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THE
ESSENCE OF BUDDHISM
\SriTH
AN INTRODUCTION
BY
ANAGARIKA
H.
DHARMAPALA
BY
P.
LAKSHMI NARASU.
Buddham âranam
gacchami.
Dhammam
(aranam gacchami.
Sangham caranam gacchami.
flDa^tas
SRINIVASA VARADACHARI & CO.

1907
(All rights reserved by the aut/wr,)
MADRAS:
PRINTED BY SRINIVASA VARADACHARI
4 MOUNT ROAD.
&
CO.,
,^f
NamaqqQ,kyam.unaye thathdgataya^ arhate^ samyak
sambuddh&ya.
Bright shineth the sun in his splendour by day
And And
bright the moon's radiance by night,
Bright shineth the hero in battle array,

the sage in his thought shineth bright
But by day and by night, none so glorious so bright
As Bhagavat, the source of all
spiritual light.
Dhammapada, 387.
There
is
one alone unchanging,

face the darkness
flies.
From whose
High-born, luminously beaming,
Uncompared, beyond comprise

Bhagavat, the far-seeing,
Bhagavat, the very wise.-
Parayana SuTTa.
There
is
nowhere
in all the world

;
That his reason has not been
Not a
fact
whereof the Master

origin.
Has not pierced the
He
If
will
end the doubter's questions,

let
they will but
him
in Ibid.
189945
Dedicated
to
AH
whose hearts are
full
vast like the sea

;
And
of compassion and love
Whose
thoughts, like the sweet Philomel,

;
Soar high and lofty for ever
Who,
regardless of consequences,
to distinguish
is
Use their reason
What is true from what

"Who work with
untrue
zeal to share with all
The easy path of salvation

Revealed by
Him who
read aright
"The problem of origination.
PREFACE.
volume is the final form assumed by a series of essays on Buddhist subjects originally contributed to certain South Indian magazines. It has been prepared with the aim of bringing together, within a small compass, the
leading ideas of Buddhism, and interpreting them in the light of modern knowledge. It lays no claim to originality. Much of the material it contains may be found in the works of well-known orientalists. Nor does it pretend to be the fruit of Pali or Sanskrit scholarship, despite the quotations it may contain from works in those languages. It professes to be nothing more than the humble offering of a disciple in the service of his Master. In presenting the teachings of his master it is incumbent on the disciple never to lose sight of the fundamental principles on which those teachings themselves rest. For the Buddha the voice of authority is in truth itself, and wherever the truth leads, thither the disciple must follow. Accordingly, the dictum accepted in all schools of Buddhism as the sole regulative principle is that nothing can be the teaching of the Master, which is not in strict accord with reason, or with what is known to be true. In giving a conspectus of their religion all Buddhist writers of note have sought the aid of logic and psychology. Their regard for the general validity of ideas has been so great that they have not infrequently set aside the Sutras^ which are commonly regarded as the basis of their religion. Hence, in expounding Buddhism in the light of modern knowledge, the author has in no way swerved from his position as a Buddhist, but has only followed a practice current among the Buddhists from the very earliest times. If he has succeeded in giving Buddhism the aspect of modernity, he has done so, not by seasoning modern ideas with a little Buddhistic sauce, but
THIS
Vlll
PREFACE.
all
by getting beneath
forms of Buddhism and bringing to
light the essential truths therein contained.
The attention of thoughtful men in Europe and America has been drawn to Buddhism. Already there are in those countries organizations for the spread of Buddhism. A branch of the Mahabodhi Society with its headquarters in Chicago is doing valuable work in the United States. A Japanese Buddhistic Mission, established in San Francisco, publishes a journal, called The Light of Dharma^ which is said to be widely read in America. A Buddhistic Society, established in Leipzig, besides publishing a journal, called Der Buddhist^ is actively at work in disseminating the teachings of the TathgLgata by means of popular lectures and cheap literature. Divested of certain mystical outgrowths, Buddhism will doubtless attract many occidentals. Nevertheless it has been asserted that Buddhism is too chaste to win adherents where marriage is not considered detrimental to high thinking. But even on this score Buddhism has nothing to fear. There have been from the earliest times schools of Buddhism that have maintained that a laic also can attain arhatship. A religion that is supple enough to include the Vajrdchdryas of Nepal as well as the Slhaviras of Ceylon has certainly room in it for puritanical ascesticism as well as the innocent pleasures of a conjugal life. The possibility of a revival of Buddhism in India has been presaged by an eminent historian. With the spread of education and independent thought it is not unlikely that the Dharma will appeal to that growing circle of thoughtful Indians, who no longer find any charm in Rama or Rahim,
Krishna or Christ, Kali or Lakshmi, Ma,ri or Mary. Nor are signs wanting which betoken a lasting interest in the teachings of one whom all India once revered as born to As the true take upon himself the sins of all mankind. swadep spirit takes firmer root and grows, the immortal name of Sakyamuni, which now lurks in the garbled story of the Buddha vatar, is sure to rise above the surface of oblivion, and shine in all its eternal glory and grandeur.
The marrow
ethical
of civilized society,
it
and not metaphysical.
The forces
has been truly said, is that underlie and
PREFACE,
IX
maintain civilized society are not the belief in dtman and brahman^ or trinity in unity, or the immanence and transcendence of God, but truthfulness, charity,justice, tolerance, fraternity in short, all that is summed up in the word Dharma or Buddhism. Rightly did Emperor Asoka make Buddhism the basis of his government. Not till the " white light " of the Buddha has once again penetrated into the thought and life of the Indians can they hope to
regain that pre-eminence among nations that they possessed in the time of Asoka. Not till the Dharma becomes the guiding spirit of all nations will their peace and safety be assured. It might be pretentious for the author to hope that his book will prove serviceable in hastening this conthat his
summation so devoutly wished. But he cherishes the hope book will in some measure be helpful in leading to
clearer understanding of the teachings of his Master.
friends
In conclusion the author expresses his thanks to all his who have encouraged him in the preparation of his book, and especially to those who have rendered help in putting it through the press.
Madras,
.367,
Mint Street,
May^ 1907.
\
j
P.
L.
N.
INTRODUCTION,
Namo Buddhaya
Ihave
!
read with pleasure, rather rapidly, the

:
" Essence of
Buddhism" and glanced through the chapters: Historic Buddha Rationality of Buddhism Morality of Buddhism Buddhism and Caste Women in Buddhism The Four Great Truths Buddhism and Asceticism Buddhism and Pessimism The Noble Eightfold Path The Riddle of the World Personality Death and After The Summum Bonum. The author is a scientist and as such deserves to be heard. He has made a study of Buddhism from authorita:
and as a scholar has analysed the comprehensive system of religion founded by the Tathagato. India is the home of Buddhism. It is to the people of India that our Lord first proclaimed the Dhamma, 2496 years ago. His first five disciples were Brahman ascetics, and His two prominent disciples, Sariputta and MahS, Moggallana, were Brahmans the President of the first Council, held three months after His Parinibbana, was MahfL Kasyapa, a Brahman and the Upholder of the Faith in the time of Asoka was Tissa the " son of the Brahmani M oggali of Moggali." According to the prophetic utterance of our Lord the Dhamma, shedding lustre in its purity, lasted for full 1,000 years in India, and then began the decline following the law of disintegration five hundreds later, when it was brought into contact with the cohorts of Allah, whose fire and sword played havoc with the followers of our Blessed Tathagato. The ruins in Bamian, Central Turkestan, Afghanistan, Kandahar, Kashmir, the Gangetic Valley, and in distant Java, testify to the extirpation of the great religion by the iconoclastic Arabs, fresh in their zeal for the glorification of the * Prophet of Arabia.'
tive sources,
;
;
Xll
INTRODUCTION.
The home of Buddhism the Majjhima Desa since the tenth century A. C. has been made desolate. No yellow robed Bhikkhus and white-robed Upasakas are there to greet the weary pilgrim from foreign lands as in the days of Fa Hian, Huen Chang, and Itsing. After 700 years a new race from the West has conquered India, and thanks to the antiquarian researches of European scholars, they have made it possible for the Indians to again appreciate the ancient Aryan inheritance which was preached to their forefathers under the name of Dhamma. Professor Narasu is a product of Western culture. He is a scion of an ancient Dravidian family. He completed his education in Western lore under European masters, and he is now professor of science in a first grade college. The superstitions of religion he had abandoned for scientific truth, and his studies in the domain of comparative religion has been accentuated by his observations in the
practical daily^h'fe of the yogis of
Southern India. The law but it is of progress under British Rule in India is slow manifest in every department of life. The publication of the present volume by Professor Lakshmi Narasu indicates that even from the basis of a purely rationalistic foundation Buddhism appeals to the cultivated intellect more than a theosophic pantheism. Professor Narasu has studied the life of the " Teacher of the Nirvana and the Law " from a
;
tic
purely human standpoint, and discusses the three characterisaspects of the Dhamma from the standpoint of psychology and science. The '^ Essence of Buddhism " I recommend to the non-Buddhist and the scientific agnostic, for it will, I hope, give an impulse for a further study of the Dhamma that has given comfort to thousand millions of people within
the past 25 centuries.
Anagarika H. Dharmap&la.
Maha Bodhi Headquarters
ISIPATANA, SaRNATH, BeNARES. \ April 28 \%^\, J
CONTENTS.
THE HISTORIC BUDDHA.
page
What Buddhism is Sftkyamuni not a supernatural founder of Buddhism Incidents in Sakyamuni's life non-essential Value of Buddha's personality Birth of Buddha His early life and renunciation Training under Arada and Udraka Severe ascetic penance The incident with the herdsman's daughter Attainment of enlightenment His determination to preach Starting for Benares and meeting with Upaka Stay at Benares and formation of the holy brotherhood Visit to Rajagrihaand conversion of Bimbisara Conversion
of Sariputra,
Other disciples
Maudgalyiyana, and Maha K&syapa Patrons Ineffectual plots of Devadatta
and benefactors of Buddha State of India then^ Calumnies against Buddha and how they were exposed Daily life of the Blessed Ont -His method of exposition His last tour and end Disposal of the remains of the Blessed One Historicity of Sakyarauni His position among founders of religions His claims to
greatness
...
...
...
...
THE RATIONALITY OF BUDDHISM.

A system of philosophy and practical ethics Reason the ultimate criterion of truth Futility of authority and Cultivation of Rationality of all beliefs revelation faith Schools and sects of Buddhism Only one way, Reverence to relics and images an act that of reason Adaptation to pre-existing religions of devotion Invocation of Amida by the Japanese Buddhist The No transcendental superiority in Buddha tricaranas Freedom from Attitude towards miracles and wonders The missionary impulse fanaticism and persecution

XIV
CONTENTS.
Buddhism Spread of Buddhism Spirit of generosity and compassion Influence on the development of arts Development of science and knowledge Reason and purity of hârt the gist of Buddhism ...
in
PAGE
21
THE MORALITY OF BUDDHISM.

The goal of Buddhism The ten transgressions and ten precepts The precept against the destruction of life Sacrifices in ancient India Care for animals Partiality for vegetarian diet Mixed diet the best food Extreme observance of the precept Attitude towards war Spirit of tolerance a result of the observance of the precept The precept against theft Motives for such abstinence Socialistic spirit of Buddhism -The precept against adultery Sexual excesses denounced by religions Attitude towards legitimate intercourse The precept against falsehood Lying one Hypocrisy fostered by churches of the gravest offences Lying under necessity The precept against drink Prevalence of drink in Ancient India Buddhists first Nature and effect of alcohol to enjoin total abstinence The six ruinous things, and drink one of them The precept against vain talk The precept against evil The precept against selfishness Jealousy an reports The precept against evil intense form of selfishness The demands of justice and equity Love passions Duty of practising univershould be healthy and wise The sal love Anecdote showing the practice of love Claims of Christianity to true import of the Jatakas be the only religion of love The precept against ignorance and doubt Scepticism a means of knowing Difference between the truth The roots of Buddhism the ethical teachings of Buddhism and Brahmanism Its ethical system a Ethics of Buddhism not egoistic
Moral ideas have nothing to do with not of any supernatural beings The Eternal value Basis of morality purely subjective
autonomous
self is
study of consequences, of
Karma and
VipsLka
Purely
the
ethical
Buddhism teaches
that the
good of humanity
is

CONTENTS.
XV
good of the individual Deliverance from sorrow by Morality rests on egoism and altruism following good Morality in the Vedanta and in is applied egoism Buddhism Other differences The ideal of the future ... ... ... perfection of mankind
PAGE
39
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.

Universality
of salvation
The
story of
Buddha's
beloved disciple and the girl of the Matanga caste The Brahman a specially Indian phenomenon No support for the existence of specific differences in men Differences only through occupation and conduct No difference in Dharma between one caste and another
No caste for those joining the Sangha Social conditions then prevailing uncertain Only the social significance of castes, if any, recognised in Buddhism The development of caste due to ambition and selfishness The attitude of later Buddhists Arguments of the Vajrasucht: Brahmanhood not constituted by life principle or descent or body or learning or origin from Brahma
Attempts by Brahmans to bolster up their religion, the Gita one of such attempts Caste the mainstay of Hinduism Ethnological basis of caste a pure mythFailure of attempts to classify mankind Purity of blood mythical Heredity has nothing to do with ethical cultureUnwarranted supposition of the possibility of development for superior peoples only Caste quite noxious, and therefore disregarded by Buddhism .,. ...
70
WOMAN
Examples of the high
this
IN BUDDHISM.
Low estimation of women in India Buddhist revolt a success the relations beagainst rules tween the sexes Theoretical equality Treatment of women Example of Burmese women Marriage ceremony among Buddhists very simple A religion of individuals That the Teaching destructive of
Strict
status of
women
for
in
Buddhism
fair
free
is
family
life is
not true
...
...
...
89
XVI
CONTENTS.
PAGR
THE FOUR GREAT TRUTHS.

The four truths existence of misery, its cause, emancipation from misery, and means of emancipation These truths not dogmas Existence of misery Schopenhaur's description thereof Religion arises from the instinct of self-preservation^ Attempts at a perfect life Buddha's attitude World -process not all perfected Evolution in all forms of life Final stage of self-conscious growth to co-extensiveness with all life ...
:
97
BUDDHISM AND ASCETICISM.

Religion of ancient India sacrificial Rise in power of the Brahmans who knew the sacrificial arts Human sacrifice the greatest Strong belief in self-mortification, illustrated by Bramanism and Jainism Gautama's trial of self-mortification and his discovery of its fruitlessness Sermon in the Deer Park at Benares Asceticism and luxury equally spurned by the Dharma Wealth rarely procures ease of body and mind Perfect freedom and sanity of life, the attainment of bodhi The charge of indolence against the bhikshus false Invaluable services by the bhikshus Their work in Japan Wrong allegation of failure to inculcate patriotism, the episode of Ajatasatru and the Vajji The greatness of King Asoka, the cause thereof Utter eradication of 106 egoism and the ideal ,.. ... ...
BUDDHISM AND PESSIMISM.

Buddhism not pessimistic Inward discord of Schopenhaur contrasted with the inward harmonies of
Buddhism Existence of suffering recognised, but a Life is not condemned, but nobler life opened out peace must be striven for Resignation and means of attaining happiness taught Buddhism not a religion of Duty of furthering evolution with a view to despair
attain perfection
..,
...
...
...
119
CONTENTS.
XVll
THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH.

The middle
path,
page
the
noble
path
Buddhism represented by the
essentials specified Right belief necessary for right action Animistic and metaphysical beliefs the sources of religious error Right action, thought and peace safeguarded by reason and science Attainment of bodhi directed by right views Value of actual practice Purification of one's acts Observance of moral precepts the practice of morality Nature of charity Aim in acts of charity Right living the outcome of right action Means of subjective purification Practice
eightfold
Morality of path Eight
of self-control
not a faculty determined by itself Requisites of a rightly directed will Attainment of the freedom of bodhi Training of the
will
Nature of the
will,
^Practiceof right thought Intellectual

essential to salvation
ment
Practice
enlightenfor
of
Dhyana
Dhyana^ not losing consciousness Dhyana and Yoga contrasted Dhyana must be coupled with pragna The ten impediments permanent self and scepticism two of them Efficacy of ceremonies and rites the third The remaining seven impediments
tranquillity
Falsity of the accusation
tance in
virtues
Buddhism
...
against the greater imporof intellectual powers than ethical

,., ...
...
126
THE RIDDLE OF THE WORLD.

Everything in a state of flux Cause and effect Causal nexus No first cause Idea of Iswara falsified by rational argument Natural laws only descriptive Argument of purpose fallacious No connection between morality and Iswara Morality an outcome of social limitations General belief in Iswara not a proof of his existence Existence not Historical proofs fallacious a manifestation of the absolute The nature of concepts, higher and lower concepts Methods to reach the transcendental, three classes thereof Nature of ecstatic intuition, no proof of a Examinasubliminal self
'
'

XVlii
CONTENTS.
PAGE
of ecstasy to be unquestioned Universe not a product of the individual self Idealistic position examined Exact position of the Blessed One, a One's experiences are given consistent phenomenalism him only as a content of one's consciousness Memory Nothing external or internal as contents of consciousness The practical origin of the distinction between ' ... I ' and " external world." ... ... 144
tion of the claim
PERSONALITY.
Various views of
human
personality
permanent
false belief
self or soul
most pernicious
Belief a Wrong concepin
tion of the unity of
Existence of an atman categorically denied

;
compound
things, the origin of the
the existence of an No psychological the atman Comparison of the outside experiencing Mutual conditioning of the brain to a piano immutable ego and not-ego The ego not an Criticism of the theory of spontaneityThe examined Division of the confreedom of the the origin of tents of consciousness into two Human personality a comtranscendental pound of body and mind Dissolution of individuality
by Buddhism
permanence
self,
of
personality apparent,
not real
basis for
criticised
eternal,
entity
will
classes,
entities
the source
of happiness Denial
of a
separate self
...
liberates the individual
from error
...
163
DEATH AND AFTER.

a complex of skandhas Life a union of the Consciousness not skandhas, their dissolution death separable from the organism, proved by psychology Existence of extra-human spirit agencies not established by the researches of the Psychical Research Society No evidence of the continuance of the conscious person
Individual existence a complex of afforded by science karmas which, after death, are re-born in others Transmigration of an actual entity from one birth to another not admitted by Buddha, but the content of the ego is preserved in others Evolution of the organised animal
Man

CONTENTS.
from
its
XIX
ancestral series
beings,
Psychical interdependence
PAGE
of
and continuance of psychic life after the individual Immortality of humanity Our lives incorporated and continued in a collective eternity of humanity -Person as well as society, the living embodiment of Criticism of the past physical and psychical activities Buddhist school believing in a mystery underlying the transmigration of karma Self, immanent and not
human
transcendent The Buddhist doctrine of karma extends over the whole of phenomenal existence The difference between this doctrine and the Brahmanic theory of transmigration Perfectability by self-culture and self-control,hence Buddhism not fatalistic Dissolution of body and mind, but continuance of life in deeds. 179
THE SUMMUM BONUM.

Three corner-stones
petual
flux
Anitya not necessarily
of
Buddhism
Am'fyd, a per-
illusory {mithya)
Negative aspect of Nirvana, the extinction of hatred, and ignorance Nirvana, not the tion of but complete attainment of love and righteousness The law of Karma binding even the attainment of Nirvana, of Arhat and Jivanmukta compared Peace, consolation, and hope attained Buddhism The true nature of Dharmakaya of sorrow, The anxiety and despair The path of liberation Freedom
activities
lust,
Anatmata^the non-existence of an absolute, transcendent entity The ego, not unchangeable, but alterable and improvable Unity of consciousness not explained by the unity of an underlying atman Renouncement of the atman^ rids sorrow Nirvana not an absorption in the universal soul Not also an annihilation of all
annihila-
personality,
perfect
is
after
ideals
in
Its
universality
origin
from suffering through the light of Dharmakaya The all-embracing life of one who has attained Nirvana The beatitude of Nirvana ... ... 199
THE ESSENCE OF BUDDHISM.

îiUDDHISM,
Dharma, is the religion preached by the Burldhas. A Buddha is one who has attained bodhi. By bodhi is meant an ideal state of intellectual and ethical perfection, which can
be attained by man by purely human means. Of the many that have attained bodhi the one best known to history is
or, as
it
is
known among
its
followers, the
Gautama Sakyamuni. Gautama Sakyamuni is generally spoken of as the founder But Sakyamuni himself refers in his disof the Dharma. courses to Buddhas who had preached the same doctrine Nor can we speak of the Buddha as the foundbefore him. er of Buddhism in the same sense as we speak of the The founder of founder of Christianity or Mahomedanism
the former religion is essentially a supernatural being he is the incarnation of the son of God, who is no other than God No one ran call himself a true Christian, who does himself. not accept the divinity of Jesus, and who does not believe that Christ rose from the dead after dying on the cross to take upon himself the sins of all those who believe in him. Mahomed, the founder of the latter religion, though not an incarnation of God or any of his relations or servants, is yet a privileged human being, who was chosen as the special vehicle for the communication of a superniitural revelation to mankind, and no man can call himself a Mahomedan, who does not believe that Mahomed is the prophet of God. But the Buddha nowhere claims to be anything more than a human being. No doubt, we find him a full and perfect man. All the same he is a man among men. He does not profess to bring a revelation from a supernatural source. He does not proclaim himself a saviour who will take upon himself the sins of those that follow him. He distinctly tells us that every one must bear the burden of his ow^n sins, that
;
J)
71
even a God can do for man what self-help in the form of self-conquest and self-emancipation can accomplish. We read in the Dhammapada^ a collection of verses attributed to the Blessed Sakyamuni " All that we are is the result of what we have thought " it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts " By oneself evil is done by oneself one suffers ; by oneself evil is left undone ; by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself; no one can purify another." " You yourself must make an effort \ the Buddhas are only preachers The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of sin." " He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of sloth, whose will and thoughts are weak, that lazy and idle man will never find the way to enlightenment." " Strenuousness is the path of immortality, sloth the path Those who are strenuous do not die ; those who of death. are slothful are as if dead already." Again in the Mahaparinibbdna Sutta the Buddha gives the following admonition to Ananda, one of his beloved
-not
:
:
be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye refuges Hold fast to the Dharma as a lamp. Hold to yourselves. Look not for refuge to any fast to the Dharma as a refuge. one beside yourselves." " And whosoever, Ananda, either now or after I am dead, shall be a lamp unto themselves and a refuge unto themit is they, Ananda, among the seekers after Bodhi selves who shall reach the very topmost height."
disciples " Ananda,

:
Not only did the Buddha offer no support to favourable interference from supernatural agencies on behalf of man, not only did he offer no promise of exemption from suffering and sorrow as a reward of simple belief in him, but he went further in admonishing his disciples not to attach importance to his individual personality but to remember " He who always the ideal. It is said in the Vajracchedika
:
looks for me, i.e.^ the true Tathagata, through any material form, or seeks me through any audible sound, that man has entered on an erroneous course, and shall never behold

Tathagata."
Similarly in another place
3
:
we read
"
Who
say
you see me and yet have transgressed the Dharma, are not seen by me, but as though you were distant by ten thousand miles, whereas the man who keeps the Dharma dwells ever
in
my
sight."
The same
truth
is
much more
impressively
brought out in a conversation between the Blessed One and Once upon a time the latter seeing the Brahman Droia. the Blessed One sitting at the foot of a tree, asked him " Are you a deva ?" And the Exalted One answered "I am " Are you a gandharva ?" " I am not" " Are you a not." yakshaT "I am not." "Are you a man?" "lam not a man." On the Brahman asking what he might " Those Blessed One replied evil influences, be, the those lusts, whose non-destruction would have individualised me as a deva, a gandharva, a yaksha, or a man Know, therefore, O BrahI have completely annihilated.
:
man, that I am a Buddha." Now the practical lesson of this anecdote is obvious. According to Hindu ideas a deva, a gandharva, a yaksha could assume a human form. It was
human form
therefore natural for the before him
Brahman
to
was a deva,
ask if the being in a gandharva, or a
But what perplexed the Brahman was that he reyaksha. ceived a negative answer to each one of his questions, and this led him to his general question. Buddha's answer to What was of importance in his eyes it Was unequivocal. was not his form irupa) but his character {ndma), the embodiment in practical life of the ideas of compassion and wisdom summed up in the word bodhi. He was not only Sakyamuni, but he was alsoTathajâta. The eternal truths he taught were nothing but what he himself was in the quintessence of his personality. No wonder therefore that the personality that dominates Buddhism is not Sa-kyamuni but the Buddha. Though what is of primary importan^'e is the life in accordance with the Dharma, yet the personality of the Great Teacher is not without value. In so far as that personality is the practical embodiment of his teachings, it serves as a model for the disciple to imitate and follow. As the Amitdyur-dhydna Sutra says " Since they have meditated on Buddha's body, they will also see Buddha's mind. The
:
Buddha's mind is his absolutely great compassion for all But it must at the same time be remembered beings." that the teaching of the Blessed One does not rest for its validity on any miracle or any special event in his life as is Should the events in the case in many another religion. the life of Gautama Sakyamuni turn out to be unhistorical, that would not in the least detract from the merit of his
As the Blessed One himself has said, the teachings. teaching carries with it its own demonstration. Stripped of mythical embellishments, the principal events in the life of Gautama Buddha are easily told. He was born about the middle of the sixth century before the Christian era in Lumbini Park in the neighbourhood of Kapilavastu, now known as Padeira, in the north of the district of Gorakpur. To mark this spot as the birth of the greatest teacher of mankind and as a token of his reverence for him^ Emperor Asoka erected in 329 B.C. a pillar bearing the inscription " Here was the Enlightened One born."* At Kapilavastu resided the chiefs of the Sakya clan, of whom little would have been remembered, had not Siddartha been born among them. Gautama's father, Suddhodana, and his mother,Maya, the daughter of Suprabuddha, belonged to this clan. The mother of Siddartha died seven days after his birth. Under the kind care of his maternal aunt, Prajapati Gautami, Siddartha spent his early years in ease, luxury and culture. No pains were spared to make the course of his life smooth. At the age of sixteen he was married to his cousin, Yasodhara, the daughter of the chief of Koli, and they had For twenty-five years Siddartha saw a son named Rahula. only the beautiful and pleasant. About this time the sorrows
:
and him
sufferings of
reflect
Impelled by a strong desire to find the origin of suffering and sorrow and the means of extirpating them, he renounced at the age of twenty-nine all family ties and retired to the forest, as was the wont in
of
life.
mankind on the problem
affected
him deeply, and made
his day.
sattva,
After this great renunciation {abhinishkramana) the Bodhithe seeker after bodhi, placed himself under the
Hida bhagavam
jateti.

-Spiritual
guidance of two renowned Brahman teachers, Arada Kalama and Udraka Ramaputra. The former lived at Vaisall and was the head of a large number of followers.
He
was evidently a follower of Kapila, the reputed founder
-of the S,nkhya system of philosophy,
and
laid great stress
regarded the disbelief in the existence of a soul as not tending towards religion. Without the belief in an eternal immaterial soul he could not see any way of salvation. Like the munja grass when freed from its
on the
belief in
an atman.
He
horny case, or
trap,
wild bird when liberated from its freed from its material limitations When the ego dis{zcpddhi), would attain perfect release. cerned its immaterial nature, it would attain true deliverance. This teaching did not satisfy the Bodhisattva, and he quitted
like
the
the soul,
when
Arada Kalama, and placed himself under the tuition of Udraka Ramaputra. The latter also expatiated on the question of "I," but laid greater stress
and the transmigration of

truth in
souls.
on the effects of Karma The Bodhisattva saw the
the doctrine of Karma, but he could not bring himself to believe in the existence of a soul or its transmigration. He therefore quitted Udraka also, and went to the priests otficiating in temples to see if he could learn from :hem the way of escape from suffering and sorrow. But to the gentle nature of Gautama the unnecessarily cruel sacrifices performed on the altars of the gods were revolting, and he preached to the priests on the futility of atoning for evil deeds by the destruction of life and the impossibility of practising religion by the neglect of the moral life. Wandering from Vaisall in search of a better system he came to a settlement of five pupils of Udraka, headed by Kaundinya, in the jungle of Uruvilva near Gaya in Magadha. There he saw these five keeping their senses in check, subduing their passions and practising austere penance. He admired their zeal and earnestness, and to give a trial to the means employed by them he applied himself to For six years he practised the most severe mortification. ascetic penances, till his body became shrunken like a withered branch. One day after bathing in the river Nairanjana (modern Phalgu) he strove to leave the water, but could not rise on account of his weakness. However with the aid
of the stooping branch of a tree he raised himself and left But while returning to his abode he again stagthe river. gered and fell to the ground, and might perhaps have died, had not Sujata, the eldest daughter of a herdsman living near the jungle, who accidentally passed by the spot where the Bodhisattva had swooned, given him some rice-milk. Having thus refreshed himself he perceived that asceticism, instead of leading him to the goal he sought, brought about only an enfeeble ment of both body and mind. Accordingly he gave up all ascetic practices, and paying due attention to the needs of the body he entered upon a course of reflection and self-examination, trusting to his own reason, the light which each one of us carries within himself to attain the truth. One night, w^hile sitting in deep meditation under a insight fig tree (ficus religiosa), the consciousness of true He saw the mistaken ways of the faiths possessed him. that then obtained, he discerned the sources whence earthly
and the way that led to their annihilation. saw that the cause of suffering lay in a selfish cleaving to life, and that the way of escape from suffering lay in the
suffering flowed,
He
attainment of the ten perfections (dasa paramttds,. With the discernment of these grand truths and their realization in life the Bodhisattva became enlightened he thus attained Samhodhi and became a Buddha. Rightly has Sambodhi been called Svabodhanam to emphasise the fact that it can be accomplished only by self help without the extraneous aid
;
of a teacher or an Isvara.
'
As the poet
says,
Save his own soul's light overhead, None leads man, none ever led,"
\y
critical moment in the life of the After many struggles he had found the most profound truths, truths teeming with meaning but comprehensible only by the wise, truths fraught with blessings but difficult to discern by ordinary minds {praihakjand). Mankind were worldly and hankering for pleasure. Though they possessed the capacity for knowledge and virtue and could perceive the true nature of things, they remained in ignorance, entangled by deceptive thoughts. Could they com-
Now
arrived the most
Blessed One.
prehend
the law
of Karma, the
law
of concatenation of
'
cause and effect in the moral world ? Could they rid themselves of the animistic idea of a soul and grasp the true nature of man ? Could they overcome the propensity to seek salvation through a mediatorial caste of priests ? Could they understand the final state of peace, that quenching of all worldly cravings which leads to the blissful haven of Nirvana ? Would it be advisable for him in these circumstances to preach to all mankind the truths he had discovered? Might not failure result in anguish and pain ? Such were the doubts and questions which arose in his mind, but only to be smothered and quenched by thoughts of universal compassion. He who had abandoned all selfishness could What could be a better way of not but live for others. living for others than to show them the path of attaining perWhat could be greater service to mankind than fect bliss ? to rescue the struggling creatures engulfed in the mournful sea of samsdra ? Is not the gift of Dharma the greatest of all gifts ? When the Perfect One considered how sorrow and suffering oppressed all beings, he became very compassionate, and made up his mind to preach to all mankind the eternal truths he had discovered. With this firm resolve he started for Benares which has been famous for centuriesUs the centre of religious life and thought:. On his way the Blessed One met one of his former acquaintances,Upaka, a naked Jain monk, who, struck "Who is the by his majestic and joyful appearance, asked teacher under whose guidance you have renounced the world ?" The Enlightened One replied "I have no master. To me there is no equal. I am the perfect One, the Buddha. I have attained peace. I have obtained Nirvapa. To found the kingdom of righteousness I am going to Benares. There I shall light the lamp of life for the benefit of those who are enshrouded in the darkness of sin and death." Upaka then asked " Do you profess to be the Jina, the conqueror of the world ?" The Buddha replied " Jinas are those who have conquered self and the passions of self, those alone are victors who control their passions and abstain from sin. I have conquered self and overcome all sin. Therefore I am the Jina." At Benares he saw Kaundinya and his four companions
: :
: :
in the
Deer Park, Isipatana.
When
these five (the Pancha-
i i
kl
OF THE M / r- ^
CM.
^
I
>^
^^^^&^) saw the Tathagata coming towards them, they agreed among themselves not to rise in salutation, nor greet him, nor offer him the customary refreshments, when he came, for he had broken his first vow by giving up ascetic practices. However when the Tathagata approached them,' they involuntarily rose from their seats, and in spite of their resolution greeted him and offered to wash his feet and do all that iie might require. But they addressed him as Gautama after hi^ family. Then the Lord said to them " Call me not after my private name, for it is a rude and careless way of addressing one who has become an arhat. My mind is undisturbed, whether people treat me with resBut it is not courteous for others to call pect or disrespect. one who looks equally with a kind heart upon all living beings by his familiar name. Buddhas bring salvation to the world, and therefore they ought to be treated with respect as children treat their fathers." Then he preached to them his first great sermon, the Dharmachakrapravartana Sutra^ in which he explained the Four Great Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, and made converts of them. They received the ordination and formed the first nucleus of the holy brotherhood of disciples known as the Sahgha. Soon after, one night the Blessed One met Yagas, the youthful son of a nobleman of Benares, who wa>^ wandering like a madman much distressed by the sorrows of this world. The Tathagata consoled him by pointing out the way to the blessedness of Nirvana, and made him his disciple. Seeing that Yagas had become a bhikshu, his former fifty-four jovial companions also joined the Sangha. The Blessed
:
One sent out these sixty as missionaries in different Shortly afterdirections to preach his universal religion. wards the Buddha had an accession of a thousand new disciples by the conversion of three leading .fire-worshipping
ascetics,
Uruvilva Kasyapa, Nadi Kasyapa and Gaya Kasyapa, all brothers, with all their followers. To these he preached on a hill near Gaya a sermon on the fire sacrifice. In this discourse he explained how ignorance produced the three fires of lust, hatred and delusion, which burnt all livmg beings, and how these three fires might be quenched by the giving up of sin and the pursuit of right conduct.
From GayS, followed by his numerous disciples the Blessed One proceeded to Kajagriha, the capital of Magadha. After his great renunciation Siddartha passed through Rajagriha, and Bimbis^ra, the king of Magadha, failing to dissuade him from his resolve to attain bodhi, requested the Bodhisattva to come back to Rajagriha after the accomplishment of his purpose and receive him as his disciple. In compliance with this request the Blessed One now visited King Bimbisara, hearing of the arrival of the Rajagriha. World-Honoured, went with his counsellors and generals to the place where the Blessed One was, and after hearing a discourse on the nature of the self, became a lay disciple. The, purport of this discourse was that the self, the so-called lord* of knowledge, was born of sensation and recollection, and its constancy was a mere delusion. After taking refuge in the Buddha the king invited the Blessed One to the royal palace, entertained him and his bhikshus and presented to the Saaghahis pleasure garden, the bamboo grove Veniivana, as a dwelling-place for the homeless disciples of the Great Teacher. A much more important event connected with the Blessed One's stay at Rajagriha was the conversion of SS,riputra and Maudgalyayana, both pupils of the wandering monk Saiijaya. One day as Asvajit, one of the first five that were ordained by the Buddha, was going on his alms-seeking round,Sariputra saw the noble and dignified mien of Asvajit, and asked him who his teacher was and what doctrine he professed. Asvajit replied that his teacher was the Blessed One and that following the Tath5.gatha's teaching he had renounced the world. On hearing this Sariputra went to Maudgalyayana and told him what he had heard. Then both of them went with all their followers to the Tathagata and took their refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The Buddha held both of them in high estimation for
their intelligence and learning. Some of the books of the Abhidharma, the philosophical part of the Tripitaka, are ascribed to these two learned bhikshus. Another worthy acquisition to the faith during the Master's stay in the Bamboo Grove was the Brahman sage, Maha Kasyapa, who had renounced his virtuous wife, his immense wealth and
lO
all his
possessions to find out the way of salvation. It was parijtirvdna of the Lord, held a council at Rajagriha under the patronage of King Ajatasatru, and collected the Tripitaka, the Buddhist canon, with the help of a large number of bhikshus. He was in fact the first patriarch of the Buddhist Church. During his active Hfe as a teacher, the Blessed One made many converts. High and low, rich and poor, educated and illiterate,) Brahmans and Chandalas, Jains and Ajivakas, house-holders and ascetics, robbers and cannibals,
he, who, after the
nobles and y3easants, men and wom.en--all classes and conditions of men furnished him with many disciples, both ordained and lay. Among his converts were King Prasenajit of Kosala, Panchasikha the follower of Kapila, Maha-Katyayana of Benares, King Udayana of Kausambi^
village
Kutadanta the head of the Brahman community of the of Danamati, Krishi Bharadvaja of the Brahman village of Ekanala, xAagulimala the bandit and assassin who was the terror of the kingdom of Kosala, Alavaka the the cannibal of Alavi, Ugrasena the acrobat, Upali the barber who had the honour of reciting the Vinaya collection of the Tripitaka in Kasyapa's Council, and Sunita the scaveniJjer who was despised of men. Some of the members of the Sakya clan who were the close kith and kin of Siddartha also became the followers of Sakyamuni. Suddhodana, the father of Siddartha, became a lay disciple, and
R[Lhula, his son, joined the Sangha. Yasodhara, the wife of Siddartha, and Prajapathi Gautami, his aunt, both joined the order of bhikshunis, which was established with some reluctance by the Master owing to the importunities of Prajapati Gautami and the intercession of Ananda. Ananda, who was the Buddha's constant companion and personal attendant, was one of his cousins. Another of his cousins was Devadatta who became notorious in later days by attempting to found a new sect of his own with severer and stricter rules than those prescribed by the Buddha. When he did not succeed in getting many
followers, even
though he had a special Vihara built for him by King Ajatasatru, the son of King Bimbisara, he plotted many schemes to take the life of Sakyamuni. Murderers
THE HlbTORIC BUDDHA.
IT
were set up to kill the Lord, but they were converted as soon as they saw him and listened to his preaching. The rock hurled down from the Gridhrakuta hill to hit the Master split in twain, and haply both pieces passed by without doing him much harm. The drunken elephant that was let loose on the royal highway just at the time when the Blessed One was coming along that path became docile in his
presence.
After these failures
Ajatasatru, suffering greatly
from ihe pans of conscience, sought peace in his distress by going to the Blessed One and learning the way of salvation. "Twelve of Buddha's disciples became famous as preachers. These were Ajnata Kaundinya, Asvajit, Sariputra, Maudgalyayana, Maha Kasyapa, MahaKatyayana, Anuruddha, Upali, Pindola Bharadvaja, Kausthila, Rahula, and Purna Maitrayaniputra. In the conversation with Subhadra " Save in my just before his death, the Blessed One said religion the twelve great disciples, who, being good themselves rouse up the world and deliver it from indifference, are not to be found."
:
Among
no names
the
are
many patrons and benefactors of the Buddha more famous than those of Anathapindika,
the supporter of the orphans, Jivaka the physician, Visakha, the mother of Migara, and Ambapali, the courtezan of Vaisall. Sudatta, called Anathapindika on account of his charities to the orphans and the poor, was a merchant of Sravashti of immense wealth He bought at an enormous price a magnificent park at Sravashti; from Prince Jeta, and built the splendid Jetavana Vihara for the Buddha and his ordained disciples. Jivaka was the renowned physician-inordinary to Bimbisara, and was appointed by the king to
undertake medical attendance on Buddha and his followers. It was at his instance that the bhikshus, who were previously wearing only cast-off rags, were permitted to accept robes from the laity. Visakha was the daughter-in-law of Migara, a rich Jain merchant of Sravashti,- but she was generally known as the mother of Migara, as she was the cause ofMigara's conversion to the Buddhist faith. She was the first to become a matron of the lay sisters, and obtained permission from the Lord to provide the chief necessaries of life on a large scale to the bhikshus and bhikshunis. Another service of hers

12
was the erection of the Viharaof Piirvarama near SrS.vashti, which in splendour was inferior only to the Viha,ra built Ambapali, who combined in her not by Anathapindika.
only great beauty but also rare musical talent, presented to the Master her stately mansion and mango grove and became a bhikshuni. In the time of Sakyamuni India was in a state of great There were many other religious intellectual ferment. teachers less known to fame than Gautama Buddha. The Buddhist books make special mention of at least six heretical teachers. One of them, Sanjaya Belatthiputta, repudiated all knowledge of the self, and propounded a kind Ajita Kesakambala rejected all claims to of Pyrrhonism. knowledge by higher insight, and admitting no other life, earth, water, air, fire resolved man into the four elements which dispersed at death. Piirana K^syapa was an in-
who acknowledged no moral distinctions, and consequently no merit or demerit. MakkhaH Gosala, probably the founder of 'he sect of Ajiyakas, was a fatalist who admittedno voluntary action and karma. According to him everything was impelled by niyati or fate to work out the law Man had no power to shape his own life. of its nature. Everything went through a fixed series of rebirths, and at the end of these the fool as well as the wise put a stop to pain. The Blessed One condemned Makkhali's teaching as the Nighanta Ng,taputta, better known as worst of all errors. Maha,vira among the Jains, was one of the renovators of the He taught the reality of individual souls and Jain faith. the continuance of personal identity after death. He not only believed in transmigration, but also carried down the course of metempsychosis below the level of animal existence to plants and inanimate things. His way of salvation was based on asceticism and inaction. He commended suicide as " good, wholesome, proper, beautifying, meritorious." The Jains claim that Mahavira had in his days nearly two hundred thousand followers, including monks, nuns, and laymen. The great popularity of the Master and the gifts which the pious laics bestowed on his followers created a jealousy These conin the hearts of the leaders of heretical sects.
differentist,
THE HISTORIC KUDDHA.
I3
spired to sully the reputation of Sakyamuniand ruin him in They induced a heretical nun, the eyes of the people. Chincha, to accuse the Master of adultery before the assemHer calumny was exposed and she was made to blage.
Not baffled by this failure terribly for her misdeed. the heresiarchs made a second attempt to slander the Master. This time they induced one Sundari, a member of one of the heretical sects, to spread a rumour that she passed one night in the bed-chamber of the Teacher. After this slander had been made sufficiently public, the heretics Sundari. bribed a gang of drunkards to assassinate These scoundrels killed her, and threw her corpse in the bushes close to the Jetavana Vihara. The heresiarchs then loudly clamoured for the institution of legal proceedings against the Lord. Luckily their plan failed owing to the imprudence of the assassins, who, reuniting after the murder in a tavern and excited by strong drink, quarrelled among themselves and reproached one another of having committed the crime. They were immediately arrested by When the police and brought before the royal tribunal. they were questioned as to the murder of Sundari, the scoundrels openly confessed their guilt, and declared also the names of those who had employed them to commit the crime. The king ordered the assassins as well as the instigators of the crime to be put to death. On another occasion the heretics instigated Srigupta to take the life of the Master by poisoning his food and misleading him into a pit of fire, but by pity and calm forgiveness the Holy One
suffer
" Saved Srigupta from spite
and crime
And showed how mercy conquers e'en a foe, And thus he taught Forgiveness' rule sublime,
To
/
I
free his followers
from the world and woe."

i
The manner in which the Enlightened One ordinarily spent each day was very simple. He used to rise up early, wash and dress himself without assistance. He would then meditate in solitude till it was time to go on his round for a meal. When the time arrived, he would, dressing himself suitably, with his bowl in hand, alone or attended by some disciples, visit the neighbouring town or village. After finishing his meal in some house, he would discourse on the
14
Dharma to the host and his family with due regard to their capacity for spiritual enlightenment, return to his lodgings and wait in the open verandah till all his followers had He would then retire to his private finished their meal. apartment and, after suggesting subjects for thought to some of his disciples, take a short rest during the heat of the day. In the afternoon he would meet the folk from the neighbouring villages or tow^n assembled in the lecture hall, and discourse to them on the Dharma in a manner appropriate Then, at the to the occasion and suited to their capacities. close of the day, after refreshing himself with a bath when necessary, he would explain difficulties or expound the doctrine to some of his disciples thus spending the first watch Part of the remainder he spent in meditation of the night. walking up and down outside his chamber, and the other During the nine months part sleeping in his bed-chamber. of fair wêather, the Lord was wont to go from place to place During the walking from fifteen to twenty miles a day. rainy season he generally stayed in the Jetavana Vihara or
in the
Purvarama.
The Blessed One's method of exposition was generally adapted to the capacities of his hearers. His discussions with the learned were more or less formal and often coldly logical,,. But in his conversation with ordinary men the Master generally resorted to similes and parables, fables and folklore, historical anecdotes and episodes, proverbs and popular sayings. The parable of the mustard seed, described in the next chapter, illustrates how the Holy One brought home plain truths to the minds of simple folk. In the conversion of the wealthy Brahman, Krishi Bharadvaja, the Buddha worked out the process of agriculture into an elabOne day while staying in the southern orate allegory.
district of
Magadha
village of
i^Dakshinagb-i) the
Buddha
visited the
Bharadvaja was then superinWith alms-bowl in tending the labourers in his field. hand the Blessed One approached the Brahman. Some went up and paid reverence to the Lord, but the Brahman re" O, Sramana, I plough and proached the Master saying sow, and having ploughed and sown, I eat it would be better if you were in like manner to plough and sow, and then
Ekanala.
:
Brahman
you would also have food to eat.'' " O Brahman," replied the Buddha, '* I too plough and sow, and having ploughed and sown, I eat." " But," said the Brahman, " if you are a husbandman, where are the signs of it ? Where are your Then the Teacher bullocks, the seed, and the plough." answered ; " Faith is the seed I sow devotion is the rain modesty is the plough-shaft the mind is that fertilizes it the tie of the yoke; mindfulness is my ploughshare and tenderness, to Truthfulness is the means to bind goad. Energy is my team and bullock. Thus this ploughuntie. The haring is effected, destroying the weeds of delusion. vest that it yields is the ambrosia fruit of Nirvana, and by
;
;
this ploughing all sorrow
is
brought to an end."
Then
the
Brahman poured
it
to the
Lord
milk-rice into a golden bowl and handed saying " Eat, Gautama, the milk-rice. In:
for thou, Gautama, accomdeed, thou art a husbandman plishest a ploughing, which yields the fruit of immortality." When the Holy One desired to point a moral or convey a reproof, he related an anecdote or a fable treating its characters as representing the previous existences of himself and the other persons concerned. Such anecdotes are known as Jatakas or birth stories. More potent than his word and his method was his wonderful personality. When he talked wath men, his lovely voice struck them with rapture and amazement. Could mere words have converted the robber Angulimala or the cannibal of Alavi ? To have
;
once
come under
is
is
his spell
is
to be
his
for
ever.
To meet
to
him him
to be penetrated
to love
by
his love
{maitri)^
and
know
him
for ever
In his last preaching tour the Master came to the town of Pava, and there in the house of Chunda, a worker in mietals, he had his last repast. After this he became ill, and moved to Kusinagara in the eastern part of the Nepalese Terai, where he died at the ripe age of eighty about 477 b. c."^
* The actual cause of the death'of the Buddha was, coupled with extreme old age, an attack of dysentery induced by a meal of suharamadilavi Some think that the dish consisted of the succulent parts of a young wild boar, while others suggest that sukara-maddava was an edible fungus or mushroom. One suggestion is that the dish consisted not of boar's flesh, but of ivkara Jianda^ the root of a bulbous plant which is an article of vegetarian diet.
l6
A
*^\
.^
in his last moments he received a monk Subhadra^ explained to him the Noble Eightfold Path, and converted him to the true faith. His last words to his disciples were " Decay is inherent in all compound things. Dharmakaya alone is eternal. Seek wisdom and work >ut your salvation with diligence." The remains of the Blessed One were burnt by the Mallas of Kusinagara with all the honours and pomp worthy of a king of kings. After cremation the relics were carried to the town-hall, and guarded there for a week covered by a cupola of lances in an enclosure of bows and honoured with garlands, prefumes, music and dances. When Ajatasatru, the king of Magada, heard of the death of the Lord at Kusinagara, he sent an ambassadaor to the Mallas of that place todemand of them a portion of the relics, as he desired to erect a tumulus (stupa) in honor of these relics. The same demand was also made by the Licchavis of Vaisali, the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, the Bulis of Alahappa, the Koliyas of R3,mii:
i
Even
grama and the Mallas of Pava. A Brahman of Vethadvipa also demanded a share on the plea of his being a Brahman.
At first the Mallas of Kusinagara were not willing to satisfy these demands, as the Lord attained parinirvana in their territory. But on the advice of the Brahman Drona, who pointed out to the Mallas the indecency of quarrelling over the relics of one who had preached universal brotherhood,
the Mallas of Kusinagara changed their mind. Drona was then entrusted with the distribution, and he took for himself the urn, over which he desired to erect a stupa. After the division the Mauryas of Pippalavana sent an envoy for demanding some relics, but they had to content themselves with the Those that received a share charcoal from the funeral pyre. of the relics {dhatu) preserved them in dagobas {dhdthugarbIt is said that has) erected in their respective countries. Emperor Asoka opened these ancient dagobas and distributed the relics contained in them all over his wide empire, and built more than eighty thousand stupas and dagobas for
their preservation.
Such
is real
is,
freed
from the fanciful additions of a pious
posterity, the life of the historic
history, is rather difficult to say.
Buddha. How much of it But as to the histor-

icity of
Gautama Sakyamuni himself there can be no doubt. Minayefif remarks in his Recherches sur le Buddhisme^ it is beyond doubt that grand historical personalities always appear specially at the commencement of great historic movements, and certainly it has been the case in the history
As
also
of Buddhism, and we cannot doubt that its development began with the work of a historical personality. There are, however, some orientalists like M. Emil Senart, who^ while not altogether denying the existence of the historic Buddha, try to make out that the few historic elements are so much encrusted with mythical outgrowths that it is almost impossible to determine the former with certainty. "It is necessary," says M. E. Senart in his Essai sur la Lege?ide die Buddh't, " to recognise that, on the whole, excepting a few authentic souvenirs which easily slip through our fingers, the legend of Buddha represents not a real life, nor even a life coloured with fanciful inventions, but it is essentially the poetical glorification of a mythological and divine type that popular veneration has fixed as an aureole on the head of a perfectly human real founder of a sect." Examining this view of M. Senart in his monograph on Mara und Buddha^ Dr. Ernst Windisch writes " When we
:
consider
how
;
he
travelled,
temporaries
critical to
how far how well-known he must have been to his conwhen we further consider how old certain texts,,
long he (Gautama Sakyamuni) lived,
Vtnayapttaka, are, it is certainly not unregard as historical what seems to be a historical This is more in accordance with the historic method reality. than to regard the simple narrative of the life and events of the time as the transfiguration of a myth into ordinary life. Besides, this process must have been effected in a tolerably For, against M. Senart's assertion that the short time. mythical tendency can be traced back to the earliest days of Buddhism, 1 venture to point out that in the oldest Buddhist literature we meet with only such tendencies as are generally characteristic of ordinary life, persons and events in which no impartial observer can find any trace of a myth. To the historical events which, according to M. Senart, can have only a mythical meaning, belongs above all the tradition that the Buddha attained the highest wisdom under a
at least parts of the
l8

The same
scholar notices in passing the
nycLgrodha tree."
view put forward by Dr. H. Kern that the legend may be taken as perfectly true if we regard it as a mythical transformation of astronomical phenomena, and disposes of it with the remark that Dr. Kern's remarkable knowledge of astronomy enables him to see stars twinkling in regions where there is not the smallest ground for any such assumption. Whatever may be the verdict of historic criticism on the details of the life of Gautama Sakyamuni, there can be no doubt that among the founders of religions he occupies a marked place. His dignified bearing, his high intellectual endowments, his penetrating glance, his oratorical power, the
firmness of his convictions, his gentleness, kindness, and all testify liberality, and the attractiveness of his character " Among heathen precursors of the truth," to his greatness. writes Bishop Milman, " I feel more and more that Sakya-
muni is the nearest in character and effect to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Similarly, says even Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, who has no end of charges against Buddhism '* Than Buddha there is with the sole exception of the Christ no purer, no more touching figure among the
:
His life is without blemish ; he is the founders of religions. finished model of heroism, the self-renunciation, the love, the sweetness he commands." But the impartial philosophic critic finds that Gautama Sakyamuni towers above the founders of all other religions by his life, by his personal character, by the methods of propagandism he employed,
and by
his final success.
Gautama Buddha, though born
of an aristocratic and ruling class, lived the life of an ordinary man, discarding the narrow distinctions of caste, rank and He knew the world. He was son, husband, father, wealth. and devoted friend. He was not only a man, but never professed to be anything more than a man. He gave a trial to the creeds of his ancestors, but ultimately made for himself a nobler faith. His teaching was perfect, but never pretended to be a supernatural revelation. He did not doubt the capacity of man to understand the truth. He based all his reasoning on the fact of man's existence, and developed his practical philosophy by the observation and minute study of human nature. In an age innocent of
I9
science he found for the problems of the Whence,the Whither and the Why solutions worthy of a scientific age. His aim was to rescue mankind from the fetters of passion and avarice and to convince them of an ideal higher than mere worldly good. He preached the gospel of renunciation -attainable by meditation, a renunciation which did not lead one to the dreamy quietism of pantheistic or nihilistic philosophy but to the purification of one's activity by intellectual and ethical enlightenment so as to bring one to the love of all beings by faith in an eternal Dharmakaya. Among the world's religious teachers Gautama Sakyamuni 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 in his raising the worth of all mankind," who is better entitled to be called truly great than the Blessed One, who, instead of degrading man by placing another being over him, has exalted him to the highest pinnacle of wisdom and love ? " It was the genius unequalled among the sons of men that inspired the Buddha's teaching. It was genius commanding in its dictatorial strength that held together his order. It was genius, the first and last that India saw, that in its lofty aims and universality, foreshadowed the possibility of uniting the people into one great nationality, if such had ever been possible." Indeed the Tathagata is the Light of the World. No wônder that even those who first rejected his teaching had at last to include him in their pantheon by making him an avatar of one of the very gods whom he had himself discarded To the unbiassed thinker even the legends which enshroud the life of Sakyasimha are not without significance. They a man of quiet set before him a truly admirable figure majesty, of wisdom and pleasant humour, consistent in thought, word and deed, of perfect equanimity and moral fervour, exempt from every prejudice, overcoming evil with good, and full of tenderness for all beings. When surrounded by all his retinue of followers, and glorified by the whole world, he never once thought that these privileges were his ; but went on doing good, just as the shower brings gladness, yet reflects not on its work. The Burmese relate
!
20
that,

hearing
all
people singing his praises, the Blessed

:
One
Ananda and said " All this is unworthy of me. No such vain homage can accomplish the words of the Dharma. They who do righteously pay me most honour, and please me most." In some of the legends, the so-called birthstories, the Buddha is represented as having voluntarily
called
/
endured
infinite trials
through rûmberless ages and births,
that he might deliver mankind, foregoing the right to enter Nirvana and casting himself agkin and again into the stream of human life and destiny for the sole purpose of teaching
the way of liberation from sorrow and suffering. The ideal of persistent energy thus held up before the disciple is intensely human. And even if the virtues of the Tathagata are infinitely superior to those of ordinary men, still the ideal can serve as a pattern and guide. The disciple can always take the Buddha as his model so that the recollection of his heroic and saintly life may assist him to be a hero and a saint as well. In his unbounded love for all beings Sakyamuni stands unparalleled. And it is not a poetic fancy but a profound philosophic truth that makes him the best " who loveth best All things both great and small."
tiîiii<

more a system of philosophy and practical If by religion we mean something which inspires enthusiasm and fervour, Buddhism is certainly a religion,as it has'given spiritual enthusiasm and joy to nearly five hundred millions of the world's population, and has served to carry men through material pains and evils and to make them their conquerors. But if we take as the beginning of religion the fear of God, or the dread of the unknown, or the hankering for the unseen and the unintelligible, or the feeling for the infinite. Buddhism is certainly not a religion. The most striking feature of Buddhism is that it eschews all hypotheses regarding the unknown, and concerns itself
is
BUDDHISM
ethics than a religion.
wholly with the facts of life in the present work-a-day world. " There are, O The Blessed One once told a Brahman Brahman, many Sramanas and Brahmanas that maintain that night is day, and day is night. But I, Br ihman, maintain that night is night and day is day." To another Brahman he flatly said: "The Tathagata is free from all theories." The starting point for Buddhism is not dogma or belief in the supernatural, but the fact of the existence of sorrow and suffering, not merely the sorrow and suffering of the poor and
:
the wretched, but also of those that live in the lap of luxury. Its goal is not heaven or a union with God or Brahman, but to find a refuge for man from the miseries of the world in the safe haven of an intellectual and ethical life through self-
conquest and self-culture. Standing on the firm rock of facts, Buddhism, unlike the so-called revealed religions, has never contested the prerogative of reason to be the ultimate criterion of truth. The Blessed One exhorted his disciples thus " Do not believe in traditions merely because they have been handed down for
:
many generations and in many places ; do not believe in anything because it is rumoured and spoken of by many ; do not believe because the written statement of some old sage is produced do not believe in what you have fancied, thinking that
;
22
because it is extraordinary, it must have been implanted by a deva or a wonderful being. After observation and analysis,, when it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.""*^ Accordingly Buddhism requires nothing to be accepted on trust without inquiry. It does not want one to believe in order to " It. is believunderstand. To no question does it answer
:
because it is so absurd; it is true,because it is so impossible." It has been sometimes said that the " will to believe" plays a more important part in life than reason. If we once grant the will to believe, we must equally grant the will to disbelieve. Further, what is the will to believe, but the will to hold something certain which one feels to be uncertain,, the determination to beguile and hypnotise oneself in such a way as to accept as true w^hat is clearly perceived to be error ? The will to believe is nothing else than the will to deceive, first oneself and then, naturally, others. It is only a euphonious name for hypocrisy, which may be good for a church or a Jesuit, but not for religion or the seeker after
able,
truth.
The Blessed One rejects

ity
as worthless all recourse to author-
and revelation
for deciding
between truth and
error.
The
regards the frequent citation of the " holy " words of the Vedas by the Brahmans as the vain repetition of the words of others and not as indicative of faith. " It is as if a number of blind men were leading one another the first one does not see ; neither does the middle one see ; nor does the last The Enlightened One draws a clear distinction see." between " the mere reception of the truth " and " the knowledge of the truth." Just as a spoon holding honey knows not the flavour of what it holds, so does a man who has simply received the truth with a believing heart. Just as a slave mounting up to the place from which a king has addressed his retinue and repeating the same words cannot become a king, just as the mere writing on the sand of the words " come hither " cannot make the bank of a river move from one side to the other,similarly the mere acceptance of doctrine or dogma on the authority of others can never
;
Buddha
Kaldrtia Sutta^ Anguttara NiJCaya.
25
lead to enlightenment, to that spiritual comprehension which alone can bring about freedom from sorrow. On the other hand the knowledge of the truth involves both a subjective and an objective element, and therefore possesses two criteria. Firstly the perception of truth is possible only for a mind free from prejudice and passion. Secondly, as truth never lies on the surface, it needs pains to dive deep and grasp it. Higher than the knowledge of the truth is its internal appropriation, the practical realization of the truth through suitable training and development of one's intellectual and moral powers, the acquisition of enlightenment by investigation and contemplation coupled simultaneously with moral rectitude and love for all beings. In Buddhism there are no beliefs which are not the outcome of knowledge. It does not constrain the rational human mind to dwell upon insoluble problems. Is the world eternal, or is it not eternal ? Is the world finite, or is it not finite ? Such questions have no value for Buddhism. '* These inquiries," says the Blessed One " have nothing to do with things in Potthapada Siitta^ as they are, with the realities we know ; they are not concerned with the law of life ; they do not make for right conduct ; they do not conduce to the absence of lust, to freedom from passion, to right effort, to higher insight, to inward peace." Nor does Buddhism contain anything In his last moments the Lord said to esoteric or mystic. " I have preached the truth without making any l\ Ananda ^distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrine ; for in "Tespect of the Dharma, Ananda, the Tathagata has no such thing as the closed fist of a Teacher who holds something back." On another occasion the Buddha said " Secrecy is characteristic of three things women who are in love
:
seek secrecy and shun publicity ; so also do priests who claim to be in possession of special revelations, and all those who stray from the path of truth. Three things shine They are the before the world and cannot be hidden. moon, the sun, and the truth proclaimed by the Tathagata. There is no secrecy about them." Such dicta flatly contradict the oft-repeated assertion that the Buddha taught during his lifetime secrets to his favourite disciples, or left a
^
24
so-called

" esoteric doctrine
down among
'' to be treasured and handed a select few, but held back from the common herd. Nor is there the smallest justification for classing Buddhism with the various oriental mystifications. On the other hand it is found to be the very negation of all mysticism in both religion and philosophy. It is the only religion which does not lean for its support on the glamour of the unintelligible. It is the only religion which is a priori not in contradiction with the discoveries of science. No divorce between science and religion will ever be possible in Buddhism as in other religions. Though the Buddha had not the same detail of scientific information at his disposal as we possess to-day, he was still familiar with the essential problems of psychology, philosophy and religion. He saw in broad outline the correct solution of the problem of religion. He taught a religion based upon facts to replace a religion based upon the assumptions of dogmatic belief.
Though
blindly,
faith
belief in
the
it
Dharma does
lays
not
ask you
is
to
believe
still
great
faith
stress
upon the
cultivation of
{sraddha).
By
of
course
not meant
the
something which is irrational and absurd, or the belief in creeds or dogmas, or the determination to be satisfied with unproved and unwarranted statem.ents, but While reason the conviction that truth can be found. enables man to arrange and systematise knowledge so as to construct truth, faith gives him determination, to be Faith becomes supertrue to his convictions and ideals. stition when it parts company with reason, and worse still
when
faith
it
fronts
it
in flat
contradiction, but reason without
would turn a man into a machine without enthusiasm Reason seeks disinterestedly to realise right for his ideals order where it is not, but faith gives character and strength
of
break through the five hindrances of mental sloth, While reason malice, spiritual pride and pyrrhonism. rejoices in the truths it has already found, faith helps it onward to further conquests, to aspire after the attainment of what has not yet been attained, to work strenuously for the realisation of what has not yet been realised. It is faith alone that can transform cold abstract rationalism into a The Blessed One said religion of fervent hope and love.
will to
lust,
:

"
25
By faith one crosses over the stream, By strenuousness the sea of life By steadfastness all grief he stills, By wisdom is he purified."
People fancy that they can look for Buddhism in books and It is no doubt true that the Buddhists all over the world possess books, called the Tnpitaka, which are
,
scriptures.
divided into Sutra, Vi'naya, and Abhidharma\ the first containing the conversations of the Buddha with some one of his audience, the second the discipline established by him for his ordained disciples, and the last the discussions by known authors on philosophical subjects. But ever since the earliest times the Buddhist brotherhood has been divided There have been (our 7nkdyas into many schools and sects. and eighteen sects. The members of one and the same nikdya have never been in perfect agreement among themselves, not to speak of their disagreement with the other Traditions have been opposed to traditions. In groups. each sect again there have been Sautrantikas, Vainayikas, and Abhidharmikas. The Sautrantikas and the Abhidharmikas of one and the same sect have never agreed with each other, and the Sautrantikas of one sect have been opposed by those Even at the present day the Buddhists may of a rival sect. be classified into three groups the Southern, who abide in Ceylon, Burma, Siam and Anam ; the Northern who live in Tibet, China, Manchuria, Mongolia, and Siberia ; and the The southEastern who are found in Japan and Formosa ern Buddhists follow the Hlnayana or the Lesser Vehicle ; the northerns are Lamaistic and highly ritualistic and the easterns are followers of the Mahayana or the Greater Now the TripiJ3aka of the Hinayanikas is not the Vehicle. Which of these schools same as that of the Mahayanikas then has really preserved the words of the Teacher ? There is only one way out of the difficulty, and that is the one pointed out by the author of Cikshdsamucchaya: " Yadkinchid subhd:
shitam tad sarvam biiddhabhdshitam. Whatsoever is rightly spoken and free from error, that is the teaching of the Buddha." Nothing can be the teaching of the Lord which does not conform to reason and experience. Such was also the dictum laid down by the Council of Vaisali which met
26
a hundred years after the death of the Master to settle the disputes between the rival sects into which the Buddhist community had become split up.* Truly speaking there is only one way {ekaydna) shown by the Lord to the summiim bonum, and that is the way of reason (tatvaydna)^ but from a practical point of view one may distinguish three means. These means are, in plain language, piety, philosophy, and striving for the welfare of These are respectively designated by one's fellow beings. the terms Srdvakaydna^ Pratyekabuddhaydna^ and Bodhisatvaydna. Higher than the simple piety of the srdvaka or iipdsaka^ is the self-acquired enlii^'htenment of the pratyekabuddha or arhat ; higher than this enlightenment for one's own salvation is the unselfish devotion of the bodhisativa
to the spiritual elevation of others. The highest unity which embraces all these three is that of the samyak sambuddha,
Sakyamuni, becomes the universal like Gautama That such is the manner in which the teacher of the world. so-called vehicles are to be understood is shown by the parable in the Satdharmapundarlkam of a man who, seeing his house on fire and his children playing unconcernedly within it, induces them to come out by the promise of toys. Here the Tathagata is the father who sees his children playing in the consuming fire of worldliness and employs different expedients to bring them out of this burning house and lead them to the safe asylum of Nirvana. These different ydnas prove the universality of Buddhism, making it suitable for the highest as well as the lowest order of intelligence the former being supplied with the religion of the intellect and the latter with the religion of the emotions. Some of the popular phases of Buddhism, such as reverence paid to the Master's relics and images and the frequent invocation of the name of Amita, seem to But it must conflict with its highly rationalistic character.
who,
* " In
their
;:
philosophical expositions," says Wassiljew in his "the Buddhists set aside the Sutras,which serve as the basis of their religion. They have regard only for the general Talidity of ideas and for logical and psychological laws and only with the help of these they give a conspectus of their views and interpret them."
Buddhismus
(p. 288),
2^
not be forgotten that the religion of the common people is never a true picture of the religion they profess. In every form of Buddhism the road to the attainment of the siimmiim boniim lies always through the contemplation of the Four Great Truths and the pursuit of the Noble Eightfold Path. But, as Itsing, the Chinese pilgrim, remarks, " the meaning of the truths is so profound that it is a matter beyond the comprehension of vulgar minds, while the ablution of the holy image is practicable to all. Though the Great Teacher has entered Nirvana, yet his image exists, and we should revere it wîth zeal as though in his very presence. Those who constantly offer incense and flowers to it are enabled to purify their thoughts, and those who frequently bathe this image are enabled to overcome their sins that involve them In the same strain said the Regent of Tibet in darkness." " When Buddhists look upon to Col. Younghusband an image of the Buddha, they put aside thoughts of strife, and think only of peace." In the reverence paid to the images or the relics of the Blessed One there is no implication of grace, of providence, of recompense effected by a God, or of succour furnished by a saviour. On the other hand such a notion is categorically discarded by the Buddhists. As the commentator on the Bodhichary avatara " ISiikhasya dhukkasya no kopi data^ parodailatiti says kubuddhiresha. It is a foolish idea to supose that another can cause us happiness or misery." The result of devotion is independent of the object worshipped and is entirely subjective. Says Nagasena in Milindapanha: " Men by offering reverence to the relics of the jewel treasure of the wisdom of the Tathagata, though he has died away and accept it not, cause goodness to arise within them, and by that assuage and allay the torment of the threefold fire." Devotion is beneficial and salutary, because it favours humility and destroys the thought of self. Just as the Buddha resorted to tales and parables as a means of moral and spiritual instruction, so also imagination the Buddhist philosophers employed the as an instrument for the spiritual elevation of ordinary mankind. But it is evident from their philosophical works that they did not themselves believe in the reality of
:
28
their
fanciful creations. Among such creations are be included the various Dhyani-lkdhisativas and Dhyani-buddhas. The former enabled Buddhism to coalesce
to
with the pre-existing religions of the various peoples to whom it passed, though such coalition not infrequently proved disastrous to the Dharma itself by making it lose its specific features. By the application of one of their fundamental doctrines, namely, the Jataka theory, the Buddhists transformed the gods of the peoples they came in contact with into Bodhisattvas or Avataras of the primordial Buddha. The Dhyani-buddhas are supposed to represent the ideal counterparts of the actual Buddhas. Amitabha, the ideal counterpart of the historic Gautama Buddha, is regarded as dwelling in Sukhavati, the land of bliss, but represents nothing more than the infinite light dwelling in the hearts of men, which, if followed, will lead to the blissful port of Nirvana. It is the name of this Dhyani-buddha that is often invoked by the Japanese Buddhists. In what spirit the Japanese Buddhist invokes the name of Amita is revealed by the following quotation from a leaflet published by the Buddhist Propagation Society of " Rejecting all religious austerities and other action, Japan. giving up all idea of self-power, we rely upon Amita Buddha with the whole heart for our salvation in the future life, which is the most important thing believing that at the moment of putting our faith in Amita Buddha our salvation is settled. From that moment the invocation of his name is observed to express gratitude and thankfulness for Buddha's mercy moreover, being thankful for the reception of this doctrine from the founder and succeeding chief priests whose teachings were so benevolent and as welcome as light in a dark night, we must ever keep the laws which are fixed for our duty during our whole life." Nevertheless all cult of adoration is foreign, not to say antagonistic, to the most elementary principles of Buddhism. As the author " Hitasamsana matrena of the Bodhicharyavatara says buddhapiija visishyate. It is by the practice of good deeds we render to Buddha the most perfect adoration." In another verse the same author interprets the worship of the
readily
:
29
Tathagata as the getting rid of the sorrows of the world and giving happiness to all beings. Not infrequently people confound the Buddhist tricaranas, or the vows of taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, with what is ordinarily called prayer. In Buddhism there is no such thing as prayer. The Blessed One rejects all prayer for an object, which, as George Meredith says, is " the cajolery of an idol, the resource of superstition." In the place of prayer we have what is called prantdhdna. But this is no begging. It is only a self-discipline
which
is
capable of producing nothing more than
subjective results. No more is expected from it than what Kant speaks of as the natural effects of prayer, namely, that the dark and confused ideas present in the mind are either clarified, or that they receive a higher degree of intensity, or that the motives of a virtue receive greater efficacy. Rationality and sanity are in evidence in all points of Buddhism. The Buddha does not claim superiority by virtue of any transcendental peculiarity of his nature, surpassing everything terrestrial. It may be true that one of the eighteen sects, the Lokottaravddma, contend that the Tathagata is not subject to worldly laws. But this is a small minority. And the Buddha himself has clearly told us how he became
Buddha by a course of moral preparation and by the acquirement of the necessary knowledge, which it is in the power of every mortal to attain by a severe struggle. The Buddha did not say " You must not trust to yourself. You must depend wholly on me. You cannot be righteous except through a power implanted in you from above"; but he has repeated times without number: "You must trust to yourselves. You can take nothing from me. You must be righteous through your own efforts. You have to depend
a
:
on yourselves for the final getting rid of all selfishness and hence all suffering." In his last moments he spoke to Ananda as follows " Surely, Ananda, should there be any one who harbours the thought, It is I who will lead the brotherhood,' or the Order is dependent on me,' it is he
:
lay down instructions in any matter concerning the Order. The Tathagata thinks not, Ananda, that he should lead the Brotherhood or the Brotherhood is depend-
who should
30
ent on him. Why, then, should he leave instruction in any matter concerning the Order ? Therefore, O Ananda, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye refuges to yourselves. Hold Hold fast as a refuge to the fast to the truth as a lamp. Look not for refuge to any one beside yourselves." truth. Another testimony of the rationality of Buddhism is its That in a religion attitude towards miracles and wonders. which recognises no supernatural or extramundane god there can be no miraculous interference from outside nature needs Nevertheless the possibihty of acquiring so special proof. wonderful powers by wholly natural means is not denied. The Buddha is described in the legend as acquiring the six abhijnas with the attainment of perfect enlightenment. Further the legend speaks of the concurrence of wonderful natural phenomena, such as earthquakes and thunderstorms, with events of extraordinary ethical significance. Still the disciples of the Buddha are not permitted under any circumstances to work wonders or boast of supernatural powers to raise themselves in the esteem of others. The legend says that Pindola, being challenged by heretics to work a miracle, flew up into the air, and brought down an alms-bowl which had been fixed on a pole. The Buddha reproved him for this, and forbade his disciples to work miracles for display. On one occasion some of his adherents entreated the Buddha to permit his missionaries to work wonders, as that would The Buddha replied as elevate them in the eyes of others. " There are three kinds of miracles. The first is follows :* the miracle of power, in which extraordinary power is manifested, as in walking on water, exorcising devils, raising the dead and so forth. When the believer sees such things his faith may become deepened, but it would not convince the unbeliever, who might think that these things are done by I therefore see danger in such miracles, the aid of magic. and I regard them as shameful and repulsive. The second is the miracle of prophecy, such as thought-reading, soothsaying, fortune-telling, etc. Here also there would be disappointment, for these too in the eyes of the unbeliever would be no better than extraordinary magic. The last is the miracle When any of my disciples brings round a of instruction.
Kevaddha
Sutta.
man
by instruction to employ rightly

that
is
his intellectual
and
the true miracle." Thus did the Blessed One without denying the possibility of all miracles forbid the making of converts by all other means than
ethical powers,
argument and instruction. What methods the Blessed One employed when he was expected to work a miracle is clearly shown by the interesting Ki2:agotami, a young woman, had legend of Kisagotami. an only son, and he died. In her grief she carried the corpse from house to house, asking for medicine. The
" You have lost your senses people reproved her saying are asking medicine for your dead boy." At last one man advised her to go to Sakyamuni, the Buddha, who was the Great Physician that could give aid to all. So Kisagotami repaired to the Blessed One and implored him to give the medicine that would cure her boy. The Buddha " I shall cure your boy, if you bring a handful answered of mustard seed from a house where no one has lost a child, husband, parent or friend." So she wandered from door to door, and the people, through pity, readily offered her mustard seed. But when she questioned if a son or daughter, a father or mother had died in the family, the answer she received everywhere was '* Alas the living are only few, but the dead are many." All day long she wandered through the city, and at last when night set in " Ah, it is a difficult task. she began to think I thought that my son alone died, but in this city the dead are more numerous than the living.
:
you
*'
This
is
Not
For
This
for
all
is
the law not only for villages or towns, one family is this the law the wide worlds, both of men and gods, the law that all must pass away."
;
she thought so, her selfish affection for her child disappeared. She went to the forest, buried the child, and The Holy One comforted returned to the Blessed One. her by preaching to her the Dharma, which serves as a soothing balm to all troubled hearts.
When
Of Buddhism alone can

all
it
be affirmed that
to produce
it is
free
fanaticism.
Its
aim being
in every
man
from a
self-
thorough internal transformation by
self-culture
and
32
conquest, how can it have recourse to might or money or even persuasion for effecting conversion ? The Tathagata has only shown the way to salvation, and it is left to each individual to decide for himself if he would follow it. Every religion ministers to certain needs and inclinations, and, however superstitious it may appear at first sight, contains some germs of truth. Buddhism endeavours tO' point out those germs of truth and nourish them by giving a new and better interpretation. The Master has said " Revere your own, revile no brother's faith. The light you see is from Nirva^â's sun,
:
Whose
rising splendours promise perfect day.
The feeble rays that light your brother's path Are from the self -same sun, by falsehoods hid, The lingering shadows of the passing night." Accordingly the Buddhist kings of the world have been the most tolerant and benign. Emperor Asoka, though an ardent Buddhist himself, showered his gifts on the Brahmans, the Jains, the Ajivakas as well as the Buddhists. " Whosoever raises In his twelfth rock-edict Asoka says his own sect to the skies, and disparages all other sects from special attachment to his own with a view to encourage it, does thereby much harm to his own sect." The Buddhist kings of Ceylon in the Middle Ages were kind
:
and considerate to the followers of the other faiths that thenprevailed in their country. The Pala kings of Bengal, who were zealous Buddhists, bestowed sjifts also upon the Brahmans. But Pushyamitra, who adored and sacrificed to the Devas, destroyed many Sangharamas and killed the bhikshus who dwelt there. Sulapani, the great founder of the Bengal school of law, made the very sight of a Buddhist atonable only by the most severe penances. The Brahmans make a boast of their persecution of the Buddhists and the
In China the Buddhists were thrice persecuted Jains. Nor did Buddhism very severely by the Confugianists. escape persecution at the hands of the Japanese Shintoists. Islam was perpetuated by persecution and bloodshed. Christianity has cost two thousand years of war, persecution,, But millions of money and thousands of human lives. Buddhism, even where it was persecuted has never persecuted in return. Nowhere in the Buddhist books do
"

we
find
35
such sentiments as are breathed by the follow" But these mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay be" And whosoever shall not receive you, nor fore me." hear your words it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for them." Compare with these words the following admonition of the Blessed One in the Saddharmapundarikam " The strength of charity is my abode the apparel of forbearance is my robe and voidness (self-lessness) is my let (the preacher) take his stand on this and preach. seat When clods, sticks, pikes, or abusive words, or threats fall to the lot of the preacher, let him be patient thinking of me." The model placed before the Buddhist preacher is Purna, an emancipated slave, who, after becoming a rich merchant, renounced everything and became a bhikshu. When he was informed of the perils of his enterprise to preach the Dharma " When I am reproached, I shall to a wild tribe, he replied think within myself that these are certainly good people, since they do not beat me. If they begin to beat me with fists, I shall think they are mild and good, because they do If they proceed to this, I shall not beat me with clubs. think that they are excellent, for they do not strike me dead. If they kill me, I shall die saying How good they are in freeing me from this miserable body.' The missionary impulse of Buddhism is a product sui generis. It is wholly foreign to Brahmanism the Brahman loves and lives a lonely supercilious life. On the other hand the Buddhist can not do without propagating his faith. The psychology of Buddhism leads to those universal relations between man and man which are summed up in the idea of And it is this universal idea which produces brotherhood. the universal feeling termed the missionary motive. Of all " Go ye, gifts the gift of the Dharma is the greatest. O bhikshus, for the benefit of the many, for the welfare of mankind, out of compassion for the world. Preach the doctrine which is glorious in the beginning, glorious in the middle, and glorious in the end, in the spirit as well as in the There are beings whose eyes are scarcely covered letter. with dust, but if the doctrine is not preached to them they
ing
: :
'
34
can not attain salvation. Proclaim to them a life of holiness. They will understand the doctrine and accept it." Such were the loving words addressed by the Exalted One to his disciples. In strict accordance with this mandate, the disciples of the Great Teacher have always considered others Forgetful of home and first and themselves afterwards. life, indifferent to renown and failure, they have laboured to open the eyes of the crowds deceived by false teaching. To spread the holy doctrine they travelled over lands and seas, crossed through snowy mountains and sandy deserts, braved all toils and dangers. The names of Kumarajiva, Fa Hian, Huen Thsang, Hui Shen, Dipankara Srignana are sufficient evidence of the strength and enthusiasm which the Dharma can inspire into the minds of its adherents. Without the aid of the sword, or Maxim guns, or howitzers, Buddhism carried its message of peace and good-will to the barbarous hordes of the most populous parts of Asia and civilized them. " How a religion which taught," says
viduality
Muller, " the annihilation of all existence, of all indiand personality as the highest object of all endeavours, could have laid hold of the minds of millions of human beings, and how, at the same time, by enforcing the duties of morality, justice, kindness, and selfbeneficial sacrifice, it could have exercised a decidedly influence not only on the natives of India, but on the lowest barbarians of Central Asia, is a riddle which no one has been able to solve." But the riddle is by no means insolvable, if due regard is paid to the spirit of tolerance It that characterizes the religion of the Blessed Teacher. was its benign tolerance that enabled Buddhism to accommodate itself to the minds and ways of animistic and ancestor-worshipping races and vastly elevate them in the scale Without its character of universality the of civilization. Dharma would never have been capable of developing those marvellous faculties of assimilation which we observe in its attitude to the Bon in Tibet, the Tao in China, the Shinto It is in Japan, the Nat in Burma, and the Preta in Ceylon. its character of being an dgama^ a preparation for the attainment of truth, and not a dogmatic religion like Christianity or Islam, that gives Buddhism sufficient breadth and supple-
Max
35
ness to comprehend theism as well as atheism, monism as well as dualism, polytheism and pantheism, fetichism and animism, idolatry and iconomachy, contemplative C[uietists and boisterous jumpers, gods and demons, saints and heroes, higher beings and lower beings, worlds above and worlds below, heavens and hells and yet makes it the one religion which imposes no dogma or article of faith on any of its followers. If on the whole the underlying spirit leads to a beautiful and noble life, and manifests itself in kindness, charity and tolerance, in forbearance and forgiveness, in fortitude and cheerfulness, in a sense of the largeness and mystery of things, why should not a little superstition be permitted ? Among religions. Buddhism is the only one that breathes a spirit of unbounded generosity and compassion for all Nowhere in the life of the Buddha do we come beings. across the drowning of pigs by handing them over to devils, or the cursing of fig trees for not bearing fruit out of season. Buddhism has always shrunk from inflicting pain even in Not only did it teach that knowledge self-defence. {pragnd) without benevolence (niaitri) is barren, but it carried out this teaching so consistently in practice as even It has always deprecated to endanger its own existence. war between nation and nation. It has constantly disIt sought everywhere to couraged capital punishment.
;
As the Mahavastu says, it is the abolish bloody sacrifices. advent of the Buddha that put an end to asvmnedham^ puru shamedham pundarikam and other kinds of abomina^
tions in India. tangible way in
which a religion manifests
its
actual in-
fluence
is
upon
it
civilization is art.
The great
glory of
Buddhism
tic aspirations.
has always ministered to the satisfaction of aestheWherever Buddhism has prevailed, artistic pagodas, vast viharas, beautiful stupas have come into existence. The finest buildings in Japan are the Buddhist temples. The beauty and charm of the frescoes of Ajanta caves serve as monumental proofs of the wonderful inspiration which the religion of the Tathagata imparted to art. Brahmanism had no art of its own in India, and the plastic arts of later Vaishnavism and Saivaism are the bastard children of the
that
36

As Dr. GriinwedeP says, "the so far as we are now acquaintbased essentially upon Buddhist elements so
sculpture of the bhikshus.

figurative part of
Brahman
art,
ed with
it,
is
so indeed that the Saiva figures which originated at the same time as the Northern Buddhist,appear to have fixed types, whilst the iconography of the Vishnu cult embraces chiefly Buddhist elements to which different interpretation has been given. But still more dependent on Buddhism are the representations of Jaina arts." In satisfying the aesthetic aspirations of its adherents Buddhism has in no way deviated from its fundamental principles. For the Buddhist all enjoyment is negative, and only by the perpetuation of this negation can selfishness be destroyed. In the appreciation of the artistic and the beautiful one loses one's self. Hence a fostering of the love of the beautiful can not but minister to individual salvation, and the promotion of art necessarily serves as a means of universal salvation. Not only for the arts, such as architecture and sculpture,, painting and engraving, is India indebted to Buddhism, but also for science and culture in general. The best era of Indian medicine was contemporary with the ascendancy of Buddhism. The ancient Brahmans might have derived the rudiments of anatomy from the dissection of animals in sacrifices. But the true schools of Indian medicine rose in the public hospitals established by Asoka and other Buddhist kings in every city. ^ Charaka, the author of the well-known Charakasanhtta, was the court physician of the Bhuddhist king Kanishka. Nagarjuna^ infused new life into the science of Ayur Veda. To his lofty intellect and extensive scholarship India owes the revised edition of Su^ruta now The latter part of Sugruta's treatise, which bears in use. the name of Uttaratantra^ is entirely the work of Nagarjuna's independent research and thought. In the spirit of a true Buddhist Nagarjuna popularised the science of Ayur Veda by teaching it without reserve to all classes without distinction of caste. All sciences and arts were studied
Buddhistische Kunst in Indian. The Buddha taught ** Whosoever would wait on me, wait on the sick " Mahavagga. He was the fourteenth patriarch.
* 2
:
much
let
him

in the chief centres
37
of Buddhist civilization, such as the great Buddhist university of Nalanda. According to the great orientalist Theodore Benfey the very bloom of the intellectual life of India, whether it found expression in Buddhist or Brahminical works, proceeded substantially from the Dharma, and was contemporaneous with the period in which Buddhism flourished. " The noblest survivals of Buddhism in India," says Sir W. W. Hunter, " are to be found, however, not among any peculiar body, but in the religion of the people; in that principle of the brotherhood of man, with the reassertion of which each new revival of Hinduism starts ; in the asylum which the great Vaishnava sect affords to women, who have fallen victims to caste rules, to the widow and the outcaste in that gentleness and charity to all men, which take the place of a poor law in India, and give a high significance to the half satirical epithet of the
;
Hindu." When Buddhism took root in China, it new development and gave such a great impetus to Confucianism as to produce in it some deep thinkers like Luh Siang San, Chu Tze and Wan Yang Ming. Wherever
*
mild
'
started a
Buddhism entered into the life of a people, it always gave them refinement and embellishment. In his ThingsJapanese
" All education was Prof. Basil Hall Chamberlain says for centuries in Buddhist hands, as was the care of the
:
sick. Buddhism introduced art, introduced medimoulded the folklore of the country, created the dramatic poetry, deeply influenced politics and every sphere of social and intellectual activity. In a word Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese nation grew up." The tree is known by its fruits. Buddhism put reason in
poor and
cine,
the place of authority

tion to
it
discarded metaphysical specula;
make room
for the practical realities of life
it
raised
the self-perfected sage to the position of the gods of theology it set up a spiritual brotherhood in place of hereditary priesthood it replaced scholasticism by a popular doctrine of righteousness ; it introduced a communal life in the place of isolated anchoret life it infused a cosmopolitan spirit against national exclusiveness. Dogma and miracle are wisdom to the Christian kismet and fanaticism are
;
3^

;
to the Moslem caste and ceremonialism are wisdom Brahman asceticism and nakedness are wisdom to the Jain mysticism and magic are wisdom to the Taoist formalism and outward piety are wisdom to the Confucian ; ancestor- worship and loyalty to the Mikado are wisdom to-
wisdom
to the
the Shintoist ; but love and purity are the first wisdom to the Buddhist. To work out his salvation the Buddhist must renounce all selfish desires, and live to build up a character of which the outward signs are purity of hearty compassion for all, courage and wisdom born of calm insight into truth, and that tolerance and freedom of thought which does not hinder one's house-mates in possessing their beliefs in peace. Of Buddhism alone can it be said that it has discarded all animism, all dogmatism, all sensuality, all asceticism, all ceremonialism, that it consists in charity and It alone benevolence, self-denial and self-consecration. teaches that there is hope for man only in man, and that
Which
" that love is false clings to love tor selfish sweets of love."
"MlOl""""*

is the freedom from sorrow and This cannot be attained except by the destruction of all selfish cravings. The self as such manifests its activity in trishna or grasping desire. If the self is to be annihilated, trishna must be suppressed. For the annhilalation of an organ really consists in reducing the interval of time between two inhibitory states of that organ. Accordingly, if the self, considered as the organ producing sorrow and misery, is to be annihilated, it can be effected only by the infinite prolongation of the state in which all trishna or updddna is absent, that is to say, only by the continual avoidance of all evil and the doing of good.
THE
goal of
Buddhism
suffering.
" If the Noble Path be followed, Rest and freedom will be raan's If êlfishness be his guide, Sin and trouble will dra^ him along."
human beings become evil by ten transgresand by the avoidance of these their conduct becomes good. These ten transgressions are the three sins of the /body, the four sins of speech, and the three sins of the mind. ^ The three sins of the body are murder, theft and adultery. The four sins of speech are lying, slander, abuse and idle
All acts of
sions,
talk. The three sins of the mind are covetousness, hatred and error. " If a man having such faults," says the Blessed One, " does not repent, but allows his heart to remain at When rest, sins will rush upon him like water to the sea. vice has thus become more powerful, it is still harder than before to abandon it. If a bad man, becoming sensible of his faults, abandons them and acts virtuously, his sins will day by day diminish and be destroyed, till he obtains full
enlightenment." Accordingly the Enlightened One taught the following ten precepts* for the guidance and salvation of
his followers.
* These ten precepts (daqoJiv(âlani) should not be confounded with the ten precepts (da(}aqiksha.pada) specially intended for the Sramaneras. The ten virtues here enumerated are to be practised by all Buddhists.

40
I. From the meanest worm up to man you shall kill no animal whtUsoever, but shall have regard for all life. " Let him not destory, or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, or sanction the acts of those who do so. Let him refrain even from hurting any creature, both those that are strong, and those that tremble in the world." Dhammika Suita'' " Suffuse the world with friendlines let all creatures, both strong and weak, see nothing that will bode them harm and they will learn the ways of peace." Chulla Vagga, In accordance with the spirit of this precept Buddhists all over the world have abstained from killing animals either for pastime or for sacrifice. In Ancient India before the birth of Buddhism the slaughtering of animals for sacrifice was exceedingly common. In the Satapatha Brdhmana, it is stated that men, horses, bulls, rams and she-goats were used for sacrifice. In the Asvaldyana Sutra mention is made of several sacrifices in which the slaughter of cattle formed a part. One of them is called Sulagdva or " spitted calf,' and from the directions given for eating the remains of the offering it is evident that the animal slaughtered was intended for food Man a (v. 35) declares that the man who, having in due form performed a (mathuparka or other) ceremony, fails to eat flesh meat will be doomed to be born an animal for twenty generations. A guest was cAled gog/^na, cow-killer, because a cow used to be killed on the arrival of a distinguished guest. The Mahabhdrata bears testimony to the Bloody offerings high value of flesh as an article of diet. are still common in many of the temples of Northern India.
;
Nevertheless we find in the mouth of every Hindu the wellHow has this Jjnown saying Ahimsd paramo dharma. change been brought about? We cannot say that it is For wholly due to a natural disposition to benevolence. we find a learned and thoughtful Hindu like Sankara defending the Jyotishtoma sacrifice as a holy act, though it involves the shedding of blood, on the ground that that sacrifice is enjoined by the Vedas as a duty. The true reason of the change of feeling towards bloody sacrifices, is given by the author of the Nirnaya Sindhu, This writer says " The slaughter of large bulls and large sheep for Brahmans versed in the Vedas, though duly ordained, should not be
:

effected being detested by the public.
4I
Further the rule, let a Mitra and Varuna, or a barren cow, or one that has ceased to bear after first calving be sacrificed, is duly ordained, but such sacrifice, being opposed to public What could have been feeling, should not be performed." instrumental in producing this revulsion of public feeling against the ordinances of the Vedas, were it not the Bud" Here {i.e.^ in dhist denunciation of all bloody sacrifices ? my kingdom) no animal," promulgated Emperor Asoka, " shall be slaughtered for sacrifice, nor may holiday-feasts be held, for His Majesty King Priyadarsin sees manifold evil in holiday-feasts." The Buddhist appeal to humanity was so strong that it created a horror against the vain sacrifice of animal life, which even a devout belief in the authority of the Vedas and the Smrithis could not overcome. Not only does the Buddhist abhor the vain destruction of animal life, but he also regards it as his duty to care for the well-being of all animals. The second edict of Asoka says " Everywhere in the dominions of His Majesty King Priyadarsin, and likewise in the neighbouring realms... every where, on behalf of His Majesty King Priyadarsin, have two kinds
cow
fit
for offering to
been established, hospitals for men, and hospiHealing herbs, medicinal for man and medicinal for beast, wherever they were lacking, have everywhere been imported and planted. In like manner, roots and fruits, wherever they were lacking, have been imported and planted. On the roads, trees have been planted, and wells have been dug for the use of men and beast." Everywhere in Buddhist countries is the love for animals widely
of hospitals
for
tals
beasts.
spread.
Another result of the observance of the precept against the destruction of life is the strong partiality for a vegetarian diet noticed in all Buddhist lands. In the first edict of Emperor Asoka, we read " Formerly, in the kitchen of His Majesty King Priyadarsin,- each day many thousands of living creatures were slain to make curries. At the present moment, when this pious edict is being written, only these three living creatures, namely two peacocks and one deer, are killed daily, and the deer not invariably. Even these three creatures shall not be slaughtered in future." Such
:
42
Buddhists as eat meat will not themselves slaughter the animals whose flesh they eat. But there seems to be no reason to suppose that the Buddha strictly prohibited the use of meat. In the Amagandha Sutta a Brahman, abstaining from meat on the ground of its defiling him, is told that what defiles a man is not the eating of flesh, but a bad mind and wicked deeds. When the schismatical Devadatta requested the Blessed One to prohibit his bhikshus from using salt, milk, curds and meat, he refused to impose such stringent rules, as they would lead more to asceticism than to the Middle Path which he taught. Once the naked Nirgranthas, learning that the Buddha was given food with meat in it at an entertainment given to him by a layman, went about sneering the Master for eating meat specially " My prepared for him. The Master hearing of this said disciples have permission to eat whatever food it is customary to eat in any place or country, provided that it is done wîthout indulgence of the appetite, or evil desire." The last repast which the Master partook in the house of Chunda, the metal worker, is said to have contained dried boar's flesh, but it has also been pointed out that the Pali word generally interpreted as boar's flesh might also mean boar's wort which is a kind of edible mushroom. The question of food cannot be solved by psychological or ethical principles, but only in accordance with physiology and hygienic experience. The best food for man seems to be a mixed diet, as his teeth and his digestive apparatus are composite. He possesses certain carnivorous teeth, and certain glands which hardly exert their function except under the stimulus of meat. His digestive apparatus produces some ferments which can do nothing else than digest starch. It may be possible for man to subsist on a purely vegetable diet. Abstention from all animal food may have beneficial results under certain conditions. But all people, ancient and modern, have used a mixed diet. People that profess to abstain from meat, use milk, curds, butter, cheese, eggs. It cannot be denied that flesh speedily increases strength and ordains great development and that there is no food superior to flesh. All that hygiene has to teach us in this respect is that the simpler food of the less civilized peoples
:
UNIVERSITY
OF
MORALITY OF BUDDHISM.
is
43.
preferable to the refined dishes of the civih'zed nations.
Devout Buddhists have sometimes pushed

their observance of this
to
extremes
it
precept.
They have observed
In the seventh the letter than in the spirit. century an imperial decree was issued in Japan forbidding the people to eat the flesh of cattle, horses, dogs, monkeys, The Chinese Buddhists are reported to have or fowls. once prevailed upon a pious emperor to prohibit the manufacture of silk, because the worms in the cocoons had to be But this exkilled before their threads could be utilized. aggeration has not the approval of the Blessed One. The life of animals is indeed sacred, but it cannot be as sacred Animals are tended and cared for, because as human life. they in some way subserve general happiness. The exaggerated regard for animal life shown by the pious Buddhists would prove disastrous to the very animals on whose behalf Our only obligation to animals is to the appeal is made. give them a happy life and a painless death. Even the practice of vivisection, if guarded from all abuse, is justifiable in so far as it subserves general happiness. Though the Buddha has not told us precisely his views as to war, yet there are many passages in the Sutras from which we may surmise his attitude. He has deprecated all killing, whether it be for pastime, or for sacrifice, or in warBut he has also taught that he who wages war in a fare. righteous cause after having exhausted all means of preserving peace is not blameworthy. In the description of his fight with Mara, the personification of evil, the Tathagata compares himself to a king who rules his kingdom with righteousness, but being attacked by envious enemies goes He who goads others to out to wage war against them. wage war in a righteous cause suffers the consequences of his own evil doing. Devout Buddhist kings did not shrink, when necessary, from waging war in a righteous cause, though they lamented the vain shedding of blood. When there is just cause for war, war must be waged openly and resolutely but without cherishing feelings of hatred and revenge. Nowhere does the Buddha approve of that ovine indolence which wôuld not resist evil even by right methods. When Prince Abhaya was stirred up by Nataputra to tax
in
more
44
the Blessed
schismatic
One with having used unkind language to the Devadatta, the Blessed One explained that a word which is true and is intended to do good, though it give pain, is right. So also war in a righteous cause, which is intended to teach a lesson to the evil doer, is right, though it may involve the shedding of blood. But Buddhism is wholly opposed to that militarism which represses all sympathetic feelings, developes the cruel side of human nature, and commends hatred of enemies and revengefulness as the highest virtues. On the other hand, it inculcates long suffering, forgiveness and loving kindness which show not only goodness of heart but also deep wisdom. The most noteworthy result of the strict observance of this precept is the spirit of tolerance so characteristic of Buddhism. It is the only religion which has never sought to extend itself by the sword or by might. Indeed the Buddhist holds his religion to be the truth, but he lets others hold their beliefs in peace. The twelfth edict of Asoka reveals to us the true motive of this toleration. " His Majesty King Priyadarsin does reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or householders, by donations and various modes of reverence. But His Majesty cares not so much for gifts or external reverence as that there should be a growth of the essence of the matter in all sects. The growth of the essence of the matter assumes various forms, but the root of it is restraint of speech, to wit, a man must not do reverence to his own sect by disparaging that of another man for trivial reasons. Depreciation should be for adequate reasons only, because the sects of other people By thus deserve reverence for one reason or another. acting a man exalts his own sect, and at the same time does service to the sects of other people. By acting contrariwise a man hurts his own sect, and does disservice to the sects of other people. For he who does reverence to his own sect, while disparaging all other sects from a feeling of attachment to his own on the supposition that he thus glorifies his own sect, in reality by such conduct inflicts
severe injury
torious, in that
on his own sect. Concord is, therefore, merione hearkens to the teachings of others and
This
spirit
hearkens willingly."
of tolerance
proved
dis-

astrous to with Islam.II.
45
in contact
Buddhism,
shall
especially
where
it
came
You
neither rob nor steal, but help every one
to be the master of the fruits of his labour.
"A
steal
disciple
stealing anything at
steal anything,
knowing the Dharma should refrain from any place, should not cause another to
should not consent to the acts of those who anything, should avoid every kind of theft." Dham-
mika Sutta.
"
He
loses
is the greatest gainer who gives to others, and he most who receives from others without giving a com-
Dhammapada. pensation." In abstaining from theft the chief motives ought to be contempt for wealth and the conviction that the mere accumulation of property is a hindrance to the higher life. The Buddhist has certainly to acquire wealth, but not accumulate property for himself. Said the Blessed One to Anathapindika: " It is not life and wealth and power that enslave men, but He who possesses wealth and uses the cleaving to them. it rightly, will be a blessing unto his fellow beings." Whatever the Buddhist acquires is for the benefit of all mankind. This is one of the several reasons for the Buddhist bhikshu's vow of poverty. The individual bhikshu is poor, but the Sahgha, the community of aspirants for bodhi all over the He whose thought and labour are world, may be rich. expended altogether upon his family is only one step above Such a the man who labours and plans solely for himself. man, though often an angel to his family, may prove a demon to all the rest of the world. Do not diamonds for the wife often cost the bread of the poor ? The spirit of Buddhism is essentially socialistic, that is to say, it teaches concerted action {samdndrthd) for social ends. It is therefore totally opposed to that industrialism which with its unremitting, sordid, unscrupulous and merciless struggle for wealth as the' one supreme object of human effort is eating the very vitals of the so-called advanced This fascination for the pursuit of nations of the world. wealth has produced within trade circles perfect callousness " If success attends to the feeling of human brotherhood. upon a man in his commercial warfare, if his intrigues are

