Sangharakshita A Survey of Buddhism I T S D O C T R I N E S A N D M E T H O D S T H RO U G H T H E A G E S
The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path V I S I O N A N D T R A N S F O R M AT I O N
E D I T E D B Y K A LYA N A P R A B H A
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Windhorse Publications 169 Mill Road Cambridge CB1 3AN UK info@windhorsepublications.com www.windhorsepublications.com The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path previously published by Windhorse Publications as Vision and Transformation, 1990 Revised edition published as The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, 2007 © Sangharakshita, 2018 The right of Sangharakshita to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Cover design by Dhammarati Cover images: Back flap © Clear Vision Trust Picture Archive; front: Preaching Shakyamuni Buddha, detail, Korea, 1755. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Public Domain Typesetting and layout by Ruth Rudd Printed by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-909314-91-7 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-909314-92-4 (hardback)
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contents
Foreword, Subhuti xi Editor’s Note xix a survey of buddhism Preface to the Sixth Edition
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
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Chapter 1 The Buddha and Buddhism 15 The Approach to Buddhism 15 The Study of the Dharma: Methods and Materials 22 History Versus Tradition (i) The Universal Context of Buddhism 31 History Versus Tradition (ii) The Cosmological Perspective 37 The Lineage of the Enlightened One 43 Gautama the Buddha: His Greatness and Role 50 The Historical Uniqueness of the Dharma 56 Ineffable Nirvāṇa 63 The Charge of Nihilism 72 The Positive Aspects of Nirvāṇa 80 The Essence of Enlightenment 88 The True Nature of All Dharmas 97
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13 14 15 16 17 18 19
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Conditioned Co-Production: The Twelve Links 105 Saṃsāra and Nirvāṇa 114 The Four Āryan Truths 120 The Threefold Way – The Middle Path – Morality 136 Meditation 149 Wisdom and the Arhant Ideal 168 The Foundations of Buddhism: Early Schools 182 Chapter 2 Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna 191 Is Buddhism One Or Many? 191 The Transcendental Unity of Buddhism: The Dharma as Means 202 The Three Vehicles 211 Factors in the Emergence of the Mahāyāna 219 What Is Mahāyāna Buddhism? 237 The Trikāya Doctrine 250 The Two Truths: The Egolessness of All Dharmas The Mahāyāna Sangha 272
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Chapter 3 The Mahāyāna Schools 277 The Complexity of the Mahāyāna 277 The Five Spiritual Faculties 279 The Schematization of the Schools 294 The Scriptures of Perfect Wisdom 299 The New Wisdom School 309 The Scriptures of Devotional Buddhism 323 The Pure Land School 336 The Scriptures of Buddhist Idealism 348 The Yogācāra School 359 Transition to the Tantra 373 Tantric Texts, Teachers, and Schools 378 Some Special Features of the Tantra 387 Integral Buddhism 392
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Chapter 4 The Bodhisattva Ideal 394 The Unifying Factor 394 The Bodhisattva Versus the Arhant 400 The Path of the Bodhisattva: Preliminary Devotional Practices 405 The Thought of Enlightenment 416 The Six Perfections 422 The Ten Perfections and the Ten Stages 445 Select Bibliography
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the buddha’s noble eightfold path Prefatory Note
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1 Perfect Vision: The Nature of Existence 477 2 Perfect Emotion: Reason and Emotion in the Spiritual Life 492 3 Perfect Speech: The Ideal of Human Communication 512 4 Perfect Action: The Principles of Ethics 526 5 Perfect Livelihood: The Ideal Society 538 6 Perfect Effort: The Conscious Evolution of Man 552 7 Perfect Awareness: The Levels of Awareness 567 8 Perfect Samādhi: The Higher Consciousness 579 Notes Index
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A Guide to The Complete Works of Sangharakshita
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foreword
