Buddha

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Buddha

With more than three million Buddhists now living in the United States, much attention is currently being paid to the development of American Buddhism. Literary periodicals regularly publish features on American Buddhism, many celebrities support Buddhist causes, and the Dalai Lama is a regular visitor to the United States. In the midst of this interest in American Buddhism, a consideration of the life of the founder of the Buddhist religion is a requisite for a clear understanding of the American mission of Buddhism.

The Legend and Life of the Buddha

Early Buddhist literature informs us that the Sanskrit word buddha means "to wake up" and is a title used to describe an individual who has awakened to "seeing the world as it really is." In so doing, Buddhas escape from the suffering that characterizes the mundane world, and teach others to do the same out of compassion for all sentient beings.

Early Buddhist records reveal very little information about the historical Buddha. Although many modern sources identify his life as having lasted eighty years—from about 563 to 483 b.c.e.—even those dates may not be accurate. Piecing together a biography of the founder is aided by the survival of many texts in Buddhism, with each adding some information or perspective.

Preliminary to his appearance in the world, the Buddha presumably underwent a long series of rebirths, each of which provided the occasion for the development of spiritual perfection. Eventually, it is said, he was born into the ??kya tribe of the Gautama clan, a warrior family ruled over by ?uddhodana and his queen, M?y?. The child was raised in luxury, protected from experiencing any of the vagaries of ordinary life. At the proper time for a youth of his background, he married Ya?odhar?.

As restlessness drove him to experience some of the world outside his princely existence, the young man, named Siddh?rtha Gautama, encountered an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic on successive nights. Summarizing the first three cases, his charioteer explained that just as a man is born, he grows old; just as he grows old, he also grows sick; moreover, growing sick ultimately leads to death. The wise charioteer noted that the ascetic he observed on the last night had renounced the world in favor of seeking an end to old age, sickness, and death. The ascetic sought to end life's suffering, and with it, continued rebirth in an endless cycle known as sa?s?ra. The young prince renounced the world at age twenty-nine, promising himself that, upon attaining his goal, he would teach the method of salvation to his family.

After six years of wandering, he eventually concluded that religious salvation, or enlightenment, cannot be found in the extremes of life he had experienced but can be found only in a middle path. He wandered on, and in a night of contemplation, eliminated the last of his imperfections, arising at dawn as the Buddha, having put an end to suffering and having attained enlightenment, nirv??a. Virtually all the Buddhist legends describe the remaining forty-five years of his life as a wandering ministry, establishing communities of monastics and lay disciples. While the specifics of the sectarian stories differ, the Buddha established a way of life based on what has come to be known as the "Three Jewels": Buddha, his teachings (called dharma), and his community (called sangha). Although he is reputed to have offered doctrinal statements on many issues, his quintessential doctrine was known as the "Four Noble Truths," namely that (1) all life is characterized by suffering and (2) caused by craving. In addition, (3) this suffering can cease by (4) practice of the "Eightfold Path" involving right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. Continuing his ministry, continually proclaiming only his humanity and not any divinity, Buddha died at eighty.

The Ongoing History

Within a short period, the religious tradition of "Buddhism" began to divide internally. In about 200 b.c.e. a new, liberal movement called Mah?y?na or "Great Vehicle" emerged, branding the prior Buddhist schools H?nay?na or "Lesser Vehicle." Later, a third major Buddhist division occurred, with the Vajray?na or "Diamond Vehicle" combining the application of sophisticated Buddhist philosophical issues with new, esoteric Buddhist practices.

Over time, one of the major schools of the so-called H?nay?na tradition—the Therav?da—was exported, initially through the missionary efforts of King A?oka, to South and Southeast Asia. Mah?y?na also subdivided internally, and its many schools came to pervade East Asia. The Vajray?na school became sectarian as well, and spread throughout Tibet and Inner Asia.

Buddha Comes West

In the twentieth century, Buddhism became a world religion. As the varieties of Buddhist sectarian groups found an eager audience, each Buddhist group brought its own unique understanding of Buddha to its members.

The Therav?da school, serving the largely ethnic communities of South and Southeast Asian immigrant Buddhists, sees Buddha as the exemplar of religious realization, the one individual who attained Buddhahood and pointed the way to the spiritual realization of nirv?? a for other beings. His attainment is unique; he is credited with having realized spiritual omniscience. Any followers of the Buddha who attain salvation experience nirv?? a but not Buddhahood.

The Mah?y?na school, followed largely by the ethnic East Asian immigrant communities throughout the world, sees Buddha as a complete spiritual being, compassionate in all respects, but also as one of a plethora of "celestial" Buddhas who inhabit the universe and share their wisdom freely out of compassion for all suffering beings. It is the endeavor of Mah?y?na Buddhists to become Buddhas. They do this by first becoming bodhisattvas, or Buddhas-to-be, trying to realize their "Buddha nature," said to be inherent in all beings. Various Mah?y?na schools—such as Zen—have become popular to many American convert Buddhists.

The Vajray?na tradition has also become highly visible and immensely popular in the United States. Unlike the Therav?da and various Mah?y?na schools, which have a large number of ethnic Asian members, Vajray?na has a minimal number of Tibetan refugees and immigrants from Inner and Central Asia. Instead, the followers of Vajray?na in America are almost exclusively convert Buddhists. Vajray?na adds a "fourth" jewel to the traditional three: the guru. Without undermining the Mah?y?na notion of celestial Buddhas, this school identifies the primary teacher or "root guru" of each practitioner with the Buddha. In a very real way the guru is the Buddha, and his or her behavior must be regarded as a manifestation of that status.

Conclusion

As the ancient beginnings of Buddhism fade into the distant past, so also do the earliest descriptions of the historical Buddha. Increasingly, American Buddhist groups are becoming profoundly democratic, emphasizing changing patterns of authority and also aggressively practicing what has come to be known as "socially engaged Buddhism." As a result, less emphasis is being placed on the specifics of the Buddha's life and practice, while more and more emphasis focuses on Buddha as a social reformer. Buddha's life is understood not as the archetypal model for bygone times, but rather as that of a pioneer who offered a resilient set of human values that could stand the rigors of changing times and cultures. Although many Asian immigrant Buddhists persist in seeing Buddha through the eyes of their ancestors, most American convert Buddhists have revisioned Buddha into an idealized picture of human wholeness, speaking to everyone's needs in modern society.