The Religions of India Part 34

The "spirit and not the letter of the law" is expressed in the formula _(Mah[=a]vagga_, i. 23): "Of all conditions that proceed from a cause, Buddha has explained the cause, and he has explained their cessation." This is the Buddhist's _credo_.

In several of the sermons the whole gist is comprised in the admonition not to meddle with philosophy, nor to have any 'views,' for "philosophy purifies no one; peace alone purifies."[54]

Buddha does not ignore the fact that fools will not desire salvation as explained by him: "What fools call pleasure the n.o.ble say is pain; this is a thing difficult to understand; the cessation of the existing body is regarded as pleasure by the n.o.ble, but those wise in this world hold the opposite opinion" (_Dvayat[=a]nup. sutta_, 38).[55] But to him the truly wise is the truly pure: "Not by birth is one a Brahman, not by birth is one an outcast; by deeds is one a Brahman, by deeds is one an outcast" (_Vasala-sutta_); and not alone in virtue of _karma_ of old, for: "The man who knows in this world the destruction of pain, who lays aside the burden and is liberated, him I call a Brahman; whosoever in this world has overcome good and evil, both ties, who is free from grief and defilement, and is pure,--him I call a Brahman; the ignorant say that one is a Brahman by birth, but one is a Brahman by penance, by religious life, by self-restraint, and by temperance" (_V[=a]settha-sutta_).

The penance here alluded to is not the vague penance of austerities, but submission to the discipline of the monastery when exercised for a specific fault.

Later Buddhism made of Buddha a G.o.d. Even less exaltation than this is met by Buddha thus: S[=a]riputta says to him, "Such faith have I, Lord, that methinks there never was and never will be either monk or Brahman who is greater and wiser than thou," and Buddha responds: "Grand and bold are the words of thy mouth; behold, thou hast burst forth into ecstatic song. Come, hast thou, then, known all the Buddhas that were?" "No, Lord." "Hast thou known all the Buddhas that will be?" "No, Lord." "But, at least, thou knowest me, my conduct, my mind, my wisdom, my life, my salvation (i.e., thou knowest me as well as I know myself)?" "No, Lord." "Thou seest that thou knowest not the venerable Buddhas of the past and of the future; why, then, are thy words so grand and bold?" (_Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na_.)

Metaphysically the human ego to the Buddhist is only a collection of five _skandhas_ (form, sensations, ideas, faculties of mind, and reason) that vanishes when the collection is dispersed, but the factors of the collection re-form again, and the new ego is the result of their re-formation. The Northern Buddhists, who turn Buddha into a G.o.d, make of this an immortal soul, but this is Buddhism in one phase, not Buddha's own belief. The strength of Northern Buddhism lies not, as some say, in its greater religious zeal, but in its grosser animism, the delight of the vulgar.

It will not be necessary, interesting as would be the comparison, to study the Buddhism of the North after this review of the older and simpler chronicles. In Hardy's _Manual of Buddhism_ (p. 138 ff.) and Rockhill's _Life of Buddha_ will be found the weird and silly legends of Northern Buddhism, together with a full sketch of Buddhistic ethics and ontology (Hardy, pp. 460, 387). The most famous of the Northern books, the Lotus of the Law and the Lalita Vistara, give a good idea of the extravagance and supernaturalism that already have begun to disfigure the purer faith. According to Kern, who has translated the former work again (after Burnouf), the whole intent of the Lotus is to represent Buddha as the supreme, eternal G.o.d. The works, treating of piety, philosophy, and philanthropy, contain ancient elements, but in general are of later form. To this age belongs also the whole collection of J[=a]takas, or 'birth-stories,' of the Buddhas that were before Gautama, some of the tales of which are historically important, as they have given rise to Western fables.[56] These birth-stories represent Buddha (often as Indra) as some G.o.d or mortal, and tell what he did in such or such a form. It is in a future form that, like Vishnu, who is to come in the _avatar_ of Kalki, the next Buddha will appear as Maitreya, or the 'Buddha of love.'[57] Some of the stories are very silly; some, again, are beautiful at heart, but ugly in their bizarre appearance. They are all, perhaps, later than our era.[58]

