Exporting Dharma to New Lands: Empirical
Approaches of Teaching Dharma in Predominantly Non-Buddhist
States
Saw Yee
Mon
Introduction
Muttāhaṃ, bhikkhave, sabbapāsehi, yedibbā ye ca
mānusā.
Tumhepi, bhikkhave, muttā sabbapāsehi, ye
dibbā ye ca mānusā.
Caratha, bhikkhave,
cārikaṃ
bahujanahitāya
bahujanasukhāya
Lokānukampāya atthaya hitaya sukāya
devamanussānaṃ.
This verse is expounded by Buddha to sixty of
his ariyā
disciples after a year of his
buddha-hood, while residing at Mighadāvuṃ forest, almost two thousand-six hundred years
ago. According to this, Buddha urged his disciples to make journeys
in order to disseminate dharma for the benefit of all the sentient
beings including humans, deities and brahmās. It was the very first
mission assigned by Buddha to his ariya sānghā. Throughout two and a half millenniums, dharma
has been taught and learned by Buddhists from generations to
generations.
In this paper, three particular approaches
for teaching dharma are explored and discussed in accordance with
the Pāli Texts. The emphasis is made on teaching dharma in new
lands where Buddhism is never known or little
known.
The Need to Export Teachings of
Buddha
In simple economic term, we export goods
and services to other regions and countries in order to gain income
in return. Regarding the export of teachings of Buddha, what can we
expect in return? The return is greater than we can imagine. In
simplest way, it reduces stress, tension and anxiety of every
individual. This has ripple effect and as an accumulated output of
this, society as a whole may become less aggressive and more
peaceful which tends to be the ultimate goal of the present day
global society which is more or less in turmoil.
Again, in terms of wealth, wealth can be
classified into human-wealth and nonhuman wealth. Human wealth
refers to aptitude and attitude of human beings whereas non-human
wealth refers to capital stock. Both type of wealth can be
income-generating, however, only the human wealth which is endowed
with dharma can generate peace and harmony. It will also be the
determinant of self-sustained growth.
We cannot deny the fact that socio-economic
system across the globe produces many tensions in people’s life.
With dharma we will be able to make intelligent choices without
fear. Moreover, Dharma is adaptable and inclusive. That is why we
should not be confined dharma or the Teachings of Buddha to
ourselves, the Buddhists. It is needed to be spread as far as it
can reach. Thus, we inevitably need to export
dharma.
Defining What to
Export
From the very first mission, Buddha
stressed the importance of disseminating dharma on the grounds that
apart from all its benefits and advantages towards the sentient
beings, Buddhist Teachings have auspicious qualities from the
beginning to the middle until the end. They are also flawless in
meaning and in grammar. We can say that it is also an explicit
practical guideline in formulating social ethics to address the
never ending human problems.
Therefore, when defining what or which part of
dharma to be exported, we should not miss the essence. All the
Teachings of Buddha are grouped into Tri Pitaka- the three baskets.
The Pāli word, Buddhasāsanā, means Teachings of Buddha. The essence
of Buddhasāsanā is sīla, samādhi and pānñā. For sīla (morality), samādhi (concentration) and pānñā (wisdom) – the buddha taught
Vinaya, Suttānda
and Abhidhamma. Sīla is expounded and explained through
Vinaya where as samādhi is expounded and explained through
Suttānda
and likewise pānñā is expounded and explained through
Abhidhamma. Thus it is very clear that when
disseminating Buddhasāsanā or the Teachings of Buddha, there should be no
exclusion, but to teach all sīla, samādhi and pānñā through teaching of Vinaya, Suttānda and Abhidhamma.
Agents and
Recipients
In order to export the Teachings of Buddha to
new lands as well as to non-Buddhist states, first we need
exporters or the disseminators of dharma. In this paper, the
disseminators of dharma are referred to as ‘Agents’. As the
knowledge of sīla,
samādhi and
pānñā needs to be disseminated, the role of agents is
important. Agents can be Buddhist monks (bhikkhus), nuns (bhikkhunis), laymen and lay women. In Buddhism, there is
no restriction that only those who are in Buddhist Order, that is,
monks and nuns can teach the dharma nor is there such gender
discrimination like only males are allowed to teach dharma. That is
why in Myanmar history, it has witnessed that a royal princess by
the name of Ma Soe Min taught dharma to many scholar monks in the
royal court of 11th century Bagan Dynasty. She was also known as
Than Byin Princess and was a famous figure in history. She was the
chief instructor of dharma at the court not because she was a
princess but because of her intellectual skills and solid knowledge
in dharma. Regarding the recipients, they refer to both Buddhists
and non-Buddhist people in new lands as
well as in non-Buddhist states.
