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The Buddhist Conception of Man in Relation to the Christian Conception

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The Buddhist Conception of Man in Relation to the Christian Conception The Buddhist conception of man in relation to the Christian conception, A thesis submitted to the University of Edinburgh in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Hev Bryan de Kretser. B.D. Dutch Reformed Church, Ceylon, 1 st I'ay, 1948. preface.. The origins of this thesis are not hard to trace.AS a member of the Christian Community .in Ceylon,one is increasingly being made a^are of the fact of a "renaissance",particularly among the leaders of Buddhist thought.Buddhism in Ceylon is endeavouring to maintain the traditipnal^Hinayana Buddhist Faith in the context of the modern world.Anyone in Ceylon,v:ho is engaged in missionary Y'ork of a serious character,must take cognisance of this fact. As a minister of the Reformed Church in Ceylon it is but natural that, in seeking to relate the Gospel to the contemporary Buddhist situation,! should find inspiration and help for this task vithin the main stream of Reformed Church Theology. "Jhile the thesis itself is not concerned with the immediate problem of Evangelism', it has its roots in the pressure of the situation to-day.It has been undertaken, in the hope that an academic statement on the Buddhist and Christian conception of nan is not entirely unrelated to the needs of the contemporary scene. It is difficult to express my debt to the many people, ' TIC have helped me in my vrork'in one way or another.There are some however whose names cannot be omitted. To Dr F.t). He van and an of the United Theological College,Bangalore, i I owe a great deal,for first arousing ray interest in the subject matter of Buddhism itself.Dr Mical I'aOTicol.L provided me with useful information and guidance during the initial stages of. my studies in 3ainburgh.Miss I.Horner,Honorary Secretary of the Pali Text Society, very ^indly provided me with information about the Fali originals and the English Translations of the I'ripitaka.t am especially indebted to Bhikkhu Kassapa of Colombo,for the most valuable assistance he rendered me,by-telling me where I might begin ny search for Buddhist man in the pages of the pitakas. ?'y indebtedness to K?>rl Barth, "Smil 3~runner,and -^einhold Niebuhr is apparent on almost every page,and to have acknowledged it in the actual text would have been to risk tedious repetition] It is with the tools of Reformed Theology, as shaped by them,that I have sought to explicate the relations between Buddhist and Christian man.Any failure in this attempt is mine,any success must be attributed to the inspiration which their work has pro­ vided. Finally,I would like to take this opportunity of expressing my deep appreciation of ( the help I have received from Dr John Baillie and. principal Duthie,who were my patient supervisors,and who gave me most useful criticism and advice. B.de Kretser. Table of Contents. Introduction The scope of the Thesis. 4 The Text of the Tripitakas. 5 nethod ' 8 Revelation." 1C Limitations." . 12 The Argument. * ' 13 The Appendices, 14 The Fundamental Character of Heality 16 The Mature of History. 39 fhe Character of Tan's Existence. The Buadhist Fsycnology of'Man' 53 The Buddhist doctrine of Anatta 62 Fan in the Stream of Becoming 69 The problem of the Self and personal Identity. 75 The Biblical Psychology of Man 80 Creatio ex nihilo 84 The Imago Dei 86 Original Sin and the Fall _ 88 \ note on the problems of Evil,Adam, and Original Sin 93 A -.;: "-" : ^i*v 95 ^udoha and the Christ. Incarnate Lord 100 Enlightenment and Revelation 104 The death of the Buddha and the ceath of Jesus Christ 106 The Buddhist Dhamma or order of Redemption and trustification by Faith. Sorrow and Sin 1C3 Kaniraa and Sin" ' 110 Justice and Forgiveness 117 The rationalism of the Dhamma and the Christian way of Faith 123 The Buddhist Dhamma 1'23 Justification by faith and Dhamma' 134 The Arahat and Eternal life or. the New Kan in Christ 140 3?.n/Tha and Chut 148 Conclusion , Ip6 A Buddhism and Reality'" ' . Io9 B The Buddha and the Upanishads ' 17'2 C The'meaning' of' the word Anatta 176 D A note on the v.rorfi of Ivlrs Rhys Davids 183 vcre;:ciix S The Ve dan tic Buddhism of the . Buddha by J.G.jennings"" " 1SS The Brahman and the Dhamma .;: enaix G The Brahma-jala Sutta 193 . c enaix H Nibbana 195 Biblio.^raphy 2CO Abbreviations. Sacred Books of the B.uddhists 3.3.3. Sacred Books of the £ast S.B.E. Pali Text Society P.T.S. Encyclopaedia of ^eligion and Ethics S.H.E. Buddhism in Translations by ^.C.