ‘Though it stresses our fallibility it does not resign itself to scepticism. But there may also be cases where we can trace the evolution of a doctrine and be able to infer from internal logic which thought must have come first and which later. On some m atters.just because we can learn from o ur m istakes. But where two flatly contradictory statements are ascribed to him. I have suggested that it applies to the Buddha himself. the Buddha may well have changed his mind.’ That also applies to me. But I see no reason why in principle we should not be able to produce plausible hypotheses that certain ideas must have preceded or followed certain other ideas. and the provisional nature of knowledge. . They are on fire with the fires of passion. To paraphrase. the substitution of non-random processes for objects. ‘The Way of Putting Things As Being on Fire’.and their objects and operations and the feelings they give rise to. is on fire. and most people likewise know . hatred and delusion. In Pali it is called the Aditta-ftariyaya. FIRE AS THE CENTRAL METAPHOR IN THE BUDDHA'S SOTERIOLOGY According to all Buddhist traditions. the Buddha declares. are on fire. In reading the above it is easy to overlook that it is not only our faculties but their objects and operations that are said to be on fire. I.’ The Buddha then explains what he means by ‘everything’. It is all our faculties . We shall return to this point below. the Buddha’s third sermon ( Vin. O monks. T he serm on begins: ‘Everything. ‘everything’ refers to the totality of experience.tA ' Chapter 8 EVERYTHING IS BURNING: THE CENTRALITY OF FIRE IN THE BUDDHA’S THOUGHT T his chapter is about how the Buddha reacted to Vedic ideas and practices concerning fire. turning them to his own purposes. in fact. All components of our experience in this world. 34-5) entirely concerns fire. which indicates that fire is being used here as a m etap h or.the five senses plus the mind . the sermon is known in English as the ‘Fire Sermon’. Everyone knows that the ultimate solution which the Buddha offered to the sufferings and dissatisfactions of life was the attainm ent of nirvana (P: nibbana)’. and how this focus may have led him to what is perhaps his most im portant philosophical idea. It will provide more examples of how the Buddha reused brahminical religious terms. but it is im portant to bear it in mind. 41-6). our aim must be for all of them to go out. the western (garhapatya) fire for one’s household and dependents. which he tended daily. go out’ (like a flam e). for all that he imposes on the fires a novel meaning. he tells a fat brahmin. ‘to blow’. he is evaluating them negatively. but this variation is of no importance: the reference is the same and the fires are always three. is evaluating them positively. the way that the metaphor of fire is used here is indeed negative. and the related word nirvrta means ‘blissful’. hatred and delusion. The Buddha expressed himself in a great variety of ways. In Pali phonetics these two words are nibbuti and nibbuta respectively. with the prefix nir. The brahmin householder had the duty to keep alight a set of three fires. Then. This little point may seem obvious. the basic meaning is ‘cease to burn. some negative. Here the Buddha. Why? The answer lies in Vedic culture.* Because of the phonetic similarity . As the verb is intransitive. w ithout implying any agent who causes that going out: it ju st happens. It is often said that the concept of nirvana is negative. the fires of passion. To put it differently: nibbana and nibbuti refer to the same thing. with the aid of puns. that a householder should tend the fires: by supporting people. the noun S: nirvana means ‘going out’. some positive. Sometimes in the Canon the first fire is called passion. the southern (daksinagni) for holy men (renunciates and brahmins) worthy to receive offerings. The Sanskrit word nirvrti means ‘bliss’. he metaphorically reinterprets the fires: the eastern fire. This is not a hypothesis of recent scholarship: it is stated clearly enough in a sutta in the Anguttara-nikdya (IV. The word comes from the Sanskrit verbal root vd. O f course. The Buddha thus took these fires to symbolize life in the world. Both nibbana and nibbuti are used in the Pali Canon to refer to the Buddhist goal. even banal.more striking in Pali than in Sanskrit . he says stands for one’s parents. In this sermon the Buddha first juxtaposes the three sacrificial fires with the fires of passion. In the ‘Fire S erm on’ the B uddha preaches that our experience is on fire with three fires. life as a family man. dhavaniya in Sanskrit.people have often failed to realize that the words are unrelated. But what exactly that metaphor means or refers to has often been misunderstood. But the same thing is sometimes expressed positively. hatred and delusion. sometimes greed. but have . When he equates them with passion. hatred and delusion. It is in this sense. and one who has attained it is referred to as nibbuta.112 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT that nibbana is a metaphor connected to fire. the one negative and the other positive. the personification of fire. he outshines the world. and that this compound noun is usually translated as som ething like ‘the aggregates of . 116) he shines and glows like the sun. hatred and delusion came to be known as the three poisons. So far as I know. hatred and delusion die out within one. This looks less like a debate than a takeover bid. The Buddha is called Angirasa or Angirasa several times in the Pali Canon. 96. as it has come down to us. he is called Angirasa {Vin. but that does not mean that all his other references to fire in a metaphorical context have to be negative. and Agni. the m etaphor was so thoroughly forgotten that passion. it is not surprising that its extensions were forgotten too. so the origin of the metaphor of the three fires was forgotten. When. Later generations of Buddhists had no reason to be interested in Vedic brahmins or in the Buddha’s debate with them. 25). the brahm ins’ fire god. In other Pali texts too the Buddha is called Angirasa when he is said to shine very brilliantly: at SN I.1). 239 (= J. I m entioned that dukkha was defined as the five upaddna-khandha. which is so central to his soteriology. at the point when m ulti-coloured flames come from the Buddha’s body. in Chapter 7. it is not m entioned in the com m entaries. In the Mahayana. one experiences bliss. standing between men and gods.31.a Since even the core of the fire m etaphor was thus early forgotten by Buddhist tradition. the Buddha gives fire strongly negative connotations. For example. The Buddha has procured their initial conversion by producing a bigger and better fire than they could (as well as perform ing other miracles). When the fires of passion. in this metaphor. Similarly. at AN III. all o f whom are said to achieve Enlightenment as a result. So in this passage he is virtually im personating Agni. is the first and foremost Arigiras (RV 1. It is unlikely to be mere coincidence that in the verses2 describing the contest to produce heat. In the Rg Veda Ariglras is a class of supermen. The B uddha preaches the serm on to a thousand newly converted b rah m in fire-w orshippers. I. I. the very narrative which leads up to the ‘Fire Sermon’ shows ambivalence towards fire. I introduced the content of the Buddha’s First Sermon.EVERYTHING IS BURNING 113 sharply contrasting m eanings. fuel. apperceptions (perceptions in which we put a name to what we perceive). are so often referred to in the texts that one can hardly imagine a summary of the Buddha’s teaching. The word upadana has both a concrete and an abstract meaning.5 Pali has a common expression for a blazing fire. 71. . aggi-kkhandha. being felt to be redundant when the word for fuel is present. grasping. My hypothesis is surely confirmed by another short text centring on these words. To establish this point is so im portant that I shall go into detail. obviously this goes beyond what we can consider to be part of a person. I therefore translate upadanakkhandha as ‘blazing masses of fuel’. as usual. In the abstract it means attachment.) . supply.but he has missed the metaphor.6 In the com pound upadana-kkhandha I believe the word for fire. and consciousness. Concretely. the term conveys the same message as the Fire Sermon.114 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT grasping’. in this sense it is much used in Buddhist dogmatics. provision’. 84-5.: ‘(lit. T he PED> $>v. In my summary.4 What we normally think of as a person or living being is in fact a set of five processes: physical processes (typically but not only visible processes). (Otherwise the translation is my own. so that one should stop caring for them. as of pain or pleasure. from form to consciousness. The text has been translated by Bhikkhu B odhi. including the five senses and their objects. he has scrupulously followed the commentary . While they have usually been understood to be the five components of a living being. that omitted them. feelings. SN II. So when the context deals with fire it simply means fuel.W ill. which states that the five khandha are ablaze (aditta). I shall give his translation of the key terms in italics. it means that which fuels this process.7 his footnotes show that. In my opinion the term khandha too was a p art of the fire metaphor. that [m aterial] substratum by means of which an active process is kept alive and going). volitions. however brief. Note again that the first khandha includes the objects of the senses. aggi has been dropped. which in normal English is meaningless. and consider it to be a coherent part of the same metaphor as the word nibbdna. Sue Hamilton’s research has clearly demonstrated that this is inaccurate: they are the five components of all experience. In fact. using the same m etaphor. The five khandha. There is a short text in the Samyutta Nikaya. whereas it fits into what we consider to constitute personal experience. if one considers the risks in things that can be clung to. upaddniya. upadi. one’s thirst for them is destroyed. but the point has been lost. The last words in my summary translate nibbdyeyya. and in English too we talk of ‘feeding’ a fire. m entioned just above. which translates tad-ahara>and ‘lacking sustenance’. can also mean ‘potential fuel’. clinging. one’s thirst increases. through clinging. This is extended by punning on upaddna>the word translated as ‘fuel’ in the simile but as ‘clinging’ when referring to a person.v. through thirst. tells us. sustained by that material. so that it goes on blazing a long time. decay and death. 2* Once one understands that the five processes that constitute our experiences are being compared to burning bundles of firewood to feed either the fire of our suffering or the fires of passion. fuelled by it. cow dung and wood. which translates an-ahara. sadness and torm ent come into being. sorrow. becoming. The word for ‘bonfire’ is aggi-kkhandha. Similarly. at the beginning the translation ‘that can be clung to’ is correct. Thus there comes about the arising of this whole mass of suffering. a form of the verb which gives us nibbdna. and a man from time to time throws onto it dry grass. This is like when a great bonfire of many loads of wood is blazing away. this also makes sense of the old terms for the two kinds of nirvana: sa-upddi-sesa and an-upadi-sesa* As the PED. lam entation. Both translations are of course correct. so it is a blazing mass: we have not just a simile but also a metaphor.EVERYTHING IS BURNING 115 The text begins: If one lives in expectation of enjoyment from things that can be clung to. through becoming.. lacking sustenance it would be extinguished.'’ This is like when the same bonfire is not given any more fuel: when the original fuel is consumed. the blazing fire of our suffering will likewise go out. grief. There is a parallel metaphor in ‘sustained by that material’. . birth. ahdra means ‘food’. ‘Mass of suffering’ translates dukkha-kkhandha. s. ‘Thus there comes about the destruction of this whole mass of suffering. hatred and confusion (it makes no difference which way you look at it). and this leads to the destruction of the rest of the chain. Conversely. but conceals the fact that the word. through birth. So the parallelism shows that if we stop giving it fuel to feed on. the potential to have experiences. which vary to some extent from culture to culture. the sun.. When the five khandha cease to exist. Joanna Jurewicz has dem onstrated11 that the approach of George Lakoff and his followers. we have run out of fuel. however. who recognize that our entire patterns of thought and language are built on primitive metaphors. can wonderfully elucidate for us the world of Vedic thought. Purohita. and we depend on both forms for light and warmth and hence for life itself. the name ‘placed in front’ indicates that the priest. i. The fire here on earth is equated with the fire in heaven. it is no longer burning. what exactly does ‘stand for’ mean? Is fire just a metaphor for consciousness.116 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT upddi = updddna. The very first verse of the Rg Veda begins ‘I worship Fire. Fire can also stand for consciousness. but this does not mean that one still has a residue of grasping .10 but the Rg Veda did not. the purohita'. The Vedic poets did not just think about the salient elements of . has precedence even over the ruler. as the sacred takes precedence over the worldly. When I write that fire can ‘stand for’ consciousness. The Buddha. particularly one who officiates for a ruler. which literally means ‘placed in front'.9 FIRE IN VEDIC THOUGHT Vedic religion centred on worship of fire and sacrifices made into fire. Fire can be personified as a god. or is consciousness literally some kind of fire? In describing the Rg Veda and the ideology that flows from it.just a little bit of vice! If we follow the metaphor. the brahmin. which is something entirely positive. The attainment of nirvana during one’s life (the only time when it is possible to attain it!) is called sa-upadi-sesa. like Aristotle. Like other forces of nature. So the fire can be a symbol summarizing all that is sacred. It thought of consciousness in terms of fire without drawing a boundary between what was to be taken literally and what was not. when we die enlightened.e. refers to an officiating priest. or at least to have the potential for awareness. it would be wrong to choose either alternative. so we still have a residue (sesa) of fuel (upddi). we have no more potential for experience. which in this context is seen as the very essence of life: to live is to be aware. hatred and delusion we still have the five khandha. we understand that at the moment when we extinguish the fires of passion. clearly distinguished between the metaphorical and the literal. ’ The word ‘Im peller’ translates Savitr and this is a frequently used name of the sun. Jurewicz shows that in RV 9. Agni and Savitr are h ere being identified. There is however one further dimension to its literality: the image of Agni causing cognition expresses the idea of mental heating. such as cattle. 8. The verse may be translated: ‘Let us think of that excellent brilliance of the Impeller God. by means of them. very approxim ately. or the Savitn. after its topic. as in Savitr. they thought with them. is its ultimate subject who manifests himself in the hum an individual. Probably the most famous. a very similar invocation is addressed to Savitr u n d er th a t nam e. which is the experience of the fiery creative principle. he causes internal heat. . soma and fire. and in fact in the next two verses. In other words Agni. It can be understood as expressing a real experience of physical heat under the influence of Soma. 86 and 1. 4. and certainly the most used. 25 and 26. as saying by every brahm in male who has reached puberty. the originator of the vision. (In Oxford I used to begin my annual series of lectures on Indian religion by reciting this verse and hoping that a little sunshine m ight dispel the usual dank Oxonian gloom and make our minds less sluggish.which should be the same. Manifesting himself. Here again we have the verbal root su.27. 6. they too regarded the daily appearance of fire in the sky as the precondition for mental activity.EVERYTHING IS BURNING 117 their physical surroundings.14 Jurewicz writes: The description of Agni as the cause of mental activity is not only metaphorical. after its metre.13 For example. 52. Though the Indians are less starved of sunshine. which seem to express this experience. verse in the entire text is a three-line verse known as the Gdyatn. Savitr. This verse has to be recited daily at twilight worships by every male initiated into the Vedic community .24 Agni is invoked to purify his worshippers by stimulations of their prayers or Vedic utterances. the Sun. The link between fire and thinking in the Rg Veda is in a superficial sense well known. being the efficient cause of the vision. brahma-savaih.) The connection between Agni and consciousness or cognition extends far beyond the Savitr! verse. that it may animate our thoughts. There are at least two other stanzas in the Rg Veda. from milk. wants to eat him.4. however. Prajapati plans in his mind to create plants and trees as fuel for Agni so that the latter should have something other than his own creator to eat. There is a close homology between milk and Soma.8. This states that the world begins when Prajapati.’ The bull is a common metaphor for Agni. ‘and because he generated him from his mouth.16 the cosmogonic myth at Satapatha Brahmana 2. the Creator God.’ But then Prajapati is terrified because Fire. Soma is the food.118 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT She then quotes 3-1. This. plants also arise.6 says: ‘The whole world is nothing but food and eater. Agni.’ In S. Having discussed at length the metaphorical use of ‘streams of clarified butter’. both the activity itself and its objects. she concludes: On the m etaphorical level. can be manifested as consciousness.1ff. this image expresses m ental concentration on fire as the object of cognition.’ That Agni can stand for both the subject of cognition and its object. finding no other fuel. BAU 1. then.17 Jurewicz argues: ‘So the eating part of Prajapati can also be interpreted as representing the subject of .3. part of which reads: ‘The streams of clarified butter trickle to the place where the bull has grown thanks to his poetic art. He solves the problem by creating milk for Fire to eat. and it is her analysis of the metaphorical structure through piling up examples which at the same time makes her argum ent so convincing and means that no brief attem pt to summarize it can do it justice. indeed. Agni is an eater of food. can be originated by the poet and by Agni himself.4. w hich causes the grow th of fire recog n ised and experienced in the vision. Jurewicz has shown in her discussion of many different passages in the Rg Veda.4. is at the centre of the picture in a passage to which Jurewicz has drawn attention elsewhere. As Jurewicz remarks: ‘A similar idea is expressed in the Moksa-dharma™ and the Bhagavad-gitd: that the dtman functions as both subject and object of yogic cognition.2. Agni can therefore stand for both the subject and the object of cognition.Br. Agni the eater.2. begins by creating Fire from his m outh. sometimes separately and sometimes together. The poetic art. in the latter case it is Agni who is the ultimate originator of the vision. Most of the verses she discusses are at first blush quite obscure. 2. W hat our discussion so far has not clearly expressed is the appetitive nature of that consciousness. it cannot arise without a cause’ (aneka-fariydyenapaticca-samuppannam vinnanam vuttam Bhagavata.indeed. and he replies: ‘This speaking. In terms of Buddhist dogmatics. 256-8). It is an im portant text for the teaching of dependent origination (paticca-samuppdda).’18 The identity of subject and object. in which food becomes one with its eater.EVERYTHING IS BURNING 119 the cognition.’ FIRE AS A MODEL FOR APPETITIVE CONSCIOUSNESS Let us return to the Buddha. is classified . which is com pared to fire. and no other. After saying that Sati is an idiot who will long suffer for his error. it was Professor Jurewicz who drew my attention to the full significance of this comparison. However. The Maha Tanha-Sankhaya Sutta begins with a misguided monk. Again. So he has a naive view of consciousness as a transmigrating soul or essence. Sati adds something to his evil view. The correct view is that ‘the Buddha has taught. anahnam). ‘The Major Text on the Destruction of Thirst’. the Buddha launches into an extended comparison of consciousness with fire. that consciousness originates from causes. he does not do so by using such an abstract formulation. she writes. as the commentator reminds us (Papanca-sudam II. the eaten one . Sati is propounding eternalism (sassataditthi). It is that the Buddha has taught that ‘this same consciousness. who holds what is called an ‘evil view’. he says. transmigrates’ (tad ev’ idam vinhanam sandhdvati samsarati. ‘At that time I was Vessantara. ‘is confirmed in the act of eating. Sutta 38 of the Majjhima Nikdya is called the Maha Tanha-Sankhaya Sutta.’19 The Buddha then proceeds to show that indeed Sad has got it wrong: that consciousness is not a thing which can move from body to body. and a causally conditioned process at that. one might . a topic reached via a discussion of the nature of consciousness. putting it in many ways. an ex-fisherman called Sati. feeling one [masculine] who experiences the results of good and bad actions’ (yvdyam vado vedeyyo tatra tatra kalyana-pdpakanam kammanam vipakam patisamvedeti). annatra paccayd n ’atthi vinndnassa sambhavo) {MN I. Consciousness. 305). The Buddha asks him what he means by consciousness. but a process. When he is brought before the Buddha.its object. an error which the com mentator says he fell into because his speciality was jdtaka stories and he was misled by the Buddha’s saying things like. which is ultimately identical with brahman. whether it be a stick fire. and the simple solution would be to take ‘this’ as . smell consciousness. but the prerequisite for such consciousness.’ ‘Monks. and was indeed the topic of that paragraph. brahman. is consciousness. so that ontology and epistemology are merged. infinite’) and vijndnam. The neuter thing that has been referred to in the previous paragraph. do you see that it originates in its food?’ ‘Yes. tongue consciousness. sir. do you see that what has com e into being is of a nature to finish through the finishing of its food?’ ‘Yes. a fire is classified according to its cause. This is easy for us to understand. Let me translate it as literally as I can.’ ‘Monks. for instance. similarly.20 Just so. awareness. which I would translate: ‘Brahman is reality. If it arises on account of the eye and visible forms it counts as ‘eye consciousness’. but that concept has not been referred to in the text and I do not believe him. what is ‘this’? The commentator says it is the set of five khandha.according to what has brought it about.120 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT say named .9.5.1 says: satyamjndnam anantam brahma.’ The quesdon is. a grass fire. The Upanisads tend to use the term a ltor consciousness. the last being due to the mind and ideas. a splinter fire.1. dtman. ‘Monks. sir. Brahman is defined as vijndnam. This is the opposite of the Upanisadic doctrine that consciousness is inherent in the world spirit. at BAU 3. The next passage in the text has been a puzzle. do you see that this [neuter] has come into being?’ ‘Yes. but also jM nam (TaiUmya Upanisad 2. the five processes which constitute a living being.28 and Taittiriya Upanisad 2. The Buddha is saying that consciousness is always consciousness of som ething. a cowdung fire. the very word of which we have the Pali form here. sir. The Buddha is speaking. a chaff fire or a rubbish fire. The point is twofold: that for the Upanisads consciousness is not consciousness of anything outside itself.1. there is no doubt that in separating ontology from epistemology he is taking a point of view with which we feel at home. body consciousness (from the sense of touch) and mind consciousness. and hence in the individual soul. W hether or not we agree with the Buddha in considering that consciousness must always be consciousness of something. and that it is inextricably bound up with true being. there arise ear consciousness. e. All these four. a cosmogonic narrative. but fire is also an element. bhuta. the text has becom e banal. The word for Tire’.4. contact to the six senses. Why then did the com m entator not propose this solution? I suppose that like me he finds it very odd to talk to an audience about consciousness by saying. My hypothesis is that the deictic pronoun here refers to a piece of action not m entioned in the dialogue. punningly. the third intention (mano-samcetana) and the fourth consciousness.EVERYTHING IS BURNING 121 referring to consciousness. The form ula is . all the way to ignorance (avijja). I think. which indeed it then takes back. owe their origin to thirst the commonest of all the Buddha’s many m etaphors for desire. using his hands. and one cannot point to a piece of consciousness. produced fire I shall produce evidence below (Chapter 12) that there is a direct connection between that passage and this. and of contact to the six senses. which is neuter. but I think they too make far better sense if they refer to something happening before the audience’s eyes. to go into these here would be tedious. now referred to as its ‘food'.21 There is even a passage early in the B it/ (1. ‘Do you see that this has come into being?’ Of course.. that at this point the Buddha either lit a fire or had one in front of him. feeling to contact. as usual. In thus tracing the origin of thirst to feeling. what we normally call food). But the word for ‘this’ (idam) is deictic. such as whether one could doubt the existence of ‘this’ and its dependence on its fuel. which reads: ‘T hen he churned like this and. Patrick Olivelle has convincingly shown that this is how we have to interpret some passages in the early Upanisads in which deictic pronouns are used. The first is the food made into mouthfuls (i. 'Do you see this element which has come into being?’ The passage continues with sets of rather strange questions. therefore. in that it is simply reproducing the standard form ula of dependent origination (to be expounded in the next chapter). aggi.22 So there is also wordplay: the Buddha is saying. the second contact (phasso).6). is masculine. The Buddha then says that there are four kinds of food (ahara) to maintain those living beings that already exist and to help along those that are coming into existence. he says. of feeling to contact. seeing can always be a metaphor for understanding. This thirst in turn owes its origin to feeling (as of pleasure or pain). T he four foods . Moreover. and is further expounded in such a way as to make clear that it is also a rebuttal of Sati’s eternalist heresy. I surmise that the mention of the fire’s food . I shall return to this below. and in an undesirable way at that. elsewhere in the Canon23 does not dissuade me. The commentary is no help at all. there is obviously m ore to the B uddha’s analogy between consciousness and fire than the fact that they are . (That this passage with the double causal chain also occurs. with the two instances further apart. culminating in putting an end to rebirth and its suffering. but I do not see an important difference in substance between saying that it arises from volitions and saying that it arises from thirst.classified according to their fuel. as shown in Chapter 7.) The result is a mess: contact (phasso) occurs twice. that is. We shall see in the next chapter that in the full twelve-link chain of dependent origination consciousness arises from volitions. In the Maha Tanha-Sankhaya Sutta the Buddha draws on this idea but is more analytical. Fire is dynamic and appetitive: it seeks out its objects. pericopes often migrate like this.as in the bonfire sutta discussed above . He sees consciousness as being like fire in that it is an appetitive process. and so. Consciousness is a food. we see that the Buddha himself is saying that fire and consciousness are alike in this crucial respect. To sum up so far. This passage justifies the title of the text. ‘The Destruction of Thirst’.24 below I shall suggest more precisely why I think this happened. leading to the conclusion that the destruction of ignorance leads to that of each successive link. The natural deduction is that an inept editor has cobbled two teachings together. Though the Maha Tanha-Sankhaya Sutta does not say so in so many words.was the connection that brought in the four foods here. If we read the text as a whole. in te n tio n and consciousness . the analogy with fire can provide a model of how a process can be dynamic and seek out its objects without being guided by a seeker.or can be . in Vedic tradition consciousness and its objects are thought of in terms of fire. does consciousness. since it arises directly from thirst. con tact.122 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT rehearsed in the normal repetitive way. something that fuels existence.n orm al food. . which cannot exist without having something to feed on.seem to be left high and dry. His familiarity with Vedic thought surely guarantees that he had this in mind. by itself with no context. EVERYTHING IS BURNING 123 ETHICIZING CONSCIOUSNESS All this seems coherent and illuminating. But how does it square with the picture of consciousness found elsewhere in the Canon? Among the five khandha, the fourth group, volitions, includes cetana, intention. This the Buddha declared to be what constitutes karma and therefore lends an action its ethical quality, w hether good or bad. The other four khandha do not have an ethical quality and by the same token are not a matter of intention. Consciousness, vinndna, is on this view ethically neutral, and merely a necessary component, along with the sense organs and their objects, of the functioning of the senses, and analogously of the mind. In the Vedic way of seeing consciousness in terms of fire, both have a will of their own. By contrast here, in the list of the khandha, consciousness has been sep arated from volition. T ru e, the separation is only analytical, because in life the five sets of processes always operate together to create experience. But we have seen that the same separation occurs in the sutta passage m entioned above about the four foods. Though what had come earlier in the sutta prepared us for the idea that consciousness is appetitive and arises from thirst, it turned out to be accompanied by a separate entity called intention. Moreover, the word used there for intention, mano-samcetana, is virtually the sam e25 as cetana, the word for intention which the Buddha chooses to define karma. What has happened here? The Vedic thoughts with which we have been dealing concern ontology and epistemology, what exists and how we can be aware of it; for them, the two questions are interlocked. None of this has anything to do with ethics. By contrast, the basic drive of the Buddha’s teaching was to ethicize the world and see the whole of life and experience in ethical terms, as good or bad. His analysis therefore simply has to find a place for an ethical elem ent, som ething which m akes a thou ght, an instance of consciousness, good or bad. We have just seen, however, that in the Mahd Tanha-Sankhaya Sutta consciousness is appetitive, and that that appetite, like all others, is considered as an aspect of tanha (thirst) and thus as the prim e obstacle to spiritual progress. This should m ean that consciousness is ethically bad. Yet if it is separated from intention, surely it should be ethically neutral. I think that the passage may be garbled because it tries to com bine the Vedic concept of an 124 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT appetitive consciousness, which the Buddha inherited and to which the first part of the sutta is devoted, with an analysis following that of the Five khandha, in which consciousness per se has no ethical charge. We cannot tell exactly how this occurred, but we may presume that when the editor or compiler became aware of the contradiction, he panicked, and used ‘contact’ as a bridge to get him back to the standard form ula for the chain of dependent originadon, leaving a certain am ount of chaos in his wake. THE FIVE KHANDHA ARE PROCESSES Let me return to the five khandha and the ‘Fire Sermon’. Both, we have seen, put the objects of sense perception in the same category as the senses themselves. Thus sights, sounds, etc., are said in the ‘Fire Sermon’ to be on fire with passion, hatred and delusion, just as are seeing, hearing, etc. Another thing to note about the ‘Fire Sermon’ is that it does not seem to envisage that the senses, their objects, and the other things it mentions could somehow continue to exist when they are no longer on fire. When one realizes that they are on fire one becomes totally disillusioned with them, and through this disillusion one is liberated and realizes that one will not be reborn. I have m entioned above that the five khandha are five sets of processes which fuel our continued existence in samsdra because they involve grasping, appetite, thirst, desire, whatever you like to call it. I have also shown khandha to be a short form of aggi-kkhandha, a common Pali compound word meaning ‘mass of flame’. So there are not just five heaps of fuel but five fires burning fuel. Like all fires, they are in a sense what they are made of; and this takes us back to the Vedic thought that fire is both object and subject. Moreover, they are not things but processes. I have, in sum, suggested that the Buddha made the following uses of fire as a metaphor. 1. From Vedic thought he derived the view that consciousness is like fire in being appedtive, and that like fire it can go out without having an agent to put it out, simply because the fuel is exhausted. EVERYTHING IS BURNING 125 2. He also derived the idea that Fire cannot be separated from that which burns. This means that just as there is no such thing as fire without a burning object, so there is no such thing as consciousness without an object of consciousness. More profoundly, perhaps, this can be expressed in a more general way by saying that the subjective and objective presuppose each other and all experience requires both. The th o u g h t th at subject and object can ultim ately n o t be separated seems to accord very well with the B uddha's statement that the world lies within this fathom-long body {SN I, 62), quoted in Chapter 5. Another facet of this same idea is that the B udd ha’s key m etaphysical statem ents, whether about anattd or about the khandha, are generally taken to refer to the person - and this seems natural, since it is individual people that he was trying to help escape from suffering - but in fact they apply equally to the world, for the w orld can only be d escribed in term s of w hat can be experienced. 3. Most im portant of all, he deduced something that I think was never explicit either in Vedic thought or in its Hindu descendants: that what we can experience is only process. This may be his most im portant philosophical idea. O ur consciousness and its objects are like fire in that they are not things but processes, unceasing change. Something beyond this is perhaps conceivable, but the very n atu re of our apparatus for having experiences determines that if it does exist it must lie completely outside our experience. 4. Again like fire, the processes which constitute our experience are non-random. I shall explore this in the next chapter. 