Introduction
When examining
Chinese Religions, one has to have an approach different from
that used to examine most other traditions. In the West, we think
of someone as either a Christian, or a Jew, or
a Muslim; it is not possible for someone to be both a Christian
and a Muslim. However, this was not the case in China. It was
not only possible but common for someone to turn to Confucianism
for family and ethical concerns, to Daoism (sometimes spelled
Taoism, but Daoism is preferred today) for physical and psychological
health concerns, to Buddhism for funeral procedures, and to the
local gods and spirits unconnected with these three traditions,
to deal with more mundane concerns. Moreover, the native Chinese
traditions of Confucianism and Daoism share many of the same basic
ideas about how the world functions, the role of mankind in the
world, the functions of gods and spirits, the ethical ideas that
shaped China, etc. When Buddhism arrived in China from India,
and became popular in the 2nd century A.D., it too began to absorb
these Chinese ideas and to change in a number of ways.
In addition
to these three great traditions, two other aspects of Chinese
religion need to be mentioned. One is the Imperial Cult, in which
the Emperor, who was called the Son of Heaven, not in a biological
sense but in the sense of being chosen by Heaven to rule China,
worshipped Heaven and various gods on behalf of the entire country.
No one else could fulfill this ritual function which was an essential
part of the Emperor's role. While the Confucians co-opted this
role and amalgamated it into their religion and philosophy, this
function of the emperor pre-dated Confucianism. This was such
an essential part of the Chinese way of approaching the non-human
world, that one sees echoes of this tradition in the way many
people viewed such nationalists as Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhong-shan)
and Mao Zedong. Sun Yat-sen for example, is buried on the same
mountain near Nanjing as the first emperor of the Ming dynasty
(1368-1644). The second aspect is the tradition of folk religion
which varied by region and often by village and involved the worship
of local gods and spirits; sometimes this tradition intersected
with Daoist or Buddhist rituals; sometimes it was independent
of them.
Basic Ideas
Underlying the Chinese Religion and Philosophy
Several basic
ideas underlie all Chinese Religion and Philosophy. First, their
approach is basically humanistic; that is, their concern is with
people, with human beings, rather than center around gods or spirits.
Their interest in gods are in how these beings interact with and
affect people; the Chinese have had little interest in discussing
the nature of the gods apart from understanding the impact they
can have on people. This can be contrasted with the Western traditions
of Judaism, Christianity and Islam in which the focus of all three
religions is on how mankind can understand and implement God's
will on earth. The emphasis is on what God wants, what God intends,
not on what mankind wants. The Chinese concern, on the other hand,
is how to act in such a way that the gods will grant one's wishes,
or how to ensure that the gods will do what mankind wants and
needs.
Second, their
basic approach to both religion and philosophy is ethical in nature.
The primary concern is how to lead a good life on earth, how to
construct a society, a family, a government, that creates the
best life for all people. Thus their concerns with gods and spirits
are in the ways these beings help or hinder the construction of
a good life on earth. While both Daoism and Buddhism developed
the idea of multiple heavens and hells and an after-life connected
with these places, neither tradition emphasized the after-life
over this life on earth. The after-life was usually a secondary
consideration. Thus the focus was on bettering people and thus
bettering society.
Third, all
of the Chinese traditions: Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism,
were ultimately concerned with the perfectibility of humankind.
The main interest was in how to become a better person. The Confucian
ideal person was a Sage, an individual who, like Confucius himself,
had so perfected his nature that everything he desired was automatically
the ethical and correct way of behaving; his personal desires
and the welfare of society became the same. The Daoist ideal of
the "realized person" takes this perfectibility a step
further. Not only does the "realized person" always
act in a generous and ethical way on earth, but he/she will become
an immortal and will not die but will transform into a being with
special powers to aid and assist others even after the decay of
his/her mortal body. The Buddhist ideal person, one who conquers
all his desires so that he lives and acts in a desire-less state,
will jump out of the cycle of rebirth and attain Nirvana (a state
of luminous joy in which there is no more rebirth) or, more likely,
will become a Bodhisattva, a being who postpones entry into Nirvana
and who chooses to be reborn in the world again and again, to
help and save other people. In all of these traditions, the ideal
person is not one who serves a god best, but one who conquers
his own desires to become someone who serves other people.
