ALMOST 2500 years ago a gentle man preached nonviolence and a novel conception n. walked with his disciples and taught in of the soul and founded the Jain religion. a small state named Magadha in what is now Stirred by the teachings of Zoroaster, the Nepal. The story of the enlightenment of the Persian empire attained its greatest extent young prince Siddhartha Gautama is well- and challenged the Greek world. Greek phi- known throughout the Wes tern world, but losophy was flowering with the thought of few outside Asia have a passable knowledge, Pythagoras and Plato. The Hebrew prophets much less an understanding, of the religion were laying the foundations of a nation based founded by the Buddha. on strict monotheism. In this world the The sixth and fifth centuries B.C. wit- Buddha lived. nessed intellectual and spiritual activity un- Although miraculous tales and legends precedented in the history of the world. abound, little is known about the historical During this time the ethical systems that Buddha, and many of the texts attributed to influence Chinese thought today were sys- him are undoubtedly of more recent origin. tematized by the strangely diverse personali- Some current scholarship maintains that ties of Confucius and the half-mythical Lao- Buddhism was initially little more than a tze. In India Mahavira (Great Spirit) reaction against Brahmanism (out of which 26 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1971-72

Hinduism evolved). It appears that early Buddhists were more egalitarian in their beliefs than most of their countrymen: No brahman is such by birth. No outcaste is such by birth. An outcaste is such by his deeds. A brahman is .such by his deeds. (Sutta Nipatct, 136) 1 They welcomed men and wome<J. of all classes as disciples, a practice which aroused the ire of orthodox brahmins. Like his con- temporary MahavTra, the Buddha stressed the doctrine of ahirrzsa (nonviolence : doing harm to no living thing), while animal sacrifice still lingered on from the Vedic age of Brahmanism. Due in part to a popular reaction against the social rigidity of Brahmanism, Buddhism rapidly gained a wide following, spread ing throughout India and the Central Asian steppes. The great emperor A5oka ( c. 268- 233 B.C. ) was dramatically converted to Buddhism after witnessing the carnage in an aggressive war of his own instigation. The Faith freq uently enjoyed royal patronage and continued to grow until the fifth century A.D., when it still flourished among the educated and noble classes. Eight hundred years later, however, follo wing the Muslim conquest of northern India, Buddhism had virtually disappeared from the land of its birth. Now Buddhists number only a tiny fraction of the population of India. The reasons for the virtual disappearance of Buddhism from India are several. One is the ferocity of the Muslim conquest. By and large, the invading Muslims of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries left the indigenous population to itself, but they were unre- strained in their destruction of priests, tem- ples, and monasteries. The Buddhists were most susceptible because they were orga- nized. The monks tended to congregate in centralized monasteries, while the Hindu chaplains were scattered throughout the more numerous than those of any other 1. William D eBary et al, eds., Tradition (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1958), I, 140. BUDDHISM AND THE BAHAf FAITH countryside. A more important reason is the remark- able assimilative power of Hinduism. His- torically, Hinduism has been the most ab- sorptive of the world's religions; with time it has successfully assimilated extremely heter- odox elements. Even the ethnocentric Mus- lim conquerors found themselves in danger of being assimilated during the time of the Mughal empire (1526-c. 1800). When the Muslims invaded, Buddhism and Hinduism had almost merged, and the Buddha was relegated to a place in the Hindu pantheon as the ninth incarnation of Vi~i:iu. Still more important is the fact that Bud- dhism suffered the fate of almost every other religion and split into numerous sects. Early in its career Buddhism had split in two: T heravadct ( the way of the elders) or Hr- nayana ( the lesser vehicle), and Mahayana (the greater vehicle) . Theravada retained to a greater extent the original teachings of the Buddha, while Mahayana claimed to have access to esoteric teachings of the Buddha that were denied to any but his closest disciples. In their cultural function Mahaya- na compares to Theravada much as medieval Catholicism compares to early Christianity. The Mahayana school regards the individual search for enlightenment as a selfish ideal and replaces it with the concept of the bodhisattva-the savior who achieves en- lightenment but rejects nirva?Ja so that he might help the less fortunate on the path to salvation. The development of Mahayana has been greatly influenced by local animistic cults, and it has incorporated foreign deities into its pantheon, while T heravada has sur- vived relatively less changed in Ceylon and Southeast Asia. Until recently M ahayana flourished chiefly in Tibet, Central and East- ern Asia, and Vietnam, and also in China and Japan in the form of Ch'an (or Zen), a synthesis of Mahayana and Taoism. The sacred scriptures of Buddhism are Sources of Indian religion-so extensive that no single scholar could hope to encompass them in a lifetime. 27

