Andreas Bsteh (Ed) Buddhism Questioning Christianity Lectures - Questions ~ Interventions Volume | Johannes Bronkhorst Max Nihor Lambert Si Ernst Steinkeliner Tilmann Vetter Moedling 2010The book was fist published in German: A, Bsteh (ed), Der Buddhismus als Antage an chrstiche Theolegie und Philosophie (Studien zur Religionstheclogie; 5). Moedling, 2000. English tansat ns by Ingeborg Bogensherger. Vienna, in with Adrianne Nagy DaPente, Boston Te: ‘Budchism Questioning Christianity (Christian F Edi: Andreas Bsteb, SVD. Cover Design: Eva Maria Meixner Published by: Publications ja Enzersclor, Aust ~ Europe IchssPeteyi febsite: wsristgable.at 0 cu Theology of Religions ights reserv Interpress Co. Lid, Béesi (it 67, 1037 Budapest, Hungary ISBN: 7A-3-85264-621-7 ‘Table of Contents of the Budlha radition and in the Light of Historical Research, Tilmann Vettor Questions and Interventions he Buddha ~ Eightiold Path ~ Four Noble Truths, nimann Vetter Questions and Intorventions Compassion ity and Aim of Liberation in Ea Lambert Schmithausen (Questions and Interventions Buddhism, (On the Genesis of Buddhism in its Historical Context Proprium and Definition vis-d-vis Hindu Traditions and Jainism, Johannes Bronghorst Questions and! Interventions 110 Philosophy? and On the Buddha-Nature, Mahayana-Buddhism (Beg Timana Vetter. Questions and interventions igs, Naured, Compassion ness Onthe Spi and Salvific Goal of the Mahayana, Lambert Schmithassen (Questions ard Interven WE Dai " 9 49 a 95 wow (31 166 197 245 257 201 298 339 357Buddhism and Tantra, sax Ni Qu vl Interventions Speakers and Participants Indexes Name Index. . Antholagios Selected Abbreviations As to the Quotation of Canonic Sources Source Indexes 38 400 424 a2 440 +. 440 - 442 443 460 461 Preface logue at all levels can lead ino a promise forthe fu Or, by expecting too much of humans, will it even become a curse for mankind, causing conflicis between peoples, social gro be cause tead of opering themselves tthe newcomersand wage Wi coexistence—somer the well-known axiom thatthere can be peace among religions, The method for a standing all the lamentable eas itis difOn the Genesis of Buddhism in its Historical Context niu Traditions and Jainisen! There is no una Buddhists, not amorg schol. Everything we know 0: bel Ye natamong Budchists and scholars. ing which hypothesis seems to me t Most Buddhists believed and ourselves to thecol hich were preserved by ‘the words and teachings ofthe hi 5 tobe found somewhere and se texts really contain words andspeak them and 2s he had remembered them; further. nto the Bucidha’s mouth to verity the genuineness of texts and therewith to have his doctrine recognized.” Ikis also well-known that the early collections were handed down orally for centuries and that they were pethaps sii being enfargec own tothe frst centuries after Christ. But the most important argument is probably that the early texts are nat hamogeneous at all. They contain a great deal of more or less contradictory material. Examples will be presented later on. In this content itis essential that most researchers have come to the conclusion thatthe early col in their entirety cannot be taken as Buddha-word. How does one proceed from this pointonwarcls? Many researchers have toestal sctions 0 in particuler recommends it th their canonical context are mos Original Buddha-doctrine. The argument is that the it largely change ld nots J eaily passages. Assuch this criterion is convi hough ly throw overboard that, fone applies hy the Budldha-doctrine deviates more of less per fonem from the main doctrines contained in the early texts. Scientific terature does not lack exemples of reconstructions of the original Buddha. doctrine that in fact no longer have anv find in the early texts. From t only very litle trom the original Bueldha-doctrine. Onl iews and docttines contradicting the gener standpoints would then contain remainders of Buddhism. Another option is to put aside y 10 reconstruct the Bucidha-doctrine wi ance, the inscriptions of Emperor Asoka seems to me that it goes too far to apply this cnterion in such a ‘even though itis convincing, Although the Budilhist tradition di lawlestly preserve the doctrine ofthe Buddha, this dacs not necessar doctrine by mistake only, and then only in some 1 cancn preserves texts that present 12 early text col ripe O. von Hino, Der fe Schr in ler Akademie der ¥¥) on issenschafliche Klasse 1689; T, Stl 1980, pp. 26 kind of a distrust vis vis the Buddhist the part of others. hidden niches of its can’ tradition i as exiterne as the absolute trust in the same “The truth will probably have tobe sought between both these extremes. But how does one distinguish the Budcha-cloctrine from everything else? ‘One proposal has been directed towards the word ascribed to the Buc ascribed! to the Buddha should be more reliable than other parts of the canon, We could in fact imagine that the tition shied away from ascibing new doctrines to the Budkha Unfortunately, there is nothing which proves that one was more sparing in this respect than with reference to other parts of the canon, Concerni this perspective it is even more problematic that even the words dire ascribed to the Buddha coniain contaclictions, namely the same that also elsewhere in the canon. Therefore this method, too, seems uncertain and not very prot Here you woul dha Itasserts that the word dire reg dab 3 frome glaub iovenen Umfornuraen e er jo , iuturen undthis kind is of course extremely important and must be taken into consi eration in every detailed discussion, Unfortunately itis only possible rather rarely and has, up to now, brought relatively few definitive results. in ac dition, this analysis depends heavily on the examiner's judgement - and thi 's often a prejudiced judgement. Projudices can only be avoided or atleast be made relat the texts te speak for themselves, But whic logical analysis arely sutfices in order to attain mate or less safe results, We need some ciction. But what? Letus return once moreto our point of departure. The early text collections cannot simply be considered 2s Buddha-word, because they contain too great a variety of statements, For instance, they contain not only one path towards bbutseveral that are very diferent irom each other These differences are not only at the level of det involve a variety of methods. tt can happen that one passage teaches methods that elsewhere, n the earh se varyit surprise nor deceive us, These later Budchists were theologian, {ask It was to interprat their scriptures homogeneously. But reology and Philology do not abvays tread the same path: philolagy can acknowledge theology is not ready to do so, Now there are in fact contradictions in the early Bueldhist texts. We are going to assume that of two contradictory assessments - which may be oF to doctrine— normally only one can be authentic. But ms OUt in Many cases ta he easier io determine which ofthe hentic, rather than the reverse. In reas y is more often possible. Soon | will explain how. first, however, | want to emphasize that eliminating non-authentic elements seems to offer a way to penetrate to the earl the original core, low does one decide that certain elements are not authentic? In a 4 way: first, such elements are sometimes accepted in the Buddhi 154 they contradict are i s and practices, svofold and in principle valid ified. Where both are satisfied, it suggests community, or perhaps only some members af this com munity, borrowed these elements from non-Budidhst regions or intellectual the Buddha’ lifetime or, more likely, some length of marginally ot not atal Therefere, f both coraiitions are «: time after his death, In the context of this methedolog that we try to discover, a iar as possible, what other religious movements existed at the ime of the Buddha, And this is not because we know only a small part of the religious ideas and practices that existed at that ime. Fortunately the Buddhist texts themselves help us, because they often ize those dissenters, sometimes describing their ideas and practices in But these descriptions can be examined and offen texts that have been Jogical procedure itis of course essential rse not possible here to present in detail the res 4 comparison, But itis possible to mention a complex of practices thet seems to have been widespread at the time of the Budcha and against which early Buddhism ~ i.e. probably the historical Buddha himself - tried to defend itselt This complex revolves around the bel that one has performe: sof that time tried, atleast on through motionless fasting. Others aj that the point is to discover that the core of human (or aso, in the case of ings, of non-human) nature, its true Sell, daes fore constant and not s ‘change If une has discovered or realized this, one is liberated from the cycle of samsdric existences. © | Bronkhort, The Tko Traditions of Mediation in Ancient Inka. Doh, 1993, pp edst discussed lends to the conclusion that the jable to.us—andl| wil continue, though care the Buddha rejected these two ways towards liberation. One attains liberation neither by motionless asceticism nor by insight into the true, i, e. non-active nature of the Self. On the other a cycle of rebirths co tugh deeds and the search for liberation from it~ permeates the carly Buekdhist texts and could, from the beginning, have been a proptium of Buddhism, Itis even probable that the rejection ofthe two usual methods of liberation ~ in connection with the existing problems of karman and rebirth ~cen toa large exient the later tendency in Buddhism to assimilate y adapted form, Because if deeds lead toward robirths, then it is obvious that one has to put an end to deeds, in order to thone has