Buddhist Sects And Philosophies (Collection of Articles from the Indian Historical Quarterly)

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Early Buddhism though propagated in different provincial dialects could not be appreciated by the common-folk in general. The insistence on retirement from worldly life was a great handicap in the way of its popularity; so during the first century of its existence, it remained confined to the recluses and monasteries, and hardly reached the home and the hearth. It was perhaps about a century after Buddha's death that the religion became dynamic, assimilating some of the ideas and thoughts current around and stepped down from its high pedestal of exclusiveness and abstruse ideals to appeal to the more intellectual and faithful among the common-folk. This move towards popularity too did not proceed far as we find that it just allowed a little scope for rituals of a sober character, a little of faith and worship, and a slight relaxation from the stringency of disciplinary rules. Aśoka as a ruler gave preference to the popular ideals. producing good citizens. and not to the spiritual, making the people unsocial. It cannot be ascertained how far Aśoka had a hand in the matter of making the religion popular but the history of the religion shows that after the days of Aśoka, it developed new aspects which became so very popular that the reoriented religion spread all over India, marking every notable spot with magnificent structures of rare artistic value, and ultimately reaching countries beyond the borders of India. There are, in fact, two stages in the course of its attainment of popularity, one of the pre-Aśokan days and other of the post-Aśokan.

Buddha subscribed to the theories of karman and rebirth but in a way completely different from those of the Upanisadas. The Upanisadic view of karman is linked up with the permanent and unchangeable self while Buddha's view was that changing karman could never be associated with an unchanging substance like the self. He was a strong advocate of karman and its effects and he laid the utmost emphasis on it throughout his teachings. He criticised those teachers who denied or minimised the efficacy of karman and it is with this purpose that he discussed the doctrines of the six teachers and condemned them in no uncertain terms. The upholders of Akiriyavada were destined to hell-this was his repeated assertion. He elaborated his cosmological ideas of heaven and hell mainly with a view to educate his large number of disciples who were not spiritually advanced and to infuse into them the spirit of doing good deeds and avoiding evils in order to assure a better and happier after-life. Of the six teachers he made an exception of only one, viz., Nigantha Nataputta, whom he regarded as a kiriyavadin and passed over the views of the Agnostic teacher Sanjaya Belaṭṭhiiputta.

The systems of philosophical thought that grew up in Indian cultural soil have been varied and variegated having several schools and sub-schools though all of them centre around the Vedic thought delineating their viewpoints for or against the basic tenets of the Vedic wisdom. Among these systems, Buddhism occupies a very distinct and significant position making not only innovative contributions but also indepth analysis of various philosophical issues. It has provided a new orientation and a fresh impetus to approach the nature of Reality and also towards the understanding of the empirical world. Lord Buddha who initiated the non-substantialist approach to Reality by way of a contrast to "atmavada" or "substance ontology" of the Vedic tradition, argued for the constantly changing nature of the world of experience and on this basis advocated a distinct way of life rejecting the idea of permanence or abidance as the sole criterion of Reality.

Buddhist thought, thus, has centred around no-substance ontology. Gautama, the Buddha, was led to philosophizing by an intense longing for the eradication of suffering. He visualised that all suffering is due to 'tanha', (longing) and that all longing is due to attachment to the false notion of permanence. His philosophical enterprise was exclusively geared towards eradication of suffering. He, therefore, propounded the four Noble Truths. These are

i. Sarvam duḥkham .

ii Duḥkha samudaya

iii. Dubkha nirodha

iv. Nirodha gamini pratipada

All important Buddhist doctrines flow from these four Noble Truths. Whether we take into account the metaphysics, epistemology, axiology and value theory, eschatology, social and political thought, ethical and cultural deliberations, in every sphere of philosophizing Buddhist thought stems from and pivots around these four Noble Truths which provide a foundation to the entire Buddhist thought and culture.