The Buddha and I

I was not initiated into the Sanatana Dharma , was born to a Jain father and a Sikh mother, both non practicing. They gave me a good education and an understanding that a morally edifying act leads to greater happiness than one which is of a negative connotation, to others or the self. That is all the ‘religion’ I have, and it has served me well. they gave me curiosity and taught me to question, to reject dogma, if it did not stand upto logic, and they gave me a voice and taught me words…

Needless to say, living in a country that is overtly religious, I have been exposed to many established institutionalized religious systems, and my curiosity has sought an understanding of them.

The Buddha’s religion has been of special interest. I feel an affinity and an empathy with him, am enamored of his wise words, he was indeed an enlightened soul.

Why do I say so? Three things I’ll delineate today….

1. He was explicit in this injunction that he had for all those who wished to follow in his path, “believe in something, only if it stands the test of your experience, not merely because I am telling you to do so. Indeed I say what I say, because I have experienced it, you do the same”

That has been my belief system!!! It is the rational way, and eliminates superstition as well as false consciousness, emphasizes understanding rather than meaningless practice.

“Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.”

~the Kalama Sutta

2.“We all are what we think, all that we are arises from our thoughts.

 with our thoughts we make this world.”

That thought is premised on the importance of human agency, it is possible to create, alter, change, amend the way our lives are, if we as individuals can learn to perceive the cause of our unhappiness and take right action toward making amends. We, in other words, are the creators of our own destiny. That’s cause and consequence. Not predetermined karma, beyond the power of human agency!!! There is hope yet, “I am the master of my fate”!!!

3. “Have compassion for all, rich and poor alike. Some suffer too much, others too little.” We all suffer, and love, empathy compassion, in my perception is a basic human need. We all deserve these, no matter what the circumstances of our lives. He is known to have accepted all into the Sangha, rich and poor, pious and those not so pious, man and woman…ah now that last is a point to ponder.

It took considerable persuasion by Ananda and others for him to accede to the request of his step mother to join the Sangha and become a bikhuni. Eventually he created a separate Sangha for women and made special rules for them. (8 rules, not applicable to the Sangha for men).  That was a big step forward toward equity for women, recognition that they were spiritual beings too, and could attain salvation. However he never could quite overlook the physical differences between men and women. What were his views on women outside the Sangha, Sakyan and those not of the  Sakyan people? Patriarchy is insidious and it certainly had a role to play here, in the manner in which he thought and designed his Sanghas.

All religions, are patriarchal and the women’s question is often one not even acknowledged, let alone addressed. Buddhism was(is) more egalitarian than most religions , but it still had a long way to travel before it accepted absolute parity between men and women…

On the 14^th of April, this year, I was at a seminar that was organized to discuss Ambedhkar’s notion of Dhamma, that comes from Ambedhkar’s Buddist leanings of course. It was big international seminar, and present there were scholars from all over the world, of Buddhism, of Pali, of History, of Political Science. I voiced my questions and my concerns, not expecting anything other than a simple acknowledgement.

However, after I had finished speaking, a venerable person, garbed in the attire of a Buddhist Bihku, walked up to me and bowed his head, his hands folded in a Namaste.

He said he was an official of the Buddhist Sangha in Sri Lanka, that the questions I had asked had forced him to ponder and that he would use his authority within the Sangha to, raise a debate…that the question needed investigation and rethinking!!!

 I was spell bound by his gravitas and his humility, moved by the thought that I had perhaps at last found a kindred soul, who was in a situation to take the question further…

If the spirit of inquiry remains within the Sangha 2600 years after the Buddha’s passing ,  and allows a dialectical reasoning to function within and thence without, then, despite everything that may be wrong with the way the world is, there may indeed be something that is right….!

Vinny Jain

18/5/14