^arren Warren. The Vedantic Buddhism of the Buddha by <7. G. Jennings . Jennings Compendium of philosophy . Compendium, Introduction* The sco"pe of the Thesis. Yy first duty must be to explain the limits within which this investigation has taken place.The title suggests that this is to be a comparative study of the Buddhist and Christian conceptions of man.But there are many types of Buddhism, even as there are ' ' ' different interpretations of Christianity,and the results of an attempt to state,and relate, all the various points of view on man,would have been very confusing.In any case,such an attempt, though interesting,perhaps, for the student of the .philosophy of Religion,would not serve the real purpose of this thesis. The subject of this study is strictly confined to the task of analysing the Hinayana Buddhist conception of man and relating that point of view to the Christian outlook.In the general discourse, no attempt will be made to critically examine the Hinayana Scriptures, The Buddhist Tripitakas have been interpreted,and understood,in the way that Magasena,Buddhaghosa,and all the commentators of the Theravada trad it ion, down the centuries, ha've accepted them. Comparison will be made between dogmatic Hinayana orthodoxy,and dogmatic Christianity.In the case .of the Christian alternative,no apology will be offered for the particular tradition through which the Biblical view of man will be .interpreted.The stand-point is,that. of the Reformed Protestant Faith,in which Augustine,Luther,and Calvin take their place.These.thinkers will be referred to in the appraisal of the Christian evaluation of human nature,in the same way that the Buddhist commentators,and their interpretations, rill be used in the understanding of the text of the Tripitaka. Several students of Comparative Religion,and of Buddhism,have contrasted the "dogmas" of Buddhism with an over-simplified version of ^hristianityjvrhich -no Church would accept,or else they have reduced both faiths to a few simple moral principles.Both these methods seem to fail to do justice to the two religions,for the Christian faith is not just "the Fatherhood of ^od and the Brotherhood of man",nor is the message of Buddhism, a pure,and rational Ethicism. The text of the Tripitakas* This thesis is not concerned with the critical problem of the Tripitaka text.It will not try to distinguish between the Buddha and later Buddhism.Fany scholars have recently tried to do this,but vrith doubtful success.The scientific and critical attitude of contemporary scholarship to the text of the Pali canon,is a -natural and inevitable development.Earlier students,with the enthusiasm of first discoverers,tend to accept the authenticity of the text too easily.This stage in the history of the Pali text has now come to an end.Several factors have'influenced this process.The Pali Text Society has made the literature of the Pali canon available, both in the original language,and in trailslations. A number of other societies have sponsored similar undertakings.In addition, new Buddhist -manuscripts,are constantly being discovered in India, Tibet,and ehina.The most important factor,however,is that scholars are realizing the need to relate early Buddhism,to the background;' of the contemporary scene in India. This work is of fundamental significance,although no generally accepted conclusions have emerged as yet.There are many lacunae in our knowledge of the... India of Buddha's day,and the exact^ connection, between Vedanta thought and Buddhism is still undecided. But the necessity of approaching the 3tiiddhist Religion,in the context of Hindu India,is now unquestioned.For while it is true that Hinayana orthodoxy has developed,divorced from the main stream of Hindu thought,the real historical issue is this; how much of the radical difference between Hindu and Buddhist ideology is the result of the teaching of Gotama himself,and how much of it the consequence of later Sangha thought? This is the fundamental question. Unfortunately,the critical apparatus at the disposal of scholars for -5.xar4l4n.£i;-; the Text,is exceedingly meagre.The gap in time,between the teaching of the Buddha himself,and the writing of the pitakas, l.~ee Appendices for a closer'examination of" this problem. is so great,that in any case the value of such an exercise would be questionable.Consequently,every attempt that has been made to emend the text,h:AS beui conditioned by "theory".Each scholar has arrived at conclusions utterly at variance with the conclusions of other scholars,because their initial "theories'1 ,as to what original Buddhism was, have .differed. In this thesis no attempt has been made tcj provide yet another theory,in which True Gotama is separated from later Monk thought. It is content to accept the Hlnayana Orthodox assessment of the Text,which assumes that the Tripitaka faithfully records the teaching of the Buddha himself.This is by far the more relevant and useful method.The Buddhism of Ceylon is still the Buddhism of the Tripitakas.The attempt to discover "another" Budoha is therefore only of academic interest.The Buddha of the Tripitakas is the Budoha-who exerts a living influence on millions of men and \vonen :: of to-day.It may be that in future years,when scholarship establishes final and conclusive results,the Tripitaka portrait of the Buddha will undergo radical transformation,but this hao not yet happened.Wor is it a really serious possibility.The potent and vital expression of Buddhism,the one which claims to be most in conformity with the mind and intention of the Founder,and the one which receives the support of the commentators,is the Buddhism of the TheraVada Tripitakas.
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