Approaches for Teaching
Dharma
Agents must be aware of the certain fact
that they are going to deliver their message to the recipients with
totally different mindset and belief system. Even for people who
claim themselves Buddhists in the non-Buddhist states, they have
the potential to have different way of thinking and judgment from
that of people from Theravāda Buddhist countries. Thus, we need to
clarify our approaches in a manner which most appropriately suit
the situations and circumstances. The followings are some suggested
approaches:
1. The Use of Two Dimensional
Tools
2. Never Let the Language Barrier Block the
Way
3. Agent as Ideal Person & a
Kalyāṇamitta
The Use of Two Dimensional
Tools
As mentioned before, the agents can be both
monks and nuns in Buddhist Order or the lay people who are Buddhist
devotees. These agents need certain tools to transfer what they
have learned to the recipients. The two most important tools
are karunā
and pānñā. All the above mentioned agents can and must
cultivate these two dimensions of attribute in them once they have
decided to act as agents. The Buddha himself cultivated
karunā and pānñā to the highest level in him above all others in
the universe. In other words, these tools are invincible armors
against all obstacles of relative world. The mind of Buddha was
ultimately purified by his greatness in karunā and pānñā. Whenever Buddha taught the beings, He
spread karunā
towards each being and used
pānñā to gauge their anusaya so that Buddha knew which discourse to deliver
according to each individual’s anusaya in order to enlighten that person. In the light
of this, agents who teach a way to purify minds need to develop as
much compassion- karunā and wisdom-pānñā as they are capable of.
Compassion, karunā is one of the four characteristics of
Brahmacariya. When an agent is successful in cultivating
compassion to a certain level, it becomes easier for the agent to
cultivate loving-kindness, mettā. Again if an agent has developed a successful
level of wisdom, pānñā, it is easier for the agent to cultivate
equanimity, upakkā. As an empirical success story, the following
is how a Myanmar monk named Ashin Ottama, very famous for his
higher state of compassion, exported dharma to northern part of
Myanmar where Buddhism was unknown before his
time.
Ashin Ottama was born in 1910 in middle
part of Myanmar. He was ordained at the age of nineteen. He started
his missionary works since the British colonial era. At that time,
Buddhist monks were not allowed to travel northern part of Myanmar
as missionary because the colonial government encouraged Christian
missionaries to do their missionary work at the remote and hilly
regions of Myanmar. If a Buddhist monk was found by the colonial
government authority there, the monk would be arrested. In such
kind of situation, Ashin Ottama took the risk to disseminate the
Teachings of Buddha in the hilly regions of the North after the
World War II. He travelled on foot crossing the Rakhine Yoma
mountain ranges. Then he decided to stay on the mountain, 7000 feet
above the sea level.
There the natives were ethnic tribal races. The
majority of these people belonged to ethnic race called Chin. They
had their own spoken language but it did not have written form.
Thus, the British created written language for them by using
English alphabets. At that time, the natives there were illiterate
and they worshipped spirits, except some of them were converted
into Christianity by the western missionaries. Ashin Ottama had a
great compassion for these people and thus he decided to
disseminate dharma there. First, the natives did not accept him and
they regarded him as an evil because his head was shaved, he wore
robe and carried alms bowl which they had never seen before. They
were hostile to him and even tried to harm him. However, Ashin
Ottama had mastered mettā Bhavanā. He constantly radiated loving kindness,
mettā towards all the beings. This again is a result
of possessing a higher level of compassion and had developed wisdom
in him. Those who have compassion, karunā are easier to develop mettā and are also able to effectively radiate
mettā to the beings.
His contemplation of Mettā Bhavanā was very strong and persistent that eventually
the natives started to change their attitude towards him. Some of
them offered him food and some repaired his little hut to be
stronger and warmer. Because Ashin Ottama radiated
mettā and karunā to all beings, wild animals did not harm him as
well. He was completely protected from men and beasts because of
his mettā
and karunā towards all beings. Natives were surprised to
see that even wild animals did not harm him but pay respect to him
when they approached his hut. Eventually, these people came to him
for healing of their wounds and to cure different kinds of
illnesses. Ashin Ottama cured all the patients just by
contemplating Mettā
Bhavanā.