5. The Buddha also ethicized Vedic thought, making the whole of lived experience take place in an ethicized framework. Creating the conditions in which the fires with which we are all burning would go out was an enterprise at the same time ethical and intellectual, for the fires were both emotional (passion and hatred) and intellectual (delusion, stupidity). Egotism and belief in an unchanging ego were the fires’ essential fuel, so once they were got rid of, those fires would go out. 126 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT THE NEW VIEW OF CONSCIOUSNESS HAS KNOCK-ON EFFECTS If consciousness is itself on fire with passion, etc., the aim of anyone seeking liberation must surely be to eliminate consciousness. This is indeed the implication of the Tire Sermon’ and even, one could argue, of the basic formula of the five khandha. On the other hand, in taking step four, his ethicization, the Buddha apparently wanted to avoid that conclusion. One of the three fires is delusion, so one is liberated by eliminating delusion; but if that were to mean loss of consciousness, how could one go on to be aware that one has been liberated —as the ‘Fire Serm on’ proposes one can? Even more crucially, if liberation involved loss of consciousness, would this not underm ine the m oral character of the whole teaching? So the Buddha took the further step of separating volition, which carries a positive or negative ethical charge, from consciousness. Thus the three fires come to represent not any and all forms of consciousness, but negative (‘unskilful’) volitions. It is the bad volitions which must stop, and to bring that about surely requires consciousness. I propose that the two views, that liberation requires elimination of consciousness and, against that, that it is a purification of consciousness and character, m irror a great divide in the Buddha’s teaching on the mind between what he learnt from his teachers and his own original ideas. T he tradition holds that the B uddha learn t and practised meditation under the guidance of two teachers before finding their m ethods inadequate and striking out on his own. Some recent scholarship, culminating in the work of Alex Wynne,!s has shown that this tradition is almost certain to be authentic, and that the two teachers stood in some kind of brahminical tradition. This recent scholarship also agrees with the Buddhist tradition in holding that what the Buddha learnt from his teachers was the kind of meditation preserved within his own teaching as samatha, ‘calming’ meditation. In this kind of meditation the mind becomes less and less active; it moves towards samadhi, concentration. The highest point that it can reach is term ed by the Buddhists sanna-vedayita-nirodha, ‘cessation of apperception and feeling’. That is a kind of trance, in which one cannot survive for more than seven days. T h eravadin orthodoxy, as in c o rp o ra te d , for exam ple, in Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhi-magga, is clear that this state, which lacks all mental activity, is not nirvana, but a kind of spiritual exercise, EVERYTHING IS BURNING 127 which can be resorted to w hether one has previously attained nirvana or not. The Buddha resorted to it on his deathbed (DN 11,156), but left the state before actually dying. The state is thus neither perm anent nor irreversible. The orthodoxy contrasts this with the other kind of meditation, allegedly original to the Buddha, called vipassana, ‘insight’; it is this insight which alone culminates in nirvana. Unlike the cessation of apperception and feeling, nirvana is an experiential condition which is irreversible, for it involves ‘seeing things as they are’, which cannot but be conscious.27 Even though this is the setded orthodox position, the texts in the Pali Canon itself are not in fact entirely consistent, and there are a few passages which do seem to equate the cessation of apperception and feeling with the ultimate goal. However, I shall not digress to explore the oddities of this position, because for present purposes I only need to show that it may well have been seen as the ultimate goal by the Buddha’s teachers and others around him who practised an o iq ci lyp c 01 wicQitaQon, out u ia i it c iiq c q tip ucm oiCG . u tn c r scholars have noticed this already. I suggest that in the older type of meditation, or at least in the Buddha’s presentation of it in his samatha schema, consciousness was indeed seen as appetitive, like fire, and therefore something which in the enlightened state one had got rid of. Not only is this the more natural reading of the ‘Fire Serm on’. In the chain of dependent origination, consciousness is said to emerge on the basis of samkhara, volitions, and in turn to give rise to individuation and individuating thought.2” Jurewicz has shown in a brilliant paper29 that in this teaching the Buddha is ironizing Vedic cosmogony, and the fit is better if consciousness retains its Vedic characteristics of being volitional and appetitive. 1 think that when the Buddha decided that the only kind of intention that really mattered was moral intendon, the beginning of the Noble Eightfold Path, he was careful to choose a word for intention, cetana, which did not carry Vedic ideological overtones. His doctrine that ethical action, good karma, is the only true purification and the foundation of spiritual progress, was utterly radical and new. But o ld e r ideas ab o u t the c h a ra c ter o f consciousness lingered, whether in his own mind or those of some a yi A l/ ia r r\ T K u t if o n /“I o f i i n i ’**! / i a t t i f itn ia t* fire apparently provided someone with the vision of a world of perpetual change. as commonly understood. Heraclitus. and Anaximenes. I do not believe that Heraclitus can have influenced the Buddha.32 . who lived in Ionia (m odern Turkey). it is a world of processes.128 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT of his followers. Only a few fragments of his work are preserved. too. A salient exam ple is his doctrine of the five khandha.31 Heraclitus was probably responding to Parmenides just as the Buddha was responding to the Upanisads. who said that everything was ultimately made of water. Moreover. the stuff from which everything came and into which it returned. Though the Buddha did not regard himself as a philosopher.let alone a god . Moreover. ‘You cannot step twice into the same river. and left their traces in many texts down the centuries. Alaya in the Pali Canon is a synonym for tanhd.’ He also said. according to which what we normally think of as a person is constituted by a set of five processes. Heraclitus argued that fire was the basic element. was probably a slighdy older contemporary of the Buddha. nearly a thousand years later a major school of Buddhism30 held that the unenlightened mind was at base an alaya-vijndna. who said no. or both. he certainly propounded some notable philosophical ideas. AN ANALOGY WITH PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Let me end this chapter with an even more far-reaching suggestion. let alone vice versa. he shared the Buddha’s insight that our world is in constant flux. and a causally conditioned process at that.but a process. but it is worthy of remark that in ancient Greece. He is supposed to have followed in an intellectual sequence from Thales. everything was made of air. craving. as I have written in the previous chapter. For example. the Vedandc view that true reality is eternal and unchanging recalls the view of the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides. so that alaya-vijndna means precisely ‘appetitive consciousness’. There is a striking similarity between the Buddha and Heraclitus.’ In other words. which he perceived to be not a thing . and the most notable among these is probably that for things. these processes are not random but conditioned by a set of causes. I hope to have shown that he may have got this idea precisely from considering the nature of fire. he substituted processes. His most famous dictum was ‘Panta rhei’: ‘Everything flows. If we look. in term s of dhammas. my question has a clear answer.’ But what exactly does that mean? The term dhamma here means a constituent of reality according to the Buddha’s analysis.Chapter 9 CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS F or which of the Buddha’s ideas was he most famous among the mass of his followers in ancient India? The theory of karma may not have been understood by later followers to be the Buddha’s distinctive contribution. and that those processes are neither random nor rigidly determined. Buddhist institutions in ancient India provided pilgrims and other devotees with thousands and thousands of small terracotta plaques. They originated as the first words of a short verse: ye dhamma hetu-pabhava tesam hetum Tathagato aha tesam ca yo nirodho. If we are correcdy instructed and have internalized the Buddha’s teaching. evamvddi maha samano. All but one of them have causes. most of which bore the same words. he was associated with the teaching of ‘no soul’. with a little phonetic variation. but that was a label. also called the dhamma. for the idea which provided Buddhists with their popular self­ definition. Those words. this the .2 The previous chapter has shown that that experience consists of processes. because it soon came to have such a great influence on other Indian religious traditions as well. Yes. were ye dhamma hetu-pabhava: ‘the dharmas which arise from causes’. such is the teaching of the great renunciate. we will analyse our own experience. the precise idea was probably understood by few. however. in accord with those teachings. p o ten tial o r actual com po n en ts o f th a t experience.1 This can be translated: ‘The Tathagata has spoken of the cause and cessation of the dhammas which arise from causes. What is one to make of this? I also argued in that chapter that the version we have of the First Sermon probably dates from the Second Council. S ariputta and M oggallana. the Four Noble Truths. the first convert. The verse is therefore saying that the B uddha has described the origin and cessation of all phenom ena . that which has neither origin nor cessation. at the end of the First Serm on. to becoming an arahat. The story of the conversion of Sariputta and Moggallana shows us that by that time .except of nirvana. When he heard the verse. Assaji replied that as a recent convert he knew little. fell from Sariputta’s eyes. is n ot causally con d itio n ed . it can hardly be described except negatively. Moreover.130 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT B ud dhist trad itio n often expresses by saying th a t they not independent. one of the Buddha’s first five disciples. and for this reason. hatred and delusion. as I shall explain in the next chapter. This verse is supposed to have converted the Buddha’s two chief disciples. as it were. and he realized that ‘whatever is of a nature to arise is all of a nature to pass away’. to describe the realization of Kondanna.are used. and was so impressed by his tranquil and controlled deportm ent that he asked him who his teacher was and what he taught. but this verse gave the gist of it. O ne m orning Sariputta saw Assaji. that half of the Vmaya which deals with the rules for the Sarigha as a com m unity. I venture to observe that this conten t does n ot match the description of Kondanna’s realization. the scales. The story occurs in the introductory section of the Khandhaka.4 The other four disciples to hear the First Sermon have the same realization shortly afterwards. on his alms round. In Chapter 7 I have described the content of the First Sermon: the Middle Way. thereupon he rushed off to share this with Moggallana. he has explained their cause or causes. That dhamma is the experience of the extinction of the fires of passion.3 Having renounced the world under another teacher.that ‘whatever is of a nature to arise is all of a nature to pass away* . in this sense of the term . T h at u niq ue dhamma m ust be the opposite of everything we normally experience. The very same words . the two men had agreed that whoever of them first discovered ‘the deathless’ would tell the other. earlier in the same text. Just one dhamma. This realization is tantam ount to Enlightenment. the Noble Eightfold Path. as discussed in Chapter 2. As Paul Williams once put it to me. the words which are supposed to have convinced them are far too concise to be intelligible on their own. Sometimes this discovery is summed up in the brief phrase evam sati idam hoti. the Buddha saw all our experiences of life as non-random processes. Thus. Madhyamaka. but somewhat inappropriately. therefore. to be his greatest discovery. Nothing accessible to our reason or our normal experience exists without a cause. So what was it that the Buddha discovered? At one level I have already given a brief answer to this in the previous chapter: using the analogy of fire. But we can here pinpoint a m om ent in the developm ent of the Buddhist tradition when this idea of the Buddha’s was accorded param ount importance. at least in learned circles. ad . the Buddha is credited with having in some sense discovered causation and demonstrated its centrality for a correct understanding of the world.CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS 131 the B uddha’s analysis of reality in terms of causal process was considered. only verbs. for example. this does not mean that I am taking the story about Sariputta and Moggallana as literally accurate either: just as I argued concerning the First Sermon.’ This is still so vague as to be virtually meaningless. to the First Five disciples. for it leaves room for free will. Of course. but that the world of our experience is a world of flux and process. this could be paraphrased as Things happen under certain conditions. no god who is an unmoved mover. meaning ‘It being thus. nor some kind of nihilism. for Buddhism there are no nouns. in other words as processes subject to causation. Over the centuries Buddhists came to regard the Buddha’s teaching as ‘the m iddle way’ in this sense: that he proclaim ed neither the existence of things in their own right. I suggest. then. there can be no origin to the universe. DEPENDENT ORIGINATION In the Buddhist tradition. This ‘middleness ’ gave its nam e to the school of philosophy founded by Nagaijuna (second century ? ) . which we would now call essentialism. Now I must explore this further. that the description of the realization which constituted their Enlightenment was then applied retrospectively. no first cause. this comes about’. This process is also a middle way in that it is neither random nor rigidly determined. The Buddha normally is shown in the Pali Canon as doing his very best to make himself clear. etc. Many of the Buddha’s sermons begin with his telling his monks to listen to him with yoniso manasi-kara. saying that it is extremely difficult to understand.6 Ananda happily tells the Buddha that he has understood the Chain of Dependent Origination.). Though there are variants in the Canon. In English the doctrine is usually called the Chain of Dependent Origination (though there is no ‘chain’ in the Pali). this term refers to a highly specific doctrine. it is the discovery of the Chain of D ependent O rigination that constitutes the Buddha’s salvific gnosis. lamentation. In the version of the Buddha’s Enlightenm ent which begins the Khandhaka section of the Vinaya Pitaka (referred to just above). in the locus classicus for this doctrine. such that reversing those steps would solve the problem.’ he then asked. ‘What is the cause of all our sorrow and suffering?’ Having answered that question by saying ‘It is decay and death. there is no one agreed interpretation.5 At first blush this may not appear too puzzling. But literally it means ‘making in the mind according to origin’. and I know of no parallel . So far. sorrow. and found the answer in a series of steps. Strictly speaking. It looks as if the Buddha originally began at the end: he asked himself. by far the commonest form of this chain has twelve links: ignorance > volitions > consciousness > name and form > six sense bases > contact > feeling > thirst > clinging > becoming > birth > decay and death (+ grief. the Buddha was trying to work out how we come to be suffering. and the Buddha reprim ands him. The dictionary translates this with such terms as ‘proper attention’. and that is just how the Buddha made his breakthrough. on closer scrutiny the Chain of D ependent Origination is anything but transparent. To put it simply. in other words. so I think that Hwang has been astute in spotting a problem. but that expression does not seem to be a normal idiom in Sanskrit or indeed in Pali literature. the text has a remarkable introduction. What it means in detail has been contested am ong Buddhists from the earliest days. so good. My friend Hwang Soon-11 has very plausibly suggested that this may be the origin of the common Pali expression yoniso manasi-kdra. ‘And what is the cause of those?\ and went on asking the same quesdon undl he got back to ‘Ignorance1. However. thinking over the origin of something. the Mahd Niddna Sutta. Moreover.132 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT The B uddhist term for being causally d eterm in ed is paticcasamuppanna. in Pali it is the paticca-samuppada and in Sanskrit the pratitya-samutpdda. Rg Veda X. amounting originally even to an identity. That the chain sometimes appears with fewer links and sometimes even with loops in it seems to me to be no argum ent against her interpretation. The original form is positive: Why is there the last link (decay and death) ? Because of the previous link. as represented particularly in the famous lHymn of Creation’. Joanna Jurewicz of the University of Warsaw showed that the formulation of the Chain of Dependent Origination is as it is because it represents the Buddha’s answer to Vedic cosmogony. For the moment I merely flag up the problem. Though her paper was published in 2000. and so on all the way back to ignorance. and indeed to the fundam ental ontology of brahminical thought. and yet that is incom patible with the Buddha's main teaching. that involves getting rid of consciousness.7 Can that be correct? I have shown in the previous chapter that the Fire Sermon too seems to read that way. In this cosm ogony (as m e n tio n e d in C h ap ter 3) a close correspondence.CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS 133 to his statem ent here that this teaching of his is profound and difficult to understand.8 to my mind it has not yet attracted the attention it deserves. volitions cause consciousness. It deals with the chain with twelve links. but also in the Satapatha Brahmana and other Upanisads. Or you can start at the front: ignorance causes volitions. One problem with the chain as we find it in the texts is that it appears not to work well negatively. whichever end you start from . This book has been accumulating evidence that the Buddha’s teachings are largely formulated as a response to earlier teachings. But. as set out above. So to put things right. the whole chain must be negated. The Buddha chose to express himself in those terms because he was responding to Vedic cosmogony. JUREW ICZ'S DISCOVERY At the conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies held in Lausanne in August 1999. Jurewicz has shown that the Chain of D ependent Origination is perhaps the most detailed instance of that response. I shall suggest its solution below. and so on. and in the first chapter of the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad. I interpret it to mean that those who first formulated the text and recorded the teaching felt unsure whether they understood it themselves. 129. between . . Like the English word ‘desire’. But Jurewicz has shown that there is something further to this title. This initial stage corresponds to ignorance in the Buddha’s chain. 129. the successive links of the chain used abstract terminology instead of metaphors (which he made much use of in his own explanations). not even existence or non-existence.134 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT the microcosm and the macrocosm is assumed. the understanding of which constitutes the salvific knowledge provided by the upanisads. is referring primarily to the living individual. for example. of which perhaps the central ones are foundation. is at the same time the origin of the microcosm. one could say that the primary referent is the universe. Jurewicz explains. A niddna. origin and cause. macrocosm and microcosm. there was no possibility of even ascertaining existence or non-existence and hence no way of making the distinction. Rg Veda X. In the Vedic case. In an earlier article. but the universe is considered to be grounded on a primordial essence which is endowed with consciousness.’9 The Pali word niddna has several meanings. the universe.11 Jurewicz shows that this is both an ontological and an epistemological statement. The Buddha.a volitional impulse initiates the process of creation or evolution.inexplicably .10 in other words. and in its third verse it asks about the niddna. namely Rg Veda X. in other words. by contrast. the human being. which condition consciousness.. the text in which it is expounded. which condition name and form. So there was originally neither existence nor consciousness. is ‘the ontological connection between different levels and forms of beings’. This volitional impulse is there called kdma.) The part of the chain which has caused the most difficulty is the first four links: ignorance conditions volitional impulses. Another significant contrast between the Vedic cosmogony and D ependent Origination is that the Buddha ‘in formulating . The hymn following Rg Veda X. it can refer to one of the esoteric correspondences between. is also about cosmogony. The Vedic ‘Hymn of Creation’ goes on to recount that somehow . (I m entioned in Chapter 3 that the word upanisad can itself bear exactly this same meaning. kdma . All of these could be said to be relevant to the Chain of Dependent Origination and hence to the title of the Mahd Niddna Sutta. for he has no interest in the world as such and that is part of his message. so the origin of the macrocosm. the commonest word for ‘desire’. 130. 129 tells us that at first there was nothing. desire in general. in which there is still only one entity. though they always operate in conjunction (like all the khandha). consciousness is non-dual. consciousness. In the previous chapter I showed how this was a deliberate refutation of the Vedic position. cognizing itself. Pure consciousness is thus at best reflexive.CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS 135 has a narrow meaning. develops an awareness of subject and object. as ‘the first seed of m ind’. perceptible to the senses. using a linguistic category. but I object that. It is often translated ‘form ations’. He looks around and does not see anything but himself. are analytically separate. He thus conceptualized the fourth and fifth khandha. until we reach the multiplicity of our experience: individuation both by name (nama). Moreover. for there is no split yet into subject and object. which is to say that it is the ability to cognize but not yet consciousness of anything. and a broader meaning. of which ‘thirst’ (tanhd) is probably the commonest. but I went on to show that his ethical concern led him to separate consciousness from the will. Jurewicz illustrates the various ways in which the Vedic texts portray the next step: how desire. so when samkhdrd strictly refers to this khandha.. according to Vedic thought. this in turn leads to fu rth er individuation. sexual desire. but it is always consciousness of. From this reflexivity. the processes which constitute a sentient being. Desire. what arises from the primordial chaos of unawareness he calls samkhdrd. here the third link in the chain. I learnt from Jurewicz that from Vedic thought he inherited a view of consciousness as appetitive. The most explicit text is B A U \A \ here the Creator (dtman) in the form of a man (purusa-vidha) realizes his own singularity. I prefer to translate it ‘volitions’. creates consciousness. is the fifth of the khandha. the process which keeps us in samsara. The hymn says that desire was ‘the first seed of m ind’. This is one of the five khandha. which. For the Buddha. that tells us nothing. For desire the Buddha uses a vast range of metaphors. like the term ‘aggregates’ for khandha. More on this below. At this point. but also that he was not able to cognize anything other than himself. That term occurs later in the chain.2 a plural noun. which indicates not only that there existed nothing aside from himself. . is one of the constituents of this khandha. and by appearance (rupa).13 At this stage. The idea probably goes back to the jdtakarman [birth] ceremony. Thus being the subject (or we could say. by giving him a name he took him out of the unnamed. he confirmed his own identity with him. Since three of these four (vedana. samkhara and vinndna) appear elsewhere in the chain under their usual names. By accepting his son.as if divided into the different names and forms . being the vijnana) . in the course of which the father accepted his son and gave him a name. enters it ‘up to the nail tips’. The same process can be observed in creation: according to the famous passages from BAU 1. the tradition made ndma-rupa equivalent to the five khandha by saying that rupa was the first khandha and nama referred to the other four. the act of giving a name and a form marks the final formation of the Creator’s dtman. In Vedic cosmogony. this can hardly be correct. he equips himself with the cognitive instruments facilitating his further cognition. Now I must quote at length what Jurewicz writes about ndmarupa. Thus the act of giving name and form also makes cognition impossible. Realizing that at this point in the chain there should be a reference to the emergence of the individual person. I think that this very fact could have been an im portant reason for the Buddha’s choosing the term ndmarupa to denote an organism in which vijnana settles.7. he hides himself and . unshaped chaos and finally created him . At the same time and by this very act he continues the process of his own creation as the subject: within the cosmos.. so the dtman undertakes cognition in his named and formed self But self-expression through name and form does not merely enable the Creator to continue self-cognition. who. or at least difficult. and knowing that the Buddha identified the person with the five khandha. performs the cognitive . If we reject the dtman. giving himself nam e and form. he recognizes his own identity with the object and finally shapes it. At the same time. because only thus can I convey the full flavour of what the Buddha has done by w renching these terms out of their Vedic context. As the father lives in his son.4. having given name and form to the created world. the dtman.loses the ability to be seen as a whole.136 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT The later Buddhist tradition did not understand how the Buddha had appropriated this term ndma-rupa from the Upanisads. well versed in Brahmanic thought. the division of consciousness into name and form has only the negative value of an act which hinders cognition. the Absolute which cognizes itself and so generates the world is the dtman. all the terms used in the pratityasamutpada had a definite meaning and they evoked definite associations. Let us imagine the Buddha enum erating all the stages of the Vedic cosmogony only to conclude: ‘T hat’s right. one does well to pose the sceptical question: ‘Why did nobody notice this before?’ One of the beauties of Jurewicz’s discovery is that the answer to this question is simple and obvious: at a very early stage the Buddhist tradition lost sight of the texts and doctrines to which the Buddha was responding.'4 **The remaining eight links of the chain are more straightforward and there is no need to discuss them here. I m ight add. grief and lamentation . it fits very well into the pratityasamutpada understood as a chain of events which drive a human being into deeper and deeper ignorance about himself. The act of cutting off the dtman . However. who were familiar with the concepts and the general idea of the Vedic cosmogony. deprives the Vedic cosmogony of its positive meaning as the successful activity of the Absolute and presents it as a chain of absurd. .15 Usually. it was a brilliant strategy.. death.shows that all that has gone before is but a road to ruin. irony does not weather well. meaningless changes which could only result in the repeated death of anyone who would reproduce this cosm ogonic process in ritual activity and everyday life. this is how the whole process develops.. the only problem is that there exists no one to undergo a transformation here!’ From the didactic point of view. For Vedic thought. Let me quote Jurewicz for the final time (with a small change to clarify her English): The Buddha preached at least some of his sermons to educated people. when a new interpretation of a famous text is proposed. To them.CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS 137 process. As such. which is at the same time the self of every sentient being. And. The end of the chain decay. it seems to me that all difficulties are resolved. to thirst. however. because originally .17 It is quite plausible. My conclusion is that Frauwallner and Hwang are right.in his First Sermon .138 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Note also that this interpretation of Dependent Origination does not subvert the Buddhist tradition or run counter to traditional Buddhist ideas. quoted early in Chapter 8. (It could also go back six. many years ago. Erich Frauwallner argued. the B uddha produced a different causal chain to ironize and criticize Vedic cosmogony. its negative version meant that in order to abolish ignorance one first had to abolish consciousness! 2* . If we com bine this with Ju rew icz’s interpretation. seven or eight links . which begins by expressing the second N oble T ru th . and noticed that it led very nicely into the earlier chain .perhaps because it is natural for the creation of the individual to lead straight on to the six senses. ‘Before you presented Jurew icz’s theory. when the B uddha asked himself how suffering arose. 84-5. JUREWICZ’S DISCOVERY COMBINED W ITH THOSE OF FRAUWALLNER AND HWANG ‘But wait a m in u te/ the reader may cry.) T hen. the second beginning with thirst. in precisely these term s. it enriches them. and thence. at an o th er point. that someone failed to notice that once the first four links became part of the chain.111 This perfectly fits such texts as SN II. you told me that the Chain of D ependent O rigination began with the last part. but that as his thought developed he felt the need to elaborate on this. the O rigin of Suffering (dukkha-samudaya).this is what the Buddha gave as the cause of suffering.nothing hangs on the difference. and the Buddha’s chain originally went back only five links. On the contrary. How can that be true and Jurewicz’s theory also be valid?’ I believe there is a perfect answer to this. via ‘contact’ and ‘feeling’. to thirst. giving precise meaning to what was previously obscure by adding substance and detail to the Buddha’s ‘no soul’ doctrine. that the twelve-linked chain is a composite of two lists. CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS 139 Let me now further dwell on the Vedic background to the Buddha’s thought, and try to get the reader used to what may be an unfamiliar view, by supplementing what Jurewicz has written about the first two terms, ignorance and ‘formations’ or ‘volitions’. Avijja The word for ignorance in Sanskrit is avidya. The Pali form, avijja, stands at the beginning of the Chain of D ependent Origination. This is an abstract noun, and the prefix a makes it negative. It goes back to a very common verbal root vid, which basically means ‘to know’. Indeed, the very word Veda is smother noun derived from that root. However, there is a second verbal root vid, also common, meaning ‘to find, to obtain’. A verbal root is a kind of theoretical form used as the basis for deriving real words; but in some actual verbal forms these two roots vid continue to coincide as homonyms. Thus the present passive, vidyate, can mean either ‘it is known’ or ‘it is found’; the latter means ‘it exists’, rather like French se trouve. My suggestion, therefore, is that avidyacan mean not only ignorance but also non-existence.IB If I am right, this would supportjurewicz’s interpretation: by placing avijja at the beginning of the chain the Buddha is exploiting the word’s ambiguity, suggesting an identity between existing and being cognized. Samkhara Now let us further exam ine the second link in the chain. The difficulty of translating samkhara is notorious and several scholars have written about it at length.19 The long PED article on it begins: one of the most difficult terms in Buddhist metaphysics, in which the blending of the subjective-objective view of the world and of happening, peculiar to the East, is so complete, that it is almost impossible for Occidental terminology to get at the root of its meaning in a translation. We can only convey an idea of its import by representing several sides of its application, without attempting to give a ‘word’ as a definite translation. I have shown in Chapter 1 that there is nothing strange, let alone unique, about the impossibility of finding a word in our language to convey the precise meaning of a Buddhist term - even if that is 140 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT what m ost people expect the hapless lexicographer to do! A m eanin g req u ires a co n tex t, an d if th a t co n tex t contain s presuppositions alien to us, it will need to be explained. Etymologically, samkhara comes from the common verbal root kr, to ‘do’ or ‘make’, and the prefix sam, roughly ‘together’. So the word starts off looking as if it should mean something like ‘put together*, i.e., ‘con stru ct’. It tends to be used in the plural: samkhdrd. First, let me note that samkhara is one of a class of words, abstract nouns based on verbs, which can refer either to a process or to the result of that process. We have many such words in English. For example, ‘construction’: ‘The construction of Durham cathedral took a century’ refers to the process; ‘D urham cathedral is a magnificent Gothic construction’ refers to the result. Notice that the word ‘building’ is another example, and could be substituted for ‘construction’ in both those sentences. ‘Formation1is yet another exam ple. Thus, even if it is uninform ative, ‘fo rm ation ’ may sometimes be a suitable translation for samkhara because it can fit both when the word is being used to denote a process and when it is being used to refer to a result. Thus, when the Buddha says on his deathbed that samkhdrd (the plural) are imperm anent (anicca), he could be saying either that the processes of construction are imperm anent (i.e., ever-changing), or that the resulting constructions are impermanent. Or both! In Chapter 1 I used the accepted translation by Rhys Davids: ‘com pounded things’. This translation suggests, I am sure correctly, that in the context the Buddha is referring primarily to himself, or rather to his body: that it has been constructed by a process, and therefore cannot be perm anent. The argum ent is here implicit, though obvious: the proposition that what has been put together m ust sooner or later fall apart has been fundam ental to the Buddha’s teaching. Note, however, that the translation is misleading because it is too narrow; for it has equally been a part of the Buddha’s teaching that everything in our experience - in fact, everything but nirvana - is a samkhara. In short, everything in our lives is a process or the result of a process, so necessarily impermanent. This is by now familiar to us: it was argued out at length in the previous chapter. However, that chapter taken on its own might elicit the objection: if the Buddha held that everything was process, why did he not say so straight out, rather than using a metaphor like fire? To that objection one might CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS 141 be tem pted to reply: because he had no word available in his vocabulary which meant ‘process’. But I think that would not have been quite accurate. I believe that samkhara can mean ‘process’, but the problem is that it does not do so unambiguously, because it can also mean ‘result of a process’. The passage I have quoted above from the PED seems to me to frame a valid insight with a dated prejudice. It speaks of ‘the blending of the subjective-objective view of the world’, but seems to do so in terms of underlying stereotypes: the mysterious, mystical East and the presumably contrasted rational West. We have said enough of the ‘Hymn of Creadon’, and the brahminical cosmology which can be traced back to it, to show that indeed it does blend the subjective and the objective, refusing to separate existence from consciousness; but this is a position peculiar to brahminism, not to the East as a whole! O ur concern here is to trace the relationship between the Vedic cosmogony and the Buddha’s own metaphysics. Adhering to an a priori view that there must be an equivalence between macrocosm and microcosm, the brahmin cosmogony claimed to trace the origin or ific wona ano man at one and cne same time, i nc oucLQna saw no need to bother about a world ‘out there’, so he reduced the equivalence of macrocosm and microcosm to a metaphor: the ‘world’ is our experience. So what about samkhara, processes in general? If he saw the world in these terms, why does the same word label just one of the five khandhas, the categories of process that make up our experiences? I hope that this book has by now said enough for the reader to anticipate the answer to this question. For the Buddha, the most im portant thing about living beings was their moral aspect, their karma. Though he says that by karma he means volition, in fact karma is both a process and the result of that process. It is, moreover, the most important of all processes, for it is the dynamic that moves us through our lives (infinite in num ber), and is what provides the principle of continuity and coherence throughout those lives. Thus, while all the five khandhas are processes, the karmic process - or set of processes - is the most im portant one: the most im portant pragmatically, because it does the most to affect our environment and to determine our futures, and the most im portant theoretically, because understanding the karmic process, conditioned but not random, will give us the only solid foundation for understanding how the world works and our responsibility in it. 142 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT THREE CORRECTIONS TO ACCEPTED VIEWS 1. Failure to understand the Chain of Dependent Origination ~ a failure which I attribute not so much to any obscurity as to forgetting its historical context - may be in large part to blame for many of the developments that the theory of causation underwent in Buddhist tradition. These began with typical scholastic efforts to read significance into every word. In the Pali suttas there are two words for ‘cause’, hetu and paccayo, which are regularly used together. It is typical of the oral style of these texts to use two synonyms together. I d on ’t suppose there is a single sutta which does not afford an instance of this stylistic feature. But the tradition tried to wrench more meaning out of the terms, making them refer to d iffe re n t kinds of causes and con d ition s. T h at interpretation is anachronistic, 2. Among the many interpretations offered by commentators both ancient and modern, some have tried to see the Chain of Dependent Origination as dealing with the macrocosm. I hope it is already clear that in my view that must be wrong. But it is quite possible that this line of thought preserves some memory of the fact that the Buddha was ironizing a doctrine that originally dealt principally with the macrocosm. Jurewicz’s in terp retatio n also makes it unnecessary to accept the complicated, indeed contorted, interpretation favoured by B uddhaghosa, that the chain covers th ree lives of the individual. 