Karen Armstrong's Buddha and the Axial Age Explained

Introduction: Armstrong's Buddha and the Axial Age

In her book Buddha, Karen Armstrong examines the life, journey, and teachings of Siddhartha Gotama — the Buddha — against the backdrop of a particularly pivotal time in human history referred to as the "Axial Age" by the philosopher Karl Jaspers. This paper examines that period and four of the spiritual developments representative of it: Greek philosophy in Ancient Greece, Confucianism in China, monotheism in Israel, and, above all, Buddhism and the Buddha in India.

The Axial Age and Its Characteristics

In Buddha, Armstrong sets the context of the Buddha's life and its impact on the Indian subcontinent during a time when great transformative religions appeared not only in India but simultaneously in China, Greece, Iran, and Palestine. It was a pivotal era that Karl Jaspers coined "The Axial Age." Key religious thinkers from separate corners of the globe were reacting to similar economic, social, and spiritual changes that were simultaneously affecting their particular societies. The way the thoughts and ideals of these prophets and sages developed — and then permeated human society — remains with us still, in the root foundations of the great religions of today (Armstrong, p. 11).

The Axial Age, roughly 800 BCE to 200 BCE, was a time of immense political, cultural, and social change for these particular countries. Traditional religion was no longer speaking to people whose experience of suffering in these core territories appears to have reached a climactic level (p. 22). Some historians suggest that the invasions of the nomadic, Indo-European horsemen were one common factor across these territories (p. 23). These Aryans came from Central Asia and eventually reached the Mediterranean, India, and Iran by 1200 BCE, and in time made their way to China as well (p. 23). They brought to these predominantly agrarian cultures "a sense of vast horizons and limitless possibilities," and as a self-styled "master race," they replaced old, stable, more primitive communities after a period of intense conflict and distress — which Armstrong believes may partially account for the Axial Age's discontent and overall "malaise" (p. 23). Aryan culture also introduced innovative ideas, particularly in the marketplace, which had attained a new centrality by the sixth century BCE (p. 27).

Power was passing to a new class of merchants who were developing a far more flexible economy (p. 20). This market economy began to undermine the status quo; merchants no longer deferred to the aristocracy. This new urban class valued self-reliance and was determined to take its fate into its own hands (p. 20). Traditional values were wearing away, the familiar way of life was disappearing, and a new order was developing that was both frightening and exhilarating (p. 23). Out of this pivotal period, religious leaders and sages began to develop a comprehensive "world view" of human nature no longer tied to any particular group. They also argued that the main task was to "remake present reality" — corrupt and imperfect as it was — to bring it into harmony with a higher moral order. Furthermore, a religious leader's legitimacy was no longer dependent on political or kinship ties but on the individual's own qualifications and ability to reflect or model the ideals being espoused.

All of these cultures — Greece, India, China, Iran, and Palestine — experienced a world in which the security of traditional ways was fracturing and filled with struggle (p. 11), yet was ripe with opportunity. The Axial period also marks a time when human beings became convinced that it was necessary to "turn away" from a violent, suffering world and seek answers from a more "absolute" or higher truth they could only find within themselves (p. 11).

Axial Age Transformations in Greece, China, and Palestine

In Greece, spirituality and philosophy flourished as the Mycenaean kingdom gave way to the Macedonian empire. The brutality of the Peloponnesian War and the tradition of vengeance gave way to a different kind of world view, forged by Socrates, who argued that retaliation was always unjust and that the key to enlightenment lay in acting with virtue and patience toward friend and enemy alike — an equanimity similarly espoused by the Buddha. This was a radical departure from the Homeric warrior values of the past. The two lines of thinking that emerged from the Greek Axial Age — philosophical speculation about the cosmos and consciousness itself, and the reconstruction of political order into a proto-democratic ideal — did not merge into a holistic world view. The Greeks' transcendent, higher vision developed into a proto-scientific exploration of the cosmos, where nature and consciousness became the subject and where reasoning and questioning self-evident truths became a vehicle for reaching a higher moral ideal. The practical change that came from these speculations was grounded more in a social and political vision of human nature than in an otherworldly one — an ideal of higher moral order expressed as justice in the political and social sphere. This was unique to Greek thought.

China, by contrast, developed no concept of shared civic responsibility for political ordering, as its thinkers could not conceive of any form of order without a monarchy. The early Confucian masters were not concerned with cosmology or new political configurations. Confucians saw their salvation in developing internal peace by fostering an already existing "inner goodness" through self-discipline and education in adherence to established norms. What was radical about this for the Chinese was that everyone — not just the nobility — could achieve this higher moral order or basic goodness. The record of the past and respect for the ancestors could serve as guides, helping people find the right patterns to follow. In fact, to achieve true nobility one needed to cultivate this "inner goodness" and consciously examine and foster the ancient ideals (p. 19).

For the Jewish prophets of Israel, the Axial Age was a time of newer, more fluid boundaries — politically, socially, and economically — and it brought the emergence of a monotheistic concept of a transcendent God who created the universe and imposed His will and law upon it. It was a God of many nations who nonetheless recognized the Israelites as the "chosen people" with whom a special covenant had been formed. This resulted in an emphasis on the ethical dimension of religious experience, where each person was responsible for his own salvation rather than for performing a set of codified rites (p. 18). The prophets became the special carriers and models of this vision — accepted by the people across tribal affiliations not by tribal election but for their visionary experience and the values they embodied.

Axial Age sages and prophets saw exile, tragedy, and suffering all around them, yet the truth they sought enabled them to find peace regardless of external circumstances (p. 18). The new world views were about seeking an inner depth and no longer relying on external or magical means. For Socrates, human beings already held this truth within themselves, though it lay obscured in memory and needed to be brought forth into consciousness. Confucius studied the ancient customs of his ancestors and made explicit "ideas that had been only intuited before" (p. 18). He felt that human beings had to "study themselves and analyze the reasons for their failures" in order to return to a sense of harmony and beauty in the world (p. 19).

Conclusion: The Shared Legacy of Axial Age Spirituality

According to Armstrong, all the prophets and sages of the Axial Age discovered, simultaneously, that the way to a higher, transcendent, more fully human life was by looking within and discovering self-existing, self-liberating, inner truths. Common to these spiritual movements, as well, was the conviction that compassion toward others would lead to a more meaningful and freer life in this world. It was a pivotal, revolutionary thought that, centuries later, remains at the root of our traditional religions and still presents a challenge, while resonating with an inner conviction of its truth.