Mysticism Chapter 7 Buddhism (No. B7_7)
Christian Churches of God
No.
B7_7
Mysticism
Chapter 7
Buddhism
(Edition 2.0 19900910-20001215-20071010)
This chapter takes the Buddhist
system from its rise in India to the spread of the Theravadin system and the
developments of the subsequent Mahayana and Hinayana systems.
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(Copyright 1990, 2000, 2007 Wade Cox)
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Buddhism
Liberation Theology
The Upanishadic view of liberation or the path to Moksha
became the ultimate goal of Vedantic meditation. The Upanishadic view was
ultimately negative and was further complicated by the now fully-developed
belief that there was an endless cycle of existence (Samsara), "of rebirth, redeath and rebirth" (Wolpert, p.
47). "Desire, deeds, ‘action' (Karma) of any sort came now to be
considered hindrances, snares, delusory traps in the soul’s search for moksha. The Law of Karma emerges linked
to the concept of Samsara as a distinguishing axiom of Indian
civilization" (ibid.). The law posited that every action, good and evil,
had repercussions or consequences of like kind at some future date. According
to Horner:
Good Karma and bad Karma which are at once the result of
previous deeds and the causes of new effects; work independently of each other
and are not to be balanced the one against the other in any kind of
scales" (I.B. Horner, Buddhism: The
Theravada in The Concise Encyclopedia
of Living Faiths ed. R.C. Zaehner, Hutchinson, London, 1959, p. 283).
Because of Karma the world revolves and creatures revolve; it
keeps them bound to the wheel of Samsara as the axle holds a rolling chariots
wheel "(Suttanipata 654,
ibid)...If there were no Karma there would be no Samsara: In a sense it is life, for it operates only
where there is volition (ibid.).
By the exercise of his own Karma, a man can exercise
control, crushing the covetousness, malevolence and harmfulness leading to
rebirth.
Somehow the Aryan Sat (the real or true) became displaced in
the woods of Bihar by a pessimistic view or faith in the "pre-Aryan
darkness chaos, or nonbeing, the asat of demonic Vritra which now more closely
resembled the ultimate goal of Indian reality, than did either the world of
mortals or Gods" (Wolpert, p. 48).
Thus the Upanishadic view leads logically and inexorably
into that of the Buddhist.
The Buddha
The Sakyamuni, or the sage of the Sakyas, Sidhartha Guatama
the Buddha or ‘enlightened one’, was born around 563 BCE in Kapilavastu into
the hill tribe of the Sakyas, who were centred east of Sravasti, capital of the
Kosala region near the Himalayan foothills. Magadha, in the Eastern Gangetic
Plain, and Kosala, west of Magadha and north of the great river artery of Aryan
settlement, were the most powerful of the mahajanapadas, or great tribal
regions.
The Sakyas were brought into the ambit of the Kosala Aryans
and became tributary to them.
Siddhartha was a tribal prince who led a relatively easy life of
reasonable wealth within this ‘civilised’ Aryan system, being established in
the Kshatriya class, but politically he was faced with the same problem as the
Upanishadic teachers who preceded and, no doubt, influenced the philosophical
transformation he created and led. The ruler of Magadha, Bimbisara (ca. 540-490
BCE), became the patron of the Buddha. The relative wealth of the area
doubtless prompted the acceptance of the more rational and logical Buddhist
position.
The Buddha was involved in the Upanishadic struggle for
Varna primacy. Logically, the only way of immobilising this oppressive system
was to attack the notion of the inheritance of piety and the priesthood. This,
of itself, has a difficulty in the concept of the law of Karma. The Buddha
taught that, "only a person who ‘behaved as a Brahman should’ deserved to
be treated like one" (Wolpert, p. 50). The Brahmans exercised a priestly
monopoly of wealth and claimed the exercise of magic, in tradition similar to
the Shamanic. The Buddha aimed to substitute a faith based around a monastic
order exercising virtuous conduct, non-violence and poverty. By bolstering
Kshatriya and Vaishya expectations, he launched a peaceful revolution.
The Dharma
The concept of the Dharma, or the wheel of the law, was
introduced in his first sermon about 527 BCE after receiving enlightenment in a
deer park in Sarnath. That sermon on
the four noble truths became the philosophic core of the Theravada (Teaching of the Elders) Buddhism. This was later named Hinayana, or the Lesser Vehicle, by the
post-Christian era Mahayana (Greater
Vehicle) Buddhists. The first two of the four noble truths are:
·
Suffering (dukkha),
which is bound up in all existence.
