Tuesday, 21 September 2010
ADVAYAVADA BUDDHISM IN A NUTSHELL
ADVAYAVADA BUDDHISM IN A NUTSHELL
Buddhism is a collective name for the diverse philosophical, esoteric and religious beliefs that are derived from the way of liberation taught, in the 6th century B.C., by the North-Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha, which means the Awakened or Enlightened One. Advayavada Buddhism, formally established in 1995as a new secular Western European branch of Mahayana Buddhism by the Dutch lay Buddhist author and translator Advayavadananda (John Willemsens, b.1934), is a non-dual and life-affirming philosophy and way of life derived in turn from Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka, or philosophy of the Middle Way. The purpose of Advayavada Buddhism is to help us to become a true part of the whole. Because of its open character and structure, it is difficult to determine how many Buddhists share the views of Advayavada Buddhism worldwide at this time.
According to Advayavada Buddhism, it is indisputable that the Buddha did not believe in Brahman (God, transcendent Absolute) or in the atman or atta (soul, immortal self) and taught that man suffers because he does not understand and accept that all things in life are instead utterly changeable and transitory; if the Buddha had ever expressed belief in Brahman and the atman or atta, such a fact would have been unequivocally recorded in History. Man is prone to suffering (duhkha, dukkha) quite simply because he strives after and tries to hold on to things and concepts which he believes to be permanent, but are not.
Man's mistaken view of things is produced by a thirst or craving (called trishna in Sanskrit and tanha in Pali) which is in turn caused by his fundamental ignorance (avidya, avijja) of the true nature of reality. And this thirst or craving can easily take on a more unwholesome form: already as sensuous desire, ill-will, laziness, impatience or distrust will it seriously hinder any efforts to better his circumstances.
His compliance, however, with the five precepts that apply to all followers of the Buddha will allow him to arrest his thirst or craving and to commence removing the root cause of his suffering, i.e. his fundamental ignorance of the true nature of reality. The five fundamental Buddhist precepts are not to kill, not to steal, sexual restraint, not to lie, and abstinence from alcohol and drugs. Man's observance of these precepts in his daily life gives him the moral strength required to embark upon the Buddha's Middle Way that, avoiding first the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, will in due course bring him to the blessed state of Nirvana.
Nirvana is the complete extinction (nirodha) of all suffering (duhkha, dukkha) as a result of our full reconciliation with reality as it truly is. Nirvana and Samsara are not two different realities or two different conditions of reality. Nirvana is to experience the phenomenal world at the level of ultimate truth (paramartha-satya), i.e. truth divested of all our preconceptions, including even those expressed here. Samsara is to experience the same phenomenal world at the level of conventional everyday truth (samvriti-satya). It is as a result of the purification of our perception of the phenomenal world at the level of conventional truth by following the Buddha's Middle Way, that we shall come to understand the significance of ultimate truth.
The Middle Way devoid of extremes that we must follow is concretely the Noble Eightfold Path that the Buddha taught in his very first sermon in Sarnath, near Benares. The Eightfold Path, when interpreted dynamicallyas Advayavada Buddhism does, is that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension followed by our v. best resolution, our v. best enunciation, our v. best disposition or frame of mind, our v. best implementation, our v. best effort, our v. best observation or reflection, and our v. best meditation or concentration, which brings us to a yet better comprehension, and so forth. We thus regain our place in totality advancing over time, in human terms, towards better and better, breaking, as we advance along the Path, the fetters (samyojana) that restrict us to Samsara.
Advayavada Buddhism indeed considers progress (pratipada, patipada) as the fourth sign of being, this next to the impermanence and the selflessness of all things and the universality of suffering in the world, which are the three signs or marks of being traditionally taught in Buddhism. When the Path expounded by the Buddha as the correct existential attitude and way of life is viewed as an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of overall existence becoming over time, it follows that human beings experience as good, right or beneficial that which takes place in the otherwise indifferent direction that time-being as a whole flows in of its own accord. The teaching of the Buddha must be seen as a Way of Reconciliation with wondrous existence as a whole just right as it is, i.e. as it truly is beyond our commonly limited and biased personal experience of it. Nirvana is, in Advayavada Buddhism, the ultimate reconciliation with reality becoming achievable by man. Indeed, in certain schools of Buddhism, Nirvana itself is seen as the fourth sign of being or seal of the dharma.
THE FOURTH SIGN OF BEING
The concept of progress as the fourth sign of being propounded by Advayavada Buddhism is a controversial one because most other forms of Buddhism shun life in one way or the other. The conventional signs or marks or basic facts of being in traditional Buddhism are three: impermanence, suffering and selflessness, usually listed in that particular order. Impermanence (anitya in Sanskrit and anicca in Pali) refers to the unstability and transitoriness of all things, including ourselves; suffering (duhkha, dukkha) refers to the existential sorrow that all non-liberated human beings are prone to; and selflessness (anatman, anatta) refers to the fact that nothing has an enduring self or independent substance.
In Advayavada Buddhism, we name those three conventional signs of being in a different order: first impermanence, then selflessness, and finally suffering. This seems to us more logical, because it is generally agreed that existential sorrow, which is also the first of the four noble truths of Buddhism, occurs when the facts of impermanence and selflessness are not fully recognized and understood. The second noble truth affirms, indeed, that all such suffering is brought about by a thirst (trishna, tanha), i.o.w. a craving or clinging, which is produced in turn by that fundamental ignorance (avidya, avijja) of the true nature of reality - in Buddhism, ignorance of the true nature of reality, i.e. of its impermanence and selflessness, is correctly seen as the root cause of all ill.
