Comparing Theravada and Zen

Theravada can claim to be the oldest form of Buddhism. Theravada can also be one of the most “fundamentalist” Buddhist sects with totally different paths for laity and ordained monks and nuns. Theravada in Sri Lanka has recently been influenced by western thoughts and ideas. Theravada holds the Pali Canon to be one and only Canon, unlike Zen which uses Mahayana sutras like the Lotus Sutra. In the book “The Empty Mirror” the Lotus Sutra is one of the Sutras the Japanese monks chant in Chinese. Theravada and Zen both however have Jataka, or stories of the Buddha’s previous births to teach moral lessons. Harvey mentions that Theravadans will use them when ministering to laity and Wetering mentions the Roshi telling them to the laity. The Jataka stories may be slightly different from one another and these differences may reflect differences in philosophy or maybe just cultural differences.

Zen Buddhism emphasizes meditation and innate Buddha nature. The term “Zen” is usually used to distinguish it from Chinese Ch’an. Ch’an itself is a translation of the Sanskrit word “dhyana” which means meditation. So just by looking at its name it is clear to see that Zen emphasizes meditation. The founder of the Ch’an School, Bodhidharma, is said to have cut off his own eyelids so he could meditate in front of a wall without falling asleep. Whether that story is true or not isn’t important but it does demonstrate the importance of meditation to Zen.

Zen was brought to Japan by Eisai and then Zen split into two main schools: Rinzai and Soto. Both schools, pulling from their Mahayana background, stress sudden enlightenment or “kensho” spiritual “ah ha” moments. One may have several kenshos until one finally reaches total enlightenment, or satori. However Bodhidharma also studied and was influenced by Taoism. And because of this Zen also puts a stress on intuition, realizing unity, and spontaneous experiences and reactions. The Taoist leg of Zen is also where a lot of the “beyond logic” ideas come from.

In Zen moments of satori are brought on by meditation. Meditation also plays a huge part in Theravada circles as well. Where Zen emphasizes meditation Theravada offers two general paths for monks to follow: “book-duty” (gantha-dhura) and “insight-duty” (vipassana-dhura). Monks with book-duty tend to live in large cities and monasteries and monks with insight-duty tend to become forest dwellers. One can change focuses thought out one’s life. Zen stresses that enlightenment is beyond all words and scripture and instead focus on seeing one’s innate nature. Theravadans would argue that having an innate nature implies a self, but Zen would argue that the “innate nature” is selflessness.

In both Theravada and Zen concentration meditation and insight meditation are stressed. Both for example, hold sweeping floors to be a very good form of concentration meditation to bring on mindfulness. However the philosophies going into them are slightly different. For a Theravadan sweeping a floor is a great practice in concentrating one thing. The better one gets on concentrating on one thing the easier it is to then make the “next step” to concentrating on zero things. This is also true in Zen but there is an added emphasis on the Madhyamaka idea that Samsara and nirvana are not different from one another. So from that point of view sweeping the floor is an enlightened activity but it is up to the sweeper to wake up and realize it, to have a kensho.

In Theravada there has traditionally had two very different paths for laity and monks and nuns. However this distinction has been breaking down as Theravada has become influenced by outside ideas. In 1815 the British conquered Kandy the capital of Sri Lanka. Theravada Buddhism was disestablished as the main cultural force in Sri Lanka and had to adapt itself to survive. It was during this time that the Pali Canon was translated into English, by English scholar Rhys Davids, and then widely circulated. For the first time Buddhist scriptures were available to the masses and as lay people

become more educated about Buddhism there was a shift in the laities spiritual quest. The line between monk and laity became more and more blurry and the British discouraged monasteries. This was especially true when Anagarika Dharmapala tried to bring meditation to the masses. Dharmapala brought a new meditation lineage to Sri Lanka from Burma. Before Dharmapala bringing Buddhism to the masses like he did there were a lot of Sri Lankan practices such as possession that were more common. Also like almost everywhere Buddhism adopted the local Sri Lankan pantheon and incorporated them into Buddhism. However the Dharmapala movement would distance itself from these “folk beliefs” and try their best to practice “pure Buddhism”.

In Zen meditation can be hard. In Zen practice and meditation are helped by visiting a Roshi, or master. The Roshi has the wisdom (pranyana) and skillful means (upaya) to gauge where people are on their spiritual path and give them advice accordingly. In Rinzai there is a tradition of a Roshi giving his pupils koans to solve. A koan is a nonsensical riddle and the goal of it is to crash the minds logical processes. In the book “The Empty Mirror” the main character goes to a Rinzai school. He tells of his frustrations with the koans and also says that people aren’t encouraged or technically allowed to talk about what koan they’re working on but many people do. The goal is to try to “experience” the answer and move “beyond logical”.

Accepting alms is a major part of all traditions. Harvey says that alms are more popular among Theravadans then Zen monks but Harvey says that Zen trainees will sometimes take alms as part of their training. Wetering specifically mentions some Zen monks that were collecting alms while shouting “HOOO” to get people’s attention. The monks were so caught up and in a daze from shouting “HOOO” that people would have to run to catch up with them to give alms.

Dharmapala tried to establish a new social role in Theravada that would be halfway between a monk and a layperson. He called it an “amagarika” which was a Pali term from wondering homeless person. An amagarika would take all the vinayana vows except the one about handling money. The role of the amagarika never really caught on but ever since then monks all over have become more socially conscious and lay people have made more attempts Nirvana. In Japan about 800 years ago there was a new social role made, that is the role of the priest. A Zen priest can marry and his main function is to minister to lay people and run the in's and out's of small local temples. Zen priest may also lead meditation sessions for his followers.

For both Theravada and Zen the role of a monks is basically the same but also subtly different. In Theravada, for example, once somebody is enlightened and becomes and Arhat they are take out of Samsara. In Zen, like other Mahayana schools, the goal is not to leave Samsara but to help others become enlightened. This is accomplished by taking the Bodhisattva vow, which is where the person simply vows to stay in Samsara until every sentient being is enlightened. Zen and other Mahayana may hold their view is more noble and does the most good, some Theravadas may rebuttal that since all life is suffering the longer they stay in Samsara the ore harm they are doing, despite what their intentions are. Also inside the monastery Theravada stresses the Vinayana more so than Zen does.

As previously mentioned there have been some radical shake-ups about the role of the laity in Theravadan circles recently. Despite that Theravada and Zen are still philosophically different in that in Theravada one works towards enlightenment and in Zen one has to realize that he or she is already enlightened. Also the way one goes about this is different. As mentioned there is more room in Theravada for book study than there is in Zen, but that’s not to say that Zen monks don’t read. Also in Theravada concentration meditation (samatha) and insight meditation (vipassana) are done separately. In Zen they’re combined into one practice called “zazen”.

Zazen is notably different from Theravada practices because, again, there is a stress on “realizing” that one is already enlightened. Just like with the sweeping example, if one is already enlightened one only needs to “wake up” to that fact. However the goal of zazen is not to concentrate on this idea because that would be as futile and as pointless as pointing out that the sky is blue and would may also misplace the persons motivations. The goal in zazen is to “just sit”. There is a lot of stress placed on not having any expectations but just sitting. Wetering points out that this is a lot harder than it sounds and details his physical as well as emotional pain that goes along with zazen. Another Zen practice is the use of compassion sticks to hit people that aren’t meditating satisfactorily.

Since the resurgence of the written word and book study in Theravada Buddhism the notion that Zen is in contrast iconoclastic is all the more relevant. Zen has been accused of being iconoclastic because of they don’t stress art and music very much. That’s not to say that they don’t have art though because Watering mentions statues of the founder of the monastery he was staying out as well as a figure of Manjusri in the Meditation Hall.

Both also share similar core philosophies about karma. In the “The Questions of King Milinda” karma is explained as being like a fire, in that it is impersonal but has tangible effects which can be observed. Both Theravada and Zen seem to be ok with this way of looking at Karma. Both also stress the idea of no permeanete self. Besides the fact that Theravada and Zen have some common scripture, they also have related ideas about translations of scripture. In Theravada English translations of the Pali Canon are widely read and studied and in Zen Chinese and Japanese copies of scriptures are also widely read, studied, and chanted.

Theravada is generally accepted to be one of the three vehicles of Buddhism. Zen is one school inside of Mahayana. Zen is one of the more visible and accessible schools of Buddhism in the West but the notion that Buddhism is a “philosophy” and not a “religion” is refrain I’ve personally heard a lot of as well. The notion that Buddhism is a philosophy and not a religion is a somewhat trivial issue from any “Buddhist point of view” because “Buddhism” like anything else is subject to anatta and any attempt to study and label it ultimately will no be satisfactory. But to apply the term “philosophy” to Buddhism seems even more incorrect than applying the term religion because philosophy means love of wisdom. The goal of accumulating wisdom is a far cry from the Buddhist goal of stopping suffering, and it also would imply that there is a “self” to love the wisdom. This whole debate from a Theravadan and Zen point of view is contrary and against what they’re trying to do. Both schools Theravada and Zen do not claim to be an ultimant truth of reality, they claim that they can end suffering.

Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Zen Buddhism in Japan are both arguably well adjusted to living in a secular society. In Sri Lanka monks and nuns had to give up their central position in society and adjust. They also had to deal with the opening of state schools, so the monistaries were no longer the best way for people to get educated. Zen too survives in a country, Japan, where secularism is high and on the rise. It could be because of this that these two schools of Buddhism have been able to adapt neatly to the West where secularism is also prized. Having the Pali Canon translated into English has also gone a long way to make Theravada Buddhism very visible in the West. The works of monk activist and educators has also exposed the West to Buddhist ideas, especially Zen Buddhism through the works of Thich Nhat Hanh. Theravada Buddhism and Zen Buddhism have both made a last impression on the world.

Supression of Religion in non-Tibet China

When the Communist took over China, the question of how to deal with religion was a complex question. Holmes Welch, a research assistant at Harvard University, explains that in the early days following the Communist Revolution many temples and monasteries were were occupied by by government offices, there was a mass exodus from monastic life, and difficulty getting monks and nuns to become good communist. It is the intention of this paper to explore these three issues presented by Welch .

On September 29th, 1946 the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference passed the “Common Program”, Article 5 of this program guaranteed freedom of religious belief to members of the People's Republic (Welsh 3). According to Welsh this religious freedom was not an inalienable right and could be denied to reactionaries, counter-revolutionaries, and “rightist” because since they do not support the government they are not entitled to the rights that a member of the government should have (Welsh 4, 12). Also Buddhist suffering discrimination were told in an September 1951 issue of “Modern Buddhism”, a magazine published by the new Chinese Buddhist Association, that it was their responsibility to prove to their discriminators that they were pro-government by helping expose counter-revolutionaries (Welsh 12).

The Chinese Communist Party's policy towards religion intentionally stayed vague while different ideas and strategies were discussed at various times and places. Firstly there was the idea that religion is a byproduct of suffering and as the conditions improved in China, religion would just naturally fade away, any attempts to forcibly remove it would not work (Welsh 4). Secondly, there was also the idea a reformed idealized Buddhism could be used as a foreign relations tool to convince nearby Asian-Pacific states to become communist (Welsh 9). The idea of using reformed Buddhist ideas as a tool for the spread of “liberation” may have been of interest to those interested in the “liberation” of Tibet (Welsh 9).

The idea to to use Buddhism as a catalyst for world communist revolution was the brain child of one Chu-tsan (Welsh 7-10). Chu-tsan was a monk that was in favor of reform long before the communist ever took over China (Welsh 7). He studied under the Republican Buddhist reformist, T'ai-hsu who had urged monks and nuns to become involved in the community by starting orphanages, schools, and hospitals, etc (Welch 7, 80). Chu-tsan called for reform in the sangha, in this context the communities of ordained monks and nuns, to “shift to production” and “shift to scholarship” (Welsh 8-9). The “shift to production” will be covered later, but it is not clear how much influence Chu-tsan had on later policies that required monks and nuns to start working (Welsh 9, 51-68). Chu-tsan argued, in a memorandum to Mao, that a shift to scholarship would eliminate superstition and would help Buddhism become a vehicle for world revolution (Welsh 9). “Superstition” was probably meant to convey acts that the Chinese Communist thought were immoral, such as charging for rights of the dead, considered to be exploitation of people's ignorance and insecurities (Welsh 9, 65). Chu-tsan argued that all change and reforms in Buddhism must first be applied to monks and nuns, since they were the top tier in Buddhism, and then later to lay people (Welsh 8). This may have been a ploy to secure his own role of leadership because he was competing against lay people who also had an interest in reforming Buddhism, like Chao P'u-ch'u, a lay person who also had interest in reforming Buddhism that became very influential in the Chinese Buddhist Association (Welsh 8, 17).

