Buddhism and Abortion

THE BUDDHA

Siddhartha Guatama (563-483 B.C.) was born an Aryan of the Kshatriya (Knight/Ruler) caste, the son of the raja (king) of Sakya; a province of India bordering on Nepal. Brahmin seers told His father that Buddha would either be a great raja or a great samana (wandering religious teacher). Determined that his son would be the former, Sudhodana raised Siddartha within the walls of his palace; completely isolated from the poverty, death, disease, and violence of the outside world. Siddartha's life was one of complete luxury, carefree living, and ignorance of suffering.

But when Siddartha turned 29, he ventured outside the palace grounds for the first time, and saw fall those things which his father tired to protect him from seeing. Shocked by what he saw, Siddartha renounced his royal inheritance and became a Samana (wandering ascetic). After trying many different Hindu disciplines, he one day, while menditating under a Bodi tree, attained "Enlightenment", and thereafter was known as "The Buddha" ("The Enlightened One").

Many are convinced that the Buddha did not teach the existence of God. This is untrue. Buddha was called to teach by Brahma Sahampati ("The Compassionate God"). This Brahma is appeared to Buddha and told Him to teach His Doctrine to all sentient beings in the material and spiritual worlds. Buddha is called in the Pali Cannon "The Teacher of gods and humans". (An Introduction to Buddhism, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p.22).

Buddha was onced asked by three Brahmins how the Hindu Rishis (Seers) had knowledge of Brahma (God) without ever actually seeing Brahma. Buddha tells the Brahmins (Aryan priests) that just as a man born in the village of Manasakata knows the road to that village, so too does the Buddha know the parth to salvation:

"For I know Brahma and the world of Brahma, and the Way to the world of Brahma, and the path of practice whereby the world of Brahma may be gained." (The Long Discourses of the Buddha, p.193)

He also said:

"Up to the realm of Brahma, all is mind-only, I say. Outside mind-only, Brahma and so forth cannot be apprehended." (Lankavatara Sutra 208-9)

Brahma is described in Buddhist literature as "the Supreme Being, the Unsurpassed, the Perceiver of All Things, the Controller, the Lord of All, the Maker, the Fashioner, the Chief, the Victor, the Ruler, the Father of All Beings Who Have Been And Are To Be." (Digha-Nikaya 11:67)

Only in later Buddhist texts is Brahma divested of Creatorship and Absolute Lordship.

BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES

There is a great multiplicity of Buddhist scriptures. The oldest ones are the most reliable. The oldest Buddhist scriptures are the Pali Canon; accepted as scripture by the Theraveda School of Buddhism (Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia). Scholars are sure that not all of the books in the Pali Canon (called the "Tripitaka" or "Three Baskets") are the authentic discourses of Buddha, but that they are the oldest works and thus the most reliable.

The Tripitaka consists of:

1) Vinaya Pitaka (a book of laws for monks and nuns)

2) Sutta Pitaka (the Discourses of the Buddha)

3) Abhidhamma Pitaka (the commentaries and interpreations from the early successors of the Buddha)

It is in the Pali Canon that abortion is dealt with and vehemently condemned.

THE BUDDHA ON ABORTION

The Buddha Himself spoke directly of abortion is His discourse called the Dharani Sutra. He said:

"There are five kinds of Evil Karma which are difficult to extinguish, even if one were to repent of them. What are the five kinds of offences? The first one is killing the father, the second one is killing the mother, the third one is abortion, the fourth one is to injure The Buddha, the fifth one is to create disharmony among the Sangha assemblies [i.e. create division and schism]. These five types of evil and sinful karma are difficult to extinguish." (The Dharani Sutra of the Buddha on Longevity, The Extinction of Offences, And the Protection of Young Children, p.2 online)

In the Vinaya (guide for monks and nuns) there are "Four Disrobing Offences"; in other words, four offenses that can get a monk or nun "disrobed" (excommunicated). They are:

1) Engaging in sexual intercourse.

2) Stealing something of value.

3) Purposely killing a human being, or encouraging someone to commit suicide, or "convincing a woman to have an abortion" (Vinaya-The Four Disrobing Offences, p.1 online)

4) Boasting that one has realized enlightment while knowing one has not yet realized it (i.e. lying about one's own spiritual station).

Other offences monks and nuns can do penance for, but not these four. These are excommunicable offences.

THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH

The symbol of Buddhism is a wheel with 8 spokes. This represents the Eightfold-Path. Each Buddhist is supposed to follow the "Noble Eightfold Path" which is:

1) Right Understanding
2) Right Thought
3) Right Speech
4) Right Action
5) Right Livelihood
6) Right Effort
7) Right Mindfulness
8) Right Concentration

Under Right Action is the principle of ahimsa; non-violence to all living things. One Buddhist publication states:

"This would include the unborn, so abortion is not an acceptable alternative for controlling the population, however, contraception is not an issue as far as Buddhists are concerned." (Buddhism: An Introduction, p.6 online)

