Untying the Knots in Buddhism: Selected Essays, by Wayman, Alex
Reviewed by Karel Werner
Asian Philosophy
vol.8 No.1
March 1998
pp.72-73
COPYRIGHT @ Journals Oxford Ltd. (UK)
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One of the most distinguished Buddhist scholars presents in this
collection of 24 essays a rich harvest of his research over 10 years
into problems of non-tantric Buddhism. Some of the papers were
previously published in periodicals or volumes for special
occasions, others were delivered as lectures at different venues and
some were specially prepared for this collection in order to make it
into an integrated volume. They revolve around three basic themes of
Buddhism: personalities; doctrine and practice; and Buddhism in the
wider Indian context.
The first theme occupies two sections. Section One, `Heroes of the
System', opens with a well written essay summarising the Buddha's
career, with immaculate source references, and continues with one on
the disputed matter of his date. The author accepts the year 486 BC
for the Buddha's passing away (showing preference for the Cantonese
tradition which is very close to Geiger's widely used date of 483
BC). He supports this so-called `long chronology' by a convincing
and well argued refutation of Bechert's recent advocacy of the
`short chronology' (placing the Buddha's death at c. 365 BC) as
indefensible, while elucidating several important doctrinal topics
in the process, everything again painstakingly documented. After
three brilliant essays, on `Nagarjuna: Moralist Reformer of
Buddhism', `Doctrinal Affiliation of the Buddhist Master Asanga' and
`Vasubandhu--Teacher Extraordinary', the section closes with an
unusual theme: `Parents of the Buddhist Monks'. The starting-point
of the essay is the author's recognition of the role which
appreciation of parents plays in the stability of a given culture
and in the preservation of religion. Buddhism has always upheld
family values despite the otherworldliness of its goal and
insistence on homelessness for monks who, however, were strongly
admonished to acknowledge their indebtedness to their parents, and
particularly to their mother. The author proceeds to show how this
very human relationship manifested itself on different levels in
doctrinal contexts. Section Two, `Theory of the Heroes', tackles
first the `Aniconic and Iconic Art of the Buddha' and skilfully
argues that the uniconic representations of the Buddha (such as the
empty throne etc.) indicated not only his `presence in absence' as
they are usually understood, but amounted to `living embodiments',
while his iconic portrayals do not have the same impact. This was
realised even at the time by some artists who therefore included in
their icons some uniconic touches, e.g. a tree. Examples abound at
Ajanta. Two subsequent papers concentrating on textual analysis
deal, respectively, with the question of Nagarjuna's interpretation
of the term Tathagata and with Asanga's account of three
Pratyejabuddha paths, and the next one explains the role of `The
Guru in Buddhism'. In the concluding essay the author argues that
personal prophecy has always been accepted in Buddhism as a
possibility. Personal predictions of spiritual achievements and
future destinies after death were frequent even in the early times,
but the possible validity of mundane predictions has never been
denied, although monks are discouraged from engaging in them.
Themes on doctrine and practice are represented by Sections Three
and Four. The former includes core teachings, such as suffering,
karma, seed consciousness, dharma, and voidness as well as a
thorough examination of the meaning of the expressions `going' and
`not going' whose usage in texts often has metaphysical
implications. The last essay, The Meaning of Death in Buddhism', is
a scholarly examination of texts pertinent to the theme and an
elucidation of all possible aspects of it. The conclusion was, of
course, foregone from the start: death is regarded in Buddhism `as a
transit in a cyclical course rather than a decisive final event'.
Section Four treats the term `food' in its realistic and
metaphorical sense with the help of Asanga; the position of women in
Buddhism; and purification of sin (defilement or fault--sanklesa,
Pali sankilesa) through `face to face' confession which began as
patimokkha ceremony, but changed in Mahayana into a procedure which
involved meditative visualisation of the Buddha(s). It closes with
an investigation of the meaning of parinamana, often interpreted as
`transference of merit or virtue' which poses problems `in view of
the karma doctrine. The author explains it as `virtue consignment',
but although his arguments and explanations are illuminating, the
question does not appear settled and will no doubt continue to
exercise scholars' minds.
Section Five, `Hindu-Buddhist Studies', contains essays which should
be carefully studied by specialised Buddhist scholars who are
sometimes persuaded to interpret Buddhist topics purely from within
the Buddhist tradition as a whole or just from within a particular
Buddhist school or sect, whether historical, such as Theravada, or
construed, such as `early Buddhism', ignoring or too easily brushing
aside the wider background and close connections between Buddhist
ideas and trends of pre-Buddhist and contemporary Indian thought,
both Vedic-Brahmanic and `non-orthodox'. First it is the Vedic and
Buddhist picture of the world which is dealt with, followed by
`Studies in Yama and Mara' tackling the Hindu and Buddhist
mythological representations of death. Philosophically the most
fruitful are the essays `Vedantic and Buddhist Theory of Nama-Rupa'
and `The "No-Self" of Buddhism within Indian Culture'. The former
(first published 1982), suggesting the theory of two kinds of
nama-rupa and pointing out the textual usage of the expressions
nama-kaya and rupa-kaya, was partly utilised in the reviewer's paper
`Indian Concepts of Human Personality in Relation to the Doctrine of
the Soul' (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1988, pp. 73-97);
the latter argues that the statements in Buddhist texts about
anatman/anatta were meant to represent not a doctrine, but a method
of contemplation. The concluding essay, `Nescience and Omniscience',
deals with different kinds of avidya, with the problem of knowledge
and wisdom and with the way in which the concept of omniscience
emerged in Buddhist thought where, unlike in some non-Buddhist
contexts, it is never understood to cover all knowledge which would
include even mundane matters; `it is rather an "omniscience" about
the truth of the world and of man' in so far as it leads to the
realisation of the path.
The great value of these essays for the specialist researching a
particular theme is in the references to sources, often with lengthy
quotations both in the original language and in translation, and to
secondary literature. In addition, the reader also always gets the
author's balanced conclusions on important and controversial points
of Buddhist teachings based on investigation of a wide range of
sources of different schools, both within and outside the Buddhist
tradition. That is what non-specialists--philosophers and
religionists--can greatly profit from, even if they may not be able
or inclined to follow in all details all the author's chain
arguments. Now that his most important essays are easily available
in this volume (and in a previous one: Buddhist Insight, 1984), I
cannot imagine that any important Buddhist topic can be treated
without taking his work into account or critically referring to it.