The Buddha and His
Message
Past,
Present, and Future
Lecture on
Vesak Day
by Ven.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
United Nations, 15
May 2000 Prologue
To begin, I would
like to express my pleasure to be here today, on this auspicious occasion of
the first international recognition and celebration of Vesak at the United
Nations. Though I wear the robe of a Theravada Buddhist monk, I am not an
Asian Buddhist but a native of New York City, born and raised in Brooklyn. I
knew nothing about Buddhism during the first twenty years of my life. In my
early twenties I developed an interest in Buddhism as a meaningful
alternative to modern materialism, an interest which grew over the following years.
After finishing my graduate studies in Western philosophy, I traveled to Sri
Lanka, where I entered the Buddhist monastic order. I have lived in Sri Lanka
for most of my adult life, and thus I feel particularly happy to return to my
home city to address this august assembly. Vesak is the day
marking the birth, enlightenment, and passing away of the Buddha, which
according to traditional accounts all occurred on the full-moon day of May.
Ever since the fifth century B.C., the Buddha has been the Light of Asia, a
spiritual teacher whose teaching has shed its radiance over an area that once
extended from the Kabul Valley in the west to Japan in the east, from Sri
Lanka in the south to Siberia in the north. The Buddha's sublime personality
has given birth to a whole civilization guided by lofty ethical and
humanitarian ideals, to a vibrant spiritual tradition that has ennobled the
lives of millions with a vision of man's highest potentials. His graceful
figure is the centerpiece of magnificent achievements in all the arts—in
literature, painting, sculpture, and architecture. His gentle, inscrutable
smile has blossomed into vast libraries of scriptures and treatises
attempting to fathom his profound wisdom. Today, as Buddhism becomes better
known all over the globe, it is attracting an ever-expanding circle of
followers and has already started to make an impact on Western culture. Hence
it is most fitting that the United Nations should reserve one day each year
to pay tribute to this man of mighty intellect and boundless heart, whom
millions of people in many countries look upon as their master and guide. The Birth of the Buddha
The first event in
the life of the Buddha commemorated by Vesak is his birth. In this part of my
talk I want to consider the birth of the Buddha, not in bare historical
terms, but through the lens of Buddhist tradition—an approach that will
reveal more clearly what this event means for Buddhists themselves. To view
the Buddha's birth through the lens of Buddhist tradition, we must first
consider the question, “What is a Buddha?” As is widely known, the word
“Buddha” is not a proper name but an honorific title meaning “the Enlightened
One” or “the Awakened One.” The title is bestowed on the Indian sage
Siddhartha Gautama, who lived and taught in northeast India in the fifth
century B.C. From the historical point of view, Gautama is the Buddha, the
founder of the spiritual tradition known as Buddhism. However, from the
standpoint of classical Buddhist doctrine, the word “Buddha” has a wider
significance than the title of one historical figure. The word denotes, not
just a single religious teacher who lived in a particular epoch, but a type
of person—an exemplar—of which there have been many instances in the course
of cosmic time. Just as the title “American President” refers not just to
Bill Clinton, but to everyone who has ever held the office of the American
presidency, so the title “Buddha” is in a sense a “spiritual office,”
applying to all who have attained the state of Buddhahood. The Buddha
Gautama, then, is simply the latest member in the spiritual lineage of
Buddhas, which stretches back into the dim recesses of the past and forward
into the distant horizons of the future. To understand this
point more clearly requires a short excursion into Buddhist cosmology. The
Buddha teaches that the universe is without any discoverable beginning in
time: there is no first point, no initial moment of creation. Through
beginningless time, world systems arise, evolve, and then disintegrate, followed
by new world systems subject to the same law of growth and decline. Each
world system consists of numerous planes of existence inhabited by sentient
beings similar in most respects to ourselves. Besides the familiar human and
animal realms, it contains heavenly planes ranged above our own, realms of
celestial bliss, and infernal planes below our own, dark realms of pain and
misery. The beings dwelling in these realms pass from life to life in an
unbroken process of rebirth called sa.msaara, a word which means “the
wandering on.” This aimless wandering from birth to birth is driven by our
own ignorance and craving, and the particular form any rebirth takes is
determined by our karma, our good and bad deeds, our volitional actions of
body, speech, and thought. An impersonal moral law governs this process,
ensuring that good deeds bring a pleasant rebirth, and bad deeds a painful
one. In all planes of
existence life is impermanent, subject to aging, decay, and death. Even life
in the heavens, though long and blissful, does not last forever. Every
existence eventually comes to an end, to be followed by a rebirth elsewhere.