THE DALAI LAMA

The largest sect of Tibetan Buddhism sees as its spiritual head the Dalai Lama. The 14th Dalai Lama has been living in India since the Communists took over Tibet in the late 1940s. Many Baha'is revere the Dalai Lama because of many or most of his views corresponds with Baha'i principles of peace, justice, and equality. In 1995 the Dalai Lama wrote a book titled The Power of Compassion in which he condemned injustice, racial and ethnic hatred, inequality, and abortion. The Dalai Lama is quoted to have "denounced abortion as a sin against 'non-violence to all sentient beings.'" (The Dalai Lama Looks Beyond Tibet, and Meditates on His Reincarnation as an Ambassodor of Buddhism, p.2 online)

BUDDHISM IN JAPAN

Many Buddhist sects in Japan practice Kuyo Mizuko; which is a rite which some Buddhist priests perform for women and parents of aborted fetuses. It is believed that the mizuko (aborted child) will take retribution against the parents unless a rite is performed where the Buddhist priest prays to a bohisattva (saint) in order to get the saint to apply some of his virtuous merit (earned while a mortal) toward the aborted child in order to qwell the wrath of the fetus by assuring the child Nirvana or at least another birth in better circumstances.

The Pure Land Sect of Japanese Buddhist (known as Jodo Shinshu) absolutey condemns kuyo mizuko. Helen Hardacre writes:

"A childhood death, stillbirth, miscarriage, and abortion are all treated in the same manner as any human death in Jodo Shinshu. A fetus is recognized as fully human from the moment of conception (and thus abortion is wrong), and if a fetus should die, regardless of the circumstances, it is ritualized on the same model, though on a smaller scale, as adult deaths." (Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan, pp.192-3)

One of Japan's modern Seers is Taniguchi Seicho; the founder of the "House of Life" sect. William R. La Fleur writes:

"In writings of Taniguchi Seicho, head of House of Life, the equality of the fetal life with life forms outside the womb is stressed. The only difference is a metter of comparative size and the fact that the fetus is connected to the mother by an umbilical cord." (Liquid Life, p.161)

Regarding Buddhism and abortion, Prof. L.O. Ling writes:

"ABORTION--Act of A., i.e. terminating life of the foetus, is explicitly mentioned in Buddh. canonical scriptures, in the Vinaya-Pitaka, as a grave offence. If A. is brought about by Buddh. monk, or if he is in any way a party to the procuring of an A., by offering advice as to the method, or supplying abortive medicine, penalty is expulsion from monkhood. This is in accord with Buddh. view that destruction of life is a moral transgression." (A Dictionary of Buddhism, p.7)

Sundo Tachibana, in The Ethics of Buddhism, writes:

"As far as the human being is concerned, even the abortion of an embryo which was just conceived is regarded as a crime." (Ethics, p.81)

Prof. Matsunami Kado writes:

"According to Buddhist scriptures the fetus in the womb is supposed to be cared for and brought safely into this world...."(Liquid Life, p.166)

Abortion is Japan takes place, and some Buddhist temples make lots of money by performing ceremonies in which it is believed that the sin of abortion (and the wrath of the aborted child) can be eliminated. However, the main Japanese Buddhist sects look upon this practice as mere simony (like the selling of indulgences), and say that the sin of abortion cannot be negated from such rituals that have no basis in in Buddhist scripture or orthodox Buddhism.

Abortion is legal in Japan. In 1970 the Japanese High Court declared:

"A fetus is part of a mother's body until it is born, and is not by itself a person." (Marketing the Menacing Fetus, p.5)

Although most Japanese are Buddhists (at least partly or traditionally so), the notion that a fetus is not human but a part of the mother's body comes not from Buddhism but from Shintoism. The ancient religion of Japan was Shintoism; the belief that nature contains many spirits called Kami. Even rocks, stones, trees, lakes, mountains, etc., have kamis, and they need to be placated. Ancient Shintoism included human sacrifice (including infants) and ritual suicide.

Before World War II the Militaristic Imperial Japanese government made Shintoism the official religion of Japan, and did all they could to suppress Buddhism; including jailing Buddhist monks and leaders. The Imperialist Japanese were responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent human beings, and conducted medical experiments on tens of thousands of Chinese men, women, and children which rivalled the Nazis in cruelty and horror. Even though Shinto was no longer the official state religion after 1945, it's influence is still strong in some circles; including Japanese courts.

ABORTION IN BUDDHIST COUNTRIES

Thailand, Burma, Nepal, and Taiwan are all Buddhist countries, and abortion is very restrictive in all of them. Illegal abortions do take place, but they are not nearly as numerous as abortions in countries where abortion-on-demand is legal. Japan can be called a "Buddhist" country, but Shintoism still has a strong influence. Communist China can be called a "Buddhist" country since so many Chinese who live in the People's Republic are Buddhist. However, the Communist Chinese government instituted a "one child per couple" policy in an effort to reduce and control the population. The pressure to have a son among the Chinese is great, and if a couple doesn't have a son they sometimes kill or abandon the female child (or children) until a son is born. The orphanages in China are overflowing with girl infants; the great majority of them healthy, but abandoned. Many Chinese women who already have one child are forced by the government to have an abortion, or be heavily fined or threatened with jail.

CONCLUSION

The very words of a Manifestation of God, the Buddha, in one of His oldest discourses equates abortion with killing one's own parents. Can anything else be more clear? Baha'is believe that the Words of a Manifestation of God are the Words of God Himself.