Buddhism: What's Hot Now: Buddhism and Science

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Buddhism and Science Jun 30th 2013, 11:03, by buddhism.guide@about.com Arri Eisen is a professor at Emery University who has traveled to Dharamsala, India, to teach science to Tibetan Buddhist monks. He writes about his experiences at Religion Dispatches. In "Teaching the Dalai Lama’s Monks: Better Religion Through Science," Eisen writes that a monk told him â€Å"I am studying modern science because I believe it can help me understand my Buddhism better.†It was a statement, Eisen says, that turned his worldview on its head. In an earlier article, "Creationism v. Integrationism," Eisen brought up the famous remark of His Holiness the Dalai Lama about science and sutras: "Buddhism turns modern Judeo-Christian ideas on their heads. In Buddhism, experience and reasoning come first, and then scripture. As we wandered down the path of broken rock fragments, Dhondup told me that when he encounters something that disagrees with his beliefs, he tests the new idea with logical evidence and approaches, and then if it holds up, he accepts it. This is what the Dalai Lama means when he says that if modern science presents good evidence that a Buddhist idea is wrong, he will accept the modern science (he gives the example of the Earth moving around the sun, which runs counter to Buddhist scripture)." Western non-Buddhists react to His Holiness's attitude toward science and scripture as if it were some kind of revolutionary breakthrough. But within Buddhism, it isn't all that revolutionary. The Role of the Sutras For the most part, Buddhists do not relate to the sutras in the same way people of the Abrahamic religions relate to the Bible, the Torah, or the Quran. The sutras are not the revealed words of a God who cannot be questioned, nor are they compilations of claims about the physical or spiritual worlds to be accepted on faith. Rather, they are pointers to an ineffable reality beyond the reach of ordinary cognition and senses. Although one may have faith that the sutras are pointing to truth, merely "believing in" what they say is of no particular value. The religious practice of Buddhism is not based on fidelity to doctrines, but on the very personal, very intimate process of realizing the truth of the doctrines for oneself. It is realization, not belief, that is transformative. The sutras do sometimes speak of the physical world, but they do so to clarify spiritual teaching. For example, the early Pali texts describe the physical world as being made up of Four Great Elements -- solidity, fluidity, heat, and motion. What do we make of that today? I sometimes do reflect on how early Buddhists might have understood the physical world based on the "science" of their time. But "believing in" the Four Great Elements is never the point, and I know of no way that knowledge of modern earth science or physics would conflict with the teachings. Most of us, I suspect, in our own heads automatically interpret and "update" the ancient texts to match our knowledge of earth science. The nature of what we are trying to understand does not depend on believing in Four Great Elements rather than atoms and molecules. The Role of Science Indeed, if there is an article of faith among many present-day Buddhists, it's that the more science discovers, the better scientific knowledge harmonizes with Buddhism. For example, it appears that teachings on evolution and ecology -- that nothing is immutable; that life forms exist, adapt and change because they are conditioned by environment and other life forms -- fits nicely with the Buddha's teaching on Dependent Origination. Many of us also are intrigued by contemporary study into the nature of consciousness and how our brains work to create an idea of "self," in light of Buddhist teaching on anatta. Nope, there's no ghost in the machine, so to speak, and we're OK with that. I do worry a bit about interpreting 2,000-year-old mystical texts as quantum mechanics, which seems to be something of a fad. I'm not saying that's incorrect -- I don't know quantum mechanics from spinach, so I wouldn't know -- but without advanced knowledge of physics and Buddhism such a pursuit could result in junk science and, well, junk Buddhism. I understand there are a few advanced physicists who also practice Buddhism who have turned their attention to this issue, and I will leave it to them to figure out the physics-dharma connection and whether making it is useful. In the meantime, the rest of us probably would do well not to attach to it. The Realm of True Seeing It's a mistake, I think, to "sell" Buddhism to a skeptical public by playing up its apparent agreements with science, as I have seen some Buddhists try to do. This plays into an idea that Buddhism must be validated by science to be "true," which is not at all the case. I think we would do well to remember that Buddhism does not require validation by science any more than science requires validation by Buddhism. After all, the historical Buddha realized enlightenment without knowledge of string theory. Zen teacher John Daido Loori said, "When science goes deeper than the superficial qualities -- and these days science does go much deeper -- it remains constrained to a study of the aggregates. From tree morphology -- trunk, bark, branches, leaves, fruit, seeds -- we dip into tree chemistry, then tree physics; from molecules of cellulose to atoms, electrons, protons." However, "When the true eye functions, it goes beyond looking and enters the realm of seeing. Looking speaks to what things are. Seeing reveals what else things are, the hidden aspect of reality, the reality of a rock, a tree, a mountain, a dog or a person." For the most part the disciplines of science and Buddhism work on entirely different planes that touch each other only lightly. I can't imagine how science and Buddhism could conflict with each other significantly even if they tried. At the same time, there's no reason science and Buddhism can't peacefully co-exist and even, sometimes, illuminate each other. His Holiness the Dalai Lama seems to have seen the possibilities of such illumination.

