Hier werden die Unterschiede zwischen zwei Versionen angezeigt.
Beide Seiten der vorigen RevisionVorhergehende ÜberarbeitungNächste Überarbeitung | Vorhergehende ÜberarbeitungNächste ÜberarbeitungBeide Seiten der Revision | ||
de:lib:authors:bodhi:arahantsbodhisattvas [2019/08/14 08:59] – content div into span Johann | de:lib:authors:bodhi:arahantsbodhisattvas [2019/10/30 13:23] – Title Changed Johann | ||
---|---|---|---|
Zeile 1: | Zeile 1: | ||
+ | <WRAP box fill >< | ||
+ | <div center round todo 60%> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====== Arahants, Bodhisattvas, | ||
+ | <span hide> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Summary: | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | <div #h_meta> | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div navigation></ | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== I. Competing Buddhist Ideals ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | The arahant ideal and the bodhisattva ideal are often considered the respective guiding ideals of Theravāda Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism. This assumption is not entirely correct, for the Theravāda tradition has absorbed the bodhisattva ideal into its framework and thus recognizes the validity of both arahantship and Buddhahood as objects of aspiration. It would therefore be more accurate to say that the arahant ideal and the bodhisattva ideal are the respective guiding ideals of Early Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism. By "Early Buddhism" | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is important to recognize that these ideals, in the forms that they have come down to us, originate from different bodies of literature stemming from different periods in the historical development of Buddhism. If we don't take this fact into account and simply compare these two ideals as described in Buddhist canonical texts, we might assume that the two were originally expounded by the historical Buddha himself, and we might then suppose that the Buddha | ||
+ | |||
+ | The most archaic Buddhist texts — the Pali Nikāyas and their counterparts from other early schools (some of which have been preserved in the Chinese Āgamas and the Tibetan Kanjur) | ||
+ | |||
+ | I have been seeking a point of view that can do justice to both perspectives, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although I am ordained as a Theravāda Buddhist monk, in this paper I am not going to be defending the opinions of any particular school of Buddhism or trying to uphold a sectarian point of view. For six years, I have lived in Chinese Mahāyāna monasteries, | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== II. Looking to the Buddha as the ideal ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | I want to start by making what I think is an extremely important but seldom made observation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The two differ primarily in so far as they view the Buddha from two different perspectives. I'll use an analogy to illustrate this and then provide a fuller explanation. The Buddha Hall here at our monastery has two entrances situated on either side of the Buddha image. If one looks at the image after entering the hall by the west entrance, the Buddha appears in one way; the angle highlights certain characteristics of the face. If one looks at the image after entering the hall by the east entrance, the Buddha appears in a different way; the angle highlights other characteristics of the face. I see this as a fitting simile for the way the two traditions view the Buddha and his enlightenment. I see both the early suttas of the Nikāyas and Āgamas, and the Mahāyāna sūtras, to be giving us different perspectives on the Buddha and his enlightenment and thus as offering different understandings of what it means to be a true follower of the Buddha. | ||
+ | |||
+ | To briefly characterize these perspectives, | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== III. The perspective of the Nikāyas ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | As I indicated above, there is a sense in which both the Nikāyas and the Mahāyāna sūtras alike take it as their project to demonstrate what is required of one who wants "to follow in the footsteps of the Master." | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Nikāyas begin with our common human condition and depict the Buddha //as starting from within this same human condition// | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Buddha is the first of the arahants, while those who reach the goal by following his path also become arahants. In the verse of homage to the Buddha, it is said: "//Iti pi so Bhagavā Arahaṃ// | ||
+ | |||
+ | After attaining enlightenment, | ||
+ | |||
+ | At SN 22:58, the Buddha says that both the Tathāgata and the arahant disciple are alike in being liberated from the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. So, what is the difference between them? The answer the Buddha gives points to temporal priority as the distinction: | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thus the Buddha is distinguished from the arahant disciples, not by some categorical difference in their respective attainments, | ||
+ | |||
+ | As the first to accomplish all these worthy achievements, | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== IV. How the Buddha is distinguished from other arahants ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nevertheless, | ||
+ | |||
+ | There are nine epithets here. Of these nine, four are also used for arahant disciples: arahant, possessed of true knowledge and conduct, an exalted one, enlightened; | ||
+ | |||
+ | The formula for the arahant reads thus: "Here a monk is an arahant, one whose taints are destroyed, who has lived the spiritual life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached his own goal, utterly destroyed the fetters of existence, one completely liberated through final knowledge." | ||
+ | |||
+ | While the content of the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Other arahants can certainly teach, and many do teach groups of disciples. Nevertheless, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thus we can see the respects in which the Buddha and disciple arahants share certain qualities in common, above all their liberation from all defilements and from all bonds connecting them to the round of rebirths. And we also see how the Buddha is distinguished from his disciples, namely: (1) by the priority of his attainment, (2) by his function as teacher and guide, and (3) by his acquisition of certain qualities and modes of knowledge that enable him to function as teacher and guide. He also has a physical body endowed with thirty-two excellent characteristics and with other marks of physical beauty. These inspire confidence in those who rely on beauty of form. | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== V. The bodhisattva problem ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | I said above that each extreme attitude | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now since the Buddha is distinguished from his liberated disciples in the ways sketched above, it seems almost self-evident that in his past lives he must have followed a preparatory course sufficient to issue in such an exalted state, namely, the course of a bodhisattva. This conclusion is, in fact, a point of agreement common to all Buddhist schools, both those derived from Early Buddhism and those belonging to the Mahāyāna; it also seems to me to be a conclusion required by reflection. According to all Buddhist traditions, to attain the supreme enlightenment of a Buddha requires the forming of a deliberate resolution and the fulfillment of the spiritual perfections, | ||
+ | |||
+ | There are, however, other passages strewn across the Nikāyas that prevent us from drawing the definitive conclusion that the Buddha somehow stumbled upon Buddhahood merely by chance or that his hesitation implied a genuine possibility of choice. These passages suggest, to the contrary, that his attainment of Buddhahood was already prepared for in his previous births. Though they do not say that in his past lives he was deliberately following a bodhisattva path to attain Buddhahood, the Nikāyas do depict him as dwelling in the Tusita heaven in his immediately past existence (as I noted just above), destined to become a fully enlightened Buddha in his next life as Gotama of the Sakyan clan, and this implies that in his past lives he must have fulfilled the most demanding prerequisites to take on such an exalted role, to become the loftiest and most highly venerated being in all the world. When he descends into his mother' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Despite such considerations, | ||
+ | |||
+ | We need not, however, simply take the Nikāyas at face value but can raise questions. Why is it that in the Nikāyas we never find any instance of a disciple coming to the Buddha to ask for guidance in following a bodhisattva path to Buddhahood? And why is the Buddha never seen exhorting his followers to take up the bodhisattva path? The questions themselves seem perfectly legitimate, and I've tried working out several explanations, | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the final analysis, I have to confess my inability to provide a perfectly cogent solution to this problem. In view of the fact that in later times so many Buddhists, in Theravāda lands as well as in the Mahāyāna world, have been inspired by the bodhisattva ideal, it is perplexing that no teachings about a bodhisattva path or bodhisattva practices are included in the discourses regarded as coming down from the most archaic period of Buddhist literary history. This remains a puzzle – for me personally, and also, I believe, a puzzle for Buddhist historiography. In any case, the texts that we inherit do not show as steep a difference between the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | Thus, we can see that while Early Buddhism emphasizes that each person is ultimately responsible for his or her own destiny, holding that no one can purify another or rescue another from the miseries of saṃsāra, it includes an altruistic dimension that distinguished it from most of the other religious systems that flourished alongside it in northern India. This altruistic dimension might be seen as the " | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== VI. The transition towards the full-fledged bodhisattva concept ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Perhaps for a full-fledged bodhisattva doctrine to emerge in Buddhism, something more was needed than the conception of the Buddha that we find in the ancient texts of the Nikāyas. Thus the common project of comparing the arahant of the Nikāyas with the bodhisattva figure of the Mahāyāna sūtras may be somewhat misguided. As I see it, one of the factors that underlies the emergence of the full-fledged bodhisattva doctrine was the transformation of the archaic Buddha concept of the Nikāya sūtras into the Buddha figure of Buddhist religious faith and legend. This took place mainly in the age of Sectarian Buddhism, that is, between the phase of Early Buddhism represented by the Nikāyas and the rise of early Mahāyāna Buddhism. During this period, two significant developments of the Buddha concept occurred. First, the number of Buddhas was multiplied; and second, the Buddhas came to be endowed with increasingly more exalted qualities. These developments occurred somewhat differently in the different Buddhist schools, but certain common features united them. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The Nikāyas already mention six Buddhas preceding Gotama and one to follow him, Metteyya (Skt: Maitreya). Now, since cosmic time is without any discernible beginning or conceivable end, the inference was drawn that there must have been even earlier Buddhas, and thus the number of past Buddhas was increased; stories about some of these entered into circulation and brought them to life. Since space was likewise unbounded, with world systems like our own spread out in "the ten directions," | ||
+ | |||
+ | The texts of Sectarian Buddhism increased a Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The keynote of the most memorable of these stories is service and self-sacrifice. It was by serving others and sacrificing himself for their good that the bodhisattva earned the merits and acquired the virtues that entitled him to attain Buddhahood. Thus, in Buddhist thought clear across the schools of Early Buddhism, the altruistic dimension of the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | During the age of Sectarian Buddhism, the Early Buddhist schools came to admit three " | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== VII. The emergence of the Mahāyāna as the bodhisattva-vehicle ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now at some point during this period, the altruistic interpretation of the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | This ideal emerged from a different starting point than Early Buddhism, a different visionary background. Whereas Early Buddhism takes (as we saw above) the common human condition as its starting point, and even views the Buddha as beginning as a human being subject to human frailties, early-period Mahāyāna Buddhism takes as its starting point the long-range cosmic background to a Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | We can imagine a period when the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | At this point they might have found that the teachings of the Nikāya-Āgama sūtras, which describe the practices needed to attain personal liberation from the round of birth and death, no longer met their needs. They would, of course, still have accepted these teachings as authoritative, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now there are two attitudes noticeable in the early Mahāyāna sūtras regarding the older paradigm based on the arahant ideal. One is to affirm it as valid for the typical Buddhist follower, while extolling the bodhisattva path as the appropriate vehicle for the person of excellent aspirations. This attitude treats the old arahant ideal, or the // | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== VIII. Breaking down old stereotypes ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | In this part of my presentation I want to use this historical analysis to break down old stereotypes and the prejudices that have divided followers of the two main forms of Buddhism. From there we can work towards a healthy rather than competitive integration of the two. The two main stereotypes are as follows: | ||
