Buddhism and the Baha'i Faith
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Daniel Conner, Buddhism and the Baha'i Faith, bahai-library.com.
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Buddhism and the Baha'i Faith
BY DANIEL CONNER

ALMOST     2500 years ago a gentle man          preached nonviolence and a novel conception
n. walked with his disciples and taught in       of the soul and founded the Jain religion.
a small state named Magadha in what is now       Stirred by the teachings of Zoroaster, the
Nepal. The story of the enlightenment of the     Persian empire attained its greatest extent
young prince Siddhartha Gautama is well-         and challenged the Greek world. Greek phi-
known throughout the Wes tern world, but         losophy was flowering with the thought of
few outside Asia have a passable knowledge,      Pythagoras and Plato. The Hebrew prophets
much less an understanding, of the religion      were laying the foundations of a nation based
founded by the Buddha.                           on strict monotheism. In this world the
The sixth and fifth centuries B.C. wit-       Buddha lived.
nessed intellectual and spiritual activity un-      Although miraculous tales and legends
precedented in the history of the world.         abound, little is known about the historical
During this time the ethical systems that        Buddha, and many of the texts attributed to
influence Chinese thought today were sys-        him are undoubtedly of more recent origin.
tematized by the strangely diverse personali-    Some current scholarship maintains that
ties of Confucius and the half-mythical Lao-     Buddhism was initially little more than a
tze. In India Mahavira (Great Spirit)            reaction against Brahmanism (out of which
26    WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1971-72

Hinduism evolved). It appears that early             countryside.
Buddhists were more egalitarian in their                A more important reason is the remark-
beliefs than most of their countrymen:               able assimilative power of Hinduism. His-
No brahman is such by birth.                      torically, Hinduism has been the most ab-
No outcaste is such by birth.                     sorptive of the world's religions; with time it
An outcaste is such by his deeds.                 has successfully assimilated extremely heter-
A brahman is .such by his deeds.                  odox elements. Even the ethnocentric Mus-
(Sutta Nipatct, 136) 1                        lim conquerors found themselves in danger
They welcomed men and wome<J. of all                 of being assimilated during the time of the
classes as disciples, a practice which aroused       Mughal empire (1526-c. 1800). When the
the ire of orthodox brahmins. Like his con-          Muslims invaded, Buddhism and Hinduism
temporary MahavTra, the Buddha stressed              had almost merged, and the Buddha was
the doctrine of ahirrzsa (nonviolence : doing        relegated to a place in the Hindu pantheon as
harm to no living thing), while animal                the ninth incarnation of Vi~i:iu.
sacrifice still lingered on from the Vedic age           Still more important is the fact that Bud-
of Brahmanism.                                       dhism suffered the fate of almost every other
Due in part to a popular reaction against         religion and split into numerous sects. Early
the social rigidity of Brahmanism, Buddhism          in its career Buddhism had split in two:
rapidly gained a wide following, spread ing          T heravadct ( the way of the elders) or Hr-
throughout India and the Central Asian               nayana ( the lesser vehicle), and Mahayana
steppes. The great emperor A5oka ( c. 268-            (the greater vehicle) . Theravada retained to
233 B.C. ) was dramatically converted to             a greater extent the original teachings of the
Buddhism after witnessing the carnage in an          Buddha, while Mahayana claimed to have
aggressive war of his own instigation. The           access to esoteric teachings of the Buddha
Faith freq uently enjoyed royal patronage and         that were denied to any but his closest
continued to grow until the fifth century            disciples. In their cultural function Mahaya-
A.D., when it still flourished among the             na compares to Theravada much as medieval
educated and noble classes. Eight hundred            Catholicism compares to early Christianity.