Therefore, when closely examined, all modes of existence within sa.msaara
reveal themselves as flawed, stamped with the mark of imperfection. They are
unable to offer a stable, secure happiness and peace, and thus cannot deliver
a final solution to the problem of suffering. However, beyond
the conditioned spheres of rebirth, there is also a realm or state of perfect
bliss and peace, of complete spiritual freedom, a state that can be realized
right here and now even in the midst of this imperfect world. This state is
called Nirvaana (in Pali, Nibbaana), the “going out” of the flames of greed,
hatred, and delusion. There is also a path, a way of practice, that leads
from the suffering of sa.msaara to the bliss of Nirvaana; from the round of
ignorance, craving, and bondage, to unconditioned peace and freedom. For long ages this
path will be lost to the world, utterly unknown, and thus the way to Nirvaana
will be inaccessible. From time to time, however, there arises within the
world men who, by his own unaided effort and keen intelligence, finds the
lost path to deliverance. Having found it, he follows it through and fully
comprehends the ultimate truth about the world. Then he returns to humanity
and teaches this truth to others, making known once again the path to the
highest bliss. The person who exercises this function is a Buddha. A Buddha is thus
not merely an Enlightened One, but is above all an Enlightener, a World
Teacher. His function is to rediscover, in an age of spiritual darkness, the
lost path to Nirvaana, to perfect spiritual freedom, and teach this path to
the world at large. Thereby others can follow in his steps and arrive at the
same experience of emancipation that he himself achieved. A Buddha is not
unique in attaining Nirvaana. All those who follow the path to its end
realize the same goal. Such people are called arahants, “worthy ones,”
because they have destroyed all ignorance and craving. The unique role of a
Buddha is to rediscover the Dharma, the ultimate principle of truth, and to
establish a “dispensation” or spiritual heritage to preserve the teaching for
future generations. So long as the teaching is available, those who encounter
it and enter the path can arrive at the goal pointed to by the Buddha as the
supreme good. To qualify as a
Buddha, a World Teacher, an aspirant must prepare himself over an
inconceivably long period of time spanning countless lives. During these past
lives, the future Buddha is referred to as a bodhisattva, an aspirant to the
full enlightenment of Buddhahood. In each life the bodhisattva must train
himself, through altruistic deeds and meditative effort, to acquire the
qualities essential to a Buddha. According to the teaching of rebirth, at
birth our mind is not a blank slate but brings along all the qualities and
tendencies we have fashioned in our previous lives. Thus to become a Buddha
requires the fulfillment, to the ultimate degree, of all the moral and
spiritual qualities that reach their climax in Buddhahood. These qualities
are called paaramiis or paaramitaas, transcendent virtues or perfections.
Different Buddhist traditions offer slightly different lists of the
paaramiis. In the Theravada tradition they are said to be tenfold:
generosity, moral conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience,
truthfulness, determination, loving-kindness, and equanimity. In each
existence, life after life through countless cosmic aeons, a bodhisattva must
cultivate these sublime virtues in all their manifold aspects. What motivates the
bodhisattva to cultivate the paaramiis to such extraordinary heights is the
compassionate wish to bestow upon the world the teaching that leads to the
Deathless, to the perfect peace of Nirvaana. This aspiration, nurtured by
boundless love and compassion for all living beings caught in the net of
suffering, is the force that sustains the bodhisattva in his many lives of
striving to perfect the paaramiis. And it is only when all the paaramiis have
reached the peak of perfection that he is qualified to attain supreme
enlightenment as a Buddha. Thus the personality of the Buddha is the
culmination of the ten qualities represented by the ten paaramiis. Like a
well-cut gem, his personality exhibits all excellent qualities in perfect
balance. In him, these ten qualities have reached their consummation, blended
into a harmonious whole. This explains why
the birth of the future Buddha has such a profound and joyful significance for
Buddhists. The birth marks not merely the arising of a great sage and ethical
preceptor, but the arising of a future World Teacher. Thus at Vesak we
celebrate the Buddha as one who has striven through countless past lives to
perfect all the sublime virtues that will entitle him to teach the world the
path to the highest happiness and peace. The Quest for Enlightenment
From the heights
of classical Buddhology, I will now descend to the plain of human history and
briefly review the life of the Buddha up to his attainment of enlightenment.