3. O ur normal common-sense understanding of causation is that it applies th ro u g h tim e, with cause p reced in g effect. Metaphorically, we would think of such causadon as vertical. This is so even if there are many causes a n d /o r many effects. However, an interpretation of causality arose in Buddhism which has it that things are also caused laterally, as it were, by other things which occur at the same time - or even at a future time. This interpretation is particularly strong in Far Eastern Buddhism : the H ua Yen school holds th a t all phenom ena are interconnected. I can find no trace of this doctrine in the Pali Canon. What the Buddha taught was that all the phenom ena we experience - or, CAUSATION AND NON-RANDOM PROCESS 143 better, all our experiences except Enlightenm ent - are causally conditioned. In that particular sense they are not independent phenom ena, i.e., they cannot occur without a context. One can perhaps push this a little further, and say that without a context the precise m eaning of a phenom enon cannot be ascertained. I am after all following that episte mo logical principle in this book. But it by no means follows that all phenom ena exert causal influence on each other. Indeed, such an interpretation would subvert the B uddha’s teaching of karma. The whole point of karma, as I have stressed from the outset, is that it teaches that all individuals are responsible for themselves. In the words of the Buddha, we are ‘heirs of our own deeds’. If we were heirs of other people’s deeds, the whole moral edifice would collapse. which in this context include all ideas. some have called this a form of empiricism. the quesdon of what exists.Chapter 10 COGNITION. This is a somewhat crude system: the d iffe re n tia tio n betw een the m ind and m ental consciousness seems to us clumsy.g. NIRVANA e have seen in Chapter 5 that the Vedic tradition blended (from our perspective: confused) ontology. he tends to choose an external organ. and never. Each faculty has its specific category of objects. e. and altogether substituted for the question ‘What exists?’ the question ‘What can we experience?* 'T*¥/"\NVT1 C O GX NTTITIO Cognition. there must be synergy between the sense organ. I find this label questionable. . We have also seen there and in Chapter 8 that the Buddha argued against positing a category of ‘being’. its objects. For a sense to function in cognition. given that one of the ‘organs’ is the mind. including abstractions. the mind. from a divine source. whereas ranging the mind alongside the five senses rather than making it superordinate to them (as was done by Samkhya and other later philosophical systems) seems simplistic. The same is true of the sixth organ.. But it is true that when he wants to give an example of cognition. in this case visible p h en o m en a. LANGUAGE. for the Buddha. plus the mind. Since for the Buddha cognition comes through using a sense organ. say. begins with the exercise of the six faculties (indriya):2 the norm al five senses. the objects of the mind are called dhamma. the question of what we can know. and the specific fu n ctio n in g of consciousness (vihndna) which applies to that sense organ. and how. with epistemology. the eye. consciousness. This line of argum ent is that the operation of the senses misleads us not only morally but also intellectually. and what (following Frauwallner) I have argued (in C hapter 9) to be the earliest form of the Chain of D ependent Origination. ‘A pperception’ is identifying a perceived object by giving it a name. samjna. volitions. Noa Ronkin has explained this far better than I could. positive or negative. Thus for cognition to take place requires a sense (in this context. LANGUAGE. This follows both what I have in Chapter 5 dubbed the ‘emotionalist’ analysis of our existential problem. not ontology.4 . one of the five) and its objects. which follows the ‘intellectualist’ line and the analysis offered by the twelve-link Chain of D ep end en t Origination as it came to be understood. unpleasant. The fourth khandha. I repeat: epistemology. the fifth khandha: then sensation. the khandhas. or neutral. however. is inevitably involved because the Buddha held that the senses are appetidve: they seek out their objects. the root of all our troubles. (In fact. Vinndna likewise requires volition. My exposition so far states that the Buddha regards the senses as dangerous because their operation easily leads to ‘thirst’. where the Buddha saw a big problem. and I refer interested readers to her admirable book. Therefore sanna is the application of language to one’s experience. While perhaps it goes too far to call this understanding wrong. by occasioning pleasure or pain.3 This leaves sanna. the Buddha analysed what we are into five sets of processes. while sanna then intervenes to identify what it is. so it is not surprising to find that the general attitude towards the senses is negative. and in particular how we cognize. It is contact between senses and their objects which. causes desire. ‘nam e’ is the basic meaning of the equivalent word in Sanskrit. The need to ‘guard the doors of the senses’ may well be the theme which recurs most frequently in the Buddha’s sermons. mosdy because . This is.COGNITION. In the common understanding. it is misleading: the khandhas are not so much what we are as how we work. whether pleasant. which fall under the first khandha. But there is also a more sophisticated way of looking at the matter. NIRVANA 145 The first Noble Truth is that our experience is unsatisfactory. which I translate ‘apperception’. rupa.5 The Brahma-jala Sutta discusses a long series of views which are one-sided.) Though there is some confusion in the Pali Canon between sanna and vinndna the settled Buddhist position becomes that vinndna just makes the perceiver aware that there is something there. sannd . The Sanskrit word for ‘cow’ and really being a cow were inseparable. The Sanskrit name of something is not a matter of convention or chance. By chandas Panini means Vedic Sanskrit. and the escape from them. 71. X.*6 Ronkin goes on: The Buddha’s insight reveals that the causal foundation for one’s samsaric experience is the operation of one’s cognitive apparatus. he understands that which surpasses all these views. to know a thing and to know its name were the same.7 THE BUDDHA’S VIEW OF LANGUAGE The Vedic fusion between cognition and reality embraced language.. m onks. since naming an object can be seen as a form of control over it. Panini. these things come into existence (RV X. given by nature. The Sanskrit language is a blueprint for reality. It also m eant that it was believed that analysing words10 could reveal truths about the objects they denoted . N ear the end of it. Vedic texts were . at the time of the first sacrifice. but inherent.. a monk comprehends as they really are the arising and ceasing of the six contact-spheres..12 The Buddha said that his teaching should not be conveyed in what he called chandas. But the Buddha was certainly n ot forbidding his followers to compose verse. who probably lived one or two generations after him.a This leads easily into magic.146 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT they espouse one of the extremes. eternalism or annihilationism. the B uddha says: ‘W hen. 1. their appeal and peril. things and the words denoting them were created to g e th e r/ ‘W hen the gods u tter the nam es of things. This identification process necessarily involves naming. as in classical Sanskrit its commonest meaning is ‘verse’.an idea which the Buddha made fun of." The role of Sanskrit in brahmin ideology is in fact so fundamental that for the Buddha to reject it was no less fundamental to his own ideology. In other words. His use of the term chandas must have been close to that of the great Sanskrit grammarian.3). Basic to this process is the khandha of conceptualization and apperception.'3 This term may seem to us somewhat ambiguous. for it is widely used in the Pali Canon. O ne’s experience in its entirety arises from the cognitive process of making sense of the incoming sensory data. 82. namely. with pitch accents. It is m uch m ore n atu ral grammatically to take the adjective ‘his own’ as referring to the pupil monks.15 But most modern scholars do at least agree th at B uddhaghosa is w rong h ere. however. I hope. NIRVANA 147 recited in a particular style. The B uddha’s response was to declare that he did perm it monks to learn his teaching sakdya niruttiya. indeed. The occasion for the Buddha’s prohibiting the use of chandas was that two brahm in disciples of his had complained that monks of diverse origins were spoiling his words sakdya niruttiya. The phrase sakdya niruttiya has been the subject of seemingly endless debate. clear. The main argument. had no problem at all with translating their message into other languages. in contrast to the brahmins. LANGUAGE.16 ‘their own mode of ex p ressio n ’ would refer prim arily to explanatory glosses or paraphrases given in their own dialects. even more important. this is what we would expect.often. since Buddhaghosa was the great scholar who made Pali the sole authoritative medium of the entire Theravada tradition. sakdya. thus inevitably drawing attention away from content to form.in other words. means ‘his own’. He says that in various places people use a . Since we know that monks did learn texts word by w ord. dialect’ or something like ‘gloss. In the Arani-vibhanga Sutta}1 he gives a series of pieces of advice on how to avoid conflict by being m oderate . The adjective preceding it and agreeing with it.COGNITION. must in my view be built on the evidence of other texts and what we know of Buddhist usage. hieratic language which by custom was recited in a style that for most people was difficult or impossible to understand.14 What the Buddha was prohibiting was evidently the use of an archaic. explanation’. At the risk of slight over-simplification. Is this not exactly what we would expect of the Buddha’s Skill in Means? My translation of the troublesome ruling is therefore. ‘Monks. the first few centuries of Buddhist history clearly show that the Buddhists. I perm it the Buddha’s words to be learnt using the learner’s own mode of expression. but it is unclear whether it here refers to the Buddha or to the monk who is learning the Buddha’s words. B uddhaghosa interprets the phrase to m ean the language of Magadha as used by the Buddha .’ Inelegant but. what we now call Pali. not the Buddha. by taking a middle way. The Arani-vibhaiiga Sutta (see below) shows that the Buddha allowed the use of local dialects (his experience was presumably of a range of dialects rather than languages). let me explain that the word nirutti can mean either something like ‘language. The Buddha says that every apperception is samkhata. however. T here is a one-to-one correspondence betw een word and m eaning. also basic to his metaphysics. each Sanskrit word is a kind of unchanging monolith.20 This means that they are imperm anent and unsatisfactory (dukkha). and anything that might impede communication was to be discarded. it is synonymous with calling that thing samkhata. In practical term s. This is intimately related to samkhdrd. how can words have a fixed and determinate relationship to reality? All our apperceptions. a term discussed at length in the last part of the previous chapter. not just the living individual: it is the generalization to all phenom ena of the ‘no soul’ principle. For the brahm ins. he may have arrived at this conclusion from his knowledge that there were countries where Sanskrit was unknown and it was not plausible to argue that their languages were just debased derivatives from it. lay a theoretical issue: the Buddha’s rejection of the fundam ental attitude and ideology of brahminism. In fact. claiming that they alone are correct and rejecting the terms which are more widely understood. whether that entity happens to be manifested or not. the Buddha’s attitude to the use of language was pragmadc: his purpose was purely to convey meaning. So when the latter denotes a ‘construction’ or ‘form ation’ in the sense of the result of a process of constructing or forming.2i and this means that it must be . for we have seen that the qualities of being impermanent.18 Thus. Thus an expression like ‘the king of France’ (in Sanskrit) has.19 The Buddha’s view of language was. unsatisfactory and devoid of an unchanging essence entail each other. are empty (sunha).148 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT range of different terms for a dish or bowl. however. samkhata is the past participle of the verb which gives us the noun samkhdrd. If there are no unchanging entities but only processes. a m eaning which is eternally fixed. one should not insist on these terms. the term ‘em pty’ denotes this lack of an unchanging essence. w hether there happens to be a king of France for it to refer to or not. To our familiar ‘three hallmarks’ we can now add another term: samkhata. Underlying the pragmatism. However. In this context. expressing its meaning throughout eternity and corresponding to a real entity. applying it to everything. they hold. he says. But for the B uddha such a correspondence is unthinkable. Although language is a constant feature of our experience. we are norm ally unaware of the paradox in the cognitive process: to become knowable all the incoming sensory data must be verbally differentiated. We have to express our cognitions through language.23 (I should add that this refers to cataphatic knowledge . the naming process. Ronkin writes: The Buddha . but that it was inherently impossible for any language fully to capture reality. it does not say that there is nothing ‘out there’ at all!22 There is one thing . m ental form ations. unveils not only the dominance of language and conceptual thought. u n d erm in es certified knowledge..see below..COGNITION. nothing justifies their reliability because they could equally have been constructed otherwise.if ‘thing’ is the right word for it! ~ to which none of this applies: that is nirvana. or prefer to think in objecdve terms of ‘the world as experienced’...whether we consider experience subjectively. He points towards conventionalism in language and undermines the misleading character of nouns as substancewords. by its very n atu re . NIRVANA 149 impermanent and ultimately unsatisfactory. but language. To sum up: the Buddha concluded not merely that languages were conventional. inadequacy. Note that what is being said is that these qualities apply both to the act of apperception. I cannot help being struck by the coincidence between Karl Popper’s view (which I espoused in Chapter 7) that we can advance in knowledge and understanding of the world but never reach certainty. This will be explained at the end of this chapter.) For all the differences between them. . but also their in h eren t.. but as such they are mere constructions. What we can know is part of the activity of language. and also to what is ‘out there’. with the Buddha’s view here expounded. and to what is being apperceived: both to what we conceptualize as being ‘out there’. but that imposes on experience linguistic categories which cannot do justice to its fluidity . using sanna. LANGUAGE. in accordance with other conventional guidelines .. On the other hand. I think the most decisive influence on him was exerted by what one may say lies behind that formulation. more below). Neither term. for the vital functions are the real. without reaching a consensus even about how to translate it. more he rejected.’*' The word I have translated as both ‘real’ and ‘reality’ is satyam. ‘For there exists nothing else beyond this “not thus”. is speaking only negatively. . and I hope that what I have written above clarifies what that refers to. but as the discussion cannot avoid being technical. As I have m entioned in Chapter 5. Some of it he accepted. conveys in English the message that what is wrong with papanca is that it is false. the Buddha held. It is at this point that the view taken of language becomes crucial. consciousness and bliss. one can verbally differentiate ‘dog’ into many kinds of dog. the opposite. and it is not obvious what would be wrong with doing so. GATAPHATIC AND APOPHATIC I discussed in Chapter 5 how the Buddha responded to the Vedantic teaching that one had to realize that one was ultimately nothing but being. and this is their reality. not thus’. I consign it to the Appendix. which one could also translate ‘truth’ (on this. saying what something is.<jr’ Cataphatic means speaking positively. however. However. Therefore it may be worth reflecting what lies behind the term. trying to express something by saying what it is not. thus involves some inaccuracy. this occurs in the text three times. and hence all know the distinction between what Christian philosophers call cataphatic and apophatic expression.’ This passage finally adds something positive: ‘Then its name is the real of the real. His term for this was papanca. All the major religions of the world have some form of mystical tradition. apophatic. the experience which transcends language and can only be referred to by negation.150 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT The very act of conceptualizing. I surmise that the earliest piece of apophatic theology on record is the statement in the BAU that the dtman is ‘not thus. Two of the passages are identical. The other one enlarges on it slightly by adding. Here again we have a term over which scholars have spilt much ink. After all.24 Noa Ronkin suggests ‘verbal differentiation’ or ‘verbal proliferation’. 15) which begins by asking ‘From what do words turn back?’ The answer (by implication) is nibbana. and in later texts does so exclusively. the epithet tadi. attempts which I regard as fanciful.-8 So the Buddha is referring to himself as ‘the one who is like that’. in which the individual self is felt to merge into brahman. I think. This word.COGNITION. which means ‘thus’. together with the mind. The Pali word here used for ‘words’ is sard (from Sanskrit svara). and gata. . citra-gald nan is not ‘the woman who has gone into the picture’ but simply ‘the woman in the picture’. This describes the salvific experience according to the Vedanta. NIRVANA 151 There is a famous verse in the Taitlinya Upanisad:11 Before they reach it. he can only point to it. According to the Pali canonical texts. But the Buddha certainly did. words turn back. the same in Sanskrit and Pali. This is tantam ount to saying that there are no words to describe his state. which commonly means ‘gone’. he is never afraid. 68). but the commentator seems to have interpreted it as a homonym which m eans ‘stream s’ and assum ed a reference to an o th er m etaphor. derived from Sanskrit tadrs. Similarly. The word gata when it occurs as the second member of a com pound of this type often loses its primary meaning and means simply ‘being’. (The word tadi had a colourful history. also originally meant just ‘such’ or ‘like that’. One who knows that bliss of brahman. Moreover.8). though the epithet Tathagata most commonly refers to a Buddha. or should I say reinterpreted.2. is a compound with two parts: tatha. after his Enlightenment he always referred to himself as Tathagata. that of rivers m erging into the ocean (see Mundaka Upanisad $. 140). in the Pali Canon it can refer to any enlightened person (M N l. The Buddhist tradition has made various attem pts to etymologize the term . This word too could in the Pali texts be applied to any enlightened person (Thg. LANGUAGE. It is not. This has probably been overlooked because the tradition has misinterpreted the question. Exegetes do not like an apophatic description: it gives them nothing to get their teeth into. though the commentators read other meanings into it. well known that there is a short poem in the Pali Canon (SJVI. for through phonetic change it was reconstituted. For example. The whole word is often translated into English as ‘Thus-gone’. One must have musical ears to know the value of a symphony. Lacking the heart or ear. The Buddha felt the quality of his salvific experience. that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words. a problem somewhat different from that recorded in texts by people who had little or no understanding of what we call m ystical exp erien ce. denoting their compassion. W illiam Jam es co n sid ered ineffability to be the leading characteristic of mystical experience. one must have been in love one’s self to understand a lover’s state of mind. and so became an epithet of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. however. In this peculiarity mystical states are more like states of feeling than like states of intellect. and are even likely to consider him weak-minded or absurd. It follows from this that its quality must be directly experienced. his Enlightenm ent.152 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT in the Sanskrit of Mahayana Buddhists as trayin. The mystic finds that most of us accord to his experiences an equally incom petent treatm ent. T he p ro b lem was th a t his exp erien ce tran scen d ed language and he was initially d au n ted by the .129 I surm ise th a t in the days im m ediately follow ing his Enlightenm ent the Buddha had a real problem about explaining himself. it cannot be imparted or transferred to others. The subject of it immediately says that it defies expression. we cannot interpret the musician or the lover justly. No one can make clear to another who has never had a certain feeling. or that he was unable to direct others towards a similar experience. in no way im plies eith er th at the truths he discovered were inexpressible. He could not describe the quality of his experience because it was a unique private experience with no publicly available referent. ‘saving’. This. He wrote: The handiest of the marks by which I classify a state of mind as mystical is negative.) INEFFABILITY The fact that the Buddhist tradition lost the original meanings of tathagata and tddi bears witness to the anti-mystical (or at least nonmystical) stance of that tradition. to be ineffable. in what the quality or worth of it consists. COGNITION. Indeed. in which he refers to ‘right views’. 797. rather more numerous. or in external observances. All the terms for the supreme good which he had found and was making available to others are obvious metaphors.’ In this compressed verse the target is specifically the teaching of Ysyriavalkya. clinging there to that alone. one regards all else as inferior. As we all know. the apophatic strand is particularly notable in the last two books of the Sutta-nipata. he felt he had attained to a reality beyond language. and indeed of the brahm inical tradition which contributed to his making sense of that experience.’™ But I have shown31 that the previous verse. both his teaching and his adherence to ritual. hearing or thinking of the dtman. W hen one w ants to convey an ex p erien ce w hich eludes denotative language.this the wise men call a fetter. PRACTICAL LIMITATIONS OF THE APOPHATIC APPROACH The tension between the apophatic and the cataphatic is found in the apparent inconsistency between the texts in which the Buddha says that he has no views and those. This the Buddha was constantly doing. NIRVANA 153 consequent impossibility of conveying it to others. But the ultimate inadequacy of language for such purposes left its mark on Buddhism and explains some of its features. So under the guise of saying that one should not depend on what is seen. there is a good chance that it is authentic. But this is a subtle matter.the Buddha is . For example.which would be to agree with Yajnavalkya’s apophatic teaching . should be translated: ‘Should one see benefit in seeing. LANGUAGE. the use of m etaphor and analogy is perhaps even more characteristic of his preaching than the use of the parable is for Jesus. not absolute) criterion for determining whether or not a sutta goes back to the Buddha himself: if the message is conveyed by an analogy. Within the Pali Canon. I would even go so far as to surmise that this would be a good (though. he found his way out of this difficulty and became a great teacher. heard or thought . Under the impact of his Enlightenm ent. I believe that these refer to different aspects of his experience and teachings. it is natural to resort to metaphor. verse 798 is generally taken to be utterly apophatic: Rahula translates its first half as: ‘To be attached to one thing (to a certain view) and to look down upon other things (views) as inferior . of course. in o th er words. Ninian Smart was. I think. the moral law of the universe. On the other hand. was true only conventionally.52 The apophatic/cataphatic distinction also helps one to make sense of the later doctrine of the two truths. he had also come to understand certain things which he felt to be true. attacking the central Upanisadic doctrine. True. sensations as o f p leasu re and pain. Ultimate reality for Nagarjuna . To take the best-known and most im portant example: they held that the Buddha analysed the individual being into five com po n en ts: physical. the reason that he gave for refusing to answer them was that they were of no relevance to the quest for Enlightenment: that people should not waste their time on idle speculation. It was in a somewhat similar spirit that the Buddha listed a dozen frequently asked questions which he refused to answer.as for the Upanisads. correct to say that the Buddha rejected these questions also because their formulation was misleading. They took these insights in a com pletely literal sense.ni i|/i Id CdUlUg U\IrC L iia C Ii if y K Up C rt o dU aC a ln ly g Ui il c 5 tUi rt rlUlKUUldUUU W UU I ii Kp uc misleading. because it was an agreed convention that a particular set of the five components passed by the name of John. The great philosopher Nagarjuna used the same two terms but in a different way. the statement ‘J ohn has left the room ’. Accordingly. and that is why the Noble Eightfold Path begins with ‘right view’. what had left the room was this set of five components. argued the Abhidhamma. and indeed of fundam ental importance. volitions and consciousness. his followers were extremely assiduous in spelling out the results of analysing phenom ena in accordance with some of the Buddha’s insights. I have shown in Chapter 2 that the doctrine of karma was the first and foremost of these truths. the conventional and the ultimate.154 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT actually attacking him . Thus there were two levels of truth. if true in a normal sense. which refers specifically to accepting the teaching of karma. so that they acquired a reductionist character. Ultimately. apperceptions. . but in some cases the formulation ic tUlIM t i id A 'a n in n ’ r pr nc p o v U 11 n! l m n r f n iil! a t iA n u. O n the other hand. Thus the list of unanswered questions bears testimony in the first instance to the B uddha’s pragmatism. since the truth lies beyond language. He realized that by giving a more analytic description of what we normally called John nothing much had been achieved: the really important difference lay between that which language was adequate to express and that which it was not. In the generations following the Buddha’s life. the list does include such questions as whether a tathagata exists after death. Our world is what we experience. We m ust go back to the beginning. on the other hand. T here is. I do not think that most readers would wish to have the book lengthened by such argument. But the fuller answer. NIRVANA I trust that by now I have explained enough about the Buddha’s thought to indicate his ideas on nirvana. and recall that for the Buddha. that will do for a temporary answer. and that is nirvana. I find that when I teach a course on Buddhism to newcomers. being and becoming are opposites. obviously dem ands patience: the class have to learn how the Buddha sees that normal experience. It is constructed. The very title of this book pays hom age to the famous book by the Ven. Over the years I have come to think that that book might .lay beyond the limits of language. Nirvana is the one dhamma that does not arise from causes and is therefore not covered by the famous verse on causality presented at the beginning of Chapter 9. just one thing that is not composed but does exist in its own right. Throughout its history. by our cognizing apparatus. of process. LANGUAGE. while his ‘conventional truth ’ remains in the cataphatic tradition. Thus his ‘ultimate truth’ simply continues the Buddhist apophatic tradition. Here.COGNITION. Dr W alpola Rahula. It is easy to explain the metaphor. and say that it is completely getting rid of passion. com posed (samkhata) . of becom ing. ‘to exist’ means to exist without changing. hatred and confusion. ‘W hat is nirvana?’ is the commonest question to come up in the first meeting. Nagarjuna could link this view to some of the Buddha’s statements recorded in the Canon. however. That does not just ‘appear’: it is. the Theravada has remained overwhelmingly cataphatic. I must make a brief exception. NIRVANA 155 and indeed for all mystics . RAHULA’S LACK OF CLARITY My general principle in writing this book has been to put forward my views without explicitly arguing against scholars with whom I disagree. however. What the Buddha Taught. that it is defined by being the precise opposite of everything in o ur norm al experience. and it is a world of change. In proclaiming (in block capitals) that ‘Truth is’. but this scarcely diminishes my admiration for the cogency. whereas truth is a property of propositions. We need to make a distinction between the experience of realizing something and the thing realized. perhaps. Rahula has for a moment fallen into Upanisadic mode. often extending over many lives. But there is one point where the great scholar monk has let us down: his account of nirvana. is unclear and. The only thing you can do is to see it. It is beyond cause and effect. but the light is not the result of your eyesight. When I come to understand something. to realize it. NIRVANA IS.156 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT be more appropriately entitled What Buddhaghosa Taught. maybe of considerable effort. not an effect of the path. Nirvana is neither cause nor effect.33 Let me try to sort this out. in Chapter IV. But Nirvana is not the result of this path. Being given the wrong change in the supermarket and realizing that I have been given the wrong change are perfectly easy to distinguish. This means that they make no difference between between reality and truth. my understanding is indeed the result of a process. But for us. attaining nirvana is achieved only after a vast am ount of persistent effort. then it would be an effect produced by a cause.’ he may sound paradoxical and hence profound. T he Upanisads do not d ifferentiate betw een ontology and epistemology. but the thing understood is not: it was there all along. such as dhyana or samddhi TRUTH IS. Truth is not a result nor an effect. It is not produced like a mystic. reality is a property of things. it makes no sense in English to say that nirvana is truth. and nirvana is not a proposition. even at points self-contradictory. Nirvana is not the result of anything. because the Sanskrit . which have subjects and predicates. Rahula writes: It is incorrect to think that Nirvana is the natural result of the extinction of craving. The confusion arises. You m n i r t- m s y g e t 10 f n a L i t e i n q u i I vm I n * ilA n n 1 o a r v o t -n r i i i f f r \/a u a ir if u u i lo g m A i i n f o i n iiio u jx c jiii ic n /-v 1 is n o c the result. spiritual. You may see a light. mental state. It would be samkhata ‘produced’ and ‘conditioned’. But Nirvana is not the result of this p ath . economy and beautiful clarity of the text. to my mind. Since truth can only be a property of propositions. but in fact the matter is simple. So when Rahula says: ‘There is a path leading to the realization of Nirvana. In all the early Buddhist traditions. If it would be a result. ) I am not now referring to the way in which they try to give linguistic expression to the crucial experience itself. by this he means that ‘mystical states seem to those who experience them to be also states of know ledge. describes salvation according to the Vedanta. it follows from their ineffability that what is known cannot be articulated in words. I suggest that on . But in our language this will not work. but those who have such experiences go on living. NIRVANA 157 word satyam and the corresponding Pali word saccam can indeed mean either ‘tru th ’ or ‘reality’. he can say positively that he did realize it. not what it feels like to attain it. that will bring confusion. is beyond words. T hough William Jam es writes (surely correctly) that mystical experiences are feelings rather than thoughts (‘states of intellect’). but saying. They are. the analyst.COGNITION. Enlightened monks and nuns have left us poems in the Pali Canon in which they describe their condition in positive language. talking about what it feels like to have attained nirvana. But it pinpoints a crucial ambiguity in talking about a salvific gnosis: is the act of realizing it the same as the content of what is realized? From the point of view of the person who has that experience. LANGUAGE. It may be helpful to go back to the form ulation of Charles Malamoud: to identify one’s dtman with brahman is ‘at the same time the truth to be discovered and the end to be attained’. For even if the subject of the experience can describe what he has realized only negatively. They are states o f insig ht into d ep th s of tru th unplum bed by the discursive intellect’. It may be impossible to find adequate words to express what it feels like to win the marathon at the Olympic Games. Thus we need to clarify a further distinction: between having an experience (in the present) and having had it (in the past). at some later time.34 This. ‘and as a rule they carry with them a curious sense of authority for after-time. of course. what it feels like to be the person who once won that race is surely quite different and far easier.’36 Though they are felt to be states of knowledge. They may also talk about what it now feels like to have had that experience. But from the point of view of the observer. (The testimony of those who do not is inaccessible to us. however. the answer might seem to be ‘Yes’.35 The moment of attaining it. if it resembles a wide range of mystical experiences which have been testified to the world over. he refers to their ‘noetic quality’. It seems to be common in India’s hot climate to talk of feeling cool and comfortable. a tradition may . and alth o u g h th ere is certainly n o th in g objective in the sense of being open to public inspection. hatred and confusion. if James m eant that in this respect the mystical experience was unlike any other. 3. However. After experiencing Enlightenm ent. Therefore despite the fact that dividing the subjective from the objective aspects of the initial exp erien ce may be fatuous from the view point of the ex p erien cer.have plenty to say about the content. indications are com m unicated through metaphors. As mentioned in Chapter 8. or to feeling that the fires of passion. To experience salvation. N evertheless. one is in no condition to describe it. 2. but he also more particularly was following in the footsteps of the Upanisads. and know much what to expect. The Buddha apparently considered the experience of Enlightenm ent to be irreversible and unforgettable. that for the Buddha there was nothing so special about this. one can say what one feels like. was an experience beyond words. the experience is compared to waking up.and in this case certainly does . that one can only try to do afterwards. with nirvana. according to the Buddha. P: nibbuta. the experiencing of E nlightenm ent is felt to be totally unlike any o th er experience. have gone out. On the other hand. a chance phonetic similarity has associated a particular word for ‘blissful’. however. before having the experience one will probably be familiar with the accounts of others. one does . While having the initial experience of Enlightenment. with which one had been burning. since language is never capable of fully capturing experience. In this the Buddha stood in what seems to be a worldwide tradition of mystical experience.158 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT this last point the Buddha might have disagreed with James. WAYS OF USING THE TERM ‘NIRVANA* Let me now put my distinctions to work: 1. As William James has said. For example. One should add. monks.40 Thus the only way for someone who has not had the experience of nirvana to understand what it is about is to understand just what it is not. uncompounded. it is here that the apophatic tradition meets no competition.realizes —is the opposite. I therefore surmise that he meant the same as did the Buddha in the Pali Canon: ‘There is.37 Since it is central to Buddhism that the enlightened person will not be reborn. and then say that what the enlightened person experiences . normal. but the term also refers to the death of an enlightened person. for it can say a lot about all other. Beyond that. or positive and negative. but in this case it can be profuse.’39 In other words. com pounded. there would be known no escape here from the born. an unborn. I am no expert on Nagarjuna. he saw himself as merely elucidating the B uddha’s meaning. but he was a Buddhist m onk and one may presume that he too was striving for Enlightenment. The last distinction I must refer to is one made within Buddhism itself. In this sense we could say . like left and right. become. language can again only be indicative. made. LANGUAGE. . even though that too is beyond words. if there were not. the concept ‘unconditioned’ is unintelligible unless we know what is meant by ‘conditioned’. experience. as indeed the Buddha did. in other words. Enlightenment is commonly referred to by the B uddha as ‘seeing things as they are’ (yatha-bhuta-dassana).even though it might be confusing to do so . The nirvana discussed so far is Enlightenment.that even the cond itioned and the unconditioned condition each other. unmade. the two concepts of samsara and nirvana are a com plem entary pair which make sense only in terms of each other.38 Nagarjuna has caused much confusion by stating that there is no difference betw een samsdra and nirvana. NIRVANA 159 feel that what one experiences has an objective content.COGNITION. unbecome. and since there can obviously be no reports from enlightened people describing their deaths. moreover. Surely the last three chapters have made this idea thoroughly fam iliar to us. this perfectly rational proposition has been turned into a charter for far-reaching irrationality and a belief that Buddhism flouts the normal rules of logic. is process. The Buddha is simply reiteradng that everything in our world. i. .e. W hether or not this is good religion. which started in China.160 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT NEITHER EXISTING NOR NOT EXISTING I close this chapter by trying to dispose of another confusion. The origin of this strange doctrine is not difficult to explain. It is presupposed that existence is defined as unchanging existence. What he preaches is the m iddle way between these two extremes: D ependent Origination. which is conceived of as the opposite of change or process. in our experience. By ignoring both the immediate context of this statement and the broader context of the Buddha’s teaching. this is the right view (samma ditthi). Building on some of Nagarjuna’s apparent paradoxes. and causally conditioned process at that. that the Buddha taught a middle way between being and non-being. In the Kaccayana-gotto Sutta in the Samyutta NikaycCu the Buddha says that he preaches neither sabbam atthi ‘everything exists’ nor sabbam natthi ‘nothing exists’. there is a Buddhist tradition.. it is certainly bad history. as Paul Williams has written.2* Chapter 11 THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE TO WHAT EXTENT AND IN WHAT SENSE WAS THE BUDDHA A PRAGMATIST? A gain and again the Buddha emphasized that his goal as a teacher was entirely pragmatic. in a monastic context it can simply mean ‘rule’. then it is accordingly stated what a cure would consist of. for example. and finally the treatm ent to achieve that cure is prescribed. the B uddha’s Dhamma both describes the way that things are. when we say. When the word refers to his teaching in general. m odern scholars have plausibly argued that the formulation of the Four Noble Truths follows the medical idiom of the time: first the disease is diagnosed. The Buddha described himself as the surgeon who removes the arrow of craving. The Pali word dhamma has a similar prescriptive force.1 His teaching was thus a prescription for action. but not in the modern technically philosophical sense. the Sangha were the nurses whose calling it was to adm inister that m edicine. . however. Indeed. T h ou gh th ere is no canonical evidence for this interpretation. and at the same time prescribes that we see it that way and act accordingly. His followers came to know him as the great physician. that it is natural for parents to love their children and unnatural to abuse them. In the brahminical tradition. the Dhamma was the medicine he prescribed.2 The Buddha was a pragmatist as we use the term idiomatically. the word dharma indicates what at the same time is the case and should be the case. then its origin or cause is established. the usage is much like that of the words ‘nature’ and ‘natural’ in English. This means that. that of liberation. permeates the world. Otherwise it would follow that the Buddha might be able to benefit beings (and thus bring them to enlightenm ent) even without seeing things the way they really are at all...I refer mainly to the main parts of the Vinaya Pitaka and the bulk of the four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka . [that] it is only a question of it being beneficial in the context of the spiritual path . in the study of Buddhism. Very little is said about the ideas that underpin all this advice.4 While the comparison strikes us as a natural one to make. his teaching had only one flavour. i.. which at the same time is the truth and the Self. which at 6.. and the increasing or fulfilment of positive mental states?’3 This explains why. and . And that is not Buddhism. Further: The ‘ought’ (pragmatic benefit) is never cut adrift from the ‘is’ (cognitive factual truth).10 compares the way that rivers m erge into the ocean with the way that all creatures merge into being. or perhaps even strange. The teachings of the Buddha are held by the Buddhist tradition to work because they are factually true (not true because they work). ask yourself . Thus I believe that the Buddha would have entirely approved of what Paul Williams has written: [W]henever you come across something new.e. and then at 6.162 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT T h ere is no suggestion th a t [the teach in g] is only ‘pragmatically true’.. ‘How might a Buddhist holding or practising that consider that doing so leads to the diminution or eradication of negative mental states. when we look at the body of texts in the Pali Canon of which the content can plausibly be ascribed to the Buddha himself . the Self. The latter is expressed in terms of ethics and meditation.. It is possible that he was inspired by the Chdndogya Upanisad. the Buddha and his audiences lived very far from the ocean. that of salt.we find that the Vinaya is about how monks and nuns are to live and the Sutta Pitaka about how people can and should advance towards attaining nirvana.13 compares how when a lump of salt has been dissolved in water the water is permeated with its taste to how the truth.3 The Buddha said that just as the ocean has only one flavour. which means that he is liberated. This threefold knowledge. But it turns out that the Buddha takes strong objection to the allegation that he has had no insight beyond the hum an norm. and it does indeed do the job. and his destruction of the corruptions (asava). both asleep and awake. has largely to be teased out of the material. and to claim that he was just pretending not to know things is special pleading which we cannot find plausible.’9 It seems to me that the Pali Canon allows one to reach different conclusions on this point. for instance. ‘According to the Theravada exegetical tradition the Buddha is omniscient in the sense that all knowable things are potentially accessible to him . is the recollection of his former births.that is not the interpretation accepted by any Buddhist tradition of which I am aware. At first blush it might appear to us that the Buddha would be quite content to be described in these terms. He has explained only the Four Noble Truths.* He is reported in the Canon7 to have said that what he has explained compared to what he has not is like a handful of leaves com pared to a whole forest. He can n o t.8 Though we may read this as a denial of omniscience —which is what we would today expect of a great rational intellect . know everything simultaneously and must advert to whatever he wishes to know. The last part of this chapter will show that in the context of the Vinaya the Buddha is plainly not displayed as omniscient. as m entioned late in Chapter 7. as we know from many texts. he has com plete knowledge and vision. how ever. the Maha Sihanada Sutta. At the other extrem e stands. and proceeds to list a . What the Buddha thought. in the sense of his underlying ideas. but that he has worked out that doctrine by his own powers of reasoning and has had no insight beyond the human norm. the power to see how all beings are reborn according to their karma. The Buddha says no: what he has is the threefold knowledge.THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 163 this of course is why the content of this book is so different from the treatment of the Buddha to be found in most introductions to Buddhism.]<i At the beginning of this text the Buddha hears that som eone is spreading the word that he teaches a doctrine for the extinction of suffering. but could have explained so much more! WAS THE BUDDHA OMNISCIENT? In the Tevijja-vacchagotta Sutta the Buddha is asked whether at all times. I have discussed the B uddha’s attitude to philosophy. because all that concerned him was w hether he knew what was relevant to attaining nirvana. all arahants. in other words. I have also concluded that the evidence that he had evolved such a structure of thought and that it underpinned his pragmatic advice is no less compelling. i. [A]re we misrepresenting him if we attribute to him an impressive edifice of argum ent?’ After some more work and some more thought (and how I wish it could have been even more!) I no longer feel uncertain. I opened my discussion by writing: ‘One thing about which I feel rather uncertain is how interested the B uddha him self was in presenting a philosophically coherent doctrine. From the Buddhist perspective the interesting quesdon is therefore w hether and to what extent the B uddha regarded him self as superior to o th er enlightened beings — taking for granted the distinction that he had had to find the way for himself. .. He claimed.164 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT whole string of his extraordinary powers. I hope to write on this elsewhere and to show that this text cannot reflect the Buddha’s own words. all enlightened people. But these abilities were an inherent part of becoming enlightened. to guide his audience’s actions. at the beginning of Chapter 2 of How Buddhism Began. is overwhelming. we cannot know whether he thought he could know anything he wanted to. Just as we probably cannot know whether he really believed in such beings as gods and other spirits. but must reflect disagreem ent among his followers about whether he could be regarded as a real human being.. to theorizing. . which make one think of much later Buddhology. whereas his disciples had had the easier task of following his guidance. had them too. I do not think the Buddha was interested in presenting a philosophically coherent doctrine: the evidence that his concern was pragmatic. but he would have found it a silly question. we have seen. and so shall not repeat what is there.e. that he could remember all his former births and see the rebirths of all other creatures. In sum: his followers regard the Buddha as omniscient.. and we do not: but what did he think? I suggest that yet again it is best to look at the quesdon pragmatically. But on one important matter I have changed my opinion. On the one hand. On the other hand. Though he was extremely skilful in reducing an opponent in debate to incoherence by asking clever questions. rather like Socrates. including a few rebuttals of opponents’ arguments. the brilliant technique by which he adapted the language of his message to his audience of the moment. The tone is not merely authoritarian. and a few charming passages give us glimpses of some rather eccentric teachers of wisdom. This is one reason why his atdtude to language was so down to earth: for him.) The style of the bulk of Vedic literature is declaratory. you will be all right.’ The sermons are chock-full of analogies. like holding a snake behind the head. His Skill in Means. This remains the style until the early Upanisads. it was just a means of communication. and remains dominant for centuries. and there is hardly a trace of an audience or a context. statements ascribed to gods or to primeval sages are made ex cathedra.’ ‘My words are like a snake: if you grasp them in the wrong way they can harm you. one could hardly do b etter than com pare it with the Mahay ana sutras composed by his followers a few centuries later. similes and metaphors. with appeals to common sense. has been said about this aspect of the Buddha. is a prime example. (And it is hardly less amazing that their distinctive character has survived the adulation that followed their com position. But soon a didactic solemnity returns as the norm. Here styles begin to vary: there are a couple of formal debates. but could not by its nature give exact expression to the truth about reality? Too little. Indeed. perhaps. what else would one expect of a thinker who had concluded that language could give pointers. ‘My teaching is like a raft. and speaks literally ex cathedra. but sometimes even strident. It is hard to exaggerate how amazingly different the suttas are from most early Indian religious texts. with a vast entourage. but if you grasp them correctly. and his favourite style of exposition was by analogy. the great majority of texts do show him putting forward a view of his own. just as a snake may bite you if you hold it by the tail. . to appreciate the Buddha’s personal style in the Pali Canon.THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 165 THE BUDDHA’S STYLE OF EXPOSITION I have referred already to some im portant facets of the Buddha’s pragmatic attitude. for he is enthroned .with all that that implies. In such texts as the Lotus Sutra the Buddha appears in glory. So how would you treat a raft? Then treat my teaching the same. Indeed. he tended to be quite harsh on those who indulged in metaphysical speculation. he justified this by pointing to a baby on the prince’s lap and asking the prince what he would do if the baby put a stick or pebble in its m outh. he said that he would only speak what he knew to be true and beneficial. . the very first sutta in the entire collection of his sermons is the Brahma-jala Sutta. but not beneficial.11 The result of this self-denying ordinance was that the Buddha condem ned all theorizing which had no practical value. and knew the time to say it even if it was disagreeable. every vinaya rule is prefaced by an incident in which a monk or nun does something for which the Buddha finds it necessary to admonish them before laying down the rule to prevent the same thing happening again. (Indeed.) On the other hand.166 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT THE SPIRIT IN W HICH THE BUDDHA WISHED HIS TEACHING TO BE TAKEN Let us look at ways in which the Buddha approached his own teaching activity . has already been presented in Chapter 1. which spends many pages listing the kinds of speculation that people indulge in concerning both the world and the self. and then saying that the Buddha has himself realized their seductive power and made his escape from them. Typically. there the Buddha tells his audience not to take his words on trust but to test their validity on the touchstone of their own experience.The point is. W hether we like it or not. This is so despite the fact that in these long lists of ideological positions there are a couple which do in fact seem to correspond to the Buddha’s own views. There is a well-known Sanskrit proverb that one should not speak unless what one says is both true and pleasant. however.I suppose one could call them meta-teachings. let alone to insist on. Perhaps the most famous and im portant of all. The Buddha changed this principle: questioned by a prince called Abhaya. the Kdldma Sutta. that they are not the kind of thing that he thinks it beneficial to talk about. the prince agreed he would take it out even if doing so hurt the baby. he assures the prince that he will not say anything which is true and agreeable. In the Pali tradition. In my opinion the Buddha objects to the ‘unanswered questions’ on two levels.’ says the Buddha. it is significant that many sermons are devoted to analyses of how we experience the world . w hether it was finite.. What I have explained is the Four Noble Truths. in the text quoted above prince Abhaya has tried to trap the Buddha (allegedly at the suggestion of the Jain lead er M ahavira) by asking him w hether he w ould ever say som ething disagreeable.14 so that they waste valuable time. and the Buddha’s first response is that . as well as o th er irrelevant information about the arrow. Why have I left [your questions] unexplained? Because they are of no benefit and do not lead to nirvana. lust as that man would die before the information could be provided. Malunkyaputta was like a man wounded by a poison arrow who refused to let the surgeon remove it until he knew the surgeon’s caste and many oth er personal details about him ..THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 167 By contrast. The Buddha replies that he had never promised to answer these questions.what we would call cognitive psychology. The latter was a monk who came to the Buddha saying that he felt he would have to give up his robes unless the Buddha could give him answers to the following questions: w hether the world was eternal. Some of the questions are also objectionable because they are couched in misleading terms: they could not be answered yes or no until one had at least explained how one was using the terms involved. because they are beneficial and lead to nirvana. For example. such as ‘world’ and ‘life’ (see also p.’12 One cannot help wondering what the Buddha would have made of the history of Buddhist philosophy. 154 above). it is a feature of the Buddha’s teaching that he often shows that a question is wrongly put. so would die the person who was waiting for the Buddha to explain these matters.. does not exist. The Buddha’s position on these matters is succinctly stated in his famous reply to Malunkyaputta. whether a tathagata exists after death. both exists and does not exist.. because it is based on false premises. or at least does not admit of a simple answer in terms of yes or no. It is not merely that ‘liberation simply does not require an answer to these questions’. whether the soul was the same as the body or different. or neither exists nor does not exist. Indeed. ‘remember what I have left unexplained as unexplained and remember what I have explained as explained . ‘So. It is indeed a fine example of how actions have unintended consequences. the list is hierarchic.168 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT the question cannot be answered unequivocally {ekarnsena) This. He did not answer questions to show his knowledge and intelligence..16 saying again that he cannot answer a question unequivocally. to guide people towards nirvana. In a tantalizingly short text.23 As commonly. The first type (ugghatita-hnu) understands the teaching as soon as it is . He said that some should be answered unequivocally. being taken to refer to their analysing things into their constituents . and once that purpose has been achieved there is no point at all in clinging to his ‘particular verbal formulations’. the best type being listed first. turns out to be because he would do so if it were both true and beneficial. he was a practical teacher full of compassion and wisdom.that the Buddha shows a lively awareness of the dangers of literalism. we have seen. Altogether.19 The Buddha was not a computing machine giving answers to whatever questions were put to him by anyone .. of course. but to help the questioner on the way to realisation. the view th at the self lasts for ever. As Bhikkhu Bodhi points out.'8 Such cases have also contributed to the tradition that the Buddha takes ‘the middle way’.20 The famous simile in which the Buddha compares his teaching to a raft is imbued with the same spirit. O n another occasion.the reductionist programme of the abhidhamma. and annihilationism. He is simply stating that his teachings have a particular purpose. that both are wrong because the question has been based on the false premise that the soul exists in the first place. But its original m eaning here is that ‘the B uddha distinguishes the different implications of a question’. but it is used in the Buddhist tradition. and some be put aside. in later doxology this term designated the Theravadins. some by analysing the question. some by asking a counter-question. He is said to have taught ‘the middle way’ betw een eternalism . Here I find the term ‘middle way* misleading.and no doubt with his experience as a teacher! . The ‘middle way’ here is.22 he classifies people who hear his teachings into four types. the view that it comes to an end. The term he uses is vibhajja-vado.21 It is also consistent with his view of language .17 he says that he argues after making distinctions. the Buddha had a pragmatic attitude to answering questions. g re a t ste p ro rw a ru in r \ t * i y i / “• i t * \ 1 /a t c r i i n / \ f v fi v* 11 ? t* t* 1* n** j s i & js* T t t- n fl* c t t f ii ta i n rationality.THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 169 u ttered . In an increasingly impersonal world. in which one had to do business with strangers. ETHICAL PRAGMATISM There is a strongly pragmatic flavour to the Buddha’s ethics. was giving way to a more transient and varied experience of life. the third (neyya) is ‘educable’: he understands it when he has worked at it. perhaps helped to create that prima facie assumption that the trader was not wholly untrustworthy which is a prerequisite for flourishing trade. One could hardly ask for a clearer condemnation of literalism. The very fact that his karma doctrine propounded universal values and p rin c ip le s q iq n o t u icrciy r e p r e s e n t a. This universal moral law. of face-to-face relations conducted largely with lifelong acquaintances.26 The Buddha certainly did not take a purely instrumental view of ethics: he found many reasons for being good. . though he hears m uch. ‘putting the words first’. remembers much and recites much. the second (vipacita-nnu)'H understands on m ature reflection.27 But in preaching to laymen he sometimes made it clear that honesty is the best policy. replacing the certainty of censure by the community. It may also have helped to create confidence in the honesty of bureaucrats and officials. it may have helped both parties to a transaction to feel that the trader subscribed to a straightforward ethic of right and wrong and believed that a law of the universe would see to it that he was punished for cheating even if he evaded hum an detection. thought about it and cultivated wise friends. preaches m uch. he is defined as one who. Buddhism certainly stands at the point when the old world of village life. meditation and the monastic rules. it was also of practical value. does not come within this life to understand the teaching. The fourth is called pada-parama. of elevating form above content^’ Let me now consider the Buddha’s pragmatism in relation to ethics. O f course. The good man enjoyed the five corresponding advantages. he had a bad rebirth. Diligence can win you longevity.. he acquired a bad reputation. appamada. Perhaps the pragmatism of the Buddha’s ethics told against its development into an interesting topic of discussion. That one person’s good might conflict with another person’s good on the philosophical level seems never to be envisaged. Yes. The word here rendered as ‘diligence’. when preaching to his lay disciples at Pataligama. in other words. The Buddha does not often propound absolute moral values without reference to context . but in the standard dilemma whether a m other should tell the truth when . Thirdly. beauty. could also be translated ‘attentiveness’.e . such issues frequently arise on the practical level in the Vinaya.Firstly. but the Buddha is always ready with an answer. heaven. Secondly. in psychological term s it is that awareness which was the m ost distinctive con tribution of Buddhism to India’s (or the world’s) soteriological practice.though Chapter 6 above deals with a major exception.^ in economic life it is manifested as thrift. and I know of no case in the Canon of an unresolved ethical dilemma. because of his carelessness the immoral man lost money. Very rarely does the Buddha seem to envisage that a conflict of values could create a real problem. he told them that there were five disadvantages to immorality. but (as pointed out in Chapter 1) it literally means skilful.29 In life in general it is what we have come to call ‘mindfulness’. Fourthly. [King Pasenadi] asked the Buddha one day w hether there was one thing which could accomplish the ends of both this world and the next. Finally. against the development of an ethical theory. whenever he went into company he felt embarrassed and ill at ease. health. from wealth in this life to a good rebirth in the next. The word kusala is the com m onest term for something morally good. The king asks the Buddha to stop ordaining soldiers -i. birth in a good family and pleasures of the senses.2* Immorality is frequently associated with carelessness (ipamada). deserters . for example. and intelligence is a key virtue. Doing good is thus a m atter of practical intelligence. he died in a state of confusion. The m odern salutation ‘Take care’ would have met with the Buddha’s approval. said the Buddha: diligence. is a very important value.and the Buddha complies and forbids the practice. Truth.170 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT For example. . this had been systematized into two sections. Let me deal with meditation first. MEDITATION PRAXIS So far this book has said next to nothing about either meditation or the Vinaya. they thus look like the culmination of that path. but later a minority tradition appears to have argued that for some people salvific insight might be achieved without that kind of meditation.THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 171 her son is hiding from murderous enemy soldiers and they come and ask her where he is hiding. before the canonical collection of texts was closed. ‘Calm ing’ is supposed to discipline the em otions.M ‘The Text on the Fruits of Renunciation’. when my focus is on his pragmatism. The latter two are the seventh and eighth components of the Noble Eightfold Path which tradition considers the B uddha to have enunciated in his First Sermon. which means ‘development’.31 The most general word for meditation is bhavana. shows the renunciate first training himself in awareness at every m om ent before it has him sit down to practise what we would regard as meditation proper. in others calm ing (samatha) and insight (vipassana). ‘calming’ is in the last resort a training for ‘insight’. this is a training of the mind. since it is about the Buddha’s ideas. in the Canon it seems to be considered indispensable. In this doctrinal system. the full description of how one reaches Enlightenm ent found in the Samahnaphala Sutta. it becomes relevant to make some mention of his praxis. However. in some contexts called concentration and understanding. whatever later tradition may say about it. one cannot imagine the Buddha saying that she must tell them the truth: he would say he is a vibhajja-vado. Similarly. and this is natural.32 The pair ‘calming’ and ‘insight’ is a formulation which to some ex ten t took over from a n o th e r pair: ‘aw areness’ (sati) and concentration (samadhi). At a very early stage. ‘insight’ to sharpen the understanding until one sees the world as the Buddha saw it. 172 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT We must recall the cultural context of early Buddhism. but they are also encouraged to apply to their own bodies what can be observed on such a visit. therefore. girls in those of their mothers. What did education consist of? Most boys were trained to follow in their fathers’ footsteps. Educational institutions in any m odem sense did not exist. even if we do find a disproportionate num ber of brahmins among his disciples. But what the B uddha was prescribing as m ental training must initially have been what we nowadays take for granted in an educated person. awareness and concentration have to be cultivated to a very high pitch. And the Buddha aimed his message at people of all classes and both genders. and the use of the imagination are pragmatically necessary in order to make us better at thinking in general. A few brahmins learnt sacred texts by heart. . I am not denying that in order to achieve Enlightenm ent. with the professional monks who systematized the Buddha’s teachings. The training in concentration. all described in unattractive terms. As Rahula points out. This overinterpretation began. the m onk is encouraged to visualize his body as composed of thirty-two listed components. but these were quite exceptional in society at large. monks are encouraged to visit actual charnel grounds.34 and indeed this is crucial. In the Buddha’s social environment there were of course skilled craftsmen. to imagine how their own corpses will rot away. For exam ple. no doubt. We tend to forget that schooling does not just teach us specific facts or skills. Use of the imagination is prescribed in various m ed itatio n exercises. so no reading. I suggest. But even such people were a small minority in the population. awareness. a basis for moral and intellectual understanding. bhavand extends to the use of reason. and a tiny num ber of those even learnt to discuss their contents. that we today tend to over-interpret what was meant at one level by awareness and concentration. it teaches us while we are still children to be sensitive to people and things around us and to be able to concentrate on a task or a problem. trained to concentrate on their work. There was no writing. Another mental faculty which the Buddha encouraged people to cultivate was the imagination. since the Buddha claims that if we use our reason properly we shall come to the same conclusions as he did. and it is notable how they appear in the Samanhaphala Sutta in similes for the meditator as he acquires control over his mind. For the somewhat similar exercise of observing the disintegration of a corpse. THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 173 THE VINAYA: A PRAGMATIC LEGAL SYSTEM The Vinaya is historically inexplicable unless it was started by the Buddha. and I have shown in Chapter 7 that it is fundamental to my own idea of how progress can be achieved. it amounts to the same as trial and error.