Chinese Scholar Guang Xing’s ‘Historical Buddha” – OpEd
‘Given the similarity between Confucius and the Buddha, Dr. Guang Xing wonders if the Buddha belonged to the Mongolian race rather than the Aryan as historian Vincent Arthur Smith speculated.
In its 2014-2015 issue, the Journal of Buddhist Studies had carried am interesting paper on the “personality of the historical Buddha” by the Chinese scholar, Dr. Guang Xing who was associated with the School of Oriental and African Studies London, the Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong, and Keleniya University in Sri Lanka.
Guang Xing described the “historical” Buddha, the actual man bereft of the myths woven around him, as an extraordinary personality who lived by the precepts he expounded consistently till his last breath at the age of 80. Many scholars have described him as one of the greatest personages in human history as his intuitive wisdom has stood the test of time.
“Nearly 2500 years after his death, the Buddha’s memory is still very much alive. Apparently, as long as world suffering is to last – and it will last as long as the world – the memory of the great doctor of the soul whose life was spent in trying to find its cure – will persist as a shining light on the horizon” said A. Foucher, author of The Beginnings of Buddhist Art.
The Buddha stood out among other religious personalities of his day because he, unlike others, made a clean break from the well-entrenched past. Ancient Indians were mystic, seeking salvation by contemplation and total surrender to “Mahabrahma” or the Absolute or the Ultimate Reality that is beyond human understanding. But the historical Buddha was grounded in the harsh realities of the world. He was concerned with pervasive phenomenon of suffering. He thought out ways to enable people to avoid suffering. His quest was not for a Supreme God or the Other World, the World of the Spirit.
In this respect, he was like Confucius, Dr. Guang Xing points out. Confucius asked one his disciples- “While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve their spirits?” There is no discussion of Gods or Ghosts or Hell in Confucius’s teachings.
Given the similarity between Confucius and the Buddha, Dr. Guang Xing wonders if the Buddha belonged to the Mongolian race rather than the Aryan as historian Vincent Arthur Smith speculated.
Dr.Guang Xing submit that there was nothing mysterious about the Buddha’s Enlightenment. He had striven for it the hard way using his intellect. What he got was not divine inspiration or a revelation. Since Gautama Buddha attained awakening through human effort, he did not promise salvation from suffering or sorrow as a reward of believing in him. He rejected all forms of a “divined power” and recognized only the “will power” of individuals.
Buddhism literature rejects the notion that God created the world and man. “If Brahma is the lord of the whole world and creator of the multitude of beings, then why has he ordained misfortune in the world? For what purpose has he made the world full of injustice, deceit, falsehood, and conceit? Is the lord of beings evil in that he ordained injustice when there could have been justice.”
The Buddha totally rejected an almighty power, often comparing himself to a physician and his teaching to the medical knowledge. He allowed people to take refuge in him not with the hope of salvation but to become a student seeking knowledge to find ways to be rid of suffering. A student seeking Nirvana, had to battle a number of enemies in real life and these were – sensual pleasures, discontent, hunger and thirst, craving, sloth and torpor, fear, doubt, hypocrisy and obstinacy. “Thus, what the Buddha fought against was the human weaknesses, nothing mysterious. In this description there is also no external supernatural power involved,” Dr.Guang Xing points out.
“The path to liberation prescribed by Gautama Buddha is the noble eight-fold path which is simple and practical, acceptable in every civilised society as a description of good life. Nothing mysterious or ceremonious is involved in it, on the contrary, will power and activity of the individual are emphasised. The individual is the captain of his own destiny, responsible for all he has done. The Buddha is only a torch bearer to humanity.”
Unlike the other teachers of his day such as Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta, the founder of Jainism, who claimed omniscience, the Buddha did not make such claim at all. In the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta, the ascetic Vacchagotta approached the Buddha and wished to clarify the report of his omniscience. The Buddha categorically said: “Vaccha, those who say thus do not say what has been said by me, but misrepresent me with what is untrue and contrary to fact.” In fact, the Buddha’s teachings are based on his own experience. We will come back to this point later.