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: The Buddha's View of Rituals

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The Buddha's View of Rituals Jun 30th 2013, 11:03, by buddhism.guide@about.com The historical Buddha lived 25 or so centuries ago, in a time before history had been separated from myth. For this reason, the Buddha's life story handed down to us is more legend than biography. And after all this time it is impossible to confirm what parts of the legend might describe something that actually happened. Historian Karen Armstrong wrote, "Today, many readers will find aspects of this legend incredible; stories of gods and miracles are interspersed with the more mundane and historically probable events in Gotama's life. . . . We cannot be certain that the more normal incidents are any more original to the legend than these so-called signs and wonders." (Buddha [Penguin, 2001], p. xxi) Many of these myths were created to conform to ancient ideas about what a holy person should be like. Here in the 21st century, we may believe that we have evolved beyond myth-making. But in fact, today new myths are being created to make the Buddha more palatable to our postmodern sensibilities. For example, it is widely believed in the West that the Buddha was opposed to all rituals and ceremonies, and that rituals and ceremonies performed by Buddhists today are a corruption of the original teaching. Is that true? The Buddha's Objection to Rituals First, let's define "ritual." A ritual can be the prescribed order of any ceremony, religious or otherwise. A ritual could be any procedure carried out in a prescribed way. Rituals can have a supernatural purpose, such as evoking a spirit; or, they can also be intended to mark a change in someone's life -- marriage; high school graduation, fraternal initiation. It is unlikely any human society has ever been without rituals. The Buddha disparaged rituals in several of his sermons. He was critical of the Brahmins of his day, whose chief function was performing rituals. The path is better walked with mental discipline and ethical living than with rituals, he said. Yet according to the Vinaya-pitaka, he initiated some rituals and ceremonies himself. There was a specific ceremony that marked a disciple's admission into the sangha, for example. Requirements for the ordination ceremony are found a section of the Vinaya called the Khandhakas. According to Theravadin monk and scholar Thanissaro Bhikkhu, at first the ordination consisted of a simple acknowledgment by the Buddha, who would say "Come, bhikkhu" ("mendicant"). As the community grew and required a more formal structure, the ordination ceremony became more elaborate and formal also. Other ceremonies believed to date to the Buddha's time include Kathina (the robe ceremony) and the observances at the beginning and end of Vassa, the rains retreat. In the Vedic religions that pre-date Buddhism, the times of the full and new moons had long been set aside as holy days and observed with rituals and teaching. The Buddha and his disciples adapted this practice by making full and new moon days a time for public confession and atonement. The Vinaya also spells out how to bow (and whom to bow to) and the proper way to fold one's robe and put away one's bowl. It even explains in detail the correct way to manage one's robe while using a latrine. The disciples' lives were ruled by protocols and rituals, it seems. Is it possible some of these protocols and rituals were added after the Buddha's life? Yes, that is possible. In the case of the eight Garudhammas -- restrictive rules that applied only to nuns -- I think it is probable. But it's impossible to know for certain. And if we toss out the entire Vinaya, we're tossing out much of what we think we know about the Buddha. It's tempting to declare the parts of the old scriptures that conform to our views as "original" and discard the other stuff as something added later. But without objective evidence, that's not an honest way to read the old scriptures. As Karen Armstrong said, we cannot be certain that what strikes us as "normal" is any more original than what strikes us as supernatural. No Magic, No Attachment One distinction about the Buddha's rituals and protocols is that they have practical purposes. An initiate's vows to keep the Precepts; bowing to one's seniors; the ritual handling of Kathina cloth all functioned to maintain commitment and promote group harmony. Unlike the rituals of the Brahmins, these rituals were not based on magical thinking or meant to bring about a supernatural resullt. In the many centuries since the time of the Buddha, it's certainly true that many rituals have been performed by self-identified Buddhists that were and are based on magical thinking and meant to bring about a supernatural result. The intelligent response to this is not to avoid rituals entirely but to discern which rituals may be useful and which are not. For more on what makes a ritual useful, see "Ritual and Buddhism." And finally, a word about attachment. Here and there in the Pali Canon, the Buddha warns against attachment to rituals. Doesn't this mean we should avoid rituals? Not necessarily. In fact, in Buddhism, avoidance and aversion are just other forms of attachment. Attachment is something marked by self-reference; in order to attach, you must perceive yourself as separate from something. (See "Why Do Buddhists Avoid Attachment?") Once you perceive nothing is separate, attachment is not possible. The Buddha also advised his monks to not become attached to the taste of food. He was not telling them not to eat. In short, there are rituals, and then there are other rituals. The dharma does not depend on rituals, but often rituals can be a skillful means for realizing dharma.

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: Chado: Zen and the Art of Tea

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Chado: Zen and the Art of Tea Jun 28th 2013, 11:03, by buddhism.guide@about.com "Tea ceremony" is not the best translation of chado, which literally means "tea way" ("cha" means "tea"; "do" means "way"). Chado, also called cha no yu ("tea hot water") isn't a ceremony involving tea. It is just tea; just this moment, fully experienced and appreciated. Through meticulous attention to every detail of preparing and drinking tea, the participants enter into a shared, intimate experience of tea. Tea had long been valued by Ch'an monks in China to keep them awake during meditation. According to legend, when Bodhidharma, the founder of Ch'an (Zen), struggled to stay awake during meditation, he ripped his eyelids off, and tea plants sprang from the discarded eyelids. Beginning about the 9th century, Japanese Buddhist monks who traveled to China to study returned with tea. In the 12th century, Eisai (1141-1215), the first Zen master in Japan, returned from China bringing Rinzai Zen as well as a new way to make tea -- mixing powdered green tea and hot water in a bowl, with a whisk. This is the method for making tea still used in chado. Paying Attention Mindfulness is essential to Zen practice. Along with zazen, a great many arts and ceremonial practices of Zen require complete attention. The folds in a monk's bowing cloth, the placement of oryoki bowls and chopsticks, the composition of a flower arrangement all follow precise forms. A wandering mind leads to mistakes in form. So it was with brewing and drinking tea. Over time, Zen monks incorporated tea into Zen practice, paying attention to every detail of its creation and consumption. Wabi-cha What we now call the tea ceremony was created by a former Zen monk who became an adviser to the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Murata Shuko (c. 1422â€"1502) served tea in a small, plain room in his master's sumptuous villa. He replaced ornately decorated porcelain with earthen bowls. He stressed tea as a spiritual practice and introduced the aesthetic concept of wabi -- simple, austere beauty. Shuko's form of tea ceremony is called wabi-cha. Shuko began the tradition, still followed, of hanging a scroll of Zen calligraphy in a tea room. He may have been the first tea master to partition a large room into a small and intimate four-and-a-half tatami mat area, which remains the traditional size of a tea ceremony room. He stipulated also that the door should be low, so that all who enter must bow. Rikyu and Raku Of all the tea masters who came after Murata Shuko, Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) is the best remembered. Like Shuko, Rikyu left a Zen monastery to become the tea master of a powerful man, the warlord Oda Nobunaga. When Nobunaga died, Rikyu entered the service of Nobunaga's successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi, ruler of all Japan, was a great patron of the tea ceremony, and Rikyu was his favored tea master. Through Rikyu, wabi-cha became the art form it is today, incorporating ceramics and utensils, architecture, textiles, flower arranging, and the other crafts associated with the total experience of tea. One of Rikyu's innovations was to devise a style of tea bowl called raku. These plain, irregular bowls are said to be the direct expression of the bowl artist's mind. They are usually red or black and shaped by hand. Imperfections in shape, color and surface texture make each bowl unique. Soon the tea bowls themselves became highly prized as pieces of art. It is not known exactly why Rikyu fell out of favor with Hideyoshi, but in 1591 the elderly tea master was ordered to commit ritual suicide. Before carrying out the order, Rikyu composed a poem -- "I raise the sword, This sword of mine, Long in my possession The time is come at last. Skyward I throw it up!" The Way of Tea There are several variables in a traditional tea ceremony, but commonly the guests will wash their mouths and hands and remove their shoes before entering the room for the ceremony. Food may be served first. The host lights a charcoal fire to heat water in a kettle and cleans the tea tools. Then the host mixes the powdered tea and water with a bamboo whisk. These movements are all ritualized, and to fully enter into the ceremony the guests should be paying attention. Guests sip tea from a single bowl, which is passed among them according to ritual. When to bow, when to speak, how to handle the bowl -- all follow precise forms. When participants are fully engaged, the ritual evokes great peace and great clarity, a non-dualistic consciousness and a deep intimacy with oneself and the others present. Read More See more about wabi-sabi and Japanese aesthetics in "Historic Buddhist Temples of Japan: A Photo Gallery." For the story of Buddhism in Japan, see "Buddhism in Japan: A Brief History." For more about Zen Buddhism, see "Zen 101: An Introduction to Zen Buddhism."

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: The Four Seals of the Dharma

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The Four Seals of the Dharma Jun 28th 2013, 11:03, by buddhism.guide@about.com In the 26 centuries since the life of the Buddha, Buddhism has developed into diverse schools and sects. As Buddhism reached into new regions of Asia it often absorbed remnants of older regional religions. Many local "folk Buddhisms" sprang up that adopted the Buddha and the many iconic figures of Buddhist art and literature as gods, without regard to their original meaning. Sometimes new religions sprang up that were Buddhist in appearance but which retained little of the Buddha's teachings. On the other hand, sometimes new schools of Buddhism arose that approached the teachings in fresh and robust new ways, to the disapproval of traditionalists. Questions arose -- what is it that distinguishes Buddhism as a distinctive religion? When is "Buddhism" actually Buddhism? Those schools of Buddhism based on the Buddha's teachings accept the Four Seals of Dharma as the distinction between true Buddhism and "sorta looks like Buddhism." Further, a teaching that contradicts any of the Four Seals is not a true Buddhist teaching. The Four Seals are: All compounded things are impermanent. All stained emotions are painful. All phenomena are empty. Nirvana is peace. Let's look at them one at a time. 1. All Compounded Things Are Impermanent Anything that is assembled of other things will come apart -- a toaster, a building, a mountain, a person. The timetables may vary -- certainly a mountain may remain a mountain for 10,000 years. But even 10,000 years is not "always." The fact is that the world around us, which seems solid and fixed, is in a state of perpetual flux. Well, of course, you may say. Why is this so important to Buddhism? Thich Nhat Hanh wrote that impermanence makes all things possible. Because everything changes, there are seeds and flowers, children and grandchildren. A static world would be a dead one. Mindfulness of impermanence leads us to the teaching of dependent origination. All the compounded things are part of a limitless web of interconnection that is constantly changing. Phenomena become because of conditions created by other phenomena. Elements assemble and dissipate and re-assemble. Nothing is separate from everything else. Finally, being mindful of the impermanence of all compounded things, including ourselves, helps us accept loss, old age and death. This may seem pessimistic, but it is realistic. There will be loss, old age and death whether we accept them or not. 2. All Stained Emotions Are Painful. His Holiness the Dalai Lama translated this seal "all contaminated phenomena are of the nature of suffering." The word "stained" or "contaminated" refers to actions, emotions and thoughts conditioned by selfish attachment, or by hate, greed and ignorance. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, a Bhutanese lama and filmmaker, said, "All emotions are pain. All of them! Why? Because they involve dualism. This is a big subject now. This we have to discuss for a while… From the Buddhist point of view, as long as there is a subject and object, as long as there is a separation between subject and object, as long as you divorce them so to speak, as long as you think they are independent and then function as subject and object, that is an emotion, which includes everything, almost every thought that we have." It is because we see ourselves as separate from other things that we desire them, or are repulsed by them. This is the teaching of the Second Noble Truth, which teaches that the cause of suffering is craving or thirst (tanha). Because we divide the world into subject and object, me and everything else, we continually grasp for things we think are separate from ourselves to make us happy. But nothing ever satisfies us for long. 3. All Phenomena Are Empty. Another way to say this is that nothing has intrinsic or inherent existence, including ourselves. This relates to the teaching of anatman, also called anatta. Theravada and Mahayana Buddhists understand anatman somewhat differently. Theravada scholar Walpola Rahula explained, "According to the Buddha's teaching, it is as wrong to hold the opinion 'I have no self' (which is the annihilationist theory) as to hold the opinion 'I have a self' (the eternalist theory), because both are fetters, both arising out of the false idea 'I AM'. The correct position with regard to the question of Anatta is not to take hold of any opinion or views, but to try to see things objectively as they are without mental projections, to see that what we call 'I', or 'being', is only a combination of physical and mental aggregates, which are working together interdependently in a flux of momentary change within the law of cause and effect, and that there is nothing permanent, everlasting, unchanging and eternal in the whole of existence." (Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, 2nd ed., 1974, p. 66) Mahayana Buddhism teaches the doctrine of shunyata, or "emptiness." Phenomena have no existence of their own and are empty of a permanent self. In shunyata, there is neither reality not not-reality; only relativity. However, shunyata also is an absolute reality that is all things and beings, unmanifested. 4. Nirvana Is Peace. The fourth seal sometimes is worded "Nirvana is beyond extremes." Walpola Rahula said "Nirvana is beyond all terms of duality and relativity. It is therefore beyond our conceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, existence and non-existence." (What the Buddha Taught, p. 43) Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche said, "In many philosophies or religions, the final goal is something that you can hold on to and keep. The final goal is the only thing that truly exists. But nirvana is not fabricated, so it is not something to be held on to. It is referred to as 'beyond extremes.'" Nirvana is defined in diverse ways by the various schools of Buddhism. But the Buddha taught that Nirvana was beyond human conceptualization or imagination, and discouraged his students from wasting time in speculations about Nirvana. This Is Buddhism The Four Seals reveal what is unique about Buddhism among all the world's religions. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche said, "Whoever holds these four [seals], in their heart, or in their head, and contemplates them, is a Buddhist."

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Buddhism: Modern Buddhist Myths

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Modern Buddhist Myths Jun 27th 2013, 15:08 The life story of the Buddha was mythologized long ago. Today many of us find this unfortunate; we like our facts these days, thank you very much. However, it seems to me there are new myths about the Buddha spreading around on the Internet. Some of them came up in comments to last week's posts about rituals. The Buddha didn't do rituals! The Buddha didn't chant! Why should I? I have written a new article called "The Buddha's View of Rituals: Debunking a Modern Myth," in which I argue that the Buddha's view of rituals isn't that simple.  He certainly criticized the Brahmins' use of rituals, and taught that mental discipline and ethical conduct were more important than rituals. But according to the Vinaya he initiated some rituals himself, when they seemed needed to promote discipline and group harmony. So, it seems, there are rituals, and then there are other rituals.

