Buddhism Paper "That Which Cannot Be Titled"

A. Siddhartha Gautama transformed into Buddha—the enlightened one—after 49 days of intense meditations and the battle against Mara the Evil One. Once he achieved enlightenment, his first sermon explained the Four Noble Truths: life is dukkha (suffering), the root of all suffering is tanha (desire), to defeat dukkha one must destroy tanha, and to destroy tanha one must follow the Eightfold Path. Buddha did not speak of suffering in the physical sense, such as pain, hunger, and sickness. There is no way of escaping these human conditions. If there is no escape from these sufferings, then the last two Noble Truths are fallacies, because following the Eightfold Path does not prevent hunger. The dukkha Buddha refers to is suffering upon suffering, or suffering of the spirit. This pain roots from tanha, or desire. Here, desire means to fulfill the ego’s needs. The quest for personal fulfillment causes dukkha, because one sees the world in his or her own projections and not what is the case. If we only seek the satisfaction of our egos, we will suffer. This behavior will create a rift between the interconnectedness of the world and our own egos. To be content, one must seek and act as if one is connected to all others and one must work with compassion. Acting in compassion and not personal desire will limit material feelings and suffering will subside. In order to defeat the ego’s embellishment of desire or anger, one can look at his or her psyche objectively. This will put the mind and heart ahead of the ego so that it can be analyzed. Thus, one will learn to free themselves from the confinements of desire.
“Trading Dialogue for Lodging” in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones illustrates a case of someone living with tanha and experiencing dukkha. A dumb, one-eyed monk has a wordless argument with a wandering monk over lodging. The wanderer held up one finger signifying the Buddha, and the one-eyed idiot—not able to think beyond his own perceptions—thought that the one finger signified his one eye. The one-eyed man holds up two fingers to signify the wanderer has two eyes; the wandering man thinks he is signifying Buddha and his teachings. So the wanderer holds up three to show Buddha, his teachings, and his followers. Of course, the not- too-bright monk believes the fingers represent that they have only three eyes between them. Offended, he gets ready to punch the wanderer. The clenched fist shows the wanderer that the Buddha, the teachings, and the followers are all one. He feels that he lost the argument and departs. This story juxtaposes an individual who is able to look past his ego and who is not seething in suffering with someone who does live in suffering as a result of allowing a handicap to dictate how he perceives the world. The one-eyed monk is so caught up in his handicap, he become spiritually handicapped and limits his mind to the material. He cannot step back and think of himself objectively; he only lives within his perceptions.

B. A common method of Zen Buddhism is the use of koans. A koan is a puzzle with no apparent trick. This definition only scratches the surface. In practice, it is a way to exhaust rational thought or shock the mind out of the rational level. A Zen master will ask a student to explain the sound of one hand clapping. The mind has no rational answer for this and there never will be. However, through the deep act of trying to rationalize it, one will exhaust the rational. This opens the mind to a revelation. This revelation is satori. Satori is a flicker of enlightenment, where one sees beyond the rational and material. After the mind loses its rational thought process, a door is opened so that a Zen student can find the true answer which he seeks. One may attain satori only for an instant. Just because a person reaches satori once, this does not mean that he or she is enlightened.

Satori is an ongoing quest—one that will not end until death. It can be described as a light bulb flickering: when it is off the rational mind blinds you, when it is on the light hits you and you attain satori for that instance, until the light is turned off again. In Zen Flesh, Zen Bone the story “Three Days More” depicts a student who returns to his master upset that he cannot answer what the sound of one hand clapping is like. The master sends him back to keep meditating on the matter, but the student still cannot attain enlightenment. Finally, the master tells him that if he doesn’t have an answer after three more days, he should commit suicide. The student becomes enlightened on the second day. The impending doom of suicide shocked the student’s mind into letting go of the rational and finding the truth, leading to satori.

C. The split in Buddhism occurred over fundamental arguments about humanity’s lot in the universe. Are we independent or dependent? Are we to give into the mind or the heart? Buddhism grew into division based on questions such as these. The larger branch is the Mahayana, or the “Great Raft.” The Mahayana believe Buddha is to be followed by example not by the Pali Canon (Buddhist scriptures). They also believe that Buddha did not stay in Nirvana; he came back to help others attain enlightenment. Buddha is Christ-like in that he is a savior and that Buddhists look to his image for guidance. The Mahayana contend that we must look at the compassionate side of Buddha, not so much at the expansion of the mind and wisdom-seeking aspects. The Theravada, the smaller group, looks at the wise and heavy-minded side of Buddhism. Buddha, to the Theravada, dissipated from the world when he went into Nirvana. They would also say Buddha was only a man, not a God or Savior. They follow his teachings rather than exemplifying his life. This explains why they follow the Pali Canon so rigidly. While the Theravada believe that followers must reach enlightenment by themselves, the Mahayana believe reaching enlightenment should be a group effort because all life is connected. According to followers of Mahayana Buddhism, if someone reaches enlightenment, then they will renounce it and help others attain it, becoming a bodhisattva. The Mahayana way is based on cultivating the compassion to let go of the personal quest to reach Nirvana in order to help others. The Theravada believe that the individual must seek wisdom as the prime attribute to enlightenment. They shall reach Nirvana alone and transcend into an Arhat. Even the goals of the Mahayana and the Theravada differ. The Mahayana want to help everyone reach enlightenment together, but the Theravada feel that it is an individual quest to pass into nirvana.

Six Buddhist monks, three Theravada and three Mahayana, were told that they must have a foot race across the desert and the end of the race is enlightenment. The race was epic. The monks ran as fast as their legs could go, all equally set on reaching enlightenment. None of them were able to pull ahead. Dust streams followed their feet as if they wore the winged sandals of Hermes. As they approached the finish line, a Theravada monk felt something awaken in his mind and he felt unworldly speed and he pulled ahead. At the same time, one Mahayana monk felt an awakening in his heart and shifted into the lead as well. The dust from their feet choked the other four monks. They all fell to the ground and tumbled, receiving many injuries. The line of enlightenment was looming ahead and the Theravada monk looked back at the fallen monks. He shrugged as he crossed into enlightenment. The Mahayana monk saw that his comrades had fallen and stopped at the line. He watched the Theravada monk disappear into the unknown, and then looked back at the four monks lying under the desert sun—a sun with the inferno to make any man burn to death in hours. The Mahayana monk turned from Nirvana and ran back to his brothers in order to assist them on their way to the finish line. That way, they will not be lost forever.

Critique of part C:
Theravada Buddhism seems to ignore the compassionate side of Siddhartha Gautama’s life. Their individualistic focus seems at odds with Buddha’s love for all people and becomes elitist in practice. If enlightenment were to be an individual task, then why didn’t Buddha do as Mara the Evil One said and just cross over and be dead to the material world? He wanted to share his experiences and philosophies on life with others. Even if Theravada Buddhists were to rigidly follow the Pali Canon, they would still find Buddha’s ideas of interconnectedness. They recognize the Four Noble Virtues, two of which are compassion and joy in the happiness of others. Yet, they chose to ignore it in their philosophy and turned Nirvana into a selective concept. Only the elite can make it, and the elite will never look back on his or her brothers and help them find their way.

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