TOWARDS A THRESHOLD OF UNDERSTANDING (Part II) by Bhikkhu Bodhi BPS Newsletter Cover Essay #31 (3rd Mailing 1995) Copyright 1995 Buddhist Publication Society This electronic edition is offered FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY by arrangement with the copyright holder. This text is a gift of Dhamma. You may print this file for your personal use, and you may make and distribute unaltered copies of this file, provided that you charge no fees of any kind for its distribution. Otherwise, all rights reserved. Transcribed directly from BPS diskette by John Bullitt This text has been formatted in ASCII for readability by most word processing programs on any type of computer. For best results, display the text in a constant-width font (e.g., Courier), with at least 72 characters per line. * * * In //Crossing the Threshold of Hope//, Pope John Paul asserts that "the 'enlightenment' experienced by the Buddha comes down to the conviction that the world is bad, that it is the source of evil and suffering for man" (p.85). No doubt the fact that the book consistently encloses the word "enlightenment" in quotation marks already suggests that the Pope's attitude to Buddhism is not an appreciative one. This suggestion is confirmed by his manner of characterizing the content of the enlightenment, which reduces the Buddha's great awakening beneath the Bodhi tree to a caricature. By way of rejoinder it should first be said that Buddhism does not regard the world in itself as either good or bad, and the Buddha never described the world as "the source of evil" for man. The Buddhist texts scrupulously use terms with moral connotations, such as "good" and "evil," solely to evaluate intentional actions and the persons and states of mind from which such actions spring. They do not ascribe moral qualities to entities that are incapable of moral initiative. Thus actions are bad (//papa//, //akusala//) when they intend harm and suffering for oneself and others, good (//kalyana//, //kusala//) when they aim at promoting happiness and well-being. The Buddha's analysis of the roots of good and evil also proceeds entirely within the sphere of psychological ethics without overstepping the bounds of that domain. According to the Buddha the roots of evil are the unwholesome springs of action: greed, hatred, and delusion; the roots of good are non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion, i.e. detachment, lovingkindness, and understanding. The process of spiritual development in Buddhism can be described, from one angle, as the attenuation and eradication of the unwholesome roots by the cultivation of their wholesome opposites. The entire process centres upon the mind as the sole source of both good and evil, with the world set well in the background of this striving for internal purification. In his formula of the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha does declare that worldly existence is //dukkha//, but //dukkha// does not mean evil. It means, rather, unsatisfactory, inadequate, subject to suffering. To understand why the Buddha states that all worldly existence is //dukkha// one must view this statement in its wider context. According to the Buddha's teaching, our individual lives unfold within a beginningless cycle of rebirths, samsara, wherein all living beings except the enlightened ones wander on driven by the thirst for continued becoming. Each individual life beginning with birth and ending with death is thus but a "link" in an infinite chain of lives, a single turn of the wheel of existence. As we move within samsara, again and again we undergo birth, aging, illness, and death, again and again we experience pain and sorrow, anxiety and stress, conflict and disappointment. It is for this reason that the Buddha declares that life within the confines of samsara is //dukkha//. Buddhism locates the cause of our suffering, not in the world considered as an objective reality, but in our own minds. The root of suffering is ignorance coupled with craving; because we fail to understand the true nature of things, our lives are propelled by blind desires for pleasure, power, and renewed becoming, desires which eventuate in pain and grief. The Buddha's teaching is concerned, not with the obliteration of the world, but with the obliteration of ignorance and craving. When greed, hatred, and delusion are quenched, one then experiences the perfect peace of Nibbana throughout the duration of one's life in the world, and with the end of life one is permanently released from the round of rebirths into the Unconditioned. The Pontiff describes Nibbana as "a state of perfect indifference with regard to the world," adding that in Buddhism salvation means "above all, to free oneself from evil by becoming indifferent to the world, which is the source of evil" (p.86). By such statements he represents Buddhism to his readers as a quietistic doctrine of withdrawal which can address the momentous problems that face humanity today only by politely turning its back on them. This is hardly a satisfactory depiction of Early Buddhism, in which transcendence of the world is stressed, let alone of Mahayana Buddhism, in which the bodhisattva's compassionate activity on behalf of the world becomes the guiding ideal. The Pali word that the Pope interprets as "indifference" is presumably //upekkha//. The real meaning of this word is equanimity, not indifference in the sense of unconcern for others. As a spiritual virtue, //upekkha// means equanimity in the face of the fluctuations of worldly fortune. It is evenness of mind, unshakeable freedom of mind, a state of inner equipoise that cannot be upset by gain and loss, honour and dishonour, praise and blame, pleasure and pain. //Upekkha// is freedom from all points of self-reference; it is indifference only to the demands of the ego-self with its craving for pleasure and position, not to the well-being of one's fellow human beings. True equanimity is the pinnacle of the four social attitudes that the Buddhist texts call the "divine abodes": boundless loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. The last does not override and negate the preceding three, but perfects and consummates them. If Buddhism in practice has not always lived up to the high ideals posited by the original Teaching, this is to be understood as a result of the downward gravitational pull of human nature, not as a consequence of any emphasis on apathy and indifference in the pristine Dhamma. The Buddhist texts provide ample evidence that theattainment of Nibbana does not issue in a stolid indifference to the world. The Buddha himself, the ideal model for his followers, led an active life of 45 years after his enlightenment dedicated to the uplift of humanity. Throughout Buddhist history, the great spiritual masters of the Dhamma have emulated the Awakened One's example, heeding his injunction to wander forth "for the welfare and happiness of many, out of compassion for the world, for the good, welfare, and happiness of devas and humans." It is not only enlightened monks and nuns who have displayed this sense of spiritual mission. As a corporate whole, Buddhism has inspired and animated all the Asian cultures in which it has taken root. It spread without violence and bloodshed, without forcible conversions, winning adherents entirely by its lofty teachings and the exemplary lives of its followers. Wherever the Dhamma took root, it has provided hope and encouragement, pointing to lofty ethical and spiritual ideals, spelling out concrete codes of moral guidance for the whole society. It needs only a little reflection to decide whether such a result is possible in a doctrine that advocates total apathy or callous self-absorption as the highest good. * * * * * * * * THE BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY The BPS is an approved charity dedicated to making known the Teaching of the Buddha, which has a vital message for people of all creeds. Founded in 1958, the BPS has published a wide variety of books and booklets covering a great range of topics. Its publications include accurate annotated translations of the Buddha's discourses, standard reference works, as well as original contemporary expositions of Buddhist thought and practice. These works present Buddhism as it truly is -- a dynamic force which has influenced receptive minds for the past 2500 years and is still as relevant today as it was when it first arose. A full list of our publications will be sent upon request with an enclosure of U.S. $1.00 or its equivalent to cover air mail postage. Write to: The Hony. Secretary BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY P.O. Box 61 54, Sangharaja Mawatha Kandy Sri Lanka or The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies Lockwood Road Barre, MA 01005 USA Tel: (508) 355-2347 * * * * * * * * [end]