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SCIENTIA
ARTES
There many
VERITAS
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
scཔབ་ཝཔ༔ པའང
TIENIOR
31 QUER'S PLAINSULAMAMONAM
CIRCUMSPICE
DAINAVISOR
DALONTUNDU.CWODUS
LEVI L. BARBOUR
BEQUEST
DUIKIHHINIHI.
TITTHMITIMII
DINING
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM
ITS ORIGIN AND TEACHINGS
BY
M
ELIZABETH A REED, A. M.
MEMBER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN, MEMBER OF
THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS, AUTHOR OF
" HINDU LITERATURE," "PERSIAN LITERATURE,'
ETC.
CHICAGO
SCOTT, FORE SMAN & Co.
1896
COPYRIGHT, 1896,
BY SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO.
ROGERS & SMITH CO., PRINTERS, CHICAGO.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM:
ITS ORIGIN AND TEACHINGS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
A BLESSING TO INDIA
A BENEFIT TO WOMAN
CRITICAL STUDY OF BUDDHISM
NUMBER
OF ADHERENTS
13
CHAPTER II.
NUMEROUS BUDDHAS.
TWENTY-FOUR PREDECESSORS OF GAUTAMA
DIPANKARA KOŅDAÑÑA MANGALA-
SUMANA-REVATA-- SOBHITA THREE BUD-
DHAS PADMUTTARA SUMEDHA SUJĀTA
VIPASSIN
SPHERE OF MANIFESTATIONS
HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT
31
3
4
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
CHAPTER III.
BUDDHISTIC ACCOUNT OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
THE LALITA VISTARA
-THE JĀTAKA-
BIRTH
OF GAUTAMA
PHYSICAL SIGNS OF A BUD-
DHA
HIS MANHOOD-THE FOUR VISIONS
GREAT RENUNCIATION
THE
ESCAPE
GREAT TEMPTATION
ATTAINMENT OF BUD-
DHAHOOD
FIRST
CONVERTS
RETURN
HOME -FIRST MONASTERY
42
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
THE THEORY OF A MYTH
- BIRTH AND EARLY
LIFE
- ASCETICISM
ENLIGHTENMENT-DIS-
COURSE
AT
BENARES
SERMON
ON
THE
NON-EXISTENCE OF THE SOUL --THE
-
FIRE
SERMON
RELIEF FROM TRANSMIGRATION-
THE FATAL MEAL
THE DEATH OF BUDDHA
63
CHAPTER V.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
TRANSMIGRATION
-
FORMER BIRTHS
OF
BUD-
DHA--THE JĀTAKAS—THE ORTHODOX BELIEF
VARIOUS FORMS ASSUMED
THE MONKEYS
AND THE DEMON
THE WILY ANTELOPE
THE BULL WHO WON THE BET — THE FISH
AND HIS WIFE
THE WISE JUDGE
82
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
5
CHAPTER VI.
THE TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
METAPHYSICS
THE SOUL-
ATHEISM
POLY-
THEISM
IDOLATRY
PRAYER
PESSIMISM
-HEAVEN-HELL-
SALVATION-
MORALITY
- NIRVĀŅA-PARI-NIRVĀŅA
104
CHAPTER VII.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
ORDINATION OF THE BHIKKHUS, OR MONKS
RULES FOR THEIR DIRECTION - UNSANI-
TARY LAWS-UNSANITARY CLOTHING
PRO-
TECTION FROM VENOMOUS SERPENTS
- THE
SERPENT WHO JOINED THE ORDER
ORDER — NUNS
BUDDHA'S PROPHECY RESULTS OF MONK-
HOOD
133
.
CHAPTER VIII.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE.
LITERARY ACTIVITY IN THE EAST
-
THE ART
OF WRITING - EXTENT OF
THE BUDDHIST
SCRIPTURES
THE DATE OF THE CANON
THE TRI-PITAKA-THE VINAYA TEXTS-CARE
OF THE BOWLS
TOOTH STICKS
THE WON-
DERS OF BUDDHA
GREAT
EFFICACY
OF
RECITATION
INTEGRITY OF THE TEXT
150
6
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
CHAPTER IX.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
THE SECOND PITAKA THE MAHĀ-PARINIB-
BĀNA — THE PROXIMATE CAUSES OF EARTH-
QUAKES—THE DHAMMA-PADA-PUNISHMENT
—THE SUTTA-NIPĀTA-THE THIRD PIȚAKA-
THE MAHĀ-YĀNA, OR NORTHERN SCHOOL
THE BUDDHA-KARITA-KĀVVA—THE SŪTRAS
OF JAPAN--THE AMITĀYUR-DHYĀNA THE
VAGRAĶ-ĶŅEDIKĀ—THE DOCTRINAL TEACH-
ING OF THE SŪTRA — THE PRAGNĀ-PĀRAMITĀ
THE TANTRA LITERATURE STRIKING
CONTRASTS
163
CHAPTER X.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
BUDDHA'S
INDEBTEDNESS
TO
BRĀHMANISM
THE
DHAMMA-PADA
SIMILARITIES
TO
OLD
TESTAMENT
TEACHINGS
POSSIBLE
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
SUMMARY
183
CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM IN
INDIA-ORIGIN
OF
THE SYSTEM
ATHEISM
TRANSMIGRATION
KARMA—PESST.MISM-METAPHYSICS- THE
ACCUMULATION OF MERIT --- NIRVĀŅA-LIT-
ERATURE — THE ORIGINALITY OF BUDDHA
-CAUSES OF EXTENSIVE INFLUENCE
198
PREFACE.
THE
HE philosophies of the East have often been pre.
sented to the western world during the last few
years, and much interest has been awakened, especially
in the subject of Buddhism. Although the number of
its adherents has been greatly overestimated, still this
system controls, to a greater or less extent, the
thought of millions of our fellow-beings, and it is
entitled to a fair and impartial examination. There
are comparatively few people, however, in this busy
age, who have time to make an exhaustive research on
the subject, and it is thought, therefore, that a com-
prehensive handbook, which has been carefully
prepared, will be welcome to many, who will be glad
to learn, quickly and easily, what this philosophy
really is.
It is not the object of the present work to follow
the system in the various changes through which it
has passed, or to discuss the protean forms which it
has assumed in modern times, but to present, in as
brief a manner as is consistent with accuracy, the
7
8
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
authoritative teachings of primitive and genuine Bud.
dhism.
It would appear that such works are greatly needed
from the fact that theories have been advocated
as the doctrines of Buddhism of which its founder
never heard, and statements have been made upon the
modern platform which could astonish no one so much
as Gautama and his early followers. When speculation
is rife upon any subject, the truth can only be ob-
tained by an appeal to the law and the testimony."
Every system has a right to demand that it be judged
by its own official documents, and, therefore, the utmost
care has been taken to present, in condensed form, the
doctrines of the early Buddhists, as set forth in their
own standard works.
Quotations have not only been accurately made, but
the references are given, so that they may be easily
verified, as the books belonging to the Buddhistic canon
are now available to the English-speaking world, and
they may be found in many of our libraries. Among
the best in this respect is the Chicago Public Library,
where a wealth of Oriental lore is ever at the service
of the student.
The selections in the present volume have been
made from the official documents of the early Bud-
dhists, as found in the Sacred Books of the East and
elsewhere. These are authorities which no scholar will
PREFACE.
9
question, and it will be found that the integrity of
the text has been sufficiently maintained.
Besides the books belonging to the canon, the
author is indebted to the works and, in some cases, to
the private correspondence, also, of the most accom-
plished Orientalists in the world of scholars. It is a
pleasure to acknowledge one's indebtedness to such
men as Prof. James Legge, Sir Monier Monier-Will-
iams, K. C. I. E., Prof. F. Max Müller, Rhys Davids,
Oldenberg, Prof. A. H. Sayce, Burnouf, Barthélemy
Saint Hilaire and others, the credits being given
where the quotations are made.
Especial thanks are also due to the distinguished
savants who have carefully examined portions of the
manuscript, and given it the benefit of their invaluable
criticism. The principal points in the tenth chapter
were presented by the author, in a paper recently read
before the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society
of Great Britain, and before it was accepted there, it
was submitted, by the officers of the Institute, to the
leading scholars of the world in this particular field of
letters.
Hence, it is offered to the public only after it has
been honored, by critical examination and thoughtful
discussion, by eminent Orientalists.
Cordial thanks are due the American press for gen-
erous notices of the author's previous works, in many
10
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
instances columns having been devoted to able and
discriminating reviews. It is a pleasure, also, to ac-
knowledge the courtesies of the European press, as
shown in some of their most influential journals, and
the cordial encouragement of distinguished Oriental
scholars, whose congratulations and words of approval
have been especially grateful.
Technical terms and proper names have been
avoided as far as possible, but a few are necessarily
used, and diacritical points are given as a guide to
the pronunciation.
The work has been prepared in the hope that it
may be of real service to careful students in this field
of thought, and it is commended to their attention by
THE AUTHOR.
PRONUNCIATION.
A LITTLE attention to the diacritical points will
musical names of the Buddhists and Hindūs.
In the present volume Sir Monier Monier-Williams'
method of transliteration, as presented in his Sanskrit
Grammar, has been chiefly used. The nasal m, how-
ever, is indicated here, as in the works of Prof. F.
Max Müller, by the italic letter.
Diacritical points are omitted from the foot notes,
the system of pronunciation being sufficiently indicated
in the body of the work.
A-a is pronounced as in rural.
Aa
tar, father, etc.
I-i
fill.
I-1
police.
UZU
full.
Ri—ļi
merrily.
Rī—rī
marine
prey.
Ai-ai
aisle.
Au-au
Haus (German).
N 1 sounded like n in the French mon.
Ņ-ņ
as in none (nun).
66
Ee
66
11
12
PRONUNCIATION.
N- like ng in sing (sin).
N-ñ like n in singe.
in (italic) has a nasal sound.
h is a visarga, or a distinctly audible sound aspi-
rate.
K-k sounded like ch in church.
Kh-kh pronounced as in inlchorn.
G-g
gun.
Gh-gh
log hut.
dolce (in music), English
ch as in church.
T-
true.
Th–th
anthill.
D-
drum.
Dh-ah
rect haired.
Th_th
nuthook, though
dental.
Ś_
sure, sessions.
S-
sir or miss.
U in Buddha is pronounced like oo in food.
00
more
ś
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM
ITS ORIGIN AND TEACHINGS.
CHAPTER I.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
A BLESSING
то
INDIA
-A
BENEFIT
TO
WOMAN
CRITICAL STUDY OF BUDDHISM-NUMBER OF ADEER-
ENTS.
ABOUT the fifth century before our era, there was
formulated in India a system of philosophy known
as Buddhism. It was the patron of good works, and
opposed the priestly tyranny of the Brāhmans. It
taught self-denial without self-torture, and inculcated
charity, tolerance and humanity. It forbade avarice
and discouraged the accumulation of wealth, while it
promoted, to-a certain extent, both physical and moral
progress.
In its primitive form, it was merely a system of
philosophy founded upon a pessimistic view of life, but
it soon acquired the character of a religion. Still, it
made no
upon existing faiths; its advocates
* claimed that a man could consistently be a Brāhman,
war
13
14
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
a Taoist, or anything else, and at the same time a
Buddhist--therefore it made wonderful progress in the
East.
Although largely evolved from Brāhmanism, it
almost entirely supplanted the older faith upon its
native soil, and eventually included in its conquests
nearly the whole of Eastern Asia. It was introduced
into China in the first century of our era, and soon
became one of the three state religions of the empire,
although it did not find a home in Japan until hun-
dreds of years later.
It was the ruling intellectual power in India from
the time it supplanted Brāhmanism until the fourth
or fifth century, when it began to lose its position,
although it maintained itself, to a greater or less
extent, until the twelfth or thirteenth century. At
this time it had become so largely absorbed in the
worship of Vishnu and Śiva that it lost its individ-
uality, and was soon merged into the composite forms
of Hindūism.
Surely a system which has for centuries held an
important position in history, and which still controls
the thought of millions of our race, is entitled to a
fair and impartial consideration. An examination,
however, of the multitudinous forms of modern
Buddhism would occupy several volumes, for it has
assumed different phases in every country which it has
approached, always assimilating the leading thought of
the people whom it sought to proselyte.
It is the province, therefore, of the present work to
investigate the system in its primitive and purest
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
15
form, endeavoring to ascertain what theories and prin-
ciples were taught by Gautama Buddha and his early
followers, and alluding to modern developments only
so far as they appear to be the result of such teaching.
In Japan, finding itself unable to displace the
earlier systems, it embraced Shintoism, while in Cey-
lon, Burmah and Siam, it was grafted upon serpent
worship, Nāgal worship and demon worship, with all
of which, as well as the adoration of certain Hindū
gods, it is still connected.
In Tibet it was amalgamated with Shamanism, and
although combined with magic, and offerings to Śiva,
it has an organization similar to the Church of Rome,
the Grand Lama being the Pope. They have the
celibacy of the priesthood, the worship of the saints,
confessions, fasting, processions and holy water. They
have, too, the cross and miter, the service with double
choirs, the exorcisms, and the censer for incense. It
is probable that some of these ideas were derived from
Catholicism in later times, but it is true that the prac-
tice of celibacy, confession, and fasting existed in
Buddhism before the birth of the Roman Church..--
Primitive Buddhism was at first opposed to eccle-
siastical organization, having no God, no priests and
no church. It was simply a brotherhood, consisting
of men who had renounced all family ties, and even
1 The Nagas properly belong to a class of serpent demons, having
human faces, with serpent-like lower extremities, and they live in one of
the lower regions of the earth.
2 The principal elements in Shamanism are the worship of nature
and the dread of spirits. It has much in common with the lowest types
of Saivism, Saktism and Tantrism.- Williams,
16
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
all desire for life," men who had pledged themselves
to devote their time to the recitation of the law, self-
restraint and the accumulation of merit, for the sake
of their own deliverance. Being opposed to all sacer-
dotalism and ceremonial observances, it abolished, as
far as possible, the sacrificial system of the Brāhmans,
and rejected the terrible methods of self-torture, main-
taining that a life of purity and morality was better
than all the forms and ceremonies of the Vedic ritual.
The first idea implied by Buddhism is intellectual
enlightenment, but this must be acquired by man
through his own inner consciousness, unaided by
external influences. It advocated self-conquest, self-
concentration and separation from the world for the
attainment of true knowledge, and yet it encouraged
association, by establishing a brotherhood of celibate
monks. It taught the doctrines of republicanism by
admitting to this brotherhood every caste and rank,
the humblest Śūdra being as welcome there as the
most aristocratic Brāhman. The rich and the poor,
the learned and the ignorant, were all bound together
by the desire of self-conquest and the common wish
to be guided by the doctrines which were promulgated
by Buddha.
The new sect remained for a long time obscure,
but its success was greatly hastened and, perhaps,
largely accomplished by political events. Chandra
gupta, who was a low-born Śūdra, usurped the throne
of Magada, after killing king Nanda. He founded the
Maurya dynasty, and extended the kingdom of Magada
all over Hindustān, soon becoming so powerful that
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
17
the successor of Alexander thought it politic to form
an alliance with the Hindū king, and sent an ambas-
sador to reside at his court.
After the death of the king's son, Aśoka, who was
the grandson of Chandra-gupta, succeeded to the
throne, and became one of the most powerful mon-
archs of India. This dynasty held its position in
defiance of the Brāhmanic priesthood, the kings
themselves having been born of the lowest caste; it
was, therefore, natural that Aśoka should ally himself
with a system which proclaimed equality between the
Śūdra and the Brāhman, so far as the brotherhood
was concerned, and he made Buddhism the state
religion of India.
But there had been serious dissensions in the ranks,
even during the time of Buddha, and before long,
eighteen schismatic schools of thought were estab-
lished. Two councils had been held, in order, if
possible, to bring order out of chaos, but the resulting
controversies were of the most discouraging character,
and another became necessary. The third council was,
therefore, held at Patna during the sixteenth or sev-
enteenth year of Asoka's reign.
The whole canon is supposed to have been trans-
mitted orally from one generation to another, even
at this time, as the Buddhists do not claim that it
was committed to writing earlier than the first century
before Christ.2
After the third council, missionaries were supported
by king Asoka, and sent in all directions, one of the
1 About 260 B. C.
2 About 85 B. C.
18
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
first being the king's own son, who carried the doc-
trine into Ceylon. Afterward the system spread over
the whole of India and some adjoining countries,
while it eventually became the ruling creed of Eastern
Asia.
BUDDHISM A BLESSING TO INDIA.
At the time of the rise of the new philosophy,
India was burdened to the utmost with a system of
caste which recognized neither justice nor mercy.
Under this iron law the people were divided into four
classes, the first or highest being the Brāhmans, or
the priesthood, of whom it was declared that they
were “twice born," and even the kings were subject
to them. The second was the Kshatriya, or military
caste, which included also the kings and the royal
families. The third was the Vaiśya, which was com-
posed of the agricultural class, and the fourth was
made up of the Śūdras or slaves.
The Brāhmans were numerous and powerful, and
they instituted a complicated ceremonial which em-
braced every public and private act. No marriage
could be solemnized without them; no dead could be
disposed of, no sick could be properly attended, no
household set up, without their ministrations. Every
prayer must be prescribed, and every sacrifice deter-
mined, for only the Brāhmans knew which deity
should be invoked at each particular time, or what
offering would please him. Any mistake in reference
to the clarified butter, or the length of the ladle used,
brought down upon the head of the offender not only
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
19
the wrath of the priest, but also the fury of the gods.
It was impossible to avoid evil without the interven-
tion of the priests, for no one else knew what food
could be safely eaten, or what dress might be properly
worn, and their services must be amply rewarded.
Indeed, Brāhmanism was a system of organized rob-
bery, and the priests made life intolerable for any
one who happened to offend them by the smallest
seeming neglect.
Not only did this complicated ceremonial embrace
every moment of a man's life from the cradle to the
grave, but it encouraged the most painful austerities.
“Some devotees seated themselves in one spot, and
kept perpetual silence, with their legs bent under them,
for years. Some ate only at intervals of four, six or
fourteen days. Some slept on ashes, gravel, stones,
thorny grass or spikes, with the face downward. Some
gazed at the sun until totally blind, or sat surrounded
by five fires, or rested on one foot, or kept one arm
perpetually uplifted, or baked themselves on hot stones,
or submerged their bodies in water, or suspended
themselves in air."
The object of these self-tortures was a union with
the Supreme Being, and this could only be attained
by bodily mortification and abstract meditation. As
Buddha did not believe in a Supreme Being, he could
not advocate these barbarous methods of approaching
him. In later
In later times, however, the development of
Buddhistic ideas resulted in a connection with this
very system, and many Buddhists now hold, with the
1 Sir Monier Monier-Williams, "Buddhism," p. 228.
"1
20
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Yoga of the Brāhmans, that adepts skilled in occult
science may, by a determined effort of will, force out
the ethereal body through the pores of the skin, and
make this phantasmal form visible in distant places.
Primitive Buddhism taught self-restraint, and
preached purity in thought, word and action; it en-
couraged literature and art, it advocated the principles
of fraternity. It elevated the morality of the people
by teaching respect for the lives of others, even
though its summum bonum was the extinction of all
life. It was a blessing to India, because it opposed
the penitential austerities and self-inflicted sufferings
which obtained under the influence of the Brāhmans,
and instead of the severe penances and excommunica-
tions which were inflicted by the priests for trifling
offenses, Buddha at first required only public confes-
sion and a promise to abstain from wrong-doing in
the future.
It was an advance toward social liberty, as it advo-
cated the republican doctrine of equality in the Broth-
erhood, and proclaimed that “the highest path” was
open to the members of all castes.
It was a blessing to India, in that it opposed the
ecclesiastical tyranny of a well paid priesthood, but it
must be confessed that the charitable gifts which had
been monopolized by the Brāhmans did not contribute
to the comfort of the oppressed people; they merely
1 Although the secret of Buddha's success lay in his disregard of the
privileges of the priestly class, still he did not wish to abolish caste as a
social institution, and there is no trace of social or democratic communism
in any of his sermons. His only attacks were leveled against the exclusive
privileges clairned by the Brahmans, and against their cruel treatment of
the lower castes.- Max Müller, Chips, Dol. II, p. 337.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
21
began to flow into new channels, supporting hundreds
of thousands of Buddhist mendicants. And even to-day,
births and marriages, illness and death, are great sources
of revenue to the Buddhistic priesthood.
It was a blessing, in so far as it advocated the prin-
ciples of kindness, and it did good service for the time
in promoting literature and art, and inculcating the
doctrine of the accumulation of merit by good actions.
It was a great improvement upon Brāhmanism, even
though its final hope was the abolition of suffering by
the abolition of existence.
A BENEFIT TO WOMAN.
Although Buddhism made war upon the home by
enjoining monkhood, -it commanded men who were
already married to abandon their wives and chil-
dren, to lay aside all efforts to make a livelihood in a
legitimate way, and take up their abode with the monks
who begged their bread from door to door — although it
declared that "the life of woman is always darkness,”1
still it was a benefit to woman, in that it allowed her to
become a nun, under the same rules which obtained in
communities of men, and thus attain to a semblance of
equality. The system also admitted “lay brothers and
lay sisters,” married householders and working men,
for Buddha saw that this course was necessary.
If all
Buddhists were monks and nuns, there would be no work
done, and no food produced, hence the communities
must be depopulated by starvation. Nevertheless these
i Buddha-karita, I, 17. This work is assigned to the first century.
22
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
married householders could not attain to "the highest
path.”
The new
Buddhists do not require the imprisonment of wives
and daughters in the Zenānas, as do the Mohammedans
and Brähmans; on the contrary the women of the family
are sometimes introduced to European guests, and
allowed to converse freely. The child marriages, which
constitute one of the most terrible curses of India, are
not enforced in Buddhist countries, for there the bride-
groom is seldom less than eighteen years of age.
“ Women," says Renan, “were indebted to Buddhism
for a momentary amelioration of their fate.
religion gave them religious importance. They were
permitted to embrace monastic life, and to practice the
same rule as men. No doubt they preserved a notable
inferiority; they could not directly arrive at the state of
Buddha, but they were enabled to reach that state by
being born again as men. The female sex continued to
be a punishment. In the state of perfection there will
be no women.
" The miracle of a change of sex is quite frequent in
the Buddhist legends. The accomplished woman be-
comes a
That is what happened to Sugāta's
daughter, who achieved perfection. Transformed into
a man, she seated herself beneath the tree of intelligence
and entered into supreme rest.” 1
Great respect has always been paid by Buddhists to
the various forms of animal life ; so strong was this
sentiment that people could “accumulate merit" by
purchasing birds (which professional bird catchers
man.
1 Renan," Studies in Religious History," p. 107.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
23
entrapped for that purpose), and giving them liberty.
All animals are more or less venerated, for, according to
the theory of transmigration, they are liable to be the
different forms of one's ancestors; and not only this,
but the Buddha is supposed to have been incarnated in
many of them.
It may be for this reason that the
serpent, the bull, the pig, the monkey, and many others,
are regarded as peculiarly sacred.
But with all this veneration for animal life, it
must be confessed that during the long centuries of
the supremacy of Buddhism in India, infants were
sometimes sacrificed and living women were burned
upon the dead bodies of their husbands. For two
thousand years the
years the horrible custom of the suttee
prevailed in India, until it was abolished by the
British government in 1830, and it is difficult to
understand why Buddhism, with all its reverential
care for animal, serpent and insect life, did not
extend its protection to
and children. It
is true that Buddhism did not prevent the sacrifice
of her children, or save her from being burned alive,
but it accorded to woman a certain amount of social
freedom, and also permitted her to become a nun,
although she was even then constantly under the domin-
ion of the monks.
women
CRITICAL STUDY OF BUDDHISM.
Although this system has been a real power in the
world for centuries, and still dominates the thought of
millions of the human race, it was comparatively un-
known in the western world until very modern times.
24
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
India was scarcely more than a name to the scholars of
the eighteenth century, and what information they had
on the subject was derived, more or less at random,
from China, Tartary, Japan, Tibet, and other countries,
where it had been transplanted from its native soil.
During the last fifty years, however, scholars have
made marvelous progress in the way of collecting, classi-
fying and translating the literature belonging to this
department of Oriental lore. The scientific study of
the subject really began soon after the discovery of the
original documents by Mr Hodgson, who was then
living in Nepāl as the political resident of the East
India Company. This distinguished worker in Oriental
fields succeeded in sending about sixty volumes of these
works to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and after a
time he sent two complete collections of the same
manuscripts to the Asiatic Society of London and the
Société Asiatique of Paris.
While Mr. Hodgson's discoveries were attracting the
attention of scholars in Calcutta, a Hungarian scholar
named Alexander Csoma de Körös traveled on foot
from Hungary to Tibet, and learned the language,
which no European, up to his time, had ever mastered.
He then explored the great collection of the canonical
books of the Buddhists preserved in that language, but
without the cordial co-operation of the members of the
Asiatic Society he could have accomplished little, as the
canon of the Tibetans, containing many repetitions,
exceeds in bulk the sacred books of any other nation.
Almost contemporaneously with these discoveries, a
Russian by the name of Schmidt centered his efforts
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
25
upon the Mongolian language, and after a time he was
able to translate portions of the Mongolian version of
the canon. Within a very few years George Turnour
presented to the world of scholars the Buddhist litera-
ture of Ceylon, written in the ancient Pāli characters.
And thus, within the space of ten years, the science of
letters was enriched by the accession of four complete
Buddhist literatures.
The manuscripts belonging to the Société Asiatique
in Paris fell into the hands of Burnouf, and after seven
years of labor that distinguished savant published his
“ Introduction à l'Histoire du Buddhism,"2 and this
book seems to have laid the foundation of the system-
atic study of the subject. Other enthusiastic scholars
took up the work, so that in these later years we need
be no longer ignorant of the historic facts concerning
Buddhism, either in its primitive form or its later
developments.
Translations of the text of the Pāli canon have been
made by Childers, Oldenberg, Rhys Davids, Morris,
Fausböll and others. The world is also largely indebted
for information on this subject to the works of Lassen,
Turnour, Hardy, Gogerly, Williams, Weber, Bigandet,
Max Müller, Kern, Cowell, Senart and others.
It is a theme which furnishes abundant material for
those who choose to follow it in all its numerous
changes, for Buddhism has developed into contradictory
1 Some scholars suppose that the Pali resulted from an artificial infusion
of Sanskrit. It is claimed that nearly two-fifths of the Pali vocabulary
consists of unmodified Sanskrit. It probably represented the prevailing
dinlect of the time, and is sometimes called Tanti.
2 Published in 1844.
26
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
systems in different countries, presenting a new phase
in each locality, while in India, the land of its birth, it
changed greatly even during the first ten years of its
existence.
M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, who has been called
as the first historian of Buddhism,” in his critical work
on this subject, says: “It is the misfortune of our
times that the doctrines which form the foundation
of Buddhism meet, at the hands of some of our
philosophers, with a favor which they ill deserve. For
some years we have seen systems arising in which me-
tempsychosis and transmigration are highly spoken of,
and attempts are made to explain the world and man,
without either a God or a Providence, exactly as
Buddha did. A future life is refused to the yearnings
of mankind. God is dethroned, and in his place they
substitute man, the only being, we are told, in which
the infinite becomes conscious of itself. These theories
are recommended to us, sometimes in the name of
science, or of history, or of philology, and even meta-
physics ; and although they are neither new nor very
original, yet they can do much injury to feeble hearts.
“This is not the place to examine such theories, and
the authors are too sincere to be condemned without
discussion, but they should know, by the example of
Buddhism, what becomes of man if he depends upon
himself alone, and if his meditations, misled by a
pride of which he is hardly conscious, bring him to
the precipice where Buddha was lost.” 1
1"Le Bouddha et sa Religion," Par Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, Membre
de l'Institut. Int. p. vii.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
27
If such be the opinions, not only of one of the
most distinguished scholars of France, but of many
savants who have devoted years of their lives to the
scientific investigation of the subject, many will
wonder that the system has attracted so much atten-
tion in the world of letters. But truth is never
satisfied without the fullest and most critical investi-
gation, and hence men like Burnouf did not shrink
from the task of acquiring a practical knowledge of
Tibetan, Pāli, Singhalese and Burmese, as well as
Sanskrit, in order to qualify themselves for the work
of doing full justice to the subject.
The translation of a Buddhistic work from Chinese
into French would seem comparatively easy for a
scholar who understood both languages, but M. Stan-
islaus Julien, who has long been considered one of
the most accomplished Chinese scholars of Europe, was
obliged to spend twenty years of hard work in order
to prepare himself for the task.
Such are the intricacies of the subject, as connected
with the various languages through which it has
passed, that he was compelled to acquire a working
knowledge of Sanskțit, and study the Buddhist litera-
tures, not only in that language, but also in Pāli,
Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese.
It is such pioneer work as this which prepares the
way for the great host of scholars in any department
of science or letters; much labor is performed by
the few for the benefit of many, but the results are
invaluable. “Many are the advantages," says F. Max
Müller, “to be derived from a careful study of other
28
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
religions, but the greatest of all is, that it teaches us
to appreciate more truly what we have in our own.
Let us see what other nations have had, and
still have, in the place of religion - let us examine
the prayers, the worship, the theology, even of the
most highly civilized races — the Greeks, the Romans,
the Hindūs, the Persians — and we shall then under-
stand more thoroughly what blessings are vouchsafed
to us in being allowed to breathe, from the first breath
of life, the pure air of Christian life and knowledge.
We are too apt to take the greatest blessings as a mat-
ter of course, and even religion forms no exception. We
have done so little to gain our religion, we have suf-
fered so little in the cause of truth, that, however
highly we prize our own Christianity, we never prize
it enough until we have compared it with the relig-
ions of the rest of the world.” 1
}
NUMBER OF ADHERENTS.
It has been customary to claim that "a majority of
the human race believe in the doctrines of Buddha,"
and others, although less sanguine, are still giving
currency to the statement that, out of the fifteen
hundred millions of the earth's inhabitants, at least
five hundred millions are Buddhists.
These incredible figures appear to be obtained by
calculating the entire population of the countries
where the system has a foothold. It should be
remembered, however, that Buddhism has disappeared
from India proper, although it is still predominant in
1 Max Müller, Chips, Vol. I, p. 180.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
29
Burmaḥ, and Ceylon. Its strongest position is in China
and Japan, but in China the principal religion is Con-
fucianism. The best authorities upon this subject,
including Dr. James Legge, the professor of Chinese at
Oxford University, are of the opinion that there are
not more than one hundred millions of real Buddhists
in the world.
“I should be surprised," says Professor Legge, “if
it were proved that there are one hundred millions of
men in this world who would write down, or direct
another to enter, their names as believers in śákya'
mtz221- and his doctrines.” 1
Although the question of the truth or falsity of a
position can never be indicated by the number of its
adherents, still it is necessary to consider the numer-
ical strength of a people in order to ascertain, to some
extent, the influence which they exert in the world of
thought.
According to the most reliable information which
can be obtained concerning the present status of the
principal religions of the world, they rank in point of
numbers as follows: Christianity, Confucianism, Brāh-
manism and Hinduism, 2 Buddhism, Mohammedanism,
and lastly Taoism, (the system of Lao-tsze). Jainism,
Zoroastrianism and others are too small numerically to
be considered in this estimate.3
Thus it will be
that Buddhism occupies
numerically the fourth rank, and although its ad-
seell
I Trans. Ninth International Congress of Orientals. Vol. II, p. 580.
2 Brabmanism and Hinduism iure practically one system, the latter
being merely the expansion of the former,
3 Williams, B., p. XV.
30
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Tv
hereuts often claim that their creed
their creed controls the
thought of “the greater portion of the world's popu-
lation,” science must deal with figures and not in
fanciful speculations.
It is possible that an exact census might result in
some variation of the above estimate, but we must
admit that Buddhism is gradually losing its hold on
the vast populations which were once loyal to its teach-
ings. It was a blessing to India so far as it opposed
Brāhmanism, but China had been, and still is, to a
great extent, ruled by the lessons inculcated in her
ancient classics, which were formulated by Confucius,
and hence Professor Legge says:
“Buddhism has
been in China but a disturbing influence, ministering
to the element of superstition which plays so large a
part in the world. I am far from saying the doctrine
of the literati is perfect, nevertheless, it has kept the
people of China together in national union, passing
through many revolutions, but still enduring, after at
least four or five millenniums of its existence, and
still not without measure of heart and hope. Europe
and America can give it something better than India
did, in sending it Buddhism in our first century, and
I hope they will do so. You must not look to the
civilization of China and Japan for the fruits of Bud-
dhism. Go to Tibet and Mongolia, and in the
bigotry and apathy of the population, in their prayer
wheels and cylinders you will find the achievement of
the doctrine of Buddha.” 1
I Trans, Ninth International Congress of Orientalists. Vol. II, p. 580.
CHAPTER II.
NUMEROUS BUDDHAS.
TWENTY-FOUR PREDECESSORS OF GAUTAMA - DĪPAN-
KARA - KOŅDAÑÑA - MANGALA - SUMANA-REVATA
SOBHITA - THREE BUDDHAS — PADMUTTARA SU-
MEDHA SUJĀTA - VIPASSIN SPHERE OF MANIFES-
TATIONS - HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT.
A
NY historic outline of early Buddhism must
begin with the life of Gautama, but the subject
cannot be approached in chronological order without
first giving some attention to those who are said to
have preceded him, and in whose presence he made
his resolve.
We find countless numbers of Buddhas who appear
at intervals in a series which has neither beginning
nor end. The development of this endless chain,
reaching back into the immeasurable past, requires so
many kalpasl of ages that the eons of geologic time
are lost in comparison.
1 According to some authorities & kalpa is definitely stated as two
billion one hundred and sixty millions of years, while others express its
duration as follows: “Let it be supposed that a solid rock sixteen miles
high, and the same in length and breadth, were lightly rubbed once in a
hundred years with a piece of the finest cloth, and by this slight friction
reduced to the size of a mango seed – that would give you no idea of the
length of a Buddhist kalpa."- Williams, B., P 120.
31
32
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Buddha himself enumerates only eighty-one prede-
cessors, beginning with Dipankara,1 but there is a
passage in the Larger Sukhăvati-vyhüa to the effect
that there are “many hundred thousands of koțis of
Buddhas, endless like the sand of the Ganges, the
incomparable lords.”3
When we consider that each of these teachers must
pass through a long series of births, and can appear
only in distinct ages, we cannot wonder that the Bud-
dhist includes a countless number of centuries in his
computation of time. Indeed, he does not count the
past ages by centuries, but by kalpas and asankheyyas. 4
The statement that a great number of Buddhas
appeared in the past is sometimes offered as an ex-
planation of the numberless changes in Buddhism, and
the great number of contradictory systems which are
taught. It is claimed that all the conflicting creeds
and ceremonies are dim recollections or corruptions of
the law which countless Buddhas had preached in
countless ages before Gautama, and will continue to
preach in ages to come.
TWENTY-FOUR PREDECESSORS OF GAUTAMA.
It is said that even during the ages which elapsed
after Gautama had formed a wish to become a Bud-
i See the Larger Sukhavati-vyhua, P, ix.
2 A koti is explained as being ten millions.
3 Sukhavati-vyhua, 4, 6. See also Lalita Vistara, chap. i, p. 6.
#Asankheyya is a word which conveys the idea of innumerable or
incalculable. "If for three years it should rain incessantly over the whole
surface of the earth, the number of drops falling in such a space of time,
although far exceeding human conception, would only equal the number
of years in an asankheyya."--Buchanan, Asiatic Res., VI.,
NUMEROUS BUDDHAS.
33
But we
CON-
dha, one hundred and twenty-five thousand enlight-
ened ones appeared, and during this time Gautama
was born a multitude of times, and he also met many
of his predecessors during his numerous transmigra-
tions.
have no definite information
cerning this multitude until we come to the last
twenty-four who preceded him. Concerning these,
however, we have many particulars which are given in
various standard works. One of the oldest and most
highly valued of the Buddhistic classics is a work
called “The Jātakas, or Birth Stories." Indeed, these
stories may be safely considered the earliest authority
upon this subject, for Rhys Davids says: “The bas
reliefs afford indisputable evidence that the 'Birth
Stories' were already, at the end of the third century,
B. C., considered so sacred that they were chosen as
the subjects to be represented around the most sacred
Buddhist buildings.”
In this work the name of each of the twenty-four
is given, and also the names of his parents, the length
of his reign, the length of his life, the names of his
two principal disciples and of his personal attendants.
Even the different trees under which these teachers
achieved supreme wisdom are specified. We quote
briefly from this authority as follows:
DĪPANKARA.
« The first of the twenty-four Buddhas who pre-
ceded Gautama bore the name of Dīpankara (Light
Causer). This Buddha was "he of the mighty jaw
1“Buddhist Birth Stories," p. lix.
34
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
and broad shoulder,' and who, even at a distance of
four thousand leagues, awakened the people to a knowl-
- edge of the truth."
“ Eighty cubits in height, the great sage Dipankara
shone conspicuous as a noble Sal tree in full bloom.
The tree under which he achieved perfection was the
banyan, and a hundred thousand years was his age
having flamed like a mass of fire, he died,
together with his disciples, and all this power, this
glory, these jewels on his feet -- all is wholly gone.
Are not all existing things vanity ?” During his reign
the Bodhisat, who was afterward Gautama Buddha,
was a hermit having matted hair.
KONDAÑÑA.
Next to Dīpankara Buddha, after the lapse of one
asankheyya, the Teacher Kondañña appeared. He had
three assemblies of priests, and the first of these num-
bered a million of millions. His tree was the Sal, and
his life lasted one hundred thousand years.
MANGALA.
The successor of Kondañña was Mangala Buddha,
and he also had a million millions of priests in his
first assembly, and ten thousand millions at the second.
On account of the great merit which he acquired in a
former existence, the luster of Mangala Buddha per-
manently filled ten thousand worlds, just as the luster
of the others extended to the distance of a fathom.
It is said that when he was performing the duties
of a Bodhisat, or future Buddha, in a former existence,
NUMEROUS BUDDHAS.
35
he lived with his wife and children on a mountain.
One day a demon, named "sharp fanged,” came to
him and asked him for his children, and such was the
great benevolence of the Bodhisat that he cheerfully and
joyously gave them up. The demon, standing at one
end of the cloistered walk, devoured the children like
a bunch of roots, while the father looked contentedly
on.
Not a particle of sorrow arose in the Bodhisat as
he saw the mouth of the demon covered with blood,
but, instead, a great joy welled up within him, as he
thought “my gift was well given,” and he besought
the gods that, in consequence of the great merit of this
act, rays of light might one day issue from his body in
every direction. It was in consequence of this, that the
light emitted from his body filled so large a space.
.
SUMANA.
After Mangala had lived ninety thousand years and
died, the teacher named Sumana appeared. His body
was ninety cubits in height, and he also lived ninety
thousand years.
During his reign, the Bodhisat, who was afterward
born as Gautama, was the Nāga king, mighty and pow-
erful. Hearing that a Buddha had appeared, he left
the Nāga world,1 accompanied by his assembled kins-
men, and made offerings to the Buddha, whose retinue
was a million millions of monks, and gave to each of
them two garments of fine cloth.
1 The Naga world was the world of serpent demons. The lower
regions are supposed to be peopled with serpents having jewels in their
heads. Gautama Buddha was born four times as a serpent.
36
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
REVATA.
“After Sumana came the leader named Revata;
The Conqueror unequaled, incomparable, unmatched,
supreme.”
SOBHITA.
“ After Revata came the leader named Sobhita,
Subdued and mild, unequaled, and unrivaled.”
THREE BUDDHAS.
“ After Sobhita, when an asankheyya had elapsed,
three Buddhas were born in one kalpa. The first of
these was Anomadassin, and his height was fifty cubits,
and his age was one hundred thousand years.
The second of the three was named Paduma, and
during his reign, he who was afterward Gautama, hay-
ing been born a lion,1 walked around the teacher with
reverence and thrice he uttered a mighty roar. For
seven days he kept in attendance there, not seeking
Then the teacher looked upon the lion and
said : “Hereafter thou shalt become a Buddha."
The third Buddha in this kalpa was named Narada,
and the great crimson tree was his Bo-tree. At this
time, he who was afterward Gautama, gave a great
donation to the Order and made an offering of sandal
wood.
After the three Buddhas had been born in one
kalpa, the next great teacher was Padmuttara, who
was succeeded by Sumedha.
for prey.
I Gautama Buddha was born ten times as a lion.
NUMEROUS BUDDHAS.
37
“Then was born the leader Sujāta, mighty jawed
and grandly framed, whose measure none can take.”
After him, when eighteen hundred world cycles had
passed away, three Buddhas were again born in one
kalpa. In the following era there was only one, whose
name was Siddhata, and then two Buddhas again ap-
peared in one kalpa.
VIPASSIN.
After these, ninety world cycles ago, there appeared
the Blessed One named Vipassin. He, like all the
others, had three assemblies of priests, and at the first
there were six million and eight hundred thousand
monks present. He was eighty cubits in height, and
the effulgence of his body always reached a hundred
leagues. His age was one hundred thousand years.
During the reign of Vipassin, he who was afterward
Gautama, having been born as a powerful snake king,
gave to the Blessed One a golden chair. He then re-
ceived the promise that in ninety-one world cycles he
should become a Buddha.
After Vipassin came five others, and then the
present supreme Buddha. 1
In the inscription upon the great bell at Ragnun
it is stated that with the eight hairs of Gautama
enshrined in the dagoba of the temple, there are also
“the three divine relics of the three deities who were
his immediate predecessors.” And in the fourth cen-
tury of the Christian era there was certainly a sect of
Buddhists near to Srāvasti who rejected Gautama,
1" Buddhist Birth Stories," Vol. I., pp. 29-55.
38
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
reverencing only the three preceding Buddhas, espe-
cially one whose body they believed to be buried under
one of the dagobas, at which they, as well as the
orthodox Buddhists, worshiped. 1
SPHERE OF MANIFESTATIONS.
Having briefly sketched a few outlines pertaining to
the predecessors of Gautama, the sphere of the mani-
festation of each Buddha follows as a natural sequence.
In the Tri-pițāka, or sacred canon of the Buddhists,
there is a treatise which is one of the most popular
works in Japan.2 One of their great scholars asserts
that “it is a very able exposition and defense of Bud-
dhism.”3
From this standard work we quote as fol-
lows :
“ According to the teaching of Buddhism, when a
Buddha comes forth to his manifestation three great
chiliocosms constitute the sphere of his successful
operation. Let us speak of it in one of those worlds.
In the midst of every world there is a great Sumēru
mountain rising in the great ocean and ascending
above nine tiers of the sky. Round the waist of this
mountain revolve the sun and moon, separating the
day and night. On the four sides of Sumēru are four
continents.
Above the Sumēru is what we
call the Dēva-loka of the four kings. Above this is
the Dēva-loka of Shākra Higher still
.
are
i Rhys Davids, B., p. 181.
