9. Buddhism. Buddhism originated in India in the
sixth century B.C., i.e., during the Upanishadic period
of Indian culture. The Buddha appears to have
accepted without question the twin doctrines of
samsāra and karma; but he made one important quali-
fication. According to Hindu teaching, it is the ātman,
the individual soul or self, that is subject to the process
of samsāra: through infinite incarnations, it bears the
burden of its karma. The Buddha maintained that the
idea of permanent soul or self was a basic illusion.
Instead, he taught the doctrine of anatta (an = not;
atta = self), according to which the so-called individ-
ual self is the illusory product of the temporary
collocation of five khandhas, which are various
psychical and physical elements that make up a human
being. Consequently, there is no real self that trans-
migrates from body to body. However, by a piece of
subtle metaphysics, it is explained that, at the end of
an incarnation, the disembodied karma-energy causes
the formation of a new set of khandhas, thus producing
a new individual form of being.
The Buddha is reported to have laid supreme em-
phasis upon the pain and misery of human existence,
and claimed to reveal how release could be obtained.
As in Hinduism, the cause of suffering is found not in
moral failing but in a primordial ignorance (avijjā), or
failure to perceive the true nature of things. According
to the formula paticca-samuppāda (“dependent origi-
nation”), aging, and death (jarāmarana), which in-
evitably follow each occasion of rebirth, result from
a chain of psychophysical causation, beginning with
the primal avijjā that starts the karmic process of
involvement in the empirical world.
The means of release from this fatal situation is
summarized in the Buddhist “Eightfold Path,” or
atthangika-magga. The scheme defines eight require-
ments that have to be fulfilled: right understanding;
right thought; right speech; right bodily-action; right
livelihood; right effort; right mindfulness; right con-
centration. The eight “steps” or requirements of the
Path are very fully elaborated in Buddhist teaching.
The goal of Buddhist endeavor is Nirvāna (Sanskrit)
or Nibbāna (Pali). The concept denoted is inherently
subtle, and it has been variously interpreted. It was
understood by earlier Western students of Buddhism
as signifying personal extinction. There was some justi-
fication for this view, since Buddhist texts often seem
to give the term Nirvāna a negative connotation.
However, what is primarily certain is that the concept
represented, and still represents, a profoundly hoped-
for release or liberation from the suffering of recurrent
rebirth in the empirical world. The Buddha is repre-
sented in a Pali writing entitled
Udāna as saying with
reference to Nirvāna: “There, monks, I say there is
neither coming nor going, nor staying nor passing
away, nor arising; without support or going on or basis
is it. This is the end of pain” (viii, 1-3). But positive
epithets can also be found for Nirvāna in other
Buddhist writings. The problem here lies ultimately
in the inherent obscurity that invests the Buddhist
conception of human nature. The
anatta doctrine
certainly precludes the idea of an inner essential soul
or self that might attain Nirvāna; on the other hand,
the Buddha is represented as having rejected the
uccheda-vāda, i.e., the doctrine of personal annihila-
tion. It would seem likely that early Buddhist thinkers
did conceive of some kind of transcendental self, as
distinct from the empirical self; but they refused to
define it either positively or negatively, on the princi-
ple that all definition is limitation by means of em-
pirical categories.
In its original form, Buddhism was essentially a way,
revealed by the Buddha Gotama, whereby men could
work out their own salvation or liberation. In process
of time other forms of the faith developed, which were
adapted to meet the need of ordinary people for divine
help and the expectation of reward or punishment after
a period of incarnate life. Consequently, popular
Buddhism knows of many divine helpers, called
bodhisattvas, who assist men and women to enjoy
heavenly bliss and avoid post-mortem torment, before
they ultimately work out their karma and attain
Nirvāna.
