PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Identity in Relation: The Buddha and theAvailability of Salvific Truth 1John Ross CarterColgate UniversityWHEN ONE CONSIDERS THE BUDDHA, one meets a historical figure,in this case a human being—but, in a sense, much more—and a focal figurein one of humankind’s great religious traditions. From one point of view,the Buddha refers to a person who really lived, an objective referent inspace and time. From another point of view, for centuries now and evenpresently, this person has been acclaimed as the Awakened One. Were thisnot to have been the case and to have continued to be merely a recordedevent, the Buddha would have been forgotten and probably would be oflittle interest today. This epithet, Buddha, “the Awakened One,” has beenextended to the Buddha because of what people have found to be true in histeachings, and in the collective memory of his life and testimonial accountsof that life. From the beginning, then, to speak of the Buddha is to speak inhuman terms. However, it is also to speak in terms of relation—not merelybetween and among human beings, but with the preexistent salvific truththat he rediscovered. It is this rediscovery that constitutes his being theAwakened One at the time he lived and subsequently in the lives of menand women. People do not affirm that he is the Awakened One onlybecause they were taught this—at least not if they are reflective persons.Nor do they propose it because everyone around them is doing the same.Both occasions are important, of course, in shaping a cumulative religioustradition. But both are not sufficiently foundational for the living of one’slife in the world as one knows it to be.A personal realization is required to anchor a reflective person’s life.And, for centuries and through many cultures, men and women have hada realization that the truth made accessible through the Awakened One’steachings, is, indeed, salvific. Those teachings do, certainly, enable life tobe lived with purpose and meaning—both in relation to one’s own life andin relation with others—by affirming that the natural human physicalprocess into death is a noble human experience.As one finds one’s identity in relation—for an example, as a man mightbe a son, a husband, a father, a friend, and so on—so, too, the Buddha’sidentity is found in relation: surely with dhamma as salvific truth, but alsoas teacher of dhamma as the reliable expression in words that will lead one,35