Enlightenment

Enlightenment (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Buddhist sense enlightenment means achieving absolute spiritual realization through loss of the ego and, ultimately, one’s individuality. Once enlightened the Buddhist believes they’re no longer reborn and, and through the annihilation of any kind of individuality, even spiritual individuality, they apparently free themselves from suffering.

Unlike Christianity, Buddhism has no positive sense of individuality, not even spiritual individuality in the afterlife. Being an individual is just bad news in Buddhism.

A spiritual meaning for the word enlightenment is not restricted to Buddhism, however. The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that, as far back as 1621, enlightenment has been used in Christianity to refer to the idea that God illuminates individual souls and that such souls are powerless to illuminate themselves with divine grace and understanding.

1621   R. Aylett Song of Songs i. iv. iv. 83   The Word, without the Spirits enlightenment, Is as good Seede sowne on vntilled ground.¹

The picture shows a gathering of distinguished guests in the drawing-room of French hostess Marie-Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin (1699-1777) who is seated on the right. There is a bust of Voltaire in the background. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the historical sense the period of “The Enlightenment” refers to an 18^th-century philosophical movement emerging out of the 17^th-century Scientific Revolution, to include the works of Adam Smith, Locke, Hume and Newton. It advocated reason and education over what was regarded as superstition, blind faith and historically laden dogmas. So in this context, the word enlightenment has a totally different meaning than the quotation above.

1836   N. Amer. Rev. July 176   When he [sc. Tieck] made his first appearance, it was, under the banner of Nicolai, as one of the Berlin advocates of enlightenment and reason, and enemies of superstition and mysticism.²

The Enlightenment championed the idea of “progress” as a challenge to entrenched forms of Christianity; however the idea of progress, and all the unspoken connotations that go with it, is now questioned by many. In France the Enlightenment produced the first great encyclopedias of Diderot and d’Alembert, with contributions from leading figures like Voltaire, Montesquieu, Condorcet and Rousseau.

In the Western contemporary sense enlightenment means a novel thought, a new way of looking at things, insight or the dispelling of ignorance.

—

¹ OED third edition, November 2010; online version March 2012. <http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca/view/Entry/62448>; accessed 01 May 2012. An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1891.

² Ibid.

Eightfold Path

Lion Guardians of the Bodhi Path by Tony Fischer Photography via Flickr

In Buddhism the Eightfold Path is the path said to lead away from suffering (dukkha), constituting the fourth of the Four Noble Truths. The eightfold path is:

1. Right views
2. Right intention
3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration

The path is not to be followed in a linear sense; the aspirant usually shifts from one prescription to another. And interpretations of each prescription differ according to the doctrine of a particular Buddhist school, of which there are myriad. Japan, alone, had 162 different Buddhist schools in 1972 (Eliade Guide to World Religions: 1991, p. 40).

Having said that:

1. Right views generally refers to accepting the Buddha’s teaching, particularly the Four Noble Truths.
2. Right intention refers to cultivating a state of mind leading to the flowering of awareness known as enlightenment (bodhi).
3. Right speech means avoiding harsh, unnecessary and untruthful speech.
4. Right action means monks following the rules of their order or laypersons avoiding slothful, violent and generally unethical actions.
5. Right livelihood means avoiding unethical occupations.
6. Right effort means harnessing all of one’s thoughts and activities to the goal of enlightenment.
7. Right mindfulness dispassionately observes the flow of thoughts, feelings and sensations, with a view towards controlling and stilling them.
8. Right concentration refers to focusing on a single point, ultimately leading to the achievement of nirvana. Right concentration could be seen as the doorway to meditation, the last step towards the Buddhist understanding of enlightenment.

Many compare the Eightfold Path, in a very superficial way, to the Hindu Vedanta or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But an honest, clear-minded analysis reveals important differences among the teachings of these world religions. By way of analogy, it’s like saying coke is identical to corn syrup, which is identical to water. While these all share the quality of being liquids, they’re also quite different liquids. And so it is, many would contend, with the teachings (and effects) of different world religions.

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Four Noble Truths

Dhamekh Stupa, where the Buddha gave the first sermon on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path to his five disciples after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. Also seen behind the stupa in the left corner is the yellow-coloured spire of Digamber Jain temple, dedicated to 11th Jain Tirthankar, Shreyansanath, known to be his birth place. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Four Noble Truths are the core of Buddhist teaching, said to have been outlined by the Buddha in his first discourse at Benares. They are as follows:

1. All of life is suffering (dukkha)
2. The cause of suffering is wrongful desire, craving or thirst (tanha)
3. Suffering can be overcome by eliminating these causes
4. The method for eliminating suffering is outlined in the Eightfold Path.