It is thoroughly appropriate that this, the first volume of Sangharakshita’s Complete Works, contains the two texts that it does, for they set out the basis for his entire presentation of the Dharma, albeit appearing at different stages of his teaching career and serving very different purposes. The first, A Survey of Buddhism: Its Doctrines and Methods Through the Ages, originated at the very outset of his career as a Buddhist teacher and it did exactly what its title boldly proclaims: it looked at Buddhism as a whole, taking in both its full geographical range and its 2,500 years of history. But it did so from a profound perspective. As his preface to the sixth edition finely puts it, ‘I was concerned to do principally two things. I was concerned to see Buddhism in its full breadth and in its ultimate depth, that is to say, I was concerned (1) to see Buddhism as a whole and (2) to see it in its deeper interconnections both within itself and in relation to the spiritual life of the individual Buddhist’. Thus A Survey of Buddhism locates Buddhist practitioners today in their true context, enabling them to see their relationship to the whole tradition, going back to the Buddha himself, rather than merely in relation to one modern version of any particular school. The second work, The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path: Vision and Transformation, originated more than ten years later at the very beginning of the new Buddhist movement Sangharakshita founded in London as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now known as the Triratna Buddhist Community). Here he distilled that panoptic perspective on the f o r e w o r d /
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Buddhist tradition, first set out in the Survey, into a practicable path of study and practice for the benefit of his disciples in his new order and movement. A Survey of Buddhism began life in 1954 as a series of four extensive lectures given at the Indian Institute of World Culture, a small, Theosophically-oriented society, based in Bangalore (now Bengaluru) in southern India. Presiding over the Institute was Shri B. P. Wadia, a scion of the prominent Mumbai-based Parsee industrialist dynasty, to whom the Survey would be dedicated, and his wife, Shrimati Sophia Wadia, who was to become a firm supporter of the young English monk and a close personal friend. Sangharakshita was twenty-eight years old when he was invited by the Wadias to give these talks. By then he had been a bhikṣu or fully-ordained Buddhist monk for three years, although he had wandered as a Buddhist renunciant for three years before that. In 1949 he had spent some months studying with Jagdish Kashyap, an Indian scholar-monk who taught Pāli at the Benares Hindu University. Early in 1950 they had travelled together to Kalimpong, a hill station in West Bengal on the border with Sikkim. Here Jagdish Kashyap told him to settle and ‘work for the good of Buddhism’. He had done his best to fulfil his teacher’s instructions by attempting to rally and unite the local Buddhists in various ways. He had also studied and reflected deeply on whatever material on Buddhism he could find that was available in English. Compared with what today can easily be found in superabundance with a cursory Internet search, there was relatively little accessible at that time, especially to one with very limited funds indeed, living in the foothills of the Himalayas, 700 miles from Calcutta (now Kolkata), the nearest major metropolis with access to English language books. But somehow, despite such meagre resources, he managed, and managed remarkably well, to give to his well-educated and thoughtful audience of cosmopolitan Indians, many of whom already had a strong interest in and even knowledge of comparative religion, a survey of the entire field of Buddhism that was both magisterial and profound. The Wadias encouraged him to write up his lectures as a book, which they undertook to publish through the Institute. Expanding four lectures into a book of 500 pages, together with all the tasks involved in seeing it through to publication, took a further three years. The substantial tome was released in 1957, auspiciously enough the Buddha Jayanti, the 2,500th anniversary of the Buddhas parinirvāṇa or ‘final passing xii / f o r e w o r d
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away’ which was celebrated all over the Buddhist world and sponsored in India by the government of Pandit Nehru. There is no doubt that from the outset the book was a remarkable success. The fat bundle of reviews which I have before me come from English-language journals of various international Buddhist organizations, from an assortment of Theosophical sources, both Indian and Western, from academic publications, and from a few Indian English-language newspapers and magazines. All praise the breadth and depth of knowledge, the skill in presentation, and the beauty and lucidity of the writing. The great majority praise it in very high terms, the most prized accolades coming from the eminent scholar of the Prajñā pāramitā literature, Dr Edward Conze: ‘Without hesitation, without any reservation whatever, I recommend Sangharakshita’s book as the best survey of Buddhism we possess at present’;1 and from the German scholar and artist, Lama Govinda: ‘For those who “wish to transcend the intellectual barriers which seemingly separate school from school and yāna from yāna” and who wish to “know the heart, the essence of Buddhism as an