There were three main tools used by the Chinese Government to influence Buddhism; they are the publication Modern Buddhism, the new Chinese Buddhist Association, and the Religious Affairs Bureau (Welsh 11, 17, 29). At time went by their practices and policies became more defined, and they would collectively address issues and promote policy (Welsh 14, 35).

Chu-tsan was told time after time that his reforms were too radical and the government could not reorganize the sangha as fast as he wanted (Welsh 9-10). But all of his efforts to make himself seen as become to “go to” guy for Buddhism paid off somewhat when in 1950 he was chosen to become editor-in-chief of a new publication; Modern Buddhism (Welsh 10). This was to be the way the government was going to try to influence Buddhist ideas and practices until later the Chinese Buddhist Association we reestablished (Welsh 11, 17).

According to a later issue of Modern Buddhism in their early years of operating Modern Buddhism made many “mistakes” (Welsh 12). Evidently these mistakes were their willingness to publish questions in their question and answer column which reflected too much negativity towards policies of the Chinese Communist (Welsh 12). For example the letter that prompted the response about how monks and nuns are responsible for making sure people don't confuse them as counter-revolutionaries is an example of Modern Buddhism publishing things which may cause the Chinese Communist to lose face with foreign powers (Welsh 12-13). But by 1954 when Modern Buddhism was taken over by the recently formed Chinese Buddhist Association “serious mistakes” stopped happening (Welsh 13).

The next year 1955, the Chinese Buddhist Association passed a resolution asking all of its members, contributers, and readers to practice self-censorship and not submit any material that wasn't of a “patriotic nature” or criticized the regime (Welsh 14). The publication faired well but never published in large numbers, even after its competition of other Buddhist journals were outlawed, this may because of a paper shortage or because of the unwillingness of the Communist to mass produce a religious publication (Welsh 16). In 1960, according to Welsh, there was a shift towards making a good impression on foreigners and less emphasis on trying to educate local Buddhist (15). This may have been because of the reluctantence and inability of monks and nuns, who were now mostly elderly without new young members joining regularly, to support themselves (Welsh 55-67). According to Welsh it is very difficult to see how much influence Modern Buddhism had on changing the way monks and nuns thought, or even how widely it was read (17-18).

In 1952, after much lobbying and at least one failed attempt by Chao P'u-ch'u, a new Chinese Buddhist Association (CBA) was formed (Welsh 20). Their function was to be a liaison between the government and the peasants on subjects related to Buddhism and Buddhist reform ( Welsh 20). However as time went by it became clear that they began to promote some ideas that a large part of the sangha could not support, such as compassionate killing ( Welsh 21, 100). The members of the CBA were elected but it is not know by whom, but their members were representative of the the whole of Chinese Buddhist, with members from every minority, even an unbalanced number of Tibetans prior to the Tibetan Rebellion (Welsh 20, ). Despite the CBA's position of being a liaison they were very reluctant to set up local branches, like the former CBA had done, because they said it would cause inequality for the lay people (Welsh 19). However members of the CBA did function in local independent groups all over the country (Welsh 26-27). These local groups were usually run by high ranking monks and lamas and lay people were a minority, congruent with Chu-tsan's ideas about reforming the sangha from the top down (Welsh 10, 26).

The final and most important organ of the government, to be discussed here, related to Buddhism was the Religious Affairs Bureau. Because of the delicate nature of religion and how important it was to foreign policy, foreign opinion, and possibly to the spread of communism a special bureau was set up to be in control of all government policies related to religion (Welsh 29-31). The Bureau would also be in charge of identifying and squelching counter-revolutionary actions that took the guise of religious practice (Welsh 30). The chain of command of the Religious Affairs Bureau was complex but they did seem to enjoy some autonomy and freedom because they were practically a direct branch of the Chinese Communist Party, but they were technically classified as being under the Civic Affairs Bureau (Welsh 30 -32).

One of the Chinese Communist Party's polices that had a profound effect on the sangha was land reform because Buddhist monasteries were some of the largest landholders in the country (Welsh 42). There was a lot of resentment towards landlords by communist and rent was one of the main way many monasteries made money (Welsh 42-45). The Agrarian Reform Law stipulated that the land of monasteries be requisitioned and then redistributed (Welsh 43). This caused some problems with interpretation because since monasteries were seen as communal property it was unclear if the land redistributed back to the monks was suppose to be done so on an individual basis or if the land they received back was to also be communal (Welsh 43). Welsh says that the there doesn't seem to be a clear policy either way and different localities did different things, but Modern Buddhism published an question and answer article which said that the land belonged to the monks as individuals (44).

Welsh says that his informants report that the land the monasteries received after the land reforms were usually not as high quality as the property they had owned before the reform, and not as high quality as that given to people seen as more favorable to the regime (45). Additionally, monasteries were not given more land if population rose, but land was taken away from them if their population fell (Welsh 45). This seems to have been very devastating to some monasteries where the population would fluctuate (Welsh 45, 49). The reason for the large fluctuation is because smaller monasteries in rural areas would close down, and the monks that didn't disrobe, usually the older ones, would move into a larger monasteries that had remained open (Welsh 45, 64, 67, 73).

According to Welsh, many monks proved to be bad candidates for farm labor because they had spent most of their life studying Buddhism and didn't have the technical knowledge to effectively farm (48). Also many of them tended to be older because the younger monks were more likely to leave the sangha after being exposed to pressure from the communists (Welsh 45). The lack of able bodied persons, the poor land, and also an unwillingness to work lead to tensions between the government and the sangha (Welsh 48, 58).

Very soon after the Chinese Communist Party took control of the country there were a lot of young monks and nuns who decided to leave the sangha (Welsh 67). Monks were “taught” to learn that the whole world depends on labor and were expected to feel shame and change their ways (Welsh 63). Monks were encouraged to disrobe and many of the young ones did (Welsh 67-68). One of the easiest jobs for them to acquire was to join the People's Liberation Army, PLA, (Welsh 99).

