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Buddhist spectrum

Japanese Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism:

A comparative view

After the Buddha’s passing away, the message of the Buddha spread throughout India and further across neighbouring countries. One mainstream of this dissemination flowed to Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries.

The Buddhism transmitted to these countries, later known as Southern Buddhism, followed the tenets and rituals of the early Buddhist teachings developed in India. Another trajectory extended through Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan, and the teachings embraced by them evolved and changed to suit the physical, mental and cultural environments of the region and were called Northern Buddhism.

Buddhism is considered to be first brought to China about one thousand years after the death of the Buddha. It came to Japan in 6th century first from China and then from Korea. Loosing sight of the fact that Gotama Buddha was the original founder of Buddhism, Buddhist scholars followed new philosophical pursuits and established new schools, without following the true practice expounded by him, and instead admiring the powers of imaginary Buddhas. They called their Buddhism Mahayana (Great Vehicle), and looked down on the orthodox lineage of Buddhism, contemptuously labeling it Hinayana (Lesser Vehicle). According to the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, people aspiring to enter Nirvana after death simply attempt to escape from daily life and society rather than living with it.

This essay attempts to draw a brief sketch of the evolution of Buddhism in Japan in a way that will show how it deviated gradually from the original Buddhism, acquiring the shape of so-called Great Vehicle. The informed opinion emerging through the discussion is that Japanese Buddhist thinkers had to conceptualize a broad, popular path for the common mass to achieve human liberation without departing from the mundane society and earthly desires.

How Buddhism transformed

In Japan Buddhism became the spiritual basis of the nation. Prince Shotoku officially recognized and utilized the Lotus Sutra and other Mahayana teachings for protecting and unifying the country. The year 2010 witnessed the 1,300th anniversary of the relocation of the ancient capital to Nara, then known as Heijokyo, where Todaiji, Eastern Great Temple, is located. Todaiji’s Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden) houses the world's largest bronze statue of Buddha known in Japanese as Daibutsu (Great Buddha). The Nara period (701-784AD) is very important in the Japanese history because it was the first time the nation came under the rule of law.

Around that time, however, Japan suffered from a series of disasters, including drought, famine, epidemics and a major earthquake. Since people had to steal from one another to survive, there was a marked increase in crimes.

Not only commoners but also some members of the emperor’s family and some high-ranking officials died from deceases. The nation suffered a great setback while the capital became desolate. Emperor Shomu (701-756AD) decided to shift his administration’s governing philosophy from Confucianism to Buddhism because Confucianism states that natural disasters occur to punish poor rulers. The emperor turned especially to the teachings of the Kegon School, which was one of the six Buddhist schools in Nara, to serve as the basis of government.

After experiencing a chain of troubles such as natural disasters and crimes, Emperor Shomu issued an edict in 741 to promote the construction of provincial temples throughout the nation to save the souls of both dead and living people. Todaiji (then known as Kinshosenji) was appointed as the provincial temple of Yamato Province and the head of all the provincial temples.

Whereas the temples outside the capital had Shakyamuni Buddha as the principal image, Todaiji, the capital’s temple, should have Birushana or Rushan (Vairochana) Buddha built as the principal image because it was the main object of veneration of Kegon School,.

Thus the emperor decided that the image of the so-called Great Buddha should embody Vairochana (Great Sun Buddha) to secure the protection and well-being of the nation. The ritual and ceremony of consecrating the new Buddha statue was held in 752AD.

The ritual of drawing pupils in the Buddha’s eyes to give the statue life was administered by an Indian priest. A silk cord was tied to the brush and held by the emperor, empress and other participants so that they could share the joy of the event, the meritorious deed, Punyakarma.

Under the system of government known as Taiho Ritsuryo in the Nara Period, which was modeled after the legal system of the Tang dynasty of China, Buddhism was heavily regulated by the state through the Sogo, Office of Priestly Affairs).

During this time, Todaiji temple served as the central administrative temple for the provincial temples as well as for all the Buddhist schools in Japan at the time.

Japanese Buddhism during this time maintained the lineage of the Vinaya, and all officially licensed monks had to take their ordination under the Vinaya at Todaiji. During this period, the place of Buddhism in the nation and its practices and rituals can be viewed as somewhat similar to the ways followed in South and Southeast Asian countries.

