pass his dharma lineage on to his son Dar ma mdo sde
(for whom Mi la ras pa’s famous final tower was built),
but the child died at a young age. Mar pa’s accumu-
lated instructions, which contributed to the formation
of a new stream of Buddhist thought in Tibet known
as new tantra (rgyud gsar ma), were later passed to sev-
eral principal disciples including Mi la ras pa. At least
twenty-four works translated from Sanskrit attributed
to Mar pa are preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.
See also:Tantra
Bibliography
Lhalungpa, Lobsang P., trans. The Life of Milarepa.New York:
Dutton, 1977. Reprint, Boston: Shambhala, 1984.
Trungpa, Chögyam, and the Nalanda Translation Committee,
trans. The Life of Marpa the Translator.Boston: Shambhala,
1986.
ANDREWQUINTMANMARTIAL ARTS
Modern historians of East Asia have noted the seem-
ingly incongruous presence of martial monks in Bud-
dhist monasteries at various moments in Asian history.
This unusual conjunction has appeared ironic to many
in the West, given the prominent place the renuncia-
tion of violence has had in Buddhist teachings and
monastic PRECEPTS. On the other hand, to many West-
erners who have taken up the practice of the Asian
martial arts, this conjunction has been seen not as con-
tradictory, but as essential to the modern rhetoric of
spirituality and the martial arts. Zen Buddhism, in par-
ticular, has played an important role in this approach
to the martial arts. Underlying these contradictory un-
derstandings has been a Western tendency to idealize
and romanticize both Buddhism and the martial arts,
removing them from their historical and institutional
contexts. Abetting such tendencies has been an un-
critical use of categories that have emerged over the
past two centuries in the study of religion both in Asia
and the West, including the category of religion itself.
To understand the relationship of the martial arts to
Buddhism, then, it is necessary to know something of
the history and nature of Buddhist institutions in Asia,
and, also of the ways in which Western perceptions of
Eastern religion and spirituality have contributed to
contemporary understandings and, in many cases, dis-
tortions of Asian Buddhism.
One of the definitive moments in becoming a Bud-
dhist, either as a monastic or a layperson, is the act of
taking a set of vows, which differ in character and to-
tal number depending on whether one remains a
householder or receives ORDINATIONas a monastic.
Regardless, all Buddhists take a vow to abstain from
harming living beings. One would be wrong, however,
to regard these vows in general and nonviolence in par-
ticular as ends in themselves or as ethical absolutes.
Rather, they seem to have been regarded as practical
means to end suffering both for other living beings and
for oneself. This fact has allowed for some flexibility in
interpretation, as well as a degree of antinomianism.
Faced with the dilemma of a vow of nonviolence and
of allowing, for example, a mass murderer to continue
wreaking havoc in the world—and at the same time
adding to the sum of his own bad KARMA(ACTION) and
implied future suffering—the compassionate act may
be assassination, thus reducing the sum total of accu-
mulated suffering. Such arguments have historically
been offered by certain Buddhists to legitimate vio-
lence, in the assassination of a murderous Tibetan king
in one instance. Though this example is somewhat ex-
treme, in coming to terms with Buddhist ethics and
practice, it suggests the importance of the historical
and social contexts of Buddhist institutions.Monasteries and warrior monks
Buddhist monasteries in Central Asia and the Far East,
rather than existing as sites purely of otherworldly con-
cerns, originated as institutions intimately embroiled
in the affairs of society. Central Asian Buddhists in-
troduced MONASTICISMto China sometime around the
second or third centuries C.E. Monks accompanied
Central Asian traders into China primarily to serve the
ritual needs of their merchant patrons. At about the
same time and for the next several hundred years, var-
ious Central Asian armies invaded north China, set-
ting up their own generally short-lived dynasties. These
kingdoms, like the merchants, employed the ritual ser-
vices of Buddhist monks, now including many ethnic
Chinese converts. Under such conditions, monastic in-
stitutions often found themselves caught in the ebb
and flow of the political fortunes of their various spon-
sors. In addition, some monasteries, through their re-
lationship with merchants and royalty, became wealthy
in land and precious goods, making them frequent
prey to marauding bands of warriors and bandits.
In the Xu gaoseng zhuan(645, Continued Lives of
Eminent Monks), one of the earliest records of the lives
of Buddhist monks in China, there are a number of ac-MARTIALARTS