integrated whole”, there can be no better guide than this book.’2 Even Maurice Walshe, later an active critic, writing in The Middle Way, the journal of the London-based Buddhist Society, spoke of it as ‘a considerable achievement of Buddhist scholarship … this book can be heartily recommended to readers of all schools of thought’.3 Sangharakshita had arrived on the international Buddhist scene with a very distinctive way of seeing the entire Buddhist tradition and therefore its practice today. There were, of course, a few dissenting voices, even among those who praised the overall achievement. One Sri Lankan writer was incensed by Sangharakshita’s damning indictment of modern Theravāda which, though we might now think it somewhat sweeping, was no doubt accurate in the main.4 Here it is necessary to emphasize that he was not at all dismissing the Pāli canonical texts on which that school claims to base itself. Indeed, in the Survey he enters a plea for a stronger dose of those early teachings found in the Pāli suttas to be taken by Mahāyāna Buddhists, while at the same time suggesting Theravādins need to relinquish the fundamentalism that the Sri Lankan critic himself exemplified and to imbibe the spirit of the Mahāyāna, together with its vast perspective. In a similarly fundamentalist vein, a Theosophist considered the book alright – but only as far as it went since f o r e w o r d /
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it lacked the true esoteric knowledge of the Masters. Such criticisms were, however, very much in the minority. Sangharakshita, tucked away in the mountains, was clearly a force to be reckoned with in the Buddhist world, commanding widespread respect, especially among those, increasingly many, who read English. Since then, the book has been through nine editions, this being the tenth, and has continued to attract praise. Until the late 1980s it was a recommended text in university courses on Buddhism. Within the Triratna Buddhist Community, study of the first chapter in the context of a retreat is part of the basic training for ordination within the Triratna Buddhist Order. It usually has considerable impact since it introduces trainees so clearly and inspiringly to the transcendent dimension of the Dharma. Has Sangharakshita himself had anything further to say about this, his early work? In his Preface to the sixth edition, included below, he notes that in two respects he no longer agrees with the position he had taken nearly thirty years previously. He has come to question the necessity of celibacy for committed practitioners, except in the higher stages of the Path, and he rejects the identification of the Buddhist sangha with the monastic sangha, having come to a much broader understanding of the nature of the Buddhist community. The main criticism of the work commonly levelled today is that it is out of date as regards scholarship. It is certainly true that since it was written there has been a huge amount of material published in English, and many other modern languages, on Buddhist history, literature, philosophy, art, and culture, on meditation and so forth, whether from the purely academic point of view, or for the general reader, or for those who seek to follow the Buddhist path. Far more is now known about many aspects of the historical and doctrinal development of Buddhism and it is inevitable that recent scholarship has revised some earlier understandings that may have been represented in the Survey. The chief area in which this can be noted is in the account given of the rise of the Mahāyāna in Chapter 2, section 4. It seems that the true picture, though still rather obscure, is not nearly so simple as Sangharakshita presents it. Similarly, Sangharakshita was relying on what translations of Buddhist scriptures were available to him at that time. Though he had some familiarity with Pāli, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, he was no philologist and generally quoted well-reputed translators. However, sometimes even those distinguished scholars nodded, it seems. There are two notable xiv / f o r e w o r d
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examples of this. In Chapter 1, section 14, he quotes from a translation from the Pāli taken from a sutta in the Saṃyutta Nikāya. This translation is by a distinguished Buddhist scholar of his time, Dr Beni Madab Barua; however, its accuracy has since been questioned by some.5 Similarly, in Chapter 3, section 6, Sangharakshita quotes a passage from F. Max Müller’s translation of the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra. It seems that here the doyen of Indology gives exactly the opposite meaning to the original.6 No doubt other examples can be found. Although there are a few such examples of incorrect translation or outdated interpretation, they do not at all detract from the true value of