Later, Buddhism transformed from a state religion to a sect-based religion. Various new schools and sects rose in succession. During the Heian period (794-1185AD) the Tendai sect, the Shingo sect and Jodo (Pure Land) sect were established.

The Jodo sect advocated that one can easily go to the Pure Land after death by reciting the name of Amida (Amitabha) Buddha in a practice called ‘Nembutsu’ in Japanese. During the Kamakura period (1185-1333AD) Jodo and Zen sects became very popular among the Japanese people, and Japanese Buddhism not only deviated from the Indian ways of thinking but also went beyond the framework of Chinese Buddhism.?

According to the original teachings of The Buddha, known as Theravada doctrine, the only way we can end suffering is to extinguish the burning flame of desire.

To achieve this end, we are taught to identify ourselves with the state of nothingness. However, the followers of Mahayana Buddhism believe that the Buddha, towards the end of his life, preached the Lotus Sutra in which he discouraged people from taking this tiresome path and that suggested that they could enter the eternal happy world without extinguishing desires.

According to this teaching, one would be reborn in a heavenly paradise which is in the eastern or western part of the universe, after one’s death, or may turn the world one inhabits into an eternally peaceful land within the present life itself.

Salvation through faith

In Japan, they seem to believe that although Shakyamuni Buddha realized and described the basic truth of life, later another Buddha named Nichiren appeared in this world to reveal the ultimate truth of life. Nichiren was born to a fisherman’s family in Japan in 1222 and learned and mastered all the basic teachings of Buddhism in Kyoto and Nara, the two traditional centers of Buddhism in Japan.

Nichiren is believed by them as one of the Bodhisattvas who manifested on this earth to propagate the ultimate reality of life. Nichi signifies the sun and Ren means lotus. Thus Nichiren is often paired with the Lotus Sutra.

According to the Lotus sutta, people can attain enlightenment by believing in the teachings of the sutra. It is Nichiren who developed this doctrine further to help people attain Buddhahood easily. He taught that if one believes beyond doubt that the essence of the Lotus sutra exists within oneself, it brings the supreme bliss. This state equals the attainment of Buddhahood. First we should understand the difference between the fundamentals of the Lotus sutra and its later developments. While the Lotus sutra states that belief is a means to attain enlightenment, Nichiren Buddhism emphasizes that belief is in itself enlightenment. Nichiren became Buddha by understanding the ultimate reality of life and revealing it in the form of a formula called Nam-myoho-renge-kyo which includes the essence of the Lotus sutra.

According to the teachings of Nichiren Buddha, we can attain Buddhahood by chanting daimoku (prayer) or the invocation of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. This kind of enlightenment is completely different from the teachings of Theravada Buddhism which expound the balance between faith and wisdom as well as that of wisdom and practice. Theravada Buddhism tells us that just to chant ‘I believe’, to convince oneself to believe or to accept without seeing clearly will not bring real understanding or spiritual enlightenment. Theravada Buddhism’s emphasis is on knowing, understanding and resolving doubt, not on blind faith or belief. Only a person who sees things clearly, not a person who believes beyond doubt, understands the Truth, the Four Noble Truths, namely suffering, the arising of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the path to the cessation of suffering.

In contrast, Mahayana Buddhism advocates that chanting or strong faith in the Lotus sutra can be in itself enlightenment. Let us look at the formula Nam-myoho-renge-kyo that is believed as the way to awaken one’s Buddha nature. Namu or nam which derives from Sanskrit Namas (Pali Namo) means devotion, or the perfect fusion with the eternal truth. They believe that by fusing one’s own life with the ultimate truth one can draw infinite energy and penetrating wisdom. The ultimate truth is expressed as myoho-renge-kyo which comes from the Chinese translation of the Lotus sutra (Sanskrit: Saddharmapundarika-sutra). Although myoho literally means the Mystic Law, it denotes the unchanging, eternal truth of changeable phenomena. Renge means lotus flower; the significance of it is twofold. By blooming and seeding itself at the same time, the lotus can signify the simultaneous occurrence of Cause and Effect. The lotus, on the other hand, which grows through the mud and rises up from the defilements, symbolizes the path to the purity from all mundane impurities. Finally, kyo means sutra or the teaching of a Buddha.

