Why Gautama Buddha Hesitated to Preach: Challenging the Constraints of Language in Buddhism by Hiroyuki Sato
by Hiroyuki Sato
Buddhism's establishment is . . . inextricably tied up with words in a relationship based not on the belief that everything can be conveyed through words but on the determination to push words to their limit precisely because Buddhism recognizes that words cannot convey everything.
As a religion, Buddhism places a strong emphasis on practice, as is evident from the life of its founder, Gautama Buddha, who attained enlightenment after renouncing the world to practice asceticism. Since then, wherever Buddhism has taken root, it has been historically closely associated with practice. This fact is clearly illustrated by the role ascetic disciplines and other monastic and lay practices - such as zazen and other forms of meditation, nembutsu (recitation of the name of Amida Buddha), and copying of the sutras - have typically played in the spread of contemporary Buddhism. At the same time, however, there exists a tremendous body of Buddhist writings called the issaikyo (Buddhist canon) or daizokyo (great collection of Buddhist scriptures), leading to Buddhism's being likened to a "flood of words." Some people set little store by words in comparison with practice in Buddhism, arguing that Buddhism cannot be understood solely from the written word; rather, it is understood through direct experience. That is, words are devalued and viewed merely as a means. In this essay, I will explore the question of words and language in Buddhism, taking as a cue the "hesitation" to preach - to expound the Dharma - exhibited by Gautama after he had attained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya.
The devaluation of words in Buddhism and the view that they are merely a means can be observed in the well-known Parable of the Raft. In this parable, a man comes to a river where there is no boat or bridge, so he builds a raft to cross. Once across, however, he should discard the raft rather than carry it with him, simply because it has no further use. The purpose of the raft was to get him somewhere and not to be a burden to carry. Like the raft, the teachings of Buddhism must also be discarded. The same lesson is given with the metaphor of a finger pointing at the moon, which reminds us that it is at the moon, and not the finger, that we should be looking.
Buddhism's view of words is readily apparent from these two metaphors, in which the raft and the finger are easily recognizable as representing words and language. Gautama attained enlightenment and expounded his teachings using words, but his teachings are, like the raft, something to throw away and, like the finger pointing at the moon, not something to be looked at. This rejection of teachings may very well be unique to Buddhism, found in no other religion, and it is undoubtedly one of Buddhism's major attractions.
The reason that teaching through words has come to be seen as a means that Buddhism discards is that Buddhism's objective, or end, is to achieve enlightenment. In other words, there is an element of Buddhism that places an extraordinary emphasis on experience, and this tendency is particularly pronounced in Zen and esoteric Buddhism. Further, the idea that teaching using words is a means to be abandoned is - viewed through the lens of the relationship between ends and means - an indication of the strong tendency to stress Buddhism's final objective. The end is important in itself, and the means of achieving it are just that - simply means. Buddhism may thus be regarded as a religion that emphasizes ends. In the course of its history, Buddhism has in fact evolved in various ways in each of the regions that it has reached, but these are all considered forms of Buddhism because common to all of them is an emphasis on the end, which is enlightenment. Buddhism may truly be described as consisting not only of teachings of the Buddha but also of teachings on how to become a buddha (the term buddha meaning "enlightened one").
While there thus exists the Buddhist view that words are means, words have nevertheless played a crucial role in bringing Buddhism into being. Buddhism consists in essence of what are called the Three Treasures - the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Not only are these three important in themselves as "treasures," but each is also a prerequisite for Buddhism to exist. Without any one of the three, Buddhism would not have come into being. The Buddha element of the three was realized through Gautama's attainment of enlightenment under a bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya. However, the other elements - the Dharma and the Sangha - arose only through the preaching of Gautama in Sarnath. In other words, Buddhism did not come into existence solely as a result of Gautama's attainment of enlightenment. It was brought into existence by preaching. For Buddhism, in a sense, Gautama's preaching is of even greater importance than his enlightenment. However, the stories of the Buddha's life tell us that he was hesitant to preach, because enlightenment to truth is not commonplace but subtle, profound, and hard to grasp. The foolish who are consumed by desire cannot understand this truth. Certainly the nature of Gautama's enlightenment is hard for us to grasp. However, his hesitancy to preach stemmed not only from this difficulty but also from another reason related to words.
