Matthew Kutam ’22… Power in Buddhism and Islam: Jailer, Prisoner, or Both?

Power in Buddhism and Islam: Jailer, Prisoner, or Both?

Matthew Kutam ’22

From the Gaza strip border to the airstrikes on the Kashmir border to the 2019 Christchurch shooting, the world’s religions appear in constant conflict against one another. In these acts of violence, the perpetrators believed that only their form of religion could lead them up a metaphorical mountain of truth and enlightenment while other religions, or paths, fall short in that quest (Prothero 30). By analyzing one religion through the lens of another religion, nevertheless, one can begin to see something special in one religion that only uncovers itself via this comparative analysis. One religion’s views on, for instance, the role of women or life after death, derive from its worshipped oral tradition and written text, so comparing these sacred works provides a way to perceive a religion’s beliefs more closely. This paper seeks to understand the power and role of the individual in Buddhism by contrasting the Sutras, brief aphorisms of Buddhist principles, with written Islamic beliefs. In reading the Dhammapada, a minor Sutra, through the lens of Qur’an and Tafsir readings, the teachings of Buddha accentuate how only the Buddhist individual has the capability to control themself and jail their own desires, not how the individual lies at the mercy of an ultimate jailer, God.

One must play the believing game, “the disciplined practice of trying to be as welcoming….to every idea we encounter,” at first when comparing the two religions and their religious texts (Elbow 134). The believing game helps find parallels in the Dhammapada and Islamic texts, parallels that will serve as a control for which the paper will expound upon and then discover telling differences regarding the individual’s power in Islam and Buddhism. For one, both the Dhammapada and the Tafsir readings call for the individual to achieve a high level of wisdom, one that transcends the living world entirely. In the Dhammapada’s chapter about the Wise, Buddha tells that “those who have well developed with right mind the factors of complete awakening….are emancipated in the world” (Dhammapada 89). His instruction here calls its readers to think and to meditate in order to achieve “complete awakening.” Buddha places the emphasis on wisdom as a way to free oneself from worldly human suffering. In the Eightfold Path, wisdom, or Panna, even encompasses the first two parts of the “Right Understanding” and “Right Resolve,” demonstrat- 50

Introduction to Religious Studies ing the Buddhist focus of wisdom (Keown 55). Islam too, believes in the idea of superseding sensical desires, not to obtain wisdom, but rather join Allah’s vision.

Written by Al Bahr Al Madīd (a Moraccan mystic and scholar), a section called “Sincerity” similarly asks Muslims to “make opaque what is subtle, while the reality of intellective vision is to make subtle what is opaque” (Tafsir 72). Despite the use of “vision” instead of “wisdom,” both texts stress the importance of wisdom as a way to deepen spirituality. Al Madīd even writes that when engaging this “intellective vision” and making “subtle” the “opaque,” we unite ourselves with Him and allow Allah to overflow us in His “Ocean of Infinite Oneness” (Tafsir 72). Therefore, Buddhist and Islamic teachings imply that both religions require the individual to put on finer lenses to fully immerse yourself in a way that transcends superficial belief. Yet the contrast in the ways one pursues wisdom entail different power relationships in the religions, especially how much power the individual has over himself.

Given the hindsight of the Qur’an, the Dhammapada reveals that the Buddhist individual serves himself, not some God, because he only knows himself the best. In the translation of the Dhammapada, the scripture instructs that “the self is the friend of self, for what other friend would there be? When the self is well-trained, one finds a friend that is hard to find” (Dhammapada 160). In a part of a chapter labeled “Self”, the Buddha suggests that by forming a “friend” in oneself, one attains wisdom because that person finds a “friend” that will teach them and guide them. That “friend” ultimately will lead that person to the cessation of all suffering and thus, the fulfillment of the Four Noble Truths, the essence of Buddha’s teachings over spiritual joy and liberation (BBC). Notably, the Dhammapada underlines that wisdom, enlightenment, and even selffulfillment endures once a person understands oneself to a point where they have faith and comfort in their own soul. Our narrative changes in Islam though because fundamentally, a Muslim only gains prudence and happiness from following Allah and putting all trust in Him. In the Qur’an, Allah commands that “whoever fears Allah, He [Allah] will make for him the way out and will provide for him from where he does not expect” (Surah 65:2-3). As Islam translates to “submission”, the Qur’an indicates that if one submits himself to Allah, he will find comfort and joy in what Allah provides. The one that fears Allah can then find his own caring “friend” in Allah. Through the comparison of the two texts, the fact emerges that Buddhism centers itself around the individual’s, not God’s, ability to serve himself, to comfort himself, to love himself, and in 51