2" A Fair and Dispassionate Discussion of the Three Doctrines Accepted
in China," by Liu Mi, a Buddhist writer. Bunyiu Nanjio, in his catalogue
of the Tri-pitaka, enters this work as No. 1,643, and adds that the author was
of the Yuan dynasty.
3 Mr. Nanjio in conversation with Professor Legge.
NUMEROUS BUDDHAS.
39
the four Dēva-lokas, having the general name of
Regions of Desire.' Still higher are the eighteen
Dēva-lokas, having the name of "Regions of Form.'
Higher still are the 'Regions Without Form.' All
living beings in these regions are subject to birth, old
age and death.
Such is the account of one world, and a thousand
worlds are called a small chiliocosm, and a thousand
such small chiliocosms are called a medium one. А.
thousand of these are called a great chiliocosm, com-
prising ten million worlds. The thousand of these
being taken three times form only one great chilio-
universe. This is the sphere of the successful oper-
ation of one Buddha. In this way there are ten
thousand million Buddhas, each assigned to his own
material region, and they proceed to transform and
deliver the ten thousand million worlds till all that
are in them, produced from the womb, from eggs or
from water, with feet or without feet, with form or
without form, with thought or without thought, and
even those who have never approximated thought -- all
are carried across to Nirvāņa.”1
THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT OF BUDDHISM.
The same
learned author also points out the
highest achievement as follows: Therefore, the
learners of Buddhism know the emptiness (and vanity)
of all the Skandhas-the constituent elements, that
1 This extract has necessarily been greatly condensed. See the translation
of Dr. James Legge, professor of Chinese in Oxford University.- Trans.
Ninth International Congress of Orientalists, Vol. II., p. 571.
40
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
is, every personality,
Amidst their practice
of the rules of doctrine they will forget themselves
for the sake of other creatures, as when Śākya-muni
endured the pain and cut off a piece of his flesh to
feed the hawk, or as when he gave his body to feed
the famished tigress, and that without fright or appre-
hension. His money, pearls, treasures — his kingdom,
wife, and son- he threw away as he would a worn-out
shoe. From life to life, through hundreds, thousands,
myriads and lakhs of kalpas, this mind underwent no
change. From kalpa to kalpa, through hundreds,
thousands and lakhs of kalpas, this mind became
more earnest and resolute.
"This is the highest achievement of Buddhism
here it stops. The Sūtra of the Lotus of the law says
'the Tathāgata is the greatest instance of cause and
effect.' Therefore, when one comes forth and is mani-
fested in the world, he wishes to cause all living
beings to arrive at the same result as himself, for he
has sworn that all possessed of an active, intelligent
nature shall, with himself, arrive at the unsurpassable
consummation of Nirvāņa."
We have seen, therefore, that the standard authori-
ties of Buddhism are very positive in their declaration
that a countless number of Buddhas appeared before
Gautama, and the chronicles furnish the names and
many other particulars concerning some of them. And
not only this, but they furnish a full exposition of the
vastness of the system in teaching that “millions of
»1
1 Legge's Translation.--Trans. Ninth Congress of Orientalists, Vol. II,
pp. 571-574.
NUMEROUS BUDDHAS.
41
worlds” constitute the sphere of the successful opera-
tion of one Buddha.” We have seen, also, the highest
achievement of Buddhism, which is the absorption,
not only of the millions of Buddhas, but also of the
millions of worlds and all the life that they contain,
into the bosom of the formless and void ” - the .
Nirvāņa.
CHAPTER III.
BUDDHISTIC ACCOUNT OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA. .
THE LALITA VISTARA
THE JĀTAKA — BIRTH OF GAU-
TAMA
PA YSICAL SIGNS OF A BUDDHA
HIS MAN-
HOOD
THE FOUR VISIONS
GREAT RENUNCIATION
THE ESCAPE — GREAT TEMPTATION
• ATTAIN MENT
OF BUDDHAHOOD FIRST CONVERTS
RETURN HOME
- FIRST MONASTERY.
GAUTAMA is represented as being the fourth
Buddha in the present cycle of time, and there
are many difficulties in the way of procuring an ac-
count of his life which shall be truly historic.
First, it is a well known fact that, while the people
of India are poetic and some of their literature is
very beautiful, still they seem to be entirely deficient
in what is termed the historic sense," and hence
there is scarcely anything in their annals which can
be called history.
Again, it is well understood that nothing was writ-
ten in relation to Gautama until hundreds of years
after his death, the statements concerning his life and
teachings having been handed down orally for a long
time. “After the Nirvāna of Buddha," says the Sara-
sagraha, “for the space of four hundred and fifty years
the text and commentaries, and all the works of
42
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
43
1 در
Tathāgata, were preserved and transmitted, by wise
priests, orally.” If this be true, and Sir M. Monier-
Williams is correct concerning the date of Buddha's
death, it shows that all the manuscripts on this sub-
ject belong to the Christian era.
The Buddhists claim that their first books were
written in the latter part of the first century before
Christ, but concerning the older portions of the Pāli
texts, Professor Oldenberg, the eminent Pāli scholar,
says: “They contain neither a biography of Buddha
: nor the slightest trace of the former existence of any
such work."
We have, indeed, the “ Book of the Great Decease,"
which is supposed to belong to an early date, but it
treats merely of the incidents connected with his death,
or shortly preceding it. And we have, too, the Mahā-
vagga (although its age is disputed), which contains an
account of the first events after Gautama's attainment
of Buddhahood, but it is nevertheless true that "any
really historical, matter-of-fact life of Buddha, like that
of the life of Christ by the four Evangelists, may be
looked for in vain in all the Buddhist scriptures. The
Buddha's biography is mixed up with such monstrous
legends, absurd figments and extravagant fables that
to attempt the sifting out of any really historical ele-
ment, worthy of being compared with the pregnant
1 Sara-sagraha, quoted by Max Müller. See Science of Rel., note to p. 16.
2 Williams gives 420 B. C. “As a round number," while Kern makes it
still later, giving 388 as the most probable date.
3 Sa. Bks. E., Vol. X, Int. p. XXV. See also the Mahavansa, p. 287, and
the Dipavamsa, Ch. XIX, XX.
4 Oldenberg, "Buddha. sein Leben, seine Lebre, seine Gemeinde,"
S. 78.
44
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
1
simplicity, the dignified brevity, of the biography of
Christ, would be an idle task.”
All the biographies which we have of him are
necessarily derived from native sources; we must, there-
fore, appeal to the earliest Buddhistic documents
obtainable, and draw the story of his life from the
works which hold the highest position in the opinion
of his followers.
THE LALITA VISTARA,
This is one of the most important of the early
works, as it is a standard authority with the Northern
Buddhists, and is the eighth of the series called the
“Nine Dhammas.” Concerning the age of this work,
however, there is a wide difference of opinion, and so
many conjectures have been made that, perhaps, it is
only safe to say that it is a poem of unknown author-
ship and chronology.
The native scholar, Rājendralala Mitra (who pub-
lished the work in Sanskrit, and who has also given
us an English version of a portion of it), says in ref-
erence to the date of its origin. “We have nothing
more positive than inference founded upon insufficient
conjecture.
T. W. Rhys Davids remarks that “it is a poem
of unknown date and authorship, but probably com-
posed in Nepāl, by some Buddhist poet, who lived
between six hundred and a thousand years after the
death of Buddha.”3
2 در
1 Williams, B., p. 553.
2 Lalita Vistara. Int. p. 48 (Bibliotheca Indica).
3" Origin and Growth of Religion” (Hibbert Lectures, 1881), p 197.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
45
M. Foucaux has published a French translation of
this work from the Tibetan version, which he claims
existed in the sixth century of the Christian era. He
also assigns the Sanskrit original to the Council of
King Kanishka, whose reign was during the first
century of our era, but Rhys Davids declares that
"he does this without any evidence whatever.” 2 Sir
M. Monier-Williams thinks that it may be as old as
the second century of our era.3
We shall be compelled to refer to it occasionally,
as it is one of the most popular works of the Bud-
dhists, and forms a portion of their sacred canon, but,
fortunately, we have an earlier standard authority called
THE JĀTAKA.
The date of this work also is undecided, but Rhys
Davids supposes that “the rise of our Jātaka book
was due to the religious faith of the Indian Buddhists
of the third and fourth century before Christ,” the
statements therein contained having been handed down
orally from time to time until they were committed to
writing
If this be true, we here get very near to the primi-
tive faith of the Buddhists in relation to the subject
under consideration.
1 Kanishka was the third of three brothers, who began to reign in the
first century after Christ, and he was a very zealous Buddhist. He called a
council of five hundred monks, but unfortunately nothing was done toward
settling the canon, as the monks satisfied themselves with the drawing up
of three commentaries.
2 Rhys Davids, B., p. 2. For other opinions on this subject see Senart,
P. 496, and Freer, Journal Asiatique, 1886, p. 275, and others.
3 Williams, B., p. 70.
46
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM
Although it is briefly called the Jātaka Book, its
full title is “ The Commentary on the Jātakas,” as it
not only contains the stories of previous births, but
also an explanation of the verses which occur in each
story. It contains, too, an introduction to each of
them, giving the occasion on which they are said to
have been told.
The first part of this commentary contains the life
of Gautama down to the time when he revisited his
home, after his appearance as a public teacher. “And
down to that time,” says Rhys Davids, “it is the best
authority we have.” 1
The book opens with the following statement :
“The Apaņņaka and other births which, in times
gone by, were recounted on various occasions by the
illustrious sage (Gautama)
were all collected
together, and added to the canon of the scriptures
by those who made the recension of the scriptures,
and rehearsed them under the name of Jātaka." 2
This being the best authority we have, we condense
the following from the Jātaka, except where credit is
given to the Lalita Vistara, the Buddha-karita,
other popular authorities.
3
or
THE BIRTH OF GAUTAMA.
“For an infinite number of years the Bodhisat had
steadfastly desired to become a Buddha. It was for
1 Rhys Davids, B., p. 13. This author claims that the original Pali text of
this commentary was committed to writing in Ceylon, probably about the
middle of the fifth century of our era.
2 The Nidanakatha, p. 1.
3 The Buddha-karita is assigned to the first century after Christ.--Sa. Bks.
of the East, Vol. XLIX, Int. p. i.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
47
a
this that he persisted in enduring toil, trouble and
pain – for this he bore the miseries of life through an
unaccountable number of transmigrations, and no suf-
fering ever turned his thoughts from his one great
objectthe Buddhahood. He cut off portions of his
flesh and gave them in alms so many times that, if
they were collected, the various portions thus given
would make
mass larger than this world. He
poured out his blood in alms more than there is water
in the great ocean. He gave his head so many times
that the heap would be higher than the mightiest of
mountains. He gave his eyes more times than there
are stars in the skies. He also gave his children to be
slaves, and gave his wife away to a Brāhman.”
It was in consequence of these great acts of merit
that he became a Buddha, and when the proper time
arrived he entered the womb of his mother "in the
form of an elephant, of a yellowish white color, having
six tusks," and the mother also dreamed that she saw
him thus enter her body. 2
When he was born into this world the angels
received him in a golden net, and from their hands
four kings received him on a cloth of antelope skins,
soft to the touch, such as are used on occasions of
royal state.
Searching in ten directions, and
finding no one like himself, he took seven strides,
saying, “This is the best direction," and as he walked
the Archangel Brahmā held over him the white um-
brella, and the Archangel Suyāma followed him with
1 Pathoma Sompothiyan, p. 89.
2 The Lalita Vistara, the Buddha-karita and other works give this as an
actual fact, some of them relating the dream also, while other authors only
relate the story of the dream.
48
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
the fan, and other deities with other symbols of roy-
alty in their hands. Then stopping at the seventh
step, he sent forth his noble voice, and shouted: “I
am the chief of the world.” 1
PHYSICAL SIGNS OF A BUDDHA.
Many authorities tell us that Buddha was born
with certain peculiarities of person, which, according
to Vedic tradition, indicated that a man would become
either a supreme emperor of the world, or a supreme
teacher. There are thirty-two of the principal pecu-
liarities and eighty secondary characteristics, which
are found in various Buddhistic works of compara-
tively early date. The tradition of a representation of
the wheel (Cakra), which is said to have existed on
the sole of his foot, is confirmed as an ancient idea
by the sculptures which formerly adorned the topes,
or holy relic mounds of Sanchi and Amravatti in
India. The remains of these ancient sculptures furnish
ample proof of the faith of the early Buddhists in
these peculiar marks.
It is said that even from childhood the body of
Buddha was marked with all the signs of eminence.
- The soles of his feet are full fleshed and perfectly
flat, like golden sandals. They move, not like the feet
of an ordinary mortal, but they both touch the
ground and leave it at the same time. On each of
his feet is a figure of the beautiful Cakra, with its
thousand rays or spokes, and around it are one hun-
i The Lalita Vistara puts much more to the same effect into the speech of
the newly born babe. See the versiou of Rajendralala, chap. vii, p. 195. See
also Buddha-karita, I. 40,
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
49
dred and eight other figures, which appear as a guard
of honor around that most excellent sign. The heel
of the prince is not like that of other men, but long
and projecting. It is smooth and round as a ball of
thread, and excels in beauty the heel of any other
being. This extraordinary length of heel is one of
the signs of a Grand Being, the length of his fingers
and toes is another. His feet are not jointed to the
ankle in the usual manner, but the ankle rises from
the center of the foot, and is so formed that, without
the trouble of moving his feet, he can turn his whole
body in any direction he pleases. His knees are
round, full and fleshy, with the bone in the center.
His arms are so long that he can, without stooping,
touch his knees with his hands. His skin is perfect;
his glossy black hairs grow one by one, curling up-
ward. Between his shoulders there is no depression;
his arms are round and smooth. His back has no
depression in the center, but is flat as a golden plank.
He has about seven thousand nerves of taste converg-
ing at the throat, by means of which he has the
sensation of taste all over the body. His jaw is like
that of a lion; he has forty teeth, even and perfect
row of gems.
He has four canine teeth, or
tusks, white, and gleaming like planets. His tongue
is soft and flexible, and long enough to reach his fore-
head. On his forehead, between his eyebrows, is a
spiral tuft of long white hairs turning to the right.
These are the signs of the Grand Being.”
as
a
i Pathoma Sompothiya, pp. 110, 115. Lalita Vistara, chap. vii, p. 42 (Ra-
jendralala Mitra's Trans.) Also Buddha-karita, Bk. 1, 65. Also the
Pujawaliya.
50
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
M. Burnouf treats these signs very fully; they
interested him in two ways; he understood that they
illustrated the authenticity of Buddhist classics, evi-
denced by the concurrence of the records of the
Northern and Southern Buddhists, and also considered
that they showed the race to which Buddha belonged,
some early investigators having supposed that he was
a negro, from the fact that some of the idols repre-
sented him as having woolly hair. 1
HIS MANHOOD.
When the Bodhisat reached the age at which it was
thought best to choose his wives, all the most beautiful
girls in the kingdom were assembled for his inspection.
One lovely girl, named Gopa (elsewhere called Yaso-
dharā),? came in last, and he at once gave her hundreds
and thousands of rings and bracelets. The king's
agents were at once sent to the girl's father to demand
her hand in marriage for the son. But the father re-
plied: "The young man has lived in luxury and sloth,
and' my family give their daughters only to men of
strength and courage — to those who can wrestle, play
the bow and wield the sword.”
Other śākya families made a similar reply, saying :
“Our daughters refuse to come near a young milk-
sop.” Then a day was appointed on which the young
man should show his skill in athletics.
When the appointed day arrived, a vast crowd was
1 M. Burnouf, App. Lotus de la bonne Loi.
2" Her name," says Oldenberg, “seeins to have been unknown to the
ancient church. Copious inventions of later times first filled up these gaps
in various ways."'-Oldenberg, "Buddhism." 1. p. 101.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
51
assembled outside the city, and Gautama distanced all
competitors in swimming, jumping, running and wrest-
ling. Then came the test of archery, and Ananda
set up a drum, eight miles distant, for a target;
another set up one at a distance of sixteen and
another at twenty-four miles, while the father of
Yasodharā set up another at a still greater distance,
and by this drum stood seven palm trees, and beyond
them was a demon made of iron.
After the others had tried their skill, Gautama ad-
justed his arrow, and his shaft passed through the first
iron drum, only eight miles away, then through the
one which stood sixteen miles away,
miles away, and thence
through the one which stood twenty-four miles away;
then passed through the fourth, which was still farther
away, tearing also through the seven trees and the
iron demon, and then buried itself in the ground
When he had also proven his superiority in riding
horses and elephants, in kicking and other sports, as
well as in music, painting, poetry, dancing and simi-
lar accomplishments, the beautiful girl was given him.
It is said that sixty thousand girls also entered his
household, but Yasodharā remained the chief, and she
became the mother of his son, Rāhula.1
The king then built three palaces for him, one for
each season of the year, and in these he was constantly
surrounded by his young wives, who danced and sang
and played upon many instruments, and he enjoyed
all the pleasures of life.
1 Lalita Vistara, Chap. viii, p. 173 (Rajendralala's version).
52
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
THE FOUR VISIONS.
One day the future Buddha wished to go to a
pleasure ground, and, ascending his chariot, he went
toward the garden. Then the angels thought “the
time for his enlightenment is near, let us show him
the omens.” Accordingly they caused him to see a
man wasted by age.
And the Bodhisat asked his
charioteer what manner of man it was ? On being
told that old age awaited every human being, he re-
turned in agitation to the palace.
Again in going to the pleasure grounds, he saw a
sick man, and learned that disease, too, was the com-
mon lot of humanity, and again he returned home.
Afterward, he saw a dead man, and learning that
death, also, came to all, he returned in still greater
anxiety to the palace.
Still later, as the future Buddha was going out, he
saw a man who had abandoned the world, and he
asked his charioteer what kind of a man it was who
appeared so strangely? “That," replied the servant,
“is a mendicant friar,” and he then described the
advantages of renouncing the world.
And
that day the future Buddha, cherishing the thought
of renunciation, went to the pleasure grounds.
THE GREAT RENUNCIATION.
The Bodhisat after returning to his palace l'eclined
on his couch, while the women, clad in beautiful array,
brought their musical instruments, and danced and
sang until he fell asleep. Then they laid aside their
instruments, and lying down they fell asleep also.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
53
The Bodhisat on waking saw them in disorder, ,
some grinding their teeth and some yawning and mut-
tering in their sleep. Others had their beauty distorted
in other ways, and seeing this great change in their
appearance he became more and more disgusted.1 To
him the apartment seemed like a charnel house, and
he exclaimed: "Of a verity, I am in a graveyard !”
and, his mind turning toward those who had re-
nounced the world, he resolved that very day to follow
their example.
Then calling his servant, Channa, he ordered his
horse to be saddled, and while he was gone the
Bodhisat went to the door of his wife's chamber to
look upon his child. He saw her sleeping upon a bed
covered with jasmine flowers, and resting her hand on
the head of the child. Fearing to waken her he did
not touch the boy, but said to himself, “I will come
back and see him after I have become a Buddha,”2
and he left the room.
THE ESCAPE.
The horse that was saddled that night was the
splendid Kanthaka; he is represented as being thirty
feet in length -- his coat white and lustrous as a well
polished conch shell, and his head black as the black
sapphire. “Help me, 0 Kanthaka! to enter the
1 Modern poets have violated the Buddhist accounts in painting this
revolting picture in very different colors. The Lalita Vistara, the Buddha-
karita and other standard works give vivid descriptions of a scene which is
here so lightly touched. Some authors claim that the effect upon his vision
was produced by the gods.
2 The Maha-vagga gives no account whatever of his home-leaving, and
perhaps there is no historic basis for either of these pictures.
54
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
class of mendicants this very night," exclaimed Gau-
tama, and the horse neighed with delight.
He then mounted, and while Channa held on to the
tail of the animal the four guardians of the world
held lotus flowers, one under each of the horse's feet.
The gates were opened by unseen hånds, and Gautama
went on his way, with angels in front of him, carry-
ing sixty thousand torches, while others were behind
him, and still others were upon either hand.
Advancing thus he passed that night beyond three
kingdoms, and arrived at the bank of the river
which was thirty leagues away. He would have
gone farther, but the horse could not make his way
through the mass of flowers, of winged creatures
and snakes, which were showered down from Indra's
heaven in honor of Gautama's departure. At the bank
of the river he signaled his horse, and Kanthaka
immediately sprang over it to the opposite bank, five
or six hundred yards away. It was here that he dis-
missed his servant, and bade him take the horse and
return.
Some of the Buddhistic standard works describe a
terrible scene at the palace when it was discovered
that Gautama had fled. The king was beside himself
with grief, and his wife threw herself on the ground
in despair. The other women beat themselves and
sobbed, crying out, “Where is our husband ?”
When Channa returned with the horse, poor Yaso-
dharā suddenly recovered a little strength, and throw-
ing her arms around the neck of the horse, she
exclaimed :
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
55
"Alone, on my bed, where he was sleeping by my side,
I found myself.
He had abandoned me!
Kanthaka, good horse, whither didst thou take him?
Chandaka, pitiless! Why didst thou not awaken me?
Chandaka, fathers and mothers are honored by all,
Why, then, should a wife be abandoned ?
Henceforth, I feel I cannot eat or drink !
My hair shall grow vile and matted !
An unblest thing is the forcible parting of a man
and a woman who love !"
THE GREAT TEMPTATION. .
The story of the great temptation with which Māra
assailed Gautama under the Bo-tree appears to be one
of the many additions which have been made to the
legend by later hands. " Wherever in the sacred Pāli
texts," says Oldenberg,” the attainment of Buddhahood
is described, there is not a word spoken of Māra."1 A
few passages in the text narrate distinct encounters
with Māra; sometimes they refer to a time not long
before and sometimes to time not long after
the attainment of Buddhahood, but not here.
The Lalita Vistara, however, gives an eloquent de-
scription of the contest of Gautama with the hosts of
evil after passing six weeks in exhaustive asceticism.
“Seated cross-legged beneath the Bo-tree, he pro-
nounced this yow: Here, on this seat, may my body
а.
6
1 Oldenberg, “ Buddha, sein Leben, seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde'
(Hoey's Trans.), p. 85.
56
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
dry up, and my flesh dissolve, if I raise myself from
this seat before I attain the Bodhi.'
“The Wicked One commanded Gautama to leave
the tree and speak to him. Upon his refusal to do
so, the Evil One drew his sword from its scabbard,
and called out: "Rise up, as I order. Obey me, or,
like a garden weed, be cut in pieces !'"
At the same
time spirits of darkness hurled mountains of flames
and mighty trees at the Bodhisat. Globes of fire
darted through the air, and huge masses of iron, with
terrible javelins, which were dipped in poison. With
majestic calmness he viewed all of these demon hos-
tilities, and the bolts which were launched at him
were changed into beautiful flowers.
In the most solemn manner, he then called to
Brahmã and to all the Buddhas that live at the ten
horizons," and smiting the ground until the earth re-
verberated like a huge vessel of brass, he prayed :
“Disperse this crew of Krishna!”
Immediately the horses, chariots and elephants of
the demon army were hurled into the mud, and the
mighty warriors dispersed.2 In Turnour's Singhalese
biography, the Madurattha-vilāsinī, Brahmā is also
introduced into the conflict, but he flies away in ab-
ject terror, with his parasol of universal dominion in
his hand, and throws it down on the confines of
Sakwala.3
1 In Wilson's version of Rig-veda Sanhita, mention is made of fifty thou-
sand Krishnas, all of whom were black demons. Vol. I, p. 192.
2 Tibetan version.
3 Pali Buddhistical Annals, Journal Bengal Asiatic Society. Vol. VII,
p. 812
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
57
THE ATTAINMENT OF BUDDHAHOOD.
While still under the Bo-tree, he acquired, in the
first watch of the night, the knowledge of the past;
in the middle watch, the knowledge of the present,
and in the third watch, the knowledge of the “Chain
of Causation,” which leads to the origin of evil.
“Now, while he was still seated there, the Blessed
One thought: “It is in order to attain this throne of
triumph that I have undergone successive births for
so long a time; that I severed my crowned head
from my neck and gave it away; that I tore out my
darkened eyes and gave them away; that I gave, to
serve others, such sons as Jāli, such daughters as
Kaņhā Jină, and such wives as Maddi, the queen.
This seat is a throne of triumph for me, and I will
not leave it yet.'
“Having spent four weeks by the Bo-tree, he went
in the fifth week to the Shepherd's Nigrodha tree,
and sat there meditating on the truth.
“Now the evil angel, Māra, grieved that he had
not succeeded in conquering him, and then the three 1
daughters of Mára drew near and inquired why he
was sad? On being told, they volunteered to conquer
the new Buddha, and, assuming the forms of beautiful
women, they sought to debase him by using all their
lying flatteries and snaky charms.
sen
“Six times they went to him and professed to be
his most humble hand-maidens. But the Blessed One
1 In other works the statement is made that there were sixteen of these
fiendish females.
58
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
said : “Depart ye! why strive ye thus ?' And then
the evil women returned to their father, confessing
their inability to conquer him.
“When the Blessed One had spent a week at that
spot, he went to the Mućalinda tree. There he re-
mained for a week, and Mućalinda, the snake king,
shielded him from the storms by winding his coils
around him, and by spreading the folds of his hood
over his head. Being thus protected by the king of
the cobras, he enjoyed the bliss of salvation as if he
had been resting in a pleasant chamber, free from all
disturbances.'1
" Thence he went to the Rājāyatana tree, and
there, also, he sat down enjoying the bliss of salvation.
And so seven weeks passed away, during which time
he experienced no bodily wants, but fed on the joy of
meditation."
FIRST CONVERTS.
"At that time two merchants were traveling from
Orissa to Central India, with five hundred carts. And
an angel, who was a blood relation of theirs, stopped
their carts, and moved their hearts to offer food to
the Buddha. And they took a rice cake and a honey
cake and went up to him, and said : Oh, Blessed
One, have mercy upon us, and accept this food.'
And he took the food, and ate it, and the two
brothers became converts. He then took his robe and
mendicant bowl, and went on proclaiming his views
1 The story of his protection by the serpent is told in the early Vinaya
texts from the Pali (see Maha-vagga, I, 3, I). Many of the early sculptures
also represent him sitting at ease within the folds of the snake.
GAUTAMA BUDDHA.
59
until, after a time, he went to a palm grove attended
by a thousand Arahats.”
Still later, the successor of the Buddhas was dwell-
ing in a bamboo grove, when his father, Suddhodana,
heard that his son was there, and he sent à faithful
messenger, beseeching him to come back.
RETURN HOME.
When the Buddha received the message, he set out
for his old home, 1 attended by twenty thousand
mendicants. When he arrived in the city he and his
followers begged their bread from door to door.
When the mother of his child heard that he was
begging, she opened the window and beheld him, dis-
tinguished with the thirty-two characteristic signs and
the eighty lesser marks of a Great Being, and she
announced to the king the fact that his son was beg-
ging bread.
The king was deeply agitated, and going out he
remonstrated with his son for thus bringing disgrace
upon the family.
“This is our custom," answered the Buddha.
“Not so," said the king, “Our descent is from the
royal race, and amongst them all not one chief ever
begged his bread.
“This descent of kings is your descent," replied
Gautama, “but mine is the succession of the Bud-
dhas, from Dīpankara down to Kassapa. These and
1 It is said that before this faithful messenger was sent the father bad sent
out consecutively eleven men, each with a retinue of a thousand attendants,
to deliver this message. But one company after another embraced Bud-
dhism, and joined the mendicants, no one of them returning, Birth Stories,
P. 119.
60
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
thousands of other Buddhas have begged their daily
bread and lived on alms."
He then stood in the middle of the street and
recited the following verse:
“Rise up, and loiter not !
Follow after a holy life!
Who follows virtue rests in bliss,
Both in this world and in the next.'
When he heard this verse repeated, the king
attained to the Fruit of the First Path, and Buddha
then repeated the following verse :
“Follow after a holy life!
Follow not after sin !
Who follows virtue rests in bliss,
Both in this world and in the next.'
When the king heard this, he attained to the
Fruit of the Second Path, and taking Buddha's bowl
he conducted him to the palace, with all his retinue,
and served them with savory food. When the meal
was over, all the women came and did reverence to
Buddha, save the mother of Rāhula, and she waited
for him to come to her. When he came she bowed
down and held him by the ankles, while the king
told the Buddha of her faithfulness. “When my
daughter heard," said the king, “that you had put
on the yellow robes, she dressed only in yellow, and
when she heard of your taking only one meal a day,
she adopted the same custom." “It is no wonder,
GAUTAMA BUDDHA,
61
oh, king!” was the reply, “that she should watch
over herself, now that she has you for her protector;
formerly, even when wandering in the mountains, she
watched over herself.” And then he told the story
of his own birth as a moon-sprite and went away.
Afterward the mother of Rāhula told him to go to
his father and ask for his inheritance, and when
he did so, instead of giving him the wealth for
which he asked, Buddha ordered that the boy be
received into the Order, and it was done. The king,
however, grieved deeply, and besought Buddha that
he would never again receive a child into the Order
without the consent of his guardians.
THE FIRST MONASTERY.
The first monastery was built by a householder, who
bought the grove where it was placed for eighteen kotis
of gold pieces, laying them side by side over the ground,
and he built a monastery, which was dedicated “to
the Order of Mendicants, with the Buddha at their
head, and to all, from every direction, now present
or hereafter to come.”
It is said that this monastery was built upon the very
spot which was purchased for the same purpose in the
time of the blessed Buddha Vipassin, and the merchant
who then bought it did so by laying golden bricks over
it, and then built there a monastery which was a league
in length.
And in the time of the blessed Buddha Sikhin, a
merchant purchased that very spot by covering it with
golden ploughshares, and built there a monastery which
was three-fourths of a league in length.
62
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
And in the time of the blessed Buddha Vessabhū, a
merchant bought the land by laying golden elephant feet
along it, and he built a monastery which was half a
league in length.
In the time of Buddha Koņāgamana, a merchant
named Ugga bought the site by laying golden tortoises
over it; and during the reigns of the other Buddhas
other merchants bought it by covering the ground with
gold, and built monasteries there, for the place had
been consecrated by the presence of all the Buddhas,
and therefore Gautama lived there until his death. I
i Buddhist Birth Stories, Vol. I, pp. 66–132.
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA
THE THEORY OF A MYTH
BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE
ASCETICISM
ENLIGHTENMENT-DISCOURSE
AT
BE-
NARES
SERMON ON THE NON-EXISTENCE OF THE
SOUL-
THE FIRE SERMON
RELIEF FROM TRANSMI-
GRATION
THE
FATAL
MEAL
THE
DEATH
OF
BUDDHA.
T is from such material as that contained in the
IT
foregoing chapter that scholars have attempted to
sift a biography of Buddha which shall be historic in
its character. An effort has been made to distinguish
between the true and the false by rejecting the im-
possible. “It is not a safe process, however,” says F.
Max Müller, “to distill truth out of legend by simply
straining it through the sieve of physical possibility.
Many things are possible which may yet be the mere
inventions of later writers, and many things have been
recovered as historical, after removing from them the
thin film of mythological phraseology.”1
In view of all the difficulties of the situation, we
can hardly wonder that some critical scholars have
despaired of attempting to sift truth from fiction, and
have even questioned the existence of Buddha.
1 F. Max Müller, “Chips." Vol. I, p. 205.
63
64
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM,
Senart and Kern claim that the story of the life of
Buddha was founded upon a solar myth, and Pro-
aga
fessor Wilson freely expresses his opinion that it is
doubtful whether any such man ever existed.
In support of this position, the great Orientalist
dwells upon the fact that many different dates 2 are
assigned to his birth, and the total variation between
them present the enormous discrepancy of more than
two thousand years. He shows also that the clan of
Śākyas is never mentioned by the early Hindū writers,
and dwells upon the fact that all the names of Buddha
are allegorical, except Gautama.
Besides the name of Buddha (which means enlight-
ened), he has seventeen other titles or epithets, which
are significant of various qualifications, or positious.
For instance, one of the most common appellations for
him is Śākya-muni (Sage of the tribes of Sākyas),
and we have also ſākya-siya (Lion of the ſākyas),
i Senart claims that the tree under which Buddha received enlighten-
ment was the cloud tree. - In the clouds, the heavenly fluid is stored, and
it is guarded by dark demons. In the hymns of the Veda, the powers of
light and darkness fight their great battle for the clouds, and the water
which they contain. This is the identical battle of Buddha, according to
the French scholar.
2 We have in all about thirty different statements on this subject; for
instance, the Chinese give the following six dates as the time of his birth:
640, 767, 949, 950 and 1130 B. C.
From Buddhistic works, in Tibet, fourteen different dates have been
gathered by Csoma de Körös, and they are as follows: 546, 576, 653, 752, 837,
880, 882, 884, 1060. 1310, 2135, 2139, 2144 and 2422 B. C.
In India we have the following different dates, which were collected by a
Chinese pilgrim named Hiouen-thsang; 260, 360, 560, 660 and 860 B. C.
In Ceylon the official date is 1077 B. C. (Laidlay's Pilgrimage of Fa Hian).
Japan furnishes still another, as the Japanese claim that he was born 1000
B. C.
Thus we have twenty-seven dates, with a variation of more than two
thousand years between them, besides the various opinions of modern
authorities,
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
65
so that
and many others. He claims that, not only are the
names of Buddha allegorical, but also the names of
those connected with him, the name of his father sig-
nifying “he whose food is pure," while his mother's
name signifies “illusion." Wilson maintains, too, that
Kapilavastu, which has been called the birthplace of
Buddha, is unknown to Hindu geography, and sug-
gests that it may be rendered “the substance of
Kapila." He apparently understands that reference is
here made to the doctrines of Kapila, upon which
some scholars suppose the principal theories of Buddha
to be founded.
“ It seems not to be impossible," he says,
Śākya-muni is an unreal being, and that all which is
related of him is as much fiction as is that of his
preceding migrations, and the miracles attending his
birth, his life and his departure.
“It is evident,” says Oldenberg, “that the narra-
tive concerned may be a myth — the conditions which
suffice to make the concoction of such a myth pos-
sible certainly exist. And this possibility of a purely
mythical conception gains further support by the un-
doubted mythical character of the occurrences yet to
be discussed, which followed the attainment of Bud-
dhahood. But showing that a thing may be a myth
is not equivalent to showing that it is a myth, and I
am inclined to think that that which can be urged
in favor of an opposite conception is not without its
weight.” He concludes his discussion of this subject
by an expression of his belief that “in the narrative
"1
I Wilson. Essay on Buddha and Buddhism.
66
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
of how the ſākya youth became the Buddha, there is
really an element of historical memory.” 1
To reject everything which has been written of
him appears as unreasonable as to believe it all, and
it seems not
not impossible to gather a few historic
facts from the mass of legends connected with him;
and hence, we give the following outline, which is
correct, so far as it can be gathered from the most
authentic sources, although much of it is necessarily
legendary, as we are indebted to Hindū authors for
information,
✓
BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE.
Allusion has already been made to the multitude of
dates 2 which are given by Buddhists themselves con-
cerning the time of Gautama's birth, and there is
also considerable uncertainty among critical scholars
upon this subject, but the discrepancy here is much
smaller, and the best estimates do not vary from each
other more than half a century.
We must, therefore, accept about the beginning of
the fifth century before Christ as the time of his
birth, and the territory of Kosala, about one hundred
miles northwest of Benares, as his earliest home. He
was the son of Suddhodana, who was a land owner of
the tribe of Śākyas, and, although certainly not
king, still he may have been a chief of the tribe. His
mother's name is called Māya, and she was the wife
of Śuddhodana.
Many things have been added in modern times of
1 Oldenberg, pp. 109-112.
2 See note to p. 64.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
67
6 he was
which the primitive Buddhists never heard. For
instance, we now have the statement that
conceived of the Holy Ghost," “born of the Virgin
Māya," " song of the heavenly host," "presentation
in the temple," "temptation in the wilderness” and
other similar expressions, which are unknown to the
early Pāli texts. The idea that the writers of the
gospels were in any way indebted to Buddha is not
entertained by scholars.1
If those who are still engaged in the manufacture
of these “similarities” will read a portion of the New
Testament, it may save them from repeating the blun-
ders of their predecessors, some of whom have asserted
that certain things were “borrowed from Buddhism"
which are not contained in the gospels at all!
The name of Gautama (which, in Pāli, is spelled
Gotama) was given him by his parents, and all others
are simply epithets or titles which were applied to
him in later years. It is probably true that he was
married early in life, as that is still the custom in
India. The sons of respectable families in modern
times could not remain single after the age of six-
teen, or seventeen, without bringing more less
reproach upon themselves and their friends. He
doubtless had several wives, but the name of the prin-
or
1 In a recent letter to the author, Prof. James Legge writes as follows :
I do not think Christianity is at all indebted to Buddhism. And so far as
my knowledge goes, the idea of any such indebtedness is generally repudi-
ated by scholars."
See also Oldenberg, B., p. 115; Rhys Davids, Ini, to Tevigga Sutta, p. 165;
Ss. Bks. E., Vol. II.
Compare also Sir Monier Monier-Williams, B., p. 541, and various ad-
dresses; F. Max Müller, Chips, Vol. I, p. 180; Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire,
Membre de le l'Institut, Le Bouddha et sa Religion, Int., p. 7, and others.
68
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
cipal one, who is supposed to have been the mother of
Rāhula, is not given in the Pāli Pițakas or early
texts.
“Probably this name was unknown to the Bud-
dhists in early times, and thus we may best account
for the difference of the simply invented names given
to this lady by later writers.”i
It is claimed that Rāhula, the only son, was not
born until the father was twenty-nine years of age, at
which time he was becoming convinced of the vanity
of amusements and was contemplating the idea of
entering upon a monastic life.
ASCETICISM.
The story of the four visions is surely reasonable
enough if we divest it of the features of supernatural-
ism. Although we might not accept the statement
that these scenes were created by the gods, still it
would be easy to suppose that Gautama might see an
old man, and a man who was worn by disease; that
he might also meet a funeral procession, and see a
monk, is not improbable, but we have no proof that
these things influenced him in his course.
Oldenberg says of the story of the four visions
that "it was a legend which was narrated of one of
the legendary Buddhas of by-gone ages, and it was
transferred to the youth of Gautama."2
It is apparently true that he left his home, and
1 Rhys Davids and Oldenberg. See their notes to the English translatiou
of the Maba-vagga. I, 542. Also Rhys Davids, B., p. 50, and Oldenberg, B.,
2 Oldenberg: B., p. 103.
: p.
p. 101.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
69
wife and child, and became the disciple of two
Brāhmans, who taught him their own philosophy. It
is supposed that the connection between Buddhism
and Brāhmanism may be due to the ideas which Gau-
tama here learned of the priesthood. But he failed
to find here the peace which he sought, and his
thoughts turned to one of the favorite theories of
Brāhmanism--the doctrine that self-inflicted bodily suf-
fering is most efficacious for the accumulation of
religious merit. The devotees of this idea sometimes
sat all day during the hottest months surrounded by
five fires, or with four fires around them and the
blazing sun over their heads for the fifth. The gods
are represented as performing the most severe austeri-
ties in order that they might not be excelled by
mortals, for, according to the Hindū theory, even the
gods might be supplanted by the power which men
could acquire by a protracted endurance of bodily suf-
fering
Gautama, therefore, sought the company of five
other ascetics, and began his celebrated fast. Sitting
down, unsheltered from the heat of the sun, he gradu-
ally reduced his daily allowance of food to a single
grain of rice. Then, holding his breath, he macerated
his body, and resorted to other means of self-punish-
ment in vain, for he found no peace of mind. Then
he arose from his position and took food and nourish-
ment as before, thereby incurring the disapproval of
his companions, who continued their painful austeri-
ties. He afterward took his seat under a sacred fig
tree (the Ficus religiosa, known as the Pippala, or
170
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Pīpal), and gave himself up to other forms of medi-
tation.
ENLIGHTENMENT.
It was under this Bo-tree that he finally attained
to that state of mind which is called "perfect enlight-
enment. Oldenberg claims that it is a later cast of
the tradition," which here inserts an account of the
great temptation, the story not having been given in
the sacred Pāli texts. 1
The “true knowledge," which was there evolved,
appears to have been the outcome of a single thought.
It was the doctrine that the present life is only one
link in a chain of countless transmigrations — that ex-
istence of any kind involves suffering, and that
humanity can only be delivered from suffering by the
extinction of all desire, especially the desire for exist-
The self which he endeavored to renounce was
the self of personality. The self-love which Buddhism
deprecates is that which consists in craving for con-
tinuous life. Gautama, therefore, took refuge from
the troubles of life by breaking all its ties and sup-
pressing all its affections.
The internal self-enlightenment, 2 which is the dis-
tinguishing feature of Buddhism, is said to have found
its first expression in the utterance of the following
sentiment: “Through countless births have I wan-
ence,
1 Oldenberg, B., p. 115.
2 The Bhagavad-gita asserts that “the sage (Yogi), who is internally
happy, internally at peace, and internally illuminated, attains extinction in
Brahma." "This," says Williams, " is pure Buddhism, iſ we substitute
cessation of individual existence for Brahma." (See B., p. 38.)
HISTORIC SKETCE OF BUDDHA,
91
dered, seeking, but not discovering, the maker of this,
my mortal dwelling-house, and still, again and again,
have birth and life and pain returned. But now, at
length, thou art discovered, thou builder of this house.
No longer shalt thou rear a house for me. Rafters
and beams are shattered, and with the destruction of
desire, deliverance from a repeated life is gained at
last.” 1
Another struggle awaited him before he decided to
publicly advocate his views, being tempted to rest in
the inaction, which seems to be the Hindū ideal of
happiness. It is said, however, that the god, Brahmā,
appeared to him, and admonished him to preach the
doctrine.
DISCOURSE AT BENARES.
Instead of the life of perfect indolence, therefore,
which he himself advocated, he went out to preach
the doctrine ; first, to five mendicants who were at the
Deer forest in Benares. The following is the sub-
stance of the first discourse, as given by the Mahā-
vagga.
" There are two extremes, 0 monks ! to be avoided
by one who has given up the world. A life devoted
to sensual pleasures, which is degrading, and a life
given to self-mortification, which is profitless. There
is a middle path — the noble eight-fold path discovered
by the Buddha, which leads to wisdom, to perfect
enlightenment, to final extinction of desire and suffer-
ing." He also expounded “the four noble truths”
ور
1 Dhamma-pade, 153, 154.
72
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
in any
which were the key to his doctrine, and these may be
briefly stated thus:
1st. 6 All existence that is, existence in
form, whether on earth or in the heavenly spheres,
necessarily involves pain and suffering.
2d. “All suffering is caused by lust, or craving, or
desire of three kinds ; either for sensual pleasure, for
wealth, or for existence.
3d. “Cessation of suffering is simultaneous with
extinction of lust, craving and desire.
4th. “Extinction of lust, craving and desire, and
cessation of suffering are accomplished by perseverance
in the noble eight-fold path, viz.: Right belief or views,
right resolve, right speech, right work, right livelihood,
right exercise or training, right mindfulness and right
mental concentration. And how is all life suffering ?
