did the buddha impart an esoteric teaching (clearscan)
TRANSCRIPT
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“Did the Buddha impact an Esoteric Teaching?”Stuart-Fox, Martin and Bucknell, Roderick
Journal of Indian History 61 (1983) pgs 1-17
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id the Buddha impart an Esoteric Teaching?
y
ROD BUKNEL & MARIN SUAR - Fox
e question eter Gotama te Bdda imarted an esotericteacing as long bee a major oin of controversy between te womain brances of Buddism Te Mayists aintain ta Gotamadid imart esoteric teacing; te Theravdins maintai e did not
Te Mayna claim r an esoter teacig is reeld First,cerain sras recognized only in te Maya an cotaiing doct
rines no und in te Pali caon are ostensibly records of discoursesdelivered by Gotaa to selec grous of advanced isciples ofte isecial and remarkable circumstance. Secod, te obscure sybolismof e tantra is consiered by te Vajraynists to be art of a weldeveloped symbolc language devised by siritu aets as a means ofpreservig ad secretl transmittig a iger teacing imparte byGoama. 2 ird in te Can/Zen scoos tere is a strong traditionof a special unrtten transmission prved by a sucessio of maersbeginig wit Gota a iself.3
e eravda claim at Gotama did not imart an estericteacing is based o te ak of any ositive rerece to suc a eacng i te Pali cao, and on Goama's seemingly explicit enial of it inan ofencited passage om te Maparinibbna-sutta4
J Most of t arlir Mana stras ar said to hav bn divrd atplacs wr Goama livd and taugt g Rjaga or rvasti se Th qus-tions o Suvikrntavikramin" and Diamond Stra" in Edwrd Conz TheShort Prajpram Txts nd uac 974 Hwver ater stras andtantras dispense with any pren to istoria ralism
2 For a discussion s Ageananda haat The Tarc Tration London:Ridr 1965) pp. 16484.
3 Se Hinrih Dumouin, A Hstory of Ze Budhsm, trans. b Paul Pach
(oston Bacon Prss 96 p 684 D ii 100.
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2 JOURNAL OF lNDIAN HISORY
In ts paper these two competng clams wll be evaluted eMayna and eravda evdence outlned above wll be crtcallyexamned, wth partcular attenton to two questons (1) Gven ourknowldge of condtons n the early Sangha, s Gotama lkely to vemade publc hs entre cours of practce leadng to enlghtenment ors he more lely to have wtheld certan rmaton, revealg t toonly a w cosen dsces 2 Is Gotama's descrpton of the pathto enlgtenment as und n the Pal Sutta-p!aka, complte and adeqate as a gude r a ractsng asprant or dos t contain gaps
suggest that mportan nrmaon as been omtted? O the bassof ts dscusson, and partculaly on the evdece om slence" twll be argued that Gotama probaby dd mpart an esoerc teachgand nferences wll be drawn regardg the nature and content of thatteachng
The Mahyna Evidnce
Mahysts account fr te clamed esoterc teachgs n terms ofte three turnngs of the Darma-weel". hey mantan that te Palsuttas represent only the rst turng of te weel, te most bascpresenaton of the Darma, sucet or the majorty of dscples; theMahna stras reprsent the econd trng a more proudexposton contanng materal wch oly advanced dcples were t tohear and apply and te tantras of th Vajraya, wth ter obscuresymbolsm represent te thrd turng a presetaton of te gst and
most dcult dctrnes, r th benet of the most competent oradvanced students.5
e May stras and the tatras assocated wth he secondand trd turnngs, usually begn wt te mlar rmula Thushave I heard At one tme the Lord was stag at However, theplaces and stuatons name are sometmes bograpcally mproableor even ntastc, a n exteme cases cn onl be taken as symbolcFor example, the akvatrastra s sa to have been delvere nS Lanka; and te Hevajra-tantra begns: Thus have I hard at
one tme the Lord dwelt n blss wth te Varayogn who s the Body,
5 Tenn Gyaso, The Buddhism of Tbet and the Key to the Mddle Wa, transl.Jeey Hopkns and ati Rimpoche (New Yok: Harper and Row 1975) p 20
Cf WY Evans-Wentz ed The Tibetan Book of the Grat Liberation LondonOxfd Unierity Pess 1954) p 12 noe , wherehe three turnings o thewheel are ale the hree Secret Doctrines
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DID THE BUDDHA MPART A ESOTERC TEACHNG? 3
Speech a Min o all the Buddhas"6 Ths the ct that a strabegins with this rula is as scholars have ong ecogize, o guar
antee that it presents a autetic record f Gotaa's teaching
