Hi Everybody,
We ended the last session talking about the importance of establishing a steady, regular daily practice, because it is that structure, that discipline if you like, that steady progression towards the positive that enables us to become more capable, more effective, more contributing, in all the multiple, overlapping roles that we all have to fulfil, as parents and as partners, as teachers and colleagues at work and as friends at play. And of course as responsible people living in society. And one must add, with a greater sense of well-being; a claim that is amply borne out in the vast body of social research we now have on what kinds of things contribute to a stable sense of well-being. It's clear that our awareness of our own improved self confidence and our own increased ability to contribute to others, both play play a huge role in what constitutes happiness in this life.
We all want fundamentally to be capable people, in all the roles we inhabit. No one wants ever to be thought incapable!!
As we've seen, Buddhism chooses to call that resilient, life-enhancing inner strength that we learn how to grow, Buddhahood. And it chooses to call the confident awareness of its existence enlightenment. Those are of course unusual and infrequently used words in our western vocabulary, but when it comes down to it, they are just names! We shouldn't allow their unusual-ness and unfamiliarity to deflect us the central fact that the qualities that they represent are not in any way other-worldly or esoteric; they are demonstrably part of our everyday, down-to-earth reality. But before we dip into someof the important and immensely revealing social research I've mentioned, let's briefly tackle this central concept of Buddhahood.
So, what do we really mean by Buddhahood? I don't think we'll be able to squeeze the whole of the answer to that question into this episode, but we'll get a fair way.
So we are wholly accustomed in the western world to thinking of the ' the Buddha ' as being the great historical figure of Shakyamuni. There have of course been many other men who have been given the title Buddha down the intervening centuries, but when we attach that definite article, we are undoubtedly referring to Shakyamuni himself. As we discussed earlier, he made no claims to divinity or to divine inspiration during his long lifetime. Indeed he specifically forbade his followers from making any such connection. However it is unquestionably the case that in western minds he clearly occupies a place alongside the other great founders of religions such as jesus and Mohammed, who did of course claim a divine connection. Indeed that was the very basis of their life on this Earth, they claimed to be the only channel through which God's or Allah's purpose was transmitted to mankind.
As a result of this parallel status, if I may put it that way, in the West, we are accustomed to attributing to the title Buddha, if not the very special qualities of divinity, at least something very close to it. For all intents and purposes, the Buddha has become god-like. Indeed across much of South East Asia Shakyamuni has been virtually deified, with huge gilded statues in Buddhist temples, and since it was this form of Buddhism that was first encountered and described by western travellers, this sense if deification very much colours the western response to the word Buddha. It is certainly fundamental in my personal response.
It therefore comes a ssomething of a shock when we first encounter the central teaching of the Lotus Sutra and of Nichiren Buddhism, which is that Buddhahood, or the Buddha Nature as it is often called, is not a quality possessed only by one very special man in history, or even by a handful of special men down the centuries. Buddhahood we are told, is a potential inherent in everyone, everyone without exception. Part of our essential humanity. Whether we accept it or not, whether we believe it or not, or have the slightest interest in understanding the implications of it, Buddhism argues that we all have that potential in our lives. Everyoner you sit beside on the train, or ride up the escalator with, the man you buy your newspaper from, all the colleagues you encounter on a daily basis at work, those you like and those you don't!
The Buddha nature we are told is a universal quality, that we can all learn to draw upon or to harness in our daily lives.
Well that is aundoubtedly a huge, life-changing idea isn't it? Nothing less than a revolution in the spiritual history of mankind.
And we gon on to look at the implications of that idea in the next episode.
Thanks for reading to here. It's much appreciated. Hope you are enjoying it enough to tell other people about it.
Best wishes,
William
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