[Buddha-l] liturgical languages

[curt]

It seems clear from this that the history of the use of liturgical 
languages is very
different in Buddhism than it was in Latin Christendom. In Latin 
Christendom the
use of a liturgical language was combined with a very clear policy of NOT
allowing the sacred scriptures to be translated into the vernacular. In 
Theravada
and other Asian forms of Buddhism the liturgical language is used not to
obscure the Dharma, but rather because it is felt to have "ritual 
effectiveness",
as well as other reasons. But this was done in parallel with making the 
sacred
texts accessible to those without knowledge of Pali (better yet - it was 
done in
such a way as to make at least some knowledge of Pali available to 
everyone).
I see no reason why we can't do the same thing in the West.

I think that a lot of the resistance that many westerners have to the 
use of Buddhist
liturgical languages stems from inappropriately projecting our own dark 
history of
religious thought control (in Latin Christendom) onto Buddhism. And for 
those
of us in North America and Europe we should be careful about the assumptions
we make about "our own" culture. Should we have linguistically segregated
congregations so that everyone gets to chant in "their own" language? In 
virtually
every Western society there are linguistic minorities (sometimes quite 
large, like
the Spanish speaking population in the US), and so if Buddhist groups insist
on chanting in "our own language" - and by this we mean, for example in the
US, English - then we are perpetuating a wrong headed idea of our own 
cutlture,
an idea that ignores the real linguistic and ethnic diversity of the US. 
Such a
consdiration might very well be part of the reason for the use of 
liturgical
languages in Asian Buddhism, come to think of it.

- Curt


F.K. Lehman (F.K.L. Chit Hlaing) wrote:

> I am saying that (a) in general, in Burma and Thailand MONKS chant 
> Sutras and so forth; lay persons and devotees infrequently. They say 
> prayers often in Pali or mixed Pali and Burmese/Thai/Shan, and they 
> recite precepts and so on (e.g., ritual phrases such as/ tisarana 
> wendami/ during services, in Pali. But also 9b), yes, Pali is a 
> foreign language, but unlike some other, more astern traditions as 
> described in these discussions, they are not meaningless to  the 
> average participant because sermons by monks, in the local vernacular, 
> quite commonly explain, even gloss the Pali for lay persons, and here 
> is a large corpus of widely available and widely circulated 
> gloss-texts (/nissaya/ interlinear) about all this Pali material that 
> is recited. Yes a few sutras are commonly recited (not 'chanted', mind 
> you), especially the/ Mangala/ Sutra -/ mingala thout/ in Burmese 
> Pali, and these, again, are heavily glossed in material laypersons 
> acccess commonly.
>
> This responds too Curt, who wrote:
> <Are you saying that Theravadin Buddhists do not chant in a foreign
> language (ie, Pali)? This was what I thought I was talking about.
> Or are you saying that Pali should not be considered a foreign language
> by Theravadins? Now I am confused. As far as I can tell, there is little
> difference among the various "Asian Buddhist" schools on this point.
> The phenomenon of a "liturgical language" seems, to me (and please
> correct me if I am wrong) a general phenomenon among all of the
> major Buddhist groups in Asia. And I happen to think that this is a
> positive thing, and something that "Western" Buddhist should carefully
> consider before tossing the baby out with the bath water. I don't want
> to find Western Buddhists singing dreary Buddhist Hyms to the 
> accompaniment
> of an organ (this frightening practice has already been adopted by the
> Chogye Order in Korea - in a misguided, in my opinion, bid to better
> compete with the Christians).
> - Curt>
>
> I happen to agree with his concluding lines, by the way.
>
>-- 
>  
>
> F. K. Lehman (F. K. L. Chit Hlaing)
> Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>
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