Among the most important Theravada texts Christian values upon which much of our are the Dhammapada and The Questions of culture is based, yet which have notably King Menander. The latter is in the form of failed to achieve their goals. Eastern religions, a Platonic dialogue between a Buddhist dis- so the rationale goes, offer individual salva- ciple and a Greek satrap left behind in tion through self-improvement and lack the Bactria by Alexander the Great. The most emphasis on social values that is fou nd in the important Mahayana text is the Saddharma- Judea-Christian tradition. The failure of the Ptt~idarTka or The Lottts of the Trne Law . Judea-Christian ethical system to bring about Mahayana is the form more familiar to its ideal of lasting social justice and peace is Westerners, since it has had the more success- regarded as being inherent in the system ful publicists, and it offers a great variety of itself, whereas if the Oriental fai ls to achieve wondrous tales. This form has recently en- the goa l of enlightenment, it is his fault joyed adoption by certain segments of Amer- alone. ican society, especially in its Tibetan or Doubtless many young people are embrac- J apanese (Zen) forms. Anyone who has ing Oriental religions because these represent read a little about Buddhism will recognize to them the opposite end of the spectrum the names of its foremost exponents and ex- from the ethica l system in which they were plainers to the West: D. T. Suzuki, the late raised. Is this polarity real or on ly apparent? Zen patriarch, and Alan Warts, the American If real, then are Western and Eastern reli- philosopher and student of comparative reli- gio ns reconcilable) In what ways does a new gion. re ligion, the Baha'i Faith, reconcile them ? A study of rhe genea logy of religions EASTERN RELIGIONS, particularly Buddhism, shows that the so-called Eastern and Wes tern have long held a spell of fascination for the re ligions have for the most part developed Western world. From Voltaire through independently. Just as Christianity grew out Schopen hauer and Hermann Hesse, Euro- of Jud aism, the Baha'i Faith grew out of pean literature is full of speculation about Shi'ih Islam through the Babi religion, and the nature of Eastern thought. American Buddhism g rew our of Brahmanism. This in poets such as Emerson and Thoreau have no way implies that the above-mentioned dabbled in Oriental mysticism, and the faiths are nor independent or revealed reli- Western world has produced a number of gions; the intent is only to point out their first-class Oriental scholars. But it is only historical connections. The historical roots of recently that popular interest, especially the Baha'i Faith lie among the Western reli- among you ng people, has been aroused . The gions, just as those of Buddhism lie among trend has yet to gain the proportions of a the Eastern, but this does not mean that the mass movement, bur it is evident that Orien- Baha'i Faith in itself is Western or Eastern in tal philosophy is being adopted uncritically outlook. Indeed, the Baha'i Faith claims uni- by certain segments of our society. versality, spanning or even transcending the Why? Partly because Oriental philosophy traditional division of East and West. In order has a great deal to teach us. But some to investigate this claim, let us first determine psychologists see other reasons in the lure of whether the differences between the Eastern the East, nor only among so-called hippies or and W esrern religions are real or apparent. beatniks, but also among serious scholars and Ar first glance it might seem rhar Western theologia ns. The phenomenal popularity dur- and Eastern religions have little in common, ing the late Sixties of transcendental medita- other than the obvious features which are tion and mysticism-and of individuals such common to all religions. This is especially as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Ravi Shankar true in the realm of metaphysics. The West- -is symptomatic of a rejection of the Judea- ern religions are rather closely related, with 28 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1971 -72

great mutual influence. The religions born results in nirvarta (the "blowing-out" of the in India and China, on the other hand, are self). Fundamental is the doctrine of the not only for the most part historically sepa- four noble truths: 1) life is inevitably sor- rate from the Western religions but also rowful, 2) sorrow is due to craving, 3) from each other. The distance between Con- sorrow can be stopped only by cessation of fucianism 2 and Buddhism is greater than desire, and 4) this can be accomplished only that between Zoroastrianism and Christiani- by disciplined conduct and meditation. ty. Moreover, the Western religions are scat- Not even the Soul has abiding personality; tered through the time dimension, whereas it too is transient. The station of the Soul is the great Eastern religions were born mostly altered according to its karma (accumulation between 600 and 500 B.C. of good or bad deeds) and is eternal! y reborn Oswald Spengler wrote, "Buddhism, which in a station that befits its past lives. The cycle only a mere dabbler in religious research of rebirth can be stopped only by attaining would compare with Christianity, is hard ly 11irvaftct or extinction. This is done first by reproducible in the words of the Western adop ting right views about the nature of Languages." :: The statement contains some existence, then by careful moral discipline, truth but is greatly exaggerated. There are and finally by prolonged meditation. significant similarities between Buddhism Nirvartrt is the total an nihilation of the and Christianity. Buddhism, however, has Self, but it is not thought of in negative been judged by some scholars to be more a terms. Rather nirvarzct is a transcendent state system of psychology than a religion. Much beyond comprehension in which the illusion of this argument is based on the fact that of individuality is apparent. This state is not there is no trace in the Buddha's teachings of fundamentally different from the supreme a "God"-at least not a personal, transcen- bliss described by Hindu saints, Muslim Ittfzs, dent god in the Christian sense. This argu- or Christian mystics. The state is inexpressi- ment can be reduced to a matter of seman- ble, however; it can only be experienced, tics: the Buddha taught the existence of never communicated-or, as Baha'u'llah said, dharmct ( divine law) which governs all there are regions into which the pen will not creation. His teachings all point to an eternal move. reality, which, although it lacks the anthro- The later Mahayana schools, in attempting pomorphic aspects of Western theism, is a to describe reality, postulate that funyata creative force that is easily identified with (the Void or emptiness) is all that exists. God. The Void, again, is not negative in the sense of an absence of something, but rather it is BUDDHISM TEACHES that everything in the the only abiding reality and being-it is one universe is in a constant state of flux. Crav- with truth, nirvarza, and the Buddha Himself. ing and clinging to permanence is the inevi- The qualities of the Void which are manifest table cause of sorrow. Salvation is found by in existence are called tathata (translatable the gradual loss of self-concern, until it only as "suchness"). The Void is essentially identical with the emptiness that so troubles 2 . Confucianism is th e most "Western" of the Eastern religions. Ind eed, some scholars think Western existentialist philosophers. The it is not a religion at all, but rather just a sys- difference, of course, lies in the fact that tem of ethics. Although it lacks the m eta- Buddhists look on the Void with joy, the physical aspect of religion (a t leas t in its ini- ti al stages) , it fulfills th e social function of a existentialists with despair. religion. Since it th eoreticall y allows excep- One apparent difference between Eastern tions to its laws, and since it was born in and Western religions is their relative em- China, I include it amo ng the Eastern religions. 3. Oswald Spengler, Th e Decline of the West phasis on ethics and metaphysics. Almost (New York: M odern Library, 1962), p. 184. without exception, Western religions place BUDDHISM AND THE BAHkf FAITH 29

the primary emphasis on ethics, i.e., the "wholly other," while Eastern religions tend individual's relation to society, while meta- to look for the Deity within the human physics, the individual's relationship to God Soul. or the Cosmos, is of secondary importance. According to this definition, does the The essence of Judaism, for example, is Baha'i Faith qualify as a Western or an found in the Ten Commandments; the es- Eastern religion , or is it a meeting ground for sence of Christianity in the Golden Rule and the two traditions? Its historical roots lie the Sermon on the Mount. Metaphysics has among the Western religions, but this, in little place in the original teachings of either itself, does not answer the question. Speaking Faith. Eastern religions, with the exception of of unchanging religious truth, 'Abdu'l-Baha Confucianism, rend to place a higher value writes: on metaphysics. It may be argued that the . .. each of the divine religions is separable Buddha Himself rejected metaphysical specu- into two divisions. One concerns the w orld lation; nevertheless, Buddhism-and espe- of morality and the ethical training of cially Mahayan a-abounds in it. httman natttre. It is directed to the ad- A second difference lies in the degree of vancement of the w orld of httmanity in social control demanded by the religion. general,- it reveals and in culcates the Western religions are notably more authori- knowledge of God and m akes possible the tarian than their Eastern counterparts, a fact discovery of the verities of life. This is which has usually given rise to a greater ideal and spiritttal teaching, the essential degree of tolerance among the latter. Al- qttality of divine religion and not subject though the Buddhist monk is subject to the to change or transformation. . . . T he discipline of his superior, the follower who second classification or division comprises has attained nirvar;a is subject to no authority social laws and regttlations applicable to other than internal authority. He is free of human conduct. This is not the essential concern for transgression; not even the teach- spiritual qitality of religion. It is m bject to ings of the Buddha bind him any longer. In change and transformation according to medieval Roman Catholicism, on the other the exigencies and requirements of time hand, every Christian, saint or sinner,- was and place. 4 subject ro the authority of the Pope. In It is instructive to compare 'Abdu'l-Baha's medieval Islam the fttfis, no matter how assertion with the following selection from a great their state of enlightenment, were still Tibetan Buddhist text: bound by the law of the Shari'a~ . At their If the empty nature of the mind be greatest Sr. Francis and al-GhazaH were still realized, no longer is it necessary to listen lesser men than Christ or Mulfammad. But to or to meditate upon religious teachings. there is nothing to stop a Buddhist saint from If the unsulliable nature of the intellect be equaling or even surpassing the Buddha realized, no longer is it necessary to seek Himself. absolution of one's sins. Nor is absolution let us tentatively define a Western reli- necessary for one who abideth in the State gion as one which emphasizes ethics above of Mental Quiescence. 5 metaphysics and allows no exceptions to its Buddhism and Hinduism share a belief in laws. A Western religion, moreover, usually reincarnation as part of their doctrine. This conceives of God as remote, unapproachable, doctrine of metempsychosis is one of the 4. Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World major stumbling blocks to their reconcili- Faith (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, ation with Western religions. Regarding the 1966 ) , p. 274. doctrine of reincarnation, 'Abdu'l-Baha 5. W. Y. Evans-Wentz, ed., Tib etan Yo ga and Secret Doctrines (New York: Galaxy Books, writes: 1967), p. 88. There fore reincarnation, w hich is the re- 30 WORLD ORDER: W INTER 1971-72

peated appearance of the same spirit with transmigrating! " 8 its farmer essence and condition in this (The Questions of King Menander) same world of appearance, is impossible The apparent differences between Eastern and unrealisable. 6 and Western religions can be summed up by Is reincarnation a basic doctrine of the two comparing the purported last instructions of greatest Eastern religions-one on which the Buddha with one of the Hidden Words there can be no compromise? The Buddhist of Baha'u'llah : scholar, Alan Watts, thinks not : Many Buddhists understand the Round of birth-and-death quite literally as a process The Buddha: of reincarnation, wherein the karma which So, Ananda, you must be yo ur own lamps, shapes the individual does so again and be your own refuges. Take refuge in nothing again in life after life until, through outside yourselves. Hold firm to the truth as insight and awakening, it is laid to rest. a lamp and a refuge, and do not look for refuge ro any thing besides yourselves. A But in Zen, and in other schools of the monk becomes his own lam p and re fu ge by Mahayana, it is often taken in a more continually looking o n his body, feelings, figurative way, as that the process of perceptions, moods, and id eas in such a man- rebirth is from moment to moment, so ner that he conquers the cravings and depres- that one is being reborn so long as one sions of ordinary men and is always strenu- ous, self-possessed, and collected in m ind. identifies himse lf with a continuing ego \'{!hoever among m y monks does this, either which reincarnates itself afresh at each now or when I am dead, if he is anxious to mome nt of time. T hus the validity and learn , will reach the summit.D interest of the doctrine does not require ( D1gha Nikaya) acceptance of a special theory of survival. 7 Bahi'u'llah: 0 SON OF SPIRIT! There is no peace for This view is supported by the Theravada rhee save by renouncing thyself and turning scnprnres: un ro Me, for it behoveth thee to g lory in My "Reverend Nagasena," said the King, name, not in rhine own; ro put th y trust in Me and nor in th yself, since I des ire to be "is it true that nothing transmigrates, and loved alone and above all that is.10 yet there is rebirth?" "Yes, your Majesty." "How can this be? . . . Give me an illustration." Can these be reconciled? Yes. The Buddha "Suppose, your Majesty, a man lights direm his disciples to look within for guid- one lamp from another-does the one ance, while Baha'u'llah counsels us to re- lamp transmigrate to the other? " nounce ourselves and cling to the Absolute. "No, your Reverence." In reality their advice is the same. Baha- "So there is rebirth without anything 'u'll ah writes: Thou art My stronghold; enter therein that thott mayest abide in safety. My love 6. 'Abdu' l-Baha; Some Answered Questions is in thee, know it, that thou mayest (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1964),p. 326. find Me near unto thee . . .. Thou art My 7. Alan W. Wans, Th e Way of Z en (New York: lamp and My light is in thee. Get thou Vinrage, 195 7), p. 49. from it thy radiance and seek none oth- 8. D eBary, p. 106. 9. Ibid., p. 110. er than Me. 11 10. Baha'i Wo rld Faith, pp. 156- 57. Thus we are to approach the Absolute by 11. Baha'u'llah, Th e H idden Words (Wilmette, Ill. : Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1954) , p. means of a paradox, renouncing the ego 6. ("the cravings and depressions of ordinary BUDDHISM AND THE BAHkf FAITH 31 32 WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1971-72

men") while obtaining our light from the only quantitatively different from other men; lamp of Truth within us. Nirv@:ta, the ex- hence all men are potentially divine. To the tinction of self which may occur in life, is Buddhist, the Buddha is not the infallible also the goal of the follower of Baha'u'llah: incarnation of God's Truth, but rather only • • • that tho1t mayest die in Me and I may the most illustrious of a long line of en- eternally live in thee." 12 lightened men. In Islam, Judaism, and Here we may dispose of one of the crucial Catholic Christianity, the individual con- differences-the internal versus the external science must submit to the law of the proph- Truth. The dichotomy is false; they are one. et or the will of the Church; in the Eastern What about the difference in emphasis on religions the ultimate authority is internal. ethics and metaphysics? Again, it is only a The only way to resolve this difference is semantical difficulty. Only in theory do the to consider the society in which a religion is Eastern religions assign ethics a lesser degree born. The societies which gave birth to of importance. In reality, the saint or the Buddhism and Hinduism were extremely enlightened man cannot help behaving with heterogeneous, even more so than they are compassion toward his fellow creatures. His today . If a religion had arisen which de- motivation is internal, but it is binding. manded submission to a single religious Hence, the Buddhist scriptures stress the authority, it would almost certainly have moral qualities that a monk must possess- failed . Hinduism, to be sure, demanded sub- moral qualities which are usually more de- mission to the brahmin caste, but mobility manding than those required by the Western and heterodoxy were allowed to a far greater religions. Although enlightenment is of pri- extent in ancient India than most people mary importance, and ethics secondary, they suppose. The ancient Jews, or the Arabs of go hand in hand and are actually inseparable. the seventh century A.D. for that matter, The dichotomy between ethics and metaphys- were a far more homogeneous society; there- ics, then, is also false-they are one. We fore it was possible (and indeed advanta- must not conclude from this that those with geous) for them to submit to a single no interest in metaphysics cannot be ethical religious authority-Moses or Mul:iammad. -atheists, for instance. All ethical systems Societies were relatively isolated from are internally, therefore metaphysically, mo- each other in the ancient world; hence some tivated , whether or not one chooses to call could allow themselves the luxury of having the motivation God. no external religious authority. Today our One crucial difference remains-the ques- world is so tightly knit, however, that the tion of social control. This is a more difficult smallest social shock reverberates throughout question to resolve, and here the difference the globe. The need for unity is urgent, and between the Eastern outlook and the West- unity of Faith is not possible without spiritual ern appears to be more real than apparent. authority. The