This will allow me to give a short summary of the main points of his
teaching, emphasizing those that are especially relevant today. At the outset I
must stress that the Buddha was not born as an Enlightened One. Though he had
qualified himself for Buddhahood through his past lives, he first had to
undergo a long and painful struggle to find the truth for himself. The future
Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in the small Sakyan republic close to
the Himalayan foothills, a region that at present lies in southern Nepal.
While we do not know the exact dates of his life, many scholars believe he
lived from approximately 563 to 483 B.C.; a smaller number place the dates
about a century later. Legend holds he was the son of a powerful monarch, but
the Sakyan state was actually a tribal republic, and thus his father was
probably the chief of the ruling council of elders. As a royal youth,
Prince Siddhartha was raised in luxury. At the age of sixteen he married a
beautiful princess named Yasodhara and lived a contented life in the capital,
Kapilavastu. Over time, however, the prince became increasingly pensive. What
troubled him were the great burning issues we ordinarily take for granted,
the questions concerning the purpose and meaning of our lives. Do we live
merely for the enjoyment of sense pleasures, the achievement of wealth and
status, the exercise of power? Or is there something beyond these, more real
and fulfilling? At the age of 29, stirred by deep reflection on the hard
realities of life, he decided that the quest for illumination had a higher
priority than the promise of power or the call of worldly duty. Thus, while
still in the prime of life, he cut off his hair and beard, put on the saffron
robe, and entered upon the homeless life of renunciation, seeking a way to
release from the round of repeated birth, old age, and death. The princely
ascetic first sought out the most eminent spiritual teachers of his day. He
mastered their doctrines and systems of meditation, but soon enough realized
that these teachings did not lead to the goal he was seeking. He next adopted
the path of extreme asceticism, of self-mortification, which he pursued
almost to the door of death. Just then, when his prospects looked bleak, he
thought of another path to enlightenment, one that balanced proper care of
the body with sustained contemplation and deep investigation. He would later
call this path “the middle way” because it avoids the extremes of sensual
indulgence and self-mortification. Having regained
his strength by taking nutritious food, one day he approached a lovely spot
by the bank of the Nera.tjara River, near the town of Gaya. He sat down
cross-legged beneath a tree (later called the Bodhi Tree), making a firm
resolution that he would never rise up from his seat until he had won his
goal. As night descended he entered into deeper and deeper stages of
meditation. Then, the records tell us, when his mind was perfectly composed,
in the first watch of the night he recollected his past births, even during
many cosmic aeons; in the middle watch, he developed the “divine eye” by
which he could see beings passing away and taking rebirth in accordance with
their karma; and in the last watch, he penetrated the deepest truths of
existence, the most basic laws of reality. When dawn broke, the figure
sitting beneath the tree was no longer a bodhisattva, a seeker of
enlightenment, but a Buddha, a Perfectly Enlightened One, who had stripped
away the subtlest veils of ignorance and attained the Deathless in this very
life. According to Buddhist tradition, this event occurred in May of his
thirty-fifth year, on the Vesak full moon. This is the second great occasion
in the Buddha's life that Vesak celebrates: his attainment of enlightenment. For several weeks
the newly enlightened Buddha remained in the vicinity of the Bodhi Tree
contemplating from different angles the truth he had discovered. Then, as he
gazed out upon the world, his heart was moved by deep compassion for those
still mired in ignorance, and he decided to go forth and teach the liberating
Dharma. In the months ahead his following grew by leaps and bounds as both
ascetics and householders heard the new gospel and went for refuge to the
Enlightened One. Each year, even into old age, the Buddha wandered among the
villages, towns, and cities of northeast India, patiently teaching all who
would lend an ear. He established an order of monks and nuns, the Sangha, to
carry on his message. This order still remains alive today, perhaps (along with
the Jain order) the world's oldest continuous institution. He also attracted
many lay followers who became devout supporters of the Blessed One and the
order. The Buddha's Teaching: Its
Aim
To ask why the
Buddha's teaching spread so rapidly among all sectors of northeast Indian
society is to raise a question that is not of merely historical interest but
is also relevant to us today. For we live at a time when Buddhism is exerting
a strong appeal upon an increasing number of people, both East and West. I
believe the remarkable success of Buddhism, as well as its contemporary
appeal, can be understood principally in terms of two factors: one, the aim
of the teaching; and the other, its methodology. As to the aim, the
Buddha formulated his teaching in a way that directly addresses the critical
problem at the heart of human existence—the problem of suffering—and does so
without reliance upon the myths and mysteries so typical of religion. He
further promises that those who follow his teaching to its end will realize
here and now the highest happiness and peace. All other concerns apart from
this, such as theological dogmas, metaphysical subtleties, rituals and rules
of worship, the Buddha waves aside as irrelevant to the task at hand, the
mind's liberation from its bonds and fetters. This pragmatic
thrust of the Dharma is clearly illustrated by the main formula into which
the Buddha compressed his program of deliverance, namely, the Four Noble
Truths: (1) the noble
truth that life involves suffering (2) the noble
truth that suffering arises from craving (3) the noble
truth that suffering ends with the removal of craving (4) the noble
truth that there is a way to the end of suffering. The Buddha not
only makes suffering and release from suffering the focus of his teaching,
but he deals with the problem of suffering in a way that reveals
extraordinary psychological insight. He traces suffering to its roots within
our minds, first to our craving and clinging, and then a step further back to
ignorance, a primordial unawareness of the true nature of things. Since
suffering arises from our own minds, the cure must be achieved within our
minds, by dispelling our defilements and delusions with insight into reality.
