Return To The Silk Routes by Juntunen

Author:Juntunen [Juntunen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780710306081
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 1999-01-07T00:00:00+00:00

Buddhism or Shamanism?

Writers, both popular and scholarly, who have studied phenomena like that of the Tibetan ‘das log have often seen them as evidential remnants of a primitive and Shamanic past, loosely integrated in a Buddhist superstructure and given a Buddhist twist to teach good morals. Thus, Central Asia is made understandable against the background of North Asia, the home of the classic ‘Shamanism’. But before entering a discussion of this view, let us a make a detour through South Asian Buddhism to see what this sphere has to offer.

The concept of hell, or hells, and the possibility of visiting them is present, of course, in all Indian religious traditions, although it is perhaps not regarded as a major theme. Still, it is there, more or less visible in different parts of these traditions. Buddhism first of all supplies its adherents with an elaborate cosmology in which a large number of hells and other unpleasant places are to be found.6 Traditionally, there are five or six different worlds, all possible rebirth destinations for living beings within the Wheel of Life. First, we have the different heavens, where peaceful gods of all kinds enjoy the benefits of merits earned earlier. Secondly, we have the world of the aggressive asura gods. The third world in the hierarchy is ours, the world of men. The fourth is occupied by animals and the fifth by the pretas, stinking and grotesque creatures, who as men have been too gluttonous and thirsty. The sixth, and in our connection most interesting world, consists of the hells, places of torture and punishment for sinners. Someone has said that Buddhism has at its disposal the most sadistic hells known to the history of religions. This can certainly be contested and it may be noticed that the time one has to spend in any of the hells is always limited. Thus, the Buddhist cosmology is part of the moral and karmatic net which keeps everything together and governs human life.

The hells are mentioned in the earliest canonical texts, but it is in the later commentaries and scholastic abhidharma literature that the ideas become well-arranged and systematized. In these texts the theme is more elaborate and in some of them we find hundreds of hells mentioned, grouped in a complicated vertical and horizontal system.7 The punishments inflicted on the sinners are described in vivid detail, and one realizes the necessity of a functional infernal bureaucracy for placing the victims in exactly the right corner of the right hell. If Buddhism sometimes gives the impression of being an intellectual and purely meditative piety, we find here a sharp contrast in the emphasis on the nauseating procedures in the hellish torture-chambers.

The scholastic masters have of course also speculated on the fundamental problem of how we know what is going on in heaven and hell. Buddhaghosa and Vasubandhu, two of the greatest commentators and exponents of Buddhist erudition, have both dwelt upon our means of knowledge of the other worlds, though not at very great length.

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