the work. Strangely, even when Sangharakshita is relying on mistaken translation or superseded theories about Buddhist doctrinal history, as in the cases mentioned above, he nevertheless says some very important things that help us understand and practise the Dharma – and that, in the end, is the point. For this is not a book simply for the university lecture hall, it is not meant as an aide to the ‘objective’ or ‘scientific’ study of Buddhism, comparable to an entomologist’s monograph on butterflies. Sangharakshita makes this issue very plain in Chapter 1, section 2, one of the most valuable portions of the work, where he sets out guidelines for the study of Buddhism, showing the definite limits of the ‘scientific method’, while acknowledging its value within the boundaries he defines. He urges the study of Buddhism from the point of view of the committed practitioner. This is not to say, of course, that accurate, reliable, and up-to-date scholarship is not highly desirable even in that context.7 Nevertheless, Sangharakshita’s scholarship is impressive for his time and still largely withstands criticism; the profound Dharmic perspective he brings to bear on his material and his vision of all schools and traditions as parts of a single whole, united in the depths of the Dharma, is of timeless value. Sangharakshita’s own remarkable spiritual acuity is mostly respons ible for the work’s peculiar worth. However, there is another aspect to this. The work appeared at a unique period in the Dharma’s transmission to the West, especially its transmission by means of the English language. What material was available before that time was often significantly inaccurate and subject to the biases and predilections of translators and interpreters, quite a number of whom were committed Christians. In recent years, on the other hand, the sheer quantity of material available overwhelms anyone interested in forming an impression of f o r e w o r d /
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Buddhism as a whole. A trend in academic presentation today is to talk of ‘Buddhisms’, plural – the very antithesis of Sangharakshita’s vision. In the mid-twentieth century, when Sangharakshita was coming to his own understanding of the Dharma, for the first time, more or less, all the core texts of the main Buddhist traditions were available in reasonably trustworthy translations. And it seems Sangharakshita had read them all, as not many others cared to do, and certainly few of those who were actively trying to practise and teach the Dharma had done. Having read them all, it was possible for him to come to a perspective on what unified these key texts in a way that modern writers might hesitate to attempt, given the proliferation of information. Sangharakshita wrote when the wood could be seen as a whole, with its noblest trees standing proud and clear above the undergrowth of lesser saplings, before knowledge of the multiplicity of trees of every type and kind had rendered any attempt at a unifying survey unwise, even hubristic. In seizing that moment Sangharakshita has given us a glimpse of the totality and unity of this great tradition that is still pressingly relevant and from which all Buddhists can still profit. This achievement is as impressive now as it was in 1957. That glimpse caught in the Survey has a tremendous effect on the reader. I remember the impact it had on me when I finally picked it up in 1971. I had seen copies of it on display during my first retreat, two years earlier, in its rather unattractive and, to a Western eye, amateurish dust-cover, with very poor letter-press printing on meagre paper. This was the third Indian edition and I had no interest in it, having judged it by its cover and its poor production standards (the binding had already begun to come apart on the new copy I leafed through!). Instead I worked my way through every one of Sangharakshita’s taped lectures that I could lay my hands on, taking extensive notes and forming the fundamental understanding of the Dharma that I have today in the traditional way, by hearing the Dharma at the feet of a Master, albeit by way of magnetic tape. But two years later, at the age of twenty-four, I finally picked up the Survey and my vision rose to heights unseen before. All that I had heard and read till then fell into place – and it is not surprising that shortly after that I asked Sangharakshita for ordination within the Triratna Buddhist Order (then still known as the Western Buddhist Order). It was not merely the lucidity of its exposition that caught me or the vastness and comprehensiveness of its vision. I was moved by the beauty of the writing, xvi / f o r e w o r d