™ This is what Karl Popper called ‘conjecture and refutation’ dem onstrated in practice. and we may well think it improbable that they were laid down by the Buddha himself . indeed. is framed to meet a particular situation that has arisen. . Whenever the Buddha is represented as disapproving of something. the rules that are then encoded as the patimokkha for monks and nuns. because the rule did not yet exist to be broken. is not guilty. This does not affect my case. as the tradition claims. increase in the num ber of believers and the good of non-believers. who had the authority and intelligence to lay down the rules which constituted its basic framework. often as unintended consequences of previous rulings. the person who occasioned the creation of the rule. He then pronounces a rule. In fact. today constitute one of the world’s oldest and longest-lasting institutions. Indeed. that the whole text goes back to the First Council. and always for the same reasons. I view the text of the Vinaya just as I explained in Chapter 7 that I view the text of the suttas: while it cannot be true. that the Saiigha. who live by those rules. I cannot .so successfully. he says that it is not conducive to increasing the num ber of believers. The pragmatism of the Buddha’s character and programme are on display throughout the text. I wonder if it is not the oldest such system in the world. It only shows that later generations scrupulously followed the pattern the Buddha had established of laying down rules only when they had been shown by events to be necessary.most likely they were created after his time. and the first offender. It is true that in the case of many of the minor rules the account of how they came to be prom ulgated is both stereotyped and implausible. Nor is this empty rhetoric: the occasions for promulgating rules frequently arise from lay dissatisfaction. Every single one of the rules governing individual conduct. the moral purity of its members. the scriptures represent the process of forming the Vinaya as a continuous process of meeting exigencies. of solving problems as they arise. the vinaya is remarkable as a legal system which is not based on a priori principles but gradually built up through case law. for which he gives a stock list of ten reasons/*3 They can be summarized as the protection and convenience of the Sarigha. But I am not at all sure that the origins of the Sutta-vibhanga and of the Khandhaka need to be contrasted. As mentioned in Chapter 7. the Sutta-vibhanga. which gives the rules governing the Sarigha as an institution. I must deal with an initial difficulty. The Vinaya situation is different. the Buddha’s procedure in forming the rules by trial and error is just as much in evidence in the Khandhaka as it is in the Sutta-vibhanga. The other main part of the Vinaya. many passages are found in both texts. Moreover. T h ere are. and I refer those interested in such detail to my article in the Festschrift for Ernst Steinkellner. it could be that the Sutta-vibhanga as we now have it was given its shape at the Second Council. how ever. this makes me think that the Khandhaka was probably composed at the Second Council. As explained. There are five versions of the Vinaya extant in Chinese and one of them (the Mulasarvastivadin) is also extant in Sanskrit and Tibetan (but is incomplete in Chinese). I do not know Chinese. but I have found a practical way forward. which is indeed strictly speaking a commentary on the rules: they are em bedded in it. Before 1 illustrate the B udd ha’s p rocedure with a lengthy example from the first book of the Khandhaka. on the other hand. One cannot assume that the Pali version is throughout older or more authentic than the rest This is a major reason why there is so little modern scholarship on the Vinaya: to do a thorough job. som e differences between the Pali and the Dharmaguptaka versions of the passages I am about to discuss.38 . I think we can take my remarks as valid for the w hole Vinaya tra d itio n . is somewhat different. the Khandhaka. and since Mr Park assured me that everything I say about that applies equally to the Dharmaguptaka version. in that the rules are em bedded in a shaped work which begins with the Buddha’s Enlightenment and ends at the Second Council. one needs to be able to use and compare the texts in all three languages. My doctoral student Jungnok Park had the great kindness to check for me the relev an t passages in th e C hinese tex t of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya*' All that matters for my present purposes is the process of making and changing the rules. my view of the Pali Sutta Pitaka means that throughout the rest of this book I have been able to use it as my source for the Buddha’s ideas. This applies particularly to the rules for individuals. On the one hand.174 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT conceive how it could have arisen if the kernel did not become established in much that way. however. This will not make people who do not trust in us have such trust. apparently he did not know that the boys were there. then used their cells as toilets. They had heard that Buddhist monks lived in comfort: they ate well and slept under cover. with contact with creepy-crawlies. There was a boy called Upali. Upali heard his parents discussing this and went and told his friends. he rebuked them. The rule also says that the ordination is invalid. O ne who does so is to be penalised according to the rule. saying: A person under the age of twenty cannot put up with heat and cold. with harsh and unwelcoming speech.’ The rule referred to is in the Sutta~vibhanga:u It lays down that the monk who has conducted this ordination is guilty of a paattiya offence. with wind and sun. They. The Buddha heard the clam our and asked Ananda what was going on. But a person aged twenty can.39 His parents were worried what would happen to him after their deaths.™ He then laid down the rule: ‘O ne may not knowingly ordain a person aged under twenty. But in the night towards dawn they got up and cried.THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 175 My exam ple describes how the institution of having novices (sdmanera) in the Saiigha became established. hunger and thirst. nor strengthen the trust of those who do. Though the text has them asking only for the lower ordination (pabbajja). then they would get whatever there was available. demanding food and drink. a point not referred to. though perhaps . and would get the rest on their alms round. they received both th a t and the full o rd in atio n (upasampadd) . He cannot bear the whole range of physical discomfort and pain. whereupon they all decided to go for ordination with the Buddhists. so the boys went and took ordination. though in this case the rule adds that the monks (presumably all those who participated in the ordination) are to be reprim anded. the leader of a group (a gang?) of seventeen boys. The monks asked them to be patient until dawn. up to the lethal. The parents all gave their consent. W hen he had ascertained that monks had knowingly ordained people under the age of twenty. with insects’ bites and stings. So far as we know. this means only that he has to confess to it before the patimokkha ceremony. Had we no other version of the text we would be left to guess: were these very small children. or was it a kind of ‘dirty protest’? The answer is. We must understand that novices were the responsibility of the monk who admitted them to the O rder and presumably also lodged with him. The Buddha asked whether they were capable of making crows fly away. (Though H orner calls this ‘sodomy’. Using the cells as toilets sounds extraordinary. however. this one about admission (pabbajja). though the text does not say so. The next section (1. When they went begging and the father was given something.presum ably.50) is that a whole family were wiped out by a disease. in the Khandhaka. Now (section 1. On hearing that they were. but (unlike the Pali) it mentions bedwetting as a problem a little later in this set of rules. . the little boy would ask to share it. he decreed that a boy aged under fifteen who could shoo crows away could be admitted to the Order. The Buddha goes to K apilavatthu . Two nam ed Sakyan boys who were novices under the same monk had sex with each other. Thereupon the Buddha ruled that no one under fifteen was to be adm itted to the Order. and put the case to the Buddha.52) is very brief.176 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT implied. in this case leaving two boys.51) comes a modification to the previous rule. The two of them joined the Saiigha (pabbajitva). The next episode (section 1.53) which concerns a different topic. so Ananda wondered how to save them. Note that the previous rule is about full ordination. The Dharmaguptaka version lacks this detail. but now the monks rejected them and they cried. They were under fifteen. This is the rule still in use today. masturbation is surely more likely. People grumbled because they suspected that the little boy was the child of a nun. that again the text has become corrupt.) This caused the Buddha to forbid a single monk to take on two novices. when they saw monks on their alms rounds. approached them for food. These. The next section (1. leaving only a father and his small son. Even so. the story and the rule do not seem to me to match very well. as they had previously been allowed to do.54) tells the famous story of how the B uddha’s son Rahula entered the O rder.41 There is then a long section (1. word for word. A family who used to look after Ananda died of the same kind of epidemic (perhaps the same one?). in Sri Lanka it is interpreted to mean about seven or eight years old. in the two texts.42 The introductory story about Upali and his friends is identical. Popper explained that from his basic stance it follows that the affairs of state (or indeed of any other organization) . he asks the Buddha’s advice. comes to see him and asks him for a favour. Putting his robe over one shoulder. and then when Nanda. In doing so he in fact corrects himself. and be told to say three times. saying that a com petent monk may take as many novices as he is capable of educating. I go to the Dhamma for refuge. He asks that in future no boy be admitted to the O rder without the permission of his parents. Suddhodana. a family who support him ask him to accept one of their boys as a novice (1. the Buddha tells Sariputta to admit him to the Order. the Buddha’s cousin. When he does so. Sariputta now has Rahula as his novice. The Buddha grants his request.55).’ What follows is fascinating. W hether or not the Vinaya is here historically accurate.tells him to go and ask his father for his inheritance. the postulant is to worship the feet of the monks present. Sariputta thereupon asks how he is to do that. They are to be shaved and clothed in yellow robes. ‘I go to the Buddha for refuge.THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 177 returning for the first time since his Enlightenment. and remarked how this anticipates Karl Popper’s epistemology of conjecture and refutation. Rahula’s mother . In writing about politics and society. THE PRACTICAL COROLLARY OF CONJECTURE AND REFUTATION We have noticed how the creation of the Vinaya corpus of rules is a process of trial and error. He vividly describes the pain he suffered when the Buddha left home as a renunciate. The Buddha then explains that novices are to be admitted by giving them the Three Refuges. should never again be inflicted on any parent. squat with his hands together in the gesture of reverence. However.the text gives her no other name . Aware that this has been forbidden. The Buddha in effect rescinds his previous ruling. and what he has just repeated with his own son. The similarity is in fact even closer than I have so far explained. now Rahula’s leaving is the worst of all. I go to the Sarigha for refuge. The Buddha’s father. for he decides that what he did to his own father. did. it does give us a picture of the B uddha’s character which is not only attractive but matches fundamental features of his teaching. By this he meant observing what went wrong and trying to fix it. the Buddha proceeds in the overwhelming majority of texts by setting out the negatives. tend simply to appear as corollaries.178 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT are best conducted not by making grandiose plans or blueprints. at the outset. why fix it? Popper’s philosophy leads. . to a constant emphasis on the asymmetry between right and wrong. why would you need any religious teaching at all? As the wise saying has it: If it ain’t broke. as in so many others. It is by making them clear that he convincingly deduces the positives. indeed. This convention is so set that it does not need to be made explicit. The positives. this means that aiming to make everyone happy is an absurdly impractical goal. and gives his own opinion last. I wish to suggest that this draws our attention to something fundamental and distinctive about how the Buddha’s mind worked. But if your life is perfectly satisfying. what we must do is try to eliminate the things that certainly cause unhappiness. where did the Buddha start? That his starting point was suffering has often drawn the criticism that his teaching is negative or pessimistic. but it does sometimes seem rather banal when one reads the text. In every Indian prescriptive or philosophical text (sdstra). Indeed. We have seen that that was indeed exactly the m ethod applied by the B uddha to running the Sahgha. In the sociopolitical sphere. but by what he called ‘piecemeal engineering’. the B uddha’s approach is not to start from grand theories and ideals but to see what is going wrong and try to put it right. one could say. I suspect that it derives from the Buddhist suttas. the author sets out the view of his opponent. what we can and should do is try to eliminate error and learn from our mistakes. In just the same way. the Buddha had a vast effect on Indian thought. It seems to me that in this respect. Like P o p p e r’s social philosophy. Just as we cannot expect simply to gain the whole of truth. something which shaped both his style and m uch of the co n ten t of his teachings. To conclude this chapter. In this case I am referring to the presentation. the view he wishes to refute. This may be satisfactory as oratory. literally ‘non-carelessness’.4r’ the simile is vivid and memorable. the abhidhamma actually defined love in negative terms. I think I have already shown in Chapter 6 that the Buddha’s tendency to present ethics in negative terms did have an unfortunate effect on how his message was interpreted. but it is formed on the basis of the list of ten bad (akusala) deeds. Much the same goes for countless sermons with an ethical content. etc. Nor does a negative presentation always have to be colourless. it is not difficult to see that diligence and scrupulous attention are positive virtues. I have m entioned above the im portance of the virtue of appamada. Who could guess from that that the Buddha also said46 that true friendship may even involve sacrificing one’s life? . O f course. This is too bloodless. many great Buddhist exegetes and preachers have not been misled by this. not least by the later B uddhist tradition itself. Nevertheless. The sets of precepts41 are all form ulated as vows of abstention: I undertake not to take life. and have presented negatives in a positive light. so again it consists of abstentions. not mere negatives.THE BUDDHA’S PRAGMATISM AND INTELLECTUAL STYLE 179 NEGATIVE FORMULATIONS CAN MISLEAD T he B ud d ha’s ethics are alm ost entirely expressed through negatives. There is a list of ‘ten good deeds’ (dasa kusala kamma). As I m entioned in the conclusion to that chapter. When the Buddha compares a bad monk to a unskilled cowherd and says that the monk who neglects to nip evil tendencies in the bud is like a cowherd who fails to pick out flies’ eggs. as lack of hatred. suspecting that he was up to no good. the absurd lust of an aged lecher: Jujaka’s very name suggests decrepitude. the future Buddha achieves the highest possible pitch of generosity by giving away his children to an old brahm in called Jujaka.i* f B . What impelled Jujaka to make this monstrous request? Having acquired wealth in old age. Finally.2 In this story. he went in search of him. On his journey to find Vessantara.Chapter 12 THE BUDDHA AS SATIRIST. to save her from exposing herself to such public humiliation. When she went to the village well to draw water.3 He had other vices too. he met his end through avarice and gluttony: he sold . he was cruel: having met Vessantara and made his heartless request. is probably the best-known story in the entire Theravada tradition. Worse. On her return home. he married a young wife.1 the account of the Buddha’s last birth on earth before this final one. tried to stop him . Thus the root cause of his outrageous behaviour was lust. f ) T P T / “V k . he displayed both cowardice and mendacity: in order to get past a forester who.paradigm of generosity. she told him that he must provide servants for her. BRAHMIN TERMS AS SOCIAL METAPHORS 4 1 THE17 REPRESENTATION OF BRAHMINS r ip . T T fc T l A T T JTY^TC * uddhist popular literature regularly presents brahmins in a most unfavourable light. he said he had com e with the message that V essantara’s sentence of banishm ent had been revoked. the other young women taunted her with having such a decrepit old husband. and has been important in other Buddhist traditions too. The Vessantara Jataka. who could be no fun in bed. Having heard that Vessantara was the very. who follows him to his mountain retreat in order to ask for them. he rubbed salt into the wound by beating the children within their father’s sight. the gods and ancestors. and uses wordplay. Indra and the asuras and rakkhasas5 shrieked “Wickedness!” Formerly there were three diseases: desire. for instance. and persuaded the kings to pay them to conduct animal sacrifices. ‘Then. when the knife fell on a cow. died of overeating. lack of food. I therefore suspect that we have lost the poem ’s specific context. They regarded cows as their greatest friends and benefactors. he says that the word for brahm in means one who has expelled (bdhita) those bad states. and an arahat It turns out that the answer is in each case identical and concerns evil states of m ind which keep one in samsdra. and enjoyed long and healthy lives. for his weight in gold.the actual practice of brahminism is harshly criticized. and the mythologizing link between sin and the arrival of disease on earth suggests satire.THE BUDDHA AS SATIRIST 181 the little boy back to his grandfather. ninety-eight arrived. Thus. particularly animal sacrifice.’6 This text has unusual features: so far as I am aware. In some texts. a veda-gu. and then. old age. is different. Through the attack on cattle. The Buddha’s fundamental criticism of brahmins is that they do not live up to their stated ideals. on becoming so rich.4 thirty-two verses long. But in each case the first word. it is the only one in which killing cows is singled out as even wickeder than other killing. this criticism is direct and the main target is the same as it was for the Jains: sacrifice. But then they became envious of the luxury in which kings were living. Brahmin terms remain as metaphors for those ideals. an ariya. Though the depiction of brahm ins in the main body of the Pali Canon is by no means so crude . Thus at the end of one serm on7 the Buddha explains who can rightly be called a renunciate (samana). as in the Agganna Sutta (see below).and one does well to remember that several of the Buddha's chief disciples are supposed to have been of brahmin origin . and then who can rightly be called a brahmin. At first these did not include cows.8 The next three terms are all Pali forms of Sanskrit words which can literally only refer to brahmins: . A remarkable canonical poem. a sottiya. recounts how in days of yore brahmins led exemplary lives of poverty and marital chastity. a nahdtaka. Vessantara’s royal father. but the brahmins got greedier. It remains a powerful indictment. which says what one has done to those evil states. The message of the . a soitiya (S: srotriya) is likewise a Vedic scholar. these seven features overlap. The Khandhaka section of the Pali begins as follows. as in the ‘Four Noble Truths’. vedanta-gu and vusita-brahma-cariyo . he has lived the holy life (vusita-brahmacariyo) and has no arrogance towards anyone in the world. The brahmin asks the Buddha11 what features make a brahm in .play on brahm in terminology.182 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT a nahdtaka (S: snalaka) has recently taken a ritual bath to mark the end of his formal study of the Veda. Vedanta refers to the Upanisads. is also a social status. brahmins apply the term to the top three varna (see below). arahant. he is not snooty (huhunka). his teaching and his followers. Only the final term. of which the first half is the same each time. for I have argued in Chapter 4 that the Buddha borrowed it from the Jains. where he spends another week in a similar manner. the Buddha sits under the Bodhi tree for a week. The Buddha answers that a man can righdy claim to be a brahmin if he has seven features: he has expelled evil characteristics (bdhita-papadhammo). the Buddha frequently applies it to himself. experiencing the bliss of liberation. For the brahmin. He is the Buddha’s first human contact since Enlightenment. On gaining Enlightenment. a veda-gu? has learnt a whole Veda. is not a brahmin term indicating a precise status. Obviously. ‘brahm an conduct’. connected to Aryan. However. he has no moral stains. Then at the end of the week he moves to a banyan tree. and then utters a stanza. but the text characterizes him by a word found only in this passage/0 huhunktXy this seems to be onomatopoeic and to mean something like ‘snooty’. he has reached the end (that is.bahita-papadhammo. Similarly. The word ariya. In the three watches of the night (presumably of each night) he contemplates the Chain of Dependent Origination.a question found elsewhere in the Canon too. it fits in nicely nevertheless. he restrains himself. This brahmin is not named. but the Buddha takes it more generally to refer to the culmination of true knowledge. has likewise been given a different referent by the Buddha (see the Appendix). which is the literal m eaning of brahma-cariya. Then a brahmin happens along. the perfection) of knowledge (vedanta-gu). Three terms in the list . In this repeated verse he refers to himself as a brahmin. and there they dwell made of mind. and three times begs him to preach. in fuller measure. after the lapse of a long. continuing in glory. this world-system passes away. Now there comes a time. The satirical tone is. long period. hard to miss in the Brahmajala Suita. He appears before the Buddha.. and is probably borrowed from there. feeding on joy. And when this happens beings have mostly been reborn in the World of Radiance. The Buddha hesitates about whether to preach. when.14 because I could not improve on it. Only when the Buddha agrees does he return to his heaven.1'2 The Buddhist claim to supersede brahm in teaching could not be more blatant. Brahma. it is not obvious that Brahma’s begging the Buddha to preach presents the god in a satirical light. The Buddha is telling brahmins that they have no rig h t to be p ro u d .) The text continues: . which in the Pali tradition is the first sutta in the Digha Nikdya and thus the first sutta in the enure Sutta Pitaka.THE BUDDHA AS SATIRIST 183 list as a whole is plain.:t I quote the translation of T. reads his mind and takes alarm. W. the first example given is the following. sooner or later. kneels before him on his right knee. only a few paragraphs later in the text. radiating light from themselves. People are too full of desire (dlaya) and will not pay heed. The same message is graphically repeated. Rhys Davids. (This description is also found in the next sutta discussed below. the supreme creator god of brahminism. In the section on those who hold the self and the world to be partly eternal and partly not. and thus they remain for a long long period of time. the Agganha Sutta. but in another way. This sutta purports to set out systematically all views concerning the self and the world which present them as eternal or as coming to an end. brethren. SATIRES OF BRAHMIN SACRED TEXTS If one is quite unaware of the Buddha’s historical context. because he understands what the terms should really refer to. prom ising that some will understand. and I enjoy its Victorian style. however. because all the virtues and accomplishments that they claim he has in full measure . traversing the air.indeed. takes up meditation and succeeds in recollecting his former births . when. 142-4. 326-331. and comes to life in the Palace of Brahma. and appear in the Palace of Brahma as companions to him. the one who was first reborn thinks thus to himself: ‘I am Brahma.. Here is the beginning of the fourth chapter. and Jdtaka no. He is longer-lived. either because his span of years has passed or his merit is exhausted. 405). and thus does he remain for a long long period of time. continuing in glory.up to the point where he was reborn in that world of Brahma. the Great Brahma. falls from the world of radiance. When this happens the Palace of Brahma appears. the Lord of all. behold the beings came.184 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT Now there comes also a time. this world-system begins to re-evolve. the Chief of all. SN I. while he and those like him are not.’ The other beings have seen that Brahma appeared first and they later. brethren. more good-looking and more powerful than they are. the All-seeing. the Ancient of days.’l6 The first book of the Brhad-dranyaka Upanisad contains several creation myths. the Creator. And there also he lives made of mind. and likewise are made of mind. radiating light from himself. other beings fall from the World of Radiance. appointing each to his place. either because their span of years had passed or their merit was exhausted. the Maker. Now there arises in him. And some being or other. brethren. from his dwelling there so long alone. Then one day someone is reborn on earth. but it is empty. “Would that they might come!” And on my mental aspiration.s On this. the Ruler. a dissatisfaction and a longing: ‘O! would that other beings might come to join me in this place!’ And just then. These other beings are of my creation. and that Brahma is eternal. etc. traversing the air. And why is that so? A while ago I thought. sooner or later. He concludes that he was created by Brahma. feeding on joy. in Olivelle’s translation: . the Father of all that are and are to be. and accept his deluded deduction that therefore he must have created them. and three recensions of it have been preserved (M N I. As Rhys Davids remarks in a footnote to his translation: ‘The story was a favourite one. ’ From this. and first produced human beings. and from that the name ‘I’ came into being.’ . In the Maha Tanhd-Sankhaya Sutta.THE BUDDHA AS SATIRIST 185 [1] In the beginning this world was just a single body (dtman) shaped like a man. ‘creation’ came into being. That first being received the name ‘m an’ (purusa). The couple then took other shapes and created every male and female pair that exists. So he split (pat) his body into two. afraid of another. for I created all this.. so one finds no pleasure when one is alone. He then experienced the pleasure of sexual intercourse. ‘Monks.4. after all. ‘Here I am!’. even today when you call someone. He looked around and saw nothing but himself. for what was he going to be afraid of? One is. therefore one becomes afraid when one is alone. [5] It then occurred to him: ‘I alone am the creation. when there is no one but me?’ So his fear left him.m There is even a passage early in the BAU (1. he burns up anyone who may try to get ahead of him.’ and then states whatever other name he may have. after talking about fire. Surely the story from the Brahmajdla Sutta about how Brahma acquired the delusion that he was the Creator is a spoof on this passage. the Buddha says.6). Therefore. Now he was as large as a man and a woman in close embrace. Then he thought to himself: ‘Of what should I be afraid. The first thing he said was. a cosmogonic narrative. because ahead (purva) of all this he burnt up (us) all evils. he first says. ‘It’s I. produced fire . I went on: Patrick Olivelle has convincingly shown that this is how we have to interpret some passages in the early Upanisads in which deictic pronouns are used. [3] He found no pleasure at all. He wanted to have a companion. do you see that this [neuter] has come into being?’ I wrote in Chapter 8 that it was unclear to what the pronoun ‘this1 referred. giving rise to husband (pad) and wife (patni). Anyone who knows this prospers17 in this creation of his.. down to the very ants. using his hands. and suggested that he m ight have pointed at something in front of him. When someone knows this. [2] That first being became afraid. which reads: ‘Then he churned like this and. the Agganna Sutta. as I have amply demonstrated in the previous chapter. is destroyed. described already in the Brahmajdla Sutta as quoted above: mind-made. they are the device by which the Buddha turns what Vedic literature intends as a true cosmogony into an account of why such a thing appears to us to be about the origins of the world. The text purports to give an account of the origin of the world and of society. here implied rather than stated.20 so here I shall only summarize my conclusions. It has been taken seriously as such an aetiological account by the entire Buddhist tradition. Maha Sammata. which has traced all royal lineages from the first king. I have devoted a lengthy article to this. Can we doubt any longer that the Buddha knew this text? In another text. but flying around feeding on joy. is etymologized by means of a really poor . They are quite important for our view of the Buddha and his capacity for hum our and irony. this production of fire immediately follows the last words I have just quoted. the text explained how the Sanskrit words for ‘I’ and for ‘m an’ came into being. those well above where the gods lived. but cast doubt on whether the Buddha believed in such things. presented in this text. that the world goes through periods of what one m ight call contraction and expansion. purusa. Be that as it may. I discussed them in Chapter 5 as part of the Indian religious heritage. meaning in particular of kingship and of the caste system. When it is contracted. just as ghosts are of ours. there is a good deal about the origins of language: right at the start. but is no such thing if properly understood. In the passage quoted above from the BAU.186 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT In fact. his teaching of causation denies that the world can have an origin. The word for ‘m an’. in other words immaterial.'9 the Buddha parodies Vedic creation myths on a far larger scale and with further-reaching consequences. In so doing the tradition ignores the fact that the Buddha strongly deprecates taking any interest in such matters. but the text gets round this by reliance on a theory. but those high heavens serve as the abode of etherial beings. Moreover. everything below the very highest heavens. These beings are instances of the kind of paradoxical creatures who are immaterial and yet have such material characteristics as movement and feeding. to produce the names of the four estates (varna) which in brahmin theory constitute society.THE BUDDHA AS SATIRIST 187 attem pt at punning. such as karma. Perhaps one could even say that his tactic of accepting the opponents’ terms. just as he recognized the conventional nature of the caste system. No one who reads the Brahmanas and early Upanisads can fail to notice how often they explain Sanskrit words and expressions by means of puns . making up a myth about what people had had and then lost. the Pali canonical texts are the closest we can get to his actual words. He recognized the conventional nature of language. Awareness of how im portant the use of language was to the Buddha’s teaching method should convince us of the benefit to be gained by studying his words in Pali. The Agganna Sutta is full of this kind of etymologizing. even so. In this book we have come across several instances of how the Buddha used punning and wordplay to convey his new ideas. did not attach importance to the language in which his message was conveyed. I submit that it is a good joke. We have seen that the Buddha.and thus claim to reveal esoteric truths about the nature of reality. I hope that scholars will continue to try to unearth these. the Buddha purports to explain the origin of simple little words and expressions: in the same style as the BAU explains the origin of the word ‘I’. Although Pali has been shown to be somewhat different from the Buddha’s own probable dialect. . On the other hand. The best joke of this kind is where he analyses the brahmin word for a teacher of the Veda. to mean a non-meditator. some of which would no doubt have elucidated for us pieces of text which are now obscure. adhydyaka in Sanskrit and ajjhdyaka in Pali. All com pounded things are impermanent. How can this be anything but humorous? Indeed. I must emphasize that this is not a trivial or merely incidental point. but of course we must accept that much has surely been lost forever. However. for example. the Buddha explains the origins of an expression which I translate as ‘We’ve had it’ (ahii vala no). The kind of etymologizing that produced purusa he uses. the process of trying to record and remember those words in a variety of dialects down the centuries must inevitably have obscured many pieces of wordplay. by contrast. and then turning them round to mean som ething quite different.often quite poor ones . was simply stretching such an expository method to its limits. makes it clear that he understands the allusion to the Purusa-sukta ( Rg-veda X. As explained in the ‘Background Inform ation’. At the same time the brahmins are reported as saying (para. no less accurately. heirs of Brahma.21) It is also possible that the typical brahm in was fairer than the typical sudra.’ They describe the Saiigha as ‘shaven-headed little ascetics. non-brahmins are impure. I believe there is a reference to it in the Canon. created by Brahma. the vaisyas from his thighs and the sudras from his feet. while its primary meaning is ‘colour’. depends on the ambiguity of the Pali word vanna. (Though I know of no allusion to this in a Sanskrit text earlier than the Mahabharata. 