The Lotus sutra proposes that there are three yanas or paths leading to the enlightenment: Shravaka (men of Learning), Pratyekabuddha (men of Realization), and Bodhisattva (men of Aspiring, to-be-Buddha). The three vehicles of Learning, Realization and Bodhisattva set forth in earlier sutras were superseded by the single vehicle of Buddhahood later. As most Mahayana followers believe, Shakyamuni Buddha encouraged his disciples to become Bodhisattvas and to postpone their entry into nirvana so that they could help others. Shakyamuni Buddha clearly pronounced that the sole purpose of his presence in this world is to help all people to realize their innate Buddha nature and attain Buddhahood. Thus the all three vehicles should be oriented towards the supreme vehicle of Buddhahood. The function of the vehicle of Bodhisattva is the closest to the supreme vehicle in which one is compelled to feel sympathy and act in compassion toward unhappy people.

The Lotus sutra also states that the supreme wisdom is beyond the reach of reason and analysis. Mahayana Buddhist thinkers maintain that Theravada (or Hinayana, as they call it) Buddhism puts too much emphasis on reason and analysis. They tend to see the knowledge through analysis including doubting, resolving doubts and reasoning as a limitation of Theravada Buddhism and that this level of wisdom is possessed by Shravaka (men of Learning), and Pratyekabuddha (men of Realization). The supreme wisdom cannot be attained through analytic reasoning but only through faith. With faith one can gain infinite energy, open the inner palace of life and understand the universal truth. The result is the state of Bodhisattva or Buddha.

Mahayana Buddhism, however, does not advocate blind faith or blind obedience, they argue. Believing is the acceptance of a truth, not obeying a person. The object of faith is the universal law or the Mystic Law. Buddhism rejects faith in an individual being. Man’s place being supreme, there is no higher being, divine or prophetic, that can pass judgment over his/her destiny. Theravada Buddhism maintains that every man has within himself the potentiality of becoming a Buddha, if he endeavours towards that purpose. Mahayana Buddhism goes beyond and says that by bringing forth this inherent Buddha nature, all people can become Buddhas without discarding their present identities. That is, by chanting daimoku with faith or fusing our lives with the supreme wisdom embodied in nam-myoho-renge-kyo we all can attain Buddhahood. Although the early Mahayana sutras accepted that the practices leading to enlightenment should extend over a period of countless kalpas (aeons), Nichiren Buddhism reformed this time-consuming process into a simple prayer with a short formula in which you submerge single-minded faith and attain Buddhahood within this lifetime.

The concept of Bodhisattva

The concept of Bodhisattva has a prominent place in the Mahayana Buddhism. Originally, the term Bodhisattva referred to a person who is aspiring to become Buddha, as mentioned before. Later it acquired the meaning that a person who can attain Buddhahood may delay it and act as a universal savior for the world. This latter concept was promoted by Mahayana thinkers, differentiating it from the Theravada concept of Arahat. Though the Arahat is also an enlightened one, this status is considered by Mahayana adherents as inferior, criticizing it as a selfishly attained enlightenment. According to Mahayana tradition, one can attain enlightenment or delay it while remaining in the mundane life and enjoying secular pleasures. The Bodhisattva in Mahayana traditions is an embodiment of compassion, benevolence and readiness to serve others rather than attempting solitarily to attain individual salvation.

There is a special kind of Bodhisattvas who use their special skills to bring happiness to society. They are followers of provisional Buddhas. The concept of a provisional Buddha does not appear in the Theravada Buddhist teaching. Mahayana Buddhism asserts that the Buddha has many aspects and forms in which to appear according to the age and the place. There are cases in which the Buddha appears in some of these aspects or forms, not fully. In such a case he is called a provisional Buddha. The followers of a provisional Buddha are non-earthly Boshisattvas with special skills. The non-earthly Boshisattvas try to help people by inspiring them with wisdom, courage and other virtues. They are not entrusted with the mission of teaching and propagating what the Buddha taught, but may use their special skills for the benevolence of society. For example, Bodhisattva Monju (Manjushri) represents wisdom, Miroku (Maithreya) saves the world of the future, Kannon (Avalokiteshvara) signifies compassion, Fugen (Samanthabhadra) brings power of knowledge, Yakujo (Bhaishajyaraja) embodies the purifying power of sun and power of medicine.