Fourth, the
Chinese are not particularly concerned with myths of the origin
of the world or of people; they do have such myths but they are
of little real importance. Their interest rather is in how to
live in harmony and peace with the world and with other people.
Thus they posit an impersonal force, termed "heaven"
(Tian) which is ultimately concerned with the correct functioning
of the world. This correct functioning is termed "Dao"
(sometimes written Tao, but Dao is the spelling used in China
today) which is the force or the impulse which causes all things
to happen naturally. The Chinese believe that human beings must
align their actions with this natural force, this Dao. Thus there
is not a separation between moral law and natural law, there is
not one law that governs how the physical world operates and another
governing how mankind should behave. These are different parts
of the same law, the same Dao. All religion therefore, tries to
realign mankind with the Dao, with the natural way man is supposed
to act. All problems, all ills, all evils, come from a distortion
between the cosmic Dao and the human Dao. To correct this imbalance
is the main function of religion.
According
to the Chinese world view, the Dao causes the world to operate
properly; but the Dao itself can only act by division; thus it
divides into two complementary forces, generally termed Yin and
Yang. The symbol of these forces is usually a divided circle (click
on a yin-yang symbol). These forces are complementary and require
each other for action; it is the interaction of these forces that
enables the Dao to function. Thus, any imbalance in the relation
of these forces can cause problems. For example, in Chinese medicine,
illness is caused by the imbalance of these forces: too much Yin
or too much Yang, in the body. Harmony and balance is needed in
all things.
When Westerners
first became aware of Chinese ideas of the role of man, the role
of gods, the essentially humanistic and rational way of approaching
the world, many European thinkers felt that these ideas were superior
to Western ideas and they felt that the Chinese were interested
in Philosophy rather than Religion. This has fostered a belief,
which can still be found in writings today, that the Chinese are
not religious, that they are only philosophical. This is completely
incorrect: one has only to visit a Chinese Daoist temple, a Buddhist
monastery or a Confucian temple and watch the people, to realize
that the Chinese are very concerned with both religion and philosophy.
In fact, they don't make the sharp distinction between these that
is common in the West. For the Chinese, whether one discusses
religion or philosophy, both are transformative, both aim to change
people and thus both are essentially religious in nature. (The
Chinese use different words to refer to a Confucian temple and
a Daoist or Buddhist one, but it is hard to find a different word
in English so both words are translated "temple").
One of the
concerns of the Chinese from the beginning of time was divination:
the attempt to foresee the future. The first kings were also shamans
who had the ability to read cracks in bones and tortoise shells
which had been heated and to explain how these foretold what was
to come. In fact, the first Chinese writing has been found on
these "oracle bones"; thus writing has a scared beginning.
Today, in every Buddhist or Daoist temple or folk temple, one
can find fortunetellers and various means of divination. The most
sophisticated method of divination devised by the ancient Chinese
has been adopted by both Confucianism and Daoism as part of their
belief and action systems. This is the book called the Yi Jing
(I Ching), a book of cryptic verses and saying related to 64 hexagrams,
which are believed to cover all possible situations. The difference
between the Yi Jing and other methods of divination, is that the
Yi Jing does not predict the future; instead it explains the situation
in which one finds oneself and gives one various possibilities
for action to either avoid calamity or to achieve success. Thus,
it is both a method of predicting the future and a psychologically
focused book to help one to deal with difficult problems. The
Yi Jing is based on the idea of randomness, of the interconnectedness
of all things in the universe; thus, whichever one of the 64 hexgrams
one obtains in "casting" the Yi Jing, is relevant to
one's problem by the fact that it appeared at this time. Various
methods of obtaining one of these hexagrams were developed from
the earliest method using yarrow stalks, to a later method using
coins, to a very modern method of using a computer.
Confucianism 
The term "Confucianism"
has become almost synonymous with any discussion of the government
and family systems of China (and Korea, Japan, and Vietnam). But
what exactly is this all pervading system that seems to cover
everything from education, to family, to government, to interaction
with spirits, to funerals, to problem solving? Why is it so important
and what are its ideas?