never performed any deeds, in thing is that the deeds are « satsfeciory way. It looks @s If for some Buddhists ion preached by Buddhism was not so elegantly ancl satisfactorily problem of deeds as that of their competitors. ‘was made that the histo 1 of his caveer, believe in the cycle of rebirts, lance, this suggestion is very tempting. Should it be correct that least at the beginning) the Budcha did not search for and latet preach perhaps possible to prove this suggestion, The method previously presented is ata complete lose as to what to do with on, because, as far as | krow, the early texts never dany the we cycle of rebirths : rebirths is acknowledged, however, the role of the deeds as a condition suggestion would also resolve the dlifficultes just we craving rather presented. And in fact than the deeds as a conditioning element, It'seems to me that the aforementioned problems need neither the d resolution, In Buddhism, the nothing that speaks against che assumption that this has been the case from the beginning. From this perspective craving or thirst areas important ot ‘even more important than concrete phiysical deed,” e concele physical deeds were not actually at issue in the first place, the attempts at immobilizing others could not have been resolutions of the problem, From this perspective, it was the misuncleistanding of later Bucldhists concerning the nature of deeds within the framework of their religion thet was responsibe for the borrowings from other religions. Furthermore, early Budchist texts speak not only of the liberation from 0 from sufering in fact, one often has the impression that, if this suffering is more essential for Budd than the cycle of rei following passage: {as well as today, o monks, lam merely teaching you sufferingand the cessa- tion of suffering.” Other passages say thatthe teaching of the Buda relates to suffering, 10 its origin, 0 its cessetion, and to the path that leads toward ‘cessation; these are the Four Noble Truths. As far as | kno, the o liberation from suffering is never contradicted in the early texts. The ‘we can assume that it was one of the major topics in the instruction of the Buddha, This topic is often expressed in form of Four Noble ie analysis of the Four Noble Truths links suffering with the hs. It identifies the arising of suffering as the craving which leads from rebirth to rebirth, Therefore it seems risky ta ma and also not necessary to assert that the Budcha only preached liberation from sutfering without believing in the cycle of rebirth. Alter this excursus about the mos likely motivation of the historical Bud dha, We are now going to turn our attention to where our method leads us concerning the doctrine he preached. The Buddha pt robably} from the cycle of rebirth, said to have found himself, There isa path leading toward this Hbetation, Which the Buddha is sail to have trodden himsel. The early texts contain this pati which are frequently of a contradictorylly means that one enters into a monastery as a mon period, however, it seems thatane moved about allonone’scwn tions, mindfulness and consciousness being extremely important. norderto tnecessary ‘odedicate oneself to meditation. This culminates in the four so-called stages of meditation (dhyana) fie senses, by cetaching fi ‘quoltes, wil thinking nv eflecting. heat dtacirnan, and rercine therein, abcutwhichthenob essay: and be remains in comfort” This ie 2g¢ f mediation, ard even before tha! feelings of et fee fem cisco ‘ These four stages of meditation are st decisive event takes place in the fourth Identical with most of ther probably agree that here, due ta a certain realization, the defilements are ann the term ‘delilements’ (@sravavisava) is not clear, The res ‘obvious, The texts express it inthe fc nothing but preparation, The ¢ of mecitation, but itis not unclear in these and similar passages. thas to in the first place presented here as the liberation from rebirth. Because, alterthe discovery lated is rebirth.” Sut ion these and bbe armistake to believe thatthe Budcha had fist ofall sought a ay cal experience. In my view this contradicts the texts. As far as | see it, the objective is never experience, but always liberation, if mystical experience its isciples ~ had striven far the conviction to be liberated. As a researcher cone can of course declare that ane does not believe in Buddhist liberation n. Butsuch a tendency does not justly theassertion that the Bucldha and his disciples had only striven for such a conviction ‘Ths is certainly wrong, because the texts say very clearly that they strive strive for attaining heaven and would c that they are just striving for the conviction of aitaining heaven, how the teaching of the Buddha in all probability 16, we have to ad. vance from the simi mostof the other ascetic "movements ofthat time, was based on the belie in