·
Ignorance (avidya),
which is the basic cause of all suffering and involves an ignorance of the
fundamental nature of reality.
Differing from
the fundamental Upanishasdic sages, he posits a sorrowful, transient (anicca) and soulless (anatta) world. It is the soulless world
that differentiates Theravada Buddhism from either idealistic Upanishadic
Brahmanism or Jainism. These forms may have been related to other materialist
schools, such as the Ajivikas (Non Soul) and Charvaka or Lokayata (Peoples)
schools. As we have virtually no surviving teaching of these, comparison is
impossible.
·
Probably following on from Indian medical thought of
the period, which was advanced, was the promise that any "ill" which
was understood could in fact be cured.
·
The fourth noble truth was the eightfold path to the
elimination of suffering by holding, practicing and following:
·
right views
·
right aspirations
·
right speech
·
right conduct
·
right livelihood
·
right effort
·
right mindfulness and
·
right meditation
By correct interpretation of the right function, by
carefully following this path, one could reach nirvana, which means, "the
blowing out" as of a candle’s flame. Pain and suffering would finally be
overcome. Thus Nirvana was the equivalent of Moksha, "a paradise of
escape, rather than pleasure" (Wolpert, p. 51).
Monasticism in
Buddhism
Because of the numbers of disciples the Buddha attracted, he
established a monastic order (Sangha)
which operated throughout the world after his death. The initially all-male
Sangha had three vows: chastity (brahmacarya),
non-violence (ahimsa), and poverty (aparigrapha). These vows became integral
to Hindu concepts of piety. Nuns were admitted to the Sangha shortly before the
Buddha died.
The Buddha’s attitude to women was summed up in his advice
to his disciple, Ananada. He advised him "not to see them" and, if
that was unavoidable, "not to speak to them".
Anada questioned: "but suppose it was impossible to
avoid speaking with them?"
“Then keep alert, O Ananda!” The Buddha warned.
Through Sila, or right discipline, yogic concentration and
thoughtful study, nirvana was pursued.
Renunciation of family and goods and the begging of food
daily bestowed merit, thus turning a symbol of shame into one of virtue.
According to Wolpert, the idea of monasticism achieved such
popularity that it attracted religious leaders in other parts of the world,
spreading west to the Near East and thence to Europe, wandering north and east
to China and Japan. The monastic orders in China and Japan achieved martial
power and wealth. In India they became a formidable ideological and political
force against Brahmanism.
The initial experimentation of the Buddha in establishing
the noble path to Nirvana involved a form of rigorous self-denial, which was
experimented with by other ascetics. That Buddhism was a product of its time
was attested to by another Kshatriya prince of the Jnatrika tribe, Vardhamana
Mahavira (ca. 540-468 BCE), who established the Jainas, advocating extreme
asceticism, including self-torture and death by starvation as the surest paths
to salvation.
The Buddha rejected this as devoid of value after some years
in experimentation, although suicide is not denied to the Buddhist if correctly
motivated. A similar position was developed in the I Ching and commented on by
Confucius, as being devoid of worth leading to misfortune. The Jains taught
that each individual has an immaterial, immortal soul called jiva.
The Aryan disciple recognises that through Karma, deeds do
not stay with the doer of them. In a new birth, the doer is not substantially
the same as he was, nor totally different, and yet there has been no discontinuity
between death and rebirth. The disciple is not himself transmigrating or being
reborn. The dependent conditions exist which determine that contingent
personalities arise and cease to be.
The Denial of
Independant Existence
The Buddha developed the concept of dependant origination as
Dharma. It was "an abstract law of contingency denying independent
existence to finite things though not denying their total reality. Such
reality, as they have, is conditional on the occurrence of something else that
has already taken place and is conditioned by it. There is therefore order in
this world of relations and not anarchy" (Horner, ibid., p. 285).
This we have seen as Karma and Samsara, within past, present
and future. In the past, from ignorance arises the Karmic formations and hence
consciousness. From consciousness in the present, we have name and shape
conditioning the six sense fields, sharing impact on the senses and hence,
feeling. From feeling ensues craving then grasping, resulting in continued becoming.
The future then becomes birth and hence old age, dying,
grief, sorrow, suffering, limitation and despair and anguish. The four Aryan
truths are obtained by wisdom, which prevents the arising of Karmic formations
and hence continued being.
For there to be being, there are five Khandha or aggregates. The body (rupa) is composed of the four primaries, symbolically represented
as earth, water, heat and wind. The non-material parts (or nama) of being are feeling, perception, the volitional activities
or habitual tendencies, and consciousness. Thus the being of the nama rupa.
These five Khandha comprise a group, which is self- and
pleasure-seeking, grasping and speculation, rite and symbolism, and the theory
of a persistent self. These act as fetters confining the being to the wheel of
birth, arising over time as varying, contingent personalities.
Some parts, such as those within the Puggalavadin, such as
the Vajjiputtakas and the Sammitiyas, "held in distinction to the
Theravadins; that a ‘person’ (puggala)
was a real and ultimate fact without positing which, though it was neither the
same as the Khandha nor different from them, rebirth was
incomprehensible." (Horner, ibid., p. 287). The Sautrantikas held that the
puggala is a subtle Khandha among the five Khandhas and it is this that is
reborn. "The fact of rebirth after dying was accepted by all the Buddhist
sects. They only differed in their attitudes as to how it took place"
(ibid.).
The release from the recurrent wheel of birth and death is
achieved by attaining the final stage of nirvana or freedom. This profound
knowledge (the attainment of Dharma that is the mark of Arhantship) is
accomplished only by a gradual process of discipline. "There is no sudden
attainment except for a few isolated instances, which, as recorded in the Pali
Canon, no doubt betoken sustained resolution and energy in anterior births”
(ibid., p. 289).
There are five cardinal virtues in Buddhism: faith, energy,
mindfulness, concentration and even-mindedness. These form the five powers so
that virtue becomes power. In this concept, Buddhism differs from Christianity
only in that the spirit confers power through faith.
Bhakti as Faith and
Infallibility
The concept of faith is initially within the Guru-cela,
or master-student, relationship and in this respect is merely an extension of
the earlier Aryan thought. However, it is claimed that this is not bhakti (or devotion to a person). By hearing Dharma,
or truth from his master, he must test it and prove it and then by personal
resolution within the processes listed above, he may realise Dharma. The
concept of testing and proving is arguably a process of agreement rather than
actually proving all things, and is all too common in religious mentality.
Within Buddhism, the concept of faith (Suaddha) is really a conception
that the teachings of the Buddha are true, before the believer has had the
chance to test them himself. The concept of teaching as an indoctrination was
developed into a formal system within the Indo-Aryans and, as examined
elsewhere, it was found throughout the Brahmanic and Bhakti cults. It is also
endemic in modern cultic reasoning. The concept of unquestioning faith or
belief found in the guru-cela relationship – and
developed to the proposition that the teachings of the Buddha are true even
before the adherent has had the opportunity to test them himself – has been examined by B.G.Gokhale in 'Bhakti in Early Buddhism' in Lele, J. (ed.) Tradition and Modernity in
Bhakti Movements.
It is difficult to see how modern scholars can salvage the
concept of Bhakti in Buddhism from the identification of syncretic fusion with
the earlier Animistic Shamanism. Indeed, the attempts that have been made to
isolate the concepts seem to run in the compartmentalist school (identified by
Terwiel and referred to elsewhere, which include Wales, Amyyot Rabibhadana and
Bunnag) and have quite aggressive and peculiar support in some Australian
Universities. It is arguable that the guru-cela relationship, whether in
Hinduism, Buddhism, Christian sects, later Islamic Sufism, or the primary or
syncretic forms of Shamanism, is of itself an enslaving and limiting exercise.
The conception that the teachings of the Buddha are true,
before the believer has had a chance to test them himself: develop from the
premise that the Buddha or Tathagata has eliminated all confusion and delusion,
hence achieving truth as, "truth is Dharma" (Samyutta - Nikaya 1:169)
and "truth is one, there is not a second" (Suttanipatas 884).
The Tathagata, fully self-realised to the
might of his para nirvana in the element of nirvana, in which none of the
groups for existence remains, becomes truth "in that interval all that he
spoke, declared and explained is exactly so and not otherwise". (Dighe -
Nikaya iii 135) (I. B. Horner, 'Buddhism:
the Theravade' in The Concise
Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, ed. R. C. Zaehner, Hutchinson, London, p.
283).
Hence, infallibility is an attribute of the Buddha.
