Buddhism: The Path of Compassion
By Kirby Van Mater
Buddhism is known as a religion of enlightenment and
emancipation or freedom. Buddha is a generic name given to one who has realized
enlightenment or bodhi, and is derived from the root budh, "to awaken, to perceive,
to understand." In Chinese its form is usually Fo, or Chiao-che, the Awakened One, or
Chih-che, the Learned One. In Japanese it is Butsu, Butsuda, or Hotoku. In Tibetan it is
rendered as Sans-Rggas (pronounced Sangyas), the One who woke up. In Vietnamese it is But
or Phat.
Gautama the Buddha never claimed to have founded the Dharma (truth or doctrine), but only
to have reestablished knowledge of it as the old path followed by "ancient
Buddhas" who had preceded him, and it will be restated again and again by those who
follow him. His life work was an act of compassion, and his teaching of the Middle Way or
road to enlightenment between extremes was offered to all mankind.
Among the different ways to consider Buddha let us first view him historically as a man.
Prince Siddhartha was born about 2,500 years ago in Kapilavastu, the son of Suddhodana, a
maharaja who ruled over a kingdom in Northern India. It was predicted that the prince
could become either a world conqueror or a sage of great renown. As his ancestors had all
belonged to the warrior caste, Suddhodana expected that his son would follow this
tradition, but it had also been foretold that, should the prince behold the sorrows of old
age, disease, and death, he would seek the forest to follow the holy life. To circumvent
this the king vowed that his son should never behold these three sights.
As a youth Siddhartha excelled in all fields of endeavor. He married and had a son, and
though all that surrounded him was perfection, there were moments when he seemed
withdrawn, occupied with thoughts far from the luxurious conditions about him. This was of
growing concern to his wife, Yasodhara, and to his father. They decided that other palaces
should be built allowing greater range for the interests of Gautama, as the young prince
later was called.
One day Siddhartha asked his father if he might visit the new palace not yet completed.
Though every precaution had been taken by the maharaja and his men, a man of extreme old
age met the procession on the road, as though by divine intervention. The prince was
shocked and did not continue his outing. Subsequently, he was confronted by a man riddled
with disease; and on another occasion by death. Siddhartha became most agitated that
people and all living beings should have to endure such suffering. After prolonged thought
he determined to leave the palace and set forth to discover a means whereby mankind might
overcome the trials of old age, disease, and death.
He left the palace at night and journeyed to the forest where he met the great Brahman
teachers, Alara and Uddaka. He became their student and with incredible swiftness
comprehended the Vedas and Upanishads. Eventually when the other disciples asked him to
become their teacher he realized that, though he had reached the acme of available
learning about man and cosmos, he had not discovered the answer to his search for release
from samsara -- the chain of births and deaths. He left his Brahman teachers and became an
ascetic, mortifying his body in the hope that if he lessened its hold upon his spirit he
might attain his goal.
After six long years, near death from fasting and meditating, he concluded that he would
not find his answer in this manner and accepted rice and milk from a kind woman. Slowly
his strength returned and, upon beholding a holy fig-tree he seated himself beneath it to
resume his inward search. Through the night he pursued his flight in consciousness to ever
greater spiritual heights until he attained final enlightenment, when he might leave
earthly existence forever if he wished.
He saw all his past existences and realized this moment as the consummation of them --
each one following the other by karma. He viewed the birth and death of all creatures in
all worlds and understood the recurring cycle of existence and the causes of old age,
disease, and death. Freed from the confines of illusion, in his enlightenment he beheld
the world as it truly is. He had reached the unfathomable source of Truth. Having become
Buddha, and while still not accepting nirvana, Siddhartha mused that if he were to return
to the world and its ways, where people seek only that which gratifies their desires, no
one would listen to the Law. "Surely I am lost," he reflected, "I and all
my fellow creatures." But Divine Thought entered his mind: "O Perfect One! Let
thy Great Law be uttered!" Casting his vision forth he saw that there would be a few
who would hear and understand and he said, "Yea! I preach! Whoso will listen let him
learn the Law."
Buddha spoke the first words of the Teaching of the Law (Dharma) in the Deer Park of
Isipatana near Benares where he set forth the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold
Path. These Noble Truths, briefly, are:
existence is full of misery;
the cause of this misery is desire;
this desire can be destroyed;
the means of destroying this desire is the Noble Eightfold Path.
The Noble Eightfold Path comprises:
right belief or insight;
right thought or aspiration;
right speech;
right action;
right means of livelihood;
right exertion;
right remembrance;
right meditation or concentration.
The Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path are the centerpiece of the Buddha's
presentation of the Dharma, a presentation that is concerned mainly with ethics, with
living, with ideas that can be applied to end the suffering people experience in the
world. The term dharma is used in many ways and with different meanings. It may be
translated as law, justice, doctrine, nature, truth, morality, and good conduct -- the
foundation and spiritual support of all things.
Buddha Sakyamuni (sage of the Sakya clan) traveled from place to place teaching and
establishing the Samgha or Monastic Order. He sent forth the monks to impart as much of
the Dharma as they had found to be true. His ministry lasted 45 years, but it would be
four centuries before his teachings were written down. It is said that shortly after his
death the monks held a council to determine which teachings attributed to Sakyamuni were
truly his utterances, and to try to remember his exact words as closely as possible.
