Buddhist Spectrum

Lifestyles and spiritual progress

Bhikkhu Bodhi

Newcomers to Buddhism often ask whether a person’s lifestyle has any special bearing on their ability to progress along the Buddha’s path, and in particular whether the Buddha had a compelling reason for establishing a monastic order governed by guidelines quite different from those that hold sway over the lay Buddhist community.

Doesn’t it seem, they ask, that a lay person who follows the Buddhist precepts in daily life should be able to advance just as rapidly as a monk or nun and attain the same level of enlightenment? And, if this is so, doesn’t that mean that the entire monastic lifestyle becomes something superfluous, or at best a mere matter of personal choice no more relevant to one’s spiritual development than whether one trains to become a doctor or an engineer?

If we suspend concern for questions of status and superiority and simply consider the two modes of life in their ideal expression, the conclusion would have to follow that the monastic life, lived in the way envisioned by the Buddha, is the one that conduces more effectively to the final goal.

According to the Pali canon, the ultimate goal of the Dhamma is the attainment of Nibbana: the destruction of all defilements here and now and ultimate release from samsara, the round of rebirths. This attainment comes about by eliminating craving and ignorance through the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path is open equally to both monastics and lay followers; monastic ordination does not confer any privileged access to the path or an empowerment that enables a monk or nun to make more rapid progress than a lay follower.

But while this is so, the fact remains that the monastic life was expressly designed by the Buddha to facilitate complete dedication to the practice of the path in its three stages of virtue, concentration, and wisdom, and thus provides the optimal conditions for spiritual progress.

Monastic lifestyle

The monastic lifestyle does so precisely because the final goal is a state of renunciation, “the relinquishment of all acquisitions” (sabb’upadhi-patinissagga), and from the outset the monk’s life is rooted in renunciation. In “going forth,” the monk leaves behind family, possessions, and worldly position, and even the outer marks of personal identity, symbolized by hair, beard, and wardrobe.

Radical simplicity

By shaving the head and donning the yellow robe, the monk has given up — in principle at least — any claim to a unique identity as his own. Outwardly indistinguishable from a hundred thousand other monks, he has become simply a “Sakyaputtiya samana,” an ascetic who follows the Sakyan son (i.e., the Buddha). The life of the monk involves radical simplicity, contentment with the barest requisites, the need to be patient in difficulty.

The monastic lifestyle places the monk in dependence on the generosity and kindness of others, and imposes on him an intricate code of discipline, the Vinaya, designed to foster the essential renunciant virtues of simplicity, restraint, purity, and harmlessness.

These virtues provide a sound basis for the higher attainments in concentration and insight, which are essentially stages in the progressive purification of the mind and the deepening of insight.

Of prime importance, too, is the external freedom ideally provided by the monastic life. The monastic schedule leaves the monk free from extraneous demands on his time and energy, allowing him to devote himself fully to the practice and study of the Dhamma.

Of course, as the monastic life is lived today, monks take on many responsibilities not originally mentioned in the canonical texts, and in a traditional Buddhist country the village temple has become the hub of religious activities, with the monks functioning as virtual priests for the wider Buddhist community. But here we are concerned with the canonical picture of the monastic life.

Ultimate goal

While the attainment of Nibbana is the ultimate goal of early Buddhism, it is not the only goal, and one of the shortcomings in the way Theravada Buddhism has been presented to the West is the one-sided emphasis placed on the final goal over the provisional aspect of the Teaching. In traditional Buddhist lands a few Buddhists see Nibbana as an immediately realistic prospect.

Gradual practice

The great majority, both lay and monastic, regard the path as a course of “gradual practice, gradual progress, and gradual achievement” extending over many lives. Their practice as Buddhist followers centers around the performance of meritorious deeds and methodical mental purification, rooted in the confidence that the kammic law of causality and the spiritual power of the Dhamma will sustain them in their quest for deliverance.

To make clear the choices facing the lay follower we might posit two alternative models of the Buddhist lay life. On the first model lay life is seen as a field for gradual progress toward the goal through the development of wholesome qualities such as generosity, moral virtue, kindness, and understanding.

The immediate aim is not direct realization of the highest truth, but the accumulation of merits leading to a happy rebirth and gradual progress toward Nibbana.