Incoherence is merely an inadequacy on the part of the student, not of the
fully enlightened Guru, the Tathagata or Buddha. The absoluteness of the
guru-cela relationship developed because Bhakti, or adoration, is essential to overcome the incoherence of the
system.
Arhants and the
Mystical Ascent
There are thirty-seven constituents of Arhantship (or 31 if
the eightfold way is counted as one and adding purity in ethical behaviour,
etc.).
After mastering the four jhana
of the material plane, he then breaks through to as many as five meditations on
the immaterial planes. The final stage of having no further volition allows the
Arhant to break away and the remainder of his actions generate no more Karma.
Thus, by faith he ascends the nine (or seven) heavens of
meditation, achieving Arhantship and, hence, potentially either to the Brahma
worlds where like this world nothing is permanent, or to Nirvana.
Conviction by faith endows resolution, thereby developing
powers of meditation. Like Christianity, Buddhism sees faith as a seed (Suttanipata 77) from which further
growth will spring. However, this is not on election; indeed, the Buddha has
rebuked disciples for failing to instruct to the potential of the mind spoken
to.
The Samgha or community stands as an example of the faith to
inspire lesser mortals to emulate and thus develop their faith.
Within the Theravada scheme, the ritual of the temple is
symbolic of impermanency in the flowers and lights displayed. The words uttered
are not prayers but reminders of the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Samgha
(ibid., p. 293).
The gradual approach to find attainment is applied by all,
even certain Arhants.
The earlier concepts of Hell are replaced within Buddhism
as Niraya Hell on a level as a sorrowful state, with birth as an animal, a
departed one, or a demon (asura).
Through unwavering confidence, the faithful will
not commit heinous offences (which rank creating a schism in the order with
patricide/matricide or killing an Arhant or wounding a Buddha – they cannot be
killed).
At most, the faithful adherent will be born seven times as a
man before he wins Nirvana. Prior to his final birth, he is born as a sakadagamin.
In his final birth, he is an anagamin, having destroyed the five fetters. After his death he
becomes a denizen of one of the highest deva worlds and attains Nirvana there,
when the residual karma that led to his deva birth has expended itself.
The fourth stage is to become Arhant, who by his efforts on this Earth has achieved freedom
of mind and freedom through intuitive wisdom, and has done what is necessary to
shed the burden of self, exhausting his Karma while
he still lives and achieving final
liberation involving no future state.
BUDDHISM IN ASIA
The Revolution
The Hinayana tradition was to develop into eighteen schools,
seventeen of which were wiped out by Islam when it swept into Northern India.
The Theravada tradition became the sect of the South as the national religion
of Ceylon, Burma and Siam.
The North, including Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan is
nearly all Mahayanist. The Mahayana "revolution" was brought about
not only by further non-Indian Syncretism, but also by the weakness in
Theravada in its relationship with the laity. The faith seems to have suffered
from a decline in the spiritual calibre of the monks and their capacity to
produce acknowledged Arhants. These people, venerated as a form of saint,
fitted well into the animistic system. When the production of Arhants was seen
to be in decline, it was replaced by the Bodhisattva ideal. Primarily, the
theological revolution was precipitated by an arrogant, seemingly dissipated
clergy. The Mahayana re-developed the faith to give the layman more importance
in the system and forced the clergy into more socially useful positions, which
more closely follow the animistic practices and beliefs that formed the base
religion of the mass.
Monks in the north were to become involved in professions
serving the people "as astrologers, exorcizers, weather makers, physicians
etc., (they) inserted themselves into the magical side of their lives" (E.
Conze - Buddhism The Mahayana,
Zaehner, ibid., p. 297).
Thus, the monks assumed the positions of the Shamans in the
animistic system they had refined in the south, after inheriting it from the
same source as these northern tribes. The main contributions they were to make
were the non-violent ideal with the Bodhisattva, or enlightened being,
expanding and preaching compassion and wisdom. Motivated by the desire to win
full enlightenment and become a Buddha, he selflessly postpones entry to
Nirvana to help suffering creatures.
The system holds that others are aided by the gift of the
Dharma and contemplation. Thus Mahayana and Buddhist countries generally fall
far short of productive social and material welfare, because the technical
organisation of a modern society made spiritual life impossible and therefore
was often disregarded. A great deal can be said about the reasons for the
failure to care for the society’s needs, but what should be considered is the
effect of supra-rational thought processes generated by animistic Shamanism
that were coupled with the law of Karma, which, of itself, stifles compassion
for others.
