Since its first contacts with the West, Buddhism has often been portrayed as a

Transcription

1 Since its first contacts with the West, Buddhism has often been portrayed as a modern hybrid tradition with roots in the European Enlightenment no less than the Buddha s enlightenment ( ) and in the clash of Asian cultures and colonial powers (McMahan, 5). Though we tend to think of the religion as an Eastern invention, which was brought to Europe and later America, it could be argued that to a large degree Buddhism is in fact a modern Western invention in the sense that it is understood as an umbrella term that encompasses and fuses a diverse range of beliefs and practices within separate communities throughout much of Asia. In order to demonstrate the ways in which Buddhism is a modern Western invention the notions of East, West, and modernism must be outlined, and what such terminologies entail must be considered. The East-West dichotomy refers to the perceived differences between the cultural (rather than geographical) divisions of the world. The boundaries are not fixed but vary according to the criteria adopted by those who are using them. Still to a large degree today, but even more so during the colonial period, certain parameters determined what was considered Western and Eastern. The fundamental differences between the West and the East were imbedded in the power dynamic, which was formed in Asia between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The historical power of the East-West dichotomy, and the fixed conceptions of culture/race to which it is linked, have increasingly allowed the national elites of the region to speak not only for their 'nations,' but even for Asia and Asians (Berger, 276). The West, which held economic and governing power portrayed itself, at home and in the colonized East, as civilized, educated and modernized, while Asian culture was seen as unsophisticated, simple and regressed. Moreover, Europeans pushed this view onto Asians societies themselves. At the time, the only sovereign countries from

2 Europe within major Buddhist regions were Japan and Thailand, though they too were inevitably involved in the modernization discourse. Colonialism amplified efforts to abandon cosmological and mythological aspects of Buddhism, and parallel the belief with science. Eventually, the oppressive rule developed a cultural and religious crisis of identity and authority and new forms of Buddhist practices and beliefs that were simultaneously in conflict and in collusion with the profound social changes Asia experienced under colonial rule emerged (Schober, 85). Colonialism produced new interpretations of Buddhist values and roles. Monks, for instance, who had been removed from political spheres under European control and had been labeled as recluses or ascetics (especially by the West, who found it comfortable to reduce Buddhism to a religion of hermit extremists), began to reengage in social spheres, bridging the gap between themselves and laypeople, and reassert their authority within the Asian political realm. Political and religious reforms from Nepal to Japan aimed to bring about a synthesis of Buddhism with modern political ideologies, and strengthen values and authority by identifying normative Buddhist beliefs and practices (Schober). But the invention of Buddhism antecedes colonialism, and originated in the assumption made by European scholars that, geographically and culturally diverse communities of people who worshipped the Buddha were all members of a single religious tradition called Buddhism (Berkwitz, 3). During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Europeans used more than two hundred names to describe the Buddha (Lopez, 24). By the end of the seventeenth century, the conclusion was beginning to be drawn that the various idols and their various names somehow represented the same figure, but whether he was mythological or historical, whether god, demon or man, remained an open question (Lopez, 25). In retrospect, it is clear

3 that those who documented Buddhism during the early colonial period wrote distorted accounts of the religion. Dr. Engelbert Kaempfer, for instance, did not differentiate between Buddhism and what would later come to be known as Hinduism, but rather saw it as a single Asian paganism (Lopez, 30). Others, like Father Kircher painted extremely unflattering portraits of Buddhism in an attempt to undermine it (Lopez, 26). Amateur and scholarly accounts of Buddhism, which classified a wide array of religious practices and beliefs as one and the same resulted in some traditions getting lost altogether, and colonial rule became a vehicle for introducing modernity to Buddhist regions. Therefore, incomplete and limited examinations of Buddhism lead to the reduction of the complexity of Asian religions and colonialism further rationalized, normalized and structured the beliefs and practices that are understood as Buddhism today. The Buddha that the West and the urban East are familiar with today is a projection of Western desires, but there also exists the Buddha described in the sutras who is more a figure of science fiction than science (Lopez, 43). The West envisioned the Buddha as an ancient gentleman, a modern hero, and a racially superior savior for all humanity to whom all manner of scientific insights would be ascribed (Lopez, 41), while multiple Sanskrit and Pali texts include superstitious and supernatural elements. One belief holds that, when the Buddha smiles multicolored rays of light radiate from his mouth and spread to the farthest reaches of the universe (and then disappear back into different parts of his body depending on their meaning) (Lopez, 42). Others ascribe the Buddha with the ability to posses full knowledge of the present in the sense that he has the capacity to be aware of all events occurring in all realms of multiple universes, and has full knowledge of everything that will occur in the future (Lopez, 43). The story of the Buddha s birth also contains mystical