Manjushri is shown by scholars as the oldest and most significant Bodhisattva in Mahayana literature. He is first referred to in early Mahayana texts such as the Prajnaparamita Sutra and along with this association has come to be the embodiment of prajna (ultimate wisdom). Ironically, a nuclear power plant constructed in 1994 and located in Fukui Prefecture has been named after Manjushri, (Monju the Japanese Buddhist deity of Wisdom). Another nuclear test reactor located in Fukui Prefecture, though currently shut down and awaiting decommissioning, has been named after another Bodhisattva, Fugen.

Concluding remarks

I have briefly described here the development of Japanese Buddhism and some of its basic tenets. This is no place for a comprehensive description of Japanese Buddhism including the differences of its various sects and Japanese religious attitudes in general. We have seen that Japanese Buddhism developed by incorporating many Indian and Chinese concepts and adapting them to suit Japanese needs and tastes. This reflects a remarkable tendency of Japanese culture, namely the eagerness to adopt foreign things and to blend them with native styles happily.

To understand the Japanese Buddhism in a wider context, it might be useful to turn to the theory of Wallace (1956). Anthony Wallace proposed to see Japanese religion as consisting of a tri-polar structure. The three poles are: native religion, universalistic religion and nativistic religion. The native religion, as inherited from ancient times, follows the rituals and beliefs of multiple deities such as the gods of local mountains and rice fields, the gods of water and fire and souls of ancestors. A universalistic religion applies its principles universally, without being restricted to local boundaries. In Japan, Buddhism and Confucianism that have come from abroad represent this type of religion. The Japanese nativistic religion, mainly represented by Shinto, is based on indigenous beliefs and inextricably involved with ethnic and nationalistic thoughts. Japanese Buddhism is an admixture of these tri-polar system as well as Indian thoughts, including Hinduism, Tibetan thoughts and Chinese thoughts. Kannon Bodhisattva, for example, is often paired with Amaterasu, the supreme Shinto Sun Goddess. Kannon’s feminine forms in Japan seem to be highly compatible with Japanese religious sensibilities. It is not rare to see many giant Kannon statues erected in many provinces to pray for world peace and to honour war veterans. Finally, taking rather a sympathetic view, one can imagine how Japanese Buddhist thinkers gallantly tackled the task of propagating Buddhism in Japan with the strong conviction that for Buddhism to take hold in this country, it should be encapsulated in an earthly and worldly framework. As Buddhism has evolved, it has focused on more what people can do to help each other. Buddhism has been a beneficent force in Japan throughout the history. Moreover, in a country often affected by natural disasters such as large-scale earth-quakes and tsunamis when the destruction and suffering brought by them is inexplicable and unanswerable, it is only natural that the experiences of endless devastation become faith-provoking rather than thought-provoking.

Reference

Kirimura, Yasuji. Fundamentals of Buddhism, Nichiren Shoshu International Center, Tokyo, 1984.
Mason, R.H.P. & J.G. Caiger. A History of Japan, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Tokyo, 1972.
Wallace, Anthony. “Revitalization Movements”, American Anthropologist 58: 264-281.
Walpola, Rahula. What the Buddha taught, Gordon Fraser, London, 1978.

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/bodhisattva.shtml

The writer has obtained a PhD in Linguistics from Kobe University, Japan and is Professor of Language and Communication at Okinawa University.


Who will feed the mice?

The following is based on a talk given by Ajahn Amaro on March 29, 2003, at Abhayagiri Monastery, Redwood Valley, California.

“The early teachers” is a term for mother and father. “The early deities” is a term for mother and father. “Those worthy of worship” is a term for mother and father. And why? Parents are of great help to their children, they bring them up, feed them and show them the world.

- Anguttara Nikaya 4.63

This is probably the last Saturday night talk that I’ll be giving for quite a while. As the resident community is aware, but visitors probably are not, I received news from my sister in England that our mother is extremely ill, and the signs are that she won’t live for more than a few months. So I plan to be flying to England in a week.

The Buddha once said that if you were to carry your parents around with you for their whole lives—your father on one shoulder and your mother on the other— even to the point where they are losing their faculties and their excrement is running down your back, this would not repay your debt of gratitude to them. But you could repay the debt if your parents were not virtuous and you established them in virtue; if they weren’t wise and you established them in wisdom; if they were stingy and you established them in generosity; if they had no faith in the spiritual path and you led them to it.

