The ever-sitting and unmoving statue of the Buddha does not communicate any action, and it gives the impression that the Buddha was always busy with his mind. The statue is a distorted imagery of a day-to-day and challenging life of the Buddha. It was only a few years ago that the renowned scholar, public speaker, and former Buddhist monk Stephen Batchelor pleaded to Buddhist practitioners to take part in and share the responsibilities of the world. He frankly and honestly pointed out that isolationism and sermonizing while lighting candles next to Buddha statues cannot alone provide for youngsters’ needs, and the needs of the poor and the sick; we will have to take the harder and more mundane path to turn the wheel of everyday existence for ourselves and others.

Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha as a premodern philosopher put forth an ambitious project to understand and eliminate the root cause of the existential burden of the human mind. This philosophy morphed into a religion almost two hundred years after the Buddha’s passing, during the rule of the mighty Asoka of the Mauryan dynasty in the Indian subcontinent. This philosophy and religion in a parallel way spread throughout Central Asia, and later into China, Tibet, Japan, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

The Buddha gradually became ‘Lord Buddha’ and was worshipped in the way that people had long worshipped gods over the centuries. As the philosophy of Buddhism became more and more incorporated into religious structures, Buddhist monasticism and priesthood became widespread, eventually in some cases (such as in Tibet) developing as part a hegemonial strategy to rule over people, including Tibetan Lamaism which continued until the 20th century. (Lamaism in exile is still represented by the Dalai Lama).

These days, however, the medieval model of robe-wearing monks possessing superiority and authority over the lay people is losing its relevance. Buddhism as a religion and theology risks losing its appeal for modernity. The Buddha himself rejected the embrace of faith over empiricism. In the Kālāma Sūtra[1] the Buddha clearly rejects faith alone, and counsels against accepting scriptures, traditions, or even logic and reasoning merely out of respect for holy people and monks.

Buddhism as a religion in the context of modest monasticism is a clear choice for individuals and their personal lifestyles today. With the refinement of thought and understanding of religion in the Second Enlightenment, however, there are two considerations that could alter the exclusivity of the Buddhist monks: one, their robes should not indicate a license of authority over others; and two, their spiritual and mystical inclinations should not exonerate them from financial and socio-professional obligations vis-à-vis the society in which they live and flourish. Buddhism is a whole-life undertaking – mental, physical, and social.

The Mind, Physical Strength, and Socio-Professional Contributions

 Spirituality, enhancing the power of mind, practicing compassion towards all sentient beings – these are some of what comes to mind with the mention of “Buddhism”.  There is also Nirvana, described as the ultimate psychospiritual stage when a person taps into an ‘antidote’ to the three mental poisons that Buddha identified as the roots of suffering in life:

1) Greed: attachment/want/fear of loss;

2) Anger: hatred/aggression/envy/self-centeredness/jealousy; and

3) Ignorance: misknowing/illusion about self and the changing world

Addressing the three mental poisons in the mind that cause suffering is certainly of paramount importance. But one can also ask: ‘Is the development of mind alone, without physical strength and social action as well, sufficient for living in and being a part of our modern world?’

Is the mind’s power alone adequate for the life we live, a mind without sturdy and resilient tendons, without strong muscles, joints and bones, and without meaningful sociocultural participation? Buddhists may say that monks are socioculturally involved in their community but this varies from community to community. In the Second Enlightenment, the wandering, alms-collecting, monastic and non-working monks, especially those at the expense of their community, are invited to expand their existing meditative practices to include two additional dimensions, namely the enhancement of physical strength, and making professional contributions through positions such as taking jobs as teachers, nurses, mathematicians, environmentalists, researchers, and so on.

Our proposition here has a certain historical relevance in Buddhism, and in Zen in particular. The development of Zen in China in the 6th century blossomed through its iconic teacher Bodhidharma in the Shaolin Temple. Bodhidharma did not show much interest in pedantic and lengthy scriptural readings, or in recitation and commentary. Instead, he felt that Buddha’s message was short and clear and could be better understood through face-to-face transmission.

Bodhidharma endorsed solitary and quiet reflection for knowing and forgetting the egocentric self. But he also went beyond the practices of the mind. Bodhidharma’s intention was to drag people out of their sluggish states, even those who claimed to know the Buddhist scriptures back-to-back or claimed to be enlightened. Bodhidharma combined Buddha’s Dharma for the mind with Laozi’s and other Daoist masters’ teachings for the training of the body, while also inventing his own physical movements in the martial arts. He then required physical exercises for the Chan (Zen) practitioners that would support the development of both a strong mind and body. He focused on training to develop elastic tendons, formidable muscle tone, and agile joints of the body. Bodhidharma’s model of a natural human being, then, seemed to be a melding of Buddhism’s mental practices and Daoism with its nature-based practices. Daoism was modeled after nature in its holistic sense.

This revolutionary approach became the basis for the next revolution in Buddhism in the 12th- 13th century with the advent of the Japanese Zen tradition and its incorporation of physical aspects, a physical kind of enlightenment to go along with the mind. Japanese Zen involved an overhaul of a physically inactive, meditation-focused Buddhism, not only reviving the martial arts, but also promoting calligraphy, gardening, poetry, sculpting, fencing, massage techniques for health purposes, performing the tea ceremony while sitting face-to-face in dialogue (a sort of traditional psychotherapy), and much more.

This perspective is a vital one to consider and remember in the rapidly expanding world of Buddhism today. The essentials, as always, are vital to keep in mind: the human being is a mammal, a primate whose physical constitution, like all other living beings, is designed for the dynamic movements necessary to acquire food, procreate, run, swim, hang, jump, lift, push, and do all that is needed to protect itself from the elements and external dangers. Such physical skill has made human evolution and life in nature possible, in conjunction with the creative intelligence of the human mind.

Nature reminds us of agility and resilience. A spider can hang from a thin strand of web and bear its own weight. A dung beetle can roll a ball of dung several times the size and weight of its body, even going backward. Certain birds during their migration can fly thousands of kilometers across the ocean. Fish and whales can swim thousands of kilometers in a matter of weeks. An orangutan is a magnificent ‘gymnast’ in the forest, thanks to its supreme agility and powerful muscles and tendons. Such examples of living beings in nature compel us human beings to review and reflect our own capacities in the natural world.

This reflection should not result in regret or guilt over one’s lack of exercise and activity, but rather to provide a deeper motivation to start the strenuous physical exercises that would enlighten the body. All-day meditation and sedentary Buddhism contradicts the evolutionary process of nature that has produced a human body with an incredible physical function and physiology, and this correlates also with modern urban settings, where so many people are glued to their chairs, cars or sofas, contenting themselves with mental or intellectual work. Nature’s choice for humans was not just cognitive occupation but also flexible and strong tissues. True, the Buddha correctly noted that the mind itself is the source of distress in life, the source of the ‘internal’ dangers, and yes, today’s ‘external’ dangers are much less threatening than they were in the past, and our bodies have less utility. Nonetheless, the body should not be allowed to wane while the mind is given such prominence; rather the body can be reawakened to its latent capacity and reconnected to the mind (and vice versa), strengthening enlightenment in all directions. A comprehensive philosophy of life!

Analogously, we must not forget that we are also each part of another kind of body but with many members: human society. This points to a need for Buddhist practices aimed at contributing to ‘social enlightenment’ as well.  The monastic tradition in Buddhism and its focus on meditation and practice of compassion have been valued across Buddhist societies and groups throughout history, including today, and traditions are to be respected, but what about our modern social, cultural and financial responsibilities?

The practices of meditation and compassion are fulfilling, but alone they are not enough to make the society run, or repair the ailing and constantly disintegrating world. An extra step stemming from compassion needs to be taken. How can we better network and collaborate in order to send our children to school, to treat the sick, help the poor and fill socioeconomic gaps? Skilled Buddhists are needed in the practical world to care for the elderly, bake bread, work in hospices, cook in orphanages, drive taxis, clean the streets, clean rivers – in general, to bring the fruits of their mental and physical practices to bear on the needs of the greater society.

The point here is not to have different kinds of enlightenment. The point, rather, is to recognize that we cannot ignore or deny aspects of our whole being and our social responsibilities. The Second Enlightenment will become a true reality when we let go of our separate notions and beliefs and include inner and outer enlightenments: Comprehensive Enlightenment. The Second Enlightenment involves the abandonment of what has not worked in the past and the embrace of what is needed at this time of restitution for our ever-changing world.

The mind, our physical health, and our social skills and responsibilities are all part of a whole that together make the world our realm of existence. The Renaissance of Buddhism is possible because of the Buddha’s pragmatism, malleability and verifiability of the experience versus obsolete beliefs and rituals. The Buddha today would surely agree.

[1] The Buddha advises the people of Kālāma: “Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning.”Kālāma Sutta: The Buddha’s Charter of Free Inquiry, translated from the Pali by Soma Thera (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Kandy Buddhist Publication Society, 1981; Online edition, 2008), “The Criterion for Rejection”, 5, 6. (See also, Mostafa Vaziri, Liberation Philosophy: From the Buddha to Omar Khayyam, Vernon Press 2019, 153-55.)

(buddha photo attribution © enginakyurt, 123RF Free Images )