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 BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT

What is enlightenment? For Buddhists it involves the discovery of the truth of

duhkha—pain, suffering, and sorrow—followed by the realization that duhkha
can be brought to an end. In like manner, Protestant Christians speak of
enlightenment as a moment when, touched by God, one becomes aware of one’s
own escape from eternal damnation. Likewise, European philosophers have
imagined an age of Enlightenment, a time of individual freedom and social
equality. In all three cases, enlightenment, as insight into reality, is conjoined with
enlightenment, as a state of harmony and peace, beyond politics.
Beyond Enlightenment treats the political implications of this apolitical ideal.
It is a sophisticated study of some of the assumptions underlying, and ramifications
involved in, the study of Buddhism (especially, but not exclusively, in the West),
and of the tendency of scholars to ground their study of Buddhism in particular
assumptions about the Buddha’s enlightenment and a particular understanding of
religion, traced back through Western orientalists to the Enlightenment and
the Protestant Reformation. Richard Cohen’s book will be of interest to
buddhologists, indologists, scholars of comparative religion, and intellectual
historians.

Richard S. Cohen is Associate Professor of South Asian Religious Literatures at

the University of California, San Diego. This is his first book, though he has
published numerous articles in such venues as the Journal of the American
Academy of Religion and History of Religions. He is now working on a study of
Buddhism and counterculture.
 ROUTLEDGE CRITICAL STUDIES
IN BUDDHISM
General Editors: Charles S. Prebish and
Damien Keown

Routledge Critical Studies in Buddhism is a comprehensive study of the Buddhist

tradition. The series explores this complex and extensive tradition from a variety
of perspectives, using a range of different methodologies.
The series is diverse in its focus, including historical studies, textual
translations and commentaries, sociological investigations, bibliographic studies,
and considerations of religious practice as an expression of Buddhism’s integral
religiosity. It also presents materials on modern intellectual historical studies,
including the role of Buddhist thought and scholarship in a contemporary, critical
context and in the light of current social issues. The series is expansive and
imaginative in scope, spanning more than two and a half millennia of Buddhist
history. It is receptive to all research works that inform and advance our
knowledge and understanding of the Buddhist tradition.

A SURVEY OF VINAYA THE RESONANCE OF

LITERATURE EMPTINESS
Charles S. Prebish Gay Watson

THE REFLEXIVE NATURE OF AMERICAN BUDDHISM

AWARENESS Edited by Duncan Ryuken
Paul Williams Williams and
Christopher Queen
ALTRUISM AND REALITY
Paul Williams IMAGING WISDOM
Jacob N. Kinnard
BUDDHISM AND HUMAN
RIGHTS PAIN AND ITS
Edited by Damien Keown, Charles ENDING
S. Prebish and Wayne Husted Carol S. Anderson

WOMEN IN THE FOOTSTEPS EMPTINESS

OF THE BUDDHA APPRAISED
Kathryn R. Blackstone David F. Burton
THE SOUND OF LIBERATING RELIGIOUS MOTIVATION
TRUTH AND THE ORIGINS OF
Edited by Sallie B. King and BUDDHISM
Paul O. Ingram Torkel Brekke

BUDDHIST THEOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS IN

Edited by Roger R. Jackson and AUSTRALIAN BUDDHISM
John J. Makransky Michelle Spuler

THE GLORIOUS DEEDS OF ZEN WAR STORIES

PURNA Brian Victoria
Joel Tatelman
THE BUDDHIST
EARLY BUDDHISM—A NEW UNCONSCIOUS
APPROACH William S. Waldron
Sue Hamilton
INDIAN BUDDHIST THEORIES
CONTEMPORARY OF PERSONS
BUDDHIST ETHICS James Duerlinger
Edited by Damien Keown
ACTION DHARMA
INNOVATIVE BUDDHIST Edited by Christopher Queen, Charles
WOMEN S. Prebish and Damien Keown
Edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo
TIBETAN AND ZEN BUDDHISM
TEACHING BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN
IN THE WEST David N. Kay
Edited by V.S. Hori, R.P. Hayes and
J.M. Shields THE CONCEPT OF THE
BUDDHA
EMPTY VISION Guang Xing
David L. McMahan
THE PHILOSOPHY OF DESIRE
SELF, REALITY AND IN THE BUDDHIST PALI
REASON IN TIBETAN CANON
PHILOSOPHY David Webster
Thupten Jinpa
THE NOTION OF DITTHI IN
IN DEFENSE OF THERAVADA BUDDHISM
DHARMA Paul Fuller
Tessa J. Bartholomeusz
THE BUDDHIST THEORY OF
BUDDHIST PHENOMENOLOGY SELF-COGNITION
Dan Lusthaus Zhihua Yao
 MORAL THEORY IN BUDDHISM IN CANADA
FANTIDEVA’S Edited by Bruce Matthews
FIKSASAMUCCAYA
Barbra R. Clayton BUDDHISM, CONFLICT AND
VIOLENCE IN MODERN
BUDDHIST STUDIES FROM SRI LANKA
INDIA TO AMERICA Edited by Mahinda Deegalle
Edited by Damien Keown
THERAVADA BUDDHISM
DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY AND THE BRITISH
IN MEDIEVAL JAPANESE ENCOUNTER
BUDDHISM Religious, missionary and colonial
Edited by Richard K. Payne and experience in nineteenth century
Taigen Dan Leighton Sri Lanka
Elizabeth Harris
BUDDHIST THOUGHT AND
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGICAL BEYOND ENLIGHTENMENT
RESEARCH Buddhism, religion, modernity
Edited by D.K. Nauriyal, Michael Richard S. Cohen
S. Drummond and Y.B. Lal

