'An Ideal Paradigm of Countless Buddha's' A

PAUL VAN DER VELDE

‘AN IDEAL PARADIGM OF COUNTLESS BUDDHA’S’

A Reflection on Biography in Traditional Asian and Modern Western Buddhism

‘And he who sees the peaceful, auspicious, passionless dharma, that is completely free from ageing and brings one to the ultimate, he will likewise see its instructor, the choicest amongst the nobles, he sees the Buddha, because now he has developed the eye for this. Because of the fortunate teachings it is just like when someone is no longer sick because he has been cured of the disease and thankfully looks at his doctor, full of gratitude for reason of his intelligence, friendliness and knowledge of the medical sciences. Exactly does one see, now that one is freed by the noble path and beholds the noble truth thoroughly, the Tathagata [i.e. Buddha] full of gratitude. And as a witness of his body one can only be satisfied by his kindness and omniscience’. Saundarananda XVII 32-34

SUMMARY — The life history of the Buddha has always played an important role in Asian Buddhism. Whether the events from Siddhar- tha Gautama’s life are historical or not seems to be of lesser importance compared to what his life history seems to imply as a paradigm. Asian Buddhists may identify with him, but as his spiritual career in fact consists of many lives, they may also identify with previous births or even with companions of the Buddha, his parents, his main disciples and so on. Once Buddhism came to the west, choices were made about what was considered to be part of ‘main Buddhism’ and what was considered to be religious and therefore often rejected. Many of the life histories therefore shifted to an inferior position. In modern Buddhism though there are life histories as many modern Buddhists consider their personal quest for meaning in life an essential part of their spiritual developments. The encounter with Buddhism is often seen as the result of a long search. In

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modern Buddhist biographies the person with whom one tries to con- struct a connection or identification is more often than not the Buddha himself. A last development seems to be the search for the ‘actual embodiment’ of the ideal. The Buddha physically embodies the ideal and so should the modern Buddhist.

Every introduction in Buddhism will start with the life history of the Buddha, the story of how he was born in Lumbini, reached enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his sermons and passed away in Kushinara. This is not really sur- prising, it is the biography of the founder. First we come across his account and then follow the characteristics of the Buddhist dharma. Within the Buddhist tradition in Asia, however, the historical Buddha Sakya- muni is hardly ever seen as the actual founder of Buddhism. The idea is rather that the Buddha lives his life in accordance with the discoveries of many Bud- dha’s before him and many Buddha’s to come will follow a similar path in the future. This is quite a difference with Buddhism as it develops in the west in modernity. Here the Buddha is more often than not seen as the true founder of the dharma and his predecessors are usually hardly even mentioned. Within most of the schools in Asian Buddhism this is completely different. There the Buddha is first of all seen as the reinventor or rediscoverer of the dharma and secondly his life history embodies the ideal career every Buddhist should in the end follow. In Asia the career of the Buddha does not consist of one life in which he was born as prince Siddhartha Gautama and reached the ultimate experience. All of his earlier lives play an equally important role here. In his previous lives he worked on his perfections that in the end enabled him to pass through his final experience. As such the career of the Buddha does not consist of one life, it consists of millions of lives. It is thought that he could remember all of these lives in the night he touched the earth of Bodh Gaya. In doing so he asked the goddess of the earth to bear witness that it was by right he would reach enlightenment. In all of his prior lives he had performed so many virtuous acts that his enlightenment was nothing else but the logical result of his accumulated merits. It was the fruit of karma. The Buddha’s life history is in Asia thus seen as actual history, but it is an ideal set, it is history to be performed, history ‘to be repeated’.

In this article I want to reflect on the traditional role the biography of the Bud- dha, the accounts of his former lives and the stories of his disciples and other sages play in traditional Buddhism and the shifts we may find now that Bud- dhism has come to the west and is transformed in whatever it is called here: a philosophy, a way of living, a science, a psychology and so forth. I think the choices made by westerners who brought Buddhism to the west above all at the

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end of the nineteenth and the beginning of twentieth century play an important role here. Moreover, there is the western imagining of what Buddhism is supposed to be. And this is quite different from what we may find in Asia.

THE BUDDHA, AN IDEAL LIFE

In Asia hardly anyone doubts the historicity of the Buddha, including the 547 jataka’s or birthstories that bear witness of his virtuous acts. However, at times one gets the impression that the historicity of these facts is not what the Buddha’s life is actually about, it is not the most important side of the Buddha’s life history, even though nobody in Asia will actually put questions whether the life events of the Buddha really happened or not. More important are the paradigmatic implications of the Buddha’s life history. This is how any ideal Buddhist should live, any Buddhist should live his or her lives until he or she is born as the noble being that touches the earth of Bodh Gaya. There is even a series of four places where every Buddha will perform particular deeds. Every Buddha will touch the earth of Bodh Gaya; they will all give their first sermon in Sarnath; all of them will come down to earth in Samkashya after they have preached for three months in heaven where their mothers are reborn; they will all have their couch on the same place in the Jetavana park in Shravasti. There may also be differences in their lives, these are the following eight: they may differ in height, lifespan and caste, though they are usually born as Brahmins or Ksatriyas; the vehicle with the help of which they will leave their palace; the tree under which they will reach the enlightenment and the seize of their throne there, the period they spend in severe asceticism before they turn to the middle path and the extent of their aura, these may differ for each Buddha.1 After their passage into nirvana their relics are put to rest in stupas. These stupas are later on opened and the events and miracles that happen to the relics will vary for every Buddha. Thus we may say that the Buddha’s life history is in Asia seen as historical, but much more important it serves as an ideal paradigm to follow, to take part in, to identify with. It serves as a guideline, what would an enlightened being as the Buddha do now? What is the middlepath in this particular situation? It might not be exaggerated to state that western scientific research and archeol- ogy have made the Buddha more ‘historical’, more tangible than he actually has ever been.

1 Donald Lopez Jr., ‘The Buddha’, in: Idem (Ed.), Critical terms for the study of Buddhism, Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 13-36, esp. 29, 30, under reference to G.P. Malalasekhara, Dictionary of Pali proper names (2 vols.), Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1998 (orig. publ. 1937), 294-305.

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A BUDDHA IS NEVER ALONE

In his life history the Buddha is not alone, there are his familymembers, there are his disciples, teachers and so many others. If one studies the accounts of the jataka’s one may see that over all of these lives the same persons have accompa- nied the Buddha. It is generally accepted that it is due to the merits of all of these persons that they are life after life reborn in the company of the Buddha. Thus they as well serve as role models, as paradigms, slightly minor maybe than the model of the Buddha himself. To identify with one of the main characters of the Buddha’s life history is often much easier than identification with the Buddha himself. The Buddha at times shows such vehement perseverance in his noble acts that it is hardly possible to identify with him constantly. This would disrupt daily life. Yet this does happen, above all many of the monks are thought to be constantly identifying with the Buddha in his last life. If one desires to identify with the Buddha it is easier though to identify with him in some of his earlier births. In these he at times even seems human. Thus Asian Buddhism has countless role models, there is the Buddha, there is his family, there are the jataka’s, the stories of ideal disciples and so forth. One can practice what these characters practiced and thus one may at the end reach a life in which to reach the ultimate enlightenment. Donating to the sangha, offering water or earthy goods to monks or the sangha is in Asia as much following the traces of the Buddha and his entourage as is the act of meditation for instance. Moreover, it is accepted that the Buddha Sakyamuni has himself been part of the entourage of many previous Buddha’s.

BUDDHISM IN THE WEST

Now since the last decades of the nineteenth century Buddhism came to the west. Among western intellectuals an interest arose for a ‘religion’ or ‘philosophy’ that would not be ‘dogmatic’, that would challenge western sciences and moreover put the human individual in the front in stead of a creator god or some other higher entity with which to identify. This ideal was thought to be found in Buddhism.2 People such as Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott, the founders of the Theosophical Society came to Asia where they first converted to Hinduism and later to Buddhism. Olcott even tried to unite all Buddhists of Asia and he published a ‘Buddhist Catechism’ that was widely accepted by

2 See for a study on the reception of Buddhism in the west: Donald Lopez Jr. (Ed.), Buddhism: Readings for the Unenlightened, London: Penguin Books, 2002.