The history of Buddhism after the Master's death has a certain a.n.a.logy with that of Mohammedanism. That is to say it was largely a political growth. Further than this, of course, the comparison fails. The religion was affected by heretical kings, and by _nouveaux riches_, for it admitted them all into its community on equal terms--no slight privilege to the haughty nabob or proud king who, if a believer and follower of Brahman orthodoxy, would have been obliged to bend the head, yield the path, and fear the slightest frown of any beggar priest that came in his way.

The M[=a]ruya monarch Ac.o.ka adopted Buddhism as a state religion in the third century B.C., and taught it unto all his people, so that, according to his own account, he changed the creed of the country from Brahmanism to Buddhism.[59] He was king over all northern India, from Kabul to the eastern ocean, from the northern limit of Brahmanic civilization to its southern boundary. Buddhist missionaries were now spread over India and beyond it. And here again, even in this later age, one sees how little had the people to do with Buddha's metaphysical system. Like the simple confession 'I take refuge in Buddha, in the doctrine, and in the church' was the only credo demanded, that cited above: "Buddha has explained the cause of whatever conditions proceed from a cause, and he has declared their cessation." In this credo, which is en-graved all over India, everything is left in confidence to Buddha. However he explained the reason, that creed is to be accepted without inquiry. The convert took the patent facts of life, believing that Buddha had explained all, and based his own belief not on understanding but on faith.

With the council of Patna, 242 B.C, begins at thousands of the missionaries the geographical separation of the church, which results in Southern and Northern Buddhism.[60]

It is at this period that the monastic bodies become influential. The original Sangha, congregation, is defined as consisting of three or more brethren. The later monastery is a business corporation as well as a religious body. The great emperors that now ruled India (not the petty clan-kings of the centuries before) were no longer of pure birth, and some heresy was the only religion that would receive them with due honor. They affected Buddhism, endowed the monasteries, in every was enriched the church, built for it great temples, and in turn were upheld by their thankful co-religionists. Among the six[61] rival heresies that of Buddha was predominant, and chiefly because of royal influence. The Buddhist head of the Ceylon church was Ac.o.ka's own son.

Still more important for Buddhism was its adoption by the migratory Turanians in the centuries following. Tibet and China were opened up to it through the influence of these foreign kings, who at least pretended to adopt the faith of Buddha.[62] But as it was adopted by them, and as it extended beyond the limits of India, just so much weaker it became at home, where its strongest antagonists were the sectarian pantheistic parties not so heterodox as itself.

Buddhism lingered in India till the twelfth or thirteenth century, although in the seventh it was already decadent, as appears from the account of Hiouen-Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim. It is found to-day in Tibet, Ceylon, China, j.a.pan, and other outlying regions, but it is quite vanished from its old home. The cause of its extinction is obvious. The Buddhist victorious was not the modest and devout mendicant of the early church. The fire of hate, lighted if at all by Buddhism,[63] smouldered till Brahmanism, in the form of Hinduism, had begotten a religion as popular as Buddhism, or rather far more popular, and for two reasons. Buddhism had no such picturesque tales as those that enveloped with poetry the history of the man-G.o.d Krishna, Again, Buddhism in its monastic development had separated itself more and more from the people. Not mendicant monks, urging to a pure life, but opulent churches with fat priests; not simple discourses calculated to awaken the moral and religious consciousness, but subtle arguments on discipline and metaphysics were now what Buddhism represented. This religion was become, indeed, as much a skeleton as was the Brahmanism of the sixth century. As the Brahmanic belief had decomposed into spiritless rites, so Buddhism, changed into dialectic and idolatry (for in lieu of a G.o.d the later church worshipped Buddha), had lost now all hold upon the people. The love of man, the spirit of Buddhism, was dead, and Buddhism crumbled into the dust. Vital and energetic was the sectarian 'love of G.o.d'

