Lecture: Thai Buddhism and Social Justice Issues in Historical Context

Ajaan Saeng, Payap University
December 2002

When I first visited Thailand in January of 2002, I had the opportunity to meet Ajaan Saeng, a former Buddhist monk and professor of Buddhist philosophy at Mahachulalongkorn University and Co-Director of Payap University's "Institute of Religion and Culture." During my first meeting with Ajaan Saeng, he spoke about the relationship of Buddhism to Christianity, with particular regard to the identity of Jesus Christ.

I knew from my first meeting with Ajaan Saeng that he would provide us with a tremendous "first meeting" with a Thai Buddhist. His gentle voice, his clear presentation and his life long commitment to Buddhist study and teaching provide an exemplary model of some of what is best about Thai Buddhism. During our meeting with him during the WorldWide field course, our students listened and engaged in questions with him for over two hours. Carolyn Wallace, the co- leader of the field course, noticed the gentle way he held his hands as he spoke, almost as if they formed a mudra. We asked if we might take a close-up picture of his hands and he agreed. Here is what we learned from our time with Ajaan Saeng:

Ajaan Saeng greeted our group with the traditional Thai greeting: Sa wa dee, a word derived from the Sanskrit word, sawasti, meaning blessing, similar to the Pali word, so dee.

As Ajaan Saeng began to speak of Buddhism, he offered us four words and some related questions: Life (Do the component parts of Life exist before birth and after death?); Universe (Is this the only world?); Purpose (What is the goal of life? Are we physical or chemical only?); Way (How do we connect to the goal?)

Religion, he defined for us, is a "long term plan for Life." The person who is religious looks beyond this life and death. A person who has no religion has a short term plan for life and therefore tends to be irresponsible.

He went on to contrast Thai views on the length of life and time with those of Jews and Christians. He maintained that--unlike Christians and Jews who think that time has a beginning and an end and that, therefore, every moment is precious--Buddhists, with their cyclical notion of time and rebirth, think they have all the time they need. Ajaan Saeng told us that this was his first impression--upon coming to London in 1958 and then to the US in 1959 where he studied at the University of Michigan for four years--of some of the differences between Thai people and people from the west.

Thus, our group was welcomed into the Buddhist year 2545 (dated from the year of Buddha's death) and we began, as a class, our journey into a culture that would seem oddly familiar in many ways, and absolutely strange in many others.

Ajaan Saeng set the stage for our exploration of how Buddhism engages questions of social justice by reminding us that Buddhism began in India as a revolt by a Hindu warrior against a Brahmanical system, deeply entrenched in the system of caste. The highest caste of Brahmins, for instance, would not even leave India in ancient times, would eat with their fingers to avoid using utensils touched by people of other castes, and would carry a sheet with them wherever they walked and sat so as not to be polluted by someone who had been in their spot previously and who may have been of lower social position.

He gave an example for us of the man who wrote the current constitution in India, Ambetka. He belonged to the caste of the untouchables, the dalit. He received five Ph.D.'s, became a member of the Ministry of Justice, converted to Buddhism, and persuaded people in his caste to convert as well, only to be poisoned to death by his Hindu compatriots.

Buddhism rejects this notion of caste, for Buddhist philosophy maintains that life is like an ocean where all rivers come together and leave their names behind. They become "just ocean." Buddhism is about the justice and equality of men [sic]. There is something about the human that is different, that makes the human capable, although with great difficulty, of coming to know the Truth of existence or dharma. Because of the Buddhist teachings concerning karma, humans are born differently because of the choices they make. Justice is understood in relation to karma. We reap what we sow. Our human condition is not predestined by some divine being or fixed in terms of social advancement, in this life or the next, because of our caste.

While Buddhism stresses that we should be content with our condition because it is the result of our own karma, this does not mean we are to accept our condition, maintained Ajaan Saeng. We are able to improve our lot by doing good to increase good karma and to decrease unsatisfactory karma so we will be reborn into one of several "realms," according to what we have done. We can be reborn into one of six planes of existence: the realm of deities, fine material beings, mental beings, humans, animals, ghosts, and hell beings. Our experience within any of these realms will only be temporary. When our karma is exhausted we can be reborn again in some other realm, hopefully as a human, and begin the process again, until finally the whole samsaric cycle of birth, death and rebirth is ended.

The human life is the primary place where the cycle of birth, death and rebirth can be broken and nirvana can be realized. The human life is kind of a central station, but it is very difficult to be reborn as a human. Imagine a vast ocean, Ajaan Saeng told us. In that ocean there is a blind tortoise that emerges once in every 100 years to breathe at the surface. In that vast ocean there is one ring of dry grass that floats over the ocean. What are the chances that on this one attempt to come up for air in 100 years, the tortoise will find and take its breath within that floating ring of dry grass? Thus, we should be proud to be a human and not waste this life.

Only human beings have the opportunity to experience nirvana, the supreme knowledge about the truth of life. We learn the truth by comparison, by examining opposites. Only the human world is suitable for learning, because there are so many opposites: birth and death. Birth, in Buddhism is the gateway to suffering. As suffering is overcome, we will never be crouching in the womb of a woman again. The consciousness of a Buddhist is therefore so different from those who commonly celebrate birth.

Why are people born? Because of desire. We have within us a sensual desire, particularly the desire to exist. In the face of a tiger we wish to defend life and so amass a group of psychic energy that connects what we call the "self," perpetuating the cycle of karma that leads to rebirth, and death all over again. We are imprisoned in a cell of existence and must be made free from the suffering that is the nature of this existence. The Buddhist uses simple deductive reasoning. A=B; C=A; therefore C=B. Desire leads to birth. Birth leads to death. Death leads to suffering. Therefore, eliminate birth and desire and suffering will be eliminated.

Siddhartha Gautama, who came to be known as the Buddha, was for his people the hope of the kingdom because they were under the rule of a kingdom to the west and were not independent. Yet he left that world and all that was expected of him to find the way to eliminate suffering. He first engaged in ascetic practices aimed at self torture and so discovered that real suffering is not in the body but in the mind. The middle way that he found was a way to eliminate suffering that is caused by our ignorance and desire for existence itself.

Ajaan Saeng took a break and asked us for any questions: How many monks are there in Thailand and why do they become monks?

There are about 300,000 monks and here are some of the reasons for joining the monastic order:

1. If they are serious they tend to be forest monks.
2. Some people believe that in order to be mature and ready for life, a man needs to be a monk for some portion of time.
3. To make merit and dedicate it to his parents, particularly the mother.
4. To become educated.
5. Foreigners come and engage in research. They are highly respected and receive money.

In Sri Lanka, by contrast, ordination to the monkhood is once and for all. Thus, there is a shortage of monks in Sri Lanka. This is not the case in Thailand.

Please explain more about karma:

1. Mental drives and emotional impulses: greed, hatred, anger and their opposites of charity, equanimity, and wisdom.
2. Volition/intention: involves awareness and specific purposes
3. The act itself, through three channels: thinking (mental); speaking (verbal); doing (bodily).
4. Result: Karmic energy is created and stored in the mind. It encourages you to repeat and thus increase karmic energy to become an innate part of your character for the purpose of preserving your life stream. The combination of karmic energy and desire for existence is especially strong just before you die. This psychic energy, or rebirth consciousness, will contain all the character of the dying one. It will thus be attracted to a fertilized egg in the womb of the mother.

How do you describe nirvana? There are two kinds:

1. Experiential: Can be experienced mentally in this life as panna, superknowledge of all mental defilements. The mind becomes undisturbed and has peace or happiness that leads to compassion. There is enlightenment, purity, peace, and compassion. The one who experiences this is arahat. The arahat is not to make any claims about his position but one can discover who is an arahat by observing that person over a long period of time.
2. After death: There is not much said about this state but it must be perfect, otherwise we would suffer. There is, within it, a complete disappearance of personality.