The Doctrine of No-Soul, No-Self, No-Ego

Ven. Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught (ahandfulofleaves.org); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

CHAPTER VI. THE DOCTRINE OF NO-SOUL: ANATTA

What the Buddha Taught (Ven. Rahula)

What in general is suggested by soul, self, ego, or the Sanskrit atman, is that in a person (a human, demon, spirit, animal, celestial messenger, angel, demigod, god, deva, brahma, or whatever) there is a permanent, everlasting, and absolute animating entity, which is the unchanging substance behind the changing phenomenal world.

According to some most religions, each individual has such a separate "soul" (enduring or immortal self) that is created by God, and which, finally after death, lives eternally either in hell, purgatory, limbo, heaven, or is annihilated -- its destiny depending on the judgment of its creator.

According to others, it goes through many lives (reborn, reincarnated, purifying, paying off its karmic debt, learning, growing, maturing, changing for the better, evolving) until it is completely purified and becomes finally united with God (Brahma, the personal "Supreme" Being), Brahman (GOD, the impersonal Absolute), Universal Soul (godhood) from which it originally emanated.

This soul or self in a human is the thinker of thoughts, feeler of feelings, and receiver of rewards and punishments for all its good and bad choices and actions. Such a conception is called the doctrine of self.

Buddhism says what is impossible: It stands unique in the history of human religion, philosophy, and thought in denying the existence of such a soul, self, or ego (atman).

According to the awakened teaching of the Buddha, the idea of self is an imaginary, deluded, false assumption which has no corresponding reality, and this delusion produces harmful thoughts of "me" and "mine," selfish desires, craving, clinging, attachment, hatred, resentment, ill-will, conceit, pride, egoism, and other defilements, impurities, and problems.

It is the source of all the troubles in the world from personal conflicts to wars between nations. In short, to this false view can be traced all the harm (wrong, evil) in the world. One idea is psychologically deep-rooted in a human, that of self protection and preservation.

For protection humans have created God, on whom we depend for our protection, safety, and security, just as a child depends on a parent, and for self preservation we have conceived the idea of an immortal soul, which will live eternally in hell or heaven.

In our ignorance, weakness, fear, and desire we need these two sides of a coin to console ourselves. So we cling to them deeply and fanatically.

• The mere suggestion that there's no soul, no self, no ego is unreal is offensive! It's angering and preposterous! "Nothing else might be real, but at least self is real!" we insist. Even language works against us: There's no way to talk or think without continuing to imagine an actor (noun) as the subject, the doer of the action (verb).

The Buddha's teaching does not support this ignorance, weakness, fear, and desire, but aims at making humans and devas enlightened by removing them and revealing the ultimate truth, striking at the very root of our wrongly conceived assumption.

According to Buddhism, our ideas of God and soul are false and empty. Though highly developed as theories and theologies, they are all the same extremely subtle mental projections, dressed in intricate metaphysical and philosophical phrases.

These ideas are so deep rooted in us -- so taken for granted by us, that is, the intuitive but mistaken Cartesian assumption Cognito ergo sum or "I think therefore I am" -- and so near and dear to us that we do not want to hear nor understand any teaching against them.

The Buddha knew this quite well. In fact, he said that his teaching was "against the stream" (patisotagami), against our selfish desires. Just four weeks after his great awakening (enlightenment), seated under a Ficus religiosa tree, the Awakened One thought to himself:

"I have realized this Truth so deep, difficult to see, and difficult to understand . . . comprehensible only by the wise . . . people who are overpowered by passions (greed and hatred) and surrounded by a mass of darkness (ignorance) cannot see this Truth, which is against the stream, which is lofty, deep, subtle, and hard to comprehend."

With these thoughts in mind, the Buddha hesitated for a moment wondering whether it wouldn't be a wearisome waste of time if he tried to teach and explain the ultimate Truth he had just realized to a world such as this.

Then he compared the world to a lotus pond: In a lotus pond there are some lotuses still remaining under water, others that have risen up only to water level, and others that have risen above the water and are now untouched by it.

In the same way in this world there are human at different levels of development. Some would understand the Truth. So the Buddha was encouraged to teach it [Mhvg. (Alutgama, 1922), p. 4 f; M I (Pali Text Society), p. 167 f.] by Brahma Sahampati (a very high born God) for the sake of those "with only a little dust in their eyes." He decided to teach the impossible because it leads to liberation from ALL suffering and nothing else does.

The doctrine of anatta (Sanskrit anatman) or no-soul (no-self) is the natural result of, or the corollary to, the analysis of the Five Aggregates clung to as Self and the teaching of Dependent Origination (Conditioned Co-genesis, paticca-samuppada).

In the discussion of the first ennobling/enlightening truth (the truth of the disappointing nature of all things, dukkha), what we assume to be a "being," "self," "soul," or "individual" is composed of the Five Aggregates. But when these aggregates are analyzed and examined, there is nothing behind them which can be taken as "I," soul, or self, or any unchanging abiding substance. That is the analytical method.