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: The Lost World of Buddhist Gandhara

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The Lost World of Buddhist Gandhara Jun 27th 2013, 11:03 The Kushans The Kushans (also called the Yuezhi) were an Indo-European people who came to Bactria -- now northwestern Afghanistan -- about 135 BCE. In the 1st century BCE the Kushans united under the leadership of Kujula Kadphises and took control of Gandhara away from the Scytho-Parthians. Kujula Kadphises established a capital near what is now Kabul, Afghanistan. Eventually the Kushans extended their territory to include part of present-day Uzbekistan as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan. The kingdom extended into northern India as far east as Benares. Eventually the sprawling empire would require two capitals --Peshawar, near the Khyber Pass, and Mathura in northern India. The Kushans controlled a strategic part of the Silk Road and a busy port on the Arab Sea near what is now Karachi, Pakistan. They became wealthy, and their wealth supported a flourishing civilization. Kushan Buddhist Culture Kushan Gandhara was a multiethnic blend of many cultures and religions, including Buddhism. Gandhara's location and dynamic history brought together Greek, Persian, Indian, and many other influences. The mercantile wealth supported scholarship and the fine arts. It was under Kushan rule that Gandharan art developed and flourished. The earliest Kushan art mostly reflects Greek and Roman mythology, but as time went on Buddhist figures became dominant. The first depictions of the Buddha in human form were made by artists of Kushan Gandhara, as were the first depictions of bodhisattvas. The Kushan King Kanishka I (127â€"147) in particular is remembered as a great patron of Buddhism. He is said to have convened a Buddhist council in Kashmir. He did build a great stupa in Peshawar. Archeologists discovered and measured its base about a century ago and determined the stupa had a diameter of 286 feet. Accounts of pilgrims suggest it may have been as tall as 690 feet (210 meters) and was covered with jewels. Beginning in the 2nd century, Buddhist monks from Gandhara actively engaged in transmitting Buddhism into China and other parts of north Asia. A 2nd century Kushan monk named Lokaksema was among the first translators of Mahayana Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. King Kanishka's reign marked the peak of the Kushan era of Gandhara. In the 3rd century the territory ruled by Kushan kings began to shrink. Kushan rule ended altogether in 450, when what was left of Kushan Gandhara was overrun by Huns. Some Buddhist monks gathered as much Kushan art as they could carry and took it to what is now the Swat Valley of Pakistan, where Buddhism would survive for a few more centuries. Bamiyan In western Gandhara and Bactria, Buddhist monasteries and communities established during the Kushan era also continued to grow and flourish for the next few centuries. Among these was Bamiyan. By the 4th century Bamiyan was home to one of the largest monastic communities in all Central Asia. The two great Buddhas of Bamiyan -- one nearly 175 feet tall, the other 120 feet tall -- may have been carved as early as the 3rd century or as late as the 7th century. The Bamiyan Buddhas represented another development in Buddhist art. While earlier Kushan art had depicted the Buddha as a human being, the carvers of Bamiyan were reaching for something more transcendent. The larger Bamiyan Buddha is the transcendent Buddha Vairocana. Vairocana represents the dharmakaya, beyond time and space, in which all beings and phenomena abide, unmanifested. Thus, Vairocana contains the universe, and thus, Vairocana was carved on a colossal scale. Bamiyan art also developed a unique style distinctive from the art of Kushan Gandhara. Bamiyan art was less Hellenic and more of a fusion of Persian and Indian style. One of the greatest achievements of Bamiyan art has only recently been appreciated -- unfortunately, after most of it was defaced by the Taliban. Dozens of small caves were dug out of the cliffs in back of the great buddhas, and many of these were decorated with painted murals. In 2008 scientists analyzed the murals and realized that some of them had been painted with oil-based paint -- the earliest use of oil painting yet to be discovered. Before, art historians had placed the beginning of oil painting in 15th century Europe. The Swat Valley: Birthplace of Tibetan Vajrayana? Now we go back to the Swat Valley in north central Pakistan and pick up the story there. As stated earlier. Buddhism in the Swat Valley survived the Hun invasion of 450. It was said that at its peak of Buddhist influence, the Swat Valley was filled with fourteen hundred stupas and monasteries. According to Tibetan tradition the great 8th century mystic Padmasambhava was from Uddiyana, which is thought to have been the Swat Valley. Padmasambhava brought Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet and built the first Buddhist monastery there. The Emergence of Islam and the End of Gandhara In the 6th century CE the Sassanian dynasty of Persia took control of Gandhara, but after the Sassanians suffered a military defeat in 644 Gandhara was ruled by the Turki Shahis, a Turkic people related to the Kushans. In the 9th century control of Gandhara reverted to Hindu rulers, called the Hindu Shahis. Islam reached Gandhara in the 7th century. For the next few centuries Buddhists and Muslims lived together in mutual peace and respect. Buddhist communities and monasteries that came under Muslim rule were, with a few exceptions, left alone. But Gandhara was long past its prime, and conquest by Mahmud of Ghazna (ruled 998â€"1030) effectively put an end to it. Mahmud defeated the Hindu Gandharan King Jayapala, who committed suicide. Jayapala's son Trilocanpala was assassinated by his own troops in 1012, an act that marked the official end of Gandhara. Mahmud left the Buddhist communities and monasteries under his rule alone, as had most Muslim rulers. Even so, after the 11th century Buddhism in the region gradually withered away. It is difficult to pin down exactly when the last Buddhist monasteries in Afghanistan and Pakistan were abandoned. However, for many centuries the Buddhist cultural heritage of Gandhara was preserved by the Muslim descendants of the Gandharans.

