[Buddha-l] Engaged Buddhism

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Wed, 2005-06-08 at 18:54 -0600, Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> The last I heard, there had already been four turnings by those who like
> to count such things. So Queen's would make a fifth, provided that
> Buddhist arithmetic admits that four plus one makes five. 

Not so fast, Dr. Hayes. The four turnings of the wheel is a Mahayana
myth according to which the first turning was about elementary matters
such as how to attain nirvana and how to count to four (or, for advanced
students, eight), the second turning was about emptiness and
bodhisattvas, the third was about awareness only and the fourth was
about tathagata-garbha. 

Now, Chris Queen's article on the so-called "fifth turning of the wheel"
is mostly about Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Ambedkar repudiated Mahayana in
no uncertain terms, portraying it as the insidious intrusion of Hindu
superstitions into the Buddha-dhamma. Hindu superstition, claimed
Ambedkar, was responsible for enfeebling the Indian people, turning them
into morally confused weaklings and physical cowards who were subject to
constant conquest by outsiders (Huns, Arabs, Persians, Turks and
Britons). Ambedkar would regard the second, third and fourth phases of
Buddhism not as turnings of the wheel but as jamming a stick into the
spokes and bringing the wheel to an abrupt stop. To honour Ambedkar,
then, one should not use the metaphor of the fifth turning of the wheel
to refer to his brand of engaged Buddhism, but as an attempt to restart
the first (and only true) turning of the wheel.

As Buddhist scholastics in India never tired of pointing out, metaphors
matter. As George Lakoff has written, we live by them. We also die by
them. And (says Lakoff) we also let ourselves be seduced into electing
dangerous and tyrannical governments by them. I think he may exaggerate,
but I am too bushed right now to say why.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Standard disclaimer: The views expessed in this message do not
necessarily represent anyone's opinions, including my own.