A Portrait

Dr. Geshe Sopo and Yen. Elvin W. Jones Ven. Geshe Sopa, born in Tsang Province, Tibet, is Professor in the Department of South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Elvin W Jones is Cofounder and Associate Director of Deer Buddhist Center; near Madison, Wisconsin.

Buddhism as we know it commenced in Northeast India about 500 B.C. through the teaching of Prince Siddartha Gautama, often known subsequent to his experience of "enlightenment" as Sakyamuni. Sakyamuni traveled around and taught in the Ganges basin until his death at the age of eighty-four. From there Buddhism spread through much of India until its total disappearance from the land of its origin by the end of the 13th century. This disappearance occurred as a consequence of several centuries of foreign invasions leading ultimately to the conquest of India by successive waves of conquerors who had been unified under Islam. By the time of its disappearance in India, Buddhism had spread through much of Asia where it has been a dominant faith in Southeast Asia in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, and Laos; in Central and East Asia in China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and Mongolia; and in numerous Himalayan areas such as Nepal, Sikkim, Butan, and Ladakh. It is estimated that today there are a little over 250 million Buddhists in the world. In the U.S.A. alone there are about 5 million, the majority of whom are Asian immigrants or their descendants. However, in recent years, numerous Americans of English and European descent have also adopted Buddhism.

From the start, the teaching of the Buddha was a middle way. In ethics it taught a middle way avoiding the two extremities of asceticism and hedonism. In philosophy it taught a middle way avoiding the two extremities of externalism and annihilation. The single most important and fundamental notion underpinning Buddhist thought was the idea of "contingent genesis" or "dependent origination" {pratitya-amutpada). Here the thought is that every birth or origination occurs in dependence on necessary causes and conditions; however, not everything so asserted can function as a cause-in particular, any kind of eternal or permanent whole. Consequently, the Buddhist idea of "contingent genesis" came to be characterized by three salient features, i.e., unpropelledness, impermanence, and consistency. Unpropelledness signifies that origination or genesis is not propelled by a universal design such as the thought or will of a creator. Impermanence means that the cause of an effect is always something impermanent and never permanent. Finally, consistency requires that the genesis or effect will be consistent with and not exceed the creative power of the cause. For example, it is on the basis of the quality of consistency that the Buddhist denies that any kind of material body can provide a sufficient material cause for the production of a mind. Thus, on account of this primary philosophical underpinning of contingent genesis, Buddhism has produced a quite large etiological rather than theological literature.

Taking as his basis the idea of contingent genesis in general, Sakyamuni taught a specific theory of a twelve fold dependent genesis accounting for the particularized birth of a person or personality, which naturally occurs in some kind of existence which is not free of various forms of suffering or ill. The spectrum of naturally occurring births which are characterized by ill is called the "round of transmigration" (samsara), and the force impelling this transmigration and unsatisfactory condition of attendant births was taught by Sakyamuni to be action under the sway of afflictors or afflicting elements such as nescience, attraction, aversion, and so forth. In the language of Buddhism, this action is called karma; the afflictors are called klesa; and the resultant ills are called dukha. The Buddha called the reality of suffering (dukha) the truth of suffering, and called this action--conjoined with afflicting elements (karma and klesa)-the truth of the cause of suffering. These two truths constitute the first of the Four Noble Truths, which were the principal teaching of Sakyamuni and the principle object of understanding of the Buddhist saint.

Sakyamuni also taught the possibility of freedom or emancipation from suffering or ill through its cessation. Likewise, he taught a path leading to this cessation. These two, cessation and path, constitute the third and fourth of the Four Noble Truths. Thus, we have suffering and its causes and the cessation of suffering and its causes; these are the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its causes, cessation, and path. Through the cessation of suffering and its causes one obtains nirvana, which is simply peace or quiescence, and the cause of the attainment of this peace is the path of purification eliminating action under the sway of the afflictors. The Buddha taught that of all the afflictors contaminating action, the chief is a perverse kind of nescience which apprehends a real or independent self existing in or outside of the various identifiable corporeal and mental elements which constitute a person or personality. Thus, the cultivation of the path of purification hinges on the reversal of this mistaken apprehension of a real soul or ego or selfhood. This Buddhist view that there is no real or enduring substratum to the personality is called anatma.