“Birth is suffering, decay is suffering, illness is suf-
fering. Death is suffering. Association with objects
we hate is suffering. Separation from objects we love
is suffering. Clinging to the five elements of exist-
ence is suffering. Complete cessation of thirst and
desires is cessation of suffering. This is the noble
truth of suffering.
"Thus the Blessed One spoke. The five Bikkhus
were delighted, and they rejoiced at the words of the
Blessed One. And when this exposition was pro-
pounded, the venerable Kondanſa obtained the pure
and spotless eye of truth (that is to say, the follow-
ing knowledge): "Whatever is subject to origination
is subject also to the condition of cessation.'"1
1 Maba-vagga, I. 6. 17. The closing paragraph is frequently repeated in
the Maha-vagga whenever the Blessed One preached on any subject.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
73
The significance of this discourse, which brought
“ the pure and spotless eye of truth” to the hearers,
must depend upon the interpretation of the word
"right" in the description of the eight-fold path.
“The explanation," says Williams, “is, that right
belief' means believing in Buddha and his doctrine ;
‘right resolve' means abandoning one's wife and
family ; right speech' is recitation of Buddha's doc-
trine; 'right work’ is that of a monk; right live-
lihood' is living by alms as a monk does; right ex-
ercise' is suppression of the individual self; right
mindfulness' is keeping in mind the impurities and
impermanence of the body; right mental concentra-
tion' is trance-like quietude."1 It will be noted that
in describing the misery of life, associations with those
we love are not mentioned as compensating, in any
way, for the occasional presence of those who may be
offensive in their personality.
SERMON ON THE NON-EXISTENCE OF THE SOUL.
It was also at Benares, and to the same five monks,
that Buddha, a few days later, is represented as say-
ing :
“Mendicants : In whatever way the different teach-
ers regard the soul, they think it is the five skandhas,
or one of the five. Thus, mendicants, the unlearned,
the unconverted man, who does not associate either
with the converted or the holy, or understand their
law or live according to it; such a man regards the
soul, either as identical with, or as possessing, or as
i Williams, B., p. 44.
74
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
containing, or as residing in the material properties;
or as identical with, or as possessing; or as contain-
ing, or as residing in sensation. (The same language
is repeated in relation to the other three skandhas,
viz.: Ideas, propensities and mind.)
“By regarding the soul in one of these twenty
ways, he gets the idea, "I am.'
66 Then there are the five organs of sense,
and
mind, and qualities, and ignorance. From sensation,
the sensual, unlearned man derives the notions that
'I am,' 'this I exists,' 'I shall be,' 'I shall, or shall
not, have material qualities,' 'I shall, or shall not
have, or shall be, either with or without ideas.' But
now, mendicants, the learned disciple of the con-
verted, having the same five organs of sense, has got
rid of ignorance and acquired wisdom; and, there-
fore, by reason of the absence of ignorance and the
rise of wisdom, the ideas 'I am,' 'this I exists,' 'I
shall be, 'I shall, or shall not, have material quali-
ties, 'I shall, or shall not have, or shall be, either
with or without ideas,' do not occur to him.”
- The belief in self, or soul, was regarded as so
distinctly a heresy that two well known words in
Buddhist terminology have been coined to stigmatize
it. The first of these words means "heresy of indi-
viduality,' the name given to this belief as one of the
three primary delusions (the other being doubt, and a
belief in the efficacy of rites and ceremonies), which
must be abandoned at the very first stage of the path
to holiness,
i The above extract is from the Sutta Pitaka, and is also found in other
works.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
75
6. The other is attavada, “the doctrine of soul or
self,' and which is the name given to it as a part of
the chain of causes, which leads to the origin of evil.
It is there classed with sensuality, heresy (as to
eternity and annihilation), and belief in the efficacy
of rites and ceremonies - as one of the four upadanas,
which are the immediate causes of birth, decay, death,
sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair.” 1
THE FIRE SERMON.
After Buddha had obtained about three thousand
followers, he is said to have delivered this celebrated
discourse, which was apparently suggested by the sight
of a conflagration. According to the Mahā-vagga, it
was, in substance, as follows:
“Everything, Omonks! is burning. The eye is
burning; visible things are burning; the sensation pro-
duced by contact with visible things is burning --
burning with the fire of lust, enmity and delusion;
with birth and decay, death, grief, lamentation, pain,
dejection and despair. The ear is burning ; sounds
are burning; the nose is burning; odors are burn-
ing; the tongue is burning; tastes are burning; the
body is burning; objects of sense are burning; the
mind is burning; thoughts are burning; all are burn-
ing with the fires of passion and lusts. Observing
this, 0 monks! a wise and noble disciple becomes
weary or disgusted with the world, weary of things,
weary of the ear, weary of sounds, weary of odors,
weary of tastes, weary of the body, weary of the mind.
i Rhys Davids, B., p. 95.
176
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Becoming weary, he frees himself from passions and
lusts. When free, he realizes that his object is accom-
plished, that he has lived a life of restraint and
chastity, and that rebirth is ended.”
He here compares all life to flame, and teaches
that his followers should extinguish the fires of lust
and the desire for existence, while he advocates the
importance of monkhood and celibacy for the attain-
ment of this end.
A short time before Buddha's death he delivered to
his attendants the following discourse :
RELIEF FROM TRANSMIGRATION.
"And the Blessed One proceeded with a great com-
pany of the brethren to Bhaņqa-gāma. There the
Blessed One addressed them, and said: 'It is through
not understanding and grasping the four truths, 0
brethren! that we have had to run so long, to wander
so long, in this weary path of transmigration - both
you and I.
"And what are these four? The noble conduct
of life, the noble earnestness of meditation, the noble
kind of wisdom, and the noble salvation of freedom.
But when noble conduct is realized and known, when
noble meditation is realized and known, when noble
wisdom is realized and known, when noble freedom is
realized and known— then the craving for new exist-
ence, which leads to renewed e.cistence, is destroyed,
and there is no more birth.""2
Before his death he repeatedly alluded to the ap-
i Maha-vagga, I. 21.
2 Maha-Parinibbana Sutta, chap. iv, 2.
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
Pyry
proaching event as "the final extinction of the Tathā-
gatal (or Buddha), and he frequently spoke of passing
away, “by that utter passing away, in which nothing
whatever remains behind.” 2
In some of his last addresses he seemed to contra-
dict his life-long teaching, by urging his followers to
work out their own salvation from continued transmi-
gration, without looking for help to any one else, not
even to Buddha himself.
Although the formula for admission, not only to
the monkhood, but also to lay membership, had long
been a declaration that the candidate took refuge in
Buddha, in the Dhamma (or law), and in the Order,
and although this formula is still used in connection
with the ceremony of initiation,3 still we find the Bud-
dha, before his death, addressing the monks as fol-
lows: “Be lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge unto
yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge.
Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Look not for refuge
to any one besides yourselves.
4
THE FATAL MEAL.
In relation to the events connected with his death,
and immediately preceding that event, we apparently
come very near to historic ground, as we have the
Mahā-parinibbāna-Suttana, or Book of the Great
Decease, which is supposed to have come into being
1 Maba-Parinibbana Sutta, chap. iii, 47, 63, 66.
2 Ibid, chap. iv, 57 ; also chap. v, 20, 21.
3 This formula was used in connection with other matter at the initiation
of a candidate into the Buddhist Church in Chicago in 1893.
4 Maha-Parinibbana Sutta, chap. ii, 33.
148
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
not more than a hundred years after Buddha's death.
At this time there may well have been reliable tradi-
tions concerning the events which took place on his
last journey, and this being true, they were probably
collected and handed down orally, from one generation
to the next, until they were committed to writing at
a much later date. From this valuable authority,
therefore, we quote as follows:
" At Pāvā the Blessed One stayed at the Mango
grove of Kunda, who was by family a smith. And
Kunda, the worker in metals,
addressed the
Blessed One, and said : May the Blessed One do me
the honor of taking his meal, together with the
brethren, at my house to-morrow?' And the Blessed
One signified by silence his consent. Now, at the end
of night, Kunda, the worker in metals, made ready
in his dwelling place sweet rice and cakes and a quan-
tity of dried boar's flesh. And the Blessed One robed
himself early in the morning, and, taking his bowl,
went with the brethren to the dwelling place of
Kunda. And when he
seated he addressed
Kunda, the worker in metals, and said: ?As to the
dried boar's flesh you have made ready, serve me with
it, Kunda ; and as to the sweet rice and cakes, serve
the brethren with it.' 'Even so, lord !' said Kunda,
the worker in metals, in assent to the Blessed One. And
the dried boar's flesh he had made ready he served
the Blessed One; whilst the other food
he
served to the members of the Order.
“Now the Blessed One addressed Kunda, and said:
Whatever dried boar's flesh is left over to thee,
was
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
179
Kunda, that bury in a hole. I see no one on earth,
nor in Māra's heaven, nor in Brahmā’s heaven, no one
among gods and men, by whom, when he had eaten it,
that food can be assimilated save by the Tathāgata.'
Even so, lord,' said Kunda. And whatever dried
boar's flesh was left over, that he buried in a hole.
“Now when the Blessed One had eaten the food
prepared by Kunda, there fell upon him a dire sick-
ness, the disease of dysentery, and sharp pain came
upon him, even unto death. But the Blessed One,
mindful and self-possessed, bore it without complaint.”
The Buddha did not immediately die of his painful
ailment, and before passing away he exonorated Kunda
from all blame in the matter.
“And the Blessed One said : Now it may happen,
Ananda, that some one should stir up remorse in
Kunda, the smith,
in that when the Tathā-
gata had eaten his last meal from Kunda's provision,
then he died. Any such remorse, Ananda, should be
checked by saying : This is good to thee, Kunda,
and gain to thee, in that when the Tathāgata had
eaten his last meal from thy provision, then he died.""
“The offering of food, which when a Tathāgata
has eaten, he attains to supreme and perfect insight,
and the offering of food, which when a Tathāgata has
eaten, he passes away, by that utter passing away, in
which nothing whatever remains behind
these
two offerings of food are of equal fruit and equal
profit, and of much greater fruit and much greater
profit than any others.” 1
6
1 Maha-Parinibbana-Sutta, chap. iv,
80
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
THE DEATH OF BUDDHA.
After about forty-five years of itineracy, the death
of Buddha took place, probably a little more than
four hundred years before Christ. 1
The body of Buddha was cremated, and the re-
mains were divided into eight portions, one of which
was assigned to each of the parties claiming it. Over
each portion of the relics a mound was built and a
feast was held.
It is probable that in this Sutta, we have much of
history, not only because it is one of the oldest of the
Buddhist works, but because it records events which
would not have been allowed to make their appear-
ance as fiction.
"The external features of this narrative," says Dr.
Oldenberg, “bear for the most part, though not in
every particular, the stamp of trustworthy tradition.”2
Rhys Davids, Williams and others have called atten-
1 There is quite a difference of opinion concerning the exact date of his
death. Of course there must be as much divergence here as there is in rela-
tion to his birth (see note to p. 64), and even among scholars the variation is
considerable.
Some years ago it was claimed by such men as Burnouf, Lassen, Wilson
and Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire that Buddha's death occurred about 543 B. C.,
which is an earlier date than is now assigned to his birth. But the latest
researches of European scholarship, making use of the inscriptions upon
coins, rocks and columns, besides other data, make it much later.
Cunningham is of the opinion that it occurred about 478 B. C., while Prof.
F. Max Müller speaks of 477 as "the most plausible date." (See Chips, Vol.
I, p. 202.)
Professor Williams thinks it is still later, and assigns 420" as a round
number," although he says that Rhys Davids has good reasons for assigning
the event to a later date than this.
Oldenberg and Rhys Davids place the date of bis decease at "about 420
to 400 B. C., or possibly a year or two later."-Sa. Bks. E., Vol. II, p. 17.
Kern gives 388 as the most probable date.
2 Oldenberg, B., p. 196.
-
HISTORIC SKETCH OF BUDDHA.
81
tion to the fact that it is extremely improbable that
the followers of Buddha should fabricate a story that
he died in consequence of eating too freely of pork,
in view of the fact that he had always forbidden the
killing of animals. . Buddhism required even the
straining of water, lest one should inadvertently de-
stroy life, and the throwing of water upon grass was
forbidden for the same reason. Many animals, includ-
ing the pig, were held to be especially sacred, because
the Buddha was supposed to have occupied such forms
during a multitude of previous births, as will be seen
by the following chapter.
CHAPTER V.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
TRANSMIGRATION
FORMER BIRTHS OF BUDDHA
THE
JĀTAKAS-THE ORTHODOX BELIEF
- VARIOUS FORMS
ASSUMED
THE MONKEYS AND THE DEMON
THE
WILY ANTELOPE
THE BULL WHO WON THE BET
THE, FISH AND HIS WIFE - THE WISE JUDGE. .
THE doctrine of transmigration is much older than
Buddhism, and Herodotus affirms that it origi-
nated in Egypt, where the people believed that when
the body of any one died, the soul entered into some
other creature which was born to receive it., They
supposed that when it had gone the round of all
created forms, on land, in water and in air, it entered
once more into the human body which had been born
for it. This cycle of existence for the soul was be-
lieved to take place once in three thousand years.1 It
is well known that the Egyptians have, for many cen-
turies, exercised great care in the preservation of their
dead. They believe that if a limb is broken from a
mummy that the soul will be crippled in the same
way; and probably the Egyptian custom of embalm-
ing the bodies of cats, crocodiles, bulls and some
other animals, originated in the idea that they had
1 Herodotus, ii, 123.
82
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM,
83
1
1
been inhabited by souls, that might, some day, again
claim these bodies for their own. This theory of
transmigration took early root in Indian soil. It is
openly taught in the first of the series of Upanishads,
and the germs of these doctrinal works are found in
the early songs of the Rig-veda, which reach back in
the world's history almost to the time of the birth of
Moses. 2
In the early Vedic hymns, however, there appears
to be no regular system of either religion or my-
thology, the doctrines of Brāhmanism being elucidated
in later productions. And in these later works a
three-fold alternative is presented to the soul; it may
pass through deities, through men, or through beasts
and plants, according to the degree of merit in the
individual, the lowest degree in transmigration being
either a vegetable or a mineral. But the souls which
have passed even into these lowest forms may after-
ward ascend through various insects, fish, reptiles,
snakes, tortoises and other similar bodies.3
All the theories, however, of the Egyptian and
Brāhman, require the existence of a soul which passes
from one form to another. It was reserved for Bud-
dhism to teach a system of transmigration from one
body to another, even while ignoring the existence of
a conscious entity. In order to serve the cause of
1 According to the chronology usually received by Sanskrit scholars, the
most ancient of these works slightly preceded the rise of Buddhism, and
found their origin five hundred years or more before Christ.
2 The original composition of the earliest songs of the Rig-veda is
assigned to the time between 1500 and 1000 B. C. (See Max Müller, Sir
Monier Williams, Kennedy, Stevenson, Wilson, Barthélemy St. Hilaire and
others.)
3 Manu, 1, 2-40.
84
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
new
morality, Buddha retained the idea of personal iden-
tity, and he therefore established a new connection
between individuals in the chain of existence, which
he acknowledged by the new assertion that the thing
which made two beings to be the same was not soul,
but karma. The peculiarity of this teaching is, that
the result of what a man is, or does, is held to be
concentrated in the formation of a sentient
being; new in its constituent parts and powers, but
the same in its essence, its being, its doing, its karma !
The theory is that as soon as a man,
animal or
angel dies, a new being is produced, in a more or less
painful state of existence, according to the karma-
the desert or merit-of the being who died.1 Re-
birth as an animal, that is to say, the transfer of a
man's karma to an animal, clearly forms a part of the
oldest Buddhist belief; and the authors of later works
rightly take it for granted.
“The curious doctrine of transmigration satisfied the
unfortunate that their present woes were the result of
their actions in a former birth, and would be avoided
in future existences by liberality to the priests in the
present life.” 2
FORMER BIRTHS OF BUDDHA.
In the Cariyă Piţaka, which is included in the sup-
plementary part of the Pāli Pitakas, the karma of
Buddha is represented to have belonged, and apparently
in succession, to both men and animals. It is clear
Also
1 See Rhys Davids, "Origin and Growth of Religiou," pp. 93, 107.
"Buddhism," pp. 24, 101, 104.
2 Ibid, p. 24.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
85
that, during his long period of transmigration from one
form to another, some identity must have been retained
if he could remember the various acts and emotions of
his former lives. He is represented as not only re-
membering his early experiences, but also of repeating
various portions of his pre-existent history for the in-
struction and edification of his hearers. Not only this, ,
but one of the early Suttas records his teaching to the
effect that, by a certain mode of life, his hearers would
be able to call to mind their various temporary con-
ditions in the ages gone by. « Such as one birth, two
births, three, four, five, ten, twenty
dred, a thousand, or an hundred thousand births.
'In that place,' he would then be able to say, 'such
was my name, my family, my caste, my experience of
comfort or of pain, and such the limit of my life.
And when I passed from thence, I took form again in
that other place
and when I fell from thence,
I took form in such and such a place.' ”1
Many of the Buddha's experiences in former births
are given in
THE JĀTAKAS.
a hun-
“The Buddhist scriptures are sometimes spoken of
as consisting of nine different divisions, of which the
seventh is the “Jātakas,' or 'The Jātaka Collection.'
This division of the sacred books is mentioned, not
only in the Dīpavansa itself and in the Sumangala
1 Asankheyya-Sutta, 17. This teaching is apparently as authentic as any-
thing in the whole line of this literature, as it is not only found in this Sutta,
but the text of this clause occurs nearly word for word in the Brahma-jala
Sutta, pp. 17-21. Also in the Lalita Vistara, chap. xxii, p. 442. It also
occurs exactly in the Samanna Phala Sutta, p. 148. (Sa. Bks. E., Vol. II,
0. 216.)
86
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Vilāsinī, but also the Anguttara Nikāya (one of the
later works included in the Pāli Pitakas), and in the
Saddharma Puņdarīka (a late but standard work of
the Northern Buddhists). It is common, therefore, to
both of the two sections of the Buddhist Church;
and it follows that it was probably in use before the
great schism took place, possibly before the Council
of Vesāli. 1 In any case it is important evidence of
the existence of a collection of Jātakas at a very early
'
Among the most interesting and important archaeo-
logical discoveries which have recently been made in
India are those of the Buddhist carvings on the rail-
ings and around the dome-shaped shrines of Amaravatī,
Sānchi and Bharhut. There have been found figures
boldly cut in deep bas-relief which prove to be illustra-
tions of the sacred Birth Stories scenes from the life
of Gautama in his various births, and also illustrations
of the well-known Buddhist theory that, at the time
of his conception, he entered his mother's side in the
form of a white elephant. These bas-reliefs afford
indisputable evidence in relation to the age of the
Jātaka stories, for it proves that they were already,
at the end of the third century before Christ, consid-
ered so sacred that they were chosen as subjects to be
represented around the most sacred Buddhist build-
ings. It is also demonstrated that they were popularly
1 The Council of Vesali was held about one hundred years after the death
of Buddha, to settle disputes as to points of discipline and practice which
had arisen in the Order. The hundred years is a
The hundred years is a “round number," but it is
supposed that the council was held within thirty years of 350 B. C. (See
"Birth Stories," Vol. I, Int. p. 56.)
2 Ibid, Int. p. 82.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
817
known as “Jātakas,” by the inscription over a number
of the carvings on the railing at Bharhut.
THE ORTHODOX BELIEF.
“The belief of orthodox Buddhists on the subject
is that the Buddha was accustomed to explain and
comment upon things which happened around him,
by telling of similar events which had occurred in his
own previous births. The experience, not of one life-
time, but of many lives, was always present in his
mind. The stories thus told are said to have been
reverently learned and repeated by his disciples, and
immediately after his death five hundred and fifty of
them were gathered together in one collection, called
the Book of Five Hundred and Fifty Jātakas or
Births.'
The commentary to this work gives
for each story an account of the event in Gautama's
life which led to the telling of that particular story.
Both text and commentary were then handed down
intact in the Pāli language, in which they were com-
posed, until the time of the Council of Patna. They
were carried in the following year to Ceylon, where
the commentary was translated into Singhalese, and
in the fifth year of our era retranslated in its present
form in the Pāli language. But the text of the
Jātaka stories themselves has been throughout pre-
served in its original Pāli form."
“Unfortunately," continues Rhys Davids, “this
orthodox belief, as to the history of the book, rests
1 B. B. S., Vol. I, Int. pp. 59-69.
2 The Council of Patna is supposed to bave been held about the year 250
B. C.
88
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
upon a foundation of quicksand. The Buddhist belief
that most of their sacred books were in existence im-
mediately after Buddha's death is not only not
supported, but is contradicted by the evidence of the
books themselves.”
Still, it is highly probable that all those Birth
Stories, which are not only found in the Jātaka book
itself, but are also referred to in other parts of the
Pāli Pițakas, are at least older than the Council of
Vesāli.
In thus ascribing an early origin to any portion of
the literature of India, we must rid ourselves of the
thought that it could only exist in written form, as
it was, for centuries, the custom of that people to
pass their sacred books from one generation to the
next, by repetition from the lips of their priests. As
they form a portion of the most sacred of the Bud-
dhist scriptures, being even
being even now daily repeated to
eager listeners in every Buddhist country, and are
believed by the orthodox to be veritable history, the
Jātakas are well worthy of examination, and a few of
them will be given in the present chapter.
VARIOUS FORMS ASSUMED.
It is said there have been five hundred and fifty
different births, concerning which anecdotes have
come down to us, and in some of the Buddhist tem-
ples, it is claimed, there are relics of Gautama in the
IB. B. S. Int. pp 1, 2.
