Eschatology and World Order in Buddhist Formations
Keywords:
Eschatology, Cyclic existence, Dharma, Buddha, Cosmology, Super-mundaneAbstract
At the core of Buddhist eschatological tradition is the concept of dharma -an ordering principle of an unending and beginningless universe, oscillating in a “cyclic existence” of creation and dissolution. But how does this cosmological principle shape Buddhist understanding and interpretation of the contemporary world order? This article relates Buddha’s dharma, with its primary themes of suffering and impermanence, to sociopolitical conditions in the realm of human affairs. Pointing out the dichotomy between the mundane (societal) and the super-mundane (cosmological), the article argues that world order is a process of dissolution and re-emergence based on the differentiation of environmental conditions and human dispositions. It concludes that although Buddhist tradition departs from the normal “end of things” eschatology, relative eschatologies have developed within the varied conditions in which Buddhism has flourished.
References
Chappell, David W. 1980. “Early Forebodings of the Death of Buddhism.” Numen 27: 122–153. doi:10.2307/3269985
Collins, Steven. 1993. “The Discourse on What is Primary.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 21(4): 301–393. doi:10.1007/BF01089255
———. 1996. “The Lion’s Roar on the Wheel-Turning King: A Response to Andrew Huxley’s ‘The Buddha and the Social Contract.’” Journal of Indian Philosophy 24(4): 421–446. doi:10.1007/BF00219198
Collins, Steven and Andrew Huxley. 1996. “The Post-Canonical Adventures of Mahasammata.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 24(6): 623–648. doi:10.1007/BF00165541
De Silva Wijeyeratne, Roshan. 2007. “Buddhism, the Asokan Persona, and the Galactic Polity. Rethinking Sri Lanka’s Constitutional Present.” Social Analysis 51(1): 156–178. doi:10.3167/sa.2007.510111
Friedlander, Peter. 2009. “Buddhism and Politics.” In Routledge handbook of religion and politics, edited by Jeffrey Haynes, 11–25. London: Routledge.
Fronsdal, Egil. 1998. “Insight Meditation in the United States, Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” In The Faces of Buddhism in America, edited by Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka, 163–182. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gethin, Rupert. 1997. “Meditation and Cosmology, From the Aggañña Sutta to the Mahayana.” History of Religions 36: 183–219. doi:10.1086/463464
Gonda, Jan. 1966. Ancient Indian Kingship from the Religious Point of View. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Harris, Ian (ed.). 1999. Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-Century Asia. London: Pinter.
La Vallée Poussin, Louis de. 1908. “Ages of the World (Buddhist).” In Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 1, edited by James Hastings, 187–190. New York: Scribner’s.
———. 1911. “Cosmogony and Cosmology (Buddhist).” In Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 1, edited by James Hastings, 129–138. New York: Scribner’s.
Mus, Paul. 1928. “Le Buddha Paré. Son Origine Indienne. Çakyamuni dans le Mahayanisme Moyen.” Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient 28: 153–278.
Nattier, Jan. 1991. Once Upon a Future Time, Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press.
———. 2003. A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugrapariprccha). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
———. 2008. “Buddhist Eschatology.” In The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology edited by Jerry L. Walls, 151–169. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Newman, John R. 1987. “The Outer Wheel of Time, Vajrayana Buddhist Cosmology in the Kalacakra Tantra.” Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin.
———. 1995. “Eschatology in the Wheel of Time Tantra.” In Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez, Jr., 294–289. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Pirie, Fernanda. 2006. “Secular morality, village law, and Buddhism in Tibetan Societies.” Journal of the Royal Anthrological Institute, 12: 173–190. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00286.x
Reynolds, Frank. 1972. “The Two Wheels of Dhamma, A Study of Early Buddhism.” In The Two Wheels of Dhamma, Essays on the Theravada Tradition in India and Ceylon, edited by Gananath Obeyesekere, Frank Reynolds and Bardwell L. Smith, 6–30. Chambersburg, PA: American Academy of Religion.
Ruegg, David S. 1991. “Mchod yon, yon mchod, and mchod gnas/yon gnas, On the historiography and semantics of a Tibetan religio-social and religio-political concept.” In Tibetan History and Language, G. Uray Commemoration Volume, edited by E. Steinkellner, 441–453. Vienna: VOAW.
———. 1995. Ordre spirituel et ordre temporal dans la pensée bouddhique de l’Inde et du Tibet. Paris: Publications de l’Institut de Civilization Indienne, fasc. 64.
———. 1997. “The Preceptor-Donor (Yon Mchod) Relation in Thirteenth Century Tibetan Society and Polity, its Inner Asian Precursors and Indian Models.” In Proceedings of the International Association of Buddhist Studies Graz 1995, vol. 2, edited by H. Krasser et al., 857–872. Vienna: VOAW.
Snellgrove, David. 1959. “The Notion of Divine Kingship in Tantric Buddhism.” In La Regalità Sacra–Contributi al Tema dell’ VIII Congresso Internazaionale di Storia delle Religioni, 204–218. Leiden: E.J. Brill.
Stone, Jackie. 1985. “Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age, Mappo Thought in Kamakura Buddhism.” Eastern Buddhist, n.s., 18(1): 2–56 (part 1), and no. (2): 35–65 (part 2).
Tambiah, Stanley J. 1976. World Conqueror and World Renouncer, A Study of Buddhism and Polity against a Historical Background. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1992. Buddhism Betrayed, Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Walshe, Maurice O’C. 1995. The Long Discourses of the Buddha, a Translation of the Digha Nikaya. The Teachings of the Buddha. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.
Zwi Werblowsky, R.J. 2005. “Eschatology.” In Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed., vol. 4, edited by Lindsay Jones, 2833–2836. New York: Thomson Gale.