rebirth conditioned by deeds. All of these movements considered the cycle of rebirths extremely unsatisfactory and were looking for a way out, i.e, for liberation. Perhaps Buck relatively strong emphasis on suffering and an the abjec- tive of being liberated from suffering. Another important difference was that Buddhism did not interpret the deed in a concrete, physical way, but attributed much weight to thirst and to intention. Bucidhism andthe other movements of thattime taugh paths, i.e. methods to attain n. Here, the Budtha seems to have taken a special posi tion, because he rejected the methacs of the other movements, The other movernents me hc two paths: an ascetic and a cognitive one, The Buddha refused the methods of the ascetic movements striving forimmobil in the same way as he rejected the cognition of the true (inactive) nature of the Self taught by others. Instead he taught minclulness and consciousness, followed by a series of meditation stages. These stages of meditation are we now try to estab 159not more or Joss violent attempts at suppress the non-Buddhist movements jors convey the impression that etely missing, The main charact probably authentic Budchist mecitation are equani whereas satisfaction, well-being, ete. come about as coneos Inyet another respect the Bucidha’s teeching seems to have differed trom the other ascetic movements of hs time: the Buddhist liberation took place ve, whereas the liberation of non-Buddhist ascetics is has to do with the fact that bera- wbilization.(The idea ofa liberation imo is rather at home with those who acknowledge the n ofthe true, non-active nature ofthe Self as a liberating insight in the literature it has developed only rather slowly.) By the way, the observation conceming the psychic tansformation as the objective of the Buddha-doctrine is not unimportant in a meeting swhere Buckdhism is diseusced a¢ a religion. Was the Buddha's Buddhism a archers in the West often considered Buddhism to be a Other researches Soe FW cb ong rama (ep ctr. 101 pp. 281) onthe const benueen the rnythologies! method of Ee Sera 160 portant to emphasize the possible differonce between the doctrine of the Budelha and the views oF even his earliest disciples. Some researchers are probably rightin pointingout that one can assunie that even during me the Bucklhe was more or less considered to be a god.” ‘Therefore the Buddhism of the Buddha and the Buddhism of his frst (and Inter) disciples are perhaps two completely different things. What | have tried to present io you isa description of the Buddha's doctrine insofar as the texts seemto make this possible, and not what his disciples belevedand practised. And here we discover that the philological analysis of the early texts seams to st the founder of Bucldhism ‘only’ taught a psychi iin or psychotherapy? ‘The answer probebly depends on how one defines religion. In addition, there isthe following, fone agrees fo the assumption that the iheration irom suffering and from line, which he himself trod unti ror not hereally achieved this rom suffering and from rebirth? And does raising such 2 question make sense a mn concerning the 2 tradition in which rebirth is acknowledged. Science cannot deal w But the same does not apply to the liberation from suffering. Sufiering is descrined as follonvs: “Birth is sufiering, ole age is suffering, disease is su death is suffering, being leasant is suffer being separated from what is pleasant is suffering, not attaining what one ferent objects of grasping are suffer- inthis sense is something that preoccupies ing.” Liberation irom everyone, perhaps limited to one or several religious movements, Therefore it scems to make sensoandeven to be necessary in a certain way toask whether the hi Buddha ‘ceeded, as the texts maintain, in achieving a ci ion of suffering by means of a psychic transformation The question is justified, but the answer is extiemely dificult, Eve! swe knew for sure what the Buddha taught (end you have seen that such a certainty can hardly be at jot know whether he 72 See, g.P- Harrison, “Sorne Rol Galas 741995) 1-28, heres pp 18 the Bade." Otaniorder to motivate his us that sometimes the Buddha wvas ill and that he seems to have suffered death by poisoning, Al- though this was experienced as a problem by somea’ his lator ci was not, apparently, by the Buddha himsel!? This probably meat ration from suffering he preached is somehiow not related with diseases in themselves but rather with the suffering they cause. As the case may be, if we consider the possibility that the Buddha in fact liberated himself from suffering (or from cercain kinds of suffering), we are contronted, as itseems tome, not witha religious, but with a psychological problem, This is not the opportunity to deal with these problems in greater de- tall. The main thing is that the question which was