Socially Engaged Buddhism

Chapter 3 Spirituality

CHAPTER 3 Spirituality Sometimes scholars of non-Western religions avoid the term “spirituality ,” feeling perhaps that the term has dualistic connotations of the “spiritual” realm versus the “material” realm—connotations that do not apply to Buddhism—or that it refers to a spirit or soul, as opposed to the body, which, again, does not apply to Buddhism. I will use the term “spiritual” to refer to the entire realm of religious life, its goals and practice, and “spirituality” to refer to the many practices with which Buddhists intentionally develop their insight, concentration, and the many Buddhist virtues—the Four Immeasurables (lovingkindness , compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity), serenity, nonviolence, self-discipline, inner strength, and many more. A rather close Buddhist term for this is bhâvanâ, the cultivation of these virtues and mental states. Because of the Engaged Buddhists’ commitment to eliminate suffering as far as possible here and now, some people mistakenly believe that they are entirely oriented toward social and political goods and ignore spiritual goods. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Engaged Buddhists are very much engaged in spiritual practices, just like more traditional Buddhists. And like more traditional Buddhists, Engaged Buddhists are interested in spiritual practices for spiritual purposes. The difference is that Engaged Buddhists are in addition also interested in these practices as means of preparing themselves, making themselves fit, for engagement with social and political struggles. These practices also shape the form that such engagement takes. The Engaged Buddhists believe that the means one uses determine the ends that one achieves—for example, if one wants to achieve a nonviolent society, one must use nonviolent means to reach that end. One 40 SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM must begin by developing one’s own inner peacefulness in order to be capable of bringing peace to society. In this way, spiritual practice, the attaining of traditional Buddhist spiritual goals, and the betterment of human life here and now blend into a seamless whole for the Engaged Buddhists. Spirituality and Conceptual Teachings Spirituality of course must fit harmoniously with conceptual teachings . In chapter 1, we saw that Buddhism has found room to embrace both the life of the village-dwelling monk, who engages with the layperson in society, and the eremitic life of the forest-, cave-, or mountain -dwelling monk, who intentionally separates himself from society in order to pursue intensive meditation in hopes of enlightenment. We are now ready to consider the possibility that the coexistence of the village bhikkhu and the forest- (cave-, mountain-) dwelling bhikkhu may suggest the presence of a conceptual tension within traditional Buddhism. Here we get at the spiritual heart of what is controversial about Engaged Buddhism. Certainly one can look at traditional Buddhism and, in the light of that teaching, see many things that might lead a person to conclude that life as we know it—samsara—is intrinsically and irremediably flawed and that the wise will therefore cease caring about it, detach themselves from it, have as little as possible to do with it, and earnestly try to leave it. Consider, for example, the “Fire Sermon” of the Buddha , which reads in part as follows: “Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what, bhikkhus, is the all that is burning? The eye is burning, forms are burning . . . the ear is burning . . . the mind is burning. . . . Seeing thus, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple experiences revulsion towards the eye, towards forms . . . towards the ear . . . towards the mind. . . . Experiencing revulsion, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion [his mind] is liberated. . . . He understands: ‘Destroyed is birth, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more for this state of being.’” It is not surprising that many Buddhists have taken teachings like this to mean that samsara is inherently flawed, that the correct response toward it is to feel revulsion and to flee it if at all possible. Spirituality 41 Consider the charnel ground meditations (meditations on decaying bodies) and certain meditations on the body found in the Foundations of Mindfulness Sutta. (A sutta [Sanskrit, sutra] is a text that records the words of a Buddha.) Here the bhikkhus are instructed to contemplate the body in several contexts. They are invited to review the body as full of such so-called “impurities” as “feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, spittle, snot, oil of the joints, and urine.” They are also invited to contemplate...