From the Buddha to Us

A History of Twists and Turns: Part 1

This essay, “From the Buddha to Us: A History of Twists and Turns,” is based on a talk I originally gave in 2019 to an annual Old Student meeting at Dhamma Patapa. An edited version of that talk was published in the Pariyatti Journal. This is yet a third, and extensively revised version, written several years later.

This iteration is significant for me in that it was a pivotal point in this “fellow traveler’s journey.” Prior essays have hinted at a progressive development in my practice and understanding in the Goenka tradition, whereas this essay highlights a much more dramatic shift in my Dhamma journey. While the original talk and the version Pariyatti published were cradled within the accepted narrative of the tradition, I felt compelled over the next few years to inquire into some core questions about that narrative. This essay reflects that in-depth investigation as well as the changes I was going through at that time on my journey to self-reliance.

But figuring out how to write this sensitively and respectfully, yet staying true to myself and how I was thinking, was no easy task. I knew that I was challenging some deeply held beliefs that lie at the very heart of the tradition that I was still representing as a Teacher. Yet I felt the need to encourage students to think for themselves. I was keenly aware that the tradition was struggling in the post-Goenka era: a new generation of sincere practitioners also had many similar questions regarding the narrative of a “pure” lineage and practice, as well as the hints of prophecy. So besides communicating what I learned as an outgrowth of my personal journey, another sincere hope I have in publishing this essay is that it might inspire a deep, authentic and healthy curiosity in others.

Towards that end, I re-submitted this newer version to the Pariyatti Journal; however, the editorial board rejected it, writing that their decision was “primarily due to the criticism of Vipassana as taught by SNG that is embedded in the article.” But it was not at all my intention to “criticize” the tradition or its teachings!

As I understand the Buddha’s teaching anyway, it does not tell us to comply with or adhere to authority or groupthink, however much we may respect a tradition. My goal was simply to conduct an inquiry. And what I wrote is not just my personal opinion–besides the extensive reading I did to better acquaint myself with the history, I reached out to a few notable authorities and scholars (see “Currents of Dhamma”) to help ensure that I was as unbiased and accurate as possible. I hope readers of the previous essays will recognize the deep sense of gratitude I had–and still have–towards Goenkaji and my many wonderful years practicing and serving in his tradition. I will always cherish those years!

“From the Buddha to Us: A History of Twists and Turns” will be posted in five parts and concludes the Currents of Dhamma series. Future essays will be posted under the heading Thus I have Wondered, and will explore my current and evolving understanding of the teachings and the Path as an independent practitioner.

The Beginning

As we all know, it started with Gotama the Buddha.

The historical Buddha was an extraordinary teacher.¹ He taught Dhamma, the path to liberation, for 45 years across the area of what is today northeastern India and Nepal. Historians differ on his actual birth and death dates; the two main consensus are that he was either born in 563 BCE or 483 BCE. and that he died at the age of 80 in either 483 or 400 BCE.

The Buddha’s teachings remained fairly provincial in scope for the next couple of centuries. It was not until the great Indian king Ashoka (304-232 BCE)² that they spread more widely. From proclamations and edicts that Ashoka had carved on rock outcroppings and stone pillars, we know that he sent Buddhist³ emissaries throughout his sprawling empire, across the Indian subcontinent, eastward into Central and Southeast Asia, and westward as far as Greece.

Our tradition, as represented by SN Goenka (or Goenkaji, as he is affectionately known), paints the clear picture of a line of transmission of Dhamma teaching passed on in an unchanged way, from teacher to pupil, from the historical Buddha directly to us, today. In this way, it represents, in our teacher’s words, the “pristine purity” of Dhamma, and that in its purity, “nothing should be added, nothing should be taken out.”

To compose a talk for students, I had enthusiastically set out to learn what I could about the in-betweens of that straight line stretching “from the Buddha to us.” But the more I learned, the more I realized that, much to my surprise, the road is not so straight. Rather, it has some intriguing twists and turns that raise poignant questions for us to consider.

The Buddhist Councils

One of the first twists I discovered was how relatively quickly a unanimous consensus about the teachings began to fracture, and how it was more “power and politics” that shaped which interpretations gained prominence over the centuries.