The Bodhisattvas were able to more prolifically satisfy the
animistic necessity for saints as objects of reverence or intercession. This
was to become common to all forms of Buddhism.
The Development of Mystical Thought in Buddhism
The Diamond and Matrix Systems
From the Diamond Sutra:
“The past mind is unattainable, the future mind is unattainable
and the present mind is unattainable.
If so what is the mind which you wish to punctuate" (i.e.,
t'ien-hian (refreshments) literally means to punctuate the mind). (Question to
Te-shan (790-865) the Chinese Buddhist Sage by a Teahouse Keeper as recounted
by D.T. Suzuki, Mysticism Christian and
Buddhist, p. 75).
The unattainable is something that remains after every
possible negation. Horner’s explanation of crossing to the island of Nirvana is
misleading in that "those who do not know how to transcend time will
naturally find it difficult to attain Nirvana, which is eternity" (ibid.,
p. 76). This posed a problem for the west also within the soul doctrine and,
for this reason, Hegel struggled with the negation of the negation and
Heidegger finally gave expression to the concept from Hegel's falling into
time. Einstein expressed this scientifically in the concept of energy, matter,
space, time and gravity, being equivalent expressions of a single fundamental
essence. This theory was foreshadowed by the problem that successive
ostensions, which provide samples over the spatial spread, inevitably consume
time and make space and time inseparable. (This difficult concept is
exclusively a philosophical problem, which is analysed in Creation: From
Anthropomorphic Theology to Theomorphic Anthropology (No. B5).)
The immediate knowing of the early Zen masters was only a
reaction, in part, to the concept of negation. The development of the sects in
the North was a reaction to the philosophical problems of this negation.
Thus, the Shingon doctrines (which became a form of Buddhist
Gnosticism) distinguish an exoteric and an esoteric teaching, where "by
way of the latter it is possible even in this earthly body composed of the six
elements to attain the absolute knowledge which is Nirvana, or in other words,
to become Buddha" (G.F. Moore, History
of Religions, vol. 1, p. 127).
In this system, the supreme being of the Dharmakaya is
Vairocana, one of the Dhyani (Contemplative) Buddhas of the Mahayana.
"He is the great sun around whom are grouped four other
Dhyani Buddhas; each of these Buddhas has as sattelites a group of
Bodhisattvas; these in turn have their satellites and so on in
infinitum." (ibid.)
Shaka (Sakyamuni) is wholly subordinate to the sun being, as
is Amida, the only one of the four Buddhas of the diamond world to reappear in
the matrix system.
In the matrix system there are eight emanations from the sun
Buddha, Vairocana. These form the petals of a lotus. This nine-fold system is
the repetition of the nine-fold system of the Shamans again appearing.
"To attain the supreme enlightenment it is necessary to
ascend step by step ten rounds of a ladder of thought, which, originally
corresponding to different classes of beings, was adopted by Kobo to the
various sects, the highest; the stage of mystic enlightenment in which man
recognises for the first time the source of his own thought and while still in
the body becomes Buddha, being attained only by the followers of the Shingon.
The practical methods of achieving the great end are an adaptation and
development of the Indian Yoga, as on its speculative side the doctrine returns
to a pantheistic type of Brahmanism" (ibid.).
This sect is a return to the animistic demon- (now Buddha-)
controlled world of the Shamans.
This is opposed by the Tendai sect (founded by Chi K'ai,
d.597) which claims:
"that all beings are capable of becoming supreme Buddhas,
because they are all partakers of the Buddha nature" (ibid., p. 129).
The Buddha is eternal, and the historical Buddha is only one
of the innumerable incarnations of this entity. His death was only a device to
lead men to obedience. In his own words (from the Saddharma Pundarika):
"I am the father of the world, the self existent, the
healer, the protector of all creatures".
(ibid.)
Thus, the Buddha claimed to be The Brahman, The All Father,
The Self Existent. By this, he was not just contemporaneous with the creation,
he was the creator. We have returned full circle to the doctrine of the
Babylonians with the pantheon of gods renamed, with the eternal spirit, creator
and protector from the Sun figure in the former system, and the external cosmos
in the latter. From this system, men are immortal as part of the eternal
spirit. Promotion is by repetition of ritual within mystical contemplation.
