Buddhism and Modernity

The 6^th century B. C. was one of the most remarkable epoch in the history of mankind, particularly the Asian’s mind were waking up from the age0old traditions of kinships and religious teachers, the bewildering labyrinth of myths and blood scarifies. About religion they were raising penetrating questions and life after death. It was wonderful events while super great men like Isaiah was propagating among the Jews in Babylon, Lao-TSC and Confucius were preaching in China, Siddhartha Gautama Buddha and Mahavira were propagating in India that caused revolution in the religious through of all mankind in Asia.

At a time when Greek philosophers in the 6^th century B. C. were speculating about the origin of the universe man’s place in it and their destiny and were training the human mind in a new spirit of scientific curiosity far more momentous intellectual awakening we afoot upon the larger stage of Asia. This was the teachings of Siddihartha Goutam Buddha.

The Buddha was born in the Sixth Century B.C. He grew up in wealth and luxury but eventfully found that worldly comfort and security do not guarantee happiness. He was deeply moved by the sufferings he saw all around and resolved to find the key to human happiness. When he was 29 he left his wife and child and set off to sit at the feet of the great religious teachers of the day to learn from them. They taught him much but more realty knew the cause of human suffering and how it could be overcome. Eventually, after six year study and meditation he had an experience in which all ignorance fell away and he suddenly understood. From that day awards, he was called the Buddha, the Awakened one. He lived another 45 years in which time he traveled all over northern India teaching others what he had discovered. His compassion and patience were legendary and he made thousands of followers.

Human beings choose a rational and meaningful religion according to his conviction without depending on mere beliefs, traditional customs and theories. They can adopt themselves according to the circumstances as they have intelligence and common sense to differentiate between what is right and wrong.

Buddhism, as one of the four major religions in the world today, is an empiricist and anti-metaphysical religion. It does not accept anything which cannot be experienced either through the senses or extrasensory perception. People in the world are hurriedly getting ready for the next millennium or the 21st century. Our prime intention here is to identify the relevance of the teachings of the Buddha for this modern so called scientifically and technologically developed world.

The Buddhism is derived from the word ‘Budhi’ which means ‘to wake up’ and thus Buddhism is the philosophy of awakening. This philosophy has its origins in the experience of the man Siddhertha Goutom, know as the Buddha who himself awakened at the age of 35. Buddhism was mainly an Asian philophy but increasingly it is gaining adherents in Europe and America.

He discovered the reality behind phenomena in our Universe. In the world there is nothing permanent as well as nothing isolatedly existing but everything co-exists. He realized this .Interdependence is the great truth of life. He was not a divine being, nor a man as we know him, but a man par excellence (accariyamanussa). There is no equivalent in a western language for this concept accariyamanussa. This means not thought of, a not comparable kind of being. There is no word in English unless use the term Buddha with this concept in mind. His teaching is mainly focused on man himself. People are born again and again, and die again and again. There is no ending to be cognized.

(1) Buddhism is the most virtuous and perfect education directed by the Buddha towards all sentient beings in the universe. Such education has the coverage of a boundless range phenomenon and principles that is much broader that what is currently studied in various educational institutions. Buddhism is also known as the middle way, a righteous way of life, an ethico-philosophical system and a religion of freedom and reason. It teaches us to do the main tasks, such as “keep away from bad deeds, do good and peace the mind’. This message is simple, meaningful and practical, yet people experience difficulties when they put them into practice due to inherent human weakness

Now let me say about modernization. Modernization is the process of economic, political and social change by which a developed society is transformed into a society with characteristics shared by more developed societies. The theory of modernization, which resulted from the effort by Western social scientists to develop a universal view of the process of modern transformation that would comprehend the varied experiences of post-war developing nations, is an attempt to conceptualize the modernization process, identifying the components of the process and building a general model of modernization.

One of the first steps taken by scholars in developing a unified theory of modernization has been to describe the result of the modernization process, namely the condition of modernity. Through this effort as description, social scientists have reached general agreement on the criteria of modernity-the shared characteristics of modern societies. These characteristics include a measure of self sustaining economic growth, a degree of mass political participation, an increase of social mobility, a diffusion of secular-rational values and a transformation in personality enabling individuals to function effectively in a society that operates according to the above conditions.

Now I wish to elaborate on the Buddhism and Modernity.

