Theravada Buddhism

The word “Theravada” simply means the “Doctrine of the Elders”. This tradition represents, quite deliberately, a conservative option. It maintains today many aspects of the Buddhist tradition that were practiced in India during those early centuries after the death of the Buddha. It expanded into Sri Lanka and the to the rest of South East Asia.

I will try to give you a taste of the history and beliefs of the Theravada by looking at three representative figures who have shaped the development of the Theravada tradition:

1. Theravada Buddhism Through its Figures
   
2. Ashoka, the Righteous King
   
3. Mongkut: King and Monk
   
4. Aung San Suu Kyi: A Buddhist Hero

Aung San Suu Kyi: A Buddhist Hero

Aung San Suu Kyi is another striking example of the intersection between religious and political values in the Theravada Buddhist countries of South East Asia. Aung San Suu Kyi was born in 1945, as the daughter of Burma’s national hero: General Aung San. He was the leader of the Burma’s liberation movement in World War II, who was assassinated in 1947, just after the end of the Second World War and just when Burma was going to receive its independence from British and Japanese domination.

A Symbol of Democracy

Aung San Suu Kyi was educated in Rangoon, Delhi and Oxford. She settled down to raise a family in Oxford. He married an Englishman, had two sons and was living a rather comfortable life as an academic in England, quite far away from all the concerns of Burma and South East Asia.

Her mother became ill. She went back to visit her mother in 1988, to offer her some companionship. Just during that time, the military government in Burma had declared the possibility of an election. As the daughter of the discrete hero of Burmese national liberation movement, she was drawn naturally into the movement for democratic reform. Eventually, she became the symbol of that movement.

Despite being placed under house arrest, her movement won a colossal election victory in May 1990. The military government dismissed the results of the election and imprisoned its leaders. Aung San Suu Kyi has been held under house arrest since 1990 in Rangoon but he has continued to speak out in favor of the democratic movement.

In 1991, she was given the Nobel Peace Price for what the Nobel Committee called her “unflagging efforts for democracy, human rights and ethnic reconciliation by peaceful means”.

A Buddhist Political Philosophy

Aung San Suu Kyi’s political philosophy seems to be pretty simple but there is force and eloquence in her words as there was in the teaching of the Buddha. Simple and strong words. One of his most famous speeches is called simply “Freedom from Fear”. The speech begins by saying “It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

Near the end of the speech, after she had explored this theme for a while, she refers to Mahatma Gandhi’s statement that the greatest gift for an individual or a nation is fearlessness, the absence of fear from the mind. When Gandhi talked about the gift of fearlessness, he was doing something in which he was very skillful at, he was referring to an ancient practice of the Buddha.

She said that fearlessness may be a gift, as Mahatma Gandhi said, but perhaps more precious is the courage that is acquired through endeavor, through your own efforts, courage that cultivates the habit of refusing let fear dictate your actions. As you read these words, you can see how Aung San Suu Kyi’s career brings together modern democratic values and the fundamental Buddhist values of courage, patience, tolerance and non-violence. It is a powerful mix that should draw the attention of anyone who thinks Buddhist values belong only in the monastery. Here they play an active role in political life, as they have in the Buddhist tradition all the way through its history, from the time of Ashoka to the present.

This article is part of the series about Theravada Buddhism.

Mongkut: King and Monk

King Mongkut reigned Thailand from 1851 to 1868. He is one of the most striking examples of a righteous king in modern history. He is remarkable because combines the roles of monk and king. He served as a monk for over twenty-five years before he ascended to the throne. He came to his position of king as a person who already had been deeply infused in monastic practice, something that is not common in the Buddhist world. It is striking that King Mongkut brought that background with him to the throne.

A Modernist

As king, he believed that Thai monastic life needed to be reformed, purged of superstitious practices and return to the pristine model of the early canonical scriptures, the scriptures that we call the Pali Canon.

In addition to being a monk and a king, he was also a modernist. He wanted to reform the Sangha, to bring it back to what he thought was the pristine ancient practice of the Buddha as it was reflected in the Pali Canon. This is an important aspect of contemporary Buddhism you would encounter throughout South East Asia, and in fact, throughout the world. There is a modernizing impulse, an impulse to strip away what people think of as being superstitious practices, things that have been added to the tradition over the course of his history and return to the ancient practice of the Buddha.

The Reform Movement

He gave institutional expression to these ideas by creating the Thammayut movement. During the reign of his son, king Chulalongkorn, this reform movement was extended throughout the Thai Sangha and was given the status of an official orthodoxy. So, King Mogkut created a reform movement that eventually was extended to the whole Sangha and became the modernizing matrix of Thai monastic life. This is one of the reasons why the Thai monastic system has been able to adapt to the challenges of modernity.

Thailand continues to be an example, even today, of the close alliance between king and Sangha in the extension and protection of Buddhist values. This is something you should keep in mind if you ever have the chance of visiting in Bangkok the Royal Shrine, called the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. In that place, you will see clearly the intersection of royal and Buddhist values. It is a Shrine that honors the monarchy, and also at the same time, the central place of the Buddha within the structure of the Thai national identity.

This article is part of the series about Theravada Buddhism.

Ashoka, the Righteous King

When King Ashoka assumed the throne in the year 269 BCE as Emperor of the Maurya dynasty in India, he inherited a kingdom that had already been substantially expanded by his predecessors. He already dominated a large portion of India, but there was a particular kingdom that resisted domination, the Kingdom of Kalinga.

