Broken-Buddha 2nd. Version engl. , Buddyzm inne dokumenty
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Ven. S. Dhammika The Broken Buddha (2., überarbeitete Version )
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THE BROKEN BUDDHA
Critical Reflections on Theravada and a Plea for a New Buddhism
By S. Dhammika
Preface
Most of this book was written in 2001 although I was still tinkering with it two years later. After its completion I
hesitated for a long time about publishing it thinking that it might do more harm than good. Eventually, enough
people, including a dozen or so Western monks and former Western monks, convinced me that many of the things I
have said need saying and so I decided to take the plunge. I am fully aware that I am risking my reputation, the
friendship of some people and perhaps a lot more by writing what I have and I expect to become the target of some
very angry comments. My only hope is that
The Broken Buddha
will provoke wide-ranging, thoughtful and realistic
discussion amongst Western Buddhists about the future of the Triple Gem in the West.
Introduction
There is no law in history which guarantees that
Buddhism will grow roots in the West or advance
beyond its present infantile stage. But one would
expect that it will grow more conscious of its own
difficulties and Buddhists will awaken to the
problems which Buddhism itself thrusts upon
man as an essential part of its treasure. One would
also hope that doubt should appear as the sign
of a deeper conviction. Luis O. Gomez
In the southwestern suburbs of Mandalay is a temple enshrining one of the most famous and revered Buddha statue
in the world, the Mahamuni Image. According to legend, this statue is actually a portrait of the Buddha himself
although its real origins are lost in time. For centuries it was kept in Arakhan until King Bodawpaya of Burma in-
vaded the country with the specific intention of getting the statue for himself. Having defeated the Arakhanese and
decimated their land the king had the huge statue dragged over the mountains at great loss of life and then en-
shrined in the temple where it sits today. In 1973 during my first visit to Mandalay I got the opportunity to see this
famous statue. I had asked two Burmese I had met if they would take me to see it and they were only too happy to
show their new ‘white Buddhist’ friend the country’s most sacred icon. They led me through a hall crowded with
devotees and eventually we entered the
sanctum sanctorum.
It was something of an anticlimax. Rather than the
graceful image I had expected, a squat and somewhat ungainly form loomed up before me. The face was pleasant
enough but the rest of its body was lumpy and misshapen. It took me a few minutes to figure out the reason for this.
Men clamored over the statue (women are forbidden to touch it) placing the small squares of gold leaf on it which
devotees passed up to them. Over the centuries the gradual accumulation of this gold has formed a thick uneven
crust over the statue so as to obscure its original shape. The Mahamuni Image could be a metaphor of what has
happened to the teaching of the Buddha itself.
In 2001 I had been a monk in the Theravadin tradition for twenty five years as well as reaching the conventional
halfway point in my life, having also had my fiftieth birthday. It seemed a good time to asses my life and my prac-
tice up to then as well as to give some thought to where the two might go in the future. Even before I became a
monk I had reservations about some of the things I had seen during my stays in Thai and Laotian monasteries. This
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didn’t deter me from ordaining though. Corruption and misunderstandings exist in all religions, I thought, and it
wouldn’t be too difficult to find those who practiced the true Theravada. As it happened it was quite difficult to
find such people. But more disappointing, when I did meet dedicated and sincere Theravadins all too often they
seemed to give exaggerated importance to things which, to me at least, appeared to be little more than rituals and
formalities. I recall visiting a tea plantation one afternoon with the late Venerable Sivali of Khandaboda, a dedi-
cated monk and skillful meditation teacher. The manager of the plantation walked a quarter of a mile down the
steep hillside to welcome us and then asked if we would like a cup of tea. We said yes and he walked back up the
hill to his bungalow, prepared our tea and brought it down to us. As I sipped mine I noticed that Sivali was looking
rather coy and not drinking his. I looked at my tea, saw that it had milk in it and knew straight away why. A few
minutes later the manager also noticed that Sivali was not drinking his tea and went over to see what the problem
was. Sivali gently told him and the solicitous and embarrassed man took his cup, threw the tea out and ran all the
way back up the hill to get him another one without milk in it. If an ordinary person were as fussy about not having
milk in their tea after midday we would dismiss it as just a silly eccentricity. But why would an otherwise decent
intelligent person dedicated to the practice of letting go, being content with what is and developing a kind heart be
prepared to cause embarrassment and inconvenience over such a minor thing? To be able to answer this question is
to understand the very essence of Theravada but this dawned on me only gradually. As it did I decided to just do
my own practice and try to have as little contact with institutional Theravada as possible. But being a monk in a
Theravadin land this proved easier said than done.
Quite understandably, Asian Theravadins expect you to follow their traditions and not question them. You can
point out that certain practices or ideas are not in the Tipitaka or are even contrary to it but it will make no differ-
ence. Right or wrong, inane or practical, that’s how it has always been done and that’s what you must do. In 1996 I
traveled in Europe for the first time thus giving me the opportunity to see how Theravada was understood and prac-
ticed there. Theravada in Asia might be hidebound and fossilized I thought but at least Westerners will have been
able to separate the fruit from the peel, the gift from the wrapping, the Buddha from ‘the thick uneven crust’ sur-
rounding him. To my astonishment and despair I found that this was not so. Most groups, centers and monasteries I
visited adhered to such practices with even more tenacity than in Asia. I finally had to admit that this
is
Theravada
and reluctantly and with some sadness decided that I could not be a part of it any longer. I began telling anyone
who might be interested that I did not consider myself or want to be considered by others to be a Theravadin monk.
In fact I had probably never really been one anyway, not a good one at least. When I mentioned this to a friend he
asked ‘Then what sort of monk are you?’ I wasn’t prepared for this question but after thinking about it for a while I
decided that I didn’t have to align myself with any school. Now I follow the Buddha’s teachings to the best of my
understanding and to the best of my ability. What follows are thoughts and observations on the Theravada tradition
that I have formed over the last twenty five years, some of the experiences that have led to them and some sugges-
tions about the possible future of the Dhamma in the West.
It may be that some will see the following reflections as just an angry parting shot. They are not although it is true
that putting them down on paper was to some extent a catharsis. I am convinced that the Buddha’s teachings really
are ‘beautiful in the beginning, the middle and the end’ and that they can offer a credible answer to the spiritual
crisis in the West. However, I also believe that a major obstacle to the growth of the Dhamma outside its traditional
homeland is the highly idealized view most Westerners have of Theravada in Asia. This all too often means that
they adopt the Dhamma together with outdated practices and misunderstandings that have built up around it. If this
persists the Dhamma will never really take root in the West. Worse, Westerners may just perpetuate many of the
problems that plague Theravada in Asia. Consequently these reflections will also attempt to show what Theravada
really is, how it got like that and suggests ways of bringing it closer to its original spirit so that it can become reve-
nant to a non-traditional environment.
Few of my observations about Theravada are original, they are the sort of things one often hears about it from for-
mer Theravadins, Mahayanists and others. Nor are they particularly contemporary. In the famous
Vimalakirtinidesa
Sutra
for example, a Mahayana work dating from the early centuries of the Common Era, the layman Vimalakirti
pretends to be sick and the Buddha one by one asks the monks to go and visit him. Each of them refuses because
they know Vimalakirti is wiser than they and the idea of being seen learning from a lay person is too much for their
monkish self image. But the Buddha is insistent and so they decide to go all together. Many of Vimalakirti’s friends
have also come to see him and so he takes the opportunity to teach the Dhamma. But just as he begins there is a
disturbance in the audience. Sariputta, here representing the archetypal ‘Hinayana’ monk, cannot find a chair that
will make him higher than the lay people in the audience so Vimalakirti magically manifests ‘allowable’ furniture
and then begins his sermon. Half way through Sariputta interrupts the Dhamma talk yet again. Vimalakirti asks
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what the problem is this time and Sariputta replies that he and the other monks must eat before noon and the time is
getting near. Vimalakirti manifests food for the monks and while they tuck in he continues expounding the good
Dhamma. When the sermon is finally finished the heavens open and celestial blossoms fall from the sky and stick
to the congregation. Sariputta and the other monks indignantly brush the blossoms off saying as they do, ‘We
monks are not allowed to decorate ourselves.’ Although in less exalted settings, such behavior could be observed in
a Theravadin monastery even today, even in the West.
These reflections are not concerned with the many abuses and corruption that infest Theravada and I will elude to
these only in passing. It is not the failure to practice Theravada that is my main concern, but its proper practice and
the problems arising there from. Many will accuse me of focusing too much on the negative and of failing to men-
tion that despite the problems there are still enough monks and lay people who practice with understanding. But the
good in Theravada and of course there is a good side, is already well-known, in fact it is the only side that is
known. Almost all discourse on Theravada presents the exceptional as the normal and the ideal as the actual. The
massive problems that beset Theravada are ignored, denied, sidestepped or more usually just passed over in silence.
Hopefully my reflections will help to give a more balanced picture of the situation. Some of my observations might
apply equally as well to Mahayana, especially Tibetan Buddhism. However, there are thoughtful Western Vajira-
yanists who are beginning to question certain aspects their own tradition and are better placed to comment on it
than I. Neither have I discussed fully the problems surrounding meditation in Theravada. This subject is of such a
crucial importance that it deserves to be explored in depth and this I hope to do at some time in the future.
I have quoted frequently from several books, in particular
The Buddhist Monastic Code
by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
and
The Buddhist Monk’s Discipline – A Layman’s Guide
by Ariyeseko, both of which represent the orthodox
Theravadin standpoint. I have disagreed with most of what these venerable authors say which I hope will not be
taken as disrespect towards them personally. However, the Buddha’s teachings are rich enough to allow for a
broader interpretation and I think that an alternative to the Theravada position is long overdue. I also quote often
from Milford Spiro’s
Buddhism and Society
, an anthropological study of Theravada in its Burmese setting. Spiro
observations are of value not just because they often coincide with my own, but because they are those of an objec-
tive observer with no ax to grind. Finally it only remains to say that I hope my comments about lay people pamper-
ing monks are not mistaken for ingratitude on my part. In my years in Sri Lanka numerous people, from the Co-
lombo 7 crowd to simple pious villagers have always treated me with the utmost generosity and kindness and for
this I will be forever grateful. However it is time to part company. I must walk another path.
The Pali word thera means elder and refers to a monk who has been ordained for ten years or more while the word
vada means opinion or view. Therefor the name Theravada could be translated as the Doctrine or View of the Elder
Monks. Theravadians claim that their version of the Dhamma correspond exactly to the Buddha’s teachings as re-
corded in the Pali Tipitaka but this is true only to a certain extent. It would be more correct to say that Theravada is
a particular interpretation of certain teachings from the Pali Tipitaka. The Pali Tipitaka contains a truly amazing
variety of material from ethics to epistemology, from psychology to practical wisdom.
It would be very difficult to
encompass all this material into a single school or system and indeed Theravadins have certainly not done this.
Rather, they have emphasized some of the Buddha’s doctrines and ideas and de-emphasized or even ignored others.