This differs from the Christian view of suffering. Christians, particularly Catholics, tend to make room for a positive view of some forms of suffering, regarded as a means towards purification in preparation for everlasting heaven. While neurotic suffering is not accepted and unnecessary suffering is to be avoided, the Catholic saints do not try to eradicate unavoidable “holy suffering,” which they believe should be patiently endured.

In some cases extreme suffering is welcomed as a blessing by the Catholic saint. St. Faustina Kowalska, for instance, embraced holy suffering because she believed she was instructed by Christ that it would maximize her heavenly reward. The depth psychologist C. G. Jung had something similar (but not identical) to say in his treatment of alchemy. For Jung suffering was a necessary kind of ‘smelting,’ as it were, for soul making—or rather, self making.

Again, the Buddhist understanding of suffering is very different from that of both Jungian theory and Christian theology. Buddhism sees all suffering as bad and something to be avoided, whereas mystical Christians see some types of suffering as a valuable experience leading toward purification and a heavenly reward beyond all human imagination. Jung’s take on suffering isn’t quite so grand as the Christian view. It’s more focused on psychological development within this life, and doesn’t really speak to the afterlife.

The Buddhist view of suffering and its solution also involves a supposed realization that we have no individual self. To most Christians and Jungians, alike, this view is simply misguided.

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Ganesha

Tallest Ganesha idol in India : 45 feet This Ganesha idol is believed to be the tallest in India. from Khairatabad, Hyderabad Image by Freebird (Bobinson KB) via Flickr

Often regarded as the son of Siva and Parvati,¹ Ganesha (or Ganesh) is a widespread Hindu god that’s been worshipped from about 400 CE to the present.

Literally losing his head after a burning glance from Sani, it was replaced with that of an elephant, as it remains today.

The Mahabharata mentions Ganesha as the scribe who wrote down that epic according to Vyasa’s dictation. And he’s said to embody the apparently primal sound of the AUM mantra.

Ganesha is also important to Jains and has a significant role in Asian Buddhism and Indian art in general.

To many monotheists, the idea of worshiping some kind of mix of animal and human god is difficult to understand. Some defenders of the practice, however, note that animals are held to be sacred in many spiritual traditions—for instance, in Shamanism. So the idea is not just particular to Asian religion.

—

¹ http://earthpages.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/ganesha/#comment-9447

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Hinayana Buddhism

Theravada Buddhist Monk in Meditation by Stuck in Customs via Flickr

Hinayana (lesser vehicle) was a derogatory term used by the emergent Mahayana (greater vehicle) school of Buddhism around 200 CE. The Mahayanists challenged the existing arhat ideal of personal liberation.

The Hinayana group, also known as Theravada Buddhists, maintained that theirs was the true teaching of the Buddha. The Mahayanists believed that Buddha’s teaching was perfected through the bodhisattva ideal of universal liberation.

Because of its pejorative connotations, some Theravadins want the term “Hinayana” to be dropped altogether:

We must not confuse Hīnayāna with Theravāda because the terms are not synonymous. Theravāda Buddhism went to Sri Lanka during the 3rd Century BC when there was no Mahāyāna at all. Hīnayāna sects developed in India and had an existence independent from the form of Buddhism existing in Sri Lanka. Today there is no Hīnayāna sect in existence anywhere in the world. Therefore, in 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists inaugurated in Colombo unanimously decided that the term Hīnayana should be dropped when referring to Buddhism existing today in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, etc. This is the brief history of Theravāda, Mahayāna and Hīnayāna.¹

To this Lee the buddhist blogger adds:

I would say that that Mahayana buddhism is actually very compatible with Hinayana Buddhism. I think a better way to describe Hinayana buddhism would be “fundamental path.”

For example, if someone wanted to go to college, they would need to go to high school first, so college and high school are compatible. In the same way, someone would need to study Hinayana tenets before moving onto Mahayana. Hinayana is not a very good term though, fundamental path I think is more appropriate for this beautiful tradition. ²

—

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinayana

² http://earthpages.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/hinayana-buddhism/#comments

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Heaven

Virgin Mary statue said to have miraculous properties, photographer unknown, effects by MC

Heaven is a place where nothing… nothing ever happens.

If taken literally, this song lyric from the mid-1970s to early 90s pop group Talking Heads represents a view of heaven that was probably influenced by a particular New York City intellectual/arts scene.

Apart from that kind of Zen outlook, we find as many different ideas about the nature of heaven as there are people who’ve speculated on it.

Heaven is difficult to know about, because it seems that, if it truly does exist, one must pass on to experience its fullness.

The Hebrew Old Testament (OT) emphasizes a select few outstanding individuals who will see God “face to face.” And some passages indicate that God resides in a “high” place (Psalm 19:2-5). But the OT also says that the dead seem to, somewhat like the ancient Greek and Mesopotamian departed, meet their ancestors in an underworld (sheol).