The same result is arrived at through the doctrine of Dependent Origination, which is the synthetical method. According to this nothing in the world is absolute. Everything is conditioned. Everything is relative and interdependent -- that is to say, not able to stand alone or independent. This is a Buddhist "theory of relativity."

Dependent Origination

Before going into the question of no-soul, no-self, no-ego, it is useful to have an idea of what Dependent Origination means. The principle of this doctrine is given in a short formula of four lines:

1. When this is, that is. (Imasmim sati idam hod)
2. When this arising, that arises. (Imassuppada idam uppajjati).
3. When this is not, that is not. (Imasmim asati idam na boti)
4. When this ceases, that ceases. (Imassa nirodha idam nirujjhati).

On this principle of conditionality, relativity, and interdependence, the whole of existence and the continuity of life and its cessation are explained in the detailed formula called Paticca-samuppada "Dependent Origination." It consists of 12 factors:

1. Through ignorance are conditioned volitional actions or karma-formations. (Avijjapaccaya samkhara).

2. Through volitional actions is conditioned consciousness. (Samkharapaccaja vinnanam).

3. Through consciousness are conditioned mental and material [name and form, mind and body] phenomena. (Vinnanapaccaja namaruparti).

4. Through mental and material phenomena are conditioned the six faculties (i.e., five physical sense-organs and mind). (Namarupapaccayd salayatanam).

5. Through the six sense faculties is conditioned (sensorial and mental) contact. (Salayatanapaccaya phasso).

6. Through (sensorial and mental) contact is conditioned sensation. (Phassapaccaja vedana).

7. Through sensation is conditioned craving. (Vedanapaccaja tanha).

8. Through craving is conditioned clinging. (Tanhapaccaja upadanam).

• M III (PTS), p. 63; S II (PTS), pp. 28, 95, etc. To put it in a more modern form: When A is, B is; when A arises, B arises; when A is not, B is not; when A ceases, B ceases.

9. Through clinging is conditioned the process of becoming. (Upadatiapaccaya bhavo).

10. Through the process of becoming is conditioned birth. (Bhavapaccaya jati).

11. Through birth are conditioned (12) decay, death, lamentation, pain, and so on. (Jatipaccaya jaramaranam...).

This is how life arises, exists, and continues. If this formula is taken in reverse order, it comes to the cessation of the impersonal process:

(1) Through the complete cessation of ignorance, volitional activities or karma-formations cease; (2) through the cessation of volitional activities, consciousness ceases... (12) through the cessation of birth, decay, death, sorrow, and so on cease.

It should be clearly remembered that each of these factors is conditioned (paticcasamuppantia) as well as conditioning (paticca samuppada).

1. Therefore, they are all relative, interdependent, interconnected, and nothing is absolute or independent. Therefore, no first cause is accepted by Buddhism.

2. Dependent Origination is considered a circle rather than a linear chain.

3. The question of free will has occupied an important place in Western thought and philosophy. But according to Dependent Origination, this question does not and cannot arise in Buddhist philosophy.

If the whole of existence is relative, conditioned, and interdependent, how can will alone be free will, like any other thought, is conditioned. So called "freedom" itself is conditioned and relative. Such a conditioned and relative "free will" is not denied.

There can be nothing absolutely free, physical or mental, as everything is interdependent and relative. If free will implies a will independent of conditions, independent of cause and effect, such a thing does not exist.

How can a will, or anything for that matter, arise without conditions, away from cause and effect, when the whole of existence is conditioned and relative, and is within the law of cause and effect?

1. Vismuddhi Magga (PTS), p. 517.
2. See above p. 29.
3. Limited space does not permit a discussion here of this most important doctrine. A critical and comparative study of this subject in detail will be found in a forthcoming work on Buddhist philosophy by the present writer.

Here again the idea of free will is basically connected with the ideas of God, soul, justice, rewards, and punishments. Not only is so-called free will not free, but the very idea of free will is not free from conditions.

According to the doctrine of Dependent Origination, and according to the analysis of a living being into the Five Aggregates clung to as Self, the idea of an abiding, immortal substance in human or outside, whether it is called I, soul, self, or ego, is considered only a false belief, a mental projection.

This is the Buddhist doctrine of anatta, no-soul and no-self.

In order to avoid confusion, it should be mentioned here that there are two kinds of truth -- conventional truth (sammuti sacca) and ultimate truth (paramattha sacca).

When we use such expressions as "I," "you," "being," "individual," and so on, it is true in a conventional sense. Language is a set of conventions. But ultimately there is no self, no being as such. And to say so is to speak in conformity with ultimate truth even as it differs from the conventions of the world and language. There is something, but it is not a self, soul, or ego.

The ultimate truth is that there is no "I" or "being." This is an ultimate reality. As a Mahayana sutra says, "A person (puggala) should be mentioned as existing only in designation (i.e., conventionally speaking, there is a being), but not in reality (or substance)." More

About NIRVANA (What the Buddha Taught)

Ven. Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught, Chapter IV: The Third Noble Truth, pp. 40-44 (ahandfulofleaves.org) edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

"What will happen to Him after death, nirvana, right?" - "That question is devoid of wisdom."

