An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism: The Essentials of Buddhist Spirituality (36 page)

Japan

121

v. Summary of Some Buddhist Schools or Sects1

Indian, Chinese, and Japanese

Sanskrit

Chinese

Literal Meaning

Japanese

Avatamsaka

Hua-yen

“Flower Garland”

Kegon

—

Tien-T’ai

“Heavenly Terrace”

Tendai

Vajrayāna

Mi-tsung

“School of Secrets”

Shingon

Dhyāna

Ch’an

“Contemplation”

Zen

Sukhāvatī

Ching-t’u

“Pure Land”

Jōdo

Yogāchāra

Fa-hsiang

“Dharma-Character”

Hossō

..........................................................................................................................

Chitta-matra

Wei-shih

“Consciousness-Only”

Yuishiki

Tibetan

(1) Nyingma

“Red Hats”

(2) Sakya

“Gray Hats”

(3) Kagyü &

................................................................

Karma-Kagyü “Black Hats”

(4) Gelug

“Yellow Hats”

The five
Dhyāni-Buddha
s, Japan, 17th-18th century

Ethnological Museum, Leiden, Netherlands

1 For fuller details see pp. 54-55, 90-91, 101, and 116-117.

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An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism

T’hanka
of
Mt. Meru and the Buddhist universe, Bhutan, 19th century

A group of people were conversing about the future life. Some

said that fish-eaters would be born into the Pure Land, others

said that they would not. Hōnen overheard them and said: “If it

is a case of eating fish, cormorants would be born into the Pure

Land, and if it is a case of not eating fish, monkeys would be so

born. But I am sure that whether a man eats fish or not, if he

only cal s upon the Sacred Name, he will be born into the Pure

Land.”

Hōnen

123

(21) The Question of Reincarnation

In Buddhism, as in Hinduism, there are elaborate theories regarding

cosmic cycles, “worlds”, “heavens”, and “hel s”. Linked with these is

the doctrine of transmigration—or multiple births and rebirths—fre-

quently referred to as “reincarnation”.

In the modern West, the notion of “reincarnation” has been adopt-

ed by many cultists, who, in the grossest manner imaginable, profess

to believe in it literal y, envisaging a series of human rebirths in this

world. It is true that a literal attitude towards transmigration is also to

be found among the Hindu and Buddhist masses, and indeed such a

belief derives from a literal interpretation of the respective scriptures.

However, the most simple Asian peasant, even if he looks on transmi-

gration literal y, has an infinitely more subtle intuition of the moral

and spiritual implications of this doctrine than the grotesque cultists

of the West. In Asia, a literalist attitude towards transmigration is not

only harmless, but may even be beneficial. The gross “reincarnation-

ism” of renegade Christian pseudo-esoterists, on the other hand, is im-

mensely harmful for themselves and others.

For a Buddhist, a literal belief in transmigration is like a Christian

believing that hell is a fiery furnace down below. It may not be strictly

true—and yet it is not false either, because the image is one which is

adequate to the deeper (and more complex) truth in question and, be-

ing so, has had a salutary moral and spiritual effect for countless gen-

erations.

The point is that elements plucked from one religious imagery

(though in themselves “figures of truth”) are frequently not transplant-

able to another; above al , they cannot be transplanted, without grave

results, from a traditional world into the chaotic modern world, where

there is minimal religious instruction, minimal religious sensibility,

and a minimal will to understand.

The Hindu and Buddhist doctrine of transmigration refers to the

posthumous journeying of the unsanctified soul through an indefinite

series of “peripheral” or “central” (but, quite emphatical y, non-terres-

trial) states: René Guénon often emphasized that “no being of any kind

can pass through the same state twice”. The term “peripheral” is used

to indicate states which are analogous to animals or even plants in this

world, and the term “central” is used to indicate states which are analo-

gous to the human state.

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An Illustrated Outline of Buddhism

In some respects, transmigration may be regarded as the mytho-

logical analogue of the theological doctrine of purgatory—with the

important difference, however, that, according to the Catholic doc-

trine, a soul in purgatory has definitively retained its “central” state

and is assured of eventual paradise, whereas the final fate of a soul in

transmigration may still be hel . At this point the Aryan and Semitic

eschatologies do not entirely coincide.1

A revealing discrepancy between the Hindu and Buddhist theory

of a succession of births and deaths (for the unsanctified or unsaved

soul) and the fantastical reincarnationism of Western cults is that the

Hindu and the Buddhist strive at all costs to avoid “rebirth” (which

would be “peripheral”, and in another world), whereas the pseudo-es-

oterist imprudently (and il usorily) hankers after a further life or lives

(which he imagines will be “central”, and in
this
world). The Hindu

or Buddhist seeks to escape from the “round of existence”; the impi-

ous heretic longs to remain within it. For the Hindu or Buddhist there

could be no clearer proof of his perversity.

According to the Hindus and Buddhists, the chances of being “re-

born” into a “central” state are minimal; it is said: “The human state

is hard to obtain.” But more than that: the human state, by definition,

is the only escape route from the “round of existence”; it is thus the

threshold of Paradise. To squander this privilege, to miss one’s only

opportunity of salvation, is the greatest possible fol y and tragedy.

*

* *

Linked with transmigration is the doctrine of
karma
(the effect of

past actions). In Christianity, this doctrine is expressed in the verses:

“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians, 6:7)

and “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay” (Romans, 12:19).

Buddhism, like the other religions, teaches that reward or retribution

can occur both in this life and posthumously. There is, however, an es-

cape from the inexorable justice of
karma
:
this lies in the saving truth

of the revealed doctrine, and in the saving efficacy of the revealed

means of grace (which are activated by faith and practice).

1 See Frithjof Schuon, “Universal Eschatology”, in
Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism

(Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 1985).