To answer
these questions, we must look at a brief history of Confucianism
and how it was applied. It begins with a man who was given the
honorific name "Master Kong" (Kong Fuzi) in the 5th
and 6th centuries B.C. This man lived during a tumultuous time,
a time of constant war between states, each seeking to conquer
and rule the others. In face of the misery, poverty and uncertainty
caused by these constant wars and their accompanying unethical
and violent ways of acting, many thinkers tried to come up with
solutions to the problem of how to attain peace and security.
These solutions ranged from better equipped armies, to better
military tactics, to dictatorial governmental policies, etc. Master
Kong, however, came up with a very different solution and one
which seemed most impractical. He proposed that the petty kings
select ministers who were trained in ethics and that they themselves
adopt an ethical approach to solving problems, an approach which
considered the welfare of the people as its greatest value. Needless
to say, while his ideas were valued and he was considered to be
a wise person, he was unable to find a king who would employ him
or put these ideas into practice! Thus, he devoted his time to
teaching and accumulated many disciples.
Several hundred
years after his death, his ideas, modified by those of several
of his disciples, were finally adopted as official state policy.
The man who adopted them, Han Wudi, (the military emperor of Han)
was the most expansionistic and militaristic of the early Han
emperors. Nevertheless, he felt that these seemingly impractical
ideas of Master Kong and his disciples would help him to govern
properly, would give him a core of loyal and well trained officials,
would regulate the relations with the foreign states he was conquering,
and would ensure a well ordered and prosperous society. Thus,
from the beginning of the 1st Century B.C. and continuing until
at least 1912 A.D. when the Imperial system was overthrown, Confucian
ideas, in one permutation or another, formed that backbone of
the Chinese state. These ideas were modified a number of times,
including in the 12th , 14th and 16th Centuries, in a form that
came to be known as "New' or "Neo" Confucianism.
which sought to revitalize the philosophy/religion to meet modern
situations. While Confucianism was officially debunked in the
20th Century in China, it was briefly revived by Jiang Jieshi
(Chiang Kai Shek) in the 30's and in Taiwan after 1949. Despite
several decades of anti-Confucian rhetoric in China, its ideas
still permeate Chinese society today.
What are the
basic ideas of Confucianism? Essentially, Confucianism sees that
a person is not an isolated individual responsible only to and
for him or her self, but is enmeshed in a web of relationships
from the moment he/she is born until after she/he dies. At birth
a child joins a family, consisting not just of a mother, father
and siblings, but of the generations gone before and those who
will come after. During his/her lifetime, she/he becomes involved
in more and more relationships: of friends, school-mates, colleagues,
bosses, government members, neighbors, etc. A person plays many
roles in his or her life; that of child, of parent, of sibling,
of friend, of worker, of boss, of tax payer, of school mate, etc.
Thus, the most important element in Confucian ideas is that everything
in life is relational; one's success or failure in any situation
depends upon one's relations to others. For example, success in
a military campaign depends primarily on the Commander's relations
with his soldiers; equipment and training are secondary. Likewise,
success in a school depends upon one's relations to one's teachers
and peers; innate intelligence is secondary.
Since everything
is seen as relational, there can be no absolutes in Confucian
ideas. What is the proper way to act depends not on an objective
situation (we have been attacked by terrorists), but upon one's
relations to those involved (the victims, the perpetrators, their
relatives, the governments, religious leaders, etc). In order
to discover how to act one needs to access the situation in terms
of the impact of one's actions on all the people involved, the
probable outcomes in terms of continuing relationships of different
types of action. How then, does one make a decision? To Confucians,
one's past education and understanding of key values will guide
this decision.
There are
certain key values that Confucians use in making all decisions
and these values do not change but the ways they are applied change.
The first value is compassion for all involved in a given situation.
The second is righteousness and justice for everyone involved
in a situation. The third is propriety, what is the proper way
to act while maintaining the relationships in which one is involved.
The fourth is loyalty: how to act in this situation while supporting
all one's possible conflicting loyalties. The fifth is to act
with filial piety, considering the welfare of one's parents, and
by extension, one's family, and one's country, not one's own wishes.
The sixth is honesty and truthfulness.
Confucians
stress that it is the nature of the person making the decision
that is important; hence they stress education, transformative
education, to mold persons in the values listed above so that
they have the ethical tools for making decisions. Decisions then,
are always ethical in nature, whether they are decisions about
schooling for one's children, or response to terrorist acts. The
same set of values applies to all actions and one derives the
specifics from them.