For example, the four Expressions of Sympathy (sangha vatthuni) are frequently mentioned by the Buddha and
could have important implications for a deeper understanding of love and compassion, particularly their social ap-
plication. Mahayana used them to developed a whole philosophy of practical altruism but they are given almost no
attention in Theravada. I notice that they are not included in Nanatiloka’s
Dictionary
and in thirty years of reading
Theravadian literature I can never recall having seen them discussed or even referred to. To give another example.
One of the central concepts of the Buddha’s teachings is dependent origination. There are two versions of this doc-
trine – one showing the arising of suffering and the other showing the arising of liberation and freedom. The first of
these is arguably the most well known, although not necessarily well understood, of all Buddhist doctrines. It fea-
tures in virtually every book on Theravada, it is commonly depicted diagrammatically in charts and temple wall
paintings and its twelve constituents are often chanted by monks during ceremonies. The second and one would
think the more important of the two is virtually unknown, even by quite learned Theravadins. Bhikkhu Bodhi, the
only Western Theravadin to ever draw attention to this important schema of dependant origination , says that ‘tradi-
tional commentators have hardly given the text the special attention it would seem to deserve.’ It would be more
correct to say that they have ignored it almost completely. Caroline Rhys Davids called this positive version of
dependant origination an ‘oasis’ and asked, ‘How might it have altered the whole face of Buddhism in the West if
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that sequence had been made the illustration of the casual law!’ Indeed, how might it have altered the whole face of
Theravada in Asia?
Then when we examine just how the material chosen has been interpreted we find it has frequently been done in the
most literal, stilted and unimaginative way or has simply been misunderstood.* To give just two examples. The
Buddha describes the loving person as having ‘a mind with the barriers broken down’ (cetasa vimariyada katena).
What an extraordinary phrase! When a person has seen and seen through the conceptually created barriers of race,
class, ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’ they are able to love others unconditionally. The
Visuddhimagga
tells a story to illus-
trate how, according to Theravada, this should be understood. A monk was sitting with three others - a friend, a
stranger and someone who did not like him – when they were assailed by a band of thugs who wanted to take one
of the four as a sacrifice to their god. The first monk was required to select the victim but because he had ‘a mind
with the barriers broken down’ he was literally incapable of making any distinctions between himself and the oth-
ers and thus just sat there unable to make a decision. Apart from being absurdly simplistic this contradicts the Bud-
dha’s statement that a loving person would be even capable of giving his or her life for another (D,III,187). The
terms papa
n
ca and papa
n
ca sa
nn
a
sankha are of enormous importance in understanding meditation and psychology
as taught by the Buddha. In his brilliant and groundbreaking book
Concept and Reality
, Bhikkhu Nanananda has
shown that Theravada has seriously misunderstood the true significance of these terms. Interestingly, he had also
shown that Mahayana preserved much of their original meaning and consequently their deeper philosophical impli-
cations.
*
There are even cases where Buddhaghosa interprets the Tipitaka to mean the exact opposite of what it actually say; see for example
Con-
cept and Reality
, 1971, p.46.
This combination of selective emphasis and conservative, narrow or simplistic interpretation has made Theravada
what it is. By highlighting different material from the Pali Tipitaka and interpreting it in different but equally or
perhaps in even more valid ways, one could have quite a different type of Buddhism. And in fact this did happen.
The Sravastavadians, Dharmaguptakas, Sautantikas, the Abhayagirivasins etc were different schools with a differ-
ent ‘feel’ despite basing themselves on a Sutta and Vinaya Pitaka that were the same or substantially the same as
the Pail ones. Unfortunately, all these schools disappeared leaving Theravadians holding the field as the sole ‘or-
thodox’ interpreters of the Buddha’s teaching in its earliest form. Of course a Theravadin would say that it is dan-
gerous or unnecessary to interpret or elaborate on the Buddha’s words. But drawing deeper or broader meanings
from the Buddha’s words was being done even during his own lifetime. See for example how Maha Kacchyana
very creatively reinterpreted one of the Buddha’s sayings from the Sutta Nipata (S,III,9). It seems that when it
comes to something negative or theoretical Theravadin are able to be remarkably creative. It is only with the practi-
cal, the positive or anything outside the narrow orbit in which they have chosen to operate that they seem to be lost
for words. It should come as no surprise that in its two thousand year history Theravada has produced no great reli-
gious thinkers – no Augustine, Aquinas or Erasmus, no Nagajuna, Tsong Khapa or Dogen.
In the first few centuries after the Buddha’s parinirvana there were developments of doctrines and disagreements
over them but these seem to have been relatively minor. Differences over Vinaya practice led to disunity within the
Sangha but it is unlikely that the doctrinal differences were serious enough for the various groups to think of them-
selves as distinct schools. In about 270 B.C.E. the Mauryan emperor Asoka converted to Buddhism, perhaps the
most important single event in the religion after the enlightenment of the Buddha himself. It appears that at least in
certain circles at this time the social significance of many of the Buddha’s teachings were not just being discussed
but also actively applied. Asoka was an individual as deeply concerned with his own spiritual well-being as he was
with that of his subjects and while he generously supported the Sangha he also did much to apply the Dhamma to
the social domain. Like many lay people at the time he was also well versed in the suttas as is clear from the many
words and phrases from them which appear in his edicts. Asoka convened a general council of the Sangha and al-
though the details are scant, it seems this council expelled undisciplined monks, codified the Dhamma and sent
missions throughout India and to different parts of Asia to spread the religion. The most successful of these mis-
sions was the one sent to Sri Lanka and led by Asoka’s son. Buddhism was adopted as the state religion and gradu-
ally the entire Island became Buddhist. Naturally, certain practices changed to suit local conditions and as the Sri
Lankan monks began exploring the Dhamma they began to interpret it according to their own understanding and
experience. Politics had its influence too. As an ‘official’ interpretation emerged, soon to be given the name Thera-
vada, it was patronized by the state while other interpretations received no support or were occasionally even per-
secuted.
From an early period the practice of meditation was given little emphasis in Sri Lanka. By the beginning of the
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Common Era the leading monks had decided that preserving the Dhamma was to take precedence over practicing
it. This is reflected in the commentaries where it says, ‘Whether there is realization or practice is not the point,
learning is sufficient for the continuation of the sasana. If the wise one studies the Tipitaka he does both…Thus the
sasana is made firm when learning endures.’ In another place it says, ‘Even if there are a 100,000 monks practicing
meditation there will be no realization of the Noble Path if there is no learning.’ In the code of monastic regulations
drawn up by Dimbulagala Kassapa in the 12
th
century it says that a monk should be directed towards meditation
only if he is not bright enough to excel at studies. This does not mean that there were never any meditating monks
but certainly their numbers were small and their influence on the development of Theravada minuscule. Of the vast
store of Theravadin literature that has survived to the present there are no meditation manuals or other works on
meditation dating from before the 20
th
century. It also seems that the developments of the Dhamma which had been
taking place in India under Asoka were abandoned in favor more conservative, fundamentalist and clecricocentric
approach. For example, Asoka’s Buddhist polity was dropped in favor of the Brahminical theory and active lay
involvement in the religion was discouraged.
In the 5
th
century C.E the monk Buddhaghosa composed commentaries on the Tipitaka in which the developments
and interpretations that had taken place up till then were fixed. * Since then these commentaries have been consid-
ered the ultimate authority and Theravada has remained virtually unchanged. Richard Gombrich correctly says, ‘To
this day Buddhaghosa’s Buddhism is in effect the unitary standard of doctrinal orthodoxy for all Theravada Bud-
dhists.’ Theravadins see the Buddha’s words through the lens of these commentaries’ turgid and often fantastic
pedantry rather than allowing them to speak for themselves. Most Theravadins will side with Buddhaghosa’s inter-
pretation even where it contradicts the Buddha’s words. The situation is in some ways similar to pre-Reformation
Christianity where church tradition was considered more authoritative than scripture. At a later period sub-
commentaries were written on the commentaries and in turn commentaries on those were composed but these con-
sisted mainly of comments on grammar and syntax. Until the late 19
th
century when Western influence began to
penetrate into Buddhist Asia nearly all Theravadin scholarship was little more than what N.C.Chaudhuri called
‘exegesis of exegesis.’ Conservative by nature, without the insights that meditation can give and set within a ex-
tremely static society, Sri Lankan monks concentrated on preserving what had been handed down from the past
rather than creating anything new. They heard and they repeated but they rarely inquired, explored or questioned.
Commenting on the Mahayana term for Theravadins – ‘savaka
’
, meaning ‘a hearer’, Prof. Ishii says; ‘This etymol-
ogy of savaka captures the essential character of the Theravadin monks, men devoted to upholding the Dhamma
and Vinaya preached by the Buddha. Their totally passive attitude has virtually precluded any active development
of the teachings they hear.’ Concerning education in pre-modern Burma, which was almost entirely religious and in
the hands of the clergy, Aung San Suu Kyi says; ‘Traditional Burmese education did not encourage speculation.
This was largely due to the view, so universally held that it appears to be part of the racial psyche of the Burmese,
that Buddhism represents the perfect philosophy. It therefore follows that there was no need either to try to develop
it further or to consider other philosophies. As a result, in spite of the essential tolerance of Buddhist teachings,
religion in Burma was monolithic. It had broad but inflexible boundaries. Theological disputes, which were not
numerous, centered on the interpretation of the monastic code, the vinaya; so that the little sectarianism that did
exist was confined to the monkhood.’ Put in the present tense and applied to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and to a
lesser extent Sri Lanka too, this statement still holds true.
*
Rhys Davids says of Buddhaghosa, ‘Of his talent there can be no doubt, it was equaled only by his extraordinary industry. But of original-
ity, of independent thought, there is at present no evidence.’
In Europe the church had various bodies to scrutinize new interpretations of doctrine to make sure they accorded
with orthodoxy. Nothing like this was needed in Theravada, there was nothing new. Monks frequently quarreled
over the interpretation of Vinaya rules but rarely over points of Dhamma. They also produced extraordinarily little
literature of enduring value. The
Milindapanha
, the
Visuddhimagga
and the
Abhidhammatthasangha
are amongst
the few Theravadin works still widely read or studied today, the rest of the literature being either so excruciatingly
dull, superfluous or pedantic that it adds little or nothing to an understanding of the Dhamma. It is a very meager
harvest after two thousand years of scholarship. Until about the 11
th
century Theravada was confined to Sri Lanka
and small areas in south India and southern Burma. After that it spread all over Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and the
lowlands of Loas. From the 1930’s onward small communities of Theravadins began to emerge in Vietnam, Indo-
nesia, the Malay Peninsular, Nepal and, after 1956, in India also. Theravada was the most well known form of
Buddhism in the West until the 1970’s when Tibetan Buddhism quickly began its superseded it. In the West today
it comes a distant third after Tibetan Buddhism and Zen. It is as Bhikkhu Bodhi says; ‘a still backwater on the oth-
erwise lively Western Buddhist frontier.’
