6. BUDDHISM

The Quran claims that genuine Prophets, or Inspired Spiritual Teachers, were sent to all peoples in all times and that they conveyed basically the same message and that the Quran contains this message. The Prophet Muhammad also advised his followers to go in search of knowledge even to China. Gautama, the Buddha, is taken by a large section of the population of the world as just such a Prophet, though regarded in a different light. If he is genuine then the message contained in Buddhism should be compatible with that of Islam. The two religions should be able to learn from each other. We shall, therefore, examine Buddhism.

The problem is that the message has not been handed down to us in its pure form without additions, subtractions and interpretations by commentators whose quality is unknown. The teachings were written down only centuries after the death of Buddha. Nevertheless, the present version could not have existed if there had been no foundations. The teachings are highly systematised and as such possess stability.

The first thing to note is that the name of the founder was Gautama Siddhartha not Buddha. The word Buddha is used in three senses. It refers to:-

(a) A Cosmic principle, the Universal Consciousness.

(b) The higher Consciousness within man which is part of the Universal Consciousness.

(c) The person who has become enlightened because the higher consciousness has become active in him. and he sees and lives by it. He has identified himself with the Universal consciousness. He is in a state of Surrender. There were many Buddhas in the past and there were others to come. They come into the world when needed to guide mankind.

There is, therefore, a kind of trinity here similar to that in Christianity. In the first sense it is the same as the Universal Spirit or God. In the second it is the same as the spirit within man, the real self (as distinct from the ego). It is what the Hindus call Atma. In the third sense it refers to what in Islam is called the Messenger and in Christianity, the Christ. The three have been rolled into one, but Buddhism, like Islam does not have a doctrine of a Trinity as in Christianity. Yet Religion is certainly represented to man in this kind of unity. The Quran, too, tells us:-

“Whoso obeys the Messenger, obeys Allah” 4:80

“Those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and seek to make distinction between Allah and His messengers .... such are disbelievers in truth.” 4:150

“We shall show our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it is manifest unto them that it is the truth.” 41:53

The difference between Buddhism and Islam is that the former takes the Personal or psychological view while Islam takes the objective view.

Buddhism is based on the following assumptions:-

1. We must concentrate our attention on the inner psychological world because:-

(a) We cannot know the outer world except as an effect on our minds.

(b) What we see is interpreted by the mind according to various subjective factors such as desires.

(c) That which is within us is accessible and controllable by us.

We are the result of what we have thought: Buddhism is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts.

2. There is a distinction between ordinary consciousness required to deal with the affairs of our worldly existence and higher state of consciousness also possible for us. This higher state is called Buddha.

“Within our mind there is Buddha, and that Buddha within is the real Buddha. If Buddha is not to be sought within our mind where shall we find the real Buddha. Doubt not that a Buddha is within your mind, apart from which nothing exists....Avert thy face from the world’s deception; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within the body, the shrine of thy sensation, seek in the impersonal for the ‘Eternal Man’, and having sought him out, look inward; thou art Buddha.”

3. There is, therefore, a distinction between the world of illusion as ordinarily seen and the real world as seen by Buddha. The world of illusion arises because the limited mind focuses and attaches itself only to small sections of experience, to objects because of the hypnosis of desires. It, therefore, separates and divides. It does not see the overall pattern.

4. There is a Law of Cause and Effect, known as Karma.

“I will teach you Dharma: If this is, that comes to be; from the arising of this, that arises; if this is not, that does not come to be; from the ceasing of this, that ceases.”

Thus, the things we see are Karma-formations., “bundles of characteristics”, created by certain causes which persist while those causes remain in existence. They can be formed, modified or destroyed by appropriate causes. No assumption is made about the existence of matter as underlying such bundles as this cannot be known.

Note that this gives rise to a difference between Christianity and Buddhism. In the former it is possible to pray to God in order to bring about changes while in the latter alterations are only possible through the law of cause and effect. However, this is only an apparent difference. ‘What a man sows that he will reap’ is also a Christian principle. It is also an Islamic one. Prayer and meditation may be regarded as a self-modifying action as well as having, to some extent an effect on the environment.

5. Buddhism denies the reality of an ego. That which we call ‘self’ is an illusion produced by mental identification with our body and name since these have a certain amount of persistence. In fact, we are formed, connected with, and dependant upon food, air, light, heat, other people and all kinds of cultural forces which are in constant flux. The Buddha within is not ‘self’. The world, samsara, the Sea of Life, is not conditioned by Time and Space. Perceived objects arise, change and die as the waves in an ocean. They are not separate things but transitory bundles of characteristics. We cannot say with truth that the body, mind, sensations and actions are ‘mine’ since no such ‘I’ exists. The word ‘self’ is used here to refer to the ego, an idea of self. This agrees with the Islamic view where the ego is also seen as an illusion.

6. It is generally believed that Gautama taught reincarnation. But since he denies the existence of an ‘I’, this cannot be the case.

“The King asked: What is it, Nagasena, that is reborn?

“Name-and-Form are reborn.

“What, is it the same name-and-form that is reborn?

“No, but by this name-and-form deeds are done, good or evil, and by this karma another name-and-form is reborn.”

To illustrate: The human body lives to a certain age during which it grows, changes and decays. It consists of a great number of cells whose life span is relatively short. The body continues to exist only because the cells that die are replaced with other similar ones. The same forces which give rise to one set also give rise to the next. The same is the case with human communities. Each individual may be regarded as being the product of genetic, material and cultural forces acting at that point. The individual also sheds modifying influences into his environment. The causes existing in the past form the people of today, and the causes existing today form the people of the future. The next generation may be regarded as the reincarnation of the previous generation.

However, the bundles of characteristics may exist at several levels and do not have to be material ones. There are bundles of ideas, forms of reactions and behaviour, ideologies or complexes of thought, feeling and attitudes which are transmitted down the ages with various degrees of permanence.

The question is: how does all this square with the Islamic and Christian idea of an immortal soul? There is probably a misunderstanding here. A distinction is made between the Spirit and the soul. It is the Spirit within which is immortal. This, in Buddhism, is Buddha. The word ‘soul’ refers to the spirit when it becomes organised and, therefore, limited by the structures it inhabits. There is no evidence in the Christian scriptures or in the Quran that the soul is immortal.

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matt. 10:28

“For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matt. 16:26 .

In the Quran we read:-

“He is indeed successful who causes it (the soul) to grow, and he is indeed a failure who stunts it.” 17:85

“Every soul must taste of death, and We try you with evil and with good, for ordeal. And unto Us you will be returned.” 21:35

Buddhism consists of the Four Noble Truths:-

1. There is suffering.

2. There are causes for suffering.

3. There is a way out of suffering.

4. The methods that lead out of suffering.

I. Suffering refers not only to misfortune, disease, old age and death, but to all kinds of physical, social and psychological limitations, conflicts and frustrations.

“Birth is suffering; decay is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; not to get ones desires is suffering; in short the five aggregates of existence are suffering.”

The five aggregates of existence are defined as: Material existence, feeling, perception, subjective differentiation and ordinary consciousness. Existence, as we ordinarily perceive it, has three inter-dependant characteristics:- All formations are (a) transient (b) subject to suffering and (c) without an ego-entity. Human beings suffer because they are attached or addicted to suffering and will not let go.

“Whoso, brothers, delights in the body, delights in sensation, delights in perception, delights in differentiation, delights in consciousness, he delights in suffering; and whoso delights in suffering shall not obtain release from suffering.”

II. The causes of suffering are craving, the desire for pleasure, greed for which gives rise to births. It arises from attachment to sensation, perception, ideation, imagination, thinking, feeling, approval and disapproval. The main cause is ignorance, particularly of the law of causation..

“Deep. indeed, is this causal law (Karma), and deep it appears to be. It is by not knowing, by not understanding, by not penetrating this doctrine, that this world of men has become entangled like a ball of twine, become covered with mildew, become like munja grass and rushes, and unable to pass beyond the doom of the Waste, the Way of Woe, the Fall, and the Ceaseless Round.”

“Conditioned by ignorance are the Karma-formations; conditioned by karma-formations is consciousness; conditioned by consciousness is mind and body; conditioned by mind and body are the six sense fields; conditioned by the six sense-fields is impression; conditioned by impression is feeling; conditioned by feeling is craving; conditioned by craving is grasping; conditioned by grasping is becoming; conditioned by becoming is birth; conditioned by birth there come about into being ageing and dying, grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation and despair. Thus is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.”

It should be realised that desire is not being spoken of as merely someone’s desire, but a general principle of which a person’s desire is only a part. Birth, for instance, comes about because there is a universal urge to reproduce. The same applies to the other factors in the chain. Man, because of ignorance, is stuck in a rut, in a vicious circle. The same suffering, the same problems, continually recur. This is also the Islamic view.