46
only wide enough to give him plunder on a vast scale, he passes for a merchant-prince, the rightfulness of whose transactions is little questioned, and men poorer but of noble sentiment, extend to him the hand of fellowship and call him a gentleman." The accumulation of capital in the hands of a few can have no ethical justification. Capital is not, as some economists contend, the result of individual saving, but is the surplus seized from producers, many of whom are reduced to a condition of slavery for the comfort and the enjoyment of a few. How does this differ from theft ? There are still other kinds of theft. " It can never be pretended that the existing titles to such property (landed property) are legitimate Violence, fraud, the prerogative of force, the claims of superior cunning these are the sources to which these titles may be traced." So said Herbert Spencer in the first edition of his Social Statics. Matters have not
changed much since then, and his remark is as true now as then. Even the so-called imperialism of modern times is but a manifestation of a robbing propensity, for it means nothing else than the lust of conquest and the greed of commercial gain. Buddhism prohibits theft of every form, whatever may be the euphemistic name by which it may be known. Even in extreme need, when no other means of relief may be available, there can be no justification for seizing others' goods.
HI.
You
shall not violate the wife of
another nor even
his concubine, but lead a life of chastity.
" wise man should avoid unchastity as if it were a burning pit of live coals. One who is not able to live in a state ofcelibacy should not commit adultery." Dhamniika Sutta,
looking on a woman. If you see a be as though you see her not. If you must speak with her, let it be with a pure heart. If the woman be old, regard her as your mother if young, as your sister ; if very young, as your child."
against
it
;
" Guard woman, let
to exhibit her form
Guard yourself against a worldly woman who is anxious and shape, whether walking, standing, sitting, or sleeping, and is desirous of captivating with the charms of her beauty. Restrain the heart and give it no
"
47
unbridled license. Lust beclouds a man's heart when it is confused with woman's beauty and the mind is dazed." Religions have generally denounced the sexual impulse and even recommended its absolute repression. This attitude may be irrational but not unjustifiable. There may be nothing undignified or immoral in the proper exercise of the sexual function. It may be even true that all such noble traits as sympathy, fidelity, affection, self-sacrifice, which are included under the term altruism spring from the reproductive instinct. But the excesses connected with the satisfaction of the sexual appetite have been so frightful as to justify the feeling of sinfulness attached to it. The overmastering power of the reproductive instinct has often proved too great even for religion in some forms not to succumb to it. A great number of religious rites and usages are nothing else than symbolic representations of sexual practices. The
sexual orgies of the religious festivals of past times and many extravagant religious rites of more recent times owe their origin to the overpowering character of the reproductive It is, therefore, only natural that special injuncimpulse. tions should be laid down against the improper exercise of the sexual function. Though the Dharma prohibits all illegitimate sexual relations, it does not follow that sexual intercourse is completely interdicted to those who aspire for the higher life. Were all sexual intercourse in its very nature an obstacle to the higher life, it ought not to have been possible for Siddartha to attain bodhi. Siddartha was not only married, but lived in Why the Dharma condemns sexual indulgence is luxury. that it creates a craving for enjoyment, and is the chief cause of various nervous disorders. Though the ostensible object of marriage is the preservation of the species, in reality marriages are contracted not in the interests of the future generation, but solely with regard to the personal interests and enjoyments of the contracting parties. The choice of a wife or of a husband is determined so much by wordly conventions and material interests that neither health nor beauty nor intellect nor heart is considered to be of any value. The Dharma can have no objection to marriages with the high motive of propagating the species. Some

48
Buddhist schools have maintained that it is possible for a laic to become not only an a7idgdmm, but also an arhat. Some Buddhist books, like the Manichuda Avaddna, even make marriage compulsory for the hodhisattva^ the aspirant for bodhi, an idea which may have given birth to the married clergy of Japan. Many married men and women are spoken of in the Buddhist books as having entered the paths. If the Blessed One left his wife and children and went into homelessness, it was because error prevailed and the world was plunged in darkness. Having reached the deathless Nirvana he was bent wholly on the one aim of pointing out the path to others, and those of his followers, who like him have left the world, live a life of poverty and celibacy^ not for their own sake, for they have given up all attachment Bhikto self, but for the sake of the salvation of the world. shiita consists not in wearing the yellow robe but in bhinna li'kâta, the freedom from sorrow it is not the mere observance of rules that makes the arhat, but the deliverance, the purification of thought and life. You shall speak no word that is false, but shall speak IV. the truth with discretion, not so as to harm, but with a
;
loving heart and wisely. " When one comes to an assembly or gathering he should not tell lies to any one, or cause any to tell lies, or consent to the acts of those who tell lies ; he should avoid every kind of untruth." Dammika Sutta. " Speak the truth ; do not yield to anger give if you are ; by these three steps you will become divine." asked
:
Dhammapdda. The Dharma regards lying ces that man may commit.
as
one of the gravest of offenThere is scarcely a crime or
vice into which lying does not enter as an important element. Not only does lying involve an abuse of confidence, but in its essence it is cowardice, " the desire to gain an advantage or
an injury which we dare not effect by open means, or punishment or avoid a loss which we have not Calumny^ the courage to face squarely or submit to." flattery, perjury are different forms or grades of lying. Hypocrisy, which is want of consistency in thought, speech and action, is a form of lying which is fostered largely by
inflict
to escape a
;:

churches.
writer
49.
Writing on the ethics of conformity, a well-known "The student of history sees that hypocrisy and insincere conformity have always been the besetting vice of the religious, and a grave drawback to their moralising influence. Just as lying is the recognised vice of diplomats, chicanery of lawyers, and solemn quackery
on
ethical subjects says
shame the devil " is a proverb that originated from a church whose early representatives, according to Lecky, " laid down a distinct proposition that pious frauds were justifiable and even laudable." A question of some importance in relation to lying is the Is lying under all circumstances wrong, or lie of necessity. are there conditions under which it is permissible or necessary ? " In the case of sexual gratification, of marriage, of food eaten by cows, of fuel for a sacrifice, of benefit or protection accruing to a Brahman, there is no sin in an oath " : says the Code of Manu. But in the matter of lying Buddhism is uncompromising, although it attaches great importance to the motive* that determines an action. Its only behest is Speak the truth with discretion, but always be truthful ; never alter or disguise the truth whatever may be the case ; love the truth even to martyrdom. V. fYou shall not eat or drink anything that may intoxicate.
of physicians." " Tell a lie and
"
The house-holder who
delights in the
Dharma should
* In the sixth lecture of Sutrakritanga the Buddhists are severely ridiculed by the Jains for maintainiiig that it depends upon the intention of a man whether a deed of his be a sin or not,
t The ten sins which should not be committed are generally enumerated as follows (1) Killing a living being (prapatipada) (2) Stealing (adattadana) (3) Committing adultery (kamamithyachara); (4) Lying (mrshavada) (5) Slander (paigunya) (6) Abusive language (parushya) (7) Frivolous talk (sarabhinnapralapa) (8) Avarice (abhidhya); (9) Evil intent (vyapada); (10) False view (mithyadrshti). But in the treatment adopted in this book drunkenness (surapana) has been made the fifth evil, as its avoidance finds a place in the pancha qlla, which are obligatory on all Buddhists. The evils represented by (6) and (7) in the above list have been incorporated and dealt with together.
;
;
;
;.

50
not indulge in intoxicating drinks, should not sanction the actions of those who drink, knowing that it results in insanity.
"
it is
The
ignorant
also
ness,
and
commit sins in consequence of drunkenmake others drink. You should avoid it as
the cause of demerit, insanity and ignorance though it be pleasing to the ignorant." Dhammika Sutta. " Drunkenness is the cause of the loss of goods and reputation, of quarrels, diseases, immodesty of dress, disregard of honour and incapacity of learning." Sigdlovdda Sutta, The use of intoxicating drinks was exceedingly common Ancient India. The Vedic Brahmans indulged largely both in soma beer and strong spirits. The most acceptable and grateful oifering to their gods was soma beer. In the Rig Veda we read " The sacred prayer, desiring your presence, offers to you both, Indra and Agni, for your exhilaraBeholders of all things, seated at tion, the soma libation. this sacrifice upon the sacred grass, be exhilarated by drinking of the effused libation." The object of drinking soma is expressly stated to be intoxication. Sura^ sl distilled liquor, was likewise offered to the gods. In the Sautrdmani and Vajapeya rites libations of strong arrack formed a prominent
feature.
At no time in their history have the Hindus as a people abstained altogether from the use of intoxicating liquors as a means of gratification. In the Dharma Sutras beside the soma and the sura of the Sanhitas we find mention of madvika or mowa, tdla or toddy spirit, and other liquors. In the Ramayana Visvamitra is said to have been entertained by Vasishta Sita, when crossing the with maireya (rum) and sura. Ganges on her way to the wilderness, promises to worship the river goddess with a thousand jars of arrack on her return home. Similarly on crossing the Yamuna Sita promises to worship the river with a hundred jars of arrack after the Accomplishment of her husband's vow. In the last book of the Ramayana, Rama makes Sita drink pure maireya^ and both are entertained by hosts of apsaras, who have been In the Mahabharata, Krishna and exhilarated with wine. Arjuna are described as having their eyes reddened by drinking madhvi and dsava, Manu says that " there is no

turpitude in drinking," though
it
51
"a virtuous abstinence from produces a signal compensation." According to the Alitdkshara the Brahmans alone have to abstain from all kinds of spirituous liquors, the Kshatriya and Vaishya from arrack or paishtt, and Sudras may indulge in whatever they liked. In one of the tantric books Siva addresses his consort *' thus O sweet speaking goddess, the salvation of Brahmans depends on drinking liquor. I impart to you a truth, a great truth, O mountain-born, that the Brahman who
:
attends to drinking and its accompaniments forthwith becomes a Siva."^ The Buddhists were the first to enjoin total abstinence from strong drinks in India. The reason why the Dharma prohibits strong drink is that intoxication incapacitates a man for rational deliberation without hindering him from acting irrationally. Drunkenness leads the drunkard to treat others irrationally and possibly to abuse them. That drunkenness is the cause of many crimes is a wellknown fact. Hence to put oneself in such a condition is a source of insecurity to others. Alcohol is more a heat-producer than a tissue-former. It is certain that a portion of the alcohol absorbed undergoes combustion but a great part of it is disengaged in the form of vapour, as is proved by the breath of drunkards, and the combustion takes place without any special benefit for the regeneration of the tissues. Even the experiments of Dr. At water have not proved alcohol to be a veritable food, that is to say, something which is capable of being incorporated into the organism. Alcohol employed in small doses acts as a stimulant to the nervous system in very feeble doses and in certain cases it may be useful as a medicine. But its abuse is more productive of mischief than good. According to Buddhism the love of intoxicating liquors is one of the six ruinous things. The other five are wandering about the streets at unreasonable hours ; too great a passion for dancing, games and spectacles gambling* ; frequenting
',
',
See Rajendralal Mitra's Essays on lado- Aryans, Vol. II. 2 No vice was so universal as deceit and gambling. Perjury âlso was not uncommon, and there was no lack of ^robbers and thieves. Zimrner's Altindish Lehen,
^
52
vicious

company
;
mance
of one's duty.
slothfulness and negligence in the perfor" Unseasonable wanderings expose a
and by keeping him from his family to leave the chastity of his wife and daughters^ unprotected ; and moreover, his possessions are thus liable to depredations. He may likewise be taken in the company
to great dangers,
man
oblige
him
passion for shows^ of thieves and punished with them. man from his occupations, and hinders him from In gambling success is followed by gaining his livelihood. intrigues and quarrels ; loss by bitterness and sorrow of heart The gambler's word as well as dilapidation of fortune. has no weight in a court of law, he is despised by his friends
draws a
and he is looked upon as ineligible for Frequenting the company of the vicious will lead a man into the houses of women of ill-fame, into drunkenness and gluttony, into deceit and robbery, and all kinds of dis-
and
his kinsmen,
marriage.
Finally the sluggard w^ho neglects his duties fails orders. to acquire new property and that which he possesses dwindles
away.''
talk,
VI. You shall not swear nor indulge in idle and vain but speak decently and with dignity to the purpose, or
silence.
keep
"
seeking the higher life must renounce wordly ambition and all luxurious tastes, and unprofitale amusements ; he must refrain from idle as well as mischievous words he must not gossip about great people he must not speak at all about meats, drinks, clothes, perfumes, couches, equipages, women, warriors, demigods, fortune-telling, hidden treasures, short stories, nor about empty tales concerning things that are and things that are not." VII. You shall not invent evil reports, nor repeat them. You shall not carp, but look for the good sides of your fellowbeings, so that you may with sincerity defend them against
; ;
The man
their enemies,
The invention
different
and him
of evil reports and repeating them are only "One must regard oneself as wicked others as good ; one must therefore give up the evil in and try to copy the good in others." So says the
forms of lying.
odhicharyavatara.


53
VIII. You shall not covet your neighbour's goods, but Tejoice at the fortunes of other people. " Liberality, courtesy, benevolence, kindness these are to the world what the linchpin is to the rolling chariot." Stgd-
lovMa sutta, " The wise man who lives a virtuous life, who is gentle and prudent, who is lowly and teachable, shall be exalted. If
he be resolute and diligent, unshaken in misfortune, persevering and wise, he shall be exalted. Benevolent, friendly, grateful, liberal, a guide, instructor and trainer of men, he shall attain honour." Dhammapada, It is selfish to seek one's own advantage, regardless of others, or at the expense of others. Jealousy is an intense form of selfishness which takes pleasure in the distress and sufferings of others without advantage to self Ceaseless competition has bred a propensity, in proportion as one covets success, to hate those who succeed better and to rejoice in their calamity, if eventually they fall. The poet has rightly described jealousy as "the fire of endless night, the fire that
burns and gives no light." IX. You shall cast out all malice, anger, spite and ill-will, and shall not cherish hatred even against those who do you harm, but embrace all living beings with loving kindness and benevolence. "Let a man overcome anger by love; let him overcome evil by good let him overcome the greedy by liberality, and the liar by truth. For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time hatred ceases by love, this is its true nature." Dham;
;
mapdda,
" To the man who foolishly does me wrong I shall return the protection of my ungrudging love the more the evil that comes from him, the more the good that shall go from me." Sutra offorty -two sections. " Returning good for good is very noble, but returning ^good for evil is nobler siWV^Bodhtckarydvatdra. Justice, concerned with man as he is at present, demands that we should respect and protect the rights of others as well as our own by lawful means. So it says Do unto others what you wish they should do unto you, that is to isay, render to each one that which is his due. But morality
;
:
54
with its eye directed to the future man tells us that the duty of justice should be supplemented by equity and magnaniEquity demands that we should resign claims and mity. acts to which we have an unquestionable theoretical right, so that the advancement of our interests may not cause reMagnanimity latively greater damage to those of others. requires us to overlook personal injuries and not to embrace the opportunity of revenge, though it present itself. The teaching "love thy neighbour as thyself" is not only If a vague, but may also lead to mischievous consequences. man love himself meanly, childishly, timidly, even so shall he love his neighbour. If a man hate himself, it must follow The teaching of Buddhism that he must hate others too. is definite, and requires us to love ourselves with a love that To be effecis healthy and wise, that is large and complete. tually generous one must have a confident, tranquil and
clear
comprehension of all that one owes to one's self. If you are asked to love your enemy and return good for evil, it is because, as the Bodhicharyavatara says, "an enemy is one who is capable of helping you to acquire bodhi, if you can only love him." One should hate hatred and not the
who hates him. This does not mean that one should show the left cheek, when smitten on the right, but it means Passive non-resistthat we must fight evil with good. ance of evil is no morality at all. The meekness of the lamb is praiseworthy, but if it could lead only to becoming
person
a prey to the rapacity of the tiger, it is not worth possessing. The Blessed One again and again impressed upon his followers the duty of practising maitri or universal love. Maitri must not be confounded with kama and prima The former stands for sexual love, which is (prtya, priti). regarded as a hindrance {samyojana) to spiritual progress. The latter represents the natural affection and friendliness, such as exists between parents and children, or brothers and sisters. But, as this is not completely free from the taint of selfishness, it is not considered the highest ideal. Maitri represents the perfection of loving kindness, as it "does not cling to love for sel6sh sweets of love." In the Metta Suita oi Sutia Nipata it is said: "As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son

SO
55
let every man cultivate maitri without measure among all beings. Let him cultivate maitri without measure toward the whole world, above, below, around, unstinted and unmixed with any feeling of difference or opposition. Let a man remain steadfastly in this state of mind all the while he is awake, whether he be standing, walking, sitting, or lying down. This state of heart {chetovimukti) is the best in the world."
"
Do
not deceive, do not despise

other,
Each
anywhere
Do
not be angry, nor should ye Secret resentment bear. For as a mother risks her life And watches o'er her child, So boundless be your love to all So tender, kind and mild.
'
Yea, cherish goodwill right and All round, early and late. And without hindrance, without
left
stint,
From envy
The
free
and hate,
While standing, walking, sitting down, Whate'er you have in mind,

rule of life that's always best Is to be loving kind." *
maitri originate karuna (compassion) and mudita and therefore it is higher than both of these. All pious deeds, all gifts, are nothing compared to a loving " Who, In another place the Holy One says heart. bhikshus, in the morning, midday and evening, cherish love in their hearts only for one moment acquire thereby greater merit than those who, morning, midday and evening, make presents of hundreds of bowls of food." With a few exceptions the disciples of the Buddha have always followed his exhortation to practise love. How the bhikshus practised love towards one another is illustrated by the following anecdote. "Once the Blessed One happened to visit the Frachinavamsadava^ the eastern bam.boo forest.- Then there lived the venerable Anuruddha, the venerable Nandika and the venerable Kimbila. The keeper of the forest, seeing the Buddha bhikshu, do not coming towards him, cried out " enter this forest. Here live three great men free from
(goodwill),
:
From
* Dr. Paul
Cams Gems
:
of Buddhist poetry.
56
all troubles

!
and sorrows, do not disturb them " The venerable Anuruddha, hearing how the forester addressed the " Brother forester, do not obstruct the Blessed One, said
:
Blessed One. Our Blessed Master is there." And the venerable Anuruddha went to the venerable Nandika and the venerable Kimbila, and said to them "Come, Venerable One, come, Venerable One, our Blessed Teacher is there." And the venerable Anuruddha, the venerable Nandika, and the venerable Ki mbila, went to the Blessed One. One removed his robe and alms-bowl, one arranged for him a suitable seat, the other brought him a foot-stool, a basin and water to wash his feet. The Blessed One seated himself on the seat prepared for him and washed his feet. And after the venerable -disciples had finished their greeting ministrations, they sat by his side. And the Blessed One spoke to the venerable Anuruddha as follows " How do you do, O Anuruddha?
: :
Have you enough

**
are doing well, Blessed One. live on, Blessed One, and we have,
We
alms." " Do without strife, peaceably looking at each other with friendly " We live together, O Lord, in concord, without eyes." strife, peacefully viewing each other with loving eyes.
*'
on ? Have you no need of alms ? " We have enough to O O Lord, no need for you live together, O Anuruddha, in concord,
to live
And how do you do
this,
Anuruddha ?
"
"I
think,
Lord, that it is for me a gain and a blessing that I live together with such fellow bhikshus. In me has grown, O Lord, towards these Venerable Ones a love which actuates openly and in secret all my deeds, words and thoughts. I always attempt, O Lord, to suppress my own will and act according to the wills of these venerable men. And I have, O Lord, suppressed my will and acted according to the wills of these Venerable Ones. Though our bodies, O Lord, are different, our heart, I believe, is one and the same." On questioning Nandika and Kimbila the Blessed One obtained the same
H y
answer.
Attempts have sometimes been made to belittle the importance of love in Buddhism. In certain Jatakas, such as the Visvantara Jataka, the bodhisattva is represented as
giving away his wife and children in the practice of dana paramita. From this it is argued that heartless inhumanity
57
passes in the eye of the Buddhist for beneficence and chariSuch a misconception apparently owes its origin to a misunderstanding of the purpose and meaning of the JSltakas. As already stated, a Jataka is a historiette, an anecdote, or a fable employed as an illustration either to convey a reproof, or point a moral, or bring out in relief some essential of Buddhahood. Most of the Jatakas are devoted to the last purpose, and in these not infrequently emphasis is placed on some one essential of bodhi without due regard being paid to the others. Thus in the Hare Jataka stress is laid on charity {dana) in the Samkhapala Jataka on morality {fild) in the Lesser Sutasoma Jataka on renunciation {mshkdmya) in the vSattubhatta Jataka on wisdom (pragnd) in the Greater Janaka Jataka on courage and fortitude (vlrya) in the Khantivada Jataka on patience and forbearance {kshdnti) in the Greater Sutasoma Jataka on steadfastness {adhisthdnd) \ in the Ekaraja Jataka on benevolence {maitri) \ in the Lomahamsa Jataka on equanimity {upeksha) ; and so forth. But it does not follow that one can attain bodhi without practising all the essential virtues. Consequently, in comprehending the full import of the Jatakas we must take them in their ensemble. It would be as absurd to condemn Buddhism on the ground of what we find in a few Jatakas as to condemn Jesus either by his cursing of the fig-tree, or by his drowning of the Gadarene
ty.
; ;
; ; ;
pigs.
^
It is
often said that Christianity
is
the only religion of
But a close investigation of the nature of love shows that the claim of Christianity to this title, even in its early .stage, is not borne out by facts. In his Der Buddhismus ah Religion der Zukunfi* Th. Schultze has made a searching examination of this question, which he concludes thus If we examine those passages of the New Testament which deal with love, we find none among them in which at least an attempt is made to set forth minutely the nature
love.
*'
of love as an internal (subjective) mental condition. They either speak approvingly of love ; or give the motive which actuates or should actuate love (such as that God has or* Zweite Auflage, pp. 62-68.
58
dained it, or that God himself is love ); or deal with the outward expression of love, its beneficial effects, and the practical relations which are, or should be, determined byit ; or simply make mention of the reward of love. What
strikes us in all this is that we are involved in a circle, for, on the one hand, love is said to spring from obedience to God's commandments, and, on the other hand, love itself i& said to lead to the obeying of God's laws." While in Christianity love is exacted by means of external authority,
loving kindness imaitri) is a logical consequence of the Buddhist doctrine of nairatmya. If the New Testament contains a song in praise of aga/>y, the Itwutiaka contains an equally charming praise of maitri. Further, the Buddhists all over the world have strictly adhered to the ideal of their Master in extending loving kindness to all living beings, w^hile the life of Christendom is a standing testimonial of its divergence from the ideal of the New Testa-
your mind of ignorance and be anxyou fall a prey to doubt which will make you indifferent, or to errors which will lead you astray from the noble path that leads to blessedness and
shall free
ment. X.
You
ious to learn the
truth, lest
peace.
The
attitude of
religions.
distinct.
Buddhism towards doubt is unique among The Buddha nowhere asks us to give our unquali-
which is not clear and does not say ** Thou shouldst never wrangle about Dharma and then seek to have those doubts solved into which thou mayest arrive. Let no doubts like these ever take possession of thy mind. Do thou obey what I say without scruple of any kind. Follow me like a blind man or like one who, without being possessed of sense himself, has to depend upon that of another."* On the other hand the Blessed One has repeatedly asked his disciples not to accept anything merely on the authority of others. He has distinctly laid
fied assent to propositions the truth of
He
down
j
that the
investigation
of the
Dharma
is
one of the
Accordingly Buddhism does not underestimate the value of doubt during the period of investigaessentials of bodhi.
* This is the advice of
Bhishraa to Yudhisthira.
%Q<$i
Ann^'^mna
JPavva, Mahabharata.

tion.
59
But the doubt it sets store by is of that sort whose whole aim is to conquer itself by high aspiration, renewed effort, and incessant toil, and not of that other sort which, born of flippancy and ignorance, tries to perpetuate itself as an excuse for idleness and indifference. Herein lies an essential difference between Buddhism and vulgar scepticism. The sceptic regards hopeless suspense as an end in itself, but the Buddhist, ever full of hope and aspiration, treats it as a mere stepping stone to his final goal, the attainment of
truth.
The somewhat detailed consideration given above to the special precepts naturally leads to the discussion of certain
general questions which concern them all in common. Buddhism is a nomistic religion, that is, a religion on which the great personality of an individual founder has left an indelible impression, and as such it belongs to an advanced stage of thought. No religion or ethical system is fabricated out of the brain of one individual. The founder of a religion may modify, criticise, and even negate the beliefs and practices of his time, but he cannot ignore them. A religion without an organic historical nexus with the past will find no soil in which it can take root and receive nourishment.
We
may, therefore,
^
safely
admit that Buddhism has
its
roots
deep
down ip the great past of India, and that the Dharma represents^the noblest product of the Indian mind. But there can be difference of opinion as to the Buddhists having borrowed their teachings from the Brahmans. Whether the codes of sacred laws ascribed to Apastambha, Baudhayana and Gautama and the so-called earlier Upanishads are really anterior to the time of Sakyamuni we have no means of deciding. Nor have we any evidence to show that the
with them, even if they were composed before him. Says Dr. G. Thibaut " There is, so far as I know, no evidence of Buddha himself having been
Buddha was acquainted
acquainted with philosophical views of the type of those
which find their expression in the Chandogya or Brihadaranyaka, and generally, I fail to see why a doctrine essentially and fundamentally non-brahminical must be held to depend on brahminical works in any way, even if only in the way of contrast or reaction. There may have been in
6o
J^ncient India more centres of independent religious and speculative thought than is generally assumed, and the popular theory of a direct filiation of the great systems may
be a fiction."* Between the
ethical teachings of
is
Buddhism and the moral
codes of the Brahmans there

doubt the earlier and later
a remarkable difference.
Xo
Sastras of the Brahmans inculcate bravery, loyalty, hospitality, and prohibit stealing, lying and illegal injury to others, and in a few cases " But if these laws,'' as Prof. also enjoin self-restraint. E. W. Hopkins points out, " be compared with those of savage races, it will be found that most of them are also factors of primitive ethics. Therefore we say that the Hindu Code as a whole is antique and savage, and that, excluding religious excess and debauchery, it is on a par with the modern ethical code only nominally. In reality, however, this savage and ancient code is not on a level with that of to-day. And the reason is that the ideal of each is different. In the savage and old world conception of morality, it is the ideal virtue that is represented by the code. It was distinct laudation to say of a man that he did not lie, or steal, and that he was hospitable. But to-day, while these factors remain to formulate the code, they no longer represent the ideal virtue. Nay rather, they are but the assumed base of virtue, and so thoroughly is this assumed that to say of a gentleman that he does not lie or steal is not praise, but Tather an insult, since the imputation to him of what is but the virtue of children, is no longer an encomium when applied to the adult who is supposed to have passed the point where theft and lying are moral temptations, and to have reached a point where, on the basis of these savage, antique, now childish virtues, he strives for a higher moral ideal. And this ideal of to-day, which makes fairmindedness, liberality of thought, altruism the respective representatives of the savage virtues of manual honesty, truth-speaking and hospitality, is just what is lacking in the more primitive ideal formulated in the code of savages and of the irahman alike. It is not found at all among savages, and
*
Dharma
Address to the graduates of the University of Allahabad.

they
In India all the factors of the left on one side. code are entirely lacking at the time when the old code was first completely formulated. Liberality of thought comes in with the era of the Upanishads, but it is restricted freedom. Altruism is unknown to pure Brahminism. But it obtains amongst Buddhists who also have liberality of thought and fairmindedness. Hence from the point of view of higher morality, one must confess that Buddhism offersthe best parallel to that of to-day. On the other hand Budd-
may be
modem
exceeds all others."* Nay more the fundamental idea of Buddhism is maiiri^ universal love.
histic altruism
;
Nevertheless some critics would make out that the ethics of Buddhism is egoistic, because its final aim is individual perfection. But a slight reflection will show the absurdity of this charge. What differentiates man from other animals, is his possession of certain intellectual and ethical powers. Only by the harmonious and perfect development of these powers can each one of us truly realise his humanity and make himself serviceable to his fellows. Hence following the dictates of reason the true end of man can be nothing else than the perfection of his powers. If the striving after this perfection be selfish, it is such selfishness as cannot be dispensed with. A sound, good, fruitful self-love is the necessary basis for every virtue, and therefore also for a true, sound, good and fruitful love to others. As Maeterlinck says, " there is more active charity in the egoism of a clear-sighted and strenuous man than in all the devotion before of the man that is blind and helpless, and
exists for others, it behoves him to exist for himself."! In endeavouring to attain the perfection of bodhi, one perfects himself in order that he might work for the good of others. " Bodhichitiam samutpadya sarva satva sukhecchaya.
one
make all beings happy that one So says the Bodhicharyavatara, In Buddhism there can be no real morality without knowledge, no real knowledge without morality, and both are
It is with the desire to desires to attain bodhi."
* E.
W. Hopkins
Religions of India, pp. 535, 636.
t La sagesse
et la destinee.
bound up together like heat and light in a flame.* What constitutes bodhi'is not mere intellectual enlightenment, but intellectual enlightenment combined with compassion for
humanity. The consciousness of moral excellence is of the very essence of bodhz, " Love thy neighbour as thyself" and " love thine enemy " are indeed noble precepts, but so long as one does not understand the reason why he should love his neighbour and even his enemy, these precepts must necessarily remain a dead letter. If it is selfish to love an enemy because such love will lead one to bodhi, it is worse still to do good to others for the sake of rewards in heaven or for fear of punishment in hell. Buddhism does not teach that man is by nature evil. ^^ Atha doshdyam dgantukuh^^^ s^dcy^ \hQ Bodhkharydvatdra, *n/ " satva prakriti pesalah. The evil in men is not inborn ; naturally they are good." Hence for its moral precepts the Dharma seeks no external source of authority. No Buddhist regards the various moral precepts as commandments by the Buddha. Coming as they do from him whom every Buddhist takes as his model of perfection, these precepts have indeed a higher value than any commandments. But still in no sense are they commandments, for no man has any right to command his brother-men. They are but the ways pointed out by the Blessed One for avoiding the evils of life, and he who does not tread on the Though t' path shown will have to bear the consequences. I there are neither rewards nor punishments in a future world, I yet there is the law of cause and effect, whose sway in the ^ domain of ethics is as powerful as in the domain of physics. The Buddhist ethical system is emphatically " a study of consequences of karma and vipdka^ of seeing in every phenomenon a reaping of some previous sowing." The tiger will necessarily be hunted down, and the criminal will necessarily be punished. Whosoever is punished for his
all
* " In Buddha's thought there is no incompatibility between the ethical ideal and that devotion to mental training which is prominent in early Buddhism, but is not regarded as a requisite in Chiistianity." Christianity seldom emphasises, even when it permits, the utmost intellectual freedom, while Buddhism establishes the faith intellectually from the beginning." -fi^. TT. HopMns.
d$
misdeeds suffers his injury, not through the ill-will of others, Even the undetected but through his own evil doing. criminal does not escape the effect of his deeds. If he is not one of those pitiable pathological cases, if his longings, impulses, and ideals are those which inspire the average man, he cannot escape the misery flowing from his misdeeds. Jean val Jean may become Father Madelaine, but he cannot escape the pangs of memory. Nor can it be doubted that the criminal, though he may get on well for some time, will in the long run be eliminated from off the face of the earth as surely as the tiger is being eliminated now. Such elimination is but a part of the eternal inevitable sequence that leads man in the end to wisdom and peace. The Buddhistic ethics is purely autonomous, and not heteronomous like the Jewish-Christian or the Hindu. In the Jewish-Christian system the moral character of a man's actions is made dependent upon his obedience or disobedience to the commands of a supernatural being, who is supposed to have revealed himself to man at some particular time in some particular way. In Hinduism the Eternal
Self is made the basis of morality, but as the existence of the Eternal Self, as Sankara says, cannot be proved by any amount of inferential reasoning and has to be accepted solely on the authority of the Vedas, the knowledge of one action being right and another wrong rests ultimately on the authority of scripture only. That moral ideas have nothing to do with the belief in supernatural beings does not need much reasoning to prove, Supernatural beings are but creations of human fancy, and can be endued only with such qualities as man already posHow can a man love and reverence what he has sesses. not seen, unless he has already learnt to love and reverence what he has seen ? Nor is man ethical for fear of an invisible police. Does a man love his parents, wife or children because otherwise he would be punished for it ? The belief in future rewards and punishments in an invisible world may influence men's conduct, but it cannot be a moral force. " Could
j
'
he be
really honest,
Immanuel Kant, " who

favourite vices
if
could he be called really virtuous," says will gladly give himself up to his he feared no future punishment, and must
64
not one rather say that he indeed shuns the practice of cvil^ but nourishes in his soul a vicious disposition ; that he lovesthe advantage of conduct seemingly virtuous, while he hatesvirtue itself ?
"
Self, even if it existed, it can haveconsiderations. Being an eternal spiritual principle, the Eternal Self transcends all time. But all ethical questions deal with empirical wants and aspirations^ which are time processes. How can the self-same Eternal Self be enriched by acts of virtue or impoverished by vice ?' Can it be affected by all the vicissitudes of life and still retain its timeless self-sameness ? What part can such a" self " play in ethical life ? Perhaps it may be said that: morality consists in the realization of the Eternal Self. But: if one's Eternal Self is real already, what has one to realize ?' He might, for aught we know, be realising his Eternal Self as much in a vicious life as in virtuous deeds, in indolence Be yourself I may be a valuas much as in strenuousness.
As regards the Eternal

in ethical
no value
able moral precept to such as have already framed for themselves a worthy idea of manhood, but for others it can convey
rejects both of these flimsy supports for the/moral life. It makes the basis of morality purely subjective. It appeals to the natural needs of man. Man desires to get rid of the sorrows and sufferings of this life he desires to enjoy endless bliss. How can he attain this ? First of all, as the Bodhicharyavatara argues, punyam makes the body happy. If a man is compassionate and serviceable to others,, they will not prove a source of trouble to him. No man can realise all his desires without the help of others. Hence if he desires the help of others, he must have sympathy and compassion for them. As they also desire happiness, he
;
no meaning. Buddhism
'
must endeavour to get rid of their sufferings and sorrows. How can the suffering of one affect another ? In the same way as the suffering of one's foot affects his hand. Though the body consists of different parts, we treat it as one and Similarly there may be different beings in this protect it. world, still they should all be treated as one, for all ar-e endeavouring to avoid suffering and attain happiness. One's body is the product of the combination of the sperm and

germ of
65
others, but by custom one speaks of one's body as one's own. If what is the product of others can be regarded as one's self, where is the difficulty of regarding the bodies of others as one's own ? That one is always the same person is not true ; yet one imagines himself to be the same person. Is it more difficult to imagine one's oneness wnth others ? If Is not then there is no atman^ all beings are equally void. the fundamental oneness of all beings obvious ? Such is the manner in which the Buddhist argues. For the ordinary Buddhist the doctrine of Karma may serve as the all-imBut for the wise portant motive force for the moral life. man the main stay of morality is the internal perception of nairatmya^ the realization of the selflessness {funyata) of all beings and the consequent fundamental equality of all beIt is this realization which forms ings with one another. the well-spring of cheerfulness (w2<j<^/Va), compassion {karuna), and benevolence (i7iaitri)^ which are the bases for all good
deeds.
With deep insight did the Blessed One percieve two thousand years ago truths which modern science declares to us " Man," teaches Science, " is but a at the present day. His worth as an single cell in the organism of humanity. individual is nothing apart from the rest of the organism. Apart from other human beings the individual cannot be so much as begotten and born. All his latent powers he owes
to the ancestral lives that are seeing within his eyes and listening within his ears. Even his natural endow^ments and capabilities can find no suitable employment and proper development apart from the society of other human beings. Only in and with the grand life of mankind as a whole can
the individual live as a human being. Not only has he been produced by the vital energies of mankind, but they also maintain him till death. With the elevation of humanity the individual rises in the scale of being, and with its downfall he degenerates. Being but an insignificant episode in the life of mankind, he can lay no claim to everlasting life. But as the generations before him have contributed to his being, so can he also contribute to the well-being of future generations. If the individual desires perpetual life, he can secure it only by living in the whole and for the whole.
66

is
Hence what
good
for all
mankind, what creates better
conditions for its existence and its perfectation, is also good What jeopardises the life of humanity or for the individual. degrades it is also bad for him. A perfected humanity is his heaven, a decaying humanity is his hell. To preserve and enhance the worth of human life is virtue ; to degrade humanity and lead it to perdition is vice." If a man desires to hasten his deliverance from sorrow and suffering, he must necessarily follow the laws of the good. This motive is indeed egoistic, but it alone can work with
A man will necessarily desist from injurhe sees clearly that his interests are bound up with theirs. He will even forego some of his own goods for the sake of others, if he is sure that his sacrifice will redound A man will not hate his enemy, if he to his own advantage.
dynamic
precision.
if
ing others,
enemy will carry him forward to others merely from his love for them. On the other hand he loves others because for some reason they please him. In the Brihadaranyaka UpamshadYdi^gmr valkya says rightly to his wife Maitreyi ; " Not out of love
knows
dod/ii.
that the love of his
No man loves
husband is a husband loved, but the husband is A wife is loved, laot out of love loved for love of self. for the wife, but for love of self. Children are loved, not out of love for children, but for love of self. Wealth is loved, not out of love for wealth, but for love of self. The priestly order is loved, not out of love for that order, The order of the warrior is loved, but for love of self. not out of love for that order, but for love of self. The states are loved, not out of love for the states, but for love of self. The gods are loved, not out of love for the gods, Existence is loved, not out of love but for love of self. Not out of love is any for existence, but for love of self. King Prasenaloved, but for love of self are all loved." " Have you ever loved jit once asked his wife Mallika any better than yourself?" With surprising naivete she answered " Truly, great king, I have not loved any one Undaunted the king said the same better than myself^'. thing of himself, and they both communicated their conversation to the Blessed One, who good humouredly replied as
for the
:
:
follows

'
67
have through all regions wandered have I none ever found Who loved another more than himself. So is one's own self dearer than another,
1
;
Still
Therefore out of love to one's
own
self
Doth no one injure another." In Buddhism morality rightly rests on egoism,and altruism 'becomes applied egoism. No more solid basis can be found in this world for the love of one's neighbour than the love of one's self. As Hume says, " whatever contradiction may vulgarly be supposed between the selfish and social sentiments or dispositions, they are really no more opposite than selfish
and ambitious,
is
selfish
requisite that there be
and revengeful, selfish and vain. It an original propensity of some kind,
in order to be a basis for self-love, by giving a relish to the objects of its pursuit ; and none more fit for this purpose than benevolence or humanity. The goods of fortune are The miser who acspent in one gratification or another. cumulates his annual income, and lends it out at interest, And has really spent it in the gratification of his avarice. show why a man is more a loser by a it would be difficult to generous action, than by any other method of expense ; since the utmost which 07ie can attain by the most elaborate selfishness^ is the indulgence of some affection, ^^ So far from saying that men have naturally no affection for anything beyond themselves,
we ought
as
to say
that
single
though
person
it
may be
difficult to
find
one who loves any

difficult
better than himself,
still it is
to find
affections taken together
In the Vedanta also The wise man perceives the atman^ the self, to be identical with Brahmam^ the universal self. Hence the I is all, and all
is I.
one in whom the sympathetic do not overbalance the selfish. morality is made to rest on egoism.
So my neighbour is identical with myself. I must love neighbour not like myself, but as my own self. When I see another suffer or enjoy, it is myself that suffers or enjoys. The apparent duality between myself and others is only an illusion {Maya). To the enlightened man all
my
differences
That thou
self.
art.
Thus
Tat tvam asi. vanish, and everything is self. I love everything because everything is myby broadening the idea of self the egoism of the
68
Ved3,nta becomes transformed into an altruism. However^ between the egoism of the Vedanta and that of Buddhism there is an essential difference. Buddhism denies the existence of an dtman, and its self is consequently illusory. As there is no real self, all possibility of a real egoism disappears. With the Vedanta, on the other hand, the egoism is real,
in
and its morality consists in the knowledge that all is I. But Buddhism the knowledge oi anatmata only leads the way to the moral life. Just as sunlight cannot be perceived and
by reflection, so the internal perception of nairatmya cannot be attained except by right relationship to your fellows in thought, word and deed. Only when this perception has found its fullest expression in internal love {maitri)^ compassion {karuna), cheerfulness {mudita), and equanimity (upeksha) will perfect bliss be attained In another respect also the Vedanta differs from Buddhism. In the Vedanta only the three higher castes, the " twiceborn ", are spiritually qualified for salvation. On the contrary. Buddhism throws its doors open to all men withFurther, the Vedanta lays great stress out any distinction. on the efificacy of rites and purificatory ceremonies, whereas Buddhism regards these as an obstacle to the attainment In this respect the Sarhkhya resembles of salvation. Buddhism, but it lays no weight on morality. Besides, the Samkhya and its later development, the Yoga, sharply differ The Buddha from Buddhism in enforcing asceticism. found out the inefificacy of asceticism as a means to salvation
utilized except
while dwelling
in
the forest of Uruvela, and entirely discard-
ed
it.
The end and aim of man cannot be the acquisition of wealth or the satisfaction of natural inclinations. But, as the Dharma teaches, it is the attainment of that perfection
which consists
freedom.
inspire
in perfect
wisdom, perfect charity and perfect
Can
this faith in the future perfection of
mankind
with enthusiasm ? Yes ; it has acted in the past as an impelling force leading mankind upward. And there is apparently no reason why it should not be equally serviceable now or in the future. Humanity, as we see it now, consisting of poor pitiful beings, " with their wild hopes and vain attempts to realise them, with their struggles and failures
man
69
and successes more bitter than failures, or, worst of all, with the resignation of an irremediable despair all alike, young and old, rich and poor, good and bad, drifting down the long thoroughfare of life, with no end before them but the grave," may excite more pity than enthusiasm. But an ideal humanity, like the Buddhas ever abiding in the Dkarmakdya^ would necessarily arouse in man an enthusiasm driving to action. "The mind by an original instinct tends," says Hume, " to unite itself with the good, and to avoid the evil, though they be conceived merely in idea, and be considered And history shows how to exist in a future period of time." strongly man has been moved by the contemplation of ideal -objects, whose existence he may not assert. Nay more ; history proves how men have sacrificed their possessions,their
:
blood, and their everything for ideal aims. Even in religious belief the most effective part has been similar to that which we have in the objects of imagination. Nor is an ideal at any time absolutely non-existent. It is always partially realized, even though the extent of such realization may be /iniinitesimally small. In man are always present the traces of what he may become, the germs of enlightenment that
even in savage bosoms
stir
up
"longings, yearnings, strivings For the good they comprehend not."
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.

**
/T\HE Tathagata
JL
cloud
the the wise as for the ignorant, for the nobleminded His teaching is pure, and makesas for the immoral. no discrimination between noble and ignoble, between It is like unto water which cleansesrich and poor. It is like unto fire which consumesall without distinction. all things that exist between heaven and earth, great and It is like unto the heavens, for there is room in it,, small. ample room for the reception of all, for men and women, boys and girls, the powerful and the lowly." Such were the
for
He has
recreates the whole world like sc shedding its waters without distinction. same sentiments for the high as for the low,,
words
ples the universality
which Gautama Sakyamuni impressed on his disciof the salvation he brought into the How this spirit of universality has been carried out world. in practice is well shown by the attitude of Buddhism towards the baneful Hindu institution of caste. On one occasion Ananda, one of the oldest disciples of the Buddha, passing by a well, where a girl of the Matanga caste was drawing water, asked her for some water to drink. She answered " How dost thou ask water of me, an outcast who may not touch thee without contamination ?" Ananda
in
:
" My sister, I ask not of thy caste, I ask thee water to drink." The Chandala girl .was overjoyed and gave Ananda water to drink. Ananda thanked her and went hisway, but the girl, learning that he was a disciple of the Blessed One, repaired to the place where the Buddha was. The Blessed One, understanding her sentiments towards Ananda, made use of them to open her eyes to the truth, and took her among his disciples. On the admission of this Chandala woman into the order of bhikshunis, King Prasenajit and the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas of Sravashti, feeling greatly scandalised, came to remonstrate with the Lord on his conduct. The Blessed One
replied
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.
demonstrated to them the futility of caste distinctions by the following simple reasoning. Between ashes and gold there is a marked difference, but between a Brahman and a Chandala there is nothing of the Brahman is not produced like fire by the friction kind. of dry wood ; he does not descend from the sky nor from the The Brahman wind, nor does he arise piercing the earth. is brought forth from the womb of a woman in exactly the same way as a Chand,la. All human beings have organs exactly alike ; there is not the slightest difference in any resHow can they be regarded as belonging to different pect. species ? Nature contradicts the assumption of any specific inequality among mankind. The Brahman is a specifically Indian phenomenon. In In those the neighbouring countries no Brihman exists. countries there are only masters and slaves. Those who are :ich are masters, and those that are poor are slaves. The rich nay become poor, and the poor rich. Even in India when a Kshatriya, a Vaisya, or a Sudra abounds in wealth, the nembers of the Brahman caste serve him ; they wait for bs commands and use soft words to gratify him. To minister to his wants they rise before him in the morning and go not to sleep until he has retired to rest. Where then is the diference between the four castes ? The declaration of the Biihmans that they alone are the high caste, and others are of ow caste is an empty sound. 'f a Brahman commits sin, he suffers for it like every
other
man.
Like every other
man
the
Brahman
also has
Does not the to ibstain from sin, if he desires salvation. ethcal world order also give the lie to the theory of spe:ific inequalities among mankind ? Are not also the
natve capacities and talents the same everywhere ? Is not the Sudra who is despised for his caste capable like the Brahman of good thoughts and noble deeds ? If a bath can purify a Brahman from dust and dirt, can it not equally purify every other man ? If water shows no show specal preference for the Brahman, does fire any special regard to differences of caste ? Does not the fire
obtaiied by the members of the so-called highest caste by rubbiig cosdy fragrant sticks arise just in the same way as
72
when the members of the so-called lowest caste rub pieces of wood from a dirty foulsmelling dog-trough or swinetrough ? Further, when crossing takes place between the members of different castes, do not the children in all cases take after the mother as well as the father, and are we not
able to assign them to their proper parents ? Is it not otherwise with brutes among which the crossing of a mare with an ass produces a mule ? What support then is there for supposing the existence of different species among mankind? On the contrary the good sense of the Brahmans themselves proves that it is the ethical worth of an individual that confers superiority. For in distributing alms they prefer an ethically good-natured man, even when he may exhibit no distinguishing marks, nay even when he may not have gone through the initiatory ceremony known as " second-birth." Accordingly it follows that, while it is possible to obtain xact information concerning the purity or impurity of an individual's conduct, no exact information can be obtained as regards birth and descent. In plants, insects, quadrupeds, snakes, fishes, and birdi the marks that constitute the species are abundant, whereat amongst men this is not the case. Neither the hair, net* the formation of the skull, nor the colour of the skin, ncr the vocal organ, nor any other part of the body exhibits aiy
specific
alike.
differences.
By
birth
and descent
all
men
a'e
through differences n Sone occupation, and they are designated accordingly. are called husbandmen, some artisans, some merchans,
They become
different only
some
one
kings,
some
robbers,
some
priests,
and so on.
tn
members follow differmt professions. Have we not among the Brahmans physiciats necromancers musicians merchants agriculturists ownng wealthy landholders who gve cattle, poultry and slaves
and the same caste
;
different
much wealth much when

animals and
as the portion of their daughters, and recdve their sons are married ; butchers who kill
sell their flesh
;
that provide gratificaton ; those those who tell lucky hours ; tk)se who sit dhdrana ; those who live like savages in the wilierness ; those who get their livelihood after the manntr of those who break into houses to steal ; beggars with long
for the lust of others
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.

hair, dirty
73
teeth, immense nails, filthy bodies, and heads covered with dust and lice and those who profess to be released from all desires and to be ready to release others also? If we look closely, we see no difference between the body What is essential is of a prince and the body of a slave. that which may dwell in the most miserable frame, and which the wisest have saluted and honoured. The talk of high and low castes,' of the pure Brahmans, the only The four sons of Brahma,' is nothing but empty sound. castes are equal. He is a Chandala who cherishes hatred ; who torments and kills living beings who steals, or commits adultery who does not pay his debts who maltreats aged parents, or fails to support them ; who gives evil counsel and hides the truth who does not return hospitality nor render it ; who exalts himself and debases others ;
;
*
*
who
ignores
one a Chandala. He is a Brahman* who is free from sin. He is an outcast who is angry and cherishes hatred who is wicked and hypocritical who embraces error and is full of deceit. Whosoever is a provoker and avaricious, has sinful desires, is not afraid and ashamed to commit sins, he is an outcast. Not by birth does one become an outcast, not by birth does one become a Brahman by deeds one becomes an outcast, by deeds one becomes a Brahman.* " 'T is he is a Brahman indeed
success.
is
; ; ;
Not by
the virtues of others and birth, but by conduct,
is
jealous of their
Who knows
the births that he has lived before
And sees (with heavenly eye) the states of bliss, And states of woe, that other men pass through Has reached the end of all rebirths, become
f-age,
perfect in insight,
Aralmt
In these three modes of knowledge, three fold wise Him do I call a BrAhman a, three fold wise, And not the man who mutters o'er again The mystic verse so often uttered ihrongh before."*
* *' ABrahman, O king, means one who has escaped from every ort and class of becoming, who is entirely free from evil and from Milindapanha. stain, who is dependent on himself " * As&alayana Sutta, Mathura Sutta, Ambatta Sutta, Vasetta Sutta, and Dasa Brahma Jataka.
Agganna
Sutta^
Digha Nikaya,
74
From the point of view of religion the Dharma makes nO' difference between one caste and another. All are admitted
without distinction and difficulty into the Sangha. Only minors, soldiers, slaves, invalids and cripples are not permitted to join the order. These are inevitable exceptions- For the defence of even the best governed country soldiers are necessary, and they cannot be allowed to give up their work without sufficient reason. But with the permission of the government they may Join the order. Like minors slaves are not free, and their admission into the Sangha before emancipation may prove harmful to their masters. But it is not to be supposed that the Dharma encourages slavery. On the contrary it teaches one to attain the highest freedom. Still slavery was an existing institution which the Buddha had to reckon with. To take off the sting from slavery the Blessed One specially taught that masters should provide for the welfare of their slaves by apportioning work to them according to their strength, supplying suitable food and wages, tending them in sickness, sharing with them unusual In one delicacies and occasionally granting them holidays. of his rock edicts Asoka emphasises the fact that the Dharma consists in kind treatment of slaves and servants, obedience to father and mother, charity, and respect for the sanctity It is opposed to the spirit of Buddhism to regard of life. one class of men as having been created for the purpose of serving another class. It is possible for every one to attain that self-culture and self-control which is designated by the wôrd Nirvana, whether he be a Brahman or a Chandaia, a white man or a black man. Invalids and cripples are disallowed because they are incapable of the effort needed to attain bodhi. For bhxkshuta does not consist in leading an indolent and idle life, but in a strenuous active life for the good of others. "O bhikshus," says the Blessed One, "be not afraid of good works such is the name for happiness, for what is namely good works." wished, desired, dear, and delightful, For those that join the Sangha there is no caste. As the great streams, however many they may be, the Ganga, the Yamuna, the Achiravati, the Sarayu, the Mah^nadi, when they reach the great ocean, lose their old name and their old
:
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.
75
descent, and bear only one name, " the great ocean," so also the disciples of the Buddha, to whatever caste they may belong, when they join the order, lose their old name and old paternity and bear only the one designation of Sakyabhikshus. Among the elders mentioned in the Theragatha we find Angulimala, the dreaded robber ; Sunita, the scavenger Svapaka, the dogeater ; Svati, the fisherman ; Nanda, the cowherd ; and Upali, the barber. Among the bhikshuniswere Ambapali, the courtezan ; Vimala, the daughter of a prostitute Purna, the daughter of a slave woman ; and Chapa, the daughter of a hunter. The story of the conversion of Sunita, as given by himself, shows how easy it was for the members of the so-called lower classes to join " I came of a humble family. I the Samgha. Says Sunita was poor and needy. The work which I performed was lowly, sweeping the withered flowers. 1 was despised of men, looked down upon, and held in low esteem ; with submissive mien, I showed respect to many. Then I beheld the Buddha and his band of bhikshus, as he passed to Magadha. I cast away my burden and ran to bow myself
;
:
in reverence before him From pity for me he halted, he the highest among men I bowed myself at the Master's^ feet and begged of him, the highest of all beings, to accept me as a bhikshu. Then said unto me the gracious Master, bhikshu that was all the initiation I received. Come, bhikshu,' said the Master, let your light so shine before the world, that you, having embraced the religious life according to so well-taught a doctrine and discipline, are seen to be mild and forbearing." While those that joined the order had to give up caste, the Buddha does not seem to have insisted on his lay followers doing likewise. The social conditions prevalent during the time of Gautama Sakyamuni did not probably necessitate the preaching of a general crusade against caste. Caste, like every other social institution, is a product of natural growth. In the Rig Veda there is, with the single exception oi Ptirushasitlctam^ no clear indication of the existence of caste in the BrS^hmanical sense of the word. In the Vedic hymns two classes
!
'
'
'
76
of society, the royal and the priestly classes, are recognised as above the vis^ or bulk of the community. But the Brahmans had not yet established their claims to In the Buddha's time the highest rank in the body politic. the Brahmans were perhaps endeavouring to assert their In the Ambatta Sutta the superiority over the Kshatriyas.
*' claims superiority for the Kshatriya. So it it from the male or from the female side, that it is the Kshatriyas who are the best Moreover it was people, and the Brahmans their inferiors. The Kshatriya is the Brahma Sanam Kumara who said
Blessed
One
is
clear,
whether you regard
who heed lineage. He who knows and acts best Now this stanza aright is best among gods and men.' Ambatta was well-sung and not ill-sung by the Brahma Sanam Kumara, well-said and not ill-said, sensible and not
among
folk
Ambatta, join in saying that the Kshatriya who heed lineage.""* " There is no evidence," as Dr. Rhys Davids remarks, " to show that at the time of the rise of Buddhism there was any substantial difference in the valley of the Ganges and their contemporaries, the Greeks or Romans, dwelling on the shores of
senseless.
I too,
is
best
among
folk
the Mediterranean Sea. The point of greatest weight in the establishment of the subsequent development, the supremacy in India of the priests, was still being hotly debated. All the new evidence tends to show that the struggle was being decided rather against than for the Brahmans. What we find in the Buddha's time is caste in the making. The great mass of people were distinguished quite roughly into four classes, social strata, of which the boundary lines were vague and uncertain. At one end of the scale were certain outlying tribes and certain hereditary crafts of a dirty or despised kind. At the other end the nobles claimed the superiority. The Brahmans by birth (not necessarily sacrificial priests, for they followed all sorts of occupations) were trying to oust the nobles from the highest grade. They only
* In the
Mahabharata iVanaparva) Saoatkumara says:

is
'
The
Kshatriya
in lineage. the best among gods and men."
the best of those among this folk who put their truat But he who is perfect in wisdom and righteousness is
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.
77
succeeded long afterwards, when the power of Buddhism
had declined."*
The caste distinctions which might have obtained among the Buddhist laity in India had no religious consecration. They had only a social significance. On the other hand,
in
Hinduism, that
is
to say, that
religion
which
refers to
and tradition for its orthodoxy, which worships the Brahmanic deities and their incarnations, which enjoins veneration for the cow and certain rules concerning intermarriage and interdining, and which enforces
scriptures
Brahmanic
the presence of the Brahman at all ceremonies, caste distinctions have not only a social but also a religious significance. One is a Brahman, a Kshatriya, a Vaisya, or a Sudra solely by his birth. The status of a Brahman, it is said, is incapable of acquisition by a person belonging to any of the three other orders. That status is the highest We are told in the Mahawith respect to all creatures. bharata " From the order of brute life one attains to the status of humanity. If born as a human being, he is sure to take birth as a Pukkasa or a Chandala. One having taken birth in that sinful order of existence, one has to wander in it for a very long time. Passing a period of one thousand years in that order, one attains next to the status of a Sudra. In the Sudra order one has to wander thirty thousand years before one acquires the status of a Vaisya. After wandering for a time, that is, sixty times longer than what has been stated as the period of the Sudra existence, one attains to the Kshatriya order. After wandering for a time that is measured by multiplying the period last named by two hundred one becomes born in the race of such a Brahman as lives by the profession of arms. After a time measured by multiplying the period last named by three hundred, one takes birth in the race of a Brahman that is given to the recitation of the Gayatri and other mantras. After a time measured by multiplying the last named by four hundred, one takes birth in the race of such a Brahman as is conversant with the Vedas and the scriptures." Only the Brahman as such, by subjugating joy and grief,
:
Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol.
II, Art.
Buddhisnu
^73

and aversion, vanity and
"
evil
desire
divine.
learned,
speech,
can attain
salvation.
Hence the Brahman is something transcendently By his very origin the Brahman is a god, even to
" Brahman, whether he be learned or una great divinity." He shall not rise to receive a Kshatriya or Vaisya, though they may be learned. If a Brahman serves a Sudra, he commits a sin which can be wiped off only by bathing for three years at every /ourth meal time. A Brahman may seize without hesitation, if he be distressed for a subsistence, the goods of a Sudra. If a Sudra comes as a guest to a Brahman, he shall first be made to do some work
the gods/^
is
Immoral Brahmans shall be worshipped, may have subdued their passions. Although Brahmans may employ themselves in all sorts of mean occupation, they must invariably be honourThe kingdom of that king, says Manu, who stupided. ly looks on while a Sudra decides causes, shall sink like a cow in deep mire. The duty of the Sudra cannot be any
and then be
fed.
but not Sudras even though they
other than servitude, because such a man was created by the A Sudra, self-existent for the purpose of serving Brahmans. though emancipated by his master, is net released from a state of servitude, for from a state natural to him by whom can he be divested. In the very nature of things the Sudra can have no claim to salvation, for by his birth he has no
spiritual capability for
it.
Whatever may be the origin of the system of caste, there can be no doubt that its development is largely due to the ambition and selfishness of those who profited by it.* The system of caste was indeed profitable to the Brahmans, and naturally they fostered and turned it to their own advantage. Wherever they went, they sought to perpetuate their own social ascendancy by inculcating the doctrine of their own superiority as custodians of a divine revelation and as expounders of sacred laws. Wherever they spread over India, they defined the duties and privileges of the different classes, assigned to them definite places in the graduated scale of
* Among the ancient Romans the pontifices became mighty and influential owing to their knowledge of the all important details of sacrificial ceremonies. For a similar reason the BrEbmans became powerful in India.
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.
79
the community, and secured for themselves the best places. The attitude of the later Buddhists towards the claims arrogated to themselves by the Brahmans is best illustrated by the Vajrasuchi^ a small tract ascribed to Asvagosha, the well-known author of the Buddhacharitra^ who lived in the latter half of the first century before Christ. The argument of the Vajrasuchi may be thus summarised. Granted that the Vedas, the Smritis and the Dharmasas-
and valid, and that all the teachings at variance with them are invalid, still the assertion that the Brahman is the highest of the four castes cannot be maintained. What is Brahmanhood ? Is it the life principle (jiva) ; or descent ; or the body or learning or rites (achara) or acts (karma) \ or knowledge of the Vedas ? If the life principle constituted Brahmanhood, how could, as is stated in the Vedas, quadrupeds and other animals have become gods? According to the Mahabharata seven hunters and ten deer of the hill Kalinjala, a goose of the .lake Manasasara, a Chakravaka of Sharadvipa were born as Brahmans in Kurukshetra, and became very learned in " Whatever the Vedas. In his Dharmasastra Manu says Brahman learned in the four Vedas with their angas and upangas receives gifts or fees from a Sudra, shall for twelve births be an ass, for sixty births a hog, and seventy births a dog " Hence it is evident that it is not the life principle
tras are true
; ; \
:
that constitutes
If
Brahmanhood.
or parentage,
Brahmanhood depended on descent

this
how
be reconciled with the statement of the Smritt that many Munis had no Brahman mothers ? Achala Muni was born of an elephant Keca Pingala of an owl ; Suka Muni of a parrot ; Kapila of a monkey Sringa Rishi of a deer ; Vyasa Muni from a fisherwoman ; Kausika Muni from a female Sudra ; Visvamitra from a Chandalini and Vasishta Muni from a strumpet. If one born of a Brahman father or mother is a Brahman, then even the child of a slave (ddsa) or (ddsi) may become a Brahman. If he alone is a Brahman whose father and mother are both Brahmans, then it must be established that the parents themselves are pure Brahmans. But the mothers of the parent race of Brahmans are not, any of them, free from the suspicion of
; ; ;
could
So
having

committed
adultery
with
Sudras.
(
" In
human
society," says Yudhsthira in the
Vanaparva)^ " it is difficult to ascertain one's caste, because of promiscuous intercourse among the four orders. This is my opinion. Men belonging to all the orders begot (promiscuously) offspring upon women of all the orders. And of men, speech, sexual intercourse, birth and death are common. And to this the Rishis have borne testimony, by using at the beginning of a sacrifice, such expressions as 'of what caste soever we may be, we celebrate the sacrifice.' " Further according to the Manavadharmasdstra the Brah-
Mahabharata
and also he who becomes a Sudra in three days. If Brahmanhood depended upon birth, how could it be lost by any acts however degrading ? Can an eagle by alighting on the earth be turned into a crow ?
eats flesh loses instantly his rank
salt,
;
man who
sells
wax, or
or milk,
Then fire will become Is the body then the Brahman ? the murderer of a Brahman, when it consumes his corpse, and such also will be every one of the Brahman's relatives who may consign his body to the flames. Again, every one born of a Brahman, though his mother be a Sudra, will be a Brahman, being bone of the bone and flesh of the But according to the Mahabharata flesh of his father. the son that is begotten by a Brahman upon a Sudra wife is called Fdrasava, implying one born of a corpse, for the Sudra woman's body is as inauspicious as a corpse. Again, the virtue of the holy acts sprung from the body of a Brahman is not, according to the Brahmanical theories, Hence Brahdestroyed by the destruction of his body. manhood cannot consist in the body.
Is
it
learning
that
constitutes
Brahmanhood ?
If that
were the case, many Sudras must have become Brahmans Many Sudras, even from the learning they possessed. Mlechchas, are masters of the four Vedas, of Vyakarana and Jyotisha,of the Mimamsaand the Vedanta, and of Samkhya, Nyaya and Vaisheshika philosophies yet not one of them Nor can achara and is or ever was called a Brahman. karma be said to constitute Brahmanhood. For many Sudras are everywhere following practices appropriate to
;
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.
Brahmans, and are performing the severest and most laborious acts of piety. Why then should the higher life be prohibited to the Sudra ? Why is it laid down that for the Sudra service and obedience paid to Brahmans are enough ? Is it because in speaking of the four castes the Sudra is mentioned last > How can the order in which certain beings are named or written affect their relative rank and dignity ? Does the Sudra become the lowest and meanest of beings, because his name is mentioned after the dog in a certain sutra ? Are the teeth superior in dignity to the lips, because we find the latter placed after the former for the sake of euphony in some grammatical rule ? No nor any more is it true that the Sudra is vile and the Brahman high, because we are And used to repeat the chatur varna in a particular order. the inference from it that the Sudra if this is untenable, must be content to serve and obey the Brahman falls likewise to the ground. Again, if as the Brahmans say all men proceed from one Brahma, how then can there be a fourfold insuperable diversity among them ? If one has four sons by one wife, the four sons,, having one father and mother, must all be essentially alike. Among quadrupeds, birds, trees, we see differences of conformation and organization whereby wê can separate them But all men are formed alike without into distinct species. and within, except in such non-essential differences as are observed in the children of one and the same parents. It belong to one species. is therefore evident that all men Further in the jack-tree the fruit is produced from the stem, Is one fruit the joints and roots as well as the branches. therefore different from another so that we may call that produced from the roots the Sudra fruit ? Surely not ; nor can men be of four distinct species, because, as the Brahmans assert, they sprang from four different parts of one body. Besides, a Brahman's sense of pleasure and pain is not different from that of a Chandala. Both are born in the same way, both sustain life in the same manner, and both suffer death from the same causes. They differ neither in intellectual faculties nor in their actions, nor in the aims they^ pursue, nor in their subjection to fear and hope. Accord.
;
S2

is
ingly the talk of four castes

caste.
fatuous.
All
men
are of
one
When such onslaughts of the Buddhists began to tell on Hindusim, various attempts seem to have been made by the BrgLhmans to bolster up their religion. The result of one such attempt is apparently the Bhagavatglta, To a thoughtful reader of the Gita its underlying motive is obvious. The Buddhists reject absolutely the authority of the Vedas and the system of castes. But it is impossible for the Brihmans to let go the authority of the Vedas or to give up
their hierarchical system.
their
They
could, however,
combine
own doctrines with the prevailing popular beliefs and supply a new basis for their hierarchy. This is just what has been done in the Glta, The Glta does not reject the Vedas absolutely, but shelves them. "To an enlightened man," the Gita says, "there is as much use in all the Vedas as there is in a reservoir for one who is surrounded by water on all sides."
Again instead of asserting that a Sudra must become a Brahman by going through a number of births and then attain salvation, the Gita says that " man attains salvation, devoted each to his own duty." It tries to place caste on a more tenable basis by saying that the duties of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sudras are divided according to the quali" Better is one's own duty though desties of their nature.
titute of merit
than the duty of another well performed.
He
who does the duty ordained by his own nature suffers thereby no demerit. Nature-born duty, though faulty, one ought not
to abandon, for undertaking to
do another's duty
is
fraught
with
sin
evil."
born to save
The Buddhists regard a Buddha as a man the human race from impending ruin, whenever
Thus
" I
and ignorance gain the upper hand in this world. in the Saddharmapimdarikam the Buddha says am the Tathagata, the Lord, who has no superior, who
:
appears in
this world to save." Similarly says Krishna in " Whenever there is a decay of religion and there the Gita is a rise of irreligion, then I manifest myself. For the protection of the good and the destruction of the wicked, for the firm establishment of religion, I am born in every age." Religion here means, as pointed out by Sankara, only such religion as is indicated by castes and religious
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.

orders.
83
The real import of these teachings is very clear. They contain an admonition to the Sudra not to give up caste following the precepts of Gautama Sakyamuni and his disciples. In the view of the Brahmans the greatest sin of Sakyamuni is that he, being a Kshatriya, transgressed the duties of his own class by assuming the function of a teacher and the right to receive gifts, which the Brahmans regard as
worse still he instructed the ; and, of the fourth caste whom the Brahmans place The main object of the outside the pale of instruction. Gita is to support covertly the domination and prestige of the Brahman class while appearing to provide for the
their exclusive privileges
members
wants which Buddhism satisfied. Whatsoever is noble and sublime in the Gita is what Brahmanism has freely borrowed from its rival and utilized for its own purposes, especially to prevent the Sudras from seceding from their old faith. The rest is a conglomerate of repetitions, contradictions, absurdities, the result of an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile all phases of orthodox opinion. No wonder that the Gita has been described as " the wonderful song, which causes " the hair to stand on end ** Caste has always formed the mainstay of Hinduism. It is by means of these caste distinctions," says the Brahman author of the Hindu Dharma Tatva, " that in the Bharatakhanda the Hindu religion has been so well preserved These caste distinctions are the chief support of the Hindu religion when they give way there can be no doubt that the Hindu religion will sink to destruction." It is by means of the system of castes that the Brahmans have always carried on their proselytising operations. All outsiders, so long as they do not interfere with the existing castes, are allowed to become Hindus without giving up any of their old customs and superstitions, gods and goddesses, provided they are willing to form themselves into a new caste subject to the
!
Brahmans. It is in this way that the uncivilised aboriginal populations have been gradually brahmanised. We have no longer only four castes, but more than a thousand. Among the Brahmans alone there are more than a hundred subdivisions. Almost every trade or profession now forms a caste of its own, having no social intercourse with nor patriotic
84
And what has been the banefeelings for the other castes. into ful result of this parcelling of the Indian population innumerable divisions ? The vast continent of India with itshundreds of millions of inhabitants has for centuries been Ever since Alexander the prey of predatory conquerors. the Great conquered and humiHated India, her sovereignshave always been foreigners. India has had the unique distinction of being in succession subject to the Scythians, the the Arabs, the Afghans, the Mongols, the Portuguese, French, and the British. A small body of foreigDutch, the
larger than
check a host a thousand times lost all power into a state of resisting foreign invasion, they have also sunk As Mr. Crozier has pointed out, intellectual immobility. of " where caste is absolute, and the barriers that separate class. and from class are insurmountable, mere rank is everything,
ners suffices to
keep
in
itself.
Not only have the Hindus
practical
intellect,
initiative,
originality,
and enterprise
sphere in being alike unavailing to help a man out of the The are held in a minimum of regard. which he was born consequence is that these nations have long sunk into a
and abiding intellectual stagnation." Not satisfied with the pernicious results already produced,, to buttress caste the modern upholders of Hinduism attempt
settled
by
scientific
props.
Caste, they
contend, has an ethno-
logical
basis.
literally
which
The Sanskrit word for caste being varna, means colour, it is urged that between the
lower castes, higher castes, the so-called Aryans, and the opposition more or less absolute arising there is a racial neo-advofrom a difference in colour. Apparently these are not acquainted with the /ft that cates of Hinduism essential differdifference in colour does not represent any
The microscope reveals no difference ence in quality. The human skin, between the. blond and the black. Negro or of the whitest it be the skin of the darkest whether The colour European, always contains only dark pigment. milk or the ichor the white European is not produced by of pigment is everywhere the of the gods of antiquity. The
not in quality, but same, and it is always dark. It differs In some cases the quantity of pigment is only in quantity. on the surface, while so large that it makes its appearance
BUDDHISM AND CASTE.
85
in Other cases it lies hidden in the deeper layers. But the The new-born children of all ipigment is never absent. people are of the same colour and equally fair. The children of the same father and mother are not always of the same The colour of the skin changes with the climate. <:olour. A long stay in the tropics turns the skin of the European brown, while the skin of the Negro becomes perceptibly bleached by long residence in the temperate zone. All attempts to classify mankind into races have proved a
At best the so-called races of mankind, of by anthropologists and ethnologists, are only hypothetical classifications for convenient description serving just the same purpose as the theories of physical science. They are, to use an expression of Lamarck, mere products of art, the results of mental gymnastics, which have no real counterparts in nature. " Much of our modern race-theory," says Prof. Josiah Royce, " reminds me of the conversaof the type of international Jungle-Book tions in the too much, courtesy expressed in the Truce of the Bear x\t the present day the I say, to seem like exact science." unity of the origin ot mankind is a fact universally accepted. No classes of men are incapable of fruitfully mixing with one another. No race of man now in existence can be said to represent a pure unvarying type. Much more than anatomical and physiological considerations, the general similarity of mental and moral endowments and the oneness of the historical development of man in all climes and countries teach us to regard all humanity as a vast brothersignal
failure.
spoken
'
'
'
hood.
The purity of blood for which some men stickle is a pure tmyth. The varnasahkrama which the orthodox Hindu of the present day fears was accomplished centuries ago. In the veins of the Brahmans of the present day flows the blood of the Sudras* of antiquity, just as in the veins of the
* It is said in the Santiparoa of the Mahabbarata that " the Sudras and Vaisyas acting most wilfuUy began to unite themselves with the wives of Brahmans." Without the least compunction ânu speaks of Chandalas and other lower classes as the off-spring of adulterous Brahman women. The bovine practice said by Strabo to be common in Ancient India is attested by the Mahabharata.
S6
white Europeans of to-day runs the blood of the Negroes, lived on the continent of Europe during the quaternary To this intermixture is not improbably due the period. beauty of their women and their vitality. Dr. Tylor says that he saw the most beautiful women in the world in Tristan da Cunha among the descendants of the whites and the In South India we find the most brilliant speciblacks. mens of female beauty among the freedom-loving Nair and Theeya women of the West Coast. The most remarkable examples of longevity, says M. Finot in his Philosophie de la Longevite^ are found among Mulattoes. The infusion of new blood into families and peoples has always been productive of very beneficial results. Wherever crossing has taken place in normal conditions, the types called inferior have improved without causing any degeneracy in the representatives of the types called superior. The pessimistic assertions of the detractors of crossing are refuted by the fact that peoples who have freely mixed with one another have continuously progressed. Those who are in the vanguard of civilization and progress are those whose blood is most rich in heterogeneous elements. Even when we consider the case of superior individuals in different countries, we are astonished to find that almost all of them are the Havelock Ellis affirms that the result of intermarriages.
who
best American writers and thinkers are descended from mixed families. The best known among the American inventors, Mr. Edison, belongs to the same category. We might cite a host of other names if necessary. On the other hand all attempts to preserve the purity of blood have produced disastrous consequences. History demonstrates how those among the aristocracy of Europe who have kept aloof from the plebeian classes have either degenerated or died
out.
It is
not
uncommon
stress
at the present
day to find people

to
lay-
ing
much
upon
heredity.
into existence a race
of ethical
Some even hope men by artificial
bring
selection
and breeding, and thus to facilitate and ensure the ethical advancement of nations and thereby of all mankind. Such views and hopes could originate only from a complete misapprehension of the nature of morality. The ethical charac-

ter of
87
is something purely psychical. It is so the result of voluntary adaptation and activity that no one can definitely assert of another, or even of himself, that he has always been ethical, that is, that he has always been Moreover, even in the highly e;uided by ethical motives. developed ethical man, the in-born traits of average general development are so mighty that morality, which is essentially the product of individual development, can rarely be expected as a natural factor to exhibit greater power than the other Were man left solely to the control of heredity, he factors. would exhibit much more the character of an animal than of an ethical being. In short the ethical character is as little inFurther, inherited morality, which would herited as talent. be lacking all the essentials of morality, such as sense of duty, freedom of resolve, &c., would have no value. The artificially bred ethical man, even if such a creature were possible, cannot stand much higher than the animal whose The intellectual and actions are impelled by instinct. ethical culture of an individual depends on voluntary conscious effort towards an end in view, and has therefore to do more with education than heredity. Janmana jayate sudra, karmand jayate dwijah. Every one born of woman is a Sudra, but conduct makes him a twice-born man. Those in power not infrequently suppose that they are necessarily more capable of development than those whom they regard as their inferiors. Such a supposition is unwarranted by the teachings of science. One well-established fact of evolution is that in the " higher " form of a species there is a tendency to revert to the typical form, and that in the " lower " form the tendency is to rise to this typical form. Hence it would seem possible that the descendants of those who are now^ thought low and base might, if time and opportunity are given them, rise to the typical form of the species^ and even go beyond it, while it is not impossible that the successors of those who are- now regarded as representing a higher type might revert to the typical form of the species, and even degenerate to a lower condition. Of this history furnishes ample proof. From whatever point of view we may look at the question of caste, it is something noxious. True to human nature the
an individual
much
38
Buddha broke down the barriers of caste and preached the " equality of all mankind. He proclaimed dharma is a dharma of mercy for all. Proclaim it freely to all men ; it will cleanse the good and evil, the rich and poor alike ; it is as vast as the spaces of heaven that exclude none. Whoever is compassionate will feel the longing to save not only himself but all others. He will say to himself; When others are following the Dharma, I shall rejoice at it, as if it were myself. When others are without it, I shall mourn the loss as my own. shall do much, if we deliver many ; but more if we cause them to deliver others, and so on without end.' So shall the healing word embrace the world, and all who are sunk in the ocean of misery be saved." Working in this spirit the Dharma became a religion for all, and has spread over vast tracts in Asia, India, Burma, Ceylon, Tibet, China, and Japan, and is slowly leavening the thought and life of Europe and America. May we not hope for the day when its humanising influence will be so far-reaching and deep that the prejudices of class and colour which still persist in various quarters will be forced into the limbo of forgotten things ? *' Pity anrl need Make all flesh kin, there is no caste in blood, Which runneth of one hue, nor caste in tears
:
My
We
Which trickle salt with all neither comes man To birth with tilak-m'Ark stamped on the brow, Nor sacred thread on neck. Who doth right deed Is twice-born, and who doth ill-deeds vile."
;
WOMAN
IN
BUDDHISM.
left
noblemen, who THE wives of manySangha, desired had the follow and joined the
to
their
homes
example
With Prajapati Gautami, the maternal of their husbands. aunt and foster mother of Siddartha, as their leader, they beseeched the Blessed One to grant permission to woman also to enter the order. In strict accordance with his princiBut he ples the Buddha could not refuse them admission. feared that the admission of women into the Sangha might give occasion for the heretics to speak ill of his institutions. He therefore advised Gautami and her companions to find their lasting reward and happiness by wearing the pure white robe of the lay woman and leading a pure, chaste and virtous life. But this advice did not satisfy Gautami. She counselled her companions to ordain themselves, and then go to the Buddha. So they cut off their hair, put on the proper robe, and taking earthen bowls journeyed with painAnd Ananda, the faithful attendant ful feet to the Buddha. on the Buddha, moved by their earnestness and zeal, brought their petition once again to the Master. The Blessed One admitted them into the Sangha with the following " Are the Buddhas born only for the benefit of men ? reply
:
not Vis,kha and many others entered the paths ? The entrance is open to women as well as men." Thus did the Buddha give woman an independent status and place her on a footing of equality with man. Though perfectly consistent with the principles of the
Have
Dharma, which sees no
difference
between man and man,
except that which may exist by superiority of virtue, yet the step taken by the Buddha and his followers was indeed bold, considering the depraved rnoral condition of Ancient India and the consequent low estimation in which woman was then held. Ancient India was notorious for the looseness of its morality. Vedic worship was highly sensual. Indra, the principal Vedic deity, was not only an indulger in the intoxicating soma^ but alsoan adulterer. Paundarikam was a
90
sacrifice in
which the sexual act was worshipped, and which developed into the worship of the phallus as Mahadeva. The priests, who spoke of themselves as the representatives of gods on earth, indulged largely in sexual debaucheries. The priest was enjoined by a special rule not
in later times
to commit adultery with the wife of another during a particularly holy ceremony,but if he could not practise continence, he might expiate his sin by a milk offering to Varur a and Mitra. Naturally the sentiment towards woman was low. An ancient verse, cited in the Anabhlrati Jataka^ compares womankind to highways, rivers, court-yards, hostelries and taverns which extend universal hospitality to all alike and ends by saying that wise men never stoop to wrath at frailty in a sex so frail ? are told in the Adiparva o{ the Mahdbhdrata:
We
within houses and dependent upon husbands and other relatives: They used to go about freely, enjoying as they liked best. They did not then adhere to their husbands faithfully, and yet they were not regarded sinful, for that was the sanctioned usage of the times. That very usage is followed to this day by birds and beasts without any exhibition of jealousy. That practice,, sanctioned by precedent, is applauded by great Rishis. The practice is yet regarded with respect among the Northern Kurus. Indeed that usage so lenient to woman hath the sanction of antiquity." Again in the Udyogaparva of the same book it is said " The birth of a daughter in the families of those that are well behaved and high-born and endowed with fame and humility of character is always attended with evil results. Daughters when born in respectable families, always endanger the honor of their families, viz, their maternal and paternal families and the family into which they are adopted by marriage." Still worse is the description of woman given in the Anuâsanaparva, Sukrati, the grandson of Janaka, the ruler of the Videhas, has declared " There is the well-known declaration of the scriptures that women are incompetent to enjoy freedom at any period of their life. Even if high-born and endued with beauty and possessed of protec: :
"
Women
were formerly not immured
tors,
women
wish
is
them.
"
There
are
to transgress the restraints assigned to nothing else more sinful than women.'^
Women
fierce.
They
are
endued with
fierce prowess..
WOMAN
IN BUDDHISM.
There are none whom they love or like so much as those that have sexual congress with them. Women are like those
(athatvati) incantations that are destructive of life. Even after they have consented to live with one, they are prepared to abandon him for entering into engagements with others."
That the Buddhist revolt against this depraved social condition proved a success is shown to us by the picture we find of it in the commentary on the Thertgatha, a work containing verses ascribed to bhikshunis. " A good many of
these verses," says Dr. Rhys Davids, "are not only beautiful form but also give evidence of a very high degree of that mental self-culture which played so great a part in the Buddhist ideal of the perfect life. Many of the women whojoined the order became distinguished for high intellectual attainments as well as for moral earnestness. Some women of acknowledged culture are represented not only as being the teachers of men and as expounding the deeper and subtler points of the Dharma, but also as having attained the Great Peace which is the final result of intellectual illumination and moral earnestness." The Buddhist reformation being a moral reaction against a corrupt state of society, it was very necessary that the relations between the sexes should be guarded with care. Strict rules were therefore laid down for the intercourse of bhikshus with women and of bhikshunis with men. But nowhere in any of the utterances of the Buddha do we find anything to show that he made any difference between
in
man and woman.
If
he honoured
Maudgalyayana and
Sariputra, he also held in high esteem Khema, the wife of King Bimbisara, and Dhammadinna, the chief among the bhikshunis that preached the Dharma. In noreligion has
woman
played
such
^:rominent part
as^
Visakha has done in Buddhism. In the Saddhaniiapundarikam the Blessed One appears on his holy mountain surrounded by multitudes of disciples, and among them are six thousand female saints. That the Blessed One often warndangers that lurk in man's attraction' prove that the Buddha regarded woman as naturally wicked. If people are warned to avoid a precipice, does it follow that there is something intrinsically bad
for
ed
men against the woman does not
92
THE ESSENXE OF BUDDHISM.
about a precipice ? If some people cannot see a precipice without wishing to throw themselves down, it is not the precipice that is to blame, but their bad circulation, and it is wise that such people should avoid precipices. Similarly, if some men cannot see a woman without devilish thoughts in their minds, is woman to blame for it ? Wickedness is a thing that pertains to the heart. If a man could only be ûre that he has no trishna for that which is specific in woman's organisation, he might mix with her as freely as he might like, whether he be an upgLsaka or a bhikshu. Did not the Blessed One, when after his Enlightenment he visited Suddhodhana's palace, repair to the apartments of Yasodhara, the mother of Rahula, to greet her, when she refused to come out ? On that occasion the Blessed One said to Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, who accompanied
him
to the princess's
chamber
" I
am
free
the princess,
however, is not as yet free. Not having seen me for a long time, she is exceedingly sorrowful. Unless her grief be allowed its course, her heart will cleave. Should she touch the Tathagata, the Holy One, you must not prevent her." The Buddha has not damned woman, because she is often a temptation to man to do evil, but he has only warned weakminded men against the dangers of her unconscious
influence.
Theoretically man and woman are placed by the Buddha the same footing of equality. But in practice the latter stands much lower. Her peculiar organization places more hindrances in the way of her attaining the goal. Before one can attain the Great Peace one must have purified oneself from all lust of the flesh by a severe struggle. Only a few men enter on this struggle, but most men seem capable of But most women are found in expeentering on the path. rience to be too scant in wisdom, too deeply immersed in canity, and too frail for that renunciation and mastery of the passions which are demanded of those who aspire to reach the supreme heights of Nirvana. This is why the Buddhists often say that most women must be born as men, before they can enter on the Noble Path that leads to the Great Deliveiance. But the Dharma itself holds both men and women as equally fitted for the task. If women can only
on
WOMAN
as well as men.
IN
BUDDHISM.
will
93
reach the goal
see the light and follow the path, they
Buddhism being a matter of self-control and self-culture^ regards every individual, whether man or woman, as a complete whole. Accordingly the Dharma does not concern itself with those relations between man and woman in which one sex is regarded as completing the other. But in all Buddhist countries the influence of Buddhism has been such that woman has always had fair play. She is given
it
perfect freedom
and
is
bound by no
rigid
ties.
Speaking
of the influence of Buddhism on the Burmese, Talboys Wheeler says " Their wives and daughters are not shut up as prisoners in the inner apartments, but are free as air to take their pleasure on all occasions of merry-making and festivals ; and often they assume an independent position in the family and household, and gain a livelihood for themselves or superintend the affairs of husbands or fathers. Their affections are not pent up in little hotbeds of despotism as in Hindu households, but are developed by social interCourting time is an course into free and healthy play. institution of the country. On any evening that a damsel is desirous of receiving company she places her lamp in her window, and puts fresh flowers in her hair, and takes her seat upon a mat. Meantime the young men of the village array themselves in their best, and pay a round of visits to the houses where they see that a lamp is burning. In this manner attachments are formed ; and instead of arbitrary unions between boys and girls, there are marriages of affec:
tion between young women and young men, in w^hich neither parents nor priests have voice or concern." Most Burmese women, even in the villages, are able to read and write. No obstacle is placed in the way of female " At an early age," writes a Burmese lady, " the education. girls go to their school, and learn to read and write, the
Buddhist scriptures in Burmese, and sometimes in mixed Pali, forming the ground-work of their studies. All that they learn, their ideals of right and wrong, of the nature of the body and the mind, of illness and hygiene, comes from the same source ; as also do those higher teachings of faithfulness, generosity and kindliness, which
Burmese and
94
are perhaps the most eminent traits in the character of the Many learn at school the five duties of a wife to order her household aright, to be a hospitable housewife, to be a chaste and faithful wife, a
Burmese women.
:
thrifty housekeeper, and a skilful and diligent woman ; and together with this instruction in ethics they receive a practical training in the ways of life at home/*' Females of the higher classes in Burma do not contemn industry nor affect the listlessness of Hindu women. large proportion of the retail trade in Burma is in women's hands, and women even make long trading voyages on their own account. In Siam men of all ranks are greatly aided by their wives especially in public affairs, and in their movements are as free as men. Even in lamaistic Tibet women are granted complete independence both in business and personal conThe Russian explorer G. Ts. Tsybikoff writes duct. " Women enjoy perfect freedom and independence and take an active part in business affairs, often managing extensive enterprises unaided." Among the Buddhists the ceremony of marriage is very simple. There are no complicated superstitious observances connected with it. In Ceylon, Tibet, Mongolia, Japan and in all other Buddhist countries marriage is properly a civil contract witnessed only by parents and guardians, relations and friends. Marriage in Burma is a compact on the part of husband and wife which is made before the elders of the When a Burmese woman marries, she does not village. change her name, nor does she wear any outward sign of marriage, such as a ial% or a ring, or a covering for the head. No stranger can find out either from a woman's name or by seeing her whether she is married or not, or whose wife she is. husband has no power over his wife's property. Whatever she may bring with her, or earn for herself, or She is absolutely the inherit subsequently, is all her own. mistress not only of her own property but also of her own self. Among the Hindus a woman is always dependent. When young she is dependent on her parents, when married on her husband, and when old on her children. Among Europeans, a woman loses her own name when she marries, and becomes known only as the mistress of her husband.
"
WOMAN
tress of herself, a
IN
BUDDHISM.
95
In Burma a woman, though married, always remains miscompanion of her husband. No wonder
that Sir T. G. Scott says that " the Burmese woman enjoys rights which her European sister is even now clamour!
many
ing for
The Buddhist
enforces
religion
is
a religion of free individuals.
It
any authority other than the law of righteousness. Among the several vows that a bhikshu takes on joining the order, there is no vow of obedience to any superior. How can such a religion make an unbreakable bond of marriage, as other religions have done ? Hence in all Buddhist countries the ideal of marriage is that it is a
to
no obedience
partnership of love and affection, which, when these no longer exist, should be dissolved. In Burma for proper cause shown the marriage compact can be terminated by either party. And the grounds w^hich suffice for the dissolution of the marriage tie are much more numerous than, and different from, those which obtain in Western countries. Drunkenness, the opium habit, difference of temperament, a nagging tongue, spendthrift ways all these form, if proved, sufficient grounds for the elders to grant a divorce. In spite of this freedom the proportion of divorced to married couples is very small in Burma. On the other hand the facility of divorce has made men and women very
careful in their behaviour towards each other. A charge usually brought against the Dharma
is
that
its
teachings are destructive of the family life, as those that accept its teachings in all their fulness do not marry, or if they are already married, betake themselves to a homeless life, leaving their parents, This is no wives and children. new accusation. The Buddhist books tell us that the people of Rajagriha reviled the bhikshus for inducing young nobles to leave their homes and thus causing the extinction of many families. When this reviling was reported to the Blessed One, he said " If people revile you, bhikshus, say that it is by preaching the truth that Tathagatas lead men. Self-control, righteousness and a clean heart are the injunctions of our Master." Self-control, righteousness and a clean heart cannot be acquired except by the renunciation of all sensual pleasure and the practice of perfect chastity. If
:
96
voluntary chastity brings about the destruction of the family the loss is none too great for the true holiness and perNot only Buddhism but all other fection thereby achieved. religions also have laid greater or less stress on celibacy. But it might be asked, what would become of the human race if all abstained from the nuptial bed, which is the only means of propagating the species ? Would that they did so with a pure mind and a clean conscience, with zeal and unselfishness so that they could soon become citizens of the kingdom of righteousness and hasten the end of Mora's dominion Would not such extinction of mankind be nobler than destruction by war and tyranny, poverty and famine, plague and pestilence, earthquake and tidal wave ?
life,
!
As
Schiller says,
"
Das Leben ist der Giiter Hochstes nicht." (Mere living is not the highest good.)

