Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch Volume I Part 40

[Footnote 701: Sannavedayita nirodhasamapatti. The Buddha when dying (Dig. XVI. V. 8, 9) pa.s.ses through this state, but does not go from it to Parinibbana. This perhaps means that it was regarded as a purification of the mind, but not on the direct road to the final goal.]

[Footnote 702: See Maj. Nik. 43. But the point of the discussion seems to be not so much special commendation of this form of trance as an explanation of its origin, namely that it, like other mental states, is bound to ensue when certain preliminary conditions both moral and intellectual have been realized. See also Sam. Nik. x.x.xVI. ii. 5. See for examples of this cataleptic form of Samadhi Max Muller's _Life of Ramakrishna_, pp. 49,59, etc. Christian mystics (_e.g._ St Catharine of Siena and St Theresa) were also subject to deathlike trances lasting for hours and St Theresa is said once to have been in this condition for some days.]

[Footnote 703: Maj. Nik. 86.]

[Footnote 704: This is known to European mystics, particularly Suso. St Francis of a.s.sisi, St Catharine of Siena and Richard Rolle are also cited. See Underhill. _Mysticism_, p. 332.]

[Footnote 705: Christian visions of h.e.l.l, Purgatory and Paradise are another instance of the divine eye, which thinks it can see the whole scheme of things.]

[Footnote 706: Tales about such powers, are still very common in the East, for instance the Chinese story (in the _Liao Chai_) of the man who learnt from a Taoist how to walk through a wall but failed ignominiously when he tried to give an exhibition to his family. Educated Chinese seem to think there is something in the story and say that he failed because his motives were bad.]

[Footnote 707: Bernheim, _La Suggestion_, chap. I. Quand j'ai eloigne de son esprit la preoccupation que fait naitre l'idee de magnetisme ... je lui dis "Regardez-moi bien et ne songez qu'a dormir. Vous allez sentir une lourdeur dans les paupieres, une fatigue dans vos yeux: ils clignotent, ils vont se mouiller; la vue devient confuse: ils se ferment." Quelques sujets ferment les yeux et dorment immediatement....

_C'est le sommeil par la suggestion, c'est l'image du sommeil_ que je suggere, que j'insinue dans le cerveau. Les pa.s.ses, la fixation des yeux ou des doigts de l'operateur, propres seulement a concentrer l'attention, ne sont pas absolument necessaires.]

[Footnote 708: Thus in the drama Ratnavali a magician makes the characters see an imaginary conflagration of the palace and also a vision of heaven. His performance seems to be accepted as merely a remarkable piece of conjuring.]

[Footnote 709: Ang. Nik. xvi. 1. In spite of his magic power he could not prevent himself being murdered. The Milinda-Panha explains this as the result of Karma, which is stronger than magic and everything else.]

[Footnote 710: _E.g._ Maj. Nik. 77. ]

[Footnote 711: Cullavag. v. 8.]

[Footnote 712: Dig. Nik. xi.]

[Footnote 713: Visuddhi Magga, xii. in Warren, _Buddhism in Translation_, pp. 315 ff.]

[Footnote 714: R.V. II. 12. 5.]

[Footnote 715: Yet Tennyson can say "And at their feet the crocus brake like fire," but in a mythological poem.]

[Footnote 716: Mahav. V. i.]

[Footnote 717: E.g. Dig. Nik. XI. and Cullavag. V. 8.]

[Footnote 718: Even in the Upanishads the G.o.ds are not given a very high position. They are powerless against Brahman (e.g. Kena Up. 14-28) and are not naturally in possession of true knowledge, though they may acquire it (e.g. Chand. Up. VIII. 7).]

[Footnote 719: Dig. Nik. XI.]

[Footnote 720: Dig. Nik. I. chap. 2, 1-6. The radiant G.o.ds are the Abha.s.sara, cf. Dhammap 200.]

[Footnote 721: Watters, II. p. 160.]

[Footnote 722: The legends of both Rama and Krishna occur in the _Book of Jatakas_ in a somewhat altered form, nos. 641 and 454.]

[Footnote 723: Thus Helios the Sun pa.s.ses into St Elias.]

[Footnote 724: He is often called Brahma Sahampati, a t.i.tle of doubtful meaning and not found in Brahmanic writings. The Pitakas often speak of Brahmas and worlds of Brahma in the plural, as if there were a whole cla.s.s of Brahmas. See especially the Suttas collected in book I, chap.

vi. of the Sa?yutta-Nikaya where we even hear of Pacceka Brahmas, apparently corresponding in some way to Pacceka Buddhas.]

