Buddhist Spiritual Pragmatism

While in Buddhism one might find seemingly impractical, obscure philosophical concepts, such as non-self or emptiness, and one might find unbelievable religious doctrines, such as reincarnation or the innumerable heavenly abodes, there is a definite practical basis to Buddha's teachings. His prime concern was to eliminate suffering in the world, and all of these philosophical and religious concepts were created to attain this goal. Thus, in this paper I will argue that the Buddha was a spiritual pragmatist.

Skillful Means

Pragmatists generally have been suspicious of totalizing systems and general overarching principles, which can be applied to all people, for all times and in all situations. We can see this anti-systematizing tendency in early Buddhism. The teachings of the Buddha sometimes do not always seem to cohere. One explanation for this is that the Buddha adjusted his teachings for particular situations and for people who had attained different levels of spiritual development. This is called the doctrine of the skillful means.

One area where this is particularly noticeable is the Buddha's exposition of traditional morality. Most people could not drop out of society to join a monastery, and so they needed some guidance to be decent people and succeed in the society of the times. Others who were able to drop out of society could afford to embrace the more philosophical views of the Buddha and teachings such as the nonself doctrine. Even this nonself doctrine has a potential practical import as noted by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Take the one extreme of annhilationism: on this view people have selves while they are alive, but on death the self is annihilated; there is no true spiritual dimension to human existence. The practical implications of this doctrine are that it "threatens to undermine ethics and to make suffering the product of chance"(315).

Fixation, Clinging, No Dogma or Blind Belief, Direct Experience

Pragmatists look askance to fixation on views and theories. They recognize that theories are only particular solutions to particular problems during particular times. In a similar fashion, Buddhists do not believe that one should cling or be fixated to views, rules and certain doctrines: "There are four kinds of clinging: clinging to sensual pleasures, clinging to views, clinging to rules and observances, and clinging to a doctrine of self."(328).

Pragmatists could agree to the last three on the list above, but do not have much to say about the first. Clinging to sensual pleasure is a cause of suffering according to the Buddha. Eliminating attachment to sensual pleasures is of importance for attaining the highest levels of spiritual life. Thus not clinging to them has practical import for the Buddha and coheres with his spiritual pragmatism.

The Buddha came upon a group of people who were perplexed because several teachers came upon them and taught different doctrines while at the same time putting down each other's doctrines. The Buddha responded by saying that it was "fitting for you to be in doubt"(89). He further went on to say: ""Do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of texts, by logic, by inferential reasoning, by reasoned cogitation, by acceptance of a view after pondering it, by the seeming competence of a speaker, or because you think, 'the ascetic is our teacher'"(89). One must come to know for oneself whether some doctrine is true or not, not go by way of authority. The Buddha put great emphasis on the direct experiencing of the truth and correctness of doctrines, as Bhikkhu writes:

The Buddha does not demand that we begin our spiritual quest by placing faith in doctrines that lie beyond the range our immediate experience. Rather than ask us to wrestle with issues that, for us in our present condition, no amount of experience can decide, he instead asks us to consider a few simple questions pertaining to our immediate welfare and happiness, questions that we can answer on the basis of personal experience (83).

Bodhi claims that faith for Buddhists is rooted in investigation and inquiry, not solely being based on blind belief. He also notes its importance for practice: "Faith serves as a spur to practice; practice leads to experiential understanding; and when one's understanding matures, it blossoms in full realization" (87).

Steps Toward the Realization of Truth

Pragmatists are fallibilists when it comes to declaring something as being the truth. At most we have provisional truths and certainly no truths that are immutable and beyond the tests of experience. They are very much into the idea of leaving inquiry open to the variety of views we find floating among us in the world. Also the pragmatists put a lot of emphasis on the community of inquirers when it comes to discovering truths. The Buddha's path to truth is somewhat similar, though it is a more individualistic path on the whole, yet the Sangha does have its important role to play in helping one stay on the right path.

For the Buddha, the final arrival of truth required a whole chain of things including, striving, scrutiny and understanding the meaning of various things. He was wary of calling something true without deep investigation. Truth is preserved by abstaining from immediately identifying with one particular view and discounting all others: "He 'preserves truth' because he merely states what he believes without jumping to the conclusion that what he believes is definitely true and anything else contrary to it false" (87).

There are conditions one must be aware of when trying to come to spiritual truth: "Now something may be fully accepted out of faith, yet it may be empty, hollow, and false; but something else may not be fully accepted out of faith, yet it may be factual, true, and unmistaken. Again, something may be fully approved of...well transmitted...well cogitated...well pondered, yet it may be empty, hollow, and false; but something else may not be well pondered, yet it may be factual, true, and unmistaken. [Under these conditions] it is not proper for a wise man who preserves truth to come to the definite conclusion: 'Only this is true, anything else is wrong'"(98).

Cause and Conditions Method

Pragmatists put an emphasis on finding the practical consequences for beliefs and views, and they were also quite friendly to experimental and other scientific methods of investigations. Many stressed finding out the means to attain given ends and figuring out what is to be given up or gained from accepting any means to a given end or any particular end. In a similar fashion, the Buddha has his own methods of investigation enabling him to figure out what gave rise to what and when to put a particular method in action to attain a given end such as eliminating ignorance, desire or suffering.

The Buddha was very much concerned with finding the causes and conditions giving rise to various objects, feelings, thoughts, and situations. He held that anything subject to origination was also subject to cessation. Thus, what one ultimately finds throughout his teachings are methods for identifying what arises, its causes and the way to eliminate its arising. Further evidence of this is the doctrine of dependent origination, which was not to be considered as some celebration of the interconnectedness of everything. Bhikkhu Bodhi writes that it was "a precise articulation of the conditional pattern in dependence upon which suffering arises and ceases"(47).

One method, which is first given with regard to the four noble truths, is applied by the Buddha to a variety of phenomena. It generally calls for understanding an "x," the origin of this "x," the cessation of this "x," and finally the way leading to the cessation of this "x." "x" has variously been the following: wholesomeness, nutriment, suffering, aging and death, birth, existence, clinging, craving, feeling, contact, the six sense bases, name-and-form, consciousness, volitional formations, ignorance, and the taints. This is basically the chain of dependent origination. The Buddha applied the four-fold method to each of these and this is to be helpful for realizing spiritual truth.

Another interesting method the Buddhists used to find the causes of things arising was to notice what other things were present when something arose, and also what was absent when something ceased: "What gives rise to X, what is X's origin, how is X born, how does X arise? When what is present does X arise, when what is absent does X not arise?"(35). This method was applied to envy, begrudging, liking and disliking, thinking and elaborated formations and notions.

Buddhists also investigated the gratification, danger and escape from things. The Buddha asked: "What is the gratification, what is the danger, and what is the escape in the case of x?"(194). This is applied to sensual pleasures, form, and feelings. All of these methods enable one to identify problems, their causes and conditions and ways to eliminate these problems.

Right Questioning

Lastly, pragmatists put a lot of emphasis on the questions one should focus on and on what things one should learn. Sometimes the questions asked are misguided, while other questions just do not have important practical consequences for what one is trying to achieve. Any investigation that does not start with the right questions quickly comes to a dead end.

We can see the Buddha rejecting questions based on false philosophical presuppositions and rejecting other questions based on their spiritual uselessness. Metaphysical questions on the eternality of the world, its finitude or infinitude and questions relating the soul to the body are seen as misguided and as a waste of time. The Buddhist point is that getting to the bottom of these views on the eternality of the world, the (in)finitude of the world, the relation of the soul to the body, and the existential status of the tatagatha are not conducive to living spiritual life.

At last, a person can spend all his life trying to get an answer to these questions and make no progress. To lead a spiritual life, answers to these questions are not necessary. In accordance with this, the Buddha and his followers set out to put people on the correct path of questioning in order to allow them to progress in their spiritual life and also to enable them to eliminate world wide suffering. This emphasis on the pratical, rather than the useless metaphysical, qualifies The Buddha as a spiritual pragmatist.

Work Cited

Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 2005. In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Somerville, Massachusetts: Wisdom Publications.