In the present world every one has access to another. Information super-highway has opened the door of people’s wisdom. The modern people are gradually conquering nature, disease, Side by side of having the opportunity of getting closer, breaking the communication barriers and the rapid advancement of scientific and technology they have been facing several problems like environmental pollution, population explosion, shortfall of resources, socio-political rivalry etc. These acute problems has emerged them for survival. So at the time of modernity one can be optimistic and at the same times pessimism runs behind him.

The Buddha’s doctrine of open-mindedness, the liberty of thinking is the most pertinent issue in this modern world Buddhism not only frees us from a Godhead or supernatural tie; but also liberates mankind from dogma. The Buddha said, “Don’t blindly believe what the book or your teachers or tradition says. Do not take anything because it merely because it comes to you with the authority of somebody else. Make it a personal experience. Think of your self. Be convinced. And once you are convinced to act accordingly.” This statement certainly adapts the modern thoughts and sentiments.

The Buddha told his religion as “Akalika” which means “timeless” that it exists for all time. The more I see the changes that have taken place in Buddhist culture or religion, the more I see how it keeps on adjusting to the needs of different eras. The Buddha’s message remain eternally fresh. So if Buddhism has an application today and if Buddhism has a place in modern life, it is because of that timeless relevance, emanating from a set of eternal values. Buddhism was able to adjust to different times and civilizations. We can therefore without hesitation to approach any approach any aspect of Buddhism as something relevant and applicable to us today.

Modern scientific discoveries reinforce our need for transcendental beliefs. The vastness of the universe, its millions of stars and planets and galaxies each several millions or billion light years away create sense of awe in human beings. They feel too insignificant in this vastness of universe in material sense and hence it is spiritual purpose, which elevates them out of this minuscule and insignificance.

Buddhism is adapting by emphasizing a rational modern approach to its teachings. Buddhism gives a clear explanation of how life’s experience comes about and how to deal with them in the best manner possible.

(2)Then it says, do not accept anything on blind faith, think for yourself, test it out and see if it actually does make sense. This resemble us modern science asking us to verify the results of an experiment by repeating it ourselves, and only then to accept the results as fact. People of modern era do not like buying something without examining it; they would not buy a car without testing it. Likewise, they shall not turn to another religion or philosophy of life without checking it first to see if it really makes sense. That is what makes Buddhism so appealing to many people of the twenty first century. Buddhism is open to root investigation and invites people to examine it in that way.

Now I shall try to review the situation of existence of Buddhism on the basis of the some specific countries.

The present day Japanese Buddhism owes much to two monks named Reverend Fukuda Gyokai and Reverend Shaku Unsho. Because Meiji Restoration in 1868 brought all branches of Buddhism face to face with a crisis of survival. The then government was less accommodating towards Buddhism and thought to elevate Shinto into a national ideology. In many parts of the country monasteries and temples were vandalized, monks and nuns laicized. The vandalism was quickly suppressed, but the violence of the anti-Buddhist movement, coupled with the reappearance in Japan of Christian missionaries, served as a salutary warning to Buddhists that reform and modernization of the Sangha were called for if Buddhism was to establish a place for itself in Meiji society and the modern world. Reverend Fukuda Gyokai and Shaku Unsho were among the first Buddhists to recognize the need for a drastic regeneration of sectarian Buddhism. They led a movement to wipe out monastic abuses and to restore strict observance of Vinaya among religious and lay people. In succeeding decades the various branches of Buddhism, monastic and non-monastic strove to institute reforms, to train their monks and priests more thoroughly in critical textual analysis, to introduce western methods in Buddhalogy, to counter Christianity and to bring Buddhism into alignment with national sentiment and objectives. Strengthened by these reform efforts all branches of monastic Buddhism were at least partially successful in making the transition to contemporary society in Japan.

The changing pattern of rituals of Japanese Buddhists at the time of this modernity is rather discouraging. The Japanese during the previous time use to show many formalities during the cremation of the deceased. They use to give more importance to the necessities of the deceased then alive ones which was called funeral Buddhism. But now the trend is declining day by day. At the time of modernity the Japanese family oriented temples has become vulnerable as there is none in the next generation. As the old persons are passing away and the birth rate is becoming lower the number of Japanese Buddhist followers are decreasing rapidly. Buddhism is losing its control in the Japanese funeral occasions. The 21^st Chief Abbot of 700 years old Jui Koji Temple Reverend Mori apprehends to have the 22^nd Abbot for the temple after his demise.

