anthraxia's first sheep: compassion
Jun. 6th, 2012 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reverancepavaneCompassion
A person once took issue with my statement that Buddhism is one of the most callous religions that I know of. And at heart it is, because to achieve the ultimate aim of classical Buddhism, you must turn your back on the suffering of those people around you in order to transcend your mortal existence and assume your Buddha nature (trikaya). Their suffering is part of Maya, the illusion of being, and you cannot achieve true enlightenment when you are still concerned with such things. And for this reason I would be a very bad Buddhist, because I cannot ignore the suffering of others.
But there are also the bodhisattva, or, for want of better term, the Buddhist saints, who may be enlightened and yet held back from Buddhahood by their compassion for others. In fact the term bodhicitta ("awakened mind") is often used to describe the mental state of a bodhisattva - a fundamental desire to relieve the suffering and bring happiness to others. Of course, in the Indian philosophies in which Classical Buddhism was based, the only way to achieve such happiness was to gain enlightenment and escape from the endless cycles of birth and rebirth (samsara), so you maintained a substantive disconnect between the Buddhist ideal of compassion and worldly belief of compassion.
As Buddhism moved eastward geographically and forwards temporally, it grew much more relaxed and compassionate in a much more worldly way, influenced heavily by Chinese philosophy, with it's innate bias towards Confucianism and ancestor worship (it is difficult to worship your ancestors if they are your mewling babies). It also picked up a hitch-hiker who was often considered one of the bodhisattva: Kuan Yin, the traditional Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Healing, and (yes) Compassion. And one of the few (in many cases only*) additions of a female to the Buddhist pantheon (mainly because the Indian view that women could not achieve enlightenment, just rebirth as a male capable of enlightenment in the next life). [The existence of a pantheon is also misleading, since the Buddha nature is transcendent, each of the Buddhas are also the Buddha as well as being Buddhas in their own right and with their own identity.] In fact the Buddhists define "her" as bodhisattva (traditionalists equate her directly with Avalokitesvara [a male!] and explaining the sex change as a simple transcription error; however her existence in traditional folk tales predates the introduction of Buddhism to China, and the Taoists tell a different story of her origin). [Needless to say she is one of the most widely loved of the East Asian deities, regardless of her antecedants.]
So perhaps, in time, and with a lot of effort, I might, perchance, were I actually a Buddhist, have the very slimmest of chance of becoming a boddhisattva.** Unfortunately the world is a mighty thing to carry on one's shoulders. No wonder Sidhattha took the easy way out.
[* I should point out that my use of some of these terms is quite different from how they are used, in say Mahayana Buddhism (which is one of the more wide-spread and common sects; most "Buddhists" you will meet will be derived from one of the Great Land sects). Mainly because it's how I think of it. That's because most of my formal training was in Rinzai, a form of Zen Buddhism with strong links to the Rybuto-Shinto animism of Japan, but formalisation never really "took." This is not to be considered a treatise on Buddhism and anyone using these arguments in a serious discussion would probably provoke hilarity and concern. Everything is a lie.]
[** I always wanted to be the very last person out of Hell. That way, I could make sure that all the chairs were stacked, and the lights were turned out. And more importantly, that no one was left behind, including the Fallen.]
A person once took issue with my statement that Buddhism is one of the most callous religions that I know of. And at heart it is, because to achieve the ultimate aim of classical Buddhism, you must turn your back on the suffering of those people around you in order to transcend your mortal existence and assume your Buddha nature (trikaya). Their suffering is part of Maya, the illusion of being, and you cannot achieve true enlightenment when you are still concerned with such things. And for this reason I would be a very bad Buddhist, because I cannot ignore the suffering of others.
But there are also the bodhisattva, or, for want of better term, the Buddhist saints, who may be enlightened and yet held back from Buddhahood by their compassion for others. In fact the term bodhicitta ("awakened mind") is often used to describe the mental state of a bodhisattva - a fundamental desire to relieve the suffering and bring happiness to others. Of course, in the Indian philosophies in which Classical Buddhism was based, the only way to achieve such happiness was to gain enlightenment and escape from the endless cycles of birth and rebirth (samsara), so you maintained a substantive disconnect between the Buddhist ideal of compassion and worldly belief of compassion.
As Buddhism moved eastward geographically and forwards temporally, it grew much more relaxed and compassionate in a much more worldly way, influenced heavily by Chinese philosophy, with it's innate bias towards Confucianism and ancestor worship (it is difficult to worship your ancestors if they are your mewling babies). It also picked up a hitch-hiker who was often considered one of the bodhisattva: Kuan Yin, the traditional Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Healing, and (yes) Compassion. And one of the few (in many cases only*) additions of a female to the Buddhist pantheon (mainly because the Indian view that women could not achieve enlightenment, just rebirth as a male capable of enlightenment in the next life). [The existence of a pantheon is also misleading, since the Buddha nature is transcendent, each of the Buddhas are also the Buddha as well as being Buddhas in their own right and with their own identity.] In fact the Buddhists define "her" as bodhisattva (traditionalists equate her directly with Avalokitesvara [a male!] and explaining the sex change as a simple transcription error; however her existence in traditional folk tales predates the introduction of Buddhism to China, and the Taoists tell a different story of her origin). [Needless to say she is one of the most widely loved of the East Asian deities, regardless of her antecedants.]
So perhaps, in time, and with a lot of effort, I might, perchance, were I actually a Buddhist, have the very slimmest of chance of becoming a boddhisattva.** Unfortunately the world is a mighty thing to carry on one's shoulders. No wonder Sidhattha took the easy way out.
[* I should point out that my use of some of these terms is quite different from how they are used, in say Mahayana Buddhism (which is one of the more wide-spread and common sects; most "Buddhists" you will meet will be derived from one of the Great Land sects). Mainly because it's how I think of it. That's because most of my formal training was in Rinzai, a form of Zen Buddhism with strong links to the Rybuto-Shinto animism of Japan, but formalisation never really "took." This is not to be considered a treatise on Buddhism and anyone using these arguments in a serious discussion would probably provoke hilarity and concern. Everything is a lie.]
[** I always wanted to be the very last person out of Hell. That way, I could make sure that all the chairs were stacked, and the lights were turned out. And more importantly, that no one was left behind, including the Fallen.]