.

Dry land? What are you talking about, Turtle?

Nirvana cannot be completely explained with words, because human language is too poor to express the real nature of ultimate reality. Language is used by human beings to express things and ideas related to their experience using these sense organs and this mind. A supramundane experience like glimpsing nirvana does not fall in that category. But useful things can be said, and the wise may understand. For example, the fish had no words or ideas in their vocabulary when the turtle said it had just walked on dry land. "Sure you did!" laughed the fish. "You mean you swam on dry land." The turtle tried to explain that one cannot swim on dry land because it is not wet or fluid. "You mean like mud," asked the fish. The turtle struggled, "A little like mud but not wet or fluid." Then the fish said, "Oh, you mean complete nothingness?" "No, not nothingness, but there's nothing here I can really compare it to."

Ha ha, that turtle's so stupid! Isn't he stupid?

The fish asked offered comparisons then insisted the turtle was deluded, that dry land must be wet and fluid like the lake, cool, with waves, and that one must be able to swim there -- or it must be nothingness. The turtle finally exclaimed, "Well that may be, friends, that may be" and again disappeared to walk on dry land. The fish were perplexed.

~⇆~

Words about nirvana

"Abiding in the Absolute" is Hinduism.

Some popular inaccurately phrased expressions like, "The Buddha entered into nirvana or parinirvana after death" have given rise to many imaginary speculations about nirvana.

There are some who say, "after the nirvana of the Buddha" instead of "after the parinirvana of the Buddha."

"After the nirvana of the Buddha" has no meaning. The expression is unknown in Buddhist texts. It is always "after the parinirvana of the Buddha."

The Buddha and all other fully-enlightened individuals (called arahants) do not "die." For them there is no death. What we commonly call death is always followed by rebirth.

Having realized the "deathless" (amata, amrita), which is a synonym for nirvana, they -- finding no more fuel of attraction, aversion, or delusion -- go out, are quenched, lay down the burden of ignorance.

If not "who" then what goes out? Ultimately, only ignorance itself goes out. This happens by virtue of the fact that wisdom illuminates reality. For instance, when light comes "in," what goes out? Only darkness goes out. So as wisdom arises, only the darkness of ignorance is dispelled.

Maybe nirvana is a great "void" in space.

Nirvana is a verb -- cooling -- not a noun, not a "person, place, or thing." It is also called the "unconditioned element" (asankhata dhatu) in a universe where everything else is a conditioned thing (a composite composed of constituent parts, depending on those parts for its existence).

People will necessarily misunderstand this, and according to their habit of craving or aversion, will misconceive of nirvana as annihilation and nothingness or continuation and eternal existence. What else could it be but one of these extremes?

• Nirvana is neither death (annihilation-ism) nor immortality (eternalism). "Deathlessness" (amrita) does not mean "eternal existence" -- because, in an ultimate sense, actual existence is not what is happening now. What is happening now is illusory existence. So there is nothing that could be annihilated other than ignorance itself, in ultimate terms, and there is nothing (no self) that could actually wanders through samsara. In conventional terms, of course, it will seem otherwise.

And all people, unless they are very careful about their wisdom, will find it impossible to imagine that both of these "common sense" views (death vs. eternal life or annihilation vs. immortality) or logical deductions are utterly wrong. An explanation of anatta (not-self) explains WHY they are wrong. The Middle Way rediscovered by the historical Buddha avoids both extremes, both wrong views.

The moment we hear the phrase that "the Buddha entered into nirvana or parinirvana," we take nirvana to be a realm, heaven, void, state, or a position in which there is some sort of existence and try to imagine it in terms of the senses of the word "existence" as it is known to us.

The popular expression "entered into nirvana" has no equivalent in the original texts. There is no such thing as "entering into nirvana after death." Nirvana, the deathless, has no death. Samsara (cyclical rebirth) has death; it is inseparably bound up with it.

The word parinibbuto is used to denote the passing of the Buddha or any arahant, an fully enlightened individual, who has realized nirvana. It does not mean "entering into nirvana."

Parinibbuto simply means "fully passed away," "fully blown out," "fully extinguished" because the Buddha and other arahants have gone beyond rebirth after passing away. So now another question arises: "What happens to the Buddha or the arahant after 'death,' after parinirvana?" This comes under the category of unanswered questions (avjakata) that are better set aside.

• The question itself is wrong as what is happening is not "death." Moreover, what is happening while "alive" or "existing" is not what is happening, and the arahant having realized that no more feeds the illusory fire. But we do, so there is confusion for us.

Even when the Buddha spoke about this, he indicated that no words in our vocabulary could express what happens to an arahant after passing away. In reply to a Parivrajaka named Vaccha, the Buddha said that terms like "born" or "not born" do not apply in the case of an arahant, any arahant, because those things — the Five Aggregates or "heaps" of matter, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness — with which terms like "born" and "not born" are associated, are completely uprooted, never to arise again after parinirvana.

An arahant after passing away is often compared metaphorically to a fire gone out when the supply of fuel is over, or to the flame of a lamp gone out when wick and oil are consumed.

