BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT What is enlightenment? For Buddhists it involves the discovery of the truth of duhkha—pain, suffering, and sorrow—followed by the realization that duhkha can be brought to an end. In like manner, Protestant Christians speak of enlightenment as a moment when, touched by God, one becomes aware of one’s own escape from eternal damnation. Likewise, European philosophers have imagined an age of Enlightenment, a time of individual freedom and social equality. In all three cases, enlightenment, as insight into reality, is conjoined with enlightenment, as a state of harmony and peace, beyond politics. Beyond Enlightenment treats the political implications of this apolitical ideal. It is a sophisticated study of some of the assumptions underlying, and ramifications involved in, the study of Buddhism (especially, but not exclusively, in the West), and of the tendency of scholars to ground their study of Buddhism in particular assumptions about the Buddha’s enlightenment and a particular understanding of religion, traced back through Western orientalists to the Enlightenment and the Protestant Reformation. Richard Cohen’s book will be of interest to buddhologists, indologists, scholars of comparative religion, and intellectual historians. Richard S. Cohen is Associate Professor of South Asian Religious Literatures at the University of California, San Diego. This is his first book, though he has published numerous articles in such venues as the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and History of Religions. He is now working on a study of Buddhism and counterculture. ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL STUDIES IN BUDDHISM General Editors: Charles S. Prebish and Damien Keown Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism is a comprehensive study of the Buddhist tradition. The series explores this complex and extensive tradition from a variety of perspectives, using a range of different methodologies. The series is diverse in its focus, including historical studies, textual translations and commentaries, sociological investigations, bibliographic studies, and considerations of religious practice as an expression of Buddhism’s integral religiosity. It also presents materials on modern intellectual historical studies, including the role of Buddhist thought and scholarship in a contemporary, critical context and in the light of current social issues. The series is expansive and imaginative in scope, spanning more than two and a half millennia of Buddhist history. It is receptive to all research works that inform and advance our knowledge and understanding of the Buddhist tradition. A SURVEY OF VINAYA THE RESONANCE OF LITERATURE EMPTINESS Charles S. Prebish Gay Watson THE REFLEXIVE NATURE OF AMERICAN BUDDHISM AWARENESS Edited by Duncan Ryuken Paul Williams Williams and Christopher Queen ALTRUISM AND REALITY Paul Williams IMAGING WISDOM Jacob N. Kinnard BUDDHISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS PAIN AND ITS Edited by Damien Keown, Charles ENDING S. Prebish and Wayne Husted Carol S. Anderson WOMEN IN THE FOOTSTEPS EMPTINESS OF THE BUDDHA APPRAISED Kathryn R. Blackstone David F. Burton THE SOUND OF LIBERATING RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION TRUTH AND THE ORIGINS OF Edited by Sallie B. King and BUDDHISM Paul O. Ingram Torkel Brekke BUDDHIST THEOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS IN Edited by Roger R. Jackson and AUSTRALIAN BUDDHISM John J. Makransky Michelle Spuler THE GLORIOUS DEEDS OF ZEN WAR STORIES PURNA Brian Victoria Joel Tatelman THE BUDDHIST EARLY BUDDHISM—A NEW UNCONSCIOUS APPROACH William S. Waldron Sue Hamilton INDIAN BUDDHIST THEORIES CONTEMPORARY OF PERSONS BUDDHIST ETHICS James Duerlinger Edited by Damien Keown ACTION DHARMA INNOVATIVE BUDDHIST Edited by Christopher Queen, Charles WOMEN S. Prebish and Damien Keown Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo TIBETAN AND ZEN BUDDHISM TEACHING BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN IN THE WEST David N. Kay Edited by V.S. Hori, R.P. Hayes and J.M. Shields THE CONCEPT OF THE BUDDHA EMPTY VISION Guang Xing David L. McMahan THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESIRE SELF, REALITY AND IN THE BUDDHIST PALI REASON IN TIBETAN CANON PHILOSOPHY David Webster Thupten Jinpa THE NOTION OF DITTHI IN IN DEFENSE OF THERAVADA BUDDHISM DHARMA Paul Fuller Tessa J. Bartholomeusz THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY SELF-COGNITION Dan Lusthaus Zhihua Yao MORAL THEORY IN BUDDHISM IN CANADA FANTIDEVA’S Edited by Bruce Matthews FIKSASAMUCCAYA Barbra R. Clayton BUDDHISM, CONFLICT AND VIOLENCE IN MODERN BUDDHIST STUDIES FROM SRI LANKA INDIA TO AMERICA Edited by Mahinda Deegalle Edited by Damien Keown THERAVADA BUDDHISM DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY AND THE BRITISH IN MEDIEVAL JAPANESE ENCOUNTER BUDDHISM Religious, missionary and colonial Edited by Richard K. Payne and experience in nineteenth century