Around a hundred years later another council was held in case any further information
should have come to light; only a few changes were made at that time.
The Buddha's life is in itself an example of the compassionate path, of love for all
beings, of sacrifice. Theologically speaking, Buddha as a historical figure excites little
interest. The concern is not so much who Buddha was, as what is meant by the term buddha.
The early texts mention seven Buddhas of whom Buddha Sakyamuni was the seventh. Later
texts allude to many more Buddhas in this and other worlds, not only of the past but yet
to come. The concept of the Buddha began to shift from the historic Gautama to the cosmic
principle which finds expression in all Buddhas. The Encyclopaedia of Buddhism sums it up
neatly thus:
The historical Buddha is a provisional (avatara), phenomenal (rupakaya) Buddha while the
basic Buddha is the Buddha of Truth and Essence, i. e., the Dharma. . . . It is indeed
through the realization of this Dharma that the Buddhas of the past, present and future
attain Enlightenment. Consequently, the Dharma is the original Buddha and the Buddha is
the Dharma personified. In other words, the Dharma is revealed through the personal form
of a human Buddha.
We can express the thought differently. The unselfish man, motivated by compassion to help
all creatures along the evolutionary way, on reaching enlightenment calls forth an equally
compassionate response from the cosmic buddhic principle. Then the man becomes its
embodiment and for the time he is a god on earth, a buddha.
There are those who become Buddha and return no more to this world. There are others who
reach the state of nirvana and by renouncing it become Bodhisattvas and work for the
salvation of all lives. Again, there are those chosen few Buddhas, as was the case with
Gautama, who appear at certain cycles among mankind as the embodiment of an aspect of the
cosmic principle, Adi-Buddha or Buddha-Essence, and guide the destiny of humanity for long
periods of time. On the death of Gautama Buddha, his physical body was cast aside, but
Buddha Sakyamuni remained in the inner worlds as a nirmanakaya -- i.e., a complete man in
possession of all his faculties though not embodied. In this form he continues his
compassionate mission to watch over and protect mankind, until he is replaced by the one
who is destined to follow him. From this idea arises the concept of some Buddhist schools
that Buddha's sayings and teachings continued to be given forth after his death.
During the centuries that followed Gautama's death the Buddhist monks divided into two
principal schools -- the Southern or Theravada and related schools, and the Northern or
Mahayana with its various divisions. The Theravada or Hinayana Buddhists accept as canon
only the teachings approved in the early centuries after Buddha's death. They hold that
one should accept nirvana and no longer be subject to samsara, or the round of births and
deaths. Moreover, it was not stated that all could become Buddha. Thus a line came to be
drawn between arhatship and buddhahood, and to become an arhat, a worthy one, emerged as
the ultimate goal -- a relative nirvana.
Mahayana Buddhists on the other hand have been flexible as to their canon, and their
teaching has variously been reexpressed as it became a part of the culture of the
countries accepting it. Some philosophical terms have developed diverse shades of meaning
in different schools, and sometimes new methods of training have been accented, as in Zen.
A second difference lies in the Mahayana idea that, as the essential nature of Buddha is
Dharma, and that as Dharma or Buddha-nature is inherent in all beings, it is possible for
all sentient life to become Buddha. Therefore the fundamental concept of the Bodhisattva
arose, that of compassion and love for all creatures and altruistic sacrifice on their
behalf.
Buddhism spread north and south while it virtually disappeared from India. The Theravada
traveled to the southern countries of Sri Lanka, Burma, and Indo-China, Java and Sumatra;
while the Mahayana teachings moved into China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet more or less in
that order.
The Buddhism first presented to the Western world was the Theravada or Southern School.
Its rigid interpretation of the canon and striving for individual escape from this world
of sorrows caused most European scholars to consider Buddhism as pessimistic, negative,
and atheistic. This view was held for years until the Mahayana spread its beliefs in the
Occident, and simultaneously appeared books primarily on Zen and Tibetan Buddhism. With
this awakening of the Western public to the existence of Mahayana came the concept of
compassion, its portrayal of love, service, and personal sacrifice, and its absolute
tolerance of other religions.
The path of enlightenment is the heart of every savior's message, though few religious
faiths stress spiritual attainment for all living beings. Where does the path begin? All
lives follow it as the natural course of universal evolution. For man, because of his
consciousness of self, there comes a particular moment when he realizes that he can
self-direct his evolution. The discipline is not out of reach of the least of us. All can
learn to love and forgive; indeed, ignorance of this truth is the tragedy of our present
age. The sorrows arising from selfishness and greed, which lead to separateness, have
become almost overwhelming. But breaking these chains we have forged -- narrow and limited
phases of ourselves -- brings joy and understanding as effects of the awakening
Buddha-nature within us. To govern our lives in concert with the growth and becoming of
all creatures is the compassionate path lighted by successive Buddhas from dawn till
twilight of universal existence.
(From Sunrise magazine, April/May 1986.)