Another significent cause to the lack of younger monks and nuns was also because smaller monasteries were being shut down (Welsh 73). Smaller monasteries served the function of training young nuns and monks the rules of how to live in a monastery, without this advanced training it would have been nearly impossible for the larger monasteries to function with so many people living so close together (Welsh 73-75). This compounded with the Chinese Communist Party activily discouraging people from joining the sangha and fear that being associated with the sangha would also mean being associated with the landlord class it is easy to see why there were not enoung young people around to help the monasteries become self suficent (Welsh 80). But this doesn't mean that some monks did not enthusiasticly try to meet the new demands on them be reviving the lost tradition of “Farming Ch'an”. Farming Ch'an was an old tradition from the T'ang dynasty and it provided the model for many monks that wanted to live well under the new regime (Welsh 85).

Monks living in urban areas where this kind of land reform wasn't a problem for them had their own set of problems. If an urban monastery had empty rooms the local government officials could “borrow” or rent the rooms from the monastery (Welsh 51). The monastery had the right to be consulted and could refuse, but could not do so unreasonably, if they had empty rooms that really weren't being used then they had to let the government move in (Welsh 51). This however wasn't new to the monks and nuns, because their buildings were used this way by the Republic as well (Welsh 52).

One of the jobs that was decided the Buddhist monks may be good at is producing gunny sacks out of burlap because this wasn't a labor intensive , didn't require much skill, and only required a small investment (Welsh 51). Some monks put up their own capital to get into the gunny sack trade, others rented out their monasteries to a third party that they would in turn work for (Welsh 51). Monks that lived in monasteries that were traditionally places of pilgrimage and recreation continued to do traditional hotel and restaurant services (Welsh 52).

Buddhist monks have long been accused to doing communal work for the good of the monastery and for working without pay, except for being able to live in the monastery (Welsh 52). However this tradition didn't always translate well into mutual aid teams (Welsh 52-56). However monasteries were some of the first to apply for cooperativization (Welsh 52). One of the problems seems to be a subtle idealogical one, mutual aid teams goal was to improve the material world and create a paradise on Earth while traditionally Buddhist monastic life was to escape from samsara and help others do so as well (Welsh 54). Welsh cites one example of monks who pretended to be deaf and dumb in order to avoid doing worldly activities (60).

Making monks and nuns become self suffient was seen by the monks to be less than ideal because they felt that they were already doing what was best for society be praying for people and bringing themselves to higher spiritual levels (Welsh 59).

The Tibetan Sacred Outlook

The Tibetan Sacred Outlook

Religion has swayed the whole life of many Tibetans. Religion is an unextractable component of their culture and almost every aspect of life has a religious significance to Tibetans. Opinions on the soul, the interconnectedness of everything, the importance of art, the social role of spiritual teachers, all play a role in how Tibetans view their world.

A popular religious tradition in Tibet is nature reverence. Tibetans believe that the world is heavily populated with spirits and demons; these spirits and demons must be acknowledged and appeased in order to have a prosperous and strife free life. Offerings such as burn juniper and alcoholic beverages are often put out for spirits. Mountains and lakes are considered to be very powerful spirits or deities that are often protector deities. When crossing a mountain pass it is tradition to carry a stone from the base of the mountain to the other side of the mountain and put it in a pile. This is to show your thanks to whatever spirit allowed you to safely pass through the mountain.

Mount Kailash is an important mountain to Tibetans and it is also the mountain that some believe that Sherab Mibo ascended to from heaven. The idea that sacred people descend from heaven onto mountains is a popular Tibetan motif; seven Tibetan kings are said to have descended from heaven onto various mountains (Tucci 218-219). There is also a popular creation story in Tibet about a white yak that creates the world by perpetually dividing a sacred mountain.

The idea that the world is full of spirits plays a big part in how Tibetans look at the world. In popular Tibetan tradition one has a soul, or bla, and shares it with multiple other beings (Tucci 191). When you are sleeping or in a trance your bla leaves your body and travels around (Tucci 191). There are four safe places for your soul to go when it is traveling: a specific lake, a specific yak, a specific tree, or a specific bird. The bla of those specific entities can also inhabit the human they are associated with. The bla can become lost while it is wondering, especially if it is scared by a demon (Tucci 191-192). When that happens it is necessary to visit a shaman and have him or her go out and find your bla and take it back either by force or by ransom.

Besides indigenous Tibetan beliefs, Tibet has also had its sacred outlook influenced by Buddhism. In Tibet Vajrayana Buddhism is the dominate form of religion. Several aspects of Vajrayana Buddhism have shaped the way Tibetans view the world from a sacred perspective. Almost all Tibetan Buddhist practices associated with mainstream Vajrayana doctrine will involve trying to overcome dualities.

Tibetan Buddhism teaches that everything is interconnected; this is called patichasamupada. Everything is considered interconnected because nothing has independent origin and no being has a continuous self through time. Nothing has independent origin because everything is the result of something that has happened, nothing comes out of a vacuum. No being is believed to have a self or atman because it is believed that everything can be broken down into separate independent, yet related, components that are constantly subject to change and decay. Because of that it is said that to draw any distinction between one thing and another is a false distinction because everything has one taste or one essence. So if one was to say that he or she was Albert Einstein, he or she would be deceiving themselves into believing that Albert Einstein is continuous through time and that Albert Einstein is somehow separate and distinct from somebody else. Because it is believed that one has no self and everything has dependent origins, Tibetan Buddhist assert that dualities are inherently false and must be over come. This is in contrast to Bon tradition which is very heavily dualistic.

In Bon it is believed that there is a good white force and an evil black force. Every being is either associated with white force or black force (Tucci 214). The spirits mentioned previously are considered to either be good spirits associated with the white force or bad spirits associated with the black force. However in Tibetan Buddhism, at least in the Tantric Monastic setting, such dualism is considered false and must be over come.

The desire to overcome dualism has greatly influenced the Tibetan Buddhist out look on the world and has shaped many of their practices. Many ceremonies involve deliberately manipulating symbols that represent opposite forces and one must try to experience how these dualisms are in fact not a dualism.

The chief way to experience the non-duality of existence is through deity yoga. Deity yoga is the primary form of Tibetan meditation. In deity yoga one must first visualize a deity in front of them. This can be a very hard processes and requires a lot of practice and skill. Because of the importance of deity yoga it is very important that one knows what a deity looks. This has highly influenced Tibetan art and almost all Tibetan art has some sort of religious significance. Sometimes one must be empowered to learn all of the multiple meanings of a Tantric image.