3): •The brahmins are pure. like Sanskrit varna. red. but made people from all castes live together and accept food from anyone. yellow and black respectively. born of Brahma. Two brahm in converts tell the Buddha that other brahmins are roundly abusing them for having left the brahmin estate and gone over to join the ascetics. as of much that follows. Thus the brahmins are said to claim that their vanna is white and the other is black. The author of the subcommentary. menial. We may assume that the brahmins considered those who had joined the Sarigha to have sudra status because the Sahgha kept no caste rules of purity. we can further assume that they were blacker because they rapidly became sunburnt. Brahma. refers to the four estates of society (brahmin. however. He says23 that the brahm in traditio n has it th at the brahm ins were born from Brahma’s mouth. The kinsman in question is the brahm ins’ kinsman. sudra). that the brahmins are born from Brahma’s mouth because they are born from the words of the Veda (veda-vacanato) and that they are B rah m a’s h eirs because they are w orthy o f the V edas and Vedarigas. except that he does say that the feet at the end are Brahma’s feet. The four estates were assigned the symbolic colours of white. the ksatriyas from his chest. 90). vanna. He also reports.24 . born of his mouth. whose status is that of sudras. The full m eaning of this passage. born of the feet of the kinsm an’. The brahmins are Brahma’s own children.188 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT That the Buddha is setting out both to deny the brahmin view of the origin of society and to make fun of it becomes clear at the outset of the Agganna Sutta. like sudra labourers. and by extension it means ‘complexion’ or ‘good looks’. black. The commentary on this passage22 is very terse and does not reveal which allusions the commentator has caught. ksatriya. or at least perceived to be so. vaisya. ’ (T hough th e ‘y o u ’ is literally addressed to the two b rah m in disciples. T his last a rg u m e n t is typical o f th e B u d d h a ’s pragm atism . clans an d fam ilies. b u t w hoever is en lig h ten ed is rightly considered top.THE BUDDHA AS SATIRIST 189 T h e first w ords o f th e B u d d h a’s reply (para.’ T his echoes w ord for w ord the brahm inical form u la q u o ted above. ‘are o f various births. P eople from any o f th e fou r estates may be w icked (para. T h e B uddha th en points o u t th a t it is en lig h ten ed beings w ho enjoy th e highest worldly prestige. becom e B rah m a”. For instance. T h at righteousness is h eld to be the best he shows by referrin g to King Pasenadi (para. w hen h e sets o u t to d etail th e benefits o f b ecom ing an ascetic. T h e B uddha th en consoles his b rah m in disciples with a jo k e: how can b rah m in s say they are born o f B rah m a’s m o u th . 7) refutes w hat the brah m in s have said by rem ark in g th at all fou r estates have good and bad p eop le in them .25 T h e B uddha th e n goes a step fu rth e r (para. he says. As we have seen . a n d th a t they m ay com e from any social background. state th at you are ascetics. nam es. th e B ud d h a is looking beyond them to the w hole Sahgha. th e o th e r Sakyas have to behave deferentially to King Pasenadi. th e very first b e n e fit th a t h e talks o f is th e c h a n g e in circum stance o f a slave w ho always had to wait on his m aster.’ B ut those w ho have firm faith will properly reply. n o t som eone b o rn in to a p articular social group. sons o f th e Sakya. w hen we can all see th at they are b o rn from th e wom bs o f th eir w om enfolk. created by the D ham m a. 9). b u t after b eco m in g an ascetic receives d e fe re n c e a n d m aterial h elp from his form er m aster. h eir o f th e D h am m a. b orn o f th e D ham m a. h e claim s tim e a n d again th a t th e b rah m in s have forg o tten th at the tru e b rah m in is a virtuous person. 5) o r virtuous (para. give b irth and give suck? T h e B uddha does n o t have to spell o u t th at this m eans th a t th e b rah m in s have th e sam e im purities from birth as o th e r h um an beings. 4) are th at in m aking these in su ltin g rem ark s th e b ra h m in s have fo rg o tte n th e ir own tra d itio n s. becom e p reg n an t. becom e D ham m a. ‘You’. “‘I am the Blessed O n e ’s own child. a n d have left hom e for hom elessness.” For th e B ud d h a is d esignated “D ham m a-bodied. B rahm a-bodied. 6). 8). substituting for B rahm a first the B u d d h a an d th en th e D ham m a. W hen talking o f vice an d virtue the B uddha uses th e w ords for black an d w hite w hich were used to describe th e u o ^ a j u s t above. who have periods. H e th en (para. his T eaching. b u t the king shows to the B uddha the sam e d eferen ce th at th e o th e r Sakyas show to him .) ‘If you are asked w ho you are. T h e B uddha is . b o rn o f his m o uth. a. In te re ste d read ers sh o u ld read th e text. A t first h e so u n ds as if he is eq u atin g h im self w ith B rahm a. in th e fo rm u la . th e c re a to r god. T h e B ud d h a cross-exam ines these im m obile self-torturers. an d establishes th at they know n e ith e r w hat b ad k arm a they have accu m u lated n o r how m uch rem ains to be expu n g ed.29 the B u d d h a recounts how o ne evening h e w ent for a walk on a m o u n tain in R ajagaha an d cam e on a lot o f Jain s standing perfectly im m obile. 10) th e B u d d h a em barks o n the aetiological .co uld b e m a sc u lin e (as su g g e ste d by th e e q u a tio n in th e p re v io u s sentence: the Satigha are th e B u d d h a ’s sons ju st as the b rah m in s are B rah m a’s) o r n e u te r27 (eq u atin g th e B u d d h a ’s D ham m a with brahman in th e sense o f V e d a /u ltim a te tru th ).190 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT m aking a serious point. brahma. th e tru e Veda.28 and my com m ents p ublished in th e article. ‘H e w h o se e s m e sees th e D h a m m a a n d h e w ho sees th e D h am m a sees m e . SATIRIZING THE JAINS By no m eans is it only b rah m in s th a t th e B uddha m akes fun of. for his followers. b u t in language w hich to his followers m ust have so u n ded at least playful. b u t after a few words he m akes clear th at the real eq uation he is m aking is n o t o f persons b u t o f teachings: his teaching is. he m akes the sam e p o in t elsew here. In the final sentence o f th e p arag rap h he h am m ers h o m e th e p o in t th a t w hat counts a b o u t him is n o t his individuality b u t his teaching. H e can also be playful w hen criticizin g Jain s. th e lan g u ag e leaves o p e n a fu rth e r im p lic a tio n . h e c a n d e d u c e th a t th o se w ho have .’w In th e fo rm u la tio n h e gives h e re .tinc Vi a # -/>•% *• n n / i iriiroc onn a rnycn occupies m Aria ore tr111^10 text <11101 ^lVvS if* it itc its nnd>i 1ic« In this m yth th e state o f th e w orld in g en eral an d o f society in particular is ascribed to m oral failings.l_ w nicn /“ liar'll uni iat? m i'iin V* 14. particularly greed an d laziness. At this p o in t (para. W hile b ra h m in s are criticized above all for th eir hypocrisy an d pretensions.30 T h e B u d d h a ’s au d ien ce w ould have u n d ersto o d that this practice w ent with rigorous fasting an d o th e r ex trem e austerities. So the B uddha tells them th at from th e way th at they a re su ffe rin g rig h t now . trying to ex pu n g e the bad karm a they h a d accu m u lated in fo rm e r lives. a n d to b rah m in s scandalous. th e Ja in s are criticized fo r th e ir p ointless austerities. In a sutta e n title d ‘T h e S h o rt Sutta on the Blazing Mass o f Suffering’. b ecause in th e co m p o u n d s Brahma-kayo a n d Brahma-bhuto. at least in tran slatio n . w hich cover a m u ltitu d e o f m o ra l failings. and th e noble ( ariya). and en ters a . sleep o n th e g ro u n d an d subsist on only a tiny q uan tity o f milk. B ut on th e w hole they are n o t as b ad as brahm ins. becom e Jain ascetics. the brahm ic {brahma) . ascetics are n o t p erm itted to use such beds. let alone satirical.USE OF ‘BRAHMIN’ AS A METAPHOR N ot all the B u d d h a’s m any referen ces to b rah m in s are negative. T h e w ord sayana m eans e ith e r ‘b e d ’ o r simply the p ostu re ‘lying dow n’.o f w hich h e lists m any varieties. B rahm ins and th eir claim to hierarchical superiority w ere such a p ro m in e n t feature of th e B u d d h a ’s e n v iro n m e n t th a t it was n a tu ra l to use th e term ‘b ra h m in ’ m e ta p h o ric a lly . so ‘b e d ’ in the following translation stands for w hat in Pali is a pun . puts som e grass and leaves together. and a b rah m in rem arks to him th a t he looks so radiantly fit a n d well th at he m ust surely have easy access to very large an d com fortable beds . N or are they necessarily literal. Let us take as an exam ple a suttee** in w hich th e B uddha visits a b rah m in village. B ut they to rtu re only them selves. T h e B uddha says no. n o t th a t it is m ade o f elep h an t m eat. to such an e x te n t th at w hen a h am b u rg er is advertised as ‘j u m b o ’ we instantly know th at this is m erely a claim th a t it is very large. In o u r so ciety e le p h a n ts fig u re in everyone’s im aginative re p e rto ire . they dress in skins. In p rep aratio n for th e sacrifice th e sponsor** his ch ief wife an d his b rah m in chaplain have to u n d e rg o austerities. T h en m any. W ho to rtu re b oth them selves an d others? A king o r a rich brahm in. m any anim als are slaughtered. with his back straight. sits dow n on th em crosslegged. Such people in stitu te large-scale anim al sacrifices. A fter going on his alms ro u n d he goes in to a w ooded area. grass is cut.34 EXTENDED .EVEN PLAYFUL .31 Jains are thus utterly m isguided. an d in d eed the n in th o f the ten p recep ts prohibits the use o f w hat are literally called ‘high and big b e d s’ (ucca-sayana-maha-sayana). T h e B uddha th en says th at he has access at will to th ree kinds o f high an d big beds: th e divine ( dibba). T h e p ic tu re o f self­ to rtu re rs is th e usual o n e d escrib in g th e Jains.excuse the coinage .THE BUDDHA AS SATIRIST 191 p erfo rm ed acts o f blo od shed an d cruelty. if reb o rn as h um an beings. trees are felled. In th e Kandaraka Sutta12 th e B u d d h a talks a b o u t th o se w ho to rtu re them selv es a n d o th e rs. an d a huge w orkforce suffers terrible conditions. recalling th em to th eir an cien t ideals. em p athetic joy a n d equanim ity. b u t used them playfully. ariya is a n o th e r social m etap ho r. sits o r lies. so th a t th ey can n e v e r re c u r. his posture is divine. an d it indicates th a t the B uddha h ad pow erful p ro tecto rs a n d supporters. T h en . his p ostu re is brahm ic. In th e th ird case. T h e B u d d h a’s ap p ro p riatio n o f b rah m in term s m ust in th e ir eyes have com e very close to w hat C hristians call sacrilege. he th en practises all fou r jhdnas. w h eth er he walks. In th e seco n d case. w hen lying. h a tre d a n d confusion. to say the least. T h en his posture. th e B u d d h a simply realizes th at he has totally d e stro y e d . is noble. so. H e did it u n d e r the guise o f telling th em th at he was a reform er. w h eth er he walks. If we try to u np ick this literally. stands. B ut the p o in t o f th e sutta is so sim ple and obvious th at I n eed say no m o re ab o u t its message. p a ssio n . m any o f them m ust have fou n d it irritating. he has o b tain ed at will a divine ‘high a n d big b e d ’. like noble. T his m uch is com m on to all th ree cases. stands. In the first case. h e has o btained at will a brahm ic ‘high an d big b e d 1 —p erh ap s we could say. brahm ic tru m ps divine an d is in tu rn tru m p ed by noble. we shall get into a mess. T h en . ariya We have seen above that. w hen lying. w hatever it is. . a bed w orthy o f B rahm a. a fte r estab lish in g aw areness th e B u d d h a p ractises th e fo u r states o f ‘staying w ith B ra h m a ’ (th e to p ic o f C hap ter 6): kindness. sits o r lies. com passion.192 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT state o f full aw areness. W hat I aim to dem on strate by quoting it is simply how th e B uddha did n o t m erely use social m etap ho rs. N evertheless. so. going w ord by word. In this sutta. bc. 1st cent. I added: [U ]n le ss we su b sc rib e to th e view th a t th e B u d d h a was om niscient and could th erefo re resp o n d to texts w hich w ould be c o m p o sed in th e fu tu re . th e works Prof. presum ably. can fail to be in te rp re te d as show ing th a t th ey alread y ex isted w hen h e p re a c h e d .> with the fu rth e r possibility th at parts o f them d a te a few c e n tu rie s e a rlie r. o f w hich I am a m em ber. this still puts th em at no m ore (for sure) than pre-4th century. th e B u d d h a (qua literary ch aracter) may refer to U panisadic passages in som e suttas. T h e re is n o so lid (i. T his elicited th e follow ing response from a professor o f B uddhism at a fam ous A m erican university:1 W hoa.e. b u t th a t ‘the B u d d h a ’ (o r v a ria n ts th e r e o f ) a p p e a r in lite ra ry w orks com posed in Ind ia up th ro u g h (at least) the 15th century a jd . with th e possibility th a t they w ere redacted ca. mostly in the BAU. Ju st as I was co m pleting them . I d o n o t u n d e rs ta n d how his references to im p o rta n t passages in the B A U etc. th e question w h eth er anything h ad recently b een p ublished w hich show ed w h eth er th e B u d d h a o r th e Brhad-amnyaka Upanisad cam e first.Chapter 13 IS THIS BOOK TO BE BELIEVED? T his boo k began as a set o f lectures. a foreign colleague posted on Indology Net. n o n ­ confessional) evidence th a t I know o f to link th em to G otam a . G om brich is referrin g to are from th e Pali. As. slow dow n! Yes. So I posted to th e netw ork a list o f seven o f my publications co n cern in g passages in the Pali C anon in w hich th e B ud d h a can be show n to refer to surviving passages in th e Upanisads. b u t I think it helps to m ake sense o f the m aterial if o n e begins with his theory o f karm a. to claim (com m e ‘les palisans’2) th at th e U panisads in question (or th e relevant passages th erein ) m ust d ate fro m a p e rio d p rio r to w hen G otam a ‘p re a c h e d ’ m erely because they are allu d ed to in Pali sources (which do ten d to be c e n te re d a ro u n d th e literary c o n ceit o f G otam a ‘p reach in g ’) is ra th e r to o u tru n th e evidence at o u r disposal. b u t exists in the texts. o f course. b u t th eir th eo ry was p hilosophically cru d e.. alas.. If I h a d a m o re th o ro u g h know ledge o f the Pali C anon than. G om brich is well-aware o f . I w ould have m ade a b etter jo b o f it.an d o n e I know Prof.194 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT (th e m an w ho started the ball rolling in w hatever unknow n way he d id ). b u t surely I have d o n e en ou g h to show th at this co h eren ce is n o t im posed by my fantasy.o ne may p re s u m e fro m w h at h e w rites . KARMA IN HISTORICAL CONTEXT O n e n eed n o t start ex po u n din g th e B u d d h a’s ideas w here I have. w hich at least in num erical term s m ust be the greatest m ovem ent in the e n u re history o f h um an ideas.. acco rd in g to th e fash io n ab le view re p re se n te d by my critic.. Yet. This is. I am rem in d ed o f th e b lin d fo ld e d m o n k ey s w h o se ra n d o m e ffo rts so m eh o w p ro d u ce a typescript o f th e com plete works o f Shakespeare. ra th e r like an avalanche. O n e o f th e B u d d h a ’s g reatest . T he Jains had probably an ticipated th e B uddha in this respect. this substitutes ethics for ritual. is a ball w hich was set rolling by som eone whose ideas are n o t know n and . B uddhism . H ave we b eco m e so unskeptical. n o t a novel objection o n my p art . th at we can speak so blithely ab ou t w hat the B ud d h a (as opposed to th e various literary representation s o f ‘th e B u d d h a’) knew and d id n ’t know with such specificity? . So th e in te lle c tu a l edifice w hich I have d e sc rib e d cam e to g e th e r by a process o f accum ulation. £* I have tried in th e pages above to show th a t th e B u d d h a ’s m ain id eas a re p o w e rfu l a n d c o h e r e n t. So. th en .so I was surprised to see it so glossed over in his p ost .can n e v e r b e know n. I can claim . O n th e o n e h an d . and h ere the B uddha is as it w ere facing th e B rahm ins. as far as I can tell. T h e B u d d h a ’s theory o f k arm a n o t only su b stitu ted ethics for ritual. Individuality is th erefo re an illusion . each responsible for o u r fates. T h e m ost im p o rta n t failure. b u t m ade in ten tio n .and so. T h e first is b ra h m in ism . the B u d d h a took th e extrem ely bold step o f claim ing th at we are the m asters o f o u r own destinies. two o th e r influences stand h e a d an d sh o u ld ers above th e rest. th erefo re. Rarely in h um an history. th o s e m isu n d e rsta n d in g s m ay even have b e g u n d u rin g th e B u d d h a ’s lifetim e. I h o p e to have shown th a t n o t m erely the o rigin b u t also the c h a ra c te r o f these ideas can be seen m o re clearly if we co n sid er them in th e ir historical context. b o th Jain ism a n d th e so cio -econ o m ic c o n d itio n s have certain ly ex ercised an im p o rta n t in flu en ce. Similarly. th e B u d d h a n o t only established individual responsibility. in my opinion . H ow ever. h a s r e s u lte d in m assiv e fa ilu re s o f u n d e r s ta n d in g by la te r g e n e r a tio n s . b u t m ore generally argued for a p rincip le o f individuation.3 F u rth erm o re. before very re c e n t tim es. it m ust have influenced th e B u d d h a ’s view o f language. I have suggested th a t th e social c o n d itio n s o f his tim e m u st have b een q uite unusual for this to carry any plausibility with his audiences. Im plicitly. A m ong th e salient features o f this c o n te x t.IS THIS BOOK TO BE BELIEVED? 195 intellectual achievem ents was his capacity for abstraction. has this d octrin e o f individual responsibility cau gh t on. th e subject o f C hap ter 6. w h en c o n tra s te d w ith th a t o f th e Ja in s. even if they differ in th e ir capacity for m aking sou n d m o ral ju d g e m e n ts. T his m ade it possible for him to realize th a t th e caste system . because it m ean t th a t on th e ethical plane all h um an b ein gs are in a g en eral sense eq u al. a private m atter. As explained in C h ap ter 3. a n d h e n c e th e w hole b ra h m in th eo ry o f society. was m an-m ade an d simply did n o t apply elsew here. th e final criterion for ju d g in g ethical value. is th at th e B ud d h a was aware o f o th e r cultures. an d his tre a tm e n t o f k a rm a .in d e e d . was to grasp his teaching th at love an d com passion can be salvific for th e p erso n w ho cultivates those feelings to the highest pitch. and above all how he used its v o c a b u la ry fig u ra tiv e ly . illustrates this. T h e second crucial influence. W ith his th e o ry o f k arm a. . the b rah m in m etaphysic o f Vedanta holds th a t in reality every dtman is identical with the w orld dtman (= brahman) a n d th e re fo re every in d iv id u al dtm an is th e sam e. I th in k th a t fa ilu re to u n d e rs ta n d th e B u d d h a’s relation to brahm inism . This was a g reat step forw ard in th e history of civilization. is individual resp o nsib ility . since ethics can n o t work unless agents have free will. b u t a teach er could p o in t th e way. If w hat we norm ally take to be objects in th e w orld aro u n d us are n o t really stable. if we o p erate entirely th ro u g h language. for we give nam es to w hat we perceive. karm a is an in d eterm in ate process. simply coming to an e n d w hen the fuel ran out. all c h a n g in g (a lb e it n o t a t ra n d o m ). h e rejected th e b rah m in view th at Sanskrit had a u n iq u e re la tio n to reality. H e took this as a m odel b o th for consciousness an d m ore generally for how the life an d ex perien ce o f a living being (typically. H e derived inspiration from V edic speculation a b o u t fire. w h e th e r slowly o r fast. T hus.196 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT b u t clearly en o u g h . an auto-revelation. otherw ise th ere w ould be n o g u aran tee o f a co n n ectio n betw een action a n d re su lt It was n o t his theory o f karm a alo n e w hich led the B ud d h a to re in te rp re t w hat we norm ally co nsid er to be objects as processes. it is the fixity o f these nam es w hich does m ost to m islead us. b u t a re pro cesses. This ex perien ce. even th o u g h he may well have u rg e d his follow ers to re m e m b e r his precise w ords to h elp them preserve his m essage. it was thus th e o n e th in g really w orth achieving. th e in ad eq u acy o f d en o ta tiv e lan g uag e strongly e n c o u ra g e d th e use o f analogy a n d m e ta p h o r for th at purpose. At th e sam e tim e. NON-RANDOM PROCESS P h ilo so p h ic a lly . H e saw th a t his m e a n in g co u ld be conveyed in d ifferen t languages an d dialects.n o t his m e ta p h o r . w hich provides o u r co ncep tu al ap paratu s. M oreover. it is o f c ru c ia l im p o rta n c e th a t th e B u d d h a conceived o f karm a as a process. an d saw it as a non -rand o m process w hich was appetitive an d yet o p erated w ithout an agent. it can also n o t be a ran d o m process. O n e could only achieve it for oneself.an d co n fro n tin g th e reality beyond w ords. we shall always find ourselves a t som e rem ove fro m th e tru th . o u r in te rp re ta tio n o f w hat o u r senses perceive is never perfectly accurate. O n th e o th e r h and . a h um an being) could be self-generating processes for w hich it was otiose to posit any additional. . T h e B u d d h a h ad h im se lf su cceed ed in b reaking th ro u g h w hat I may thus call th e veil o f language . w ould bring an e n d to reb irth an d all the suffering w hich th at inevitably involves. a n d thus beyond im p erm an en ce an d beyond suffering. T h e m ain cu lp rit h e re is language. u n ch an g in g entity to act as an agent. o f course. Nowadays p ercep tio n is reg ard ed as an activity.’4 w hich m eans th at it can n o t be dissociated from volition. every good in te n tio n m akes you b e tte r. his en tire soteriology w ould m ake no sense at all. so his accounts o f p ercep tio n an d action. N evertheless. M oreover. are in clu ded n o t only the senses b u t also th e ir objects. o f c o u rs e . Yet in o ne way he m ade th e fact th a t every act affects th e actor th e very co rn ersto n e o f his teaching.an d th e environm ent. is th e dynam ic th a t moves us th rou g h o u r lives (in finite in n u m b e r). it is I w ho co ntinu e to be reb o rn . W e are back to karm a again.discoveries which th e m se lv e s . B oth o f these propositions w ould (as ex plained in C h ap ter 10) have th e B u d d h a's com plete assent. W e are th e heirs o f o u r own karm a. T h a t these distinctions w ere b lu rre d in M ahayana th o u g h t has m isled m any students o f earlier B uddhism . my karm a and yours c a n n o t be th e sam e. b u t h e certainly problem atized the dividing line betw een the acto r . for w ere th ere no distinction betw een a person an d th e w orld. W hile I th in k th a t Sue H am ilton is co rrect to say th a t th e B u d d h a ’s theory o f cognition does n o t settle th e issue betw een realism an d idealism . th a t is only tru e w hen the theory is taken in isolation. how ever brilliant. M o d e rn p sy c h o lo g y f u r th e r h o ld s th a t every a c tio n is an in teractio n with th e w orld an d affects th e actor. a n d is w hat provides th e p rin cip le o f .w hich for him was w hat really m attered! H e w ould have ag reed with m o d ern psychologists in declining to accept idealism : th ere really is a w orld o u t th ere. the sim ilarity betw een som e o f his ideas an d the p ictu re p a in te d by m o d e rn co g n itiv e p sy ch olog y is c e rta in ly strik in g . Every bad in ten tio n . Obviously h e could know n o th in g ab o u t such m atters as th e d iffe re n c e b etw een th e c e n tra l n erv o u s system a n d th e cerebral cortex. This is as fun d am en tal for th e B uddha as it is for m ost o f us. could n o t go in to th e kind o f detail discussed nowadays. m akes you w orse. even if we can n o t know it precisely.for him . m orally relevant volition. we have seen. ig n orin g th e B u d d h a ’s soteriology . a kind o f doing. By th e sam e token. th e synergy o f five sets o f processes .5 T h e B uddha did n o t p erh ap s say exactly this ab o u t p ercep tio n o r cognition.IS THIS BOOK TO BE BELIEVED? 197 I certainly d o n o t in te n d to claim th at th e B ud d h a anticipated all th e m ain discoveries o f m o d ern psychology . in clu ding o th e r people. an d in d eed can be in te rp re te d eith er way. ‘P ercep tio n is in h e re n tly selective. As e x p la in e d in C h a p te r 2. if you achieve nirvana and I do not. n o t you. karm a. a re h y p o th e s e s a n d m ay in tim e b e superseded. we recall th at in th e first khandha. th e rupa khandha. if th e effect o f a m oral act is n o t forth co m in g w ithin o ne lifetim e. a term which refers b oth to the process o f co nstructing (o u r lives seen in prospect) an d the result o f th at process (o u r lives seen in retrospect). those interested can consult my book. a n d th a t it was m idgated. In th e co n tex t of th at dynam ic. T h e flam e o f th e B u d d h a ’s te a c h in g o n k a rm a h as flic k e re d in every B u d d h ist tr a d itio n a n d every tra d itio n a lly B u d d h ist co u n try . b u t they have also tu rn e d to th e o th e r pow er.. have know n th a t B uddhism teaches th at th e ir salvation lies w ithin th eir own pow er. cam e up with a good pair o f term s. typically th e b en ig n pow er o f B uddhas a n d bodhisattvas. T h e Sanskrit w ord Maha-yana m eans ‘G reat P a th ’ (to salvation). a n d p a rtic u la rly th e m o re sophisticated B uddhists. m ean ing ‘own pow er’ an d ‘o th e r p o w e r’: by a n d la rg e . P erhaps I should ap pro ach this topic too from the basis o f karm a. karm a is th e sam e as samkhara. A nalogously. w hereas in fact he had an even stro n g e r theory o f those th in g s th an any non-B uddhists w ould accept today. to m any o f its ad h eren ts it is know n as Bodhisattva-yana.1' DEVELOPMENTS TOWARDS AND IN THE MAHAYANA I am aware th at m any B uddhists. will find surprises in it. In C hap ter 1 I w rote th at th e N o Soul doctrin e has led p eople to th e diam etrically w rong notio n th a t th e B uddha did n o t believe in m oral responsibility o r personal continuity. th e m o re scope th e re is also for ch ang e in o th e r elem ents. B u d d h ists . for. at th e fu rth est edge o f th e p re-m o dern B uddhist w orld.7 T his is n o t the place to go into that. I show ed in my first boo k th at th e rig o u r o f the doctrin e o f responsibility for o n e ’s own fate was evidendy h a rd to sustain even w ithin the P a li/T h e ra v a d a trad itio n . from very early tim es (probably from a ro u n d the tim e o f th e B u d d h a’s d eath ) by th e d o ctrin e o f w hat in English is called th e T ransfer o f M erit. ra th e r th an accept refutation the theory holds th at the effect will com e in a future life. b u t has n ev er b e e n q u ite e x tin g u ish e d . b oth th eo retical an d p ra c tic a l. to give them a h elp in g hand .198 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUCHT continuity an d co h eren ce th ro u g h o u t those lives. w hen it com es to the m oral sp h ere he gave so strong a form to the idea th at actors are affected by th eir actions that he p ro p o u n d e d an irrefutable form o f th at theory. if they read this book. T hus the . T h e fu rth e r the doctrin e o f karm a m oves from cen tre stage in a B uddhist tradition. T h e Jap an ese. th e B u d d h a refused to ap p o in t anyone to succeed him as lead er o f the Sarigha. is built on T ransfer o f M erit. in the latter case it is clearer in English to speak o f a lack o f essence th an a lack o f self. O n th e o n e h an d . o ne could go so far as to say th at the d o ctrin e o f th e bodhisattva. In my view th e M ahayana m ost strikingly differed from earlier tra d itio n s by its e x tra o rd in a ry g lo rificatio n o f th e B u d d h a a n d its m u ltiplication o f B uddhas a n d fu tu re B uddhas (bodhisattvas). he said. b u t also sure th at they will find his teachings to be the best. T h e glorification o f the B uddha. an d this was the corollary o f down-playing the role o f karm a. a bodhisattva is the hallm ark o r definin g characteristic o f the M ahayana. n o th in g else. I hum bly suggest. a c c o rd in g to th e C an o n . This conclusion should. as criticism s o f w hat the B uddha tau g ht in the Pali C anon they are invalid. BUDDHIST DEVOTION: AN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE?10 Shortly b efo re his d e a th .9 T hus for the bodhisattva it is a path. A bodhisattva transfers m erit to o th e r beings. an d take refuge in th e D ham m a." As with the K alam as. n o t in anyone else. w ho becam e objects o f prayer an d w orship. the second dharmanairatmya. for those to w hom he transfers m erit it is a vehicle. for besides ‘p a th ’ it m eans ‘vehicle’. B oth . th is show s th e B u d d h a a sk in g p e o p le to th in k fo r them selves. it is claim ed th at w hereas earlier B uddhism ap plied th e d o ctrin e o f No Self only to living beings. im prove relatio n s betw een m o d e rn follow ers o f the T heravada an d the M ahayana. creating a host o f w hat in a com parative perspective m ust be called divine figures.” T h e w ord yana is a pun .IS THIS BOOK TO BE BELIEVED? 199 b elief th a t o ne should aspire to salvation as. (In Sanskrit the form er d octrin e is called pudgala-nairatmya. the M ahayana ap plied it to all entities. an d the ascription to him o f a status far above th e h um an . W hether o r n o t these claim s w ere ju stified as criticism s o f o th e r B uddhist trad itio n s at the tim e w hen the M ahayana arose. should take refuge in them selves. T h e m onks. T h e h istory o f re lig io n s a n d id eo lo g ies is full o f iro n ies. surely began even d urin g his lifetim e. It is w idely ta u g h t th a t th e M a h a y a n a d iffe rs fro m e a r lie r B uddhism in two o th e r respects. the tru e hallm ark o f the M ahayana.) T h e o th e r alleged difference is th at the M ahayana laid far m ore stress on altruism . o r th ro u g h the aid of. all th e u n in te n d e d c o n s e q u e n c e s o f th e ir w o rd s a n d a c tio n s. 3.200 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT C hristianity an d M arxism can claim to spring from sym pathy with th e p o o r a n d p o w erless.11 wrio tccLUZcs ljticH. T his ex am ple. A nd yet . has th e B u d d h a claim ing th at he could if he pleased p ro lo n g his life for an eon. b u t w hat can m easu re u p to th e idiocy o f w hat ed u cated p eo p le are p re p a re d . It gives expression to an em otion.. T h ro u g h o u t the book so far I have kept the lid on the exasperation w hich. only a couple o f pages later. I co u ld n o t im ag in e a b e tte r conclusion. I go to th e Sarigha for refu g e. I w ould give a culpably one-sided p ictu re if I m issed o u t the devotional side and the ritual a n d m agic it has e n g e n d e re d . I ex plained at th e start. lA /n ia T i ^ e* n r r 'a i l /\l/i m n ti nm a i"clo 1 a t f r i n f* ic n ia n y BE LIKE THE KALAMAS: FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF C om ing to th e e n d o f w riting this book has b ro u g h t m e back to the B u d d h a ’s advice to th e K alam as. uivu>i<ii is th e B u d d h a tells th e m o nk s to tak e refu g e in them selves . let alone avoid. occurs m any tim es in the C a n o n . b o th a t tim es in h isto ry have b e e n in stru m en ts o f oppression in th e hand s o f ruthless rulers. th at his portrayal as godlike began an d even flourished d u rin g his lifetim e seem s extrem ely probable. W ere I w riting a history o f B uddhism . T ak in g R efuge by saying th e q u o ted form ula th ree tim es. J u s t as p e o p le to o accustom ed to obed ien ce m ay p arro t. ‘I go to th e B u d d h a for refu g e. H ow ever noble. I go to th e D h am m a fo r refu g e. has h e lp e d to m otivate m e. they can n o t even foresee. th e w orld is full o f ig n oran ce and silliness.. for it has b een ab o u t w hat the B ud d h a thought. T h e B uddha d eclared ritual to be useless o r worse. B u d d h ist ritu a l a n d devotion have fo u n d no place in this book. A nd yet the very sam e text. T h e grow th o f B u d d h ist rite s a n d litu rg ies was surely a w holly u n in te n d e d c o n s e q u e n c e o f th e B u d d h a ’s p re a c h in g .1 suspect th at his w ording was in te n d e d as a rebu ttal o f th e already p o p u lar form ula. W hile I can n o t believe th at b oth passages accurately reco rd th e B u d d h a’s sentim ents. Yes. an d m an y o th e r p assages show e v id e n c e o f th e sam e iciiQviicy* w ricn. how ever intelligent. ‘I m ust think for m yself.S cL oici 1x10. it n eed n o t indicate a refusal to think.’ the B u d d h a ’s follow ers have always ch an ted . th e fo u n d ers o f these m ovem ents may be.an unusual expression12 .’ This triple form ula is fo u n d in m any passages in the C anon itself. b u t why worry ab o u t that? . in the L atin script. Even today. a w orking basis. an d we shall all be the wiser. as I took a break after lunch from w riting this. they sh o u ld say so publicly. B ut m ost people in th e w estern w orld do still at least speak a m otherto n gu e w hich is related to Pali. b ein g Indo-E uropean. we could see n o t m erely an am azing revival o f Pali studies. in d eed. if they th in k th e evidence is against m e. a b o u t g ram m ar in any language. But if o ne finds th e texts interesting. an d th en test it o n th e to u c h s to n e o f th e ir ow n e x p e rie n c e by re a d in g th e ev id en ce. w hich has its ow n cu ltu re and history. because th ere is no T \ M asculine an d fem inine are ju st illusions in a w orld th a t is n o th in g m o re th an a d re a m . O n e should n o t be brow beaten by perfectionists and intellectual snobs w ho say th at translations are useless. why n o t try learn ing Pali? I have e x p la in e d th a t th e m a tte r o f th e tex ts c a n n o t be w holly d etach ed from th eir m an ner. few universities still offer it at all. Im p erm an en t. T h e study o f Pali has alm ost died o u t in the w estern world.IS THIS BOOK TO BE BELIEVED? 