2 Five hundred and fifty is a round number, both in relation to the stories
and the number of births. There are many more of the tales, and in some of
them there are two consecutive births of Buddha, while, at times, several
stories are told of the same birth.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
89
a
He was
shape of hair, feathers and other fragments of the dif-
ferent creatures whose bodies he previously wore.
According to Buddhist authorities, Gautama was
born once each as a fairy, a hare, a frog, a waterfowl,
a carpenter, a devil dancer, a silversmith, a gambler,
curer of snake bites, and a dog. He was born
eighty-three times as an ascetic and eighty-five times
as a king. Twice he was born as a pig, twice as a
thief, twice as a rat, and also repeatedly lived the life
of a jackal, a fish, a woodpecker and a crow.
born forty-three times as a tree-god, and twenty-four
times as a Brāhman.
a Brāhman. In twenty-six lives he was a
teacher, in twenty-four he was a courtier, and he also
led twenty-four lives as a king's son. In three lives
he was an outcast, and in three forms of existence a
potter. Four times he was born a peacock, four times
he was the god Brahmā; in four lives, also, he was
a horse, and four times a bull. In twenty-three lives
he was a nobleman, and in twenty-two a learned man.
Five times he was born an eagle, and five times a
slave. Six times he was an elephant, and six times a
snipe. Eight times he lived as a wild duck, and ten
times he led the life of a lion. Eleven times he was
à deer, and twelve times a man of property. Thirteen
of his lives were devoted to commerce, but eighteen
times he was a monkey.1
“ The noteworthy point,” says Sir M. Monier-Will-
iams, “about the repeated births of Buddha, is that
there has been no Darwinian rise from lower to
higher forms, but a mere jumble of metamorphoses."2
1 B. B. S., p. ci.
2 Williams, B., P. III.
90
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
"1
It is true that he is represented as being born in
the Tusita heavens the last time before he was born
on earth; but, says Oldenberg, “this in no way implies
that a superhuman nature is claimed for him. One
who is a god in one existence may, in the next exist-
ence, be born as an animal, or he may be born in hell.”
Although Buddha passed many lives in the humble
forms of the frog, the snipe, the rat, the fish, the
serpent, the monkey, and others of a similar char-
acter — though he repeatedly led the life of a thief, an
outcast and a gambler, still he escaped the greatest
degradation to which he could have been subjected in
the eyes of the people of India, in that he was never
born a woman !
THE MONKEYS AND THE DEMON.
This is a story which was told by the Teacher when
he was living at the Ketaka wood. It was here that
the novices brought canes to the monks for needle
cases, and, finding them hollow throughout, they went
to the Teacher and inquired of him how it happened
that the Nala-canes were hollow from root to point.
This, mendicants,” said he, “is a former command
of mine." And then he told the tale as follows:
“There was formerly a lake in which there was a
water demon, who used to eat whomsoever went down
into the water. At that time the Bodhisat was
monkey king, as large as the fawn of a red deer, and
he was attended by a troop of about eighty thousand
monkeys. He preserved them from harm, and he said
a
1 Oldenberg, B., p. 324.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
91
to them one day: My children! in this forest there
are poisonous trees, and pools which are haunted by
demons. When you are going to eat fruit which you
have not eaten before, or to drink where you have
not drunk before, ask me about it.'
“They answered in accordance with his wishes, and
one day when searching for water, they found a pool,
but sat down and awaited his arrival before drinking.
“He then examined the shores of the pond, and
saw the marks of footsteps which went down into the
pond, but he found none which came back. Then he
knew it was haunted by demons, and he said: My
children ! you have done well in not drinking this
water, for the pond is haunted !' Then the demon of
the water, seeing that they were not coming in, came
splashing through the water in horrible shape, and
commanded them to come down and drink the water.
The Bodhisat refused to do so, and said : "I
suppose you think we must go down to drink. But
you are wrong! Each one of us eighty thousand shall
take a Nala-cane and drink the water from your pond
without ever entering it, as easily as one would drink
from the hollow stem of a water plant, so you will
have no power to eat us !'”
It was when the Teacher, as Buddha, had recalled
this circumstance that he uttered the following stanza :
“I saw the marks of feet that had gone down,
I saw no marks of feet that had returned ;
We'll drink the water through a reed,
And yet I'll not become your prey."
-
92
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
So saying, the Bodhisat had a Nala-cane brought
to him, and appealing in great solemnity to the Ten
Great Perfections 1 exercised by him in this and pre-
vious births, he blew into the cane, and the cane
became hollow throughout, not a single knot being left
in it. Then the Bodhisat walked round the pond
saying: “Let all the canes growing here be perfor-
ated throughout." And thenceforth, since, through the
greatness and goodness of the Bodhisat, his com-
mands are fulfilled, all the canes which grew in that
pond became perforated throughout.
After giving this command, the Bodhisat took a
cane and seated himself, and the other monkeys (eighty
thousand in number) each took one, and drawing the
water up into their canes, they all sat safely on the
bank while drinking. When the Teacher had finished
his discourse on the hollowness of the canes, he added :
“He who was then the water demon was Deva-datta ;
the eighty thousand monkeys were the Buddha's reti-
nue; but the monkey king, clever in resource, was I
myself.” 2
"Long ago, in the fifth dispensation before the
present one, the Bodhisat was a dealer in brass and
tinware in a
à country called Servia. He here went
from house to house buying up old metals, and it was
here that he incurred the hatred of a rival dealer
(who was afterward born as Deva-datta), by buying a
1 Generosity, morality, self-denial, wisdom, perseverance, patience, truth,
resolution, kindness and resignation.
2 This is the Nala-pana Jataka, and it is probably the one which is illus-
trated by the Bharhut sculptor in the scene where he has represented many
monkeys sitting down and listening to the discourse of the Bodhisat.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
93
golden dish which the other hawker had temporarily
refused for the purpose of getting it cheaper.
When Gautama was living as the Buddha, and this
man had been born as Deva-datta, he became a Bud-
dhist, but on one occasion he asked for the Five
Rules, and failing to get them, he made a schism in
the Order, and taking four hundred of the mendi-
cants with him, went and dwelt elsewhere. And hence
his enmity for Buddha had obtained through the long
ages of many births.
THE WILY ANTELOPE.
This story is told by the Teacher about Deva-datta
while they were at Jetavana. The monks sat talking
in the lecture hall of the wickedness of him who,
they said, was seeking to slay the Sage. "Not only
now, O mendicants !” said the Teacher, “has Deva-
datta gone about to slay me; he formerly did the
same and was unsuccessful." « Once upon a time,”
he continued, “the Bodhisat became an antelope, and
lived in his forest home, feeding upon fruits, and at
one time he went often to a certain heavily laden
tree. A deer stalker in the village near by, noted
the tracks of the deer at the foot of the tree, and
after an early breakfast he climbed the tree with his
javelin and waited for his game. The Bodhisat, too,
left his lair early in the morning, and came up to eat
the fruits ; but, instead of going hastily to the tree,
he thought to himself: "The hunters are sometimes in
the trees; I wonder if there can be any danger of that
kind ?' And he stopped at a distance. Seeing him
94
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
saw
hesitate the hunter cautiously threw some fruit toward
him. Then, looking up, the Bodhisat
the
hunter, but pretending not to see him he called out:
O tree! you have been wont to let your fruit fall
straight down, but to-day you have given up your
tree nature, so I shall go and seek my food else-
where.' Then the angry hunter hurled his javelin
after him, exclaiming: ‘Away with you— I have lost
you this time!' The Bodhisat turned around and
replied : O man! I tell you that, though you have
lost me this time, you have not lost the eight great
hells and the sixteen
sixteen Ussada hells, and five-fold
bondage and torment, the result of your conduct .
These you have not lost.""
And when the Teacher had finished this discourse,
he added these words: “He who was then the
hunter was Deva-datta, but the antelope was I my-
self.” 1
THE BULL WHO WON THE BET.
There were six bad monks whose evil deeds and
words are said to have given occasion for many a
by-law which was enacted in the Vinaya Pițaka for
the guidance of the Buddhist order of mendicants.
And on one occasion, the six made a disturbance by
scorning, snubbing and annoying peaceable monks, and
overwhelming them with the ten kinds of abuse. Bud-
dha reproved the refractory monks, saying: "Harsh
speaking, O mendicants ! is unpleasant even to ani
mals. An animal once made a man lose a thousand
1 B. B. S., p. 237.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
95
move
who addressed him harshly. Long ago, in the reign
of King Gandhāra, the Bodhisat came to life as a
bull. The bull's name was Nandi Visāla, and the
owner was very fond of it, feeding it on gruel and
rice. The animal became very strong, and one day
he said to his owner : Go now to some rich squire,
rich in cattle, and offer to bet him a thousand that
your ox will
a hundred laden carts.' The
Brāhman did so, and the cattle owner readily took
the bet; whereupon the owner of Nandi Visāla filled
an hundred carts with sand and gravel stones, ranged
them all in a row, and tied them firmly together.
Then he bathed the ox, gave him a
gave him a measure of
scented rice, hung a garland around his neck, and
yoked him by himself to the front cart. Then he
took his seat on the pole, raised his goad aloft, and
called out: Gee up, you brute! Drag 'em along,
you wretch !' The Bodhisat said to himself: “He
calls me a wretch. I am no wretch !' and he stood
perfectly still. Then the squire claimed his bet, and
the Brāhman was compelled to pay him a thousand
pieces, after which he went home overwhelmed with
grief. Afterward Nanda Visāla said to his master: 'I
have lived long in your house ; have I ever done
any harm ?' And the Brāhman answered : "Never.'
"Then why did you call me a wretch ? "Your loss is
your own fault. It's not my fault. Go now and bet
him two thousand, and never call me a wretch again
I who am no wretch at all!'
“So the Brāhman went and bet two thousand, and
the carts were tied together as before, and when all
96
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
was ready the Brāhman seated himself on the pole,
stroked Nandi Visāla on the back, and called out :
'Gee up, my beauty! Drag it along, my beauty!'
"And the Bodhisat with one mighty effort dragged
forward the hundred heavily laden carts, and brought
the hindmost one up to where the foremost one had
formerly stood. Then the cattle owner acknowledged
himself beaten, and handed over the two thousand
pieces to the Brāhman. The bystanders also gave a
large sum to the Bodhisat, and the whole became the
property of the Brāhman."
After repeating this circumstance the Buddha
uttered the following stanza to the six mendicants as
a rule of conduct :
Speak kindly; never speak in words unkind !
He moved a heavy weight for him who kindly spake.
He gained him wealth; he was delighted with him!”
When the Teacher had given them this lesson in
virtue, he summed up the Jātaka as follows:
Brāhman of that time was Ananda, but Nandi Visāla
(the kind bull) was I myself." i
66 The
THE FISH AND HIS WIFE.
It sometimes happened that after deserting his wife
and children to become a member of the order of
mendicants, the human heart of the monk hungered
for his family, and longed for the company of the
loving wife whom he had left. While at Jetavana
Buddha learned that one of his followers was thus
tempted, and he asked him : “Is it true, then, that
you are lovesick ?"
1 B. B. S., p. 266.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
97
“It is true, lord ! was the reply.
“What has made you sad ?"
“Sweet is the touch of the hand of her who was
formerly my wife. I cannot forsake her!'
“O brother ! ” said the Teacher, “this woman does
you harm. In a former birth, also, you were just
being killed through her when I came up and saved
you.
When Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares the
Bodhisat became his private chaplain. At that time
certain fishermen were casting their nets into the river,
and a big fish came swimming along with his wife.
She was in front of him, and smelling the net she
made a circuit and escaped it, but the other went into
it. When the fishermen felt him coming in they
pulled up the net, seized the fish and threw him alive
on the sands, and began to prepare a fire and spit,
intending to cook and eat it,
Then the fish lamented, saying to himself: “The
heat of the fire would not hurt me, nor the torture
of the spit, nor any other pain of that sort; but that
my wife should sorrow over me, thinking I must have
deserted her for another, that is, indeed, a dire affic-
tion !” And he uttered the following stanza :
« 'Tis not the heat, 'tis not the cold,
'Tis not the torture of the net;
But that my wife should think of me,
'He's gone now to another for delight.'"
Just then the chaplain came down, attended by his
slaves, to bathe at the ford. And he understood the
language of all animals; so hearing the fish's lament,
98
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
our
curry ?"
he thought : “This fish is lamenting the lament of sin .
Should he die in this unhealthy frame of mind he
would assuredly be reborn in hell. I will save him."
And he went to the fishermen and said: “My good
men, do you not furnish a fish for us every day for
And they gave him the fish. The
Bodhisat took it up in his hands, seated himself on
the river side, and said to it: “My good fish! Had
I not caught sight of you this day, you would have
lost your life. Now, henceforth, sin no more!” And
thus exhorting it he threw it into the water and re-
turned to the city.
When the Teacher had finished this discourse he
proclaimed the truths, and the depressed monk was
established in
in the fruit of conversion. Then
Then the
Teacher made the connection, and summed up the
Jātaka: - She who at that time was the female fish
was the former wife; the fish was the depressed monk,
but the chaplain was I myself.”i
In striking contrast with the foregoing, we find a
story in the same collection which was apparently bor-
rowed from an earlier
an earlier literature. It appears to be
merely an Indian version of the judgment of Solo-
mon recorded in the Book of Kings, which is much
older than Buddha. Of course the narrative has re-
ceived certain characteristic accretions, and Buddha is
made the hero, but the similarities are too strong to
be ignored by scholars. The facilities for possible bor-
rowing from the older Semitic literature will be
discussed in another chapter.2
I B. B. S., 29.9.
? See Chap. X.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
99
THE WISE JUDGE.
6
“A woman carrying her child, went to the future
Buddha's tank to wash. And, having first bathed the
child, she descended into the water to bathe herself.
Then a Yakshiņī,seeing the child, had a craving to
eat it. And taking the form of a woman she drew
near and asked the mother: "Friend, this is a very
pretty child ; is it one of yours ?' Being told that it
was, she asked if she might nurse it. This being
allowed, she nursed it a little and then carried it off.
But when the mother saw this, she ran after her and
caught hold of her, crying out:
•Where are you
taking my child ?' The Yakshiņi boldly said : It is
mine!' And so quarreling, they passed the door of
the future Buddha's judgment hall. Hearing the
noise, he sent for them, and after inquiring into the
matter, he asked if they would abide by his decision.
“They agreed to do so, and he then had a line
drawn on the ground, and told the Yakshiņi to take
hold of the child's arms, and the mother to take hold
of its legs. The child,' said he, shall be her's who
drags him over the line.'
“But as soon as they pulled at him, the mother,
seeing how he suffered, grieved as if her heart would
break, and letting him go, she stood there weeping.
“ Then the future Buddha asked the bystanders :
· Whose hearts are tender to babes; those who have
borne children or those who have not ?'
1 The Yakshas, products of witchcraft and cannibalism, are beings of
magical power who feed upon human flesh. The male (Yaksha) occupies
in the Buddhist stories a position similar to that of the wicked genius i:1
the Arabian Nights. The female (Yakshini), who occurs more frequently,
usually plays the part of a siren.
100
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
“And they answered : O Sire! the hearts of
mothers are tender.'
"Whom do you think is the mother ; she who has
the child in her arms or she who has let go ?'
“And they answered : She who has let go is the
mother.'
"This,' said he (of her who held the child), is a
Yakshiņī, who took the child to eat it.'
wro Sire! How did you know it!!
"Because her eyes winked not and were red, and
she knew no fear and had no pity, I knew it.'
“On being questioned, the Yakshiņī then confessed
her identity and admitted that she took the child to
eat it. But the mother exalted the future Buddha,
and, praising him, she went away with her child clasped
to her bosom."1
A limited space forbids the examination of many
other interesting stories belonging to this series.
For instance, a story which was told by Buddha at
Jetavana while the December festival was being held
to celebrate the close of the season called so was," or
the months of rainy weather. The Buddha had spent
" was” among the angels, not because he cared to go
to heaven for his own sake, but he went in order sto
give the angels an opportunity of learning how to for-
sake the error of their ways.
After remaining some time in heaven, he descended
on the day of this great festival; and when the monks
were seated in the great lecture hall, they began to
"2
1 B. B. S. Int. p. 14.
2 See Professor Cowell in Indian Antiquary for 1879,
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
101
extol the virtues of the Teacher, saying: “Truly,
brethren! unequaled is the power of the Tathāgata.
The yoke which the Tathāgata bears, none else is able
to bear !” “O mendicants," said the Buddha, “who
should now bear the yoke that I can bear ? For
even when an animal in a former birth, I could find
no one to drag the weight which I dragged." He
then told them of his experience when he was the old
woman's black bull, and his name was - Blackie.” It
was then that he was enabled to make money for his
owner by dragging carts, which were so heavy that not
one of them could be moved by five hundred pair of
other cattle.1
He also told the story of his birth as a wise dog,
when he convinced the king that the royal harness
had been gnawed by the dogs belonging to the palace,
and thereby saved the life of himself and other vagrant
dogs that had been accused of the act.2
And again he told of his life as a king of the
geese, when he rebuked the vanity of a monk who
had been born as a dancing peacock.3
The fact that many elaborate similes are used to
enforce the arguments in the Pāli Suttas would seem
to prove that Buddha was accustomed to teach in the
way which these stories indicate.
“It is not improbable," says Rhys Davids, “that
the compiler was quite correct in attributing to him
that subtle sense of humor which led to inventing, as
1 B. B. S., p. 270.
2 Ibid, p. 240.
3 Ibid, p. 291. The story of the dancing peacock is one of those which
are illustrated by the carvings in bas-relief around the Great Tope at
Bharhut. It must, therefore, be very old.
102
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
occasion arose, some fable or some tale of previous
birth, to explain away existing failures in the conduct
of monks or to draw a moral from contemporaneous
events.” 1
All animals are more or less venerated under the
Buddhist system-indeed, it cannot be otherwise when
every Buddhist believes that Buddha himself was in-
carnated hundreds of times in various animal forms.
As Buddha was a pig in two of his births, and died
at last in consequence of eating too freely of pork, even
the pig is sacred, and in the sculptures of the Tāntrik
goddess Vajra-vārāhī (adopted by Northern Buddhists),
a row of seven pigs is carved underneath her, and one
of her three heads is that of a pig.
The feeling of reverence for animals, which is so
prominent à feature of Buddhism, rests upon the
doctrine of metempsychosis. Of course neither Hindu
nor Buddhist can draw a line of demarkation between
gods, men and animals, when the same living being may
exist as a god, a man or an animal. It is on this account
that in India animals mingle freely with the natives.
“Bulls walk about independently in the streets and
jostle you on the pavements; monkeys domesticate
themselves on the roof of your house; crows make
themselves at home on the window sill and carry off
any portable article of jewelry that takes their fancy
on your dressing table; sparrows take the bread off
your table cloth; swarms of insects claim a portion of
your meal; bats career triumphantly about your head
in the bedroom, and, at certain seasons, snakes domi-
1 Rhys Davids, [bid, p. Ixxxiv.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM.
103
cilè themselves unpleasantly in the folds of your
garments.” 1
Among the animals which are represented in the
sacred Bharhut sculptures, there are no less than four-
teen quadrupeds, six birds, one snake, one fish, one
insect (the flesh fly), one crocodile, two tortoises, one
lizard and one frog.
According to the Buddhist theory, man may be born
again in the form of either animal, bird or reptile, or
he may be born as a god or demon. "If he be born
in hell he is not thereby debarred from seeking sal-
vation; and even if he be born in heaven as a god,
he must some time leave his happy estate and seek
for the condition of the perfect man who has at-
tained Nirvāṇa, and is soon to achieve the only
consummation for which it is worth while to live-
extinction of personal existence in Pari-nirvāna."2
1 Williams, p. 524.
2 Ibid, B., p. 122.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
METAPHYSICS THE SOUL - ATHEISM POLYTHEISM
IDOLATRY PRAYER
RA PESSIMISM HEAVEN HELL
SALVATION MORALITY NIRVĀŅA PARI-NIR-
VĀŅA.
THE
HE philosophical doctrines which were taught by
Buddha consisted largely of a system of negations.
The metaphysics of Buddhism were freely taught in
the Vagrakkhedikā, or the Diamond Cutter, 1 which
is not only an early work, but is one of the most
widely read and highly valued of the metaphysical
treatises of Japan.
“Dharma," says F. Max Müller, "in ordinary Bud-
dhist phraseology, may be correctly rendered by law.'
But in our treatise, dharma is generally used in a dif-
ferent
It means form (Greek, eidos), and
likewise what is possessed of form, what is individual,
in fact, what we mean by a thing or an object.
“ - What our treatise wishes to teach is that all
objects, differing from one another, by their dharmas,
sense.
1 This work was written originally in Sanskrit, and has been translated
into Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol and Mandshu. The first Chinese translation
is ascribed to Kumaragiva of the latter Tsin dynasty (A. D. 384-417), and an
English translation of this was published by the Rev. S. Beal in the Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1864-5.
104
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
105
are illusive, or, as we should say, phenomenal and
subjective---that they are, in fact, of our own making,
the products of our own mind.
And, hence,
the Buddhist metaphysician tells us that things are
but names, and being names they are neither what
they seem to be, nor what they do not seem to be.
There are, in fact, no objects independent of us;
hence, whoever speaks of things or persons uses names
only.