The second step of deity yoga is to become one with the deity. This is another example of trying to breakdown duality. In Tantric Buddhist practice there is no difference between one and the deity. One must only realize this. When one does realize that one is not different from the deity, then one develops deity pride. Deity pride is recognizing that you are the deity and the deity is you. Nothing has changed except the realization and experience of the practitioner.

Because we are talking about deity yoga in a Buddhist setting there must naturally be a last step to deity yoga. That is the step of dissolving the self into nothingness. This is the last step of deity yoga, if one can fully experience this step it is said that he or she has reached enlightenment. However once one does reach this state of enlightenment one does not leave samsara. Because Vajrayana is closely related to Mahayana schools it retains the bodhisattva vow.

The bodhisattva vow is simply a vow one takes to not reach full enlightenment, in the sense that one is freed from samsara, until every sentient being has reached enlightenment. This has greatly influenced the way Tibetans have views their world Because enlightened individuals are not going to leave samsara they are reborn to help other people reach enlightenment. This is where the Tibetan idea of a tulku comes from; a tulku is an enlightened individual who is reborn. The idea of the tulku has had many implications for Tibet.

Because people can be reborn it is possible that a new born baby is a fully enlightened being. One could even be the incarnation of a deity, such as the roles of the Dalia Lama and the Panchen Lama. Because of Tibetans typically sacred outlook on life, their system of government has traditionally been lead by spiritual teachers or spiritual beings. Pre-Buddhist Tibet had a tradition of divine kings, and then they later had a tradition of divine leaders in the tulku lamas.

Because of the importance of lamas in Tibetan society they do practice lama devotion. Because lamas are often considered to be incarnations of spiritually powerful beings, it is natural that Tibetans have incorporated lama devotion into their daily life. Also it is believed that lamas have magical powers such as the ability to read minds. Many important folk heros and saints in Tibet have been lamas such as Milarepa.

As mentioned above art is very important in Tibet because of deity yoga, but also because it helps keep one constantly reminded of religioius themes. Besides art depicting deities, art depicting different realms of rebirth and art depicting the truths of impermenance are very important in Tibet. Also in keeping with maintaining a sacred attitude many Tibetans will carry a prayer wheel with them and spin it all day long, in essence spinning the prayers into the world.

Not every Tibetan agrees with every other Tibetan on issues of religion, naturally. Some Tibetan practices are not congruent with other Tibetan practies, such as the the aforementioned Bon notion of duality and the Vajrayana notion of over coming duality. They also disagree about animal sacrifice, Bon do it and Buddhist do not. Animal sacrifice is more popular in the outskirts of the country than it is in the cities. Another thing that Bon and Tibetan Buddhism have in common is circumambulation (Tucci 150, 242). However they do differ on which direction; Bon go counter-clockwise and Tibetan Buddhist go clockwise.

Shamanism plays a big part in Tibetan religiousity. It is believed that a shaman is capable of rescuing lost souls, can tell the future, and can heal. The defining characteristic of a Shaman is deliberate soul travel brought on by trace. Shamans also practice exorcisms and are routinely possessed by spirits. Being possessed by spirits is another instance of the differencing opinions between Bon and Tibetan Buddhism. Buddhism in general does not teach of exorcisms, but to a Tibetan exorcisms may very likely be labeled as Buddhism.

Shamanism, deity yoga, lama devotion, art, and philosophy have all contributed to the Tibetan's sacred out look on life. When one believes in the interconnectedness of everything or that one shares their soul with the enviornment around them then it is easy to understand why Tibetans typically have a sacred outlook on life.

Works Cited

Tucci, Giuseppe. The Religions of Tibet. Trans. Geoffrey Samuel. Los Angelas: University of California P, 1980.

Music in Tibet

Music in Tibet

Music and theatre are included in a subsection of sGra, which is one of the five inclusive sciences, which all things are said to include all types of study.¹ Music has played a central role in the lives of Tibetans and continues to console Tibetans in exile. Tibetan music has many venues: chants, Tibetan opera, special troupes of performers, folk songs, and even newer venues like rock concerts and traveling all-female stage productions.

-Rakra Tethong says that Tibetan music can almost be thought of as a mixture of many different kinds of music.² Tibetan music has had influences from Mongolia, Afghanistan, China, and India.³ And perhaps from places as far away as Syria and Greece, but Tethong argues that the majority of outside influences on Tibetan music came from India, especially when talking about the development of music inside the Buddhist monasteries.⁴ Tethong claims that typically new musical forms arrive first in Western Tibet, then they make their way to central Tibet where they’re learned by nomads that then bring the songs to Eastern Tibet.⁵ There was a special troupe of singers and dancers called the gar pa in Lhasa that received many of their influences from India as well as Mongolia, and they also came up with many of their own styles and customs.⁶

The gar pa represent a unique institution in Tibetan history that lasted for several centuries. The gar pa had many unique traditions and instruments and while some of them have been incorporated into other Tibetan musical venues, others have been lost.⁷ Tethong recalls how the special drums the gar pa used were, while the looked simple, were in fact very complicated and had the ability to be heard miles away and not be disturbing to somebody in the same room.⁸

-Another interesting institution related to Tibetan music is Tibetan Opera. Called lha mo, Tibetan Opera is said to have been founded by the legendary figure of Grub chen Tang stong Rgyal po.⁹ Tang stong Rgyal is honored similarly to other great Tibetan saints and transcripts of his plays were keep on alters to him and offerings to him were made before and after the study of or performance of a play.¹⁰ It is said that Tang stong Rgyal felt that people needed to be exposed to religious ideas but that some people are not susceptible to being preached to, so instead plays and music with religious themes could expose people to religious ideas that they would otherwise not be able or willing to accept.¹¹

After the time of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama lha mo saw increased popularity, which was probably somehow related to the Fifth Dalai Lama having a dream about the lha mo which included new mask for them to wear.¹² Some modern lha mo troupes still use the mask designed by the Fifth Dalai Lama.