It is indeed obvious that all existential sorrow and conflict, be it at the level of the individual or of the group to which he or she belongs, stems from the non-recognition of the facts of impermanence and selflessness, from not understanding and accepting that everything changes and nothing lives on. Out of sheer ignorance also personalities, ideas and beliefs are accorded indefinite validity, and compromise, consensus and change are felt by many as an infringement upon their integrity. Religious, ethnic and nationalist convictions have no regard for the lessons of History. Could the zealots, the fanatics, the flag-wavers but hear the scorn and condemnation, and even ridicule, that their actions will receive in future generations!
It is already more than two and a half thousand years ago that the Buddha uncovered the reason for this sorry state of affairs and pined for a way to overcome it. His solution to the problem, contained in the third and fourth noble truths of his most essential teaching, is, as we understand it, surprisingly simple and common-sensical: people must eliminate their thirst or craving, which is the immediate cause of their suffering, by following, and teaching their fellows, an intelligent, open-ended path which is, instead, in complete harmony with the true nature of reality.
The method created by the Buddha, the Buddha's Middle Way devoid of extremes, has no beginning or end and is very adequately depicted by the Wheel of the Teaching (dharmacakra, dhammacakka). When one has meditated well, new and better insight will arise in our minds, and we are asked to organize and lead our lives in accordance with that renewed insight until we observe that we and the circumstances surrounding us have again changed, until it is, in other words, time to think things through again, and even to start afresh if necessary. Our contention is, now, that if the Buddha's path means real progress at last and is in complete harmony with the true nature of reality as a whole becoming over time, it then follows very clearly that, expressed purely in terms of human perception and experience, reality as a whole progresses over time as well. In other words, that progress (pratipada, patipada) is all life's inner driving force and, therefore, thefourth sign, mark or basic fact of being.
THE PATH RECONCILES US WITH THE WHOLE.
question According to your theory all we have to do is just wait and we will naturally become better. I do not think this is correct.
answer Advayavada Buddhism teaches that by following the Buddha's Middle Way you get in tune with wondrous overall existence and your sorrow immediately starts disappearing. Sorrow is a symptom. It is the indication that one is going against the grain of things. Always bear firmly in mind that there is nothing wrong with existence - how can there be? Clearly, therefore, it is not life that should be improved upon, but man's mistaken way of living it. What one must try to do is to come to terms with existence as it truly is, i.e. as it truly is beyond our commonly limited and biased personal experience of it. A proven way to follow to achieve this is the Buddha's Middle Way devoid of extremes. And to be able to follow this Path one must adhere to the Five Precepts. The very first step is our acceptance of the Five Precepts. The five fundamental Buddhist precepts are not to kill, not to steal, sexual restraint, not to lie, and abstinence from alcohol and drugs [including so-called soft drugs].
question The defilements we have are rooted in our not understanding life or the realities of life as they are. The real cause of problems and sufferings are these defilements and unwholesome states of mind. The solution is to understand our life exactly as it is. By so doing we will understand more what is wholesome and thus we shall be more inclined to wholesomeness.
answer Our position is that the objective of the Middle Way devoid of extremes propounded by the Buddha as the right existential attitude and way of life is to reconnect and reconcile us with overall existence. We see the Middle Way in its dynamic Eightfold Path form as an ongoing and open-ended reflexion at the level of our personal lives and in human terms of wondrous overall existence moving forwards over time in the right direction. Overall existence, not man's abstract and conceptualized understanding of life, is the measure of things.
question Your findings seem to contradict traditional Eastern theories that this world system is deteriorating into the Kali-yuga or the eventual demise of the world system.
answer The yugas belong to Hindu mythology and we ought to leave the belief in such things as a Kali-yuga to the followers of Hinduism.
question Surely as a Buddhist one cannot say that life or the world automatically improves irrespective of the actions and mental states of the people who inhabit it.
question Unless some people make a determined effort to encourage non-violence, generosity, appreciation, truthful communication and awareness in society at large, then I fear Reality will be "sequential and dynamic in the sense of ever-becoming worse than before!".
question Buddhism teaches that one must accept things as they are - that suffering or unsatisfactoriness comes from trying to change the world and that happiness or enlightenment can only be achieved by accepting things. But isn't it important to try and change things if we can - alleviate the suffering of children, stand up to oppressive governments, generally strive to make the world better?
answer One must realize that not mankind, human beings, the human manifestation of life, or, for that matter, the 'world', is the measure of things in space and time, but existence itself, the overall all-including flow of existence. Our position is that the objective of the Middle Way is to reconnect and reconcile us non-teleologically with this wondrous overall existence that encompasses everything, and that the Middle Way in its Eightfold Path form must be understood as an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of this existence as a whole moving forwards over time in the right direction. It is only when you interpret and heed the Buddha's teachings thus, that the constructive efforts you speak of will bear any fruit.
question We are fascinated by your discovery of the fourth sign of being: progress. Please tell us how you came to this discovery and how we can verify your findings.
answer We came to this discovery when we realized fully that not mankind, human beings, the human manifestation of life, was the measure of things in space and time, but existence itself, the overall all-including flow of existence. This being the case, the objective of the Middle Way devoid of extremes expounded by the Buddha as the correct existential attitude is obviously the abandonment of all fixed views and to reconnect and reconcile us with the true, everchanging nature of wondrous overall existence. The Middle Way in its dynamic Eightfold Path form is therefore an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of wondrous overall existence moving forward over time. And as we have experiential proof that the Eightfold Path leads us towards better, it follows that the direction in which wondrous overall existence becomes, flows or moves forward over time is also, expressed purely in terms of human perception and experience, towards better.
question The objective of the Middle Way is to understand our life as it is now. The realities which arise now can be directly experienced by seeing, hearing, thinking, feeling, touching etc. However, they are not usually directly experienced with understanding. Understanding takes us forwards, ignorance takes us backwards. However, ignorance is not intellectual ignorance, but it is ignorance of the characteristics of realities by direct experience. For example we have the idea that we can touch a cup or a table or a person. But only hardness or softness or temperature or mind can be experienced through the body senses. There can be the studying with awareness of what is experienced through the body senses. Understanding will then understand that a cup, chair or person are not realities but concepts. The intellectual understanding of what is real and what is not real but a concept can condition the direct understanding of realities.
answer It is indeed important to try to grasp the true nature of things. The problem is that also now, the tip of 'time's arrow', can be said to be a concept without any substance, and as for understanding-ignorance and forwards-backwards in their conventional sense, these are indeed relative pairs of concepts void par excellence. Real in all of this is only their tendency to change over time or anitya, and this, as we maintain, as far as the whole of existence is concerned, towards better.