Periodically, gatherings of learned monks met to review, discuss differences and codify the teachings.⁴ The First Council was convened in Rājagaha about three months following the Buddha’s demise. Under the direction of 500 senior monks, an accurate rendering of the Buddha’s teachings was agreed upon, to be remembered, memorized and preserved by generations of nuns and monks. The Second Council, a little more than a century later, met in Vaishali to clarify disputes that had arisen regarding proper observance of the Vinaya (the monastic code of discipline).

Then within the following century, various factions coalesced around differing interpretations of the Buddha’s broader Dhamma teachings. So a Third Council was held in what is today Patna under the patronage of King Ashoka, in an attempt to reconcile them. It was after this Council that Ashoka sent his Buddhist emissaries abroad.⁵

A Fourth Council was convened in Sri Lanka around 29 BCE. At that time, a severe famine had impoverished the land, the political situation was unstable, and the integrity of the Saṅgha was deteriorating. In order to help preserve the teachings, the gathering devoted itself to writing down the entire Pāli Canon (Tipiṭaka), which had previously been preserved solely by memory.⁶

In 1871, after a gap of 1,900 years, the Fifth Council was held in Mandalay, the royal capital of Burma.⁷ During this Council, the entire Tipiṭaka was engraved in Burmese script on 729 stone slabs, which can still be seen there today.

The Sixth Council, held in Rangoon, Burma, from 1954–56, commemorated 2,500 years of the Buddha Sasana. The entire Pāli Canon was recited by monks from Burma, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Versions of the Tipiṭaka from these countries, in different scripts, were examined, and discrepancies noted, reconciled, corrected and approved.⁸ By this point, the Therāvada⁹ had long been ascendent in the Buddhist world of Sri Lanka and southeast Asia, and the “accepted interpretation” of the Tipiṭaka was according to the Therāvada orthodoxy.

The Ascendancy of the Therāvada (Way of the Elders)

As noted above, by the time of the Second Council, factions of monks had begun to coalesce over disputes about discrete details of the Vinaya, but over time, they came to encompass more general points of Buddha Dhamma.

To make a long and complex story short, different monastic factions became dominant in different areas of the subcontinent. One migrated south to the island of Sri Lanka, where other monastic communities had already been established through Ashoka’s missionary efforts.

This turned out to be quite a fortuitous move! Across the subcontinent, Buddhism declined over the succeeding centuries due to a variety of factors, and after invasions by Central Asian tribes and Muslim armies between the 6th and 12th centuries, it was effectively eliminated from the Indian religious landscape. However, Sri Lanka escaped this catastrophic series of events; the competing factions on the island eventually coalesced into the Therāvada tradition as we know it today. And as noted above, it was there on Sri Lanka that the Tipitaka was first committed to writing,¹⁰ and it was from there that the Therāvada tradition spread into Southeast Asia. By the time of the fifth council, the Therāvada had represented the orthodox interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings in the non-Mahayana/Vajrayana world for many centuries.

So in a way, it could be said that the ascendance of the Therāvada and their Pāḷi Canon, the foundation of our practice, is somewhat of a historical accident!¹¹

This is not to imply that the Therāvada tradition must then be invalid or untrustworthy. Indeed, the fragments of texts from other canonical traditions that have been unearthed show a strong, basic, textual agreement with the Pāḷi Canon. That said, questions have been raised about whether the Therāvada interpretation of some teachings accurately represents the suttas.

However, the Therāvada tradition is the one that survived down to us today, and we owe a debt of gratitude to Burma, Sri Lanka, and all the other countries that have faithfully safeguarded the teachings of the Buddha down through the centuries in the Pāḷi Canon.¹² But it is yet another turn in that supposed straight road of certainty.

Buddhism Goes to Burma

Historical records show that in 228 BCE, King Ashoka sent two Buddhist emissaries (Sona and Uttara) to the land called “Suvaṇṇabhūmi” (“The Golden Land,” probably what today would be Southern Burma).¹³

While pockets of different forms of Buddhist practice existed here and there in Burma over the centuries, scholars agree that what we now term Therāvada Buddhism started to take firm and widespread root in Burma only quite a bit later, sometime around 1000 CE. It is actually much more likely than not that no one practice was maintained across the centuries in Burma. And so, another twist in the narrative that posits a direct, unbroken, teacher-student transmission across millenia…

The Importance of the Visuddhimagga

On Sri Lanka, about 1,000 years after the Buddha, an Indian monk named Buddhaghosa wrote the Visuddhimagga (Path of Purification). The Visuddhimagga is an exhaustive, 900-page meditation manual containing a comprehensive description and analysis of: Buddhist concepts of morality; the concentration and vipassanā (insight) meditation techniques prevailing at that time; the various stages of progress on the Path; and supporting metaphysical theories and philosophy. It is considered one of the most important texts within the Therāvada Commentarial tradition.