To understand
Confucianism in action, let's look at a couple of examples. In
the West, when one person kills another, we try that person, find
him/her guilty and subject him/her to punishment (life imprisonment,
execution, etc). We consider that that is justice. To a Confucian,
this is not justice because it has not dealt with the consequences
of the crime. The murdered man may have been the family breadwinner
and his wife and children now have no one to provide the necessities
of life for them. This is the responsibility of the man who killed
their breadwinner, and, by extension, his family. Thus, the murderer
might still be condemned to death, but his and his family's goods
might be confiscated and part of them distributed to the widow
and her children to provide for their needs. Operating on the
value of compassion, a Confucian would try to undo the effects
of a crime as much as possible, as well as punishing the criminal.
Another example
might involve relations between family members, for example a
father and a son. The son has seen and fallen in love with a neighbor
girl although he has yet to talk to her, given the separation
of sexes in traditional China. He asks his father if the matchmaker
could approach this girl's parents with a proposal of marriage.
The father refuses, saying that he is arranging his son's marriage
with the daughter of a wealthy businessman in a nearby city as
this connection is vital to the family's business interests.
While in the West, the son might refuse his father's rationale
that the marriage is good for the family, in China, the good Confucian
son would acquiesce as marriage, after all, is for the benefit
of the family unit, not the individual.
So far, Confucianism
seems to fit the model of an ethical philosophy. However, when
we look at its relation to death and the veneration of ancestors,
the religious aspects are evident. When a member of the family
dies, all members of the extended family go into mourning for
a period consistent with the degree of closeness to the deceased.
The closest relatives, the children, would observe the longest,
(27 months) period of mourning. During this time, they would not
work, not have sex, not eat nice food or wear nice clothes or
engage in many enjoyable pursuits. The deceased would thus become
an ancestor with a spirit plaque which is placed on the family
altar. Each morning, offerings (fruit, rice, incense) would be
made to the spirit plaque; all family events, such as a son's
graduation or a daughter's marriage, would be reported to the
ancestors. In addition, one of the most important holidays occurs
in early spring, the Ching-Ming (Bright and Clear) festival. At
this time, everyone tries to return home. The center of the festivities
is visiting the graves of ancestors, to clean them (sweeping the
graves), to talk over family business with their spirits, and
to present offerings of food and drink for the spirit.
Moreover,
each city had a Confucian temple. In keeping with the Confucian
concern for education, these temples often doubled as schools.
The temples had statues of Confucius and statues or pictures (engravings)
of his disciples. Parents and children came to pray, to present
offerings at any time they wished, particularly before a new school
term or before the exams for the government service. The magistrate
of the city made periodic offerings at the Confucian temple on
behalf of his community, just as the emperor made offerings to
Heaven on behalf of the country. Confucianism thus served as a
social glue that kept all aspects of society integrated.
(For more
information on Confucianism, please click on the following which
is part of a web class from Suny
Institute in New York)
For examples
of filial piety, click on : http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/filial.html
Daoism
(or Taoism, although Daoism is preferred)
Like Confucianism,
Daoism is a native Chinese tradition that is both a philosophy
and a religion. In its philosophical mode, it became the preserve
of the educated elite, of poets and administrators, of the retired
and those experiencing difficulties in life. Daoist philosophy,
centering on the mystical (and thus hard to understand) writing
attributed to Laozi (Lao Tse) and Zhuangzi (Chuang Tse) stresses
letting nature take its course, following the natural way. It
attributes all ills to interference with nature and thus stresses
that humankind should discard all contrivances and return to a
simple state. It uses images of water (the softest of all things
which wears away the hardest stone) to illustrate the virtue of
non-contention. It uses feminine images to counter the more masculine
images of a traditional Confucian society: in Daoist thought,
the feminine always triumphs. Many well known Chinese ideas, including
those of guerilla warfare and the martial arts, are based on Daoist
principles of using weakness to overcome strength. (Mao Zedong
once said of the Red Army, that it ran away 100 times more than
it fought, which is why it was victorious).
