Lecture
Это окончание невероятной информации про буддизм.
...
form of a female deity, skillful means/compassion in the form of a male one; their union is the supreme integration leading to awakening and the attainment of the state of Buddha.
And at the same time, the compassionate mission of the bodhisattvas is not worldly altruism or charity. Its goal is strictly religious and soteriological – the liberation of suffering beings from the bonds of the cyclic existence of alternating births and deaths, with all its torments and sorrows.
Sometimes texts distinguish three types of bodhisattvas: the king-like bodhisattva, who first attains the state of Buddha and then takes care of the liberation of all beings at once (like a king who cares for all his subjects at once); the ferryman-like bodhisattva, who «ferries» beings one at a time to the «other shore» of existence; and the shepherd-like bodhisattva, who first saves all beings and only then himself enters nirvana (like a shepherd who first drives his livestock through the gate of the homestead and only then enters it himself).
Mahayana regards the ideal of the bodhisattva as a natural conclusion from the doctrine of anatmavada: for the very concept of individual liberation, accepted in the schools of Hinayana, implicitly presupposes belief in some individuality that is liberated. Mahayana is more radical: as long as there exists for a person, even a saint, a distinction between «I» and «not-I,» between «oneself» and «others,» he remains in the power of the affective delusion regarding the «self.» Consequently, only the salvation of all is the salvation of each, and only the salvation of all beings is also the salvation of myself, which, however, removes the very notion of «I» and «myself.»
But does this not mean that bodhisattvas will never attain the peace of nirvana, since there are more living beings in all the worlds than «grains of sand in Ganges rivers, of which there are as many as there are grains of sand in a single Ganges,» while the bodhisattvas have vowed not to step into nirvana until all living beings are liberated? Different Buddhist texts answer this question differently. Thus the «Lotus Sutra,» through the mouth of the Buddha himself, proclaims that sooner or later the vows will be fulfilled, all living beings will be liberated, and the bodhisattvas will be able to attain the peace of nirvana. Other texts deny the final liberation of all beings and assert that the compassionate mission of the bodhisattvas is itself their nirvana; in this labor lies also the reward for the labor, expressed in liberation from the illusion of «I.»
On their path to the attainment of awakening and the state of Buddha, bodhisattvas gradually ascend through ten stages of perfection, described in detail in Mahayana literature. This path is incredibly long – it requires three asankheya, i.e., «immeasurable,» eons – kalpas. At the last stage of this path, called dharmamegha («the cloud of Dharma»), the bodhisattva attains awakening without, however, thereby departing into nirvana. By the time the higher stages are reached, the bodhisattva acquires enormous power, far exceeding the power of the Gods of the pre-Buddhist Vedic religion (one sutra says that a bodhisattva of this level can juggle worlds as a conjurer juggles colored balls). Over time, therefore, the Mahayanists came, as a rule, to call bodhisattvas not simply believers striving for bodhi, as was the case in early Mahayana, but great saints who had already fully realized the ideal of the bodhisattva and tirelessly cared for all living beings. The cults of such great bodhisattvas as Avalokiteshvara (a symbol of the essence of great compassion), Manjushri (the embodiment of transcendent wisdom), Tara (her cult resembles the medieval cult of the Madonna in Europe; being filled with great compassion, Tara vowed to become a Buddha in a female body, to show that woman is in no way inferior to man), Samantabhadra, Kshitigarbha (in popular Buddhism there is a widespread legend that he vowed to fill all the hells with his own body, so that no one else could fit there), and many others became the central cults of Mahayana Buddhism in all the countries where it spread.
The path of the bodhisattva is called the «path of paramitas.» The word «paramita» means «perfection,» but in tradition it is usually interpreted in the spirit of folk etymology as «crossing to the other shore»; thus in Buddhism the paramitas are understood as transcendent perfections, or «perfections that carry one across to the other shore of existence.» As a rule, the texts give a set of six paramitas: dana-paramita (the perfection of giving), kshanti-paramita (the perfection of patience), virya-paramita (the perfection of diligence), shila-paramita (the perfection of observing the vows), dhyana-paramita (the perfection of contemplation), and prajna-paramita (the perfection of wisdom, or the wisdom that carries one across to the other shore of existence; transcendent wisdom). In this list, the first five paramitas belong to the group of skillful means (upaya), while the sixth paramita alone forms an entire group – the group of prajna (wisdom). The unity of all the paramitas, understood as the unity of method and wisdom, is awakening, the attainment of the state of Buddha.