The beginning point of the Buddha's teaching is the unenlightened mind, in
the grip of its afflictions, cares, and sorrows; the end point is the
enlightened mind, blissful, radiant, and free. To bridge the gap
between the beginning and end points of his teaching, the Buddha offers a
clear, precise, practicable path made up of eight factors. This of course is
the Noble Eightfold Path. The path begins with (1) right view of the basic
truths of existence, and (2) right intention to undertake the training. It
then proceeds through the three ethical factors of (3) right speech, (4)
right action, and (5) right livelihood, to the three factors pertaining to
meditation and mental development: (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness,
and (8) right concentration. When all eight factors of the path are brought
to maturity, the disciple penetrates with insight the true nature of
existence and reaps the fruits of the path: perfect wisdom and unshakable
liberation of mind. The Methodology of the
Teaching
The methodological
characteristics of the Buddha's teaching follow closely from its aim. One of
its most attractive features, closely related to its psychological
orientation, is its emphasis on self-reliance. For the Buddha, the key to
liberation is mental purity and correct understanding, and thus he rejects
the idea that we can gain salvation by leaning on anyone else. The Buddha
does not claim any divine status for himself, nor does he profess to be a
personal savior. He calls himself, rather, a guide and teacher, who points
out the path the disciple must follow. Since wisdom or
insight is the chief instrument of emancipation, the Buddha always asked his
disciples to follow him on the basis of their own understanding, not from
blind obedience or unquestioning trust. He invites inquirers to investigate
his teaching, to examine it in the light of their own reason and
intelligence. The Dharma or Teaching is experiential, something to be
practiced and seen, not a verbal creed to be merely believed. As one takes up
the practice of the path, one experiences a growing sense of joy and peace,
which expands and deepens as one advances along its clearly marked steps. What is most
impressive about the original teaching is its crystal clarity. The Dharma is
open and lucid, simple but deep. It combines ethical purity with logical rigor,
lofty vision with fidelity to the facts of lived experience. Though full
penetration of the truth proceeds in stages, the teaching begins with
principles that are immediately evident as soon as we use them as guidelines
for reflection. Each step, successfully mastered, naturally leads on to
deeper levels of understanding, culminating in the realization of the supreme
truth, Nirvaana. Because the Buddha
deals with the most universal of all human problems, the problem of
suffering, he made his teaching a universal message, addressed to all human
beings solely by reason of their humanity. He opened the doors of liberation
to people of all social classes in ancient Indian society, to brahmins,
princes, merchants, and farmers, even humble outcasts. As part of his
universalist project, the Buddha also threw open the doors of his teaching to
women. It is this universal dimension of the Dharma that enabled it to spread
beyond the bounds of India and make Buddhism a world religion. Some scholars have
depicted the Buddha as an otherworldly mystic totally indifferent to the
problems of mundane life. However, an unbiased reading of the early Buddhist
canon would show that this charge is untenable. The Buddha taught not only a
path of contemplation for monks and nuns, but also a code of noble ideals to
guide men and women living in the world. In fact, the Buddha's success in the
wider Indian religious scene can be partly explained by the new model he
provided for his householder disciples, the model of the man or woman of the
world who combines a busy life of family and social responsibilities with an
unwavering commitment to the values embedded in the Dharma. The moral code the
Buddha prescribed for the laity consists of the Five Precepts, which require
abstinence from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and the
use of intoxicating substances. The positive side of ethics is represented by
the inner qualities of heart corresponding to these rules of restraint: love
and compassion for all living beings; honesty in one's dealings with others;
faithfulness to one's marital vows; truthful speech; and sobriety of mind.