The wide historical gap between the tie o Gotaa a the rstappearace of such stras wold ake it ost unlikely that they originate o Gotaa. The ahyna clai that thee stras werehade dow in a special esoteric traditio, idepedetly of te ain-stre xoteric tradition preserve in the Pali anon would be dicultto prove or disprove because it culd be argued an esoteric tradition
is, by its very nature nlikly to leave ay historical trace Evideceagainst the Mhyna clai is provided by the ct revealed by evethe ost supercil textual aalsis that any of the philosophicaloctrines expressed i the Mahyna texts (nyat paj-upya etcdi not becoe current until soe centuries afer Gotaas death Theclai that these octrines were known oly to certain chosen isciplescharged with secrety transittig the is unconvincing
More telling as evidece r a esoteric trasissio is he existencef the elaborate sybolic language associated with the Vajrayna oTibet, and its ChineseJapanese extesios, the Cheyen/Shingonchools This syste of symbos kown a the Twiight Laguagesdhybh�)7 icorporates varios sybolic devices (ma;alas muds, et. ofte xplicitl sexual in atre. It is entione i certai iportat tatras, r exape the Hevara, where it is referred to
as the Twilight angage, that ecret lagage that conventio of the yogns whih te rvakas and others canot uridle"8 The TwilightLagage is said to have been creted by sidha, adept asters in anesteric editative traditio, to aid in preservig ad couicatigsecre doctries. The sybos are generay recognized as deotiaspects of the iative path to elightenent; however teir etailesignicance is said to be kown oly to certai spiritually advaegurus ad their iediae disciples10
6 D. L Snelgrove The Hevajra Tantra Part 1 Introdcton and Translaton(London Oxfor Univerity Pres 1959) p 47
7 We flow Wayman n he debae over wheh he er shoud be samdh'bh or samdhybhi. See Alex Wayman The Buddhst Tantras: Lght onInd-Tbetan Esotersm (New York Rder 1960) pp182
8 Snelgove The Hevara Tantra, Part 1 p 9 The Sdhas ae refeed to n ama Anagarka Govnda Foundatons of
Tbetan Mstsm (Lonon Rer 60 ) pp 5253.10 Cf Mrcea Eae Yoga Immortat and eedom tansl Ward R Trak
2n e. (London: Rouge an Kegan Pau, 196) pp 249254
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4 JOURNL OF NDIA HISTORY
The existece of the Twiligh Lagage provides tangibe evdecer soe rm of esoteric trasmission the Vajraya at least The
tatras wold cearly ave requred terpretatio by aepts holg thekey to the secret language n wich they were writte. I vew of theeqent rrecs to ths syboic lagage there sees lttle dobtthat secret doctries did exist a tat owedge of them as closeyguarded ad handd own only to the iitated Although ost of thetatric smbos demonstraby origiated log after the te of the
Budha, t cod be that ter dde essagethe cocepts or practices
to whch they rer orgnated om the Budha hiself I otherwors, it s possble that the autors of te tantras ieted nw symbosf the components of an ancent transmissio
Te Ze claim of a uwritte trasmisso goes back to an nci-det descrbe te Sta on the Qtios of Mahpiaka BahmaraAccorg to that Stra, Gotama when asked to preach the Dhara,merely eld up a or "Bt oe of te coul compreed the
meang of this act on the part of the Budha except the venerable Ma-kyapa, who softly sled a ode 1 Makyapa ths bcame
the rst a lie of twetyegt Zen patrarcs i nda the lat ofwho, Bodihara carred te scret teachng to Chia
This traitio is consieed by ost scholars to be apocryphalOnly a w of the Ze patriachs in the Iia e of trasmisso are
kow by ame and t ay be stioned wheter twteight patri-
arcs wol have ee scet to span the ten centures separatingBodhdharma o Gotama On the other had, te e ca hasths i its vur tat the irmatio allegely tansitted has to doot ith struse philosophca cocepts (as s ually te case theMahya stras) bt with avane edtaton ad the drawg ofelightemet; fr while it s had to see why the teaching of pilo
sohcal otons shod have been restricted to a sal circle of iitates
there are, as wll be sow below goo reasos why the eaching ofavaced meitative practces and attaimts sou have been mte
this way
Overall the Mahya evice r a esoterc trasisso is
coclusve Te postve evdece s relatively late hstorically,
Related b Det Tetaro Suzuki Studies in Zen, e Chismas Humph-
reys (New York: Delta Books, 1955), p. 2, a p .45, noe 2.