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Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka. Problems arose, however, when Olcott stated that the renowned tooth of Buddha that is under worship in Kandy was nothing else but a piece of deer antler.3 This statement implied serious problems and the approval of the Buddhist Catechism was withdrawn by the Buddhist sangha. Only later when Olcott reviewed his statements the Catechism was once more accepted.4 In this conflict, however, we can see the problem between traditional Asian Buddhism and the modern western currents reflected. Asian Buddhism is a fully fledged religion – with rituals, images and firm beliefs that would in the west definitely be called dogmas – and that is not what Buddhism is supposed to be in the west. It must be adogmatic, it must be modern, not a religion because that has connotations with dogmatism, abuse and outdated rituals. Worship of a sacred tooth relic is seen as a corruption, it reminds the Roman Catholic worship of saints’ bodily remains, and that is not what the modern western Buddhist aspires. Modern Buddhism is supposed to be a way of life, a philosophy rather than a religion. It should be released of ‘culture’ and ‘locality’ to discover what the Buddha actually meant, because this lies deeply hidden amidst the ‘corruptions of culture and locality’, so one may often find stated. In this modern Buddhism practicing what the Buddha did almost always implies the practice of meditation. As stated above, this modern Buddhism is considered to be free of any dogma. This is not very strange as the average modern western Buddhist is a layperson. The rules of the vinaya in accordance to which most of the monks in Asia live their lives are simply left out. They do not fit in a modern lifestyle, moreover these are often seen as the notorious dogmas and they would change Buddhism into the religion it should not be, in the ideas of many. Nowadays we may even find that traditional meditation practices are adjusted to a modern lifestyle. The renowned three years retreat that consists of a period of three years, three months, three weeks, three days, three hours, three minutes and three seconds as it is practiced in Tibetan Bud- dhism, is nowadays adjusted so that it can be done in part time. Thus it can be combined with family life and a professional career. ‘Practicing what the Buddha did’ has far reaching consequences for the position of the manifold role models in traditional Buddhism. In the west more often than not, the jataka’s lose their prominence as role models, they change into stories, fairy tales that may speak of the exalted wisdom of the Buddha, more often than not they change into children’s stories instead of spiritual rolemodels. Likewise the stories of the enlightened disciples, the Arhats, become

3 Ibid., xix. 4 Ibidem.

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funny stories on strange people instead of vitae one can mirror oneself to, or identify with. Only very rarely does one come across accounts in the west where disciples of the Buddha are chosen as role models in stead of the Buddha himself. There is one example of the novel of André van der Braak Enlightenment Blues published in 2003 in which he tells of his spiritual quest with an Ameri- can guru.5 He undertook his quest in the company of a close friend and it is remarkable that he dedicates his novel to Sariputra and Mahamaudgalyayana, two of the most important disciples of the Buddha. They as well were close friends looking for spiritual perfection which they have found with the Buddha. Thus André van der Braak seems to create a parallel with these two Arhats.6 In Asia one may often see that Buddhists will try to identify with the Bud- dha and his entourage. For this they may of course visit the places where the Buddha went in India, they may trace his footsteps, imitate what he did. Pil- grimage to northern India is very popular these days. If the Buddhists cannot visit India proper they will go his path in the many temples and monasteries all over Asia. Hence the importance of the images of the Buddha’s footprints worshiped all over the Buddhist world. Thus Buddhists follow the ancient path that the Buddha and so many Buddha’s of the past went before them. In Buddhist rituals in Asia one may find the Buddha’s life history imitated. The young novice will leave his house dressed as a prince to give up his royal outfit once he reaches the monastery grounds. The monk, even the novice is an extension of the Buddha. At the moment of death a Buddhist should preferably be laid on his right side as it was thus that the Buddha expired. If a donation is made, often one will try to identify with one of the richer layfollowers of the Buddha. In Thailand for instance water is poured over the donor’s hand at the moment of donating. This is done to stress the identification with Anathapin- dada, he wealthy merchant who was a lay follower of the Buddha. The emperor Asoka has even tried to surpass Anathapindada at a certain moment in his life. Thus in traditional Buddhism one may find the tendency to identify with the story of the Buddha and his close followers.

ROLE MODELS IN MODERN BUDDHISM – RECONSTRUCTING YOUR LIFE AS THAT OF THE BUDDHA

‘Each of these factors contributes to a sense of modern Buddhism as shifting emphasis away from the corporate community (especially the community

5 André van der Braak, Enlightenment blues, Rhinebeck: Monkfish, 2003. 6 When I asked André van der Braak about this he told me this parallel was indeed intended.

