2. Buddhism, Jainism, the Hindu synthesis and the Tamil poems
Universal Modes of Thought in the Axial Age
Professor Jennifer Rycenga
October 6, 2009

3. Karl Jaspers ( ), 20th century German theorist, theologian & philosopher noted large changes in thought patterns across Europe, Mediterranean Africa, and Asia, in the years from BCE.
These transformations, most notably in philosophy and religion, amounted to a reconfiguration of thought that posited the individual as logically separable from the community.
Axial Age (600 BCE BCE)

4. Axial Age (600 - 200 BCE) Themes associated with the Axial Age include
Individual enlightenment (salvation)
Rethinking the relationship between individual, family, and nation
Development of new forms of government (e.g. democracy, empire)
Development of new forms of thought (e.g. philosophy, abstraction, universal categories)
Increased emphasis on asceticism (previously wealth and prosperity had been uncritically lauded)

5. Axial Age ( BCE)
Areas and movements associated with the Axial Age include
Buddhism, Jainism, and the Upanisadic writers of Hinduism in South Asia
Confucianism and Taoism in China
Zoroastrianism in Persia
Prophets in Judaic/Hebrew world
Socrates and the development of philosophy in Ancient Greece

6. Universal Thought Socrates (left) and Smiling Buddha statue
of Angkor Thom,
Cambodia,
with two monks.
Greek philosophy develops universal categories of thought, but they are not immediately translated to religious practice.
Buddhism and Jainism develop universal categories of thought that are pursued in a religious context.
Even among Buddhists, there is debate about whether Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion

7. Three Movements in Axial India
Reactions against ritual formalism of Vedic Hinduism (and its attendant alienation)
Jainism has roots prior to Axial Age, but is articulated in mid-6th century BCE
The Buddha preaches his first sermon ca. 530 BCE
Upanisadic response and Hindu synthesis emerges 300 BCE to 300 CE (Gita)
All have ascetic impulses

8. Asceticism
Root of word comes from Greek askein, meaning, to work, or to train the body.
A system of self-denial or discipline, primarily of the body, in pursuit of religious values. Areas of human life affected by asceticism focus on food, sleep, possessions, and sexual self-control.
Examples include monastic traditions in most world religions. Jainism’s insistence on asceticism for all marks it as distinctive.
Asceticism may have earlier roots in need for discipline in hunting and in warfare

9. Caste Tensions
India in the Axial Age, through its religious doctrines and scriptures, reveals tension between the Brahmin priestly caste and the Kshatriya princely/warrior caste.
Buddha comes from Kshatriya caste, as Arjuna would have, too.
Jainism and Buddhism decenter the importance of deities and, therefore, of rituals related to gods. This reduces the social role of brahmins.
Much of the Gita’s doctrine takes the form of instruction to a Kshatriya: leadership, how to engage in battle even when anti-violent ethics might pull you away, dharma of birth, etc.

10. Jainism and World-Denial
Rigorous Cosmologically Consistent Asceticism

11. Mahavira (599-527 BCE) Reformer of Jainism
Articulated the forms of Jainism that continue to this day
Understood as the most recent living Thirtankara in Jainism
Contemporary of Buddha and the Upanisadic authors

12. Navakar Mantra I bow to the Arhats (Prophets).
I bow to the Siddhas (Liberated Souls)
I bow to the Acharyas (Ascetic Leaders)
I bow to the Upadhyaya (Ascetic Teachers)
I bow to all the Sadhus (Jain Saints)
Note that all of these beings are ascetics

13. Tirthankaras and Deities
The Tirthankaras, as realized beings who have left karmic ties behind, are the true heroes, while the Jain Deities are lower beings who live blissful and long lives, but are still subject to death
Tirthankaras:Deities ::
Ascetics:Those who worship ascetics

14. Mahavira’s Five Great Moral Values
Non-violence (Ahimsa) - not to cause harm to any living beings;
Truthfulness (Satya) - to speak the harmless truth only;
Non-stealing (Asteya) - not to take anything not properly given;
Chastity (Brahmacharya) - not to indulge in sensual pleasure;
Non-possession/Non-attachment (Aparigraha) - complete detachment from people, places, and material things.

15. Sallekhana Voluntary death by refraining from eating
Sallekhana takes time, allowing for ample reflection on life and death
Not eating limits the accumulation of negative karma from killing living beings, and helps purge one of attachments.
The person choosing sallekhana receives support from the Jain community.