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D THE BUDDHA MPART AN ESOTERC TEACHING? 5
indicating that eve if an esoteric tradition did exist, it may have origated centuries afer Gotaa's deat The attributio of Mahyna tes toGotama himself is most reasonably ierpreted as a attept to lend anappearance of authenticity to ew doctrins or meditative practices Othe oter and te ack of historical evidnce does not onstitute a on-clusive refutaion of the Mahynist clams; fr, as oited out aboven esoteric transissio is unikely to leave tangibe traes
h hravda Evidenc
Bere examining e Theravdin argument against an esoterictransission we shall consider the one passage o the Pa Tiiaktat as sometimes been advanced as evdence/ such a transission.This passage occurs in the capter entited "Te sisa grove, in theMahvagga of te Sayutta There t s relatd that on one occasionGotama held up a handful of smsap leaves and asked the okswic were ore, te leaves in his hand or those in the trees overhead
Whe the onks pointed o the latter, Gotaa decared:
Just so onks uch oe in number are those tings I haveund ou but not revealed ve are the thigs I havervealed12
hs passage makes clear tat Gotama did wtold a large pat of hisknowedge. However, Gotama went o to expain that the knowledge
he withheld would be of no vaue to his discples in their progressaong te ath to elightement. He wa apparently rerring to theunaswered questions (avykta-vatthuni), questions such as whetherthe universe is or is ot eternal, and what becomes of the Tathgataafter death.1 Tese were according to Gotaa, irrelevant matters ofspecuatio whic cod only distract a discie om the practces eading to enlightenment. The tets metion may cases of dicipleonks and ayen alike, becoming arahants. Cleary then the
12 S v 437. Te anslaon s rom The Book of Kdred Sangs, Par Vtransl. F .L Wodwad London: Luzac 956 p 370
13 Muc dscusson has entred aound these unansered questons. Seef or example roy Wlson Organ The Sence o he Buddha Phlosophy East and West 4 (954) pp25-40; K N Upadhyaya The Sgnicane of e
Budda's Slenee hilosophical Quarterly 39 966 pp 6580; and Rchard H Robnson Some Mehodologcal Approaches to the nexplaned Ponts",
hlosophy East and st 22 (1972) pp 309-323
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6 JOURNAL OF INDIAN HISTORY
irmation which Gotama withheld was not essetial r te spremeattanet; Gotama taught as much as his disciples eded to know i
order to attain enlighenmet. n ay case and despite the claimsmade by Hmphreys ad others, the ct that Gotama witheld a argepart of his knowledge has little bearing o the problem of a esotericteachig4 he qestio that cocerns us is ot "Did Goama withold part of his kowledge? bt rather "Did Gotama withhold part
of his knowlege om the majority o moks, while revealig it to aselect minority? O this crcial question the ncient i the sisap
grove shes little light.Having ths diposed of the one passage om the Pali ipiaka
which has bee take as evidece for a esoteric trasmission, we tur
ow to the passage metioed earlier which is oe cited as evideceagainst such a transmission. This passage, which occrs in the Mah-
paiibbnastta ad again in the Saytta, is traslated by Wad C A. F Rhys Davis as llows
I have preached the trth withot makig ay distitio betwee exoteric ad esoteric doctrie in respect of the trthsAanda, the athgata has o sch thig as the closed st of
a teacher who keeps some things back5
T W. Rhys avids took this as n explici reectio of an esoteric
teaching, ad coclded: "There is no esoteric doctrine' in tre
Buddhism16
14 Humpheys maintains that the esoteic tadition is none the ess potent,none the ess reiabe fr the ct that it is nowhee in moe than agments, wittendown" Chistmas Humphreys Buddhim 3d ed. Harmondsworth Penguin,962 p 4 A popos of Gotama's wthoding o knowdge, the Buddha ispopulay beieved to have been omniscient, and on that ground aone cudaguaby never have taught a he knew.
