Need for consensus on Buddhist rites and ceremonies

A.R.M.T.B. Ratnayake

The Buddha hardly spoke of external rites and ceremonies which a Buddhist should perform. But today, laymen as well as Buddhist monks organise mass scale ceremonies involving offering of thousands and thousands of flowers, pahan-pooja needing gallons of coconut oil, in the name of worship of a single Buddhist statue or a sacred place. Several learned Buddhist monks like Ven. Prof. Walpola Rahula Thera, disapproved the offering of cooked food to the Buddha even after 2600 years of the Enlightened One’s Mahaparinibbana.

This year, commencing from the 2600th year of Buddhahood, which fell on the last Vesak Full-Moon day, is devoted to adaptation of what the Buddha really taught and not place importance on rites and ceremonies including various kinds of offerings, on which more attention is given by the average Buddhist, today. His beneficent and successful ministry was liberation of the people from the bonds of Samsara. The Enlightened One said, “the reality that I have reached is deep, hard to see, hard to understand, rare, beyond reasoning to be understood only by the wise.” The Middle Way is the Buddha’s criterion, to be applied to our daily life.

In effect, it is the eightfold way of life; right view, right mindedness, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right endeavour, right mindfulness and right concentration. The one that achieves these goals is a perfect Buddhist.

The common concern of the right-minded Buddhists today is that many followers place too much emphasis on rituals and ceremonies rather than on the precepts so taught by the Buddha.

Worship is worthless if one fails to do the duty by the worshipped. Therefore, doing one’s duty by the Buddha is not merely worship but in a greater sense, following his noble precepts. We know of the story where the young man named Sigala who used to worship the six cardinal points of the heavens: east, west, south, north, nadir, and zenith, which was his dying father’s last advice. The Buddha however, did not approve of it, but explained to him that the six directions were not those that he worshipped but according to the ‘noble discipline’ the six directions were: east; parents; south; teachers; west; wife and children; north; friends, relatives and neighbours; nadir; servants, workers and employees; zenith; religious men. Further, the Buddha said that ‘worship’ is not merely paying homage to one but performing one’s duty towards him. In the case of parents, they should be properly looked after in their old age; should maintain the honour of the family, and continue the family traditions.

External rites

The Buddha hardly spoke of external rites and ceremonies which a Buddhist should perform. But today, laymen as well as Buddhist monks organise mass scale ceremonies involving offering of thousands and thousands of flowers, pahan-pooja needing gallons of coconut oil, in the name of worship of a single Buddhist statue or a sacred place. Several learned Buddhist monks like Ven. Prof. Walpola Rahula Thera, disapproved the offering of cooked food to the Buddha even after 2600 years of the Enlightened One’s Mahaparinibbana. Yet, we see many Buddhists offering cooked food to Buddhist statues, even keeping a vessel of water for the statue of Buddha to wash its hands. Even a spittoon can be seen placed nearby meaninglessly. These practices are in effect misleading assumptions derived from other religions.

Throughout the Buddhist history there had not been an iota of dispute on the teachings of the Buddha, the doctrines of the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Five Aggregates, Karma and Rebirth etc. They are fundamental to all Buddhists, Theravada or Mahayana. But today there is confusion, mainly with regard to beliefs, practices and observances followed by some Buddhists, which require the attention of our learned Sangha.

We all know that the Buddha never made any provision for the supreme leadership of the Buddhist Sangha but declared that the Dharma was the head of the order of the Sangha. However, the Buddha visualised the possible dissensions in the Sangha that would arise after the Enlightened One’s Parinirvana. The Buddha framed rules by which the conduct of the Bhikkhus could be directed on the right lines. The Sangha so constituted, worked smoothly and silently to uphold his teachings and preach the doctrine in the correct lines.

These Vinaya rules are early examples of representative self-governing institutions obtaining in India. The remarks of the Marques of Shetland, a former Viceroy of India could be recalled in this connection.

Surprise

“It is, indeed, to the Buddhist books that we have to turn for an account of the manner in which the affairs of these early examples of representative self-governing institutions were conducted. And it may come as a surprise to many to learn that the assemblies of the Buddhists in India two thousand years and more ago are to be found the rudiments of our own Parliamentary practice of the present day.”

Thus, the Sangha being a democratic body always arrived at decisions through discussion among themselves. This was the organisation which the Buddha established to counter any matter coming into practice that is contrary to his teachings. At these congregations, the most senior monk took the chair. The proceedings were opened by the president uttering the formula:

“May the honourable Sangha hear me; if the time seems fit to the Sangha, let the Sangha act. This is the motion before the Sangha.”

After the motion had been read, the proposer of it explained its purport, and only those who disapproved of it continued the debate. The president put the question whether the motion should be accepted or not. If there is no opposition after the question has been put three times, it was declared carried. Otherwise, it was put to the vote and a majority of the Sangha decided the question. However, it should be noted that no vote of the Sangha was valid which was contrary to the Dharma as revealed by the Buddha himself.

Hostility

At the beginning, the Sangha with the Buddha as its head aroused bitter hostility among the Brahmins whose authority and doctrine of sacrifice and mantram which were in vogue were replaced by the Dharma of right thought and right living. It is this Dharma of right thought and right living that the Sangha today, should restore.

During the Buddha’s time the formation of a society of lay devotees to work with the Sangha was complete. Thus the Buddha in the course of time prescribed that every lay devotee should observe the five precepts and the more advanced among them, the eight precepts and that religious discussions and discourses be held in the assemblies of the Sangha. But today the Sangha is disintegrated. They must get-together and do their duty by the lay devotees by giving them correct guidance and sermon.

So, the motion before the Sangha today is concerning the irrational practices adhered to by some Buddhists contrary to the Buddha’s doctrine of right thought and right thinking. So, at least the Maha Nayake Theras, Nayaka Theras of the various sectors, and other leading Buddhist monks should sit in assembly and decide on these issues and set out a uniform system of practices permissible under the teachings of the Buddha.