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of monks) to the individual, who was able to define for him- or herself a new identity that had not existed before, sometimes even designing new robes that marked a status between the categories of monk and layperson’.7 Modern western Buddhism shares with the Asian traditional dharma that there is an enormous interest in life histories. Over the past decades many biographies or autobiographies have been published in which important teachers and prominent Buddhists tell of their practices and experiences with the dharma. Especially the encounter with the dharma and what this resulted in are given large attention. As such there is a great continuity between the older traditions in Asia and the modern western practice. The impact of the dharma is prominent. Differences, however, are evenly present. Most striking I think is the shift in many of these modern western accounts from the basic concept of an individual who finds his or her way within the biography of the Buddha, towards, ‘how does the discovery of the Buddha fit into my life’. The individual discovery of suffering does not imply that the individual discovers what the Buddha discovered centuries before, it is rather that the individual discovery of suffering transfers the Buddha’s life history to that of the individual. It is a way of rein- venting or reconstructing your life as the life of the Buddha. To express this idea in locations: Lumbini, where the Buddha was born is my birth place, the four encounters do not consist of the exposure of the Buddha with an old man, a diseased person, a corpse and a begging ascetic, the four consist of incidents in my personal life. The Buddha’s life history no longer consists of the ideal paradigm inclusive of all the jataka’s in which he worked on his perfections, the Buddha’s paradigm consists of what I discovered myself in my life. This is what will bring me to my personal enlightenment. Bodh Gaya may be located in northern India, but my personal Bodh Gaya is located where I made my personal discovery of the dharma, so to say. Bodh Gaya is no longer a locality in northern India, it is a transformation of my life. This makes the Buddhist life history in modern Buddhism much more personal, much more individual than it has ever been in Asia. Examples of this ‘personalization’ of the Buddha can be found in many Bud- dhist biographies. Recently many of these have been published. As a first example I would like to give attention to the introduction of the wellknown Bud- dhist and meditation teacher Jack Kornfield to the novel Before He Was the Buddha of Hammalawa Saddhatissa (1914-1990) published in 1998. Korn- field’s introduction shows us the eminent position of the Buddha’s life history

7 Lopez, Buddhism, xxxix.

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but meanwhile links it to our individual life histories, the Buddha’s life history is our life history: You hold in your hand a treasure, one of the most beloved stories of the human race, told and retold over the centuries. It is beloved because it reminds us of the possibility of freedom, of awakening the heart. It is repeated because it is our story; together with the Buddha each of us can remember our own ignorance and struggles and each can sense the path we, too, might follow to live a life of freedom in thought.8 Further down Kornfield emphasizes the importance of the four events, but links them to our personal experiences. In other words, the four encounters which the Buddha had with an old man, a sick person, a corpse and a religious mendicant, are not as much part of the Buddha’s life history as they are part of our life. Central to this story of the Buddha’s journey is the account of the four sightings or heavenly messengers that shocked the young Siddhartha with the truth of human frailty and suffering. In leaving the protection of the palace, the Prince first encountered an old person, then one who was grievously sick. Next he saw a dead body and finally an ascetic renunciate seeking a solution to human suffering. Perhaps we can each remember the powerful encounter when we first saw someone grievously ill, or saw our first corpse, and the effect such first-hand knowledge of death had in our life.9 Finally the story will connect us to the ultimate experience and it will deliver us from the three great illusions – greed, hatred and delusion – that constantly keep us away from the ultimate experiences. Take pleasure in this story, read it slowly, digest it, reflect upon it. Let it be a blessing and a mirror for your own heart. And in this mirror, may it lead you to relinquish greed, hatred and delusion, may it lead you to live wisely and follow the Noble Path. In this way, the Buddha assures us, ‘The earth will not be free of enlightened beings’.10 This is quite a paradox to many practices found in Asia. There only the monks may embody the Buddha, the other lay Buddhists at the most form his company maybe over many lives. Kornfield reinforces in his statements the direct connection between our personal story at this moment and the Buddha’s paradigm. We do not take part in the Buddha’s life history, the Buddha takes part in our life. Not the Buddha’s life history seems to play the prominent role here, it is the personal life history that does so. Therefore, many modern western

8 J. Kornfield, ‘Introduction’, in: Hammalawa Saddhathissa Mahathera, Before he was Buddha: The life of Siddhartha, introd. Jack Kornfield, Berkeley: Seastone, 1998 (2nd ed. 2000), 1-5: 1. 9 Ibid., 2. 10 Ibid., 5.

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Buddhists tell their personal life history as part of their Buddhism. They do so for instance if they tell about their personal interest in the dharma. These personal discoveries can often be found in the modern western Buddhist novels, biographies and autobiographies.

