Disputation In the Dhamma
By the
contemplative recluse monk Sotapanna Jhanananda (Jeffrey
S, Brooks)
(copyright 2004 all rights reserved)
It is a great
pleasure to manage the Yahoo groups for the Great Western Vehicle because
of the many enthusiastic contributions
people make. I
enjoy being in the company of such brilliant minds, because I learn so
much. In our brilliance, though, sometime we forget to avoid harmful
speech and to embrace kind, thoughtful and generous speech.
While we may feel our opponent in the dialog is deeply deluded, I
believe the job of a dhamma/dharma teacher is to gently and compassionately
draw people to enlightenment, not goad them with the whip as if they are
cattle to be herded.
Recent conflict
on the GWV listservs has occasionally silenced dialog. Thus
I composed this article to remind people of our journey here, which is
dialog for the purpose of learning the contemplative way (dhamma/dharma). Enthusiastic
dialog can unfortunately arouse anger and hostility if we are not mindful.
I thought that
perhaps we could dialog on the art of dialog here. Thus
I believe we should also keep in mind appropriate conduct during disputation. Since
the Noble Eightfold Path suggests right speech, action and thought, and
the precepts suggest avoiding harmful thought, speech and action, then
we should assume that disputation in the dhamma/dharma should avoid aggressive,
or abusive language while one endeavors to put forth one's premises.
As you may know
some vehicles of Buddhism have rather formal structures within which
disputation is an accepted form of the
training. Other
vehicles of Buddhism do not provide a framework for disputation. And,
finally some vehicles of Buddhism find disputation offensive.
I am unaware of
a Theravadan tradition of dialectical inquiry, however, I am familiar
with the Tibetan forms of dialog, which
I find a bit too
formal for my taste, but nonetheless a worthy model from which Western
dharmic dialog can find inspiration. Unfortunately, dialog does not
seem to be characteristic of Tibetan Buddhism as it is expressed in the
West.
From reading the
Discourses of the Buddha, it seems clear that dialog was indeed a central
feature of the early Buddhist
community (sangha). Western
thought is based upon Socratic dialog, which is not unlike the kind of
dialog we see in the Discourses of the Buddha.
When I put forth
my premises, I am often simply pursuing a line of logic that necessitates
placing the practice of disputation
within the
rhetorical framework of the Buddha's teaching system. This necessitates
providing the boundaries for disputation as well.
To quote Angelique,
from another GWV list, "without a dialogue
we simply have dogma." So, I believe disputation is a necessary
aspect of learning the dhamma. And, I believe a dhamma center that does
not provide a vehicle for dialog runs the risk of failing as a vehicle
for the dhamma. This is in part why The GWV has focused so much of
its efforts on Yahoo dialog groups.
We should also
keep in mind an argument (dispute) depends upon knowing where a quote
comes from, because otherwise I believe it
becomes too easy
to pawn off one's own thoughts, beliefs and opinions as the Buddha's dhamma. Therefore,
I do not believe we can continue to accept that a saying comes from the
Buddha just because someone says it does.
While leading
a local sutta study group I was recently reminded that the first sutta
in the Digha Nikaya, the Brahmajala Sutta,
deals with "What
the Teaching is not." And, one of the things that the
Buddha's teaching is not is addiction to disputation.
"What the
Teaching is not"
Brahmajala Sutta, DN 1.1.18
"Whereas
some contemplatives remain addicted to disputation such as: 'You do not
understand this doctrine and discipline
-- I do! 'How could
you understand this doctrine and discipline?' 'Your way is all wrong --
mine is right! 'I am consistent -- you are not!' 'You said last what you
should have said first, and you said first what you should have said last!'
'What you took so long to think up has been refuted!' 'You argument has
been over thrown, you are defeated!' 'Go on save your doctrine -- get out
of that if you can!' the ascetic Gotama refrains from such disputation."