Here prajnaparamita occupies a special place, for it turned out to be the only paramita for whose sake a special group of sutras was created, which received the name of the prajnaparamita sutras, or the literature of prajnaparamita (these were also the earliest Mahayana texts). Whereas in Hinayana prajna is understood as the ability to discern dharmas, in Mahayana it is a certain special capacity to perceive reality directly, as it is. In this capacity, the Transcendent Wisdom is called the «mother of all Buddhas» and is symbolically personified in the image of a Goddess embodying the essence of Perfection.
Equally great is the difference between Mahayana and Hinayana on the question of what the Buddha represents – the Buddha in general, and not only the historical Shakyamuni. Mahayana takes a «supramundane» position on this question, going back to the teaching of the Lokottaravadin Mahasanghikas. Since the Buddha is the Buddha by virtue of attaining bodhi, the nature of the Buddha and the nature of bodhi coincide, and if bodhi is an eternal, supramundane principle, then so is the Buddha. The awakenedness of the Buddhas is expressed in the Dharma – the Teaching, and the Dharma thus forms, as it were, the spiritual and true «body» of the Buddha. But by dharma is also meant the «elementary particle» of experience, the «quantum» of reality. The Buddha is the highest being, and his Dharma is the highest Dharma. Thus the spiritual Body of the Buddhas is the Dharma of dharmas, the «dharma-nature,» dharmata, the reality of reality. In the course of roughly such reasoning, Mahayana formed the doctrine of the Dharma Body of the Buddhas as a reality endowed with the highest ontological status. The Dharma Body is one for all Buddhas; it is true reality as it is, and the nature of all dharmas (just as water is the nature of any wave, while water in its composition remains the same both in a mountain stream and in a dirty puddle).
Consequently, the nature of the Buddha is the true nature of all phenomena, of all dharmas in the Abhidharmic sense of the word. And from this Mahayana draws yet another radical conclusion: nirvana and samsara are identical, there is no essential distinction between them; samsara is merely an illusory aspect of nirvana, never having arisen and never disappearing, just as an illusion cannot disappear or appear: that is precisely what makes it an illusion – that it has no real ontological status and does not exist «in itself.» Therefore, firstly, one may say that nirvana is empty of samsara, devoid of any «samsaric-ness» whatsoever, and this absence of samsaric-ness in nirvana is precisely the highest truth, or true reality. This is the Dharma Body of all Buddhas, or the Buddha in his true nature. From this follows yet another conclusion – all dharmas are dharmas of the Buddha, they are Buddha-natured, or their nature is the nature of the Buddha. And from this, in turn, it follows that all beings are none other than Buddhas, only ones who have not awakened to an understanding of this, who have not realized their inner and originally awakened nature.
In later Mahayana the Dharma Body is considered in two aspects: as the «body of own-being» it is reality with the highest ontological status, while as the «Dharma Body of gnosis/knowledge» it is the cognitive aspect of this reality – pure, non-dual wisdom, devoid («empty») of any subject-object dichotomy.
However, unlike Hinayana, Mahayana asserts that the Buddha, having attained the Dharma Body (having awakened), does not leave the world forever, does not depart into a nirvana without remainder inaccessible to the beings of samsara.
Out of his great compassion, the Buddha produces from his Dharma Body, as it were, two reflections of it, manifesting: one – in the world of form and formlessness, and the other – in the world of desire. Both of these «Bodies,» unlike the Dharma Body, possess a particular form, conditioned by the innumerable virtuous qualities of the Buddhas, and therefore both these «Bodies» together are known as rupakaya, the «formed body,» the «form body.»
The first of them is called the «body of complete bliss,» in which the Buddha (each Buddha has his own) enjoys nirvana as positive bliss. But most important is that it is precisely in this «body» that the Buddhas communicate with higher personalities (yogins, bodhisattvas) whose consciousness unfolds at the level of the worlds of form and formlessness, and instruct them, appearing to them in visions, and so on. The second of them is the «magically created body,» or the «body created by magical metamorphoses.» In this body the Buddhas manifest themselves at the level of the world of desire and preach the Dharma to people in the form of teachers – monks. Shakyamuni, too, after attaining bodhi as Prince Siddhartha Gautama, was such a Buddha in the «magically created body.» And the «Lotus Sutra» goes even further and proclaims, through the mouth of the Buddha himself, that he was awakened before all time; his birth in Kapilavastu and his awakening under the Bodhi Tree at Bodhgaya were merely a skillful device (upaya), necessary in order to show people the path to liberation. Thus the Buddha acquires the features of a Savior-God, especially intensified in the Far Eastern variant of Mahayana Buddhism. But Buddhism, even in the form of Mahayana, still remains a non-theistic religion: the world of samsara is not the result of divine creation; it is the fruit of a certain transcendental illusion regarding the nature of the «self» and of reality, expressed in the subject-object dichotomy and in the attraction-aversion of empirical subjects toward objects and other subjects.