The second model recognizes the capacity of lay followers for reaching the stages of awakening in this life itself, and advocates strict moral discipline and strenuous effort in meditation to attain deep insight into the truth of the Dhamma.

While there are in Buddhist countries lay people who follow the path of direct realization, their number is much smaller than those who pursue the alternative model.

The reason should be obvious enough: the stakes are higher, and include a capacity for inward renunciation rare among those who must raise a family, work at a full-time job, and struggle to survive in a ruggedly competitive world.

We should note further a point of prime importance: this second model of the Buddhist lay life becomes effective as a means to higher attainment precisely because it emulates the monastic model. Thus, to the extent that a lay follower embarks on the practice of the direct path to realization, he or she does so by conforming to the lifestyle of a monk or nun.

These two conceptions of the lay life need not be seen as mutually exclusive, for an earnest lay follower can adopt the first model for his or her normal routine and also stake out periods to pursue the second model, e.g., by curtailing social engagements, devoting time to deep study and meditation, and occasionally going on extended retreats.

Though a monastic lifestyle might be more conducive to enlightenment than a busy life within the world, when it comes to individuals rather than models all fixed preconceptions collapse.

Some lay people with heavy family and social commitments manage to make such rapid progress that they can give guidance in meditation to earnest monks, and it is not rare at all to find sincere monks deeply committed to the practice who advance slowly and with difficulty.

Spiritual progress

While the monastic life, lived according to the original ideal, may provide the optimal outer conditions for spiritual progress, the actual rate of progress depends on personal effort and on the store of qualities one brings over from previous lives, and often it seems individuals deeply enmeshed in the world are better endowed in both respects than those who enter the Sangha.

The damsel by the well

The woman in the Buddha’s time:

Padma EDIRISINGHE

The moon was about to shed its sheen on Indian skies as the lass of Sadol Kula, one of the most degraded castes of this sub-continent, was drawing water from the almost dried up deep well in her garden. That enchanting story, we would come to by and by, after this prelude.

An issue that baffles women with wandering minds could be the consistency with which the male tries to subdue the female. It happened then too.

The Brahmins of India were some of the earliest culprits of this crime till the Thathagatha made the most valiant efforts to retrieve the women kind of India from this abject humiliation. But the male power is back, so much so that the writer came across in a recently written text that the following beliefs are accepted today by a vast majority in Asian Buddhist countries.

W Male superiority is almost unquestioned. If ever a woman attained some superior position that it is almost incidental and temporary and the male would always take over.

W Woman can never attain Buddhahood, Chakravarthi status, Brahmahood (the Creator of the universe) and the position of Mara (the Demon of Death).

WBuddha vehemently opposed women entering the Sasana and gave permission for it under much pressure and that too after laying down eight injunctions, one of which is that even a 100 year old Buddhist nun will have to stand up when a monk of even 7 or 8 years is approaching!

W Buddha in his previous Bodhisatva forms though was born as an animal in several Jathakas was never born a female. The implication is too obvious to be explained or too shameful to elaborate.

W Adulterous males get born as females in their next birth as a punishment! ( what happens vice versa?)

All these beliefs have cropped up in the aftermath of one of the glorious periods of female emancipation in the world caused by the compassionate teachings of the Sakyamuni.

The writer remembers after a return from a certain foreign country exclaiming to a friend over the freedom enjoyed by the females in that necklace of islands where another faith that does not much relish women’s liberty (as far as the writer is aware) has now planted itself.

Do not forget, she said, that this country was earlier a Buddhist country. Had you travelled to the smaller islands ruins of Buddhist temples and chaityas are still there? She had been a teacher in this country for years.

Much recognition

One of the many ways that Buddhism has given much recognition to females is making them central characters in Buddhist literature while certain faiths just drew the curtain on them as though they are “unmentionables”. The stories of Kisa Gothami and Patachara are too well-known to be narrated. They epitomised all the agony of distraught women, especially those agonising over the sudden death of their offspring.

In every instance the Buddha acts as an elder brother. He addresses Patachara as “sister” when she comes running to Him nude and mad in her grief.