[Footnote 725: Maj. Nik. 49. The meaning of the t.i.tle Baka is not clear and may be ironical. Another ironical name is manopadosika (debauched in mind) invented as the t.i.tle of a cla.s.s of G.o.ds in Dig. Nik. I. and XX.

The idea that sages can instruct the G.o.ds is anterior to Buddhism, See e.g. B?ihad-ar. Up. II. 5. 17, and ib. IV. 3. 33, and the parallel pa.s.sage in the Tait. Chand. Kaush. Upanishads and Sat. Brahma?a for the idea that a Srotriya is equal to the highest deities.]

[Footnote 726: Six Manvantaras of the present Kalpa have elapsed and we are in the seventh.]

[Footnote 727: We are in the Kali or worst age of the present mahayuga.

The Kali lasts 432,000 years and began 3102 B.C.

In their number and in many other points of cosmography the various accounts differ greatly. The account given above is taken from the Vishnu Purana, book II. but the details in it are not entirely consistent.]

[Footnote 728: The detailed formulation of this cosmography was naturally gradual but its chief features are known to the Nikayas. Dig.

Nik. XIV. 17 and 30 seem to imply the theory of spheres. For Heavens, see Maj. Nik. 49, Dig. Nik. XI. 68-79 and for h.e.l.ls Sut. Nip. III. 10, Maj. Nik. 129. See too De la Vallee Poussin's article, _Cosmology Buddhist_, in _E.R.E._]

[Footnote 729: See for the Asuras Sam. Nik. I. xi. 1.]

[Footnote 730: See a Tibetan representation in Waddell's _Buddhism of Tibet_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 731: The question of whether the universe is infinite in s.p.a.ce or not is according to the Pitakas one of those problems which cannot be answered.]

[Footnote 732: Dig. Nik. XXVII.]

[Footnote 733: Maro papima. See especially Windisch, _Mara and Buddha_, 1895, and Sam. Nik. I. iv.]

[Footnote 734: We sometimes hear of Maras in the plural. Like Brahma he is sometimes a personality, sometimes the type of a cla.s.s of G.o.ds. We also hear that he has obtained his present exalted though not virtuous post by his liberality in former births. Thus, like Sakka and other Buddhist Devas, Mara is really an office held by successive occupants.

He is said to be worshipped by some Tibetan sects. It is possible that the legends about Mara and his daughters and about Krishna and the Gopis may have a common origin for Mara is called Ka?ha (the Prakrit equivalent of Krishna) in Sutta-Nipata, 439.]

[Footnote 735: Ang. Nik. III. 35.]

[Footnote 736: This seems to be the correct doctrine, though it is hard to understand how the popular idea of continual torture is compatible with the performance of good deeds. The Katha-vatthu, XIII. 2, states that a man in purgatory can do good. See too Ang. Nik. 1. 19.]

[Footnote 737: But even the language of the Pitakas is not always quite correct on this point, for it represents evil-doers as falling down straight into h.e.l.l.]

[Footnote 738: Khud. Path. 7. In this poem, the word Peta (Sk. Preta) seems to be used as equivalent to departed spirits, not necessarily implying that they are undergoing punishment. In the _Questions of Milinda_ (IV. 8. 29) the practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead is countenanced, and it is explained exactly what cla.s.ses of dead profit by them. On the other hand the Katha-vatthu states that the dead do not benefit by gifts given in this world, but two sects, the Rajagirika and Siddhattika, are said by the commentary to hold the contrary view.]

[Footnote 739: See Max Muller's _Ramakrishna_, p. 40, for another instance.]

[Footnote 740: In a pa.s.sage of the Mahaparinib. Sut. (III. 22) which is probably not very early the Buddha says that when he mixes with G.o.ds or men he takes the shape of his auditors, so that they do not know him.]

[Footnote 741: Sam. Nik. II. 3. 10. Sadevaka.s.sa loka.s.sa aggo.]

[Footnote 742: E.g. in the Lotus Sutra.]

[Footnote 743: One hundred and eight marks on the sole of each foot are also enumerated in later writings.]

[Footnote 744: Artaxerxes Longima.n.u.s. Cf. the Russian princely name Dolgorouki. The Chinese also attribute forty-nine physical signs of perfection to Confucius, including long arms. See Dore, _Recherches sur les Superst.i.tions en Chine_, vol. XIII. pp. 2-6.]

[Footnote 745: Though Brahmans are represented as experts in these marks, it seems likely that the idea of the Mahapurusha was popular chiefly among the Kshatriyas, for in one form, at any rate, it teaches that a child of the warrior caste born with certain marks will become either a universal monarch or a great teacher of the truth. This notion must have been most distasteful to the priestly caste.]

[Footnote 746: See Dig. Nik. 3. The Lakkhana Suttanta (Dig. Nik. 30) contains a discussion of the marks.]