Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? (12 page)
Read Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? Online
Authors: R. E. Sherman
Let a man leave anger, let him forsake pride, let him overcome all bondage! No sufferings befall the man who is not attached to name and form, and who calls nothing his own.
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Give up what is before, give up what is behind, give up what is in the middle, when thou goest to the other shore of existence; if thy mind is altogether free, thou wilt not again enter into birth and decay.
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Let us live happily then, free from greed among the greedy! Among men who are greedy let us dwell free from greed!
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The world gives according to their faith or according to their pleasure: if a man frets about the food and the drink given to others, he will find no rest either by day or by night.
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Buddha sought to shun every kind of craving, even if it was for something seemingly harmless. Solomon’s downfall was the increasing degree to which he sought wealth, power, and pleasure
as he grew older. Nevertheless, in his proverbs he advocated denying cravings for these things and pursuing wisdom and contentment with little instead.
The Right Intention of Goodwill
Having a sincere wish for the happiness and well-being of others is a key part of having an intention of goodwill. Solomon noted this in two proverbs:
With great insight, Buddha noted that those who are habitually critical of others are quite prone to the pursuit of sensual pleasures:
If a man looks after the faults of others, and is always inclined to be offended, his own passions will grow, and he is far from the destruction of passions.
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Having high expectations of others, in other words, is a kind of desire that can habitually cause a person to be discontent. It is better to focus on critiquing one’s own behavior than that of others.
The Right Intention of Harmlessness
Those who are treacherous seek to harm others to their own benefit, or at least to satisfy their desire for revenge or spite. People of integrity are just that because they value adherence to right behavior over any kind of temporary advantage they might gain by compromising themselves. Solomon noted this:
The
integrity
of the upright shall guide them, but the
willful contrariness and crookedness of the treacherous
shall destroy them.
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Buddha touched on this same issue in two of his proverbs:
The Right Intention of Compassion
Solomon observed that people who are trying to be truly righteous will exhibit compassion for those who are less fortunate than they are. There is something about being truly righteous that makes us sensitive to the suffering of others:
The righteous is
concerned
for the rights of the poor, the wicked does not understand such concern.
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Buddha’s primary objective in exhibiting compassion for others was in using self-denial as a path to self-purification. So we see in the next proverb that the emphasis is on the importance of having a detached attitude in the act of helping the less fortunate:
The world gives according to their faith or according to their pleasure: if a man frets about the food and the drink given to others, he will find no rest either by day or by night.
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Though there are distinctions in terms of flavor and emphasis, each element of Buddha’s step of Right Intention, like each element of Right View, has evident precursors in Solomon’s writings. With both teachers, views and intentions lead to speech and action, subjects to which we now turn.
Precursors to Buddha’s Right Speech and Action
Both Buddha and Solomon emphasized a twofold ethical system involving (1) speech, and (2) actions. Every ethical system recognizes the concept of right and wrong actions, but Solomon and Buddha both underscored the enormous power of the tongue. Each pointed out that one’s speech could affect one’s life, one’s relationships, and one’s future, as well as the larger world, for good or ill. This chapter covers several components of the ethics of speech and action that are similar in Solomon’s writings and Buddha’s proverbs.
The discussion of Right Speech is organized into two parts. The first focuses on the power of speech and its consequences. The second details the various types of good and bad speech. Since some proverbs fit into both categories, they may appear in both sections. The second part of the chapter covers the main components of right and wrong in human conduct through the eyes of these two thinkers.
Right Speech: Effects
“Mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious:
words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace.
”
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Right Speech: Types
“Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to
tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.
”
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Both Solomon and Buddha begin with the premise that speech is powerful. With that as a starting point, they detail the effects of speech and describe good and bad forms of speech. By gaining control of the tongue, a person is, in effect, limiting the harm that can come from bad speech and promoting all sorts of positive things in his or her own life and the surrounding world.
Speech Is Powerful, for Good or Ill
To both great wise men, speech could be life changing or death inducing. Solomon stated this quite emphatically:
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].
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Buddha stressed the potential power of just one well-chosen word:
Even though a speech be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of sense is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.
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Even though a Gatha (poem) be a thousand (of words), but made up of senseless words, one word of a Gatha is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.
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Though a man recite a hundred Gathas made up of senseless words, one word of the law is better, which if a man hears, he becomes quiet.
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Buddha’s repeated reference to peace underscored how important it was to him. To him, the presence or absence of peace at any moment was a summary of one’s spiritual condition. Life and peace, or death and, presumably, confusion: For both Solomon and Buddha, this is the choice each person has when deciding how to speak each moment, even before taking any action.
Effects on One’s Character
Solomon noted that a person whose speech is perverse will have a devastated spirit:
A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but perversion in it crushes the spirit.
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In a similar way, Buddha claimed there would be no limit to the transgressions a person might commit if they were willing to speak falsely:
If a man has transgressed one law, and speaks lies, and scoffs at another world, there is no evil he will not do.
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Buddha believed that a person who lied (and/or committed any of four other bad deeds) destroyed the very core of their being:
He who destroys life,
who speaks untruth,
who in this world takes what is not given him, who goes to another man’s wife; and the man who gives himself to drinking intoxicating liquors, he, even in this world, digs up his own root.
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Buddha went further, plainly stating that the ultimate destiny of hell awaited the liar:
He who says what is not, goes to hell; he also who, having done a thing, says I have not done it. After death both are equal, they are men with evil deeds in the next world.
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Solomon painted an illustration of the way that seemingly harmless false speech can affect the very center of one’s being, where a person’s integrity and worth are either sustained or forfeited: