Developments in Buddhist Thought: Canadian Contributions to Buddhist Studies

By Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Nine Canadian scholars of Buddhism consider philosophical and cultural issues in Buddhist thought. Part I, “On Being,” discusses the philosophical problem of Being in the school of the Middle Way, Mādhyamika Buddhism, and in the Tantric School of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Part II, “On the Indian Milieu,” surveys Hindu views of Buddhism and explores Buddhism’s relationship with other Indian religious and philosophical traditions. Part III, “On the Chinese Milieu,” analyzes developments in Buddhist thought in China.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Release date: Oct 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9780889207011

Book preview

Developments in

Buddhist Thought:

Canadian Contributions

to Buddhist Studies

edited by Roy C. Amore

Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion / Corporation

Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses by Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

Developments in Buddhist thought

(SR supplements ; 9)

ISBN 0-919812-11-2 pa.

I. Buddhism. I. Amore, Roy C., 1942-

II. Series.

BQ4012.D48     294.3     C79-094734-X

© 1979 Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses / Canadian

Corporation for Studies in Religion

No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche,or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

Cover design by Michael Baldwin, MSIAD

Order from:

Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Wilfrid Laurier University

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5

DEVELOPMENTS IN BUDDHIST THOUGHT:

CANADIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO BUDDHIST STUDIES

Edited by

Roy C. Amore

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

I. ON BEING

1. Sprung, Mervyn

Buddhism

2. Mehta, Mahesh

View of Inner Reality

3. Guenther, H.V.

Idea in

its Tibetan Interpretation

II. ON THE INDIAN MILIEU

4. Klostermaier, Klaus

Hindu Views of Buddhism

5. Matilal, Bimal K.

and Buddhism

6. Amore, Roy C.

Giving and Harming: Buddhist Symbols of Good

and Evil

7. Younger, Paul

Buddhism and the Indian Religious Tradition

III. ON THE CHINESE MILIEU

8. Hurvitz, Leon

The Mind of the Early Chinese Buddhist

9. JAN, Yün-hua

Li P’ing-Shan and his Refutation of Neo-Confucian

Criticism of Buddhism

The Contributors

FOREWORD

The occasion of welcoming Professor Amore’s book into the series SR Supplements provides the opportunity for familiarizing the reader with the intentions of the somewhat unusual publishing consortium behind this book and for several thank you’s.

Five major Canadian professional societies in the field of the scientific study of religion and theology and representing the scholarship of both the national language groups of Canada established this Corporation in order to promote the publication of academic studies in religion in this country. The first aim was to launch a Journal which would respond to the needs of scholars in Canada, working in either of her national languages. Studies in religion/Sciences Religieuses emerged; it is now in its eighth year of publication. Still, there was a gap between a journal and the full-scale book which is made available through the established publishing houses and university-presses. The Corporation seeks to meet the needs of scholars in the field of religion and theology with publication series such as SR Supplements, the production costs of which are substantially lower, whose press-runs are smaller initially and whose sale and advertising methods are somewhat different than those of books produced by other established commercial publishers. Very short production-periods and low sale price, but still a quality product is what the Corporation aims for.

The Corporation is pleased that Professor Amore and his very distinguished colleagues chose to make this collection which represents the very edge of their research available through us. It is a noteworthy fact that Canada can boast of a concentration of leading Buddhologists not easily matched elsewhere. Their work has claimed attention for a number of years; this collection of articles hitherto unpublished will continue that tradition. We thank the authors and the editor for honouring the Corporation which, in its turn, is proud to present this book to scholars - teachers and students - and those to whom studies in religion and theology in Canada is a matter of general concern.

The book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. To these granting agencies the Corporation expresses its deep gratitude.

Martin Rumscheidt, President

CANADIAN CORPORATION FOR STUDIES IN RELIGION/

CORPORATION CANADIENNE DES SCIENCES RELIGIEUSES

INTRODUCTION

The essays brought together here represent the current scholarship of some of Canada’s eminent Buddhologists. The essays discuss developments in Buddhist thought which occurred as Buddhists faced the philosophical problem of Being (part I) and the cultural problem of relating to the milieus of India (part II) and China (part III).

’s. Finally his approach leads to conclusions about the nature of the middle way (in this school) as the proper approach to reality as well as to philosophical concepts—an approach which goes beyond simple affirmation and negation.

". His explanation of the difference between beings which exist only because of other beings and those which exist on their own opens an area of discussion, concerning the nature of ultimate reality, which the following essay treats in detail.

and the intended realization of Being-as-such behind beings.

In part II on the Indian Milieu Klaus Klostermaier sets the scene by surveying various Hindu Views of Buddhism. He finds evidence of both hostile and peaceful relations between Hinduism and Buddhism and notes that each tradition has distinguished itself from the other more on doctrinal than practical ground. Also, both the nature and intensity of the relations have varied greatly from era to era, with interesting developments among recent Indians including Gandhi and Vivekananda.

and Buddhism" calls to our attention the fact that Hindu and Buddhist thought did not develop in isolation but rather within a common Indian milieu.

My own essay, Giving and Harming: Buddhist Symbols of Good and Evil, discusses the way Buddhist thought appropriated the ideals of non-violence and giving from the Indian milieu and used them in formulating an ethic compatible with the tradition’s suppositions. This historical analysis provides a way of understanding the great importance given to making merit among lay Buddhists today.

