{"id":69192,"date":"2017-08-24T23:03:01","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T05:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=69192"},"modified":"2017-08-24T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T21:58:11","slug":"the-new-buddhism-and-its-eschatological-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/08\/24\/the-new-buddhism-and-its-eschatological-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"THE New Buddhism and its Eschatological Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

In the exegesis of religion, the term eschatology<\/em> refers to concepts and anticipations of things \u2018post mortem\u2019 \u2013 such as the immortality of the \u2018soul\u2019, rebirth, resurrection, metempsychosis etc. In most religions, the greater life lies in that which follows the extinction of this life and our current existence is thought to be a mere prelude or preparation for the redeeming life to come. (Let us ignore the Hells and other Punishment Centres that play a big part in popular religions). In this regard, Buddhism is fundamentally different in that the genuine pilgrim seeks a vision, revelation or fundamental \u00a0insight that negates life and puts an end to \u00a0the samsaric journey that enslaves us as karmic agents. The liberating truth is that there is a state of transcendence \u2013 a preparation of the mind \u2013 that abstracts us from the errors, follies and pains of samsaric existence. It is the acquisition of this redeeming (Nirvanic) vision that must be the ineradicable goal of the authentic Buddhist pilgrim.<\/p>\n

What do we actually see in the kind of religious practice \u2013 nominally Buddhist \u2013 that is culturally rooted in Sri Lanka? There are Priests and Supplicants, ornate ceremonies and incense-filled chambers that are redolently holy. But what is that which is so ardently sought? Is it the liberating vision that frees us from the endless cycle of Births and Deaths? Or is it the fear of an afterlife with punitive terrors that drives us to seek the assistance of religious officiants (priests or Bhikkus) to ward off another round of existential misery? With rare exceptions, what is sought is a \u2018better life\u2019 which excludes such things as the tortures of manifold kinds in a multiplicity of Hells, degraded life as a \u2018Prethya\u2019 and the untold miseries of Animal Existence. In short, it is the karmic improvement of life rather than its radical cessation that is ardently sought. \u00a0In this transformative adventure the notion of samsaric<\/em> merit transfer<\/em> \u2013 a feature of Late Buddhism under Mahayanist influence – plays a key role and it is this development that has made Temple Services (Poojas and the like) so pivotally important – with Monks or Bhikkus\u00a0 serving as \u2018sacerdotal agents\u2019. \u00a0That genuine Buddhist religious practice has\u00a0 been upstaged by monkish rituals is an undeniable fact\u00a0 . Suppose something meritorious is done \u2013 for example a \u2018dana\u2019 given to monastic residents of great piety. According to the prevailing orthodoxy, this pious action creates a transferable quantum of karmic \u2018merit\u2019 or \u2018ping\u2019 with the monks acting as \u2018bankers\u2019 or \u2018transfer agents\u2019. The word \u2018bankers\u2019 sounds impious but the accepted wisdom is that the good done by X can be transferred to Y with the sacerdotal acts of the monks \u2013 thereby imitating a \u2018banking service\u2019 with the karmic goodness treated as transferable capital. It is now the \u2018standard\u2019 belief that most of our dear departed ones are reborn as \u2018Prethayas\u2019 and that our \u2018Buddhist Duty \u2018 is to transfer \u2018ping\u2019 or transferable karmic merit to the fallen beings through services (dana) or poojas in holy places. The latter (poojas) can be roughly translated as hallelujahs to the Divine Beings.<\/p>\n

It is not suggested that all this is a travesty of sincere religious practice \u2013 our point is that it is not Buddhism in its pristine meaning \u2013 where the religious effort is ideally singular and personal with Monks and temples as historic institutions rooted in an inalienable and distinctive religious culture. Many sincere Buddhists will reject the possibility of karmic transfer \u2013 but it has become the very foundation\u00a0 of Buddhist practice in this country where sacerdotal (temple) services in favour of the departed dear ones have an institutional strength that is \u00a0indefeasible even in the practice of a religion that is quintessentially singular and personal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R Chandrasoma In the exegesis of religion, the term eschatology refers to concepts and anticipations of things \u2018post mortem\u2019 \u2013 such as the immortality of the \u2018soul\u2019, rebirth, resurrection, metempsychosis etc. In most religions, the greater life lies in that which follows the extinction of this life and our current existence is thought to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-chandrasoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}