Monday: The Answers of Buddhism and Hinduism
WEEK 39
MONDAY
THE ANSWERS OF BUDDHISM AND HINDUISM
Ephesians 4:1-6
We saw yesterday one answer to the human dilemma “What shall we do?”—the answer of Judaism—and we found it inadequate.
The answer of Buddhism is quite different. It doesn’t deal with the fruit; it goes to the root of the guilt, desire. It is desire that brings forth action, and it is action that makes the wheel of existence turn round, and it is the wheel of existence that brings forth birth after birth. So cut the root of desire, and that will stop the action, and the stopping of the action will stop the wheel of existence from turning round. Then you go out into that passionless, actionless state called nirvana, the state literally of the snuffed-out candle. “Is there any existence in nirvana?” I asked a Buddhist priest in Ceylon. He replied, “How could there be? There is no suffering in nirvana; hence there can be no existence.” The answer of Buddhism is sweepingly radical. It would get rid of the problems of life by getting rid of life itself. It would get rid of our headaches by getting rid of our heads. The answer is too radical and very ineffective. For in trying to get rid of desire, you create another desire, the desire to get rid of desire. Besides it can’t be done. For the only possible way to get rid of one desire is to replace it by another desire, a higher desire. Buddhism produces many seekers but no finders. It puts people on the eternal quest.
The answer of Vedantic Hinduism is different: When you find yourself asking the question—“What should we do?”—you are asking the wrong question. Don’t try to think of what to do; think of realizing, of realizing your identity with Brahma, God. You are a part of God; as such there is no sin, no suffering; it is all maya, or illusion. In this realization you are lifted above all action and its fruit in guilt; you are emancipated. The trouble with this answer is that it is the philosophy of a few and the religion of none. As a religion it simply doesn’t work. In my long experience of India I have never found anyone who convinced me that he had found it. It was assertion.
O God, our Lord, you are saving us with hard refusals, hedging our way here and hedging it there with futility until we find the Way. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I shall illustrate the Way and not some way to futility.