The “heavens” (plural) in the OT is an inverted dome above the disc of the earth, separating the waters above and below (Genesis 1:6-9).

In the Christian New Testament the aim of Jesus’ ministry is to invite all of God’s chosen to join him “at the right hand of the Father” to enjoy a new vision of heaven, a heaven where anyone is welcome.

Several NT passages speak directly to “losing one’s life” in this transient world to gain a lasting, true and happy existence in heaven.

As for the constitution of heaven, Christ speaks in parables and metaphors because it’s too glorious to be described literally. Throughout history orthodox and unorthodox Christians have depicted countless types of heaven, some on the basis of mystical vision, others on the basis of speculation and others, perhaps, on the basis of some combination of mystical experience and cultural filters.

Thomas Aquinas depicted in stained glass flickr.com/photos/e3000/ derivative work: Beao via Wikipedia

Pseudo-Dionysus, or Dionysus the Areopagite, spoke of three levels of heaven, each inhabited by different kinds of spiritual beings. St. Thomas Aquinas notes that Dionysus’ view of heaven is supported by scripture. And the general Christian understanding is also scriptural. The NT says there are “many mansions” in God’s house (John 14:2).

For some saints and (often) ascetic mystics, heaven may be partially experienced as a blessed union with God, united as ‘husband and wife.’ This may involve beholding the “face” and being “illumined” by the glory of God to become like an angel (Matthew 22:30, Mark: 12:25), “neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28).

For many good and honorable worldly persons, heaven is usually seen as a blissful, carefree environment where one reunites with deceased friends and loved ones.

The Islamic Koran speaks of a land of “flowing, crystal streams” that awaits God’s elect. Some criticize Islam for having a simplistic view of heaven, while others say that the Koranic view is allegorical.

Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism all affirm heavens, although not as permanent abodes. By and large, the heavens of Asian religion are taken as stepping stones for the reincarnating soul whose ultimate aim is to achieve the unity of atman-brahman (Hinduism), nirvana (Buddhism) and jin (liberation in Jainism).

Many schools of Buddhism don’t posit any soul whatsoever, only the illusion of a soul.This matters if one it to see heaven as a union of the personal, created self, with the creator. In Buddhism the self just disappears once one realizes it never was. What happens after – experientially speaking – depends on which Buddhist school one believes in.

Carl Jung by o admirador secreto via Flickr

Contemporary reports about the existence and character of heaven come from those who’ve undergone Near Death Experiences (NDE).

The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung had a NDE but he didn’t experience heaven in the traditional Christian sense (Jung’s father was a Lutheran pastor). In his Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963), Jung describes dying as something like “stepping out of a tight-fitting shoe.” He says that after seeing the Earth from space and feeling a deep serenity, Jung was resuscitated and unhappily returned to his body.

Some believe that aliens (ETs) are indistinguishable from angels. But most religious and spiritually-minded people do not uncritically believe that ET’s derive from heaven. The cosmic heavens of astronomical observations, they say, are of a far lower order than the heaven experienced by bona fide saints. Likewise, angels are often said to reside in an entirely different order of reality than the observable universe.

Heaven is also said to lie beyond and above the so-called ‘astral’ realms where New Age enthusiasts tell us that energy beings apparently exist. Some pro-ET figures like Rael believe that angels and aliens are highly similar, if not identical.

The celebrated mythographer, Joseph Campbell, argues in The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1968) that “heaven doesn’t exist” because it would take too long for the Virgin Mary, travelling at the speed of light, to get there. Here Campbell, despite his impressive erudition, entirely misses the point that heaven is a different reality, beyond and above the observable universe and its apparent laws of time and motion.

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Heart Sutra

Chinese text of the Heart Sutra, by Yuan Dynasty artist and calligrapher Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322 CE) via Wikipedia

The Heart Sutra is the shortest of 40 texts which make up the Prajnaparamitra-sutra, important to Mahayana and Zen Buddhism. It is recited by monks and nuns throughout China, Japan and beyond.

The Heart Sutra contains the famous assertion, “emptiness is form, form is emptiness,” which is often cited in New Age circles and probably taught in just about every undergraduate Oriental philosophy course.

Although this may seem a simplistic, unsophisticated claim, it’s arguably relevant to recent discoveries in sub-atomic physics where matter and energy are observed as two different forms of one mysterious underlying reality.

But this idea cannot account for spiritual experiences (and possible realms) that extend beyond and above that somewhat basic level of cosmic – not heavenly – mystery.