In Buddhist iconography the Dharma Body of the Buddha is usually not depicted at all, or is depicted in the form of a stupa (in the Far Eastern tradition its iconographic personification is possible in the image of Buddha Vairochana – the Buddha of the Great Sun); the sambhogakaya, as the «glorified Body,» is depicted in the form of a person in the yogic posture of contemplation, endowed with various sumptuous royal attributes – crowns, diadems, earrings, bracelets, and so on. And finally, in the nirmanakaya body, the Buddha is depicted in simple monastic robes and with a begging bowl in his hands.
Both Hinayana and Mahayana acknowledge the coming into our world of numerous Buddhas (in the past and future), but only in Mahayana do these innumerable Buddhas, not only of our world but of other worlds as well, become objects of cult and worship. Among them Buddha Amitabha (the Buddha of Boundless Light) stands out especially; his veneration is characteristic of all directions of Mahayana, and in China and Japan the cult of this Buddha and his Land of Bliss turned out to be even central for some schools and currents, but we will discuss this in more detail in the next lecture. Mahayana is also characterized by developed liturgy, sumptuous religious rituals, and mysteries.
Between Hinayana and Mahayana there is also a very substantial difference in the attitude of these directions of Buddhism toward monasticism and the laity. Moreover, this is an exceptionally important difference, since it can now be considered proven that the original schisms in the sangha, leading to the formation of new directions, were caused precisely by differences in the interpretation of the norms of the monastic rules and regulations, and not by doctrinal-theoretical disagreements; it was precisely differences in the understanding of the role and place of monasticism that caused the original schism into Sthaviravada and Mahasanghika (nevertheless, even this schism, like others, did not prevent the followers of Hinayana and Mahayana from often living in the very same monasteries, but again on condition of an identical understanding of the monastic rules of conduct).
As already mentioned, Hinayana is a strictly monastic direction of Buddhism, which considers only actual monks to be Buddhists par excellence, and therefore the Hinayanists, in principle, do not seek active missionary activity or preaching among the laity. Matters stand differently in Mahayana. Although it would be fundamentally wrong to diminish the significance and role of monks in Mahayana Buddhism, nevertheless it must be emphasized that taking monastic vows and ordination are by no means necessary conditions for attaining the state of Buddha. Some Mahayana texts even especially extol laypeople who have attained higher levels of spiritual comprehension than most monks and even many great bodhisattvas.
The Mahayanists, proceeding from the doctrine of «skillful means,» sought to find ways of influencing all strata of the population and all psychological types
of personality, to find the right «key» for each of them, in order to encourage as many people as possible to set out on the path leading first to the attainment of a better birth, then to liberation, and finally to the attainment of the state of Buddha for the benefit of all living beings. This same orientation toward the salvation of all «beings – mothers» impelled the Mahayanists to actively engage in preaching the Dharma and spreading the Buddhist teaching beyond the borders of India. And it should be noted that it was precisely in the form of Mahayana that Buddhism became a world religion (as Hinayana it would to this day have remained a regional tradition). It was precisely in the form of Mahayana that Buddhism spread from India to Buryatia and from Japan to Kalmykia, and continues even now to spread fairly rapidly in Europe and America (in France and Germany Buddhism has already become the third most widespread religion). In antiquity, before the Muslim conquests, the geography of the spread of Buddhism was even more diverse: Buddhists inhabited the territory of present-day Afghanistan, where one can still see gigantic statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas carved into the mountain slopes; the Majapahit empire in Indonesia was Buddhist, whose state cult was the cult of the syncretic Indo-Buddhist deity Shiva-Buddha (and even now the coat of arms of Muslim Indonesia bears the motto: «Though Shiva and Buddha are different, in essence they are one»); many Buddhists lived in Central Asia, this religion (alongside Manichaeism, which came from Iran) was professed by the Uyghurs, and this list could go on and on.
Spreading among the most diverse peoples, adapting to the most diverse cultural and civilizational conditions, Mahayana Buddhism displayed wonders of flexibility and adaptability. And this flexibility was by no means unprincipled: Buddhism never compromised or sacrificed any of its formative doctrines. The idea of «upaya,» the skillful device meant to help lead beings out of the blazing house of the suffering of samsara, inspired Mahayana monks both in the mountain heights of Tibet and on the boundless steppes of Mongolia, and on the Great Chinese Plain, and on the islands of Japan. Arriving in new lands and seeing that their inhabitants worshipped numerous Gods and demons (as was the case, for example, in Tibet), the Buddhists were by no means quick to declare these deities to be demons or to assert that they did not exist at all. On the contrary, they told the local population that their Gods too had come to know the Four Noble Truths, had become Buddhists, and would now defend the Buddha’s Dharma and protect those who believed in it with all their might. Or, as often happened in Japan, the Buddhists declared local Gods to be incarnations or manifestations of the powers of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, after which they remained in the pantheon, but now in Buddhist guise.
