Recommended Books

Okay, finally got round to reading a book that President Nathan recommended when Laura and I shared a table with him during the Mid Autumn Festival Light Up in 2005. In the course of our discussions, we both very impressed by his knowledge and understanding of various religions, especially Buddhism. President explained how Buddhism had developed in reaction to the stifling and oppressive nature of Hinduism's caste based system. He recommended a book by Sun Shuyun "Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud."

The book is Shuyun's account about retracing the steps of Xuanzang, the Chinese monk who travelled from China to India to bring back critical Buddhists works and translating them from Sanskrit to Chinese. I guess most Chinese know of him from 西游记，Journey to the West fame. I think what makes Shuyun's account interesting is that she grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, where the Communist tried to eliminate Buddhism.

What struck me was how revolutionary Buddhism in its day was, countering the dictates of the caste based system. Shuyun quotes from Asoka, a Buddhist from a backward caste
"Buddhism was a rejection of Brahminism and caste. In the Sangha, everyone is treated as equal, whether you are a Brahmin or a sweeper. It is revolutionary, the first of its kind. It shows the world how a community based on equality can work. Like The Mahabodhi temple, it opens its doors to everyone, even women -- they were fourth-class citizens for a long time in India, and could not go near the temples.


The interesting thing however was that if Buddhism was so revolutionary in releasing the downtrodden from their chains, why did it not survive in India, the land of its birthplace? Shuyun attributes it to the fact that Buddhism never completely dominated Indian life, nor was caste eliminated even at its height of popularity.

Another factor was Shankara, a Hindu born in Kerala about 700AD.

" [Shankara] ... was unhappy with the numerous sects... He felt that Brahmin priests were mainly intent on emphasizing their separateness and safeguarding their privileges, leaving out a large section of society. Something needed to be done to reclaim the ground, moral, doctrinal, ritualistic as well as social, that had been lost to Buddhists...."

Shankara wrote "Who are you? Who am I? From where do I come? Enquire thus and you will realize that the entire world is but a dream, a mere hallucination, born of imagination. With such a realization, you will be freed from the delusions of the world."

Sounds rather Buddhist, right. but I think what Shankara managed to do was to successfully appropriate Buddhist elements that pointed to the flaws of Hinduism and thus then return Hinduism to its roots.

As a Christian myself, I see all religions as vulnerable to capture by the elites. Same thing too for Christianity and Catholicism... as we struggle to be true to the teachings of our founder without being captured by societal elites.