Taigen Dan Leighton Sri Lanka Elizabeth Harris BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGICAL BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT RESEARCH Buddhism, religion, modernity Edited by D.K. Nauriyal, Michael Richard S. Cohen S. Drummond and Y.B. Lal The following titles are published in association with the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies a project of The Society for the Wider Understanding of the Buddhist Tradition The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies conducts and promotes rigorous teaching and research into all forms of the Buddhist tradition. EARLY BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS Noa Ronkin MIPHAM’S DIALECTICS AND THE DEBATES ON EMPTINESS Karma Phuntsho HOW BUDDHISM BEGAN The conditioned genesis of the early teachings Richard F. Gombrich BUDDHIST MEDITATION An anthology of texts from the Pali canon Sarah Shaw BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT Buddhism, religion, modernity Richard S. Cohen !l Routledge ! ~ Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2006 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2006 Richard Scott Cohen Typeset in Times New Roman by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd, Chennai, India The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution -Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cohen, Richard, 1963– Beyond enlightenment : Buddhism, religion, modernity / Richard Cohen. p. cm.—(Routledge critical studies in Buddhism) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Enlightenment (Buddhism) 2. Enlightenment. 3. Religious awakening—Comparative studies. I. Title. II. Series. BQ4398.C65 2006 294.3'442—dc22 2005025919 ISBN13: 978-0-415-37294-7 (hbk) FOR NANCY Perhaps there is no religion the study of which is likely to be so useful to Europeans as Buddhism. Discarding, as it does, those primary beliefs which we are tempted to regard as the essential ideas of religion generally, Buddhism forces us to reconsider the question to what extent these beliefs can be pronounced universal or necessary ingredients of the religious consciousness of mankind. (John R. Amberley, “Recent Publications on Buddhism,” The Theological Review 9 (July 1872): 293) CONTENTS List of illustrations x Preface xii Acknowledgments xv 1 A benign introduction 1 2 A place of exceptional universal value 35 3 A tale of two histories 69 4 The anthropology of enlightenment 108 5 What do gods have to do with enlightenment? 149 6 A baroque conclusion 181 Notes 190 Bibliography 216 Index 227 ix ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 2.1 Plaque at the entrance to Ajanta. Photo by author 36 2.2 Advertisement from the MTDC campaign, “The Ajanta Experience.” Image graciously supplied by Ogilvy and Mather, Mumbai 44 2.3 General plan of the Caves of Ajanta. After James Burgess, Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples, plate XIV 48 2.4 A view of Ajanta, from Cave Sixteen to Cave Twenty Six (from left to right). Photo by author 48 3.1 Caves Twenty One, Twenty Two, and Twenty Three (from left to right). Photo by author 75 3.2 Detail from a painting in the rear of Cave Twenty Two. Photo by author 76 3.3 A sign inside Cave Ten. The paintings along this cave’s aisles are probably the most graffiti-damaged at Ajanta. Photo by author 79 3.4 Two tridents painted on a pillar inside Cave Eleven. This same pillar is visible in Figure 3.6. Photo by author 93 3.5 James Fergusson’s 1863 plan of Cave Eleven. From Rock-Cut Temples of India, page 12 97 3.6 James Burgess’ 1882 plan of Cave Eleven. From Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples, plate XXVIII, no. 2 98 3.7 Cave Eleven’s central buddha. Note the tridents painted on both pillars. Photo by author 101 4.1 A naga and nagini at the entrance to Cave Nineteen. Photo by author 110 4.2 Cave Twenty Six’s Maravijaya mural (note, the bottom left corner is cut). Photo by author 115 4.3 A line illustration of the Maravijaya. From John Griffiths, The Paintings in the Buddhist Cave-Temples of Ajanta (London, 1896), 1:24 116 x ILLUSTRATIONS 4.4 Two standing buddhas, their right hands in varada mudra, from the facade of Cave Nineteen. Photo by author 131 4.5 A billboard along I-10 in Beaumont, California, February 2005. Photo (and photoshop) by author 144 Tables 5.1 Organization of knowledge based upon “The Shorter Discourse to Malukkyaputta” 154 5.2 Individuals 1, 2, 3, 4 form a polythetic group, while 5 and 6 are monothetic. After Rodney Needham’s “Polythetic Classification” 163 xi PREFACE You are walking down a forest path. You meet a man who positively beams serenity. You ask his teacher’s name. He replies, Nobody is my teacher. Nobody is comparable to me. I am the only perfect buddha in the world. I have attained supreme enlightenment. I am conqueror over all. I know everything. I am not contaminated by anything at all... I have all the powers of the omniscient. I am an arhat in the world. I am unrivaled in all realms, including those of the gods.