The Medieval Systems
During the eleventh to the thirteenth century, the older
monastic orders were in decline in Buddhism. In Europe the Church fell into
perversion, avarice and cruelty during the
Albigensian crusade and the attendant Inquisition, and saw the consolidation of
the monastic orders. The reformation that took place in Buddhism saw new sects
develop. These included the Zen (Dhyona) founded by Eisai about 1187, and
various sects emanated from this.
The Jodo sects founded in 1175 by Genku, and the Shin
founded by Genku’s disciple Shinran about 1224, are quite different to the
types of schools dealt with previously. This school teaches that salvation is
"not achieved by man’s own striving in the ‘Holy Way’, but is bestowed by
the Grace of Amida Buddha on those who call upon him in faith." (ibid., p.
123).
Thus, Amida Buddha is differentiated from the Sakyamuni
Buddha, and on him is conferred a power in faith, similar to Christ. This is an
important step in the development of Buddhism and may well be a syncretic
adaption from the Nestorians. This sect created vigorous opposition in Japan
and provoked Nichiren to found, in 1252, the most reactionary and intolerant of
all the sects. This was the equivalent of the counter-reformation.
Through all the new sects the abbots became great feudal
lords, some with whole provinces, and "one
of them could even dream of making himself master of all Japan" (ibid.).
Nobunaga was to crush them because of their worldliness and degeneracy.
The reappearance of the Buddha as the Maitreya, was
foreshadowed by Sakyamuni, probably from the Brahman teachings of the
reincarnation of Vishnu in the last age of Kali. The reappearance of the Buddha
Maitreya is visualised as different from the evil incarnation, which comes as
the destroyer of the Earth. The Messianic destruction of the nations,
foreshadowed in Revelation, might well have been seen as the incarnation of
Kali. The Maitreya would be a seductive influence indeed against this
background.
The Intrusion of the
Mother-Goddess Cult into Buddhism and the Development of Animistic Practices
Tara
The cult of the Goddess Tara had developed from a goddess of
the Hindu Pantheon. In Assam (Kama rupa), the
Saviouress Ugratara was one of the ten Mahavidya goddesses (G. Sarma, Mother Goddess Kamrupa Kamakhye,
Gauhati, Gauhati University Press, 1978, p. 29).
There is little doubt that Tara, the Sakti of
Avolokitesvara, was known in the sixth century Nalanda. Her cult soon spread
from Eastern India to Western India and the Deccan (M. Gosh, Development of Buddhist Iconography in
Eastern India A Study of Tara, Prajnes of Five Tathagates and Bhrikut, New
Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1980, p. 31).
According to B. J. Terweil, who delivered a paper
(entitled The Goddess Tara and Early Ahom Religion) to the seminar on Minorities in Buddhist Polities (at Chulalongkorn
University, Bangkok, on 24-28 June 1985), she may be seen as the East Indian
Buddhist version of the Chinese Guanyin (Kuan-yin), or the Hindu
Goddess Durga, both of whom preceded her in time (p. 20). What is of note is
that she is a development of the Mother-Goddess figure
as saviouress within Buddhism. Tara's later dominance in Assam, within Ahom
religion, may be a logical extension or adaption to the original cult there of
Durga, especially in her aspect of the Buffalo-demon
killer, Mahisasuramardini (again a Bull-Slaying divinity). The only
bronze Tara found there, five miles south of Gauhati, appears to have been
imported from Bengal or Bihar.
The Tara cult spread from India via Buddhism. Her image is
found in votive tablets in early Pyu sites of Sri Koetra, possibly dating from
the seventh century CE. Luce reports three sculptures of the goddess in Burma
dating from the eighth, ten/eleventh centuries. (P. G. A. Luce, Old Burma - Early Pagan, vol. 1, New
York, JJ Augustin, 1969, p. 15 and pp. 197-198).
From a picture and description of the Javanese dated image
published in H. Sastri, (The Origin and
Cult of Tara, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 20,
Calcutta: Government of India, Central Publication Branch, 1924, Plate iv and
pages 11 and 19), the goddess cult had taken root in Java during the later part
of the eighth century. These Javanese artists appear to have made or inspired
the making of the ninth and tenth century Tara image now in the Songkla
National Museum in Peninsular Thailand. Also, according to Terwiel, another
Tara image dated to the tenth century, “may have had East Bengal
provenance" (Terweil, p. 22).