An important event in the lha mo calendar is the drama festival or yogurt party at Drepung monistary.¹³ The legend goes that the monks at Drepung were too well behaved, so behaved were they that the local demon-god-mountain-being became upset with them and was causing trouble for them. To appease the being, the monks held a large festival and when the being saw them having a big festival he became appeased that they weren’t too well behaved any more and let them alone.¹⁴

The Buddhist Monastery is where some of the most complex and actualized Tibetan music comes from according to Tethong, and one of the major influences on Tibetan Monastic music was Indian music.¹⁵ However, that’s not to say that Tibetans Buddhist didn’t borrow from other sources or neglected their own indigenous Tibetan traditions. An example of a Bon instrument that crossed over into monastic life in Tibet is the rnga, which is a small kind of drum with a handle on it.¹⁶

While Tibetan Buddhism is among the most lenient of all Buddhist sects towards music, stringed instruments were the least popular in the monastery and were even banned in some, because of all the kinds of instruments they are the hardest to meditate to.¹⁷ However even though they are not played, stringed instruments are offered as offerings to Bodhisattvas in some ceremonies.¹⁸ Each of the four main sects of Tibetan Buddhism, Nymingma, Sakya, Kargyud, and Gelug, each has their own musical tradition. Tethong argues that the Sakya tradition’s music is closest to the Indian tradition in Tibet and that the Gelug tradition is the most conservative of all the movements in regards to music.¹⁹ These distinctions are useful but limited because it is also said that every single monastery has its own musical tradition, and sometimes a monasteries tradition will be contrary to the trend of its sect.²⁰ Not only do monasteries have their own views on music, sometimes different parts of the same monastery will have different musical traditions and views.²¹

After the Chinese took control of Tibet, many lha mo troupe leaders were sent to China to be re-educated in music and to make lha mo performances conform more to their “Chinese origins”.²² In 1959, after a popular uprising, many Tibetans fled the country, following the example of the Dalai Lama. At least two lha mo troupes were set up in exile.²³ One troupe toured the United States in 1975.²⁴

One of the first institutions founded by the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala was the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA).²⁵ TIPA’s symbol is the iconic mask of the hunter that introduces all Tibetan Operas and the skeleton dancer mask.²⁶

An important issue to Tibetans in exile is coming to terms with what it means to be Tibetan in the first place. Tibetans in exile live in communities with other Tibetans from all over the region and for the Tibetans in exile this has really widened their sense of who is and who is not a Tibetan.²⁷ Another issue is that of preserving Tibetan culture. What happens when notions of preserving Tibetan culture clash with efforts to stop sectarianism in the Tibetan Diaspora?

One such incident happened in 1981 when a deputy in the Tibetan National Assembly, who also happened to be Kargyupa monks, complained that the TIPA would be performing a play the next day for the Dalai Lama that included an immoral clown-type character that at one point chants Kargyupa prayer.²⁸ The deputy argued that things like this were fueling sectarianism and that he was offended by it and it should be removed.²⁹

No official stance was made one way or the other but what happened was immensely interesting. The lha mo went on, as schedule but the Dalai Lama did not attend; the reason for his absence isn’t made clear nor is it ever claimed to be as a result of the controversy.³⁰ When it came time for the character to repeat the Kargyupa prayer he instead stopped and discussed with a God how he did not want to perform that part of the performance because of the controversy and he would instead perform a song from a popular Hindi musical.³¹ Another alteration that was made to the performance is that when the characaters were suppose to make a bread offering to a demon in an exorcism ritual instead of the using dough and bread they used an effigy of a skeleton dance, which is a symbol of the TIPA, and threw it at duputy-members of the Tibetan National Assembly.³² The implication of this action was to imply that the Tibetan National Assemblies were like demons attacking the TIPA.³³ These actions caused the deputies to leave in protest; Marcia Calkowski argues that the argument against the TIPA wasn’t genuinely an argument against sectarianism but a blatant sectarian act in and of itself by the Kargyupa monk for the Kargyupa.³⁴ The act of relating criticisms of an lha mo with an exorcism also have further symbolic meaning in regards to Tang stong Rgyal because legends tell of how the first lha ma was performed to appease a demon that was tormenting a town.³⁵

Another instance where tradition and sectarianism have clashed with each other as well as with modern Western ideas is in regards to how women should be treated and what roles they can perform. The nuns of the Khache Ghankyil Ling nunnery, a nunnery for Tibets in exile in Nepal, study Buddhism on par with their male counterparts and have also study traditional Tibetan songs, dances, and other performance arts.³⁶ Many of the performance arts the nuns learn are learned only for the purpose of raising money in performances in the west.³⁷

-Tibetans, like everybody else, have not been immune to modern or Western influences. While researching the modern state of Music in Tibet ethnomusicographologist Keila Diehl recalls in her book “Echoes from Dharmsala: Music in the Life of a Tibetan Refugee Community” how she found many modern musical elements in young Tibetans’ music. She asks the question of whether this is a sign of Tibetans that are proud of their own heritage trying reach out and form complex relationships with other cultures and traditions or is this a sign that young Tibetans, many of which have never been to Tibet or outside of India, are losing their own sense of cultural identity and are just plugging into what’s most easily accessible to them.³⁸ She tells how one contemporary Tibetan band around the area of Dharmsala that call themselves the “Yak Band” plays rock and roll, blues, and incorporates an amplified version of a dranyen (a six-stringed Tibetan lute) into their songs as well as their attempts to turn traditional Tibetan chants and folk songs into dance songs.³⁹

Rock concerts can be understood in terms of Victor Turner’s communitas and Deihl says that is also true when looking at modern Tibetan music in the Tibetan Diaspora.⁴⁰ However communitas does not fully explain the tensions that exist between Tibetans that are resistant to these new forms of music, even when you try to argue that there is a subculture of young Tibetans that are looking outside their own traditional for inspiration.⁴¹ For those Tibetans that are resistant to new musical forms Diehl argues that it might not be the music itself they have a problem with but the tension they feel with trying to maintain their own cultural identity while being exiles.⁴² Despite the hardships that go along with being a people in exile, Diehl explains that in her experience that even though it is difficult many Tibetans hold onto what it means to be Tibetan, even those that are reaching out and looking for something else or new, such as rock and roll, still have a sense of being Tibetan.⁴³ Diehl argues that even though Tibetan refugees can be described in terms of hybridity and pastiche, that many refugees regard these things as sources of failure and an unfortunate consequences of the life of a refugee.⁴⁴

A lot of cultural transmittion takes place in the home, as it does in most cultures around the world. However because of their status as exiles, there is a great importance placed on how the culture is presented and preserved in the public sphere.⁴⁵ It is because of this that public performances of become ever so important to the Tibetan diaspora as the gap between living memory and Tibetan identity widens, Tibetans cling to what makes them Tibetan and try to avoid displacement and assimilation.⁴⁶ However Marcia points out that there is more more emphasis on preserving Tibetan culture in the face of Chinese culture and an over-arching globalzied world culture, but few Tibetans seem bothered or notice the influences of Hindi culture on their own.⁴⁷

1 Jeanette Snyder, “Preliminary Study of Lha Mo”, Asian Music, 10, no 2 Tibetan Issue (1979): 35-38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org

2 Rakra Tethong, “Conversations on Tibetan Musical Traditions,” Asian Music, 10, no. 2 Tibetan Issue (1979): 5. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.

