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Was the Buddha an Atheist, Nihilist or a Stoic?

By the contemplative recluse monk Sotapanna Jhanananda (Jeffrey S, Brooks)

(copyright 2005 all rights reserved)

There are a number of myths and dogmas that seem to pervade the various vehicles of Buddhism that are not supported by the Discourse of the Buddha.  Three of those myths are that Sidharta Gotama was an atheist, nihilist and a stoic. While some Buddhist traditions have presented the Buddha as a stoic, an atheist and a nihilist it is very clear upon reading the Discourses of the Buddha that he was none of these things.  If we read the first Sutta in the Long Discourses (DN 1) we see the Buddha specifically states he is not an atheist or a nihilist.  If we read the second Discourse (DN 2) we see the Buddha specifically talk about bliss, joy and ecstasy, therefore we really should conclude that he was not a stoic either.

BRAHMA-GåLA SUTTA (DN 1)  Translated by T. W. Rhys Davids
   30. 'There are, brethren, some recluses and Brahmans who are Eternalists{1}, and who, on four grounds, proclaim that both the soul and the world are eternal...
   1. 'There are, brethren, some recluses and Brahmans who are Eternalists with regard to some things, and in regard to others Non-Eternalists; who on four grounds maintain that the soul and the world are partly eternal and partly not.
  'This, brethren, is the first state of things on account of which, starting out from which, some recluses and Brahmans become Fortuitous-Originists, and maintain that the soul and the world arise without a cause.
   38. 'There are, brethren, recluses and Brahmans who [31] hold the doctrine of a conscious existence after death{2}, and who maintain in sixteen ways that the soul after death is conscious. And how do they do so?
   'They say of the soul: "The soul after death, not subject to decay, and conscious,
   (1) has form{1},
   (2) is formless{2},
   (3) has, and has not, form,
   (4) neither has, nor has not, form,
   (5) is finite,
   (6) is infinite,
   (7) is both,
   (8) is neither,
   (9) has one mode of consciousness,
   (10) has various modes of consciousness,
   (11) has limited consciousness,
   (12) has infinite consciousness,
   (13) is altogether happy,
   (14) is altogether miserable,
   (15) is both,
   (16) is neither."
   1. 'There are, brethren, recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of an unconscious existence after death, and who maintain in eight ways that the soul after death is unconscious. And how do they do so?
   17. 'These, brethren, are the recluses and Brahmans who are Annihilationists and in seven ways maintain the cutting off, the destruction, the annihilation of a living being. [36] And whosoever do so they, all of them, do so in one or other of these seven ways. There is none beside.
   27. 'In this case, brethren, some recluse or Brahman is dull, stupid. And it is by reason of his dullness, his stupidity, that when a question on this or that is put to him, he resorts to equivocation, to wriggling like an eel--"If you ask me whether there is another world,--well, if I thought there were, I would say so. But I don't say so. And I don't think it is thus or thus. And I don't think it is otherwise. And I don't deny it. And I don't say there neither is, nor is not, another world." Thus does he equivocate, and in like manner about each of such propositions as the following{2}:--
a.    (2) There is not another world.
(3) There both is, and is not, another world.
(4) There neither is, nor is not, another world.
b.    (1) There are Chance Beings (so called because they spring into existence, either here or in another world, without the intervention of parents, and seem therefore to come without a cause).
(2) There are no such beings.
(3) There both are, and are not, such beings.
(4) There neither are, nor are not, such beings.
c.    (1) There is fruit, result, of good and bad actions.
(2) There is not.
(3) There both is, and is not.
(4) There neither is, nor is not.
d.    (1) A man who has penetrated to the truth{1} continues to exist after death.
(2) He does not.
(3) He both does, and does not.
(4) He neither does, nor does not.
   This, brethren, is the fourth case{2}.
   [28] 28. 'These, brethren, are those recluses and Brahmans who wriggle like eels; and who, when a question is put to them on this or that, resort to equivocation, to eel-wriggling; and that in four ways. For whosoever do so, they do so in these four ways, or in one or other of the same; there is no other way in which they do so.
   36. 'Now of these, brethren, the Tath‰gata knows that these speculations thus arrived at, thus insisted upon, will have such and such a result, such and such an effect on the future condition of those who trust in them. [17] That does he know, and he knows also other things far beyond (far better than those speculations){2}; and having that knowledge he is not puffed up, and thus untarnished he has, in his own heart{3}, realised the way of escape from them{4}, has understood, as they really are, the rising up and passing away of sensations, their sweet taste, their danger, how they cannot be relied upon; and not grasping after any (of those things men are eager for) he, the Tath‰gata, is quite set free{1}.
   37. 'These{2}, brethren, are those other things, profound, difficult to realise, hard to understand, tranquillising, sweet, not to be grasped by mere logic, subtle, comprehensible only by the wise, which the Tath‰gata, having himself realised and seen face to face, hath set forth; and it is concerning these that they who would rightly praise the Tath‰gata in accordance with the truth, should speak.'
   73. 'The outward form, brethren, of him who has won the truth{2}, stands before you, but that which binds it to rebirth is cut in twain. So long as his body shall last, so long do gods and men behold him. On the dissolution of the body, beyond the end of his life, neither gods nor men shall see him.
   'Just, brethren, as when the stalk of a bunch of mangoes has been cut, all the mangoes that were hanging on that stalk go with it; just so, brethren, though the outward form of him who has won the truth stands before you, that which binds it to rebirth has been cut in twain. So long as his body shall last, so long do gods and men behold him. On the dissolution of the body, beyond the end of his life, neither gods nor men shall see him.'
Samaññaphala Sutta (DN 2)
(The Four Jhanas)
"Quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful mental qualities, he enters and remains in the first absorption (jhana): bliss (piti) and joy (sukha) born from withdrawal, accompanied by applied and sustained attention (vitakka and vic‡ra). He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the bliss (piti) and joy (sukha) born from withdrawal. Just as if a skilled bathman or bathman's apprentice would pour bath powder into a brass basin and knead it together, sprinkling it again and again with water, so that his ball of bath powder -- saturated, moisture-laden, permeated within and without -- would nevertheless not drip; even so, the monk permeates... this very body with the bliss (piti) and joy (sukha) born of withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body not pervaded by bliss (piti) and joy (sukha) born from withdrawal.