Here it should be clearly and distinctly understood, without confusion, that what is compared to a fire or flame gone out is not nirvana -- but the "being" composed of the Five Aggregates (the empty process of the Five Aggregates clinging to themselves as a "being") who realized nirvana.

This point has to be emphasized over and again because people, even some great scholars, have misunderstood and misinterpreted this simile as referring to nirvana. Nirvana is never compared to a fire or to a lamp flame gone out.

Another popular question is, "If there is no self and no soul (atman) then who realizes nirvana?" Before going on to nirvana, let us ask the question, "Who thinks right now if there is no self?"

• (Cognito ergo sum, "I think therefore I am," rings in our heads as the answer to there being no self. In fact, on the basis of the evidence, all that can be said is, "Thinking is therefore there is thought." In other words, "Cognition cognizes because there is no 'cognizer' only the Five Aggregates clung to as Self").

Path: virtue, purifying concentration, wisdom.

In the ultimate analysis -- though it rungs completely against "common sense," we have already seen that it is thought that thinks; there is no "thinker" behind thought. In the same way and for the same reasons, it is wisdom (panna, prajna) that is wise, insight that is insightful, realization that realizes. There is NO self behind the realization, no actual experiencer behind experience.

In the discussion of the origin of dukkha (disappointment, suffering), we saw that whatever it may be — whether eternal being, temporary thing, or impersonal process — if it is of a nature of arising, it has within itself the nature of ceasing. It is like the Taoist yin yang symbol brought into Buddhism. Each cycling wave, black or white, has within it a dot of the other: What ceases is of a nature to arise, and what arises is of a nature to cease.

Now all that is unpleasant (dukkha) and the cycle of birth and death (samsara) is of a nature to arise, so it follows that it must be of a nature to cease. Dukkha [has multiples causes and supporting conditions] arises because of craving (tanha rooted in ignorance), and it ceases because of wisdom (panna).

Craving and wisdom are both within the Five Aggregates affected by clinging, as we saw earlier.

Therefore, the seed of their arising as well as that of their cessation are both within the Five Aggregates. This is the real meaning of the Buddha's well known statement, "Within this fathom-long sentient body, I proclaim:

1. the world,
2. the arising of the world,
3. the cessation of the world, and
4. the path leading to the cessation of the world."

All that arises is of a nature to pass away!

This means that all Four Noble Truths are found within the Five Aggregates, that is, within ourselves or what we cling to assuming to be ourselves. Here the word "world" (loka) is used in place of dukkha). This is how all suffering arises, and so here is found the seed of the cessation of all suffering.

This also means that there is no external power that produces the arising and the cessation of dukkha. When wisdom is developed and cultivated according to the fourth noble truth, it sees the secret of life, the reality of things as they really are.

When the secret is discovered, when it is directly penetrated, when the ultimate Truth is known-and-seen, all the forces that feverishly produce the illusion of samsara (continuity) become calm and incapable of producing any more karmic-formations, because there is no more illusion, no more craving for what is impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal.

It is like a mental disease that is cured when the cause or the secret of the malady is discovered and seen by the patient. In almost all religions the ultimate (the summum bonum), like a heavenly rebirth or divine rewards, can only be attained after death.

But nirvana can and is to be realized in this very life. It is not a matter of waiting to die to see if it's true, to "gain" or "attain" it. One who has realized the Truth, nirvana, is the happiest being in the world. For one is free from all "complexes" (i.e., inferiority, superiority, etc.) and obsessions, the common worries and troubles that torment others.

One's mental health becomes perfect with arahantship, full enlightenment. One does not repent the past, nor does one brood over the future. One lives fully in the present. [1] Therefore, one appreciates and enjoys things in the purest sense without self-projections. One is joyful, exultant, enjoying the a purified life (cleansed of the roots of greed, hatred, and delusion), one's faculties are pleased, free from anxiety, serene and peaceful.

As one is free from selfish craving, selfish aversion, self-consumed ignorance, conceit, pride, egotism, wrong views and all such "defilements," one is pure and gentle, full of metta (universal friendliness, loving-kindness), compassion, sympathetic joy (happy for others' happiness), equanimity, understanding, and tolerance.

One's service to others is of the purest sort, for one has no thought of "self" or selfishness. One gains nothing, accumulates nothing, hoards nothing, not even anything spiritual, because one is free from the illusion of self and the craving for becoming.

Nirvana is beyond all terms of duality and relativity. It is, therefore, beyond our conceptions of good and bad, right and wrong, existence and non-existence, yin or yang. Even the word "happiness" (sukha, the opposite of dukkha), which is used to describe nirvana, has an entirely different sense here.

Ven. Sariputra once said, "O friend, nirvana is happiness, nirvana is happiness!" Then Udayi asked, "But, friend Sariputra, what happiness can it be if there is no sensation?" Ven. Sariputra's reply was highly philosophical and beyond ordinary comprehension: "That there is no sensation itself is happiness."

Nirvana is beyond logic and mere reasoning (atakkavacara). However much we may engage, often as a vain intellectual pursuit, in highly speculative discussions regarding nirvana or ultimate truth or "reality," we will never understand it by those means.