Sakyamuni's most precise and important articulation of the Four Noble Truths was his formulation of a twelve fold causal linkage generating each and every particular instance of birth of a person. This twelve fold causal nexus begins with nescience and ends with old age and death. This nescience is in particular the perverse ignorance which grasps a real selfhood. Conditioned by this kind of nescience, actions are performed which deposit inclinations and proclivities upon the unconscious mind. These proclivities are later ripened by other factors such as grasping and misappropriation and thereby bring about unsatisfactory results through birth and death. With, however, the correct seeing of the reality of no-self, this nescience may be stopped, and thereby the whole chain of causation leading to unsatisfactory birth is brought to an end. In this way the twelve fold causal linkage is not only a theory of the genesis of a personality but also a theory of its potential for deliverance from every kind of ill. Thus it is said in Buddhist scripture:

Gather up and cast away.
Enter to the Buddha's teaching.
Like a great elephant in a house of mud, conquer the lord of death's battalions.
Whoever with great circumspection, practices this discipline of the Law, abandoning the wheel of births, will make an end to suffering.

"Gather up and cast away" refers to the gathering together of virtuous or wholesome qualities and the abandonment of non-virtuous or unwholesome qualities in the personality. Thus the same scripture says:
Not to do evil, to bring about the excellence of virtue, completely to subdue the mind, this is the teaching of the Buddha.

On his deathbed, the Buddha had exhorted his disciples to work on their own salvation with diligence; hence these teachings are sometimes characterized as a doctrine of individual emancipation.

About five to six hundred years after the passing away of the teacher Sakyamuni, another formulation of the Buddhist doctrine and practice gained a wide circulation in India. This later propagation is associated with the great Buddhist teacher Nagarjuna. Taking his stand on the fundamental Buddhist idea of contingent genesis, Nagarjuna argued that if every instance of genesis is a contingent genesis, then continued analysis will show that every kind of permanent and even impermanent cause proposed either by Buddhists or others will be non-absolute and non-ultimate; consequently, causality itself is in some sense illusory. In this sense even true phenomena like causality are just empty of any kind of ultimate nature. Nagarjuna carried his analysis to cover permanent non-originating phenomena like space as well. The nonexistence of all phenomena as ultimates or absolutes is the Buddhist idea of emptiness (sunyata), which provided a great impetus to another kind of religious aspiration aiming at the emancipation not only of one's own individual life stream but that of all sentient life from the round of unsatisfactory birth and rebirth. He especially demonstrated the absence of any final or absolute difference between samsara and nirvana, even though phenomenally they are and will always remain opposites. Thereby, Nagarjuna opened wide the way for the pursuit of the nonattached nirvana taught to be achieved by the Buddhas along with numerous other sublime qualities of knowledge belonging to perfect enlightenment. From earliest times the Buddhist had already distinguished between the path of purification trodden by Sakyamuni himself, already known as the Bodhisattva path, and that taught and followed by numerous of his disciples. Now the Buddha's own path was encouraged for all.

By its followers this later path was called Mahayana, or "greater vehicle," whereas the former came to be called the Hinayana, or "smaller vehicle." The Mahayana was synonymous with the path of a Bodhisattva or one who, moved by great compassion, developed the aspiration to perfect enlightenment for the sake of others. This aspiration was called . Bodhicitta, or the mind to enlightenment, and provided the motivation for the cultivation of the Mahayana path. This path was also taught extensively in the Prajnaparamita-sutras , or Perfection of Wisdom Scriptures, which also gained wide circulation in India through the efforts of Nagarjuna.

About five hundred years later still another very important development occurred in Indian Buddhism. : This development is associated with the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu. This led to a great systematization of the Mahayana and in particular to another less radical interpretation of the meaning of the Prajna- paramita-sutras than that associated with Nagarjuna, whose school continued on and is generally called the Madhyamika or Middleist School; Asanga's is called the Cittamatra or Mind-Only School.

Also around this time, a special kind of Buddhist esoteric scripture and practice gained wide currency. They constituted four classes or levels which moved from outer ritual action through inner meditative action to a full-fledged esoteric path of spiritual attainment. These scriptures were known as the tantras, and their practice was called the diamond vehicle or the secret mantra vehicle. Espousing the practice of the Mahayana, they added many ritual methods together with numerous profound and difficult yoga or meditation practices and techniques. The tantras saw themselves as fulfilling the practice of the Mahayana as well as providing an accelerated path to its realization. The vehicle of the tantras is often called the vehicle of the effect because straight-away it envisages the final result of the path and imaginatively dwells upon and rehearses that until it I becomes not an imagined but an accomplished result. The Mahayana being wisdom and method, the tantras add to the general wisdom and method of the Mahayana their own very special varieties.

Thus in India along with four classes of tantras, four main philosophical chools developed, each with a number of subschools, i.e., the Vaibhasika, Sautrantika, Madhyamika and the Yogacara. The former two are schools of the Hinayana, and the latter two are schools of the Mahayana. The Vaibhasika early developed eighteen subschools, two of which are of particular importance-the Sthaviravada, which is the immediate ancestor of the Theravada, the principal Buddhism of Southeast Asia, and the Sarvastivada, which is the basis of monasticism in Tibet and the Tibetan community today. The Madhyamika provides the chief viewpoint of Tibetan Buddhism today, and the Yogacara has had profound and far-reaching influences on the Buddhism of China, and through China on Korea and Japan. Some secret mantra practices were transmitted into China and from there to Japan, where they survive today, and the practices of all four levels of tantra are still alive in the Tibetan community.

From India by way of Central Asia, Buddhism began its penetration into China around the 1st century C.E. There it encountered the already developed systems of Confucianism and Taoism. The latter in particular provided the terminology and numerous seemingly analogous concepts for subsequent centuries of effort devoted to the translation of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese and the establishment of Buddhist practice in China. By the 8th century, Chinese Buddhism reached its mature form with its two main theoretical schools of Tien-tai and Huayen, together with its two popular schools of Pure Land and Ch'an (Japanese: Zen). These sinicized forms of Buddhism began their spread to Korea mainly from the 4th century on and commenced spreading from Korea to Japan from the middle of the 6th century. Although some important Buddhist development occurred a century earlier, Buddhism began to be strongly cultivated in Tibet in the eighth century. In this century Indian and various Sinitic Buddhist developments collided in a debate held by the Tibetan king at Samyas, the first Buddhist monastery founded in Tibet. Tibetan history records that the Indian faction won this debate, and it is clear that afterwards Tibet looked to India throughout its prolonged subsequent period of importation of Buddhism. As a consequence, Tibet remains a great repository of a vast body of important literature which later perished in India itself. From Tibet, Buddhism was afterward spread into Mongolia and throughout the Himalayan region.

Now, in the aftermath of World War II and the collapse of Western colonial establishments in Asia, the modern efforts of. numerous Asian countries to make a transition from agrarian to industrial societies has led and still leads often to the establishment of military dictatorships or to socialist totalitarian regimes. Buddhism has generally fallen upon difficult times particularly at the hands of Marxist-Leninist regimes, for whereas Buddhism does not see any natural conflict between itself and modern science, its middle-way philosophy is staunchly opposed to dialectical materialism. In fact, two of the worst atrocities of nearly genocidal proportions to be perpetrated in modern times have taken place in two such countries, Cambodia and Tibet, the latter continuing-and this is hard to believe-for over thirty years. Buddhist leadership nonetheless has continued to press for freedom and democracy, for peace and nonviolence, as these will be the best safeguard for the natural human wish to avoid suffering. Here, it is particularly indicative to note that two recent Nobel Peace Prize winners have been Buddhists-His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma. .

Buddhist Experience in North America

The arrival of two leading Buddhists-Anagarika Dharmapala and Soyen Shaku-to attend the World's Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 was, and is, an important event for all Buddhists who are living in North America today. These two; representatives are frequently named in tracing the birth of Buddhist traditions on this continent. In fact, however, Buddhism did not become a visible religious alternative to the Judeo,Christian tradition until the 1970s. Yet, as a minority tradition, its contribution to the religious life of Americans was quite apparent at the 1993 World's Parliament of Religions. This participation included very wide representation from Buddhist denominations that trace their affiliations to many different Asian countries.