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Ven. S. Dhammika The Broken Buddha (2., überarbeitete Version )
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE BROKEN BUDDHA
Critical Reflections on Theravada and a Plea for a New Buddhism
By S. Dhammika
Preface
Most of this book was written in 2001 although I was still tinkering with it two years later. After its completion I
hesitated for a long time about publishing it thinking that it might do more harm than good. Eventually, enough
people, including a dozen or so Western monks and former Western monks, convinced me that many of the things I
have said need saying and so I decided to take the plunge. I am fully aware that I am risking my reputation, the
friendship of some people and perhaps a lot more by writing what I have and I expect to become the target of some
very angry comments. My only hope is that
The Broken Buddha
will provoke wide-ranging, thoughtful and realistic
discussion amongst Western Buddhists about the future of the Triple Gem in the West.
Introduction
There is no law in history which guarantees that
Buddhism will grow roots in the West or advance
beyond its present infantile stage. But one would
expect that it will grow more conscious of its own
difficulties and Buddhists will awaken to the
problems which Buddhism itself thrusts upon
man as an essential part of its treasure. One would
also hope that doubt should appear as the sign
of a deeper conviction. Luis O. Gomez
In the southwestern suburbs of Mandalay is a temple enshrining one of the most famous and revered Buddha statue
in the world, the Mahamuni Image. According to legend, this statue is actually a portrait of the Buddha himself
although its real origins are lost in time. For centuries it was kept in Arakhan until King Bodawpaya of Burma in-
vaded the country with the specific intention of getting the statue for himself. Having defeated the Arakhanese and
decimated their land the king had the huge statue dragged over the mountains at great loss of life and then en-
shrined in the temple where it sits today. In 1973 during my first visit to Mandalay I got the opportunity to see this
famous statue. I had asked two Burmese I had met if they would take me to see it and they were only too happy to
show their new ‘white Buddhist’ friend the country’s most sacred icon. They led me through a hall crowded with
devotees and eventually we entered the
sanctum sanctorum.
It was something of an anticlimax. Rather than the
graceful image I had expected, a squat and somewhat ungainly form loomed up before me. The face was pleasant
enough but the rest of its body was lumpy and misshapen. It took me a few minutes to figure out the reason for this.
Men clamored over the statue (women are forbidden to touch it) placing the small squares of gold leaf on it which
devotees passed up to them. Over the centuries the gradual accumulation of this gold has formed a thick uneven
crust over the statue so as to obscure its original shape. The Mahamuni Image could be a metaphor of what has
happened to the teaching of the Buddha itself.
In 2001 I had been a monk in the Theravadin tradition for twenty five years as well as reaching the conventional
halfway point in my life, having also had my fiftieth birthday. It seemed a good time to asses my life and my prac-
tice up to then as well as to give some thought to where the two might go in the future. Even before I became a
monk I had reservations about some of the things I had seen during my stays in Thai and Laotian monasteries. This
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didn’t deter me from ordaining though. Corruption and misunderstandings exist in all religions, I thought, and it
wouldn’t be too difficult to find those who practiced the true Theravada. As it happened it was quite difficult to
find such people. But more disappointing, when I did meet dedicated and sincere Theravadins all too often they
seemed to give exaggerated importance to things which, to me at least, appeared to be little more than rituals and
formalities. I recall visiting a tea plantation one afternoon with the late Venerable Sivali of Khandaboda, a dedi-
cated monk and skillful meditation teacher. The manager of the plantation walked a quarter of a mile down the
steep hillside to welcome us and then asked if we would like a cup of tea. We said yes and he walked back up the
hill to his bungalow, prepared our tea and brought it down to us. As I sipped mine I noticed that Sivali was looking
rather coy and not drinking his. I looked at my tea, saw that it had milk in it and knew straight away why. A few
minutes later the manager also noticed that Sivali was not drinking his tea and went over to see what the problem
was. Sivali gently told him and the solicitous and embarrassed man took his cup, threw the tea out and ran all the
way back up the hill to get him another one without milk in it. If an ordinary person were as fussy about not having
milk in their tea after midday we would dismiss it as just a silly eccentricity. But why would an otherwise decent
intelligent person dedicated to the practice of letting go, being content with what is and developing a kind heart be
prepared to cause embarrassment and inconvenience over such a minor thing? To be able to answer this question is
to understand the very essence of Theravada but this dawned on me only gradually. As it did I decided to just do
my own practice and try to have as little contact with institutional Theravada as possible. But being a monk in a
Theravadin land this proved easier said than done.
Quite understandably, Asian Theravadins expect you to follow their traditions and not question them. You can
point out that certain practices or ideas are not in the Tipitaka or are even contrary to it but it will make no differ-
ence. Right or wrong, inane or practical, that’s how it has always been done and that’s what you must do. In 1996 I
traveled in Europe for the first time thus giving me the opportunity to see how Theravada was understood and prac-
ticed there. Theravada in Asia might be hidebound and fossilized I thought but at least Westerners will have been
able to separate the fruit from the peel, the gift from the wrapping, the Buddha from ‘the thick uneven crust’ sur-
rounding him. To my astonishment and despair I found that this was not so. Most groups, centers and monasteries I
visited adhered to such practices with even more tenacity than in Asia. I finally had to admit that this
is
Theravada
and reluctantly and with some sadness decided that I could not be a part of it any longer. I began telling anyone
who might be interested that I did not consider myself or want to be considered by others to be a Theravadin monk.
