The Anniversary of Gautama Buddha’s Enlightenment 禅

A statue from a museum in Shanghai

 Today, December 8th is Rohatsu, celebrated in Zen Buddhism as the anniversary of Buddha’s enlightenment. In Zen monasteries all over the world, an octave of intense meditation ends today, completed with chanted ceremonies honouring the Buddha’s birth.

The historical Buddha, a man from northern India, was born in 563 BCE to a wealthy family. His name was Gautama, but he’s often called by the title Sakyamuni [sage of the Sakyas] or Tathāgata [thus-gone]. Sometimes one hears the name Siddhartha, but scholars suggest that’s not really a name, but another title,meaning “goal accomplisher.”

The stories told of his early life are varied but all offer one theme. As the child of a privileged family, he was shielded from the harsher aspects of life, but as a young man Gautama came to face the reality of suffering and strove to understand its meaning. Why is it that we exist, that we experience pain, that we die?

For years he tried finding answers in the already ancient Vedic religion and philosophies, in meditations under the tutelage of sages, and even in extreme asceticism, literally starving himself to the edge of death, but in the end Gautama realised his efforts were useless. So he sat beneath a great tree in silence. After 49 days in silence he came upon enlightenment, the shocking realisation that suffering (the Sanskrit word is dukkha) was not pain or death, but rather the struggle of consciousness grappling with pain and death, holding to the impermanent and conditional, grasping for a happiness that is always passing.

In his enlightenment, Gautama became known as a buddha, which simply means “awakened one.” His teachings are called the dharma and are thought to represent the actual structure of consciousness in the universe. Soon after his awakening great numbers of men and women began to follow his path. This community is called the sangha. In Zen, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha together are called the “Three Jewels,” and represent a kind of summary of both the method and purpose of Buddhism. To formally become a Buddhist, one simply says:

I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the Dharma.

I take refuge in the Sangha.

Gautama lived to be 80 years old. His death is thought to be a finalisation or completion of his awakening. But from his experience in silence under the tree till his death, the sangha grew rapidly. Thousands learned the Dharma, and the community of practice spread from region to region — west to the edges of Europe and east through China to Japan.

There are many paths within Buddhism, many interpretations of the Dharma, and many versions of the Sangha. Contrary to what many Westerners believe, there are also many Buddhas. Gautama was not the first to achieve enlightenment, nor the last.  Zen is in fact part of a larger movement within Buddhism where every member of the Sangha vows to defer final enlightenment until every other living being is freed from suffering.

One thing can be said with complete certainty about Gautama: He is not a god. Because Buddhism is (erroneously) referred to as a “religion,” many Westerners assume it must be about God. It is not.

The metaphysical god of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, in reply to the philosophical questions of late antiquity was defined as immortal, all knowing, all seeing, etc.  It is widely assumed in the West that this kind of monotheism represents 000a more mature and sophisticated kind of belief than polytheism. This of course is patently self-serving nonsense. The idea that religions evolve out of primitive polytheism into a more complex and sophisticated monotheism is rooted in the unspoken dogma of European empires and colonialism where religious superiority functioned as a justification for racial and political bigotry. The missionary came hand in hand with a colonial administrator. The loving Gospel served as an inexpensive adjunct in service to the rapacious demand for resources needed by European and American factories.

In Zen Buddhism, gods are optional.  Japan, where American Zen has its roots, is a land of complex polytheisms. Gods (most are called Kami) are seen in places of beauty or starkness and in all sorts of events from the growth of a flower to great wind storms. Some kami are scary, some sublime. Japan’s major religion, Shinto, codifies these to a degree, but it’s a loose system that allows communities, families and individuals a great latitude in responding to perceptions of holiness. Buddhism in Japan isn’t allergic to these ideas, but its core teachings suggest that gods, if they exist at all, are caught up in the same suffering as the rest of us. The best that a god can do is offer a temporary shelter from suffering. In Japan, that’s a reasonable definition of heaven.

But for all the tomes written about the Buddha, here’s a single line from a 12th Century monk that captures the essence of Zen Buddhism’s message"

Within nothingness there’s a road out of the dust.
                        The monk Yuanwu Keqin (1063 - 1135 CE) The Blue Cliff Record