The main teachings of the Dharma have been summarised by the Blessed One in four propositions, which are generally known as the Four Great Truths or affirmations* {chatur
They contain in a nutshell the philosophy dryasatydnt). and the morality of Buddhism. They are as follow The first great truth is that misery, that is to say, pain and suffering (dukkha), is associated with all stages and conditions of conscious life. Birth is suffering ; age is suffering ; Painful it is not to illness is suffering ; death is suffering. Painful again it is to be joined with obtain what we desire. More painful still is the separathat which we do not like.
:
tion
from that which we
love.
great truth is that the cause of misery {samudaya) is trtshna, the grasping desire to live for selfish enjoyment. Sensations (vedana), begotten by the surrounding This illusory world, create the illusion of a separate self.
self
The second
manifests
its
activity in a cleaving to things for selfish
enjoyment which entangles man in pain and suffering. Pleasure is the deceitful siren which lures man to pain. The third great truth is that emancipation from misery (nirodha) is possible by abandoning selfish cravings (iipdddnas).
cravings are destroyed, there is All selfish craving arises from want, and so long as it is not satisfied, it leads to pain. Even when it is satisfied, this satisfaction is not lasting, for this very satisfaction gives rise to new needs and therefore The entire essence of man seems to be an to new sorrows. unquenchable thirst for a thousand wants. How else could he get rid of sorrow but by abandoning this thirst ? The fourth great truth is that the Noble Eightfold Path (arya ashtdnga mdrga) is the means by which man can get rid of all selfish cravings and attain perfect freedom from
all selfish
When
necessarily an
end of
suffering.
* Id the statement of these Four Great Truths, the laogaage of Indian medical science has been employed^
98
suffering.
He who has fathomed the Dharma will necessarily walk in the right path, and to him salvation is assured. These four great truths form what may be called the articles of the Buddhist creed. But they are not put forward as dogmas which have to be accepted without inquiry. Dogmatism which prohibits investigation would, instead of leading to the Buddhist summum bonum^ dissuade the aspirant from his duty and therefore from the Noble Path. Nowhere has the Buddha said " Avoid inquiry, for it will lead you where there is no light, no peace, no hope ; it will lead you into the deep pit, where the sun and moon and stars and beauteous heavens are not, but chilliness and barrenness and perpetual desolation."* On the other hand, it is clearly laid down that nothing can be the teaching of the Buddha which is not consistent with reason, which cannot be subjected The idea of a religious to the dry light of investig;ation. authority is incompatible with the Dharma, for it teaches that every man is his own architect and his own saviour. It is a childish idea to suppose that an authority, external to man, can have a religious value. An authority can only exist for one only in proportion as one recognises it as such either unconsciously and without understanding the motives that prompt him, or by virtue of an act of conscious reasoning. After all it is the adhesion of one's mind and will that can give weight to any authority. A Buddhist bhikshu, unlike the Christian monk, lays no claim to any authority, nor does he avow obedience to any authority. The aim set by the Blessed One before the aspirant being enhghtenment, the belief in authority and dogma will be of no avail. The creed of Buddhism is, therefore, like the creed of every genuine science, a register of results. No one can question the fact that misery is associated with We live in a world which is full of evil and conscious life. misery. Were there no misery, there would be no need for the struggle for existence which is always and everywhere in
:
evidence. Hunger and fear are the boon companions of the great majority of human beings, not to speak of the animals in the same condition. Individual experience and history
Cardinal Newman,

?prove that
99
is the silliest nonsense that has been mankind. Even the most hardened optimist, if he would but open his eyes well, would be horrified to see the immensity of misery and suffering which Let him wâlk through hospitals, lazarettos, surrounds man. surgical rooms, through penitentiaries, dungeons, and slave kennels, through places of torture and execution, through battlefields, and then let him ask himself if this is the best of He will no longer find it easy to doubt all possible words.
optimism
invented to console
that
from birth to death looking back on harm escaped, Or looking forward to that harm's return
'
life
Means either
With
tenfold power of
harming
"
Schopenhauer has vividly described the misery of

follows
:
life
as
from the night of unconsciousas an individual in an among innumerable indiviinfinite and endless world suffering, erring ; and as though striving, duals, all passing through a frightful unpleasant dream, it hurries back to the old unconsciousness. Until then, however,
to life
"Having awakened
the
will
ness
finds
itself
its wishes are unlimited, its claims inexhaustible, and every satisfied desire begets a new one. No gratification possible in the world could allay its cravings, put a final end to its longings, and fill the bottomless abyss of Consider, too, what satisfactions of every kind its heart. man generally receives they are usually nothing more than the meagre preservation of this existence itself, daily gained
:
by ceaseless toil and incessant care, in struggle against want, with death for ever in the van. Everything in life indicates that earthly happiness is destined to be foiled or to be avowed as a delusion. The causes of this lie deep in the Accordingly the life of most of us proves nature of things. sad and short. The comparatively happy are usually only
apparently so, or are, like longlived persons, rare exceptions left as a decoy for the rest. " Life proves a continual deception in great as well as small matters. If it makes a promise, it does not fulfil it, unless to show that the coveted object was little desirable^
lOO
Thus sometimes hope, sometimes the
fulfilment of hope, deceives us. If it gives, it is but to take away. The fascination of distance presents a paradise, like an optical illusion when we have allowed ourselves to be allured thither. Happiness accordingly lies always in the future or in the past and the present is to be compared to a small dark cloud which the wind drives over a sunny plain. Before it and behind it all is bright, it alone casts a shadow. The present therefore is never satisfactory ; the future uncertain ; the past irrecoverable. Life with its hourly, daily, weekly, and yearly small, great and greater misfortunes, with its frustrated hopes and mishaps baffling all calculation, bears so plainly the impress of something we should become disgusted with
that
it is difficult to understand how any one could have mistaken this and been convinced that life was to be thankfully enjoyed and man destined to be happy. On the other hand the eternal delusion and disappointment as well as the constitution of life throughout seem as though they were intended and adapted to arouse the conviction that nothing whatever is worthy of our striving, driving and wrestling, that all goods are nought, the world bankrupt throughout, and life a business that does not meet expenses, so that our will may turn away from it. "The manner in which this vanity of all objects of the
will reveals
itself, is,
in the first
place,
time.
Time
is
the
form by means of which the vanity of things appears as transitoriness, since through time all our enjoyments and pleasures come to nought and we afterwards ask in amazement what has become of them ? Accordingly our life is like a payment which we receive in copper pence, and which at The pence are the days, death the last we must receipt. receipt. For, at last, time proclaims the sentence of nature's judgment upon the worth of all beings by destroying them.
;
And
justly so ; for all things from the void Called forth, deserve to be destroyed. T'were better, there were nought created. Goethe,
" Age and death, to which every life necessarily hurries, are the sentence of condemnation upon the will to live, passed by nature herself, which declares that this will is at

Struggling, that
it
*
lOI
must defeat itself. What thou hast willed', ends thus ; will something better'. " The lessons which each one learns from his life consist, on the whole, in this, that the objects of his wishes constantly delude, shake and fall; consequently they bring more torment than pleasure, until at length even the whole ground upon which they all stand gives way, inasmuch as his life itself is .annihilated. Thus he receives the last confirmation that all his striving and willing were a blunder and an error.
says,
*
'
Then old age and experience, hand in hand, Lead him to death, and make him comprehend After a search so painful and so long
That
all his life
he has been in the wrong,'
to the contrary, the happiest of the happiest mortal is still the moment he falls -asleep, as the unhappiest moment of the unhappiest mortal the moment he awakens." *
**
Whatever may be said
moment
Despite the gruesome misery of life man does not grow True to his nature as a living being he is contidesperate. nually striving after self-preservation. With all his labour
strives for nothing else than his salvation, from sorrow and suffering. What man speaks of as pleasure or happiness is nothing else than deliverance from pain. We know nothing positive about pleasure. Some desire or want is the condition that precedes every pleasure. With the satisfaction of the want, the wish and, therefore, the pleasure cease. All that is given to us directly is merely the want, /.<?., the pain. Even when all other wants have been satisfied, there is one desire which man cannot attain. Man's instinctive impulse towards self-preservation has created in him a desire for changeless and deathless life, a How can this desire to be free from old age and death. desire be attained ? How can man obtain deliverance from the inevitable doom of death ? How is it possible to maintain a continuity in spite of the perpetual change going on in the great struggle of existence ? This is everywhere the problem of religion. Everywhere religion is the instinct of self-preservation manifesting itself in the form of hope and
in civilisation
man
his deliverance
The world as Will and
Idea, vol II. Chapter 46,
I02
aspiration. Wherever man meets with circumstances whicb cannot be made serviceable to him, but to which on the .^contrary he is obliged to suit himself and his life aims,
/
Religion, in the true sense of the word, has nothing to do with the origin or purpose of the world. As Prof. Leuba says, " not god, but life, more life, a larger, more satisfying life is, in the last analysis, the end of religion." With true insight ^nd wisdom has the Buddha declared "Have I promised to reveal to you* secrets and mysteries ? I have, on the contrary, promised to make known to you suffering, the cause of suffering, and the way of escape from suffering. As the vast ocean is impregnated with one taste, the taste of salt, so also my disciples, this Dharma, this teaching, is impregnated with one ta"ste, the taste of deliverance." In his attempts to find a perfect life, a life free frommisery and death, man has through ignorance fallen a victim^ to the creations of his own fancy. To satisfy his longing for a deathless life he invented immortal souls which could survive the death of the body. Judging the unknown, upon which he found himself hopelessly dependent for the realisa:
there arises religion.
tion of his desires, in the light of what was best known to him, that is to say, of what he fancied about his own nature,, he peopled the universe with gods, souls like himself but
more mighty and capable of doing him good or harm. To win the favour of the gods or avert their wrath, man invented all kinds of prayers, charms, magical formulae, and bloody sacrifices. Especially the last have played such a prominent part in religion that many writers on anthropology have mistaken it for the fundamental doctrine of religion \ Even the very gods have been supposed to become incarnate
'
beings and offer themselves in sacrifice for the salvamankind.* But all these are not essential to religion, and the Buddha saw that clearly. He put an end to air kinds of sacrifices, rejected the use of charms and magical
tion of
curious relic of priraitive superstition and cruelty remained imbedded inOrphism a doctrine irrational and unintelligible, and for that very reason wrapped in the deepest and most sacred mystery a belief in the sacrifice of Dionysos himself, and the pu*
*
human
firmly
Tification of
man by
his blood."
THE FOUR GPEAT TRUTHS.

formulae,
IO3
mankind.
and pointed out the ineptitude of gods to save He taught that misery and suffering were not the
were the consequen-
result of the wrath of gods, but that they
ces of man's ignorance of his own nature and his surroundings. Nor is death the result of sin. Life and death are All life is change ; and what is change but the inseparable. death of the present ? Man shudders at and fears death, and yet death and life are not different. Just as all energy tends towards dissipation, so does all life tend towards death. All life is progressive death. The great Chinese philosopher Licius, pointing to a heap of mouldering human bones, " These and I alone have rightly remarked to his scholars the knowledge that we neither live nor are dead." Similarly " Everything that just before his death the Buddha said lives, whatever it be, is subject to the law of destruction ; the
:
law of things combined is to separate.'" The world process did not come into existence all perfecIt started with blind potentialities, and when self-conted. scious man made his appearance on the scene there, was already an outcrop of inherited tendencies. That man All known originated from an animal is no longer doubted. facts demonstrate that man, looked at from a purely zoological standpoint, is nothing more than a simian monster', a sort of arrested development in an anthropomorphic ape of an anterior epoch. He is only a prodigy child of an anthropoid bom with a brain and intelligence more developed than those of its parents.''*" As a result of this origin there have But survived in man qualities fitted for a nonmoral life. his development gave rise to the necessity of associating with his fellows into families, and this has led to the growth of social life, a life of morality. What is called the feeling of sinfulness is nothing else than the consciousness that the actions suited to an individual life are not suited to the requirements of a social or moral life, a consciousness which varies in proportion to the development of social claims and the moral sense. Evolution takes place through all forms, from the mineral through plants and all kinds of animal forms, until perfec^ '
* Elie Metchnikoff
Btudes sur
la nature
humaine.
I04
tion is reached in the Buddha. All beings are what they are by their previous and present karma. The germ of ênlightenment {nirvdnadhatu) first manifests itself as sentient reflex activity, but gradually develops through the path of conscious concurrence into self-conscious rational reaction. In the initial stage of sentient reflex activity the living being acts under the influence of some inherent impulse which
enables
it
to accomplish
some good
all
This
ties
;
reflex activity excludes
in a mechanical way. freedom and evil propensi-
the living being is devoid of all notion of good or evil, lives, so to speak, in unconscious communion with In the middle stage of conscious the whole of nature. concurrence the living being begins a life of individuality, differentiating itself more and more as it progresses from other beings and disputing with them for as large a share as possible of enjoyment and satisfaction. Though it has lost the primitive simplicity which, in the initial stage, enabled it to do some good unconsciously, yet it has It is now constantly bent on evil, but acquired freedom.
and
it
it does evil it knows not that it does evil. During the final stage of self-conscious rational reaction the living being enters on the struggle for life, engages in the
when
strife for
pleasure
and comfort, and
sacrifices as
many
beings
can for the satisfaction of its own egoistic appetites, but when it does evil there arises within itself a feeling of remorse. Gradually the notion of duty takes root in the heart of man, and it becomes a check to the free play of his passions. As he makes constant efforts to arrest his passions, his moral sense, the keen perception for improvement, becomes more and more active. He finds it necessary to wipe off" the eff'ects of his bad tendencies, and he resolves to suppress them in future. He thus gets a glimpse of the Noble Path that leads
as
it
to perfection.
in a
man
is,
the
The more intense this self-conscious reaction more does he feel a necessity to return to a
full
that of reflex activity, though acting in the consciousness of freedom. He can henceforth do nothing else than good, but, instead of doing it in an involuntary mechanical way like the beings of the initial stage, he does it voluntarily with a view to accumulate merit. He does good to others, not in order that they may do good to him, but
stage similar to
105
because by doing so, he does good to himself. How can one be good to others, if he is not good to himself ? The deliberate accomplishment of good, even at the sacrifice of the demands of reflex activity and primal instinct, opens out to him the Noble Path of enlightenment. He now perceives under what -conditions it would be possible to traverse the path. By means of the efforts he makes to produce a moral transformation in himself, he sees with certainty what further steps have necessarily to be taken to reach the goal. His final emancipation, his salvation from misery and death, is now assured.
It is
merely a question of time, for he
is
in possession of the
means of hastening his emancipation. He suppresses more and more his egoistic inclinations and works for the good of
all beings.
When he has trained himself to feel his oneness with all that lives, with the generations past and the generations to come, not only with his fellow-beings, but with the -whole world, with every creature that walks the earth, his progress is completed, and he has reached the blissful haven where there is no more struggle, no more pain, but unutterable peace. By breaking the chains which bind him to the world of individuality and growmg to be co-extensive with all life, he secures for himself a life ever-lasting, where there is no more the laste of death.
'*
'Tis self
whereby we
suffer.
'Tis
greed
grasp, the hunger to assimilate All that earth holds of fair and delicate, The best to blend with beauteous lives, to feed And take our fill of loveliness, which breed This anguish of the soul intemperate. Tis self that turns to harm and poisonous hate The calm clear life of love that Arhats lead. Oh that't were possible this self to burn In the pure flame of joy contemplative Then might we love all loveliness, nor yearn
' ! !
To
With tyrannous longings undisturbed might live Greeting the summer's and the spring's return Nor wailing that their bloom is fugitive."
;

In the beginning, probably sacrifices were offered with a view to avert the wrath of the gods whom men feared. But in later times sacrifice was regarded as a means of communication between men and gods. As fire is both celestial and terrestrial, Agni, the god of fire, which is kindled in every sacrifice, was supposed to act as the middleman between men and gods and bear the oblation to the gods. If sacrifice could be a means of communicating with the gods, it would not be impossible for man to enter into economic ralations with them. If man could offer the gods something that would please them, it should also be possible for the gods to give man in return what he might desire. Thus in due course sacrifice developed into a kind of bartering with the " Dehi me dadanii te gods. I give in order that you may give'' is the burden of almost every Vedic hymn, and is the explicit or implied reason of every Vedic sacrifice. From the conception of sacrifice as a kind of barter easily arose the idea that sacrifices could not only buy the gods, but that the gods could, even against their will, be coerced by means of sacrifices to do what man desired. As Prof. Sylvain Levi* has pointed out, morality finds no place in this system. Sacrifice which regulates the relation of man to the divinities, is a mechanical act, operating by its own spontaneous energy, and the magic art of the priest brings out what is hidden in the bosom of nature. The gods are conquered and subjected by the same power that has given them their greatness. Whether the gods like or not, the sacriticer is elevated to the celestial sphere and assured there a definite place for the future. Naturally the sacrificial arts rose in the estimation of the people, and eventually those that possessed the knowledge
in
sacrifice
part.
a form of THE religion of Ancient India wasimportant natural which played an
religion
La doctrine du
sacrifice
dans
les
Brahmnas.
107
of the sacrificial arts succeeded in dominating the people of ^^ India. Devddklnam jagat sarvamj'^ says a well-known Sanskrit verse, ^^ mantrddhinam tadaivatam ; tanmantrd trdhmanddkinam, brdhmand mamadevatd.^^ The universe is subject to the gods, and the gods are subject to the sacrificial mantras. But the mantras themselves are in the hands of the Brahmans. Hence the Brahmans are the real gods, though they live on this earth. The Brahmans could make him a deity that was not a deity, and they could divest one that was a deity of his status as such. Thus, like the pontifices in Ancient Rome, the Brahmans became powerful
and mighty
in India.
Of
being
all
is
sacrifices the greatest is that in
offered to the gods.
which a human There can be no doubt that
human sacrifices were once common in India. " Despite protestant legends, despite formal disclaimers," says Prof. E. W. Hopkins, '* human sacrifices existed long after the period of the Rig Veda, where it is alluded to ; a period when even old men were exposed to die." The ritual
manuals and Brahmanic texts prove that the anddhapurusha is not a fiction and that a real victim was offered. A human sacrifice was very expensive, for ordinarily it cost one thousand cattle' to buy a man to be sacrificed. It was indeed meritorious for one to put himself to this heavy expense, and offer a human victim to the gods, but it would be more meritorious for the very individual to whose benefit accrued the sacrifice to immolate himself. Thus was evolved the theory and practice of self-mortification as a means of coercing the gods to bestow gifts on man. The Hindu books are full of legendary accounts of the wonderful powers attained through self-mortification and austere penance. By self-mortification Ravana became invulnerable against gods and demons. By austere fervour Nahusha
*
obtained the undisputed sovereignty of the three worlds. Visv3,mitra, who was born a Kshatriya, raised himself by intense austerities to the Brahman caste. In order to obtain elevation to the position of a Brahman, Matanga, a Chandala,
went through such a course of

gods.
austerities as alarmed the Indra persi.stently refused such an impossible request. Nothing daunted Matanga balanced himself on his great toe

Io8
till
he was reduced to mere skin and bone, and was on the point of falling. Indra even came down to support him, but inexorably refused his request, and when further importuned, he granted him the power of moving about like a bird, and changing his shape at will, and of being honoured and renowned. Such was the deep belief of the people of Ancient India in the efficacy of asceticism and self mortification.
At the time of the rise of Buddhism the belief in the efficacy of self-mortification would appear to have reached its acme. Asceticism was regarded as identical with religiousness. In both Br3,manism and Jainism, which were in a flourishing condition in the time of Sakyamuni, great stress was laid on asceticism. The Jain religion teaches that twelve years of ascesticism of the severest type are necessary to salvation. The ideal life for a Jaina monk is described in the Akdrdnga " Giving up his robe, the Venerable One sutra as follows. was a naked, world relinquishing, houseless sage. When spoken to or saluted, he gave no answer. For more than a couple of years he led a religious life, without using cold water ; he realized singleness, guarded his body, had got intuition and was calm. For thirteen years he meditated day and night and was undisturbed in spirit. Practising the sinless abstinence from killing, he did no injurious acts he consumed nothing that had been prepared for him he consumed clean food. Always on his guard, he bore the pains caused by grass, cold, fire, flies, gnats, undisturbed. Whether wounded or unwounded, he desired not medical treatment. Medicines, anointing of the body and bathing, cleansing of the teeth, did not behove him after he had Sometimes the Venerable learned the path of deliverance. One did not drink for half a month or a month. Sometimes he ate only the sixth meal, or the eighth, or the twelfth. Without ceasing in his reflections the Venerable One wandered about, and killing no creatures he begged for his food moist or dry or cold food, old beans, old pap, or bad grain whether he did or did not get such food, he was rich in self-control." Logically self-mortification should lead to suicide. And in Jainism, while all other kinds of kiUing are strictly The proper method of forbidden, suicide is highly praised.
; :
'
109
committing suicide is to retire, after practising mendicancy and the approved austerities for twelve years, to a secluded spot, and having cleared it of all living creatures, starve one's "This method," says the Kkaranga sutra, self to death. " has been adopted by many who were free from delusion. It is good, wholesome, proper, beatifying, meritorious." Consistently with its asceticism Jainism abhors and despises
womanhood. The Yogasastra characterises women as " the lamps that burn on the road that leads to the gate of hell."
In the Uttaradhyayana sutra
women
are called
" female
demons on whose
grow two lumps of flesh, who continually change their minds, who entice men and then make a In the popular romances of the sport of them as slaves." Jains the hero is the pious young man who, when going to his own wedding feast to be united to his bride, is smitten with remorse and pity for the numerous living beings that might be killed during the wedding festival, and so gives away his jewels in charity, plucks out his hair to its roots, and joins the order of ascetics. These austerities practised by the Jain monks form but a poor illustration of the extent to which self-torture and self-mortification had been pushed in the Buddha's time.
breasts
Gautama Siddartha also fell into the trap of asceticism, but fortunately for the world he escaped from it. As was the fashion of his day Siddartha also left his home and family, and retired to the forest to seek after truth. He placed himself under the guidance of the wisest hermits of He studied all their teachings and endeavoured to his day. follow their example. He tried to purify himself by ceremonies
and and
sacrifices,
by starvation and
austerities,
by nakedness
has himself desecribed how for six years in the jungle of Uruvilva he patiently tortured himself and suppressed all the wants of nature. He led the most rigorous ascetic life. He ate each day a single grain of rice. His body became emaciated and shrunken, so much that his buttocks his arms and legs looked like withered reeds, resembled the hump of a camel, and his ribs projected like the rafters of a house. The fame of his austerities spread in the neighbourhood, and crowds came to see him. He pushed his fast even to such an extreme that at last he fell into a
self-torture.
He
I0
-swoon from sheer starvation and exhaustion. And when he came to himself, he found that no revelation had come to
him
in his senselessness.
He
once more began to eat and
drink so that he recovered his strength. He pondered over the fruits of his self-mortification and found out that this was not the path to the wisdom he sought. Just as he realized in his palace that the way to salvation does not lie in the indulgence of worldly pleasures, so did he in the forest realise that fasts and penances do not advance people in their search for deliverance from misery. In his sermon to the five bhikshus in the Deer Park at Benares the TathS,gata explained the Middle Path, the true means of attaining salvation, thus " Neither abstinence from fish or flesh, nor going naked, nor shaving the head, nor wearing matted hair, nor dressing in a rough garment, nor covering oneself with dirt, nor sacrificing to Agni, will cleanse a man whose mind is full of
:
delusion. " Neither reading the Vedas, nor sacrificing to the gods, nor fasting often, nor lying on the ground, nor keeping hard
and
is
strict vigils,
nor repeating prayers
will
cleanse a
man who
in error.
" Neither bestowing gifts on priests, nor self-mortification nor the performance of penances, nor the observance of rites can purify the man who has not overcome his passions.
" It is not the eating of flesh that constitutes uncleanness, but anger, drunkenness, obstinacy, bigotry, deception, envy, self-praise, disparagement of others, superciliousness and evil intentions these cause uncleanness. " Let me teach you, O bhikshus, the Middle Path, which keeps aloof from both extremes. By sufl'ering the emaciated devotee produces confusion and sickly thoughts in his mind. Mortification is not conducive even to worldly knowledge ; how much less to a triumph over the senses " He who fills his lamp with water will not dispel the darkness, and he who tries to light a fire with rotten wood
will
*^
fail.
Mortifications are painful,

free
vain and profitless.
And
life
how can any one be

if
from self by leading a wretched he does not succeed in quenching the fires of lust?

" All mortification
is
Ill
vain so long as selfishness leads to world or in another world. But he in whom egotism has become extinct is free from lust he will desire neither worldly nor heavenly pleasures, and the satisfaction of his natural wants will not defile him. He may eat and drink to satisfy the needs of life. " On the other hand, sensuality of every kind is enervating. The sensual man is a slave of his passions, and pleasure seeking is vulgar and degrading. " But to satisfy the necessities of life is not evil. To shelter the body from the weather, to cover it decently and comfortably, to protect it against the numerous external causes of pain, to save it as far as possible from fatigue, to eliminate sensations that are disagreeable, in short, to keep the body in good health, is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom and keep our minds strong and clear. " This is the Middle Path, O bhikshus, that keeps aloof from both extremes." Starting as it does from the first great truth that sorrow and suffering are concomitants of every conceivable form of egoism, the Dharma does not consign man to the sensualist's {charvdka) " let us eat and drink for tc-morrow we die." The Dharma spurns not only asceticism, but also all luxury. The aim of the Dharma is enlightenment and peace and not pleasure. Hence no mode of living, which is merely intended to increase pleasure without materially promoting health
lust after pleasures in
this
or efficiency, can be rational. On this ground all luxury, the mere increase of an individual's pleasure by superfluous consumption, is condemned. It cannot be doubted that luxury has in the long run a baneful effect on one's health. Who does not know the excesses in sensual indulgence committed by persons of wealth and leisure and the difficulty of avoiding them even by care and self-control ? Luxurious habits make men disinclined for labour and incapable of sustained exertion and patient endurance, which are the powers needed for most kinds of strenuous work. Even if the prospect of luxury may act in some cases as an incentive to work, still from an ethical point of view it would êem base that one should not be able to do his duty with-
112
out bribing himself by a larger share of consumable wealth than falls to the common lot. A man who lives in luxury consumes what, even from a purely utilitarian point of view, could have produced more happiness, if it had been left to be consumed by others. No body can eat his^ cake and also have it. It is an absurd fallacy to suppose that a man by living luxuriously provides work and therefore bread for the many. A man, properly speaking, benefitsothers by rendering service to them, and not by requiring them to render service to him. Luxury appears to receive some support from the Spencerian formula of " passage
from indefinite
but really
it
homogeneity
to definite
heterogeneity,"
finds
no
Rather it has its opposed to the teachings of science. As Elie Metchnikofif says in his Etudes sur la nature humaine, " when the meaning and aim of life has become more precise, it will be found that true welfare does not consist in luxury, which is opposed to the normal cycle of human life." Wealth is often supposed to procure ease of body and peace of mind, and give time for ideal ends and exercise for But it actually does so in very rare cases. ideal energies. As Adam Smith has rightly remarked in his l^heory of Morals, " wealth and greatness are mere trinkets of frivolous utility no more adapted for procuring ease of body or
basis in the general law of evolution. origin in a conception of life which is
mind than the tweezer-cases of the lover of and, like them too, more troublesome to the person who carries them about with him than all the advantages In ease of body they can afford him are commodious and peace of mind all the different ranks of life are nearly upon a level, and the beggar who suns himself by the side of the highway, possesses the security which kings are fighting for." Very few desire wealth for great purposes. Most covet large incomes for fine garments, handsome apartments, the theatre, public houses, horses and coaches, all for making a show of their money and never for increasing the sum of social The desire of gaining wealth and the fear of benefits. losing it generally breed cowardice and propagate corruption. In many circumstances the man in pursuit of wealth is a slave, whilst a man for whom poverty has no terrors is free*
tranquillity of
toys
II3
Personal indifference to poverty gives the seeker after truth strength to devote himself to a noble but unpopular cause, and thus bear witness to the higher life. Small wonder, therefore, that the Buddhist bhikshu takes the vow of
poverty The attainment oi bodhi
!
is
much more
than
plain-living
implies perfect sanity of life and perfect freedom from lust. Hence it involves the unusual sacrifice implied by a celibate life. The attainment of Nirvana is an achievement so rare and grand that celibacy does not seem too great a sacrifice. Even in married life it may not be impossible to accomplish a good deal in the direction of the perfect hfe. Evolution would seem to indicate a necessary connection between celibacy and the higher life. Evolution points to a natural antagonism between individual perfection and race multiplication. While in the lower stages of animal life the race is everything and the individual nothing, in the higher types the reproductive function becomes subordinated, and the individual rises in importance. In the bacillus or the fish we see a prodigal fecundity, but the major portion of mankind has arrived at the stage of one at a birth.' The highest stage wôuld, therefore, be that in which the individual is all to himself, no longer concerned with the propagation of the race. Hence the perfect individuality and the highest altruism demanded of the seeker after bodhi would seem to be impossible except at the cost of fitness for the multiplication of the species. It is a charge frequently brought against the Buddhist bhikshu that he is a drone dependant on others for supIt
*
and high-thinking.
port. But this is an accusation not warranted by facts. No doubt there are black sheep in every fold. But Buddhism teaches that indolence is defilement and that strenuousness
is the path of immortality. The Buddha never taught the doctrine of nonaction. To the Nirgrantha General-in-Chief, Simha, the Blessed One clearly pointed out that what he taught was the not doing of anything unrighteous either by word, by thought or by deed, and the doing of everything righteous by word, thought and deed. " monks," says the Blessed One in the Itivuttaka^ " be not afraid of good

114

:
works
It
such
is
the
name
for happiness,
desired, dear
and
delightful,
namely
for what is wished, good works."
not
that
may indeed be true that the Buddhist bhikshu does take much interest in worldly matters, for he fears they may lead him into wrong paths. But even
from a worldly point of view he has rendered invaluable service to his country and his supporters. In all countries where Buddhism has flourished, the bhikshus have been the pioneers of civilization and the repositories of learning. In India, during the Middle Ages, no places were more famous for learning than Nalanda, Vallabhi, Odantapuri and Vikramasila. Nalanda was a seat of universal learning, where all the arts and sciences sabdavidya, silpasthdnavidya^ chikitsavidya^ hetuvzdya^ adhydtmavidya were taught. " The monks of Nalanda, to the number of several thousands," says Huen Thsang, " are men of the highest ability. Their conduct is pure and unblamable, although the rules of the monastery are severe. The day is not sufficient for asking and answering profound questions. From morning till night the monks engage in discussion, the old and the young mutually helping one another. Those who cannot answer questions out of the Tripitaka are little esteemed, and are obliged to hide themselves for shame. Hence, learned men from different cities come here in multitudes to settle their doubts and thence the streams of their fame spread far and wide. For this reason, some persons usurp the name of N,landS, students, and in going to and fro receive honour and consequence." Speaking of the work done by the Buddhist bhikshusin Japan, Nobuta Kishimoto says " It is often said against
Buddhism that monks and priests are idle and unprotitable members of the community like drones living on the industry of others. This, in one sense, is true. But we must remember that, if Buddhism introduced into Japan certain numbers of these " drones " of society, it also introduced
various arts, such as painting, sculpture arid architecture. Most of the famous paintings, sculptures and buildings of the present Japan are religious, but principally Buddhistic. Moreover, the Buddhist monks and priests were not altogether idle and unprofitable. It is true that they were

living
II5
on the
gifts
of the
believers.
pastors, too, live
on the
gifts of
But the Christian the Christians, just as much
as the Buddhist clergy do ; yet no one calls them idle and Apart from their moral and religious funcunprofitable. tions it was mostly the monks who, in their pilgrimages in search of quiet spots, built roads and spanned bridges, thus
making
travelling
and communication
easy.
It
was often
the monks who encouraged the people in the cultivation of Often they themselves led the the arts of peace and life. people in the transformation of waste land into rice fields." But, perhaps, the greatest value of Buddhism to Japan was Going hand-in-hand with Chinese culture, educational. Buddhism offered the boon of education to all. The Buddhist schools became centres of popular instruction. The village schools were all connected with Buddhist The common people were taught the arts of temples. reading and writing, ethics and philosophy for a nominal The Buddhist bhikshu was the schoolmaster everycost. where, and even the Imperial household employed BudIn Burma also every monastery is a dhist instructors. school, and the bhikshus impart the elements of education No wonder that in Burma every man to all, free of charge. Only in a Buddhist country such is able to read and write a simple solution of the problem of mass education would
!
have been possible.
Some critics allege that the Buddha failed to inculcate the civic virtues comprehended in the idea of patriotism. This objection rests on ignorance. The Buddha actually taught the Vajji, a mighty people living in the neighbourhood of Magadha, the prime conditions of social welfare, the fundamental principles of that social order from which alone all civic virtues develop. Ajatasatru, the king of Magadha, once planned an attack upon the Vajji, and sent his prime-minister to inform the Buddha of his purpose. When the Blessed One received the message, he asked Ananda if the Vajji held full and frequent assemblies. On Ananda's answering in the affirmative, the Master said " So long as the Vajji hold these full and frequent assemblies, they may be expected not to decline, but to prosper. So long as they meet in concord, so long as they honour
Il6
their elders, so long as they respect womanhood, so long as they remain righteous, performing all proper duties, so long, as they extend rightful protection, defence and support to the holy ones, the Vajji may be expected not to declinebut to iirosper." Then, turning to the king's messenger the Buddha said " When I staid at Vais3.li, I taught the Vajji these conditions of welfare, that so long as they should remain well instructed, so long as they will continue in the right path, so long as they should live up to the precepts of righteousness, we could expect them not to decline, but to. prosper." As soon as the prime-minister had gone, the Buddha called together the bhikshus and spoke to them on^ " So long,. the conditions pf the welfare of a community. bhikshus, as the brethren hold full and frequent assemblies, meeting in concord, rising in concord, and attending in concord to the affairs of the Sangha ; so long as they,. brethren, do not abrogate that which experience has proved to be good, and introduced nothing except such things as have been carefully tested ; so long as their elders practise justice ; so long as the brethren esteem, revere, and support their elders, and hearken unto their words ; so long as the brethren are not under the influence of craving, but delight in the blessings of religion, so that good and holy men shall come to them and dwell among them in quiet ; so long as the brethren shall not be addicted to sloth and idleness ] so long as the brethren shall exercise themselves in the sevenfold higher wisdom of mental activity^ search after truth, energy, joy, modesty, self-control, earnest contemplation, and equanimity of mind ; so long the Sangha may be expected not to decline but to prosper. Therefore,. bhikshus, be full of faith, modest in heart, afraid of sin, anxious to learn, strong in energy, active in mind, and full of wisdom." It is said in the Marasamyutta ( Vagga 2) that the Blessed One once asked himself if it would not be possible, following the teachings of the Dharma, to rule as a king who does not himself slaughter living beings, nor permits slaughter by others ; who does not himself oppress people, nor sanctions oppression by others ; who has himself no troubles and There sorrows, nor causes trouble and sorrow to others.
:

<:an
II7
be no doubt that Emperor Asoka, the Dharmar&ja of the Buddhist books,* sought to realise this ideal. By precept and example he tried to make his people better and " In this way," says Asoka in his edicts, " acts of happier. religion are promoted in the world, as well as the practice of religion, viz,^ mercy and charity, truth and purity, kindness and goodness. The manifold acts of goodness which I accom" For me there cannot be too plish serve as an example." much activity in the administration of justice. It is my duty to procure by my instructions the good of the public ; and in incessant activity and the proper administration of justice lies the root of public good, and nothing is more efficacious than this. All my endeavours have but this one object, to pay this debt due to my people " " All men (are like) my children. As I desire that (my) children should be safe now and hereafter, so do I desire (this) to all men." No sovereign ever rendered to his country a greater service than Asoka did to India. No wonder that his name is venerated from the Volga to Japan and from Siam to Lake Baikal " If the greatness of a man," as Koeppenf says, ^' may be measured by the number of hearts that cherish his memory and by the number of lips that have uttered and still utter his name with reverence, then surely Asoka is greater than 'Caesar or Charles the Great." Spurning both sensuality and asceticism the Dharma urges a healthy simplification in living, discerning that the higher life must be rooted in hygiene, and not in hysteria. It therefore regards the mortification of all desire, the stultification of the will, as mere madness. Though it freely accepts the inevitable, it does not despair but diverts the mind from things that cannot satisfy because they cannot endure to aims intellectual and ethical. It is not the severing of the ties of life that constitutes renunciation, but the utter eradication of egoism. It is not the shaving of the head, nor the mowing of the chin, nor the donning of the yellow robe that constitutes bhikshuta^ but it is the weeding of the heart from passion and pride, from lust and greed.
* See Divyavadana.
t Religion des
Buddha.
Il8
" Restrained of hand, restrained of foot, restrained in speech, the best of the self-controlled, reflective, calm, content, alone, it is he that is a true bhikshu " :* says the Dhammapada. Still the bhikshu is no ascetic. He may not overeat, but he eats enough to keep himself healthy and strong. He may not use garlands, scents, unguents, or ornaments,, but he is clean and tidy. His yellow robes may not be fine and charming, but they are decent and comfortable. He may not live in a proud dwelling, but he always lives under a roof sheltered from tiie weather. He may not use a high or broad bed, but he sleeps on a soft couch. He may abstain from dancing, singing and stage plays, but he never cuts himself off from society. He may live a retired Hfe, but he is freely accessible to men and women, with whom he talks on religious subjects. Not being a priest he may have no concern with births, deaths, or marriages, but he is devoted to spreading the knowledge of the Dharma. He may not beg his food, he may not speak of his wants to others, but he lives on their charity not because of indolence, but because it is a part of the discipline that trains his mind to humility. He struggles on the path of righteousness, not because he hopes to obtain heavenly gifts, but because in the fulness of gladness he will make an end of grief. He is honoured not for his learning or wisdom, but for the sanity and purity of his life, which serves as an example to others to
" Dismiss their ideals of wealth And heap up a store ot that to Any prospect of perishing, nor
aud grandeur betimes, which may never come danger of decay."
books speak of five classes of bhikshus pratijnabhikshu bhikshanaQjIo bhikshu jfiaptichaturthakarmadyupasampanno bhikshu and bhinnakleô bhikshu Of these the last is the highest, and the fourth respectable. The
The Buddhistic
;
sani jnabhikshu
rest are disreputable.

his principal work, IN hauer declares "The IWorld as Will and Idea, Schopen> were to take the result of my If
:
philosophy as the standard of truth, I would be obliged to concede to Buddhism the pre-eminence over the rest. In any case it must be a satisfaction to me to see my teaching in such close agreement with a religion which the majority of mankind upon the earth hold as their own." To Schopenhauer this avowal of a close agreement between his philosophy and Buddhism might have been a gratification, but for Buddhism it has certainly proved a misfortune. It has given rise to a serious misconception about Buddhism. The Buddhist ideal has been misjudged to be the result of a Schopenhauerian pessimism as to the worth and promise of life. Nothing can really be more untrue than the identification of Buddhism with any form of pessimism.
The keynote of Schopenhauer's philosophy is that inward discord is the very law of human nature. Consequently man, so long as he is conscious, must be an unhappy creature. " Painless the battle of life," says Schopenhauer, " cannot be, it may not end without bloodshed, and in any case man must mourn." On the contrary, the very aim of Buddhism is inward harmony, the Great Peace in which one can find " He whose refuge from the struggle and turmoil of life.
inward, who is tranquil and happy when alone a true bhikshu " says the Dkammapdda. Not to despair, not to mourn is the burden of much of the teaching of the Buddha to his disciples. When Ananda was mourning over Sariputra's death, the Blessed One said
delight
is
him they
call
Ananda, often and often have I sought to bring shelter to your mind from the misery caused by such grief as this. There are two things alone that can separate us from father and mother, from brother and sister, from all those who are most cherished by us, and those two things are distance and death. Think not that I, though the Buddha, have not felt
"
/
i
OF THE
UNIVERSITY )

I20
all this
even as any other of you ; was I not alone when I was seeking wisdom in the wilderness ? " And yet what would I have gained by wailing and lamenting either for myself or for others ? Would it have brought to me any solace from my loneliness ? Would it have been any help to those whom I had lelt ? There is nothing that can happen to us, however terrible, however miserable, that can justify tears and lamentations and make them aught
but a weakness." It is indeed true that the Buddha recognises the existence of suffering and misery as honestly and fully as the deepest pessimist. It is also true that he insists strongly on the necessity of renouncing all sensuality, worldly ambitions, and feverish cravings, and the longing for mere life as such here or in another world. If he condemns as worthless what men generally consider natural and valuable, he does so because he finds them to be defilements {dcrava) which stand as obstacles in the way of attaining perfect bliss. Worldly ambitions arise from a cleaving to things changeable, and as such cannot but prove dangerous. Life for its own sake is not worth living. If mere existence satisfied us, we should want for nothing. On the other hand, man finds delight only when he is struggling for the satisfaction of some want. When he has nothing to struggle for, man feels the emptiness of life in the form of boredom. Man's hankering for the strange and unusual proves beyond doubt how much he feels the tedium of ordinary life. Mere quantity of life, without quality, stands self-condemned. A life worth living is one that is full of active aspiration for something higher and nobler, a life full of culture and refinement, philosophic enthusiasm and earnest devotion to the good of others. And of such life the Dharma can never say we have enough. Often and often the Buddhistic books impress upon us the necessity of such life. Here is what the Sutra offour perfections says about the life worthy of an aspirant after bodht "What is the fruit of the thought of the bodhisatva? Answer: Higher morality, higher perception of truth, great love, great pity. A spirit exempt from anger ; a spirit of compassion for the erring; a spirit which forbids falling away from wisdom: a spirit of perseverance to the end."
:
121
" What is his rule of duty? To attach himself with high desire to all laws of virtue ; not to despise the ignorant ; to be a friend to all men to expect no more from new births." " What his bliss ? The joy of having seen a Buddha, of
having heard the Dharma of not repenting in giving ; of having procured the good of all creatures." " What his health ? The sound body, the mind not drawn to perishing things bringing all beings into right and equal condition ; freedom from doubt on every point relating to
;
-,
the Dharma."
**
To what should he adhere ? To

;
meditation
to
ficence
to
compassionative love
; to benethe discipline of
wisdom."
therefore,
" Since consciousness, body, life, self are impermanent, is there pefection in morality, in tranquillity, in
wisdom, in release."
cause
has nowhere condemned all life, beand must inevitably result, in more pain than bliss. No doubt all life is a struggle of some sort, and Were this struggle, as Christianity struggle we must to live. teaches, the result of sin, and the misery accompanying it a punishment from heaven, this world would be the worst possible and we should be driven to pessimism. But the
The
Blessed
One
it
results,
teaches that the painfulness of this struggle arises Life is so miserable, because we struggle in the interest of self, and not in the interest of truth and righteousness. How can he be happy who struggles in life with envy, hatred, and lust, so that he himself may be great or powerful, rich or famous ? He that is anxious about his personal happiness must necessarily be full of fear. He may be indifferent to the misery of his fellow-beings, he may' have his fill of the good things of the world, but he cannot be blind to the fact that the same end awaits us all. He alone can be truly happy who has realised that life and death are one. He who resigns to death that which belongs to death will be calm and self-possessed, whatever be his fate. Man may try to console himself with all sorts of chimeras and falsehoods, but experience shows how reluctant men are to die, whether they be pessimists or devout believers in a future life in a
Dharma
from our point of view.
I2
happy world.
Just four days before his death, Charles Renouvier, a famous French philosopher, wrote: "I have no illusions regarding my condition. I know that 1 am soon to die, in a week or, perhaps, two, and yet I have so many things to say about our doctrine. At my age one has no right to hope. One's days or one's hours are numbered. I must be resigned I cannot die without regret that I can in no way foresee what will become of my ideas. Besides I am going before I have said my last word. One always has to leave before terminating one's task. This is one of the saddest of the sadnesses of Hfe This is not all. When one is old, very old, habituated to life, it is very difficult to die. I readily believe that young people accept the idea of death more easily than the old. When one is beyond eighty years, he becomes cowardly and does not wish to die, and when one knows beyond question that death is near, a feeling of melancholy pervades the soul I have studied the question in all its aspects. I know that I am going to die. It is not the philosopher in me that protests. The philosopher in me does not believe in death, it is the old man who has not the courage to face the inevitable. However, one must be resigned." These words illustrate how men are blindly athirst for life. This thirst cannot be got rid of except by the complete liberation from the illusion of self. Hence, according to the Dharma, what we should strive for is not life but peace, the Great Peace of Nirv,na. If the Buddha has taught us the vanity of grief and the selfishness of sorrow, if he has taught us to be resigned before the inevitable, he has also shown us the means of attaining true happiness. The Blessed One has fully recognised the fact that the world runs desperately after happiness in some form or other. But he has at the same time pointed out that happiness will not be found if it is directly sought, just as one aiming at the bull's eye of a target inevitably misses it. Nay more ; the Dharma teaches that life would not be worth living, if its goal were the mere satisfaction of egoistic desires. If happiness in the eudcemonistic sense were the ideal of human life, it were better to return to the Can it be denied that the savage, if not the animal, state.
125
animal and the savage are more happy than the civilized man of culture ? No doubt civilization and culture have
removed many evils and created many new comforts, but with them also have come into existence many new previously unknown sufferings, which are becoming keener and more intense with advancing refinement and increasing sensibility. While the animal suffers from actually existing pain, man's reason makes him multiply his afflictions by anticipation and rumination. As Kant has said, if the special purpose of a being endowed with reason and will were only its self-preservation and prosperity, or, in a word, its
happiness as ordinarily understood, the creature has been badly equipped to secure the end in view. A pig with its instincts is perfectly happy, while a Socrates highly endowed with reason is always unhappy. Accordingly, the goal set before man by the Dharma is not happiness but perfection.
" And who have perfection ? Is it the pleasure-loving,, or the painstaking ? The right answer is The painstaking, not the easy-going." But he who attains perfection also enjoys the bliss arising from the complete realization of his being. In one place the Buddha says " Of those that live happily in this world am I also one." As the DhammapMa says, he who attaches himself to the teaching of the Buddha lives happily free from ailments among the careworn, free from repining among men sick at heart, free from greed
:
among men overpowered by greed, free from ill-will among the hating. He who has overcome all hindrances brightens the world like the moon free from clouds, and like the
celestials feeds
*'
upon changeless
Happy
is
bliss.
the Buddhist's fate For his heart knows not of hate. Haters may be all around, Yet in him no hate is found.
"
Happy is the Buddhist's fate He all pining' makes abate. Pining may seize all around,
Yet
in
him no
is
pining's found.
"
the Buddhist's fate Him no greed will agitate In the world may greed abound, Yet in him no greed is found
Happy
124

" Happily then let us live, Joyously our service give, Quench all pining, hate and greed Happy is the life we lead." Dhamviapada^
:
197200.
tree
is
judged by
to
its
fruit.
Were Buddhism,
as
some
dark and dreary creed characterised by a feeling of melancholy which bemoans the unreality of being, what should have been its effect upon the peoples professing it ? They should be gloomy, cheerless, and
writers
try
make
out, a
entirely apathetic to
all
that
interests
man
in
life.
But
Has there been any people on the the reality ? face of the earth more cheerful and happy than the Buddhists of Burma. Says Mr. Scott O'Connor in The Silken East: "Yet of all peoples of the earth the Burmese are probably the happiest. Most of the requisites of the modern Utopias they already possess leisure, independence, absolute equality, the nearest approach to a perfect distribution of wealth ; in addition a happy temper cheerful in all adversities. Who is there in the world who would not wish for some at least of these things for himself ? And many, struggling with all the problems of modern life, of pauperism, of congestion in great cities, with social hatreds and the deep antagonism of classes, look in vain as for an unattainable thing for what the Burmese race, as a whole, has attained." Much the same can be said of the Siamese and the Japanese. There is nothing in the life of any people professing Buddhism which can give any room for characterising the faith which they profess as a religion of despair.' dreary, on the contrary, must be a religion
what
is
:
'
How
its adherents bow down in submissive awe before a terrible monster who revels in preying over the weak ? True religion is not that which turns man into a cur, but that which makes him more of a man and removes from him the feeling of dependence. The Dharma makes man
which makes
free by raising him, through self-culture and self-control, to the supreme heights of perfection. Man has furthered evolution unconsciously and for personal ends, but the Dharma teaches that it is his duty to do so deliberately and systematically for the attainment of

perfection.
25
For Buddhism
life is
" neither as pretty as rose
pink nor as repulsive as dirty drab." It admits the plain fact that life is not worth its own troubles, if we live merely
enjoyment of life. It therefore places the value of life in ideals that transcend the narrow limits of individual existence. It aims not merely at the alleviation of present suffering, but also the creation of conditions under which no suffering can exist. As Aristotle says, " the wise man seeks after freedom from pain, not pleasure." So does the Buddhist direct his actions to the prevention and removal of suffering without caring for any pleasure which may thereby be attained or promoted. Still this does not imply the denial of the blessings of life. On the contrary, when the Blessed One was asked to declare what he regarded as the blessings of life, he did not like the pessimist say
for the selfish
'
Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen. Count o'er thy days from anguish free And know, whatever thou hast been, Tis something better not to be."
' :
But he
replied
'*
The succouiing of mother and father, The cherishing of child and wife, The following of a peaceful calling.
This
is
the greatest blessing.
Acts of charity, a pious life, Aid rendered to your kin,
And
This
actions that are blameless. is the greatest blessing.
" Self -discipline
purity. of the four Great Truths, And the attainment of Nirvana, This is the greatest blessing." ilfawââ Sîtta,
and
The comprehension

extremes, there are," said the Blessed One in his sermon at Benares, " which he who strives after holiness must avoid. Which two ? life addicted to pleasure, for it is enervating, vulgar, mean and worthless and a life given to self-mortification, for it is painful, vain and profitless. By avoiding both these extremes has the Tathagata arrived at the Middle Path {Madhyamaprattpada), which leads to insight, to wisdom, to knowledge, to peace, to
*^
AT\WO
first
Nirvana. But which is this Middle Path? It is the Noble Eightfold Path." No man can truly call himself a Buddhist, if he has not entered the Noble Eightfold Path. Mere study and investigation of the teachings of the Buddha do not qualify one to be a Buddhist, if he is not at the same time pursuing the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path represents the morality of Buddhism, and in Buddhism the moral life is no mere adjunct but its very core and essence. He who has merely understood the Dharma but has not shaped his life and thought in accordance with its spirit is like one who having read a book on cookery imagines that he has eaten the sweets described in the book. Straight and broad indeed is the noble path that leads to blessedness, but no one can traverse it unless he is fully equipped with the eight essentials. The torch of right belief {samyak drishti) must light his way. Right aspiration (samyak samlcalpa) must be his guide. Right speech (samyak vdk) must form his dwelling place on the road. Right action {samyak karma) must be his erect gait, and right living {samyak ajiva) must form his refreshments on the road. Right effort {samyak vyayama) must be his steps, right thought
{samyak smriti) his breath, and right tanquillity (samyak samadhi) his sleeping couch.* The real history of the development of man consists in
'*'
Asvagosba's Buddha-charitra.