16. Sallekhana
Is Sallekhana suicide?

17. Buddha (Siddharta Gautama) 563-483 BCE
Historical person
Dates debated; may have been as much as 100 years later
Founder of Buddhism
Synthesized karmic world-view with an ethic of non-attachment and compassion

18. The Four Noble Truths
From the Buddha’s own enlightenment under the bodhi tree
1) All life is dukkha (suffering)
2) Tanha (craving/desire) is the root of dukkha
3) To eliminate dukkha, one must overcome tanha
4) To overcome tanha, adopt the Eight-Fold Path (i.e. see the next list)
(Buddhism is enamored of systematic lists!)

19. The Eight-Fold Path I This list actually reduces to three parts
First is wanting to reach enlightenment:
1) Right Views
2) Right Aspiration

20. The Eight-Fold Path, Part II
Second is wanting to behave in a manner consistent with reducing suffering:
3) Right Speech
4) Right Conduct
5) Right Livelihood

21. The Eight-Fold Path, Part III
The culmination is disciplining the mind to overcome ignorance:
6) Right Effort
7) Right Mindfulness
8) Right Concentration
These are all technical aspects of meditation; there are some advanced definitions in The Debate of King Milinda

22. Impermanence
Impermanence is the major Buddhist contribution to world philosophy.
Everything originates from something else, so nothing is stable, nothing is eternal.
There is no Atman, no Brahman, no Self, no soul.
King Milinda mistakes Nagasena for his breath, which he calls “The soul, the inner breath”
Nagasena says “There is no soul in the breath” - only comings and goings (page 36)

23. Impermanence
The doctrine of Impermanence leads to the Buddhist discipline of non-attachment.
The best way to rid yourself of Tanha is to practice non-attachment.

24. Compassion
Compassion is the major contribution of Buddhism to world ethics.
If all of life is suffering, the one who realizes this will have infinite compassion for those caught in that suffering.
Nagasena says about the monks “Our going forth is for the purpose that this suffering may be extinguished and that no further suffering may arise; the complete extinction of grasping (tanha) without remainder (karma) is our final goal.”

25. Destruction of Bamiyan Buddha-s Impermanence and Compassion A Buddhist Interpretation
In March 2001, the Taliban government of Afghanistan destroyed
these giant statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan. International
condemnation was strong. Here’s a Buddhist variant on that.

26. Buddha inaugurates an institutional establishment through the Three Jewels:
Buddha (realized one)
Dharma (knowledge and duty)
Sangha (monastic institution and practice)
Is Buddhism a Religion?

27. Buddha says the question of the existence of god(s) is unimportant: get out of pain first, then ask speculative questions. Ask for help from those who are about to reach nirvana.
Buddhism in its Theravada form is a non-theistic religion.
Is Buddhism a Religion?

28. Local, Ethnic, & Universal Religion
Buddha theorized in universal categories, e.g. all sentient beings, all life is suffering, there are no permanent forms
Thus Buddhism is the earliest universal religion (the other two universal religions among major world religions are Christianity and Islam)

29. Scope of a Religion’s Purview I
Local - Religions which are built on the locality and local conditions in which a people live. These religions are specific to given geographic areas and/or to the peoples who live there. Thus, these religious systems are often co-extensive with cultural systems, and thus rarely if ever proselytize (though they may choose to share their insights with others). Their names are usually the same as the name for that people; thus Navajo religion, Ainu religion, Dinka religion. In fact, 'religion' here is a western scholarly distinction not made by the practitioners.

30. Scope of a Religion’s Purview II
Ethnic - Religions which have a universal and unitary ontology, but which base membership and access to this knowledge on kinship, generational ties, and history of a specific ethnic group. These religions tend not to proselytize, yet are sometimes open to new members. They also have been able to easily co-exist with other religions, since their cosmology assumes other perspectives exist.
Examples include Judaism, Hinduism, and Shinto.

31. Scope of a Religion’s Purview III
• Universal - Religions that assume that the human situation is basically identical in all circumstances, and that there is thus a single soteriological viewpoint/solution/perspective for all people. Thus, universal religions tend to proselytize. Examples include Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

32. Proselytize = Spiritual recruitment!
To induce or convince someone to join your religion
To convert a person from one belief, doctrine, cause, or faith to another

33. Buddhist Proselytizers
The Eight-Fold Path contains a proselytizing impulse.
Right Views and Right Aspirations must be consciously adopted.
The map above shows Asoka’s Buddhist missions to the world.
The missionaries to the Mediterranean may not have arrived.
Proselytizing by universal religions is a major vector of cultural diffusion in human history, alongside war & trade.

34. Upanisadic Monism Tat tvam asi = That thou art
Atman = soul; Brahman = the All, the Immensity
The atman is the Brahman, in the sense that a drop of water is part of the ocean

35. Four Ways of Yoga Jñana Yoga - the way of knowledge
Bhakti Yoga - the way of devotion
Karma Yoga - the way of action
Raja Yoga - the way that combines all ways through meditation; this includes the bodily forms of yoga known in the west, and the use of the mantra OM.

37. The Bhagavad Gita: Karma & Dharma
Krisna
and
Arjuna
between
the
armies

38. Bhagavad Gita Krisna, Arjuna talk before the battle
Do your duty, but seek not the fruits
You are neither the slayer nor the slain, because of the continuity of existence

39. Hinduism and Buddhism
“The self embodied in the body of every being is indestructible” (Bhagavad Gita, page 1018)
“I am known as Nagasena but that is only a designation in common use, for no permanent individual can be found” (The Debate of King Milinda, page 32)

40. Hinduism, Buddhism and the Self
“The self embodied in the body of every being is indestructible” (Bhagavad Gita, page 1018)
Hinduism has the Atman, which has real and continuous existence
“no permanent individual can be found” (The Debate of King Milinda, page 32)
Buddhism has dependent origination and chain of causation: nothing remains unchanged

41. The Debate of King Milinda
Written between 100 BCE and 200 CE
Purports to be a dialogue between the Buddhist monk Nagasena and the Greek king of Bactria, Menander I (Milinda in Sanskrit)
Buddhist tradition says Menander converted to Buddhism

42. Bactria was in modern-day northern Afghanistan

43. Rebirth and Nirvana
Nagasena says that one who is not going to be reborn knows this “by the cessation of all this is cause or condition of rebirth” (p. 43).
One who is fully realized “has no fondness for or aversion to life” but retains equanimity (44).
“Time means past, present and future….Where there are beings who will be reborn, for them time exists’ where there are beings who will not be reborn, for them time does not exist” (47).

44. Ignorance and Enlightenment
From the Dhammapada
For countless births I wandered in Samsara, seeking, but not finding the builder of this house. Painful is repeated birth! House builder you are seen! You shall build no house again! All your rafters are broken! Your ridge-pole [ignorance] is shattered! My mind has gone to nirvana. Achieved is the end of craving.”
Quoted in footnote 35, page 48.

45. Equanimity in the Gita
Be intent on action, not on the fruits of action; avoid attraction to the fruits and attachment to inaction.
Perform actions, firm in discipline, relinquishing attachment; be impartial to failure and success—this equanimity is called discipline [yoga]. p. 1019

46. Asceticism in the Gita
When, like a tortoise retracting its limbs, he withdraws his senses completely from sensuous objects, his insight is sure (1020)
When he controls his senses with his mind and engages in the discipline of action with his faculties of action, detachment sets him apart. (1021)

47. Karma and Dharma in the Gita
Action imprisons the world unless it is done as sacrifice; freed from attachment, Arjuna, perform action as sacrifice! (1021)
As the ignorant act with attachment to actions, Arjuna, so wise men should act with detachment to preserve the world (1022).

48. Universal Thought in the Gita
“I exist in all creatures, so the disciplined man devoted to me grasps the oneness of life; wherever he is, he is in me.” (1025)
“Even those devotees who worship other gods sincerely and steadfastly, they too worship Me (Krisna) only, though improperly and inappropriately.” (IX. 23)
“I am indeed the enjoyer of all sacrificial ceremonies and their Lord…” (IX. 24)
“Whatever that is offered to me with great devotion whether it is a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, that offering of the pure soul I accept.” (IX. 26)

49. Krishna’s Transfiguration

50. What is lost in the universal?
Tamil Sangam poetry
Connotation
Variety and Diversity

51. Tamil Poetry, ca. 100 CE Southern India Dravidian language
Independent literary tradition
Male and female poets
Agam - love poems
Puram - war poems

52. What She Said (Agam poem, 1032-33)
Don’t they really have
in the land where he has gone
such things
as house sparrows
dense-feathered, the color of fading water lilies,
pecking at grain drying on yards
playing with the scatter of the fine dust
of the streets’ manure
and living with their nestlings
in the angle of the penthouse
and miserable evenings,
and loneliness?
What She Said (Agam poem, )

53. Earth’s Bounty (Puram poem 1037-1038)
Bless you, earth:
field,
forest,
valley,
or hill,
you are only
as good
as the good young men
in each place.
(By the woman poet, Auvaiyar)