Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Neither God Nor Manand#8221; is brought to us by Sangharakshita, founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community. After an account of the Buddhaand#8217;s life, Sangharakshita asks how, if at all, such a man can be defined or categorised. The full talk, and#8220;Who is the Buddha?and#8221; is part of the series Introducing the and#8220;Three Jewels of Buddhismand#8221; given in 1968.
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
Neither God Nor Man
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for Your Life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] Now, this is still very relevant to us, because there are two of these descriptions, two of Upakas categories, which we still try to apply to the Buddha. And these two categories represent remiss. All these two descriptions represent remiss, say, mistakes, which we commit here and now. Both in the East and in the West, with regard to the Buddha. When we try to understand who the Buddha was or is. We usually tend to think of the Buddha either as God or as man. Because in the West, we have just these two categories, God and man. So when, with our Western dualistic Christian background, we come up against or come across the Buddha. Just like Upakas, we try to slap on the label. We only have two labels, God, man. So we try to categorize the Buddha in these terms, but just as Upakas did, although centuries ago. One school of thought says, "The Buddha was just a man." It's a very good man. You can even say a holy man, yes, very decent. Someone rather like Socrates, but just a man, not more than that. This is the view taken, for instance, by Catholic writers about Buddhism. It's rather subtle, or invidious, or reposed. They praise the Buddha, says wonderful piety, wonderful charity, great love, compassion, wisdom. Yes, a very great man. And then they say, they're very careful to say this on the last page of their book about Buddhism, but Christ was the Son of God. So he's much more. The Buddha was just a man. This is one way in which the Buddha is categorized. The other school says, no, the Buddha is a sort of God for the Buddhists. Of course, originally he was a man, but these wicked Buddhists, what did they do? Hundreds of years after the Buddha's death, they deified him. They made him into a God. He was a man or white, an ordinary man, but the Buddhists deified him. They made him into a God, because they want you to have something to worship. Now, both of these views are wrong. That the Buddha was a man, that the Buddha was God, or is God. The Buddha was a man, yes, a human being, in that sense he started off as every other human being starts off. But he wasn't an ordinary man, he was an enlightened man. And according to Buddhism, that makes a great deal of difference. It makes, in fact, all the difference. He was, in fact, an unconditioned mind in a conditioned body. And the Buddha, one who is an unconditioned mind in a conditioned body, is the highest being in all the universe, according to the Buddhist tradition, higher even than the so-called gods. What we would call in Western terms, angels and archangels and so on. And it's significant that traditionally the Buddha is called the teacher of gods and men. And in Buddhist art, the gods are represented in very humble sort of positions. One on the one side of the Buddha, another perhaps on the other, and saluting him and listening to the teaching. This is the Buddhist view of the gods. Now, a certain amount of confusion has arisen in people's minds in the West about the Buddha being a god or being god. Because they see that the Buddha is worshipped. You can see programs on a television about Buddhist countries, where Buddhist temples with the golden spires, and lots of lovely columns and carbings. And you see troops of people going along, early in the morning with flowers, and offering flowers on the autumn, lighting candles and bowing down. And you think, "Oh, they're worshipping the Buddha." And maybe the commentator tells you this. Here they are in Bangkok or in Tokyo or wherever else it may be, worshipping the Buddha. So we at once think, worshipping, worshipping means the ones they take him as god. Because if you worship someone, well, it means that for you, that person is god. So they take this as a sort of proof that Buddhist regard the Buddha as god, because they worship. But this is quite wrong, because not only Buddhists, but people generally in the East. They've got quite a different conception of worship. In the West, worship is something offered only to god. When you say, "I worship," when it's taken a granted, you go to a church, you worship god. You don't say, "I worship my father, I worship my mother, I worship my distant uncle." You don't say that, but in the East you do. You've got the same word for paying respect to the Buddha, to your parents, to your elder brothers and sisters, to your teachers, both spiritual and secular, and to any senior or respectable person. You use the same word, which means to worship, to respect, and so on. You don't have different words. So when you see Buddhists offering flowers to the Buddha image, lighting, candles, bang down, they're just respecting, and they're respecting the Buddha, but honoring the Buddha as you if you like, has an enlightened being. They're not worshiping him as god. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donny. And thank you. [music] [silence] [silence]