Nirvana is known when it is experienced.

By comparison a child in kindergarten should not quarrel about or debate the theory of relativity. Instead, if one follows one's studies (putting them into practice) patiently and diligently, one day that person, formerly a child, may understand it.

Nirvana is "to be realized by the wise within themselves" (paccattam veditabbo vinnuhi). If we follow the path to nirvana -- the path to freedom, the path of purification, the path of practice -- patiently and with diligence, train and purify ourselves earnestly, and attain the necessary spiritual development, we may one day realize it within ourselves — without taxing ourselves with puzzling and high-sounding words.

Let us, therefore, now turn to the path that leads to the direct realization of nirvana [the experience of this verb, this cooling, slaking, quenching of the painful fires of greed, hatred, and delusion]. More

BOOK: "What the Buddha Taught" (FREE)

Bhante Walpola Rahula (web.ics.purdue.edu); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations vii

Foreword ix

Preface xi

The Buddha xv

CHAPTER I

The Buddhist Attitude of Mind

Man is supreme—One is one's refuge—Responsibility—Doubt—Freedom of Thought—Tolerance—Is Buddhism Religion or Philosophy?—Truth has no label—No blind faith or belief, but seeing and understanding—No attachment even to Truth—Parable of the raft—Imaginary speculations useless—Practical attitude—Parable of the wounded man 1

THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

CHAPTER II

The First Noble Truth: Dukkha

Buddhism neither pessimistic nor optimistic, but realistic—Meaning of 'Dukkha'—Three aspects of experience—Three aspects of 'Dukkha'—What is a 'being'?—Five Aggregates—No spirit opposed to matter—Flux—Thinker and Thought—Has life a beginning? 16

CHAPTER III

The Second Noble Truth: Samudaya: 'The Arising of Dukkha'—Definition—Four Nutriments—Root cause of suffering and continuity Nature of arising and cessation—Karma and Rebirth—What is death?—What is rebirth? 29

CHAPTER IV

The Third Noble Truth: Nirodha: 'The Cessation of Dukkha'—What is Nirvana?—Language and Absolute Truth—Definitions of Nirvana Nirvana not negative—Nirvana as Absolute Truth—What is Absolute Truth?—Truth is not negative—Nirvana and Samsara—Nirvana not a result—What is there after Nirvana?—Incorrect expressions—What happens to an Arahant after death?—If no Self, who realizes Nirvana?—Nirvana in this life 35

CHAPTER V

The Fourth Noble Truth: Magga: 'The Path'
Middle Path or Noble Eightfold Path—Compassion and Wisdom—Ethical Conduct—Mental Discipline—Wisdom—Two sorts of Understanding—Four Functions regarding the Four Noble Truths 45

CHAPTER VI

The Doctrine of No-Soul: Anatta
What is Soul or Self?—God and Soul: Self protection and Self-preservation—Teaching 'Against the Current'—Analytical and Synthetical methods—Conditioned Genesis—Question of Free-will—Two kinds of Truths—Some erroneous views—The Buddha definitely denies 'Atman'—The Buddha's silence—The idea of Self a vague impression—Correct attitude—If no Self, who gets the result of Karma?—Doctrine of Anatta not negative 51

CHAPTER VII

'Meditation' or Mental Culture: Bhavana
Erroneous views—Meditation is no escape from life—Two forms of Meditation—The Setting-up of Mindfulness—'Meditation' on breathing—Mindfulness of activities—Living in the present moment—'Meditation' on Sensations—on Mind—on Ethical, Spiritual and Intellectual subjects 67

CHAPTER VIII

What the Buddha Taught and the World Today
Erroneous views—Buddhism for all—In daily life—Family and social life—Lay life held in high esteem—How to become a Buddhist—Social and economic problems—Poverty: cause of crime—Material and spiritual progress—Four kinds of happiness for laymen—On politics, war and peace—Non-violence—The ten duties of a ruler—The Buddha's Message—Is it practical?—Asoka's Example-The Aim of Buddhism 76

SELECTED TEXTS

Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta) 92

The Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya Sutta) 95

Universal Love (Metta Sutta) 97

Blessings (Mangala Sutta) 98

Getting rid of All Cares and Troubles (Sabbasava Sutta) 99

The Parable of the Piece of Cloth (Vatthupama Sutta) 106

The Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Sutta) 109

Advice to Sigala (Sigalovada Sutta) 119

The Words of Truth (Dhammapada) 125

The Last Words of the Buddha (from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta) 136

Abbreviations 139

Selected Bibliography 140

Glossary 142

Index 148

• FREE: What the Buddha Taught (Purdue University)

What about Yasodhara, the Buddha's wife?

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly

Yasodhara (Princess Bimba who became Ven. Bhaddakaccana): I know we had an agreement from many lives back, and I know I knew where you were and how you were advancing as did your parents, but I still missed you like you said: All things are subject to separation. Thank you for coming back to save me, your son, Shakyians and the world.