+ | |||
+ | (1) Arahants, and Theravādin Buddhists, are concerned exclusively with their own salvation as opposed to the benefit of others; they have a narrow fixation on personal liberation because they are " | ||
+ | |||
+ | (2) Followers of the bodhisattva ideal, and Mahāyāna Buddhists, are so much involved in social projects aimed at benefiting others that they don't take up the practice that the Buddha assigned to his disciples, namely, the taming of the mind and the development of insight. They have overwhelmed themselves with social duties and forsaken meditation practice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | I'll take the two stereotypes in order, and begin with the ancient arahants. Although the Buddha was the pioneer in discovering the path to liberation, this does not mean that his arahant disciples just selfishly reaped the benefits of the path and did nothing for others. To the contrary, in the suttas we can see that many of them became great teachers in their own right who were capable of guiding others towards liberation. The best known among them are Sāriputta, Mahākaccāna, | ||
+ | |||
+ | The example established by the Buddha' | ||
+ | |||
+ | The life pattern of a follower of the arahant ideal conforms in many respects to that of the Buddha. I take as an example those who may not have actually achieved arahantship itself but are practicing within this framework and have reached some higher stage of spiritual accomplishment. In the early part of their lives, they may go to a forest monastery or to a meditation center to train under a competent teacher. Then, after reaching a sufficient level of maturity to practice on their own, they will go into solitude to develop their practice for a period that might last five years or longer. Then, at a certain point, their achievements will start to exert an influence on others. They might start to teach on their own initiative, or their teacher might ask them to begin teaching, or prospective students might realize they have achieved some superior state and request guidance from them. From this point on, they will begin to teach, and in time they might become well respected spiritual teachers, with many disciples and many centers under their guidance. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In contrast to the image of " | ||
+ | |||
+ | From the Theravāda perspective, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Those who seek the goal of nirvāṇa do not wait until they become arahants before they start helping others. Within this system, giving is regarded as the foundation for all other virtues; it is the first basis of merit and the first of the ten // | ||
+ | |||
+ | So much for misunderstandings concerning the arahant ideal, and now for the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | It is true that the bodhisattva vows to work for the welfare of others in a broader way than the follower of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The next spiritual perfection is // | ||
+ | |||
+ | But the bodhisattva must also fulfill the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | The early Mahāyāna sūtras, such as the Ugraparipcchā Sūtra, do not recommend that the novice monastic bodhisattva immerse himself in social work; rather, they point him to the forest and instruct him to devote his efforts to meditation. If we look at the history of Mahāyāna Buddhism, whether in India, China, or Tibet, we would see that the great Mahāyāna masters such as Nāgārjuna, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although the motivation and philosophical basis for followers of the bodhisattva vehicle differ from that of followers of the // | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== IX. Towards a healthy integration of the vehicles ==== | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div chapter> | ||
+ | |||
+ | In my own view, both paths (or vehicles) | ||
+ | |||
+ | When we adopt this approach, we can truly venerate those practitioners who work diligently to realize the final goal of the Dhamma here and now, to reach nibbāna, the extinction of suffering, by following the noble eightfold path to its very end. We can venerate those who glorify the teaching by showing that it truly leads to ultimate liberation, to the plunge into the unborn and unconditioned state, the deathless element, which the Buddha so often extolled, calling it the wonderful and marvelous, the peaceful purity, the unsurpassed liberation. Again, by taking this approach, we can also venerate those who vow to follow the compassionate route of the bodhisattva, | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Anmerkungen ==== | ||
+ | <div notes> | ||
+ | |||
+ | <dl> | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: There is also a third model of the Buddhist spiritual life, that of the // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: There is at least one possible exception to this. MĀ 32, the Chinese Āgama parallel to MN 123, states at T I 469c24: "The Blessed One at the time of Kassapa Buddha made his initial vow for the Buddha path and practised the holy life," &# | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: Incidentally, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: I do not think the expressions, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: But see the symposium on Early Mahāyāna in //The Eastern Buddhist//, Vol. 35 (2003), especially Paul Harrison, | ||
+ | |||
+ | ? <span fn # | ||
+ | :: See Jan Nattier, //A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra// (Honolulu: University of Hawai' | ||
+ | |||
+ | </dl> | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <span # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div showmore> | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div f_zzecopy> | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | < | ||
+ | " | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # | ||
+ | |||
+ | </ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | </ | ||
+ | |||
+ | ---- | ||
+ | |||
+ | <div # |