Daoism was
a fairly anti-establishment kind of philosophy; it advocated a
natural lifestyle and opposed the Confucian stress on ethics and
education. To Daoists, ethics were natural until civilization
messed things up; thus the more education a person had, the less
reliable she/he was, because he/she was more divorced from the
natural way. Daoism is full of wonderful stories that illustrate
its points. Perhaps the best known group of Daoist drop-outs was
the group of early 3rd century poets who called themselves "The
Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove". They wrote poetry, drank,
lolled around and seldom worked; instead they did whatever came
into their minds to do. For instance, one of them walked around
with a servant behind him, carrying a bottle and a shovel: the
bottle was so he could drink wine whenever he felt thirsty; the
shovel to bury him wherever he fell dead! Another was famous for
lounging around his own house in the nude (in China, nudity was
one of the biggest social no-nos). Once when a high official came
to visit him, the man answered the door naked. The shocked official
berated him for his rudeness in not wearing clothes; the poet
replied "the whole world is my house, and this building is
my trousers. What are YOU doing inside my trousers?" Another
member of the group was seized with a burning desire to visit
a friend in another town. Thus he hired a boat and had the boatman
row him all night to the neighboring town. He arrived at sun-up,
took one look at his friend's house and decided to return home:
the desire to see his friend had left, so what was the point of
knocking on the door? Due to acts such as these, Daoists, earned
the reputation of being eccentrics and hence for wisdom and selflessness.
Daoism, however,
did not remain a philosophy for the elite. It soon became a wide
ranging and complex religious system with mass appeal. Some of
the changes were spontaneous in reaction to changing social and
political conditions, others were in direct reference to the threat
to Daoism posed by a well organized Buddhism entering China. In
the 2nd century A.D., the ruling dynasty, the Han, was in severe
decline and chaos was erupting throughout the country, with bandits,
rebels, invasions, misery and poverty increasing. A number of
large scale messianic religious movements arose, the most important
being a salvationist Daoist society, the Way of the Celestial
Masters in the Western Part of China. The founder of this group,
Zhang Daoling, believed that he had received direct revelations
from Laozi, who will become deified as Lord Lao. This group was
a mutual assistance community, in which people paid yearly tithes
into a common treasury and in return received both financial and
psychological aid. Healing was an important part of the program
and the picture of Zhang Daoling on a white tiger came to be a
symbol of healing. The group practiced the confession of misdeeds,
in which these were written on paper and presented to one of the
three lords of earth, water, or heaven (and buried, placed in
streams, or burned); it was believed that misdeeds caused hardships
and these confessions would insure good fortune.
From this
beginning, Daoism grew and expanded with a number of other revelations
occurring over the next several centuries and a number of different
sects being formed. In all of these sects, similar ideas and rituals
predominated; each had its own lineage of leaders, descended from
a common founder, either through blood or through ordination ceremonies.
In all Daoist activities, ritual was essential as a primary means
of dealing with transition periods, such as birth and death. Implements
were used in these rituals, including incense burners which carried
messages to the gods in Heaven through the smoke; swords were
used for both purification and exorcism. The robes and hats worn
by the priest were covered with images symbolizing power over
the cosmos. Scriptures multiplied with each revelation, as these
were accompanied with writings, some of which were "discovered"
and others of which were "dictated."
As Daoism
progressed a pantheon of deities was created. These deities are
of two kinds. The first were a group of "Celestial worthies"
who were formed spontaneously from primordial energy at the beginning
of the world. These are the supreme deities; each holds court
in a celestial paradise and is supported by a hierarchy of lesser
gods. By the 7th century, they were consolidated into a well-defined
pantheon. The chief of these gods are the "Three Purities"
and the "Three Officials," who can only be contacted
through written requests by Daoist priests, who thus become essential
mediators between people and these gods.
The second
category of Daoist deities consists of "immortals",
human beings who have purified themselves of mortal imperfections
and become gods. The various means of doing this: study, self-discipline,
dietary restrictions, alchemy, yoga exercises, etc, form a large
part of Daoist writings and actions. To enable humans become immortals
was the ultimate goal of most Daoist spiritual practices. The
most famous were the "Eight Immortals" a group of 7
men and one woman who became patriarchs of the complete Realization
sect of Daoism which developed in the 14th century. These immortals
inhabited places on earth as well as in heaven, especially mountains
or caves. Most mountains are sacred in China but five of them
(called the 5 sacred mountains) located in the East, South, West,
North and Center of China (the 5 directions) were directly linked
to heaven.