In Korea the decline of chosen dynasty, an era of Buddhist repression got the chance to revive their Buddhist tradition. Reverend Monk Kyongho wanted to restore the traditional Buddhist practices. The monk encouraged change in order to enhance the viability of the tradition in modern society. Korean Buddhists have successfully adapted the modernity which mixed with the mainstream of the nation building force.

In Thailand, Buddhism has been virtually a state religion for centuries, with the kind playing the ritual role. Some Thai intellectuals opine that there are new trends emerging in Buddhism-some consumerist, some ascetic. They are challenging the traditional Sangha, which may respond by trying to suppress them or perhaps moving to adopt some reforms in line with the modernity. But still, considering the over all point of view; it can be said that Buddhism is still alive in Thailand.

One of the first things that a westerner appreciates Buddhism is that it is not culture bound, not bound to any particular society, race or ethnic group. There are certain religions that are culture-bound, Judaism is one example. Buddhism is not. That is why historically we have Indian Buddhists, Thai Buddhists, Chinese Buddhists, Sri Lankan Buddhists, Burmese Buddhists and so forth, and we are going to have in the near future English Buddhists, American Buddhists, French Buddhists and so forth. This is because Buddhism is not culture-bound. It moves very easily from one culture to another because the emphasis in Buddhism is on

(3) internal practice rather than on external practice. Its emphasis is on the way you develop your mind rather than the way you dress, the kind of food you take, the way you wear your hair and so forth.

The second point that I would like to make regards the pragmatism or the practicality of Buddhism. Instead of taking an interest in metaphysics and academic theories, the Buddha deals with problems per se and approaches them in a concrete way. This is again something which is very much in agreement with western ideas about utilitarianism. That is, if something works, use it. It is very much a part of western political, economic and scientific philosophy. This attitude of pragmatism is clearly expressed in the Culamalunkya Sutra where the Buddha made use of the example of the wounded man. The man wounded by an arrow wishes to know who shoots the arrow, from which direction it comes, whether the arrow head is made of bone or iron, whether the shaft is of this kind of wood or another before he will have the arrow removed. This man is likened to those who would like to know about the origin of the Universe, whether the world is eternal or not, finite or not before they will undertake to practice a religion. Just as the man in the parable will die before he has all the answers he wants regarding the origin and nature of the arrow, such people will die before they will ever have the answers to all their irrelevant questions. This exemplifies what we call the Buddha’s practical attitude. It has a lot to say about the whole question of priorities and problem solving. We would not make much progress developing wisdom if we ask the wrong question. It is essentially a question of priority. The first priority for all of us is the problem of suffering. The Buddha recognized this and said it is of no use for us to speculate whether the world is eternal or not because we all have got an arrow in our chest, the arrow of suffering. We have to ask questions that will lead to the removal of this arrow. One can express this in a very simple way. We can see that in our daily life, we constantly make choices based on priority. If, for instance, we happen to be cooking something on the stove and we decide that while the beans are boiling we will dust the house, and as we dust the house we smell something burning. We have to make the choice, whether to carry on with our dusting or whether to go to turn down the flame on the stove to save the beans. In the same way, if we want to make progress towards wisdom we have to recognize our priorities and this point is made very clearly in the parable of the wounded man.

The third point that I would like to refer to is the Buddha’s teaching on the importance of verification through experience. This point is made clearly in His advice to the Kalamas contained in the Kesaputtiya Sutra. The Kalamas were a people very much like us in our modern day when we are exposed to so many different teachings. They went to the Buddha and enquired that as there were so many different teachers and as all of them claimed that their doctrine was true, how were they to know who was telling the truth. The Buddha told them not to accept anything out of authority, not to accept anything because it happens to be written down; not to accept anything out of reverence for their teacher; or out of hearsay; or because it sounds reasonable. But to verify, test what they have heard in the light of their own experience. When they know for themselves that certain things are harmful then they should abandon them. When they know for themselves that certain things are beneficial, that they lead to happiness and calm, then they should follow them. The Buddha gives this advice that one has to verify what one hears in the light of one’s experience. In the context of the Buddha’s advice to the Kalamas, I think what the Buddha is saying is to use your own mind as a test tube. You can see for yourself that when greed and anger are present, they lead to suffering, pain and disturbance. And you can see for yourself that when greed and anger are absent from your mind, it leads to calm, to happiness. It is a very simple experiment which we all can do for ourselves. This is a very important point because what the Buddha has taught will only be effective, will only really change our life if we can carry out this kind of experiment in our life, if we can realize the truth of the Buddha’s teachings through our own experience and verify it through our own experience. Only then can we really say that we are making progress on the path towards enlightenment.