years later, however, follo wing the Muslim          The Mahayana school regards the individual
conquest of northern India, Buddhism had             search for enlightenment as a selfish ideal
virtually disappeared from the land of its           and replaces it with the concept of the
birth. Now Buddhists number only a tiny              bodhisattva-the savior who achieves en-
fraction of the population of India.                 lightenment but rejects nirva?Ja so that he
The reasons for the virtual disappearance         might help the less fortunate on the path to
of Buddhism from India are several. One is           salvation. The development of Mahayana has
the ferocity of the Muslim conquest. By and          been greatly influenced by local animistic
large, the invading Muslims of the twelfth           cults, and it has incorporated foreign deities
and thirteenth centuries left the indigenous         into its pantheon, while T heravada has sur-
population to itself, but they were unre-            vived relatively less changed in Ceylon and
strained in their destruction of priests, tem-       Southeast Asia. Until recently M ahayana
ples, and monasteries. The Buddhists were            flourished chiefly in Tibet, Central and East-
most susceptible because they were orga-             ern Asia, and Vietnam, and also in China
nized. The monks tended to congregate in             and Japan in the form of Ch'an (or Zen), a
centralized monasteries, while the Hindu             synthesis of Mahayana and Taoism.
chaplains were scattered throughout the                 The sacred scriptures of Buddhism are
more numerous than those of any other
1. William D eBary et al, eds., Sources of Indian
Tradition (New York: Columbia Univ. Press,       religion-so extensive that no single scholar
1958), I, 140.                                   could hope to encompass them in a lifetime.
BUDDHISM AND THE BAHAf FAITH                27

Among the most important Theravada texts           Christian values upon which much of our
are the Dhammapada and The Questions of            culture is based, yet which have notably
King Menander. The latter is in the form of        failed to achieve their goals. Eastern religions,
a Platonic dialogue between a Buddhist dis-        so the rationale goes, offer individual salva-
ciple and a Greek satrap left behind in            tion through self-improvement and lack the
Bactria by Alexander the Great. The most           emphasis on social values that is fou nd in the
important Mahayana text is the Saddharma-          Judea-Christian tradition. The failure of the
Ptt~idarTka or The Lottts of the Trne Law .        Judea-Christian ethical system to bring about
Mahayana is the form more familiar to           its ideal of lasting social justice and peace is
Westerners, since it has had the more success-     regarded as being inherent in the system
ful publicists, and it offers a great variety of   itself, whereas if the Oriental fai ls to achieve
wondrous tales. This form has recently en-         the goa l of enlightenment, it is his fault
joyed adoption by certain segments of Amer-        alone.
ican society, especially in its Tibetan or             Doubtless many young people are embrac-
J apanese (Zen) forms. Anyone who has              ing Oriental religions because these represent
read a little about Buddhism will recognize        to them the opposite end of the spectrum
the names of its foremost exponents and ex-        from the ethica l system in which they were
plainers to the West: D. T. Suzuki, the late       raised. Is this polarity real or on ly apparent?
Zen patriarch, and Alan Warts, the American        If real, then are Western and Eastern reli-
philosopher and student of comparative reli-       gio ns reconcilable) In what ways does a new
gion.                                              re ligion, the Baha'i Faith, reconcile them ?
A study of rhe genea logy of religions
EASTERN RELIGIONS, particularly Buddhism,          shows that the so-called Eastern and Wes tern
have long held a spell of fascination for the      re ligions have for the most part developed
Western world. From Voltaire through               independently. Just as Christianity grew out
Schopen hauer and Hermann Hesse, Euro-             of Jud aism, the Baha'i Faith grew out of
pean literature is full of speculation about       Shi'ih Islam through the Babi religion, and
the nature of Eastern thought. American            Buddhism g rew our of Brahmanism. This in
poets such as Emerson and Thoreau have             no way implies that the above-mentioned
dabbled in Oriental mysticism, and the             faiths are nor independent or revealed reli-
Western world has produced a number of             gions; the intent is only to point out their
first-class Oriental scholars. But it is only      historical connections. The historical roots of
recently that popular interest, especially         the Baha'i Faith lie among the Western reli-
among you ng people, has been aroused . The        gions, just as those of Buddhism lie among
trend has yet to gain the proportions of a         the Eastern, but this does not mean that the
mass movement, bur it is evident that Orien-       Baha'i Faith in itself is Western or Eastern in
tal philosophy is being adopted uncritically       outlook. Indeed, the Baha'i Faith claims uni-
by certain segments of our society.                versality, spanning or even transcending the
Why? Partly because Oriental philosophy         traditional division of East and West. In order
has a great deal to teach us. But some             to investigate this claim, let us first determine
psychologists see other reasons in the lure of     whether the differences between the Eastern
the East, nor only among so-called hippies or      and W esrern religions are real or apparent.