He does not say “Woman, clothe yourself, preferably in white” but says “Nanganiya, sihi elawa ganu”, “Sister, come to your senses.” to Kisagothami He provides a practical demonstration of the inevitability and frequent occurrence of death thus ridding her of a frantic mental state consequent on the death of her infant. He has appealed to her intellect alone. Not all women in Buddhist literature were distraught.

There is Vishaka, the chief lay-female disciple managing things masterfully and many others like her. Then there is, Sanghamitta Theri, the sister of Mahinda Thera, the celebrated Poson visitor who brought in a message that shaped the mental ethos of a nation.

She braved an arduous sea journey carrying with her the Sri Maha Bodhi sapling to be planted in Anuradhapura. (It would be unfair not to mention the sisterly affection exhibited to women by another religious mentor i.e. Jesus Christ).

The damsel by the well is a less popular character in Buddhist literature but her story reveals human frailties and foibles. For after all what is a woman but another human?

Sadols

The Buddha was at Rajagaha city when a delegate from the Lichchavi Courts visited Him and told Him a terrible famine there leading to death and disease. Buddha promised to contact the King of Rajagaha and send material aid and instructed Ananda Thera to proceed with some novices to the city of Vaishala and recite the Ratana Sutta and also help the desperate populace of Vaishala.

The Thera went over and completed his first social assignment successfully, even carrying dead bodies to carts when Buddha himself joined them. They were returning to Rajagaha after all this when they found themselves minus a drop of water. All the rivers and streams too had run dry. They were passing a village where lived the Sadols when the water situation becoming very acute, Buddha himself thirsty.

Ananda Thera

The drought of Vaishala had spread to the outlying areas too drying up all waterways. Instructing others to search for nearby wells, the Thera himself was having a look around when he saw the damsel drawing water from a deep well. He immediately approached the damsel and asked for water upon which she said that it is not fitting that a person of his stature should drink water from a Sadol well.

Ananda Thera informed then that they are Buddhaputras who have no care for castes and insisted on getting water. He even approached the mother. Ananda Thera was a male of magnetic charm and the long and short of the story is that the Sadol damsel was getting infatuated with the good-looking Thera of kind ways, caressing looks and novel ideas that overlooked their lowly status much ostracized by others.

Long after he left with water she began to moon over him, refusing food and turning insomniac leading the widowed mother to distraction. In vain did the man remonstrate that Buddhaputras do not marry. But the girl’s mind was made up in the same stubborn style of today. Only times change but not the human nature. She had heard from a robed one that they were returning to Rajagaha.

The next night the Sadol damsel vanished. She was stealthily wending her way to that great city. Finally she located the place where the Buddha resided with his retinue and finding a suitable time accosted Ananda Thera and told him that she came to live with him.

This surprised the Thera much but calmly he told her to wait there and informed his predicament to the Buddha. Buddha sent for her and asked her what he found most appealing about Ananda Thera and the Sadol damsel went on to describe each and every external physical feature of the Thera.

Instead of admonishing the poor girl or punishing her, the Buddha patiently explained to her the temporary nature of physical beauty and expounded the Dhamma in a way that she could understand.

Buddha respected the female intellect and always took care to correct errant females or distraught females by fitting instructions. Beauty to Him was just skin deep. Every human, man or woman, was valuable and endowed with mental capacity.

Capt. W.E. Gladstone, a critic on the female figures in the famous Ajantha caves, remarks that there is pride and sensibility and individuality displayed in each of the Indian female faces.

Even the maids in the royal Court scenes seem to have displayed no signs of cringing. The Ajantha caves belong to the most efflorescent phase of Buddhism in India, ie. the period between the 2nd C BC and 7th C AD Yet some 13 or 14 centuries later, some women are in a sorry state, a position not at all called for by Buddhism or by any enlightened religion that does not treat the woman as a slave or a mere sex object by the male.

It is sad to see how certain axioms of Buddhism itself are being warped to suit male arrogance when the situation so requires it. The above list of beliefs is no doubt such an example. But the extent of female emancipation orchestrated in our island after Mahinda Thera’s advent can never be over-estimated.

Everything is not due to “Kamma”

Prasad Soysa

One of the Buddha’s main teachings is Law of Kamma. However, this is one of the teachings which have been taken incorrectly by many Buddhists. We are used to hear Karume in many negative incidents that happen in life. This is against the Buddha’s teachings and Kamma does not provide explanations or excuses for all the incidents that occur in one’s life.

