However, it would also be fair to say that he is now one Buddha among many. The story of the life of the Buddha is also still widely used in the Mahayana. Shakyamuni Buddha (the sage of the Shakya Clan), as he is known in the Mahayana, is still an important figure who is widely depicted in art, discussed and visualised. This should not give the impression that the Mahayanists have ceased to revere the historical Buddha. It is now no longer the historical Buddha that decides the nature of the symbolic Buddha, but the symbolic Buddha, representing the potential of all beings to gain enlightenment, which provides the model for the historical Buddha. The significance of Siddhartha Gautama then changes profoundly: instead of being the single source of knowledge of enlightenment, and the single model of a fully enlightened being, Siddhartha now becomes merely one instance of many possible ones. This means that in theory, any one of us could become a historical Buddha amongst a throng of such radiant beings. However, as we have already seen, in the Mahayana the idea developed that all Buddhists should aim to become Buddhas. Any other useful texts in the Buddhist tradition gain their authority from the extent to which they reflect the truths uttered by the historical Buddha. In reading the Buddha’s words in the Pali Canon, for the Theravadins we have a hotline to enlightenment. The Pali Canon only gains its authority and legitimacy from this origin, and the belief that it has been transmitted uncorrupted (or at least largely so) from the time of the Buddha to the present. The Pali Canon is believed to contain documents which record the Buddhavacana, the Word of the Buddha which shows the way to enlightenment. This view of the Buddha is emphasised by the Theravada attitude to scriptures. It is possible for us to gain enlightenment because the Buddha showed the way to do so historically at a certain time and place. The Buddha-figure of the Theravada still has both of these kinds of significance: however, the Theravada figure is still rooted in the idea of the historical Buddha, and the symbolic Buddha could be said to be subsidiary to it. The symbolic Buddha is a timeless figure who could still represent that potential even if it turned out not to be true that Siddhartha Gautama had achieved enlightenment historically.Īfter the death of the historical Buddha, the figure of the Buddha rapidly gained both these kinds of significance. Symbolically, though, the Buddha represents the potentiality in all of us to achieve enlightenment. Historically, the Buddha was an individual who lived in a certain time and place, who is revered by Buddhists because he showed how it is possible to achieve enlightenment. The Buddha in Early Buddhism and TheravadaĪs you may already know, the Buddha can be seen either historically or symbolically. Before we look at this, though, we will have to put the whole question of the nature of the Buddha into context. Theories about the nature of the Buddha developed increasing philosophical sophistication in the Mahayana, culminating in the Trikaya or ‘Three Bodies’ doctrine of the Yogacara School. Christology is the study of the nature and attributes of Christ, and likewise ‘Buddhology’ refers to the study of the nature and attributes of the Buddha. The term ‘Buddhology’ has been constructed by some scholars of Buddhism by analogy with the Christian term ‘Christology’. Written for the AQA syllabus by Robert Ellis, formerly a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order and a former Head of RS in a 6th-form college.
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