Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? (19 page)
Read Buddha and Jesus: Could Solomon Be the Missing Link? Online
Authors: R. E. Sherman
The sources of help each espoused were:
- The support and honest critique of like-minded seekers;
- Companionship with righteous people;
- Avoidance of relations with women;
- The power of proverbs memorized and much meditated upon (as discussed in the next chapter); and
- The “trinity” of Buddhism (or Judaism).
First Aid: The Support and Honest Critique of Like-Minded Seekers
The great worth of having righteous friends who care enough about you to encourage you and to exhort you when you are heading off in the wrong direction was emphasized by Solomon:
Buddha stressed the same idea clearly in these proverbs:
If you see an intelligent man who tells you where true treasures are to be found, who shows what is to be avoided, and administers reproofs, follow that wise man; it will be better, not worse, for those who follow him.
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Let him admonish, let him teach, let him forbid what is improper!—he will be beloved of the good, by the bad he will be hated.
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And this is the beginning here for a wise Bhikshu: watchfulness over the senses, contentedness, restraint under the law; keep noble friends whose life is pure, and who are not slothful.
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Second Aid: Companionship with Righteous People
The second aid in maintaining righteousness is closely related to the first, but there is a slight shift in emphasis. The first aid, having the support and honest critique of like-minded seekers, emphasizes friends consciously keeping each other on track through intentional
dialogue and vigilance on each other’s behalf. It involves keeping each other accountable. The second aid emphasizes the more subtle good and bad influences that friends can have on each other. The point here is that if you “hang out” with people who are wicked, they will have an influence on you, possibly entangling you in evil deeds. Likewise, if you associate with righteous people, they will influence you to do good things and pursue wisdom.
Solomon stressed the importance of having the right kind of friends in this proverb:
The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray.
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Buddha offered essentially the same counsel:
Do not have evil-doers for friends, do not have low people for friends: have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men.
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He who walks in the company of fools suffers a long way; company with fools, as with an enemy, is always painful; company with the wise is pleasure, like meeting with kinsfolk.
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If a man find a prudent companion who walks with him, is wise, and lives soberly, he may walk with him, overcoming all dangers, happy, but considerate.
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As much as possible, Buddha said, one should seek friends who are more righteous than oneself. If such cannot be found, solitude is better. He observed:
If a traveller does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool.
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One possible concern about Buddha’s proverb is that it does not include an exhortation for genuine seekers to mentor friends who are not quite as far along the path as they are, and there is a great
need for that. Perhaps this omission is intentional and is based on the realization that just being a “genuine seeker” is not enough to qualify someone to mentor others. Such a seeker is presumably very well-intentioned and highly motivated, but is only beginning to truly understand Buddha’s teachings.
Solitude is always better than associating with fools and wicked people. Buddha made this clear in the next proverb:
If a man find no prudent companion who walks with him, is wise, and lives soberly, let him walk alone, like a king who has left his conquered country behind,—like an elephant in the forest. It is better to live alone, there is no companionship with a fool; let a man walk alone, let him commit no sin, with few wishes, like an elephant in the forest.
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One should avoid spending time with wicked or evil people, for their influence most likely will be corrosive, or worse. Solomon made this emphatically clear in the following proverbs:
Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them; for their heart devises violence, and their lips talk of troublemaking.
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Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go, lest you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul.
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Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn from it and go on your way. For they cannot sleep till they do evil; they are robbed of slumber till they make someone fall. They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. . . . But, the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.
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Buddha lived out his later years much more true to his teachings than Solomon did, probably because he so completely renounced worldly riches and attachments and surrounded himself with like-spirited
monks. Solomon not only did not renounce his great wealth, but augmented it beyond all reason, also adding to it hundreds of foreign wives, most of whom did not share his religious beliefs.
Third Aid: Avoidance of Relations with Women
To Buddha, the critical worth of radical renunciation extended to relationships with women:
So long as the love of man towards women, even the smallest, is not destroyed, so long is his mind in bondage, as the calf that drinks milk is to its mother.
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But they whose whole watchfulness is always directed to their body, who do not follow what ought not to be done, and who steadfastly do what ought to be done, the desires of such watchful and wise people will come to an end.
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Solomon offered similar words with respect to immoral women:
For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
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To Solomon, an immoral woman symbolized all of the perilous attractions of this world. However, he did not by any means advocate renunciation of all relations with women. In fact, one of his proverbs is unabashedly pro-marriage:
An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.
