“Dhamma” Study and Practice in Contemporary Thai Buddhism

Abstract

This essay examines the religious significance of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu's (1906-1993) thoughts in contemporary Thai Buddhism. He advocated the understanding and practice of “Dhamma”, instead of the unconscious, routine practices of conventional Buddhism, to annihilate the internal sufferings. His teachings marked an epoch in Thai society.Buddhadasa's trials had historical precedings in the last century. The Thammayut Movement headed by Prince Mongkut had been critical of the ‘superstitious’ beliefs and the lack of knowledge about Buddhist philosophy since the early nineteenth century. His son and successor, Prince Patriarch Wachirayan Warorot continued this movement to promote scriptural knowledge. The authorized understandings of Buddhist doctrine had been diffused through the educational hierarchy of the centralized national sangha by the beginning of this century.Along with this expansion of Buddhist education, questions on the unnatural religious discourses like heaven and hell in the next life were often discussed with suspicion among intellectuals in 1930s. All of three viewpoints on the next life, either positive, negative or neutral, agreed that the moral order of social life in this world would suffer if the actual existence of the next world is denied. It was Buddhadasa who made a break-through on the question of morality and mysterious religious discourses by teaching “Dhamma”: the essence of Buddhism.Buddhadasa started to search for the “Dhamma” of Buddhism, instead of conventional “practical religion” of Thai Buddhism, in Thailand's national Buddhist education which had been prepared by Wachirayan. First, Buddhadasa tried to learn essential Buddhism in scriptural orthodoxy, but he came to its dead end. He found his way out in the “practice” of Dhamma through meditation practice and Zen style of everyday life. He revived meditation practice in the modern world as a means of capturing the insight necessary to extinguish internal sufferings; rather than a means of cultivating magical power as traditional meditation monks had practiced. Also, he taught to look within oneself by introducing Zen Buddhism to the Theravada Buddhists who were more concerned with merit-making practice to achieve better rebirth. Now his teachings play an active role in the mission of Buddhism to the born Buddhists of Thailand, rather than to the non-Buddhists of foreign countries.In Buddhadasa's thoughts, the “Dhamma” of Buddhism which is Buddhism for extinguishing one's internal sufferings, was essential. On the perceptual level, Buddhadasa denied earthly expectations of religious practice, such as a wish for heaven and a fear for hell, which prevented one's awareness of internal sufferings. He preached that the unnatural religious discourses about subjects like hell, the hungry ghost and even the nibbana, were all psychological phenomena within the self of individuals living in this world, whose existence was the only tangible reality for the modern intellectuals. On the practical level, he invited people to achieve emptiness of mind by staying away from attachment, either through meditation practice or in conscious everyday life. He believed that it was the practice of internal emptiness that sustained the moral order in this world, instead of behavior based on the religious reward.Buddhadasa's disciples and followers remarked that they have been attracted to Buddhadasa's teaching on practice of Dhamma, rather than his rational, demythologized interpretations of unscientific religious discourses. This suggests that the Buddhadasa's efforts to bring the internal practice of “Dhamma” to people's attention, was significant for the contemporary Thai Buddhists.