At present Mahayana Buddhism exists in two variants, quite significantly different from each other: this is Tibeto-Mongolian Mahayana (sometimes still incorrectly called «Lamaism») with canonical texts in the Tibetan language (Tibet, Mongolia, some peoples of Russia – Buryats, Kalmyks, Tuvans, the population of various regions of the Himalayas and some other places), and Far Eastern Mahayana (based on Chinese Buddhism and with canonical texts in the Chinese language) – China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam.
At the beginning of the second half of the 1st millennium CE, a new direction, or Yana («Vehicle»), gradually arose and formed within Mahayana Buddhism, receiving the name Vajrayana, or tantric Buddhism; this direction may be considered the final stage of the development of Buddhism in its homeland – India.
Here it must be said at once that the word «tantra» itself does not in any way characterize the specific nature of this new type of Buddhism. «Tantra» (like «sutra») is simply a type of text, in which there may be nothing «tantric» at all. If the word «sutra» means a «thread» onto which something is strung, then the word «tantra,» formed from the root «tan» (to stretch, to extend) and the suffix «tra,» means the warp of a fabric; that is, as with the sutras, we are dealing with certain basic texts serving as a foundation, a core. Therefore, although the followers of tantrism themselves speak of the «path of sutras» (Hinayana and Mahayana) and the «path of mantras,» they nevertheless prefer to call their teaching Vajrayana, opposing it not to Mahayana (the tantras always emphasize that Vajrayana is a «path,» a yana, within Mahayana), but to the classical Mahayana path of gradual perfection, the so-called Paramitayana, i.e., the Path of Paramitas, or perfections that carry one across to the Other Shore. That is, Vajrayana is opposed specifically to Paramitayana, not to Mahayana, which includes both Paramitayana (attaining the state of Buddha over three innumerable kalpas) and Vajrayana (attaining the state of Buddha within a single lifetime, «in this body»).
The word «vajra,» included in the name «Vajrayana,» was originally used to designate the thunder-scepter of the Indian Zeus – the Vedic God Indra – but gradually its meaning changed. The fact is that one of the meanings of the word «vajra» is «diamond,» «adamant.» Within Buddhism, the word «vajra» came to be associated, on the one hand, with the originally perfect nature of awakened consciousness, resembling an indestructible diamond, and on the other, with awakening itself, enlightenment, resembling an instantaneous clap of thunder or flash of lightning. The ritual Buddhist vajra, like the ancient vajra, is a kind of scepter symbolizing awakened consciousness, as well as compassion and skillful means in opposition to prajna – upaya (prajna and emptiness are symbolized by the ritual bell); the joining of the vajra and the bell in the ritually crossed hands of the priest symbolizes awakening as the result of the integration of wisdom and method, emptiness and compassion. Consequently, the word «Vajrayana» may be translated as the «Diamond Vehicle,» the «Thunder Vehicle,» and so on. The first translation is the most widespread.
It must be said at once that, with regard to the aspect of wisdom (prajna), Vajrayana proposes practically nothing new compared with classical Mahayana and is based on its philosophical teachings – Madhyamaka, Yogachara, and the theory of Tathagatagarbha. All the distinctiveness of the Diamond Vehicle is connected with its methods (upaya), although the goal of applying these methods remains the same – the attainment of the state of Buddha for the benefit of all living beings. Vajrayana asserts that the chief advantage of its method is its extraordinary effectiveness, its «instantaneousness,» which allows a person to become a Buddha within a single lifetime, rather than over three immeasurable world cycles – kalpas. Consequently, the adept of the tantric path can more quickly fulfill his bodhisattva vow – to become a Buddha in order to deliver all beings drowning in the swamp of the cyclic existence of births and deaths. At the same time, the teachers of Vajrayana always emphasized that this path is also the most dangerous, comparable to a direct ascent to the summit of a mountain along a rope stretched over all the mountain gorges and precipices. The slightest error on this path will lead the unfortunate yogin to madness or rebirth in a special «vajra hell.» The guarantee of success on this dangerous path is adherence to the ideal of the bodhisattva and the striving to attain the state of Buddha as quickly as possible, in order to gain sooner the ability to save living beings from the sufferings of samsara. But if a yogin sets out on the Thunder Vehicle for the sake of his own advancement, in pursuit of magical powers and might, his ultimate defeat and spiritual degradation are inevitable.
