Theravada Buddhism: The View of the Elders

Editors’ Preface

Editors’ Preface About This Series The University of Hawai‘i Press has long been noted for its scholarly publications in, and commitment to, the field of Asian studies. This series, Dimensions of Asian Spirituality, is in keeping with that commitment . It is a most appropriate time for such a series to appear. A number of the world’s religions—major and minor—originated in Asia, continue to influence significantly the lives of a third of the world’s peoples, and should now be seen as global in scope, reach, and impact, with rich and varied resources for every citizen of the twenty-first century to explore. Religion is at the heart of every culture. To be sure, the members of every culture have also been influenced by climate, geology, and by the consequent patterns of economic activity they have developed for the production and distribution of goods. Only a minimal knowledge of physical geography is necessary to understand why African sculptors largely employed wood as their medium while their Italian Renaissance equivalents worked with marble. But while necessary for understanding cultures—not least our own—matters of geography and economics will not be sufficient: marble is also found in China, yet the Chinese sculptor carved a bodhisattva, not a pietà, from his block. In the same way, a mosque, synagogue, cathedral, stupa, and pagoda may be equally beautiful, but they are beautiful in different ways, and the differences cannot be accounted for merely on the basis of the materials used in their construction. Their beauty, their ability to inspire awe and to invite contemplation, rests largely on the religious view of the world—and the place of human beings in that world—that is expressed in their architecture. The spiritual dimensions of a culture are reflected significantly not only in art and architecture, but in music, myths, poetry, rituals, customs, and patterns of social behavior as well. Therefore it follows that if we wish to understand why and how members of other cultures live as they x Editors’ Preface do, we must understand the religious beliefs and practices to which they adhere. In the first instance, such understanding of the “other” leads to tolerance, which is surely a good thing. Much of the pain and suffering in the world today is attributable to intolerance, a fear and hatred of those who look, think, and act differently. But as technological changes in communication, production, and transportation shrink the world, more and more people must confront the fact of human diversity in multiple diverse forms—both between and within nations—and hence there is a growing need to go beyond mere tolerance of difference to an appreciation and celebration of it. Tolerance alone cannot contribute substantively to making the world a better— and sustainable—place for human beings to live, the evils attendant on intolerance notwithstanding and not to be diminished. But in an important sense, mere tolerance is easy because passive I can fully respect your right to believe and worship as you wish, associate with whomever, and say what you will, simply by ignoring you; you assuredly have a right to speak, but not to make me listen. Yet for most of us who live in economically developed societies, or are among the affluent in developing nations, tolerance is not enough. Ignoring the poverty, disease, and gross inequalities that afflict fully a third of the human race will only exacerbate, not alleviate, the conditions responsible for the misery that generates the violence becoming ever more commonplace throughout the world today. That violence will cease only when the more fortunate among the peoples of the world become active, take up the plight of the less fortunate, and resolve to create and maintain a more just world, a resolve that requires a full appreciation of the co-humanity of everyone, significant differences in religious beliefs and practices notwithstanding. Such appreciation should not, of course, oblige everyone to endorse all of the beliefs and practices within their own faith. A growing number of Catholics, for instance, support changes in church practice: a married clergy, the ordination of women, recognition of rights for gays and lesbians, and full reproductive rights for women. Yet they remain Catholics, believing that the tenets of their faith have the conceptual resources to bring about and justify these changes. In the same way, we can also believe—as a number of Mus- Editors’ Preface xi lim women...