How Buddhism Began

HOW BUDDHISM BEGAN This book, the second edition of How Buddhism Began, takes a fresh look at the earliest Buddhist texts and offers various suggestions how the teachings in them had developed. Two themes predominate. Firstly, it argues that we cannot understand the Buddha unless we understand that he was debating with other religious teachers, notably Brahmins. The other main theme concerns metaphor, allegory and literalism. By taking the words of the texts literally – despite the Buddha’s warning not to – successive generations of his disciples created distinctions and developed doctrines far beyond his original intention. This accessible, well-written book by one of the world’s top scholars in the field of Pali Buddhism is mandatory reading for all serious students of Buddhism. Richard F. Gombrich is Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, and one of the most renowned Buddhist scholars in the world. From 1976 to 2004 he was Boden Professor of Sanskrit, University of Oxford. He has written extensively on Buddhism, including How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings (1996); Theravada Buddhism: A social history from ancient Benares to modern Colombo (1988); and with Gananath Obeyesekere, Buddhism transformed: Religious change in Sri Lanka (1988). He has been President of the Pali Text Society and was awarded the Sri Lanka Ranjana decoration by the President of Sri Lanka in 1994 and the SC Chakraborty medal by the Asiatic Society of Calcutta the previous year. 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 IMAGING WISDOM LITERATURE Jacob N. Kinnard Charles S. Prebish PAIN AND ITS ENDING THE REFLEXIVE NATURE OF Carol S. Anderson AWARENESS Paul Williams EMPTINESS APPRAISED ALTRUISM AND REALITY David F. Burton Paul Williams THE SOUND OF LIBERATING BUDDHISM AND HUMAN TRUTH RIGHTS Edited by Sallie B. King and Edited by Damien Keown, Paul O. Ingram Charles S. Prebish, Wayne Husted BUDDHIST THEOLOGY WOMEN IN THE FOOTSTEPS Edited by Roger R. Jackson and OF THE BUDDHA John J. Makransky Kathryn R. Blackstone THE RESONANCE OF THE GLORIOUS DEEDS OF EMPTINESS PURNA Gay Watson Joel Tatelman AMERICAN BUDDHISM EARLY BUDDHISM – A NEW Edited by Duncan Ryuken Williams APPROACH and Christopher Queen Sue Hamilton CONTEMPORARY BUDDHIST ACTION DHARMA ETHICS Edited by Christopher Queen, Edited by Damien Keown Charles S. Prebish and Damien Keown INNOVATIVE BUDDHIST WOMEN TIBETAN AND ZEN Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN David N. Kay TEACHING BUDDHISM IN THE WEST THE CONCEPT OF THE BUDDHA Edited by V. S. Hori, R. P. Hayes and Guang Xing J. M. Shields THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESIRE EMPTY VISION IN THE BUDDHIST PALI CANON David L. McMahan David Webster SELF, REALITY AND REASON THE NOTION OF DITTHI IN IN TIBETAN PHILOSOPHY THERAVADA BUDDHISM Thupten Jinpa Paul Fuller IN DEFENSE OF DHARMA THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF Tessa J. Bartholomeusz SELF-COGNITION Zhihua Yao BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY Dan Lusthaus MORAL THEORY IN SANTIDEVA’S RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION SIKSASAMUCCAYA AND THE ORIGINS Barbra R. Clayton OF BUDDHISM Torkel Brekke BUDDHIST STUDIES FROM DEVELOPMENTS IN INDIA TO AMERICA AUSTRALIAN BUDDHISM Edited by Damien Keown Michelle Spuler DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY IN ZEN WAR STORIES MEDIEVAL JAPANESE Brian Victoria BUDDHISM Edited by Richard K. Payne and THE BUDDHIST Taigen Dan Leighton UNCONSCIOUS William S. Waldron BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGICAL INDIAN BUDDHIST THEORIES RESEARCH OF PERSONS Edited by D. K. Nauriyal, James Duerlinger Michael S. Drummond and Y. B. Lal The following titles are published in association with the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 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 How Buddhism Began The conditioned genesis of the early teachings Second edition Richard F. Gombrich First published 1996 by The Athlone Press 1 Park Drive, London NW11 7SG and 165 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716 School of Oriental and African Studies Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion XVII Second edition published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 1996 School of Oriental and African Studies. 2006 Richard F. Gombrich All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. 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 A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0–415–37123–6(Print Edition) For Maria Gerger and Ernst Steinkellner CONTENTS Introduction to the second edition xi Preface xvii Abbreviations xix I. Debate, Skill in Means, Allegory and Literalism 1 II. How, not What: Kamma as a Reaction to Brahminism 27 III. Metaphor, Allegory, Satire 65 IV. Retracing an Ancient Debate: How Insight Worsted 96 Concentration in the Pali Canon V. Who was Akgulimala? 135 Bibliography 165 General Index 170 Index of Texts Cited 179 INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION The main purpose of this book is to present the Buddha’s ideas in their historical context. Since it was first published, others have been pursuing some of the same lines of inquiry, and I believe their results to be at least as important and convincing as my own. My most prominent theme, pursued in chapters II and III, is the relationship of the Buddha’s ideas to the brahminical ideas of his day. This theme seems to have inspired two particularly impres- sive contributions. In her article ‘Playing with Fire: The pratityasamutpada from the Perspective of Vedic Thought’1 Joanna Jurewicz has, to my mind, found a convincing answer to an ancient question. While the general purport of the Buddha’s teaching of dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada) has always been understood, there has been almost infinite disagree- ment among interpreters both ancient and modern about how to understand the details of the chain, and why the links are in that order. Jurewicz has demonstrated that the teaching is formulated (presumably by the Buddha) as a response to Vedic cosmogony not merely in general but also in detail. As is his wont, the Buddha accepts the tenets of his brahmin predecessors only to reinterpret them – one might say, to ironise them. Here the main irony comes from his denial of the fundamental postulate of the Vedic cosmogony, the existence of the atman (self ). This denial ‘deprives the Vedic cosmogony of its positive meaning as the successful activity of the Absolute and presents it as a chain of absurd, meaningless changes which could only result in the repeated death of anyone who would reproduce this cosmogonic process in ritual activity and everyday life’.2 Secondly, in his recent Oxford D.Phil. thesis Alexander Wynne has shown how fruitful a similar approach can be for our understanding of the origins of the Buddha’s teachings on 1 Journal of the Pali Text Society XXVI (2000), pp. 77–103. 2 Ibid., pp. 100–01. xii INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND EDITION meditation. These too, it would appear, arose as a conscious development from but also a reaction against brahminical teachings. Another line of inquiry here followed, partially interwoven with the first, is to trace doctrinal change within the Pali Canon itself. Stratification of the Canon into earlier and later texts has acquired a bad name, because the scholars who attempt such stratification have often made quite arbitrary and hence uncon- vincing decisions that certain features of form or content are early or late. I do not think I ever do this. I try, by contrast, to show how one thing leads to another. For example, metaphorical expressions may come to be taken literally, or two expressions which originally had the same referent may come to be inter- preted as expressing a more profound difference. If the Canon, a vast body of material, was produced over many years – and to suppose otherwise seems to fly in the face of common sense – it is not surprising if misunderstandings or diverse interpretations arose in the process. This line of inquiry has been fruitfully pursued by Hwang Soon-il in his doctoral thesis Metaphor and Literalism: a study of doctrinal development of nirvana in the Pali Nikaya and subsequent tradition compared with the Chinese Agama and its traditional interpretation (Oxford, 2002).

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