When he recited Metta Sutta , bubbles come out of water in glass or cup or
any kind of container. This water cured certain illness and
released pain. Sometimes, they asked him for simple thing like
weather forecasting, and Ashin Ottama always gave them very
précised forecasting which was valuable for the farmers and
hunters. This is not because he had possessed some kind of
supernatural power, but because he was highly literate in Buddhist
literature, he was very knowledgeable and he was endowed with
wisdom. The villagers thought Ashin Ottama was more powerful than
their gods and spirits they worshipped. Thus the natives came to
believe in him and devoted him. They listened to him and the dharma
he taught them. Their lives became more meaningful and more
peaceful. They could change themselves from superstitious,
primitive people to open-minded, adaptable people who came to
believe in the Law of Kāmma. When analyzing Ashin Ottama’s missionary work,
first he gave the impression to the natives that he was harmless.
The next impression he gave was that he was reliable and he cared
for the welfare of these native people. And finally, he could
deliver the message which was the objective of his mission. In
fact, this kind of mission, living at a place where people speak
different language with different belief system and where one is
prone to be alienated with full of hostility, is almost impossible
for an ordinary agent. However, in the case of Ashin Ottama, he set
an example for future agents that with genuine and perfectly
practiced karunā which is accompanied by pānñā, it is possible to make a success in
disseminating the Teachings of Buddha to the new lands. Thus agents
are highly advised to develop karunā and pānñā which are essential tools in teaching
dharma.
Never Let the Language Barrier Block the
Way
Another issue to be seriously taken into
account by agents is the language barrier. The Teachings of Buddha
are originally in the Pāli texts. Pāli is a language without
written forms and each Buddhist country uses their own characters
and alphabets for written expressions. Here, translation is
pivotal. A very minor divergent in meaning can lead to totally
different concept or explanation. Again, mastering the language of
both Pāli and recipients’ language is crucial.
In Myanmar, Ashin Thittila, a renowned Buddhist
monk of 20th century, was a very reliable example who tried
extraordinarily hard and conquered the language barrier in teaching
and exporting Dharma to the West. Ashin Thittila was born in 1896
and was ordained in 1915. At that time, Myanmar was still under the
British ruling. Although English was used as office language,
majority of natives were against learning English purely out of
patriotism. This was most prominent in Buddhist community. The
elder Theravāda Buddhist monks condemned learning of English and so
did their patrons. Ashin Thittila had a strong ambition to
propagate Buddhism in the world which was full of aggression and
anxiety. In order to fulfill his ambition, he was well aware of the
need to master the language which was commonly spoken in the
western world that is English. Thus, against all odds, he started
learning English. He learned English in Myanmar, India and Sri
Lanka. Moreover, since he was an expert in Pāli, it was easier for
him to learn the grammar of English language. With great
effort, vīriya and strong will, saddā he finally achieved his goal in a short period
of time.
His first journey to the West was in 1938. He
went to England and stayed in London. It was just before the
outbreak of World War II. He endured all the hardships there. When
the War broke out, he did not go back to his country although many
friends and colleagues insisted him and this was because he thought
he hadn’t even started to accomplish his mission. During the War,
he stayed at his friend catholic priest’s estate in Summerset.
While residing there, he volunteered to do ‘black out’ which was to
put out lights at night to avoid exposure to the bombers. He also
volunteered as a first-aid nurse to take care of casualties and
victims of bombings in London. Amidst the hardships where all the
situations were very irrelevant for the livelihood of a Buddhist
monk who also needed to comply with vinaya, Ashin Thittila survived and started to launch
his Buddhist missionary works.
In order to teach Buddhism, agent needs to
master Pāli first. If the recipients’ language and the agent’s
language are the same, then there is not much effort needed for the
agent in teaching the dharma, except to be careful with the Pāli
translation. However, if the agent and the recipients do not share
the same language, then it is a must for the agent to master the
language of the recipients which would be second tongue for him or
her. It is suggested that agent should master at least 70% of both
Pāli and the recipients’ language. In the case of Ashin Thittla, he
firmly believed that he needed to master English and as a result of
his hard work, he could break the big barrier. He organized group
discussions and weekly public lectures. Then he became meditation
instructor. His lectures and his instructions were very clear,
precise and easily understandable by the English native speakers
that the recipients keep on attending the sessions with increasing
number of attendees every week. His British landlady called him
‘Uneducated Easterner’. She always commented that there was nothing
new for westerners to learn from the easterner like Ashin Thittila.
However, once she saw even famous academics started to attend his
lectures, she stopped calling him ‘Uneducated Easterner’. He was a
monk who learned and knew very well about the mindset of 20th
century western people. He believed in the fact that Buddhist way
is not to convert, but to raise the consciousness of others by our
own deeds.
Ashin Thittila started giving a course on
Abhidhamma in 1948 and conducted exam in 1949. He made such
abstract and metaphysical topics very interesting by his skills in
language. Among the candidates who entered the Abhidhamma exams,
many of them passed with distinctions and those who passed were
awarded certificates. He encouraged his students to learn synonyms
for each Buddhist terminology and technical terms to help them make
it easier to learn and understand.