Likewise there are many collections of interviews with modern Buddhists. One of these is Why Buddhism11 by Vicki Mackenzie. She writes on her meetings with several prominent modern Buddhists, Robina Courtin, Alison Murdoch, Thubten Gelek, Sharon Salzberg, Bob Sharples, Michael Roach, Tracy Mann, Stephen Batchelor, Inta McKimm, Miffi Maxmillion, Clive Arrowsmith, Lama Palden Drolma, Philip Glass, Robert Thurman, Sister Kovinda and Yvonne Rand. Here once more if Vickie Mackenzie is reflecting her interviews and meetings we come across the words: ‘For several interviewees, a personal tragedy or crisis was the starting point of their search. And many talk of “coming home” when they met the Buddha’s teachings’.12 The personal tragedy can be seen as the four encounters of the Buddha. Maybe it is due to the questions Mackenzie has asked her Buddhists but it is remarkable that they start describ- ing their life history if the meaning of Buddhism in their lives is questioned. In the interview with Robina Courtin for instance we find the following stated: Born in Melbourne, Australia, she trained as a classical singer before going to London where her career took a decidedly less conventional turn. She joined a group called Friends of Soledad, which organized support for imprisoned black activists in the USA, known as the Soledad Brothers. She next took up the feminist cause, eventually becoming a radical lesbian feminist. Next was kung fu and karate. ‘I was always looking, always politically active, wanting to change the world’, she told me. (…) I know this from my own experience. I wanted answers and I had a great desire to make things better. I had my own unhappiness in childhood, but my first experience of suffering in the world was when I started reading black Amer- ican literature and listening to black music. It moved me profoundly. My heart reached out (that was the good part) but there was anger in my mind. That was the political stance also, of course. The compassion I had for black people was equalled by the anger I had towards white people. And then when I became a feminist my compassion for female people was equalled by the anger I had for male people. That’s why, after ten years of being very political and hating first of all the straight people then all the white people, then all the rich people, then all the male people, there was no one left to blame. I’d exhausted all the possibilities. My heart meant well but the methodology was a disaster. It just created more violence, more problems. It was so clear. It was also obvious that my own mind

11 Vicki Mackenzie, Why Buddhism? Westerners in search of wisdom, London: Harper Collins, 2002. 12 Mackenzie, Why Buddhism?, xxv.

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was becoming crazy. I couldn’t hate half the human race – it wasn’t on. It was logical that it was destroying Robina. At that point I began to listen to the Bud- dha’s teaching – looking at Robina for the first time in my life. 13 Robina Courtin nowadays teaches Buddhism and Buddhist meditation to pris- oners.14 From a Buddhist viewpoint one might say that in her life Robina has ‘gone too far’. She has lived her life only at the extremes, extreme love and extreme hatred, and the one would imply the other, only to discover that there is at the end nothing left. This is her middlepath, the path the Buddha discovered in Uruvela after he heard a musician teaching his student on the tuning of the cords on his instrument: ‘If you pull it too tight it will break, if you pull it too slack, you cannot play’. Then he came to his middlepath and once more started eating. He had left the sensual life of the palace as the one extreme and the severe asceticism as the other. In Vicki Mackenzie’s interview with Bob Sharples we can even find how he connects the four noble truths of Buddhism with concrete events from his life, above all the unfortunate suicides of his mother and his brother: Then there were the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha’s core teachings in which he diagnosed the predicament of the human condition and mapped out the cure. When I heard the First Truth about universal suffering I believed it, because that was how I had experienced it. My brother had leapt out of a window. I knew life was suffering. My mother had jumped from a train. She had disappeared from my life when I was eight. The Four Noble Truths put that misery into context. The Buddha said quite baldly, ‘That’s the way it is’. Before then I thought I was different. Now I knew I was not. The Buddha said that if you were prepared to see and acknowledge this, then there is a way through it. This wasn’t spacing out on a bliss trip, but a deep understanding of the human condition. And Buddhism gave me a method, which was to sit on your bum and meditate.15

‘EMBODYING THE DHARMA’

Even the ‘embodiment of the dharma’ comes to play a part in modern Bud- dhism, at least I think so. Seen from traditional Asian Buddhism this is nothing

13 Ibid., 2, 14. 14 Other examples of the impact of the Buddhist dharma on personal lives are manifold in Mackenzie’s book. See e.g. p. 57 on the ‘openness of Buddhism for the individual’; p. 77 on the life of a woman called Dipa Ma and the untimely death of her husband and how, as a result of this, she became an accomplished meditation teacher; on the personal life history, unfortunate events and the dharma pp. 95-97; there are many other examples in the book worth mentioning here. 15 Mackenzie, Why Buddhism?, 100.