beatniks, but also among serious scholars and          Ar first glance it might seem rhar Western
theologia ns. The phenomenal popularity dur-       and Eastern religions have little in common,
ing the late Sixties of transcendental medita-     other than the obvious features which are
tion and mysticism-and of individuals such         common to all religions. This is especially
as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Ravi Shankar          true in the realm of metaphysics. The West-
-is symptomatic of a rejection of the Judea-       ern religions are rather closely related, with
28      WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1971 -72

great mutual influence. The religions born                    results in nirvarta (the "blowing-out" of the
in India and China, on the other hand, are                    self). Fundamental is the doctrine of the
not only for the most part historically sepa-                 four noble truths: 1) life is inevitably sor-
rate from the Western religions but also                      rowful, 2) sorrow is due to craving, 3)
from each other. The distance between Con-                    sorrow can be stopped only by cessation of
fucianism 2 and Buddhism is greater than                      desire, and 4) this can be accomplished only
that between Zoroastrianism and Christiani-                   by disciplined conduct and meditation.
ty. Moreover, the Western religions are scat-                    Not even the Soul has abiding personality;
tered through the time dimension, whereas                     it too is transient. The station of the Soul is
the great Eastern religions were born mostly                  altered according to its karma (accumulation
between 600 and 500 B.C.                                     of good or bad deeds) and is eternal! y reborn
Oswald Spengler wrote, "Buddhism, which                   in a station that befits its past lives. The cycle
only a mere dabbler in religious research                    of rebirth can be stopped only by attaining
would compare with Christianity, is hard ly                  11irvaftct or extinction. This is done first by
reproducible in the words of the Western                     adop ting right views about the nature of
Languages." :: The statement contains some                   existence, then by careful moral discipline,
truth but is greatly exaggerated. There are                   and finally by prolonged meditation.
significant similarities between Buddhism                        Nirvartrt is the total an nihilation of the
and Christianity. Buddhism, however, has                     Self, but it is not thought of in negative
been judged by some scholars to be more a                     terms. Rather nirvarzct is a transcendent state
system of psychology than a religion. Much                    beyond comprehension in which the illusion
of this argument is based on the fact that                   of individuality is apparent. This state is not
there is no trace in the Buddha's teachings of               fundamentally different from the supreme
a "God"-at least not a personal, transcen-                   bliss described by Hindu saints, Muslim Ittfzs,
dent god in the Christian sense. This argu-                  or Christian mystics. The state is inexpressi-
ment can be reduced to a matter of seman-                    ble, however; it can only be experienced,
tics: the Buddha taught the existence of                     never communicated-or, as Baha'u'llah said,
dharmct ( divine law) which governs all                      there are regions into which the pen will not
creation. His teachings all point to an eternal              move.
reality, which, although it lacks the anthro-                    The later Mahayana schools, in attempting
pomorphic aspects of Western theism, is a                    to describe reality, postulate that funyata
creative force that is easily identified with                 (the Void or emptiness) is all that exists.