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: Buddhism and Evil

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Buddhism and Evil Jun 27th 2013, 11:03 Evil is a word many people use without thinking deeply about what it signifies. I'd like to compare common ideas about evil with Buddhist teachings on evil, if for no other reason than to facilitate deeper thinking about evil. First, a qualifier: This is a topic I've wrestled with for some time, and my understanding continues to change. This essay is a snapshot of what my understanding is right now, not perfect wisdom. If you have other perspectives you'd like to share, I encourage you to visit the Buddhism forums and leave a message. Thinking About Evil Over the years I've observed that people speak and think about evil in several different, and sometimes conflicting, ways. The two most common are these: Evil as intrinsic characteristic. It's common to think of evil as an intrinsic characteristic of some people or groups. In other words, some people are said to be evil. Evil is a quality that is inherent in their being. Evil as external force. In this view, evil lurks about and infects or seduces the unwary into doing bad things. Sometimes evil is personified as Satan or some other character from religious literature. As I've said, these are common, popular ideas. You can find much more profound and nuanced ideas about evil in many philosophies and theologies, eastern and western. But for this essay I want to focus on Buddhist teachings and explain why Buddhism rejects both of these common ways of thinking about evil. Let's take them one at a time. Evil as Characteristic The act of sorting humanity into "good" and "evil" carries a terrible trap. When other people are thought to be evil, it becomes possible to justify doing them harm. And in that thinking are seeds of genuine evil. Human history is thoroughly saturated by violence and atrocity committed on behalf of "good" against people categorized as "evil." I dare say most of the mass horrors humanity has inflicted upon itself have come from this kind of thinking. People intoxicated by their own self-righteousness or who believe in their own intrinsic moral superiority too easily give themselves permission to do terrible things to those they hate or fear. Sorting people into separate divisions and categories is very un-Buddhist. The Buddha's teaching of the Four Noble Truths tells us that suffering is caused by greed, or thirst, but also that greed is rooted in the delusion of an isolated, separate self. Closely related to this is the teaching of dependent origination, which says that everything and everyone is a web of interconnection, and every part of the web expresses and reflects every other part of the web. And also closely related is the Mahayana teaching of shunyata, "emptiness." If we are empty of intrinsic being, how can we be intrinsically anything? There is no-self for intrinsic qualities to stick to. For this reason, a Buddhist is strongly advised not to fall into the habit of thinking of himself and others as intrinsically good or bad. Ultimately there is just action and reaction; cause and effect. And this takes us to karma, which I will come back to shortly. Evil as External Force Some religions teach that evil is a force outside ourselves that seduces us into sin. This force is sometimes thought to be generated by Satan or various demons. The faithful are encouraged to seek strength outside themselves to fight evil, by looking to God. The Buddha's teaching could not be more different -- "By oneself, indeed, is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself, indeed, is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself. No one purifies another." (Dhammapada, chapter 12, verse 165) Buddhism teaches us that evil is something we create, not something we are or some outside force that infects us.

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Buddhism: When Religions Attack

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When Religions Attack Jun 26th 2013, 22:03 Following up the last post, about Time magazine's "The Face of Buddhist Terror" cover -- terrorism and violence attributed to religious/spiritual traditions is, to me, a fascinating subject that no one seems to be addressing intelligently. (And for purposes of this discussion, I'm calling Buddhism a religion. If you want to argue the point, go somewhere else.) It seems a lot of people are quite certain there is a direct cause and effect between religion and violence/terrorism/oppression, and that much evil would pass from the world if all religion were eradicated. I don't think it's that simple, especially in modern times. It's more often the case these days that religious institutions become infected with the local social pathologies. And then the infected institutions easily are co-opted into providing a moral "cover" for immoral actions. People entering religious institutions don't lose a lifetime of cultural conditioning as soon as they put on robes or vestments, you know. For example, in some parts of Asia Buddhist institutions are planted in strongly paternalistic/misogynist cultures, and the men who become monks and abbots there are products of that culture. And the institutions reflect that. However, this is much less true in other parts of Asia where women enjoy a higher status and more autonomy. And western sanghas often are brimming with strong feminist sensibilities. I believe this pattern of infection and co-option is what is happening in Burma. I believe it isn't so much "Buddhist terrorism" as it is "racist and jingoistic terrorism that has co-opted part of the sangha." I suspect something similar happened in Japanese Zen institutions in the 1930s, causing them to support whatever the Japanese military was doing, however ugly. This is pretty much the pattern of so-called religious violence around the world in at least the past century or so, seems to me. The degree to which any violence might accurately be labeled "Buddhist" or "Christian" or "Muslim" depends on a number of factors. Would the violence have happened anyway, without the support of religious leaders? That may be hard to determine. It may be that some would have been violent anyway, but others would not have turned to violence without the "permission" of clergy. If a religious "container" were not present, would another container have served? We saw in the 20th century that patriotic/political movements can do just as good a job s religion at directing fanatical bigotry and rage toward violent ends. And then there is the phenomenon of the charismatic sociopath who becomes a cult leader -- e.g., Jim Jones, Asahara Shoko. Is the violence they perpetrate caused by religion or sociopathy? Because religion so often deals with mysteries and things unseen, it can easily become a canvas upon which people project all kinds of craziness. Religions also easily become objects of fanaticism. Religious institutions can work to discourage fanatical attachment, or they can encourage it, in which case they must bear some responsibility for whatever ugliness grows out of the fanaticism. I suspect that if religion were to disappear tomorrow, the same people perpetrating "religious" violence today would just re-organize under some other banner. But it's a complicated matter.

