29 May Buddhism Embodiment
In the three forms of Buddhism presented this week, both Mahayana and Theravada share a worldview that the body is more than just an impediment on the spiritual path, it is foul, polluted and disgusting. In Theravada, the goal is to root out and eliminate lust, desire, sexuality, and even love and affection. Asceticism is prized, and to escape from the body is the goal. Collins talked about the “battle for chastity in the mind” and the path is inward, away from the sensory. I have often wondered, with the greatest of respect for Buddhism and the gifts of the neurodivergent, whether by today’s definition Siddhartha Gautama might have been on the autism spectrum.
Mahayana Buddhism continues with the body-as-disgusting theme, but adds a second dimension: the body is valuable as a vehicle to advance on the path of becoming a bodhisattva. Buddhahood is sought as a means to benefit all sentient beings, so this sect is not de-socialized as was Theravada. Sexual activity must be renounced. The body is not an independent entity but is a collection of prior karmas.
In Vajrayana, the body becomes extremely valuable as it contains the material needed for enlightenment. Embodiment itself is manifested solely for the benefit of others. Yet it goes even further, as Reggie Ray points out, when the guru smokes, drinks, and has sex with his students. This is a teaching not only about our expectations about how a teacher should behave, but that these pleasures are not necessarily to be discarded. Ray says that on the retreat, students engage in ascetic practices so they can see their own neuroses, assumedly so they can then work to clear them. Ray states that the nature of the body is love: the first time we have heard anything articulated that is anywhere close to this. The nature of the body is love, and love is a somatic experience. “Let the body be your guru,” he says. I love this!
© 2024 Catherine Auman
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