One should really first try to realize fully, by meditating deeply on the true nature of reality, that not humanity, mankind, human beings, the human manifestation of life, is the measure of things in space and time, but overall all-encompassing existence, which quite oblivious to our exertions, advances over time on and on in its own one right direction. The objective of the Middle Way devoid of extremes, propounded by the Buddha as the correct existential attitude, must then obviously be the abandonment of all fixed views and to reconnect and reconcile us with this existence as a whole as it truly is. The Buddha's Middle Way in its dynamic Eightfold Pathform is then an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of wondrous overall existence becoming over time. And as the Eightfold Path leads us towards better, it follows, inductively if you will, that existence as a whole becomes over time towards better. Holy deeds are therefore only those which are in agreement with wondrous overall existence and take us forward at the fundamental level of existence.
question I am afraid that your discovery has already been heralded by the Buddha himself, although he does not call it a fourth sign or mark. The fourth mark is sometimes rendered as ashubha, or ugliness. The Buddha identified two modes of conditionality, one which is well known and is illustrated by the Wheel of Becoming, is the 12 nidanas moving from ignorance to old age and death. The other, which is not as well known but is in the Nidana Vagga of the Samyutta Nikaya, is positive and progressive. It moves from suffering through faith, delight, joy, calmness, bliss, concentration, knowledge and vision of things as they really are, disgust, dispassion, liberation, knowledge of the destruction of the biases. The importance of this dynamic sequence is that life can be made to flow towards better. However, life does not flow towards better automatically. It has to be cultivated and worked for, which is why we have to practice the four right efforts.
answer Each school will naturally interpret in its own way the many, often conflicting sayings attributed to the Buddha in the scriptures. It would however be going too far to maintain that the Buddha ever implied that ugliness was the Fourth Mark or Sign of Being. The "disgust for things as they are" of sutta 23 of the Nidana Vagga should be understood strictly within the very limited context of one's own personal life. And our position is that not humanity, mankind, human beings, the human manifestation of life, let alone one's own personal life, is the measure of things in space and time, but the overall all-embracing flow of existence itself, which, quite oblivious to our exertions or, for that matter, our disgust, goes on and on in its own one right direction. We take it for granted, as explained, that there is nothing wrong with existence and that the objective of the Buddha's Middle Way devoid of extremes was and is the abandonment of all fixed views and to reconnect and reconcile us with its true nature as it is beyond our commonly limited and biased personal experience of it.
question I wonder what your support for this interpretation of humans experiencing Nature as progress might be. There's abundant evidence in media of various sorts -- good, bad, or indifferent in quality -- of people who contrarily do not experience the overall course of Nature as progressive at all, but instead as destructive and teleologically negative, especially today in conditions of global warming, cyclones, tornados, earthquakes, oceans rising, meteorites, and so on.
answer If you look closely, all those unpleasantnesses you mention do not pertain to overall existence at all but are the result of mistaken views, immorality and mismanagement. When we say how man experiences the course of Nature we of course mean man unencumbered by these contingent shortcomings and mistakes that impair his vision, understanding and accomplishments - the reference standard is overall existence and not failing mankind.
question I would agree with you that the objective of the Middle Way is to reconcile us with existence. Or to be more precise, it helps to understand life as it is. This is a condition for being to go forwards. However we are influenced by many things like greed, hatred and ignorance. These can take us backwards. The way to go forwards then is to develop the Eightfold Path. Or rather the Eightfold Path develops when there are conditions for its development. These conditions are the intellectual understanding of the Eightfold Path.
answer You are asked to accept the preeminence of existence over mankind, and that existence cannot, by definition, be anything but just right as it is, and that theEightfold Path is an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of existence as a whole becoming over time. We must not see the Buddha's Middle Waydevoid of extremes as an attitude or method that will enable us e.g. 'to escape from the realities of life' or 'to make it somehow in spite of things', but we must understand the Buddha's most fundamental teaching correctly as the means to reconnect and reconcile us with wondrous overall existence as a whole as it truly is. We must, in fact, accept that to live the way existence as a whole is, and not some idealized form of humanity, is what is to be sought after by men.
question I am not familiar with the term Advayavada.
answer We gave the name Advayavada Buddhism to the radical non-dual standpoint of the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism to which we specifically adhere. A sound explanation of the term 'advayavada' can be found in for instance professor T.R.V. Murti's The Central Philosophy of Buddhism: "The sole concern of the Madhyamaka advaya-vada is the purification of the faculty of knowing. The primordial error consists in the intellect being infected by the inveterate tendency to view Reality as identity or difference, permanent or momentary, one or many etc. These views falsify reality, and the dialectic [of the Madhyamaka] administers a cathartic corrective. With the purification of the intellect, Intuition emerges; the Real is known as it is, as Tathata [advayata; non-dual suchness] or bhutakoti [reality-limit; the extreme limit beyond which there is nothing which can be known]. The emphasis is on the correct attitude of our knowing.." It is in this sense that we use the term 'advayavada'.
question What you say seems to me to be an essential teaching of the Mahayana in its complete form. The Unborn Infinite Reality can never be less than Perfect and Whole, and is the True Essence of all Beings, and is ever present. All that is needed is that, in perfect simplicity, we turn to That, and realize that the human manifestation of life is just an imperfect reflexion of That. Simple! but not easy. That is the problem. If we realize what we are, how do we remember to continue to realize it moment by moment, rather than seeking to hold on to the vision of the past?