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Buddhism: How Not to Insult Buddhism

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How Not to Insult Buddhism Jun 24th 2013, 16:32 Covers of the world editions of Time magazine (meaning editions of Time sold outside the U.S.) display a photo of Burmese monk U Wirathu and the words "The Face of Buddhist Terror." U Wirathu leads a nationalist Burmese movement and has been accused of stoking religious hatred and violence. The article itself appears to be behind a subscription firewall. But the cover has been criticized by the government of Burma and protested by monks and journalists in Burma. It's an insult to Buddhism, they say. To me, a monk spreading racist rumors is an insult to Buddhism. Violence in the name of protecting Buddhism is an insult to Buddhism. If the government, media and sangha of Burma object to a cover story about "Buddhist terror," they should work harder to stop it.

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: Buddhism and Abortion

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Buddhism and Abortion Jun 24th 2013, 11:03 The U.S. has struggled with the issue of abortion for many years without coming to consensus. We need a fresh perspective, and I believe the Buddhist view of the abortion issue may provide one. Buddhism does consider abortion to be the taking of a human life. At the same time, Buddhists generally are reluctant to intervene in a woman's personal decision to terminate a pregnancy. Buddhism may discourage abortion, but it also discourages imposing rigid moral absolutes. This may seem contradictory. In our culture, many think that if something is morally wrong it ought to be banned. However, the Buddhist view is that the rigid following of rules is not what makes us moral. Further, imposing authoritative rules often creates a new set of moral wrongs. What About Rights? First, the Buddhist view of abortion does not include a concept of rights, either a "right to life" or a "right to one's own body." In part this is because Buddhism is a very old religion, and the concept of human rights is relatively recent. However, approaching abortion as merely a "rights" issue doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. "Rights" are defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as "entitlements (not) to perform certain actions or be in certain states, or entitlements that others (not) perform certain actions or be in certain states." In this argument, a right becomes a trump card that, when played, wins the hand and shuts down all further consideration of the issue. However, activists both for and against legal abortion believe their trump card beats the other side's trump card. So nothing is settled. When Does Life Begin? I'm going to address this question with a personal observation that is not necessarily Buddhist but is not, I think, contradictory to Buddhism. My understanding is that life doesn’t "begin." Scientists tell us that life got to this planet, somehow, about 4 billion years ago, and since then life has expressed itself in diverse forms beyond counting. But no one has observed it "beginning." We living beings are manifestations of an unbroken process that has been going on for 4 billion years, give or take. To me, "When does life begin?" is a nonsensical question. And if you understand yourself as a culmination of a 4-billion-year-old process, then is conception really more significant that the moment your grandfather met your grandmother? Is any one moment in those 4 billion years really separable from all the other moments and couplings and cell divisions going back to the first macromolecules to life's beginning, assuming life had a beginning? You might ask, What about the individual soul? One of the most basic, most essential, and most difficult teachings of Buddhism is anatman or anatta -- no soul. Buddhism teaches that our physical bodies are not possessed of an intrinsic self, and our persistent sense of ourselves as separate from the rest of the universe is a delusion. Please understand that this is not a nihilistic teaching. The Buddha taught that if we can see through the delusion of the small, individual self, we realize a boundless "self" that is not subject to birth and death. What Is the Self? Our judgments on issues depend heavily on how we conceptualize them. In western culture, we understand individuals to be autonomous units. Most religions teach that these autonomous units are invested with a soul. I've already mentioned the doctrine of anatman. According to this doctrine, what we think of as our "self" is a temporary creation of the skandhas. The skandhas are attributes -- form, senses, cognition, discrimination, consciousness -- that come together to create a distinctive, living being. As there is no soul to transmigrate from one body to another, there is no "reincarnation" in the usual sense of the word. "karma created by a past life carries over to another life. Most schools of Buddhism teach that conception is the beginning of the process of rebirth and does, therefore, mark the beginning of a human being's life. The First Precept The First Precept of Buddhism often is translated "I undertake to refrain from destroying life." Some schools of Buddhism make a distinction between animal and plant life, and some do not. Although human life is most important, the Precept cautions us to refrain from taking life in any of its countless manifestations. That said, there is no question that terminating a pregnancy is an extremely serious matter. Abortion is considered to be taking a human life and is strongly discouraged in Buddhist teachings. However, I do not believe any school of Buddhism absolutely forbids it. Buddhism teaches us not to impose our views on others and to have compassion for those facing difficult situations. Although some predominantly Buddhist countries, such as Thailand, place legal restrictions on abortion, many Buddhists do not think the state should intervene in matters of conscience. In the next section, we look at what's wrong with moral absolutes.

