The End of the World as we know it part III

Civilisations in Decline: 

The Rise and Fall of Buddhism

Ruins of Buddhist Temple, Chiang Mai

Buddhist temple in Thailand

Buddhist temple in Thailand

Head of Buddha at Angkor Thom ruins in Cambodia

Fast forward a thousand years from his advent. The Buddhist tradition has ruled India for a millennium. But now, at the dawn of a new age,  Buddhism is in decline. 

By the 6th Century AD, Brahmanism, which never entirely disappeared, has returned. What happened? Buddha’s rigorous self-discipline is difficult to follow. Part of the eight-fold path is called sangha, or right association. 

Idols of the Buddha

To ensure “right association” sanghas were formed where one might keep company with other truth-seekers and correct oneself on the path to enlightenment.

Human nature has a way of taking over. The sanghas became monasteries where those with more time and energy for truth-seeking could dedicate themselves full-time to the eightfold path. The monasteries, of necessity, established a hierarchy of priests and abbots. 

Buddhist Monastery in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Over time, of course, the Buddhist sanghas became just as corrupt as the temples of the brahmanas before them. Buddha himself became a godlike figure, his statue cast in bronze or carved in stone. The abbots collected tribute in gold and silver for blessings from the Buddha. Monks used their position to become rich and to attain power and status over others. It became dangerous to “offend” them. They stopped following the eightfold path or perverted its meaning to suit their lifestyles. They were no better than the brahmanas they had replaced.

They instituted a system of worship of the Buddha, a form of idolatry that would have appalled Gautama himself. 

And yet by having repudiated the mythology of the Vedas the Buddhist kings of India and their acolytes deprived the people of the gods they had loved for thousands of years. Buddha was not interested in inspiring love, but contemplation and enlightenment. 

Having destroyed the legends and traditions of brahmanism, buddhism had no corresponding mythology of its own. It had yet to be invented. For example, while the brahmanists had used the threat of hell to hold the people in sway. Gautama's teachings recognised neither heaven or hell. It was left to future generations to invent, as in the Tibetan tradition with its 6 realms of samsara.

Buddhist Idols

At the same time, brahmanism had never entirely disappeared. In some respects it had merely morphed into Buddhist practice, but beneath the surface remained the yearning for the old gods. As Gautama had struck at the heart of a corrupt system, the system was forced to reform, to reconsider its own dogmatism. Complex rituals were reintroduced in simplified form. Buddha’s philosophy was reconciled to Vedanta. Buddha was deified as an avatar of Vishnu who had come to preach the principle of nonviolence. Where Buddhist tolerance allowed the brahmanas to practice their faith, Vedic practice was revived. Chastened by centuries of reaction against excesses, the brahmanas recast their faith according to the eight-fold path.

As it became prominent around Asia, Buddhism fractured into different camps or “schools.” There emerged Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and other versions. What had begun as a simple path to enlightenment became increasingly complex and difficult to understand, decrypted only by priests, acolytes, monks, and other experts.

Buddhist temple in Thailand

Buddha is really a title like “The Christ.” It means “The awakened one.” So one might really call the man who began the school “Gautama, the Buddha,” or “Siddhartha, the enlightened one.” The Buddhist line developed their own saints, avatars, and deities over the centuries along with Byzantine rituals and ceremonies on par with the brahmanas whose legacy they anathematised.

Prayers for the buddha. Supplicants pay a few dollars to hang these in the temple for a benediction.

Tibetan Buddhism, for example, includes the “wheel of life” divided into six realms: gods, demons, ghosts, hellish planets, animals, and humans. Ultimately all these different realms are creations of the ego. But until one loses the ego one must circulate between the different realms. Many followers of the system are content to do so and go to the priests for their blessings to mitigate their suffering within the “wheel of life,’ or samsara.

Prayers to the Buddha

But beyond the wheel of life and death what is the promise of Buddhism?

Nothing.

Nirvana, that is, which translates as “nowhere.” Enlightenment is attained when one reaches a state called Samādhi, or “perfect balance.” Sama means “complete or perfect, whole,” where “Dhi” refers to “intelligence, or meditation, or steadiness in thought.” Bu-DDhi means “Good intelligence.” Sama-Ddhi” means “steady intelligence. So Buddha recommends the development of perfect meditation or steady intelligence, or balanced thinking: “Samādhi.” And enlightenment in samādhi leads to nirvana. Nirvana has come to mean a place of perfect peace and happiness, something like heaven. But we must keep in mind that “happiness” suhkha is only the flip side of “distress” duhkha. Both happiness and distress are experienced only in the conditioned state where the desire for pleasure and the avoidance of pain flow from the illusory ego. Once the ego has been properly disposed of, both happiness and distress are moot.

Have you attained Nirvana?

Nirvana is beyond happiness and distress and exists without them. It has been said that nirvana is neither the absence of existence nor existence itself. Nirvana is not a goal because then one would desire it and desire itself leads to suffering. So one must attain nirvana without desiring it. Buddha felt than anyone can achieve nirvana by following his teachings. While non-ego may be said to be the end of Buddhist thought, it may not be thought of as an aim, since aiming for nothing defeats the purpose of nonbeing. First there is a mountain then there is no mountain then there is.

If this seems hard to understand, it is. Human nature abhors a vaccuum. Constant meditation on the void may lead to nothing, nothingness is not the appealing idea it appears to be on the surface. Nirvana is voidism. Meaning itself may be an ego snare according to this system, but truth-seekers tire of meaningless voidism.

Sanskrit Poetry

Another problem animating the decline of Buddhism was the dependence on Sanskrit. In the beginning, Gautama’s school was popular since his language was simple. His sermons were in Prakrita and Pali, spoken languages available to the common people of India. During the reign of Kaniska the Great, emperor of the Kushan dynasty in the second century the need was felt to couch the teachings of the Buddha in the classical language of Sanskrit, that it might rival the poetry of Mahābhārata. Common people could not access Sanskrit. And if they were to read Sanskrit, why not read the Vedas, the Vedanta, and the Mahābhārata? The strategy backfired.

Indra, god of rain

Agni, god of fire

Vayu, god of water

Rama, God Himself, dispensing justice

Ram and Lakshman vs. the 10-headed Ravana

Gradually the people of India returned to the old gods and the old ways, and found themselves more comfortable with the ancient wisdom traditions of the Vedas. Internal strife and bickering in the monasteries of the Buddhists over who would keep the gold and the disciples drove away truth-seekers.

Perhaps Buddhism was doomed since its inception. For all the criticism against brahmanism and the excesses of the caste system, it may be said that the traditional Vedic religion was rooted in the blood of the people of India since ancient times and that the wisdom and mysticism of Mahabharata was an integral part of the culture and history of India; so much so that after Buddhism was repudiated by Shankara it ceased to be practiced on the Asian subcontinent.