Therefore tantric texts were considered secret, and the beginning of practice within the Vajrayana system presupposed receiving special initiations and the corresponding oral instructions and explanations from a teacher who had achieved realization of the Path. In general, the role of the teacher, the guru, in tantric practice is exceedingly great, and sometimes young adepts spent much time and made enormous efforts to find a worthy mentor. Because of this secrecy of Vajrayana practice, it was also called the Vehicle of the Secret Tantra, or simply the secret (esoteric) teaching.
All the tantras, i.e., the doctrinal texts of Vajrayana, which, like the sutras, represent instructions placed by the authors of the tantras in the mouth of the Buddha himself – the Bhagavan – were divided into four classes: kriya tantras (tantras of purification), charya tantras (tantras of action), yoga tantras (yogic tantras), and anuttara yoga tantras (tantras of the highest yoga), with the last, or highest, class further divided into mother tantras (if they emphasized wisdom – prajna and the feminine principle), father tantras (if they gave particular importance to method – upaya and the masculine principle), and non-dual tantras (if these two principles played an equal role). The final standard classification of the tantras was established rather late, no earlier than the 11th century, and not in India but in Tibet (its author may possibly have been Bromtonpa, 992–1074, a disciple of the famous preacher of Buddhism in the Land of Snows, Atisha).
Each type of tantra had its corresponding methods: in kriya tantras external forms of practice predominate, above all various mystical rituals; in charya tantras elements of inner, contemplative practice appear; in yoga tantras this predominates; and anuttara yoga tantras belong exclusively to inner psychopractice. Nevertheless, anuttara yoga tantras also possess a number of quite specific features that fairly clearly distinguish this type of tantric text from the texts of other classes.
The basic methods offered by the first three classes of tantras can be reduced to the performance of special liturgical rituals of complex symbolic significance and to the practice of mantras, the technique of visualization (mental reproduction of images) of deities, and contemplation of mandalas.
In the 1st century CE, Buddhism passed from Northwestern India into Central Asia, and from there «seeped» into Western China. In the 1st–2nd centuries CE, the Kushan dynasty took possession of territory from Benares (the center of Northern India) to Afghanistan in the west, and to Uzbekistan and Chinese Turkestan in the north and northeast. The Kushan ruler Kanishka (around 78–101 CE) provided broad support to Buddhism. In the Kushan era, when relative peace and prosperity were established, monks and merchants carried Buddhism along the trade routes into Central Asia and China. The remains of grandiose stupas, monasteries carved into caves and built of brick, inscriptions, and numerous Buddhist texts show that Buddhism flourished along the entire Great Silk Road for ten centuries. Around 150 CE it was adopted as the state religion in the states of Kashgar and Khotan (Chinese Turkestan). Xuanzang, the Chinese pilgrim who visited India in the 7th century CE, reports a hundred monasteries and five thousand monks that he saw in Khotan. Central Asian Buddhism produced a large part of the religious texts and produced no few scholars who spurred the development of Buddhism in China from 300 to 600 CE. However, the rise of Islam and the decline of Buddhism in India and China around 1000 CE led to the disappearance of this religion in Central Asia.
Chinese monks and diplomatic missions, guided possibly by the example of the «Dharma missions» of Emperor Ashoka, carried Buddhism to Korea at the end of the 4th century CE. Korean diplomatic missions introduced Buddhism at the Japanese court in the middle of the 6th century CE. Direct contacts between Japan and China spurred the development of Japanese Buddhism. In the 7th century Buddhism passed from China into Tibet. It was officially adopted by the Tibetan ruler Trisong (740–798 CE), who invited a Mahayana monk from Nalanda to his court.
In China, Buddhism had to compete with Confucianism and Daoism – carefully elaborated ancient life-affirming religions. Confucianism emphasized the importance of the family and harmonious relations of devotion and care: the devotion of son to father, wife to husband, subject to ruler, as well as the care of father for son, husband for wife, and ruler for subject. Monastic Buddhism placed little value on the family and set devotion to discipline and the monastic community above devotion to the ruler and society as a whole. Daoism encouraged introspection and disregard for conventional norms of behavior, though more in the name of a carefree, freely flowing union with nature than for the sake of strict spiritual discipline. At the same time, Confucianism placed a high value on learning (wisdom), while Daoism attributed supernatural powers to those who lived in harmony with nature. Since learning and magical powers were key attributes of accomplished Buddhist monks, the Chinese could appreciate such a monk, notwithstanding other grounds for disagreement. Moreover, since the goal of Confucianism and Daoism was harmony in this world, the Buddhist belief in rebirth in the heavens attained through merit, as well as in the fundamental attainability of nirvana, added new dimensions to the religious life of China.