- Anguttara Nikaya 2.32

One day many years ago, I spoke of this teaching very matter-of-factly with my mother, assuming that she would be as impressed as I was with how highly the Buddha praised the role that parents play in one’s life. And, as she almost invariably did anytime I tried to spout some spiritual statement, she responded, “What utter balls!” She was very good at keeping me level, as I can get somewhat airy-fairy at times. Her point, though, was that it isn’t a one-way process.

She said, “Why do you talk about it in terms of being in debt? What could be more wonderful and satisfying than bringing children into the world and watching them grow? It isn’t like a job that you need to be paid for.” I was really impressed by that.

For obvious reasons, I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on my mother’s influence on my life, and the thought arose that, until I met the Dhamma when I was twenty one, she was the main—if not the only— source of my being able to see that which was noble, worthy, and good in the world. I didn’t grow up in a religious household— England is a very nonreligious country— but both my parents were very good people, especially my mother.

She really embodies unselfishness, kindness, and generosity—and a tremendous harmlessness toward all living beings; she is physically unable to hurt any creature. When I wonder where I got the inspiring influences or the inclinations toward that which is good and wholesome and useful, I realize that they came almost entirely from her.

After my mother’s father died, she told me that she’d received much of her guidance and direction from him. She deeply respected her inheritance of his gentleness, self-effacement, and benevolence toward all things, and she passed on those qualities. That was really my main spiritual influence before I went to Thailand: anything that kept me operating somewhere in the neighborhood of balanced human behavior was thanks to her. So I’ve developed a great feeling of gladness and gratitude toward her that I was fortunate enough to receive this.

Another realization that has become clearer as I’ve been meeting people and teaching over the years is that those who’ve come from broken homes, or who have had very unstable family situations, assume that life is unsteady and unpredictable; they often have a deep sense of insecurity. I remember being struck during my first few years of meeting and living with such people, and there are a great many in this world, that I never would have conceived of the experiences they’d had, let alone had them myself. Even though my parents had plenty of faults and our lives were not easy, an astonishing stability and reliability had been present, particularly on my mother’s part.

(My father was often kept busy, first with the farm and then travelling with his work, and besides, I think it was Robert Bly who defined the Industrial Age father as “that which sits in the living room and rustles the newspaper.”)

I’ve begun to reflect on the sense of security that arises from this intuition that life has a reliable basis. In stable families, parents impart this. If one doesn’t have it, then one has to find it later on in other ways. For a child, the parents are a kind of substitute for the Dhamma, that basis upon which everything rests and around which everything revolves.

I didn’t always get on with my parents. But they never argued in front of us and they were always there, establishing a continuity of presence and support. And thinking about that, I’ve seen that they reflected the qualities of Dhamma that are so crucial: Dhammaniyamata—the orderliness or regularity or patterned-ness of the Dhamma; and Dhammatthitata—the stability of the Dhamma.

In a way, that’s the job or role that parents have, the archetype they embody: being stable, the rock that things rest upon— and exhibiting that quality of regularity, orderliness, or predictability as the principle that can be relied on and that we can be guided by.

Incidentally, I was the only son and the youngest child, so I can also see the downside of having an ever-present, totally loving mother: you might actually believe that you are the center of the universe! I suspect I can also attribute, can also “blame,” a certain amount of my narcissistic tendencies, an over-inflated view of myself, on my always-caring mother.

My parents tried very hard to look after us, but we lived on a small farm and had gone bankrupt when I was about six.

After we sold the farm my father eked out a living as a small-time reporter for a dog magazine, and even though my sisters and I were sent to private schools, we were only able to attend them thanks to scholarships and my mother’s parents shelling out whatever fees had to be paid.

When I was about twelve, some of my mother’s extraordinary qualities became apparent to me in a very powerful way. I was a growing lad who had a cooked breakfast every morning before going off to school and would come back in the late afternoon and then eat cream doughnuts for tea and an hour later scarf down huge amounts of food at supper.

I was turning into a burly youth. And every afternoon my mother waited in her car at the bus stop at the end of the lane, a mile away from our home. One day I got off the bus and she wasn’t there. I thought, “That’s strange.”And I walked—I thought maybe she was a bit late—and walked and walked but she didn’t appear.

To be continued

 

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