the history of his behefs.
12 J
History, whether it be of the arts or of the sciences, or of society, or of religion, always involves an account of man's beliefs and their growth. Men's doings are largely a reflection of their beliefs. Consequently, all superstitious customs and practices are the result of an irrational state of mind issuing logically from wrong beliefs. It is therefore natural that right belief should form the first equipment for the pilgrimage on the noble path of purity. Again the spring of all action is motive, and the intellectual stimulus to motive is belief. Hence only ri^ht belief can lead man to right action. Animistic and metaphysical beliefs have been the fruitful sources of religious error. The right starting point for religion can be nothing else than the universally recognised fact of the existence of sorrow and suffering, from which every religion proposes to save mankind. The right comprehension of the existence of misery and its cause, the illusion of a permanent self, will enable one to find easily the means of removing it. But the belief in a soul or the dependence on a supernatural being for one's salvation can only lead to error which would stultify one's efforts towards emancipation from misery. It is the possession of the right belief that differentiates the educated from the uneducated, the thoughtful from the unreflecting. People come by their beliefs in four different ways. Some merely take refuge in the calm satisfaction of a faith that their view alone is the right one, and look with
pity,
contempt, or even horror on all other views. These of tenacity are like the ostrich that buries its head in the sand as danger approaches and then feels satisfied that there is no danger. More often, imposed authority forms the expeditious means of producing a general belief. But this method, though lightly tolerated by the many, is not acceptable to the thoughtful few, who easily penetrate the mist of dogma, and, detecting the pretentiousness of all infallibility, look elsewhere tor obtaining a sounder belief. Even when freed from the fetters of authority, men frequently fall victims to their hopes and wishes, and accept views which seem plausible, agreeable, or -elevating. From this condition of mind no progress can
men
128
result.
Only when one scrutinises one's inclinations and and cares more for the validity of one's reasoning than for its agreeableness, would it be possible to find the It is one of the glories of Buddhism that it appeals truth. to reason and science, and not to blind faith and authority. Only he who has set aside vain hopes and wishes can perceive that the power with which he combats suffering and sorrow is natural and not supernatural. Only the sceptre of reason and science can safeguard to all the most cherished opportunities for right action, right thought, and right
wishes,
peace.
When an earnest intelligent man has gained right views concerning the existence of misery, its cause and its cessation, how could he find satisfaction in pleasure-seeking ? He has found that to seek pleasure is to multiply pain. When one has begun to see things as they are, how could he be swayed by motives of dollars and cents, or of mere personal interest ? When one has perceived that there is the infinite to traverse and the perfect to attain, how can he find happiness in repose ? His mind will always be directed towards the attainment of bodhi. His aspiration will be to free his mind from doubts and contradictions as to the possibility of reaching the goal ; to be paying homage to the Blessed One by investigating his Dharma and disciplining himself in accordance with its teaching ; to abandon the idea of separateness ; and to deliver himself and all beings drowned in the sea of misery by the employment of the various expedients which lead to the haven of the Great " What then, O friend, is right aspiration ? " says the Peace. Sacchavibkanga "It is the longing for renunciation ; the
:
hope
nity."
all the aspiration after true humaWith the firm resolve to attain bod/it the aspirant must enter on the prescribed course of self-culture and self-
to live in love with
control.
Aspirations and resolutions will be of little avail, if they are not followed by practices which can secure the end The inner life of the individual will become in view. strengthened only when it energises into the external world Consequently right aspirations must find obas activity.
jective manifestation in right speech, right action
and
right

living.
29
biting, to abstain
abstain from falsehood, to abstain from backfrom harsh language, and to abstain from The words of one frivolous talk is called risjht speech." who aspires to the higher life must be kind, open, truthful^ encouraging to others and helpful in improvunequivocal
;
"
To
ing
He
them and free from vanity and bitterness of feeling. must not " gossip about great people " he must not
;
about "meats, drinks, clothes, perfumes, couches^ demigods, fortune-telling, warriors, equipages, women, hidden treasures, ghost stories, nor about empty tales concerning things that are not." Whatever he speaks he must speak kindly and with a pure thought. Hand-in-hand with the elimination of selfishness from one's speech must proceed the purification of one's acts from all egotistic taint. " Atmabhdvdn tathd bhogdn sarvanirapekshastyajdm yes ha trdvagatam subham sarvasatvdrtha siddhaye1 give up all my pleasures and enjoyspeak
at all
ments
for the
good and
benefit of
all
beings."
So says the
Bodhicharydvatdfa, The aim of right action is not one's own happiness which may result from it. Right action consists in the avoidance of all that is subversive of the higher life and in the doing of all that is good and noble. Progress in the higher life cannot be effected by means of rituals, sacrifices,
fore forbidden.
prayers and incantations, and these are thereBut real merit {punyain) is acquired by the " Not superpractice of morality (p/a) and charity {dd?ta). stitious rites," says Asoka in his edicts, '* but kindness to servants and underlings, respect to those deserving of respect, self-control coupled with kindness in dealing with living creatures ; these and virtuous deeds of like nature are verily the rites that ought everywhere to be performed." The practice of morality {qlla) consists in the observance of all moral precepts ; in feeling fear, shame and remorse at the smallest violation of any of them ; in not giving room for blame or disgust; in practising those deeds which lead to
moderation and contentment, and in endeavouring to induce

all
human
beings to
abandon
evil
and
practise virtue.
He alone
when
evil.
truly practises morality,
who desists from evil-doing
the best opportunities present themselves for doing In Buddhism the moral life is of fundamental impor-
/30
tance.
Of all the paramitots^ the excellences which form the means of arriving at Nirvaaa, the fila paramitd is the foundation. Some of the other paramitas may in some respects be higher than p7a, but they may be dispensed with, if necessary, for the sake of fi/ay as the latter, owing to its being the basis of good acts, can on no account be neglected. While morality is in some respects passive, charity is always active. Charity implies much more than the mere observance of certain rules, such as those of ahimsa and adattadana. It implies not only some amount of self-sacrifice, but also the feeling of gladness arising from helping How charity is to be practised is those in need of help. clearly inculcated in the Dharma. When people ask one for something, one ought, as far as one's means permit, to
ungrudgingly and make them rejoice in it. "The is a blessing to him who receives as well as to but the receiver is inferior to the giver.'* If one finds people threatened with danger, one ought to try every means of rescuing them and impart to them a As far as one is acquainted with the feeling of fearlessness. Dharma, one ought to instruct others in it, for the gift of the Dharma, the Truth, exceeds all other gifts. " There is no such charity," says one of Asoka's edicts, " as the charitable gift of Dharma, no such friendship as the friendship in Dharma, no such distribution as the distribution of Dharma, ô such kinship as kinship in Dharma." The bodhisattva is expected to be not only a donor but also one compassionate and forgiving. " Loving and compassionate," said the Blessed One to Anathapindika, the supporter of the orphans, " he gives with reverence and banishes all hatred, envy and anger." In performing acts of charity one's aim ought not to be either fame or any other advantage in this or another
supply
it
giving of alms him who gives
world. No doubt one thinks of benefiting others, but one's mind is set wholly on the attainment of Nirvana. Even when there may be no one to profit by his acts, his As the Bodhicharyavadisposition ought to be charitable. t^ra s^ys, ** by the ddnaparamitd we uriderstand the disposifipn to live for the good and benefit of all beings."
131
It is the attitude of mind that measures the merit of a charitable act. A legend tells us that in Pushpapura there was the begging bowl of the Buddha, which would become
full when the poor put in a single flower, but rarely showed Many îgns of being filled when the rich put in thousands. of the Jataka stories are also intended to illustrate the same point. These stories are not meant to be understood literally. They merely em phasise the ideal of charity. Though in them we often come across self-destruction, it must be remembered that the Dharma does not regard self-destruction as right. As the Bodhicharyavatara says, " this body that can do righteous deeds ought not be made to suffer for petty things even in the interest of others. How could it then serve to realise the hopes of all beings ? Life should not be abandoned in an impure disposition of pity, but when the body can no longer be serviceable to others, it is time to abandon life in a spirit of pure disinterestedness, as then there can be no degradation attaching to it." He whose end is another world regards this life as comparatively worthless or immoral. Hence there is for him no limit whatever to the destruction or diminution of personal existence. But it is different with the Buddhist. For him birth as a human being is the highest of all births, as in it alone he can succeed in the struggle against ignorance, lust and hatred. The logical outcome of right action is right living. No aspirant for the higher life can be without occupation. Mere going about bowing and scraping to patrons cannot inspire self-confidence and courage, or self-respect and dignity. Every one must take upon himself some duties that will exercise his abilities, and make himself useful to his fellowmen. But the occupation followed should bring no hurt or danger to any living being. Such occupations, as divination
by dreams, prognostication of good or evil by omens, indulging in prophecies, discovering magical virtue in gems, boasting of supernatural powers," pretending to perform miracles and wonders, the employment of spells and supplications, which involve lying and deceit, are unworthy of the seeker after the higher life. Similarly he finds his way to all trades blocked with abuses. As a well-known writer says, "the ways of trade are grown selfish to the borders of theft and supple
132

"
of our tradenot dictated by the high sentiis not measured by the exact law of reciprocity, much less by the sentiments of love and heroism, but is a system of distrust, of concealment, of superior keenness, not of giving but of taking advantage." All the lucrative professions are equally unsuited, for each has its own wrongs. " Each finds a tender and very intelligent conscience a disqualification for success. Each requires of the practitioner a certain shutting of the eyes, a certain dapperness, and compliance, an acceptance ot* customs, a sequestration from the sentiments of generosity and love, a compromise of private opinion and lofty integrity. Nay, the evil custom reaches into the whole institution of property, until our laws which establish it and protect it seem not to be the issue of love and reason, but of selfishness." Further, the moral worth of a profession depends upon what it can do for the needs of mankind and on what it can also do for the worker in the profession by reason of the moral influence it exerts. No wonder, therefore, that the Blessed One found it necessary to lead the life of a preacher of Truth The goal of the path of purity being nothing less than the destruction of all sorrows (kkfa) and the removal of all perturbing causes (avarana), mere change in external life and conduct cannot be productive of much benefit unless coupled with a thorough cleansing of the mind. This subjective purification is to be effected by right effort, right thought, and right tranquillity of mind. Right effort consists in
to the borders of fraud."

is
The general system
a system of selfishness ments of human nature

;
is
practising what are called the
samyakprahanas (sammappa-
ddna
in Pali), that
is
to say, in heroically mastering the pas-
sions so as to prevent bad qualities from arising ; in suppressing sinful thoughts so as to put away bad qualities that have arisen ; in producing goodness not previously existing; and in increasing the goodness which already exists by fixed The chief aim of right effort is attention and application. to cultivate a highly developed will as such, namely, the " Mature will," says Professor Sully, capacity of control. ''implies the inhibition of certain nerve centres by others... a repression of action when conflicting motives arise... the maintaining of a definitive purpose beyond the movement
33
:and the persistent concentration of mind on this." Thus the Blessed One recommends the novice who is obsessed by some haunting idea of an undesirable character to try five methods in succession for expelling it. "(i) Attend to some good idea ; (2) face the danger of the consequences of letting the bad idea develop into action ; (3) become inattentive to the bad idea ; (4) analyse its antecedents, and so paralyse the sequent impulse ; (5) coerce the mind with the aid of bodily tension." These ought not to be confounded with any ascetic practices involving self-mortification. The method of pure asceticism is explicitly and deUberately rejected by the Blessed One. In the Indriyabhavanasutta the Buddha asks a pupil of Parasariya, a Brahman ascetic, how his master teaches the cultivation of the faculties of sense. The answer is that with the eye he sees no object and with the ear he hears no sound. On that system, rejoins the Blessed One, those who have their senses best cultivated would be the blind and the deaf. Finding the youth unable to reply, the Master explains to Ananda the exact nature of the supreme sense-culture of the Noble Path. In this noble discipline the novice is taught to discriminate every sense-consciousness, whether it be pleasant or painful, and appraise it psychologically as a mode of feeling, as something that is changeable, and then view it ethically as inferior to disinterestedness (upeksha) which is the attitude of mind he is seeking to acquire or maintain. In this way the attitude of the mind towards sense impressions becomes cognitive and analytic of them as such. And the intellect then dictates by its regulative power how and how much shall really be enjoyed.* It is only by the putting forth of effort and by persistence that one acquires self-control. As the Bodicharyavatara says, " virye bodhir yata sthita nahiviryam vina puny amy Without strenuous effort there can be no bodhi ; without strenuous effort there can be no merit. Without self-control and forbearance it is impossible to cleanse one's mind and develop holiness. Moral advice may be very helpful, moral convictions may direct one's will, but the vigour and perMrs. C. F. Rhys Davids \The Will in Buddhism.
;T34
'sistency with
THE iESSENCE OF BUDDHISM

which one's
will acts
depends more on
habit.
necessary to train the will, not by directing it by mere advice or reasonable suggestion, but by suitably changing the environment and regulating the motives. The Dharma does not treat the will as an entity or faculty which is determined by nothing but itself. As the Bodhicharydvatdra says, ^\sarvam tat pratyaya baldt svatantrantti na vidyate nothing comes into existence of itself." Volition is a state of consciousness resulting from the more or less complex co-ordination of a number of states, psychical and physiological, which all united express themselves by an action or an inhibition. The chief factor in the co-ordination is the character, an extremely complex product formed by heredity, prenatal and postnatal physiological conditions, education and experience. Only a part of this psychological activity enters into consciousness in the form of a deliberation. The acts and movements which follow the deliberation result directly from the tendencies and feelings, images and .ideas, which have become co-ordinated in the form of a choice. Choice is, therefore, not the cause of any thing, but To suppose that choice is without cause .is itself an effect. would be to admit that the unaccountable and inconsistent actions of the insane form the normal type and standard of comparison. Besides, if choice were uncaused, every choice ought to lead to happiness. No one would of himself choose something miserable. As the Bodhickarydvatdra says, ^^ yaditu svecchayd siddhihi sarveshdm eva dehindm na bhavet kasya chit dukkham na dukkham kaschid icchati if everything could be as one willed, there should be no misery at all in the world." Freewill has, therefore, no existence except in the imagination of the theologian and Were one's will free, it would not bethe metaphysician. But expossible to change one's character by education. perience teaches that a man's character is composed of various qualities, and is changeable by certain lines of effort. Just because man's will obeys motives and is dependent oncauses, he can be made to transform himself by changing the environment of his activities and by thoughtfully regulating the motives of his will.
It is therefore absolutely
135
will trained in the right direction implies a necessary preparation of the heart by efforts of right desire (bhavan^). wish, which is attainable, is an act of will begun, and when it is strengthened, it makes the act of will complete; By the asubhabhdvana one creates in himself a disgust for all that is corrupt by reflecting on its evil consequences. This gives the necessary strength and courage to practise the other bhavanas. In the maitri bhaiJand one so adjusts his heart that he longs for the weal and welfare of all beings including the happiness even of his enemies. Maitri, as Emit Burnouf says, is nothing less than universal love. No one can cultivate ;;â//r/, unless his heart has been completely purified of all sensuality (ra^) and malevolence (^z;^^/â). All means of acquiring religious merit, says the Itivuttaka] have not six tenths of the value of maitri, the purification of the heart. The might of wa//;-/ is beyond all measure. It alone can confer all possible benefits. There is no good of life which is not a shade flung from maitri. In the karunabhdva7td one thinks of all beings in distress, vividly representing in his imagination their sorrows and anxieties so as to arouse for them a deep compassion in his heart. In the muditabhdvand one desires the prosperity of others and rejoices in their welfare and joy. Even under the most trying circumstances, even when the greatest mishaps may occur, one ought never to 'îve up mudita, for it is the one great source of perennial consolation. When mudita blooms, it manifests itself as a rage to suffer for mankind. In the upekshabhdvand the aspirant, freed from pride and selfishness, rises above all ideas of power and oppression, wealth and want, fame and contempt, youth and age, beauty and ugliness, disease and health, and views with disinterested calmness and equanimity whatever may happen to him,
"As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing; A man that fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks."
only by efforts of this kind that man can acquire the capacity of determining himself in accordance with the laws of the good, instead of being the mere victim of external circumstances. Thus alone will he be able to annihilate all his evil dispositions and perturbations ; to get rid of all idea of
It is
136
eparateness and difference ; to fill his mind with thoughts of universal compassion, friendliness and benevolence and attain the sublime freedom characteristic of bodhi. In this atmosphere of true freedom he will work for the benefit of all beings with indefatigable zeal without the least thought of indolence,for, as the Dharmasamgiti says,the bodhisattva has no other concern than securing the happiness of all beings. By right effort the will is trained and controlled. But, as there can be no isolated feeling, willing, or thinking, independent of one another, right effort must be coupled with right
;
thought (smriti).
The mind must
therefore be guided in
the right direction. It is the mind that creates fears and sorrows, that develops good and bad karma. As the Blessed One has said, all penances and austerities will be of no avail even when practised for an extraordinarily long time, if the mind is not directed towards the right object. Chittadhino dharma dharmadhino bodhihi. On the mind depends the practice of dharma, and on the practice of dharma depends the attainment of bodhi. " The mind is the origin of all that is ; the mind is the master ; the mind is the cause. If in the mind there are evil thoughts, then the words are evil, the deeds are evil, and the sorrow which results from sin follows that man as the chariot wheel follows him who drags it. The mind is the origin of all that is ; it is the mind that commands, it is the mind that contrives. If in the mind there are good thoughts, then the words are good and the deeds good, and the happiness which results from such conduct follows that man, as the shadow accompanies the substance. It is the mind that makes its own dwelling place ; the mind reflecting on evil ways courts its own misery. It is the mind that creates its own sorrow. Not a father, not a mother can do so much if only the thoughts be directed to that which is right, then happiness must necessarily follow. The wise man, who restrains his six appetites and guards his thoughts, shall certainly conquer in his struggle with evil, and free himself from all misery."
;
Mind is the. master-power that moulds and makes, And man is mind, and evermore he takes
The
tool of thought, and, shaping
what he
wills,

Brings forth a thousand joys,
;i
137
ills
:
ihousand
thinks in secret, and it come> to pass Environment is but his looking glass."
He
Hence, the mind must be guarded from being affected by bad Man must always practise right thought. He must know what ought to be avoided and what ought to be done. He must always be mindful as to how his body and mind are engaged. The man devoid of thought is like an invalid incapable of doing work. The exercise of right thought can be possible only when one possesses intellectual insight and wisdom (pragna). Wisdom," says Buddhagosha in his Visuddhi-magga, " is manifold and various, and an answer that attempted to be exhaustive would both fail of its purpose and tend to still greater confusion. Therefore, we will confine ourselves to the meaning here intended, wisdom is knowledge consisting in insight and conjoined with meritorious thoughts." By wisdom is meant an adequate understanding of the law of cause and effect of the real nature of body (/ôy^^ and mvadi {chittd) of pleasure and pain (vedana) ; and of the true relations {yath^bkutam) of all things (dharma) in the universe.* Wisdom will lead the
thoughts.
'*
bodhisattva to perceive that all things come into existence by a combination of various circumstances (Jietupratyayd) ; that all things are subject to change {anitya) ; that there is neither a personal ego soul (a/;;f(2) nor an unconditioned unknowable substrate in things {ding an stch^ brahmam^ or paramatman) ; and that through their ignorance of the true nature of things (avidya) all beings are experiencing mental and physical sufferings in numberless ways. This
will awaken in the bodhisattva the deepest compassion for all suffering beings and impel him to work with dauntless energy for their salvation.
CT^
X
"^J
knowledge
It
is
glory of
Buddhism
that
it
makes
intellectual
of salvation. In Buddhism morality and intellectual enlightenment are inseparable from one another. While morality forms the basis of the higher life, knowledge and wisdom complete it.
essential condition
* Katja.^ chltta, vedaiia, and thu,nan (satipattana in Pali),
enlightenment
an
dharma
are called the Hntrtyupng*
1$S
Without a perfect understanding of the law of causality and transformation {pratityasamuipadd)^no one can aspire to attain bodhi^ however moral he may be. No one can even be said to be truly moral, if he does not possess the necessary insight and knowledge. In this respect Buddhism differs from all other religions. All monotheistic religions start with certain assumptions, and when these assumptions are contradicted by the growth of knowledge, they bewail that "he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." But Buddhism starts with no assumptions. It stands on the firm rock of facts, and can therefore never shun the dry light of knowledge. Some have attempted to place the advaita form of Vedanta on the same level with the Dharma,
the chief means of salvation But the gndnam of the Vedantin is what the Buddhist understands by pragfm, Fragna means ratiocination based on observation and experience, and as such has nothing to do with intuition or what is called superconsciousness. On the
as in the advaita
religion
is
what
called gnanam. entirely different from

is
other hand, '' the adherent of Brahmam defines the nature of the cause and so on, on the basis of scripture, and is, therefore, not obliged to render his tenets throughout conformable to observation." It is only on the authority of the Veda that Brahmam is taken as the cause of the origin of the wôrld. In his System des Vedanta Dr. Deussen specially emphasises the fact that the s>o-c2i\\ed gndnam {metaphysische Erkennt7tiss) of the Vedantin is not different from the
faith {glaube) of the Christian.
Though knowledge and insight are of the highest value,, yet they must be prevented from leading to a fluctuating mood of mind. Hence, side by side yN\\\\pragnd^ the aspirant for bodhi must also practise dhydna to attain tranquillity. Right peace {samddhi, (;amata) alone will bring to a standstill all mental states which produce frivolous sophis>hydna, as understood in Buddhism, is the contemplation of the facts of hfe from the highest point of view, and as such plays an important part. The Dharma discards prayer as a means of attaining salvation. can the Jaw of cause and effect be influenced by the supplications of defaulters ? The consequences of a fault can
tries.
How
139'
only be removed by due repentance and reparation inspired, not by the selfish fear of punishment, but by the love of But contemplation, under the truth and righteousness. necessary moral conditions, coupled with sufficient knowledge for directing it to profit, will enable one to know himself better, to examine his conscience more minutely, and to illuminate his mind. Dhyana comprises four stages a stage of gladness and joy born of seclusion accompanied by ina state of elation and internal vestigation and reflection calm without reasoning, consequent on investigation and reflection the total absence of all passion and prejudice ; and, lastly, a state of self-possession and complete tranquillity. Dhyaita is therefore a discipline of the mind which leads finally to a state in which the mind is flooded by an illumination which reveals the universe in a new aspect absolutely free from all traces of interest, affection, or
:
passion.
Dhya?ia, as practised by the Buddhist, is not losing conIt is, on the other hand, a self-possessed pursciousness. posive eradication of egotism with a view to investigate all
things dispassionately. It is a strenuous endeavour to bring the mind into perfect harmony with all that is righteous. Sarva
dharma sukhakranto 7iama samadhi, Dhyana

nothing in
has, therefore,
with ecstasy or trance, which we find so largely associated with religious mysticism. "No member of our community," says the Blessed One, " may ever arrogate to himself extraordinary gifts or supernatural perfectionthrough vainglory give himself out to be a holy man such;
;
common
for instance, as to
withdraw into
solitary places
on pretence
of enjoying ecstasies and afterwards presume to teach others Sooner may the way to uncommon spiritual attainments. the lofty palm-tree that has been cut down become green again, than an elect guilty of such pride be restored to his holy station. Take care for yourself that you do not give way to such an excess." Dreams and ecstasies, visions and trances, which are the very proof of holiness in other religions, are vain and foolish imaginings to the Buddhist. The Buddhist dhyana, someiymos called amittarayoga, should not be confounded with the Brahmanical yoga. The latter is predominantly physical and hypnotic ; the former.
14
though it may have its physical and hygienic side,* is predominantly intellectual and ethical, its chief purpose being to understand the true nature of consciousness and therefore of man. T\Mtyogin par excellence in Buddhism is the generous hodisattva who practises the six paramitas. While the Brlhmanjv^^/ endeavours to become absorbed in the universal Brahmam^ the bodhisattva attempts to realise by
contemplation the self-devoid character of
all
things {sarva-
dharma anupalambha ûnyatd). Sunyatd karunayor abhinnam bodhichittam. The mentality corresponding to bodhi
is
inseparable from universal compassion and the negation of

self.
In his
Mahaydna sraddhotpdda
siitra
specially warns the aspirant for bodhi against
Asvaghosha confounding
the samadhi of the Buddhists with that of the tirthakds^ the heretics. All samddhis practised by the heretics are described as being " invariably the production of the egoistic conception and desire and self-assumption." And we may add that the most intense and so-called divine raptures are the results of the unconscious activity of at least some of the organs of the sexual life. The practice of dhydna uncoupled with pragnd cannot be productive of any good, but when the two go hand in hand, the mind is freed not only from disquietude by the removal of all inconsistencies, but also from dtmamoha, the lust of self, which is the mother of all egoism. The destruction of egoism enables the bodhisattva to get rid of all sorrows and all obstacles to progress, to acquire self-control and fortitude, to feel compassion for all beings and to rejoice in doing good acts. It is no wonder that the Buddhist dhydna has been able to produce such remarkable results as we observe in the modern
Japanese.
Spirit:
Japanese our inner feeling through a change in our expression, the measured steps with which we are taught to walk into the hideous jaws
Says Mr.
in
Okakura Yoshisaburo
his
"The
self-control that enables us not to betray
perfection must carefully observe all rules of diet, the habit of deep breathing, and fresh air at all times, tlie wearing of proper clothing that does not impede the free passage of air over the body, the habit of frequent bathing, regular rest, and a sufficient amount of exercise .all are essential.
*
He who wnnld
seek
hygienic conditions.
The

of death
J
141
in short, all those qualities which make a present apanese of truly Japanese type look strange, if not queer, to your (i.e., European) eyes, are in a most marked degree a product of that direct or indirect influence on our past mentality which was exercised by the Buddhist doctrine of Dhyana as taught by the Zen priests." In the way of those who traverse the Noble Path lie the ten impediments {samyoja?ia) which must be overcome. The foremost among these is the delusion of a permanent To one who considers himself a perself {satkayadrishti). manent immutable being, and does not realise that he is only a unity originating from an aggregation of skandhas, whose present condition has been determined by causes working in the past, and whose future will be determined by causes at work in the present, any progress in the direction of emancipation and enlightenment is impossible. But when once a man has realised that there is no permanent ego {atman) which can gain an eternal paradise beyond the grave, the temptation is not far to run to the sensualist's extreme of " let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." Hence, it is necessary to have faith in the possibility of attaining perfection. Pyrrhonism {vichikichcha) is therefore the next obstacle in the path of the neophyte. With its shibboleths of Ignorabtmus and Unknowable, phyrrhonism denies all possibility of solving the problem of existence, and thus becomes a mental and moral malady which can only stultify all endeavour towards progress. Scepticism is often nothing more than a cloak in w^hich ignorance masquerades. Scepticism cannot regenerate men ; it can only kill but not give life. Only faith in a new ideal will impel men to move forward in search of a
the belief in the efficacy of purifica{filavrafa pardmarsha). Rites and outward observances are mere sham supports, and can afford no emancipation from misery, even when there is the right spirit within. People who are punctilious in the observance of rites and ceremonies are not free* from the khâs of lust, hatred and ignorance. If bathing in the Ganges could confer merit, then the fishermen should
is
new life. The third obstacle
tory ceremonies
and
rites
142
indeed be the most meritorious, not to speak of the fishes and other animals, which are day and night swimming in its waters. The conquest of these three obstacles forms the first stage (srotdpanna) of the Noble Path, whose fruit, as the Dhammapada says, is ^' better than universal empire in this world, better than going to heaven, better than lordship over all worlds." Success in the first stage is no guarantee of no lapse back into the old ways. The man who has overcome the delusion of self, doubt and ritualism has to a large extent rectified himself, but not till he has broken the next two fetters of sensuality {kdma) and malevolence (prattgha) are his chances of falling back reduced to a minimum. When he has overcome these two impediments to a great extent, he attains to the second stage and becomes sakriddgdmin. Only when all sensuality and malevolence are destroyed, there can no
longer arise in his heart the least love of self or ill-feeling towards others, and then he becomes andgdmin. But he is not yet free from all error. He has still to overcome the remaining impediments. He has to destroy all craving (rdga) for material (rupa) and immaterial iarupa) pleasures in this world or another world ; he must overcome pride (mana), self-righteousness {ouddatyd)^ and the ignorance of When he has burst all the true nature of things {avidya). these fetters and freely traversed the Noble Path, then all things appear to him in their true relations. Having no evil desires, he cherishes right desires for himself, and feels tender and disinterested love for all beings. Having traversed the path he reaches the goal ; he becomes perfect, an arhaf^ and attains the blessedness of Nirvana. He who has attained supreme enlightenment no longer looks upon the world {prapancha) with contempt, but sees that it is the land of bliss, where pervades the serene light of bodhi. It is an accusation often made against Buddhism that, by placing the goal of life in the attainment of perfection through enlightenment, it tends to make the cultivation of the intellectual powers of greater importance than the acquirement of .the ethical virtues. To one v/ho has carefully considered the various qualifications needed for the pilgrimage on the path of purity nothing can be more baseless and absurd than
"
43
this charge. Such a charge might hold good against the Vedanta, but not against the Dharma. In the Vedinta the perfected sage is subject to no moral law. Anandagiri tells us that Sankara drank toddy and projected his soul into the
'Corpse of a king to learn the erotic arts.
We
are told in the
Bhaqavata piirana
faults, for
that the transgressions of virtue observed
must not be regarded as they can have no moral restraints. On the other hand in Buddhism obedience to the laws of morality is the primary condition that must be fulfilled before the mind can become the fit receptacle of truth. "VhQ Bodhickaryavatdra says "The paramitas oi ddna, cila, kshdnti^ vlrya, pragnd and dhydna are in the ascending order of importance, so that one may neglect the Xov^qx paramitas for the higher but for the sake of p/a one may even forego the higher, as fila forms In ultimate analysis the the foundation of all good acts." bodhichitta^ the cast of mind of the man who has attained bodhi, resolves itself into two essential virtues, which are identical in aim, and whose acquisition forms the double duty of the bodhisattva. These virtues 2J^ pragndpdramita^ knowledge and insight, and dlapdramttd, morality. All the other fdramitds proceed from these two as their sources. At the commencement the one is complementary to the other, but in the last stage the two become identical. Till their unification morality is a means to attain enlightenment, but morality alone does not constitute enlightenment. To lead the higher life intellectual illumination is absolutely necessary, but it cannot be obtained except by a previous discipline in charity, morality, and forbearance. The acquisition of wisdom (gndna sambhdra) necessarily presupposes the presence of compassion, devotion, and morality (punya sambhdra). The Blessed One has said
in such superior beings as Krishna
:
" Virtue is the
base on which the
man who
is
wise,
Can train his mind and make his wisdom grow. Thus shall the strenuous bhikshu undeceived,
Unravel the tangled skein of
*'
life.
the base like great earth to man And this is the root of all increase in goodness, The starting point of all the Buddha's teaching Virtue, to wit/ on which true bliss depends."
This
is

vaichiiryamr All things are born Everything is in a state of continual Na cha nirodhosti na cha bhavosii sarvada ; aj^tam aniruddham cha tasmdd sarvam idam jagat,^^ There is neither creation nor destruction there is neither beginning nor end. " Vicharena nasti kim chid ahetutah.^^ Yet nothing happens without cause and reason. Every change is determined by a number of condiThe most striking of these conditions is orditions. narily called its cause, and the change itself is said to be the eflect of that cause. Strictly speaking the cause {pratyaya) of any change is the totality of all the conditions needed for That in the cause which makes the effect its occurrence. jx)ssible is spoken of as the reason {hetu) of the change. When a seed changes into a plant, that in the seed which makes it become a plant of a particular kind is the reason of the change, while the totality of conditions, such as the soil, water, light, air, space, needed for its germination
of activities. " transformation.
^^
TT AI^MA/AM Ma
mJl
Similarly sentiency, and growth, constitutes the cause. the germ of consciousness (vignana bijavi)^ is the reason for the development of individuality {ndma rupa), while
tialities
the union of parents, the womb of the mother, the potenderived from parents, vegetative and animal activities, and the environment constitute the causes that produce a
particular individuality.
No
change occurs by
itself.
Every change stands
in the
relation of cause to
some other change, and

upon one
in the relation
All changes in the world This causal nexus, another. which is found everywhere in experience, is called in the Dharma by the technical name of pratitya samutpdda. correct understanding of this dependent origination, of the conditioned nature of all existence which has neither begin-
of an effect to a third change.

or less
depend more
ning nor end,

*'
is of the greatest importance in Buddhism. Pratitya samutpddam paânti te dharmam paânti ; yo

dhar?nam pa^yatt
I45
He who has undersa buddham pa^yati" stood the chain of causation has understood the inner meaning of the Dharma, and he that has grasped the Dharma has perceived the essence of Buddhahood. ^ If every change has a cause, and that cause again a cause, is there then no ultimate unchangeable or first cause ? Re" If a man plies the Blessed One in Samyuttaka Nikayo should gather all the grasses and herbs, twigs and leaves of this vast continent of India, and arrange them in heaps, saying This is my mother, this is the mother of my mother, and so on, there would be no end seen to the mother of mother of this man, even though he might reach the end of all the grasses and herbs, twigs and leaves of this continent of India. What is the reason of this ? Without beginning and end is this world-process {samsdro).'' There can be no first cause. In experience we find no absolute beginning. We come across no change instituting a series of changes, which has not itself been preceded by some other change. The question of cause never even arises except where there is change, and the cause demanded is always another change. Hence, it is meaningless to speak of a tirst cause. Science knows nothing of first causes. There is no branch of rational investigation from which they can be inferred. Wherever we find the existence of a first cause asserted, we find we have reached a temporary limit to knowledge, or that we are inferring something outside the limits of sense experience, where knowledge and inference are meaningless. As Prof. A. Riehl says in his Fhilophische KriticUmus^ " a first cause with which as a creative act the series of changes should have begun originally, would be an uncaused change. The necessity of conceiving every change as effect which has its cause in a preceding change makes such an uncaused change absolutely unthinkable." Is there then no I'svara ? In a conversation with Anatha" If pindika the Blessed One argued the matter as follows. the world had been made by I'svara, there should be no change nor destruction, there should be no such a thing as sorrow or calamity, as right or wrong, as all things, pure and impure, must come from him. If sorrow and joy, love and hate which spring up in all conscious beings, be the work of
:
:
146
I'svara,
he himself must be capable of sorrow and joy, love and if he has these, how can he be said to be perfect ? If I'svara be the maker, and if all beings have to submit silently to their maker's power, what would be the utility of practising virtue ? The doing of right or wrong would be the same, as all deeds are his making and must be But if sorrow and suffering are the same with their maker. attributed to another cause, then there would be someWhy, then, should thing of which I'svara is not the cause. not all that exists be uncaused too ? Again, if I'svara be the maker, he acts with or without a purpose. If he acts with a purpose, he cannot be said to be all perfect, for a purpose necessarily implies the satisfaction of a want. If he acts wîthout a purpose, he must be like the lunatic or suckling babe. Besides, if I'svara be the maker, why should not people reverently submit to him, why should they offer supplications to him when sorely pressed by necessity ? And why should people adore more gods than one ? Thus the idea of I'svara is proved false by rational argument, and all such contradictory assertions should be exposed." (Asvaghosha's Buddhacharitra,) Is not the world in which we live, it is asked, an orderly world where everything is governed by law ? .Do not laws imply a law-giver ? All the order which exists in the world arises from the simple fact that, when there are no disturbing The observed grouping of causes, things remain the same. things and sequence of events we speak of as the order of the world, and this is the same as saying that the world is as no more. No natural law is the cause of the it is and observed sequence in nature. Every natural law merely describes the conditions on which a particular change is dependent. A body falls to the ground not in consequence of the law of gravitation, but the law of gravitation is the precise statement of what happens when a body is left unA law of nature does not command that somesupported. thing shall take place, but it merely states how something happens. While a civil law is a prescription involving a command and a duty, a natural law is simply a description, in which is formulated the repeated sequence of perceptions. As Karl Pearson says, " law in the scientific sense is essen-
and
hatred,

tially
147
a product of the
human mind and

more meaning
from man.
There
is
in the
man gives laws to nature than in its When a law has been found to be true gives laws to man." in all known cases, we naturally expect that it would apply to cases that might hereafter come to our knowledge. The
number of cases in which a law has been observed to hold good, the greater is the probability that it is If the sun has risen daily without fail universally true. during the last 5,000 years ( = 1,826,213 days), the odds in favour of its rising to-morrow are 1,826,214 to i, and this amounts to saying that the rising of the sun to-morrow is
greater the
pratically certain.
has no meaning apart statement that converse that nature
Thus every
natural
law represents
limitation of our thoughts, of our expectations.

-closely
The more
our thoughts are adapted to the sense-given facts, the greater are the restraints to the possibilities of our thinking, and stronger is the instinctive tendency to expect an event to happen in exactly the same manner as before. It is only in this sense that we speak of the uniformity of nature. can only say that the laws of nature are practically universal, but not theoretically so. This practical certainty is all that man is capable of obtaining, and this is enough to serve him as a guide in life. Theoretical certainty would imply perfect and infinite knowledge, but this evidently is beyond man's capacities. All attempts to go far beyond the region of experience, whether it be in time or in space, must be affected with the greatest insecurity, because the probability of the results is nil. This so-called teleological argument for the existence of I'svara often takes another form. From certain relations observed between the parts of organisms, it is inferred that they have been designed to serve a definite purpose. The eye, it is imagined, has been made for the purpose of seeing, just as a watch is constructed to show the hour. But in drawing this inference they are applying analogy to a region far beyond the limits of experience, and the conclusion must accordingly be " infinitely precarious," that is to say, can have no element of probability connected with it. Further, the idea of purpose, as has been pointed out by Kant, is not a principle of the knowledge of nature, but a mode
We
148
in
which the forms. Just as the organising

causality
human mind judges of man gives laws to nature,
certain organic so man thinks
character of nature as analogous to aiming at ends. But this cannot be presumed law can to offer an explanation, just as no scientific account for any natural phenomenon. Just as law in the scientific sense is a product of the human mind and has no meaning apart from man, so the end is merely a point of view which arises from man's reflection about organic forms, and not a principle according to which they have been created. Properly speaking, teleology belongs only to the description of nature, and can give no valid conclusion
and inner possibility of organic forms. If one should ask whether material bodies could apply geometrical calculations to themselves, if material bodies could be
as to the origin
own combinations, we can only answer that under such and such conditions they do behave in such and such a way. Beyond this we know nothing. If we could penetrate into the intimate nature of bodies, we might clearly see that natural beings could not admit of any other disposition than what they possess at present. Because the facts of this world can be conveniently described in some special fashion, does it follow that the world has been designed by Tsvara ? Because one finds a wound on one's body, does it follow that it has been inflicted by Hotchli Potchli with a Rim bo Ram bo ? All that we could infer from the condition of the world is that there must be a But the necessity of thought which compels us to cause. affirm that the world had a cause compels us to postulate a cause of that cause, and so on ad infinitum^ a first cause being, as we have already seen, even unthinkable. If the heavens above do not declare the glory of I'svara, does not the moral law within derive its sanction from the belief that Tsvara has ordained it, and that he will distribute to men, according to their deeds, rewards and punishments in a life beyond the grave ? No doubt the observance of the laws of morality is of supreme importance to mankind, but it has nothing to do with the belief either in a future life or in Tsvara. He who thinks that this world would be a worththe joint artists of their
less place without immortality is
on the same
level
as
the
49
child who thinks that " grown up " life to be worth having must be a life of continual play and no work. Nor can one be called truly moral who does not think it worth his while to he virtuous, unless he can look forward to remuner-
ation
hereafter for not
having lived like a beast.
Again,
what connection can morality have with the belief in I'svara? Morality finds its authority and sanction not in illusions,
threats, or hypothetical promises,
life.
*
but in the realities of has sprung from those human relationships in which the individual finds himself compelled to live and act. It has its roots in the individual's needs, both physical and mental, which other human beings can satisfy, and in the sympathies which answer to those needs. Candid observation proves that man is fundamentally an emotional and
It
whose instinctive feelings and actions, oriand sense-guided, have become gradually enlightened and directed by developing reason. And volitional root it seems pretty clear that the emotional and \kusala mula) of what we hold to be most precious in life is to be found in those instinctive affections that bind together
volitional being,
ginally sense-aroused
the lives of kindred beings. ** Even in their purely instinctive origin these affections are fundamentally and essentially altruistic. However ravenous and lustful, even to revelling in hot blood and the tearing of palpitating flesh, tigerlike voluptuousness may dwell in beast and man ; surely the affectionate solicitude of the tigress for her cubs is essentially devoted to their well-being, and not a mere pleasurable gratification of her own appetites. Nor are the caresses of the mates mere expressions of self-regarding passions. They unmistakably betoken affectionate consideration for each other ; a sympathetic community of needs, grounded in the fact that, though different individuals, they are in verity bearers of complemental lives." That man should be truthful, just, merciful, loving and kind to his neighbours, that he should avoid vice and practise virtue, are injunctions that obtain their validity, not because there is I'svara, but because human society would become impossible if they were set at nought. Good action, as W. K. Clifford says, is that which makes the organic more organic. Virtue possesses a self-propagating
150
power.

Vice and wrong are ever destroying themselves.
The more itself. By
single-eyed selfishness is, the more it destroys a necessary contradiction egoism which aims at the destruction of others leads to the unconscious destrucIn seeking to increase life, make it richer and tion of self. more happy, egoism really diminishes, impoverishes and anniSympathy and love are rooted in the same hilates it. natural bonds which have conditioned the very continuance of the race on the faithful discharge of their duties to others It is an assumption not warranted by besides themselves. history and psychology that man, so far as he acts rationally, has his own individual pleasure as his conscious aim to As the exclusion of what is for the interest of others. far as we are able to penetrate into pre-historic times, man has been found to be a gregarious being, who could not have maintained himself except by the instincts of sympathy, the feeling of solidarity, and a certain degree of unselfishness,, which are all presupposed in life in a community. As without Aristotle has said, the man who could live Only as a society must either be a beast or a god. member of society and by the observance of ethical laws can man enjoy the highest and most durable bliss. He must be a monster or a savage who will dare to say that, if there be no Tsvara, it is right or permissible for any man, apart from the terrors of civil or criminal law, to commit murder, theft and adultery as freely as he pleases. On the other hand, the moral character of I'svara varies with the ethical standards of his worshippers. As man advances to higher stages of morality, his earlier conceptions of the moral character of I'svara no longer satisfy him, and are accordingly criticised and reconstructed to meet the demand of his new The religious mind is incapable of expressing its ideals. relations to I'svara in any other way than by attributing to him a nature similar to its own. The history of religious Hence, instead of saying that thought amply proves this. I'svara is the creator of the world, we ought to say that man has created his idea of I'svara including all its moral elements. As Xenophanes said, if lions could picture a god,, they would picture him in the form of a lion the horses likea horse ; the oxen like an ox.
;

" In all ages
151
t
'
and climes man creates his gods, And makes them utter such revelations As bespeak hi growth and mental vision. As the germs of goodness and love unfold,
Man's noblest fancy, a loving deity, Takes shape, and sways his life for right.and wrong."
can we deny the existence of I'svara, when most who have existed heretofore have believed in a god of some sort ? When we examine this argument ex consensu gentium^ we easily see its hollowness. Granting that the
people
existence of Tsvara is a matter of general belief, does it establish any probability that I'svara exists ? It cannot, for many things, now admitted to be errors, have in the past been matters of general belief. Such, for example, is the belief that the sun went round the earth. Ignorance of science and fallacious reasoning have in the past been the main props of the belief in Fsvara. With the growth of scientific knowledge and the recognition of the fallacies underlying natural theology, the belief in I'svara is becoming less general. Again, though there may be a widespread belief in I'svara, I'svara does not mean the same thing for all. Just consider the phases through which the idea of God has passed in the developmental history of such a small people as the Jews. The God of Samuel orders the slaughter of infants, but the tender mercies of the God of the Psalmist are over all his The God of the Patriarchs is always repenting, while works. the God of the Apostles is the same yesterday, to-day and for ever without any variableness or shadow of turning. The God of the Old Testament walks in the garden in the cool of the day, but the God of the New Testament cannot be seen by man. The God of Leviticus is punctilious about the sacrificial furniture and utensils, but the God of the Acts cannot dwell in temples. The God of Exodus is merciful only to those who love him, whereas the God of Jesus is kind unto the unthankful and the evil. Not only has the idea of God been different at different times with one and the same people, but it has never been the same for any two persons. No wonder that Wesley told Whitefield " Your
:
How
Temperament, training, surroundings are determinative factors in an individual's idea of God. At best the argument from general belief can only prove that in
is
God
my
devil
"
152
worshipping I'svara a man only yearns towards his utmost This is well possible conception as regards the unknown. illustrated by the fact that the most ignorant of mankind have the most concrete idea of God, who is to them one like themselves, with immensely magnified powers, whereas the more cultured a man is and the more facts he knows, the While the savage sees his less definite is his idea of God. gods in stocks and stones, the philosopher considers a god
comprehended
as
no God.
is in God, the seer feels, deep but dazzling darkness,"
" There
The so-called historical proofs for the existence of I'svara What they attempt to are from their nature fallacious. If by a miracle is establish is the existence of miracles. meant an event which had no natural cause, history cannot accept such events- For all historical evidence rests on inferences from effect to cause, and we can infer from effect to cause only on the assumption that we can find the complete If miracles were possible, causes of events in nature itself. we should never be able to say that a particular event was the cause of any other. Hence no historical proofs can ever establish that an event, which happened, was in reality a miracle. But if by miracle is meant only a great and wonderful work, then a man's ability to perform astonishing feats does not prove that he knows the truth, or tells it. Apart from miracles historical proofs can only show that somebody said something, but they cannot establish the truth of his statements, which has to be tested on quite other grounds. Hence, neither history nor science can apodeicticAs Prof. W. James ally establish the existence of I'svara. says in his Varieties of Religious Experience^ *' all arguments for God but follow the combined suggestions of the facts and of our feelings. They prove nothing rigorously. They If you only corroborate our pre-existent partialities have a god already whom you believe in, these arguments confirm you. If you are atheistic, they fail to set you right." If the world has not been created by I'svara, may not all existence be a manifestation of the Absolute, the Unconditioned, the Unknowable behind all appearances ? Said the

