BUDDHADASA: Theravada Buddhism and Modernist Reform in Thailand By Peter Jackson

BOOK REVIEW - Rethinking Buddhism.
1056 words
15 March 2003
Bangkok Post
3
English
(c) 2003

A revolutionary religious thinker and his complex legacy

Chris Baker

BUDDHADASA: Theravada Buddhism and Modernist Reform in Thailand By Peter Jackson, Silkworm Books, 2003, 625 baht.

In 1931, a young monk failed his clerical exams, and got fed up with "blundering around studying the scriptures in a way polluted by concern for status." He quit his Bangkok wat, buried himself in the forests of his native Surat, and set out to reinterpret the earliest Buddhist texts.

This was strikingly ambitious. The whole Theravada tradition is built on the sanctity of the texts. No significant commentary had been written for over a millennium. Scholar monks were supposed to preserve the texts in their purest form, not try to change the view of what they meant.

The results were as revolutionary as the project. Buddhadasa invented a method (phasa khon-phasa tham) which claimed to find the higher meaning buried in the original statements of the early texts. With this, he made three major propositions.

First, he interpreted all mentions of heavens, hells and rebirths to mean simply psychological states. By doing so, he rejected mystery and supernaturalism and could claim that Buddhism was rational and consistent with modern science.

Next, Buddhadasa argued that the original human condition was not characterised by sinful desire (kilesa) but by a "void mind" (chit wang). The purpose of Buddhist practice was to recover that state. Moreover, that was not so difficult and certainly not possible only by monks and through strenuous asceticism. Lay people could do it too, using simple insight meditation. Besides, the ultimate goal of nibbana was no more than a deepening of this "void mind".

Finally, without a concept of rebirth, the whole notion of storing up merit for a future life no longer had any meaning. This world became the whole deal. So the duty of a good Buddhist should be to create a world in which more people have a chance to attain nibbana.

With these propositions, Buddhadasa had done a lot. He had created an interpretation of Buddhism which could coexist with modern science. He had paved the way for lay people to participate fully in Buddhist practice and even attain nibbana. He had indicated that the proper duty of a good Buddhist was not to escape this world but to improve it.

Buddhadasa's ideas met a demand among a new educated elite who feared that old-fashioned Buddhism would whither in the face of modernity, and who sought religious justification for greater social and political activism.

But the political and social implications were huge. Along the way, Buddhadasa had delegitimised the whole business of acquiring merit for a future life, which is the focus of most everyday religious practice. He also undermined the traditional thinking which justified the rule of the king and the existence of social hierarchy, in terms of unequal merit.

Buddhadasa had achieved his new interpretation with a lot of difficulty. He had to cherry-pick his texts. He had to slide past some statements attributed to the Buddha which seemed to deny his psychological interpretation. He had to borrow from other Buddhist traditions, especially Zen. This laid him open to attack from conservatives who bridled at the idea of any such reinterpretation, and who especially feared the political implications. They branded Buddhadasa as a Mahayanist Trojan horse who would destroy the Theravada tradition.

Perhaps because of these attacks, and perhaps because of the deeply divided ideological politics of the 1960s and 1970s, Buddhadasa disappointed his followers by backing away from the political and social implications of his ideas. He rejected the competition at the heart of democracy and argued that an ideal political state (dhammocracy) was most likely to be achieved under a (benevolent) dictator. He opposed monks getting involved in politics and development. To minimise personal attacks, he stuck closely to traditional clerical practice and steered clear of politics inside the Sangha. Hence he offered no new guide for the monkhood in line with his new doctrine.

Peter Jackson originally published this book in 1984 when Buddhadasa was still alive, and when the prime minister was still a general. He concluded then that Buddhadasa was an inspirational thinker, but that his appeal would be limited to a "tiny minority" of educated activists.

But in the epilogue, originally written in 1994 and here slightly updated, Jackson modifies this view. Since Buddhadasa's 1993 death (described in the epilogue), his legacy has become much more complex. A host of followers both inside the monkhood (Phra Payom, Santikaro Bhikkhu, P.A. Payutto) and outside (Sulak, Prawase, Chamlong) have fine-tuned the socio-political implications of his thinking, and put them into practice in their own lives.

A new and much larger generation of activists has taken up Buddhadasa's message of this-worldly commitment. Some commentators have used Buddhadasa's rationalism as foundations for supporting capitalist modernism, while others interpret his ideas as the basis for a sophisticated opposition to capitalism.

The King's involvement in Buddhadasa's funeral has blunted some of the conservative opposition. And in the popular tradition, Buddhadasa has been embraced as a great monk and attributed the supernatural powers he was so keen to deny. Buddhadasa's retreat at Suan Mokh has become one of the nation's most famous religious centres.

This book is a reissue but very welcome. With his philosophical background, Peter Jackson takes us through the logic of Buddhadasa's thinking with great clarity. Through his readiness to put religion in its social and political context, he shows exactly how and why Buddhadasa's ideas matter. By here reproducing the 1984 edition (along with his later comments on it), he shows how much society, politics and religion in Thailand have changed in the tumultuous years since.

The book is indispensable background to all the swirling religious currents of today, from the Dhammakai phenomenon, through the political roles of figures like Prawase Wasi and Chirmsak Pinthong, to the turmoil over the Sangha Bill.

Regrettably buried in the endnotes, he quotes the thinker's farewell poem, Buddhadasa will never die:

"Treat me as if I never died,

As though I am with you all as before.

Speak up whatever is on your minds

As if I sit with you helping point out the facts.

Realise the Absolute and stop dying."