“We may speak of a dog, but there is no such thing
as a dog. It is always either a greyhound or a span-
iel, this or that dog, but dog is only an abstraction, a
name, a concept of our mind. The same applies to
quadruped, animal and being; they are all names,
with nothing corresponding to them. This is what is
meant by the highest perfect Icnowledge, in which noth-
ing, not even the smallest thing is known, or known to
be known In that knowledge there is no difference ;
it is always the same, and, therefore, perfect. He who
has attained this knowledge believes neither in the
idea, that is, the name of a thing, nor the idea of a
no-thing, and Buddha by using this expression, the
idea or name of a thing, implies thereby that it is
not the idea of a thing. This metaphysical agnos-
ticism is represented as familiar even to children and
ignorant persons, and if it were meant to be so the
endless repetition of the same process of reasoning
may find its explanation.
It was clearly stated at the Congress of Religions 2
1 در
1 Sa. Bks. E. Vol. XLIX, p. xiv, Int. to the Vagrakkhedika.
2 Congress of Religions held in Chicago, September, 1893.
106
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
that this extreme scepticism is really the popular view
of the present followers of the Mahā-yāna Buddhism.
A deputy sent by the leading sects in Japan sub-
mitted to the Congress an outline of the doctrines of
the Mahā-yāna Buddhists, which had been carefully
examined and approved by scholars belonging to six
of the Buddhists sects in Japan ; it was, therefore,
published with authority, and in this document the
doctrine was emphatically taught.
THE SOUL.
It is in harmony with this system of negation that
Buddhism was constructed independently of the theory
of a soul. The belief in a soul is represented as one
of the primary delusions which must be abandoned at
the very first stage of the Buddhist path. Man is
never the same for two consecutive moments, and
there is within him no abiding principle whatever.
In the Sabbāsava Sutta, in speaking of the
brethren who “consider unwisely,” Buddha says: “As
something true and real he gets the notion : 'I have
a self'
as something true and real he gets
the notion : By myself, I am conscious of myself.'
Or, again, he gets the notion : This soul of
mine can be perceived, it has experienced the result
of good and evil actions committed here and there ;
now, this soul of mine is permanent, lasting, eternal,
and has the quality of never changing, and will con-
tinue forever and ever!'
"This, brethren, is called the walking in delusion,
the puppet show of delusion, the writhing of delusion,
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
109
the fetter of delusion. Bound, brethren, with this
fetter of delusion, the ignorant, unconverted man
becomes not free from birth, decayand death; from
sorrows, lamentation, pains, griefs, and from expedi-
ents (the practice of rites and ceremonies and the
worship of gods) - he does not become, I say, free
from pain.”1
No true Buddhist, therefore, believes in the passing
of a soul from one body to another, but rather in the
passing on of the merit or demerit resulting from
one's actions. It is this act force (karma) combined
with upadana (clinging to existence) which is the
connecting link between each man's past, present and
future bodies. Buddhists appear to be entirely uncon-
scious of the inconsistency involved by claiming that
personality is transmitted when there is no conscious-
ness of any identity. Neither do they seem aware
that there is any incongruity in claiming that Buddha
could remember the experience of all his past lives,
even though there was no conscious entity which sur-
vived the death of either body.
ATHEISM.
It is entirely in harmony with this system of nega-
tions that Buddha claimed that there was no god
higher than himself. “Buddhism has no creator, no
creation, no original germ of all things, no soul of the
world, no personal, no impersonal, no supermundane,
no antemundane principle."2 The idea of a personal
creator is not only denied, but Buddha claimed to
find no one in the universe who was his own equal.
1 Sabbasava Sutta, 10-12.
2 Williams, B., 117.
108
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
An ascetic by the name of Upāsaka came to him
to inquire of whom he had learned his philosophy,
whereupon Buddha replied as follows: “I have no
teacher; there is no
there is no one who resembles me. In the
world of gods I have no equal. I am the most noble
being in the world, the irrefutable teacher, the sole
all-pervading Buddha.'
In one section of the Vinaya Pitaka a story is told
of a Brāhman who ventured to inquire why it was
that Buddha did not honor the aged Brāhmans by
rising in their presence and inviting them to be
seated. Buddha replied : “Brāhman, I do not see
any one in the heavenly worlds, nor in that of Māra,
nor among the inhabitants of the Brahmā worlds,
nor among gods or men, whom it would be proper for
me to honor, or in whose presence I ought to rise up,
or whom I ought to request to be seated. Should the
Tathāgata (Buddha) thus act toward any one, that
person's head would immediately fall off.” 1
But, although he did not acknowledge any being
in the universe to be superior to himself, he did
recognize the various gods of the Hindu pantheon,
and it will be remembered that it was claimed he was
born forty-three times as a tree god. “These gods or
spirits were preserved very much in the previous order
of precedence, and were all (except Māra, the Evil
One, and his personal following) supposed to be pas-
sably good Buddhists. They were not feared, but
patronized as a sort of fairies, usually beneficent, ,
though always more or less foolish and ignorant.
1 Quoted by Max Müller, Science of Rel., p. 171.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
109
men,
They were no longer worshiped, for they were con-
sidered less worthy of reverence than any good and
wise man.
They were not eternal - all of them, even
the highest, being liable to death. If they behaved
well, they were reborn under happy outward condi-
tions, and might even look forward to being born
sometime as
No exception was made in the
case of Brahmā. He also was evanescent, was bound
by the chain of existence, the result of ignorance, and
could only find salvation by walking along the eight-
fold path. It must be remembered that the Brahmā
of modern times -- the God of
the God of the ardent theism of
some of the best of the later Hindūsm had not then
come into existence; that conception was one effect of
the influence of Mohammedan and Christian thought
upon Hindū minds. But even if the idea of Brahma
were all the same as the idea of a god, a union with
him would mean merely a temporary life as an angel
in the Brahmā heavens.” 1
The radical atheism of Buddha, concerning the ex-
istence of any superior being, resulted in absurd
polytheism among his followers.
POLYTHEISM.
He taught that man has no Father to whom he
can appeal for aid or sympathy, but the higher sen-
timents of the human heart naturally reach upward,
seeking some object of veneration, and no man can
set his affections
affections upon a blank or an abstraction.
Hence there are now multitudes of gods in the Bud-
dhist pantheon.
1 Sa. Bks. E., Vol. XI, p. 163-164.
.
110
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
We have the first or lowest class of Brahmă gods
inhabiting the lowest tiers of their abodes, the second
class inhabiting the second tier, and the third class
inhabiting the highest of the three tiers. But there
are many other classes of gods besides those belonging
to the Brahmā abodes. Indra was the most popular
deity of the early Buddhists, and the Dhamma-pada
mentions also Agni, the god of fire, and again Antaka,
god of death, sometimes identified with Māra or Yama,
“ruler in hell.” The Buddhism of the North became
identified with Saivism, Sāktism, Magic, and even with
Tāntrism 1 with its horribly loathsome accompaniments.
In the northern countries, various forms of ſiva
and of his wife are honored, and their images are found
in the temples. Sometimes bloody sacrifices are offered
to them. Among the female deities the various forms
of Tārā2 are chiefly worshiped and regarded as Śaktis
of the Buddhas. It is held by the disciples of the
more advanced Mahā-yāna, especially in Nepāl, that
there are five Śaktis or female energies (correspond-
ing to five human Buddhas), but the goddess Tārā
was also worshiped by Buddhists in India proper.
Among the many shrines at Ceylon there are some
which are dedicated to a demonical goddess called
Pattini, and every disease, every calamity, has its pre-
siding demon, and all such demons are the servants of
Buddha. Among other supernatural beings of Hindū
i The worship of the female principle (Sakti).
2 The images of Tara (the wife or Sakti of one of the Buddhas) repre-
sent her as a green sedent figure, with her right hand on her knee and her
left holding a lotus.
3 A standing image of the goddess Pattini may be seen in the British
Museum,
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
111
mythology that were adopted with slight changes by
the Buddhists, we find the Pretas.
These are sup-
posed to partake of the nature of ghosts and goblins
who have at one time inhabited the earth, and they
are represented as being of gigantic size and terrific
appearance; they are constantly suffering with hunger
and thirst, yet never able to eat or drink on account
of their contracted throats. They are sometimes repre-
sented as trying to eat dead bodies or their own flesh.
The Asuras are evil demons who, like the Titans of
Greek mythology, are always at war with the gods.
Closely connected with them are the Rākshasas, with
their strongly
strongly developed
developed man-eating propensities.
There are also very malignant demons, called Piśāćas,
who are the authors of all evils.
An important feature is also found in the Nāgas,
and to these constant allusion is made. They prop-
erly belong to a class of serpent demons, having
human faces and serpent-like lower extremities.
They are introduced into Buddhist sculptures as
worshipers of Buddha and friends of all Buddhists.
The Nāga Mućalinda who sheltered Buddha was a real
serpent. The Nāga-kanyās or female Nāgas (serpents
from the waist downward) are frequently mentioned.1
There are, too, the Mahoragas or great dragons, who
also belong to the serpent class of demons, and there
are many other classes which it would be too tedious
to enumerate.
1 An interesting image of a Naga-kanya may be found in the Museum of
the Indian Institute at Oxford University It belongs to a collection of
Buddhist antiquities, which was kindly loaned by Mr. R. Sewall, of the
Madras Civil Service,
112
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
The worship of devils and demons existed in Ceylon
before the introduction of Buddhism, but it was readily
adopted by the new system, and the hideous rites con-
nected therewith became a prominent feature.
IDOLATRY.
The pandits claim there was no idolatry in India
until the Buddhists set the example of worshiping
material objects and images, and, although it seems
probable that material impersonations of the forces of
nature existed before Buddha's time, there is no evi-
dence of actual idolatry at the time the Rig-veda wa
composed.
But during the reign of Buddhism, the development
of every phase of idolatrous superstition reached a
point of extravagance unparalleled in any other system
in the world. The monks of Buddhism vied with each
other in the fraud with which they constructed their
idols. They manipulated them so that they seemed to
give out light or to flash glances from their crystal
eyes; made them deliver oracular utterances, or fur-
nished them with movable limbs, so that a head would
unexpectedly nod or a hand be raised to bless the
worshiper.
Besides the countless images of Gautama Buddha,
there are images of the Buddhas who preceded him,
and Fa-hien records that he saw in Northern India
a wooden image of Maitreya Bodhisat, eighty cubits in
height, which on certain days emitted a brilliant light.
Offerings were continually made to it by the kings in
the surrounding countries.
1
i Legge, 23.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
113
It was not until the introduction of the worship of
Avalokitesvara that the followers of Buddha thought
of endowing the figures of their deified saints with an
extra number of heads and arms. This deity was rep-
resented with eleven heads, and these were generally
arranged in four rows, each series of faces having a
different complexion.
In China this god is represented as a woman, with
a thousand arms and a thousand eyes. She has her
principal seat on the island of Poo-too, on the coast of
China, which is a place of pilgrimage. There are two
images of her in the British Museum, one with six-
teen arms and the other with eight. Idols are far
more numerous in Buddhist countries than among any
other idolatrous people, and not only this, but there
are many other sacred objects which Buddhists of all
schools hold in veneration, such as relics, footprints,
trees, utensils, bells, symbols and animals. In many
instances homage is actually offered to these things.
Tradition claims that Gautama once directed Ananda
to break off the branch of the pīpal tree under which
he attained to Buddhahood, and plant it in the garden.
“He who worships it," said Gautama, “will receive
the same reward as if he worshiped me.”2 Whether
or not there be any truth in this legend, we certainly
have the best of authority from many sources that the
Bodhi tree (or pīpal) is the most sacred of all the
trees of Buddhism, and for centuries actual homage
has been paid to it in Buddhist countries.
1 The three faces resting on the neck are white, the three above yellow,
the next three are red, the tenth head is blue, and the eleventh, that is, the
head of his father, at the top of all, is red.-Williams, p. 487.
2 Ibid, p. 517.
114
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
PRAYER.
As,
Buddha believed in no god except those Hindu
deities who were considered inferior to himself, he of
course taught his followers to utter no prayer in the
true sense of the word. They could not make an ap-
peal to a power in whose existence they did not
believe. He established no real church ; instead of it
priesthood or clergy, ordained for the purpose of aid-
ing men in their progress toward a glorious immor-
tality, he founded an Order of Monks pledged to
denounce human life as not worth living, and bound
to abstain from all participation in human affairs. It
is evident that there could be no place for genuine
prayer in such a system of negations, therefore the
three-refuge formulal was the only substitute of the
early Buddhists, and in Ceylon it is maintained to
this day that this is the only form of prayer that
should ever be used. Other formulas, however, came
into use, and it is supposed that merit may be accumu-
lated by the constant repetition of them. The most
common form used in Tibet consists of the sentence :
“Om! maņi, padme Hüm.” (Om ! the jewel in the
lotus.) This is called the Mani, or Jewel prayer, and
the Tibetan believes it to be a panacea for all evil,
the treasury of all knowledge and the summary of all
religion. The oftener it is repeated the shorter will be
1 See p. 134.
2 It is thought that an occult meaning underlies the jewel lotus formula,
and that many who repeat it are ignorantly doing homage to the self-gener-
ative power supposed to inhere in the universe—& power pointed at by the
popular Sankhya theory of the union of Prakriti and Purusha, and by the
universal worship of the Linga and Yoni throughout India. (See Williams,
B., p. 372; also Koeppen's note, Brahmanism and Hinduism, p. 33.)
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
115
the individual's course through the six forms of ex-
istence. Although not repeated like a prayer, in the
sense of a petition, the words are murmured every-
where, and also written upon rolls of paper and
inscribed in cylinders,1 every revolution of which is
supposed to repeat the mystic sentence. These revolu-
tions are credited as so much “prayer merit,” and a
metallic cylinder, containing the words, is carried in
the hand and whirled around like a child's toy. The
revolutions must always be in a particular direction
(with the sun), for, if by chance it revolved the other
way, its rotations would be set down to the debtor
rather than the creditor side of the owner's account.
It is said that when Baron Schilling visited a cer-
tain convent he found the Lāmas occupied in prepar-
ing one hundred millions of copies of “Om! maņi,
padne Hūm,” to be inserted in a prayer cylinder.
He also states that the inscription relating to the
foundation of the monastery of Hemis records the set-
ting up of three hundred thousand prayer cylinders
along the walls and passages of the monastery.?
Although this is especially true of Northern Bud-
dhism, still the prayer wheel is also common in Japan,
where civilization has obtained so strong a hold, and
other methods are often used. An eye witness gives
the following description of an idol seen in Japan :
“In one shrine is a large idol spotted all over with
pellets of paper, and hundreds of these may be seen
1 A complete temple of Buddha, with praying machines, bells, sacred
towels, idols, etc., has recently been brought from the Orient to Phila-
delphia.
2 Dr. Schlagintweit, p. 121.
116
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
sticking to the wire netting which protects him. А
worshiper writes his petition on paper, or, better still,
has it written by a priest, chews it to a pulp and
spits it at the divinity. If, having been well aimed,
it passes through the wire and sticks, it is a good
omen, but if it lodges in the netting the prayer has
probably been unheard. On the left there is a shrine
with a screen to which innumerable prayers have been
tied. On the right sits one of Buddha's original dis-
ciples. A Koolie with a swelled knee applied it to
the knee of the idol, while one with inflamed eyelids
rubbed his eyelids upon it.”1
BELLS.
A very important part of a monk's equipment in
Tibet is the prayer bell which is rung to accompany
the repetition of prayers. The object of ringing bells
during worship is to call the attention of the beings
who are worshiped, or to keep off evil spirits by com-
bining the noise with the waving of the handle. In
Burma bells abound everywhere.
everywhere. They are never
rung in peals or with a clapper; they are used to draw
the attention of the deities and spirits to the act of
worship, and thus secure the proper registration of
the prayer merit. When a man has finished his repe-
titions he strikes the bell with a piece of wood or
other sacred implement, and the more noise he makes
the more effective it is supposed to be in calling
attention to his meritorious act.
“Having thus begun," says Renan, “with
rs with pure
1 Bird, “Unbeaten Tracks in Japun." (Murray, London.)
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
1117
negation, Buddhism must drift into the most unre-
strained superstition. The needs of the human heart
resumed the ascendant; the influence of Saivaism gave
access to all mythological complications.
At
the same time moral character disappears ; religion
consists only in turning the wheel, making statuettes
of Buddha and offering flowers to the statuettes.
Pious Buddhists spend their time in counting the
revolutions of the wheel, calculating chimerical num-
bers, and beating drums to drive away the demons.
All is pure idolatry.” 1
Perhaps the great French critic is somewhat severe,
for, although their prayers may be repeated by ma-
chinery, written upon paper or inscribed on rocks,
still there is probably something of the spirit of devo-
tion connected even with idolatry and superstition.
PESSIMISM.
THE Buddha was the prince of pessimists, and in de-
scribing the misery of life he nowhere alludes to the
happiness which may be derived from health, friends,
love, or existence in a world of beauty. But he
claims that his followers must believe his doctrine
must abandon wife and children - live upon alms as
does the monk, suppress the individual self, and keep
in mind the impermanence and impurities of the
body. His “way of knowledge” was a knowledge of
the idea that life was merely one link in a chain of
existences, all of which were inseparably bound up in
suffering and misery.
i Renan, Studies in Rel. Hist., p. 110.
118
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
The common doctrine that everything was for the
worst, was freely taught by Brāhmanism, and con-
tinued to be a doctrine of Hinduism long after the
disappearance of Buddhism. The great effort, there-
fore, was to find a way for deliverance from the
misery believed to result from ceaseless rebirth, as the
various schools were in harmony with each other in
relation to the following sentiment:
“Enjoyments are alloyed by fear of sickness,
High rank may have a fall, abundant wealth
Is subject to exactions, dignity
Encounters risk of insult, strength is ever
In danger of enfeeblement by foes,
A handsome form is jeoparded by women,
Scripture is open to assaults of critics,
Merit incurs the spite of wicked men,
The body lives in constant dread of death --
One course alone is proof against alarms,
Renounce the world and safety may be won.
"1
HEAVEN.
Although heaven is only a temporary abode, still
the founder of Buddhism believed in the old Hindū
gods, and, while claiming that they were inferior to
men, he promised his followers that they should be
born after death in the heavens of the gods. Accord-
ing to the later Buddhistic theory, there were twenty-
six successive tiers of heavens, one rising above the
other.
In the center of the world system, on the upper
I Vairagya-sataka, III, p. 32, 50.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
119
portion of the great mythical mountain Meru, we
have the lowest heaven of the gods. This is above
the worlds of ghosts, of demons and of men, also
above the eight principal hells, and here abide the
four great champions who guard the earth and heavens
from the demons who are constantly assailing them
from below.
The second is the heaven of Indra, who was the
favorite god of the Hindūs for centuries.
The third heavens are inhabited by beings called
Yāmas. They take no part in the strife which is con-
stantly waged by the gods of the two lower heavens
against the demons, and who are unable to advance
into these higher regions.
The fourth heaven is that of the Tushitas or per-
fectly contented beings. This is a peculiarly sacred
region, and is the home of those who are destined to
become Buddhas.
The fifth region of happiness is inhabited by beings
who constantly enjoy themselves with pleasures pro-
vided by themselves.
The sixth heaven is the abode of beings called
Māras, and are “lords of sensuous desires.” They are
ruled over by a chief Māra who tempts men, and is
always on the watch to enter the citadel of the body
by way of the eye or the ear.
He is sometimes repre-
sented as the Buddhist Satan, and sometimes as
superior god. One of his names is Kāma (desire).
Above these, there are sixteen other and higher
heavens, which are occupied by different classes, and
high above these are worlds which are inhabited by
a
120
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
formless entities. In the first of these formless
worlds are beings who are capable of conceiving
the idea of infinite space. In the second are those
who can conceive of infinite intelligence. In the
third are those who can conceive the idea of abso-
lute nonentity, or the doctrine that nothing whatever
exists anywhere. The fourth of these, and highest of
all the twenty-six, is occupied by “beings who abide
in neither consciousness or unconsciousness, and this
is considered the most sublime of all conditions in the
heavenly world, and belongs to mystical Buddhism.” i
HELL,
.
The descriptions of hell are very graphic, and the
doctrine of the Buddhist contains no forgiveness.
os Not in the heavens," says the Dhamma-pada, "not in
the midst of the sea
wilt thou find a place
where thou canst escape the force resulting from thy
evil action."2 In Brāhmanism, also, the influence of
his own karma or action is universal in determining
the form of every being at the time of his rebirth.
A passage in the Deva-duta-sutta represents king
Yāma as pronouncing the doom of a wicked man
thus : “These, thy evil deeds, are not the work of
others; thou alone hast done them all; thou alone
must bear the fruit. And then the warders of hell
drag him to a place of torment, rivet him to red-hot
iron, plunge him into glowing seas of blood, torture
him on heaps of burning coal; and he dies not until
the last residue of his guilt has been expiated.”3
3 Translated by Oldenberg.
1 Williams, B., p. 213.
2 Dhanma-padı, 127.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
121
Although the punishment of hell is not eternal, its
shortest duration is five hundred of the years of hell,
each day of which equals fifty years of earth.1
In Brāhmanism there are twenty-one hells, while
Buddhism had originally only eight; later, however,
there came to be one hundred and thirty-six divisions
for the reception of different offenders. These hells
are all in tiers one above the other, and they lie deep
under the earth in the lower regions of the Cakra-vala.
One of the most important temples at Ceylon is
the temple of “the sacred eye tooth," and its walls
are decorated with colored frescoes of the eight prin-
cipal hells. Some of those who are undergoing pur-
gatorial torments are represented as being cut in pieces
by demons, or fixed on red-hot iron spikes; others
are torn asunder with glowing tongs, or they are being
sawn in two with saws; others are being crushed be-
tween rocks or consumed by flames entering the differ-
ent apertures of their bodies.2
The Burmese authorities thus describe the hell to
which Deva-datta was condemned for repeatedly at-
tempting the life of Buddha : os His feet are sunk
ankle deep in burning marl. His head is incased with
a red-hot iron metal cap down to the lobe of the ears.