In the final essay in part II, Buddhism and the Indian Religious Tradition, Paul Younger addresses the question of how Buddhist Studies relates to Religious Studies and suggests that the former can be a very fruitful partner to the latter. He discusses three of the areas in which Buddhologists can contribute to our knowledge of the Indian religious tradition; namely on the questions of the mood of Indian spirituality, of the motivational pattern of Indian religion, and of the real nature of the religious beliefs and practices which Buddhists took beyond India.

Part III, dealing with developments in Buddhist thought within China, opens with a double length essay on The Mind of Early Chinese Buddhism by Leon Hurvitz. He discusses the ways in which early Chinese Buddhists struggled to be both Chinese and Buddhist. He focuses on the thought in situ from Indian Buddhist thought (as Mehta and Sprung discuss), of the relation of being to non-being, of the nature of the soul and its state, if any, after death, of the degree of veneration which Buddhist monks should show to the emperor, et al.

(emptiness), afterlife and Reality as well as issues of particular concern in his era.

Much more could be written about developments in India and China, not to mention Japan, Korea, Tibet, and Southeast Asia, yet it is hoped that these essays will indeed contribute to the understanding of Buddhist thought and its relation to the cultures in which it has existed.

The Canadian Corporation for Studies in religion is to be thanked for their initiative in encouraging publications in all areas of Religious Studies, including Buddhist Studies. I wish to thank those scholars such as Gerald Larson, Alex Wayman, Mahesh Mehta, J.D. Schmidt, Lonnie Kliever and Leon Hurvitz who assisted me as critical readers of the drafts of these articles.

Roy C. Amore

PART 1

ON BEING

of Gautama Buddha, Buddhism had expanded over almost the whole of the Indian subcontinent. In the course of those five hundred years, Buddhism had come into contact with several significant trends. For example there was the very important rise of devotional theism which was sweeping the subcontinent. And there was the increasing role given to the worship of gods by offering service to images. On the intellectual front philosophical and religious writers of all persuasions were expected to write in a standard, literary dialect which we now call classical Sanskrit.

Buddhism responded to these cultural changes by fighting fire with fire. Buddhist devotionalism greatly increased, with more importance now given to worship at stupas and with the advent of saviour deities in the form of Bodhisattvas and new Buddhas. Buddhist art broke its long standing taboo against depicting the Buddha, and the Gandhara school in particular was heavily influenced by Greco-Roman art which had been introduced into India after Alexander’s conquest of Northwest India in 326 B.C.

.

R.C.A.

BUDDHISM

Mervyn Sprung

Whatever the differences among philosophers, they normally understand themselves to be in search of knowledge and are inclined to claim that they have found what they have been in search of. Whether he speaks of reality, truth, being (or indeed of ousia, to on, sat or Sein), school of Indian Buddhism.

Buddhism, understands the capability or end of thought in a way that differs markedly from both traditional dogmatism and scepticism. Most philosophers still understand the implicit purpose of what they are doing to be some form or mode of knowing—however knowing may be understood. It has not often occurred to philosophers that the end of philosophy may be misunderstood as knowing; that it may not be a mode of knowing in any sense; that the end of philosophy be just that—its termination, the transmutation of knowing into something else.

philosophy deprives philosophy of the privilege of ending in knowledge.

school, the Middle Way Stanzas and one of the greatest of India’s philosophers, is thought to have lived in the second century A.D.

concepts. A comparison with Immanuel Kant should aid our understanding. My interpretation goes beyond the text, but I hope not against it. Where I knowingly go my own way I shall give notice.

This term is compounded of two words: sva is most commonly given in English as own nature or own being, in German as das Absolute Sein, and in French as l’existence en soi or l’etre en soi. I have translated it as self-existence, bearing in mind that the Sanskrit term embraces the two ideas which European thought has been at such pains to distinguish: essence (or nature) and existence. We must recognize that what appears to us to be a terminological ambivalence marks the distinctive Buddhist, and indeed Indian, way of seeing the problem. Essence (nature) cannot be conceived of apart from existence; nor can anything exist except essence or nature; perhaps the concept essence is unknown to Indians. But more of that as we proceed.¹ ²

(Self-existence)

begins his investigation by statingcannot accept its common application as in the stock example: the heat of fire. He insists that this is as causally dependent as all other particular existents. Heat is never encountered apart from fire (which is created by fuel and ignition) and is therefore also created. Therefore, it fails to be itself through itself.

holds,concludes this introductory refutation: Particular things are not self-existent in this sense,⁷ as commonly taken to be. At once the imaginary opponent puts the question: "Well, what is self-existence, and what is its definition?"

assumes, but it is not their ontic from the concept itself.pronouncement) The heat of fire neither exists nor does not exist as an ‘inherent nature’ .⁹ Similarly, particular things neither exist nor do they not exist.

This assertion must bring the uninitiated up short. We are not to say, on the one hand, that things in the world are self-existent. This much is not a novel idea. Plato could be invoked, as could all sceptics, pragmatists, Christians, and Heideggerians. On the other hand, those who have thought that things have being as particulars can be identified also. They are realists, whether Indian, Greek or English.

had initially argued in support only of the negative conclusion: things are not names the state of affairs in which things—inner and outer— of the world are seen, or taken, neither in their ontic character as commonly conceived, nor in its absence. That is, things of the world are seen, or taken, as neither existing nor as not existing.

speaks of things as self-existing? Because, he answers, common men would be afraid of the truth¹⁰ and therefore, for everyday purposes, things are said to exist truly. And how is this achieved? By gratuitously, though not arbitrarily, superimposing the notion of self-existence. It is this