The Cosmic Person in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam - Part 7

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

We concluded Part 6 with:

 

(P.139) " It is fascinating to see how this personal aspect of reality comes into

the otherwise rather impersonal doctrine of Buddhism at this point, the

'tathagata' being conceived as the Absolute manifesting as a person. A very

similar process happens, as we saw, in Hinduism. There 'brahman' is the Absolute

and that 'brahman' manifests as 'purusha', the cosmic Person. Here in Buddhism

'sunyata', the absolute void, is manifested as the 'tathagata', the person of

the Buddha. In this he comes to be an object of worship and adoration. There was

no real worship in Hinayana Buddhism. The Hinayana Buddhist meditates on the

Buddha, imitates him and takes refuge in him but he does not worship, whereas in

Mahayana Buddhism the Buddha is identified with Sunyata, the Absolute but at the

same time is revealed as infinite compassion in the form of Avalokiteshvara and

as wisdom in the form of Manjusri, together with the other " dhyani Buddhas " , who

manifest different aspects of the Buddha nature. The Buddha is in this sense

conceived as omniscient. He has awakened and realised 'prajna', the supreme

wisdom. He is identified with 'prajna' so that he is wisdom itself. As

omniscient, he knows everything in the world but he also has great concern and

compassion for the world and for all humanity. Tradition has it that when the

Buddha realized 'nirvana' he thought first of simply passing away permanently

into that state, but then he felt that what he must do was to go and preach to

the world the message of the 'dharma'. So out of 'karuna', compassion, he makes

this knowledge known. "

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith), Pgs. 137-139

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

Here is Part 7.

 

Enjoy.

 

violet

 

 

The Cosmic Person in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam - Part 7

 

(P.139) The Buddha then is supreme wisdom and supreme compassion, 'mahakaruna',

with his concern for all humanity and for the whole world which includes all

sentient beings. The Buddha came to save all sentient beings and this desire to

save was born of the understanding of the essential unity of all. Behind all the

diversity of this world of time and space, and behind all the diversity of human

individuals and behind all suffering and death, there is ultimately a total

unity. (P.140) Behind all difference there is always the essential unity. Our

difficulty is to try to relate the two. Either we see the world in its diversity

and lose ourselves in that, or we leave the world behind and we see the one

unity. Wisdom is when one learns to see the whole created world, and oneself

within it, in that great unity, and the unity manifesting in the whole creation.

It was this that the Buddha achieved.

 

On the one hand, then, the Buddha is identical with the Absolute, with the

'prajnaparamita', the supreme perfect wisdom, spoken of in the great texts of

the Mahayana. On the other hand he is turned towards the world in his great

compassion. So he is the mediator between the absolute One and the multiple

world. Again it is fascinating to see the same figure and the same pattern

appearing in each tradition: the Supreme beyond, the phenomenal world and then

the one who mediates between the two.

 

Because of this the Buddha is represented as having three bodies. The supreme

body in which he is identical with Reality is his 'dharmakaya', the body of

reality. 'Dharma' is the absolute Reality and the Buddha has this body, or form,

of absolute reality. He is the essence, the reality, of the universe. He has

realised the truth; he has become the truth. In that he is freed from all

duality. He has attained the unity of all things beyond all dualities. The human

mind in its reasoning always works through dualities. We always make

distinctions, analyse and reason, and that is how we get a dualistic view of the

universe. But in 'prajna', intuitive wisdom, we go beyond all dualities and

realise the absolute unity beyond all. The Buddha in his 'dharmakaya' is

supremely the one who has realised the unity of all, beyond all dualities.

 

Secondly, the Buddha manifests through 'sambhogakaya'. This is his radiant or

glorious body, which could be compared with the body of Christ in the

resurrection. We remember that Krishna in the 'Bhagavad Gita' is also said to

have had a glorious body. (P. 141) The glorious body, the body transfigured by

the Spirit, is another of the many doctrines common to the great traditions. In

Buddhism this radiant body, the 'sambhogakaya', is the second of the three

bodies and it corresponds to the second of the three worlds. There were always

the three worlds, the physical, the psychic and the spiritual. In the spiritual

world the Buddha is revealed in the 'dharmakaya' and in the psychic world, the

world of the gods, angels and spirits, he manifests in the 'sambhogakaya'. He

belongs in that cosmic order, in cosmic consciousness. Thirdly, he manifests in

the 'nirmanakaya', his body of this world, a human body, said to be the body of

appearance. He appears in this world to benefit mankind, very like the 'avatara'

in Hinduism. In Krishna Vishnu takes human form to bring righteousness to the

earth. The 'avatara' descends from heaven, from the higher consciousness, into

our level of consciousness in order to raise us to the higher level of

consciousness, and the form appropriate to this level of consciousness is the

'nirmanakaya'.

 

A further aspect of this doctrine appears in the belief that there is not only

one Buddha; there are many Buddhas of whom Gautama Sakyamuni was one. He was the

most revered and from him the historic movement of Buddhism started, but as

Buddhism developed it was conceived that there were many Buddhas, both before

and after Gautama, and also many 'bodhisattvas'. The 'bodhisattva' is one who

has achieved enlightenment and who, instead of passing permanently into the

fullness of the void, remains accessible in order to help all sentient beings to

attain what he has attained. There are also other forms in which 'sunyata', the

Supreme, manifests itself on earth. This point makes it very different from the

Christian understanding. For Christians there is one Lord, or cosmic Person, who

is revealed in Jesus and that revelation is final, but in the Buddhist

conception there are many Buddhas coming into the world from age to age with an

earthly body ('nirmanakaya') manifesting the [supreme body of reality]

'dharmakaya'. (P.142) Similarly, in Hinduism there are many 'avataras', Krishna

being only one of the many who come from age to age to reveal Vishnu, the

Supreme God.

 

From all this we see both similarity and difference. As we compare the different

traditions it is important to see the similarities. At some points it is

impossible to miss how closely they resemble one another and yet there will

always be differences, sometimes subtle, and sometimes profound. Among the most

obvious differences are those between the many Buddhas and the one Christ, and

between the many 'avataras' in Hinduism with their mythical background, and the

specifically historical character of the incarnation in Christ. Among the

buddhas Sakyamuni was certainly historical but other buddhas and 'bodhisattvas'

are not necessarily historical at all. Similarly with the 'avataras' many are

mythological, having no basis in history at all. By contrast, in the Christian

understanding, the one Supreme manifests uniquely in that one historic person

and in that unique historic event of death and resurrection.

 

The 'tathagata' in Buddhism, then, is a manifestation of the Absolute but the

goal is ultimately to go beyond the 'tathagata', the person, to the ultimate

transcendence. On this path one will meditate on the various forms and figures

of the Buddha and on the supreme form and then go beyond and become identified

with the supreme Reality beyond.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith), Pgs. 139-142

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0