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with its powerful poetic imagery, and especially by Sangharakshita’s devotional intensity that burned from the pages. Here was a man who felt strongly for his subject, to which he was totally committed, and which he understood to its depths. While I was reading the book I dwelt in the land of the Dharma, completely convinced. For me, and I am sure this will be true of many others, reading the Survey was a profound experience of the Dharma. The reading itself is a powerful practice and it is one for which I will ever be overwhelmingly grateful to its author. In the Survey, we are given a perspective on the whole tradition that is both broad and deep – but what are we to do with that perspective if we want to actually practise the Dharma? Are we simply to ignore it and devote ourselves to following the teachings of one particular school? Is that perspective of merely academic interest – albeit an unfashionable one? This is the question that Sangharakshita has answered in his own life, in his teaching, and in the sangha that he has established. We see that answer clearly expressed in our second text: The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path: Vision and Transformation. This work, too, originated in a series of talks, this time given in 1968 at Centre House, a kind of New Age centre in West London. Sangha rakshita had returned to Britain in 1964, after twenty years in India and the East, to head the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara, a predominantly Theravādin establishment. Seeing the great opportunity for the growth of the Dharma in the West, he decided to shift his base permanently from India to London. In 1966, he made a farewell visit to India, seeking the blessings of his teachers, which they freely gave, settling his affairs, and providing for his Indian disciples. While there, he received an astonishing letter from the trustees of the Hampstead Vihara telling him, without explanation, that he would no longer be welcome at the Vihara and suggesting that he stayed in India. Having promised his British disciples that he would return, at the beginning of 1967 back he came. The result was a new Buddhist movement: the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now Triratna Buddhist Community).8 That new movement was the embodiment of the deep, unifying vision that the Survey sets out. Its very institution was the manifestation of Sangharakshita’s recognition of the nature of the sangha, albeit one not yet seen in the earlier work, though its overall perspective made it inevitable that it would be. In his later terms, again implied but not yet recognized in the Survey, it was the application of Going for f o r e w o r d /
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Refuge to the Three Jewels as the central and definitive act of the Buddhist life, followed through at ever deepening levels and in every aspect. Sangharakshita’s quest for the principles behind doctrines and practices carried him to the establishment of this new Order. And the foundations of the teachings and practices to be followed within that Order were laid in this new series of lectures, given under the auspices of his new movement to an audience formed principally of his core disciples. They were the teachings and practices taught by the Buddha himself as interpreted and developed by his disciples down the ages. It was rooted in the Pāli canon but expressed in terms often drawn from all stages of Buddhism’s evolution and vividly applied to the modern world. The lectures were later edited by Sangharakshita and, in 1990, published in book form as Vision and Transformation. A second edition appeared in 1999 and in 2007 a third, revised edition came out under the title The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, since when it has been one of Windhorse Publications’ best-selling titles. This text has formed an essential part of training in the Triratna Community both in the West, where it has been translated into at least ten languages, and in India where it has been translated into Hindi, Marathi, and other languages. Though in certain superficial respects the lectures show their age – who today uses a kettle that does not switch itself off? – such references are marginal and the work remains very pertinent. Perhaps the only respect in which they need supplementing is that they make no mention of the Internet and social media, which must be central topics in the discussion of both mindfulness and ethics today. Readers of these two key works will gain great insight into Sangha rakshita’s contribution to the understanding of the Dharma and its application to the contemporary world. At the same time, they will find that their own vision and practice of the Dharma will be greatly enlarged. May the reading of this volume lead more and more to gain inspiration in the teachings of the Buddha and his Enlightened disciples down the ages. Subhuti Arenig Fawr, Wales 28 March 2017
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