Women play
an important role in Daoism: as teachers who influenced its development,
as practitioners in its rituals, and as goddesses, the embodiment
of feminine (Yin ) energy. The most famous of these immortal goddesses
is the Queen mother of the West, who inhabits a mountain in the
Kunlun range and teaches the arts of immortality. One of the oldest
goddesses in China, she pre-dates Daoism, which adopted her, and
she guards the garden containing the peaches of immortality; these
peaches mature every 3000 years; to find the garden and eat these
peaches guarantees immortality. She was the head of a large pantheon
of goddesses. Mortal women were ordained as Daoist priests and
there are a number of records of Imperial princesses performing
this function; they became religious instructors and scholars,
founders of sects of Daoism and they could serve as nuns. Women
had a vital influence on the growth of religious Daoism.
(For more
information and some good pictures of Daoism, please click on
the following: http://www.artic.edu/taoism/)
Buddhism
Buddhism is
the third of the mix of great religions that shaped Chinese life
and culture. Unlike Confucianism and Daoism, Buddhism was not
a native tradition but originated in India and was brought to
China over a number of centuries by traders, missionaries, and
travelers. While it entered China during the Eastern Han dynasty
(1st and 2nd centuries A.D.) it didn't become popular until the
period of division in China (3-6th centuries). During this time
period, China was divided into a number of independent kingdoms,
split between native Chinese dynasties ruling in the South and
nomadic conquest dynasties ruling in the North. It was a time
of great uncertainty, of military rule, of the destruction of
cities and livelihoods. However, this period was also one of intellectual
and scientific change and growth and it was during this period
of time that Buddhism gained a strong foothold in both North and
South China, although for different reasons. To many Chinese,
it offered an explanation of what had happened to their civilization
and a response to the difficulties of the day.
Buddhism came
to China with ideas and beliefs vastly different from those of
native Chinese religions and its acceptance was a process of accommodation
on both sides. Four main differences between Buddhism and Chinese
ideas are: the Buddhist belief in reincarnation compared to the
Chinese belief in a single life; the Buddhist insistence upon
leaving society and entering the homeless celibate life of a monk
or nun compared to the Chinese emphasis on family and continuing
the descent line; the Buddhist belief in the non existence of
a soul compared to the Chinese belief in both heavenly and earthly
souls and the continuation of these souls' ability to influence
events after death; the Buddhist belief in the independence of
the monastic community compared to the Chinese insistence that
all institutions are under the government. In all of these areas,
Buddhism adjusted to Chinese society. Thus, the Chinese came to
believe both in reincarnation and in the deceased becoming an
ancestor; Buddhist temples became repositories for spirit plaques
and memorial services to ancestors. The government passed laws
restricting who could become a monk or a nun and forbidding children
who had no siblings from taking this path. The government insisted
that the monasteries were subservient to the state and indeed
they came to be supporters of the government.
With the differences
in culture, why did Buddhism appeal to the Chinese and why did
it become so popular? To answer this question, we need to look
at the basic ideas of Buddhism and what it offered as well as
what the Chinese needed for a religion.
Buddhism was
founded in the 6th century B.C. by an Indian prince named Siddhartha
Gautama. Brought up in luxury as a Prince in a small kingdom in
what is now Nepal, the young prince, at the age of 29, became
discontented with his life, renounced his kingdom, and left his
wife and newborn child for the life of a wandering ascetic. After
6 years of struggle, he then renounced asceticism, ate and drank,
and then sat underneath the Bodhi tree, vowing to remain there
until he understood how to escape from the cycle of rebirth. While
sitting here, he had a revelation which he interpreted to mean
that he understood the true nature of existence and thus was freed
from the cycle of rebirth. Hence he was called the Buddha, "The
Enlightened One". He then spent the following 45 years preaching
his ideas, setting up monasteries, and ordaining disciples. In
the centuries after his death (called the parinirvana, as he entered
that blissful and unexplainable state called Nirvana rather than
being reborn), Buddhism spread throughout India, Southeast Asia
and China. During this time it underwent many transformations,
one of which was to divide into a number of different sects, based
on different ideas of what the Buddha had actually meant in many
of his pronouncements and on how to actually implement his ideas.
Eventually these sects coalesced into three main divisions: Theravada,
Mahayana and Tantrayana. Theravada became prevalent in Southeast
Asia, Mahayana in China, Korea and Japan, and Tantrayana in Tibet,
Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, and Manchuria.
The basic
ideas of Buddhism are expressed in the formula of the Four Noble
Truths, and the eight-fold Path. The four Truths are: suffering
exists as an inescapable part of life, suffering has a cause,
that cause is desire for things to be different than they are,
and this suffering can be eliminated with the elimination of desire.
Desire can be eliminated by following the eightfold path: practicing
Ethical Conduct (right speech, livelihood, and actions), Wisdom
(right views and intentions) and Mental Development (right effort,
mindfulness, and concentration). In its original formulation,
practicing these 8 virtues, could result in one having the same
awakening to the true facts of life as the Buddha had, and would
result in one escaping the cycle of rebirth by eliminating that
which caused one to be reborn, one's Karma.
Karma is an
Indian term that literally means actions. It came to mean that
every action or thought produces effects and these effects impel
one towards a new rebirth after death. Buddhism reinterpreted
the idea of Karma to mean the effects of desire: that is, any
action in which selfish desire was present would result in karmic
accumulations and hence, rebirth. The goal then was to live in
this world and act without desire; the way to do this was by following
Buddha's 8-fold path. Once desire was eliminated, one would act
out of pure motives free from worry or desire for a particular
outcome for oneself; all of one's actions would be totally selfless.
In its original
formulation, and one which has been maintained by the Theravada
Path, Buddhism was an individualistic religion; each person was
responsible for his/her own progress on the path. It was felt
that the best way to eliminate desire was to enter a monastery,
thus cutting ties with the world, which produces desire; monks
and nuns did no work and thus were supported by begging and donations
from the lay community to which they rendered services (educational,
medical, soup kitchens, tree planting, etc). However, many people
came to feel that this path was too difficult and soon an "easier"
path, the Mahayana or Great Vehicle, arose. This path put more
emphasis on the possibilities of lay people achieving enlightenment
and in assistance along the way. Those who gave assistance were
called Bodhisattvas: "Buddhas to be". These were ordinary
human beings who achieved enlightenment but chose instead to be
reborn to assist others to achieve enlightenment. Thus, they soon
became beings to whom one could pray, not only for enlightenment,
but for assistance in many worldly activities. It was the Mahayana
form, with its flexibility and emphasis on lay life, that became
prevalent in China. In China, it soon divided into a number of
different sects, often with emphasis on a particular Buddha or
Boddhisattva, or particular practices, such as meditation or recitation
of a mantra (a phrase something like a Hail Mary said by Catholics).
(For more
details on the Buddha, the path and the practice of Buddhism,
please click on: http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism).
The Tantric
form of Buddhism also became popular in parts of what is today
China, specifically in Tibet and Mongolia. This Buddhist path,
arose in the 6-7th centuries and was an outgrowth of the Mahayana.
It is based on additional scriptures called Tantras, which posit
a very direct way of attaining enlightenment, with the help of
a teacher. The Tantras are considered so powerful that they are
not to be studied alone but only under supervision and thus are
written in language that is mysterious and difficult to understand.
They stress total involvement of the body, mind and speech in
the search for enlightenment. They stress the union of all things
and thus often depict two aspects; a benign and a demonic, of
the same person or event. Many particular practices arose in Tantric
circles, most of which are still practiced in Tibet and surrounding
areas today. Perhaps the most interesting is the idea that certain
high lamas (a lama is a teaching monk) can chose their future
reincarnations. Thus, this tradition has many "incarnate
lamas" sometimes called "Living Buddhas" in the
West. The Dalai Lama is the most well known of these lineages
(he is the 14th Dalai Lama and hence the 13th reincarnation of
the first Dalai Lama, who in turn is seen as the incarnation of
the Boddhisattva of Compassion.)
Tibetan Buddhism
is very visual as well as very verbal. People use objects, such
as prayer wheels, dorjes (thunderbolts), bells, etc on a daily
basis. Temples have large prayer wheels which people can spin
as they walk around the temple in a clockwise direction (a person's
right side is pure and must always face the temple, the left side
should always face away from the temple). Tibetan temples are
filled with mandalas (elaborate symbolic paintings), statues,
rugs, wall hangings, statues, offerings, etc. In front of Buddha
statues, there are always butter lamps burning; people drape statues
with prayer scarves as a means of worship. Study is verbal, with
monks reciting in unison or engaging in debates on various points
of doctrine. The debates are physical as well as mental, with
elaborate hand and body gestures accompanying the statements.
(For detailed
information on Tibetan Buddhism in all its forms, please click
on the official site of the government of Tibet in Exile: http://www.tibet.com/Buddhism).
Another good
site is: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tibet).
For several
images of Tibetan art:
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When Buddhism
first came to China it arrived over the fabled Silk Road, the
several thousand mile long series of routes that linked China
with India, Central Asia and eventually Europe. For several thousand
years, peoples, goods, ideas and armies traveled this route. As
Buddhism spread across China, it left many relics of flourishing
cities, cave temples, paintings, scriptures, etc, many of which
are being preserved today. Buddhism was adopted by Chinese of
all stations for different reasons. For the educated Chinese,
who had seen their dynasty collapse in corruption and invasion,
it seemed to offer an explanation of why their world was turned
upside down, and it offered techniques for living a good life
in difficult times. For the poor, it offered both psychological
and physical assistance; the wish-granting deities and savior
Bodhisattvas, the brilliant festivals, colorful temples and ceremonies,
as well as the very practical assistance given by the monks and
nuns all combined to make Buddhism a powerful force. To the various
nomad conquerors of North China, it offered support in ruling,
especially with its notion of the ideal king, and it offered a
non-Chinese tradition to those who were leery of being absorbed
by those they conquered. In spite of the many difficulties in
translation, in obtaining scriptures, in reconciling the differences
between the Indian and Chinese world views, Buddhism flourished
and became the third religious stream in Chinese civilization.
Like Confucianism and Daoism, it was an inclusive religion and
allowed its followers to also worship at Daoist and Confucian
temples.
Buddhism in
China divided into a number of different Sects, often based on
a particular sutra (religious scripture) or a particular religious
practice. The two most popular were Chan (better known by its
Japanese name of Zen) and Pure Land Buddhism: these are the two
forms that remain popular today. Chan focuses its attention on
the act of meditation and enjoins mediation while performing ordinary
activities such as eating or working. Chan stresses simplicity,
self reliance, group living and meditation under the guidance
of a master. Pure Land is salvational in nature. Aspirants do
not aim for enlightenment but for rebirth in the Western Paradise,
a land created by the Buddha Amitabha out of his infinite compassion
for all beings. Rebirth in this heaven means luxury and delight,
freedom from all trials, and promises eventual enlightenment.
To attain this paradise, followers need only rely on and call
upon the Buddha Amitabha. Followers recite, in temples or alone,
the mantra "namu omitofo" (homage to Buddha Amitabha).
Buddhism brought
with it a well developed series of heavens and hells and the idea
that people could be reborn into 6 levels of being: gods, demi-gods,
humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hell beings. All of these states
were transitional and only in the human birth could enlightenment,
the cessation of rebirth, be attained (in animal form, one is
too instinctual; as a ghost or hell being, too miserable; as a
god or demi-god, one is too happy to seek enlightenment; only
as a human does one have the combination of intelligence and suffering
to make one seek out enlightenment).
Buddhist temples
became centerpieces of worship and study; they also became key
to funerals and soon took over the function of burial and remembrance.
To have Buddhist monks at the funeral became an assurance of a
good rebirth; to have one's spirit plaque in the temple, meant
that one benefited form daily prayers. Buddhists undertook public
work projects including bridge and road building, running hostels
for travelers, orphanages and old age homes, etc.
Buddhism however,
did not always have an easy time in China. It always suffered
under the stigmatism of being a "foreign" religion and
was persecuted a number of times. These persecutions were not
religious in nature but economic, aimed at gaining the vast wealth
the monasteries accumulated through tax exempt donations and at
returning large numbers of monks and nuns to "productive"
life. Daoism adopted the monastic life form Buddhism as well as
certain ceremonies. Buddhism had a great impact on arts in China,
both painting and sculpture as well as on literature and music.
(For more
information, please click on the following link:
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhistworld/
)
