Budismo,
meditación, yoga y más....
Budismo,
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Sangharakshita was once asked which of his teachings he felt comprised his distinctive contribution. In addition to the primacy of going for Refuge discussed above he mentioned four other themes.
As Buddhism has come to the West it has done so through books, ideas, art, and meditation practice. Sangharakshita emphasises a vital dimension that has been rather neglected in some quarters: human communication and friendship. In addition Western society increasingly consists of separate units living in isolation from one another, whether they be ‘nuclear’ families, or individuals living alone. Sangharakshita emphasises that we need other people to learn from in practising Buddhism, and that our relationships with them should be characterised by honesty and open communication. As well as this he stresses the need for friendships with peers. These are also important (though of course not the only) opportunities to practise and develop the virtues of generosity, kindness, patience, and forgiveness. For Sangharakshita a sangha, and particularly the Order he himself founded should be a ‘network of friendships’.
This teaching has many practical consequences in the FWBO. Much effort goes into establishing effective communication between individuals, and as most deep friendships develop between members of the same sex, many FWBO activities are structured along single sex lines.
Right Livelihood is a limb of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, but in the East, where most serious Buddhist practitioners have been monks, it has been given little attention. Yet Sangharakshita stresses that everyone’s life includes an economic dimension, and that livelihood and career need to be integrated into one’s life as a Buddhist. Similarly it is important that one’s work is a support rather than a hindrance to spiritual practice, and that the sangha is not dependent on the support of outside donors who may influence its values and priorities.
He has therefore encouraged his students to explore the possibilities of working together, in partnerships, teams, and businesses. Some of these businesses have been successful and become substantial ventures. They have also pioneered new ways of working that are based on generosity, sharing, and co-operative structures.
A Buddhist Movement
In the accounts of the life of the Buddha, there are many instances of people gaining immediate understanding of his teaching and breaking the first three ‘fetters’ that hinder people from understanding reality. These are having a fixed view of oneself; doubt; and being attached to rights and rituals as ends in themselves. Such people become ‘stream entrants’, having entered the stream that will take them irresistibly towards Enlightenment.
In the course of Buddhist history there developed a tendency to emphasise the difficulty of making such a breakthrough, and some traditions teach that it may take many lifetimes, or even that it is no longer possible. Sangharakshita has a different emphasis. He suggests that all sincere, committed and effective practitioners of the Dharma who have the right conditions and enough time could reasonably expect to make substantial progress and even gain stream entry in this lifetime. He stresses that such progress need not be seen as an extremely rare attainment within an effective sangha.
The figure of the Bodhisattva – one who seeks Enlightenment for the sake of all beings – is central to Mahayana Buddhism. The bodhisattva ideal places special emphasis on compassion as being an essential component of the Buddha’s path. In seeking to make sense of the Buddhist tradition Sangharakshita’s overall emphasis is upon the earlier and most basic teachings which precede the Mahayana. However, he suggests that the Bodhisattva ideal is a central aspect of Buddhism as a whole, and that its expression by the Mahayana is not a later development but the reassertion of something that was implicit in the Buddha’s teaching from the earliest times. One thus cannot think of Wisdom, in its full Buddhist sense, without Compassion.
Sangharakshita’s doctrinal contribution is to say that compassion is an essential aspect of the fundamental principle of going for Refuge. The Bodhisattva ideal expresses the altruistic dimension of going for Refuge.