alone (Hinduism), and this now became triumphant. Where Buddhism has succeeded is not where the man-G.o.ds, objects of love and fear, have entered; but where, without rivalry from more sympathetic beliefs, it has itself evolved a system of idolatry and superst.i.tion; where all that was scorned by the Master is regarded as holiest, and all that he insisted upon as vital is disregarded.[64] One speaks of the millions of Buddhists in the world as one speaks of the millions of Christians; but while there are some Christians that have renounced the bigotry and idolatry of the church, and hold to the truth as it is in the words of Christ, there are still fewer Buddhists who know that their Buddhism would have been rebuked scornfully by its founder.

The geographical growth of formal Buddhism is easily sketched. After the first entrance into Kashmeer and Ceylon, in the third century B.C., the progress of the cult, as it now may be called, was steadily away from India proper. In the fifth century A.D., it was adopted in Burmah,[65] and in the seventh in Siam. The Northern school kept in general to the 'void' doctrine of N[=a]g[=a]rjuna, whose chief texts are the Lotus and the Lalita Vistara, standard works of the Great Vehicle.[66] In Tibet Lamaism is the last result of this hierarchical state-church.[67] We have thought it much more important to give a fuller account of early Buddhism, that of Buddha, than a full account of a later growth in regions that, for the most part, are not Indic, in the belief that the P[=a]li books of Ceylon give a truer picture of the early church than do those of Kashmeer and Nep[=a]l, with their civaite and Brahmanic admixture. For in truth the Buddhism of China and Tibet has no place in the history of Indic religions. It may have been introduced by Hindu missionaries, but it has been re-made to suit a foreign people. This does not apply, of course, to the canonical books, the Great Vehicle, of the North, which is essentially native, if not Buddhistic. Yet of the simple narrative and the adulterated mystery-play, if one has to choose, the former must take precedence.

From the point of view of history, Northern Buddhism, however old its elements, can be regarded only as an admixture of Buddhistic and Brahmanic ideas. For this reason we take a little more s.p.a.ce, not to cite from the Lotus or the grotesque Lalita Vistara,[68] but to ill.u.s.trate Buddhism at its best. Fausboll, who has translated the dialogue that follows, thinks that in the Suttas of the Sutta-nip[=a]ta there is a reminiscence of a stage of Buddhism before the inst.i.tution of monasteries, while as yet the disciples lived as hermits. The collection is at least very primitive, although we doubt whether the Buddhist disciples ever lived formally as individual hermits. All the Samanas are in groups, little 'congregations,' which afterwards grew into monasteries.

This is a poetical (amoebic) contest between the herdsman Dhaniya and Buddha, with which Fausboll[69] compares St. Luke, xii. 16, but which, on the other hand reminds one of a spiritualized Theocritus, with whom its author was, perhaps, contemporary.

I have boiled the rice, I have milked the kine--so said the herdsman Dhaniya--I am living with my comrades near the banks of the (great) Mah[=i] river; the house is roofed, the fire is lit--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I am free from anger, free from stubbornness--so said the Blessed One--I am abiding for one night near the banks of the (great) Mah[=i] river; my house has no cover, the fire (of pa.s.sion) is extinguished--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

Here are no gad-files--so said the herdsman Dhaniya--The cows are roaming in meadows full of gra.s.s, and they can endure the rain--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

1 have made a well-built raft--so said the Blessed One--I have crossed over, I have reached the further bank, I have overcome the torrent (of pa.s.sions); I need the raft no more--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

My wife is obedient, she is not wanton--so said the herdsman Dhaniya--she has lived with me long and is winning; no wickedless have I heard of her--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

