Just another religion?

 

“A History of Buddhist Ritual” by Todd Lewis is a free-standing chapter from a larger book, “The Buddhist World” edited by John Powers and probably published in 2016. The chapter, available free on the web, does summarize interesting information on rituals within Buddhism and also raises a lot of questions. Lewis points out the crux of the problem already at the start of his essay: monastics are a small minority in every known Buddhist society (past and present) and an even smaller minority believes in Buddhism for intellectual reasons. Virtually all Buddhists are therefore “householders” (lay people), which in turn means that Buddhism as it actually looks like (and has looked like for all or most of its 2,500 year history) is to 95% a non-monastic and non-intellectual religion. Yet, most scholarly studies are about intellectual monastics! The point of looking at Buddhist rituals is to capture the really existing Buddhism of the overwhelming majority of practitioners throughout the ages.

Everyone has heard of the four noble truths, but for non-monastics, the “four conditions” or “four good deeds” are more important. These are wealth, good reputation, long life and rebirth in “heaven” (deva-loka, the abode of the gods). Methods of attaining these include making everyone cheerful and happy (!), offerings to the gods and the hungry ghosts (!!), and offerings to the monastic order. In more intellectual terms, the goal of lay Buddhists is to acquire and accumulate “merit”, that is, positive karma. Indeed, the point of rituals is precisely to generate this kind of karma. One very interesting point made by Lewis is that even monastics had to carry out “lay” rituals. Monks regularly offered food to hungry ghosts, worshipped the tutelary deity of the monastery or the deity of water sources during their travels. Not only did the monks thus worship the devas, they were also obliged to worship the Buddha himself. 

I was surprised to learn that the Buddha´s skeletal remains were worshipped by “the Mallas of Kushinara” (the tribe in the area where Buddha attained nirvana) by dancing, song, music, perfumes and garlands?! During the Early Middle Ages, the Chinese pilgrim Yijing reported that Buddhists in India built stupas (which supposedly housed Buddha´s relics) and made images of the Buddha. The monks themselves built the stupas on the grounds of the monastery (this has been confirmed by archeological research) and then invited the lay people to join the worship, offering incense and flowers. 

As for images (I´m almost tempted to say “idols”), worship of the Buddha´s image was widespread, elaborate and considered very meritorious. An account from early medieval Kashmir describes how the Buddha image (not clear whether this is an actual cult statue or merely a portrait) should be bathed in water spiced with herbs, scents and jewels. The entire place around the water should be covered in honey, and there should be dancing and amusement. Still today, a similar ritual involves the bathing of a “baby Buddha”. Rituals of this type are said to generate so much merit that the participant will meet the Buddha in each new life! “Chariot festivals”, during which a Buddha image is placed on a palanquin or wagon and carried around town to bless onlookers, were also monastic affairs. The monks were supposed to make the image and the chariot, and also to decorate it. There is also evidence for rituals celebrating the conversion of the Vedic god Indra to Buddhism, or the conversion of two nagas (snake-spirits) named Giri and Valguka.

Naturally, all these rituals were made even more elaborate in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, where they were also directed towards bodhisattvas, but Lewis´ point is that many of them can be traced back to the Pali Canon (also used by Theravada) or to other early Buddhist sources.

After reading the above, I´m even more convinced that Buddhism is simply another religion among many. Indeed, what on earth is the difference between Buddhism and Hinduism? The similarities are very striking. Chariot festivals, bathing of idols, worship of “baby” deities, and of course general worship of gods and goddesses…this is all presumably taken from surrounding Hindu culture. But the intellectualism and/or mysticism of some Buddhist monks can also be found within Hinduism! I suppose the main difference between Buddha´s dharma and what later became known as Hinduism is that the Buddhists very consistently opposed the Brahmins, promoting the social interests of Vaishyas and Kshatriyas instead (i.e. the interests of merchants and warriors/rulers as opposed to the priestly class). This made it necessary to completely reject the Vedas and establish a separate religious community. Perhaps there was also an ethnic aspect: Buddhism gradually became the religion of the “barbarians” (there is even a discussion of the Buddha´s own ethnic background – how “Indian” was he really?).

Western Buddhists and perhaps Buddhologists have concentrated on meditation and super-intellectual discourse, and then filled in the blanks with whatever is currently fashionable in the West (be it Darwinian evolution, hippie counter-culture or LGBTQ), thereby turning Buddhism into a sellable commodity on the modern worldview market. (A more spicy and somewhat illegal commodity, I suppose, is Buddhist Tantric sex!) But really real Buddhism was always something else, for good or for worse. In fact, I actually got more appreciation for Buddhism after reading this condensed little history of its ritual life…