5 D ii 100. The tansation is om Dialogu of he Buddha, Vo. tansTW an C.AF Rhys Daids (London: uzac 971 p. 07.6 The Qetions of King Miinda tans T.W. Rhys Davids (Delhi Moia
Banarsidass, 965) p. 143 note 3. See aso pp, 267268 note 3. Rhys Davidsargues that i thee had een any such secet tansmission in eay Bddhsm it
wou have been rered to in the Milindapah eithe whee it is said that the goodeacher hods no sects om his discipes, or whee easons ae gien wh the Ptimokha is kept secet om ay fowes; i.e. at Miindapah 9 4 add 96. ThatNagasna himsef beied thee was no such secet knowedge is apparent om the
section where he expans Gotamas efusa to answer the speculative questions posedby the Eder Mukyaputa see Milindapah 144 145 The commentary on thissecton o he Milinda states that other teachers, on their death beds onde t
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DID TE BUDDHA IMPART AN ESOTERIC TEACHING? 7
I the Pal he passage n queston reads Desito nanda adhammo nantaram abhram katv. N ath' nanda Tathgatasa
dhammesu cria-mu#{hi17 A word-byword trasaon of ths woldbe: Shon nnda, by me (s) the Dharma nonner no-oterhavg made There s not, anda, of te Tathgaa darmas aeacherst."
he Rhys Davds render the key phrase anantaram abhiram katv,as wthou makg ay dstncton between exoerc and esoercdoctre; oever, F L Woodward n s tanslaton of the same
passage n te sayuta prers the eral renderng: makng no innerand no outer8 In suppor of ths renderng Woodward ctes heexplanaon gven n te commenary
Wth te tough: I wll o each thus much toanother, one makes docrne nner (antarm)Wth te thought I ll teach s much oanother, one makes doctrne oter (bhiram)Wh he tough: wl each ths parculr personhe adms another person (abbhantaram karoti).Wth the thougt I wll no teach ths partcular person,he bars out a person (bhiram karoti)
Here he meanng s that e dd nether of hese19
e cmentary akes clear hat he rerence s o non-excluson oay par of the Dharma or of any person Anantaram abhran tdhammavasena v pu ggala-vasena v ubhayam akatv20 In vew of se sense of the rst sentence n the controversial passage appears tobe I ave aught he Dharm wthout omttng anythg o ecudngnyone
If ths clam by Gotama s to be reconcled th his satement the Simsap grove t cleary has to be undersood as subjec o hesame mplct uacaon Gotama meant that he had agh the
ama hout omng anyth his discples needed to now noer o an enghen
fvourite pupls things they have ket back until then; bu the Buddha does notSee Mlnda's Questions, Vol I transl. I B Horne (London: Luzac 196 9), .20noe4
D ii 00 and S v 5
18 The Book of Kndred Sayings, Part , p. 1329 Ibd., p. 132 noe 220 Sattha-ppaksn 203.
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8 JOURL OF INDIA HISTORY
e queston ow arses weter some smlar qualcato applesto the second part of Gotama's cam tat e taugt te Darma
wtout excludg anyoe Gotama mparted as muc of s kowedge as hs dscples eeed to kow order to atta elgtemetbut dd e gve te same complete teacng to every dscple wo camto m? ome dscrmnato, on te bass of abty or som smlarcrtero woud surey ave been esseta. Tere would r exampleave been te pont gvg dealed nstructon te arupa jhinasto a y dscpe wo te Master knew ad eter te abty or teopportunty to practse suc advaced medttve tecques Even
t case of a monk suc advacd structo would ave been of lttlevaue unless at mok ad aready mastered te more basc frms of jhna practc xamaton of te texts dcates at Gotama dddscrmnate n ths way on te bass of s lsteners abty It sapparet trougout te nkyas tat e adapted te cotent of steacng accordng to s audece. For eampe, uttas addressed toay llowers usually stress oraty wle suttas addressed to moks
te Saga or ofte dea wt medtatve practce2 Suc dscrmnato would be expected n a teacer of Gotamas calbre; t woud
ave bee n s dscples' best nterests
A mportat consdeato ts connecto s te tradoaIndan vew o metods of teacg, ad on te ature of te Gurudscpl reatonsp In all Ida tradtos, Hdu Buddst, andJaa, t as snce earlest tmes, been consdered tat the only prope
way to mpart sprtual owledge te nterpretato of sacred tets,te teacngs of yoga, the tecnques of medtato etc s trougdrect nstructo by a guru to eac of s dscples ndvduy Tswas the metod used andng dow knowledge of te Vedas ad tespecuatons of te Upa�ads2 It was also te metod werebyGotama mself leared te basc tecques of medtaton om steacers ra Kma ad Uddaka Rmaputta23
Te mportace of the gurudspe relatosp as be cogzed trougout te story of Buddi s Ead says: "Te
21 Importat suttas eaig in detai with meitatio wee addressed to monksathe ta lay peope; e.g Masatipahna (D i 290315) Satipaha (M563 Kagatsati (M 88-1 Vitakkasa�hna (Mi 118122 afjasa-ppaya (M 261266
22 See A L Basham,The Wonder hat was India
(New York: Grove Pess1959 pp 163 2023 M i 16416.