(Geethanjali: Cartoons for Kids) Buddha Stories: Married Life before he became the Buddha

Prince Siddhartha and his Princess

(Bhante Walpola Piyananda & Dr. Stephen Long)

If this is too radical a view of "Yasodhara" (real name was Bimba Devi), we recommend an excellent book by the Los Angeles-based monk and friend of Wisdom Quarterly, Ven. Walpola Piyananda, Abbot of Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara: Thus We Heard Recollections of the Life of the Buddha.

He was not at all the first to realize the real nature of the relationship the Bodhisattva had with his wife before departing on his quest.

And even fewer seem to read the Life of the Buddha to the end to realize what happened to Princess Bimba and their young son Prince Rahula (almost certainly not his actual name), who were "abandoned" to a luxurious life in the place in the Kingdom of the Shaykas (Sakas, Shakyians, Scythians).

This was not in Nepal but  in Central Asia -- which could have included Ukraine to the north all the way south to the northwestern frontier of "India" or the loosely affiliated kingdoms around Magadha and Savatthi -- in the vicinity of modern Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, and Kabul (ancient Kapilavastu), Afghanistan as Dr. Ranajit Pal reveals for us.

Scythian Princess Bimba, Sid's wife

Ven. Piyananda imagines dialogue to accompany and fill in various sutras making their relationship the opposite of what modern people, particularly well-meaning but biased Westerners (and sometimes people-pleasing Easterners), today take it to mean. Because Siddhartha achieved his goal, he came back and many members of his extended family became enlightened.

The princess (Yasodhara, Bimba Devi, Rahulamata) became an enlightened or truly "noble" nun (Ven. Bhaddakaccana) and the fiercest disputant in all the land she traveled as a wandering ascetic. No one ever tells that part of the story. Their son also became enlightened and a prominent member of the Noble Sangha. Knowing this, one can avoid such egregious Yasodhara-fantasies as explored in the Tibetan film Samsara by Pan Nalin.

"What the Buddha Taught" (best book)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Walpola Rahula, the first Buddhist monk to become a professor at a Western university, lectured at Swarthmore, UCLA

The golden Buddha with golden arhats listening to the Dharma (Thai-on/flickr.com)

  

What the Buddha Taught (W. Rahula)

Most people cannot bear to look at book titled What the Buddha Never Taught -- even though it is an account of real life practices
 a modern Buddhist monastery. They are drawn instead to tradition, to "truth," to What the Buddha Taught.

This text, which can be read free here, is rightly heralded as one of the greatest publications on Buddhism in the history of English. It ranks right up there was the great sutra translations in English of Bhikkhu Bodhi and Maurice O'Connell Walshe and the previous generation of the British Pali Text Society (PTS) like Rhys Davids, Caroline Rhys Davids, and Frank Lee Woodward.

A Sri Lankan scholar-monk, Ven. Walpola Rahula, somehow managed the impossible -- succinctly covering all of the important aspects of the Dharma in one relatively short and well written book. 

Buddha (Mesamong/flickr)

How he did this has been difficult for us to figure out. We must suppose that he avoided obvious formulas and stereotyped texts to present it.

But the Buddha himself formulated those "lists," the bane of Buddhist students who have not yet realized that the lists are only a device to remember to mention everything. They have no magic or purpose beyond that. The best list would be the Seven Factors of Enlightenment explained in terms of the Seven Requisites of Enlightenment, which are 37 factors, of which the Seven Factors of Enlightenment are just one group. The Greco-Buddhist monk Ven. Nagasena spelled out this ancient formulation centuries ago. See how easy it is to become boring and weighed down bywe presunumbers and lists and terms? How does Ven. Rahula avoid it? Years of study, insight, and teaching, we presume.

Only one book

Meditating deva in gold at Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Thailand (_cFu/flickr)

 

If there were only one book one was ever going to read about Buddhism, it would not be Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, which is not about Siddhartha Gautama but about another guy named "Siddhartha" in a fictional tale. The Buddha is far in the background. 

It's like Monty Python's Life of Brian, which is not about Jesus Christ but instead about a Jewish boy born in a manger, visited by three wise men on the day he is born, who grows up to be called "messiah" and "healer" as he fights Pagan Roman imperialism and temple hypocrisy. This perfectly describes Brian. The Christ is far in the background. But everyone assumes the movie is about Jesus, just as everyone assumes Siddhartha is about the Buddha's early life. 

Thailand (Laurence Hunt)

Nor would it be The Dhammapada, a collection of Buddhist aphorisms that hardly even make sense without the accompanying stories left out of most modern "pocket" versions treating the text like some kind of "Buddhist Bible." No, unless it's going to be a collection of sutras like Bhikkhu Bodhi's wonderful excellent anthology or his recorded series, "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is" available free on CD from the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS/CYM) in upstate New York.

Nor would it be Buddhaghosa's compendious Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), which purports to be a meditation manual but is written so densely as to be impenetrable even for experts and scholars. One is better off tackling his earlier Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga by Upatissa, aka Buddhaghosa). Both try to cover topics that need a living meditation master, for they are training manuals not ordinary books. They contain a great deal of commentarial literature, which many people today foolishly reject or disregard as not being sutras the Buddha uttered. What we fail to understand as Westerners is the long Indian tradition of spiritual teachers making statements their students and students' students explicate and comment on. This exegetical literature is not a comment but a detailed explanation of the practice.

