Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

With this paper, I attempt to approach to bhakti (devotional worship or extravagant devotion) in Pāli Buddhism with reference to Indian religious traditions. Although Bhakti is closely associated with Indian theistic tradition, it is not, as many people imagine, confined to Hinduism. It is a pan-indian concept as well as the central concept in all Indian religious traditions, whether theistic or non-theistic, orthodox (āstika) or heterodox (nāstika). If we define Bhakti in a broad sense to cover an attitude of reverence to a transcendental and absolute being or to a human teacher in forms of self-surrender (prapatti) and servitude (dāsya), then it is certainly found in some form or another in Buddhist tradition. Within Indian religious traditions bhakti is portrayed in two aspects: the divine or the human, according to the object of adoration. Pāli Buddhism is no exception, although it is not a theistic religion. Going for refuge in three jewels, which is the door of entrance to Pāli Buddhism, represents these two in the sense that it is characterized by self-surrender. The same can be said about the Buddha, the ultimate object of worship in Pāli Buddhism. Of the three jewels it is the person of the Buddha which inspires the deepest devotion and has done so from the very start of the Buddhism. In pāli texts the Buddha is portrayed in two aspects: the human and the superhuman or supernormal. These two aspects intermingle to such an extent that it is extremely difficult to separate one from the other without doing injustice to the concept as a whole. In this sense two aspects of bhakti are identified in forms of the devotee’s worship of the Buddha. The notions that bhakti in Buddhist tradition was its answer to bhakti movement in Hinduism, or that it is the product of deification of the Buddha are misleading. Bhakti had its beginnings in the earliest days of Buddhism and it has been an integral part of Pāli Buddhism.