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Fourth Aid: The Power of Proverbs Memorized and Much Meditated Upon
As noted above, this aid is discussed quite extensively in the next chapter.
Fifth Aid: The “Trinity” of Buddhism (or Judaism)
Both Buddha and Solomon looked to three sources of teaching. For Solomon, as noted near the end of
Chapter Three
, they were Moses, the Torah, and the Levites. In Buddhism, they were the “Three Jewels.” Consecutive proverbs recite the three central helps for the Buddhist:
The disciples of Gotama (Buddha) are always well awake, and their thoughts day and night are always set on Buddha . . . the law [the teachings]. . . the church [the Order of Monks].
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Each of the elements is parallel: Moses/Buddha (a person); Torah/Dhamma (sacred writings); and Levites/Monks (a priestly order).
An Unrealistic Confidence in the Self?
Buddha offered a way of salvation—that is, attaining enlightenment and nirvana—based on being utterly fixated on a radical pursuit of morality and renunciation involving intense, prolonged sessions of meditation. He openly admitted that this was something most people would not do (and perhaps were not capable of):
Few are there among men who arrive at the other shore (become Arhats); the other people here run up and down the shore.
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This world is dark, few only can see here; a few only go to heaven, like birds escaped from the net.
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Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.
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So perilous is the journey of the soul to enlightenment that Buddha believed that there was “no other path” than the one he prescribed:
Buddhism is characterized by an intense drive to fashion a self-made path of spirituality. Reaching nirvana is something only an elite few can hope to realize. It is reserved for the handful of people who are exceptionally gifted in being able to maintain a lifelong, intense effort to rid oneself of all self:
You yourself must make an effort. The Tathagatas (Buddhas) are only preachers. The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of Mara.
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Again and again, Buddha asserted that his followers would have to have the strength and tenacity of self-will to pursue the path he had charted, with no substantive help or assistance from others:
If a man delights in quieting doubts, and, always reflecting, dwells on what is not delightful (the impurity of the body, &c. [etc.]), he certainly will remove, nay, he will cut the fetter of Mara.
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They depart with their thoughts well-collected, they are not happy in their abode; like swans who have left their lake, they leave their house and home.
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A wise man should leave the dark state (of ordinary life), and follow the bright state (of the Bhikshu). After going from his home to a homeless state, he should in his retirement look for enjoyment where there seemed to be no enjoyment. Leaving all pleasures behind, and calling nothing his own, the wise man should purge himself from all the troubles of the mind.
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Those whose mind is well grounded in the (seven) elements of knowledge, who without clinging to anything, rejoice in freedom from attachment, whose appetites have been conquered, and who are full of light, are free (even) in this world.
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He alone who, without ceasing, practises the duty of sitting alone and sleeping alone, he, subduing himself, will rejoice in the destruction of all desires alone, as if living in a forest.
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Rouse thyself by thyself, examine thyself by thyself, thus self-protected and attentive wilt thou live happily, O Bhikshu!
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Not the perversities of others, not their sins of commission or omission, but his own misdeeds and negligences should a sage take notice of.
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Is there anything similar in Solomon’s writings to the level of intense self-discipline and critical self-evaluation that Buddha espoused? Two proverbs come to mind. First:
Above all else,
guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
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When Solomon wrote, “Above all else,” isn’t that like saying there is no higher priority than that? In the second proverb he wrote:
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who
rules his spirit
than he who takes a city.
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How can someone rule his own spirit? In some sense, that person must be motivated by an abhorrence of what will befall him if he
does not succeed in doing this. Solomon himself failed to rule his spirit, having become unwilling to renounce his power, wealth, and hundreds of wives and concubines. He had a royal, legal prerogative to have as many wives and concubines as he desired, and he took full advantage of this while ignoring a very explicit biblical prohibition against it:
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives,
or his heart will be led astray.
He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites.
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As history records, Solomon’s heart was “led astray.” The well-springs of his spiritual life became very polluted.
To Buddha’s great credit, he remained true to his commitment to renounce the treasures of this world until he died. Could it be that his awareness of how great a failure Solomon was helped motivate him to continue his intense practice of renunciation? Or was it simply that he was so taken by his own new religion, and of his need to stay true to it for it to spread, that he was able to perform this difficult feat?
Spiritual Pride