Confucianism was the state religion of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE). In the era of fragmentation and anti-Confucian sentiment that followed the fall of the Han dynasty (300–600 CE), monastic Buddhism achieved widespread recognition and support from the authorities. A census conducted in 517 CE records that China then had 30,000 monasteries and 2 million monks and nuns. The pattern of monastic life was largely the same as in India; the main difference was that the monasteries supported themselves through the land granted to them, and the monks had far less contact with society since they did not need to go out to collect alms. In addition, monastic communities for the most part arose around individual master-monks; each community consisted of a teacher and his disciples. This structure, a tendency toward which had already appeared in Indian Mahayana Buddhism, developed extensively in China thanks to the Confucian and Daoist ideal of the sage. In Theravada Buddhism, by contrast, the focus of attention was the community itself, in which each monk occupied an established position.
Indian Mahayana Buddhism recognized a wide diversity of thought without singling out particular sects. In China, however, beginning in the sixth century CE, a great many different sects arose, each taking one or another Mahayana sutra as its foundation. Two such sects gained the widest renown and exerted a strong influence on both Chinese and Japanese Buddhism: these were the Chan sect (Jap. Zen – from Sanskrit «dhyana» – «contemplation», «meditation») and Jingtu (Jap. Jodo), or the «Pure Land» sect.
The first Chinese monks influenced by India emphasized the importance of learning and perhaps did not adhere so strictly to the ancient monastic rule. The monks of the Chan sect, by contrast, placed little value on the study of ancient texts and translations and insisted on the necessity of discipline, above all meditation. They withdrew into the mountains, where they developed many new methods for attaining insight. Another of their innovations was the introduction of manual labor as one of the components of monastic discipline. Following the teaching of Mahayana, especially the «Perfection of Wisdom Sutra», and influenced by Daoism, they maintained that this very world is the realm of enlightenment and that ordinary worldly activity can become an occasion for enlightenment.
Other Chinese monks followed the sutras of the «Pure Land tradition», which praised the Buddha Amitabha (Chin. A-mi-to-fo) and his Pure Land paradise. Amitabha and his Pure Land were objects of meditation in Indian Buddhism. The Chinese master Tanluan (476–542 CE) interpreted the Pure Land scriptures and taught that after death one could attain the Pure Land simply by reciting the name of Amitabha as follows: «na-mo a-mi-to-fo», that is, «Homage to the Buddha Amitabha». He taught that by this recitation alone, without resorting to meditation or any special discipline, and by the grace of Amitabha, one could attain the Pure Land; and once a person had reached the Pure Land, he would easily attain nirvana. In a relatively short time this teaching drew thousands of people – both monks and laity – to faith in the Buddha Amitabha and to the hope of being reborn in his paradise.
One of the transcriptions of the name of the Buddha Amitabha is Amida, hence the cult of Amitabha came to be called «Amidism» in the religious-studies literature.
Amidism is one of the leading currents of Buddhism in the Far East, which arose and took shape in the 5th–6th centuries in China. The canonical texts of Amidism are the «Three Sutras of Amida», which set forth the basic doctrinal tenets of this current. The goal of an adept of Amida is rebirth after death in the «pure land» of Amida, the Buddhist paradise, where an eternal blissful life awaits him. This teaching was undoubtedly influenced by Daoist notions of immortals leading a blissful existence on a distant island in the ocean. Rebirth in the «pure land» is possible only with the help of the Buddha Amida, who vowed to convey all living beings to his paradise after their death. A believer in the saving power of Amida must entreat the Buddha for help, repeating the sacred phrase «Glory to the Buddha Amida!» and performing meritorious deeds. Amidism became widespread, above all, among the rural population, although a certain portion of the propertied classes was also among its adherents. In China the leading school of Amidism was Jingtu-zong, whose theorists worked out the doctrinal complex of Amidism as a religious current. In Japan, where Amidism achieved extraordinary popularity in the 13th century, four main schools arose within this current – Yuzu Nembutsu-shu, Jodo-shu, Jodo Shinshu, and Ji-shu, whose ideologists offered somewhat different interpretations of the fundamental dogmas of Amidism.
Together with the Buddha Amitabha, the bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Maitreya. became popular objects of worship in China. Avalokiteshvara (Chin. Guanyin) was adapted to the pre-Buddhist religion, being identified with the Goddess who, like Avalokiteshvara, was credited in popular belief with power over the forces of fertility. The lay dimension of Buddhism in China did not develop in close cooperation with the life of the monks, as it did in India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia. Its main components became the accumulation of merit through donations to monasteries and the veneration of Buddhas and bodhisattvas alongside the cult of pre-Buddhist deities and spirits.
