The State-of-the-Art Report on Buddhism

 

The State-of-the-Art Report on Buddhism

This is a scenario I sketched out in my mind: The Buddha comes to earth (in his own incarnation, no re-incarnation for the tathagata) and commissions me to write a state-of-the-art report on the Buddhist religion his followers had established. I needed the money and accepted the assignment, but not silently. I did murmur, “It is your fault, Buddha; the religion is a direct offshoot of your Sangha.”

The Buddha was trying to find the source of sorrow in a human’s life, and he homed in on one’s desire. He anchored his expedition to find truth on this craving.

Now, let us look at his followers, individually. First, it would be Emperor Asoka. In the aftermath of the Kalinga war, he saw the fruitlessness, indeed the stupidity of war – gives nothing but transitory satisfaction. He saw something more in Buddhism and embraced it, which by then may have become a formal religion, with it scriptures, rituals, theology (against the Buddha’s teaching).

I could not figure out what the Buddha was thinking as he wore the same benevolent smile on his face.

We come a few hundred years later, the so-called Common Era (CE), the time when Buddhist followers were at war with the followers of other –isms. This was diametrically opposite of what the Buddha had preached, never interested in converting others, and if the others saw his teachings were worth it, they would follow them.

Not too far from Kanchipuram, where I did my schooling, there are remnants of a Buddhist monastery and I have visited the place with my Jain classmates, on our rickety cycles on the causeway across River Palar. That was a syncretistic piece of education I had, howsoever informal, and I am proud of it. My Jain friends could not help me with the Buddha, but I have learned on my own, many decades later.

Again, at these remnants, I saw the same inscrutable, beatific smile, and nothing more.

In Sri Lanka, Buddhist monks took up arms against the Tamils, Christians within them. To set the context, Sri Lanka and its politics are dominated by Sinhalese, dominantly Buddhists, to the extent of nearly 90%. This translates into Buddhists attacking the others.

Come to the last decades of the 20^th century and also the first decades of the 21^st century CE. Aung San Suu Kyi, the celebrated Myanmar Buddhist and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. This might be a complicated geo-politics game and things may never be clear as to what happened with the Muslim Rohingya community. But, we haven’t heard of her disassociating herself from Theravada Buddhism, the sect she was born into (via her mother). She just stood down and watched Muslims being terrorized and driven out of their country. Not much of Buddhist act, I suppose.

The Buddha must have smiled.

One of the lines in the Buddhist chants is, Buddham Saranam Gacchami. This is translated as, “I take refuge in the Buddha”.

If you take as correct the meaning above, you are equating the Buddha to Moses! Moses is said to have been the author the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. In one of the five books (Numbers), it is said that Moses is a humble man. Take these two together, and you have Moses proclaiming himself as a humble man! What becomes of Moses’ credibility? I am sure there is some nuance in this, but as a layman, this is how I understand.

Now, this layman will tell the experts how he interprets the one of the lines of chants given above: “I take refuge in the Buddham.” There is a huge difference between the Buddha (the “enlightened one”) and Buddham (“Enlightenment”).

Buddham Saranam Gacchami means I‘ll strive towards “Enlightenment”. The Buddha himself could not have said, “Take refuge in me,” when he repeatedly stressed that one should NOT take his teachings at face value, but test them out by themselves – an empiricist to the core.

I am not seeking a discussion/an argument, just putting forth my personal interpretation.

When I put all these things in the commissioned state-of-the art piece in Buddhism and showed it to the Buddha, he just smiled and left.

Raghuram Ekambaram

P.S 

Buddhism, supposedly with a steep upward empirical incline, disappoints me as it appears to have fallen into the trap set by dogmatism.