"This, monks, the Tathagata understands: These view points thus
grasped and adhered to will lead to such-and-such destinations in another
world. This the Tathagata knows, and more, but he is not attached
to that knowledge. And being thus unattached he has experienced for
himself perfect peace, and having truly understood the arising and passing
away of (sensations), their attraction and peril and the deliverance from
them, the Tathagata is liberated without remainder."
1.37
"There are,
monks, other matters, profound, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful,
excellent, beyond mere thought,
subtle, to be
experienced by the wise, which the Tathagata, having realized them by his
own super-knowledge (abinna), proclaims, and about which those who would
truthfully praise the Tathagata would rightly speak."
3.71
"With regard
too all of these...they experience these (sensations) by repeated contact
through the six sense bases; (sensation)
conditions
craving, craving conditions clinging; clinging conditions becoming; becoming
conditions birth; birth conditions aging and death, sorrow, lamentation,
sadness and {(dissatisfaction) dukkha}.
"When a monk
understands as they really are (vipassana) the arising and passing away
of the six bases of contact, there attraction
and peril,
and the deliverance from them, he knows that which goes beyond all of these
views.
(Digha Nikaya trans. Maurice Walshe, Wisdom, 1987)
Kinti Sutta, MN 103
"What
do you think about me?"
What in the Dhamma Should be expounded
MN 103.2
"We do not think thus about the Blessed One" 'The
recluse Gotama teachers the Dhamma for the sake of robes, or the sake
of almsfood,
or the sake of a resting place, or for the sake of some better state of
being."
"venerable
sir, we think thus about the blessed one: 'The Blessed One is compassionate
and seeks our welfare; he teaches
the Dhamma out of
compassion."
3.
"So, bhikkhus,
these things that I have taught you after directly knowing them -- that
is, the four foundations of mindfulness,
the four
right kinds of striving, four bases for spiritual power, five faculties,
the five powers, the seven enlightenment factors, the Noble Eight Fold
Path -- in these things you should all train in concord, with mutual appreciation,
without disputing.
4.
"While you
are training in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing,
two bhikkhus might make different assertions
about the
higher dhamma.
5.
"Now if you should think thus: 'These venerable ones differ about
the meaning"...(or) "the phrasing, then whichever bhikkhu you
think is the more reasonable should be approached and addressed thus: 'The
venerable ones differ about the meaning"...(or) "the phrasing. The
venerable ones should know that it is for this reason that there is a difference
about the meaning or phrasing; let them not fall into a dispute'...So what
has been wrongly grasped should be borne in mind as wrongly grasped...What
is Dhamma and what is Discipline should be expounded.
10.
"Now, bhikkhus,
you should not hurry to reprove him; rather, the person should be examined
thus: 'I shall not be troubled
and the other
person will not be hurt; for the other person is not given to anger and
resentment, he is not firmly attached to his views and he relinquishes
easily, and I can make that person emerge from unwholesomeness and establish
him in wholesomeness.' If such occurs to you bhikkhus, it is proper to
speak.
13.
"Then it may occur to you, bhikkhus, 'I shall be troubled and
the other person will be hurt; for the other person is given to anger and
resentment, and he is firmly attached to his views and he relinquishes
with difficulty, yet I can make that person emerge from the unwholesome
and establish him in the wholesome. It is a mere trifle that I shall
be troubles and the other person hurt, but it is a much greater thing that
I can make that person emerge from the unwholesome and establish him in
the wholesome.' If such occurs to you, bhikkhus, it is proper to speak.
14.
"Then it
may occur to you, bhikkhus: 'I shall be troubled and the other person
will be hurt; for the other person is
given to anger and
resentment, and he is firmly attached to his view and he relinquishes with
difficulty; and I cannot make that person emerge from the unwholesome and
establish him in the wholesome.' One should not underrate equanimity towards
such a person.
(Majjhima Nikaya
trans. Bhikkhus Nanamoli & Bodhi,
Wisdom, 1995)