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10 JOUNAL OF INDIAN HISTORY
would have taught the ost advanced aspects of the Dhara only tothe ost advanced students
Gotaas stateet that he ha otte nothig nd excded one was ade in the context of a request by his vorite discipleAnada, r instuctions conerig the leadershp of the Sangha aftethe Masters death.28 Gotaas aser was that o leaer was neeed.The Sangha was already in possessio of the truh he had taught, inparticulr the truth about the path to enlighteet; kowledge of this
path as al the angha required But i caiig that the Sagha was possessio of his teaching Gotaa clearly did not mean that evr mmber o the Sagha kne ad understod that teachig n tsentirety; r the highest knowledge kowledge of the al stages onhe path to enlighteent woud have bee possesed only by theot advanced oks What Gotaa evdently eat was thatsice a ber of onks were already arahants, the Sangha as a wholepossessd knowledge of the ful course of practice leadig to enighte
ent
The above considerations indicte that Gotaa's clai to havetaught the Dara without oiting thig or excludi anyone asto be nderstood as subject to to qalicatios: He taught teDhaa without oitting anythig that was eessary for attanng en-lightenment ad he taught it to every student wo cae to hi to the
extent that he or she was capable of applyin g t. The secod of thesequalications ould have created conditions coducive to the develop-ent of a esoteic transision r advacd students would have hadaccess to knowledge that was deied to less advaced oes Since thepassage conaining this abivalet clai is the one and only pasagein he Pali suttas that can plausibly be taken as denyig a esotericrasission it ust be acknowledged that the herava eidece
elevant to this qestion is as inconclive as the Mayna evenc 29
28 D i 991002 he idea of an esoterc transmission is not entirely lacking in the Thra-
vda C. Manual of a Mystic, trans. F. L. Woodward (London: Luzac 962)In his Pretoy Note (p. xviii Woodward mentions the guru of a monk whom heknew in Sri Lanka in 900 who tested hs dscipes to determne who was worthy
to reeve te ancent screts which had been handed down to me [the guru], thesecrets of Parampara Yoga (radtona secret meditation practices handed downy word of outh om guru to §ya)".
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DID THE BUDDH IMPAR N ESOTERC TECHNG? 11
The Eidence from Silence
n ay ai r a esoteric teacig in Buddhis it is ipied thatthe irmation otaied in te Pai ipiaka is in some iportatespet incoplete tat ertai irmation esetial fr attainingenligteet did ot nd is ay ito the canoical tets. e possi
bity of such iopeteess has large been overooked by Buddhistsbecause it woud iply criticism of the Buddha ad by scholarsbecause they have naturally been more coceed with the massive
aount of iratio tat is recorded. A ospiuos lacnaehave neverteless been noed For exampe Conze, ritig jhna,akes te lloig observatio about the imation he udin te Buddhist cao:
About the psychoogical mechaniss of trance [n] itself, adetailed aalysis of te chages hih take place ste by stepi the id, and cocrete advice on ho it should be done
- the sources seeed to contai little inrmation. If tesubjet ils to coe to life it is perhaps bease te secretkon 2,000 years ago, has with so uh else, been lost ithe meatime.30
Coze observes that essential iation abot the techique of j/ na pratice is issing o theipiaka Jhna is described oly in respective stereotype rmulae there is o iratio o pactial
tehnique, no cocrete advice on ho it should be doe".