In fact I had probably never really been one anyway, not a good one at least. When I mentioned this to a friend he
asked ‘Then what sort of monk are you?’ I wasn’t prepared for this question but after thinking about it for a while I
decided that I didn’t have to align myself with any school. Now I follow the Buddha’s teachings to the best of my
understanding and to the best of my ability. What follows are thoughts and observations on the Theravada tradition
that I have formed over the last twenty five years, some of the experiences that have led to them and some sugges-
tions about the possible future of the Dhamma in the West.
It may be that some will see the following reflections as just an angry parting shot. They are not although it is true
that putting them down on paper was to some extent a catharsis. I am convinced that the Buddha’s teachings really
are ‘beautiful in the beginning, the middle and the end’ and that they can offer a credible answer to the spiritual
crisis in the West. However, I also believe that a major obstacle to the growth of the Dhamma outside its traditional
homeland is the highly idealized view most Westerners have of Theravada in Asia. This all too often means that
they adopt the Dhamma together with outdated practices and misunderstandings that have built up around it. If this
persists the Dhamma will never really take root in the West. Worse, Westerners may just perpetuate many of the
problems that plague Theravada in Asia. Consequently these reflections will also attempt to show what Theravada
really is, how it got like that and suggests ways of bringing it closer to its original spirit so that it can become reve-
nant to a non-traditional environment.
Few of my observations about Theravada are original, they are the sort of things one often hears about it from for-
mer Theravadins, Mahayanists and others. Nor are they particularly contemporary. In the famous
Vimalakirtinidesa
Sutra
for example, a Mahayana work dating from the early centuries of the Common Era, the layman Vimalakirti
pretends to be sick and the Buddha one by one asks the monks to go and visit him. Each of them refuses because
they know Vimalakirti is wiser than they and the idea of being seen learning from a lay person is too much for their
monkish self image. But the Buddha is insistent and so they decide to go all together. Many of Vimalakirti’s friends
have also come to see him and so he takes the opportunity to teach the Dhamma. But just as he begins there is a
disturbance in the audience. Sariputta, here representing the archetypal ‘Hinayana’ monk, cannot find a chair that
will make him higher than the lay people in the audience so Vimalakirti magically manifests ‘allowable’ furniture
and then begins his sermon. Half way through Sariputta interrupts the Dhamma talk yet again. Vimalakirti asks
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what the problem is this time and Sariputta replies that he and the other monks must eat before noon and the time is
getting near. Vimalakirti manifests food for the monks and while they tuck in he continues expounding the good
Dhamma. When the sermon is finally finished the heavens open and celestial blossoms fall from the sky and stick
to the congregation. Sariputta and the other monks indignantly brush the blossoms off saying as they do, ‘We
monks are not allowed to decorate ourselves.’ Although in less exalted settings, such behavior could be observed in
a Theravadin monastery even today, even in the West.
These reflections are not concerned with the many abuses and corruption that infest Theravada and I will elude to
these only in passing. It is not the failure to practice Theravada that is my main concern, but its proper practice and
the problems arising there from. Many will accuse me of focusing too much on the negative and of failing to men-
tion that despite the problems there are still enough monks and lay people who practice with understanding. But the
good in Theravada and of course there is a good side, is already well-known, in fact it is the only side that is
known. Almost all discourse on Theravada presents the exceptional as the normal and the ideal as the actual. The
massive problems that beset Theravada are ignored, denied, sidestepped or more usually just passed over in silence.
Hopefully my reflections will help to give a more balanced picture of the situation. Some of my observations might
apply equally as well to Mahayana, especially Tibetan Buddhism. However, there are thoughtful Western Vajira-
yanists who are beginning to question certain aspects their own tradition and are better placed to comment on it
than I. Neither have I discussed fully the problems surrounding meditation in Theravada. This subject is of such a
crucial importance that it deserves to be explored in depth and this I hope to do at some time in the future.
I have quoted frequently from several books, in particular
The Buddhist Monastic Code
by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
and
The Buddhist Monk’s Discipline – A Layman’s Guide
by Ariyeseko, both of which represent the orthodox
Theravadin standpoint. I have disagreed with most of what these venerable authors say which I hope will not be
taken as disrespect towards them personally. However, the Buddha’s teachings are rich enough to allow for a
broader interpretation and I think that an alternative to the Theravada position is long overdue. I also quote often
from Milford Spiro’s
Buddhism and Society
, an anthropological study of Theravada in its Burmese setting. Spiro
observations are of value not just because they often coincide with my own, but because they are those of an objec-
tive observer with no ax to grind. Finally it only remains to say that I hope my comments about lay people pamper-
ing monks are not mistaken for ingratitude on my part. In my years in Sri Lanka numerous people, from the Co-
lombo 7 crowd to simple pious villagers have always treated me with the utmost generosity and kindness and for
this I will be forever grateful. However it is time to part company. I must walk another path.
The Pali word thera means elder and refers to a monk who has been ordained for ten years or more while the word
vada means opinion or view. Therefor the name Theravada could be translated as the Doctrine or View of the Elder
Monks. Theravadians claim that their version of the Dhamma correspond exactly to the Buddha’s teachings as re-
corded in the Pali Tipitaka but this is true only to a certain extent. It would be more correct to say that Theravada is
a particular interpretation of certain teachings from the Pali Tipitaka. The Pali Tipitaka contains a truly amazing
variety of material from ethics to epistemology, from psychology to practical wisdom.
It would be very difficult to
encompass all this material into a single school or system and indeed Theravadins have certainly not done this.
Rather, they have emphasized some of the Buddha’s doctrines and ideas and de-emphasized or even ignored others.