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: Theravada Buddhism

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Theravada Buddhism Jun 24th 2013, 11:03 Theravada is the dominant form of Buddhism in southeast Asia, and for this reason it is sometimes called the "Southern School." It claims about 100 million adherents worldwide. Its doctrines are taken from the Tripitaka , and its basic teachings begin with the Four Noble Truths. Above all, Theravada emphasizes insight gained through critical analysis and personal experience rather than blind faith. Theravada is distinctive from the other major school of Buddhism, Mahayana, in several ways. Individual Enlightenment Theravada emphasizes individual enlightenment; the ideal is to become an arhat (sometimes arahant), which means "worthy one" in Pali. An arhat is a person who has realized enlightenment and freed himself from the cycle of birth and death. Beneath the arhat ideal is an understanding of the doctrine of anatman -- the nature of the self -- that differs from that of the Mahayana. Very basically, Theravada considers anatman to mean that an individual's ego or personality is a fetter and delusion. Once freed of this delusion, the individual may enjoy the bliss of Nirvana. Mahayana, on the other hand, considers all physical forms to be void of intrinsic self and individual autonomy to be a delusion. Therefore, according to Mahayana, "individual enlightenment" is an oxymoron. The ideal in Mahayana is to enable all beings to be enlightened together. Self-Power Theravada teaches that enlightenment comes entirely through one's own efforts, without help from gods or other outside forces. Some schools of Mahayana emphasize this also, but others (for example, Pure Land) are more devotional. Literature All schools of Buddhism recognize the Tripitaka as scripture. However, there are several sutras (sometimes collectively called the "Northern Canon" or "Mahayana Canon") that are essential to Mahayana but not considered legitimate by Theravada. Pali Versus Sanskrit Theravada Buddhism uses the Pali rather than the Sanskrit form of common terms; for example, sutta instead of sutra; dhamma instead of dharma. Meditation The primary means of realizing enlightenment in the Theravada tradition is through Vipassana meditation. Vipassana emphasizes disciplined self-observation of body and thoughts and how they interconnect. Some schools of Mahayana also emphasize meditation, but other schools of Mahayana do not meditate.

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Buddhism: What's Hot Now: The Jataka Tale of the Selfless Hare

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The Jataka Tale of the Selfless Hare Jun 24th 2013, 11:03 Introduction: The Jataka Tales are stories of the Buddha's previous lives. Many are animal fables, very similar to the fables of Aesop. Because the Buddha was not yet a Buddha, in the stories he often is called "Bodhisattva." This story of the selfless hare appears, with some variations, in both the Pali Canon (as the Sasa Jataka, or Jataka 308) and in the Jatakamala of Arya Sura. The craters of the Moon seem, in some cultures, to form an image of a face -- the Man in the Moon -- but in Asia it is more common to imagine the image of a rabbit or hare. This is the story of why there is a hare in the moon. Long ago, the Bodhisattva was reborn as a hare. He lived in a leafy forest among soft, tender grass and delicate ferns, surrounded by climbing vines and sweet wild orchids. The forest was rich with fruits and bordered by a river of pure water as blue as lapis lazuli. This forest was a favorite of wandering acestics, people who withdraw from the world to focus on their spiritual journeys. These acestics lived on food they begged from others. The people of that time considered the giving of alms to the holy wanderers be a sacred duty. The bodhisattva hare had three friends -- a monkey, a jackal, and an otter -- who looked to the wise hare as their leader. He taught them the importance of keeping moral laws, observing holy days, and giving alms. Whenever a holy day approached, the hare admonished his friends that if someone asked them for food, they were to give freely and generously from the food they had gathered for themselves. Sakra, lord of devas, was watching the four friends from his great palace of marble and light on the peak of Mount Meru, and on one holy day he decided to test their virtue. That day, the four friends separated to find food. The otter found seven red fish on a riverbank; the jackal found a lizard and a vessel of curdled milk someone had abandoned; the monkey gathered mangoes from the trees. Sakra took the form of a Brahman, or priest, and he went to the otter and said, friend, I am hungry. I need food before I can perform my priestly duties. Can you help me? And the otter offered the Brahman the seven fish he had gathered for his own meal. Then the Brahman went to the jackal, and said, friend, I am hungry. I need food before I can perform my priestly duties. Can you help me? And the jackal offered the Brahman the lizard and curdled milk he had planned to have for his own meal. Then the Brahman went to the monkey, and said friend, I am hungry. I need food before I can perform my priestly duties. Can you help me? And the monkey offered the Brahman the juicy mangoes he had looked forward to eating himself. Then the Brahman went to the hare and asked for food, but the hare had no food but the lush grass growing in the forest. So the Bodhisattva told the Brahman to build a fire, and when the fire was burning, he said, I have nothing to give you to eat but myself! Then, the hare threw himself into the fire. Sakra, still disguised as a Brahman, was astonished and deeply moved. He caused the fire to be cold, so the hare was not burned, and then revealed his true form to the selfless little hare. Dear hare, he said, your virtue will be remembered through the ages. And then Sakra painted the wise hare's likeness on the pale face of the Moon, for all to see. Sakra returned to his home on Mount Meru, and the four friends lived long and happily in their beautiful forest. And to this day, those who look up at the Moon can see the image of the selfless hare.

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