Japanese Buddhism developed along the Chinese model, but with the significant difference that, beginning in the thirteenth century, «Pure Land» Buddhism abandoned monastic vows and introduced a married clergy. In Japan, Buddhism interacted with Shinto – the native Japanese tradition. A distinctive division of labor emerged, whereby Shinto priests were responsible mainly for worldly matters (for example, the consecration of marriage), while Buddhist monks performed the funeral rites.
Nichiren (the Sect of the Sun Lotus) – one of the Buddhist sects that arose in the Kamakura era (1185-1333), founded in 1253 by the Tendai school monk Nichiren.
Nichiren-shu (Jap. 日蓮宗) — one of the leading Japanese currents of Buddhism. Founded in the mid-13th century by the monk Nichiren. The school we now know under the name Nichiren was originally called Hokke-shu (from the abbreviated Japanese name of the Lotus Sutra — Hokke-kyo). The school acquired the name Nichiren-shu in the 1860s.
Nichiren was strongly distinguished from other Japanese Buddhist currents of the 13th century by a particular soteriological doctrine. According to it, salvation can be attained already in this life, rather than through an intermediate paradise, as was held in the Pure Land school. In addition, the object of salvation in Nichiren is not the individual person but society and the country as a whole. For nearly its entire history, Nichiren-shu has been in opposition to the secular authorities and to other Buddhist schools. The dogma of Nichiren-shu was often incompatible with the doctrines of other schools. For despite the idea of a plurality of paths to salvation spoken of in the Lotus Sutra, the Nichiren school advocates its own single true way of salvation.
Within Buddhism there are many sects and currents that interpret in different ways the doctrines of the school going back to Nichiren.
Two main branches of Nichiren:
Ichi — the most numerous current within Nichiren. In the Ichi schools both the «theoretical» (Jap. 迹門, «Trace Gate») and the «essential» part (Jap. 本門, «Origin Gate») of the Lotus Sutra are venerated.
Shoretsu – In the Shoretsu school, the superiority of the «essential» part of the Lotus Sutra over the «theoretical» part is recognized.
According to the teachings of Nichiren – One of the basic doctrinal concepts in Nichiren is the three great secret laws, which in turn are based on the Tendai school's teaching of the ten mutually interpenetrating «worlds of Dharma». By following all three laws, a person suppresses within himself all the lower worlds and awakens within himself the «World of the Buddha».
In Nichiren's writings traces of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism can be found. Nichiren repeatedly appeals to the authority of the kami as proof of the truth of the path of salvation he proposed.
However, the most important thing common to all the currents is the assertion of the supreme significance and superiority of the «Lotus Sutra» over the other texts preached by the Buddha.
In modern times, religious groups based on the teaching of Nichiren have won numerous adherents among the population not connected with the traditional sects, and have come to be known as «Nichiren shugi» (Nichirenism).
Non-monastic religious organizations arose in which the main features were spiritual healing and the promise of benefits within this life, as well as certain shamanistic practices (in many cases the worship of a deified founder), strong group consciousness, and, in more or less aggressive form, the recruitment of new members.
Among such groups that have survived to the present day are Reiyukai, founded in 1925, Rissho Kosei Kai, founded in 1938, and also Soka Gakkai, founded in 1930.
The turbulent history of Nichirenism has split it into fully independent currents and factions, but at the same time has enriched it with a wide range of doctrinal teachings that have found resonance in the minds of various strata of Japanese society. This has set Nichirenism apart from the general run of traditional religious movements and sects, ensuring the uniqueness of its position within Japanese Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhism is known in the religious-studies literature as Lamaism. Lamaism took its final form in the late 14th – early 15th century under the Tibetan monk and philosopher Tsongkhapa, who set out to reform the Kadampa Buddhist sect that had existed since the 11th century, seeking to return to the «original» teaching and also to raise the authority of the monks (lamas). The theory of Lamaism is set forth in a 108-volume collection called the «Kangyur». Lamaism pays far greater attention to the outward, secondary attributes of Buddhism. Lamaism is characterized by:
Unlike Mahayana Buddhism, as well as Zen Buddhism in China and Japan, which presuppose above all the openness of the Path, its accessibility to each and every person, Lamaism is rather of a Hinayana type, opening this possibility only to the initiated. In addition, Lamaism, although it traces back to Buddhism, grew up on the soil of ancient local religions, ranging from animism and totemism among the most primitive peoples to the Bon religion. Thus, Lamaism can be interpreted as a particular, specialized teaching of a mainly applied, that is, magical, character.
In the 13th century the Mongol ruler of China appointed one of the lamas as regent (ruler) of Tibet. In 1656 Tibet passed under the direct rule of a lama bearing the title Dalai Lama (Mong.-Tib.: «Ocean Lama [of wisdom]»). The present Dalai Lama lives in exile in northwestern India.