201 n o t ju st to say b u t even to publish a b o u t B uddhism ? Every day brings new exam ples. A nd for Pali they n e e d n o t learn a new script. a justly respected jo u rn al: ‘B uddhism proposes a state in w hich th ere are no p ro n o un s. C ertainly it is in co m p arab ly b e tte r to read th e texts in tran slation th an n o t to read them at all. since th e Pali T ex t Society has p ublished all th e texts. o r n ex t to n o th in g . I read in the Times Literary Supplement. th e tex ts o f th e Pali C a n o n . as well as gram m ars an d dictionaries. This m akes learn ing an inflected language like Pali h a rd e r th an it used to be. If o n e re a d e r in a th o usan d takes it up. w hat is th e p o o r in q u ire r to do? I suggest th a t readers take as a provisional hypothesis. T h e n . n o d o u b t . m ost o f th em learn nothing. Nowadays m ost English speakers grow up w ith the disadvantage th at they n o lo n ger learn any Latin at school.’13 W ith such lunacy on every side. o f w hich th e m ost im p o rtan t featu re is th e ir language. th at w hat I have w ritten is m o re o r less correct. b u t an inform ed in terest in the B u d d h a ’s ideas an d practices on a scale never know n before. brahma-caryd cam e to m ean ‘c h a stity ’. B ut he uses it in a wide sense n o t to refer to a stage in th e life o f a high-caste m ale. Brahma-cariya (see Chapter 6) This is the Pali form o f th e Sanskrit brahma-caryd. T h e B u d d h a freq u en tly uses th e term brahma-cariya b o th in a w ider and in a narrow er sense. w hich is perfectly reasonable. i. Five cases which seem to m e im p o rtan t b u t n o t c e n tra l I have h e re se g re g a te d in an a p p e n d ix so th a t read ers who find my discussions too technical can lighten th e ir load by skipping them . W e usually translate it ‘th e holy life’. an initiation w hich tu rn e d him into a m em b er o f society. its use in the w ider sense always includes the narrow er sense. norm ally in the sense o f total sexual abstinence. T h e boy h ad to be initiated into th e study o f the Veda. literally ‘brahm aco n d u c t’. a salient characteristic o f the lifestyle was chastity. T h e narrow er sense is the sam e as in brahm inism : chastity. b u t o f course . b u t to th e life o f any m e m b e r o f th e Saiigha.APPENDIX THE BUDDHA’S APPROPRIATION OF FOUR (OR FIVE?) BRAHMINICAL TERMS T h is b o o k show s how th e B u d d h a b o th b o rro w ed a n d tw isted brahm inical term inology. being now qualified to perfo rm at least the basic daily rituals by him self. at least. W hile th e raison d'etre for this p e rio d in his life was to learn th e sacred texts (and the rituals they accom pany). So. This was the technical term for the prescribed first stage in the life o f a b rah m in o r o th e r high-caste boy. In theory. again as in brahm inism . M oreover. he stayed in this status an d follow ed its prescribed way o f life until he m arried. by w hat we could call slippage betw een m e a n in g a n d re fe re n c e . This o f course m akes sense only in the original form u latio n o f th e E ightfold Path. the B ud d h a uses the w ord to refer n o t so m uch to a holy life as to th e goal o f th a t life. samkalpa. in th e tex t q u o ted in C h ap ter 6 a b o u t his b ein g criticized by a b rah m in for allegedly h elp ing him self alone. It was on a p ar with his freq u en t claim th a t th e tru e b rah m in was som eone w ho followed the B uddhist p ath (see C hap ter 12).1 W hen em barking on a ritual. th a t his d isciples will dw ell in th e su p re m e state o f im m ersio n (ogadha) in brahman c o n d u c t ( brahma-cariya). w hich leads into the rig h t kinds o f use o f th e m in d . w h ich is u su ally tra n s la te d ‘rig h t re so lv e ’ o r ‘rig h t in te n tio n ’. an d the Eightfold Path is re-jigged to suit th at sequence. it is perfectly fitting th at at th e outset th ere should likewise be such a substitution. Since it is fu n d am en tal to the B u d d h a’s m essage th at he was substituting ethics for ritual. E lsew here he uses th e sam e w ord a n d im m ersion. as I m en tio n ed . co n cen tratio n and u n d erstan d in g . with nibbdna. . w hich norm ally includes his nam e. however. ogadha. T h at m akes good sense: in o rd e r to em bark on the rig ht course o f ethical behaviour. o n e n e e d s to have b o th a p p ro p ria te b e lie f a n d a p p ro p ria te m o tiv a tio n . as in the First S erm on. the d ate and the purp o se o f the ritual. has several m eanings. in m orality. b u t I am n o t aware th at it has b een p o in ted o u t th at it is a technical term in brahm inical ritu al. th e B u d d h a replies. If we re tu rn to the literal m ean ing o f brahma-cariya. O ccasionally. ii.th o ug h n ot identical. T h e S a n sk rit e q u iv a le n t to samkappa. it is in d eed very close to th e literal m eaning o f brahma-vihdra. w hen th a t is re fo rm u la te d as a seq u en ce o f th re e developm ents. p u ttin g rig ht in ten tio n last m akes n o sense at all. so it is clear th at h e re he is using brahma-cariya as a synonym for nirvana. T hus.APPENDIX 203 has lost the resonance w hich the term had in Indian society. th e p erfo rm er is supposed to m ake an explicit sta te m e n t o f in ten t. Samkappa (see Chapter 7) T h e seco n d step o n th e N o b le E ig h tfo ld P ath is called sammd samkappa . th e co rrect m ental attitud e being a p rereq u isite for successful perfo rm an ce. w h eth er w orldly o r spiritual. So it is n o t surprising if the Figurative m eanings given to the term s by the B uddha are also close . 204 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT tti. Ekodi-bhava In C h a p te r 4 I show ed th a t th e B u d d h a b orro w ed an im p o rta n t term , dsava, from the Ja in trad itio n to form ulate his teaching, even th o u g h th e w o rd c a rrie d c o n n o ta tio n s w h ich his cap acity fo r abstraction had re n d e re d inapplicable. I suggest th a t h e sim ilarly b o rro w e d fro m Vedanta c e r ta in w o rd s w h ich h av e p u z z le d in te rp re te rs ever since. In th e se c o n d o f th e ra n k e d series o f m editative states called jhdna, the B ud d h a stills all discursive th o u g h t an d attains w hat is called the ekodi-bhava o f his m in d .2 T h e C anon contains o th e r form s derived from this, like th e verbs ekodi-karoti, ‘to m ake ekodi' an d ekodi-bhavati, ‘to becom e ekodi'. Everyone agrees th a t this refers to o n e -p o in te d n e ss o f th o u g h t, elsew here called cittassa ekaggatd, a n d yet th e d eriv atio n , a n d h e n c e th e p recise m ean in g , o f ekodi rem ain o bscu re. In B ud d h ist S anskrit ekodi is re n d e re d ekoti. Q uite a few Sanskritizations by th e later trad itio n are w rong, b u t in this case I believe th at this is th e rig ht solution. I th in k that in this state th e B uddha (or the m ed itato r following in his foo tstep s) is said to have th e fe e lin g ( bhdva) w hich can be verbalized by th e w ord ‘one* in the m asculine singular — eho\ an d th a t this refers to the sam e sensation o f unity as is said to characterize m any mystical ex perien ces th e w orld over, an d m o re particularly th at w hich is referred to in the BAU as 'I am brahman'. I am not, o f course, saying th at the B uddha on his way to h ig h er things h ad a V edantic gnosis; my claim is th at, as w ith th e w ord karman, he is borrow ing th a t language in o rd e r to charge it with new m eaning.3 it>. Puthujjana I have a sim ilar theory ab o u t this w ord. It is used, technically an d frequently, to refer to p eo p le (Jana) w ho have n o t even b ecom e stream -enterers on the p ath to E n lig h te n m e n t In o th e r words, they are spiritually at square one. T h e w ord puthu is often fo u n d by itself, and the PED s.v. rightly says th at it may co rresp o n d to Sanskrit prthu, ‘m any’ o r ‘b ro a d ’, o r to prthak, m ean in g ‘separated, individual’.4 However, in th e separate entry u n d e r puthujjanay presum ably being in flu en ced by the com m en taries, it ignores th e second m eaning; so m o d e rn scholars favour such tran slation s as ‘one-of-the-many~ folk1 o r ‘hoi polloi'. B ut the d o u b le jj; is th e n a p roblem . In B uddhist Sanskrit th e w ord is prthag-jana, a n d again I th in k th a t is right. APPENDIX 205 Phonetically th e d ou b le jj is thus acco un ted for. Som eone who has no sensation o f oneness could surely be referred to as ‘sep arate’. T h e re is in fact a verse in th e C anon w hich contains the unusual expression puthu atta. I have allu d ed to the passage in C hap ter 6 (text to n. 21), b u t referred readers who w ant a full discussion to my How Buddhism Began (pp. 6 2 -4 ). T h ere I translated the relevant line: ‘F or o th ers too th e sep arate self is d e a r.’ I co m m en ted : ‘It refers to the com m on sense view o f the individual, th e m oral agent. B ut the term seem s to allude, by im plication, to a contrasting view o f self, a “n on -sep arate” self, the U panisadic cosm ic self.’ v. Papanca (see Chapter 10) In Sanskrit and Pali, pahca m eans ‘five’. So papanca looks as if it should m ean ‘q u in tu p lic a d o n ’. C ould this m ake sense? In Sam khya p hilo so ph y , a n d also so m etim es in th e Moksadharma section o f Mahabhdrata XII, th e w orld evolves from a prim al unity in to sets o f five, su c h as th e five se n se s a n d th e five g re a t e le m e n ts (mahabhuta) so th e m u ltip licatio n o f en tities co uld fittingly be d escrib ed as q u in tu p lic a tio n . H ow ever, those texts p o std ate th e B uddha by centuries, an d in any case early B uddhism has six senses an d fou r g reat elem ents. T h e w ord papanca does n o t seem to o ccur in V edic lite ra tu re early e n o u g h to be know n to th e B u d d h a, How ever, we have plenty o f evidence th at the B uddha was fam iliar w ith th e first boo k o f th e Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad. In 1.5.3 this text lists th e five kinds o f b reath (ana) w hich are said to p erm eate th e h u m a n b o d y ; th is list b e c a m e c a n o n ic a l fo r th e e n tir e su b seq u en t history o f brahm inism . T h e text says th at all these are n o th in g b u t prana. Prana is th e sta n d a rd w ord for w hat we call ‘b re a th ’, the b reath o f life. So the Upanisad is saying th at we m ake five things o u t o f w hat is really ju s t one. M oreover, th at o ne thing is life-breath. ‘Several U panisads eq u a te b re a th w ith life a n d even with a p erso n ’s self.’6 (R em em ber th at dtman m ay originally have m e a n t ‘b re a th ’.) T h e text as we have it does n o t use any w ord for quintuplication. However, the central m essage o f the text as a w hole is th at we are b o u n d to th e cycle o f rebirth by o u r ig norance o f an essential unity, th a t o f the dtman: we conceptualize m ultiplicity - in this case ideating five entities - w here really th ere is only one. At this p o in t I m u st n o t be m isunderstood. T h e B uddha was n o V edantin, urging us to see th e essential unity b eh in d a p p a re n t b u t ,5 206 WHAT THE BUDDHA THOUGHT delusory m ultiplicity. H e was, in d eed , opposing th at doctrine. B ut w h at I am su g g e stin g (th o u g h in this case o n ra th e r sle n d e r evidence) is th a t h e re ag ain , as w ith th e w ords ekodi-bhava a n d puthujjana, h e was a p p ro p ria tin g b ra h m in ic a l term in olog y . H is arg u m en t was n o t th at by using language we h ad too many concepts, b u t rath er th a t n o n e o f th em d id ju stice to th e truth. A nd th ere is a n o th e r p o in t w hich risks being m isunderstood. T he B ud d h a is denying th at we can distinguish, e ith e r perceptually or linguistically, betw een clear-cut substances. B ut he is n o t denying th at we can distinguish betw een processes. T h e process o f feeling, for exam ple, is d ifferen t from th e process o f willing. A nd, to take th e m ost im p o rta n t exam ple o f all, your karm a an d my karm a are by no m eans the sam e thing! ft* NOTES Full details o f publications a p p e a r in th e B ibliography. CHAPTER 1 1. sabbe samkhdrd aniccd. The translation of samkhdrd in this passage as ‘compounded things’, following T. W. Rhys Davids, has become usual. The term will be fully discussed in Chapter 9. 2. For more on this semantic problem , see my ‘Understanding early Buddhist terminology in its context1, pp. 74-101. 3. In Pali it is called the Tipitaka, which literally means ‘that which consists of three baskets’. 4. In the Bhabra edict, the inscription in which he exhorts his subjects to learn certain named Buddhist texts, the em peror Asoka refers to the texts as dhamma-paliyaya, i.e., pariydya. 5. This early terminology' corresponds rather closely to the later distinction in Sanskrit between sutra and sdstra, though the latter pair of terms refers to genres of text. 6. Perhaps I should add that in the Mahayana the term refers particularly to earlier non-Mahayana teachings, which are thus claimed to fall short of the full truth. 7. T. W. Rhys Davids, ‘Introduction to the Kassapa-Sihanada Sutta,’Dialogues ofthe BuddJia, Part 1, pp. 206-7.1quote the whole passage in How Buddhism Began, pp. 17-18. 8. Karma and nirvana are the two Buddhist doctrinal terms which I assume to have become naturalized in English and are therefore not italicized. 9. AAHI1.415. 10. The term ‘im perm anent’ does not, of course, necessarily imply that something is changing all the time, and I believe that in some contexts the Buddha did not intend the term to carry this strong sense. But expositions gloss this over; and in the abhidharma the doctrine was 208 NOTES TO PAGES 12-20 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. systematized to mean constant change: it was even attempted to specify the speed of change. In the Theravada/Pali tradition, these stories are conventionally said to num ber 550. Some of them are found in all major Buddhist traditions. p. 40. P: sila-bbata-pardmdso. Most of the last four paragraphs is taken from my Theravada Buddhism: A Social History, pp. 69-70. AN 1,188-93. Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism, pp. 83-8. This is of course not to deny that the Buddha’s ideas can be, have been, and should be applied to politics and public affairs. In Sanskrit the word is kusala. See L. S. Cousins, ‘Good or skilful? - Kusala in Canon and commentary’ (1996), especially pp. 143-8. Vin. 1,49 para 20,46 para 10, This refers to their being written down for the first time. But our earliest physical evidence, our oldest manuscripts, of most texts is not nearly that old, and each copying brings further errors, including interpolations. For a summary account of our evidence for the Pali Canon, see my ‘What is Pali?’ in A Pali Grammar. CHAPTER 2 1. I have thus accepted the criticism, First I believe made by Dr Sue Hamilton, of my earlier usage; I mention it in Haw Buddhism Began (2006), p. 37, n.9. 2. The normal word is ‘fruit’ (phala). But occasionally the same thing is referred to as a ‘harvest’ (P: apadana, literally ‘reaping’). This latter word was Sanskritized as avadana and its original meaning then forgotten. But like the Pali work entitled Apadana, an avaddnawas originally a story of how a deed in a former life bore fruit in the present. 3. ZW I.53-4. 4. S N IV, 230-1 = sutta xxxvi, 21.1. The same list at II, 87. 5. This is because the commentary (Sarattha-ppakdsini, III, 81-82) instances being run over by a truck, being bitten by a snake and falling into a pit. 6. In this I am following the same entry in PED, s.v. parikdrat but choosing the first meaning given: ‘attention, care’; the list of examples begins with gabbha-parihdra, ‘care of the foetus’. 7. Thus Margaret Cone, A Dictionary of Pali: Part I (2001), s.v. opakkamika. Peter Harvey has kindly pointed out to me (personal communication) that, at M N II, 218, the Buddha asks some Jains about their ascetic 100-1. 150. piercing feelings due to intense exertion ( tippd tamhi samaye opakkamika dukkha tippd katuka vedand vedaniyatha)?’ This would be an act of violence perpetrated on oneself in rigorous asceticism. Vin. 19. 14. The other three are the scope of a Buddha. DN II. There is a great deal of information in Greg Bailey and Ian Mabbett.means that for ‘sixth century’ we should now read fifth . Nanamoli and Bodhi translate: ‘When there is intense exertion ( tippo upakkamo). p. 21. which divides the dead into only two groups. 10.on which most other dating depends . 80. though I disagree with their interpretation of how it relates to the rise of Buddhism. 2. Chapter 3. Precept and Practice (1971). 317. The Sociology of Early Buddhism (2003). painful. Richard Seaford. MA/II. lecture given at School of Oriental and African Studies. 9. Selfless Persons (1982). pp. DN I. so what is m eant in these other cases is obscure. The commentary (see n. though this is ludicrously over-specific. Chapter 4. p. 20. 73-9. ‘From relics to rice: early Buddhism and the Buddhist landscape of central India’. AN II. 11. Ibid. Money and the Early Greek Mind. sutta xvi. 12. This discovery was the main reason why I found it necessary to publish a new edition of my Theravada Buddhism: A Social History in 2006. 3. The sutta gives no further explanation. D. Buddhist. Ibid.2) has a slighdy different version. Ibid. 5 above) says that the reference is to being beaten up on the grounds that one is a thief or adulterer. Kosambi. Steven Collins. Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian. Mahd Parinibbdna Sutta. the scope of a meditator and the world. CHAPTER 3 1. D. 82-3. p. DN. intense striving. 23 January 2007. Gananath Obeyesekere. Recent work on the Buddha’s date . and Greek Rebirth (2002). I. Richard Gombrich. . it is plausible inasmuch as it refers to an act of violence perpetrated on one by others. The Kausttaki Upanisad (1. Gananath Obeyesekere. practices. 16.NOTES TO PAGES 20-30 209 8. 149. 17. University of London. Michael Willis. Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian. do you then feel intense. 15. 152. 18. 293. racking. The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline (1965). Buddhist and Greek Rebirth. 22.. 13. so anyone who can should use the original German work. p. Up. Ch. BAU 6. This is obscure: ‘who reverently understand faith to be austerity’? ‘who reverendy understand austerity to be faith1? &4t/6.ocbs. The translations I give from the Upanisads. E.3) to mean the same thing. but modern scholarship has cast serious doubt on that interpretation. ‘Prajapati. 15. are mosdy those of Patrick Olivelle in The Early Upanisads. 74. Johnson. meritorious (punna-bhagiya) but still corrupted (sdsava) and thus to be transcended by supram undane (lokuttara) right view.10.16.10. That God both transcends the world and is im m anent in it is an idea familiar to Christian theologians. 5. 16.8. 6. The ambiguity of this sentence will be explored below. J. 5. guided by the commentary.10. 36-61.g. 7. except that I have anglicized the spelling. The word pitr. 8. Bhikkhu Bodhi.6. 13. 6. Jurewicz. . tit. Harmless Souls (1995). pp.7-6.. the fire and the pancagni-vtdya’ (2004). 17.210 NOTES TO PAGES 31 ^2 4. 18. BAU 4. /fo'rf. 22.7-9. but one understands it by different means. These are the top three of the four estates (varna) of society according to the brahmin classification. 23. Alas.2. is used in the plural to refer to patrilineal ancestors.. Ibid. Ch. 19. p. History ofIndian Philosophy (1973). See Joel Brereton.16.4. fire personified [RFG]. 10. 21. 'thou art that’ (Ch. She expanded her interpretation in a paper delivered at the 14th World Sanskrit Conference in Edinburgh. BAU 1. 14. and a revised form of this may now be read on the website www. 23-4. W. 9. This subtlety smacks to me of the abhidhamma. 16 above. M N III.Up. p. 71-2. ‘father’. p. On this. “‘Tat Tvam As? in context* (1986). Erich Frauwallner. 53.2. 20. Thus the factual content of the two forms of right view is the same.org. 1103).15.3. op.. 5. pp. while the direct penetration of the truths by realising Nibbana with the path consututes supramundane right view’ {The Middle Length Discourses. 1327-8.1: sraddhd tapa ity updsate. Jata-vedas is a name of Agni. See n.. Here the Buddha characterizes this as the lower of two forms of right view. comments: ‘We may understand that the conceptual comprehension of the four truths falls under mundane right view. JoannaJurewicz. Up.. pp. Later tradition took tat tvam asi. Ibid. Geschichte der indischen Philosophie (1953). in July 2006. See ‘Background Information’. n. 11. the translation is seriously inaccurate. 12. 15. 75. 5. p. Bollee. Ibid. J. Jains are not always clearly differentiated from other contemporary religious groups. M N II. W. ‘Buddhists and Buddhism in the early literature of the Svetambarajains’ (1974). In particular. at. Gombrich. 50. Johnson. 16. literally ‘conqueror’. cited byjohnson. Thera is another title shared between Jainism and Buddhism. 243-4. 5. quoted in Johnson. 6. I owe this idea to a conversation with Will Johnson. Jain-B uddhist dialogue: material from the Pali scriptures’ (2000). at. such as the Ajivikas. p. 7. p. cit. In his ‘Observations on the sect of Jains’ (1807) Henry Thom as Colebrooke was the first modern scholar clearly to distinguish Jainism from Buddhism. op. TheJaina Path of Purification (1979).. op. DN III. Dundas. 10. 26. p. Paul Dundas. Les expiations dans le rituel ancien des religieuxjaina (1965).. W.. Nalini Balbir. BAU 6.8.7. Dasaveyaliya 6. op. 2. p. cit. 42. DN 111. I believe that none of my arguments are affected by this slight lack of clarity. 9. 17. p. Dundas. citing the Bhdgavati. Richard F. 11.5. CHAPTER 4 1. 18. Johnson. 15. IS.Up. op. op. Ch. p. 30. 5. 17. 25.. 4. Padmanabh S. p.2. 51. 14. Harmless Souls (1995). Jina. 209-10. 81. 3. . 6 . is one of the titles of a ‘ford-maker’. B.10. at. p. However.1 know Will Johnson for an excellent scholar and have relied heavily on his first chapter. but he thought Buddhism to be the older. 19. whose doctrines were markedly different but whose ascetic practices were probably similar. 28-9.4. 12.16. 20. In contrast to the ancient tradition of the solitary ascetic. 22.10. or normally even in pairs. p..Jaini.NOTES TO PAGES 42-49 211 24. 8. and further references there cited. Johnson. Colette Caillat. 28.. on the earliestjainism known to us. p. op.10. ‘The significance of former Buddhas in Theravadin tradition’ (1980). Ch. cit. followed by thejinakappa. cit. op. 42. Suyagadahga 2. Caillat does not relate this to the question of preserving the tradition. 13. TheJains (1992). the therakappa monks were not allowed to be alone. pp.. Up.. 117-18. Dundas. The Editorial Committee of the Felicitation Volume for Professor Dr. cited approvingly by Johnson...109). 142 (note on v. sutta 2. 5.84. Elders' Versesl. For references to both sides of the controversy. op. 41. in Studies in Buddhism and Culture in Honour of Professor Dr. IV. 1991.. 212.Johannes Bronkhorst. p. 29. Richard Gombrich. Egaku Mayeda on His Sixty-fifth Birthday. Richard F. tit. 3) 30. 14. This question has been exhaustively treated by Schmithausen. Even in postVedic Hinduism. Johannes Bronkhorst. As for Vedic religion. 42. 1. op. Ute Hiisken. T h e legend of the establishment of the Buddhist order of nuns in the Theravada Vinaya-Pitaka' (2000). p. disagree. tit. By Ludwig Alsdorf. Vin. This is the eleventh patittiya rule (Vin. 39. 14) and sees no ambiguity. ‘Patimokkha: purgative’. 12. 296. I should make it clear that this general idea was quite widespread. ‘The Buddha and the Jains: a reply to Professor Bronkhorst’ (1994). see Balbir.p. Peter Harvey.. Ill. 36. The Problem of the Sentience of Plants in Earliest Buddhism (1991). IV. 35. ‘The Buddha and the Jains reconsidered’ (1995).. at. and fire and wind had at least a personalized. personal communication. 40. pp. 17. Ibid. 1. Gombrich. p. 43. 22. 25. 26. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin. p.431).. p. p. For instance. Schmithausen simply translates ‘ [people] regard trees as living beings’ (op.137.. .. p. Ibid. Vin. Schmithausen. 16. divine aspect. Bijagamd-bhutagdmd samdrambhd pativirato samano Gotamo DN I. Ehi Bhadde (v. tit. 245. Ill. 28.. 33. 33-8. MN. Egaku Mayeda (eds).. I am indebted to Bhikkhunljuo-Hsiieh for drawing the significance of this to my attention. 24. 37. op.. (L. 34. Johnson. The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India (1993). In fact she uses the verb: kammam tarn nijjaressdmi (v. n. 32. although som e. See note 15 above.104. 38. Vin. op.81 of the Theragathd). tit. 17. 23. at least the view that plants and seeds capable of germination are sentient beings is still well documented. 34). Vin. 27. 31. 34. there is sufficient evidence that not only animals but also plants as well as seeds and even water and earth were . DN 1.212 NOTES TO PAGES 50-56 21. believed to be living and even sentient. See also Vin.. 45.NOTES TO PAGES 56-68 213 44.. ‘The Buddha and the Jains’ (1994). 50. Johnson. is dated between 150 and 350 ad. Visuddhi-magga. Sabbadd va sukham sett brdhmano parinibbuto (SN 1.2. op.7.6 and 4. 2. abbreviated. for an excellent account of the Jain arhat and a comparison with the Buddhist concept. CHAPTER 5 1. See PEDs.ll. discussed in Gombrich. 8. We must rem em ber that.2. Gombrich. 54. knowledge (jnanam) and infinite (anantam) (Taittiriya Up. 198). disgust (arati). 258-60. niruttis are not mutually exclusive. ‘Old bodies like carts’ (1987). 8 = MN I. The Sanskrit equivalent would be sat-kaya-drsti. and Lance Cousins has pointed out to me that this occurs several times in the Pali com mentaries. etc. Religion et mythologie’) .3. Vijndnam dnandam brahma {BAU 3.9. 9. pp. I.212). To identify one’s dtman with brahman is ‘at the same time the truth to be discovered and the end to be attained’ (Charles Malamoud. 204. Ibid. cit. p. has three daughters: thirst {tanka). 12. 5. ‘He [dtman] is also breath divided into three’ {BAU 1.1-3. tasmdham UpakaJino ( Vin. 196-200. SN I. Richard F. unlike etymologies in our sense. Jaini. for many renderings and text references. I have devoted an article to this: ‘Vedanta stood on its head: sakkdya and sakkdyaditthi . lust (rati). 97. p.4.28). 62.3). cit. 6. ( Visuddhi-magga. There are exceptions: Mara. 4. op. 1091-3. 47. 2. pp.4 = 4. 28-9. See ibid. 46. 10.. . 3. Umasvati’s Tattvdrtha-sutra. 11. 49. This is summarized in 4. 162. so this does not prove that the historical origin of the term was remembered. 2. Ibid..34.3. BAU 4.1). Buddhaghosa gives as one of five possible nirutti (derivations) of arahant that he destroys his enemies. p. AN II. 52. These words are both Prakrit and a good deal of phonetic variation is thus unremarkable.5. 53.. p. p. ‘Inde vedique. perhaps the firstjain work to be written in Sanskrit. 171).15. who are passion. 48. n . himself a personification of death.3.. sak-kdya-ditthi. 51. pp. 46. 7.v. Another classic description of brahman is as reality (satyam). The inset lines are a verse. BAU4. Jita me papakd dhamma. 22. not a bahuvnhi. I Corinthians. Identity and Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism (1996). A/VV. jpjx 62. § 108. 16. 14. 19. 2ndedn. 58-64. p. p. 23. How to translate P: mettd = S: maitri is a dilemma. in the Metta Sutta the (synonymous) word is aparimana.168-9. trans. Chapter 12. 9. 6. DN II. 4. See below. 10. 7. 17. D. DN I. perhaps because of the exigency of the metre. 156-64. 47. appamdna. Wan Doo Kim. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and Its Verse Summary. so I hope here to have improved the presentation. Precept and Practice (1971). The Path of Purification. How this happened in Theravada has been traced by Wan Doo Kim in his fine thesis. 237). Visuddki-magga IX. However. alas still unpublished. D N.suttaxiii. 11. CA (1973). 18. Brahman is named in verse 6. However. as further explained in the text below. those publications seem to have had little impact. The word was originally a karmadkdraya compound. 3. Nyanam ol i (sic). and Kindness and Compassion as Means to Nirvana (1998). CHAPTER 6 1. The name of the Chandogya appears in garbled form as Chandoka early in the Tevijja Sutta (XWI. E. thesis. 177 of my article T h e Buddhist attitude to thaumaturgy’ (1997). 265-6. 1999. The rest of the verse runs: uppdda~vaya~dhammino//uppajjitvd nirujjhanti. The commonest technical terms for this in the Hindu tradition are nwguna and saguna respectively. 15. See p. I have published this discovery twice before. Sue Hamilton. . Oxford University. 163. 163. 152 . 2. Astasdhasrikd-prajndpdramitdyLxx. tesamvupasamosukho. 81—4. 21. 157. Richard F. trans. I am not always on the side of the sophisticates. p. 269. AN 1. ‘The Theravadin Doctrine of Momentariness: A Survey of Its Origins and Development’. 1964. pp. Gombrich. Kim plausibly suggests that this sutta derives from the SN suttajust cited. 5.4. Conze. 13. But that is irrelevant to my argument. 20. Colombo. M N \. pp. AN I. 8. Personally.214 NOTES TO PAGES 69-81 13. Bolinas. in How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings (2006).Phil.sutta III. 16. 4. This is wrong. Not only do meanings vary with context.. 2. 25. Dhammasangani. at II. 1054. and IV. The Burlington Magazine. para. Ill. p. SN 1. S: parinirvana) with no change in meaning. How Buddhism Began. The text is quite often referred to as the Karaniya Melta Sutta. 21. Gombrich. p. 30. Thursday 7 February 2002. Sutta-nipdta I. Senart. Gombrich. LeMahavastu. 28. trans. How Buddhism Began. 14. 5.. 113. Ibid. For some detail see Gombrich.NOTES TO PAGES 81-93 215 12.vol. in the context of empathy with merit it is anumodana. Ibid. CHAPTER 7 ]. 23. pp. 112 ff. para. The ramifications of denying that ceto-vimutti is true liberation became vast: see Gombrich. 15. 251. Quoted in obituary of Max Perutz. 20. 13. 251. ‘I am quite deliberately inconsistent in translating many Pali words. p. September 2004. 143-52. The conversation occurs twice in the Upanisad. DN I. Nyanamoli. The Times. 62-4. §124. p. p. xviii). 24.1 am grateful to Sarah Shaw for drawing my attention to these abhidhamma passages. 77. 26. February 2002. para. lines 18-19. 41). 21. ed. . Daily Telegraph. para. Visuddhi-magga IX. I owe this observation to Lance Cousins. 80.. 29. p. DN I. Gahapati vd gahapati-putto vd annatarasmim vd kule paccdjdto (Tevijja Sutta. para. karaniyam is its first word. p. the relevant passage is the same in both versions. E. 8 = w . 27 March 2002. pp. it can simply be helpful to see that a Pali word has more than one possible rendition in English’ (Gombrich. 421. 3. 17.75. 18. Kindness and Compassion. 22. 11. 85-6. pp. ‘A visit to Brahma the heron’ (2001). p. 250. How Buddhism Began. Either form of nirvana can be called parinirvana (P: parinibbana. I have studied a sutta in the Majjhima Nikdya which presents an amusing satire on Brahma and the Brahma heavens: Richard F. Unpublished paper delivered at a meeting in Oxford. 1056. 27. In the list of four the word is mudita. 19. There is a misconception abroad that the nirvana at death is differentiated by being called parinirvana. that is. even though we may never know . which include severely critical tests. These conjectures are controlled by criticism. Gombrich. For a concise survey of the Pali language and its use in texts. 9.. for example. Luckily. because in a sutta. He was not referring to simple jejune scepticism. is by unjustified (and unjustifiable) assumptions. pp. . P: samgitior samgdyand. Ricoeur coined the term to describe such major theories as those of Marx and Freud which claimed that one had to suspect in one’s sources systematic bias on the principles they explained.216 NOTES TO PAGES 94-101 4. As we learn from our mistakes our knowledge grows.. 8. 7. 6. section 3. xxvi of my article ‘What is Pali?’: this committal to writing is said to have occurred in the first century ad. Przemyslaw Szczurek. by attempted refutations. 14. vii): The way in which knowledge progresses . Karl R. by guesses. 16-19. 120-8. 5. but they can never be positively justified: they can never be established as certainly true nor even as ‘probable’ (in the sense of the probability calculus). Gombrich. but to finding a meaning below the surface. Conjectures and Refutations (1963). They may survive these tests. This enables me to correct a misprint on p. know for certain. especially pp. 11. 13. The latter is slighdy narrower than ‘canonical’. Moreover. there can be no reason here for despair of reason. it does not include details such as when and where the sermon was delivered. which are supposed to have been added at the First Council (see next section).that is.. And since we can never know for certain. Richard F. Popper. the next sentence makes clear that this should read ‘bc1. there can be no authority here for any claim to authority . Here let it suffice to quote from the ‘Preface’ (p. By ‘canonical’ I mean much the same as Buddha-vacana. ‘Prajndvdddrns ca bhdsase: polemics with Buddhism in the early parts of the Bhagavadgita' (2003).. Since our knowledge can grow. 12. Translation is more fully discussed in section VI of my 1993 paper ‘Understanding early Buddhist terminology in its context’. ‘The history of early Buddhism: major advances since 1950’ (1988). 10. ‘the word of the Buddha’. The first chapters of this book contain detailed expositions of this position. ‘Dating the Buddha: a red herring revealed’ (1992). The Oldest Pali Manuscript (1991). by tentative solutions to our problems. See Richard F.. see my brief article ‘What is Pali?’ in A Pali Grammar (1994). by conjectures.. Oskar von H in uber. Madeleine Biardeau sees many passages in the Mahdbhdrata in this light: see Le Mahdbhdrata: un recitfondateurdu brahmanisme el son interpretation (2002). one or none: the vagaries of a Pali pericope’ (1987). 20. CHAPTERS 1. 26. 22. V. 23-4. 1. 22-3. 156. Gombrich. Vin. n. 28. 24. n. ‘T he oral transm ission of the early Buddhist literature’ (2004). 21. 14. AN II. but Ludwig Alsdorf pointed out that the passage is in verse. Sue Hamilton..124. pp.R. DN II. 2. parinibbana. Early History ofBuddhism in Ceylon (1953). 25. K. 84. This term is further discussed in the Appendix. 420-4. A lexander Wynne. Both this chapter and Chapter 10 owe a great deal to these two books. Ernst W aldschm idt. This was called eka-vakyata. This principle is known by the Latin phrase lectio diffidlior potior (The more difficult reading is to be preferred). 67. 16. Die Ueberlieferung vom Lebensende des Buddha (1944-48). 18. Exactly the same applies when these words have the further prefix pari-. DN II. N orm an. In the latter passage it says that the monk recited sixteen poems. ‘Three souls.‘The Four Noble Truths’ (1982). e. 196 = Ud. See also Chapter 6. 19. Manusmrti III. p. 31. T his term is also fo u n d in V asu b an d h u ’s Abhidharmakosabhasya. Gombrich. Erich Frauwallner. 27. pp. For more on the similarities in form between the Pali Canon and Vedic literature. SNV. Printed as prose in the PTS edition. 32. 29. S anskrit tri-dosa. 6. 9. Sumangala-vilasini I. 30. for the full version. 3. 135. DN 1. in the Vinaya merely that he recited ‘all’. 17. . cit. 23. The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginnings of Buddhist Literature (1956). 33. 'How the Mahayana began’ (1990). Richard F. We have seen a use of the latter in Chapter 5.g. op. I.1 discuss this issue in How Buddhism Began (2006). Popper.NOTESTO PAGES 101-14 217 15. 22-4. 4. parinibbuta. Identity and Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism (1996) and Early Buddhism: A New Approach (2000). see Richard F. Because of phonetic similarity. Jurewicz. SM I. book XII.’ 18. T he m ind is therefore the organ which perceives abstractions.cit. E. The dawn recitation is the most important. pp. 21. Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The Doctrinal History of Nirvana (2006). 23. See also Chapter 3. 67-S. see Soon-il Hwang. My quotations in the following passage. then. Lloyd. op. 20-1. 10. 9. 11. which through pedantic literalism gave rise to the Buddhist school of pudgala-vdda^ but this topic is not relevant here. The latter means ‘basis. 11-12. and note to passage cited. pp. In this sense maha-bhuta is com moner than bhuta. xxi-xxii. the fire and the pancdgni-vidya' (2004). 12. 17. foundation’. are drawn from the unpublished draft English version. is Soma. Thought and Metaphor] (2001). on occasion I even use her words.218 NOTES TO PAGES 114-22 5. 14. This is the latter part of Mahdbhdrata. In my book How Buddhism Began (2006). 22. The Early Upanisads (1998). 15. pp. 7. Kosmogonia Rygwedy. no one noticed that there was even a problem with the original terms. This is obscured by Eggerling’s translation: ‘This. We recall how the Buddha made an advance in the conscious use of abstractions. JoannaJurewicz. For a fine study of the complex history of these two terms. The extra k in kkhandha when it occurs as the second member of a compound isjust an arbitrary spelling convention. 19. As this made satisfactory sense. 24. For the next seven paragraphs I am wholly indebted to my friend Professorjoannajurewicz of the University ofWarsaw. I further connect this to the short sermon about the burden (SN III. 20. unless indicated otherwise. pp. 6. the Sanskrit has simply tad evdsya manasy dsa: ‘J ust that was in his mind. Bhikkhu Bodhi. So. incidentally.. 7. weighed in his m ind’.8. but to discuss that would take us too far afield. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (2002). 