“Well, I do not understand his doctrine. But I can understand the motive behind that. Oh, the gigantic motive! The Master says that selfishness is the great curse of the world; that we are selfish and that therein is the curse. There should be no motive for selfishness. You are like a river passing on — a continuous phenomenon. Have no God; have no soul; stand on your feet and do good for good's sake — neither for fear of punishment nor for the sake of going anywhere. Stand sane and motiveless. The motive is: I want to do good, it is good to do good. Tremendous! Tremendous! I do not sympathize with his metaphysics at all; but my mind is jealous when I think of the moral force. Just ask your minds which one of you can stand for one hour, able and daring like that man. I cannot for five minutes. I would become a coward and want a support. I am weak — a coward. And I warm to think of this tremendous giant. We cannot approach that strength. The world never saw anything compared to that strength. And I have not yet seen any other strength like that.” Swami Vivekananda who rekindled the spirit of Indian philosophical thought made these comments about Buddha during his famed discourses in the west [Delivered at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, on February 2, 1900].

Along with the demise of Buddhism in India, its birthplace, insight into its deeper meaning also vanished from here without a trace. Yet there remains the inspiration that the Awakened One, the Buddha provided through his fearlessness and purity, his views on social equality and his doctrine of non-violence and compassion. This teacher remains unparalleled in history to be accepted by everyone alike and the social impacts of the teaching became widely accepted as the supreme ethic. How then could the teaching itself be anything less than the supreme one!!!

Swami Vivekananda had so much reverence for the Buddha that he considered the Buddha to be the greatest man ever born in the history of humanity, yet he says he does not understand the doctrine. That made him wonder how that teaching led to the incomparable power that Buddha demonstrated. This  reflects the popular perception in modern day India regarding Buddhism. We admire the Buddha and the social impact of his teachings, but the quintessence of Buddhist teaching remains elusive to us. How do we transcend that barrier?

The fearlessness and the moral force of the Buddha! What is the source ‘behind that strength’ that Swami Vivekananda admires and holds as unparalleled?

During the Buddha's time India was a fertile ground for many philosophical ideas that were various forms of nihilism (ucchedavada) or eternalism (sasvatavada). The Buddha introduced a doctrine of ‘middle path’ that avoids the extremes of nihilism and eternalism, and of asceticism and indulgence. The Buddha said to his disciple Kaccayana, "Kaccayana, 'everything exists' is one extreme view. ‘Nothing exists' is another extreme view. Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata teaches a doctrine by the middle way" [KaccayanaGotta Sutra].

Understanding Buddhism requires a major paradigm shift from the present day Indian philosophical context. This is because its core teachings like Selflessness (Anatma) contrast not only with the conventional notions of reality but also with the views about Self (Atma) that are enriched by the prevalent philosophical traditions of India. Buddha removed the final and most important hurdle to liberation through this paradigm shift.

Our most basic urge is to get away from suffering and seek happiness, and that is the basic problem addressed by all religions. Many of the philosophical views (darsana) in India had identified that trying to find happiness in the ‘impermanent’ is the very source of suffering. The natural solution for this was sought in the opposite i.e. 'identifying the permanent Self in us and holding fast to it'. The essence of spiritual search was equated with a search for the real Self, the Atma. It is possible through one-pointed meditation to access heightened states of mind that are extremely blissful, clear, expansive and stable compared to our ordinary states of the mind. Some equated the permanent Self with these heightened awareness states of the mind called Samadhi and aimed to abide there permanently. Some tried to abide in a Samadhi state of abundant bliss (Saananda Samadhi), some found that even this bliss was not permanent and tried to abide in a mere identification of Self that is beyond the bliss (Asmita Samadhi). Yet others realized that they could transcend even this identification of individual Self and go further to abide in the state of extremely subtle perception where all distinctions ceased (Nirvikalpa Samadhi). This state transcending individual ego completely was identified to be the ultimate and permanent abiding ground as the ultimate Self.

The Buddha realized that even the Samadhi states do not remain as an ever-lasting abiding ground or as a permanent identity. No abiding ground is a permanent escape because it is interconnected with the rest through causes and conditions. Change of even one condition can lead to a fallback to ordinary states. According to Buddhism, it is not the ‘impermanent objects’ that cause suffering, but the very act of clinging to them. The cause of clinging is the identification of 'me' and 'mine', the creation of artificial boundaries. ‘Anatma’ is the doctrine in which we realize the lack of such boundaries and abiding grounds. Once we identify ourselves with something, however subtle or profound it is, there is always fear of losing it and there is always the possibility of falling back.

