DR. BHIKKHU BODHIPALA : SHAPING A BUDDHIST PARADIGM


Sze Chun (JC) Chan of New York City and Jack Orchard of Cambridge, UK
For the Madurai Messenger, May 2010


The evening commuter traffic outside Dr. Bhikkhu Bodhipala’s Madurai home bustles, but inside his meditation room, only a ceiling fan whistles. Bodhipala adjusts his red monastic robes as he sits inside his meditation room, decorated with nothing more than a meditation bell, floor mats, and a shelf of books. There are no images or statues of the Buddha in this chamber but only in his living room.

“Rituals will never help us,” he says, with an iconoclasm that is at odds with my Western perceptions of Buddhism.

A Man of Many Parts

Bodhipala is the first and only Theravada Buddhist monk practicing in South India. Born as a Protestant Christian in 1955 in Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu, Bodhipala gained a keen interest in Buddhist meditation with his flourishing love of reading. Before his ordination to become a Buddhist monk, he was a sitarist playing for radio and on stage.

Of his 6,000 students, he claims to have taught the practical aspect of meditation that any one of any religion can put into immediate practice in their lives.

He believes that the ritualistic side of Buddhism is more associated with the image of Buddha that the Mahayana sect of Buddhism has created.

“I’m teaching Buddhist meditation, not religion,” he says.

Chronicler of Buddhist Trends

Bodhipala explains his practice of Theravada Buddhism and his dedication to its principles through a critique of what he claims Mahayana practices have reduced Indian Buddhism to.

He describes the way in which the original Buddhists pursued their following of the Buddha’s teachings, but with the arrival of the Mahayana sect, mainstream Buddhism made a jump closer to the ideals of other theistic religions, thus diluting its individuality, and foreshadowing the integration that was to come with conservative religions.

This meant that Theravada and Mahayana Buddhists in India decreased in number as they reconciled their beliefs with the Hindu populations and the two religions became less distinct. This integration was institutionalised when the Hindu establishment released the second of two lists of the reincarnations of Krishna. They included the Buddha in the re-incarnations of Lord Krishna. This meant that Hindus were able to worship the Buddha’s image and Buddha worship stopped being the sole reserve of the Buddhist philosophy.

“Buddha never claimed to be a reincarnation of Krishna,” he says. “Only human.”

A Clear Split

After Prince Siddhartha Gautama reached enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in modern day Bodh Gaya, India, he taught and spread the practice of Buddhism. After he passed away, the interpretation of his teachings was split between his disciples. Only four hundred years after Buddha’s death was the Buddha’s modern ‘image’ created and the Mahayana sect (the great vehicle) popularised. Now Mahayana Buddhism stands for religious observance, conservative ritualism, and the understanding of the Buddha as a deified figure. The older alternative sect, Theravada, views Buddhist practice from a purely practical and psychological sense, promoting the values of meditative mind states, and self-awareness without any of the traditionalist practices that identify Mahayana Buddhism.


Connecting the Dots

“Theravada, you use only meditation,” he says. “In Mahayana, only rituals.” Bodhipala does not dismiss the importance of the Buddha in his religion. He, however, claims that ‘respecting and remembering the Buddha’s character’ should be the purpose of the Buddha image, devoid of any supernatural significance. He draws a comparison with Protestant Christianity by saying that Mahayana Buddhism is like Catholicism in that both religions deify their prophet and worship him with the understanding of him as being beyond mortal. Theravada Buddhism, on the other hand, is more like Oriental Orthodox Christianity in that both follow the teachings of their prophet without attributing to him any form of divinity or supernatural aspects. It is enough to follow what he said without these flourishes.

Future of Buddhism

Bodhipala speaks with hope for the future of Buddhism, in spite of the issues he has been describing. He sees the new generation of Buddhists as lying not in India, the heartland of the religion, but in the West, where, he claims, Buddhist philosophy will find new heart in the ‘scientific mind’ of Westerners. In the East the ‘spiritual mind’ is prevalent, and the sects of Buddhism based around this mind will prevail.

In the West, the sects based around scientific understanding and the psychology behind Buddhist practice, sects such as Zen and the Western Buddhist Orders, will grow to be the larger and more dominant orders. Areas such as the Western United States are going to be where Buddhism will find a home in future generations.

Buddhism in a Global Context

The monk also speaks of Buddhism in the global context of politics. While he sees the religion as spreading out from the theocratic parts of the East, he believes that it does so with very well defined restrictions and rules in the stormy seas of politics. He condemns the behaviour of the monks in Burma, saying that monks should not be directly involved in politics. It is clearly more complicated than this, however, as Bodhipala admits when he says that he condones the behaviour of the Buddhists in Sri Lanka when they influence government policy without being directly involved.

Social Self defence

On a more personal note, Bodhipala speaks of why he chose to join the monastic order, while maintaining that he is merely a teacher of meditation and not a religious teacher. Here Bodhipala tells of how he was essentially forced into the position of monasticism by social pressures that exist in Indian culture in modern times. It would be considered unusual, he says, for a middle aged man to remain unmarried and not in a relationship. He claims that if he is to be taken seriously as a teacher of any kind, he must don monk’s robes and accept that he must exist outside of typical society if he is to pursue his vocation.

“It’s more self-defence, this robe,” he says, making a firm adjustment.