At the present time Buddhism has spread throughout the world, and Buddhists can be found in different countries; however, just as with the adherents of other faiths, for example Christians, Buddhists cannot always be recognized at a glance.
At present the Buddhist tradition in India is sustained by the forces of the movement founded by Dr. Ambedkar for the conversion of the untouchables to Buddhism (or, as Indira Gandhi called them, the Harijans – «children of God»).
From the founding of the movement in 1956 to the present day, at least three and a half million people have joined Buddhism. India also took in a large number of exiles from Tibet after the Chinese invaded its territory in 1959.
Although the ideas of Buddhism were already known in Victorian England, the teaching was first brought to the attention of the broader public by the Buddhist monk Ananda Metteyya (the Englishman Allan Bennett). In 1907 he founded the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland for the purpose of teaching Buddhism. Its successor, the present-day Buddhist Society, was established in 1924, with the judge Christmas Humphreys as its founder and president. Through his efforts Buddhism began to take root and became widespread in the West. In 1926, in Chiswick, west London, a Buddhist vihara was opened – the first Buddhist temple in Great Britain.
The rapid spread of Buddhist centers in the second half of the 20th century is due in large part to the activity of authoritative Japanese teachers, above all Shunryu Suzuki. Mention should also be made of Suzuki's American student Richard Baker, who did much to spread Buddhism
in America. Adapting to the new sociocultural environment, Buddhism
became firmly and lastingly established on American soil. At the same time it remained true to its principle of the transmission of the dharma.
Discussion of the question of the influence of Buddhism and its spread throughout the world brings us back once again to another question – the importance of establishing the sangha, or Buddhist community, in the process of spreading the Buddhist tradition from one country to another. Hence it is clear why Buddhists constantly turn to such a theme as the need to take into account the customs and mores of the different societies within which Buddhism must exist.
The traditional regions of Russia where Buddhists live are Buryatia, Tuva, Kalmykia, and the Chita and Irkutsk regions. Buddhism on the territory of Russia is represented by the Gelugpa school, a variety of Tibetan Buddhism. The Kalmyks adopted Buddhism in the 16th century in Dzungaria (China), and in the 17th century they migrated to the Lower Volga region, preserving their religion. Already in that period the Kalmyks had Buddhist literature translated from Tibetan into the Kalmyk language.
In the territory of Tuva, Buddhism became established at the end of the 18th century, absorbing local shamanistic beliefs and cults. Believers profess the Lamaist form of Buddhism (this form is based on a combination of features of Mahayana and Vajrayana).
From 1956, two Buddhist monasteries operated on the territory of the USSR (the Ivolginsky and the Aginsky). In 1990-1991, about 30 new communities were opened in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Anapa, and in the cities of the Baltic states.
On the wave of the general religious revival, there is a resurgence of activity among Buddhists. A Buddhist society and a Buddhist university have been created, old Buddhist temples and monasteries (datsans) are being restored and new ones opened, and a large amount of Buddhist literature is being published. In both Russian capitals and in a number of other cities, centers of several Buddhist traditions operate at once.
The most influential Buddhist organization is the World Fellowship of Buddhists, created in 1950. Buddhist literature is extensive and includes works in Pali, Sanskrit, hybrid Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Burmese, Khmer, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan.
In the modern world Buddhism is represented by numerous varieties. Thanks to this diversity of currents, the teaching is constantly being enriched, which is especially characteristic of the countries of the West. The theory and practice of Buddhism are accessible to any even moderately curious and unbiased person willing to acknowledge that the modern world can draw a very great deal for itself from the treasury of ancient wisdom.
7th century BCE – the emergence of Buddhism in the northeastern part of India;
623/24 – 543/44 BCE – the dates of the Buddha's life;
1st century CE – the formation of the two main currents in Buddhism: Mahayana and Hinayana;
1st century CE – the beginning of the spread of Buddhism in China;
6th century CE – the emergence of a distinctly Chinese current of Buddhism – Chan Buddhism;
12th – 15th centuries – the establishment of the Tibetan variety of Buddhism;
17th century – the creation on the territory of Tibet of a theocratic state headed by the Dalai Lama;
17th – 18th centuries – the spread of Buddhism in Buryatia and Tuva;
1741 – the decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, by which Buddhism became one of the officially recognized religions of the Russian Empire.
Down:
Across:
Часть 1 5. Buddhism: history, concept and features, and the Amidism and Nichiren schools
Часть 2 4. Distinctive Features of the Buddhist Teaching on the Gods,
Часть 3 7. Amidism and Nichiren. Features of Buddhism in China and
Comments