Real freedom (Nirvana), involves removing even that final clinging – the urge to hold onto something as permanent Self. It comes only through shedding all the boundaries, all modes of abiding, in realizing ‘Anatma’. It is unconditioned and totally at peace with every phenomena. The beauty of it is that true freedom (Nirvana) lies not in escaping from the impermanent, but rather in thoroughly understanding the actual modes of arising of such phenomena, without having indiscriminate fears and clinging. Realizing the interconnected nature of appearances and the lack of their inherent existence is the path leading to that freedom. With the blossoming and perfection of this wisdom regarding the true nature of Samsara, comes the mastery over it. This mastery, the complete awakening (Sambodhi), allows one to be in Samsara while not being bound by it. Thus the Awakened Ones are able to engage with Samsara as the field of their compassionate action.

True fearlessness comes from true liberation. It happens not by embracing or rejecting things that enrich or threaten our identity, but by gaining a correct understanding about the nature of things. It comes with the removal of ignorance (avidya), not by the disengagement with the impermanent objects of the phenomenal world. What is to be abandoned are the wrong ways of discerning and clinging to objects. We are not escaping from any ‘thing’ in attaining Nirvana. We are only escaping from our own ignorance. No object can be a cause of harm once we achieve that transformation within our mind.

The lack of a permanent Self does not affect our moral responsibility at all. In contrast, a permanent Self implies lack of moral responsibility. If the Self is unaffected by weapons, fire, wind and our own karma, what is there to protect? What is there to fear? If our body and mind affected by the karma are other than our Self, why do we care? Of what relevance is a path to liberation, if the Self that never changes knows itself always? In that case, what are we liberating ourselves from? What change does liberation cause to the unchangeable Self? It is due to the very fact that we are an ever-changing continuum driven by our karma, that we have moral responsibility. The same changeability provides the opportunity to sail away from suffering towards an ever joyous and ever fearless state through a sequence of right actions, which is the path.

Is the immeasurable compassion of the Buddha just about doing good for the sake of good? Is it just an ethical discipline? From the entire sphere of our experience, we ordinarily focus down to a minute portion that we call as ‘me’ and ‘mine’. We believe that we can enrich and perfect that portion in isolation, not realizing the interdependent nature of phenomena. When the mind perfects the realization of selflessness and the boundaries of self melt away, any suffering perceived in our experiential sphere becomes equally worthy to be attended to. Then the only way of relating to the world is with spontaneous love, compassion, joy and equanimity. For such a mind, these are not mere ethical adherences or social norms, but an outpouring of immeasurable love and compassion as the other side of wisdom. This is the union of method and wisdom, of Samsara and Nirvana. There is no way the Buddha cannot be compassionate. For a person making progress on such a path to Buddhahood, self-clinging does not provide any motivation. It is the abundance of perfections (Paramita) that provides the motivation to go towards enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. It is just natural that in a social context it exemplifies ethical behavior that even other schools of thought happily adopted.

The rest of the world is becoming aware of the profundity of the Buddhist paradigm (or the lack of all paradigms to put it more correctly). Still in India, its motherland, its subtleties and implications are not widely appreciated. We largely remain repelled by the mistaken notions about this doctrine. There was a time, around a century back when even the current mainstream philosophies of India suffered the same fate. After many centuries of foreign rule, what had been known widely as Indian religion was reduced to rituals of forgotten meaning, sati, child marriage, etc. Knowledge of the priceless philosophies of India was fading away. It was at this juncture, that Swami Vivekananda through his insight and powerful message made the existence and value of Indian Philosophy known to the world and rekindled pride about Indian thinking, spirituality and heritage. Vedantic knowledge was revived and appreciated by common-man through this uprising.

It is imminent that the cycle of Indian spiritual revival reaches its pinnacle and completion through the rediscovery of the original essence of Buddhist teachings. More than the revival of yet another religion, it is also about the original Indian spirit of discovering truth beyond all sectarian boundaries. Let us hope to see visionaries of another Indian renaissance coming up to herald this wave.