Pure Land Buddhism as Vaishnavism
Part Two: The
Preeminence of Pure Land or Mahayana Buddhist Tradition Obscured by Theravadin
Buddhist Disinformation
By Bhakti Ananda Goswami
From a letter sent on Sunday, May 05, 2002 to Bhakti Ananda Goswami (the devotee's letter has been edited for use in this column. Bhakti Ananda Goswami's comments follow indented passages from the letter):
Dear Bhakti Ananda Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! My name is ............Das.At present moment we are staying in Russia, trying to organize preaching among Vietnamese in other countries and in Vietnam. Your investigation about connections between different ways of worshipping the Supreme God is great! We think that your discoveries about the connections will help a lot in our prachara-kshetra's humble efforts. A few months ago we returned from India, where we stayed about 3 months in the Vietnamese monastery (Bodh-Gaya).
Great to hear of your stay there. I highly recommend that Vaishnavas interested in interfaith ministries experience the devotional traditions of others first-hand. There are so many profound connections between the Bhakti traditions just waiting to be discovered by interfaith ambassadors of good will!
Interestingly enough, many prayers to Amitabha begin with “Nam-mo A-Zi-Da-Phat, Lay Choi Lay Phat,” which means “I salute You, Amitabha, I am offering my obeisances to the Lord, I am offering my obeisances to Buddha.” “Choi” means Lord, Godhead, Heaven. The modern Vietnamese word “mat-troi” (pronounced “mat-choi”) literally means “the face of Heaven” (or the Lord).
The Holy Name Pho, Phos in Biblical Greek (Jesus Christ as the infinite Light of God is Pho, Phos) is cognate (linguistically related) with Bha, Bhas (Amita Bha ) in Sanskrit, and with Fo, Fot in Chinese and Phat in Vietnamese. A-Zi-Da-Phat is Amitabha. Phos / Bhas / Fot / Phat means "light" in each of these traditions. Non-religious scholars of religion always reduce the Savior God Christ / Phos, Krishna / Bhas or Amita Bha of infinite light to a mere mundane solar deity / demigod. They don't understand the 'solar' discus as a universal ancient hieroglyph for the Holy Name Hari / Eli etc., or that in Pure Land Buddhism, Amitabha's seed mantram name is HRIH! Amitabha's common alter-form and by-name throughout the northern range is Amitayus. Ayus means 'life' and is related to Sanskrit and Hebrew Chai, Chayah. Compare this name of God as 'the living force' or 'infinite life' (Amit-Ayus) to the Chinese pervasive living-force 'Chi'! Jesus Christ as the life of the world is Zaos. Throughout the range of Pure Land Buddhism, Baladeva or Lokeshvara-Vishnu is identifiable with Amitayus in his various forms. As the pervasive soul, or life of the universe (Purusha as Paramatma) he is therefore Chai and Ayus in Sanskrit (compare Chaitanya - 'living force'), Chai or Chayah in Hebrew, Zaos in Greek, Chi in Chinese and Choi in your above-cited invocation of Amita-Bha / Amit-Ayus. It is important to note that in Chinese Neo-Confucianism, the concept of God as providence or 'Father Heaven' in relationship to 'Mother Earth' is found. Therefore identifying God with Heaven must be understood in this context, when a Pure Land Buddhist tradition is related to the Chinese form, as in Vietnam.
Also, the Sun was always depicted on the ancient bronze drums (ngok-lu: Dong-Son culture); lac-Viets were Sun-worshipers. In Vietnam, Pure Land doctrine was represented by the Thao-Duong (Chinese Tsao Tang) school during King Ly-Thanh-Ton's reign (1054-1072). Acknowledging the variety of available methods, Thao-Duong condenses them as follows: "Though you may practice Buddhism in many ways, in summary there are three main methods: meditation, contemplation, and Buddha's-name-recitation. The method of meditation has no definite way to follow and is therefore a difficult practice. If you do not have an enlightened master or a capable mind, you may stop midway in your progress or remain mistaken for your entire life. Contemplation is a very subtle method; without a good teacher or prajna wisdom, complete enlightenment is hard to attain. Buddha's-name-recitation (Vietnamese Niem-Phat; Japanese Nembutsu, Chinese Nian-Fo) is a quick and easy method. In all the ages past, intelligent and dull, men and women have been able to practice Niem-Phat. Nobody makes a mistake with this method because of the applicability of the four types of outlook. Putting worries aside, you may therefore proceed with a decisive heart."
