Outline:
Summary of our exploration, including specific inter-group questions
Overview: concepts of "religion" to emerge in this exploration
Excerpt from Alan Watts, Nature, Man and Woman, on the relationship between sexuality and religion
Summary of our exploration
So far, we have seen
a) how Buddhism emerges initially as a "heresy" (Carmody and Carmody) vis-a-vis Vedanta Hinduism to
b) its expansion and development into a major religious tradition, represented by several schools and "vehicles" in India, especially under the sponsorship of King Asoka, including missionary journeys eastward, to
c) the death of Buddhism in India, vis-a-vis its continued development
and expansion in Sri Lanka, China, Japan, and the U.S.
In doing so, we have observed
i) that some changes in religious doctrines and practices seem to work from the top down (through royal sponsorship as with Asoka, endorsement by the aristocracy - and/or the monastics themselves - as elites, etc.);
ii) while some changes seem to work from the bottom up (as early Theravada becomes too tightly affiliated with the aristocracy and loses its support among the larger populace; as expanding forms of Buddhism appropriate already existing deities, practices, and ideas so as to win the support of new populations, etc.)
iii) that as religious traditions change in response to
new conditions, cultures, etc. - they frequently appropriate beliefs
and practices from competing traditions (e.g., as Theravada appropriates
Mahayanist doctrine; as contemporary ethnic/political groups [e.g.,
in Sri Lanka between the Tamils and the Singhalese] appropriate
religious traditions as a weapon in their political struggles,
changing the character of those religious traditions' teachings,
practices, etc.), leading to
A) Theravadan changes and absorbs elements from other traditions - yet retains the name of "Theravadan". Does this occur in other traditions - and if so, what does this suggest about "religion" and, more generally, the labels/names we use?
B) We notice a parallel with the use of the dharmasutras as a way of using religion as a form of social control and how Mahayana "works" in China (explain - Jeff Huston). Do we see similar uses of religion as a form of social control in the other traditions of Buddhism?
Overview: concepts of "religion" emerging from this survey
As we have examined these changes, we have seen that
i) a "map" of religious traditions would look more like a weather map showing on-going swirls, as traditions move, change, and incorporate teachings and ideas from other traditions, rather than like
a political map in which borders and lines between states, countries, etc. are fixed.
ii) gender - specifically, the role and image of women - is a sensitive indicator of religious style and orientation
Indus River (as an instance of "goddess" tradition): centrality of the feminine, as the "owner" of the powers of generation, nurturance, and wisdom / religious style of experiential unity
Aryan/Vedas: centrality of the male sky-gods / religious style as "swap"
Buddhism: recovery of religious style of experiential unity / gender equality manifest in Buddha's ordaining monks and nuns
"Way of Devotion" (emerging after Buddhism) allowing for religion as attachment to personal gods and goddesses (Durga, Kali, etc. as manifestations of Siva's sakti (see Fenton, 69); whose woship of Siva includes the lingam and yoni as symbolic of the complementarity between masculine and feminine;
but such goddess worship and complementarity does not simply translate into a return to the gender equality hinted at in Buddhism and perhaps more characteristic of Indus River civilization: cf. the characterization of Sita, Rama's wife, as a strand of the Vaishnava tradition (Fenton, 79)
Tantric and Vajrayana yogas: while these apparently echo goddess tradition recognition of the positive and spiritual dimensions of feminine sexuality and sexuality per se as a vehicle for and exemplar of experiential unity with the divine (cf. the excerpt from Alan Watts, below)-
in practice, these yogas still strongly exhibit male dominance and the denigration of the female to the status of a vehicle for the male's spiritual development.
Finally, in all of this, we are starting to see that the historical patterns of religious change and development serve as a framework for helping us understand contemporary patterns of change and development, as in
a) Sri Lanka, where
(i) British colonialism reshaped the Theravadan practice of ordaining both women and men to the more patriarchal practice of ordaining only men; and
(ii) (the fallout of colonialism) the political struggles among the Tamils, the Singhalese, and the "Burghers" (of European descent) result in dramatic changes in the traditional practices and roles of religious groups (e.g., the Buddhist monastics), as "religion" is taken up as a weapon in a larger ethnic/political struggle caused by the intervention and then withdrawal of the British.
b) Japan, where in the aftermath of WWII, both new religions and new forms of
(i) Buddhism (Pure Land, Zen, and especially Soka Gakkai) and
(ii) Japanese tradition (e.g., the shamanesses Nakayama Miki [founder of Tenrikyo] and Kitamura Sayo [founder of Kotai Jingu] - see Fenton, pp. 214f.)
emerge.
