Dwight Goddard’s Buddhist Bible and the Buddha and His Dhamma written by Babasaheb Ambedkar

Dwight Goddard was a Christian missionary in China and spent one year in a Zen Monastery. His book, the Buddhist Bible, is considered as the key text for the emerging Zen in America at that time. But the Buddhist Bible is not the Zen book. It is one can say an anthology of Buddhist texts available in Pali, Buddhist Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan texts. In a word, it covers a wide range of extant Buddhist texts and a wide range of Buddhist teachers from our own P.L. Narasu to Milarepa.

The Buddhist Bible is an interesting book to read and Babasaheb Ambedkar recognised Goddard’s great work on Buddhism. This book was published in 1938. This is what Babasaheb Ambedkar quoted in the Buddha and His Dhamma.

Prof. Dwight Goddard says:

“Among the world’s religious teachers, Buddha alone has the glory of having rightly judged the intrinsic greatness of man’s capacity to work out his salvation without extraneous aid.

If the worth of a truly great man consists of his raising the worth of all mankind, who is better entitled to be called truly great than the Blessed One.

Who instead of degrading him by placing another being over him, has exalted him to the highest pinnacle of wisdom and love”

Perhaps, we need to see the copy of the Buddhist Bible in possession of Babasaheb Ambedkar to know what Babasaheb commented in the margins or underlined. This will give us an idea.

A couple of days back, I read Meditation teachings of the great master from China named Zhiyi ( Chi-ih). The venerable master did so much for the Buddha Dhamma that he is fondly remembered as the Buddha of the East. I read the translation by Bhikkhu Dharmamitra published by Kalanvika Press in 2008. This is one of the clearest exposition on meditation taught by the Buddha.

It was brought to my notice by brother Lokamitra that Goddard has a chapter titled “Dhyana for Beginners” in the Buddhist Bible. This” Dhyana for Beginners” is nothing but master Zhiyi’s short track on how to practice Shamatha- Vipassana.

So, how did Babasaheb Ambedkar treat Goddard’s translation of master Zhiyi’s manual on Traditional Indian Buddhist meditation?

This is a Koan for the people in the Ambedkarite community who get divided on the issue of “Dhyana”. Perhaps, we need to dig deep into it.

Babasaheb Ambedkar and the writings and speeches he left behind are like vast bodies of knowledge cultivated through a great devotion to learning and it is our duty to explore sources that Babasaheb Ambedkar used in his groundbreaking work: The Buddha and His Dhamma.

We have to direct emerging scholarship among Ambedkarites to fathom deeply into the writings and Speeches of Babasaheb Ambedkar examining words, sentences, and paragraphs and hunt for ideas that will help us to think clearly for the emancipation of humanity!

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist