Lay-Life and the Buddhist Tradition
Does earlier Buddhist tradition take the Dharma practice of people in families seriously?
Hridaya presents strong evidence that it does.
Reprinted from Golden Drum 27.
Over the 2,500 years of Buddhism’s existence, many approaches have been taken to Dharma practice within family life. In this article, I want to sketch some impressions of how earlier Buddhist tradition has regarded the capacities and needs of people whose practice of the Buddha Dharma takes place within this context.
The earliest strata of Buddhist teachings to which we have access are in the Pali Canon. The majority of these teachings are addressed to bhikshus and bhikshunis who, having left the household life, are exhorted to remain aloof from society. However, many of suttas (discourses) of the Pali Canon depict or are addressed to family people. Some teachings are aimed at helping them maintain a good and broad basis for family life:
Fidelity, modesty and generosity —
These do the good pursue: This is the deva-path.
(Anguttara Nikaya iv.236)
However, this kind of material can appear problematic for Buddhists living the family life. Many of the teachings offered to ‘lay’ followers in the Pali Canon only go so far, promising respect in society and a better rebirth. Perhaps the Buddha was being realistic in setting lesser goals for those living a family life than for those who had gone forth from it. But this kind of teaching, coupled with critical descriptions of the household life in the Pali Canon, has created a particularly negative image of Buddhism in some people’s minds. This is a mistake probably accounted for by the fact that many of the most well-known texts of the Pali Canon are those addressed specifically to bhikshus and bhikshunis.
Let’s look at some Pali material that perhaps gives us an appreciation of the Buddha out-side of the &lrsquo;monastic’ community. We can only look at a little, which is a pity, as there is so much that is fresh and rich.
On one occasion, the Buddha says to some bhikshus Hold it true, bhikshus, that householder Ugga of Vesali is possessed of eight wonderful and marvellous qualities.
Later, when a ,em>bhikshu goes off in search of Ugga at home, to find out what these qualities could be, lie finds that Ugga’s heart is clear and lucid
, that his Dharma-eye has been opened, that lie has completely overcome the first five fetters (i.e. that he has gained the Insight of a Non-Returner), and skilfully preaches the Dharma to others.
The householders Mahanama and Suraka received important teachings from the Buddha, who celebrated another called Hatthaka for his kindness and modesty. But, despite his modesty, Hatthaka still attracted five hundred lay disciples of his own, some of whom were themselves Stream Entrants and Once-Returners.
Then there is the householder Dhammadinna (not to be confused with the famous bhikshuni of the same name) — also with disciples of his own — who when offered the teaching of sunna (shunyata, emptiness) by the Buddha holds back, saying: Lord, it’s no easy thing for us living as we do in crowded houses, committed to children, handling money and enjoying Benares sandalwood, to spend our days learning these teachings. Let the Lord teach us some other teaching, us who stand firm in the five precepts
. The Buddha then teaches Dhammadinna the Four Limbs of Stream Winning, upon which Dhammadinna realizes that he is already a Stream Entrant; Dhammadinna has underestimated his own spiritual achievements.
Finally, from these early Pali texts, let us mention the account of Nakula arid her father and mother. Nakula’s father is dangerously ill and suffering because he feels he is leaving his wife and child unprotected. His wife understands this, and in a moving account tells him not to (die fretting with craving
. Eventually Nakula’s father recovers and visits the Buddha who, understanding the quality of the wife’s action, says It is an advantage to you, householder, it is a gain to you that your wife has been compassionate, wishful of your profit, a counselor and a guide.
If you read through these texts completely, you cannot help but feel convinced of the Buddha’s positive attitude and love towards all the very different kinds of people he knew; He who was so kind
, as Ananda later recollected.
With the arising of the Mahayana, ways were sought to emphasize even more the effective practice of the Dharma by lay followers. Perhaps the most outstanding way in which the Mahayana did this was trough the teaching of the Bodhisattva Ideal. The bodhisattva makes no distinction between self and other, and perfects skilful means to help all beings. Significantly, the Mahayana acknowledged that lay people as well as bhikshus and bhikshunis can be bodhisattvas, and there are celebrated accounts of teachers with their own families.