answer Everything is, indeed, as right as it can be, and the Middle Way devoid of extremes is a perfect reflexion of it at the human level. As for your question, our answer would be that you must see that 'vision of the past' for what it really is: a highly selective subjective recollection in the present of things no longer there - please understand that life only happens Now.
question Existence progresses towards better or worse only in a dualistic sense. Life goes towards better, towards worse, only when one has expectations. Current failings? Simply a state of mind brought on by expectations and judgements. That 'infinite Reality' (what other reality is there?) will continue to 'become' exactly as it must? No, it is, it is exactly as it is.
answer You and the writer obviously do not experience the passage of time, i.e. the duration, the sum duration of the successive phenomena, in the same way. Your 'reality is exactly as it is' as opposed to his 'reality will continue to become exactly as it, by definition, must' makes this important point very clear. As a result of his prolonged and deep meditation on the true nature of reality, the writer has come to share fully and wholeheartedly the Buddhist view that existence is a constant flux of ever-changing events with no known beginning or necessary end. As a serious student of the Madhyamaka theories of existence, particularly of the concepts of emptiness, interdependent origination and the two truths, he has come to understand the Noble Eightfold Path as an ongoing reflexion at the level of his own life of existence as a whole becoming over time. By learning to follow the Eightfold Path successfully, he hopes to live every time more and more in tune with wondrous overall existence. For the Advayavadin, Nirvana is when we experience our own existence as being completely in harmony with existence as a whole becoming over time. In Buddhism, there is no static being, only dynamic becoming: to live is to become. And in Advayavada Buddhism, the Eightfold Path is moreover seen, not as a means to become something else in the future, but as a way to become as something rightaway in the herenow. The Eightfold Path is seen as a proven method to achieve the abandonment of all fixed views and to become oneself in the here and now as existence, as wondrous overall existence becoming over time now in its right direction. It is by becoming herenow as wondrous overall existence becoming over time now that we free ourselves from suffering and realize happiness.
question You refer to existence moving forward over time - my understanding is that time is a human concept and does not really apply to existence.
answer The following short excerpt from an article by John J. Emerson may interest you: "Within the post-Big Bang, irreversible, entropic world where all live, time is real -- in fact, we could not live in a timeless world. Our common-sense feeling of the passage of time gives us a pretty good way of understanding our experienced reality and our metabolic reality, and it can hardly be called an illusion. It just isn't usable by someone studying quantum mechanics or quantum theory. Beyond that, the belief in irreversibility is not just a trait of thoughtless non-physicists. Physicists themselves intuitively believe in the reality of time, and they really have to do so, because they need to believe that their apparatus and the mechanisms they use to record their observations (e.g., photographic film) exist in real, irreversible, time with a before and an after."
question Why do you call the Buddha's Path intelligent?
answer Simply because the Path propounded by the Buddha as the correct existential attitude cannot but be in accordance with the dictates of reason, demand nothing against the natural course of nature, and be, in the end, quite necessary for our self-preservation.
question You say that the Buddhadharma is "in complete harmony with the true nature of reality"; how so?
answer All the teachings of the Buddha are based on the two fundamental doctrines of anitya and anatman, i.e., respectively, the impermanence or changeability and the selflessness and therefore finiteness of all individual existents.
question You say that existence, in its movement over time, progresses towards an ever better situation. Does not this progress imply evolution, and is not evolution dualistic? Good and bad and better (whatever that means) are in essence dualistic. I regard the human manifestation of life and, in fact, life in general, only as a passing phase in Evolution that can go in a positive or a negative direction. Permit me this metaphor. All life is like a school where students arrive, learn (or not), and leave. The difference is that in life we do not know where from and where to, and not knowing this, what we ought to be learning. Looking at it like this, though we may assume that the Middle Way is a method to reconcile us with existence, it is nevertheless impossible to ascertain where it takes us to. To Nirvana? Maybe. The 'school', as I see it, always stays the same and is not going to get any better. There is no progress in the moral or ethical aspects of mankind, as we know all too well from History; as for technological progress, modern technology adds very little to the spiritual development of individuals. But I do agree with you that the Eightfold Path must be the correct way of living.
answer There are three things we can say say about this: 1) that progress in the herenow is not relative or dualistic - it is here, in fact, only the direction of time-being, 2) that objectively the direction as such indeed seems neutral or indifferent, but that we do experience (at the human level and in human terms) as good, right or wholesome those events that agree with it, that are in tune with the direction of time-being, and 3) that there cannot be two sets of rules, one for totality and one for humankind, and that therefore what we know to be good (in human terms) must be universally good (in human terms); in fact, according to modern cosmology the same laws of physics apply throughout our universe and the many other universes, and life-forms as ours are merely a side-effect of the greater evolutionary processes.
We shall try to use a metaphor as well! Imagine a train going Somewhere. Objectively and in the herenow the only thing you can say about it is that it is going Somewhere - this is the direction the train is going in and this direction as such is not good or bad, but obviously quite neutral. You now have to board this train. It seems the thing to do and there is no other train than this one. If you accept to go where the train is heading to, you will feel all right, sit back and probably enjoy the trip. If, however, you insist on going Nowhere, you will feel very upset and even think of getting off Anywhere! Our contention, now, that it is only when we do not only accept but indeed also want, and decide for ourselves, to go Somewhere, that we can in any way say that it is actually the right train going in the right direction. In other words, if your life feels good by following the Buddhist way of life, which is, do not forget, an ongoing reflexion (a side-effect!) of Totality, it is however only when you really want to live this life to the full that you shall also come to know that Life as a whole exists over time towards better and better. It is only by willing to live one's own life well and to the full, that we shall know that existence as a whole progresses over time towards ever better! The proof of the pudding is in the eating with gusto!
question In your answer to my 'school' metaphor, you say that direction in the herenow is not dualistic. In my opinion direction is always dualistic, because it implies movement from a to b.
answer There is no movement in direction in the absolute herenow much in the same way that there is no movement in the compass needle pointing North. In fact, there is no movement at all in the absolute here and now. As Vicente Fatone rhetorically asks his readers in The Philosophy of Nagarjuna: "..in the distance already covered, i.e. in the past, is there movement in the moving body? No. In the distance not yet covered, i.e. in the future, is there movement in the moving body? Certainly not! Therefore the movement can only be present movement. But the present movement is contradictory because it does not imply the moments which the movement implies. Movement can be conceived of only in the present, but in the present the movement is incomprehensible because it is contradictory." The origin, duration and death of things, affirmed by superficial knowledge (samvriti-satya), he sums up later on, prove to be illusory in the light of transcendental knowledge (paramartha-satya). Very interesting, of course, what Fatone says, but might we please add that, in the present context of the Buddhist teaching in everyday life, this assessment of the fundamental un-reality of time does not, however, invalidate the direction of time-being as we experience it in the here and now? We know when we are facing the sun!
question Diana St. Ruth writes the following in Tricycle: When one follows what is right according to one's heart and good sense, when wisdom and compassion become real, not contrived, the way of heaven manifests beneath one's feet. That is the way of liberation from suffering and the realization of genuine happiness.
answer Yes, that's right. This is what in Advayavada Buddhism we call 'reconciliation with Buddha-nature'. In Buddhism to follow 'what is right' means to follow theNoble Eightfold Path. It is necessary for us to follow the Path to realize what Buddha-nature is, for the way of heaven to manifest, as St. Ruth says. The Path is an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of wondrous overall existence becoming over time. In Advayavada Buddhism the Path is moreover seen, not as a means to become something in the future, but as the way to become as something rightaway in the herenow. The Eightfold Path is seen as the way to become oneself herenow as existence becoming over time now in its overall right direction; it is by becoming herenow as the whole of existence as it is beyond our commonly limited and biased personal experience of it, that we free ourselves from suffering and realize genuine happiness. Nirvana is when we experience our own existence as being completely in harmony with existence as a whole becoming over time - Nirvana is the ultimate reconciliation with his or her Buddha-nature achievable by man.
question How do you know that existence becomes over time 'in the right direction', as you say?
answer Firstly, we must agree that wondrous overall existence cannot, by definition, but be just right as it is and, secondly, that the objective of the Middle Waydevoid of extremes, propounded by the Buddha as the correct existential attitude, must be to reconnect and reconcile us with existence as a whole - we can safely assume that the Buddha did not teach that there were two sets of rules at play, one for existence and one for its 'by-product' people! Therefore, because, in other words, the dharma of the part is not different from the Dharma of the whole, the Buddha's Middle Way, in its dynamic Eightfold Path form, must be understood as an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of wondrous overall existence becoming over time. Now, as the Eightfold Path leads us towards better and better, it follows, inductively if you will, that, expressed purely in human terms, existence as a whole progresses over time as well. By the same logic, it also becomes quite clear that, inversely, we experience as good, right or wholesome, indeed as progress, those events which are in agreement with the overall pattern and direction of existence, that it is for this reason that they are experienced thus.
question We also have meditated and taught on many of these subjects but use different terminology. As an example you use the term 'ever better' and we use the term 'more beautiful'. We do this because each person has an innate sense of what is 'more beautiful'. You do not think about beauty, it simply is known. 'Better' is a term that requires the intellectual body to analyze two things based on a reference standard. For what purpose or state of being is it better? What makes the time of the plague in Europe ever better than classical Greek civilization?
answer To understand Advayavada Buddhism it is necessary to accept in the first place the preeminence of wondrous overall existence over mankind and that existence cannot, by definition, be anything but just right as it is. Secondly, that the objective of the Middle Way, being the correct existential attitude expounded by the Buddha, is the abandonment of all fixed views and to reconnect and reconcile us with wondrous overall existence - indeed, that in its dynamic Eightfold Pathform, the Middle Way is an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of wondrous overall existence becoming over time. Now, as the Eightfold Path leads us towards better and better, it follows, inductively if you will, that, in human terms, existence as a whole becomes over time towards better and better as well. Inversely, we experience as good, right or wholesome those events which are in agreement with the overall indifferent pattern and direction of existence - it is for this reason that they are experienced thus. The reference standard, you see, is wondrous overall existence. It is not mankind, with its various civilizations and plagues, let alone, however well intentioned, our subjective sense of relative beauty.
Buddhism in Netherlands
Advayavada Buddhism is a secular, non-dual and life-affirming philosophy and way of life derived from Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka, or philosophy of the Middle Way. The most important tenet of Advayavada Buddhism is that there is a fourth sign (or mark) of being implicit in the Buddha's teaching, namely, that expressed purely in terms of human perception and experience, reality is sequential and dynamic in the sense of ever becoming better than before. What human beings experience and identify as good, right or beneficial, indeed as progress (pratipada, patipada), is, in fact, that which takes place in the otherwise indifferent direction that overall existence flows in of its own accord.
To understand this important tenet, one should first come to realize most deeply, for instance through meditation on the incontestable non-duality of the world, that not the human manifestation of life (i.e. its ongoing process of re-combination, mutation, concatenate multiplication and disintegration of the expended units, and its vicissitudes and perils, even possible extinction, self-inflicted or not) is the measure of things in space and time, but that it is the whole of infinite interdependent reality itself, which hardly affected, if at all, by the negligible impact of mankind's doings on the overall scheme of things, will continue to become exactly as it, by definition, must.