The Convertion

Ashoka took as his responsibility to bring the people of Kalinga into the empire. He waged a very bloody and cruel military campaign to bring the Kalinga people under his domination. The brutality of this campaign apparently provoked Ashoka to convert to Buddhism. He accepted the Buddha’s Dharma with its implicit idea of no violence.

King Ashoka

After his conversion, Ashoka proclaimed himself a Righteous King, a protector of the Dharma. Ashoka advocated a policy of conquest by Dharma. Ashoka’s position has been recorded on a series of rock carvings that were placed in strategic locations around his empire. This is nice for us, we can take all of them and read them.

The Edict 30 gives an account of his conversion. It is interesting to read about Ashoka’s convertion in his own words:

“Eight years after his coronation, King Devanampriya Priyadarsi (a way of designating himself) conquered the country of Kalinga. One hundred and fifty thousand people were deported. One hundred thousand were killed, and many times that number perished. Now that the Kalingans have been taken, Devanampriya came to feel a strong inclination towards the Dharma, a love for the Dharma and for instruction in Dharma. Devanampriya feels sorrow at having conquered the Kalingans. Indeed, Devanampriya considers conquest by Dhamma to be the best conquest.”

The Promotion of The Dharma

This is the basic theme of conquest by the Dharma rather than conquest by force of arms. Other Edicts talk about his policy to promote the Dharma. You can see that his view of Dharma is not complicated. It has to do with rather simple Buddhist values. It has to do with respect for others and their welfare:

“King Devanampriya Priyadarsi says: I have had banyan trees planted along the road to provide shade for beasts and people and I have had mango groves planted. I have had wells dug, rest-houses built in every mile. I have had watering-holes made for the use of animals and men. Of course previous Kings have sought as well to please the people with such facilities, but I’m doing this so people may follow the Path of Dharma.”

This explicitly links his concern for the welfare of the people with his policy to promote the Buddha’s Dharma. As part of this policy, King Ashoka sent missionaries out to spread the Buddhist teaching in India and elsewhere in South East Asia. His actions have served as models for righteous kings throughout the Buddhist world.

The Righteous King

What a Righteous King would be like? A Righteous King protects and promotes the Dharma. In return, the king is recognized and legitimated by the religious authorities. There is a ritual way monks can designate this guy as somebody whom people should respect and trust. This is an important two-way relationship. The king supports the monks, the monks support the king. This makes it possible for the king to develop a sense of trust and loyalty among his people.

In some situations, the king disciplines and reforms the Sangha, to make sure that it doesn’t interfere in the affairs of the state. Ashoka himself set an example for this reformist function when he says in one of his edicts: “Any monk or nun who causes a schism in the Sangha would have to wear the white robes of a lay person and would no longer be able to dwell in a monastic residence.”

We will see this ideal of the Righteous King throughout the Buddhist world, not just in South East Asia, but also in China, Tibet and Japan. It is an important component in the complex structure of Buddhist society.

This article is part of the series about Theravada Buddhism.

Theravada Buddhism Through its Figures

Buddhism changed in two ways as it expanded out of its original homeland in Northern India. Disputes within the Buddhist community generated a series of sectarian movements. All this started after the Second Buddhist Council.

The Doctrine of The Elders

Many of these early sects are really historical objects at this point. We can study them or we can read about them in texts, but we can’t meet them on the street. They don’t represent the Buddhist tradition today.

One of these early sects, however, is still active today. This is the Theravada tradition. The word “Theravada” simply means the “Doctrine of the Elders”. It is in its designation a conservative tradition. It expanded into Sri Lanka and the to the rest of South East Asia. It maintains today many aspects of the Buddhist tradition that would had been practiced in India during those early centuries after the death of the Buddha.

Three Essential Figures

I will try to give you a taste of the history of the Theravada by looking at three representative figures who have shaped the development of the Theravada tradition as we know it today.

The first figure I have in mind is King Ashoka, the ancient king of the Maurya dynasty who became a prototype of the righteous king and who’s son, according to Buddhist legend, became the first missionary to carry the Buddhist tradition down into South East Asia.

The second figure is King Mongkut of Thailand. He reigned from 1851 to 1868. Before he became king, he spent twenty-five years in the monastery as a monk. When he was instituted as king he began a reform movement to modernize the Thai Sangha. As king, he had an enormous impact on Buddhist life in Thailand. He crystallizes an important aspect of modern Theravada Buddhism.

The third figure is one of the most intriguing modern figures in the Buddhist tradition. A woman named Aung San Suu Kyi. She is the leader of the democratic protest movement in Burma and was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Price in 1991. She also shows us the Buddhist tradition in a fascinating and modern way.

Why These?

You might ask why of all the possible figures of Theravada Buddhist history I’ve chosen to focus on these three political leaders. There are two reasons for this. One is to raise the issue of the relationship between Buddhism and Politics. It is not something you normally think of as being consistent with traditional Buddhist values. You see the Buddha as a monk, it is hard to imagine him as a politician.

The relationship between Buddhist values and politics has been a deeply rooted theme in Buddhist life. It is important for us to consider it in order to develop a full understanding of Buddhist society and to see how Buddhism wove its way into the life of other civilizations in Asia.

The second reason for choosing these figures is to raise the question of modernity. It is very easy to imagine that the Buddhist tradition is only an historical artifact, something associated with the teaching of the Buddha in a distant civilization, distant from us not just geographically but also historically. The truth is that Buddhism and Buddhist people had been involved in the process of modernization just the way religious people had been in other cultures. It is useful for us to see in King Mongkut and Aung San Suu Kyi some of the subtle and powerful ways that Buddhism has been brought into relationship with the challenges of modernity.

This article is part of the series about Theravada Buddhism.