What Coze says of the jhnas is o les tue of the hger edi
tative practices that are supposed to fllo oe te jhna ave beemasteed he Buddha equently staed that a monk who had percted he ur rupajha shold go on to develop a series 01 theesupeormal kowledges (vs):
(I kowledge of his er existences;2 koledge of the deah and rebirth of beig ad3 kowledge of the destuctio of the sava (ankes)
hese ae the same tree koledges whih Gotaa claied to haveattained beeath te Bodhi tee o the night of his on enlighteet31 That they llo each othe in sequee is clear o the
0 Edwrd Conze Buddhist Medaton (Lonon: Uwn Books 9 72) p. 323 For an aoun of Goama's enlghtenmen see M 223 and r a ore extended descron, Di 884. Eoraions o onks o o lkewse ca bfund at Mi 182, Mi 348 etc.
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12 JOURNAL OF INDIAN HISTORY
stateent that ne knowledge was attained in eac of te tree atces
of the night Enlghtenment dawned and liberation was realized ponperction of te tird knowldge
The tre knowledges ae clearly of spree importance in teBddhist corse of practice Tey corresond to a in the treefld division of the cose of pacice into sla samdhi, and pa(oraity concentration, and insight); tey correspond t0 vpasan inte twold division of meditation into saatha and passan tranqi-
lit and insight); and tey corespond to sam 1a rigt inigt)the ninth stage in te tenld pat of wic the more miliar eightldpat appears to be an abbrevated version3 As Pane says in isrgns of Buddhism: His [Gotma's] oriinality appas to ave consisted in te association of Samdi and Pa in oder to advance omthe Jnas to the Tree Vijs and ambodi.33 Te tansition omthe jhna to the rst of te tree knowledges terere representsa crucial stage on the path to enightenment34
Yet in spite of their evidet importance the three knowedges aredecribed qite inadequatly in the ipiaka For exaple the description of how a monk shold develop the rst knowledge merelystates: "Ts with the mind cmposed, iovable, e directs ismind to te knowledge and reollection of ormer abitations Herecollects a variey of former abitations thus one birth two birts
tree r ve ten twenty tity orty fty anded a tosand a ndred tosand birts, . 3 In somesttas e descrption is accompanied by a tatement tat t practice
32 On ths qalncs nd on th stgs of h tnd pth s Rodrcks. Bcknl "Th Bddhst Path to Enlghtmnt A Analyss of th lsting oStags, forthcomng.
33 Gond Chadra Pand Studies i he Origins of Budhism 2nd rv dDlh Mota Banarsdass 1974 p. 538 not 45
34 h accounts of Gotama's own nltnmnt cold pausbly b ntrprtdas mply� g that th thre knowldgs aros spontanousy as a rsult of hs abd-g n th rthj. Howvr Gotmas hortatons to th moks to dvlopth sam thr knowgs ndcat that r om arsng spotosly thydd to b actvl dvlopd Th sm s car om nstructons gvn byBuddhaghosa For ampl: Thrfr th monk who s a bgnnr wshn g torcal ths[ to rcall hs forr xstncs] shold . . contmpat n rvrsodr al that h had don " ( Vuddhimagga 4 12 Th thr knowldgs r thrfor thr forms o mdtat practc to b actvly dvlopd onc th urjhasav been mastd
35 M 348
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DD TE BUDDHA MPAR AN ESOTEC TEACHING? 13
of recolectig former existences reemes te process wereby a persomay recoect the route he ad fllowed o a jourey ·troug severavilages,36 but this ifrmation is of ie ep to the prctisig editator. (The Visuddimaga ad oer maual give litte clarication,37
an preetday mediaio asers appear uable o expai the threeprcices. )38 Whereas the accout of tejhnas, despite its icomplete-ness, does proide certai insructios tat te meditator ca attempt oput ito practice e accout of the three knowledges makes virtualyno sese in pracical terms.3
Give Gotama's policy of ot discussig te ature of higher statesof cosciousess, it is ot surprisig hat e says litte about te treekowedges temselves One woud owever, have expected someaccout o ow i practice the mediator coud go about attaining teseknowedes, isructions on ow to recoect oes rmer exstecesetc Such inrmation is totay lackig Nowhere i the ipi!aka dowe d ay indicato o how the mediator should eect te trasitio
om e oepoitedess ad equaimity of he urth hna to teknowedge of rme existeces vita as his trasitio would appear tobe r he attaimet of eigheet We coclude, therere,at here are serious gaps i the ipi!aka accout of meitativepractice. e descritio of i indequate, as Coze as observed,and the descriptio o the three kowledges is so terse ad crypticas to be useless as a guide r a pracisig meditator.