Chinese traditions (beyond Buddhism) - original concepts (Tian, the importance of ancestors, etc.), Taoism, Confucianism.
Japan (beyond Buddhism) - original traditions (inc. shamanism, suggestions of goddess elements), Shinto
Return to Hinduism: Gandhi and religious transformations in the modern world?
Worldviews - analysis and construction:
the gender dyad
--> logic (dualistic / complementarity)
epistemology (knowledge gained through senses/mind/...)
ontology (the reality of sense-based experience / what is known as real by mind / what is known as real in religious tradition/experience)
values
ethics
politics (including beliefs/practices regarding nature/the environment).
...it was Dante who described the song of the angels in heaven as "the laughter of the universe." "Love," said Coventry Patmore, "raises the spirit above the sphere of reverence and worship into one of laughter and dalliance." This is above all true when the partners are not working at their love to be sure that they attain a "real experience." The grasping approach to sexuality destroys its gaiety before anything else, blocking up its deepest and most secret fountain. For there is really no other reason for creation than pure joy.
....The final release of orgasm, neither sought nor restrained, is simply allowed to "come," as even the popular expression suggests from our intuitive knowledge that it is not a deed but a gift and a grace. When this experience bursts in upon fully opened feelings it is no mere "sneeze in the loins" relieving physical tension: it is an explosion whose outermost sparks are the stars.
This may seem irreverent, or just claiming too much, to those who are unwilling to feel it completely, refusing to see anything mystical or divine in the moment of life's origin. Yet it is just in treating this moment as a bestial convulsion that we reveal our vast separation from life. It is just at this extreme point that we must find the physical and the spiritual to be one, for otherwise our mysticism is sentimental or sterile-pure and our sexuality just vulgar. Without -- in its true sense -- the lustiness of sex, religion is joyless and abstract; without the self-abandonment of religion, sex is a mechanical masturbation.
-- Alan Watts, Nature, Man and Woman
(New York: Vintage Books, 1958), 204.
Writing Assignment
1. In what sense, according to the first noble truth, is "All existence suffering (dukhka)," -- where, according to the second noble truth, "All suffering is caused by craving (trishna)"?
2 General survey: tell us about the development of "your" Buddhist tradition (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana) in some detail (2-3 pages), focusing especially on those specific historical events and transformations which suggest...
3. larger patterns describing how religious traditions change
over time, especially as they encounter new political/economic/cultural/religious
contexts.
Summarize the three frameworks we have focused on - i.e., "top-down,"
"bottom-up," and the role and image of women. Then
illustrate and support your summary with at least
one example of transformation from the Buddhist tradition
you have studied most carefully.
I will be especially impressed if you add here supporting
and illustrating examples from the other traditions your co-horts
have so carefully researched and presented to us in class.
4. Recall some of the passages we have discussed from Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind:
That everything is included within your mind is the essence of mind. To experience this is to have religious feeling.(35)
There is no problem. One year of life is good. One hundred years of life are good.(43)
When you become one with Buddha, one with everything that exists, you find the true meaning of being. When you forget all your dualistic ideas, everything becomes your teacher, and everything can be the object of worship.(44)
In your big mind, everything has the same value. Everything is Buddha himself. You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is. In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha.(44)
Real calmness should be found in activity itself.(46)
Zen practice is the direct expression of our true nature.(47)
a) What kind of religious experience underlies these expressions?
As you describe this experience, be sure to support and
illustrate your description with at least one direct
account of enlightenment (e.g., from the handout on religious
pluralism, additional accounts on reserve).
b) What sort of logic is at work here? (You may find some of the passages at the very beginning of our reading in Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind to be very helpful.)
c) Given this experience and logic - what is the ultimate description of "reality" in Zen? (Again, you will need to support and illustrate your summary here with at least one passage from Suzuki, Kapleau, and/or Fenton.)
d) In light of this experience, logic, and account of reality - why is enlightenment "nothing special?"(Suzuki, 47)