It is also the Christian view, for Jesus said:-

“And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.” John 8:32

It is, of course, also the modern secular or scientific view, but there it is understood in a different manner. It is supposed that mere intellectual knowledge or merely changing the material environment by means of it can somehow bring about changes in man.

III. It is possible to end Suffering by identification with that which is eternal and unchanging. This is called Nirvana. The cessation of suffering, therefore, comes about by the extinction of craving, detachment from form, feeling, desire, and perception.

“There is, O Bhikkhus, an Unborn, a Not-become, a Not-made, a Not-compounded. If there were not, O Bhikkhus, this Unborn, Not-become, Not-made, Not-compounded, there could not be any escape from what is born, become, made and compounded.”

“If Greed and Anger and Delusion are done away, men reflect neither upon their own misfortune, nor upon the misfortune of others, nor upon the misfortunes of both themselves and others, men experience no mental suffering and anguish. Thus brethren, is Nirvana visible in this life, inviting, attractive, accessible to the wise disciple.”

Because of the doctrine of ‘no-self’ and the absence of the word ‘God’ in Buddhism it is supposed that the existence of an immortal spirit and of God is denied. But this is a complete misinterpretation of Buddhism. There would then be nothing which could attain Nirvana.

This Unborn, Not-made etc. is what is called Allah in Islam. Paradise is equivalent to Nirvana. And the Buddha within man is equivalent to the Divine Spirit in man. These are the fundamental concepts in Buddhism and Islam.

IV. Liberation is obtained through the Eight-fold Path. This also called the Middle Path which avoids both extremes of self-indulgence and austerity. Both are obsessions and tend to lead to each other. This is similar to the Islamic ‘Balanced or Straight Path’ or the Christian ‘Straight and Narrow Way’. It consists of:-

1. Right Understanding

2. Right Mindedness

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Living

6. Right Effort

7. Right Attentiveness

8. Right Concentration.

1. Right understanding consists of 10 forbidden things:- killing, stealing, unlawful sexual intercourse, lying, slander, using harsh language, vain talk, covetousness, cruelty, wrong views.

There are three Roots of Evil:- Greed, Anger and Delusion. The Roots of Good are, therefore, freedom from these. This seems to be a negative attitude. Note that they can be considered to be the opposites of hope, love and faith, (Greed may be regarded as due to misplaced hope, since we seek things which we hope will give us benefits, power or even immortality. Anger is the opposite of love and delusion is the opposite of faith.) Or Justice, Love and Truth. The cultivation of these, as recommended in Christianity and Islam, would constitute a much more positive attitude. However, these qualities are regarded as already existing in man but suppressed by their opposites. Therefore, the mere removal of the negative qualities causes the positive ones to emerge. It is this difference in attitude which leads to a difference of technique. The Christian techniques are designed to strengthen faith, love and hope while those of Buddhism are designed to remove the obstructions to them. Islam appears to have some of each.

2. Right Mindedness has 3 aspects - thought should be free from sensuality, ill-will and cruelty.

3. Right Speech has 4 aspects - There should be abstinence from that which leads to killing, stealing and unlawful sexual intercourse.

4. Right Action has 3 aspects - To have kindness for all living things and abstain from killing; abstain from stealing things not given or belonging to him; abstaining from unlawful sexual intercourse (fornication and adultery).

5. Right Living consists of the avoidance of trades and professions which involve that which is forbidden. Five trades, in particular are mentioned: trading in arms, in living beings (animal and human), in flesh, in intoxicants and in poisons.

This differs from Islam which also has a list of forbidden professions: Muslims are not vegetarians. The conditions in Arabia where Islam arose were not the same as in India. People there could not have survived without meat. However, meat eating tends to create aggressive behaviour and indifference towards living things. Aggressive behaviour is necessary for the survival of people who live in hostile environments. They have to defend themselves or be annihilated and require arms to do this. The religion itself would come to an end if this was not done. Indifference to living creatures was to be counter-balanced by special rituals connected with the slaughter of animals. No animal was to be slaughtered without reverence and invoking the name of Allah, thereby purifying the act. In India it was possible for monks to whom Buddhism was mainly addressed, to isolate themselves from the politics of the area. If ways could be found to produce enough balanced vegetarian food and non-hostile environments, then vegetarianism would be ideal.

Poisons are often used in medicine. It may be argued that if they are used as medicine then they are not poisons. Islam forbids trading in intoxicants and slaves.

6. Right Efforts consists of Four Great Efforts: To avoid, to overcome, to develop and to maintain.

7. Right Attentiveness consists of Four Fundamentals, constant awareness of ones body, sensations, mind (desires and thoughts) and inner phenomena. It is not possible to control anything without such awareness.

8. Right Concentration or Samadhi consists of one-pointed ness of the mind on the Four Fundamentals of Attentiveness and the Four Great Efforts, making 8 aspects.

“Hence, brothers, the reward for asceticism is neither alms, nor honour, nor fame, nor the virtues that appertain to the Order, nor rapture of concentration, nor clear wisdom. The Unshakable Deliverance of the mind, however, brothers, that verily is the object, that is Arhatship, that is the heart of asceticism, that is the goal.”

This goal is not different from the Christian or Islamic one. The wages of sin are death, and the gift of God is Eternal Life. (Romans 6:23). According to both the Old Testament and the Quran it is sin, namely rebellion or pride, egotism, which caused the expulsion of man from Paradise, the state of innocence and immortality. The way back is, therefore, the removal of this sin.

Buddhism recognises 4 Stages of development and 10 Fetters which obstruct man.

1. In the first stage 3 fetters must be destroyed. These are the illusion of self, doubt and belief in the efficacy of rules and rituals. This allows a person an insight into the higher stages.

2. Two other fetters must be reduced to a minimum. These are sensuous craving and ill-will. This produces an end to pain.

3. He who destroys the above 5 fetters completely reaches the highest heaven never to return. That is, there are no Karma-formations left.

4. The last 5 fetters also called the biases must now be destroyed. These are: the craving for worldly existence, separateness, conceit, restlessness and ignorance. Such a person achieves self-realisation and continues to live even in this visible world in that emancipation of heart and mind, which is true Arhatship.

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In these teachings there appears to be no mention of charity, love or social work, nor of the material environment upon which life depends. It, therefore, appears to contradict the Christian and the Islamic view of religion. It seems a wholly psychological and self-centred religion. However, this is not the case. In the first place the spiritual discipline itself should remove the egotism and self-centredness which is an obstruction to compassion. There are also other teachings which rectify this deficiency.

There are Four Sublime States of Mind. These are Benevolence, Compassion, Joyous Sympathy and Equanimity.

The Great Blessings are enumerated as follows:-

To follow the wise, not fools

To honour the honourable

To dwell in a pleasant spot

To set oneself on the right path

To learn and Study

Pleasant utterances

To support mother and father, and cherish wife and children

To follow a peaceful livelihood

To give alms and cherish kith and kin

To do deeds which bring no blame.

To abstain from intoxicants.

Steadfastness in righteousness.

Reverence, humility, contentment and gratitude.

To hear the Norm (or teachings) at proper times.

Patience, soft speech and self-control.

Pious talk on correct occasions.

Restraint, holy life, discernment of truth.

To know the goal in oneself, not by hearsay.

To have a heart not swayed by worldly things.

To have a secure, passionless heart.

Several other features of Buddhism are worthy of mention:-

Gautama was asked the following questions:-

Is consciousness identical with the soul or something different?

Is the soul the same as the body or not?

Is the world eternal or not. Is it infinite or not?

Does one who has gained the Truth live again after death or not, or both or neither?

To every one of these the reply was the same. He had no opinion on it. The reason for this was:-

“Just so brethren, those things which I know by my superior knowledge, but have not revealed, are greater by far in number than those things that I have revealed. And why, brethren, have I not revealed them? Because, brethren, they do not conduce to profit, are not concerned with the holy life, they do not tend to repulsion, to cessation, to calm, to the super-knowledge, to the perfect wisdom, to Nirvana. That is why I have not revealed them.”

This is the same attitude taken by both Jesus and Muhammad.

Buddhism is not based on authority:-

“Now look you, Kalamas. Do not be misled by reports or traditions or heresay. Do not be misled by proficiency in the Collections of Scriptures, nor by mere logic and inference, nor after considering reasons, nor after reflection on some view and approval of it, nor because it fits becoming, nor because the recluse who holds it is your teacher. But when you know for yourselves: these things are not good, these things are faulty, these things are censured by the intelligent, these things, when performed and undertaken, conduce to loss and sorrow - then do reject them.”

This is clearly also the Islamic attitude:-

“And follow (or pursue) not that of which you have no knowledge; verily, the hearing, the sight, and the heart, of all of these it shall be asked (to give an account).” Quran 17:36

Buddhism is non-sectarian.

“Of whatsoever teachings, Gotamid, thou canst assure thyself thus: These doctrines conduce to passion not to dispassion; to bondage not to detachment; to increase in worldly gain not to decrease of them; to covetousness not to frugality; to discontent and not to content; to company not to solitude; to sluggishness not to energy; to delight in evil not to delight in good; of such things thou mayest with certainty affirm, Gotamid, : This is not the Dhamma. This is not the Discipline. This is not the Master’s Message. But of whatever teachings thou canst assure thyself that they are the opposite of these things - of such teachings thou mayest with certainty affirm: This is the Dhamma. This is the Discipline. This is the Master’s Message.”

This is also the Islamic position:-

“And, verily, this your religion (or brotherhood) is one religion (or brotherhood), and I am your Lord; so keep your duty unto Me. But they (mankind) have broken their religion (or affair) between them into sects, each sect rejoicing in its own tenets.” 23:52-53

“Then set your purpose for religion as a man upright by nature - the nature made by Allah in which He has made men; there is no altering (the laws of) Allah's creation; that is the right religion, but most people do not know - turning to Him only, and be careful of your duty to Him and keep up prayer and be not of those who ascribe partners to Him (polytheists), of those who split their religion and became schismatic, every sect rejoicing in its own tenets.” 30:30-32

The difference between Islam and Buddhism lies not in the goals but in three accidentals:- the way the teaching is formulated; the exact techniques employed; the circumstances and conditions of life into which the discipline was introduced. Buddhism was meant for a selected group of disciples who could devote themselves to the religious life, go about teaching in return for a living from the rest of the community. Islam was meant for the community in general while it still had to deal with its worldly economic and political affairs. The spiritual and worldly life had to be integrated into comprehensive unity. Thus while Islam prefers solitude and poverty it does not demand it. Indeed, it redefined them. Poverty and solitude mean inner detachment rather than outer withdrawal from the world. The temptations of the world itself had to be dealt with. While it is more difficult to withdraw from the world, it is also easier to cultivate detachment by withdrawing from it. Conversely, it is easier to stay in the world, but more difficult to maintain detachment from it. But the rewards are equivalently greater. The time had arrived in the history of mankind when the techniques of development had to cease being only the exclusive property of a group or tribe and become more universally available.

Buddhism does not create a social system, except by isolating a priest class which has no power, unlike the Christian Church which assumed it, and does not have much to say about the environment, the need to study, learn from and act responsibly towards the external world. Buddhism is psychologically orientated as Christianity is socially orientated. Islam may, therefore, be seen as a more complete and balanced Religion. However, there is little doubt that the Muslim can learn much from Buddhism.

Buddhism as practised by the majority of those who claim affiliation to it contains little of the Buddha’s teachings, often contradicts them and has much in it derived from extraneous sources. They have, for instance, a great number of gods, idols, myths and superstitions which hold back their development. As the general educational level rises, no doubt, this situation will alter. Islam objects to such corruptions, rather than to the original teachings, but this applies also to malpractices in Islamic communities. These criticisms, therefore, do not give Muslims any advantage.

Buddha forecast the coming of another Buddha:-

“Ananda said to the Blessed One: Who will teach us when you have gone? The Blessed One said: I am not the first Buddha who came upon the earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time another Buddha will arise in the world, a holy one, a supremely enlightened one, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men, a master of angels and mortals. He will reveal to you the same eternal truths which I have taught you. He will preach his religion, glorious in origin, glorious at the climax, and glorious at the goal. He will proclaim a religious life, wholly perfect and pure, such as I now proclaim. His disciples will number many thousands while mine number many hundreds. Ananda said: How shall we know him? The Blessed One replied: He will be known as Maitreya. The Buddha that will come after me will be known as Maitreya which means “he whose name is kindness.”

Although this can be seen as referring to the coming of any Spiritual World Teacher or Messenger of God, and, therefore, also applies to the Prophet Muhammad, it can be seen as applying more specifically to him. Maitreya also means the Merciful One and refers to love and compassion. This could apply to Jesus but also to the Prophet Muhammad, who is described in the Quran as a mercy to believers (3:31, 3:159, 21:107, 9:61, 9:128, 26:215). He was also an incomparable leader of men and brought the perfection of Religion (5:3). Indeed, Islam means surrender to God, and there cannot be a higher religion than that.

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