Tis dig has a direct beaig o te qestio of a esotericteacig The Sutta Piaka is sad to be a record of thse discourseswhic Aada heard a�d aer remembered.40 But nada couldhardly have known what Gotama said i private meeis witadvaced mediators he observed lack in e Tipi!aka, ofdetailed irmatio o the practica techique of te jhnas ad the
36 D i 8 1.37 Eg Vsuddhimgga 40423.38 his at east as R Bs impresson on questioning some of the most res
peted meditaton mters n haland.39 However, f r an intrretation in terms of pracial meditaton see Roderick
S Bucknell ag Martin Stuart-Fox "The hree Knowedges of Buddhism: mpl cations of Buddhadasas nterpretation of Rebirth f rthcomig
40 It is rreevant whether the suttas were orignaly rected by just one monk
as the traditon mausby cams or ere compied by many monks oer a perodof decades afer Gotama's death he pont is that ay record could ony be ofGotamas publc teaching
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three knowledges therer supports our earler observaton that nrmaton on advanced medtatve practce woud have been mparted
only to ndvdal students n prvate Such nrmaton dd not ndts way nto the Sutta Paka because t was never part of Gotamaspublc teachng
Bt although excluded rom the memored canon, the hgheteachng on medtatve practce woud hardy have ded out llowngGotamas death Many monks had already attaned arahantshp, somust be assumed to have had a compete mastery o even the hgheststages of medtaton Such monks would therere have been qualedto pass on ther knowledge hs contons at the tme of Gotamasdeth n the Sangha were such that hs teachng n al kelihood cont-nued to be propagated on two levels: the more ementary and generaltechng was memozed ad becae the Sutta P!aka, whe the teachng on advanced medatve technqe was known to a lmted numberof rhnts who taught t to such dscpes as tey deemed capable of
puttng nto practce.
Avalabe evdence ndcates that developments n the Sanga afteGotama's death wou have tende to renrce the dstncton etweenthese two levels of teachng A dvson of abour" soon arose n teearly Sangha, wt monks assumng derent roles accordng to endvdual ncnatons, abtes, and vews on monasc dutes Somemonks, the jhayns evoted temseves to the practce of metaton
others, the sutttk and vnydhrs memored the sttas andvnaya code of dscne) espectvey; and oters agan the bhdh-
mmis, dscussed and analysed the contents of the suttas.4 There sclear evdence n te suttas of srong rvary between the jhns (med-tators) on the one hand and the memrer and analysers on heother42 Te jhns, whose retrng, contempatve lstye hed lttlettracton r ay Bdhsts were at a maeral dsadvantage The
memorers and analysers, able an read to chnt suttas, preah househol Dharma, or engage n neecual dbate, ed muc moreeectvely the regous needs of ay devotees Increasngy, thererenewy ordaned novces tende to avod the more austere pah ofmetaton
4 Cf Sukumar Du, The Buddha and ve After-Centue onon: uzac
197) pp. 99 16-1742 f A i 355. see also Louis de Lavlle Poussn Musa et Nad"
Mlange chinoi et bouddhqes, 5 (97) p. 210222.