Constant invocation of the all-merciful Lord through his Holy Name is of course at the very heart of the Pure Land Buddhist tradition wherever it is found. This is because the central Pure Land Buddhist teaching is Sakyamuni’s “saddharma pundarika” revelation of the salvific other-power of the grace of Amitabha / Amitayus or Lokeshvara (their emanation) in all of his various forms. Even more specifically, Pure Land Buddhism teaches that constant invocation of the Holy Name of Amitabha (HRIH!) Is the recommended spiritual practice for this, the "dharma ending age " (the yuga dharma of Kali yuga!) . See my quote on this from the late venerable Chinese Buddhist master Hsuan Hua, in one of my next installments in this series.
As you probably know, Vietnam's population is mostly Buddhist (Mahayana mixed with different beliefs) and Catholic (about 7 million followers). Vietnamese call themselves as 'Kinh'. How do you think, maybe this word is derived from 'kinh-nara'? Also, they believe, that they have originated from the union of the Dragon King Lac Long Kuan (Shesha Naga?) and the celestial Fairy Au Ko.
The point about the dragon and celestial fairy is very
important. In the Northern range of
Buddhism, the celestial form of Ananta Shesha Naga is the good 'Dragon of
Heaven', associated with 'Father Heaven'.
In much of Chinese art this good dragon can be seen battling his
look-alike dragon of evil or chaos. When Mother Kuan Yin rides on her peaceful
protector, the celestial dragon of good, she can be easily identified with Sri
Lakshmi in Japan. In the Vietnamese
tradition you are citing, this identification of Sri Lakshmi or Tara / Kuan Yin
with Ananta Deva as the celestial dragon of good is clearly related somehow to
the dragon king and the celestial fairy.
The traditional Chinese and Japanese icons of our lady on her 'consort',
appearing as the celestial dragon, are quite beautiful.
When I was studying these eternally struggling cosmic good-versus-evil
dragons, I was told by Chinese
Buddhist scholars that sometimes the dragons can be distinguished by the number
of their toes. For instance the
order / anabolic good dragon (Seraphic Christ / Ananta Deva) may have a
different number of toes than the chaos / catabolic destructive dragon
(anti-Christ). This cosmic
dragon or Seraph / Sarpa battle is referred to in Semitic and Biblical tradition
as the war between God's (Eli's) serpentine mount Behemah and Leviathan. The Semitic and Egyptian Seraph was considered both to have
the form of a giant Egyptian cobra, and when winged, was characterized as a
dragon. Dragon in English is
related to Drac and the winged serpent form of Ketos in Greek. Drug in Tibetan may be related as well. One thing is certain, there is an important relationship
between the Greek dragon Ketos (associated Biblically with 'the Old Dragon
Satan' who was cast out of Heaven), and the Egyptian arch-fiend Setu and Vedic
Rahu-Ketu, enemy of Hari, the gods and mankind.
Note that significantly the Biblical Hebrew words for evil and sin are ra
and chet, shattath, chata. Compare Rahu-Ketu. In Biblical Greek evil is kakos, and there are many negative
connotations with ‘kata’ root-related words, such as catastrophe, cataclysm,
catacresis etc. As in the story of
the serpent staff of Moses, the
true Seraph of God defeats the anti-Seraphs of the corrupt Egyptian priests.
Thus we see that the cosmic battle between Christ and Antichrist is the
battle between the Seraphic dragon or cobra 'Mount of God / Eli'
versus the dragon of chaos, evil and sin.
This dragon warfare is a universal theme in these related ancient
traditions. In Krishna-centric
Vaishnavism the form of Baladeva as the multi-headed Ananta Shesha Naga or
Vasuki is the same as that of the serpentine demon Kaliya who tries to slay Sri
Krishna.
