UNITY OF FAITHS - THE BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE
Kerry Trembath, Sydney, October 1996
This is an edited summary of a talk given by the author to a conference on the Unity of Faiths held in Sydney in October 1996. In this conference, speakers from all of the world religions were asked to (a) give a brief outline of their beliefs and (b) to address the major points of similarity and difference between their beliefs and those of the other religions.
What is Buddhism?
To put it simply, Buddhism is that which was taught by the Buddha, and Buddhists are those who affirm the validity of these teachings. Buddhists themselves often refer to the teachings as the Dhamma, which denotes ultimate reality, the norm or law which upholds the universe. So let's begin with a brief outline of the life of the Buddha.
The term Buddha is not a name but a description, meaning the awakened one, or the enlightened one. The person who became the historical Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama around 500 years BCE in what is now northern India/southern Nepal. There are many legends surrounding the birth of Siddhartha which are uncannily similar to those associated with the birth of other later religious leaders. These include a miraculous conception, a birth while on a journey away from home, and astounding predictions about his future by a seer or wise man.
Siddhartha was born into a family of the ruling class, and enjoyed a life of relative privilege and comfort. He was provided with every possible luxury, and given the best education to prepare him for his future role as a leader in society. He was handsome, talented, and admired for his accomplishments. He married, and had a son. Yet he was not satisfied. He puzzled over the inevitability of old age, sickness and death, and came to believe that there had to be an alternative to the passive acceptance of suffering. He resolved to set out on a quest to find this alternative. At the age of 29 he left behind his life of pleasure and privilege, his young wife and son, his family and social status. He cut his hair, put on the poor robes of a homeless wanderer, and left home to begin his search.
He first sought out the leading teachers of his day, and under their guidance quickly achieved mastery of advanced meditative techniques. He found these skills useful in his development, but discovered that in themselves they made no substantive difference to the suffering which pervades the human condition.
He next tried asceticism, pursuing extremes of self-denial to the point of endangering his life by starvation. However he eventually realised that this too was not the solution he was seeking, and that self deprivation and self torture were not only dangerous but ultimately wasteful.
He began to take food again in moderation, and concluded that a balanced and harmonious approach was the key to achieving his objective. Buddhism is often referred to as "the Middle Way", the path of moderation which avoids the extremes of sensual indulgence and self punishment. After regaining his health and strength, and in a spirit of profound resolution, he sat down to meditate on the mystery of birth and death. In the course of one night, he achieved enlightenment, his awakening to the way things really are. It is this achievement which led to him becoming known as the Buddha. He was then 35 years old.
In awakening to this liberating insight, the very nature of the Buddha was radically altered, in that he was no longer subject to the cycle of death and rebirth in this world.
For the next 45 years he wandered all over the Ganges basin imparting what he had learned to all who would listen. So what was it that he had learned?
The Teachings of the Buddha
The Buddha through his experience of enlightenment saw the world as characterised by three qualities. In Pali, the language in which the earliest Buddhist texts were written, these qualities are called anicca, dukkha and anatman.
Anicca is usually translated as impermanence. The Buddha saw that all things in this world are transitory, or passing. Everything in the universe is seen as having a beginning and therefore necessarily an end. The cosmos is comprised of innumerable universes which arise and disappear. Matter is not static but is made up of constantly changing patterns of energy. The individual person too is subject to constant change from moment to moment. Nothing remains unchanged.
Dukkha is usually translated as suffering, or unsatisfactoriness. One of the central teachings of the Buddha is rather like a medical diagnosis of suffering and a guide to the treatment of this condition. This teaching is traditionally described as the Four Noble Truths.
So, these four truths comprise the Buddha's analysis of dukkha, or suffering. Let us return now to the last of the three central concepts of Buddhism, anatman. When formulated by the Buddha, this represented a significant break from the brahmanical religion which was then paramount in India. It is often seen even today as one of the points on which Buddhism most significantly differs from other religions.
Anatman can be translated as no-self, or not-self. Following logically from the concept of anicca or impermanence, the individual person is not seen as containing some everlasting soul or essence. Instead, the person is seen as a constantly changing aggregation of characteristics, an uninterrupted flow of mental states and events based on laws of cause and effect. The Buddha taught that things (including human beings) neither exist permanently, nor do they have absolutely no existence. Take the example of a leaf which in autumn turns from green to gold. One way of looking at this is to say that there is a thing called a leaf, which has undergone a change of attribute - colour. The Buddhist view is that the leaf is not a thing, it has no essence other than the combination of its attributes such as colour - the red leaf arises, neither entirely different nor wholly the same, in dependence upon the green leaf. To abstract fixed entities from the continuous flux of change around us and within us is considered by Buddhists to be a delusion.
Unlike other world religions, Buddhism is not a doctrine of revelation. The Buddha taught that everyone is capable of achieving enlightenment, and he spent his life teaching a practical methodology which if followed with purity of mind and great diligence would enable others to achieve what he had achieved. In other words, he taught a method rather than a doctrine, and he invited all to test for themselves if this method was effective. One does not need to be enlightened to experience the benefits of putting the Buddha's teachings into practice. The benefits come immediately in one's daily life.
Similarities with Other Religions
Ethical conduct
At the level of ethical conduct, there is little difference between Buddhism and other major religions. For the layperson, there are Five Precepts or rules of conduct, and five associated virtues to be cultivated as a basis for spiritual development:-
With the possible exception of the last, these principles are common to all world religions. However for Buddhists these are not commandments from a supreme deity. We undertake these precepts voluntarily because we believe that they provide the basis for true happiness for ourselves and all living beings. Nevertheless, the external social behaviour of a good Buddhist would not be discernibly different from that of a good Christian, Muslim or Hindu.