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strange. The main cult of Buddhism focuses upon what actually embodies the dharma. This implies in Asia first of all the relics of the Buddha that are usually worshiped in the monumental stupas. The relics are the remains of the embodiment once the Buddha entered into the final nirvana. Second to this are the monks who embody the practice of the dharma in whatever form. They are extensions of the original Buddha and of the many Buddha’s before him. Yet in the modern life histories of western Buddhists we may similarly come across the importance of embodiment. One of the most impressive modern Buddhist life histories I recently read was the Dharma Punx written by Noah Levine.16 This life history moves yet somewhat further than the others as ‘embodiment’ comes to play an important part in the account and, I think, in the life of the author. In this book the author writes his life history, how he developed from the Punk ideals, or rather non-ideals of the ’80 and 90’s of the twentieth century, into a practitioner of the dharma. He spent many of his days at the outskirts of society and also had his days in prison. Remarkable is, as can be expected in a Buddhist life history, that Levine not only speaks of his own developments and whereabouts, what his companions and friends lived through is part of that same story; Dharma Punx is my story and it’s a story about my generation: the punks, the kids all around the world who searched for meaning and liberation in the age of Reagan, Thatcher, and the Cold War’s constant threat of total nuclear annihila- tion. I sought a different path than that of my parents. I totally rejected meditation and all the spiritual shit they built their lives on.17 Noah Levine gives an excellent touching description of Punk life style and of the larger events in which he took part. Several of his companions did not sur- vive. This closely resembles the accounts of the jataka’s that often end with the message that all characters ended up, or continued or were reborn ‘after their deeds’, which implies in accordance with their karma. Noah Levine is the son of the renowned meditation teacher Stephen Levine. Noah Levine already practiced Buddhist meditation for quite some years when the impact of the dharma seems to have become much tighter on him. At a certain moment in the tur- moil of his life he comments: I think this was really the beginning of the integration of our punk ethics and spiritual practice. We would go to meditation groups and then go to punk rock

16 Noah Levine, Dharma punx: A memoir, San Francisco: Harper, 2003. In 2007 he published his book Against the stream: A Buddhist manual for spiritual revolutionaries (San Francisco: Harper) and a documentary on his life and practices was released in 2007 as well, named: ‘Meditate and Destroy, a documentary about punk rock, spirituality and inner rebellion’. 17 Levine, Dharma punx, ix.

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shows and do stage dives and slam dancing (…) In one of the stories about the Buddha’s enlightenment I came across a line where he said that his awakening was ‘against the stream’, that the spiritual path that leads to liberation is against man’s selfish, deluded ways. That was it, exactly what I was looking for: an inner rebellion that would bring me to liberation. I had been experiencing that through my spiritual practices but there it was in black and white, the Buddha had actually described it as the path. I knew that I was on the right track. My early life’s external rebellion had only led to more suffering; the Buddhist spiritual path was the perfect way to realize my goal of the real revolution.18 Levine’s arms are depicted on the cover of his book, they are fully covered with tattoos, faithful to the groups he used to live and hang out with. These tattoos were admired by the Dalai lama for the brightness of their colours: ‘“Very colorful!” My whole body was vibrating and I felt a warm energy that started at my toes and exited through my mouth in the form of laughter, joined by the laughter and praise of everyone else in the room’.19 Levine now teaches meditation classes in prisons and juvenile halls, in some cases combining meditation with individual psychotherapy to help inmates work through the experiences that got them there, and/or the obsta- cles that keep them there.20 His experiences and his impressive appearance make an overwhelming impression on the juveniles, above all the idea that ‘he has been there’, he has had his experiences that resulted in his position now. Some of Levine’s tattoos were given to him on the occasion of his ini- tiations into streetgangs and other ‘twilight’ communities. The words ‘against the stream’ are tattooed in his neck. Here the embodiment comes in. These marks of initiation show he ’has been there’, they bear testimony of his experiences, he went through it all himself. This exactly puts him on a par with the Buddha himself, one might claim, as the Buddha as well has experienced it all, not only in his life as Siddhartha Gautama, but in his countless earlier lives as well. His 32 laksana’s bear witness of this, because his body would not have shown these signs were it not that he passed through the experience of enlightenment by right. He embodies the absolute paradigm and that is we might say what Noah Levine does in the eyes of the juveniles. Buddha’s and Levine’s ‘laksana’s’ are not the same, but in their appearance and implications there is a resemblance.