Below I will explain a little more about this battle as
that of the forces of personalism and creative love against those of
impersonalism, chaos and death. In
the historical case of Buddhism the great divide was between the original
devotional salvific Pure Land form and the militant anatta (no self) atheism of
the Theravadins.
In Southeast Asia, Mahayana Bhakti Buddhist dynasties /
rulers (Jayavaram at Angkor Wat, etc.) were popular with the masses, and
presided over the greatest Buddhist works that have survived until today. This
surviving evidence makes it is clear that the 'Buddhism' of Angkor Wat in
Cambodia was Vishnu worship, and similar 'Buddhist' Vishnu temples can be found
throughout Southeast Asia, Austranesia and the Pacific Islands. In this
Southeast Asian range of Buddhism, where Theravada (diffused from Sri Lanka) is
supposed to have reigned, as in Sri Lanka the archaeological and other evidence
is of Mahayana Buddhism. For
instance, Buddhism In Viet Nam contains a strong Holy Name Recitation tradition,
like the Chinese and Japanese Pure Land recitation traditions. It is this
popular devotional (Bhakti) Buddhism which we find spread over enormous
territories throughout the ancient world. Thus we can compare HERU-ASAR- PTAH
iconography and symbolism from Egypt to Buddhist iconography and symbolism
throughout the East, finding truly amazing consistencies and parallels. A wide
range of other evidence connects the Eastern and Mediterranean forms of
'Buddhism'. For example, Memphite Egyptian rock-cut temple and Necropolis
techniques are found in the great Buddhist Ajanta Caves, and textual scholars
have long noted the similarities between the Egyptian and Tibetan so-called
'Book Of The Dead'.
Just as the Elite Mayavadi Brahmins of India have used
their powerful influence to distort the world perception of India's religions,
in the same way the powerful Theravadins have distorted the world view of
Buddhism. The largest group of so-called 'Hindus' are Vaishnavas. The next
largest numerical groups are the Shaivites, and then the Devi worshipers. These
are all Bhakti, or devotional theistic traditions. The atheistic and
iconoclastic Mayavadi Brahmins have never been more than a tiny fraction of the
population of India, but because of their Elite / privileged / powerful
position, they have defined 'Hinduism' to the ‘non-Hindu’ world. Thus
practically any Western textbook entry on 'Hinduism' will describe a popular
exoteric 'polytheism' of thousands of gods, with prominent gods like Vishnu,
Shiva, etc., and a 'higher' or 'esoteric' tradition of pantheism or monism,
which ultimately denies the transcendent reality of the 'gods' in favor of an
impersonal absolute...the energy field or ground of impersonal existence called
Brahman. The parallel Elitist disinformation campaign in Buddhism is that the
Mahayana or Pure Land 'Great Vehicle / Way' is a less important and later
Hindu-corrupted heretical version of Buddhism.
The reality is, however, that the Mahayana tradition has always been the
dominant tradition, with countless believers throughout the East. It was once
the main religion of China, Korea and Japan. The Hinayana, or 'Small Vehicle /
Way ' was again mainly an Elitist tradition of the few, and admittedly
originally mostly confined to Southeast Asia. Still the Theravadins / Hinayanas
have managed to define 'Buddhism' for the world.
The most outrageous example of this obfuscation of the reality and importance of
Mahayana, and especially PURE LAND Buddhism that I have personally encountered,
was when I was working on my B.A. degree. At the end of an entire course on the
history and thought of Buddhism, in which the Mahayana Tradition had never been
mentioned a single time, and Tibetan Buddhism was re-interpreted in purely
Theravadin terms, I asked the instructor / professor before the entire class
about this indefensible omission and distortion. Her response was predictable,
that it was her class and she had the right to present what she thought was
"significant" and "relevant" about Buddhism to her students!
