Spiritual Masters of the World's Religions

6. Buddhist Spiritual Masters

155 6 Buddhist Spiritual Masters Victoria Kennick The Spiritual Master Says, “Work Out Your Salvation with Diligence.” In the novel Siddhartha, Herman Hesse explores the paradoxical nature of Buddhist spiritual masters. The book, whose title bears a name attributed to Buddha in his youth, revolves around the key question: What would happen if Prince Siddhārtha, the future Buddha, met the mature, enlightened Gautama Buddha? It makes us wonder whether Siddhārtha would have become a buddha’s disciple, had he met one. Buddhist tradition says that Siddhārtha left home to seek enlightenment at the age of twenty-nine, and Hesse suggests that Siddhārtha would have carved out his own path—even had he met someone who was fully awakened. Hear these farewell words of the young seeker, spoken as Siddhārtha takes leave of Gautama: 156 Victoria Kennick Not for one moment did I doubt that you were the Buddha , that you have reached the highest goal. . . . You have done so by your own seeking, in your own way, through thought, through meditation, through knowledge, through enlightenment. You have learned nothing through teachings and so I think, O Illustrious One, that nobody finds salvation through teachings. To nobody, O Illustrious One, can you communicate in words and teachings what happened to you in the hour of your enlightenment. The teachings of the enlightened Buddha embrace much, they teach much—how to live righteously, how to avoid evil. But there is one thing that this clear, worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the Illustrious One himself experienced—he alone among hundreds of thousands. That is what I thought and realized when I heard your teachings. That is why I am going on my way—not to seek another and better doctrine, for I know there is none, but to leave all doctrines and all teachers and to reach my goal alone—or die. But I will often remember this day, O Illustrious One, and this hour when my eyes beheld a holy man.1 In this passage, Hesse exposes a paradox central to Buddhist tradition : On one hand, Gautama Buddha stands as the Buddhist spiritual master par excellence. On the other hand, he insisted that each disciple should discover the truth of his teachings personally. Gautama reportedly gave this admonition to disciples as he passed away in north India in the fifth century BCE,2 a man of eighty years: And now, O priests, I take my leave of you; all the constituents of being are transitory; work out your salvation with diligence.3 Gautama’s injunction “work out your salvation with diligence” indicates that waking up to the nature of reality depends on efforts of the individual, and not on a spiritual master. Walpola Rahula clarifies the point: [Buddha] admonished his disciples to “be a refuge to themselves.” . . . He taught, encouraged and stimulated each person to develop himself and to work out his own emancipation, for man has the power to liberate himself from all bondage through his own personal effort and intel- 157 Buddhist Spiritual Masters ligence. The Buddha says: “You should do your work, for the Tathagatas [enlightened beings] only teach the way.” If the Buddha is to be called a “savior” at all, it is only in the sense that he discovered and showed the Path to Liberation, Nirvana. But we must tread the Path ourselves.4 Regardless of the greatness of a spiritual master, disciples must come to their own realizations. For example, behind Gautama’s monastery lived a butcher who was killing pigs for fifty-five days. Gautama heard the pigs squealing every day. Finally, the butcher committed suicide by pouring boiling water into his mouth. Even a buddha could not stop him. The butcher’s own habitual performance of the act of killing moved him to do such an atrocious deed—even in the vicinity of a holy person. In a profound sense, as the butcher living next door to the monastery could not be saved by a buddha, no spiritual master can “teach” another person to become enlightened. A buddha’s teaching, known as buddha-dharma,5 is like medicine: to become effective , individuals must imbibe it. Buddhists speak of three ways of taking the medicine of religious teachings: hearing, thinking, and meditating. Hearing or reading buddha-dharma is the preliminary level, after which one thinks deeply about what was heard...