My mind is obedient, delivered (from evil)--so said the Blessed One--it has been cultivated long and is well-subdued; there is no longer anything wicked in me--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I support myself by my own earnings--so said the herdsman Dhaniya--and my children are around me and healthy; I hear no wickedness of them--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I am the servant of none--so said the Blessed One--with what I have gained I wander about in all the world; I have no need to serve--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I have cows, I have calves--so said the herdsman Dhaniya--cows in calf and heifers also; and I have a bull as lord over the cows--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I have no cows, I have no calves--so said the Blessed One--no cows in calf, and no heifers; and I have no bull as a lord over the cows--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

The stakes are driven in and cannot be shaken--so said the herdsman Dhaniya--the ropes are made of holy-gra.s.s, new and well-made; the cows will not be able to break them--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

Like a bull I have rent the bonds--so said the Blessed One--like an elephant I have broken through the ropes, I shall not be born again--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

Then the rain poured down and filled both sea and land. And hearing the sky raining, Dhaniya said: Not small to us the gain in that we have seen the Blessed Lord; in thee we take refuge, thou endowed with (wisdom's) eye; be thou our master, O great sage! My wife and myself are obedient to thee. If we lead a pure life we shall overcome birth and death, and put an end to pain.

He that has sons has delight in sons--so said the Evil One--he that has cows has delight in cows, for substance is the delight of man, but he that has no substance has no delight.

He that has sons has care with his sons--so said the Blessed One--he that has cows has likewise care with his cows, for substance is (the cause of) care, but he that has no substance has no care.

From Buddha's sermons choice extracts were gathered at an early date, which, as well as the few longer discourses, that have been preserved in their entirety, do more to tell us what was the original Buddha, before he was enwrapped in the scholastic mysticism of a later age, than pages of general critique.

Thus in the _Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na_ casual allusion is made to a.s.semblies of men and of angels (divine beings), of the great thirty-three G.o.ds, Death the Evil One and Brahm[=a] (iii. 21). Buddha, as we have said, does not deny the existence of spiritual beings; he denies only their power to affect the perfect man and their controlling part in the universe. In the same sermon the refuge of the disciple is declared to be truth and himself (ii. 33): "Be ye lamps unto yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as to a lamp."

And from the famous 'Path of Duty' or 'Collection of truths':[70]

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. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought pain follows him as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage, (but) if a man speaks or acts with a pure thought happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.

Earnestness is the path that leads to escape from death, thoughtlessness is the path that leads to death. Those who are in earnest do not die;[71]

those who are thoughtless are as if dead already. Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish.

There is no suffering for him who has finished his journey and abandoned grief, who has freed himself on all sides and thrown off the fetters.

Some people are born again; evil-doers go to h.e.l.l; righteous people go to heaven; those who are free from all worldly desires attain Nirv[=a]na.

He who, seeking his own happiness, punishes or kills beings that also long for happiness, will not find happiness after death.

Looking for the maker of this tabernacle I shall have to run through a course of many births, so long as I do not find; and painful is birth again and again. But now, maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are broken, thy ridge-pole is sundered; thy mind, approaching Nirv[=a]na, has attained to extinction of all desires.[72]

Better than going to heaven, better than lordship over all worlds, is the reward of entering the stream of holiness.

Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one's mind, that is the teaching of the Buddhas.

Let us live happily, not hating them that hate us. Let us live happily, though we call nothing our own. We shall be like bright G.o.ds, feeding on happiness.

From l.u.s.t comes grief, from l.u.s.t comes fear; he that is free from l.u.s.t knows neither grief nor fear.

The best of ways is the eightfold (path); this is the way, there is no other that leads to the purifying of intelligence. Go on this way! Everything else is the deceit of Death. You yourself must make the effort. Buddhas are only preachers. The thoughtful who enter the way are freed from the bondage of Death.[73]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Compare Colebrooke's _Essays_, vol. ii. 460; and Muir, OST. iv. 296]

[Footnote 2: Compare Oldenberg. _Buddha_, p. 155.]