I said that the class should then have been identified as a Theravadin
Buddhist class, and she should have at least acknowledged the existence of
Mahayana Buddhism (MB) at the outset. I noted that as recently as in the
pre-communist era in China, that MAHAYANA BUDDHISM was the dominant religion
there. Some of the Chinese atheists targeted Chinese MB as their #1 religious
object for destruction. Seeing MB for the core theistic devotional tradition
that it was, the militant atheists ruthlessly sought to root it out of the
hearts, minds and lives of the Chinese people. As in Tibet, the Communists'
wholesale slaughter of Mahayana Buddhist priests, monks and nuns, and
destruction of their temples and monasteries, was followed by a cruel
're-education' campaign to 'break the masses of their superstitions'. Then some
of the remnant of Buddhism left in China was appropriated by the Communists to
teach Theravadin Voidism, which is in every way compatible with Communist
atheism. Of course, this is what they have attempted to do to Tibetan Buddhism,
by trying to appoint or control its High Lamas.
All free peoples know that the Communists have revised history to fit their
world-view and serve their political agenda, but here in America it was shocking
to see how the history of Buddhism at my college was being re-written to edit
out the reality of the dominant MB Tradition! I later found out that the course instructor and her
husband were Theravadin 'Masters' who regularly taught their form of atheistic
Buddhism at their 'yoga studio' in the area.
After receiving all 'A's from her throughout the course, she gave me a
final grade of 'B' for daring to raise the issue of Mahayana Buddhism in her
Buddhism class! I had waited
to the very end to hear one single word of acknowledgement that the majority MB
tradition had ever existed, and my grade was lowered for daring to bring it up!
This was the only 'B' I received in my whole college career!
Unknown to her I was already an expert on Buddhism, taking the course
because I needed the on-campus credits. Never
having been exposed to the truth about devotional Buddhism, the rest of the
students could not detect her bias. It was appalling to see what she was getting
away with in the name of objective education. I watched her indoctrinate that
class in Theravadin teachings, and totally ignore the greater historical reality
of 'Northern Buddhism'. In the end,
I gave free lunch-time cafeteria lectures on Pure Land Buddhism to anyone from
this dishonest teacher's class. It
was a real eye-opener for those who had just been through her indoctrination.
As tragic as such abuse of the educational system is, it is typical of
the state of knowledge regarding 'Hinduism' and 'Buddhism' in Western academia
today. Hinduism courses are being
taught that do not even recognize Vaishnavism as the historically and
numerically dominant tradition of India, or even as a separate tradition from
Mayavadi Brahminism or Shaivism!
Perhaps the most outrageous distortion is that Sri Krishna in the Gita is
most often presented as a 'self realized' teacher of atheistic Advaita Vedanta:
"The glory of Krishna is not that he was Krishna but because he was the great teacher of Vedanta. Thus our allegiance is to principles and not to persons." (Swami Vivekananda)
As shocking as this statement is, it is even more shocking
that Swami Vivekananda is accepted as THE authority on 'Hinduism' by countless
non-'Hindus'. In India,
the Vaishnavas generally know who is with them and who is against them, but in
the West, many devotees have fallen prey to various forms of covered
impersonalism, due to thinking that anything Indian or 'Hindu' must be dharmic.
Recently I have even seen RamaKrishna and Vivekananda being promoted on a
Vaishnava web site! Devotees should be trying to identify, and helping to recover
and revive the original Bhakti or devotion of traditions like Pure Land
Buddhism, not aiding and abetting the causes of impersonalism and voidism by
accepting Theravadin or atheistic Mayavadi disinformation.
In the letter above, the devotee writing to me has discovered some similarities between Vietnamese Pure Land Buddhism and Vaishnavism. As Vaishnava devotees around the world continue to come into contact with historically related Bhakti traditions, if they have a humble spirit and an open mind, they will gradually develop a collective realization that we are worshipers of the same God of Saving Grace. With these pioneers of goodwill, we will discover that we have a common global heritage of faith, and that our causes for unity are far greater than what has been dividing us! To make this discovery, as we study other traditions, we must always consider the source, and ask WHOSE KRISHNA ? WHOSE BUDDHA ? and WHOSE JESUS ? thus sorting-out the authentic Bhakti traditions from their related corrupted and covered forms of impersonalism and voidism.