the end, cleanse himself. The process of cleansing yourself and removing sin also differs in the two religions, with Buddhism placing the focus again on personal refinement from within the individual. In the chapter called “Yourself” in the Dhammapada, Buddha explains, “by oneself is a wicked deed left undone, by oneself is one purified, purity and impurity come from oneself, for no one can purify another” (Dhammapada 166). The individual, thus, has both aspects of good and evil rooted inside him. Due to the fact that he himself must eliminate all suffering on the inside, Buddhism offers the Eightfold Path as the perfect guide to do so. Whether to achieve higher morality, mindfulness, or wisdom, individuals follow the Eightfold Path in the belief that each step helps to undergo the process of eliminating all impurity, augmenting all purity, and eventually, removing all suffering. In Islam, the way to remove sin and gain wisdom contrasts because the religion directs itself towards the will of Allah. The first verse of the Surah named Al-A’la, or the Most High, proclaims, “Exalt your name of the Lord, the Most High, who created and proportioned and who destined and [then] guided” (Surah 87). The use of the word “exalt” here not only means to verbally praise, but also implies to make your actions and deeds representative in the name of Allah. The Five Pillars of Islam, from verbal proclamation to zakat (mandatory charity to the poor) to performing the Hajj, all stress this proclaiming Allah or this manifesting of Allah through action. Purification in Islam comes from worshipping God over Iblis, the devil, not from trying to cleanse the divine and evil within you. We again can comprehend that in the search for wisdom and inner peace, Buddhists look deep to remove individual desire and dissatisfaction in place of looking above to satisfy God.

Referencing a metaphor made by Michel Foucault, a 20th century French philosopher, the role of power in religion can be often illustrated by the panopticon, a prison with circular structure and the guard’s office in the middle. The guard can see every prisoner through small windows in his office, so while he can never look at everyone at once, all prisoners lie under the impression that the guard always watches them (Nye 72). In Islam, you have this pantpticon model since Allah sits in the middle of the universe as he observes humankind constantly. In the Qur’an, the word of God writes that “And conceal your speech or publicize it; indeed, He is Knowing of that within the breasts” (Surah 67:13). Allah alone omnisciently sees all actions, all intentions, and deems us to hell or heaven like a guard that punishes perverse prisoners who do not abide by the 52

Introduction to Religious Studies rules. When understanding Buddhism, you see that the guard embodies the prisoner, that the one in power mirrors the one without power. According to a poem from the Afiguttara-Nikaya, the Buddha says that “the wise priest knows he now must reap” (Warren 217). That wise priest plays the role of prisoner because on one hand, he submits to temptation and has to face punishment like a criminal; but simultaneously, he also plays the jailer, that watchful eye, because he must enforce that punishment in a pursuit to better himself and keep his sinfulness caged in a cell. Once we look at Buddhism and Islam together that we realize Buddha’s emphasis on finding enlightenment, finding a “friend”, and finding joy within oneself, for one acts as both prisoner and guard in an endless relationship to ultimately find purification.

Despite all the evidence to prove all religions differ, the conversation of one text with another shines a more perceptive light on a religion. In this case, the Dhammapada and Islamic law in conversation emphasized the individual’s power in Buddhism to serve and purify themselves without the presence of an ultimate. Mahatma Gandhi once wrote in All Religions are True, “Cultivation of tolerance for other faiths will impart to us a truer understanding of own” (Gandhi 44). Instead of looking at religions as right or as wrong, true knowledge of our own religions comes only when we have the courage to not doubt but to find the common ground between our religion and others. Only then, can we know our own religion and whether we play jailer to ourselves, prisoner to God, or both in our ways up the same mountain.

Works Cited

Al-Madid, Al-Bahr. The Opening, and Other Meccan Revelations. Translated by Abdul Aziz Suraqah, Al Madina Institute, 2015. BBC. “Buddhism.” Religions, 17 Nov. 2009, www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/ buddhism/. Elbow, Peter. “The Believing Game - Methodological Believing.” Selected Works of Peter Elbow, Jan. 2008, pp. 1-11, works.bepress.com/peter_elbow/20/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020. Gandhi, Mohandas K. All Religious Are True. Mumbai, Bharitiya Vidya Bhavan, 1962. Keown, Damien. A Very Short Introduction to Buddhism. Oxford University Press, 2013. Nye, Malory. Religion: The Basics. 2nd ed., Oxfordshire, Routledge, 2008. Prothero, Stephen R. God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter. New York, HarperOne, 2010. Qur’an. Pro Bono, 2016. Quran, Pro Bono, quran.com/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020. Tipitaka. Sutta Central, suttacentral.net/. Accessed 1 Mar. 2020. Warren, Henry Clarke, translator. Buddhism in Translation. Harvard University Press, 1979.