18 Ibid., 128. 19 Ibid., 229. 20 See www.satyamag.com/oct03/levine.html

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CONCLUDING

In modern western Buddhism the Buddha plays quite a different role than he does in traditional Asian Buddhism. In Asia the Buddha’s life history consists of a complete spiritual career, he serves as a paradigm. This is how it should be. A Buddhist should try through gaining karmic merits to cause for him- or herself a life in which nirvana can be reached as a natural result of causes. There- fore we find in Asia many different rolemodels to follow, to identify with, to study, to mirror one’s life or actions with. The birthstories and the stories on the exemplary Arhats play an important role here as well. The rules of karma caused the Buddha to reach his ultimate experience of nirvana. The same rules caused his company to get reborn along with him. He himself was in his former lives likewise many times reborn in the company of previous Buddha’s. This is all due to karma. In so far Buddha’s example consists of many paths one can follow. Now that Buddhism came to the west various transformations took place. Western Buddhists do follow the example of the Buddha, but for them this usually does not imply the example of the Arhats or the former birthstories. The account of the Arhats become funny illustrations of the dharma, the birthstories become children’s stories, not examples to live with. I think this is caused by choices made at the end of the nineteenth century when Buddhism was discovered by westerners who brought it to the west and modernized the dharma. Buddhism should not be a religion, it should be compatible with western science, it should be freed of dogma’s, of locality and of cultural aspects that would corrupt it into what it had become in so many regions in Asia, so we may find reflected. The main practice of modern Buddhism is what the Buddha supposedly did, what the others did in his entourage plays a much lesser role. And what the Buddha practiced is according to most modern western Buddhists, meditation. Modern western Buddhists do meditate, that is their main practice. In Asia not even all monks meditate.

In modern Buddhism the life history continues to play an important part, however. Especially the last decades an enormous number of biographies and novels have been written by modern Buddhists in which they reflect on the role the dharma plays in their lives. It is remarkable that there is a continuity between the ancient tradition with the many role models and the position of the biography in modern Buddhism. There are shifts, however. In traditional Asian Buddhism the central figure is the Buddha. Individual Buddhists try to enliven a relationship to his ideal life. The Buddha touched the earth of Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, passed away in Kushinagara etcetera. The

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Asian Buddhist realizes he or she should follow the traces of the Buddha. It is remarkable that in the western more personal accounts likewise a connection is constructed to the life history of the Buddha, but in these cases it is rather a connection that is constructed from the Buddha towards the searching individual than the other way around. ‘I am not related to Bodh Gaya, Bodh Gaya is related to me’, so to say. Biography thus plays an overwhelming role in modern Buddhism. One’s personal life is reconstructed into the life of the Buddha. A last step so far is played by ‘embodiment’. The Buddha embodied the dharma, his 32 bodily characteristics showed that he had passed through all existences. Therefore it was by right that he reached nirvana. There are examples of modern biographies in which this ‘embodiment’ starts to play a prominent role. At this moment of speaking this is the last development: ‘he has been there, I have been there’.

REFERENCES

Braak, A. van der, Enlightenment blues, Rhinebeck: Monkfish, 2003. Kornfield, J., ‘Introduction’, in: Hammalawa Saddhathissa Mahathera, Before he was Buddha: The life of Siddhartha, introd. Jack Kornfield, Berkeley: Seastone, 1998 (2nd ed. 2000), 1-5. Levine, N., Dharma punx: A memoir, San Francisco: Harper, 2003. Levine, N., Against the stream: A Buddhist manual for spiritual revolutionaries, San Fran- cisco: Harper, 2007. Lopez Jr., D. (Ed.), Buddhism: Readings for the Unenlightened, London: Penguin Books, 2002. Lopez Jr., D. (Ed.), Critical terms for the study of Buddhism, Chicago-London: Univer- sity of Chicago Press, 2005. Lopez Jr., D., ‘The Buddha’, in: Idem (Ed.), Critical terms for the study of Buddhism, Chicago-London: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 13-36. Mackenzie, V., Why Buddhism? Westerners in search of wisdom, London: Harper Collins, 2002.

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