God.                                                         The Void, again, is not negative in the sense
of an absence of something, but rather it is
BUDDHISM TEACHES that everything in the                      the only abiding reality and being-it is one
universe is in a constant state of flux. Crav-               with truth, nirvarza, and the Buddha Himself.
ing and clinging to permanence is the inevi-                 The qualities of the Void which are manifest
table cause of sorrow. Salvation is found by                 in existence are called tathata (translatable
the gradual loss of self-concern, until it                   only as "suchness"). The Void is essentially
identical with the emptiness that so troubles
2 . Confucianism is th e most "Western" of the
Eastern religions. Ind eed, some scholars think         Western existentialist philosophers. The
it is not a religion at all, but rather just a sys-     difference, of course, lies in the fact that
tem of ethics. Although it lacks the m eta-             Buddhists look on the Void with joy, the
physical aspect of religion (a t leas t in its ini-
ti al stages) , it fulfills th e social function of a   existentialists with despair.
religion. Since it th eoreticall y allows excep-            One apparent difference between Eastern
tions to its laws, and since it was born in             and Western religions is their relative em-
China, I include it amo ng the Eastern religions.
3. Oswald Spengler, Th e Decline of the West                phasis on ethics and metaphysics. Almost
(New York: M odern Library, 1962), p. 184.             without exception, Western religions place
BUDDHISM AND THE BAHkf FAITH                   29

the primary emphasis on ethics, i.e., the             "wholly other," while Eastern religions tend
individual's relation to society, while meta-         to look for the Deity within the human
physics, the individual's relationship to God         Soul.
or the Cosmos, is of secondary importance.               According to this definition, does the
The essence of Judaism, for example, is               Baha'i Faith qualify as a Western or an
found in the Ten Commandments; the es-                Eastern religion , or is it a meeting ground for
sence of Christianity in the Golden Rule and         the two traditions? Its historical roots lie
the Sermon on the Mount. Metaphysics has              among the Western religions, but this, in
little place in the original teachings of either      itself, does not answer the question. Speaking
Faith. Eastern religions, with the exception of       of unchanging religious truth, 'Abdu'l-Baha
Confucianism, rend to place a higher value            writes:
on metaphysics. It may be argued that the                 . .. each of the divine religions is separable
Buddha Himself rejected metaphysical specu-              into two divisions. One concerns the w orld
lation; nevertheless, Buddhism-and espe-                 of morality and the ethical training of
cially Mahayan a-abounds in it.                          httman natttre. It is directed to the ad-
A second difference lies in the degree of            vancement of the w orld of httmanity in
social control demanded by the religion.                 general,- it reveals and in culcates the
Western religions are notably more authori-              knowledge of God and m akes possible the
tarian than their Eastern counterparts, a fact           discovery of the verities of life. This is
which has usually given rise to a greater                ideal and spiritttal teaching, the essential
degree of tolerance among the latter. Al-                qttality of divine religion and not subject
though the Buddhist monk is subject to the               to change or transformation. . . . T he
discipline of his superior, the follower who             second classification or division comprises
has attained nirvar;a is subject to no authority         social laws and regttlations applicable to
other than internal authority. He is free of             human conduct. This is not the essential
concern for transgression; not even the teach-           spiritual qitality of religion. It is m bject to
ings of the Buddha bind him any longer. In               change and transformation according to
medieval Roman Catholicism, on the other                  the exigencies and requirements of time
hand, every Christian, saint or sinner,- was             and place. 4
subject ro the authority of the Pope. In              It is instructive to compare 'Abdu'l-Baha's
medieval Islam the fttfis, no matter how              assertion with the following selection from a
great their state of enlightenment, were still        Tibetan Buddhist text:
bound by the law of the Shari'a~ . At their               If the empty nature of the mind be
greatest Sr. Francis and al-GhazaH were still             realized, no longer is it necessary to listen
lesser men than Christ or Mulfammad. But                  to or to meditate upon religious teachings.
there is nothing to stop a Buddhist saint from            If the unsulliable nature of the intellect be
equaling or even surpassing the Buddha                    realized, no longer is it necessary to seek
Himself.                                                  absolution of one's sins. Nor is absolution
let us tentatively define a Western reli-             necessary for one who abideth in the State
gion as one which emphasizes ethics above                 of Mental Quiescence. 5
metaphysics and allows no exceptions to its               Buddhism and Hinduism share a belief in
laws. A Western religion, moreover, usually           reincarnation as part of their doctrine. This
conceives of God as remote, unapproachable,           doctrine of metempsychosis is one of the
4. Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World        major stumbling blocks to their reconcili-
Faith (Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust,   ation with Western religions. Regarding the
1966 ) , p. 274.                                  doctrine of reincarnation, 'Abdu'l-Baha
5. W. Y. Evans-Wentz, ed., Tib etan Yo ga and
Secret Doctrines (New York: Galaxy Books,         writes:
1967), p. 88.                                         There fore reincarnation, w hich is the re-
30        WORLD ORDER: W INTER 1971-72

peated appearance of the same spirit with            transmigrating! " 8
its farmer essence and condition in this                (The Questions of King Menander)
same world of appearance, is impossible              The apparent differences between Eastern
and unrealisable. 6                               and Western religions can be summed up by
Is reincarnation a basic doctrine of the two      comparing the purported last instructions of
greatest Eastern religions-one on which              the Buddha with one of the Hidden Words
there can be no compromise? The Buddhist             of Baha'u'llah :
scholar, Alan Watts, thinks not :
Many Buddhists understand the Round of
birth-and-death quite literally as a process                           The Buddha:
of reincarnation, wherein the karma which                So, Ananda, you must be yo ur own lamps,
shapes the individual does so again and              be your own refuges. Take refuge in nothing
again in life after life until, through              outside yourselves. Hold firm to the truth as
insight and awakening, it is laid to rest.           a lamp and a refuge, and do not look for
refuge ro any thing besides yourselves. A
But in Zen, and in other schools of the
monk becomes his own lam p and re fu ge by
Mahayana, it is often taken in a more                continually looking o n his body, feelings,
figurative way, as that the process of               perceptions, moods, and id eas in such a man-
rebirth is from moment to moment, so                 ner that he conquers the cravings and depres-
that one is being reborn so long as one              sions of ordinary men and is always strenu-
ous, self-possessed, and collected in m ind.
identifies himse lf with a continuing ego
\'{!hoever among m y monks does this, either
which reincarnates itself afresh at each             now or when I am dead, if he is anxious to
mome nt of time. T hus the validity and              learn , will reach the summit.D
interest of the doctrine does not require                            ( D1gha Nikaya)
acceptance of a special theory of survival. 7
Bahi'u'llah:
0 SON OF SPIRIT! There is no peace for
This view is supported by the Theravada               rhee save by renouncing thyself and turning
scnprnres:                                              un ro Me, for it behoveth thee to g lory in My
"Reverend Nagasena," said the King,               name, not in rhine own; ro put th y trust in
Me and nor in th yself, since I des ire to be
"is it true that nothing transmigrates, and
loved alone and above all that is.10
yet there is rebirth?"
"Yes, your Majesty."
"How can this be? . . . Give me an
illustration."                                       Can these be reconciled? Yes. The Buddha
"Suppose, your Majesty, a man lights           direm his disciples to look within for guid-
one lamp from another-does the one                 ance, while Baha'u'llah counsels us to re-
lamp transmigrate to the other? "                 nounce ourselves and cling to the Absolute.
"No, your Reverence."                          In reality their advice is the same. Baha-
"So there is rebirth without anything          'u'll ah writes:
Thou art My stronghold; enter therein
that thott mayest abide in safety. My love
6. 'Abdu' l-Baha; Some Answered Questions                  is in thee, know it, that thou mayest
(Wilmette, Ill.: Baha'i Publishing Trust,
1964),p. 326.                                           find Me near unto thee . . .. Thou art My
7. Alan W. Wans, Th e Way of Z en (New York:               lamp and My light is in thee. Get thou
Vinrage, 195 7), p. 49.                                 from it thy radiance and seek none oth-
8. D eBary, p. 106.
9. Ibid., p. 110.                                           er than Me. 11
10. Baha'i Wo rld Faith, pp. 156- 57.                Thus we are to approach the Absolute by
11. Baha'u'llah, Th e H idden Words (Wilmette,
Ill. : Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1954) , p.
means of a paradox, renouncing the ego
6.                                              ("the cravings and depressions of ordinary
BUDDHISM AND THE BAHkf FAITH   31
32      WORLD ORDER: WINTER 1971-72

men") while obtaining our light from the           only quantitatively different from other men;
lamp of Truth within us. Nirv@:ta, the ex-         hence all men are potentially divine. To the
tinction of self which may occur in life, is       Buddhist, the Buddha is not the infallible
also the goal of the follower of Baha'u'llah:      incarnation of God's Truth, but rather only
• • • that tho1t mayest die in Me and I may     the most illustrious of a long line of en-
eternally live in thee." 12                        lightened men. In Islam, Judaism, and
Here we may dispose of one of the crucial    Catholic Christianity, the individual con-
differences-the internal versus the external        science must submit to the law of the proph-
Truth. The dichotomy is false; they are one.      et or the will of the Church; in the Eastern
What about the difference in emphasis on            religions the ultimate authority is internal.
ethics and metaphysics? Again, it is only a            The only way to resolve this difference is
semantical difficulty. Only in theory do the        to consider the society in which a religion is
Eastern religions assign ethics a lesser degree   born. The societies which gave birth to
of importance. In reality, the saint or the         Buddhism and Hinduism were extremely
enlightened man cannot help behaving with         heterogeneous, even more so than they are
compassion toward his fellow creatures. His        today . If a religion had arisen which de-
motivation is internal, but it is binding.         manded submission to a single religious
Hence, the Buddhist scriptures stress the          authority, it would almost certainly have
moral qualities that a monk must possess-          failed . Hinduism, to be sure, demanded sub-
moral qualities which are usually more de-         mission to the brahmin caste, but mobility
manding than those required by the Western         and heterodoxy were allowed to a far greater
religions. Although enlightenment is of pri-       extent in ancient India than most people
mary importance, and ethics secondary, they        suppose. The ancient Jews, or the Arabs of
go hand in hand and are actually inseparable.      the seventh century A.D. for that matter,
The dichotomy between ethics and metaphys-         were a far more homogeneous society; there-
ics, then, is also false-they are one. We          fore it was possible (and indeed advanta-
must not conclude from this that those with        geous) for them to submit to a single
no interest in metaphysics cannot be ethical       religious authority-Moses or Mul:iammad.
-atheists, for instance. All ethical systems           Societies were relatively isolated from
are internally, therefore metaphysically, mo-      each other in the ancient world; hence some
tivated , whether or not one chooses to call       could allow themselves the luxury of having
the motivation God.                                no external religious authority. Today our
One crucial difference remains-the ques-     world is so tightly knit, however, that the
tion of social control. This is a more difficult   smallest social shock reverberates throughout
question to resolve, and here the difference       the globe. The need for unity is urgent, and
between the Eastern outlook and the West-          unity of Faith is not possible without spiritual
ern appears to be more real than apparent.         authority. The luxury of an autonomous
As we have seen, in Western religions every        conscience can no longer be afforded.
believer, without exception, is subject to the
law of the prophet, but this is not true of        AN ORIENTAL, then, can accept the Baha'i
Eastern religions. The reason lies in the          Faith without rejecting the essential philoso-
Western view of the prophet as qualitatively       phy behind his own religious tradition.
different from the rest of mankind-a Being         Baha'u'llah places more emphasis on social
especially favored by God and hence unap-          teachings than did the Buddha, but there is
proachable, or, in Christianity, one with God      no evidence of any contradiction between the
Himself. But to the Oriental the prophet is        essential teachings of the Buddha and those
of Baha'u'llah. Western religions have not
12. Ibid., p. 5.                                   been notably successful in the East, since they
,,.,,.