3 Tethong, 5.

4 Tethong, 5-8.

5 Tethong, 7.

6 Tethong, 6-7.

7 Tethong, 6.

8 Tethong, 7.

9 Snyder, 24.

10 Snyder, 24.

11 Snyder, 26.

12 Snyder, 28.

13 Snyder, 29.

14 Snyder, 29-30.

15 Tethong, 9.

16 Tethong, 9.

17 Tethong, 10.

18 Tethong, 10.

19 Tethong, 11-13.

20 Tethong, 10, 12.

21 Tethong, 11-12. Tethong describes how different grwa tshang or “colleges” in his own monastery of Drepung, forbid certain monks from learning instruments because their section of the monastery focused on logical, philosophy, or metaphysics, but required other monks in different colleges to learn to play instruments because their focus was on Tantric rituals.

22 Snyder, 29.

23 Snyder, 29.

24 Snyder, 29.

25 Marcia Calkowski, “A Day at the Tibetan Opera: Actualized Performances and Spectaular Discourse,” American Ethnologist 18, no. 4 (1991): 645. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.

26 Calkowski, 645.

27 Calkowski, 645.

28 Calkowski, 648.

29 Calkowski, 648-49.

30 Calkowski, 648-50.

31 Calkowski, 650.

32 Calkowski, 650.

33 Calkowski, 651.

34 Calkowski, 651-52.

35 Calkowski, 653. Snyder, 29.

36 Claudia Orenstein, “A Taste of Tibet: The Nuns of the Khache Ghankyil Ling Nunnery and the Theatre du Soleil,” Asian Theatre Journal 19, no. 1 (2002): 213-15. Google Scholar, www.scholar.google.com.

37 Orenstein, 214. That’s not to suggest that the nuns are greedy or not living up to their goals by taking money.

38 Kelia Diehl, Echoes of Dharamsala: Music in the Life of a Tibetan Refugee Community (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), xx.

39 Diehl, xx-xxiii.

40 Diehl, 2.

41 Diehl, 2-7.

42 Diehl, 3.

43 Diehl, 4.

44 Diehl, 5.

45 Diehl, 66.

46 Diehl, 66.

47 Calkowski, 654. Calkowski points to how nobody seemed to have any problem or qualms about a popular Hindi movie song being used in what is considered the quintessential lha mo.

Extremely Brief overview of Tibetan religiosity

Nature Religion

In Tibetan nature religion one of the things that brings meaning to one's life is being in good standing with your community. Your community includes not only your townsmen and family but also many nature spirits. Much ado is paid to the needs and wants of local nature spirits, its considered kind of like a big cosmic d'uh, in that OFCOURSE you need to be worshiping the spirits around come on! This may be related to how primal and open the landscape of Tibet is. If one transgresses against the spirits there will be consequences so the quality of one's life depends on appeasing these spirits.

Another thing to consider when weighting the meaning of life and Tibetan nature religion is to remember that Tibetans believe that their soul, or la, is a six part system that you share with other beings. Your la can go out on adventures and inhabit other beings but the most common and safe place is in either a specific bird, horse, ox, tree, lake, and of course your own human body.

As far as the meaning of life, this idea of a multi-part shared soul lends itself to thinking of oneself as a humble being of a larger system and may promote community and nature reverence. Another thing to consider when contemplating the meaning of life is to remember that the world is dualistic.

There are two primal forces in the world a white force, which is good, and a black force, which is bad. Ideally somebody should find their meaning in the white force and dedicate themselves to serving the good gods. One of the things the gods want is animal sacrifices, so part of the meaning of life is to provide the gods with their sacrifices.

Shamanism

The meaning of life for a Shaman may be to serve his or her community. There are several themes that are common to most Shamans in Tibet and they all play a part in what a Shaman or follower of a Shaman believe about the nature of existence and the meaning of life.

If your la gets lost somewhere while its out adventuring while you are asleep, you need a Shaman to go look for it. So in one way big part of the what it means to be a Shaman is to be a protector and finder of lost souls. Shamans use many tools for finding lost souls but one of their most useful tools is the ability to soul travel. Through trances and other meanings Shamans can leave their body and go out into the spirit world to try to find your soul and bring it back to you. Perhaps you've angered a local nature spirit and it scared or kidnapped your soul, in such a case the Shaman must use his or her spiritual ability to try to appease the spirit. Being able to soul travel and make face to face communications with the nature spirits is very helpful for soul retrieval task.

Face to face meetings with the spirits also allow Shamans to make spirit friends, these spirit friends help to teach and serve the Shaman through his or her career. More so than the average person, a Shaman is responsible for harboring and developing relationships with local spirits.

Another important aspect of the meaning of existence when considering Nature Religion, Shamanism, as well as other expressions of Tibetan religiosity, is to recall that a popular idea in Tibet is that dreams are a real reality in and of themselves, sometimes even considered to be more real than waking life. So if one wanted to explore what their purpose in life was, a prudent place to look would be in your dreams. While in your dream world, you and your soul can go on magical adventures all over, just be careful not to get scared or caught like we mentioned earlier.

How does a Shaman get all these powers that define and give meaning to his life? Tibetan Shamans, life Shamans all over the world, go through something scholars label as the “Shamanic illness”. During the Shamanic illness the future-Shaman becomes very sick and falls in and out of trances and is just generally crazy. The goal is for the future-Shaman to die, or at least be broken down all the way to his core, and then cure himself and come back as a healthy member of society. It is thought that through curing himself that the Shaman gains the entry-level experience needed to be a Shaman. Also while under this Shamanic illness the Shaman may make some life long spirit friends.