Beyond individual ethics, the Buddha laid down guidelines for parents and
children, husbands and wives, employers and workers, intended to promote a
society marked by harmony, peace, and good will at all levels. He also
explained to kings their duties towards their citizens. These discourses show
the Buddha as an astute political thinker who understood well that government
and the economy can flourish only when those in power prefer the welfare of
the people to their own private interests. The Parinirvaana and
Afterwards
The third great
event in the Master's life commemorated at Vesak is his parinirvaana or
passing away. The story of the Buddha's last days is told in vivid and moving
detail in the Mahaparinibbaana Sutta. After an active ministry of forty-five
years, at the age of eighty the Buddha realized his end was at hand. Lying on
his deathbed, he refused to appoint a personal successor, but told the monks
that after his death the Dharma itself should be their guide. To those
overcome by grief he repeated the hard truth that impermanence holds sway
over all conditioned things, including the physical body of an Enlightened
One. He invited his disciples to question him about the doctrine and the
path, and urged them to strive with diligence for the goal. Then, perfectly
poised, he calmly passed away into the “Nirvaana element with no remainder of
conditioned existence.” Three months after
the Buddha's death, five hundred of his enlightened disciples held a
conference at Raajagaha to collect his teachings and preserve them for
posterity. This compilation of texts gave future generations a codified
version of the doctrine to rely on for guidance. During the first two
centuries after the Buddha's parinirvaana, his dispensation slowly continued
to spread, though its influence remained confined largely to northeast India.
Then in the third century B.C., an event took place that transformed the
fortunes of Buddhism and set it on the road to becoming a world religion.
After a bloody military campaign that left thousands of people dead, King
Asoka, the third emperor of the Mauryan dynasty, avidly turned to Buddhism to
ease his pained conscience. He saw in the Dharma the inspiration for a social
policy built on righteousness rather than force and oppression, and he
proclaimed his new policy in edicts inscribed on rocks and pillars throughout
his empire. While following Buddhism in his private life, Asoka did not try
to impose his personal faith on others but promoted the shared Indian
conception of Dharma as the law of righteousness that brings happiness and
harmony in daily life and a good rebirth after death. Under Asoka's
patronage, the monks held a council in the royal capital at which they
decided to dispatch Buddhist missions throughout the Indian subcontinent and
beyond to the outlying regions. The most fruitful of these, in terms of later
Buddhist history, was the mission to Sri Lanka, led by Asoka's own son, the
monk Mahinda, who was soon followed by Asoka's daughter, the nun
Sa.nghamittaa. This royal pair brought to Sri Lanka the Theravada form of
Buddhism, which prevails there even to this day. Within India
itself Buddhism evolved through three major stages, which have become its
three main historical forms. The first stage saw the diffusion of the
original teaching and the splintering of the monastic order into some
eighteen schools divided on minor points of doctrine. Of these, the only
school to survive is the Theravada, which early on had sent down roots in Sri
Lanka and perhaps elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Here it could thrive in
relative insulation from the changes affecting Buddhism on the subcontinent.
Today the Theravada, the descendent of early Buddhism, prevails in Sri Lanka,
Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. Beginning in about
the first century B.C., a new form of Buddhism gradually emerged, which its
advocates called the Mahayana, the Great Vehicle, in contrast with the
earlier schools, which they called the Hinayana or Lesser Vehicle. The
Mahayanists elaborated upon the career of the bodhisattva, now held up as the
universal Buddhist ideal, and proposed a radical interpretation of wisdom as
insight into emptiness, or shunyata, the ultimate nature of all phenomena.
The Mahayana scriptures inspired bold systems of philosophy, formulated by
such brilliant thinkers as Nagarjuna, Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Dharmakirti.