BUDDHISM AND THE BAHA'I FAITH              33

usually demand a rejection of tradition from           His body is eighty cubits high, and twenty
the convert. The Baha'i Faith, however, offers         cubits broad. He will have a retinue of
to the Oriental more freedom than the West-            84,000 persons, whom he will instruct in
ern religions. Except for the few laws bind-           the mantras ... For 60,000 years Maitreya,
ing upon all Baha'is, the Oriental is free,            the best of men, will preach the true
even encouraged, to revere his own culture             Dharma, which is compassionate towards
and follow his own customs. The validity of            all living beings. And when he has disci-
his former religion is not denied. In this             plined in his true Dharma hundreds and
sense the Baha'i Faith is neither a Western            hundreds of millions of living beings, then
nor an Eastern religion but rather a point of          that leader will at last enter Nirvana. And
convergence.                                           after the great sage has entered Nirvana,
Moreover, the Buddhist is able to turn to           his true Dharma still endures for another
the Baha'i Faith as the fulfillment of his             ten thousand years. 1 3
beliefs. Buddhism, like many other religions,          I have, however, found one Buddhist tradi-
has an apocalyptic tradition and expects the        tion that suggests that the age in which we
return of its Founder, although there is evi-       live will be the beginning of a regeneration
dence that this concept arose much later than       of the human spirit. The Japanese Buddhist
the Buddha's lifetime and is not attributable       monk Nichiren (1222-1282) preached
to him. The Mahayana scriptures abound in           apocalyptic ideas based on historical cycles
references to the Maitreya, the Buddha of the       drawn from Chinese Buddhism. According to
Future, the Expected One. Some Mahayana             Chinese chronology, the death of the Buddha
sects regard this return as only of the spirit of   occurred in 947 B.C. His death was followed,
the Buddha, not the acrual physical presence        according to Nichiren, by the millennium of
of Sakyamtmi, the Historical Buddha, since          the "true la\v ." About the time of the rise of
he attained nirva?Ja and is therefore lost to       Christianity, the second millennium of the
us. This makes it easier for many Buddhists         "image" law began. Historically this corre-
to accept the appearance of the Maitreya in         sponds with the rise of Mahayana, which
circumstances other than those which are            places great emphasis on approaching
traditional.                                        Buddhahood through the Buddha's images,
Baha'is are familiar with the claims of          the bodhisattvas. According to Nichiren the
Baha'u'llah to be the return of the spirit of       last phase, the "destrucrion of the law,"
Christ and Mul?.ammad. But few Baha' is in          began about 1000 A.D. with the rise of
the Western world understand in what sense          Tantrism, the form of Buddhism concerned
Baha'u'llah may also be seen as the Maitreya.       with magic and spells. This cycle, too, lasts a
The Buddhist canon yields no specific predic-       thousand years, and so a new era is at
tions that might be interpreted as referring to     hand-an era characterized by Nichiren as a
Baha'u'll ah, as do Biblical references or Mus-     return to the "true law." Nichiren saw this
lim traditions. Some of the references to the       era as a time when a holy shrine will become
Maitreya are obviously allegorical, even fan-       the center of the world, and a mq1Jdala (a
tastic. Witness the following scripture in          religious symbol) will regenerate the human
which the Maitreya is expected some thirty          spirit. Nichiren's apocalypse survives in the
thousand years after the death of the histori-      teachings of Soka Gokkai, a religion whid~ is
cal Buddha:                                         currently growing rapidly in Japan. 1 4
Baha'u'llah, then, may be accepted as the
13. Edward Conze, Bztddhist Scriptures (New         Maitreya awaited by the Buddhists, in that
York: Penguin, 1959),pp. 240 -41.               He is the "Bringer of a New Law," "One who
14. Harry Thomsen, The New Religions of Japan
Brings Peace," and "One who Enlightens and
(Rutland, Vr.: Chas . E. Tuttle Co., 1963 ),
p. 92.                                          Unites the World."
-- Buddhism and the Baha'i Faith (Used by permission of the curator)