It then becomes very clear to us that the Middle Way taught by the Buddha as the correct existential attitude is not meant to in the least deviate from the Dharma of the whole; that the objective of the Middle Way is, in fact, to reconnect and reconcile us with wondrous overall existence; and that the Middle Way in its dynamicNoble Eightfold Path mode must indeed be seen as an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of wondrous overall existence becoming over time. Now, as the Eightfold Path leads us towards an ever better situation, we now also know that, expressed in terms of human perception and experience, existence as a whole advances over time towards better and better as well. This fact is, indeed, the fourth sign or mark of being we speak of.
The purpose of Buddhism is then obviously, not to shun life as many choose to believe, but on the contrary to return mankind to the fold of wondrous overall existence and to delight in it. Buddhism must be understood correctly as a 'way of reconciliation' with the whole of existence just right as it is, i.e. as it truly is beyond our commonly limited and biased personal experience of it. The aim of Advayavada Buddhism is to help us understand this main purpose of Buddhism more clearly and to give us individually the necessary tools to become a true part of the whole, here and now.
The scientific study of Buddhism began in the Netherlands with the appointment of Hendrik Kern as the first professor for the chair for Sanskrit at Leiden University. He published two histories and a manual of Buddhism. Kern, like Émile Senart, portrayed the Buddhaas a legendary being or a hero representing the sun. Kern was succeeded by Jacob Speyer (1849-1913), who translated several Mahayana texts and the Jatakamala for the series ‘The Sacred Books of the Buddhists’. The subsequent chair, Jean Philippe Vogel (1871-1958), became famous as an archaeologist by proving that Kasia in India must have been Kusinara, the place of the Parinirvana of the Buddha. He also conducted investigations on the Borobudur, the great Buddhist monument on the Isle of Java.
After the Second World War, a strong ally for Buddhism came in the form of the Theosophists. The Dutch secretary of the Theosophical Society Adyar, Mrs. Spruitenburg, returned from India and started ‘gatherings’ in her home in Huizen that attracted dozens of people from all over the country. Among them was Ernst Verwaal, who founded the ‘Buddhistische Vriendenkring Den Haag’ (Circle of Friends of Buddhism The Hague), later renamed as ‘Nederlandse Buddhistische Vriendenkring’ (Dutch Circle of Friends of Buddhism). He issued a simple journal. The centre of the ‘Circle’ was in The Hague, where in 1966 the wife of the Thai Ambassador, Mrs. Bhakdi, started receiving on Saturdays its members in the Thai Embassy. Later the group was presided by Ronald Poelmeijer, also being influenced by Peter van der Beek, who in 1953 became a member of The Western Buddhist Order, represented in Europe by the British Buddhist Jack Austin.
In 1966 the Dutch Circle of Friends of Buddhism Circle changed its name to the ‘Buddhist Society in the Netherlands’. The new Society held activities that were calculated liberal to all the schools of Buddhism. This ecumenical policy led to some dissension, and later the organization was revamped as the ‘Stichting Nederlands Buddhistisch Centrum’ (Dutch Buddhist Centre Foundation) on 8 November 1967, with the aim ‘to study of the principles of Buddhism in all its diversity and to encourage the practical application of these principles. From 1968 to the present, the Centre has issued a journal. Originally it was called and early in the 21st century it was rechristened as and published together with a commercial Buddhist publisher. The centre changed its name in 1978 to ‘Stichting Vrienden van het Boeddhisme’ (Friends of Buddhism Foundation). In the same year the ‘Boeddhistische Unie van Nederland’ (Buddhist Union of the Netherlands) was founded, consisting only of representatives of Buddhist groups, with Tony Kurpershoek-Scherft as its first President. It was this second organization which became the Dutch member of the European Buddhist Union. Early 21st century however it dropped its membership of the EBU for a number of reasons; a main one being that the EBU had, and currently still has, both national umbrella organisations amongst its members as well as 'traditions on European level' like FPMT, Triratna Buddhist Community etc. making it in the BUN's eyes a too confused platform.
From 1978 onwards, the history of Buddhism in the Netherlands is mostly the story of individual Buddhist traditions. With however the BUN still acting on their behalf towards government and NGOs, leading to e.g. the BOS 'Boeddhistische Omroep Stichting' (Buddhist Broadcasting Channel) and the formal Buddhist Prisoner Chaplainship which gets equal recognition as other religions. And the SVB still being relevant as an ecumenical entry-level organisation, and as publisher of the only generic Buddhist (quarterly) magazine available in Dutch kiosks.
In 1968 Leo Boer and Janwillem van de Wetering founded a Zen group, and through two books made Zen popular in the Netherlands. The guidance of the group was taken over by Erik Bruijn who is still in charge of a flourishing community. The largest Zen group at this moment is the Kanzeon Sangha, led by Nico Tydeman under the supervision of the American Zen master Dennis Genpo Merzel, Roshi, a former student of Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles. This group has a relatively large centre where a teacher and some students live permanently. But many other groups are also represented in the Netherlands, like the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives in Apeldoorn, theThich Nhat Hanh Order of Interbeing and the International Zen Institute Noorderpoort monastery/retreat centre in Drenthe, led by Jiun Hogen Roshi.
The Chinese Buddhists developed more or less their own centre. It's a famous landmark in the Chinatown district of Amsterdam, called the He Hua temple. It's manned primarily by monks and nuns linked to the BLIA of Ven. Hsin Yun from Taiwan.
In 1971 the Dutch merchant Monshouwer gathered some people in order to discuss the possibility of founding a Theravada temple with the support of Thai ambassador Sompong Sucharitkul. In 1973 the temple was officially founded in Waalwijk. Originally the temple was named Wat Dhammasucaritanucharee, but two years later renamed as Buddharama Temple with its own supporting foundation called ‘Young Buddhists Netherlands’. This foundation had its own journal. Later the founding abbot Ven. Mettavihari moved to Amsterdam and started a separate community of vipassana practitioners there. The foundation supporting the Thai temple in Waalwijk was renamed the ‘Nederlandse Buddha Dhamma Stichting’ (Dutch Buddha Dhamma Foundation) and now aims mainly for Thai immigrants. After the passing away of Ven. Mettavihari, there still is the Sangha Metta Buddhist temple in Amsterdam centre; next to this two countrywide organisations being the general Vipassana-oriented SIM and the Birmese-oriented Sagya U Bha Khin [5]. Also more regional organisations exist e.g. around Groningen and Drenthe in the north of the country.
