Buddhist Romanticism

not subject to changes in culture or human society, or even to the evolution
or devolution of the cosmos as a whole. Thus the Buddha identified it as the
essence of the teaching—the word “essence” (sāra) also meaning
heartwood, the part of the tree that remains standing even when the less
permanent parts of the tree die away (§11; §§39–41).
Keeping the Path Open
Although the Buddha did not class the path to release as part of the
essence of the teaching, he did see the path as having a special relationship
to the essence, just as the softwood of a tree is directly connected to the
heartwood. In this way, the freedom of this release is the common taste of
all his teachings (§41).
One of the realizations that first occurs to a meditator upon the first taste
of awakening is that there is no other path that can lead there, for the noble
eightfold path is the only way by which the fabrications that stand in the
way of release can be dismantled (§57). This is why the Buddha classed
right view as a categorical teaching—true across the board—because it
deals with mental processes in a way that transcends culture (§46).
Another realization following on the first taste of awakening is that this
path is not found outside the teachings of the Buddhas (§§55–56). Other
religious teachings may contain elements of the noble eightfold path, such
as the practice of virtue or strong concentration, but because they lack right
view—and thus fail to ask the right questions that would induce total
dispassion for even the subtlest levels of fabrication in the highest states of
concentration—they remain stuck in states of becoming.
The Buddha’s claims for the exceptional nature of his Dhamma did not
spring from pride or ignorance. After all, as we have noted, he did not
claim to have invented the Dhamma, or even to have been the first to find
it. The path is not true because it is “his.” It’s true because it’s the only path
that works in leading to full release.
In this way, the Buddha’s authority is that, not of a creator god, but of an
expert who has discovered and perfected a skill, and who wants to pass it
on intact. And because this skill was not simply an education in
understanding words, but a training of the entire character, he recognized
that it had to be transmitted through friendship and frequent association
with those who had already mastered those skills. In fact, he cited
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