Largely within the last four decades, a variety of Asian Buddhist traditions have found the United States a fertile land in which to establish their religious centers. As a result, Buddhist centers in all major American cities serve both Asian immigrants and non-immigrants who are interested in Buddhism. They provide facilities for meditation and educate Americans in the customs and cultural events of Asian countries. Like any other American religious group, American Buddhists are definitely a diverse group. In major cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto there is a great deal of ethnic variety among the Buddhist denominations.

Nevertheless, Buddhist communities in these major cities seem to work very harmoniously together to spread the Buddha's teachings. For example, in Chicago, the members of The Buddhist Council of the Midwest celebrate Vesak-the birthday, the day of samma sambodhi (perfect awakening), and the passing away (parinirvana) of Gautama Buddha- jointly each year in May, with cultural festivals from Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, and Laos. This unity among diverse denominations that trace their roots to different Asian nations is based on the understanding that, as Buddhists, they share certain fundamental doctrines in common, even while demonstrating cultural variety through their specific festivals and religious practices.

As members of immigrant communities and representatives of an alien religion, immigrant American Buddhists have to adapt to the cultural and religious setting of the United States and to deal with people who do not share their world view. It is important that Buddhists understand the way the people of other world religions think about the world and its problems.

Unlike Buddhists, for many Americans the notion of God is fundamental to life; all Judeo-Christian religious communities derive inspiration from a concept of "God." Also, American society is structured around individualism; there is a strong emphasis on the primacy of individuality rather than on the interests of the society or community as in Buddhist cultures. So Buddhists in general and Theravadins in particular have to struggle to understand these two world views. At the same time, since all Buddhist communities profess a doctrine of selflessness in one form or another, it is difficult for most Americans, who think mainly in terms of "self' and "individual," to understand Buddhism.

With the development of an awareness of the earth, environment, plants, and animals, American Buddhists seem to have embraced positive teachings of the Buddhist traditions with regard to plants and the environment. Rather than thinking that human beings are separate from nature and that human beings are rulers of the earth, people are starting to think of the entire universe as a "whole," of which humanity is only a "part." This sense of a global community sharing the resources of the earth harmoniously is a very positive development which has been encouraged during the last few decades, and is growing fast. in the United States. This kind of a world view or consciousness of the environment and nature marks a shift in human thinking: human beings not as rulers of the earth but as apart of a larger global community.

In the development of an awareness of nature and the environment, Buddhist teachings, in particular the theories of codependent origination (paticcasamuppada) and interconnectedness, have a great deal to offer to Western thinkers. For example, the doctrine of codependent origination proposes an interdependence between nature and human beings. Furthermore, Buddhist teachings maintain that the nature of the human psyche affects the natural environment, while the natural environment in turn influences the shape of the human psyche positively or negatively. In particular, the doctrine of five laws, niyama dhammas, proposes that human beings and nature are bound together in a mutual causal relationship. The five laws are physical, biological, psychological, moral, and causal. Among these five, the causal law operates within each of the first four; likewise, the physical law conditions biological growth, and all the laws influence human thought patterns, which eventually shape the moral standards of a society. These Buddhist doctrines and insights, which seem to appeal to modern Western thinking, attempt to suggest that human beings and the environment mutually condition and influence each other in the formation of the human psyche and of the nature of the world. The notions of interdependence and interconnectedness have become the centerpiece of the declaration, "Towards a Global Ethic," of the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions.

Though some Buddhist communities have experienced resistance from certain segments of the American population, this does not reflect the attitude of the majority of Americans, whose pluralist tradition shows in their openness and willingness to help religious and ethnic minorities. However, some hostile elements are still present in certain sections of society and parts of this country; in the recent past, several temples have been bummed or bombed, and some practitioners have even been murdered.

The most positive response towards Buddhism is found in the genuine interest of Americans from many parts of the country in knowing and practicing Buddhism. This positive tendency is quite evident in the curriculum of American colleges and universities. In several major universities, I have witnessed a genuine interest in learning about Buddhism, and private colleges and universities provide the facilities to do so. Every year, American universities produce a large number of academic specialists in diverse forms of Buddhism, such as Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Tibetan, Sri Lankan, Thai, or Burmese.