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DI THE BUDDHA IMPART AN ESOTERIC TEACHING? 15
The subsantial mateial support provided by dedicated layBuddhists probably contributed to this decline in the mediative tradi
tion by encouraging a more comrtable and less wihdrawn lifestyleThis process of decline was grealy acceeraed during the rein of Aokawhen he Sangha received unprecedened imperial patronage reatmonasteries wee buil as centes of popuar worship and monks nolonger homeless sctics were accorded high social standing and beganto wield consideable social and poliical iuence. s the Sanghabecame a powerl worldly organiaion, providing ambiious men a
means of social advancemet the number of monks increased rapidlywhile hei commiment to he pusuit of enlighenent declined43
Under such cicumstances the hyins soon dwindled to a smallminoriy
Now it is clealy in the jhyin tradiion if anywhere hat knowledge of Gotamas advanced meditative techniques would have been keptalive The most exerieced ediatos woud have aught less experin
ced ones who would laer have become teachers in heir urn Jn otherwordsany special highe teaching ipared by Gotaa woul in all prob
ability have ontinued to be tansited in semi-secretive shion to succeeding genrations of monks witn he everdimiishingj traditionwhe at the sae ime he pubic teaching was transmited openly bythe emoizers and analyses.
Did the Buddha Impart an Esotric Teahing
We have seen that he Tpaka account of higher meditation isicompete at the very poins where deailed inmation is mostneeded We have also noed that otama is likely to have adhered toe ongstanding Indian practice (still flowed in many mediationcentes at the present day) of teachig meditation o individual studentsin private, and withholding the detils of advanced technique om allbut those actually pactising them The lack in the Tipiaka, of detailed
inration on higher meditation is therere as would be expectebecause such inmation woud no have been made available to anybut those w jhyins who wee aleady well advanced in heir meditativepractice The Tipiaka records oy Gotama's public discourses Themonks responsibe r compiing and ansmiing it he suttantik )
43 Masive puges of the Sangha became necesry. For e cane wc
ook plae n e naure o he eay Sanga, see Du The Budha an FiveAfe-Centies, and Sukuma Dut Bddhist Monks and onasteries o IndiaLonon: Groge Aen an Unn 1962) Par I.
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16 JOUNAL OF INDIAN HSTORY
knew o the hgher practces only as stereotype lsts o stages wc teyduully memorzed and rected to novces and lay devotees. Hence teadequacy o extan accounts o hger sght medtaon44
On balance ten te evdece ndates tat Gotama very probablydd mpart what may be called a esoerc doctrne, a specal gherteacng o advanced medaton reserved r an elte mnorty omonk. However, n woldng detaled nrmaton o ger med-taton om all but s most competent dscpls Gotama was no gultyof avng te closed st o a teacer, wo keeps some tngs back·Raer e was actg n te best terests of s students Any monk
wo had advanced sucenly along the medave path could becomeelgble r memershp of hat elte group and receve some ndvdualsucton.
How long su a elte tradton would ave persed after Gotamas deah s anoter queston Because of te seady declne n e
relave sadng and nuence o te jhiyns, progressvely wer monkswold ave be otvated to seek and hand o he precous knowledgeIt seems lkely erere, tat e lne o rassson could ave dedout or becoe seiously weakened wthn a w centures o Gotama'seath.45 However t s not mpossble ta as s beleved n teCh'an/Zen schools an unbroken lne of adepts as kept te tradtonalve, ale somewat altered rm down to the present day TheVajraynsts clam hat ther medtave tradon (represented symbol
caly n te wlght Language) goes back to e Buddha, also desevesto be taken serousy.46 On te oher ad e lm tat Maynastas suc as the Prapram repesent Goama's esoerc dotne
appears to ave ltle to support r the conen o su stas, wtts emphass o plosophy and relave neglect o medtaton s not nkeepng w what we may nr the seret hgher teacng to have been
e above analyss as necessarly resed largely on te evdenceom slence"; as always n te case of a clamed esoterc transmson
4 Wat Conze says wit reference to ige yoga s equally applic able to accounts of ige nsit meditaton: "Our dculty les n tat tis asect ofte teachng was 'esoterc and tus never receve systematc treatent indocumens accessble o te general public Bddhist Though in India, p 183.
45 It s aways possble tat ndvdual medtators later stumbled upon a
metod smlar to ta practised by Gotama and taugt t to ter dcples46 Howee, te symbols s cleary a later deveopent, pobably not
earlier tan 5t century A. D
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l account ha to be taken of what not ecodd. To date choar
have given ittle condeaton to the mpcaton an eoterc tanonwoud have the hstoy of ealy Bu Our concuon tha theBuddha pobably dd ntate an eotec tanmon ncate he need a eappraa. Aongde the two wrecognzed tream nBuddhm, the ploophca-monatc and the popular a thrd, eotecmetatve team houd ao be gven proper cholarly recogntonand attenton.