The same is true in Judaism, as a living tradition of storytelling and endless interpretation to make things real in one's life. But as modern Christians, the idea makes little sense to us: We want it hard and fixed, absolute and fundamentalist. Teaching was never like this, except that writing made it so. The Buddha did not write, nor did the Vedic seers (rishis) before him or Jewish-Jesus of Nazareth after him. The mystical experience cannot be communicated that way, try as we might. The Pagan teachers of Europe and the shamans everywhere in the world. It used to be a round, a spin, a toss with storytelling to match.

Nor would it even be the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is all well and good to listen to when dying but not such a hot read for a layperson in life.

Nor would it be Ven. Nyanatiloka's Buddhist Dictionary: A Manual of Doctrine and Terms, which is written as a series of essays rather than simple entries and serves as an excellent resource.

Nor would it be a catechism. If a person had only one Buddhist book to read, it would have to be:

What the Buddha Taught

HERE ARE THE CONTENTS:

CONTENTS: List of Illustrations, Foreword, Preface, The Buddha.

CHAPTER I: The Buddhist Attitude of Mind, Human is supreme—One is one's refuge—Responsibility—Doubt—Freedom of Thought—Tolerance—Is Buddhism Religion or Philosophy?—Truth has no label—No blind faith or belief, but seeing and understanding—No attachment even to Truth—Parable of the Raft—Imaginary speculations useless—Practical attitude—Parable of the wounded man, THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS.

CHAPTER II: The First Noble Truth: Dukkha, Buddhism neither pessimistic nor optimistic but realistic—Meaning of "Dukkha"—Three aspects of experience—Three aspects of "Dukkha"—What is a "being"?—Five Aggregates—No spirit opposed to matter—Flux—Thinker and Thought—Has life a beginning?

CHAPTER III: The Second Noble Truth: Samudaya: "The Arising of Dukkha"—Definition—Four Nutriments—Root cause of suffering and continuity—Nature of arising and cessation—Karma and Rebirth—What is death?—What is rebirth?

CHAPTER IV: The Third Noble Truth: Nirodha: "The Cessation of Dukkha'—What is Nirvana?—Language and Absolute Truth—Definitions of Nirvana—Nirvana not negative—Nirvana as Absolute Truth—What is Absolute Truth?—Truth is not negative—Nirvana and Samsara—Nirvana not a result—What is there after Nirvana?— Incorrect expressions—What happens to an Arahant after death?— If no Self, who realizes Nirvana?—Nirvana in this life.

CHAPTER V: The Fourth Noble Truth: Magga: "The Path," Middle Path or Noble Eightfold Path—Compassion and Wisdom—Ethical Conduct—Mental Discipline—Wisdom—Two sorts of Understanding—Four Functions regarding the Four Noble Truths.

CHAPTER VI: The Doctrine of No-Soul: Anatta, What is Soul or Self?—God and Soul: Self protection and Self-preservation—Teaching "Against the Current"—Analytic and Synthetic methods—Conditioned Genesis—Question of Freewill—Two kinds of Truths—Some erroneous views—The Buddha definitely denies "Atman"—The Buddha's silence—The idea of Self a vague impression—Correct attitude—If no Self, who gets the result of Karma?—Doctrine of Anatta not negative...

CHAPTER VII: "Meditation" or Mental Culture: Bhavana, Erroneous views—Meditation is no escape from life—Two forms of Meditation—The Setting up of Mindfulness—"Meditation" on breathing—Mindfulness of activities—Living in the present moment—"Meditation" on Sensations—on Mind—on Ethical, Spiritual, and Intellectual subjects.

CHAPTER VIII: What the Buddha Taught and the World Today, Erroneous views—Buddhism for all—In daily life—Family and social life—Lay life held in high esteem—How to become a Buddhist—Social and economic problems—Poverty: cause of crime—Material and spiritual progress—Four kinds of happiness for laypersons—On politics, war, and peace—Non-violence—The ten duties of a ruler—The Buddha's Message—Is it practical?—Asoka's Example-The Aim of Buddhism

SELECTED TEXTS: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth (Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta), The Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya-sutta), Universal Love (Metta-sutta), Blessings (Mangala-sutta), Getting rid of All Cares and Troubles (Sabbasava-sutta), The Parable of the Piece of Cloth (Vatthupama-sutta), The Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana-sutta), Advice to Sigala (Sigalovada-sutta), The Words of Truth (Dhammapada), The Last Words of the Buddha (from the Mahaparinibbanasutta). Abbreviations. Selected Bibliography. Glossary. Index. READ IT

"What the Buddha Never Taught" (book)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Tim Ward; TheSecularBuddhist.com

Golden Buddha in characteristic Thai or Siamese style (Anekoho/flickr.com)

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20th Anniversary Edition (Goodreads.com)

To understand what the Buddha taught in theory, it is good to discuss practices he did did not teach. What did he teach?