We can see a striking parallel between the Buddha’s own approach and the approach of science to the problem of knowledge. The Buddha stresses the importance of objective observation. Observation is in a sense the key to the Buddha’s method of knowledge. It is observation that yields the first of the Four Noble Truths, the truth of suffering. Again at the final stage of the Buddha’s path, it is observation that characterizes the realization of the total end of suffering. So at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the Buddha’s path, observation plays an extremely important role. This is similar to the role that objective observation plays in the

(4) scientific tradition which teaches that when we observe a problem we must first formulate a general theory followed by a specific hypothesis. We find the same thing happening in the teaching of the Four Noble Truths and here the general theory is that all things have a cause, and the specific hypothesis is that the causes of suffering are craving and ignorance. This truth that the causes of suffering are craving and ignorance can be verified by the experimental method. In the context of the Four Noble Truths, the experimental method is the path. Through the path, the truth of the Second Noble Truth (the truth of the cause of suffering), and the Third Noble Truth (the truth of the cessation of suffering) are verified because through this cultivation of the path one eliminates craving and ignorance. And through the elimination of craving and ignorance one eliminates suffering. This experiment is repeatable just as in science because not only did the Buddha attain the end of suffering, but so too did all those who followed His path.

This growing interest in Buddhism and these many areas of affinity between the teachings of the Buddha and the tendencies of modern science, philosophy and psychology have reached their apex at this very time in the suggestions now proposed by quantum physics, the latest developments in experimental theoretical physics. Here too we find that not only is the method of science observation, experiment and analysis anticipated by the Buddha, but that some of the very specific conclusions about the nature of man and the universe that are indicated by the latest developments in quantum physics were also indicated by the Buddha for instance, the importance of the mind. A noted physicist not long ago remarked that the Universe is really something like a great thought. And it is said in the Dhammapada that the mind precedes all things, that the mind is the maker of all mental states. Similarly, the relativity of matter and energy is mentioned. There is no radical division between mind and matter. All these indications are now gradually being revealed by the latest developments in science.

So what has happened is that in the western contexts, academics, psychologists, and scientists have found in Buddhism a tradition which is in harmony with some of the basic tenets of western scientific thought. In addition to this, they find that Buddhism is particularly interesting because although the methods and the discoveries often resemble closely those of Buddhism, they find that in science so far, there is no path or method of achieving an inner transformation. They have methods of building better cities and expressways but they have not had any system which will enable them to build better people. So people in the west are turning to Buddhism. As an ancient tradition, it has many aspects that closely resemble practices in the western scientific traditions and yet goes beyond the materialism of the western tradition, beyond the limits of the scientific tradition.

When we think of modern life we can think in terms of a great degree of optimism and, at the same time, an equal degree of pessimism. One can not be so pleased that man can not conquer. May be there are still same diseases that challenges us. May be there are still certain places in the universe where man would like to be , and still he has not develop his technology to be there. But it appears as if all these are within reach of man. With this optimism about man’s capacity, comes the pessimistic aspects that we have, in the process, lost something.

Buddhism has many principles that fit with democracy such as individualism, allowing people to develop their own mind to the fullest than having to serve whatever their duty is, parents, cast etc. This is very much in consonant with democracy. Buddhism teaches each person to have the opportunity to develop their own being towards enlightenment, to the fullest extent in life. That is the highest thing in the society.

Out of that principle comes monasticism. A monk is supported by the society to develop their knowledge and their spirituality and then also the idea that education is so central and the idea that there should be a welfare state and people’s basic needs should be met by the state.

Finally the idea that the people are equal and everyone should have equal opportunity to develop them. These are all principles of Buddhism, which in different western countries have been imperfectly realized throughout history. The principles of Buddhism of enlightenment, education, individualism, and altruism and egalitarianism all of these are realized through democracy. In synopsis, as there is no superstition in Buddhism; so we can say that this religion can be said as all time befitting including modernity. (THE END)

Rev Ashin Jina Rakkhita Thero
Founder Director,
Bodhinana Meditation Centre Dhaka, Bangladesh