Blessed
53
is
One
to
Anglthapindika
" If by the
Absolute
meant something out of relation to all known things, its existence cannot be established by any reasoning* {hetuvidyasastra). How can we know that any thing unrelated to other
exists at all ? The whole universe, as we know it, is a system of relations we know nothing that is, or can be, How can that which depends on nothing and is unrelated.
things
related to nothing, produce things which are related to one -another and depend for their existence upon one another ? If it be only one, how Again, the Absolute is one or many. -can it be the cause of the different things which originate, as we know, from different causes ? If there be as many different Absolutes as there are things, how can the latter be related to one another ? If the Absolute pervades all things and fills all space, then it can not also make them, for there is nothing to make. Further, if the Absolute is devoid of all qualities {nir.guna), all things arising from it ought likewise to be devoid But in reality all things in the world are of qualities. circumscribed throughout by qualities. Hence the /absolute If the Absolute be considered to be -cannot be their cause. different from the qualities, how does it continually create the things possessing such qualities and manifest itself in them ? Again, if the Absolute be unchangeable, all things should be unchangeable too, for the effect cannot differ in nature from the cause. But all things in the world undergo change and decay. How then can the Absolute be unchangeable ? Moreover, if the Absolute which pervades all is the cause of everything, why should we seek liberation ? For we ourselves possess this Absolute and must patiently endure every suffering and sorrow incessantly created by the Absolute." (Asva-
^hosha's Buddhacharitra}} The Absolute owes its origin to the erroneous assumption that every concept has a distinct counterpart in reality, and that the higher or more comprehensive concepts exist prior to the lower or less comprehensive ones, and contain the latter by implication. A simple reference to the process of
^nown
tial
* "Through scriptnre only as a means of knowledge Brahmain is to be the cause of the origin, &c. of the world." "Nor finally can the authoritativeness of the Veda be proved by inferen-
reasoning." Samkara's Commentary on the Vedanta Sutras.
154
formation of concepts reveals the absurdity of this assumption. In our experience there is nothing more original than sensation. What we speak of as reality is connected with sensation. We know that sensations arise, but we can form no idea of how they arise, as every idea has sensations for its content and its presupposition. A primary datum of sensation is the consciousness of difference. Without this no act of sensation would even be possible. The recognition of identity amidst difference is the basis of all ratiocinative or discursive thought. While we perceive objects as different, we conceive them as identical by directing our attention to their points of agreement. Thus objects are classified into groups, those attributes which belong to the objects in common serving as the basis of classification. When the number of objects to be classified is large, and some of them have more attributes in common than others, they are arranged in a number of groups. First, all those objects which have the
number of attributes in common, are grouped so as form what is called a species the different species are then grouped together in a higher class or genus, which has only a small number of common attributes, and so forth.
greatest
to
;
The
tute
totality
of attributes
pertaining
to a
class
is
called a
concept.
Thus out of complexes of sensations which constireality we build up in thought our concepts. By the
omission or rejection of the differentiating attributes, and by the ideal conjunction of the common characters, we form the higher, or more comprehensive concepts from the lower, or less comprehensive ones. In this process of abstraction we find nothing from which we may infer that the rejected attributes are contained or implied in those that are retained and combined to form the higher concepts. It is this error of regarding the higher concepts as giving birth to the lower concepts, coupled with the fancy that the highest concepts, such as being, existence, substance, matter, energy, consciousness, which represent the attributes common to all things, form the invariable substrata of the variable characters by which things are distinguished from one another, that has been the prolific mother of metaphysical speculation concerning the unknown. For subjective reasons man is often inclined to overestimate the value of the un-
155
known and
prefer
it
to the
known.
is
His
practical dissatis-
faction with the reality, that
to say, the sense-world, has
inspired him to seek satisfaction in a metaphysical, supersensible phantasm. Out of what is abstracted from sense experience, by a fanciful concatenation of words, the meta-
physician constructs what he fancies to be a transcendental And feeling himself unable to clutch his fanciful creation, the metaphysician employs fantastic means to realise his vain hopes. In different ages and climes different methods have been employed to get into touch with what is called the transcendental or supernatural. These methods may be roughly grouped into three principal classes. The first class comprises all those cases in which some supernatural being, whether it be I'svara, his messenger, or some angel, or demon, appears before the favoured person, and reveals directly by visible signs or articulate sounds, what he was In the second are included those cases elected to reveal. in which an individual is mysteriously possessed and overpowered by some supernatural agent, who makes revelations through the obsessed individual. The chief feature of the third class is the condition of trance or ecstasy in which the subject, withdrawn from things of sense, enters into direct connection with the deity, or other spiritual agencies, or the Absolute, and discerns the truths of a transcendental world which is inaccessible to the ordinary means of apprehension by the senses and the understanding. For the cultured man of modern civilised countries the first two methods appear too crude for acceptance. But the third method, that of ecstatic intuition, still finds favour with many, and in recent times attempts have even been made to prop it up by some new psychological discoveries, and as such it deserves greater consideration. However, before entering on an examination of the nature of ecstatic intuition, we shall just repeat the general warning of John Stuart Mill concerning the possibility of discerning truths by abnormal " The notion that truths external to the mind," methods. says J. S. Mill, "may be known by intuition or consciousness, independently of observation and experience is, I am persuaded, in these times the great intellectual support of
existence.
156
false
doctrines and bad institutions. By the aid of this theory every inveterate belief and every intense feeling, of which the origin is not remembered, is enabled to dispense with the obligation of justifying itself by reason, and is erected into its own all-efficient voucher and justification. There never was a better instrument devised for consecrating all deep-seated prejudices." In ecstatic intuition there is an abstraction of the mind from the body in order to enter into direct communication with Tsvara, or to overcome the limitations of individuality to become one with the Brahmam or Absolute. The method ordinarily employed is as follows By means of prolonged and intense concentration, often assisted by fixing the gaze on a particular object, thought is made to flow along one definite channel (ekdgrata), and the mind is thus thrown into a condition in which, sense and reason being suspended, the loss of individual consciousness is felt as an absorption into the infinite, and truths, unattainable by discursive reason, are perceived by immediate intuition. The condition of the organism in this case does not essentially differ from what it is in morbid states, such as drunkenness. In both cases the subject is beside himself, and the outward and visible characters are the same. If a naturalistic explanation is sufficient for morbid states, it must be equally suitable for ecstatic intuition Nevertheless, ecstatic intuition is ascribed to the entrance of higher spiritual agencies into a " subliminal self," while the morbid states are regarded as the result of the play of secondary consciousness. Of the existence of secondary consciousness, that is, of an organised system of conditions formed in and through bygone conscious experience, which, though not themselves present to consciousness, determine the onward flow of thought in It is every moment of its course, there need be no doubt. but a stream of mental process of the same order as that of our normal conscious life, but separated from, and more or less independent of it. It pre-supposes no other source of material for psychic evolution than earthly experience, and no laws of mental process other than those recognised by ordinary psychology. But what warrant is there for believing in a " sui3liminal self," which exists independently of
:

psychical
57
phenomena and
serves as the
medium
of com-
Granted that telepathy, clairvoyance and so forth do really occur, does it follow that the mental life in each one of us can be split into two primarily distinct and discontinuous streams of personal consciousness, one mainly connected with a mundane, and the other with an extramundane, environment ? As Prof. Hugo Munsterberg says, " metaphysical dreams and doubtful speculations cannot help us, when we seek convictions on which we are to base all that is valuable in our life. The more we separate our life of idealistic belief from the practical reality between morning and evening, the more do we deprive our daily life of its inner dignity and force it to the superficial hopes of an external hereafter." It is claimed that ecstasy and other so-called mystical states of consciousness possess " the right to be absolutely authoritative over the individuals to whom they come," and
munication with
spiritual agencies ?
that as such they not only " break

rationalistic
down
the authority of the
consciousness" based solely upon the understanding of the senses, but also show the latter to be only one kind of consciousness, opening out the possibility of
other orders of truth. No one will deny the absolute authority over the subject of what is merely given, namely, visions, voices, entrancing feelings, and volitional attitudes. Nor need we contradict the mystic when he speaks of elation, of freedom, of illumination, of union, or of the increased moral courage and vigour resulting from the socalled higher mystical states. On the merely subjective side these experiences of the mystic are invulnerable and absolute, and as such they are not amenable to any criticism. But considered from the point of view of causal relations the matter becomes different. When the ecstatic ascribes his experiences to the descent of a deity into him, or to the existence of a world of spiritual beings, he is going beyond
what
is
merely
felt
into the field of rationalistic elaboration.
region of the mystic consciousness, but has trespassed into the domain of rational consciousness, and therefore becomes amenable to the criticism of the latter. Moreover, the subjective character of the experiences of all mystics inevitably vitiates them. No one can feel
is
He
no longer
in the
t^S
sure, not even the participant himself, that the transcendental or supernatural element in it is objective reality and Nor can the mystic demand from not subjective illusion. others an absolute and unwavering faith in the intuition of Besides, in all kinds of ecstasy there is his ecstatic feeling. a withdrawal of the individual entirely as a conscious, and, to a large extent, as an active being, from his external life His consciousness is absorbed, so to speak, in of relation. a purely internal strain of activity, which is comparable to nothing in normal experience, and is therefore incapable of being recalled to memory when he returns to his life It is no wonder that he regards what appears of relation. so much outside the range of normal experience as beyond the compass of thought and speech {avdn^ mdnasa gocharam). No wonder, too, that its rapture seems to him a foretaste of that final beatitude which consists in the absorption of self But what can be the logical outcome of in the Absolute this ? In plain language the so-called consciousness or superconsciousness {sakshdtkdra or samyagdarsa?ta) appertaining to the supreme goal of all mystics can be nothing else than absolute unconsciousness. If the world is neither the creation of Fsvara nor the manifestation of the Absolute {brahmam), may it not be a product of the individual self? Without entering on the question of the reality of the self, the Blessed One has shown the absurdity of regarding the self as the maker of the world as follows. " If you say that the self is the maker, then the self should make all things pleasant. But there are many things in this world not pleasing to one's self; how then could it be asIf it be said that the serted that the self is the maker? self does not wish to make things pleasant, then he who wishes for things pleasant is opposed to his self, the maker. Sorrow and joy are not self-existing. How could it be said If we admit that the self is that they are made by the self? the maker, there should, at least, be no evil karma^ but, as is
!
well known, our deeds produce good and evil results. Hence Perhaps it might be said the self can not be the maker. that the self is the maker according to the occasion, but then Still, as good and the occasion ought to be for good alone. evil both result from cause, it cannot be that the self has
59
made it so." (Asvaghosha's Buddhacharitra), The view here refuted has its origin in the
fact that the
appearance of things is influenced by the condition of the sensory organs of the percipient. To the jaundiced eye This fact is well known to the everything looks yellow. naive man, but it never occurs to him to regard the whole world as a creation of his senses. Even the metaphysician, who believes himself a solipsist, is never such in practical life. He does not attempt to cloy the hungry edge of his appetite by the bare imagination of a feast. Why should the mind be unable to unmake what it made ? If things were really made by the mind, there could not be this divergence between theory and practice. Indeed there ought to be no Rightly has the Blessed One misery at all in this world. laid stress on this point in discarding the absurd view of the
idealist.
P>om
these negative criticisms
we may now turn
to con-
sider the exact position of the Blessed
One
in relation to the
fundamental problems of philosophy.
As the Blessed One incessantly laid stress on the ethical life, it is generally supposed that he was indifferent to all epistemological questions. It is indeed true that the Buddha has propounded no hypothesis concerning the origin and end of things ; nor has he
given a systematic shape to his views. But, from what we find in the Sutrapitaka and the Abhidharma pitaka, it is not
to see clearly his exact position. The Blessed One always spoke in a manner suited to the capacities of his hearers. In his discourses to ordinary men he naturally appears to be a realist (sarvdstivadin). On the basis of such discourses the Vaibhashikas and the Sautrantikas have erected a materialistic system of their own. Both these schools accept the existence of an extrapsychic outside world the former maintaining that things in themselves are as they are perceived, and the latter that our perceptions are only reflections of the things in the mind. On the other hand, the Yogacharas, the followers of Asangha, form a class of subjective idealists (vtgjnandstimdtravddin\ denying altogether the reality of the external world and regarding it as the creation of a self-subsisting consciousness {dlaya vigndnd). The Blessed One might indeed have given some
ditificult
;
l6o
room
for the development of these schools of thought, but he himself never propounded these views. He was neither
a materialist who tried to evolve consciousness out of the motions of self-existing physical atoms, nor was he a solipsist who regarded the wôrld as the product of the activity of self-subsisting spirits. He was a mathyamika in thought as well as in life. He steered a middle course. He denied the reah'ty neither of the mind nor of the external world. But he denied the existence of all transcendental substrata, all things in themselves, ho\S\ jivatma diud paramdtma. He was therefore generally called a (ûnyavddm. But he never denied the phenomenal world {prapancha) nor the empirical ego {ndmarupa). He taught a consistent incontrovertible
phenomenalism.
One of the few points on which all philosophers of the present day are agreed is that all that one experiences is given to him only as a content of his consciousness. What is not presented as a content of one's consciousness is entirely outside the range of his knowledge. Though the content of one's consciousness varies from moment to moment, the certainty of the momentary content is so direct that it can not with any reason be called in question. Though the content of one's consciousness may be valid only for one and only at the moment when it is present, still it may be rendered serviceable for all time and also to others by making known the conditions in which its validity holds. But it must never be forgotten that all that one can know is psychic. Psychic, being conscious, existing all mean one and the same thing. Esse \^ percipt. There can be no such thing as extrapsychic or metapsychic. The neglect of this fundamental fact has given rise to all sorts of supposititious
problems about
self-subsisting
to one's consciousness but working
unknowable on it.
things,
foreign
Every content of consciousness of whatever kind it may be has the character of uniqueness. No two contents of But memory, which forms consciousness are exactly alike. a fundamental phenomenon of consciousness, enables us
contents in relation to one another, and differences. We are thus able to analyse the contents of conciousness into certain
to place these diverse
their
and note
similarities
t6l
elements out of which all experience may be regarded as built up. But what is primarily given in consciousness at any moment is the whole content and not these elements. We obtain these elements by a process of abstraction. These elements are the sense impressions and their memory images. As empirical psychology teaches, all other psychical contents may be built up out of them. The ordinary man believes that sense impressions are produced by a real thing outside consciousness, and that an The "thing" internal'*!" has these sense impressions. and the "I" are both inferences and are not originally given. In so far as they are evolved out of the memory images of many different sense impressions, they may be spoken of as complex ideas, and as such they are certainly real. But as substrates, the former external to consciousness and the latter as the vehicle or bearer of consciousness, they have
existence. If all that we experience consists exclusively of processes that occur in our consciousness, is there then no essential difference between outer and inner ? Yes as contents of consciousness there is no intrinsic difference between them.* As the Sutta Nipata says, " natthi ajjhatah cha bahiddha cha kinchitipassato. For him who has understood the truth there is neither external nor internal."*^
no
'*
distinction between inside and outside, between the and " the external world " has a practical origin. To understand clearly the practical difference between inner
I "
The
* " My feelings arrange and order thenselves in two distinct ways. There is the internal or subjective order, in which sorrow succeeds the hearing of bad news, or the abstraction " dog" symbolAnd there is the izes the perception of many different dogs. external or objective order, in which the sensation of letting go i& followed by the sight of a falling object and the sound of its fall. The objective order, qua order is treated by physical science, which investigjates the uniform relations of objects in time and space. Here the word object (or phenonienoii) is taken merely to mean a group of my feelings, which persists as a group in a certain manner for I am at present considering only the objective order of my feelings. The object, then, is a set of changes in my consciousness, and not anything out of it The inferences of physical science are all inferences of my real or possible feelings, inferences of something actually or potentially in my consciousness, not anything outside it." TF. K.Clifford.
1 62
experience and outer experience, let us consider an example. instance, \ve take a needle. Certain sense impressions relating to colour and form associated with images of past sense impressions constitute for us the reality of the needle. Ordinarily we suppose these to reside in a thing outside. But when our finger is pricked by the needle and an unpleasant sense impression is produced, the pain is supposed to be inside. Yet the colour and form of the needle are as much contents of consciousness as the pain produced by the prick. To what then is this difference due ? The experience of pleasure and pain {vedana) gives birth to a cleaving (upddana)^ and this leads to the formation (bhava) of the idea of a centre of consciousness, an ego, to whose enjoyment all experience is directed. Thus arises the difference between one part of the content of consciousness as the enjoyer and the rest as being outside him and ministering to his pleasure. But when one pursues the Noble Eightfold Path and his prejudiced attachment to pleasure is destroyed, he understands the true nature of all things, and enters the blissful temple of Nirvana,
Por
*'
temple neither Pagod, Mosque, nor Church, But loftier, simpler, always opendoored, To every breath from heaven, where Truth and Peace, And Love and Pity dwell for ever and aye."
PERSONALITY.
have been the views propounded concerning human personality, its nature and destiny. Brah'manism, Jainism, Christianity and Islam, which are the leading animistic faiths of the world, teach, that a man's personality or self is his soul ( dima?t^ pudgala, pneuma^psyche ), which
-enters the
is
YARIOUS
body
at birth
and
quits
it
at death.
The
soul,
it
forms the invisible, immaterial ego, which, knowing I,' remains the same itself as amidst all that is changeable. It is the recipient of knowledge through the five gate-ways of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It is the agent
said,
*
'that is active in the

It is
movements of the various motor organs. the lord not only of the body but also of the mind. Though it may not be seen by the eye, nor reached by -speech, nor apprehended by the mind, its existence has to be " Not by speech, not by thought," says perceived by faith. -the Kathaka Upanishad, " not by sight is he apprehended " he is," by this word, alone and in no other way is he comprehended. Only by him whom he chooses is he compre:hended to him the atman reveals his nature." Without a soul there could be no immortality, and without immortality ilife would not be worth living. The existence of a soul alone could ensure to each individual the fruit of his actions ; without a soul there could be no rewards in heaven nor punishments in hell. Without a soul there could be no recompense for one's deeds by metempsychosis and without transmigration how would it be possible to account for the
; ;
differences
between
fate
?
man and man

Blessed
in
endowments, character,
position
and
The Dharma of the

tic view, this
One
teaches that this animis-
belief in a
ipernicious of errors,
permanent self or soul, is the most the most deceitful of illusions, which
will irretrievably mislead its victims into the deepest pit of Satkayadrlshti, the belief in a transorrow and suffering. scendental self, is the very first fetter which one has to cast
*off
before he can set his foot on the threshold
of the
Noble
164
The belief in a permanent self must naturproduce attachment to it, and attachment to it must necessarily breed egotism, and craving for pleasure here on earth and then beyond in heaven. Therefore the discernment of a permanent self can not be the condition of emancipation from sorrow. The very search for atman is wrong, and like every other wrong start it must lead in afalsedirec tion. As Asvagosha says in his Sraddhotpada Sutra, "all
Eightfold Path.
ally
dtman conception. the existence of false doctrines would be impossible." Said the Blessed One to King Bimbisara " He who knows the nature of his self and understands how his senses act, finds no room for the " I " nor even any ground for its supposition. The world holds to the idea of " I " and from this arises false apprehension. Some say that the " I " endures after death, others say it perishes. Both have fallen into a grievous error. For if the " I " be perishable, the fruit people strive for will perish too, and then deliverance will be without merit. If, as others say, the " I " does not perish, it must be always identical
false doctrines invariably arise out of the
If
we were
:
liberated from
it,
and unchanging.
Then moral aims and
salvation
would be
unnecessary, for there would be no use in attempting to change the unchangeable. But as there are m.arks of joy and sorrow everywhere, how can we speak of any constant being?" The false belief in a permanent self, which is so widespread, has its origin in a wrong conception of the unity of compound things. A thing (gunt) can be separated from its qualities (guna) only in thought, but not in reality. Can the properties of a thing be actually removed and the thing still left intact ? If heat be romoved from fire, would there be any such thing as fire ? No doubt we can separate heat from fire in thought and argue about it, but can we actually do so ? Suppose the walls, roof and foundation stones of a house wêre removed, would there be any self or soul of the house left behind ? Just as a house is the result of the special combination of all its parts, so the personality is that peculiar activity which manifests itself as a combination of sensory
and motor organs, perceptions,
ideas
and
volitions.
as the word chariot," says Buddhagosha in his
"Just Visuddhi
PERSONALITY.
.
1 65
but a mode of expression for axle, wheels, constituent parts, placed in a certain relation to each other, but when we come to examine the members one by one, we discover in the absolute sense there is no chariot... in exactly the same way the words *' are but a mode of expression living entity " and " I for the five attachment groups (skandhas\ but when we come to examine the elements of being, one by one, we -discover in the absolute sense there is no living being there to form a basis for such figments as " I am " or " I " ; in other words, that in the absolute sense there is only name (ndma) and form {rupa)^ In another place the same author writes " They say it is a living entity that walks, it is a living entity that stands but is there any living But even as entity to walk or to stand? There is not. people speak of a cart's going, though there is nothing corresponding to the word cart to go or to stand, yet when the driver has yoked up four oxen and drives them, we then, by a mere convention of speech, talk of the cart's going or of the cart's standing ; in exactly the same way the body on account of its lack of intelligence resembles the cart, the impulsions of the thoughts resemble the oxen, the thought resembles the driver, and when the thought of walking or of standing arises, the windy element (= nervous impulse) arises and shows itself in the actions, and walking etc., are brought about by this action of the mind and permeation by the windy element. Accordingly, to say It is a living entity that walks, it is a living entity that stands I walk, I stand,' is but a mere convention of speech." Similarly says Nagasena in the Milindapanha : " Just as it is by the condition precedent of the co-existence of its various parts that the word *' chariot " is used, just so is it " In that where the ska?idhas are there we talk of being." relation to the eye and form arises visual consciousness, and simultaneously with it contact (sparsa\ emotion (vedana), idea, thought, subsumption, perception of reality and attention these processes {dharma) arise in dependence on one another, but there is perceived no cognising subject." xVs Buddhism resolves the whole phenomenal universe {prapancha)^ outside which nothing exists, into pure psychic
is
magga, "
pole,
and other
''
j66
the essence of buddhism.
processes {dharma\ it is but natural that it should categorically reject the existence of an dtman^ a transcendental subject outside consciousness. But it does not deny the existence of a personality, an empirical ego, an " I " built up out of the elements of experience and reacting on the " Personality, personality, they say elements themselves. what has the Blessed One said that this personality is ? " So asks a bhikshu of the bhikshuni Dhammadinna. And she answers " The Blessed One has said that personality consists of the five elements of life-impulse." Man is an organism built up of the ^\q skandhas, namely, rupa, vedana, vtgnana, samj?ia, and samskdra. Each of these skandhas is a group of psychical processes. Rupa represents the totality of sensations and ideas pertaining to one's body ; vedana the momentary emotional states; vignana the thoughts; samjna the memories and fancies ; and samskdra the dispositions or inclinations. "Whatever is gross, that is form {rupa) \'' says the Mtltndapanha, " whatever is subtle, mental, that is name {nania). Name and form are connected one with the other, and spring into being together. This is their nature through time immemorial." This view* is mutatis mutandis precisely the same as that of modern psychology, which also regards the " I " as nothing more than the complex collective idea of one's body (= rupa) and one's momentary dispositions {^= samskdra) and perceptions (=^ vedana^ " We should say to-day," says Prof. samjna, vignana), Titchener in \\h Outlines of Psycho togy, "that life is the general name for a number of complicated physical and chemical processes ; not an added principle, a mysterious something over and above them. Similarly, we no longer think of mind as something apart from mental processes, and of intellect, feeling and will as faculties with which this something is endowed. Mind is a sum of mental processes^ and intellect, feeling and will are sub-divisions of mind, All special groups of the processes contained in the sum." that we know consists of colours, sounds, spaces, pressures, temperatures and so forth bound up together in manifold ways, and with these are also found associated ideas,.
;
:
See Max Walleser Die philosophische Grundlage des alteren Buddhismus, pp. 119-120.
:
PERSONALITY.
167
emotions, desires, memories and so forth. Out of this complex texture rises into prominence that which is relatively more fixed and permanent and impresses itself on the memory, and finds expression in language. Certain of these complexes of relatively greater permanency are called things. But none of these complexes is absolutely permanent. A thing is regarded as one and unchangeable, only so long as there is no necessity to consider details. Thus we speak of
the earth as a sphere
when
great precision
is
not necessary.
But if we are engaged in an orographical investigation, we can not overlook the earth's deviation from the spherical form and can no longer treat it as a sphere. Similarly the personality of a man is a complex of certain sensations (= rupa) and certain ideas, emotions, volitions, &c. (= ndma). As Prof. Charles Richet says, human personality " arises first and principally from the memory of our past existence, then it emanates from all the sensations which come to us, sensations of our internal organs, sensations of the outside world, consciousness of effort and of muscular movement." The personality of a man is as little absolutely permanent as are other things. Its apparent permanence consists in the slowness of its changes and in
the fact of
its
continuity.
Modern psychology
:
considers the substantial soul, dtman^
as an outbirth of that sort of ratiocination whose guiding principle is Whatever you are ignorant of is the explanation of what you know. The assumption of a soul, independent of the body, might be difficult to disprove, as in
experience we always find a residuum of unexplained facts. But it is not a scientific hypothesis, and even any attempt to investigate it, as Prof. E. Mach* says, is a methodological perversity. To formulate and describe all the facts of experience, all that psychology need admit is the existence of a stream of conscious processes, each substantially different from, but cognitive of, the rest, and appropriative of each other's contents. There is not the smallest reason for supposing the existence of an experiencing self altogether outside this series. The unity which constitutes conscious
* Erkenntnis und Irrthum.
68
selfhood needs for its growth no absolutely permanent elements. It only needs the presence of some relatively permanent elements which change at a much less rapid rate than others. And such relatively permanent elements we find in the *' organic " sensations and the habitual emotional tone which characterises them and in the predispositions {samskara) which have been inherited or acquired in the earliest period of psychic life. Strictly speaking, none of these can be said to be really permanent and unchanging. The organic sensations of a man in the prime of life are not the same as those of childhood or of dotage. No psychical process {dharma\ whether it be organic sensation or feeling tone, remains permanently the same from the beginning to the end of life. But, as compared with the sensations and ideas which from time to time form the content of consciousness, the changes in the organic sensations and the emotional tone are so slow within long periods of life that this relative permanency gives rise to the growth of a distinction between the permanent self and its incessantly changing sensations and ideas, an illusion, so to say, which it is the purpose of the science of psychology to dispel. To quote the words of Prof. James,* no mean authority on modern psychology, *' the consciousness of self involves a stream of thought each part of which as I can remember those which went before and know the things they knew and emphasise and care paramountly for certain ones among them as me^ and appropriate to these the rest. The nucleus of the ^me' is always the bodily existence felt to be present at the time. Whatever remembered past feelings resemble this present feeling are deemed to belong to the same 7ne with it. Whatever other things are perceived to be associated with this feeling are deemed to form part of that me's experience ; and of them certain ones (which fluctuate more or less) are reckoned to be themselves constituents of the me in a larger sense, such are the clothes, the material possessions, the friends, the honors and esteem which the person receives or may receive. This me is an empirical aggregate of things objectively known. The " I " which knows them cannot itself be
*
'
'
* Principles of Psychology.
PERSONALITY.
69
an aggregate, neither for psychological purposes need it be considered to be an unchanging metaphysical entity like the soul, or a principle like the pure ego viewed as out of time. It is a thought, at each moment different from that of the last moment, but appropriative of the latter called its own. All the experiential facts find their place in this description unencumbered with any hypothesis save that of the existence of passing thoughts or states of mind." Again in another ** If the passing thought be the place the same writer says directly verifiable existent which no school has hitherto doubted it to be, then that thought is itself the thinker." Similarly says Buddhagosha in his Visiiddhimagga : " Strictly
:
speaking the duration of the life of a conscious being is exceedingly brief {kshanika\ lasting only while a thought lasts. Just as a chariot wheel rolls only at one point of the tire, and in resting rests only at one point in exactly the same way, the life of a living being lasts only for the period of one thought. As soon as the thought has ceased, the being is said to have ceased. As it has been said The being of a past moment of thought has lived, but does not live, nor will it live. The being of a future moment of thought will live, but has not lived nor does it live. The being of the present moment of thought does live, but has not lived, nor will it
;
:
live."
cesses often
that see something inscrutable in psychical procompare the soul to a piano. " Ideas," says Herbert Spencer, " are like the successive chords and
Those
cadences brought out from a piano, which successively die away as other ones are sounded. And it would be as proper to say that these passing chords and cadences thereafter exist in the piano as it is proper to say that passing ideas thereafter exist in the brain. In the one case, as in the other, the acual existence is the structure which, under like conditions, evolves like combinations." But the inappropriateness of this analogy has been pointed out by Dr. H. Maudsley. Says the latter in his Physiology of Mind " This analogy, when we look into it, seems more captivating than it is complete. What about the performer in the case of the piano and in the case of the brain, respectively. Isi not the performer a not unimportant element, and
17
necessary to the completeness of the analogy ? The passing, chords and cadences would have small chance of being, brought out by the piano if they were not previously in his mind. Where, then, in the brain is the equivalent of the harmonic conceptions in the performer's mind ? If Mr. Spencer supposes that the individual's mind, his spiritual entity, is detached from the brain, and plays upon its nervous plexuses, as the performer plays upon the piano, his analogy is complete ; but if not, then he has furnished an analogy which those who do take that view may well thank him for. There is this difference between the passing chords and cadences in the brain and it is of the essence of the matter that, in the former case, the chords and cadences do pass and leave no trace of themselves behind in the structure of the piano ; while in ^he latter case they do not pass or die away without leaving most important after-effects in the structure of the brain ; whence does arrive in due time a considerable difference between a cultivated piano and a cultivated human brain, and whence, probably, have arisen^ in the progress of development through the ages, the differences between the brain of a primeval savage and the brain of Mr. Spencer With the brain function makes faculty, not so with the piano." Cogito ergo sum I think, therefore I exist say Descartes and his followers. Yes but the / think is merely the expression of my existence. By it I know only that 1 am, not what I am, and therefore not that I am a thinking soul or spirit. What is orginally given is not one's ^^^consciousness,, " As for me," says Kant, but merely one's consciousness. " whenever I contemplate what is inmost in what I call myself, I always come in contact with such or such special perception as of cold, heat, light or shadow, love or hate, pleasure or pain. I never come unawares on my mind existing in a state void of perceptions. I never observe aught save perception If any one after serious reflection without prejudices, thinks he has any other idea of himself, I confess I can no longer reason with him. The best I can say for him is that, perhaps, he is right no less than I, and that on this point our natures are essentially different. It is possible that he may
PERSONALITY.
perceive something simple and permanent which he calls himself, but as for me, I am quite sure I possess no such The experience I am is not simple. In beprinciple." coming conscious of myself I at the same time become conscious of something not myself. No inner perception is apprehended as such without distinguishing it from asimultaneous outer perception and setting it in antithesis to this. No inner experience is possible without the simultaneous construction of outer experience. Neither inner experience nor outer experience is directly given, t)ut only the consciousness which includes inner and outer experience in constant interdependence. It is the reciprocity of ego and not-ego that is originally given. The ego and not-ego mutually condition each other the one is not even thinkable without the other ; for their special features lie in the feeling of contrast between them. The idea of " I " cannot
;
even originate without the idea of "not-I ", for children first speak of themselves in the third person. Were it possible for any one through mere accident to grow up away from the society of all fellow beings, he would not be able to distinguish between sensations and ideas nor succeed in forming an idea of '* I " and setting it against the world. For him all experience would be of only one kind. When the " not-I" is completely effaced, as in narcosis and sleep, the *' I" also disappears. Only an advaita Vedantin who prefers the absence of consciousness to consciousness will imagine the self as perceiving itself in dreamless sleep. That which is called the ego, which says I am,' is merely an aggregate of skmtdhas^ a complex of sensations, ideas, thoughts, emotions and volitions. It is not an eternal immutable entity behind these. The word remains the same, but its significance continually changes. It originates in the child with the development of self-consciousness {svasamvedanam\ and depotes first a boy, then a youth, after that a man, and, finally a dotard, 'inhere is an identity
*
in a certain sense only. As the Blessed One says in the Kutadanta Sutra^ the sameness is constituted by continuity, just as we speak of the identity of a river or a fountain, though the water is continually changing or of the identity between the flame of a lamp at one moment and that at
;
172
another moment, although different particles of the wick and oil are consumed in succession, and the flame itself might have been put out for some time in the interim. What characterises the apparent sameness of the "I" is the cohesion and co-ordination of a certain number of very
frequently recurring sensations and ideas, which therefore to be regarded as a permanent stock. These are primarily the sensations of one's own body, but they also include the daily recurring sensations of our environment. *' Even the speculative philosopher," says Prof. Wundt, "is incapable of severing his self-consciousness from the feelings and sensations, which form the sensory background of his I.' This itself is, therefore, in essence a collective feeling {totalgefuhl), of which the feelings of apperception form the dominant elements, and the special feelings and sensations bound up with one's own self form the variable secondary constituents." * In short, the " I " represents one's customary sensations and ideas. The unity of the ego has accordingly nothing to do with the single entity of the spiritualists. We might as well speak of the kernel of a water-bubble as of the self which is supposed to be the lord of one's body, of one's mind, and of one's character. /\s Prof. Alois Riehl puts it, the '^ I " is the summary expression, grasped from within, of that unity of the individual life, which appears to external sense as an organism with
come
'
interacting parts
It is
and
functions.
is
a cause, that every psychic conation, that every thought is a function of the will ; in short, the " I " is characterised by spontaneity. By the spontaneity or selfactivity of the '* I" is meant nothing more than the fact that each of us is in a position to manipulate with the
urged that personality

is
process
essentially
one of
effort or
contents of his consciousness, to observe them carefully or overlook them, to analyse them and compare their parts with one another, and so on. This is supposed to prove the simplicity of consciousness. But how ? May not a subject built up out of the elements (sensations, ideas, &c.) be capable of reacting on the elements themselves ? Of the
*
Vyaodt
Grandzage der ph^s. Psychologie.
Ill, p.
875.
PERSONALITY.
'/i-
complex of skandhas the samskaras, the

so to
volitions, form, They represent a speak, a supporting backbone. continuum of such presentations of consciousness as are essentially alike, and are therefore conceived as the proper core of one's own personality, and set in opposition to the continually varying sensory presentations, among which those that constitute the idea of one's body occupy a special place. For, strictly speaking, the sensory impressions do not become one's own till they are apperceived, that is to say, till they have been placed by the will in relation to one another. Only in this sense can we say that what a man
call his
can truly
It is
own
is
his will.
;
Yes the will is free in so is free. Only when one is restrained self-determined. by causes that lie entirely outside him, can his will be said, But, so long as one's resolutions and actions to be not free. are determined solely by what he knows, thinks and feels, that is to say, by what forms a part of his own nature, so long is his will also actually free. Yet his will is not free in the sense that it is free from the law of causality. Every act of will is causally determined, but not every one of the causes determining an act of will may be known to us. Modern psychology has shown that what comes within the sphere oi distinct consciousness does not comprise every portion of the appetitive, remembering, thinking and reasoning self. Each of us is as ignorant of the larger part of himself as he is of what may be happening in the most distant celestial body. While consciousness is of the individual, the substratum on which it is developed is of the race. Out of avidya, the nebulous undifferentiated racial life, are born predispositions, samskdras^ which form the roots of volition and the basis of character. Volition, considered as a mere state of consciousness, is nothing more than an affirmation or a negation, and as such has no efficacy to produce an act. The acts and movements which accompany a volition result directly from the dispositions, feelings, perceptions and ideas which have become co-ordinated in the form of a choice. Only a part of the psychological activity involved in a choice enters into consciousness, and the subconscious processes escape notice. The surface phenomena of one's consciousness may lead to
said that the will
far as
it is
174
the misconstruction of one's acts of will as uncaused, for the chain of causation is often obscure. But deeper reflection .always reveals that every act of will is necessarily caused. Nor is it necessary to make the ego a transcendental entity in order to recognise in it a true causality. The activity of the "I," above referred to, manipulates with extant elements of consciousness, and produces by its manipulations new contents of consciousness. In this way we come to divide the contents of consciousness into two those that are simply given, and those which we classes ourselves create, that is, those which we are able to call forth When a content of consciousness appears to us as at will. simply given, we are not in a position to efface it or even ^modify it at will ; if I stand before a green tree, I see the .green tree, whether I will or not. On the other hand it is entirely different with the idea of a tree, a remembered tree. The representation of a tree is completely at my command, .and I can at will modify it, or replace it by another. Phenomena of consciousness of the first kind form the material for the building up of the external world those of the second kind are generally called the constructions of one's mind, The difference between seeing the creations of one's fancy. a green tree and remembering a green tree is so clear that We note that the two there can be no question about it. are situate in different spheres. The elements which constitute the two and their connection are not the same. But the fundamental nature of the elements of both is the same, and is not different from the elements which build up the "I." The elements are always sensations, ideas, &c. When one finds that the phenomena of consciousness of the second kind are the products of an activity which is at work in his own consciousness, the temptation is not far to regard the phenomena of consciousness of the first kind also as the This is the error ^similar creations of an unknown activity. of the followers of Berkeley and of the solipsist in general. Further if one has fancied the " I " to be a spiritual entity, he naturally constructs similar ideas in explanation of the whole world. Thus have come into being the ideas of spirits and demons, gods and demigods, God and Nature, and other similar creations of mythology. Such transcen:
PERSONALITY.
75
dental hypothetical entities have proved the greatest As Kant says, transcenobstacles to the advance of reason. dental hypotheses render fruitless the exertions of reason in " For when the its own sphere, which is that of experience, explanation of natural phenomena happens to be difficult, we have constantly at hand a transcendental ground of explanation which lifts us above the necessity of investigating nature." Human personality is a compound of body and mind. Disembodied personality is no personality in the real sense of the term.* Poverty of language and practical sufficiency permit the use of such expressions as a truncated cone, a cube with bevelled edges, disembodied personality, which involve contradictions. Personality or the ego is, as has been so often repeated, really a complex of sensations, ideas, &c. But because it is possible to take away constituent parts in thought without destroying the capacity of the residual image to stand for the whole, we give the same name to the residuum. Thus has arisen the practice of regarding the ego as being made up of volitions, emotions, ideas, &c., only of a 7iama without a rupa. Even then what is of importance in personality is not the " I " but the elements which constitute it and the manner in which they are connected. If this does not satisfy us, and we ask, Who or What has these volitions, emotions, &c. ?, and then assume the existence of a transcendental or noumenal self, an atma?i^ we have only succumbed to the primitive habit of treating an unanalysed complex as an indivisible unity, like the Fiji islander who ascribes a soul to a cocoanut. This primitive habit of treating the unanalysed complex of personality as an indivisible unity has maniFrom the fested itself in remarkable ways in psychology. body the nervous system is first isolated as the seat of psychical activity. In the nervous system again the brainis chosen as the part best suited to be the organ of the mind,
*
* If the immortal life," says a recent writer on immortality, to be more than a name for a shadow, it must be a life where men are members one of another, not less, but more than they are here. desire an immortality which shall signify a personal life in the full sense of these words, not the existence of a * disembodied spirit,' or a * pure indivisible, immaterial substance,' and a personal
is
We
life
must be an embodied
life."
'
176
finally to preserve the supposed psychical unity imagined to be like the mathematician's point without parts or magnitude some small part of the brain, such as theipinealgland, is chosen as the seat of the soul. The crudity of such conceptions is made clear by the following analysis taken from Avenarius's Menschliche Weltbegriffe. " Let an individual denote a definite whole of perceived things (trunk, arms, hands, legs, feet, speech, movements, &c.) and of presented thoughts' as I, then when says ' I have a brain,' this means that a brain belongs as a part to the whole of perceived things and presented thoughts denoted as I. And when I have thoughts,' this says means that the thoughts themselves belong as a part to the whole of perceived things and presented thoughts denoted But, though thorough analysis of the denotation of I as I. leads to the result that we have a brain and thoughts, it never leads to the result that the brain has the thoughts. The thought is, no doubt, a thought of my ego,' but not a thought of my brain any more than my brain is the brain
and
'
'
'
of
my
thought.'
That
is
to say, the brain
is
no
habitation,
seat, generator,
instrument or organ, no support or substrat-
um of thought. Thought is no indweller or commander, no other half or side, and also no product, indeed not even a physiological function, or so much as a state of the brain." So long as one regards the " I " as a real mysterious entity behind the elements which alone are accessible, he must puzzle himself with all sorts of contradictions and perplexities. But if we regard the ego as a more strongly linked group of elements, which are themselves less strongly linked to other groups, we no longer meet with difficulties and absurdities. We then clearly perceive how the subjective feeling of unity has been generated by the ease with which the imagination runs along those of our ideas which are closely knitted with one another through the bonds of association, and what purpose this assumed unity of the ego serves. This suppositious unity serves to delimit the ego, and thus discharges a valuable function in practical life. Just as caste bias, race prejudice, national pride, narrow patriotism may have a high value for certain purposes, so the narrowing of the limits of the ego is highly
PERSONALITY,
77
serviceable to the intellect in the work it does for the Nevertheless, this pain-avoiding, pleasure-seeking will. practical unity of the ego has neither sharply defined limits nor is it unalterable. Each one of us knows how he is striving to alter the content of his ego. Is it not a change in this content that is sought after in every attempt to alter the character of a person ? If the world consists of the same elements as one's ego, and if every element in the world can become a constituent of that ego, why should not that ego be so extended as ultimately to embrace the entire wôrld ? Because the elements which constitute an individual are more strongly and closely knitted among themselves than with those which constitute other individuals, he imagines himself to be an indissoluble unity independent of others. But the life of the individual has no meaning apart
from collective life. That which is truly human in each one of us, the true, the beautiful, the good, has something of the universal, and is created and realised only through the communion of minds. Moreover, w^hen the content of an ego is sufficiently wide, it generally breaks through the shackles of individuality, engrafts itself in others, and pursues an over-individual life. It is the dissolution of individuality which contributes to the greatest happiness of the artist, the discoverer, the social reformer, and all others who
co-operate in the welfare of the many, and live, as Schiller says, in the whole. Says the Blessed One in the Md.lunkyaputta Sutta : "The man whose heart is set on the dissolution of individuality feels cheerful, happy, and elated, like the mighty man who has swum unhurt across the swollen Ganges from the one bank to the other." The denial of a separate self, an dtman, does not obliterate the personality of a man, but liberates the individual from
an error that is liable to stunt his intellectual and ethical development and hinder his attainment of perfection. The Dharma removes from life the vanity of self, which is the result of an erroneous belief in the existence of atman and harma as separate entities. As what constitutes a man's personality is his own deeds and aspirations, he that holds his person dear should keep himself free from wickedness.
The
Blessed
One
has said
12
178
THE
ItSSENCE OF BUDDHISM.
" Let any one who holds self dear, That self keep free from wickedness For happiness can never be found
By any one
**
of evil deeds.
Assailed by death, in life's last throes. At quitting of this human state,
What What
*'
is it
is it
one can
call his
own
?
follows after him
Nought follows him who quits this life For all things must be left behind Wife, daughters, sons, one's kin, and friends, Gold, grain and wealth of every kind,
:
**jBut
what a mortal does while here. With body, or with voice, or mind,
'Tis this that
he can
This
*'
is
what follows
call his own, after him.
Deeds, like a shadow, ne'er depart:
Bad deeds can never be concealed Good deeds cannot be lost and will
In
^'
all their
all,
glory be revealed.
Let
then, noble deeds perform, treasure store for future weal

this life within
nex"^.''
For merit gained
Will yield a blessing in the
-^Samyutta-Mkaya.
DEATH AND AFTER.

oi skandhas. body (rupa) and mind {nama). Language reveals to us the true nature One speaks not only of one's body but also of personality. Who then is the possessor of both body and of one's mind. mind, if it is not the complete man, the complex ? Just as we are in the habit of saying the wind blows,' as if there were the wind existing apart from the act of blowing, so also do we say, by a license of speech, that a person owns body and soul, performs actions, directs the emotions, controls But in reality the totality of all the impulses, and so forth. Whatsoever a man does with these constitutes the person. his body, with his voice, with his mind, it is that that con" I am," says Professor Josiah Eoyce, stitutes his person. '* what on the whole I am conscious of having done, and what I propose to do." On one occasion the Blessed One " What are old age and death ? was asked by some disciples And what is it that has old age and death ? " The Blessed One replied " The question is not rightly put. To say What are old age and death ? And what is it has old age Old age and death are one thing, and death ? and to say but it is another thing that has old age and death,' is to say If the dogma obtain that the same thing in different ways. soul and body are identical, then there is no holy life (for or, if the dogma the soul would perish with the body) obtain that the soul is one thing and the body another, then also there is no holy life (for, if the soul were a distinct entity, an immutable dtman^ it would not be influenced by conduct and become better, and then there would be no Both these extremes have been use in leading a holy life). avoided by the Tathagata, and it is a middle doctrine he teaches On birth depend old age and death." So long as the skandhas are united, we have being ; when the skandhas dissolve, the being disappears and we have
is
*
: :
man a complex his IN Onlycomplete naturewe separate him into in thought can
'
'
'
death.
Just as
fire,
though not lying hidden
in
the two
l8o
Sticks
rubbed against each other, originates through friction, same way, says the Blessed One, appears consciousness {vzgnana) under certain conditions, and disappears
in the
these conditions cease to exist. When the wood is burnt, the fire disappears. Just so, when the conditions of consciousness cease, consciousness disappears. Consciousness is known to us only as a phenomenon of life connected with an organism. Psychical processes are only known to
when
us as dependent on organic processes. Changes in the brain and the nervous system are essential conditions for all phenomena of consciousness. Nor is the connection between psychic processes and organic processes as great as the connection between purely organic processes. Organic processes continue as long as there is life, but psychic processes are intermittent even during life. While organic life has no break in an individual's existence, conscious life performs its functions only from time to time, needs the refreshment of sleep, and varies in activity even when awake. The anaesthetised body lies pumping the blood through the vessels, and maintains the physical interchanges betwêen the tissues, but contains no spark or vestige of consciousness. When the brain is injured or diseased, the loss of consciousness may last for an interminable period. Hence we should say that consciousness exists for the sake of life, and not life for consciousness. Rightly did the Buddha teach in ** plain language to his disciples It were better if the ignorant regarded the body, composed of the four elements, as the " I " instead of mind. And why do I say so ? Because this body may endure for a year, ten years, hundred years and more. But what is called mind, cognition, cousciousness, is found to be day and night in restless change." Normal psychology proves that consciousness can have no This conclusion is existence independent of the organism. Within the life strongly supported by mental pathology. history of a single individual various selves appear and disappear in a manner which shows that they cannot be regarded as connected by any felt continuity of interest with the rest of life. Cases of multiple personality and alternating personality prove that a plurality of selves might
:
DEATH AND AFTER.

alternate regularly
l8l
or even
coexist in
connection with the
same body.
Such abnormal psychic phenomena force on us the conclusion that the origination and the disappearance
of selves in the course of psychical events is a fact of constant occurrence. There are no known facts that imply the The progress existence of a soul separable from the body. of psychology during the last thirty years has been great, but it has produced nothing that would strengthen the popular faith in extra-human spirit agencies influencing human destinies. On the other hand, it has made intelligible, conformably to the rest of our knowledge,all such phenomena as anaesthesias, analgesias, hallucinations, monitions, Sz:c., which have always been the props of the ignorant belief in spirits. The endeavours of the innumerable spiritualistic and theosophical bodies have not brought to light any scrap of scientific proof of the continuance of human personality beyond the grave. Can any proof be expected from " a method of inquiry which is not repelled by the grotesquery of the spirits,' and which accepts balderdash as the poetry of Shakespere, twaddle as the philosophy of Bacon, and the medium's thinly disguised person as the reincarnation of Socrates, the Virgin Mary, or the repentant pirate John King ? " Scientific investigation of spiritualistic phenomena has shown that fraud, unconscious suggestion, and co-operation form sufficient explanations of what are presented. Even the researches of the Society for Psychical Research have not been able to demonstrate the existence of spirits, but have only helped to strengthen the inlra-human explanation of many phenomena previously not well understood. '' Facts, I think," says Professor W. James in his Varieties of Religious Experie?ice, " are yet lacking to prove spirit return,' though I have the highest respect for the patient labours of Messrs. Myers, Hodgson, and Hyslop." Although the sole interest of these psychologists and philosophers of the highest academic rank has been, as Dr. Stanley Hall points out, to establish the existence of a land of disembodied spirits and to demonstrate the possibility of a communication between them and this world, yet every fact and group of facts on which they rely point for their explanation to the past of the individual and the race and not to
'
'

iS*
the future, to the subnormal rather than to the supernormal, more to the body than to any disembodied spirit. Just as^ the alchemists in their search after the elixir of life neglected chemistry, just as astrologers in quest of the influence of the stars on human life overlooked astronomy, so have the leaders of the Psychical Research Movement in their zeal to find an answer to what is called the most insistent quesIf a man die, shall he live again ?^ tion of the human heart, completely lost sight of the true import of the facts they have collected. They think and speak of the soul only in the future tense, and little does that word suggest to them any connection with the past. On the contrary, as the philosophic Roman poet has put it,
**
Not from the blank inane emerged the soul sacred treasury it is of dreams
And deeds
that built the present from the past its own experiences. Ancestral lives are seeing in mine eyes Their hearing listeneth within my ears, And in my hand their strength is plied again. Speech came a rich consignment from the past,
Adding thereto
Each word aglow with wondrous spirit life Thus building up my soul of myriad souls."
Science affords no evidence of the continuance of theconscious person after death, but, on the whole, it suggeststhat the conscious person has ended too. Death, says the
physiologist, consists in the dissolution of the combination of the various anatomical organs and in the dissolution of the consciousness which the individual possesses of himself, that is to say, of the existence of this combination. Similarly, it is said in the BMra/idra Sutra that the laying down of the bearer {Jiaranikkhcpand) is identical and simultaneous with the laying down of the burden {bharanikkhipana)^ that is, of the skandhas,^ More clearly is this truth brought out in the funeral elegy of the " Salutation to the Blessed One, the Holy Buddhists
:
modern
note that in the Brihadaranyaka XIpanUliad wife Maitreyi *' A man comes out of these elements, and passes back into them as they pass away, and, after hehas passed away, there is no more consciousness." *
It is interesting to
Yftgnavalkya
tells his
"
DEATH AND AFTER.
I.Sj.
to
One, the Enlightened One. All sentient beings are doomed die, for life indeed must terminate in death even after reaching such is old age there comes death ; the nature of sentient beings. Whether young or old, whether ignorant or wise, all fall under the hand of death,
;
all are subject to death. Just as the seed in the field germinates and grows on account of the moisture in the soil as well as the vitality of the embryo, so do the elementary and composite forms of the organised being and the six organs of sense arise from a cause, and from a cause become disintegrated and perish. As the union of the constituent parts forms what is called a " chariot," so does the union of the skandkas, the attributes of being, form what is called a " sentient being." As soon as vitality, warmth and consciousness forsake the body, then the body is inanimate and useless. The deeper one reflects and meditates upon this body, the more he becomes convinced that it is but an empty and vain thing. For, indeed, in it does suffering originate, and in it. does suffering perdure and perish ; nothing else but suffering is produced, and nothing else but suffering perishes with it.
All
compound
this
things are anitya

All
he who knows and comsuffering

;
prehends
becomes freed from
this is the
way
:
that leads to purity.
things are duhkha he who knows and comprehends this becomes freed from suffering \ this is the path that leads to purity. All existing things are anatman he who knows and comprehends this becomes freed from suffering ; this is the path that leads to
compound
Therefore, let every one, after hearing the words of the Holy One, restrain his tears ; let him, on seeing that one has passed away and is dead, conclude Never more will he be found by me.'
purity.
*
:
"
How How
transient are things mortal

restless is
man's
life
Bat Peace stands at the portal Of death, and ends all strife.
" Life
a constant partingthe stream has crossed But think ye who stand smarting Of that which ne'er is lost.
is
One more
ti4

" All rivers flowing:, flowing,
Must reach the rlistant main The seeds which are sowing
Will ripen into grain."*
the dissolution of body and mind, yet it Blessed One has declared that he is neither a sasvatavadin like the Brahmans, nor an ucchedavddin like the Charv3.kas and the LokSyatas. While the Dharma discards the existence of a permanent self, an dtman which transmigrates from birth to birth, it at the same time upholds the persistence of karma, Man is nothing more than the temporary union of the five skandhas ; the beginning of this union is birth, and its end is death. But as long the union lasts, the ego manifests itself at every moment as an active, pain-avoiding, pleasure-seeking will, having relations to other individuals. From this point of view each individual existence is spoken of as a complex of karmas. But the content of one's ego, as we have already seen, is never confined wholly to himself; it passes on to others and remains preserved in them even after his death. So man dies, but his karma is reborn in other individuals. Just as when a man has written a letter, the writing has ceased, but the letter remains, so when the skandhas dissolve, the deeds remain to bear fruit in the future. When a lamp is lit at a burning lamp, there is a kindling of the wick, but no transmigration of the flame. The mango that is planted rots in the ground, but it is reborn in the mangoes of the tree that grows from its seed. From the seed to the fruit there is no transmigration of a mango soul, but there is a reconstruction of its form, and the type in all its individual features is preserved in the new mangoes. Thus man reincarnates, though there is no transmigration. One man " What is reborn," dies, and it is another that is reborn. says the Milindapanha^ " is name and form. But it is not the same name and form. By one name and form deeds are done, and by these deeds another name and form is reborn. One name and form finds its end in death, another that is reborn. But that other is the result of the first, and is therefore not thereby released from its evil deeds." As Buddhais
Though death
does not end
all.
The
* Translated by Dr. P. Cams.
Gems
of
Buddhist poetry.
DEATH AND AFTER.

gosha says
185
in his Visuddhimagga^ " those groups which came into being in the past existence in dependence on karma^ perished then and there. But in dependence on the karma
of that existence other groups have come into being in this existence. Not a single element of being has come into this The groups which have existence from a previous one. come into being in this existence in dependence on karma will perish, and others will come into being in the next existence, but not a single element of being will go from this Moreover, just as the words of the existence into the nextteacher do not pass into the
theless repeats
mouth
of the pupil,
who
never-
them
and
just as the
features of the face
to the reflection in mirrors and the like, and nevertheless in dependence on them does the image appear and just as the flame does not pass over from the wick of one lamp to that of another, and nevertheless the flame of the second lamp exists in dependence on that of the former; in exactly the same way not a single element of being passes over from a previous existence into the present existence, nor hence into the next existence ; and yet in dependence on the groups, organs of sense, objects of sense, and sense consciousness of the last existence were born those of this one, and from the present groups, organs of sense, objects of sense, and self-consciousness will be born the groups, organs of sense, objects of sense, and sense consciousness of the next existence." Here and there in the Pitakas may be found passages which appear to suggest that the Buddha admitted the transmigration of an actual entity from one birth to another. But the fact that such statements occur in the popular discourses and the parables, the so-called J'ataka stories, shows that the Blessed One was speaking in a manner suited to the capacity of the ordinary man {prthagjana). In these parables the aim of the Master was to teach the common people in a simple way the truth of the relation between action and its fruit. But the Blessed One never wanted to imply that one and the same person is reborn. Once a bhikshu, named Sati, disputed with the other bhikshus that consciousness {vigndiia) persisted unchanged in the cycle of rebirths. The Blessed One sent for him and asked him " AVhat is it
do not pass
lS6

:
you regard as consciousness, S&ti ?" The latter answered " That which as self, O Master, enjoys again and again the fruits of good and bad actions." The Buddha then admon" From whom hast thou, deluded man, ished him thus
:
heard that I have taught such a doctrine ? Have I not in many ways explained the conditioned nature of consciousness ? Without sufficient cause arises no consciousThe teaching of the Dharma concerning karma canness." not be clearly understood except in the light of what the Blessed One has taught as to the nature of personality. What is essential in personality is not the " I " but the content. This content is never for two moments the same. What serves to conserve this content is continuity, and it is
this that gives rise to the illusory
idea of identity.
As the
Bodichary avatar a says, ^^ aham eva taddplti mithydydkm parikalpana^ that I am one and the same person is the result of an illusion." Strictly speaking, man is dying every moment. But so long as the mode of association of the elements which constitute the ego remains largely the same, we speak of the ego as the same. But really at one moment it is one ego, and at the next moment it is a different ego, though connected with the former by certain links. It is the What continuity of thought that gives rise to the oneness. determines the connection between the doer of a deed and the enjoyer of its fruit is also this continuity of thought (chittasamt^na). As the Bodhicharyavutara says, " hetumdn phalayoîti dricyate naisha sambhavah, samianasyaikyama^ritya karta bhoktety deîtam. If a person is changing from moment to moment, there is evidently no reason for supposOnly ing that the doer of a deed necessarily enjoys its fruit. the oneness arising from the continuity of thought determines the connection between the doer of a deed and the enjoyer of its fruit." Similarly, when a person dies, that is to say, when an ego ceases to have sensations, volitions &c., the elements no longer occur in their customary mode of association, but the content of the ego is not lost. Barring a few worthless personal reminiscences the content of an ego remains preserved in others. Thus the individual is preserved in new forms. Anyaeva mrito, anyaeva prajaâie. It is one that dies, and it is another that is reborn.
DEATH AND AFTER.
187'
cha so, na cha anno It is not he, and yet it is not another. As the poet says, ** I call that something " I " iwhich seems my soul Yet more the spirit is than ego holds. ^ For lo this ego, where shall it be sought ? yet 'tis the eye I'm wont to say *' 1 see That sees, and seeing, kindleth in the thought The beaming image of memory. " I hear " we say Hearing is of the ear, And where the cawght word stirs, there cords resound Of slumbering sentiment and echoes wake Of sounds that long ago to silence lapsed.
I
Na
**,
Not dead, perfected
only, is the past ever from the darkness of the grave, It rises to rejuvenated life. The 1 is but a name to clothe withal The clustered mass that cow my being forms. Take not the symbol for reality The transient for th' eternp. Mine ego, lo
And
'
'
*Tis
but
my
spirits scintillating play.
This fluctuant
moment
of eternities beats.
That now are crossing where my heart's blood But never I was not, am, and soon will pass.
soul shall cease ; the breeding ages aye Shall know its life. All that the past bequeathed, All that life hath added unto me, This shall endure in immortality."
My
As science
again diverge
teaches, a particular person
is
not a discrete-
individual, but a focus to which converge
and from which
many physical and psychical activities. In him have been impressed samskdras by heredity, example and education. Only by a process of evolution do samskdras come into being. No samskdra ever comes into being without a gradual becoming. The whole history of the
observed in a higher organised animal, is a continuous chain of reminiscences of the evolution of all those beings which form the ancestral series of that particular animal. The history of no individual begins with his birth, but has been endless ages in the making. The assumption that each human being starts life for himself and commences a development of his own, as if the thousands of generations before him had been in existence in vain, is in striking discord with the facts of daily life. No human being can be regarded as something supernaturally
development of an individual, as
loo

;
added
to the stock of nature on the contrary, he must be treated as a new segregation of what already existed. No individual can wholly detach himself from his parent source. " Each one of us bears upon him/' as Huxley says,
" obvious
marks of
his
parentage,
call
'
relationship.
More
particularly the
act in a certain way,
which we
perhaps of remote of tendencies to character,' is often to be
sum
traced thiough a long series of progenitors and collaterals. So we may justly say that this character this moral and intellectual essence of a man does veritably pass over from one fleshy tabernacle to another, and does really transmigrate from generation to generation. In the new born infant the character of the stock lies latent, and the ego is littJe more than a bundle of potentialities. But, very early, these become actualities ; from childhood to age they manifest themselves in idleness or brightness, weakness or strength, viciousness or uprightness, and with each feature modified by confluence with another character, if by nothing else, character passes on to its incarnation in new bodies." No human being can completely sever himself from other human beings. Human beings form constituent units of society, not only by reason of the inter-dependence of their divers external functions, but by reason of their mental inter-dependence. Man cannot isolate his mental life from that of his fellowmen. He is ever subject to the influence of the community of which he is a member. He can sever his connection with one circle of men only by joining another. Even a hermit is not alone. He lives psychically in a union conceived in his mind, but none the less real, with an ideal society (of his gods, of his saints) which is formed after the model of real society. It is indeed exclu' '
sively
existence
through psychical inter-dependence that human It is through the as such has been possible. mutual dependence of their minds upon one another that
are
civilized,
social,
men
and
ethical
beings.
correct
understanding of mental life is not possible with the belief in a substantial soul. He who regards physical separateness as a barrier between centres of psychic life can never understand the possibility of a mental life reaching beyond the
DEATH AND AFTER.

individual,
89
results are obvious in all that man with his fellowmen in language, science, art, religion, and morality. Since men are physically independent of one another, it does not follow that they are also psychically separate from one another. The psychical life continues beyond each individual, because its real subjects are not individuals as such but the bonds uniting individuals. Every deed, every word, every thought is a part of our psychic life, and our psychic life remains unbroken, like an extinct flame that has kindled another.
although
its
does
in
his association
"
Say not 'I am,' I was,' or 'I shall be;' Think not ye pass from house to house of Like travellers who remember and forget
*
flesh
111
lodged or well lodged. Fresh Issues upon the Universe that sum Which is the lattermost of lives."
after
"
Do we
Our
writer,
live.
then Hve and answers

is
death
:
?" asks a
well-known living
course we do. We bodies dissolve, but our lives continue. What is

as follows
"Of
is
we
And what
and
to live
If to live
to eat
and
drink, to
conscious of action and thought, wê cannot affirm about a state, which, so far as we can see, supposes the absence of a nervous system. For my part, I do not pretend to know what consciousness can be in the absence of a nervous system, for I mean by consciousness an organic state relative to a nervous system. And so far as we means this state of consciousness, I have no means of forming a rational opinion on the question. " Happily we are not nervous systems. Life is not an agitation of the nervous system. We act, we work, we teach, we inspire love in places where we are not, where we have never been, and in souls which we have not seen in the body. We are not as the beasts that perish. And the social nature of man is not bestial. The soul of man has a subtle faculty of incorporating itself with the souls of our fellowmen. We are immortal by virtue of the intricate organism of which we are part. Nervous system, digestive apparatus, and locomotive organs are essential as a basis of life, but in due course that life can be practically continued by the agency of other bodies than those in which it begins. It cannot be continued,
feel joy
pain, to be

we can
see,
SO far as
without other like bodies,
souls, such as ours, and,therefore,not in Dante's
natures and and Milton's
Paradise. The organism, man and woman, is mortal truly but the organism, humanity, is immortal. We know of nothing that can destroy it within the conditions of our solar
life in the flesh becomes thus incorporated with the mighty organism, and becomes immortal with it. Not an act of ours, not a look, nor a thought, is utterly lost and wasted in space. For good or for evil it forms us, and our It forms some other brother character and our work. or sister near us for good or for bad. If it be strong and noble, it shapes many. If it be weak and evil, it is It may not be remembered, not regradually expunged. corded and not distinguished. But it continues, eternally pulsating unknown through generations of Humanity. It may be a drop in the ocean of human life. But as surely as every drop which falls on an Alp will pass on ultimately into the ocean, so every human life, every act of life, every kind word, every good deed, every clear thought, lives in the life We live, and we live for ever, the greatest and the to come. feeblest. We do not continue to have nervous sensations we do not eat and drink ; we do not think or act, it may be, and we do not add to our work on earth but we live. Our The humanity Jives remain here and continue our work. which nursed us as infants, trained us as children, and shaped our lives as men, prolongs that life in a collective eternity, when it has closed our eyes with reverent sorrow, and And said in hope and love the last words over our bones. it makes us as immortal as itself." All creatures are such as they are through past samskaras, and when they die their lives shape new beings. In the slow
',
sphere. " good
process of evolution activities shape new personalities. What is called the person is but the living embodiment of past Past activities impress activities, physical and psychical. upon creatures the nature of their present existence. This No other is the law of karma as understood in Buddhism. interpretation of the doctrine of karma can be consistent with the teaching of the Blessed One as to the momentaneity \kshanikatva) and the unsubstantiality {nairatmya) of all
DEATH AND AFTER.

existing things.
IQI
That in the personal development of each individual every thought, or feeling, or volition counts for something is not difficult to perceive, but that there is a retribution upon wrong and selfishness after death, when
there
is
and
validity apart
no transmigrating dtman, can have no meaning from the individual's relation to mankind
Physiologically considered, an individual reinas a whole. carnates in his progeny, and his physical /ârwa is transmitted Ethically considered, the psychic life of an into them. dividual cannot be separated from the psychic life of the community of which he is a member. Duty and responsiHow, then, can bility have no meaning apart from society. a man have karma apart from other human beings ? The enjoyments and sufferings of an individual are not always the result of his special karma. The Milindapanha tells us that it is an erroneous extension of the truth when the ignorant declare that " every pain is the fruit of (individual) karma.'^ Yet no Buddhist will deny that everything is under the sway of causality. Unless we regard all mankind as linked together as parts of one universal whole, we cannot perceive the full significance of the doctrine o{ karma. Not only are the murderer and the thief responsible to society, but society is equally responsible for breeding such characters. The life of the individual has no other possible measure than that of its significance,its influence, and its value to other individuals. If he demands and hopes more than this, a continuance after death of his own particular life, he merely denies the meaning of his particular individuality. Rightly did Galileo say that those who desired perpetual life deserved to be transformed into mountains. True continuance of life consists But this is possible in its perfect newness and freshness. only through alternations of life and death. Our view of reincarnation may not be acceptable to those Buddhists, w^ho believe that an unexplained mystery underlies the transmigration of karma. Though these do not admit the existence of a transmigrating dtman, yet they suppose that a kind of vigndna, called the prati sathdhi vtgndna^ serves in some incognisable manner as a connecting link between a dying man and an infant born just at the moment of his death. "Somewhere, at the moment of a man's death,''
"
192
says a partisan of this school, " there is being born a child of parentage such that the little brain can respond to and absorb the character of the dying man ; a brain that, without just that sort of stimulus, will never be galvanised into individual life. The man dies, and his death perturbs the ^ther in the very complex way characteristic of that man ; and at the same instant, almost, a newborn child, hovering then very near to death, receives the impact of the death wave, and its brain thrills to a new life ; the heart and respiratory centres are galvanised into action, the newborn child draws breath and lives, or as our Buddhist scriptures the new lamp is lighted from the dying flame.' put it, Here is a fine example of the fact that materialism and
'
mysticism are twin-sisters. Where mysticism finds no possible hold on perception, it attempts to walk by the crutches of a If prati samdhi vigndna is really materialistic imagination. a vigndna^ it is a dharma, a skandha^ and as such it can not " Na kinchi ito paralokam pass from one place to another.
" say the Pali books. What, then, is it that passes from one life to the next ? It looks as if praî saihdht vignana was originally introduced to explain the phenomena of memory, and then unhappily extended to serve as a connecting link between one life and another in the transmigraEvery vtgnd?ia leaves its impression (vdtion of karma. sana) on the subsequent vig?idnas. Though vigndnas are momentary, they reproduce themselves in a connected As the present vigndna of a series {pratttyasamutpdda). living person is closely connected with the vigndna immediately anterior to it, it is supposed that the vigndna at the time of birth {aupapattyamîka) of one individual must be similarly connected with the vigndna which disappears at the But time of death {mdrandntika) of another individual. such a supposition is not warranted by facts. As the Blessed One has said, " dharma is the refuge, and not pudgala (soul) the spirit is the refuge, and not the letter ; the completed meaning of a sutraxs the refuge, and not its provisional sense gndna is the refuge, and not vigndna countries children someIt is said that in Buddhist times claim to have had such-and-such a name and to have lived in such-and-such a place, in their previous
gacchati
DEATH AND AFTER.

lives
;
93
and
that occcasionally their claims are in a
way sub-
stantiated.
prove that there necessarily exists a sort of syntony between a dying man's consciousness and the brain of an infant born just at the moment of his death? Should we not rather look for the explanation of these Burmese Winzas to subconscious processes ? "By their brooding and incubation," says Dr. Stanley Hall, "the conscious person communes with the species, and perhaps even the genus to which he belongs; receives messages from and perchance occasionally gives them to it,appeals to mighty soul powers not his own, but which are so wise, benignant, and energetic that he is perhaps prone to the pathetic fallacy of interpreting the subhuman as superhuman, if, like the English Psychic Researchers, he has no intimation of the wisdom, depth below depth,'that has been organised into our bodies, brains, automatisms, and instincts, which is vastly and incomparably greater than all that is in the consciousness of all men now living combined, and if he deems the surface phenomena in his own sapient soul to be its essential exThis is the larger self, if such an anthropomorperience. phizing, self-idolatrous term may be used, with w^hich we are continuous. It is beneath, and not above us, immanent and not transcendent, and if only rightly interpreted it is veridicial in a sense and degree our voluble ratiocination knows not of."* The Buddhist doctrine oi karma is very w4de in its scope. Karma operates not only in the sphere of sentient life, but extends over the whole of phenomenal existence (prapancha). Karmajam lokavaichitryam iti siddhatvat. In his Outlines of Makdy ana Mr, KuYodsi explains the scope of the Budthis fact
But does
" There are neither dhist doctrine of karma as follows creators nor created nor are men real beings. It is actions and causes that, under favourable conditions, give birth to them. For men are nothing more than the temporary combination of the five skandhas, or constituents. The beginning of this combination is their birth ; its decomposition their death. During the continuation of the combined state, good and bad actions are done, seeds of future happi:
Adolescence, Vol, 11^
p. 342.
194
ness and pain are sown, and thus the alternation of birth and death goes on without end. Men are no real beings that wander between birth and death by themselves, nor is there any ruler that makes them do this, but it is their own
The aggregate actions that bring about these results. actions of all sentient beings give birth to the varieties of mountains,ri vers, countries, &c. They are caused by aggregate actions, and so they are called adhipatiphala (aggregate As those who are virtuous at heart are never fruits). wicked in their countenance, and as in the countries where
good customs
prevail,
good
omens
arise,
appear and
where
so men's aggregate By the particular actions bring forth their aggregate fruits. actions of individuals, each man receives mind and body corresponding to the causes at work, internal causes of actions being favoured by external conditions. And as these good and bad actions yield fruits, not when they are produced, but at some future time, they are called vipakaphala The period from (fruits that ripen at some future time). birth to death in which the body continues, is the life of man ; and that from formation to destruction in which they assume similar forms, is the duration of countries, mounThe death of sentient beings as well as tains, rivers, etc. the formation and destruction of countries, mountains, Like the circle rivers, etc., are endless in their operation. which has no end, they also have neither beginning nor end. Though there exist neither real (substantial) men nor real things, yet effects appear and disappear where actions are accompanied with conditions, just as the echo follows the sound ; and all things, rough or fine, large or small, come and go every moment without any fixed forms. Men and things, therefore, are mere names for durations in which Our present life is the reflection of similar forms continue. Men consider these reflections as their real past actions. Their eyes, noses, ears, tongues, and bodies, as well selves. as their gardens, woods, farms, residences, servants, and maids, men imagine to be their own possessions, but in fact they are but results endlessly produced by innumerable actions." The Buddhistic doctrine of karma differs totally from
people are wicked,
calamities
DEATH AND AFTER.

the
95'
Brahmanic theory of transmigration. Brahmanism teaches the transmigration of a real soul, an aiman^ but the Dharma inculcates a mere succession of karmas. According to the Brahmanic conceptions the soul migrates from man to one or other of the so-called six kingdoms (shadgatis)y from man to animal, from animal to hell, from hell to heaven and so forth, just as a man migrates from one house to another according to his necessities. It may indeed be true that in the Buddhist sutras also there are references to a transmigration to one or other of the ten worlds heaven and hell,* gods and demons, men and animals, sravakas and J>ratyekabuddhas, bodhisatvas and buddhas^ but this does not mean that any being passes from one world to another. ^^ Na kas chid dharmo asmdl lokat paralokam gacchati^'' says a Buddhist Sutra. In the Buddhistic sense transmigration is only a manifestation of cause and effect. Only by virtue of causes and conditions are produced mental phenomena accompanied by bodily forms, and thus results life after life, the nature and character of the successive lives being determined by the goodness or badness of the mental phenomena. It is to explain and illustrate the transmigration of karma to the ordinary man that the Blessed One employed the expression Hen worlds,' while really he meant by the 'ten worlds' nothing more than the ten mental states typified by the beings and places referred to. While the Dharma lays stress upon harma as the effect of past deeds, good or bad, it must not be forgotten that it also lays equal stress on the liberating power of education, on the perfectability of human nature by means of self-culture and self-control. Buddhism is no fatalism. Fatalism teaches that everything, including also the human will, has been predetermined. It pre-supposes the existence of a person whose will is constrained by an external power. Hence a man's character cannot be improved by education. On the other hand, Buddhism teaches that man himself is a product of causes. Hence his will cannot exist previous
* '
* For the true Buddhist heaven and hell are not realities (svab?ta^ They are fanciful creations of the ignorant {halaprtliag^ -AnaiT asadviparyuiavirachitah svavikalpasambhutah.)
vaio/ttibhutd).
igS
to his formation by these causes. Instead of being constrained by them, his will is made by them. Accordingly, the will can be made to acquire, by proper training, the power to repress the evil impulses. As fatalism regards a man's character as compelled, it can furnish no motive for action, and personal responsibility is out of the question. For the Buddhist, on the other hand, the innate character is caused, and therefore furnishes the strongest motive for action. The Buddhist knows exactly what is meant by the reign of law in the universe. There are not first laws, and then things and phenomena subject to them. Laws represent the forms in which the relations of things are conceived by the human mind under generalised or simplified circumstances. The human mind is, therefore, the proper lawgiver to the universe. Hence, the submission to harma, which Buddhism ascribes to action, is not a blind, but a discriminating submission. Karma is in form a creation of the mind, which makes action (mano vale Tcdya harma) itself a smrtyupasthdna^ Acan object of meditation. cordingly a man is responsible for his actions, though his volitions are determined by causes. By the avoidance of all evil and the practice of the pdramitds, it is possible to
attain
**
that realm on earth,
Where odc may stand and be free from an evil deed absolved." Death is the dissolution of mind and body. Yet the person that dies continues to live in his deeds. One's deeds are like the children born to him ; they live and act apart from his will. Nay, children may be but deeds never. Wherever a man's words, strangled, have impressed themselves in other thoughts, deeds minds, there he has reincarnated. He that has no clear idea of death, and does not master the fact that death everywhere consists in the dissolution of the groups {skandhas), comes, as Buddhagosha says, to a variety of conclusions, such as A living entity dies and transmigrates into and similarly, he that has no clear idea of another's body rebirth and does not master the fact that the appearance of the groups {skandhas) everywhere constitutes birth, he comes to a variety of conclusions, such as A living entity
*
'
'
; ;
'
;; ;
DEATH AND AFTER.

is
197
born and has obtained a new body.'

is
There
is
not a
born, or acts and enjoys itself, or suffers and dies, or is reborn to die again, but simply birth, action, ênjoyment, suffering and death take place. The life activities, the deeds alone are real, and these are preserved and ;iiothing else. Therefore, has it been said
being that
'
No
is there does the deed, tbere one who feels the fruit Constituent parts alone roll on This view alone is orthodox.
doer
is
Nor
*'
And
thus the deed, and thus the fruit Roll on and on, each from its cause As of the round of tree and seed,
No one
"
can
tell
when they began.
the time to be perceived In future births when they shall cease, The heretics perceive not this And fail of mastery o'er themselves.
is
'
Nor
*'
An ego,' say they, * doth exist, Eternal, or that soon will cease Thus two and sixty heresies
They amongst themselves discordant hold.

*'
Bound in the bonds of heresy By passion's flood they're borne along And borne along by passion's flood From misery fiud they no release.
If
""
A man
*'
once these facts he but perceive, whose faith on Buddha rests
The subtle, deep, and self-devoid Dependence will then penetrate. Not Nor
in its fruit is found the deed, in the deed finds one the fruit
Of each the other is devoid, Yet there is no fruit without the deed.
**
Just as no store of fire is found In jewel, cow-dung, or the sun Nor separate from these exists, Yet short of fuel no fire is known.
^'
Even so we ne'er within the deed Can retribution's fruit descry, Nor yet in any place without Nor can in fruit the deed be found.

I9S
**

Deeds separate from
their fruits exist
;
from the deeds But consequent upon the deed The fruit doth into being comet
fruits are separate
**
And
of Heaven or Brahma world Doth cause the endless round of birth Constituent parts alone roll on
No god
From cause
and;material sprung,"
Visiiddhi-Magga*
* Warren's Buddhism in translations..
THE SUMMUM BONUM.

\ JVITVA, anatman and nirvana have been rightly called tik the three corner-stones of Buddhism. They form the three cardinal principles of the Dharma. Any system of
thought which accepts these three fundamental tenets may properly claim identity with Buddhism, whatever may be the adventitious beliefs and practices which hide them. But no system of thought, that does not recognise these three principles, can lay any claim to kinship with the Dharma. What, then, is the meaning of these three principles? Anitya means impermanence. It signifies that all things are in a
perpetual flux. All things lived through, all "êbnisse, as the Germans call them, are transient and impermanent. Nothing is permanent in the universe but change. Mutability is the very characteristic of all existence {vtsvam kshanabhanguram). Only non-existence, ûnyata, can claim to be immutable. Permanent unchanging substances exist in our thought, but not in reality. Whatsoever exists is made up of colours, sounds, temperatures, spaces, times, pressures, ideas, emotions, volitions, and so forth, connected with one another in manifold ways. And these are continually changEverything is therefore momentary {kshanika). Some ing. things may be relatively more permanent than others, but nothing is absolutely permanent. It is the mistaking of
what
is
impermanent
for
something permanent that makes
anitya the source of sorrow {duhkha). What is anitya is not necessarily mithya or illusory, as some have supposed. That which is momentary might prove deceptive, and thus become a source of sorrow, when mistaken for something nitya or permanent, for no deliverance of consciousness is in itself complete. The fragmentary character of a single deliverance of consciousness will naturally mislead, if it is not controlled and rectified by other deliverances of consciousness. When the traveller in the desert sees before him a large expanse of water, which continually recedes and finally disappears, proving to be the
200
effect of mirage,
it is not the deliverance of consciousness deceptive. The characters that suggest the sheet of water are really present, but the deception arises from the failure to take into account all the facts. Similarly, when a
that
is
man mistakes a rope for a snake, it is not the deliverance of consciousness that is at fault. The characters that suggest the snake are really there in the rope, but the failure to interrogate consciousness exhaustively gives rise to the deWere all experience deceptive, how could we ception. know it to be deceptive ? The fact that we are able to distinguish between deception and truth shows that all experience is not illusory. Nor can dreams cast doubt on the experiences of the waking state. The difference of conditions in the two states is so evident that the ordinary man finds no reason for confounding the one with the other. Even the VedS,ntin, who would reduce everything to mere illusion (mdya), regards the creations of the dreaming state to be refuted by the waking state. The logical consequence of the doctrine of anitya is the This principle lays down that noprinciple of anatmata. where in the universe, neither in the macrocosm nor in the microcosm, there is an unconditioned, absolute, transcendent entity or substratum. All that we know consists of a flux of sensations, ideas, emotions, volitions, and so forth, associated with one another in various ways. Out of this
complex texture rises into prominence that which is more fixed and permanent, and impresses itself on Certain of the memory, and finds expression in language. these complexes of relatively greater permanency are called Hence bodies, and special names are given to them. colours, sounds, tastes,and other sensations are not produced by bodies, but complexes of these sensations make up Sensations are not signs by which we recognise bodies. things, but a thing is a mental construct or symbol of a Such complexes are relatively fixed complex of sensations. never absolutely permanent. Nor is there behind and beyond these sensations, these elements of experience, any Still this does not prakriti^ pradhdna^ or ding an sich. imply that things are illusory or unreal. They are at least as real as the minds that perceive them.
fleeting
relatively
THE SUMMUM BONUM.
20I
Among the many comparatively permanent complexes we find a complex of memories, volitions, emotions, ideas, aspirations, linked to a particular body, which is called the ego or " I." But even the ego, as we have already seen, is only
If the ego appears to be permanent, permanent. because the changes that occur in the elements, or the skandhas^ which constitute the " I," are comparatively slow. The mere fact that there is a consciousness of identity does not prove the existence of 2cciatman^ which is the witness or When a man says that possessor of sensations, ideas, &c. he has the sensation hot, it only means that the element of experience called hot occurs in a given group of other elements, such as sensations, memories, ideas, &c., (rupa, When he ceases to vedana, vigndna^ samgîd, samskdra). have any sensation, that is to say, when he dies, then the groups, the skandhds, are dissolved, the elements no longer occur in their ordinary accustomed grouping or association. That is all. What has really ceased to exist is a unity constructed, as already pointed out, for economical and practical purposes {samvriti or vyavahdrika), not a transcendental \pdramdrthika) unity. The ego is not a mysterious, unchangeable unity. Each individual knows what changes his ego is undergoing. Knowing the mutability of the ego each one of us is striving to alter its attributes and improve
relatively
it is
it.
The unity of consciousness cannot be explained by the numerical unity of an underlying dtman. As Hermann Lotze has pointed out in his Metaphysic^ the attempt to explain the unity of consciousness by the unity of an underlying substance is a process of reasoning, which not only fails to reach an admissible aim, but also has no aim at all. The ego is simply a group of elements, such as sensations, ideas, memories, emotions, volitions, &c., more strongly connected with one another among themselves, and less strongly knitted to the elements of other groups of the same kind, that is to say, to other individuals. But if we regard the ego as a numerical unity, which has volitions, ideas, sensations, &c., as a mysterious entity behind the skandhas, we must necessarily involve ourselves in a dilemma. Either -one must set over against one's ego a world of unknowable
20
entities, or
one must regard the whole world, together with the egos of all other individuals, as products of one's own ego. The former procedure would serve no purpose but writing the unknowables with a capital to terrify ignorant folk, and the latter is not followed by the solipsist himself in practical
life.
There is nothing permanent in the ego, and it is therefore incapable of being saved. Partly the intuitive knowledge of this fact and partly the fear of it have been the prolific mother of the many optimistic, religious, and philosophical aberrations and absurdities. After deep thought and psy{vibhajja sdstra) chological analysis the Blessed One recognised that all false doctrines invariably have their source in the dtman conception, whether it be a belief in the existence oi2.jivdtman (ego-soul), or a belief in the existence
brahman {or paramdtman) in things. It the dtman conception that makes the ordinary man {J>rthakjana) regard the impermanent as permanent, and thus gives birth to all the sorrows of this world. As the Bodhicharydvatdra says, " dtmdnam aparityajya diihkham tyaktum na cakyate^ Without renouncing the dt7ftan we cannot get rid of sorrow. Only when the craving for individual immortality is destroyed, will one be able to arrive at a freer and more enlightened view of life, which will not permit of the over-estimation of one's own ego in utter disregard of other egos. This brief discussion of the principles of anitya and andtmata would have prepared the reader for a better underThere are in standing of the true import of Nirvdna.
oi2ccimv^&i'>,o\\2\
is
vogue two false views concerning Nirvana, which have first Some think that NirvSLna is a state in to be combated. which the individual soul is completely absorbed in the way as the Vedanta universal soul, just in the same
is
philosophy of the Brahmans understands regarded as the annihilation of all
it.
By
others
it
activities
(chittj,-
vrittinirodha;fîchtergendetwasheit\ in which love, life, As regards the first and everything become extinct. view we need only say that it is radically different from Buddhism denies a soul the true conception of Nirvana. How could it teach communion as well as an Absolute.
THE SUMMUM BONUMwith, or absorption in, such a mysterious being as
203
Brahman
In the Tevtgga Sutta the Blessed One likens those who believe in Brahman, and seek a union with it to a man, who builds a staircase at the junction of four roads to mount up to a high mansion, which he can neither see nor know where it is, how it is, what it is built of, nor whether it exists at all. The Brahmans base their authority on the Vedas, and the Vedas rest on the authority of their composers, and these
authors rely on the authority of Brahma Praj3.pati. They are like a string of blind men clinging to one another and leading one another, and their method of salvation is nothing but adoration, worship, and prayer. The Vedantic doctrine is clothed in high sounding words, but it contains no truth. The follower of the Vedanta, says the Blessed One, is like the monkey at the lake which tries to catch the moon in the water mistaking the reflection for the reality. The second view may seem to accord better with the literal meaning of the word Nirvana. Nirvana is derived from nir^ absence, and vata^ wind. The suffix ta is changed into na^ if the word is not meant to apply to vata^ wind. Though references to Nirvana may not be wanting in Brahmanical works, the technical sense in which the term is employed is undoubtedly due to the Buddha and his followers. In the Upanishads and the philosophical works of the Brglhmans we come across such terms as amrita, moksha^ mukti^ nih^reyasa^ kaivalya, apavarga as Sanskrit equivalents for salvation, but it is only in the ancient Pali and Sanskrit works on Buddhism that the word Nirvana is frequently
employed to mean salvation. The meaning of Nirvana as employed by the Buddha would seem to be connected with Whatever the state of a flarae that has been blown out. may be the literal meaning of the term Nirvana, the life of the Blessed One gives the lie direct to the view that Nirvana is the annihilation of all activities. Sakyasimha attained bodhi at the age of thirty-five, and he spent the remaining forty-five years of his life in active preaching and doing good. Nirvana cannot therefore mean the annihilation of all activities. On the one side it is the destruction of the three fires of lust, hatred and ignorance and on the other side it
;
is
the perfection of
all
human
excellences.
If
it is
annihila-
204
tion,
it

is
annihilation through growth.
Just as the seed
becomes annihilated by its growth into the tree, so does egoism become extinguished by its development into altruism. If Nirvana meant nothing more than the annihilation of all activities, suicide would be the best and quickest means of making an end of suffering and sorrow. But to one w^ho has understood the true nature of the ego and
Icarma,
sets
the absurdity of this conclusion
is
obvious.
Suicide
an example which will bear evil fruit in the hearts of others. Being a cause of consternation and unrest, how could suicide lead to the cessation of suffering ? Suicide is the result either of madness, or of egotism. It is due either to some temporary aberration of the intellect, or to a strong desire to protect one's life against certain dangers that threaten it. The suicide throws himself into the arms of death, because he fears some impending emotional or physical disturbance. Under no circumstances, therefore, could suicide conduce to the attainment of Nirvana, though there might be nothing objectionable id a holy man who has attained Nirvana voluntarily giving up his life, when he finds
it
no longer
In
its
useful to others.
negative aspect Nirvana is the extinction of the The commentator three fires of lust, hatred, and ignorance. on ih^Jatakas says: "By what can every heart attain to lasting happiness? And to him whose heart was estranged from sin the answer came When the fire of lust is w^hen the fires gone out, peace {nibbuta) is gained of hatred and ignorance are gone out, then peace is gained ; when the troubles of mind arising from pride, credulity and all other sins have ceased, then peace is gained.' " On the extinction of these three fires there result the perfect sinless peace of purity, good will, and wîsdom. As Asvagosha says, ''when in this wise the prin*
:
ciple
and the condition of defilement, their products and the mental disturbances are all annihilated, it is said that we attain to Nirvana^ and that various spontaneous
The evil inclinadisplays of activity are accomplished." tions cannot be annihilated without the simultaneous development of the moral and
all evil
How could intellectual powers. be destroyed without acquiring the supreme virtues
THE SUMMUM BONUM.
205
is
which characterise Buddhahood ? When all thought of self annihilated, the holy man becomes the very embodiment of
the virtues of generosity, kindliness, morality, renunciation, wisdom, forbearance, truthfulness, fortitude, resoluteness and equanimity. The man who has attained Nirvina represents the perfect embodiment of Truth, not so much in respect of the scientific knowledge of things, but in its realization in a moral and virtuous life. "Just as a lotus flower of glorious, pure, and high descent and origin," says N&gasena in the Milindapanha, " is glossy, soft, desirable,
sweet-smelling, longed-for, loved, and praised, untarnished by the water or the mud, crossed with tiny petals and filaments and pericarps, the resort of many bees, a child of the clear cold stream, just so, is that disciple of the Noble One
how
tress
And if you ask, endowed with the thirty graces." Nibbana to be known ? It is by freedom from disand danger, by confidence, by peace, by calm, by bliss,
'*
is
" by happiness, by delicacy, by purity, by freshness Though Nirvana is the annihilation of all egotism, it does not imply the annihilation of personality. Annihilation of personality can occur in life only with the cessation of all consciousness, as in a swoon or in dreamless sleep. It is the Ved.nta doctrine that teaches that " at the time of deep sleep the soul becomes one with the highest Brahman," and
that " the state of senselessness
(in
swooning, &c.)
is
a half
union with Brahman." The Dharma, on the contrary, gives no room for such a view, but distinctly declares such ideas Bodhi, which is but another name to be mere madness. for Nirv,na, is characterized by the seven qualities of zeal, wisdom, reflection, investigation, joy, peace, and serenity. Can these qualities be present where there is no consciousness ? The very first of the thirty graces with which the
perfect man is endowed is a heart full of affectionate, soft and tender love. The holy man who has attained Nirvftna lives and works, not for himself, but for others. Instead of being the absolute non-existence as some people think Nirvina to be, it is really a life of perpetual fellowship in the pure atmosphere of truth, goodness, freedom and enlightenment. While Nirvftna is the annihilation of all thought of self, it is at the same time the complete attain-
-2o6

and righteousness. In short, it is the and life of man of those necessary
merit of perfect love
realization in the thought
conditions which constitute perfect humanity. It is often supposed that the man who has attained Nirv,na or Buddhahood is not bound by the law of Tcarma. This is a mistake having its source in a confusion between the Buddhist ideal of an Arahat and the Hindu ideal of a Jivanmukta. The Hindus think that the perfect sage is subject to no moral law. As Anandagiri says, he may do good and evil for the rest of his days as he pleases, and incur no stain. Anandagiri's view is supported by such " He that knows the truth is sullied texts as the following " If he sees neither by good actions nor by evil actions."
:
the unity of all things, he is unaffected alike whether he offers a hundred horse sacrifices or kill hundreds of holy Brahmans." " He whom nobody knows either as noble or ignoble, as ignorant or learned, as well-conducted or illconducted, he is a Brahmana. Quietly devoted to his duty, let the wise man pass through life unknown ; let him step on this earth as if he were blipd, unconscious, deaf." Such views are the logical outcome of the pantheistic doctrines of the Vedanta philosophy. If everything in the universe is nothing but a manifestation of the universal soul, how can anything or act be unclean or immoral ? This is how the Hindu Aghorpanthi defends his disgustingly repulsive acts. But the Buddhist is no Vedantin. The Buddhist Arahat sees danger in the smallest offence. If he is to remain on the heights to which he has climbed, he cannot afford to neglect the steps by which he has risen. " In brief, the welfare of all beings at all times, pious and unworldly gifts, the mind characterized by true enlightenment these increase one's holiness. Perfection lies in self-denial ; it comes by never leaving watchfulness, by full understanding, by mindfulness, and deepest thought."* Hence the Arahat must
always
"
And
make virtue his only store, restless appetite restrain,
Beat meditation's drum, and sore His watch against each sense maintain,"
*
Karik&s of the S'ikshSsamuchchaya.

THE SUMMUM BONUM.
All that
20
man
aspires
might in
its
essentials
and desires to attain through religion be reduced to three points peace and
:
tranquillity of
mind
fortitude
and consolation
all
in adversity
hope
God.
in death.
In Buddhism
all
ordinary man questions find their answer in God. But it is entirely different with the Buddhist. Buddhism denies an Isvara, and the latter cannot, therefore, be its goal and resting point. The Buddhist's goal is Buddhahood, and the essence of Buddhahood is Dharmakaya, the those laws which pervade the facts of life, totality of all and whose living recognition constitutes enlightenment. Dharmakaya is the most comprehensive name with which the
NirvSlna.
The
these are attained through seeks his rest and peace in
For him
Buddhist sums up his understanding and also his feeling about the universe. Dharmakaya signifies that the universe does not appear to the Buddhist as a mere mechanism, but as pulsating with life. Further, it means that the most striking fact about the universe is its intellectual aspect and its ethical order, specially in its higher reaches. Nay more, it implies that the universe is one in essence, and nowhere chaotic or
^
dualistic.
"
Before beginning, and without end As space eternal and as surety sure, Is fixed a power divine which moves to good, Light of Asia, Book VIII. Only its laws endure"
:
no pitiable abstraction, but that aspect of makes the world intelligible, which shows itself in cause and effect, in the blessedness that follows righteousness, and in the cursedness that comes from evilDharmak^Lya
is
existence which
Dharmakaya is that presence which is forming the world in every detail, revealing itself most completely in man's rational will and moral aspirations. Though not an individual person like man, though not a limited being of a particular cast of mind, Dharmakaya is the condition of all personality. Without Dharmakaya there would be nothing that constitutes personality, no reason, no science, no moral aspiration, no ideal, no aim and purpose in man's life. In
doing.
short,
Dharmakaya
"
is
;
The warp and woof of all that lives and moves The light whose smile kindles the universe
;
2o8

The beauty which pervades all things and beings The germ of goodness which, dwelling in all, Frora life's minute beginnings up at last To man, unfolds itself in loving deeds;
Nay, the
spirit of truth
which inspires
all
With courage and hope
in the fight for right."
Dharmak.ya is the norm of all existence, the standard of measure of righteousness, the good law. Owing to the limitations of our knowledge and the imperfection of our goodness we may not yet know all about Dharmak,ya. But we know enough about it to make it our guide in life. Like a cloud shedding its waters without distinction, Dharmakaya encompasses all with the light of comprehension. Though the great cloud full of rain comes up in this wide world covering all lands and seas, and pours down its rain
truth, the
everywhere, over
all
grasses, shrubs, herbs,
trees of various
species, families of plants of different
names growing on the
earth, on the hills, on the mountains, or in the valleys, yet the grasses, shrubs, herbs, and wild trees, though sucking the same water, all of one essence, poured down abundantly by the same great cloud, grow^ccording to their karma, and acquire a proportionate development and bigness, shooting up and producing blossoms and fruits in their season. Similarly, though Dharmak^ya is the same for all, different creatures appropriate in different ways the norms of truth and follow differently the light of Dharmakiya. Each creature has originated from unconscious potentialities through its own blind impulses ; each one, in its own field of experience, has learned the lesson of life in its own way. Each one is responsible to itself, and no one can blame another for what he is and has become. Dharmakaya is not a god who asserts himself, and calls sin what is contrary to his will. Dharmak^ya does not say to man " I am the almighty ruler of the universe ; you are my special favourite, I have given you the highest place of all in the universe, and you can get still further privileges
:
if
you obey
my commands and pay me tithes.'' Dharmakaya
neither loves to be addressed in prayer nor delights in listening to the praises of worshippers. Dharmakaya is not a selfare largely conscious individual whose creatures we are.
We
THE SUMMUM BONUM.
209
Pondering on the problems creatures of our own making. of life and death the Blessed One recognised that life starts in unknown non-conscious potentialities with blind impulses, and that life's start is its own doing. It is this unconscious
life starts, not knowing its whither, In his formula of the bottom of all evil. adhydtmika pratltya samutpdda the Blessed One has succinctly expounded the various links (niddnds) in the chain of causation that leads to the full development In the beginof life as manifested in human beings. ning there is unconscious potentiality {avidya); and in this nebulosity of undefined life the formative and organising propensities {samskdras) shape crude formless aggregates. From the materials thus produced originate organisms possessing awareness, sensibility and irritability {vtgndna). From these develops self-consciousness, the unity which differentiates self from not-self, and makes organisms live as individual beings (ndma riipd). With selfconsciousness begins the exploration of the six fields of experience {shaddyatanas), belonging to the five senses and the mind. The exploration of the six fields brings about the contact (sj>arsa) with the external world. The perception of the external world and the exercise of the senses and the mind thereon leads to the experience of different kinds of pleasure and pain {vedana). The experience of pleasure and pain generates in the individualised being, through not knowing its own nature, a grasping desire {trishfid) for its own individual satisfaction. The thirst for obtaining egoistic satisfaction induces a cleaving (iipdddnd) to worldly The indulgence in worldly pleasures produces pleasures. the growth and continuation of self-hood (bhava). Selfassertion manifests itself in incessant changes or births (Jdtt)^ and these incessant changes, looked at selfishly, become the sources of sorrow connected with sickness, old age and death (jardmarana). These give birth to lamentation, anxiety and despair. Thus, the cause of all sorrow lies at the very source ; it lies in the unconscious blind impulses with which life starts. When these blind impulses are checked and controlled, the wrong appetences born of them will no longer have sway \
potency from which

that
is
at
ilO
with the removal of these wrong appetences the wrong perception begotten by them will be wiped out. When the wrong understanding of the world is wiped out, the egoistic errors peculiar to individualization will cease, and with the cessation of these the illusions of the six fields will disappear. If the illusions of the six fields disappear, sense experience will no longer produce misconception. When no misconceptions arise in the mind, all grasping desires will cease, and with the disappearance of these will arise freedom from morbid cleaving and indulgence. When morbid cleaving and indulgence do not exist, the selfishness of selfhood disppears.
this selfishness is annihilated, there will be Nirvana, the complete escape from all sorrow arising from birth, disease, old age, and death and ignorance and evil desires. It is therefore clear that the fate of each one of us rests in his own hands. If life is associated with suffering, no being has a right to blame another, much less Dharmakaya. It is not Dharmakaya that permits beings to suffer innocently for Life's conditions which they did not create themselves. suffering is life's own doing. Iê who knows the nature of life must not be afraid of suffering ; he must bear its ills nobly. If he avails himself of the light of DharmakS,ya, the essence of Buddhahood, and follows the Noble Eightfold Path, he can escape the suffering that is associated with life, and arrive at the blissful haven of Nirvana. He who has attained Nirvana cannot live a life of selfhood, confined to the attainment of individual satisfaction. As the Bodhiekary avatara says, it is with the desire to make Not only all beings happy that one desires to attain bodhi. does the white-souled tranquil Arahat shrink from sin, but he is always devoted to the doing of good. Not only does he " exhale the most excellent and unequalled scented savour of the righteousness of life," but his heart is full of
When
affectionate, soft
for himself,
and tender love. He may have no desires His but he woiks for the good of all beings. moral consciousness is wholly objectified, and is free from all subjective taints. He identifies himself with all that is good and noble. He extends his kindness to all His sympathies are universal. His compassion is beings. $o far-reaching that it excludes none, not even those
THE SUMMUM BONUM. who

risk
211
hate and despise him. Just as a mother, at the of her own life, protects her only child, so does he who has attained Nirvana cultivate good will beyond measure among all beings, toward the whole world, unstinted and unmixed with any feeling of making distinctions or showing preferences. The removal of the infinite pain of the world is his highest felicity. He remains steadfastly in this state of mind, " the best in the world," as the Metia Siitta says, all the while he is awake, whether he be standing, waking, sitting, or lying down. He is always in
**
That state of peace wherein the roots Of ever fresh rebirths are all destroyed, and greed And hatred and delusion all have ceased That state from lust for future life set free That changeth not, can ne'er be led to change."
;
This is the Sukhavati^ where dwell boundless light (Amtt^bha) and infinite life {Amitdyus). When the Arahat dies, the skandhas which constitute his individuality dissolve, but he still lives. In the Nirvana of life he may not be free from the ills naturally concomitant to a bodily life, but in parinirvana^ the Nirvana of death, he has gone to a realm free from such ills. He has attained to " a state which is unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, and unformed, a state where there is neither earth nor water, nor heat nor air, neither infinity of space nor infinity of consciousness, nor nothingness, nor perception nor non-perception, neither this world nor another world." He has become one with those eternal Le Boudverities of which he wâs an embodiment in life. dha " vide de natur proper " est eternite^ amour et misertcorde. We may not look for him in any material form, or seek him in any audible sound. But whosoever sees the Dharma sees the Buddha. He is ever in the Dharmakaya, the womb of all Tathagatas, that divine spirit of universal compassion and wisdom which carries humanity in its onward and up-
ward march to truth and moral loveliness.

*'
All
mankind
is
his shrine.
Seek him henceforward in the good and wise. In happy thoughts and blissful emotions, In kind words and sublime serenity,
And
in the rapture of the loving deed.
212

There seek him if you would not seek in vain, There in the struggle for justice and right, In the sacrifice of self for the all, In the joy and calm repose of the heart,
Yea and
Made
for ever in the human niind better and more beauteous by his word."
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Essence of Buddhism - 1907

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2007 with lunding from

Sangham caranam gacchami.

SRINIVASA VARADACHARI & CO.

NamaqqQ,kyam.unaye thathdgataya^ arhate^ samyak

bright the moon's radiance by night,

Bright shineth the hero in battle array,

But by day and by night, none so glorious so bright

As Bhagavat, the source of all

one alone unchanging,

High-born, luminously beaming,

Uncompared, beyond comprise

in all the world

That his reason has not been

whereof the Master

Has not pierced the

end the doubter's questions,

they will but

vast like the sea

of compassion and love

thoughts, like the sweet Philomel,

Soar high and lofty for ever

Use their reason

What is true from what

zeal to share with all

The easy path of salvation

"The problem of origination.

forms of Buddhism and bringing to

light the essential truths therein contained.

and not metaphysical.

has been truly said, is that underlie and

read with pleasure, rather rapidly, the

Maha Bodhi Headquarters

ISIPATANA, SaRNATH, BeNARES. \ April 28 \%^\, J

Maudgalyiyana, and Maha K&syapa Patrons Ineffectual plots of Devadatta

THE RATIONALITY OF BUDDHISM.

THE MORALITY OF BUDDHISM.

BUDDHISM AND CASTE.

THE FOUR GREAT TRUTHS.

BUDDHISM AND ASCETICISM.

BUDDHISM AND PESSIMISM.

THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH.

Buddhism represented by the

Morality of path Eight

^Practiceof right thought Intellectual

Falsity of the accusation

against the greater imporof intellectual powers than ethical

THE RIDDLE OF THE WORLD.

Belief a Wrong concepin

tion of the unity of

Existence of an atman categorically denied

things, the origin of the

liberates the individual

DEATH AND AFTER.