1. Introduction
Buddhism represents one of the few ancient religious traditions that has an undisputed historical founder and much of its teaching is attributed to a man named Siddhartha Gautama who lived and taught about 500 years before the birth of Christ in what is now modern-day Nepal and India. Even though there is a gap of approximately a century and a half between when the Buddha spoke and when his words were recorded in writing, what has been passed down through the generations is an enormous corpus of written records that represents forty-five years of teaching and preaching – fifteen times the length of Jesus’ public ministry on earth. Despite questions concerning accuracy that would naturally arise as a result of such a significant hiatus, we can assume that due to the strength of the oral tradition of the ancient time and people’s incredible memory that many of the Buddha’s teachings were faithfully passed down from one generation to the next. Moreover, because the Buddha taught for so many decades, his close disciples who followed him year after year would have had the opportunity to listen to his teachings repeated countless times in various circumstances, thus reinforcing their memory and understanding of these teachings.
2. The Buddha as Communicator
Just as discussions on Christian and Confucian communication often begin with examining the communication style and strategy of Jesus and Confucius, the same is inevitable when it comes to Buddhism. Wimal Dissanayake (2014, p. 227) calls the Buddha a “communicator par excellence” and asserts that the success of Buddhism was owed primarily to the Buddha’s ability to communicate his teachings in such a way that his audience could easily understand. After his enlightenment, the Buddha resisted the temptation to enter directly into nibbāna (nirvana) because of his conviction that he was “born into the world for the good of the many, for the happiness of the many, for the advantage, the good, the happiness of gods and men, out of compassion for the world” (Quoted from Digha Nikaya by Pratt, 1928, p. 9).
In his decades long mission to spread his profound teachings through various regions of India, the Buddha had encounters with a variety of individuals from ordinary villagers to ascetics to members of the social elite. He trained monks and nuns in the order that he founded, conducted public preaching, and gave individual counselling sessions. Therefore, his communication had to be tailored to the psychological, social, and intellectual background of the people to whom he was communicating. In structuring and presenting his message to the listener, the Buddha made abundant use of “parables, allegories, tropes, wit, humor, innovative narrative strategies, parallelisms” (Disanayake, 2014, p. 227).
Some observations can be made of the Buddha’s unique communication style. First, the Buddha was respectful of his listener. People came to him from near and far, and represented the full spectrum of castes and classes. However, recognizing the humanity in every individual, “The venerable Gautama bids everyone welcome, is congenial, conciliatory, not supercilious, accessible to all” (Quoted from Digha Nikaya by Pratt, 1928, p. 10).
Just as the Buddha was cognizant of the disposition and state of each person he encountered, he was equally aware of himself. He was forthright in stating his own superior state not out of vanity but simple objectivity. In the Aṅguttara Nikāya, the Buddha speaks of himself:
I am one whose behavior is purified and I claim: “I am one whose behavior is purified. My behavior is purified, cleansed, undefiled.” My disciples do not cover me up with respect to my behavior, and I do not expect to be covered up by my disciples with respect to my behavior. (A.3.126)
The Buddha proceeded to assert the same about his livelihood, dhamma (dharma) teaching, explanations, knowledge, and vision. Nevertheless, in another situation when the disciple Sariputta extolled, “Such faith have I, Lord, that methinks there never was nor will be nor is now any other greater or wiser than the Blessed One,” the Buddha was quick to remind the overly enthusiastic pupil that he had never known any other Buddha of the past, or of the future. Even the mind of Buddha that he knew in the present could not be entirely penetrated as to be able to make grand and bold claims (Quoted in Smith, 1991, p. 90).
This clear headedness, transparency, and objectivity characterized the Buddha’s communication throughout his mission. At the end of his life, the Buddha affirmed, “I have not kept anything back” (quoted in Suzuki, 1981, p. 2). Nonetheless, unlike the brahmins of his time who insisted on maintaining a veil of secrecy as part of their monopoly of religious teachings, the Buddha advised his disciples to never adopt any ideas simply because they have been spoken by figures of authority or because they have been passed down by tradition (A.1.189).
Because the Buddha’s primary mission was to help people achieve liberation, his communication was limited to only matters that were practical and not deemed as idle theorizing and useless speculation. This is demonstrated in his parable of the man who has been struck by an arrow covered in poison. When this happens, it is useless for the physician to make inquiries about the identity, physical traits or social status of the perpetrator or the victim. Neither is it important to know about the qualities of the bow and arrow. What is important is how to save the victim from a tragic death. Therefore, metaphysical questions that are not immediately related to the matter of rebirth, old age, death, and suffering need not be considered because they are not useful for the situation at hand (Majjhima Nikaya, Sutta 63). Indeed, a ‘noble silence’ was as much a part of the Buddha’s communication strategy as his spoken instructions. Sometimes the silence was because he refused to engage in fruitless speculation. Other times, the silence was due to the mental state of the person to whom he was dialoging (Thich Nhat Hanh, 2014, epub version).
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