[edit]Tibetan Buddhism
In 1977 Han de Wit, an authorized pupil of the Kagyu lama Chogyam Trungpa, founded a centre in Amsterdam [6] which is engaged in teaching the Dharma and meditation according to Tibetan tradition. There is a smaller centre in Oegstgeest, also founded by de Wit, and groups in two other towns (Utrecht and Nijmegen). Other Karma Kagyu centres from different lineages have also sprung up, e.g. Naropa Institute in Cadzand, the locally famous Stupa temple in Hantum and Diamond Way Buddhism (Ole Nydahl). The Tibetan Nyingma tradition is represented by several groups. They have a centre (Nyingma Centrum, Nederland) and a bookshop in Amsterdam. These groups belong to the organization of Tarthang Tulku who resides in California. The Gelugpas own an estate in the woods around Emst and a huge city centre in Amsterdam. The Maitreya Institute centres here are based on the initiative of Paula Koolkin in 1976. In August 1979 lama Thubten Yeshe and lama Zopa Rinpoche came to teach. By 2010 lama Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen was the teacher in permanent residence. The Sakya tradition of Tibetan Buddhism took a foothold in 1976 as Geshe Lama Sherab Gyaltsen Amipa established the ‘Sakya Thegchen Ling’ in The Hague. Next to these four main schools there are also representations of more ecumenic and split-off Tibetan Groups. E.g. Rigpa from Sogyal Rinpoche, Dzogchen community from Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, the New Kadampa Tradition and the Jewel Heart affiliated with Gelek Rinpoche.
Finally two more ecumenic groups should be mentioned. In the first place the Triratna Buddhist Community (TBC, formerly FWBO) connected with the large movement of Ven. Sangharakshita in the UK. It is growing at a regular speed, with centres in Amsterdam and Arnhem and a retreat centre under construction in the southern Zeeuws-Vlaanderen region. The centre in Den Haag, 'Boeddhistisch Centrum Haaglanden', follows roughly the same teaching but separated from the movement. Secondly there is the Arya Maitreya Mandala, a group of pupils of Lama Anagarika Govinda. This group had separated itself from the larger group in Germany after the death of Lama Govinda.
In 1971 there were 900 Buddhists in the Netherlands. Since 1971 the number of Buddhists has increased considerably, probably in connection with the rise of ‘alternative’ views in society and the decline of Christianity. The increased interest in Buddhism is evident from the growth in number of Buddhist centres. In 1990 total there were forty-two groups, in 2010 between eighty and one hundred including groups associated with a larger national centre. A Buddhist broadcasting channel (Boeddhistische Omroep Stichting) offers programming on the national network. In 2004 there were 170,000 Buddhists in The Netherlands - about 1% of the population. Also the Buddhist Prison Chaplainship, 'Boeddhistische Zendende Instantie', is formally recognised by the government, gets equal subsidy as the other main religions and is busy setting up a professional training in cooperation with the Free University of Amsterdam.
Buddhism has expanded in the Netherlands into the third religion after Christianity and Islam. The growth is so strong that as well as Islamisation, it is possible to speak of Buddhisation of the Netherlands, argue researchers Marcel Poorthuis and Theo Salemink in De Volkskrant.
The Netherlands now has an estimated 250,000 Buddhists or people who feel strongly attracted by this religion, largely white Dutch. In 1998, there were only 16,000 including just 4,000 Dutch natives and 12,000 Buddhist immigrants from Asia.
While Islamisation is often seen as a threat by politicians like Geert Wilders, and associated with violence and collectivism, Buddhism in the Netherlands is seen as an individualist faith that stands for non-violence and pacifism. But this idea is doubtful, concludes De Volkskrant.
Poorthuis, a lecturer in inter-religious dialogue, considers it “odd” that “nobody is concerned” about the strong growth of Buddhism. “Buddhism apparently has a much better image than Islam.”
Poorthuis and Salemink, both University of Tilburg scholars, argue in a just published book, Lotus in the Low Countries, that Buddhism also has other sides. “For example, the Kamikaze pilots in the Second World War had Buddhist teachers.” says Poorthuis.
Many Dutch people call themselves Buddhist without knowing exactly what the religion consists of, according to Poorthuis. The teaching is also sometimes commercially misused, as in management courses. “Instead of raising the question of whether the credit crisis was caused by greed, Buddhism has been used to optimise production processes.”
Below we will find Advayavada Buddhism in a Nutshell and the Advayavada Study Plan ASP. See the detailed Site Map for more information about the contents of our website, and please note that many of the icons, blue dots, logos and illustrations on all pages are also useful hyperlinks. On separate pages there are, among others, an explanation of the fourth sign of being, more than sixty relevant excerpts from well-known mainly Buddhist books, an Interlude for the Western Mind(about the Dutch philosopher Spinoza), and an extensive and very illustrative Questions & Answers section.
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Advayavada Buddhism Infocenter,
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or email: advaya@euronet.nl
Buddhism is a collective name for the diverse philosophical, esoteric and religious beliefs that are derived from the way of liberation taught, in the 6th century B.C., by the North-Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha, which means the Awakened or Enlightened One. Advayavada Buddhism, formally established in 1995
According to Advayavada Buddhism, it is indisputable that the Buddha did not believe in Brahman (God, transcendent and immutable Absolute) or in the atman or atta (soul, immortal self) and taught that man suffers because he does not understand and accept that all things in life are instead utterly changeable and transitory; if the Buddha had ever expressed belief in Brahman and the atman or atta, such a fact would have been unequivocally recorded in History. Man is prone to suffering (duhkha, dukkha) quite simply because he wrongly strives after and tries to hold on to things, concepts and situations which he believes to be permanent, but are not.