The principal virtues to be cultivated by Buddhists are also similar to those in other faiths:-
Belief In God
It is often said that Buddhism is a godless religion, and that it is therefore irreconcilably different from theistic religions. It is true that the Buddha rejected the concept of an omniscient and omnipotent creator god as both unthinkable and unnecessary. But this need not constitute a point of disagreement with other religions, because it depends on what is meant by "god". Nibbana, the state attained by those who become enlightened, is described in the Itivuttaka (one of the books of the Pali Canon) in this way:-
Monks, there is an unborn, a not-become, a not-made, a not-compounded. Monks, if that unborn, not become, not-made, not compounded were not, there would be no apparent escape from this that is here born, become, made, compounded. But, monks, since there is an unborn, not-become, not-made, not-compounded, therefore the escape from this that here is born, become, made, compounded is apparent.
Similar words are used in other religions to describe a supreme being or God, so perhaps we are not so different after all. In Indonesia, for example, where five religions are officially recognised on condition that they express a belief in God, the above definition from the Itivuttaka is accepted as the Buddhist definition of God.
Soul
It has already been mentioned that Buddhists do not accept the existence of an essential self or soul which continues after death. However we do not subscribe to a strictly materialist or humanist view that our existence ends at death. We believe that all our intentional actions (kamma) have consequences (vipaka). Our past actions condition our present, which in turn conditions our future, even beyond death. Our kamma therefore conditions whether or not we are reborn, which of the realms of existence we will be reborn into, and what kind of existence we will have. At a practical level, this means that Buddhists agree with other world religions that we are responsible for the consequences of our actions, and that such consequences will be experienced whether in this life or the next.
Meditation
In the minds of many people, Buddhism is synonymous with meditation. It is true that Buddhism places more emphasis on mental cultivation than other religions. After all, we are enjoined "to do good, to avoid evil, and to purify the mind". But other religions also have a contemplative tradition, and many also use meditation and other forms of concentrated awareness. In other cases, prayer may perform a similar function in developing greater self awareness, peace of mind and compassion. So this again may be another instance where at a fundamental level the differences are more apparent than real.
Conclusion
I would like to conclude with a quotation from the transcription of a talk given by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, one of the greatest Buddhist teachers of this century. The title of the talk was "No Religion". Venerable Buddhadasa said:-
Those who have penetrated to the essential nature of religion will regard all religions as being the same. Although they may say there is Buddhism, Judaism, Taoism, Islam, or whatever, they will also say that all religions are inwardly the same. However, those who have penetrated to the highest understanding of Dhamma will feel that the thing called "religion" doesn't exist after all. There is no Buddhism; there is no Christianity; there is no Islam. How can they be the same or in conflict when they don't even exist?.....
I'd like to give a simple example ..... "Water" will suffice. A person who doesn't know much ..... thinks that there are many different kinds of water. They view these various kinds of water as if they have nothing in common. They distinguish rain-water, well-water, underground-water, gutter-water, sewer-water, and many other kinds of water from each other. Average people will insist that these waters are completely different, because such people take external appearances as their criteria.
A person with some knowledge, however, knows that pure water can be found in every kind of water ..... A person with this understanding knows that all those different kinds of water are the same as far as the water component is concerned. As for those elements which make it impure and look different, they aren't the water itself. They may combine with water, and alter water, but they are never water itself. If we look through the polluting elements, we can see the water that is always the same, for in every case the essential nature of water is the same ..... When we look at things from this viewpoint, we can see that all religions are the same. If they appear different it's because we are making judgments on the basis of external forms.
On an even more intelligent level, we can take that pure water and examine it further. Then, we must conclude that there is no water, only two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. There's no water left. That substance which we have been calling "water" has disappeared, it's void ..... For one who has penetrated to this level of truth, there is no such thing as "water".
In the same way, one who has attained to the ultimate truth sees that there is no such thing as religion. There is only a certain nature which can be called whatever we like. We can call it "Dhamma," we can call it "Truth," we can call it "God," "Tao," or whatever we like, but we shouldn't particularize that "Dhamma" or that "Truth" as Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, Judaism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, or Islam, for we can neither capture nor confine it with labels or concepts. Still, such divisions occur because people haven't yet realized this nameless truth for themselves. They have only reached the external levels, just as with canal-water, muddy water, and the rest.
The Buddha intended for us to understand and be able to see that there is no person, that there is no separate individual, that there are only dhammas or natural phenomena. Therefore, we shouldn't cling to the belief that there is this religion and that religion. We added the labels "Buddhism," "Islam," and "Christianity" ourselves, long after the founders lived. None of the great religious teachers ever gave a personal name to their teachings, like we do today. They just went about teaching us how we should live.
...... When the final level is reached, when the ultimate is known, not even man exists. There is only nature, only Dhamma. This reality can't be considered to be any particular thing; it can't be anything other than Dhamma. It can't be Thai, Chinese, Indian, Arab, or European ..... It can't be eastern or western, southern or northern. Nor can it be Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, or anything else. So please try to reach this Dhamma, for then you will have reached the heart of all religions and of all things, and finally come to the complete cessation of suffering.
References
Andrew Skilton, A Concise History of Buddhism, Windhorse Publications, Birmingham, 1994
Venerable S. Dhammika, All About Buddhism, The Buddha Dhamma Mandala Society, Singapore, 1990
Graeme Lyall, "Without Prejudice", reprinted in the UNIBUDS Annual 1995, annual magazine of the University of New South Wales Buddhists' Society
Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "No Religion", no longer in print but available in electronic form by ftp
Other publications which may be useful to those seeking a better understanding of Buddhism are:-
History and Overview
Selections From Buddhist Texts