What is Kamma?

Acts by a human involves a thought process. At every instance there occurs a citta (consciousness). These cittas occur in two ways;

1. Sahetukas (with roots)
2. Ahetukas (without roots)

The two-fold cittas have six roots:

1. Akusala Hetu, moral causes

1) Lobha (attachement)
2) Dwesha (hatred)
3) Moha (delusion or ignorance)

2. Kusala Hetu, immoral causes
1) Alobha (non-attachment or generosity)
2) Adwesha (non-anger, goodwill or loving-kindness)
3) Amoha (knowledge)

At a particular instance when a citta occurs caused by one or more of akusala hetu, then it becomes an akusala citta (Immoral consciousness) and the same happens with kusala cittas (moral consciousness). Both kusala and akusala cittas constitute kamma (kusala kamma and akusala kamma). Those types of consciousness that arise as the inevitable results of these kusala and akusala cittas are called Vipaka (resultant) Cittas.

To make it simple, when you perform any act there will be a whole lot of cittas occurring. They may be all kusala cittas or all akusal cittas or may be a mix. Depending on that when someone performs a volitional act based on kusala citta he or she collects kusala kamma and Akusala Kammas based on akusala citta.

Kamma would add up to the Samsara and keep on causing the results (kamma vipaka) until the end of Samsara, that is until reaching Nibbana. As long as you collect kamma you will be born for them to result. This is explained clearly in conditioned genesis (patichcha samuppada).

All what a Buddhist should understand is that if you perform any act with a good intention, there will be a good result sooner or later. If you perform any act with a bad or evil intention then there will be bad or evil result sooner or later. None other than your own act would cause results of all Karmic acts. Therefore, the Buddhist advice is to engage in good deeds as much as possible not only to attain Nibbana but also to live a peaceful life.

Pancha Niyama Dhamma (Five Cosmic Laws)

Many Buddhists think that everything happens because of Karmas which we have done in the previous birth. This is completely wrong. The law of Kamma is integral to the very dynamics of the universe which is explained as “Pancha Niyama Dhamma” known in English as “Five Cosmic Laws”. They are;

1) Uthu Niyama – the laws of physical, inorganic matter
2) Bheeja Niyama - the laws of living organisms
3) Kamma Niyama - the laws of kamma or moral deeds and their fruits
4) Dhamma Niyama - the laws of spiritual development
5) Chiththa Niyama - the laws of consciousness

For an example the reason for Tsunami occurred in December 2004 was because of a geographical phenomenon. Tsunami happens not merely because of Kamma. One cannot blame his own Kamma for being a victim of Tsumani but it is more into the Law of physical, inorganic matter (uthu niyama).

Similarly other 4 cosmic laws would affect for things happen to us in daily life. Therefore making Kamma responsible for everything to make it an excuse is a narrow act by any Buddhist.

You can change effects of Kamma

There are Beneficent (Sampaththi) and Maleficent (Vipaththi) Forces which counteract or support the kammic law. They are;

1) Birth (Gati)
2) Time and conditions (Kala)
3) Personality and appearance (Upadhi)
4) Effort (Payoga)

Suppose one is born in a very good family. Because of that person’s birth some of the resultants of bad kamma would cease or temporary holds. This situation is called a Birth Beneficent (Gati Sampaththi). This can happen the other way around also as Gati Vipaththi.

Suppose there is a person with good kamma but born in a poor family and he is unable to get good results because of that family being poor. This is called Gati Vipatthi. However, if h/she has Payoga Sampaththi, or Effort, then he can succeed in life to enjoy the resultants of good kamma in the previous birth.

Even if somebody has many bad kammas in his past, lots of good deeds will help that person collect many kusala kammas which would minimize the effect of bad kamma. If one is suffering at the moment because of bad kamma in past it is not for him or her to hand it over to “Karume” and do nothing.

It’s up to that person to do as much as good deeds to collect as much as kusala kamma which may cause akusala kamma to cease or their affects to be minimized. This way, we can use (rather than abuse) the Buddha’s Karmic Law theory to succeed in our life and samsara.