For example, the four Expressions of Sympathy (sangha vatthuni) are frequently mentioned by the Buddha and
could have important implications for a deeper understanding of love and compassion, particularly their social ap-
plication. Mahayana used them to developed a whole philosophy of practical altruism but they are given almost no
attention in Theravada. I notice that they are not included in Nanatiloka’s
Dictionary
and in thirty years of reading
Theravadian literature I can never recall having seen them discussed or even referred to. To give another example.
One of the central concepts of the Buddha’s teachings is dependent origination. There are two versions of this doc-
trine – one showing the arising of suffering and the other showing the arising of liberation and freedom. The first of
these is arguably the most well known, although not necessarily well understood, of all Buddhist doctrines. It fea-
tures in virtually every book on Theravada, it is commonly depicted diagrammatically in charts and temple wall
paintings and its twelve constituents are often chanted by monks during ceremonies. The second and one would
think the more important of the two is virtually unknown, even by quite learned Theravadins. Bhikkhu Bodhi, the
only Western Theravadin to ever draw attention to this important schema of dependant origination , says that ‘tradi-
tional commentators have hardly given the text the special attention it would seem to deserve.’ It would be more
correct to say that they have ignored it almost completely. Caroline Rhys Davids called this positive version of
dependant origination an ‘oasis’ and asked, ‘How might it have altered the whole face of Buddhism in the West if
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that sequence had been made the illustration of the casual law!’ Indeed, how might it have altered the whole face of
Theravada in Asia?
Then when we examine just how the material chosen has been interpreted we find it has frequently been done in the
most literal, stilted and unimaginative way or has simply been misunderstood.* To give just two examples. The
Buddha describes the loving person as having ‘a mind with the barriers broken down’ (cetasa vimariyada katena).
What an extraordinary phrase! When a person has seen and seen through the conceptually created barriers of race,
class, ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’ they are able to love others unconditionally. The
Visuddhimagga
tells a story to illus-
trate how, according to Theravada, this should be understood. A monk was sitting with three others - a friend, a
stranger and someone who did not like him – when they were assailed by a band of thugs who wanted to take one
of the four as a sacrifice to their god. The first monk was required to select the victim but because he had ‘a mind
with the barriers broken down’ he was literally incapable of making any distinctions between himself and the oth-
ers and thus just sat there unable to make a decision. Apart from being absurdly simplistic this contradicts the Bud-
dha’s statement that a loving person would be even capable of giving his or her life for another (D,III,187). The
terms papa
n
ca and papa
n
ca sa
nn
a
sankha are of enormous importance in understanding meditation and psychology
as taught by the Buddha. In his brilliant and groundbreaking book
Concept and Reality
, Bhikkhu Nanananda has
shown that Theravada has seriously misunderstood the true significance of these terms. Interestingly, he had also
shown that Mahayana preserved much of their original meaning and consequently their deeper philosophical impli-
cations.
*
There are even cases where Buddhaghosa interprets the Tipitaka to mean the exact opposite of what it actually say; see for example
Con-
cept and Reality
, 1971, p.46.
This combination of selective emphasis and conservative, narrow or simplistic interpretation has made Theravada
what it is. By highlighting different material from the Pali Tipitaka and interpreting it in different but equally or
perhaps in even more valid ways, one could have quite a different type of Buddhism. And in fact this did happen.
The Sravastavadians, Dharmaguptakas, Sautantikas, the Abhayagirivasins etc were different schools with a differ-
ent ‘feel’ despite basing themselves on a Sutta and Vinaya Pitaka that were the same or substantially the same as
the Pail ones. Unfortunately, all these schools disappeared leaving Theravadians holding the field as the sole ‘or-
thodox’ interpreters of the Buddha’s teaching in its earliest form. Of course a Theravadin would say that it is dan-
gerous or unnecessary to interpret or elaborate on the Buddha’s words. But drawing deeper or broader meanings
from the Buddha’s words was being done even during his own lifetime. See for example how Maha Kacchyana
very creatively reinterpreted one of the Buddha’s sayings from the Sutta Nipata (S,III,9). It seems that when it
comes to something negative or theoretical Theravadin are able to be remarkably creative. It is only with the practi-
cal, the positive or anything outside the narrow orbit in which they have chosen to operate that they seem to be lost
for words. It should come as no surprise that in its two thousand year history Theravada has produced no great reli-
gious thinkers – no Augustine, Aquinas or Erasmus, no Nagajuna, Tsong Khapa or Dogen.
In the first few centuries after the Buddha’s parinirvana there were developments of doctrines and disagreements
over them but these seem to have been relatively minor. Differences over Vinaya practice led to disunity within the
Sangha but it is unlikely that the doctrinal differences were serious enough for the various groups to think of them-
selves as distinct schools. In about 270 B.C.E. the Mauryan emperor Asoka converted to Buddhism, perhaps the
most important single event in the religion after the enlightenment of the Buddha himself. It appears that at least in
certain circles at this time the social significance of many of the Buddha’s teachings were not just being discussed
but also actively applied. Asoka was an individual as deeply concerned with his own spiritual well-being as he was
with that of his subjects and while he generously supported the Sangha he also did much to apply the Dhamma to
the social domain. Like many lay people at the time he was also well versed in the suttas as is clear from the many
words and phrases from them which appear in his edicts. Asoka convened a general council of the Sangha and al-
though the details are scant, it seems this council expelled undisciplined monks, codified the Dhamma and sent
missions throughout India and to different parts of Asia to spread the religion. The most successful of these mis-
sions was the one sent to Sri Lanka and led by Asoka’s son. Buddhism was adopted as the state religion and gradu-
ally the entire Island became Buddhist. Naturally, certain practices changed to suit local conditions and as the Sri
Lankan monks began exploring the Dhamma they began to interpret it according to their own understanding and
experience. Politics had its influence too. As an ‘official’ interpretation emerged, soon to be given the name Thera-
vada, it was patronized by the state while other interpretations received no support or were occasionally even per-
secuted.