Those Buddhist teachers who point to the concept of anatta in support of their belief that the Buddha was a nihilist may want to review the principles of anatta and Dependent Origination, because I am sure if they spend a little more time with these subjects they will find Sidharta Gotama was not rejecting a self, he was simply instructing his students to relinquish objectification and identification with observable phenomena.

Maha-nidana Sutta (DN-15) "The Larger Discourse on Causation, Dependent Origination (paticca samuppada), Seven Stations of Cognition, Eight Emancipations"

In conclusion there are a number of myths and dogmas that seem to pervade the various vehicles of Buddhism that are not supported by the Discourse of the Buddha.  Three of those myths are that Sidharta Gotama was an atheist, nihilist and a stoic. However, the Discourses of the Buddha clearly prove these theories are nothing more than the myths of the naïve and primitive peoples who embraced Buddhism in the past.  For the West to come to its own understanding of Buddhism we really should shrug off the many myths that pervade Buddhism as warn out Asian imports. We Western peoples can make Buddhism into our own image as long as we keep in mind the original Discourses of the Buddha.

Sources in the discourses of the Buddha:

The Buddha's rejection of atheism, and nihilism:

Brahmajala Sutta (DN 1)"What the Buddha's Discourses are not"

The Buddha as an ecstatic, not a stoic:

Samaññaphala Sutta (DN 2) "The Discourse on the Fruits of the Contemplative Life"

Potthapada Sutta (DN 9) "The Discourse to Potthapada"

Maha-satipatthana Sutta (DN 22), "the Larger Discourse on the Four Cornerstones of Mindfulness"

Mahaasaccaka Sutta (MN 36) On the pleasure of meditation (jhana), the fruits (phala) of the contemplative life, and the Dark Night of the Soul.

Anapanasati Sutta (MN 118) "Mindfulness of the breath"

Kayagata-sati Sutta (MN 118) "Mindfulness of the Body"

May you dwell in the joyful home of the way (Di.t.thadhammasukhavihaaraa)

Sotapanna Jhanananda (Jeffrey S, Brooks)


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