1. What is Theravada Buddhism? -
Is Vipassana the same as Theravada?
2. If we're all reborn when we die, how does Buddhism explain
the world's increasing population?
3. I hear the word "sangha" used a lot these days
in Buddhist circles. What does it really mean?
4. What's the difference between a Buddha and an arahant? -
Have there been other Buddhas? -
What's a "Private Buddha" (paccekabuddha)? -
Who is Maitreya (Metteyya)?
1. Is Vipassana the same as Theravada?
No.
The Pali word vipassana -- often translated as "insight" --
has a variety of meanings. First, it refers to the flash
of liberating intuitive understanding that marks the culmination
of Buddhist meditation practice.
In the Pali discourses
vipassana also refers to the mind's ability to witness clearly
as events unfold in the present moment. In this sense it
is a skill that a meditator develops using a broad arsenal
of meditative tools and techniques. With practice, this skill
can bring the meditator to the threshold of liberating insight.
In its third meaning,
one that has become especially popular in the West in recent
years, "Vipassana" (usually
with a capital "V") refers to a system of meditation
-- vipassana bhavana, or "Insight Meditation" --
that is based on an interpretation of the Satipatthana
Sutta (MN 10), the Buddha's concise "how-to" guide
to the development of mindfulness (sati).
[1] Followers of the
popular Vipassana movement often cite the Satipatthana Sutta
as the essence of the Buddha's teachings; some even claim
that the instructions it contains are the only ones necessary
for achieving liberating insight. Theravada Buddhism, by
contrast, embraces the thousands of discourses of the Pali
Canon, each highlighting a different aspect of the Buddha's
teachings. In Theravada each discourse supports, depends
upon, reflects, and informs all the others; even a discourse
as important as the Satipatthana Sutta is seen as but a single
thread in the Buddha's complex tapestry of teachings.
Although many students do find all they want in
Vipassana, some have a nagging sense that something fundamental
is missing. This reaction is hardly surprising, since the
Satipatthana discourse itself was delivered to a group
of relatively advanced students who were already quite
experienced and well established in the path of Dhamma
practice. Happily, all those missing pieces can be found
in the Pali Canon. In the Canon we find the Buddha's teachings
on generosity and virtue, the twin pillars upon which all
spiritual practice is built. His teachings on the recollection
of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha serve to strengthen the
development of saddha (faith, confidence), which provides
a potent fuel to sustain Dhamma practice long after we
return home from that meditation retreat. In the Canon
we also find his teachings on the drawbacks of sensuality
and the value of renunciation; on developing all the factors
in the Eightfold Path, including those that are seldom
explored during organized Vipassana retreats: right speech,
right livelihood, right effort, and right concentration
(meaning jhana). And there is much, much more.
In Theravada, the path to liberating insight does
not boil down to a single meditation technique or to being
continuously mindful. The path to Awakening is full of
surprising twists and turns but, thankfully, the Buddha
left for us an assortment of tools to use and skills to
learn to help us safely make the journey.
Notes:
1. The modern Vipassana movement grew out of the tradition
of Satipatthana Vipassana, a meditation system based on the
Satipatthana Sutta and developed by Burmese monks in the
early 20th century. By the 1950's the Burmese teachers Sayagyi
U Ba Khin (a layman; 1899-1971) and Mahasi Sayadaw (a monk;
1904-1982) had independently codified and institutionalized
these teachings, making them widely accessible across South
Asia and, eventually, the West. The Satipatthana Vipassana
approach to meditation continues to enjoy widespread popularity
among laypeople in the West.
2. If we're all reborn when we die, how does Buddhism
explain the world's increasing population?
According to
Buddhist cosmology, when a living being[1] passes away
he or she is reborn into one of thirty-one distinct "planes" or "realms" of
existence, of which the human realm is just one. An increase
in the human population simply implies that creatures from
other planes are being reborn into the human realm at a
rate faster than humans are dying. Likewise, a decline
in the human population would imply that humans, upon death,
are taking rebirth in other planes (or exiting samsara
altogether) at a rate faster than other creatures are taking
rebirth as humans. These sorts of population shifts have
been occurring for countless eons and in themselves hold
little cosmic significance.
Note:
1. Except an arahant, a fully-enlightened being. Arahants
have escaped the round of rebirths once and for all and,
upon death, are not reborn.
3.
I hear the word "sangha" used
a lot these days in Buddhist circles. What does it really
mean?
The Pali word "sangha" literally means "group" or "congregation",
but when it is used in the suttas, the word usually refers
to one of two very specific kinds of groups: either the community
of Buddhist monastics (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis), or the community
of people who have attained at least the first stage of Awakening.
In recent decades, a new usage of the word has emerged in the
West, one that seems to have no basis in classical Theravada
Buddhist teachings: the usage of the word "sangha" to
describe a meditation group or any sort of spiritual community.
It sounds innocent enough, but this particular usage can -- and often does
-- lead to profound confusion concerning one of the most fundamental underpinnings
of the Buddha's teachings, the going for refuge in the Triple Gem.
The act of going for refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma,
and Sangha
marks a major turning point in one's spiritual development,
the real start of the journey down the Buddhist path.