From an early period the practice of meditation was given little emphasis in Sri Lanka. By the beginning of the
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Common Era the leading monks had decided that preserving the Dhamma was to take precedence over practicing
it. This is reflected in the commentaries where it says, ‘Whether there is realization or practice is not the point,
learning is sufficient for the continuation of the sasana. If the wise one studies the Tipitaka he does both…Thus the
sasana is made firm when learning endures.’ In another place it says, ‘Even if there are a 100,000 monks practicing
meditation there will be no realization of the Noble Path if there is no learning.’ In the code of monastic regulations
drawn up by Dimbulagala Kassapa in the 12
th
century it says that a monk should be directed towards meditation
only if he is not bright enough to excel at studies. This does not mean that there were never any meditating monks
but certainly their numbers were small and their influence on the development of Theravada minuscule. Of the vast
store of Theravadin literature that has survived to the present there are no meditation manuals or other works on
meditation dating from before the 20
th
century. It also seems that the developments of the Dhamma which had been
taking place in India under Asoka were abandoned in favor more conservative, fundamentalist and clecricocentric
approach. For example, Asoka’s Buddhist polity was dropped in favor of the Brahminical theory and active lay
involvement in the religion was discouraged.
In the 5
th
century C.E the monk Buddhaghosa composed commentaries on the Tipitaka in which the developments
and interpretations that had taken place up till then were fixed. * Since then these commentaries have been consid-
ered the ultimate authority and Theravada has remained virtually unchanged. Richard Gombrich correctly says, ‘To
this day Buddhaghosa’s Buddhism is in effect the unitary standard of doctrinal orthodoxy for all Theravada Bud-
dhists.’ Theravadins see the Buddha’s words through the lens of these commentaries’ turgid and often fantastic
pedantry rather than allowing them to speak for themselves. Most Theravadins will side with Buddhaghosa’s inter-
pretation even where it contradicts the Buddha’s words. The situation is in some ways similar to pre-Reformation
Christianity where church tradition was considered more authoritative than scripture. At a later period sub-
commentaries were written on the commentaries and in turn commentaries on those were composed but these con-
sisted mainly of comments on grammar and syntax. Until the late 19
th
century when Western influence began to
penetrate into Buddhist Asia nearly all Theravadin scholarship was little more than what N.C.Chaudhuri called
‘exegesis of exegesis.’ Conservative by nature, without the insights that meditation can give and set within a ex-
tremely static society, Sri Lankan monks concentrated on preserving what had been handed down from the past
rather than creating anything new. They heard and they repeated but they rarely inquired, explored or questioned.
Commenting on the Mahayana term for Theravadins – ‘savaka
’
, meaning ‘a hearer’, Prof. Ishii says; ‘This etymol-
ogy of savaka captures the essential character of the Theravadin monks, men devoted to upholding the Dhamma
and Vinaya preached by the Buddha. Their totally passive attitude has virtually precluded any active development
of the teachings they hear.’ Concerning education in pre-modern Burma, which was almost entirely religious and in
the hands of the clergy, Aung San Suu Kyi says; ‘Traditional Burmese education did not encourage speculation.
This was largely due to the view, so universally held that it appears to be part of the racial psyche of the Burmese,
that Buddhism represents the perfect philosophy. It therefore follows that there was no need either to try to develop
it further or to consider other philosophies. As a result, in spite of the essential tolerance of Buddhist teachings,
religion in Burma was monolithic. It had broad but inflexible boundaries. Theological disputes, which were not
numerous, centered on the interpretation of the monastic code, the vinaya; so that the little sectarianism that did
exist was confined to the monkhood.’ Put in the present tense and applied to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and to a
lesser extent Sri Lanka too, this statement still holds true.
*
Rhys Davids says of Buddhaghosa, ‘Of his talent there can be no doubt, it was equaled only by his extraordinary industry. But of original-
ity, of independent thought, there is at present no evidence.’
In Europe the church had various bodies to scrutinize new interpretations of doctrine to make sure they accorded
with orthodoxy. Nothing like this was needed in Theravada, there was nothing new. Monks frequently quarreled
over the interpretation of Vinaya rules but rarely over points of Dhamma. They also produced extraordinarily little
literature of enduring value. The
Milindapanha
, the
Visuddhimagga
and the
Abhidhammatthasangha
are amongst
the few Theravadin works still widely read or studied today, the rest of the literature being either so excruciatingly
dull, superfluous or pedantic that it adds little or nothing to an understanding of the Dhamma. It is a very meager
harvest after two thousand years of scholarship. Until about the 11
th
century Theravada was confined to Sri Lanka
and small areas in south India and southern Burma. After that it spread all over Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and the
lowlands of Loas. From the 1930’s onward small communities of Theravadins began to emerge in Vietnam, Indo-
nesia, the Malay Peninsular, Nepal and, after 1956, in India also. Theravada was the most well known form of
Buddhism in the West until the 1970’s when Tibetan Buddhism quickly began its superseded it. In the West today
it comes a distant third after Tibetan Buddhism and Zen. It is as Bhikkhu Bodhi says; ‘a still backwater on the oth-
erwise lively Western Buddhist frontier.’
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