4 elements. His mother, Queen Mayadevi first dreamed that a white elephant descended from heaven and entered her womb and eventually the Buddha came into this world painlessly, from under her right arm (Lopez, 22). But while the West is quick to accept the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus Christ, or the creation of Eve from Adam s rib, it is even quicker to label such mystic aspects in a different tradition as literal, improbable or superstitious because their origin cannot be traced back to a great divinity, or rather the great divinity. Europeans undisputedly influenced life in Asia, and their impact lead to the restructuring of social spheres, most importantly the education system. As a result, growing numbers of Western-educated lay elites who felt increasingly motivated to define what it meant to be a Buddhist within rapidly changing, cosmopolitan, and colonial societies built a new, rationalized kind of Buddhism (Schober). It was stripped of its cosmological mythologies, which embodied the anti-modern, unenlightened, and undeveloped (by Western standards) type of thinking, which contributed to Imperial invasions in the first place (Schober). As a consequence, Buddhism became viewed as a religion in which you don t really have to believe anything in particular or follow any strict rules; you simply exercise compassion and maintain a peaceful state of mind through mediation (McMahan, 4). More evidence of this can for instance be seen in Walpola Rahula s book, What the Buddha Taught, which although it is regarded, as an important introductory work on Buddhism also did not include supernatural material (Rahula). It may be useful to understand how a space in the West for a belief like Buddhism was created in the first place when understanding the ways, in which Buddhism is a modern Western invention. Aspects of Buddhism could have developed as a response to European realities during the colonial period. Perhaps, a

5 parallel could be drawn between Buddhism and the Renaissance; in the sense that the Renaissance was a response to the Dark Ages in the same way that Eastern thought was a response to the Industrial Revolution. The Medieval period was a time when an anti-scientific Church, which held an enormous magnitude of power over social spheres and politics, replaced intellectual, artistic and cultural pursuits. Though, the Church no longer held the same authority during the Industrial Revolution, the major emphasis on production and the use of expendable labor to a large degree resembled the dark and uncreative medieval times. Buddhism, as the modern, Victorian Europeans construed it, satisfied an emerging desire for a return to nature and inner harmony. Today, it manifests itself for instance, in the popularity of mediation or the appropriation of Buddhist terminology in the West. The space for the liberating aspects of Buddhism developed when the rigid nature of Christianity began to lose its appeal in the West. Buddhism, in its popcultural form appealed to the modern and open-minded. Because of this, it can be difficult to determine which doctrines are rooted in Eastern cultures and which were responses and interpretations fostered under colonial rule. One such dogma refers to Buddhism as a religion that does not dismiss other, different belief systems as incorrect (Rahula). One the one hand it is difficult to imagine that the Christian Church would be keen on publicizing information on a tradition that would prove itself more tolerant and inclusive than their own. On the other, the same concepts of tolerance and inclusion could have been used as driving forces for Asians who promoted modern Buddhism, and were eager to make it work alongside Christianity. Though there is some disagreement regarding the historicity of the Buddha, it is quite unthinkable that Buddhism could have arisen without a founder (Almond, 62). However, it is now nearly impossible to determine whether all the belief systems

6 found in Asia before and after colonization were directly associated to this man and functioned in the same ways. For one, tremendous amounts of inconsistencies between the Western scientific Buddha and the Buddha described in the sutras, the wide range of his representations, and the early development of the different schools of Buddhism, like the Theravada and Mahayana traditions, which do not follow the same sets of rules or accept the same beliefs demonstrate otherwise. Ultimately, the struggle of European scholars to try to determine the geologically and biologically based chronology of Buddhism may have lead to its redefinition and invention. Last year, Robin Coningham from Durham University claimed to uncover what would be the oldest Buddhist shrine in the world dating back to the sixth century BCE. But Julia Shaw, a lecturer in South Asian archaeology at University College London was cautious about the oldest Buddhist shrine claim and adds that, "given the degree of overlap between Buddhist ritual and pre-existing traditions, it is also possible that what is being described represents an older tree shrine quite disconnected from the worship of the historical Buddha" (Vergano). Perhaps the West-East dichotomy failed to account for regional hybridity, and a differentiation should be created between new-buddhism as a global network of movements that are not the exclusive product of one geographic or cultural setting (McMahan, 6), and the traditions and practices, which can be derived from ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts. Or perhaps, modernization should be treated not only as a chronological fact, but also as an intellectual construction (Berkwitz, 5), and Buddhism should be acknowledged as a religion, which is adaptable to time and can syncretize with other beliefs and lifestyles in a more successful manner than the other major religion of the world. Ultimately, the very idea of a religious tradition called Buddhism requires constant revaluation.

7 Works Cited Almond, Philip C. "The Buddha - from Myth to History." The British Discovery of Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Print. Cold War capitalism". In Borer, Douglas A. The rise of East Asia: critical visions of the Pacific century. Routledge. pg. 276 Berkwitz, Stephen C. Buddhism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Print. Lopez, Donald S. "The Birth of the Scientific Buddha." The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life. New Haven: Yale UP, Print. McMahan, David L. The Making of Buddhist Modernism. Oxford: Oxford UP, Print. Schober, Juliane. "Buddhism in Burma." Buddhism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives. Comp. Stephen C. Berkwitz. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Print. Vergano, Dan. "Oldest Buddhist Shrine Uncovered In Nepal May Push Back the Buddha's Birth Date." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 25 Nov Web. 03 Mar Berger, Mark T. (1997). "The triumph of the East? The East-Asian Miracle and post- <