It helps foster a healthy attitude towards Buddhist practice
by encouraging the development of right view, and serves
as a constant reminder both of the goal of practice and of
the means to achieve that goal. It is therefore crucial to
be clear and precise about the meaning of the refuges, lest
we end up heading down a road quite different from the one
the Buddha had in mind.
In taking refuge in the Sangha, we set our inner
sights on the ideal community of Noble Ones (ariya-sangha)
-- those monks, nuns, laywomen, and laymen who, throughout
history, have by their own diligent efforts successfully
carried out the Buddha's instructions and gained at least
a glimpse of the supreme happiness of nibbana. If this
is the direction in which we also wish to go, then it is
to these individuals that we should turn for refuge:
The Sangha of the Blessed
One's disciples who have practiced well... who have practiced
straight-forwardly... who have practiced methodically...
who have practiced masterfully -- in other words, the four
types [of noble disciples] when taken as pairs, the eight
when taken as individual types -- they are the Sangha of
the Blessed One's disciples: worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality,
worthy of offerings, worthy of respect, the incomparable
field of merit for the world.
But going for refuge doesn't stop there. We are
also asked to turn to the monastic community (bhikkhu-sangha)
for refuge, for it is thanks to the unbroken lineage of
this 2,600-year-old institution that we are fortunate enough
today to be able to hear the teachings. Moreover, the living
example of the monastic community serves to remind us of
the immense value of generosity, of living a morally upright
life, of renunciation -- in short, it reminds us that it
is indeed possible to live a life fully in tune with every
aspect of the Buddha's teachings. In reality, of course,
not every monk or nun necessarily lives up to the Buddha's
high standards of conduct. For this reason it is to the
institution of the Sangha that we turn to refuge, not to
the individual members themselves. This is the Sangha to
which lay people have turned since the time of the Buddha:
I go to Master Gotama
for refuge, to the Dhamma, and to the Sangha of monks. May
Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone
to him for refuge, from this day forward, for life.
So it is these exceptional groups of people --
the ariya-sangha and the bhikkhu-sangha -- that define
the Third Gem and Refuge; it is to these groups that we
are asked to turn for refuge, not to some vaguely-defined
community of like-minded Dhamma friends and fellow meditators.
I In which group would you rather put your trust?
In an effort
to resolve this confusion, some writers have proposed various
alternatives to the word "sangha" to
describe gatherings and communities of Dhamma companions.
But this still leaves me wondering why we must invoke the
Pali language here at all.
Does a meditation
group really need a special name? Why not simply call it
a "meditation group" and
leave it at that?
"Sangha" is an important term with a rich and precise meaning. It
stands for something truly extraordinary and brilliant that can constantly
remind us of the highest and most excellent possibilities the Path has to offer.
Let's use it well.
4. Who is Maitreya (Metteyya)? -
Have there been other Buddhas? -
What's the difference between a Buddha and an arahant?
What's a "Private Buddha" (paccekabuddha)?
According to Theravada tradition, many Buddhas have come and gone over countless
eons. Every once in a great while, after a long period of spiritual darkness
blankets the world, an individual may be born who, through his own efforts, rediscovers
the long-forgotten path to Awakening and liberates himself once and for all from
the long round of rebirth, thereby becoming an arahant ("worthy one",
one who has fully realized Awakening). If such a being does not share his discovery
with others he is called a "Silent" or "Private" Buddha (paccekabuddha).
If he delivers his message (sasana)to the world he is called, simply, a Buddha.
Some of a Buddha's followers may themselves become arahants, but they are not
Buddhas, since they relied on a Buddha to show them the way to Awakening. (All
Buddhas and paccekabuddhas are arahants, but not all arahants are Buddhas or
paccekabuddhas.) No matter how far and wide the sasana spreads, sooner or later
it succumbs to the inexorable law of anicca (impermanence), and fades from memory.
The world descends again into darkness, and the eons-long cycle repeats.
The most recent Buddha was born Siddhattha Gotama in India in the sixth century
BCE. He is the one we usually mean when we refer to "The Buddha".
The next Buddha to
appear is said to be Maitreya (Skt; Pali: Metteyya), a bodhisatta
currently residing in the Tusita heavens. Legend has it that
at some time in the far distant future, once the teachings
of the current Buddha have long been forgotten, he will be
reborn as a human being, rediscover the Four Noble Truths,
and teach the Noble Eightfold Path once again. Although he
plays an important role in some Mahayana Buddhist traditions,
whose followers appeal to him for favorable rebirth and
salvation, he plays an insignificant role in Theravada.
I believe he's mentioned only once, in the Cakkavatti-Sihanada
Sutta (DN 26; The Lion's Roar on the Turning of the Wheel):
[The Buddha:]
And in that time of the people with an eighty-thousand-year
life-span, there will arise in the world a Blessed Lord,
an Arahant fully enlightened Buddha named Metteyya, endowed
with wisdom and conduct, a Well-farer, Knower of the worlds,
incomparable Trainer of men to be tamed, Teacher of gods
and humans, enlightened and blessed, just as I am now.
-- "The Long Discourses
of the Buddha" (formerly "Thus Have
I Heard"), Maurice Walshe, trans. (Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 1987), p 403.
Maitreya is often
depicted in Chinese and Japanese art as that jolly fellow
with the large belly.
| Authors
Details: John Bullitt |
|
