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A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy

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A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy Blackwell Companions to Philosophy A COMPANION TO BUDDHIST PHILOSOPHY Edited by STEVEN M. EMMANUEL ®WILEY-BLACKWELL F. Social and Political Philosophy 32 The Enlightened Sovereign Buddhism and Kingship in India and Tibet GEORGIOS T. HALKIAS1 As the fame of some blameless king who, like a god, maintains justice; to whom the black earth brings forth wheat and barley; whose trees are bowed with fruit, and his sheep never fail to bear, and the sea gives him fish. Homer, Ode XIX All religions, insofar as they are championed by individuals and develop in communities and particular historical contexts, have shaped and been shaped by prevailing political ideas on how to arrange our collective life, social institutions, and practices, including our economy and systems of governorship. Buddhism is no exception, despite state• ments that it is fundamentally an "other-worldly" religion. In different parts of Asia - India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Tibet, China, Japan, and Mongolia - and at different periods down to the present time, political, social, and legal structures have been influenced by Buddhist precepts (Dhamma) and sanctioned by monastic institu• tions (Sangha), while the historical spread of Buddhism in India and outside its borders might not have taken place were not for the patronage of sympathetic rulers who embraced it as a state religion. Many Buddhist rulers attained the cultic status of divin• ity as buddhas or celestial bodhisattvas and were expected to exercise their power in accord with Buddhist principles. Conceptions of Kingship in Early Buddhism The principal goal of Buddhism for monks and laymen alike has always been soterio- logical - the attainment of nibbdna (Skt nirvana) - and, however this term is understood, it has never implied escape from the affairs of the world.2 It is true that the Buddha never articulated a systematic theory of politics and government, such as Kautalya's Arthasastra - a well-known and frequently consulted Indian political treatise on A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, First Edition. Edited by Steven M. Emmanuel. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons. Inc. Published 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 491 GEORGIOS T. HALKIAS statecraft rejected by the Buddhist tradition for framing the "maximum advantage to we may assume that the the ruler and his polity" in Machiavellian terms (Tambiah 1976, 16). Nevertheless, a associations in his state E synthesis between Buddhist precepts and practice is fundamental to Buddhism (Gom- constituent communities brich 1971), and the Pali canon contains numerous allusions to the ideal functioning the Buddhist monastic ca of the state and society. These alleged prescriptions of the Buddha often come in the never compete on issues form of sermons, legends, or parables spread throughout the Digha Nikaya ("The Book the land in any way, incl of Long Sayings"), the Aiiguttara Nikaya ("The Book of Gradual Sayings"), and in Jataka laws (Lewis 2003, 237). and avadana stories of the Buddha's previous lives as a bodhisatta (Skt bodhisattva). In an environment of legal these rebirth stories, the bodhisatta is depicted as perfecting both the virtues of kingship the general social expect and the virtues of renunciation, thus preparing the way for his supreme enlightenment purity and pollution, am in which the two strands of sovereignty and renunciation "receive their final synthesis king (Voyce 2007, 36). and fulfilment" (Reynolds 1972, 14). These strands were modeled after Sakyamuni's While there are clear 1 life, and there is no shortage of instructive stories of Indian kings listening to the Bud• Sangha and the function dhist teachings and renouncing the world along with their subjects (Collins 1998, ary, practical, and cultu 42 5-32). The centrality of Jdtaka tales is attested in a plethora of sculptures and paint• nowhere more evident th ings at Buddhist monasteries and catiyas and stupas (reliquaries) that depict scenes from ereignty" combined in a s the most popular stories, which were read carefully by the literati who translated them in this world and the wor into various vernacular languages and utilized them in the legal systems of South-East Asia (Lewis 2003, 235). While it is true that, for the most part, the monastic community, the Sangha, respected the autonomy of the political field, it did not hesitate to legitimize the political power of and idealize kingship in a Buddhist fashion (Tambiah 1976). The survival of The Beloved by the Gods. the Buddhist movement required a transaction with the secular sphere, for, as put Having in view this very l tersely by Houtart (1977, 209), "had it not been able to furnish the necessary justifica• and issued proclamations tion to the political power, it would have been replaced by another religious system." However, there are important theoretical reasons for demarcating Buddhist soteriology