While the Visuddhimagga expresses orthodox Therāvada beliefs, understandings and practices, out of all Therāvadin countries, it is Burma that cherishes it the most, and whose meditation lineages are centered in it. It is practically an article of faith in Burma that the meanings of the suttas are best (maybe even only) understood through the Visuddhimagga’s interpretation. This includes the vipassanā tradition as taught by S. N. Goenka.

The British Stumble Upon the Buddha

Those of us who try and faithfully practice the Buddha’s teachings after more than 2,500 years, across diverse continents and cultures, remain in awe of the continued influence and reach of this incredible teacher. So it may seem almost unbelievable that for nearly a millennium, the Buddha’s roots faded from the historical record in his own homeland. But in the mid-17th century, all that began to change because, of all things…

…British colonialism! In the spread of British power across the globe, an assorted workforce of administrators, professional employees and private military personnel were dispatched to the subcontinent to get a better handle on the political, cultural and mercantile situation there; many of these English adventurers had skills in fields such as geography, archaeology, philology, or botany. It was through them that the erasure of India’s Buddhism’s Indian roots gradually came to light.¹⁴

An important source of information for these amateur British researchers were the journals kept by early Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to India, such as Faxien and Xuanzhang.¹⁵ Having discovered manuscripts and sketch maps outlining the extensive travels of these Chinese pilgrims, Asiatic Society members were able to trace the pilgrims’ journeys across the plains of Northern India and rediscover what those pilgrims had noted centuries earlier, such as Ashoka’s rock and pillar edicts with their inspiring Dhamma inscriptions, and the historical locations where the Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment, delivered his first discourse, frequently resided, and ultimately passed away.

Those early British explorers did not initially appreciate that they were slowly fitting together the disparate pieces of the puzzle of Buddhist history in India, or that it had any relationship to the religion practiced elsewhere in Asia as described (often inaccurately) by their fellow Westerners.¹⁶

But by about 1840, the Indian origins of Buddhism had been established beyond doubt, together with the main biographical facts of the man known by his disciples as Gotama Buddha, the Tathāgata, Sakyamuni and more than a score of other names. Of course, the Buddha’s teachings had long been practiced in neighboring countries, but we can admire the dedication and tenacity of those pioneering, Asiatic Society members for uncovering the original, ancient presence of Buddhism in India.¹⁷

The Creative and Dynamic Evolution of Buddhism

Another interesting turn in the road is the profound capacity that Buddhist practice has demonstrated through the ages to cross frontiers and adapt to an ever-changing web of cultures, languages, benefactors, and economic and political circumstances.

Indeed, this raises fundamental questions that I believe all practitioners would do well to reflect on. For instance, do we say that only the Therāvada interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings is correct? But as has been noted, it’s quite possible there are some significant differences even between the way orthodox, commentarial Therāvada interprets the suttas and the words of the suttas, themselves (an issue I return to later in the essay). And since we can never really know exactly what the Buddha said, does that mean that no tradition can be trusted? Or conversely, say we accept that Therāvada is a legitimate expression of the Buddha’s teachings, in spite of those apparent differences: in that case, why would the possibility of legitimate change and evolution stop there, and not include Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings? After all, while some forms of Buddhist practice are quite different from what we are familiar with as meditators within the Therāvada tradition, they are all underpinned by adherence to the Buddha’s basic teachings.

Of course, each branch of the teachings believes they are practicing in a “right way,” firmly rooted in the “real” teachings of the Buddha. But while each may think their particular way is the best way, is it really possible to peer back more than 2,500 years through the mists of time, before written records were kept about it, to know the truth of it all, or what the Buddha would say if he were alive today? And of course, “a right way” is not the same as “the right way,” nor is “the right way for someone” the same as “the only right way for everyone.”

Endnotes

1. During the Buddha’s time, there were other prominent spiritual teachers in India, such as Mahavira, who is revered by the Jains, and numerous ascetics.

