How the Sasana Works

The
choice of the botanical metaphor is intended to emphasize the
physiology of Buddhism, the parts and the interrelatedness of the parts
functioning together as an organic system. The dominant operating
principle of the leaves, the roots, the nourishment of the Triple Gem
and the Sasana is friendship! In particular admirable friendship (Pali,
kalyanamittatā) is possible when Noble Ones walk among us to provide
wise and discerning role models and instruction in a culture of
Awakening. The principle is to offer to all the opportunity to hang out
with persons consummate in virtue, in generosity, in serenity and in
wisdom. The following dialog expresses in a rather striking way the
critical importance the Buddha attached to this simple principle:

[Ānanda:] “Venerable sir, this is half of the holy life, that is, good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship.”

[Blessed
One:] “Not so, Ānanda! Not so, Ānanda! This is the entire holy life,
Ānanda, that is, good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship.
When a bhikkhu has a good friend, a good companion, a good comrade, it
is to be expected that he will develop and cultivate the Noble Eightfold
Path.”15

Just as it
benefits us to have artists and good plumbers among us, it ennobles us
to have saints and sages, adepts and arahants in our midst, the more the
better. These Noble Ones are the Sangha mentioned in the Triple Gem,
disciples of the Buddha who root their lives entirely in the Dharma,
have already ascended far up the stem of the Path and are an inspiration
and a resource for us all. It is through admirable friends that the
meaning of the Buddha’s life and Awakening is revealed and through such
admirable friends that the highly sophisticated teachings are clarified
step by step to lead the instructling toward and up the Path toward
Awakening. It is the Sangha, by recognizing the organic system that
shines through the words, that the core of authentic Buddhism is
preserved in its full integrity. The Sangha is accordingly the soil that
not only provides the nourishment of water and mineral, but also
ensures that the entire practice – roots, leaves, stem and blossom –
will not be carried away by the wind in the years to come.

The
Noble Sangha arises, like all things, from conditions, and these
conditions are secured by means of the Monastic Sangha. The Buddha
expressed this,

“… if … the monks would live the life to perfection, the world would not lack for Arahants.”16

The
world will even less lack for Noble Ones, many of whom are not yet
arahants but nonetheless attained of lower levels of Awakening. The
Monastic Sangha is both training ground and dwelling place for the Noble
Sangha, much like a university is both a training ground and a dwelling
place for scholars. We will see as the themes of this book develop how
without Noble Ones Buddhism can hardly retain its integrity, and how
Noble Ones will be very few indeed without a strong monastic community,
or at least something like it.

I
hope the reader will gain an appreciation by about the middle of this
book of just how rational, carefully conceived and well-articulated the
system was that the Buddha crafted for sustaining the influence of the
Dharma. Although the main concern of his teaching career was with the
Path, the Buddha understood that a stem does not stand by itself, that
it exists in a broader context, as a part of the Sasana. A broader
Sasana perspective includes the narrower Path perspective. It should at
the same time be noted how the monastic Sangha is the lynchpin of the
Sasana in the Buddha’s design, in that it holds the whole together. Not
only is it charged with producing the Noble Ones, but it is the visible
representation of the Third Gem. It is moreover the heart of the
community, pumping the practice of generosity as the lifeblood
circulating through its veins. It is the haven for those inspired to
devote themselves entirely to Awakening and to support of the Sasana.
The monastic code, the Vinaya, is at the same time the scriptural basis
of the Sasana.

Secondary Models of the Sasana

The
flower metaphor gives a particular perspective of the Sasana, a
functional perspective that highlights the resources for practice
available to the member of a particular Buddhist community or tradition
and how they work together to sustain each other as an organic whole.
The full flower represents the case where members of the community
commonly take Refuge in the Triple Gem, have the option of partaking in
lay or in monastic life, have the teachers and role models available who
might guide them along the Path of practice and understanding and
understand that full Awakening is a real possibility for the higher
aspirant, and produces Noble Ones, who in turn enrich the soil in which
the Sasana is planted.

Where
some of these resources are weak or lacking we might envision a flower
that must do without well-developed roots, or with little water or sun,
or that does not produce a blossom. Such a flower is in danger of
withering and dying. Elsewhere some resources may be enhanced or
exaggerated. We will see in later chapters how historical evolution has
produced alternative manifestations of the Sasana in the various
traditions. Historical considerations will provide a further perspective
on the mechanisms of the Sasana that the Buddha put in place,
particularly with regard to the resilience of Buddhism alongside its
malleability.

The
secondary view of Sasana to be developed in still later chapters, just
to jump ahead for a moment, will take a demographic as opposed to a
functional perspective. It will capture the principle that the Sasana
actually exists most substantially in the relationships and interactions
of real Buddhists who fall into different ranges of Buddhist
understanding and practice and are informed by different influences.
While the functional perspective is largely defined in Buddhist
doctrine, the demographic perspective is a consequence of the functional
perspective along with sociological considerations. I will make use of
the simple metaphor of a comet to represent the distribution of the
Buddhist population in two dimensions with the most sincere and adept in
practice and understanding nearest the head of the comet, to those most
informed by various folk influences trailing in different directions
along the the tail.