For the common devotees the Mahayana texts spoke of celestial Buddhas and bodhisattvas
who could come to the aid of the faithful. In its early phase, during the
first six centuries of the Common Era, the Mahayana spread to China, and from
there to Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. In these lands Buddhism gave birth to new
schools more congenial to the Far Eastern mind than the Indian originals. The
best known of these is Zen Buddhism, now widely represented in the West. In India, perhaps
by the eighth century, Buddhism evolved into its third historical form,
called the Vajrayana, the Diamond Vehicle, based on esoteric texts called
Tantras. Vajrayana Buddhism accepted the doctrinal perspectives of the
Mahayana, but supplemented these with magic rituals, mystical symbolism, and
intricate yogic practices intended to speed up the way to enlightenment. The
Vajrayana spread from northern India to Nepal, Tibet, and other Himalayan
lands, and today dominates Tibetan Buddhism. What is remarkable
about the dissemination of Buddhism throughout its long history is its
ability to win the allegiance of entire populations solely by peaceful means.
Buddhism has always spread by precept and example, never by force. The
purpose in propagating the Dharma has not been to make converts, but to show
others the way to true happiness and peace. Whenever the peoples of any
nation or region adopted Buddhism, it became for them, far more than just a
religion, the fountainhead of a complete way of life. It has inspired great
works of philosophy, literature, painting, and sculpture comparable to those
of any other culture. It has molded social, political, and educational
institutions; given guidance to rulers and citizens; shaped the morals,
customs, and etiquette that order the lives of its followers. While the
particular modalities of Buddhist civilization differ widely, from Sri Lanka
to Mongolia to Japan, they are all pervaded by a subtle but unmistakable
flavor that makes them distinctly Buddhist. Throughout the
centuries, following the disappearance of Buddhism in India, the adherents of
the different schools of Buddhism lived in nearly total isolation from one
another, hardly aware of each other's existence. Since the middle of the
twentieth century, however, Buddhists of the different traditions have begun
to interact and have learnt to recognize their common Buddhist identity. In
the West now, for the first time since the decline of Indian Buddhism,
followers of the three main Buddhist “vehicles” coexist within the same
geographical region. This close affiliation is bound to result in hybrids and
perhaps in still new styles of Buddhism distinct from all traditional forms.
Buddhism in the West is still too young to permit long-range predictions, but
we can be sure the Dharma is here to stay and will interact with Western
culture, hopefully for their mutual enrichment. The Buddha's Message for
Today
In this last part
of my lecture I wish to discuss, very briefly, the relevance of the Buddha's
teachings to our own era, as we stand on the threshold of a new century and a
new millennium. What I find particularly interesting to note is that Buddhism
can provide helpful insights and practices across a wide spectrum of
disciplines—from philosophy and psychology to medical care and
ecology—without requiring those who use its resources to adopt Buddhism as a
full-fledged religion. Here I want to focus only on the implications of
Buddhist principles for the formation of public policy. Despite the
tremendous advances humankind has made in science and technology, advances
that have dramatically improved living conditions in so many ways, we still
find ourselves confronted with global problems that mock our most determined
attempts to solve them within established frameworks. These problems include:
explosive regional tensions of ethnic and religious character; the continuing
spread of nuclear weapons; disregard for human rights; the widening gap
between the rich and the poor; international trafficking in drugs, women, and
children; the depletion of the earth's natural resources; and the
despoliation of the environment. From a Buddhist perspective, what is most
striking when we reflect upon these problems as a whole is their essentially
symptomatic character. Beneath their outward diversity they appear to be so
many manifestations of a common root, of a deep and hidden spiritual malignancy
infecting our social organism. This common root might be briefly
characterized as a stubborn insistence on placing narrow, short-term
self-interests (including the interests of the social or ethnic groups to
which we happen to belong) above the long-range good of the broader human
community. The multitude of social ills that afflict us cannot be adequately
accounted for without bringing into view the powerful human drives that lie
behind them. Too often, these drives send us in pursuit of divisive, limited
ends even when such pursuits are ultimately self-destructive. The Buddha's
teaching offers us two valuable tools to help us extricate ourselves from
this tangle. One is its hardheaded analysis of the psychological springs of
human suffering. The other is the precisely articulated path of moral and
mental training it holds out as a solution. The Buddha explains that the
hidden springs of human suffering, in both the personal and social arenas of
our lives, are three mental factors called the unwholesome roots, namely,
greed, hatred, and delusion. Traditional Buddhist teaching depicts these
unwholesome roots as the causes of personal suffering, but by taking a wider
view we can see them as equally the source of social, economic, and political
suffering. Through the prevalence of greed the world is being transformed
into a global marketplace where people are reduced to the status of
consumers, even commodities, and our planet's vital resources are being
pillaged without concern for future generations. Through the prevalence of
hatred, national and ethnic differences become the breeding ground of
suspicion and enmity, exploding in violence and endless cycles of revenge.
