Buddhism
makes a comeback in India
By Francois Gautier
http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/dec/01franc.htm
There is little doubt that
Buddha came at a time where Hinduism had got bogged down in too much
philosophical talk, rituals and casteism -- it would need much later a
Shankaracharya to give it again a new impetus -- and Buddhism offered a simple
way out of human misery to anybody, whatever their caste and social status. This
may explain why at the beginning of our era, the entire northern and eastern
India was practicing Buddhism.
Unfortunately, after Buddha's death, his followers and
disciples gradually made of Buddhism a religion of rigid tenets, dos and don'ts,
which not only diminished Buddhism's popular appeal, but also may have harmed
India. This harm has two facets: Non-violence and Maya.
Many Buddhists like to believe that Buddhism
disappeared from India, because it was slowly "swallowed" back by
Hinduism at the hands of the vengeful Brahmins, who had lost their principal
source of income with the self-liberation methods of Buddha. But the truth could
be entirely different. Hinduism of the Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita always held ahimsa
as one of its highest spiritual values, but at the same time understood that
violence can sometimes be necessary to defend one's border's, women and
children, in a word that Might has to protect Dharma.
Which is why, until Buddhism made of non-violence an
uncompromising, inflexible dogma, India's borders were not only secure, but
extended from Afghanistan to Kanyakumari. But when Ashoka embraced Buddhism,
India's great protecting armor, which had worked for millennia, had been
breached. Buddhist thought also indirectly influenced great figures such as
Mahatma Gandhi, whose sincere but rigid adherence to non-violence may have
indirectly precipitated Partition.
Today, unobtrusively, Buddhism seems to be making a
great comeback in India through the Vipassana movement of Shri Goenka, who
learnt the technique in Burma from a great Master and brought it back to India
in the late sixties.
The remarkable Vipassana meditation is originally a
Vedic technique, which had been lost and which Buddha rediscovered again. In the
hands of Siddartha Gautama, it became a simple, self-liberation method,
accessible to all, regardless of their caste, religion, or social status. Hence
its immense success in Buddha's time, when Hinduism had lost some of its appeal
because of too much philosophical talk, casteism and rituals.
Shri Goenka keeps emphasising today that his Vipassana
movement is still non-sectarian, open to all, whatever their religion and
nationality. But it appears not to have lost some of the anti-Hindu
slant that post-Buddha sects adopted (as
evident in today's Sinhalese Buddhism). At every sentence of his discourses (meditators
usually attend ten days' courses, where at the end of each day, they watch a
video tape of Goenkaji, commenting on the technique), Goenka takes a
subtle potshot at Hinduism, whether it is the "rites, rituals, Gods,
images", or the "priests" (Brahmins), who tried to malign Buddha,
or the sadhus "with their beads, matted hair, Shiva marks etc", or
Varanasi, "a holy city full of hashish and bhang."
Or else, he riles contemporary Hindu gurus and movements (without naming them
openly, but they are easily recognised): Sai Baba "with all these
hospitals, schools, etc, with his name inscribed on them"; or Rajneesh/Osho
"with this fleet of Rolls Royces"; or the Hare Krishna movement
"dancing Hare Krishna this and Hare Krishna that"…
It is rarely mentioned today that Buddhism, like Islam
and Christianity has been a proselytising religion, even if it was done
peacefully: Emperor Ashoka's missionaries went all over Asia and converted huge
chunks of territory. But Buddhism came out of Hinduism and ultimately went back
to it, as the millions of Indian Buddhists of the beginning of our era,
eventually reverted to Hinduism. This is why Buddhists may have kept a certain
resentment against Hinduism.
Shri Goenka's Vipassana meditation technique is today
practiced by millions in India, because it is such a simple and effective
procedure. But Shri Goenka's greatest fear is, that like after Buddha's demise,
when Hinduism started eating back into the core of Buddhism, after his death (Goenkaji
is nearing 80), the same thing will happen to the Vipassana movement.
Hence, at every step, he warns his practitioners, that
if they liked the technique, they should, when they go back to the world, use it
exclusively "and not revert to rites, rituals, etc" -- meaning that
they should become Buddhists (even if he does not say so in so many words) and
shun Hinduism. But what Shri Goenka fails to see
is that on the one hand, he is promoting conversion, even if it is not in a
blatant manner; and two, that once more, someone is taking advantage of
Hinduism's great tolerance and openness.
For of course, 99 per cent of Vipassana meditators in
India are Hindus -- I have attended more than a dozen ten days' courses and I
have seen only one or two Christian nuns and never a single Muslim. Only
Hindus recognize Buddha as an avatar, Muslims consider him as an infidel and
indeed erased all traces of Him in India; and Christians tend to think that only
Jesus is the true Son of God.
We notice also the embryo of the erstwhile errors of
Buddhism, which cost India so much: a rigid and unbending non-violence -- it is
for instance forbidden to kill even a mosquito in the Vipassana ashram premises;
it is true too, that Vipassana, however efficient, is a joyless technique, with
a very strict mental set-up: segregation between men and women is pushed
sometimes to absurd limits and everything is timed to the second, leaving very
little space for laughter and the imagination.
Again, there is an emphasis on withdrawal from this
world, as Shri Goenka keeps saying at every step that everything is
"misery, misery", "craving and aversion" and that "we
are dying at every moment." And this may again lead India towards
self-neglect, at a moment where She needs all her enthusiasm and energies.
Finally, there is no doubt that Shri Goenka is bent
-- if not on establishing a new religion -- at least on starting an irreversible
movement; the huge Vipassana temple being now built in Bombay is proof of that.
Is he going to succeed? While the Vipassana technique
is a wonderful instrument, it should not be used to promote a new religion, at a
time when the world is trying to move away from religions towards spirituality.
And once more, we see that India is coming under threat. Will Goenka's
meditators slowly come into positions of power and give again to India the
passive, weak, non-violent turn of mind which already in the past did so much
harm to Her ?
No
Comparative Religion for Memphis
Source: Associated Press, November 24, 2000
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, USA: A proposed comparative religion course for high school
students has prompted debate in Memphis. The Shelby County School Board first
tried to offer Bible history classes but was stopped by the state because the
courses were found to focus too heavily on Protestants.
It was then proposed that the board adopt a comparative
religion course, but the school board said no.
Board member Wyatt Bunker was the most vocal
opponent of the comparative religion course, calling it "just altogether a
bad idea to teach Hinduism, Buddhism and voodoo and whatever else in our
schools.''
He said he took a comparative religion class in college
and is convinced that such courses are not suitable for younger, impressionable
children. "If they don't want God in our schools, then we're not going to
have Gandhi in our schools,'' he said. Some citizens took exception to Bunker's
comments. Cliff Heegel, a Buddhist minister who leads a small local
congregation, said: "It seems to me the school board is trying to impose
religious values on the curriculum, especially since they rejected the
broad-based world religion course that is taught in almost every university.''
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