2. In 260 BCE, Ashoka led a destructive and violent invasion of a neighboring kingdom. The remorse he felt due to the resulting carnage and loss of life led him to embrace the Dhamma. Besides helping spread the teachings, he ruled as a very enlightened and progressive monarch. It’s amazing to think that for nearly 2,500 years, however, almost all traces of his remarkable accomplishments became lost to history.

3. In Goenkaji’s mission to spread the Dhamma in a non-sectarian manner to a multicultural audience, he avoided using the terms Buddhism/Buddhist, in part to separate what he called the essence of the teaching from non-meditative, religious practices. On the other hand, his teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, had no issues using those words within the context of Burmese Buddhist culture; it probably never even occurred to him that such a distinction could or should be made. Personally, I respect both points of view, but since I have to choose one or the other, I will use Buddhism/Buddhist as a term of convenience.

4. There seem to be a number of different tabulations of these councils, as well as their purpose. The six described here reflect the orthodox Therāvada tradition.

5. Some historians have questioned the existence of this Council.

6. There were possibly two Fourth Councils, the one in Sri Lanka, and one in Kashmir. These have also both been called into question.

7. Burma was officially changed to Myanmar in 1989. However, because it is cumbersome to move back and forth between using “Burma” (pre-1989) and “Myanmar” (post-1989) as the context technically demands, I will just stick with the better known and more flexible “Burma,” including after its official name change in 1989.

8. In 1881, Thomas Rhys Davids, one of the most notable later scholars of the British colonial era, and his wife, Caroline, founded the Pāḷi Text Society. By the time of Rhys Davids’ death in 1922, the Pāḷi Text Society had completed the publication of almost the entire Tipiṭaka in Roman script with English translations. Their work largely established the standard interpretation of Pāli, the language the Suttas survived in; almost all their publications remain in print.

9. The term Therāvada has long been used for this branch of Buddhism. However, its adherents did not use the word to describe their own religious affiliation until the last century. This was a proactive response to how others characterized them, either pejoratively (eg, as Hinanyana/Lesser Vehicle, as opposed to Mahayana/Greater Vehicle) or in relation to others (eg, “Southern Buddhists”).

10. On palm leaves.

11. There are five other existing versions of the Buddhist Canon that have come to light over the years besides the Pāḷi Canon, including in Sanskrit and Chinese.

12. And in yet another, interesting twist, more recent advances in the field of sutta analysis – looking at historical references, uses of literary language, grammar, and other factors – indicate that it’s possible that some portion of the Pāḷi Canon was likely composed as many as 300-400 or more years after the Buddha passed away.

13. In Burma, some believe this may not have been the first instance of the Dhamma arriving there. This perhaps apocryphal story is that two merchants, Tapussa and Bhallika, traveled to India and encountered the Buddha soon after he had become enlightened. Filled with awe and devotion, they offered him almsfood and took refuge in the Buddha and his Dhamma, thereby becoming his first lay disciples. At their request for something by which to remember and honor him, he gave them eight hairs from his head. Upon returning to Rangoon (Yangon), the merchants offered the hairs to King Okkalapa who, it is said, enshrined them in the renowned Shwedagon Pagoda.

14. From this diverse and colorful collection of East India Company characters, there eventually emerged a subgroup interested in Indian languages, literature and the indigenous religions, who called themselves the “Orientalists.” A few of these Orientalists formed the more purposeful Asiatic Society In 1784. They played a central role in researching and documenting ancient texts, inscriptions, coins and archaeological sites—among them many relating to the Buddha and his teachings.

15. By the first century CE, Buddhism was making its way east along the Silk Road into China. Faxien, traveled overland to India in about 400 CE and found the Dhamma flourishing there. About 225 years later, Xuanzhang made a pilgrimage to India and noted that although Buddhism was still thriving, many monasteries were already in ruins.

16. In 1801, Dr. Francis Buchanan, a British surgeon and devoted amateur botanist who had been a member of a British diplomatic expedition to the Kingdom of Ava, in Burma, published On the Religion and Literature of the Burmas, the most extensive account of Buddhism in English to that date; in it, the word “Buddhism” was used in print for the first time. Eventually, the terms “Buddhism” and “Buddhist” were not only adopted by Westerners, but also by traditional followers of the Buddha in countries throughout Asia.

17. In 1875, the Theosophical Society was founded in New York. It combined the words of the Buddha with an eclectic (and some would say, eccentric) mix of esoteric Hinduism, Christianity, mysticism and the occult. It played a significant role in introducing the Buddha’s teachings to western countries.