Delusion bolsters the other two unwholesome roots with false beliefs and
political ideologies put forward to justify policies motivated by greed and
hatred. While changes in
social structures and policies are surely necessary to counteract the many
forms of violence and injustice so widespread in today's world, such changes
alone will not be enough to usher in an era of true peace and social
stability. Speaking from a Buddhist perspective, I would say that what is
needed above all else is a new mode of perception, a universal consciousness
that can enable us to regard others as not essentially different from
oneself. As difficult as it may be, we must learn to detach ourselves from
the insistent voice of self-interest and rise up to a universal perspective
from which the welfare of all appears as important as one's own good. That
is, we must outgrow the egocentric and ethnocentric attitudes to which we are
presently committed, and instead embrace a “worldcentric ethic” which gives
priority to the well-being of all. Such a
worldcentric ethic should be molded upon three guidelines, the antidotes to
the three unwholesome roots: (1) We must
overcome exploitative greed with global generosity, helpfulness, and
cooperation. These guidelines,
drawn from the Buddha's teaching, can constitute the nucleus of a global
ethic to which all the world's great spiritual traditions could easily
subscribe. Underlying the
specific content of a global ethic are certain attitudes of heart that we
must try to embody both in our personal lives and in social policy. The
chiefs of these are loving-kindness and compassion (maitri and karu.naa).
Through loving-kindness we recognize that just as we each wish to live
happily and peacefully, so all our fellow beings wish to live happily and
peacefully. Through compassion we realize that just as we are each averse to pain
and suffering, so all others are averse to pain and suffering. When we have
understood this common core of feeling that we share with everyone else, we
will treat others with the same kindness and care that we would wish them to
treat us. This must apply at a communal level as much as in our personal
relations. We must learn to see other communities as essentially similar to
our own, entitled to the same benefits as we wish for the group to which we
belong. This call for a
worldcentric ethic does not spring from ethical idealism or wishful thinking,
but rests upon a solid pragmatic foundation. In the long run, to pursue our
narrow self-interest in ever widening circles is to undermine our real
long-term interest; for by adopting such an approach we contribute to social
disintegration and ecological devastation, thus sawing away the branch on
which we sit. To subordinate narrow self-interest to the common good is, in
the end, to further our own real good, which depends so much upon social
harmony, economic justice, and a sustainable environment. The Buddha states
that of all things in the world, the one with the most powerful influence for
both good and bad is the mind. Genuine peace between peoples and nations
grows out of peace and good will in the hearts of human beings. Such peace
cannot be won merely by material progress, by economic development and
technological innovation, but demands moral and mental development. It is
only by transforming ourselves that we can transform our world in the
direction of peace and amity. This means that for the human race to live
together peacefully on this shrinking planet, the inescapable challenge
facing us is to understand and master ourselves. It is here that
the Buddha's teaching becomes especially timely, even for those not prepared
to embrace the full range of Buddhist religious faith and doctrine. In its
diagnosis of the mental defilements as the underlying causes of human
suffering, the teaching shows us the hidden roots of our personal and
collective problems. By proposing a practical path of moral and mental
training, the teaching offers us an effective remedy for tackling the
problems of the world in the one place where they are directly accessible to
us: in our own minds. As we enter the new millennium, the Buddha's teaching
provides us all, regardless of our religious convictions, with the guidelines
we need to make our world a more peaceful and congenial place to live. About the Speaker
Bhikkhu Bodhi was
born in New York City in 1944. He received a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn
College (1966) and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School
(1972). In late 1972 he went to Sri Lanka, where he was ordained as a
Buddhist monk under the late Ven. Balangoda AAnanda Maitreya Mahanaayaka
Thera. Since 1984 to 2001 he was been editor of the Buddhist Publication
Society in Kandy, and since 1988 he has been its president. He is the author,
translator, and editor of many books on Theravada Buddhism. The most
important of these are The Discourse on
the All-Embracing Net of Views (1978), A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma (1993), The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (1995), and The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
(2000). He is also a member of the World Academy of Art and Science. |