Buddhism

The meaning for life in Tibetan Buddhism fits in with the grander themes of Buddhism in other traditions, but also has its own unique positions on certain issues. The essence of Buddhist teachings are the four noble truths which are that dukkha is pervasive in samsara, dukkha is caused by tanha, there is a way to stop dukkha, and that way is the noble eight-fold path.

A key precept of Tibetan Buddhism is the concept of interdependence. I depend on you, you depend on me, and so and and so on in an imaginably complex and beautiful way. If one was looking for meaning to their life in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, interdependence would be a good place to start. The repercussions of this idea is that everything you do has enormous reprocutions on the cosmic scale, so it is important that one live their life in a compassionate and wise way so that the repercussions of one's life will be as good as possible.

As with all schools of Buddhism, the goal of Tibetan Buddhism is to become enlightened one day. Similar to Mahayana in Tibetan Buddhism it is typically said that spiritually powerfully people do not reach full enlightenment because their compassion and vows require them to stay in samsara until every sentient being can achieve samsara. In Tibet this has had the unique occurense of tulkus, which are spiritually powerful and enlightened people that choose to be reborn. If you're born as a tulku your goal in life is to help as many people as you can reach enlightenment.

One of the specific goals unique to Tantic Buddhism is to overcome duality and realize that life is, as Milarepa puts it, ro chig or a single taste. One should spend their life realizing that any and all dualities are man made and get in the way of realzing greater spiritual truths. There are many Tantric rituals and concepts directly related to the idea of overcoming and collapsing duality whether its day and night, the sun and the moon, male and female, pure and impure, or living and dead.

The idea that there is no difference between pure and impure has had many profound effects on Tibetan culture. In contrast to other Tibetan civilizations, Tibetan gods frequently enjoy alcoholic beverages and monks often do things that are considered impure, such as drinking from a human skull bone.

Although there is a goal to overcome duality, many Tibetan ritual objects seem to represent duality, on the surface, however because Tantric practices are so secret and there is the understanding that there is no duality, things that seem dualistic on the surface are done only to attempt to show a conquering of this duality. Its just that we as observers aren't spiritually powerfully enough to realize that.

Another consequence of the breakdown of duality is that Tibetan Buddhism has some antinomian qualities. If there is no difference between right and wrong, then human made senses of morality and right and wrong do not apply to a Tibetan Buddhist. This idea contrast sharply with the Natural Religion, Shamanism, and Bonpa ideas we talked about earlier where everything is either part of the primordial white or black forces.

Another goal that goes along with achieving enlightenment is to become a monk, nun or a lama. Monks and nuns take vows and precepts and live in monasteries or nunneries fulfilling their monastic duties. Monks and Nuns are very important to Tibetan culture and through out the centuries the education and proliferation of monasteries was a very big deal in Tibet.

A lama is a spiritual teacher and be either male or female. He or she may or may not be a monk or nun but there is considerable overlap between monks, nuns, and lamas. Lamas primary role is to minister to the people and do rituals for people. They serve a very important role in Tibetan society and this could said to be one of their main reasons for finding meaning in their life.

One need not be a monk, nun, or lama to find meaning to their life or even to have the goal of enlightenment. Since there is no distinctions or duality in Tantric Buddhism to say that there is a difference between monks and laypeople would be erroneous. In Tibetan Buddhism it is typically said that any yogin or yogini can achieve enlightenment at any time. So Tibetan Buddhism lore has stories of many lay people that became enlightened and/or became great spiritual teachers. Many of the 84 Mahasiddhas, great spiritual teachers, were said to be lay people. Perhaps the greatest spiritual folk hero in Tibet, Milarepa, was not a monk.

If one was a member of the Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism, the meaning of life would be found in the teachings of Karmapa, who is said to be an incarnation of Chinrezig. And as far as the practices you would practice to help you find meaning to life you would practice the six yogas of Naropa, one of the Mahasiddhas. These include: heat yoga, illusory body, dream yoga, clear light, bardo, and phowa. As well as the six yogas of Naropa you migh talso pratice Maching Lab Dron's chod yoga, which consider of spiritually cutting up parts of yourself and offering it to demons.

If you were a member of the Sakya school you might find solace in the idea of “crazy wisedom”. If you were a member of this school you would study how there is no difference between the mind of a Buddha and the mind of roach, and that enlightenment isn't something that can be achieved but only realized.

If you were a member of the Geluk school, you may find yourself more focused on scholarly and book work than members of other schools, genreally speaking. Your primary spiritual teacher would be the Dalai Lama who is said to be an incarantion of Chenrezig. If you were a member of a Geluk school your goal in life may be to become a Geshe, which is kind of like a PH.D. in Geluk studies.

If you were a member of the Nyingma school, you would rely on hidden spiritual treasures, gter ma or terma, to be discovered to teach you new doctrine and other ideas that were considered too advanced for people in the past. Terma can be dreams, visions, or literally lost or hidden objects found or dug up by a spiritually powerful person. If you were a member of the Nyingma school your main meditation practice would be dzogchen, which is similar to zazen, and is where you just sit there. Since there is no difference between enlightened and unenlightened and you can't achieve enlightenment only realize it, you need to sit there and just wake up to the fact that you're already enlightened. A goal common to all 4 of the great schools is the goal of Bodhisattva ideal and the goal of asceticism.

There is also an Islamic minority in Tibet. For them the meaning for life is living up to Allah's precepts with the hope of being judged good enough during the day of reckoning.

Tibet may be fairly classified as one of the most religious places on Earth and as such many people look to religion to find a meaning or answer to their life.

No Self

It's hard for me to totally wrap my brain around the no-self concept but I've thought of this example:

DPI, dots per inch. When you print a picture of a person out of a printer when you look at the picture and you see a person. However if you look through a magnifying glass you see that the photo is really just thousands of little dots. The idea that all those dots combine into one thing is an illusion, so too is the idea of an "I" an illusion.

That example is somewhat limited though because it doesn't really demonstrate the idea that the dots are constantly changing, so to further develop my example imagine that not only is the picture made of dots but that the dots are also fading. The dots are like all components that make up "you" they're constantly changing and they're not connected. There's no part of the picture, or you, that's the same from one microsecond to the next, so how is it logical to say that the picture from the printer at 4:00 is the same as the picture at 5:00? All of the dots have faded, they've changed.

The picture has no self no atman, it's just a group of dots, and those dots are constantly in flux.