Sanskrit text of the Heart Sutra, in the Siddhaṃ script. Replica of a palm-leaf manuscript dated to 609 CE via Wikipedia

Quite different from Jewish, Islamic and Christian heavens, Buddhist heavens are not taken as everlasting abodes. Buddhist heavens are just so many stops on a road towards the ‘nothingness/fullness’ of Nirvana.

So the oft-overlooked question remains: Are all of the heavens mentioned in different world traditions the same in character and quality?

Some find this simple, straightforward question troubling, preferring to focus on the apparent commonalities among world religions. While this is an admirable approach, one arguably shouldn’t turn a blind eye to religious differences.

Chinese text of the Heart Sutra, by scholar and calligrapher Ouyang Xun, dated 635 CE via Wikipedia

Meanwhile, some tend to embrace politically correct beliefs about religious homogeneity instead of really thinking carefully about religion.

Additionally, we have those who conflate national pride with absolute truth. The semiologist Roland Barthes asked several decades ago, for instance, whether the ‘Holy Spirit’ and the ‘American Spirit’ connote the same thing. Along these lines history reveals that personal imaginings, political correctness and zeal for one’s nation rarely make good bedfellows with the sincere pursuit of truth, not only in religion but in just about any discipline.

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Just War (The Just War Doctrine)

Vol. 1 of the Leonine edition of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Just War doctrine relates to the notion that, in certain circumstances, war may be ethically justified for reasons of personal, national or religious self-defense. This has nothing to do with a disturbed individual taking on the role of “savior” of humanity through horrific and irrational acts of violence, as we’ve recently seen, for instance, in Norway.

With no direct New Testament scriptural support for the idea of a Just War, Catholic Tradition endorses it. St. Augustine supports the Just War on the basis of numerous holy wars portrayed in the Old Testament. The Middle Ages endorsed it in the Inquisitions. And the most recent Catholic Catechism cites St. Thomas Aquinas, who condones killing as a legitimate form of self defense, be that personal or national (1995: p. 604).

The contemporary understanding of the Just War speaks to the organized killing, when absolutely necessary, of other human beings on the wrong side of the religious or political fence. All peaceful solutions have failed, the enemy poses some kind of grand scale threat and there’s a reasonable expectation of victory. Most theologians, for instance, would agree that Hitler and the Nazi’s simply had to be stopped.

Similarities and Differences in non-Christian Religions

In Islam, the notion of Jihad might point to a uniquely Islamic understanding of a kind of ‘Just War’ doctrine (although it would not be called a Just War because that is a uniquely Christian concept). And in Hinduism, the Baghavad-Gita endorses killing in keeping with one’s moral duty to uphold the apparently sacred dharma. While it may be hard for many to see what these two forms of war have to do with self-defense, an intellectual argument could probably be made within each religion to try to convince others that these kinds of war are about self-defense. One, of course, doesn’t have to agree. And God knows the truth of the matter.

Meanwhile, Buddhist scriptures speak of peace and non-violence, and Buddhism is often hailed as a non-violent path. But Moojan Momen points out that scriptural, philosophical and folkloric justifications for violence exist in the Buddhist tradition (Moojan Momen, The Phenomenon of Religion: A Thematic Approach, Oxford: Oneworld, 1999, p. 410). Bernard Faure also says that Buddhist doctrine has often been adapted to justify war (Bernard Faure, “Buddhism and Violence,” Sangam.org, December 6, 2003). And John Ferguson draws on scripture, legend and history to outline five justifications for war in the Buddhist tradition (War and Peace in the World’s Religions, London: Sheldon Press, 1977, pp. 55-57).

For more on world religions and violence, see “Collisions of Religion and Violence: Redux” at Crosscurrents.org, Summer 2001.

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Kwan Yin

Kwan Yin is a Buddhist female compassionate bodhisattva, often depicted with a child in her arms and erroneously equated by some with Isis and the Virgin Mary.

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Kundalini

Image via Wikipedia

Kundalini (Sanskrit: coiled like a snake) is a symbolic serpent in Tantric Hinduism and Buddhism, said to be coiled at the base of the spine, and charged with spiritual power.

Once awakened through meditative exercises such as pranamaya (i.e. controlled breathing), the kundalini serpent apparently rises through seven chakras.

Both the kundali and the chakras are often described as actual realities instead of symbolic interpretations of psychosomatic and numinous experiences.

Indeed, the kundalini and chakras are variously constructed and interpreted among different schools of thought, a fact sometimes overlooked by zealous New Age fundamentalists who adhere to and advocate just one interpretation.

Also rarely taken seriously among New Age fundamentalists is the valid question as to whether or not awakening the highest chakra in a given system really represents the highest, purest and holiest possible spiritual experience one may encounter. Along these lines, the Lutheran scholar Rudolf Otto, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and several others talk about various forms of the numinous, ranging from the healthy, heavenly and holy to the demonic, dreadful and destructive.

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