Man's mistaken view of things is produced by a thirst or craving (called trishna in Sanskrit and tanha in Pali) which is in turn caused by his fundamental ignorance (avidya, avijja) of the true nature of reality. And this thirst or craving can easily take on a more unwholesome form: already as sensuous desire, ill-will, laziness, impatience or distrust will it seriously hinder any efforts to better his circumstances.
His compliance, however, with the five precepts that apply to all followers of the Buddha will allow him to arrest his thirst or craving and to commence removing the root cause of his suffering, i.e. his fundamental ignorance of the true nature of reality. The five fundamental Buddhist precepts are not to kill, not to steal, sexual restraint, not to lie, and abstinence from alcohol and drugs. Man's observance of these precepts in his daily life gives him the moral strength required to embark upon the Buddha's Middle Way that, avoiding first the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, will in due course bring him to the blessed state of Nirvana.
Nirvana is the complete extinction (nirodha) of all suffering (duhkha, dukkha) as a result of our full reconciliation with reality as it truly is. Nirvana and Samsara are not two different realities or two different conditions of reality. Nirvana is to experience the phenomenal world at the level of ultimate truth (paramartha-satya), i.e. truth divested of all our preconceptions, including even those expressed here. Samsara is to experience the same phenomenal world at the level of conventional everyday truth (samvriti-satya). It is as a result of the purification of our perception of the phenomenal world at the level of conventional truth by following the Buddha's Middle Way, that we shall come to understand the significance of ultimate truth.
The Middle Way devoid of extremes that we must follow is concretely the Noble Eightfold Path that the Buddha taught in his very first sermon in Sarnath, near Benares. The Noble Eightfold Path, when interpreted dynamically as an autonomous and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms wondrous overall existence becoming over time, as Advayavada Buddhism does, is that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight, followed by our very best resolution or determination, our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, our very best disposition or attitude, our very best implementation or realization, our very best effort or commitment, our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth. We thus regain our place in totality advancing over time, in human terms, towards better and better, breaking, as we advance along the Path, the fetters (samyojana) that restrict us to Samsara.
Advayavada Buddhism indeed considers progress (pratipada, patipada) as the fourth sign of being, this next to the impermanence and the selflessness of all things and the ubiquity of suffering in the world, which are the three signs or marks of being traditionally taught in Buddhism. When the Path expounded by the Buddha as the correct existential attitude and way of life is viewed as an ongoing reflexion at the level of our personal lives of wondrous overall existence becoming over time, it follows that human beings experience as good, right or beneficial that which takes place in the otherwise indifferent direction that time-being as a whole flows in of its own accord. The teaching of the Buddha must be seen as a Way of Reconciliation with wondrous existence as a whole just right as it is, i.e. as it truly is beyond our commonly limited and biased personal experience of it. Nirvana is, in Advayavada Buddhism, the ultimate reconciliation with reality becoming achievable by man. Indeed, in certain schools of Buddhism, Nirvana itself is seen as the fourth sign of being or seal of the dharma.
NIRVANA IS PURE, UNBLEMISHED BECOMING.
ADVAYAVADA STUDY PLAN
The revelation of Buddhism is in its practice: The Noble Eightfold Path, when interpreted dynamically as an ongoing and autonomous, non-prescriptive, investigative and creative process of progressive insight reflecting in human terms wondrous overall existence advancing over time, as Advayavada Buddhism does, is (1) that of our very best (samyak, samma) comprehension or insight followed by (2) our very best resolution or determination, (3) our very best enunciation or definition of our intention, (4) our very best disposition or attitude, (5) our very best implementation or realization, (6) our very best effort or commitment, (7) our very best observation, reflection or evaluation and self-correction, and (8) our very best meditation or concentration towards an increasingly real experience of samadhi, which brings us to a yet better comprehension or insight, and so forth. By following the Noble Eightfold Path thus you get in tune with wondrous overall existence advancing over time, sorrow, doubt and remorse immediately start disappearing, and your life at once gathers new impetus. The Noble Eightfold Path in Advayavada Buddhism is fully personalized: it is firmly based on what we increasingly know about ourselves and our world, and trusting our own feelings and conscience. Adherence to the familiar Five Precepts and a well-considered understanding of the Four Signs of Being and the Four Noble Truths suffice to start off on the Path at any time. Nirvana is, in Advayavada Buddhism, the total extinction of existential suffering as a result of our complete reconciliation with reality as it truly is. The Path is, in other words, the sure road to enlightenment.
samadhi = total concentration (of the mind, cf. enstasy); non-dualistic state of consciousness in which the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object; total absortion in the object of meditation; transcendence of the relationship between mind and object; merging of subject and object; to contemplate the world without any perception of objects; suspension of judgement; satori; bodhi; rigpa; realization of the sameness of the part and the whole, of the identity of form and emptiness, of samsara and nirvana, of the immediate and the ultimate; mystic oneness; perfect attunement with wondrous overall existence; oceanic feeling; wonder, awe, rapture; essential purity; deep love and compassion; awareness of our common ground.
The purpose of the autonomous Advayavada Study Plan ASP is that we study (and debate in a local group, the family circle or with good friends) the meaning and implications of the weekly subject, not as a formal and impersonal intellectual exercise, but in the context of whatever we ourselves are presently doing or are concerned with, or about, such as our health, relationships, work, study, our place in society, etc. Advayavada Buddhism does not tell you what to do or believe, but how to make the very best of our own lives by becoming as wondrous overall existence advancing over time now in its right direction.
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