and political expediency, for neither can be reduced to the inner logic of the other, since From what we know fro they are conditioned by a different set of assumptions and circumstances. At the same who came from a tribal time we should be cautious not to treat them as two exclusively distinct categories of the throne for a life in sec interpretation. It is commonly assumed that political matters are driven by concerns suppression of endless ti about how to exercise temporal power and authority over others, while Buddhist doc• filed, and unexcelled sec trines deal with a power over oneself for the purpose of attaining mastery of one's because of his privileged grosser levels of consciousness in pursuit of liberation from suffering (dukkha). In Indian monarchs and reality, of course, things are not one-sided, and a symbiotic relation between the their patronage, and ad Sangha and the king existed in India and manifested in overlapping conceptions of nuns - many of whom what constitutes Dhamma (Skt Dhanna; duty, morality, law, truth, etc.) - articulated in its early critical years" ( Buddhism as buddha-dhamma and in the temporal sphere as rdja-dhamma. of Kosala and King BimbL For Buddhism, human suffering is caused, to a large extent, by unwholesome human 1993). actions and states of mind whose origin is greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), and confusion This period in Indian (moha). These "poisons" do not just affect individuals but contaminate institutions and religious caste of the brdl society at large. The role of the Buddhist community, then, is to influence policy-making chical division of society to ensure that it accords with the Dhamma, while an ideal ruler would be a righteous of warriors and kings, leader that works for the welfare and harmony of his subjects. and trade, and lastly th The relationship between state and religion was a subject of some concern in Buddha, who belonged Manu's dharmaidstra, one of the most widely discussed ancient Indian sources for the caste system. In the litigation. If the Manusmrti ("Laws of Manu") were in effect at the time of the Buddha, qualities are scattered i 492 BUDDHISM AND KINGSHIP IN INDIA AND TIBET we may assume that the king was advised to support the regulations of religious associations in his state and that the Sangha enjoyed state recognition as one of the constituent communities in the body politic (Voyce 1986, 129). In the Vinaya, the Buddhist monastic code, the Buddha made it clear that the monastic body should never compete on issues of political authority with the state or disregard the laws of the land in any way, including accepting into the order those who have broken such laws (Lewis 2003, 237). Monks and nuns were expected to perform their duties in an environment of legal pluralism, for they were subject both to the Buddhist code, the general social expectations of mendicants concerning brahmanical concepts of purity and pollution, and to the dharmasdstra, the laws of the state enforced by the king (Voyce 2007, 36). While there are clear lines of demarcation between the role of the Buddha and his Sangha and the function of the king, there is often a blurring of these lines in the liter• ary, practical, and cultural manifestations of Buddhism across Asia. Ambiguity is nowhere more evident than in the promotion and application of notions of "dual sov• ereignty" combined in a single person capable of arbitrating secular and spiritual power in this world and the world beyond. The Ruler and the State The Beloved by the Gods, King Asoka speaks thus. Having in view this verg matter, I have set up pillars of morality, appointed Officers of morality, and issued proclamations on morality. Delhi-Topra Pillar Edict From what we know from the sources, Sakyamuni (lit. "sage of Sakya") was a prince who came from a tribal oligarchy. He abandoned his kingdom and his right to inherit the throne for a life in search of the ultimate truth that he characterized as nibbdna - the suppression of endless transmigrations and the unfailing, deathless, sorrowless, unde• nted, and unexcelled security from bondage (AN.I.145). For pragmatic reasons, and because of his privileged upbringing, he had no difficulty in mingling in the courts of Indian monarchs and nobles. He advised them on religious matters, welcomed their patronage, and admitted scions of royal families to join his order of monks and nuns - many of whom played a leading part in "the propagation of the creed during its early critical years" (Gokhale 1966, 15). His close relationship with King Prasenajit of Kosala and King Bimbisara of Magadha is well documented in Buddhist texts (Bareau 1993). This period in Indian history featured a patchwork of small monarchies where the religious caste of the brdhmana priests was dominant and placed at the top of a hierar• chical division of society according to four castes (varnas). It was followed by the class of warriors and kings, the ksatriyas, then the vaisyas, who engaged with agriculture and trade, and lastly the servants, the sudras, at the bottom of the social ladder.
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