The following titles are published in association with the Oxford Centre for
Buddhist Studies

The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies conducts and promotes rigorous teaching
and research into all forms of the Buddhist tradition.

EARLY BUDDHIST METAPHYSICS

Noa Ronkin

MIPHAM’S DIALECTICS AND THE DEBATES ON EMPTINESS

Karma Phuntsho

HOW BUDDHISM BEGAN

The conditioned genesis of the early teachings
Richard F. Gombrich

BUDDHIST MEDITATION
An anthology of texts from the Pali canon
Sarah Shaw
 BEYOND
ENLIGHTENMENT
Buddhism, religion, modernity

Richard S. Cohen
 First published 2006
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2006 Richard Scott Cohen
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or

reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cohen, Richard, 1963–
Beyond enlightenment : Buddhism, religion,
modernity / Richard Cohen.
p. cm.—(Routledge critical studies in Buddhism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Enlightenment (Buddhism) 2. Enlightenment. 3. Religious
awakening—Comparative studies. I. Title. II. Series.
BQ4398.C65 2006
294.3'442—dc22 2005025919

ISBN10: 0–415–37294–1 (Print Edition)

ISBN13: 978–0–415–37294–7
FOR NANCY
Perhaps there is no religion the study of which is likely to be so
useful to Europeans as Buddhism. Discarding, as it does, those
primary beliefs which we are tempted to regard as the essential
ideas of religion generally, Buddhism forces us to reconsider the
question to what extent these beliefs can be pronounced universal
or necessary ingredients of the religious consciousness of
mankind.
(John R. Amberley, “Recent Publications on Buddhism,”
The Theological Review 9 (July 1872): 293)
 CONTENTS

List of illustrations x
Preface xii
Acknowledgments xv

1 A benign introduction 1

2 A place of exceptional universal value 35

3 A tale of two histories 69

4 The anthropology of enlightenment 108

5 What do gods have to do with enlightenment? 149

6 A baroque conclusion 181

Notes 190
Bibliography 216
Index 227

ix
 ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures
2.1 Plaque at the entrance to Ajanta. Photo by author 36
2.2 Advertisement from the MTDC campaign, “The Ajanta
Experience.” Image graciously supplied by Ogilvy and
Mather, Mumbai 44
2.3 General plan of the Caves of Ajanta. After James Burgess,
Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples, plate XIV 48
2.4 A view of Ajanta, from Cave Sixteen to Cave
Twenty Six (from left to right). Photo by author 48
3.1 Caves Twenty One, Twenty Two, and Twenty Three
(from left to right). Photo by author 75
3.2 Detail from a painting in the rear of Cave Twenty Two.
Photo by author 76
3.3 A sign inside Cave Ten. The paintings along this
cave’s aisles are probably the most graffiti-damaged at
Ajanta. Photo by author 79
3.4 Two tridents painted on a pillar inside Cave Eleven.
This same pillar is visible in Figure 3.6. Photo by author 93
3.5 James Fergusson’s 1863 plan of Cave Eleven.
From Rock-Cut Temples of India, page 12 97
3.6 James Burgess’ 1882 plan of Cave Eleven. From
Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples, plate XXVIII, no. 2 98
3.7 Cave Eleven’s central buddha. Note the tridents
painted on both pillars. Photo by author 101
4.1 A naga and nagini at the entrance to Cave Nineteen.
Photo by author 110
4.2 Cave Twenty Six’s Maravijaya mural (note, the bottom
left corner is cut). Photo by author 115
4.3 A line illustration of the Maravijaya. From John Griffiths,
The Paintings in the Buddhist Cave-Temples
of Ajanta (London, 1896), 1:24 116

x
 ILLUSTRATIONS

4.4 Two standing buddhas, their right hands in varada

mudra, from the facade of Cave Nineteen. Photo by author 131
4.5 A billboard along I-10 in Beaumont, California,
February 2005. Photo (and photoshop) by author 144