The Buddha was considered a leader by the Sangha, the community of monks, and all his disciples came to him for solutions whenever they met any kind of problem in their life and practice. While answering their queries, he discouraged them from building around him a personal cult. According to the Mahāparinibbāna sutta, just before his death, his disciple Ananda asked the Buddha to give final instructions. And the Buddha said – “Ananda, be an island unto yourself, refuge unto yourself, seek no external refuge; with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge, seek no other refuge.”
At another occasion, the Buddha gave similar advice to his monks when they thought that they were going to lose their teacher. “Ānanda, the Dhamma and Vinaya that have been expounded by me will be your teacher after my death.” Thus, the Buddha did not appoint any successor to take his role because he never even considered himself to be the “leader” of the Sangha, Dr.Guang Xing asserts.
The Buddja did not consider his teaching to be the only truth. According to Dr,Guang Xing, this is the reason why Buddhist scriptures kept growing after the Buddha died. “This is because the Buddha considered that attachment to any view is a kind of bondage, an obstacle to right understanding.”
Dr, Guang Xing says this way of thinking about the teachings of the Buddha is reflected the Sarvastivada school of thought according to which “not all the speeches of the Tathāgata (the Buddha) can be regarded as the preaching of the righteous law. The World-Honoured One also utters words which are not in conformity with the truth.”
“The sūtras delivered by the Buddha are not all perfect in themselves. The Buddha himself said that there were certain imperfect sūtras. Although here the ideas are not exactly the same as above, the analytical attitude is the same. So in a word, the Buddha did not give any room for his disciples and followers to think that he was either a God or some kind of supreme leader to be worshipped.
The Buddha foresaw the danger of the transmission of leadership. So he established a democratic institution so that the Buddhist community could choose their head by means of vote as described in the Vinaya.
Most religions have some kind of rigid rules and regulations. In the Judeo- Christian tradition, the Ten Commandments are claimed to be of divine origin, as God gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai. Violation of these commandments results in punishment from the Godhead. Similarly, the rules of the ancient law-codes of the Hindus such as those of Vasista and those in the Acharaṅga Sutra of the Jains, were propagated through religious sermons. These laws were designed to express the Divine Will.
However, the Buddhist Vinaya rules reveal no divine origin at all as the law maker, the Buddha himself, was not a God. Vinaya rules were laid down gradually as occasions demanded. The Buddha was himself open to suggestions and always considered any request regarding rules from members of the Sangha, never hesitating to revise or amend rules to comply with the needs, changes in time, circumstances and environment. The Buddha’s liberal attitude towards Vinaya and other matters, is one of the reasons why Buddhism successfully spread from India to other parts of Asia and to the rest of the world.
Jainism also rose in India at the sixth century BC together with Buddhism, but the former still virtually confines itself in India. One of the main reasons is that the Jains went to extreme in their practice of non-violence.
However, Devadatta, one of the Buddha’s disciples, was not happy about his liberal attitude. The Buddha allowed Devadatta to follow his own version of Vinaya he knew through his own experience that these austere ascetic practices do not lead one to liberation. Devadatta’s followers survived until the late seventh century AD. But disappeared eventualy.
The Buddha did not want to make any language as the only sacred one and ask all his disciples to learn. He felt that it would limit the his teachings’ spread. Dr.Guang Xing quotes Vinaya Matṛka Sūtra which says, “The Buddha told the monks saying, in my teachings emphasis is not laid on rhetoric. What I mean is that the doctrines should not be misunderstood. They should be taught in any language which is understood by the people, according to their suitability. This is named as Teaching according to Locality”.
The Buddha did not like to use magic, but educational instruction. As Walpola Rahula said, many miraculous powers were attributed to the Buddha, and according to the suttas he performed a number of miracles during his ministry. However, most of the miracles performed by the Buddha as mentioned in sūtras and vinaya took place in his early life after his Enlightenment. But he changed his attitude to miracles later and did not consider magical powers to be of primary importance.
The Buddha said that there are three kinds of miracles: the mystic wonder, the wonder of thought reading, and the wonder of education. Amongst the three, the Buddha liked the wonder of education most, because without resorting to any other means it directly appeals to the listeners’ mind so that the listeners will be converted through understanding and not by faith.
- This article was published in Sunday Observer, Colombo on April 6, 2025