He annulled the Westerners’ point of view
on Buddhism that ‘Buddhism is pessimistic’ and was successful in
convincing them that ‘Buddhism is optimistic’ through his lectures
and dharma talks. This is one of his major achievements. He was
always very careful in translation and careful study of his works
shows that he avoided personal ideas when translating the Pāli
words. This is another issue on which agents need to pay much
attention. Sometimes, when we focus much on the relevancy between
the message we want to instill and the recipients’ situation, we
try to formulate that would suit the situation and there is a
tendency of divergence from the original meaning. As Theravādans,
throughout these 2600 years, we have never added, subtracted or
made changes to the Teachings of Buddha. Thus we need to keep this
tradition and should be cautious about this. As for Ashin Thittila,
he firmly aware of this and it is reflected in his lectures and his
writings. He had written and translated many famous and best
selling books on Buddhism such as The Book of Analysis, The Path of
the Buddha, The Buddha and Personal Life, Essential Themes of
Buddhist Lectures and many more.
He passed away in 1997 at the age of 101,
but his writings and lectures have been quoted and referred to by
many scholars and writers of Buddhism in East and West. He had
himself a good example for the agents who wish to disseminate
dharma in the West without language barrier.
Agent as Ideal Person & a
Kalyāṇamitta
It would be advisable for the agents to set
themselves as role-models or ideal persons to be more effective in
disseminating dharma. Agents do not need to take much trouble in
formulating the principles which would make them role- models
because these principles are already mentioned in the Pāli Texts.
The most basic and simplest principle is to fully observe the Five
Precepts in the case of layman agents. This is the number one step
and all the layman agents should not overlook it. Among many rules
and principles for monks, one notable set of principles is
described in Pāli Text- Āvāsikasuttaṃ6 Theyare known as Characteristics of
Abbot. In simple English, they are:
1. To have pleasant
appearance
2. To be knowledgeable
3. To be able to live secular
life
4. To speak politely with
consideration
5. To be wise
Although these characteristics are
originally meant for monks, especially abbots in this case,
however, layman agents can also adopt these characteristics. By so
doing, they can be role models for their
recipients.
The ideal placed by the Buddha before us is
mutual service men being in need of each other- to help each other.
In Pāli Text, Nikāya there are three modes of conduct for the
Buddhists namely Buddhattha Cariyā (striving for Buddhahood), Ňātattha Cariyā (working for the benefit of one’s
relatives),
and Lokattha Cariyā (working for the benefit of the whole world).
Likewise, each of us has three modes of conduct. The first one
is Atta
Cariyā which means
striving for self development so that one may attain happiness,
self-culture and self-realization. The second mode of conduct
is Ňātattha
Cariyā which stands for
working for the benefit of one’s relatives and friends. The third
mode that is to be observed is Lokattha Cariyā which means to work for the benefit of the whole
world without any discrimination like caste, color or creed. Buddha
asked us to practice these principles to refine our own nature and
to elevate ourselves on the scale of being. These modes directly
reflect the aptitude and attitude of an agent and these reflections
create greater impression on the recipients.
Another aspect that the agents are advised to
bear in mind is that they should be Kalyāṇamitta
for the recipients.
Kalyāṇamitta
represents a genuine and reliable
friend who considers and acts only for the benefit of his or her
friend. Agents should think, speak and act for the good of their
recipients. Those agents who help their recipients to be able to
reach on the right track, that is the Noble Eight-fold Path, are
the Kalyāṇamitta
of their recipients and also that of
their surroundings. Here, we should note that there is always a
ripple effect.
When Ānāndā made a statement that having
a Kalyāṇamitta
meant a person has 50% achieved his
aim to attain Nibāna, the Buddha responded that in fact having
a Kalyāṇamitta
meant the person has 100% achieved.
With a support of Kalyāṇamitta,
a person can achieve his aim to
attain Nibāna. Buddha claimed himself as a
Kalyāṇamitta
for all
beings.
This indicates the importance of the
role of Kalyāṇamitta
and thus agents should not over look
this in building themselves as ideal person when disseminating
dharma.
Concluding
Remarks
This paper does not attempt to replace the
present-day’s widely accepted methodologies of teaching Buddhism in
new lands and non-Buddhist states. It solely aims to highlight the
methods which are already mentioned in the Buddhist texts, but are
prone to be overlooked by many scholars and disseminators of
Buddhism lately. This re-exploration of specific means of teaching
dharma hopes to add more flavors in improving the efficiency of the
existing system in disseminating the Teachings of Buddha and helping people to make their lives
better.