As with most movements, Buddhism also went through a phase of disunity, dissent, and deterioration over a few centuries following Shakyamuni’s death. A chasm appeared between bhikshus (monks) and upasaks (disciples and lay followers). The former further had some internal strife. Selfishness and ambition within the bhikshus and the sanga further widened the divide. Upasaks, frustrated with the politics of bhikshu, started to reform Buddhism. They called their school Mahayana (the big vehicle). By default, the other, the original Buddhist lineage of bhikshus came to be know has Hinayana (the lesser vehicle).
Tathagata’s teachings, which were about eighy-four thousand in total, were often woven together in some context as stories and dramas. These contexts are called sutra (string). Many came into existence and are well-know, such as Agama Sutra and Amitabha Sutra. But the most popular, and perhaps even the most comprehensive, is the Lotus Sutra. A big reason behind the stature of the Lotus Sutra is the unity it brings to the two yanas (Mahayana and Hinayana) of Buddhism. The Lotus Sutra managed to merge Mahayana and Hinayana into one – Ekyana. The Lotus Sutra was the first successful attempt to reign in about 700 years of infighting that festered Buddhism after Tathagata’s death.
The Lotus Sutra can be considered to be the unified theory of Buddhism. Hence, it is a great starting point to learn about Buddhism. This is a brief overview of it in three parts.
Part-1
Buddha discusses the Law of Twelve Causes. He shows that all human suffering stems from fundamental ignorance (illusion). He talks about how evil thoughts lead to evil karmas and as a result human beings transmigrates/bounces between six mental states:
- hell (anger)
- hungry spirits (desire)
- animals (lack of wisdom)
- deamons (selfish)
- human beings (who attempts to control the previous four mental states), and
- heaven (joy/bliss).
A normal human being is always transmigrating between these mental states. Buddha then talks about the four laws:
- Suffering (human life is full of it).
- Voidness (all things seem different from each other, but there is something equal about them beyond the percievable differences).
- Transcience (world is not fixed, everything is always changing), and
- Selflessness (nothing in this universe has an isolated existence).
Part-2
Buddha said that our whole life is suffering. You suffer when you don’t get what you want. You suffer when you get what you don’t want. And, you suffer when what you have goes away. The cause of suffering is craving. Give up desire, and you can end suffering.
As one would expect, Buddha identified a path to give up desire and end suffering – it’s an eightfold path. He also identified the six perfections needed as a way to solve the problem of suffering and achieve peace and quietitude. The term for them is paramita, which literally means “arriving at the other shore”.
Before the path and the perfections needed to be successful on the path, Buddha highlights the four noble truths.
- Truth of Suffering: Human life is full of varieties of suffering – economic, physical, spiritual, etc. Accept these sufferings and see them through without avoiding them.
- Truth of Cause: There is a cause of each of the sufferings. We must contemplate on them. There are twelve causes of suffering:
- Ignorance, actions, consciousness, mental functions and matter, six senses, contact, sensation, desire, clinging, existence, birth, and old age that leads to death.
- Truth of Extinction: This is also known as the three fundamental principles of Buddhism.
- All things are impermanent: All things in this world are always changing. We should be aware of this ever-changing nature of Nature, and not get overwhelmed by it.
- Everything is interconnected (Nothing has an ego): No two things in this world lead a completely isolated existence. There are always invisible relationships between any two things. Our lives too are related in some way to all others. Our personal progress, stagnation, or regressions in our lives therefore impacts other things, including other individuals, around us.
- Nirvana is quiescence: Nirvana means a state of inactivity. It is a state reached when all illusions are completely extinguished. A human being reaches that stage, just like Tathagata himself, when (s)he understands the two preceding truths of impermanence and interconnectedness of all things around us.
- Truth of the Path: These are ways to address our suffering.
- The Six Perfections (paramitas):
- Donation: Serve the community with material goods, teaching/preaching, and bodily effort.
- Keeping the precepts: Remove arrogance from the mind.
- Generosity: Remove anger towards the world/nature/happenings around you, and endure.
- Assiduity: Persevere, and endeavor constantly. Don’t be distracted by trivial things.
- Dhyana (Zen, Meditation): Reflect in conduct. Don’t be agitated. Stay calm, and maintain a quiet mind.
- Wisdom: See the true aspect of all things, and discover the right way to cope with them.
- The Eightfold Path:
- Right Speech: Avoid lying, slander, double tongue, and careless language.
- Right Action: Refrain from needless killing, stealing, and adultery – the three evils of the body.
- Right Living: Earn a livelihood without creating troubles and harms for others.
- Right Endeavor: Don’t be idle, and follow the right speech, right action, and right living.
- Right View: See things right, as per Buddha’s wisdom. Understand ‘Reality of all Existence’.
- Right Thinking: Avoid the ‘three evils of the mind’ – greed, anger, and evil-mindedness.
- Right Memory: Practice (life) with the same mind as Buddha. Remember what Buddha said and what all he considered important.
- Right Meditation: Avoid getting agitated by the changing circumstances in life.
- The Six Perfections (paramitas):
But this was Tathagata’s tact. He didn’t preach all of it, to all he could. To the shravakas (casual listeners) he taught the Four Noble Truths. To pratyekabuddhas (who have attained enlightenment by their own experience) he taught the Law of Twelve Causes. But, to bodhisattvas (advanced practitioners of Buddha’s teachings) he preached the Six Perfections. This is because shravakas and pratyekabuddhas haven’t achieved the proficiency level of boddhisattvas.
Even though shravakas have removed illusions, they still subsist in the subconscious and the right conditions can surface them. Pratyekabuddhas on the other hand have’t done bhikshu work yet. They are still selfish because they haven’t preached. They haven’t served others (humanity) around them, which was dear to Buddha.
Part-3
The closing third of the sutra is a reassurance to humanity – the solution to our suffering is within us. It goes on to say that we all are Buddhas. All of us possess the Buddha-nature. The analogy given is that of a freshly mined gem-stone that is covered in dirt. Our “dirt” is our illusions. The way to remove those illusions is to repent – realize that we as humans are imperfect. Therefore, studying the Buddhist teachings, above, and confessing your shortcomings to other buddhas is the first stage of repentance. The practice of the teachings is the polishing that we need to shine as gems. That is the second stage of repentance. It is for this polishing that an individual needs to understand what’s to be polished, which is the following:
- Five Desires – sensory, ill-will, sloth-torpor, restlessness-worry, doubt.
- Three hinderances – arrogance, envy, and covetousness
- Purity of six sense organs – eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind.
- The seven evils – killing, stealing, adultery, lying, ill speaking, improper language, and double tongue.
The Lotus Sutra ends with Buddha’s recommendations on how the three classes in the society – shravakas (monks), upasaks (lay devotees), and all others (Brahmana, Kshatriya, etc.) – should repent.
Buddha’s teachings, eighty-four thousand or so in number, may seem complicated. But they had one big message – humans suffer from human problems and therefore can be solved with human efforts. As Sharon Salzberg describes it, when Buddha was asked, “Is there God”, he remained silent. Buddha’s approach was to “teach one thing, and one thing only, that is suffering and the end of suffering.” Buddha did not want to engage in a “philosophical dispute”. The issue of God was “not core to the process of engaging the students.”
The three parts above constitute the core of Buddha’s teachings. These he taught in a myriad of ways to all kinds of people – lay and learned. So, start wherever you can and whenever you can, given your circumstances – that is what Buddha always reminded the folks. That is what Buddha would expect you to do.
Bonus Material
Suggested/Further Reading
Buddhism For Today. A Modern Interpretation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra – Nikkyo Niwano
धार्मिक छवियाँ 