IN CONVERSATION with Dr. Gene Reeves -- Dr. Jeffrey Po

Gene Reeves, Ph.D. (Religious Philosopher), the founder of International Buddhist

Congregation (IBC)* spoke to Jeffrey Po when he was here to give a Dharma talk about Guan Yin at the Buddhist Library.

JPo :

Hi Dr. Reeves, what brings you to

Singapore?

Dr. Reeves :

My organisation is a lay Buddhist

organisation and I have always been keen to learn more about such organisation throughout the world. I came to know that the Buddhist Lodge here is one such

organisation and I am here to learn more about it. I also travel extensively to

China and I am surprised that lay Buddhist

organisations do not exist there. I am trying to change this a bit also.

JPo :

Can you briefly describe the

organization that you belong to?

Dr. Reeves :

I am presently a consultant to the

Risshio Kosei Kai, a Japanese lay Buddhist

organisation with about 6 million members and the Niwano Peace Foundation. I am a founder of the International Buddhist

Congregation in Tokyo.

JPo :

You will be giving a talk in the Buddhist Library on the topic of ¡°Guan Yin¡¯s Lowland Buddhism¡±. Has the term

¡° Lowland Buddhism ¡± been coined by you and could explain a little?

Dr. Reeves :

Ah Yes. Over history, people had

associated Guan Yin with some lofty

ideals and had used the metaphor of

¡°religion being that of path or non-path¡±. The word ¡°low¡± and ¡°high¡± has been used a lot in

religion i.e. ¡°high level of experience¡±. I

personally think that certain forms

in Buddhism especially forms inspired by Guan Yin really try to teach us that we should not be seeking the high places.

Rather, we should be seeking the low

places. This is where people are suffering and this is where Buddhist compassion can be found and developed. So that is what I mean by ¡°Lowland Buddhism¡±. This is Buddhism that is concerned about the

suffering of ordinary people. You know that in China, Buddhism was formerly only known to the royalties, the elites and the

upper class of Chinese society. Guan Yin came for the ordinary people and especially to

women. Japanese history is quite different. In

Japan, Buddhism became popular in a

different way. Guan Yin did not have so much to do with Buddhism. Hence, in ¡°Lowland

Buddhism¡± it has something to do with the association to a class of people in society

- ordinary and grassroot people. Yes, I coined the term because I was trying to

connect it with the ¡°mountain¡± or ¡°the peak¡± and to show Buddhism is really not directed to the mountains and the peaks but to the valleys and lowlands.

JPo :

How was your first encounter with

Buddhism?

Dr. Reeves :

My first encounter was when I was a

college student and when we were taught something about Buddhism - especially early Buddhism and something about

Buddhism in China and Japan at the last section of the course. This is rather

deceptive because it tended towards more of the historicity of a religion. I was not

really a practitioner then and I found that the Buddhism I was introduced to seemed ¡°too high¡± and too individualistic. It did not appear to concern itself with addressing the social ills of the common people. I was also involved in some civil rights movement and I soon realized that a religion would not be complete if it was only concerned with the individual mind and not with

society at large or with social issues. It was many years later that I met Nikko Iwano, the founder of Risshio Kosei Kai, a

Japanese Buddhist religious organisation. He came to meet me because at that time I was a

theologian and the head of a theological school in the University of Chicago. I was very much impressed.

JPo :

And how do you reconcile your Christian background with Buddhism?

Dr. Reeves :

Well like anything else, I was able to pick and choose - parts of Christianity,

especially the social gospel has been very strong in comparison to Buddhism. You know, I had been brought up in a Christian

environment and I sometimes do see things from the Christian perspective. Right now, the context to which I live and work is more Buddhist and I don¡¯t use the Christian

language very much. I must say that both can be complementary as there are very strong themes in each of them.

JPo :

In your view, what are the similarities that you can identify between Buddhism and Christianity?

Dr. Reeves :

Well, the primary metaphor is quite

different. I suppose in the modern world both religions, and this includes Islam as well, are trying ways to help human beings live a richer and better kind of life. They do it with different kinds of rituals, metaphors and costumes and so forth.

JPo :

You are expert in the Lotus Sutra - why were you attracted to this?

Dr. Reeves :

Well, the Lotus Sutra is very rich with lots of stories. Several things attracted me - one is the positive effect it has on everyday

people solving their daily difficulties. And not only individuals but I see the Lotus Sutra being concerned with the nature of

society. Hence, in the Lotus Sutra you can see that it is concerned with the world at large - from individuals, to society and to the world. I am also attracted to it

because it depended heavily on stories. Most of the Buddhist teachings are conveyed as

instructions. But in the Lotus Sutra those teachings are delivered in the form of

creative and imaginative wisdom. Even in the stories, they try to make us think and imagine for ourselves. The Lotus Sutra makes people use their abilities to seek

solutions to their problems. People have in them the ¡°Buddha nature¡± which is given to them at birth.

JPo :

However, in the Lotus Sutra many of the stories bend towards ¡°romance and

magic¡± and even sometimes the use of ¡°deception¡±. How do you feel about this?

Dr. Reeves :

Well, some people need to learn what stories are and how they function.

JPo :

Is the ¡°Buddha Nature¡± mentioned in the Lotus Sutra similar to the idea of ¡°atta¡± or ¡°atman¡± in Brahmanism and

Hinduism?

Dr. Reeves :

Well, the emphasis is not quite the same. Hinduism¡¯s emphasis tended towards the lack of individuality because finally the

individual ¡°atman¡± will merge with

¡°Brahman¡±. The ¡°atman¡± does not loose its separateness. The Lotus

Sutra, on the other hand, is really a kind of

communitarian book - it is about people working together to accomplish things ard helping each other. It is a sort of ¡°togetherness¡± whereby ¡°separateness¡± does not disappear altogether. We note that in Chapter 11, two Buddhas can be at the same place and at the same time. This is a divergence from the general Indian tradition. The Lotus Sutra¡¯s idea of ¡°Buddha nature¡± is more a kind of cooperation, about people helping each other, and togetherness and not where our separateness disappears.

JPo :

Thank you, Dr. Reeves.