Preaching consists of conveying to others what one has experienced, and this can be done in many ways. Experiences can also be communicated through song, dance, and painting, but Gautama chose words as his medium for conveying the experience of enlightenment. However, those with whom Gautama had to communicate had yet to have such an experience. Just how great a challenge this was becomes apparent when we consider the difficulty of communicating even quite ordinary experiences to those who have not had them. Consider, for example, the impossibility of conveying in words the pain of losing a close relative to someone who has not had a similar experience. Similarly, it is impossible to explain in words what the color red is like to someone who is color-blind. It is through experiencing the death of a close relative or seeing the color red that one understands. Gautama's preaching was thus just like trying to communicate what it is like to lose someone close or see the color red to someone who has not had those experiences.
This is why Gautama was hesitant to preach. Rather than believing that what he had to say was too difficult to understand, he recognized that the constraints of language meant that he could not convey what he wanted even if he tried. The constraints of language arise not, moreover, from an inability to choose the right words but from the intrinsic limitations of the words themselves, since it is impossible to relate everything through words. Gautama understood this and so was hesitant to preach. Recognizing this limitation, he was nevertheless undaunted and boldly decided to begin preaching, and his greatness lies in his determination to challenge the constraints of language. Gautama was not simply someone who attained enlightenment, nor someone who guided people to liberation from suffering. He was someone who sought to communicate through words. Had he not communicated through words and challenged the constraints of language, he would have been just an ordinary man called Gautama who happened to exist in the past, and Buddhism certainly would not have come into being.
Buddhism's establishment is thus inextricably tied up with words in a relationship based not on the belief that everything can be conveyed through words but on the determination to push words to their limit precisely because Buddhism recognizes that words cannot convey everything.
The idea that we must transcend words and that there is a world beyond language is an extremely enticing one and excites a yearning for an unknown world. However, I think we should be wary of assuming that there is a natural divide between a world expressible in words and a world beyond words, and of overemphasizing experience as a result of attaching too much value to the world beyond words. The world beyond words - or in Buddhist terms, the experience of enlightenment - is not something that can be so easily experienced, and it is for this very reason that Gautama chose to preach using words. Only Gautama had experienced what he had attained. In order to draw others to that state, he needed words. While words are not substantive, they are by no means unnecessary. This is indicated by the fact that even Zen, while it emphasizes practice and advocates shikantaza ("just sitting" or "single-minded sitting") - suggesting that the essence of Buddhism is to be found in the maxims furyu monji (no reliance on words and letters) and kyoge betsuden (independent transmission outside the written scriptures) - has also generated a huge body of classical Zen literature.
When considering Buddhism, therefore, we should perhaps pay a little more attention to words and language. We must be wary of interpreting Buddhism solely in terms of the world beyond words, while yet recognizing its emphasis on experience. Naturally this does not mean that we should regard words as absolutes through which Buddhism can be understood. At the same time, however, we should not reject words but must accept that the essence of Buddhism cannot be grasped without a basis in language.
Hiroyuki Sato, LittD in Indian Philosophy and Buddhist Studies, is a Professor in the Faculty of Human Sciences in the Distance Learning (Correspondence) Division of Musashino University, Tokyo, where he teaches Buddhist Studies. He is a research fellow at the university's Institute of Buddhist Culture and serves as a councilor of the Japanese Association for Comparative Philosophy. He is the author of many books and articles on Buddhism and Indian philosophy.
This article was originally published in the October-December 2014 issue of Dharma World.
Source
https://rk-world.org/dharmaworld/dw_2014octdec_why-gautama-buddha-hesitated-to-preach.aspx
