Shakyamuni was a man who lived some twenty-five hundred years ago in central northern India and who earnestly and untiringly sought to discover the nature of the dharma, or Law, the eternal principles of truth that transcend time and place. He was a thinker of giant proportions who, for the sake of people in ages to come, persisted in his efforts to discover the source of creation and to free human existence from all impediments.
If we, in this present age, were to try to imagine the sort of person Shakyamuni Buddha was, what portrait would emerge? This was the spirit of rather naïve interest, curiosity, and in a sense audacity that led to the writing of this book.
But to construct a picture of Shakyamuni Buddha, one first needs certain materials—historical facts, accurate dates, sources whose reliability is above question—and such materials are, let me note at the outset, regrettably scarce. This is due in part to the fact that the Buddha lived so long ago and in part to the lack of interest in the keeping of historical records that is characteristic of ancient Indian society. But whatever the cause, it renders exceedingly difficult the task of arriving at an accurate picture of the Buddha. At the same time, it makes it possible, and even necessary, for the writer to exercise his imagination to a considerable degree. In this sense, in spite of the great gap in time that separates Shakyamuni Buddha and myself, I think my personal experiences and religious practice have allowed me to achieve a certain feeling for him as an individual. That is why I titled the original Japanese version of this work Watakushi no Shakuson-kan [My View of Shakyamuni] and why the subtitle of the English edition is An Interpretive Biography. It is my firm conviction that one can seek to discover and understand another human individual only through the medium of one’s own identity as a human being, and it is on this premise that I have attempted to transcend the barrier of time and approach the man we call the Buddha. In this respect, my portrait of him, rather than being drawn strictly from bibliographical sources, is no doubt strongly colored by the image that I have formed in my mind of him as the leader of a religious organization. For the subjectivity of this approach, I can only beg my readers’ indulgence.
In this connection, it may be well to note that the Buddhist religion is interested primarily in the question of whether a person realizes within himself the dharma, or principles of eternal truth. For this reason, it is less important, from the religious point of view, to inquire what were the specific words and acts of Shakyamuni Buddha as a historical personage than to discover the nature of the dharma that he attained and to ask if other people can attain it as well. The portrait of a man who has attained the dharma—this is the true Shakyamuni Buddha, and it is he whom we wish to know. If this book is read in light of these particular characteristics of the Buddhist religion, and if it serves in some small measure as a spiritual bridge between the East and the West, then my hopes as an author will have been more than gratified.
In closing, I would like to express my deep appreciation to Professor Burton Watson for the time and effort that he has expended in preparing the English version of this work.
Since 1976, when this English edition first appeared, it has been translated and published in at least eighteen languages. As its author, I am immensely pleased that it has thus won a readership extending throughout the world. The publication of this paperback edition responds to the requests of many readers. It is my sincere hope that those striving to create a better society will find this volume helpful in understanding the life of Asia’s foremost teacher of human wisdom.
Daisaku Ikeda