13. n. There is a large collection of suttas about causal chains: the Niddna~ samyutta of the Samyutta Nikdya. 8. p. upddiin this context was changed to upadhi. Mysl i metafora [ Cosmogony of the Rgveda. 16. see the beginning of Chapter 12 below. and in particular was used to refer to the basis for craving (tanha). ‘Mind’ is manam and ‘ideas’ dhamme. R. 25-6). For Vessantara. In theory this should be done at dawn. This was apparently forgotten at a very early stage. G. twilight and dusk. 589-90. Patrick Olivelle. p. Most of them are about the Chain of . Demystifying Mentalities (1990). both here being in the accusative. 67. ‘Prajapati. 129: an attempt of interpretation’ (1995). 10. The most substantial. Walpola Rahula pointed out the similarity to Heraclitus. p. sal-dyatanam. 98-104).. 31. 6. pp.11. 1. Jurewicz (2000). The vision of the poets of the Rg Veda may have been of a less static world. (see Preface). rta. 100.40. 2003. DNU. ‘The Rgveda 10.NOTES TO PAGES 122-37 219 25.Phil. in What the Buddha Taught (1959). 30. See next note. 81. 2. pp. pp. Ibid. ‘Playing with fire: the pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought’ (2000). I owe this observation to members of the audience when I gave this chapter as a lecture at S. Later publications which give a great deal more evidence for her interpretation are unfortunately still available only in Polish. jara-maranam.S. Pali: avijjd. 3. phasso. is more fully explained in How Buddhism Began (1996). Joanna Jurewicz. 27. is connected with a verbal root (r) meaning ‘go’. 26. for their word for the underlying system of the world. Alexander Wynne. Jurewicz has shown that this is the true meaning of the decepdvely simple compound nama-rupa. 28..O. 5. p.A. 35-6. . This hypothesis. a very popular text. Mano means ‘m ental1. upaddnam. thesis. Joanna Jurewicz. The Origin of Buddhist Meditation (2007). with vivid similes. Joanna Jurewicz. 141-50. 7. 1. nama-rupa. The book is based on his Oxford D. In some traditions this introductory section. 4. 11. There is an alternative spelling: sankhara. 13. vinndnam. p. jdti. 29. by which I explain why a dhamma is called a dhamma. are suttas 63 and 64 (= SN II. n. Ibid. Dependent Origination. 14. ‘Playing with fire: the pratityasamutpada from the perspective of Vedic thought’ (2000). acquired a separate identity under the Sanskrit title of Catus-parisat-sutra. vedana. 8. 26. Vin. 9. This is the Yogdcara or Vijnanavada school. but did not connect it to fire.. tanhd. I have discussed the relationship between these two kinds of meditation in Chapter 4 of How Buddhism Began (2006). literally ‘name and form’.p. bhavo. Ibid. 1. 89-91. so adds nothing. Vin. 12.55. 82. samkhdrd. CHAPTER 9 1. but a few concern the chain of the four foods. 32. ‘Language. T heories of creation in Rig Veda' (1965). Norman Brown. but I cannot explore that here. cit. where the Buddha prohibits reciting his teaching in a drawnout musical tone. Oxford. 108. op. Hamilton... See my article‘The Buddha’s book of Genesis?’ (1992). the mind not being counted. Onians shows that this must be taken together with the chandaso prohibition.vol. For some of my views on the Buddha’s attitude to language I am indebted to the excellent (unpublished) thesis by Isabelle Onians. See especially Frauwallner. 6. 17. 9. 44-7. 27. 18.p . pp. Ronkin. once as samkhara and once as tanhd: the two come out of different contexts. cit. ‘name-form1. ‘the six domains’. Speech and Words in Early Buddhism'. 4. called S: nirukti. cit. 200-3. 3. pp. .45. 16. This interpretation also explains why ‘desire’ appears to figure twice in the chain. II. 139. p . Hence the common compound ndma-rupa. Sometimes there are only five indriya.. 5. the faculties are called ‘pertaining to the self (ajjhattika) and their objects ‘external1 (bdhira) ayatana. l . 11. Identity and Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism (1996). Erich Frauwallner. 10. 13. For a thorough and authoritative account of how the five khandha combine to create conscious experience.4. 8. ibid. 65f. op. Early Buddhist Metaphysics (2005).Phil. 245. 12. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (2000). Also useful is Bhikkhu Bodhi. see Sue Hamilton. '. This kind of analysis. M. pp. pp. vinnana only functions when there are other concomitant mental states which are primarily of a volitional nature. but the system settles down to counting six.’ Hamilton. op. GeschichlederindischenPhilosophie(1953).211. 54—5.220 NOTES TO PAGES 137-47 15. cit. Ronkin. Noa Ronkin. trans. II. I must warn readers that my attempt to summarize this without lapsing into obscurity has resulted in some over-simplification. has nothing to do with grammar. based on SJVII. 2. but this term covers both the six faculties and their objects. See also the further discussion of samkhara below. p. op.92. p. 100-1. 87. Ibid.. as explained in Chapter 9. 7. DN 1.. This might also help us to interpret a famous crux in the Brhad-dranyaka Upanisad (4.. Vin.10). thesis in Oriental Studies. April 1996. Vin. 14. 19. CHAPTER 10 1. P: nirutti. An even com moner term is sal-ayatana. I explain that it is quite possible that the authors had not had dramatic experiences similar to the Buddha’s Enlightenment. I here refrain from going into it further. sutta 121. op. To my surprise. p. he uses the synonyms abhisamkhata and abhisamcetayita. 20. pp. 108. James. only that it is sannd that interprets it according to our level of insight. 2. 17. Alexander Wynne. are illustrated and discussed in my monograph Religious Experience in Early Buddhism (1998). On the undecided questions see Ninian Smart. ‘T he oral transm ission of the early Buddhist literature’ (2004).NOTES TO PAGES 147-57 221 15. But the move also had advantages. 25. loc. pp. 31. William James. 19.and Theri-gdtha. 380-1. 23.. cit. But they can successfully be Googled on the internet. and work by K. These poems. 10. Gombrich. p. I draw my example from Michael Coulson. However. 21. Doctrine and Argument in Indian Philosophy (1964). This is the brahmin view of Indian vernacular languages. MN III. 35. He thus moved Pali in the direction of being for Theravada Buddhists what Sanskrit was for brahmins. 26. in the Madhupindika Sutta. Norman there quoted. 33-7. 153—5.109.4. 111. 24. pp. 6. 234. the commentary hopeless. cit. 36. Walpota Rahula. Cula-sunnata Sutta. 30. sutta 139.3. 14—18. 32. See Chapter 5. op. p.6. R. p. 167 below. 8. 22. 28. See also p. 29. See my Theravada Buddhism (2006). ciL. In the Cula-sunnata SuttavxMNW. 16.dt. but had reached the sensation of being enlightened by a more routinized path. Rahula. cit. Ronkin. Teach YourselfSanskrit (1976). The locus classicus for this use of papanca is M N 1.. so that although I am unconvinced by much of the detailed discussion by other scholars. Readers should be warned that spelling varies between cataphatic and kataphatic.. ‘There is no suggestion that the world is merely conceptual. the Thera. The wording is obscure. 60. 18. See Onians. Taittiriya Up. n. ‘Another Buddhist criticism of YSjnavalkya’ (2002). I agree that the general purport is fairly clear. MN. Richard F. 34. p. What the Buddha Taught (1959). The Varieties of Religious Experience (1985). MN. pp. and I suspect that the text is corrupt. 27. . neither cataphatic nor apophatic is given in the Oxford Shorter English Dictionary or in Webster’s.’ Hamilton. op. BAU 2. 40. loc. 33. pp. 3. M N II. It is in the Nidana Samyutta.395. Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi. p. pp.431. 1976. 260. n. 40. 7. 12. 1276. 49-52. op. 38. VIII. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (2001). 4. SjVII. MN.482. 80-1. 17.38. 14. 39. 40. 15. sutta 63. p. That actions have unintended consequences is a salient feature of Karl Popper’s view of history and society. pp. 3 = pp. so that we are confronted with a harsh mixed metaphor. 203. that religion offers at the same time a model o/and a model for. 2. op. 10. ‘Religion as a cultural system’. I think this may be the route by which the Hua Yen school arrived at their doctrine that everything condidons everything else. 34-^0. It would seem that tanha had become accepted as a technical term and its metaphorical character was no longer vivid.394. 8.222 NOTES TO PAGES 158-68 37. 714. 123). in The Interpretation of Cultures. Paul Williams. but I do not understand why they find this so different from the accepted fact that we do not know. We can deduce that the last remark refers to flattery. a title which indicates that that section of the text primarily concerns Dependent Origination. sutta 12. Ud. This applies particularly to Chapters 8 to 10 above. Williams. See Chapter 6. This recalls the formulation by Clifford Geertz. and never shall know. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (2000). M N 1. MN. I have applied this to (brahminical) dharmain ‘IsDharm aagood thing?’ (1997). 5. p. There is useful material on the terminology in Bhikkhu Bodhi. Buddhist Thought (2000).. cit. cit. 437-^8. 6. (See Clifford Geertz. n. See my Theravada Buddhism (2006). above. 15-18. What I have put in direct quotations is an abbreviated version of MN 1. literally ‘thirst’. The word for ‘craving’ here is tanhd. just what dying feels like for anybody. Some students find this unsatisfactory and persist in asking pointless questions. CHAPTER 11 1. p. Williams. 11.1strongly recommend the whole section T h e Buddha’s attitude to his teaching: the arrow and the raft’. 9. AN IV. p. 245 (n. 13. 1 to Chapter 1). MW 1. . 14.. Culamdlunkyd Sutta. MN 1. SNV. 41. p. Ill. p. translated by Buddhayasas in 410 ad . n. B. at AN IV. discussions. 28. AN II. See note 13 above. quoted in Walpola Rahula. 23. 26.. nor for increasing the num ber of those who are pleased. On this occasion he says he is not ekarnsa-vado. is a form of m editation’ (Rahula. See How Buddhism Began (2006). 30. Sarah Shaw. 41). Theravada Buddhism: A Social History. Vin. 39. cit. reading. pp. op. The terms are explained at Puggala^annatti IV. I. op. AN 11. ‘m editation’ (bhavana) includes ‘all our studies. rV. 18. 59-63. 5 (= p. The Middle Length Discourse of the Buddha. 21. p. 29. p. 46. ‘Popperian Vinaya: conjecture and refutation in practice’ (2007). 20. 38. spiritual and intellectual subjects’. As he writes.. Vin. 85-6. 1303. I think therefore that bhiyyohere means more in quality rather than in number. 22. he ranks seven motives for making gifts. cit. Horner translates this stock expression: ‘This is not for pleasing those who are not (yet) pleased. etc. 79. . Rahula. 909. 35. 37. I. p. 123-7. 64. 41. 25. What the Buddha Taught (1959). DN. p. I feel fortunate that Sarah Shaw’s admirable survey of canonical passages dealing with meditation should have appeared while I was preparing the lectures on which this book is based. ‘To read this book. T1428. Chapter IV. which one could translate ‘arguing one-sidedly’. Nanamoli and Bodhi. DN II. 33. 197. op. Richard F. conversation and deliberations’ on ‘ethical. especially pp. The highest is ‘for the decoration and equipm ent of the m ind’. Theravada Buddhism: A Social History. 32. 80. 21. cit. Why has the unusual English word ‘mindfulness’ come to be preferred to ‘awareness’ as the standard translation for satQ Another attem pt to make the East more mysterious? 31. 34.NOTES TO PAGES 168-75 223 16. 22—4. p. sutta 2. 24. M N II. Williams. 19. Vin. 74). 17. and to think deeply about the subjects discussed in it. There are different readings and consequently different interpretations of the name of this second type.135.’ But this makes the two results mean the same. For example. For more on the Buddha’s condem nation of literalism see my How Buddhism Began. 77. 63. 27. 39. 128-30. 40. 36. Gombrich. Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Textsfrom the Pali Canon (2006). There is in fact no precise Sanskrit equivalent to veda-gu.280. W. to decay’. Gombrich as The Perfect Generosity ofPrince Vessantara (1977). pp. Vin.5-7.. 1. Brdhmana-dhammika Sutta. Fausboll (ed. the eight and the ten sikkhdpada (both of which sets begin with sila).Jdtaka. Translated and illustrated by Margaret Cone and Richard F. M N 1. For a survey of the story’s diffusion. 310-11. T. 479-596. Asura and rakkhasa are two classes of non-human beings whose moral and cosmic standing is no higher than that of humans . 13. Mahd Assapura Sutta. the Dharmaguptaka version makes it clear that the issue concerns only full ordination. CHAPTER 12 1. 4. 3. 220 (Mahagopalaka Sutta). 43. so its omission here in the Pali must simply be due to textual corruption. 14.in fact. ‘to age.w. DNl. The word has no meaning. vi. pp. 5.224 NOTES TO PAGES 176-83 42. M N 39. This pun is of interest to philologists. Part I (1899). The passage recurs at Ud. as this is the start of the account of how that came to be a separate institution with a lower age requirement. 9.). which is indeed one of the several forms of the word found in the inscriptions of Asoka. 10. 12. w. cit. but suggests the Sanskrit verbal root jf. 1896. Snip. 44. Dialogues of the Buddha. The five sila. 2. xxxv-xliv. see Cone and Gombrich.. 284—315. Vin.3. though the meaning is obvious. Logically this must be right: the m ention of pabbajjd is anachronistic. 45. 46. . 7. 8. 187 (Sigalovada Sutta). DN III. because it very strongly suggests that in the Buddha’s dialect the word brahmanav/as pronounced bakana.. V. 6. Rhys Davids (trans. it is worth noting that no case is ever mentioned of a monk abusing a novice or being suspected of doing so. Moreover. 30-2. op. pp. rakkhasas are demons. 11.). MN I. It is in the Dharmaguptaka version of the Khandhaka. London. Though the Vinaya is not squeamish about mentioning sexual offences. 17-18. Snip. the word is formed by analogy with vedanta-gu (see next paragraph). vol. 3. 1. 77-94. 8. M N 1. n. 35. 34. Digha Nikdya. III. W. in that it is due to their moral history. on such subjects as phonetics. P. 32. edn.180-5. 343-4. DN. 22.S. 60-1. Rhys Davids. sutta 14. F. The professor presumably means ‘palisants’. SN III. I have explained in Chapter 8 that it is often short for aggi-kkhandha. 19. 28. 20. This is not a fundamental inequality. Cula Dukkha-kkhandha Suttat MN. 1. Dialogues of the Buddha. 141-2. The word which Olivelle translates ‘prospers’ is bhavati.T. merely omitting two short allusions to other postings on the Indology net. At this point the text refers only to the king and his chief queen. 23. P. pp. op. 27. These are Sanskrit texts. MN I. 16. p. T. III. MN. i. Sumahgala-vilasini. see especially DN I. 18. CHAPTER 13 1. 861-2. DN I. p. xxi-xxii. 26. people who study Pali. 47. sutta xxvii. A. especially in former lives. 2. which I have changed for fear of ambiguity. sutta 51. 21.NOTES TO PAGES 183-95 225 15. 25. Samannaphala Sutta.. 33. 30. 120. AN 1. so I would prefer to translate more literally ‘comes into being’. ‘Agganna Sutta: the Buddha’s book of Genesis?' (1992).. I assume that if the sponsor (yajamdna) is a rich brahmin.e. 17. Sic. 31. 3. auxiliary to the Vedas. Though khandha is usually translated just ‘mass’. Digkanikdyatthakathdtika Linatthavannand.93.has been explained in Chapter 3. even though this sounds paradoxical. Part III (1921). I have quoted the whole message verbatim.T. This is an accurate description of the Jain practice of nijjara\ see Chapter 4. edn. AN 1.162. Rhys Davids and C. Rhys Davids. The Early Upanisads (1998). 24. cit. sutta 5. and note to passage cited. 31.S. a blazing mass of fuel. . pp. 29. The same criticism of brahminical sacrifice is spelt out at greater length in the Kutadanta Sutta. he and his first wife take these roles. This ambiguity in the word brahma. Rhys Davids translates this last phrase as ‘in all respects like him’. 5. 5479. p. Gombrich. 10. may never come to fruition because they simply get crowded out by more significant acts. C hapter 5. isjust a case of vowel levelling. 11.. Buddhist Precept and Practice (1991). p. 18. 11(2). p. op. . Buddhism omits space. See my article ‘A momentous effect of translation: the “vehicles” of Buddhism’ (1996). These transactions do not merely inform the perceiver. Baudhayana Srauta Sutra 2. There are exceptions: comparatively trivial acts. which was not recognized and thus remained unchanged by the early redactors. 5. 55. This overlaps heavily with my article ‘“Merit transference” in Sinhalese Buddhism: a case of the interaction between doctrine and practice. 4. 6.’ Neisser. water and space. 13. Cognition and Reality (1976). but I doubt that this is relevant.3). used to mean ‘close quotes’. whether good or bad. The locus classicus is DN 1. ‘Perception and cognition are usually not just operations in the head. Richard F. 100. pp. Each of us is created by the cognitive acts in which he engages. The Early Upanisads (1998). The di derives from ti. 55-60.’ History ofReligions. p. pp. cit. see Erich Frauwallner. 2nd edn (with changed title). fire.226 NOTES TO PAGES 196-205 4. n. 23. 11 (italics original). There is a different list of five elements very near the end of the Aitareya Upanisad (3. no. 1992. 2.1 am indebted to Joel Brereton and Patrick Olivelle for this reference. 7. they also frvmsform him. History of Indian Philosophy (1973). especially pp. 1971:203-19. 8. 9. Ulric Neisser. 12.74. The technical term for such a superseded act in Theravada is ahosi hamma. u. APPENDIX 1. 13.4 April 2008. 3. Precept and Practice (1971). For a full discussion. 56-7. TLS. P: atta-sarana. air. the Prakritic form of Sanskrit iti. but transactions with the world. How Buddhism Began (1996). 6. 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Kosambi. ‘Inde vedique. 377—91. ‘Playing with fire: the pratityasamutpdda from the perspective of Vedic thought1. 1996. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Oskar von. 1979. pp. 2006. Wiesbaden: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. 6. London: Allen Sc Unwin. Buddhist Studies. Buddhist. London and New York: Routledge. Isabelle. London and New York: Routledge. 2005. and Greek Rebirth. ‘Language. University of London. . Alexander. Onians. Conjectures arid Refutations. Popper. London: Roudedge and Kegan Paul.Phil. 1964. ‘The oral transmission of the early Buddhist literature’. in Richard F. ‘Prajnavadams ca bhasase: polemics with Buddhism in the early parts of the Bhagavadgita’. Die UeberUeferung vom Lebensende des Buddha. Buddhist Meditation: An Anthology of Textsfrom the Pali Canon. The Origin of Buddhist Meditation. 2004. Walpola. Przemyslaw. 2002. Willis. Buddhist Thought. Ernst. Wynne. 27(1): 97-127. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Rahula. Gombrich and Cristina Scherrer-Schaub (eds). Speech and Words in Early Buddhism. Oxford University.July. Early Buddhist Metaphysics. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2004. 1991. Schmithausen. Monograph series VI. The Problem of the Sentience of Plants in Earliest Buddhism. 1996. Noa. 1963. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. ‘From relics to rice: early Buddhism and the Buddhist landscape of central India’. 23 January. Waldschmidt. Szczurek. 2008. 1959. Ninian. Lambert. Smart. Michael. Seaford. Williams. 2007. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies. Alexander. ‘The Brahmaviharas reconsidered1. Doctrine and Argument in Indian Philosophy. London and New York: Routledge. Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference. Gananath. R. unpublished paper given at The Richard Gombrich Celebratory Conference. Oxford. thesis. 1944-48. St H ugh’s College. 2000. Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Karl R.1 M. Sarah. unpublished paper given at School of Oriental and African Studies. Wynne. Wynne. 2006. 2004. Paul. Money and the Early Greek Mind.232 BIBLIOGRAPHY Obeyesekere. Ronkin. Alexander. What the Buddha Taught Bedford: Gordon Fraser. 2007. London: Routledge. Shaw. Studia Philologica Buddhica. 106.167 abhidhamma xiii. 59. 221 arahant/arahat 57—8. 158-9.97. 223 bodhisattva 12. 181. 112-13.187 . 54.157.163. 79-83.91.225 Brahmana& (genre of Vedic texts) 29.168. 130. Ludwig 212.190-1.213.215 brahma-canya 77.22—4.210 Adikaram.4. 17. 210 Asoka. 183-5.181. 211 Brahma 40-1. 36-40.52.62. 217 Ananda 100. 222. 79 bliss 64-5. 220 aggregates 8.114. E. 76.116 Artabhaga 37 asava 55-6.185 brahma-vihdra 79-90 passim. 3. 183-4.69. 106 Agganna Sutta 82.204 Brdhmana-dhammika Sutta 181. W. 118 Biardeau. xiv. 135-7. 183.182.148-9. 48 ahimsa 48.120.210. 45. 179 apperception 12.189-90.209.120. 179. 51. 145-6.166. 208-9. W.185.164. 58.198-9 Bollee.151.64-5.76. 218. see dtman Atthaka-vagga 101 austerities 45. ignorance Aydranga Sutta 35 Bailey. Emperor xi. Prince 166. 154. 207.150-5. 205 V attd.98. B. 73. 68.132.176 Anaximenes 128 Anuruddha 108 apophatic theology 69. 150.90.220.79-80.195.181-2. 89—90. Bhikkhu 114. see also khandha agriculture 19.225 Assaji 130 asura 34. 186-90. 102-3.JLX Abhaya. Greg 209 Balbir.211 Alexander the Great 96 Alsdorf.63-5.126-7. 207-8. see existence Benares xiv Bhagavad-Glta 97.6. 62.225 dtman 8-9. 192. 188-90.152. 210 avaddna 208 avijja.195. 48—9.175. 168.153. 202-3 Brahma-jdla Sutta 145-6. 88.90 ahostkamma 226 Ajivaka 19.64.103. 83.157. 83.158 Bodhi. Nalini 211 Baudhayana Srauta Sutra 226 being (noun). 221 appamdda 170. 192.204.108.229 Arani-vibkanga Sutta 147-8 Aristotle 1. Madeleine 216 Bihar xiv.150. 203. 203 brahman 37-41.69. 204 coherence of vii.134.80-2. 30.Joel 210.196 Dundas. 26.225 DeLay. Colette 211 Candragupta Maurya 96 caste xiv. 69.222 determinism vii. Norman 220 Buddha. 63.154. see also macrocosm Coulson.107.57. 85-6.122. 113. 184-6 cosmology 25-6.114. 72-3.132-8 passim. 226 Colebrooke. 36. Rhys 225 Davids.103.148. Paul 45.76.224 Digambara 45.167. T. Margaret 208. 203. 2. 127 pragmatism of 10.46.61. 76-8.33-42. 105-6. 122.18.66. 84. 161-79 passim Buddhaghosa 78. 211 education. 221 ethicizing by.225 consciousness 12.17.136. 58—9. Rhys 7.81-2.102. 102.150. 152.141.181. 67.144. 20.196.66.186-9.219 Dhamma (the Truth the Buddha taught) xti. 161.176.127.218-19. 188-91. Kate viii Cilia Dukkha-kkhandha Sutta 190.118-27. 220.98.200. 7-8. 48.89. Francis 93 Crosby.220 context. 46.84. 78.183. S.134-8. HenryThomas 211 Collins.124.51. xiv-xv.61.168.194 date of xiii—xiv Enlightenment 58.Johannes 51. 153-5.164.109. 195. 59. 4. 182. 132. 87.118. Sutta 221 Davids. 147-8.195 cosmogony 8.5. 142. F. 129. historical vii. Pali 96 cognition 117-18.213.226 Bronkhorst. 224. 126.149. 180-3.88-9.86.147. ix.144-6.183-4. 46.14. 189-90. 133-8.140. 9.115. A.192. Dorothy 93 Dependent Origination 110.118. 75. 2. 158-9.160. 83. 207. 183.197. 208.163-4 originality of vii. 172.174 Christianity 11.171-2. traditional 15. 52 dreaming 37.142.210 chronicles.114.139.74.145.69.220 Brere ton . see funerals Crick. 177. 87 Dharmaguptaka 174.66 dukkha 10.218.160.156.234 INDEX Brahmins xi. 123. W. 141. C. 67.61-2. s£«ethicization omniscience of 110.12. 112.14. 132.195 cataphatic theology 149.186. L. 107. 131-2 dhamma (constituent of reality) 129-30. 75-6.85.142.155.18.199 Dhammapada 35. see cosmogony cremation.195 . 2. 221 Catus-parisat-sutra 219 Chandas 146-7.172 egalitarianism 15.63.173. 88-9.118.215 cow-killing 181 creation of the world. Michael 221 Cousins.19.89.43. 67. 152-4. 73.158.209 compassion ix.134-5.15. Steven 27.178.56.141.101-2. 121. 78.126. 222 desire 38. 126.171-2.121.33. viii.145. 144-6. 23. 220 China/Chinese 3.132. 22.213 Buddhayasas 223 Burma 99 Caillat.89-91.204 Cone. 56.128.76. 63.218. 68-9.212 Brown. the abstract thinking by vii. 21. 13. 182. 64-5.195 concentration 84.150. 225 Cilia Sunnata.47. 155. 52.138. 109.15. 208.153 jhdna 72. the three 10. 197. 3.219 Himiber.213. 81 Fussman. 111-28 passim.34. 64.140. 75.142 Italian language 5 Jacobi.84.56.58-9. 48. 212. I. 84. author’s use of ix.44.169-70. 73-4. 89-90 ethicization vii.108-9. Soon-11 132.83. 144-60 passim.34.217.208.110 Gotama (Buddha’s family name) xii.38. 208 existence 64—5.65.154. 32. 49.102—4.212 Hwang. ix.123-6.108. 67.140-2.148 Enlightenment.157-9.150.32.18. 94-7.16. see gahapati HuaYen 142.138. 14. 186 gods.204. 79. viii.135.141. Buddha’s. B. Buddhist 13. 166.52 idealism 64.137. 195 Indra 181. 68—9. 9-10. 74.114. 106.121. 214. 25-6.210.158. 221 Harvey.49-50. 142.218 Jesus 4.75.58.102. Oskar von 216 Horner.126. 94 Hiisken.75. 220.64. 20. 224 evidence.12-14. 77. 12 hallmarks. 69-70.203 ekodi-bhava 204 empiricism 10.149.181.203 ethics.43.67. 79. Hermann 51 Jaini.81-2. 133. conscious vii.33.179. 220. 148 Hamilton.171. 60. 144—6. 36.INDEX 235 Eightfold Path 103-4.195.196.109.120. 30.103. xiv.27. 2. 93. see under Buddha epistemology 61.197.127.167. 119 VessantaraJataka 180-1. 130-1. 24-5. 135. 138. 220 fathers (paternal ancestors).40. 155. Sigmund 216 funerals 29.41-3.97.132^4.186 Gombrich.140.126-7. 4.191.197.51.222 Hume.125. 41-3. 129-31. 210. 138-9 impermanence 1. E.138.156 equanimity 78-9. 111-13. Erich 39.138.see also meditation .9-10. 176. William 152. 196. 58. 123.123.127.219 Fire Sermon 111-14. Clifford 222 ghosts 61-2.25. 81. 89-90 Frauwallner. 144 emptiness 91. David 4. Gerard 97 gahapati 23-4. 134. 201 ignorance 121. 71-3.67-9.84.139. 73.145 fire 32.P. 203 First Council 100-1. 73-4. 131.218 hylozoism 48. 38.211.69-71.111-18.221 Japanese 198 Jataka 12.82. 131.196.S. 114. 53.33. 73.225 James.81. 112 gandhabba 72 Gandhara 98 gantha-dhura 47 Geertz.85-6.36.185-6.192.123.58. 63.173. 226 Freud. Ute 53-4.88. 211.124. 57. Buddhist 36. Peter 56. 216 First Sermon 50. 171 Five fire wisdom 29-30. 30-6.160 experience.127.134.132. 46. 72-3. 54. H. pilaras feelings of pleasure and pain 12. 72. 65.207-8 individuation vii.145.108.223 householder.213 Jainism vii. 130. see also Sakka intention 7. Sue ix.204.212 Heraclitus 128. 81-4.126-7.128. 130.141.203 irony vii.45-59 passim.217. 224 Kim.120.200. 176. D. see also nirvana life monad 34-5. 126-7.51.134.165.236 INDEX jina-kappa 47 jiva.182. 63.15. 223 Lloyd. 23.77-8.R.48.40. G.115-15.127.83.66.210. 45. Elizabeth 93.58-9.48.110 meditation 14.78.) 3 M . 2.141-2.133-9.37-8.12.62.83.32.128. 146-9. 6-7. 78. George 116 language.141. 131.65. 12.167 Mahayana xv. 45-7.49-51. Wan Doo 214 kindness. 82-4. Damien 13 khandkd 8. 197 Khandhaka 57.199. 109. 2.69.83. Karl 108. D. 123.218 Mahdgopdlaka Sutta 224 Mahakaccana 101 Mahdnidana Sutta 132 Mahaparinibbana Sutta 108.85. 185 Mahdbhdrata 188.19-22.157-9.188 kusala 15. 30.168-9. 101. 74.132.90. 195 Mabbett.43. Charles 65.152-4. 73.154.57. 218.216.198-7. 219-20 Kaccayana-gotto Sutta 160 Kalamas.65. 70. 124-6.130 Kosambi.86.85.157.162.195-6 liberation vii.E. 44. 47-51.14.91. 48.viii-ix.72. Buddha’s view of 17. 33. see love Kondanna 104.135-6. 59. 88-90. 142 Madhupindika Sutta 221 Madhyamaka 131 magic 21. Will (W.42.73-4. 152.66.68. 83-4.145-6. 154. 76. 210-12 Jujaka 180-1 Juo-Hsiieh.169 Buddhist vii. 218 Lord’s Prayer 86 Lotus Sutra 165 love ix.113. 58-9. 7.179. 33.107.58. 7.129.154. 65 Linatthavannand 225 literalism xiii.162.84. 75. 187.57. 34-6.216 McGrath.30.127.49. 104. 70.32-3.205. 75-6. 130.32.63.198-9. advice to 15-16.24-8.62. 43-4.116.197.17. 71-2. 16.190.168. 218. 23. 116-19. 200 Kandaraka Sutta 191 Kapilavatthu 177 karma brahminical 7.216 Mahinda 106 Maitrey! 88 Makkhali Gosala 19 Malamoud.146 Maha Assapura Sutta 225 MahaSammata 186 Maha Sihandda Sutta 163 Maha Tanhd-Sahkhaya Sutta 119-24.42. 209 Mahdvastu 87 Mahavira xiv.209 ksatriya xiv. 194-6.11-14.223 mesocosm 39 m etaphor vii.170 Kutadanta sutta 225 Lakoff.34. 75.166. 77.219.103-4. Ian 209 macrocosm 38-40.165.81-2. 206 Jain 32. . 60. 6-7. 49-51.55.63.89. Queen 88 Malurikyaputta 167 Manu 217 Mara 213 Marx.207. 49-51.195 Kathmandu 99 Keown. 174.90. 43.213 Mallika.52.85-90. see life monad Johnson.Joanna ix~x. BhikkhunT 212 Jurewicz. 76-8.35-6.J. 90. 154-5. see ahimsa Norman.109.194. 5. 69-70.103.220 ordination.62 Popper.168.181. 221 pariyaya 6. 27. 198.95.168 Moggallana 130-1 Mohammed 4 Moksa-dharma 118 Moliya Sivaka 20-1 monetization 24-5 monks.197.149.213.77.67. K.15.142. 35.135.141.163.157.69.166.149. 187.184-5.125.176.151. 203.101. 196. 70.132.53. 224 outcastes 42. 55. Buddhist 54. 224 moon 42. 148.57.162. K.145.36.220 nirvana vii. 105.30-2.41.152.128. xi'.226 Onians. 128 Parsva 46 Pasenadi.141.INDEX 237 103.159 ndna-dassana 56-7 Nanamoli 209.78.68.181.217 No Self/No Soul 8-11. 224 Numata Foundation vii—viii nuns xii. Max 92-3.199 Noble Truths 10.103-4.11. 54.77.191-2.42.153.193-4.221.225 Pali Canon vii.60-2. 87.182 non-returner 89-90 non-violence. R.129.170.103.214.201. King 88.201.140.84. 56.199.61.120. 115.155.215. 81 moral undertakings 14. 124-5.82-3.110.167. 5-6. 13. 97-102 passim.138. 157-8 Nagarjuna 131.163.130.217. Ulric 226 Nepal xiv nibbdna. 153.218. 151. xiii. 175-7.214. Buddhist xii. St 85 Perutz. Isabelle 220 ontology 2.130.150.223 Pan ini 146 papanca 150. Gananath 25.84. violence against 52-3 Plato 1. 47.145.173. 89-90.221.73.175-7.98.145. 70.62.208.161. 104-5.144. 73. 46.165.16.141 Middle Way 50.69. 94. see love Metta Sutta 86-7.189 Patimokkka xiii. xv. 155-9 160.190.16. Buddhist Moses 4 Mulasarvastivada 174 mysticism 3.215 peta 71—3 pitaras 29. viii. 133-4.207 Parkjungnok 174 Parmenides 65.210 plants. 2. xiii.125-7.154-5. 209-10 Olivelle. 113.123.162.134.111-16.87.165. 131.215. 222 method 4 . 210.179.159.147. 207. 27. 44 padikkamana 55 Pali viii.99.121.50.207.216. 27. 71.175. 181.217.112.146.112.140. 130.216.19. 177-8.121. 58. 224.156 orality 100-5. 160.75. 217.225 Nikdya.17.221 novices xii. Patrick 39. 157.158.102-3.127.111-12. four xiii nirutti 147. 173.193.4.151.222 nijjara 54.32.107.175 Patna xiv Paul. 66. 55. 52-4.138. 215 microcosm 38-40. 222 Prajapati 118 .134.114. 68.223 Nanda 177 Neisser.66. 225. see nirvana Nidana-Samyutta 218.210.173. see also ethics.104.9-10.92-5 metta.167.212 Obeyesekere.205.175-7. 12.76.R. 151.51. xi. 49.118.104.66. 61-2.95.127.22. 5.26. 188-90 Sankara 64 Sanskrit xi.146.69.101.168 srdddha 71 Sri Lanka 86.81.71.149-50.186 puthujjana 204 Rajgir 45 Rahula (the Buddha’s son) 176-7 Rahula. 141-2.218 Sonadanda 109 sophistication 76 soul 8-9. 205 sarnsdra 29. 144-6. 90. 39. 188 Sumangala-vildsinl 216.121 satire vii. 127.67.220 Shakyas xiv shamanism 66 Shaw. 74.15.172. 210 ritual 14.161.180-91 passim.172.87.63. 70.44.13.196.148.10-11. 69. M. Tadeusz viii slaves 23. Gregory 97 Schopenhauer.135. 220 Sabbasava Sutta 56 sacrifice 7. seepeta process vii. 123-5. 71.198. 128. 45. 1. Ninian 154.130. 205. 62-3.223 Sigdlovdda Sutta 224 Sinhala language 106 Skill in Means 7.186. 225 samdrambha 56 samatha 126.144.129.221.175-6 Suyagadanga Sutta 50 .177 sasana xii Satapatha Brdhmana 118-19.63. 140-1. 114. 35.225 sun 81.175.19 rebirth 16.103. see also rebirth Sarigarava 77-8.153-4. 78.223 rakkhasa 181. 153. N. 215 Schmithausen. 112. 132.65-6.119. 72 Suddhodana 177 sudra xv.207.57.punya 14.185.43. 163.104. i 35—6.41. 205.70.49 purity/impurity 34.196. 173.165 Skorupski. 10.87.37.25.14. Dr Walpola viii. L.189 Smart. Richard 24-5.119.11.33. Ven. Paul 96.42. viii Sakka 70 Sdmannaphala Sutta 171.47. 134-7. 151-2. 174 sense organs 59. 73-4. 221 Sariputta 130-1. 11. Artur 60 Seaford.216 rightview 27.25.148. 212 Schopen.238 INDEX Prakrit xi pre-Socratic philosophers 39.194.160.51.135.29-43 passim.178.13. 130.196-S.165 soma 117-18.44. 220 Sdmkhya 63.51. Ven. 79.17.139.219. 174.64.137. Ernst 174 Stoicism 60 stream-enterer 89.200.171 samkappa 203 samkhdrd 1. 106-7 Steinkellner.12.135.173.77.128 preta.112. 133 Sati 119.98.196 responsibility vii.58. 195 Ricoeur.52.116-17 Sutta-nipdta 153. 203 Ronkin. 111. 67-8. 153.148.225 Saddhatissa.113.176 Srinivas.160.34. 10-11.188-9 purusa 36-7.181-2.146. 64. 145-6.105 Saiigha xii-xiii. 70.209 Second Council 101.139-41.162.131. 206 Puggala-fannatti 223 punna.191.116. 55.84.181.123.159. 5-6. 204 subtle body 65. 183 Sutta-vibhanga 174. 225 Sutta Pitaka xiii.147. Noa x.13.22.47-8.105-6.225 Ramanuja 64 randomness vii.99-100. H.43-4.28. Sarah 215.221 Socrates 7.36.202.155-6. 2.77.119. 201 Tipitaka. 222-3 Willis. 224 vipassana 47. xv.85. 136. 182.219 Aitareya 226 Brhad-dranyaka xv.198.63-5.84.175 ti-lakkhana. 29.219 vibhajja-vddo 168. 219 vinaya xii-xiii.36. xv. 27 transfer of merit 36. 84.155.88.226 Three Jewels xii.121.James 93 Williams.204. xiv.187. 205. 126.106.96. see desire Tathdgata 151-2.182. 33. 25-6.163. Buddha’s definition of 67-8. Przemyslaw 216 tddi 151-2 tanha. Alexander x.49.61.225 understanding. 225 Fig Veda ix-x.102. 154.135.46-7 Szczurek. 208 Wynne.108. 80.165.70. 133-4.42. 74. 36-8.61.127 Waldschmidt. 167 Tattvartha Sutra 56. 42.195.187-9.63-5. Ernst 217 Watson. 23.220 Chandogya 30. 199. 5.132. upadi 12. 15-16. 218 Upaka 57 Upali (senior monk) 100 Upali (novice) 175-6 Upanishads ix. 162. 168 world. 205. 139-40.76.170.107. 40.60.109. 37.128. 226 translation 5.98.86. 70.210 Kausitaki 209 Mundaka 151 Taittinya 120. 187. see Pali Canon Tirthamkara 45-6 trade xiv. 79-80.101.171 mhdra 79 Vijndnavdda 3.126.63-70.82-4.222 updddna. 80. 222. 2. 41-3.133. 172. 188.26 thera-kappa 47 Thera-then-gdlhd 53-4. 64.210 Vasubandh u 217 Vedanta 60.165.182.60. 104. 59. 173.221.130.217. 184-7.168. 38.INDEX 239 sva-dharma 14 Svetambara 45.217.88. 208.221 Yajnavalkya 37-8.219.150-1. Michael 209 wisdom 7-8.147.193.198-9.116-18. 52. 41-3. xv. see Three Jewels Tibetan language 98. 200 Three Refuges.95.157.61.8-9. 118.133-4.102.120.91 Tevijja-vacchagotta Sutta 163 Thailand 99 Thales 128 theod icy 19-21. 80.171. 79.147.56. see hallmarks Times Literary Supplement. Paul 131.188 varna xiv.89-90. 29-30.120-1. 72.182. 200.102. see wisdom unintended consequences 167.39. 151 urbanization 22 vaisya xv. 83.106. 141 writing xiii.17.205 Vedas xi. 22-3. 161-2.113—16. 99-101. 216 Udana 217. 125.47.90. 177. 154.150. 26.158. 221 Theravada xiii.153-4 Zen 3 .162.204.86. 106.163. 213 Ten Perfections 89 Tevijja Sutta 80-4.29-30. 100.85. 173-7. Gombrich gives a much richer picture of the Buddha's meaning. and also to ancient Jainism. he did not found his arguments upon it. Cover image: Seated Buddha. since many of the Buddha's allusions can only be traced in the Pali versions of surviving texts. To make the book completely accessible to the general reader. Incidentally. Similarly. The book contains much new material. ©V & A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum. but by relating them to early brahminical texts. and analysed fire as a process which could stand as a model for every component of conscious experience. Interpreters both ancient and modern have taken little account of the historic context of the Buddha's teachings. 16th to 17th century. he held the Boden Chair of Sanskrit at Oxford University and a Professorial Fellowship at Balliol College for twenty-eight years. The author of 200 publications. he continues to lecture and teach at universities round the world. Richard Gombrich is founder and President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. building on older texts. Intended to serve as an introduction to the Buddha's thought. Lan Na Kingdom. he argued for the fundamental importance of love and compassion. London Cover design: www. especially when his satire and irony are appreciated. the book also has larger aims: it argues that we can know far more about the Buddha than it is fashionable among scholars to admit. Northern Thailand.hisandhersdesign. Heethicized and radically reinterpreted older ideas of karma (human action) and rebirth. the author provides an introductory section of 'Background Information. The author stresses the Buddha's capacity for abstraction: though he made extensive use of metaphor. Before his retirement in 2004.co. and that his thought has a greater coherence than is usually recognized. the book establishes the importance of the Pali Canoi as evidence. and Chairman of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies. and hence even to Buddhism itself. Morally.fa 1Buddhist Studies Monoqraphs i>i h a i c j I n O m b n c h What the Buddha Thought Richard Gombrich In What the Buddha Thought Richard Gombrich argues that the Buddha was one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of all time. for easy reference. the Buddha's theory of karma provided a principle of individuation and asserted each individual's responsibility for his own destiny.uk Printed in Great Brit ISBN 970-1 -84553-614-i . as earlier thinkers had done.