While in many places Buddhism functions as a cultural resource and inspiration for Asian immigrant Buddhist communities, non- immigrant Caucasian converts are drawn to Buddhism for its contemplative and meditative aspects rather than because of its cultural specificity. One of the strengths which Buddhism offers to American practitioners of Zen, Theravadan, or Tibetan meditation is its tradition of contemplative practice. The considerable growth of meditation centers shows that Buddhism is becoming a vital force in the pluralistic American society and is having an influential impact on it. The Buddhist experience in the United States highlights the ability of its practitioners to adapt to a completely different cultural and social environment and make remarkable progress in shaping the lives of others who encounter Buddhism. Since the establishment of Buddhism in the United States is still in progress, its impact and influence will become more clearly visible in the 21st century.

Selected Texts and Wisdom from Buddhist Tradition

"As the previous ...Buddhas, like a divine skillful wise horse, a great elephant, did what had to be done, accomplished all tasks , overcame all the burdens of the five aggregates controlled by delusion and karma, fulfilled all their aspirations by relinquishing their attachments, by speaking immaculately divine words and liberating the minds of all from the bondage of subtle delusions' impression, and who possess great liberated transcendental wisdom, for the sake of all that lives, in order to benefit all, in order to prevent famine , in order to prevent mental and physical sicknesses, in order for living beings to complete a Buddha's 37 realizations, and to receive the stage of fully completed budnhahood. .. I... shall take the eight Mahayana precepts. ..."

-from "One-Day Mahayana Vow Ritual," trans. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives

Perfect Wisdom spreads her radiance. .. and is worthy of worship. Spotless, the whole world cannot stain her. ...In her we may find refuge; her works are most excellent; she brings us safety under the sheltering wings of enlightenment. She brings light to the blind, that all fears and calamities may be dispelled. ..and she scatters the gloom and darkness of delusion. She leads those who have gone astray to the right path. She is omniscience; without beginning or end is Perfect Wisdom, who has emptiness as her characteristic mark; she is mother of the bodhisattvas. ...She cannot be struck down, the protector of the unprotected, ... the Perfect Wisdom of the Buddhas, she turns the Wheel of the Law."

ASTASAHASRIKA PRAJNAPARAMITA-SUTRA, The Buddhist Tradition, ed. by W. M. Theodore De Bary

Mutual Recognition

"For the last several years I have been looking at the world's problems, including our own problem, the Tibetan situation. I have been thinking about this and meeting with persons from different fields and in different countries. Basically all are the same. I come from the East; most of you are Westerners. If I look at you superficially, we are different, and if I put my emphasis on that level, we grow more distant. If I look on you as my own kind, as human beings like myself, with one nose, two eyes, and so forth, then automatically that distance is gone. We are the same human flesh. I want happiness; you also want happiness. From that mutual recognition we can build respect and real trust for each other. From that can come cooperation and harmony, and from that we can stop many problems."

H.H. THE 14TH DALAI LAMA OF TIBET

Zen from the Zen Center, San Francisco
In the 6th century C.E., Bodhidharma, the semilegendary figure from whom all Zen schools trace their ancestry, brought to China that Buddhist practice which we call Zen. The word itself is a Japanese transliteration of a Chinese transliteration of a Sanskrit word meaning meditation. Thus, Zen is that school of Buddhism which emphasizes meditation (zazen = sitting meditation) as a primary practice for calming and clearing the mind and for directly perceiving reality. According to the texts the Zen that Bodhidharma taught and practiced can be summed up as:
A special transmission outside the scriptures; no dependence upon words and letters; directly pointing at one's own nature; attaining Buddhahood.
Zen eventually reached Japan, where the Soto school was established by Eihei Dogen (1200- 1255), who considered Zen not as a separate school but simply as Buddhism. In the early 1960s Shunryu Suzuki Roshi came to San Francisco to minister to the local Japanese congregation. Out of his contacts with Western students, the Zen Center of San Francisco was born. Many other centers have since opened elsewhere in North America and in other countries.