Studies in Spirituality 20, 341-354. doi: 10.2143/SIS.20.0.2061154 © 2010 by Studies in Spirituality. All rights reserved. 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 con- sists 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 993799_SIS3799_SIS 220_2010_13.indd0_2010_13.indd 334141 113/01/113/01/11 009:009:00 342 PAUL VAN DER VELDE 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 embod- iment’ 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 993799_SIS3799_SIS 220_2010_13.indd0_2010_13.indd 334242 113/01/113/01/11 009:009:00 ‘AN IDEAL PARADIGM OF COUNTLESS BUDDHA’S’ 343 end of the nineteenth and the beginning of twentieth century play an impor- tant 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 impli- cations 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 enlighten- ment and the seize of their throne there, the period they spend in severe asceti- cism 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 hap- pen 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. 993799_SIS3799_SIS 220_2010_13.indd0_2010_13.indd 334343 113/01/113/01/11 009:009:00 344 PAUL VAN DER VELDE 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.