raised right now, is the Buddhism ofthe Budd religion or psychotherapy? cannot simply be put aside. At the end there is still another important question, Do we got to the pro- prium of Buddhism by reconstruction ofthe Buddha's teaching? At this point Ivould the search fo ving mocking words! has won a tatal victory. On the philological battlefield there le the bodios beside a widbish heap of inne c tions. Butabove the necrop: abstractne as Buddhism, Nothing guarantees that searching for the origin of Bucldhism can teach us much about Buddhism. Is what modern a Jesus necessarily also what Christians acknowledge as the core of thei 1224265 here: pp. 22 Meine Schrfen ete by (3 en, "Senrching in The Easton Buca NS 76, 1 the ayn: What arewe looking H69, hor. 49, religion? This & cert a given probably wrong,'® Many, perhaps even the majority of acade probably approve of the thesis that much of whatiscontained in the canoni- cal texts & not consistent with the doctrine of the historical Buddha, The thod thet I have just presented is relatively conservative in the sense that it attempts in principle to acknowledge as authentic as much as pos sible in the early texts. But this method, too, is obliged to put aside a lot of significant doctrines and methods of the question of what the early Buck at this point not been touched a Even 50, our deliberations have brought forth something that fundamen: tally dstinguishes Buddhism from Christian ancl other occidental concep tions, The Buddha isnot simply al tad certain experiences, rather, he isa being who once and for all got free of the human condition; in his case, relapsing is out of the question. This idea has probably ac- companied Buddhism in all its appearances, and our historical analysis suggests that the historical Buddha himself also shared this views we have just dealt with the question whether he was pethaps even right. This state Of affairs makes comparisons with Christian mystics extremely dangerous and misleading. Christian mystics are of course human beings: sucldhas, at least in the Buddhist perspective, are not. case of Buddhism very ic researchers ‘Appendix: the verse-literature of early Budchism ‘Some scholars identified parts of the verse-titera cancnas especially early and are searching precise! traces of the early and or schol, does this ve vith ihe ais (1983) 49-94) 163feasons for the early date of parts of these collect Some of thom are already mentioned inthe inscriptions of Agoka, others are ted elsewhere in the canon, their language heing antiquated Certainly not be excluded that some of these collections are re the earliest sratum that has been preserved for us in ate form, Hence, should we, in the reconstruction of original Buddhism, limit ourselves io these verses? In this context we have to Keep In mind that in fact the early verse- collections as a basis for the research do not always lead to the same conclusions as the doctrinal discourses in prose. Recently the question was discussed by Lambert Schmithausen in connection with his investigations ton the sentience of plants in earliest Buddhism." If we proceed from the verse-collections, the conclusion is obvious that at the beginning Bud dhism considered plants to be jon, The doctrinal discourses, however, avoid calling plants sentient ive. Schmithausen tries to reconcile these two kinds of sources by ng that in eat ice of plants was considered as ‘case. As a solution this seems to be most plausible; however, does not change the fact that the verse.collections are frequently to the other religions in India, especially to lainism, than the doctrinal dis- courses in prose, Other scholars have also stressed the J some of these verses! And the suggestion was made that many of these verses ly are not to be attributed to wandering Buddhist ascetics ‘exclusively.2? Hence, in searching for the doctrine of the Burktha, must we start with the verse-collections or not? ‘Our methodological deliberations probably have made it clear that one may best cistrust parts of the Buddhist canon that are close to Jainism and 164 other ancient rel jer doctrine of the Buddha was similar to that of owho afterall intracuced the alleged later Buddhism? The existence of simply be explained by ‘actthat very early vorses already reveal Janis To these it that the most principle one must not exper st elements, on the other hand, can quite luence orby boro: juence only proves that tis process had played a rale in Buddhism practically from the beginning sctions we should add ~ as Tilmann Vetter underlines? — portant function of these verse-col remind the reader of central concepis of doctrine and practice, tobeto 30 that in Imerations, IFfor instance the four dhyanas are not mentioned there, cut of italone we must not conclude that they were absent in the earliest ir 2 Tver, “Das Erwacen des Busha,” op. if. 3 165