Much of the Mahayana teaching, including the Bodhisattva Ideal, tries to point to what is fundamental and essential: that life-style and appearance are secondary and that it is the aspiration and will to move towards Enlightenment that is primary.
This message is also found in Pali texts. In the Dhammapada the Buddha points to what is really important and cuts though appearances in a verse which begins But although a man may wear fine clothing, if he develops tranquillity, is quiet and subdued, leading a spiritual life and abstaining from injury to all living beings, he is a brahmin, he is a bhikshu.
The verse could well be paraphrased: But although a man is pushing his fold-away pushchair through the shops, if he develops tranquillity,...
This verse, whether rendered like this or in more conventional ways, illustrates that Buddha in the Pali Canon, as well as in other forms of the teaching, pointed to what was really important: We should all be guided by this principle.
Buddhist schools, like many things in life, had a way of repeating themselves. Some of the Mahayana schools, even the important ones, after originally stressing the importance of experience and complete understanding, moved towards scholasticism and theory. This, of course, distanced them from ordinary people. This tendency was, thankfully, followed by another flowering, that of the Tantric movement, which bred new life and vigour into Buddhism.
The Buddhist Tantra, though based upon the doctrines of earlier schools, sought to discover the realities behind concepts and symbols. It also emphasized that lay people as well as ‘full-timers’ were capable of developing siddhi (a tantric equivalent of Insight). Spiritual action was at heart of its teaching.
The development of Tantric Buddhism in Tibet from the seventh century CE saw the strengthening of a monastic tradition that was not remote from lay people. The monasteries were centres for health an(I education and many family people would spend limited periods of time in them. The tradition of sending the eldest son into the monastery and having family interests taken care of by the second son ensured a close family link with the monastery.
Many Tibetan lamas were married, and some famous teachers such as Marpa (1012–96), teacher of Milarepa, brought up a family. In recent times several of Sangharakshita’s own Tibetan teachers were highly regarded married lamas.
In Tibet, the distinction between initiation and monastic ordination was important. Spiritual initiation into a Tantric meditation practice was a vital aspect of Tibetan practice and teachers made this available to lay people as well as bhikshus, the important thing being their receptiveness and understanding rather than their lifestyle.
In China, the lay Buddhist community always played a significant part. When Buddhism first arrived in the country it could not ignore the existing cultural climate of Confucianism. China was already a developed and sophisticated society with deep respect for family and ancestors. One of the most popular and acclaimed sutras in China was the Vimalakirti Nirdesa, an account of the great bodhisattva Vimalakirti who ‘manifested’ as a layman as a skilful means in order to teach the Dharma to people from all walks of life.
All the important Chinese Buddhist schools seem to have had lay members participating significantly. If we look only at Ch’an (Zen) school we find Hui Neng (638–713) at the end of his life predicting that his school would fully establish itself seventy years after his death through the efforts of two people, one a bhikshu, the other a lay person. The lay person was the Ch’an master P’ang Yun, who with his daughter Ling Chao influenced many contemporary Buddhists and left important teachings, one of the most famous being Wang Wei (699–759), one of China’s most famaus poets, was a dedicated lay Buddhist and is regarded as having written the first Chinese verses to contain kung-ans (koans), which are also important teachings of the Ch’an School.
You ask me to explain the reason for failure and success; the fisherman’s song goes deep into the river.
The voice of Wang Wei is that of a True Individual — a fact which applies to all the lay Dharma-practitioners I have mentioned in this article. Progress in the Buddha’s teaching is always made by individual, as such, whether bhikshus or lay people. The conditions for either may be different, but, as we have seen, significant spiritual progress — including the realization of high levels of Insight — has been made by very many people who have had the responsibilities of family life. They have not treated this as an obstacle. Fundamentally, the Buddha’s teaching tries to reach the hearts of those who will listen, wherever and in whatever circumstances they may in.
Reprinted from Golden Drum 27.