So let's have a behind the scenes look at life in a Thai forest monastery. Tim Ward wrote a classic and humorous "behind-the-robes" account of his journey to Northeast Thailand to live in a Buddhist forest monastery for Westerners as a temporary monastic.

 

"There is still a place in the jungles of Thailand, where you can leave it all behind..."

This book became a classic and a bestseller in the 1990s. It is funny and clear, a true-life “behind the robes” account of life inside one of the strictest jungle monasteries in Southeast Asia. 

In Wat Pah Nanachat, the monastics keep the 227 rules laid down by the Buddha, including refraining from all killing. But how does a foreign novice cope with a cobra in the outhouse or the temptation of a Mars Bar in his alms bowl? Find out in this newly reincarnated 20th anniversary edition, with a new introduction by the author Tim Ward and a new foreword by Wade Davis.
 

The Buddha reclining into final nirvana (kwanyinbuddha/flickr.com)

Episode 49: author Tim Ward

Thesecularbuddhist.com

Ward, author of What The Buddha Never Taught, talks about his experiences as a Theravadan monk (novice) in Thailand. 

This podcast has featured two former Western monastics who have written books about their experiences -- original "Buddhist Atheist" Stephen Batchelor and Stephen Schettini. Today a third guest exposes an underlying thread in their experiences -- a personal resonance with the particular form of practice was lacking. That's not to say that it's not there for many, if not most, Westerners who take robes (ordain temporarily or permanently).

But the reasons why some have left the alms bowl behind seem very similar if not identical. Many of the recent discussions on the Facebook Fan Page for "The Secular Buddhist" have centered on this topic: What's right for one individual, culturally, may not be right for another. And that's okay, of course. Secular Buddhism is about creating an opportunity for spiritual practice, self-cultivation (meditation), and fostering communities of support for those more comfortable with a secular (non-religious) worldview. Many of us are less comfortable with the trappings of organized religion and supernatural explanations. We find more resonance with practicing in our own, non-traditional way.

And as Buddhism expands in the West, it is inevitable that it find its own forms, which reflect the culture it finds itself in. Some of us deal quite well with faith approaches to meditative practice, while others take a more skeptical view. But a PRACTICE of reducing suffering, of self and others, remains. We share this vision, and however we get there, however winding the path, the core practice of that path is the same. LISTEN TO THE EPISODE

Why would anyone become a hermit?

Publisher's Weekly (review edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

Ward's funny title is based on famed book

According to Ward's delightful account of his stay in a Thai Buddhist monastery, there are many things that the Buddha never taught [but they are practiced anyway].

 

One is the extreme rigor of the Pah Nanachat monastery, involving rising at 3:00 am for [paritta] chanting, walking on gravel roads in bare feet, and eating only one big meal a day.

• The same thing is every day practiced in California near San Diego at Metta Forest Monastery. It is a branch of the same strict revivalist Dhammayut school Ajahn Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff) was relegated to after being expelled from Thailand -- for almost becoming an abbot there, an act that would have given functional Thai land ownership to a foreigner (farang), which the Thai Sangha and government were not willing to tolerate -- when his Thai teacher passed away.

Ward concludes that the final lesson is about the redemptive power of laughter.

A Canadian journalist, he traveled around Asia for six years, eventually winding up at Wat Pah Nanachat, which was built to spread Theravada Buddhism to farangs ("foreigners," non-Thais). 

 

Among the motley crew the author finds at the jungle monastery are an ex-gospel singer from England, a former accountant from China, and a former real estate millionaire from Chicago, USA.

The head monk is an Australian who used to play jazz guitar in his last life. The book is Ward's affectionate, and often very funny, account of his sojourn in this place of meditation and renunciation.

The volume could have been improved by some sharp editing, but its little redundancies and repetitions help capture the often monotonous life of the monk.

Encouraging journeys of self-discovery

Tracy Sherlock (Vancouver Sun)

Siddhartha's search for life's meaning

"If you're looking for the meaning of life, you'll benefit from seeking it out yourself," says author Tim Ward, who spent time in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand in the 1980s.

 

"I think it's really valuable for everybody, preferably in their 20s, to really come up against the question, 'Where does meaning reside?'"

"I think that there is an answer," Ward continues, "and that is that part of what it is to be human is to generate meaning." 

 

Ward wrote about his experiences in What the Buddha Never Taught, which has been released in a special 20th anniversary edition with a foreword by Canadian anthropologist and author Wade Davis. 

Young I left the household to wander

"One of the things I look at with regret in our current society is that so many of those meanings are given to kids, they sort of just jump onto meanings without having to feel what meaninglessness is like," Ward said.

 

"They want a career where they will make a lot of money, so they can live in a nice house and drive a big car because that's what successful people do. That makes me cry and tear out what last bit of hair I've got. Where's your struggle to find the meaning that's in your bones?"

"If anything, that's my hope for this book on its 20th anniversary that it will encourage younger readers to do that fighting for the meaning in their life, and not accept the values that are given to them." More