A late tenth- or early eleventh-century depiction of the
goddess beneath Avalokitesvara carved at Lopburi, indicates that Mahayana
Buddhism was known in some circles in Dvaravati times, early in the 11th
century, however, although indicative that she was known in the Chao Phraya
lowlands, there is no real evidence of a proper cult being established there by
that time (Terwiel, p. 23, from M. C. Subhadradis Diskul, Three Carved Stone Slabs of Lopburie Style in the Bangkok National
Museum in Art and Archaeology in
Thailand Bangkok, Fine Arts Dept., 1975, pp. 27-35).
The Goddess and
Tantric Mysticism in South-East Asia
These examples indicate that Tara had spread throughout
South-East Asia in a relatively minor way and was not "accepted there as
the Supreme goddess as was the case in Vajrayana Buddhism" (Terwiel, p.
23).
What does appear, however, is the persistence of the
mother-goddess figure, even as the goddess of storms and sea, and hence the
princess of the Southern Ocean. This aspect of the deity was known in the west
as Stella Maris, who was the star Sirius (associated with the cult of
Isis) and which transferred itself to Christianity in Mariolatry through the
Mystery Cults there. The same syncretic fusion, which established Mariolatry in
Christianity, adopted the little tradition goddesses, expressed in varying
forms in Hinduism, into Buddhism with similar roles. Thus, the ancient concepts
of faith were superimposed on the Buddhist system.
The invasion of India by the Muslims saw a persecution of
ferocious zeal of Tantric specialists at the end of the 12th
century. These tantric monks and specialists fled north to Tibet and Kashmir
and, according to the Tibetan Historian Taranatha, into Burma and Cambodia
(Terwiel, p. 25).
According to Than Tun, a Buddhist movement spread down the
Chindwin River valley from Upper Burma to Pagan during
the first half of the 13th century. This movement was characterised
by ritual sacrifices of buffaloes, oxen, pigs, goats, and deer, as well as by
the ritual consumption of amounts of alcoholic beverages. These rites clearly
indicate that this was Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism (Than Tun, "Religion in Burma, AD 1000 - 1300,
Journal of the Burma Research Society, Vol. 24, December 1959, pp. 47-69
and Than Tun, Mahakasapa and his
Tradition, Journal of the Burma Research Society, vol. 42, December 1959,
pp. 99-118).
The drinking of rice beer and the sacrifice of animals were
essential to pre-Buddhist Tai Religion. (B. J. Terwiel, Laopani and Ahom Identity; An Etho Historical Exercise, a paper presented
to the 31st International Congress of Human Sciences in Asia and North Africa,
Tokyo-Kyoto, 31 August-7 September 1983, and Terwiel, The Tai of Assam and Ancient Tai Ritual, Vol. II). Orthodox
Theravada Buddhism disallows both these practices and would therefore have been
much more alien to the Ahom, who were residing at that time in the Hukawng
Valley in the upper reaches of the Chindwin River. It can be seen that Tantric
Buddhism was much more akin – and indeed was probably a syncretic adaptation of
the mother-goddess religion – to the Buddhist system. This Tantric system
entered South-East Asia from Java to China and, because of its animistic basis,
was adopted by the mass.
Thus, two separate concepts developed and indeed became two
faiths. In his work, A Model for the
Study of Thai Buddhism (Journal of Asian Studies, vol. xxxv, No. 3, May
1976), B. J. Terwiel presents an analysis of the magico-mystical base of the
religion and the animistic order of the system at Wadsaancaw, the monastery and
area of study. The use of protective amulets and holy relics with the animistic
spirit cosmology is similar to that found in Java and elsewhere in Indonesia
and South-East Asia. From page 403 he shows two distinct types of view.
Firstly, the syncretist, which incorporates Buddhist concepts and beliefs into
the animistic world view. This system is found amongst the lower wage earners,
farmers, fishermen, servants and unskilled workers. Secondly, the
compartmentalists, where the upper-class bureaucrats, church dignitaries and
the wealthy, see Buddhism as superior to the animistic, and tend to
compartmentalise religion. However, these are the minority. Terwiel
acknowledges that the model is incomplete, however, the diversity of
conceptions also explains the disparity of approach between scholars such as
the Syncretists (de Young, Ingersold, Anuman Rajadhan and Wright).
"Compartmentalists such as Wales, Amyyot Rabibhadana and
Bunnag may well have had access to quite different sections of the population,
and reflect the position of the Buddhist elite in their works" (Terwiel,
p. 403).
The basic structure of the Buddhist system is modified by
the wholesale influence of Shamanism and its mystical derivatives.
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