luxury of an autonomous As we have seen, in Western religions every conscience can no longer be afforded. believer, without exception, is subject to the law of the prophet, but this is not true of AN ORIENTAL, then, can accept the Baha'i Eastern religions. The reason lies in the Faith without rejecting the essential philoso- Western view of the prophet as qualitatively phy behind his own religious tradition. different from the rest of mankind-a Being Baha'u'llah places more emphasis on social especially favored by God and hence unap- teachings than did the Buddha, but there is proachable, or, in Christianity, one with God no evidence of any contradiction between the Himself. But to the Oriental the prophet is essential teachings of the Buddha and those of Baha'u'llah. Western religions have not 12. Ibid., p. 5. been notably successful in the East, since they ,,.,,. BUDDHISM AND THE BAHA'I FAITH 33

usually demand a rejection of tradition from His body is eighty cubits high, and twenty the convert. The Baha'i Faith, however, offers cubits broad. He will have a retinue of to the Oriental more freedom than the West- 84,000 persons, whom he will instruct in ern religions. Except for the few laws bind- the mantras ... For 60,000 years Maitreya, ing upon all Baha'is, the Oriental is free, the best of men, will preach the true even encouraged, to revere his own culture Dharma, which is compassionate towards and follow his own customs. The validity of all living beings. And when he has disci- his former religion is not denied. In this plined in his true Dharma hundreds and sense the Baha'i Faith is neither a Western hundreds of millions of living beings, then nor an Eastern religion but rather a point of that leader will at last enter Nirvana. And convergence. after the great sage has entered Nirvana, Moreover, the Buddhist is able to turn to his true Dharma still endures for another the Baha'i Faith as the fulfillment of his ten thousand years. 1 3 beliefs. Buddhism, like many other religions, I have, however, found one Buddhist tradi- has an apocalyptic tradition and expects the tion that suggests that the age in which we return of its Founder, although there is evi- live will be the beginning of a regeneration dence that this concept arose much later than of the human spirit. The Japanese Buddhist the Buddha's lifetime and is not attributable monk Nichiren (1222-1282) preached to him. The Mahayana scriptures abound in apocalyptic ideas based on historical cycles references to the Maitreya, the Buddha of the drawn from Chinese Buddhism. According to Future, the Expected One. Some Mahayana Chinese chronology, the death of the Buddha sects regard this return as only of the spirit of occurred in 947 B.C. His death was followed, the Buddha, not the acrual physical presence according to Nichiren, by the millennium of of Sakyamtmi, the Historical Buddha, since the "true la\v ." About the time of the rise of he attained nirva?Ja and is therefore lost to Christianity, the second millennium of the us. This makes it easier for many Buddhists "image" law began. Historically this corre- to accept the appearance of the Maitreya in sponds with the rise of Mahayana, which circumstances other than those which are places great emphasis on approaching traditional. Buddhahood through the Buddha's images, Baha'is are familiar with the claims of the bodhisattvas. According to Nichiren the Baha'u'llah to be the return of the spirit of last phase, the "destrucrion of the law," Christ and Mul?.ammad. But few Baha' is in began about 1000 A.D. with the rise of the Western world understand in what sense Tantrism, the form of Buddhism concerned Baha'u'llah may also be seen as the Maitreya. with magic and spells. This cycle, too, lasts a The Buddhist canon yields no specific predic- thousand years, and so a new era is at tions that might be interpreted as referring to hand-an era characterized by Nichiren as a Baha'u'll ah, as do Biblical references or Mus- return to the "true law." Nichiren saw this lim traditions. Some of the references to the era as a time when a holy shrine will become Maitreya are obviously allegorical, even fan- the center of the world, and a mq1Jdala (a tastic. Witness the following scripture in religious symbol) will regenerate the human which the Maitreya is expected some thirty spirit. Nichiren's apocalypse survives in the thousand years after the death of the histori- teachings of Soka Gokkai, a religion whid~ is cal Buddha: currently growing rapidly in Japan. 1 4 Baha'u'llah, then, may be accepted as the 13. Edward Conze, Bztddhist Scriptures (New Maitreya awaited by the Buddhists, in that York: Penguin, 1959),pp. 240 -41. He is the "Bringer of a New Law," "One who 14. Harry Thomsen, The New Religions of Japan Brings Peace," and "One who Enlightens and (Rutland, Vr.: Chas . E. Tuttle Co., 1963 ), p. 92. Unites the World."