Tradition and Innovation: Western Visions of Buddhist Community
A Greek Buddha. The first "Western" Buddhist?
Sangharakshita.
Kosho Niwano, lay president-designate of Rissho Kosei-kai.
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My Italian friend once teased me about being a yes-man for the institution of the Chinese Buddhist religion. Hers was a passionate critique based on an age-old European Enlightenment, secular suspicion of religious institutions. But defending the importance of the monastery or spiritual lineage is often prompted not by traditionalist attachments, but by very real, practical concerns. For example, the Buddha was emphatic that the saṅgha could only be a saṅgha when it was supported, like a table, by four legs: not just laymen and laywomen, but by monks and nuns as well. Also, Buddhism began as an ascetic movement and has never lost that emphasis, even in the Mahāyāna schools. The original saṅgha comprised of purely monastic disciples. The historical and cultural evidence is enough to build a fairly solid case for maintaining the ecclesiastical privilege that has provided Buddhism with its raison d’être for more than two millennia and six hundred years.
But a look beyond Asia gives one pause. Some of the most well known Buddhist communities in the West are driven by laypeople. For example, the British-based DharmaMind saṅgha is led and taught by Āloka David Smith, a former Theravādin monk who is inspired by a mix of Zen, Ch’an, and Dzogchen teachings. With events in Ireland, London, Bristol, Scotland, and more, DharmaMind holds its own as a Buddhist community that makes a real difference for British spiritual seekers. Another movement is the international Triratna Buddhist Community (formerly known as Friends of the Western Buddhist Order), which is famous for its lack of a traditional lineage. My Japanese friend works for Risshō Kōsei Kai, a very successful lay movement that, like Tung Lin Kok Yuen, was founded in the 1930’s. The Triratna Buddhist Community has a following across North America, Australasia, and Europe with over a hundred affiliated centres. Risshō Kōsei Kai does interfaith work and charity with the United Nations.
What are we to make of this? DharmaMind, Triratna, and Risshō Kōsei Kai are lay movements that were founded in the 20th century. They make a real, incredible difference in the spiritual lives of many people. Could this be a sign of the times? Modernity, and more specifically modernist ways of thinking, has challenged the traditional certainties of the past. We have seen what the new ways can achieve, and the role of laypeople in these achievements is central, indispensable. So I am reminded of the adage “Subjective conditions are always true”, and no one viewpoint provides the complete answer for a Buddhist. What comes closest to a proper balance is almost certainly a middle way. Plum Village in France, for instance, was founded by Thich Nhat Hanh, a monk deeply immersed in the spiritual lineage of Vietnamese Zen. Yet his order has blossomed into a worldwide movement for peace and environmental mindfulness, supported no less by a large grassroots base of laypeople. Plum Village is not only at home in the Western culture of lay activism, but has retained the monastic institution that informs and powers the Buddhist ecology.
Once again we find ourselves at a fork in the road with two signs at the juncture. One sign says tradition and legitimacy; the other says innovation and survival. Once again, it falls to us to swing neither way, and create our own middle path, a road between the two extremes. For if our visions of Buddhist community and happiness are to be realized, we need to be open-minded about the possibilities of the newer models and methods of saṅgha-building. At the same time, it is important to be acutely mindful of the essential, complementary relationship between monastics and laypeople that has sustained Buddhist cultural life.
