The bulk of Buddhism’s devotees, like children, have no mind for the profound part of the Buddha’s teaching; who tend to like their Buddhism sweet and non-nutritious with lots of gaudiness thrown in, in the way of ceremonies, wearing of robes, physical practices, etc. And like children, they like their literature dumbed-down; without nuance.
The Buddha well understood this as probably no other religious teacher and so cleverly divided his teaching into one for the not-so-bright (prithagjana) and one for the bright (arya-sravaka). When, for example, we hear of the Chatvâri ârya-satyâni (Four Noble Truths), the average Buddhist is unaware for whom these truths were originally intended. They just assume they are being addressed to them. But the Buddha was not giving these truths to the mundane person or prithagjana. These truths are only meant for arya-sravaka (in Pali it is ariya-savaka) who have a high spiritual IQ, so to speak. These truths cannot be understood by the mundane mind, in other words.
In the Ariya-savaka Sutta of the Pali canon (S. ii. 77) the Buddha provides us with some important details as to who an arya-sravaka really is. (Italics mine.)
“Bhikkhus, when a noble disciple [arya-sravaka/ariya-savaka] thus understands as they really are the origin and the passing away of the world, he is then called a noble disciple who is accomplished in view, accomplished in vision, who has arrived at this true Dhamma [sad-dharma], who sees this true Dhamma, who possesses a trainee’s knowledge, a trainee’s true knowledge, who has entered the stream [srotapatti] of the Dhamma, a noble one with penetrative wisdom, one who stands squarely before the door to the Deathless” (trans. Bhikkhu Bodhi).
Surely, the reader can see that the arya-sravaka ain’t no run-of-the-mill, mundane person. They have come to see the Buddha’s Dharma which is the true substance of the universe; which is without equal. In the same breath, they stand squarely before the door (dvara) to the Deathless (amrita).
An aside, I should mention that originally the term “Bodhisattva” referred to an arya-sravaka who truly understood the Dharma—not to someone simply superior to an arya-sravaka (cp. Prajnaparamita and related systems: Studies in honor of Edward Conze, p. 8).
Keeping all the above in mind, like The Four Noble Truths, the Arya-ashtanga-marga (The Noble Eightfold Path) is likewise intended only for arya-sravaka. It simply cannot be understood by non-aryasravakas or prithagjana. I realize that this sounds elitist but the fact remains that the Buddha makes a clear-cut distinction, in the Mahacattarisaka Sutta (M. iii. 72–79), between The Noble Eightfold Path and the mundane path, the latter being one for gaining merit which unlike The Noble Eightfold Path is neither free from defilements nor supermundane.
A few words need to be said about the drive to level the Buddha’s teachings so as to make them appear mundane and secular. First of all, this is not unique to Buddhism. Almost all religions do it more or less. There is a strong tendency in every human to reduce the profound to the simplistic; the noble to the ignoble; the spiritual content, to materialism. It is just an evil drive in human nature to do such. More than that, it is human nature to prefer ignorance to wisdom—and the Buddha knew this. This is why he resisted teaching his profound Dharma to the world and then only taught it to those who had little dust in their eyes; not the mundane person blinded by the dust of the material world.
Ah, now this is a post. Now please more deep discussion on the 4 NT and 8FP. Profound that the more and more and more you read of the suttas, the more you realize the whole path is perfectly contained within the 4NT including 8FP. How about how connecting the 8FP to form a wheel produces a slowly accelerating (turning) motion.
Posted by: @combray_dave | February 23, 2010 at 08:59 PM
No pearls before swine, eh?
Posted by: Joe Clement | February 23, 2010 at 04:59 PM