Tables
5.1 Organization of knowledge based upon “The Shorter
Discourse to Malukkyaputta” 154
5.2 Individuals 1, 2, 3, 4 form a polythetic group, while
5 and 6 are monothetic. After Rodney Needham’s “Polythetic
Classification” 163

xi
 PREFACE

You are walking down a forest path. You meet a man who positively beams
serenity. You ask his teacher’s name. He replies,

Nobody is my teacher.
Nobody is comparable to me.
I am the only perfect buddha in the world.
I have attained supreme enlightenment.
I am conqueror over all.
I know everything.
I am not contaminated by anything at all . . .
I have all the powers of the omniscient.
I am an arhat in the world.
I am unrivaled in all realms, including those of the gods.
I am the victor who conquered Mara.1

This happened—so we are told—to a wanderer named Upagu, sometime in the

fifth century BCE. Upagu answered with a shrug, “perhaps,” and left quickly by a
different road. Now we remember Upagu as the fool. He could have been
Fakyamuni Buddha’s first disciple. But where a wiser man would have recognized
the truthful words of a buddha fresh from enlightenment, Upagu heard a
megalomaniacal rant: violent words of conquest seemingly at odds with the
serene visage of the man who spoke them.
Would you have recognized the man as enlightened? Would you have discerned
a spirit of universal peace, beyond politics, in words that valorize hierarchy,
celebrate raw power, and speak well of battle? If so, then Beyond Enlightenment
is a book about you. If, however, you are puzzled that anybody would answer
these questions in the affirmative, if you find Upagu’s laconic “perhaps” a
reasonable response, perhaps too reasonable, then Beyond Enlightenment is a
book for you.
For me, the book grows out of wonderment at the politics of the apolitical. By
politics I mean simply the existential situation in which imperfect people,
unaware of the full reasons they act as they do and uncertain about the full

xii
 PREFACE

ramifications of their decisions, nevertheless make choices that ramify upon others.
Our everyday world is a political world, for there are inevitable contingencies to
how we choose to express our wills. We struggle, we clash, we strive, we harm, we
suffer. Apolitics describes an alternate existential state, in which power is exercised
with autonomy, certainty, stability, supremacy, in sum enlightenment.
Beyond Enlightenment asks how political action comes to be accepted as
apolitical; how contingent paths become necessary routes to absolute freedom. To
return to Fakyamuni and Upagu, the buddha positively celebrates the fact that he
alone dominates the world. But his words also guarantee that this ascendancy is
a force for universal good because his power is the power of a fully enlightened
being. His omniscience allows him to exercise power completely apart from
the contingency of politics. For somebody who takes Fakyamuni at his word,
enlightenment functions as something like a philosopher’s stone, transmuting
the base-metal of political contingency into the certitude of power’s apolitical
expression.
In common speech, the word “enlightened” can be applied as readily to a group
of people as to an individual. Thus it is a truism that there would be no Buddhism
if claims for the buddha’s enlightenment had gained no social traction, if there
were no sakgha. This truism can be rephrased, however, shifting focus to a matter
that is worth further investigation: There would be no Buddhism if the ideological
transformation of the political into the apolitical had not been supplemented by
the installation of that ideology at the heart of a social order. That is, the study of
the political–apolitical is supplemented by the study of hegemony. Hegemony is
found where one segment of a society proffers its own desires and ideals as
universal values bearing on the social whole, necessary for social peace. The
erasure of contingency, the disavowal of partisanship, the representation of truths
as absolute and experiences as spontaneous—unsullied by arbitrary wants or
selfish calculations—are the foundational social acts.
Such are Beyond Enlightenment’s basic concerns: the political function of the
apolitical; enlightenment as an instrument of hegemony. Here now is a brief
outline of its structure.
Chapter 1 explains the meaning and import of several abstract nouns—religion,
enlightenment, hegemony—and explores linkages among them. It proposes that the
Enlightenment of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe provides the political
context for understanding Buddhist enlightenment as the simultaneous, coequal,
perfection of rationality, religiosity, morality, and humanity, beyond politics.
The next three chapters provide a set of case studies for investigating the
hegemonic workings of enlightenment. All three draw their major examples from
the Ajanta caves, a western Indian archaeological site dating to the fifth century
CE. We might see these three as elements in a postmodern microhistory of Ajanta.
The first and fifth chapters, by contrast, mention Ajanta only in passing; the sixth,
not at all.
Chapter 2 treats the hegemony of enlightenment—conceived as a source
of exceptional universal value—over the discursive construction of Ajanta’s

xiii
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