Foundations of Buddhism based on the earliest sources Draft (3/6/2016) Bhikkhu Cintita ii Foundations of Buddhism Copyright 2016, Bhikkhu Cintita (John Dinsmore) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, Under the following conditions: • Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). • Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. • No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. With the understanding that: • Waiver — Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. • Public Domain — Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license. • Other Rights — In no way are any of the following rights affected by the license: • Your fair dealing or fair use rights, or other applicable copyright exceptions and limitations; • The author's moral rights; • Rights other persons may have either in the work itself or in how the work is used, such as publicity or privacy rights. • Notice — For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Publication Data. Bhikkhu Cintita (John Dinsmore, Ph.D.), 1949 - Foundations of Buddhism: based on the earliest sources / Bhikkhu Cintita. With bibliography, subject index. 1.Buddhism – Introductory Works. 2. Buddhism – Buddhist Doctrine. © 2015. Preface “All experience is preceded by mind, Mind is its chief, it is mind-made. One speaks or acts with a corrupt mind, From that suffering follows, Like the wheel follows the foot of the ox. “All experience is preceded by mind, Mind is its chief, it is mind-made. One Speaks or acts with a pure mind, From that happiness follows, Like the shadow that never leaves.” (Dhp 1-2) Buddhism began with the Buddha, a towering figure who lived some hundred generations ago, taught for forty-five years, developed a huge following of monastics and laity, kings and paupers, and whose teachings were systematically memorized, compiled and edited over the next centuries. As long as Buddhism centered around the person of the Buddha and his immediate disciples, its teachings probably remained reasonably uniform. This was the case in the period we call early Buddhism. As Buddhism spread into increasingly remote regions, and endured through eras increasingly distant from the Buddha’s, sects developed, each taking on additional understandings and practices and sometimes reworking the old, often adapting these out of necessity to new cultural environments. Often, local innovations became movements that then swept out over the Buddhist landscape introducing new commonalities into existing distinct sects. In this way early Buddhism within a couple of centuries of the Buddha started to gave way to the sectarian Buddhism and distinct traditions persist to this day. iv Foundations of Buddhism I caution that the development of sects has not necessarily meant distortions of the intent of early Buddhism. In fact, it is striking that a common message seems to shine through most of the historical sects, even while each presents it in sometimes a rather unique way and often makes no reference to the early texts. This I view as a strength of Buddhism and a testament to the firm roots planted in early Buddhism, that has permitted so much variation without losing sight of its original mission. Nonetheless, our concern here will be with early Buddhism. We know a lot about early Buddhism because a substantial common body of scriptures have been preserved reasonably consistently in diverse sects, even when they are rarely read in most, several thousand pages in the most complete early compilation, suggestive of their common origin. Scholarly text analysis has furthermore given great insight into the relative dates of texts within the early Buddhist corpus. Most importantly, the early Buddhist scriptures represent a very consistent, comprehensive, sophisticated and integrated system of thought, the genius of whose originator clearly shines through in the reading. Focus of this book I present herewith an introductory book on Buddhism based on the earliest stratum of scriptural sources, on early Buddhism. One of the challenges of writing an introductory text on Buddhism is that one must first answer, as I just did, Which Buddhism? Buddhism comes in this wide array of variations, largely developed through regional variation, philosophical elaboration, and adaptations to different demographics and cultures from Sri Lanka to Mongolia, with little agreement as to what scriptures to take as primary. For instance, Japanese Soto Zen takes many texts of Chinese composition as primary, such as the lives of the early masters, the koan collections and the Platform Sutra, and monastery regulations; certain Indian Mahayana sutras of late composition, such as the Flower Ornament Sutra and the Lotus Sutra; and the voluminous writings of the brilliant thirteenth century Japanese master Eihei Dogen. Rarely is any reference made to the earliest sources. Analogous observations could also be said of any of the Chinese or Tibetan schools. Only the Theravada school makes regular reference to the earliest texts, having kept alive not only the earliest Pali corpus, but also the understanding of the ancient Pali language. But even in the Theravada tradition additional strata have been deposited, particularly in the form of the massive corpus of Commentaries from some 900-1000 years after the time of the Buddha, and through the development over some 1500 years of the Abhidhamma system. There are a number of advantages that makes it apt to focus on the earliest Preface v stratum of the massive Buddhist scriptural corpus: • The earliest stratum is the closest we can come to what the Buddha actually taught and how he taught it. Undoubtedly others have contributed, without attribution, to shaping these texts, but for the most part these would have been disciples very close to the time of the Buddha. • This stratum is pre-sectarian and the many later schools and sects of Buddhism are common heirs to this corpus. Comparing the later scriptures with the early stratum gives us an idea of how the later schools and sects developed historically and how well they have preserved at some level the original intent of the Buddha. • The earliest stratum is astonishingly profound and comprehensive, and, with some scholarly understanding of the cultural and intellectual milleau in which is arose, brilliantly coherent and as intelligible for the modern student as any later school's scriptures. The genius of the Buddha leaps out in this corpus, not only in the doctrine but in its manner of exposition. • A complete representative version of this early corpus is now available in English translation, much of it in multiple English translations. This is the early Pali corpus. Progress is also being made in translating the Chinese corpus. For these reasons, I have found it, in my own teaching of introductory classes on Buddhism, desirable and most fruitful for students to focus on these very early texts, rather to attempt a survey of what one introductory text calls, in its title, the Buddhist Religions. In this way I hope to make a reasonable attempt at conveying the depth of Buddhist understanding and practice in a single short book. Perspective of this book The perspective of this book is orthodox, in that I take the entirety of the Buddha's teachings seriously, dismissing nothing out of hand, subject, of course, to the limitations of my own understanding. At the same time I am concerned to provide modern readers with the means to wrap their minds around some teachings that may appear arcane, given that these teachings arose in a time and place distant from our own. I often attempt to provide modern ways of looking at the teachings – about karma, to take one example, or renunciation – that I hope will offset the alarming tendency in modern Westernized Buddhism to dismiss large swaths of the teachings out of hand as archaic remnants no longer relevant today. vi Foundations of Buddhism We do well to note that the Buddha described his teachings as going “against the stream,” by which he meant they upset conventional values, ways of looking at things, behaviors and habits. Buddhism, when entered deeply, is radical in any culture. For this reason alone we should be very reluctant to dismiss any element with the thought of adapting Buddhism to our own culture before we understand its implications completely. Sometimes this entails deconstructing unexamined modern presuppositions, much as the Buddha did for his time. At the same time, I feel that the modern perspective can be invaluable in correcting traditional calcified misunderstandings of the earliest scriptures, because modern “converts” approach these teachings with new eyes. Certainly modern scholarship is invaluable in this role and many of the sophisticated modern understandings of psychology or philosophy can sometimes be used to elaborate or elucidate principles we find in early Buddhism. The reader will find particular attention given to three themes in this book that are often neglected or minimized in other introductions to Buddhism in favor of more “hard-core” teachings like the Four Noble Truths and mindfulness meditation, but are nonetheless fundamental in the Buddha's teachings: (1) The ethical foundation of Buddhism, particularly the recognition that Dharma is almost entirely an expression of ethics, (2) Refuge, the Buddhist version of faith, and (3) Buddhism as a culture, some say a civilization, driven by a formalized reciprocal relationship between community and individual practice, whereby the former supports but also enjoys the fruits of the latter.