Two large red-hot iron bars transfix him from the
back to the front, two horizontally from right to left,
and one impales him from head to foot.” 3
The following description of a portion of the pun-
ishments which are experienced in the various hells of
Buddhism is given in the Buddha-karita : “These
1 Williams, 115-122.
2 Ibid, 454.
8 Shway Yoe's "Burman," I, 122.
122
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
living beings under the influence of evil actions pass
into wretched worlds
and, being born in a
dreadful hell, full of terrors, are miserably tortured,
alas ! by many kinds of suffering. Some are made to
drink molten iron of the color of fire; others are lifted
aloft screaming on a red-hot iron pillar ; others are
baked like flour, thrown with their heads downward
into iron jars; others are miserably burned in heaps of
heated charcoal ; some are devoured by fierce, dreadful
dogs, with iron teeth; others by gloating crows, with
iron beaks, and all made, as it were, of iron; some,
wearied of being burned, long for cool shade; these
enter like bound captives into a dark-blue wood, with
swords for leaves ; others, having many arms, are split
like timber with axes, but even in that agony they do
not die, being supported in their vital powers by their
previous actions.”
An earlier authority than the one above quoted is
the Mahā-vagga, which is considered one of the most
ancient of the Pāli works. It is here that we find
Buddha's own description of the punishment of back-
biters :
“To the place where one is struck with iron rods,
to the iron stake with sharp edges he goes; then there
is for him food as appropriate, resembling a red-hot
ball of iron.
“For those who have anything to say there, do not
say fine things, they do not approach with pleasing
i This doctrine in regard to the punishment of the wicked is given as a
part of the enlightenment which Buddha attained under the Bo-tree, and
this was the “true knowledge” which was gained in the second watch.
(See Buddha-karita, Bk. XIV, 10-16.)
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
123
faces; they do not find refuge from their sufferings,
they lie on spread embers, they enter the blazing
pyre.
.
“Covering them with a net, they kill them there
with iron hammers; they go to dense darkness, for
that is spread out like the body of the earth.
“ Then they enter an iron pot, they enter a blaz-
ing pyre, for they are boiled in those iron pots for a
long time, jumping up and down in the pyre.
“ Then he who commits sin is surely boiled in a
mixture of matter and blood; whatever quarter he
inhabits he becomes rotten there from coming in con-
tact with matter and blood.
“Again they enter the sharp Asipattavana with
mangled limbs; having seized the tongue with a hook
the different watchmen of hell kill them.
" Then they enter Vctarani that is difficult to cross,
and has got streams of razors with sharp edges; there
the fools fall in, the evil-doers after having done evil.
" "There black mottled ravens
mottled ravens eat them who are
weeping, and dogs, jackals, great vultures, falcons and
crows tear them."
The reader can but note that he who could invent
such tortures as these to be visited upon his fellow-
creatures does not spare the life of the serpent or the
insect from a feeling of genuine humanity, but rather
on account of his belief in metempsychosis. It is diffi-
cult for either a Hindū or a Buddhist to draw a line
of demarkation between gods, men and animals when
the same living being may exist as a god, or a man
or an animal.
1 Maha-vagga, Kokaliya-sutta, 11-19.
124
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
SALVATION.
The true Buddhist does not "seek for glory, honor
and immortality;" on the contrary, his every effort is
to avoid a future life. The whole system being
founded upon the declaration that “all life, even in
heaven, is misery,” the great desideratum is the final
escape from the endless wheel of existence.
“Of deliverance of that from which we are to be
delivered,” says Oldenberg, "of the way in which we
shall be delivered of this, and nothing else
do the sermons of Buddha, as rule, treat. God and
the universe trouble not the Buddhist; he only knows
one question: "How shall I, in this world of suffer-
ing, be delivered from suffering ?»»i
His “ way of knowledge” was a knowledge of the
truth that all life was misery, and the two causes of
suffering were lust and ignorance. The first cure was
the suppression of lust and desire, especially for all de-
sire for continued existence. The second cure was the
removal of ignorance — ignorance of the fact that all
life is misery- that the misery of life is caused by
indulging in lusts, and will cease by suppressing them.
But, although he claimed that all life proceeded
from ignorance, he nevertheless taught that life in one
of the heavens was better than life in one of the
hells, and neither a higher form of life nor the great
aim of Nirvāņa could be attained without right
action, meditation and true knowledge.
1 Oldenberg, B., P, 130.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
125
MORALITY.
Buddhism, like Manu, made morality the basis of
law; it stimulated good conduct by its doctrine of
repeated births, and by the pictures of a multitude
of heavens, while it deterred its followers, as far as
possible, from evil conduct by its vivid pictures of ter-
rible hells. It could not speak of sin as an offense
against God, as it recognized no deity higher than
man; it, therefore, spoke of “demerit," and promised
to those who attained perfection that they should be
“ free from pain.
The moral code soon passed beyond the system
which Buddha presented in his "eight-fold path,"
but Dr. Oldenberg has shown that we may still trace
out the leading duties of external life and internal
mental concentration. The five fundamental prohibi-
tions were formulated at an early day; indeed, some
of them were taught by the Jewish law-giver centu-
ries before the birth of Buddha :
1. Thou shalt not kill.
2. Thou shalt not steal.
3. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
4. Thou shalt not lie or bear false witness.
5. Thou shalt not drink strong drink.
Besides these, five other commandments were given,
and these were for the benefit of the monks :
6. Eat no food except at stated times.
19. Use no wreaths, ornaments or perfumes.
8. Use no high or broad bed, but only a mat on
the ground.
-
126
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
9. Abstain from dancing, singing, music and worldly
spectacles.
10. Own no gold or silver of any kind, and accept
none.
All gambling and games of chance were prohibited,
and sometimes five renunciations are named : The
renunciation of wife, of children, of money, of life,
and of craving for existence in future births.
There are also six (now ten) transcendent virtues,
called Paramitas.
NIRVĀŅA.
This term was not original with Buddha; it was
current in Gautama's time, and certainly occurs in the
Mahā-bhārata, some portions of which are of great an-
tiquity. It is now common, however, to both Brāh-
manism and Buddhism. The subject has caused much
discussion among scholars, and the principal cause of
the difficulty is the contradictory teaching of the native
authorities upon the question.
The meaning of the word is “extinction," “blown
out," or "the state of a blown-out flame.” The Bud-
dhist who arrives at perfection is supposed to be
“blown out” (if we may use Buddhist phraseology)
like a lamp. Some Orientalists, however, claim that
the word means merely the extinction of all passions
and desires, and the attainment of a condition which
is free from all pain, all thought, all. action and all
feeling — a condition which is "neither consciousness
nor unconsciousness," while others argue that it repre-
sents complete and final extinction. The discussions
upon this subject are not by any means of modern
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
127
origin, for the different schools of Buddhists in India,
and even the philosophers of the same school, pro-
pounded many opinions as the explanation of this
term, and the teachers maintained various theories
upon the question.
But we cannot expect that Nirvāņa should always
be explained in the same way by a system which is so
elastic that it changes its front to suit the character-
istics or opinions of every country which it approaches.
Buddha himself frequently spoke of his approaching
death as the “final extinction of the Tathāgata” (or
Buddha). He also spoke repeatedly of passing away
by that utter passing away in which nothing whatever
remains behind.” 1
And again : “The body of the Perfect One, O dis-
ciples, subsists cut off from the stream of becoming.
As long as his body subsists, so long will gods and
men see him ; if his body be dissolved, his life run out,
gods and men shall no more behold him." 2
On the death of one of his disciples he gave utter-
ance to the following sentiment: “Dissolved is the
body, extinct is perception; the sensations have all
vanished away. The confirmations have found their
repose; the consciousness has sunk to its rest.” 3
When the venerable Godlika had passed away, it is
said that the followers of Buddha saw a cloud of
smoke moving around the corpse, and they asked the
Teacher what it meant.
That is Māra the Wicked One, 0 disciples," re-
plied Buddha. "He is looking for the noble Godhika's
1 See p. 77.
2 Brahmajala sutta. (See the close.)
-3 Udana (Phayre MS.) See also Oldenberg, p. 286.
128
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
consciousness: where has the noble Godhika's con-
sciousness found its place ? But the noble Godhika has
entered into Nirvāņa; his consciousness nowhere re-
mains.” 1
In these extracts and some others, we have the
doctrine of eternal oblivion unmistakably taught by
Buddha himself, but, at other times and under other
circumstances, he persistently declined to give any defi-
nite answer whatever to the anxious questions of his
followers. 2
It is also repeatedly taught in the sacred texts that
"the Perfect One neither exists after death nor does
he not exist." 3
After a careful examination of the subject, Dr.
Oldenberg says: “Does the path lead into a new ex-
istence? Does it lead into the Nothing? The Bud-
dhist creed rests in delicate equipoise between the two.
The longing of the heart that craves the eternal has
not nothing, and yet the thought has not a something
which it might firmly grasp. Farther off the eternal
could not withdraw itself from belief than it has
done here, where, on the point of merging into the
Nothing, it threatens to evade the gaze.” 4
Professor Childers has attempted to reconcile the
conflicting statements of the Buddhists on this subject
by the following explanation: “It is well known that
in the Buddhist books there are two distinct sets of
epithets applied to Nirvāņa, the one implying a state
of purity, tranquillity and bliss, and the other imply-
1 Samyutta Nikaya, Vol. I, fol. ghi. Ibid, 281.
3 Samyutta Nikaya, Vol. II, fol. uo, seq.
2 Ibid, 277-283.
4 Oldenberg, B., p. 284.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
129
1
ing extinction and annihilation. This circumstance
has given rise to endless discussions relative to the
true nature of Nirvāņa, the result being that most
conflicting views have been held on this question by
European scholars.
"The theory which I propose is one which, if true,
will, I think, meet all difficulties and reconcile the
expressions in the Buddhist texts, even the most oppo-
site and antagonistic. It is: That the word Nirvāņa
is applied to two different things; first, to the annihi-
lation of existence, which is the ultimate goal of Bud-
dhism, and, secondly, to the state of sanctification,
which is the stepping-stone to annihilation, and with-
out which annihilation cannot be obtained.'
'Buddhism," says Max Müller, “if tested by its
own canonical books cannot be freed from the charge
of Nihilism.
The ineradicable feeling of
dependence on something else, which is the main-
spring of all religion, was completely numbed in the
early Buddhist metaphysicians, and it was only after
several generations had passed away, and after Bud-
dhism had become the creed of millions, that this
feeling returned with increased warmth, changing the
very nothing into a paradise and defying the very
Buddha who had denied the existence of a deity.
In India also, Buddhism, as soon as it be-
came a popular religion, had to speak a more human
language than that of metaphysical Pyrrhonism. But
if it did so, it was because it was shamed into it.
This we may see from the very nicknames which the
! Childers, Tribner's Literary Record, June 25, 1870,
130
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
"1
ing.”
No person,
Brāhmans applied to their opponents. They called
them Nástikas-those who maintain there is noth-
“I pointed out," he says, "on a former
occasion that if we derive our ideas of Nirvāṇa from
the Abhidharma
we cannot escape the con-
clusion that it meant perfect annihilation. Nothing
has been brought forward to invalidate Burnouf's
statements on this subject; much has since been
added, especially by Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire, to
strengthen and support them.
reading with attention the metaphysical speculations
on Nirvāņa contained in the Buddhist canon, can
arrive at any other conviction than that expressed by
Burnouf, viz. : that Nirvāņa, the highest aim, the
SUINmum bonum of Buddhism, is the absolute noth-
He calls attention, however, to the very
apparent fact that, although Buddhism teaches it, it
does not necessarily follow that it was the sentiment
of Buddha himself, who repeatedly evaded the ques-
tion, and still, at times, he taught most explicitly that
there would be no consciousness of the perfected one
after death.3
Rhys Davids claims (as does Childers) that while
Nirvāṇa is not in itself absolute extinction, it never-
theless leads to the shoreless sea of oblivion.
a Buddhist has become an Arahat," he says, “when
he has reached Nirvāņa, he has extinguished sin, but
he is still alive; his body with all its powers (that is,
the fruits of his former sins) still remains. These,
» 2
ing.”
6. When
1 Chips, Vol. I, pp. 280, 281.
2 Max Müller, Science of Religion, p. 178.
? Chips, Vol. I, p. 230.
TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM, CONCLUDED.
131
however, will soon pass away, there will then be
nothing left to bring about a new individual, and the
Arahat will be no longer alive or existent in any
sense at all. He will have reached complete extinc-
tion."i The solution presented by Sir Monier Monier-
Williams is much the same. He argues that Nirvāņa
is not in itself necessarily. the annihilation of all
existence - it is the absence of pain, and also of
demerit, and of all thought and all work. “It is
not consciousness, neither is it unconsciousness." 3
PARI-NIRVĀŅA.
+
Besides Nirväņa we have another term - Pari-nir-
vāņa; that is, “without remains or remnants of the
elements of existence." 4 This is the oblivion to which
Rhys Davids refers when he says that “Death, utter
death, with no new life to follow, is the result of
Nirvāņa.”5
It is the condition to which Childers
refers when he says that "Nirvāņa is the stepping
stone to annihilation.” It is what Williams calls
“the extinction of personal existence in Pari-nir-
vāņa."6
We see, therefore, that the efforts of scholars to
reconcile the contradictory teaching of the Buddhist
1 Rhys Davids, B., p. 113.
2 As Buddhism had no God in its system, neither could it have any sin in
our sense of the word. “By an unrighteous act it meant an act producing
suffering and demerit of some kind, and it bade every man act righteously
in order to escape suffering, and thus work out his own perfection - that is,
his own self-extinction."'-Williams, B., p. 124,
3 Ibid, p. 141.
4 Childers' Pali Dictionary,
5 Rhys Davids, B., p. 114.
o Williams, B., p. 122.
132
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
authorities upon this subject are quite harmonious
after all. There are shades of thought and definition,
it is true, but they agree that the summum bonum of
Buddhist ambition is the absolute nothing. The only
question being whether Nirvāṇa itself is utter extinc-
tion or only a half conscious condition which is to be
succeeded by eternal oblivion.
It is true that, in modern times, Buddhists who
have intercourse with Christian countries sometimes
claim that “Nirvāņa means union and communion
with God, the absorption of the individual soul by
the Divine essence.' But no position could be more
absurd than this, in view of the fact that true Bud-
dhism believes in no God with whom a union could
be formed, and no soul to be absorbed if, indeed, it
did recognize a Divine essence. "Buddha himself,"
says Max Müller, “was certainly an atheist; therefore,
if Nirvāṇa was not in his mind) complete annihila-
tion, still less could it have been absorption into the
Divine essence. It was nothing but selfishness — in
the metaphysical sense of the word — a relapse into
that being which is nothing but itself. This is the
most charitable view which we can take of Nirvāņa,
even as conceived by Buddha himself, and it is the
view which Burnouf derived from the canonical books
of the Northern Buddhists.” 1
1 Chips, Vol. I, p. 284.
CHAPTER VII.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
ORDINATION
OF
THE
BHIKKHUS
OR MONKS
RULES
FOR THEIR DIRECTION
UNSANITARY LAWS - UN-
SANITARY CLOTHING -
PROTECTION FROM VENOMOUS
SERPENTS THE SERPENT WHO JOINED THE ORDER
NUNS - BUDDHA'S PROPHECY — RESULTS OF MONK-
HOOD.
THE
an
HE foundations of Buddhism were not laid upon
the sacred hearthstone of pure family life; on
the contrary, he admonished his followers to forsake
their wives and children, abandon their homes and
form themselves into Order of
of Monks. This
organization was not a hierarchy. It had no ecclesi-
astical organization; its first head, the Buddha, ap-
pointed no successor. It was not a church, and it had
no rite of ordination in the true sense.
It was a
brotherhood, in which all were under certain obliga-
tions and restraints, and were pledged to the propa-
gation of the doctrine that all life was misery, whether
on earth or in heaven, and that life, whether in pres-
ent or future bodies, could only be avoided by a long
course of discipline. The founding of a monastic
brotherhood of this kind, which made personal extinc-
133
134
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
tion its final aim, and which might be co-extensive
with the world, was Buddha's chief aim.
This Order began with ten members, but its growth
was rapid and, in many ways, phenomenal. It is true
that the warfare which he waged against marriage ex-
cited the opposition of the people. They complained
that the practical working of his theories destroyed
family life, and must also bring destitution, as the
monks were forbidden to work, obtaining their living
by carrying from door to door a bowl in which they
received scraps of food.
Lay-brothers and lay-sisters were therefore a neces-
sity. Married householders who were working people
were actually necessary for the support of the monks.
The formula for the admission of these members was
extremely simple, being merely the repetition of the
following words:
"I go for refuge to the Buddha,
I go for refuge to the Law,
I go for refuge to the Order.” 1
It was understood that they should abstain from the
five gross offenses which are prohibited in the first
portion of the decalogue,2 but the principal test of loy-
alty was their willingness to serve the monks. They
could not be called Buddhists, however, in the truest
sense, unless they entered the great army of mendi-
cants.
ORDINATION OF THE BHIKKHUS OR MONKS.
Monks were received into the Order by successive
forms and ceremonies. At first, of course, there was
1 Naha-V., T, 7, 10.
2 See p. 125.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
135
1
no one who could ordain them except Buddha, and it
was sufficient for him to say : “Come, follow me.
The first converts were monks only; later, however,
the three-refuge formula, as given above, was used for
both monks and laymen. After this, it was said of
converts that they "obtained the spotless eye of
truth," when they “obtained the knowledge that
whosoever is subject to the condition of origination
is subject also to the condition of cessation." This is
everywhere repeated, and when they had fully mastered
this idea the Blessed One said to them : Come, o
Bhikkhus! well taught is the doctrine; lead a holy life
for the sake of the complete extinction of suffering."
Still later the ceremony became much longer and
more complicated. The candidates were catechised in
reference to their health, sex, caste and financial posi-
tion. Also in reference to age, name and condition of
robe and alms-bowl. When the men to be ordained be-
came disconcerted and could not answer these questions,
Buddha appointed an instructor for them. When the
candidate was sufficiently taught to enable him to
answer them, he was told to adjust his upper robe, to
raise his joined hands, and to ask for the ordination
by a prescribed formula three times repeated. Then a
monk formally announced that the candidate was free
from disqualifications -- that his alms-bowl and robes
were in due state. After this he was received by
vote. “Then," said Buddha, “let them measure the
shadow; tell the newly ordained monk what season
and what date it is — tell him the whole formula and
the 'four resources.'" ?
i Maha-y., 2., 3.
2 Maha-v., I, 76, 1.
136
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
THE FOUR RESOURCES.
“I prescribe, O Bhikkhus! that he who confers the
upasampadā ordination upon a Bhikkhu, tell him the
four resources.
""The religious life has morsels of food, given in
in alms, for its resource. Thus you must endeavor to
live all your life.'
“The religious life has the robe made of rags,
taken from the dust-heap, for its resource.
must endeavor to live all your life.'
56. The religious life has dwelling at the foot of a
tree for its resource. Thus you must endeavor to live
all your life.'
"The religious life has decomposing urine for its
medicine. Thus you must endeavor to live all your
Thus you
life.' » 1
There were extra allowances sometimes given be-
sides the resources, as meals by invitation or food
distributed by ticket, and also certain articles, such as
oil and molasses.
At that time a certain youth came to the Bhikkhus
and asked them to ordain him. The Bhikkhus told
him the four resources before ordination, whereupon
he refused to receive the rite. When the fact was
told to Buddha, he answered as follows: “You ought
not, 0 Bhikkhus, to tell the resources to the candi-
dates before their ordination. He who does so is
guilty of a dukkata offense.2 I prescribe, O Bhik-
1 Ibid, I, 30, 4.
2 A slight offense for which no penance was required except confession.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
133
khus, that you tell the resources to the newly
ordained Bhikkhus immediately after
sampadā.” 1
their upa-
RULES FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE MONKS.
The Pātimokkha is one of the oldest of all the
Buddhist text-books. The name seems to have owed
its origin to the ancient Indian custom of holding
sacred two periods in each month — the times of the
new and the full moon. The Sangha fraternity made
use of the gatherings at these meetings for confession.
It was at these periods that each monk confessed to
the assembled Order the faults he had committed and
received penance therefor. The directions found in
the Pātimokkha include not only penalties for lying,
stealing and other immoralities, but the most trivial
affairs of life are given a great degree of importance.
For instance, the whole of the second section is
devoted to directions concerning the rugs of the
monks, and the following rules are a sample of
others : - Whatsoever Bhikkhu shall have a rug made
of pure black wool or goat's hair — that is an offense
involving forfeiture. In case a Bhikkhu is having a
new rug made, two parts should be taken of black
wool, the third part of white, and the fourth brown.
When a Bhikkhu is having a new rug made, a piece
which is a span's width, should be taken from around
the old one. If he has one made without taking a
span's width from all round the old one
that is an
offense involving forfeiture. Whatsoever Bhikkhu shall
get a goat's wool washed or dyed, or combed out by a
1 Maha-v., 1, 31, 3.
138
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Bhikshuni (or nun) who is not related to him that
is an offense involving forfeiture.” 1
Many pages are devoted to the proper time for
receiving robes, the way they should be made, the
length of time they should be worn, and many other
particulars. They should be made of rags from a dust
heap or a cemetery, or if of new cloth it must be torn
into rags and sewn together. "A Bhikkhu who re-
ceives a new robe must choose one of three modes of
disfigurement — either making a part of it dark blue,
or marking it with black mud, or making part of it
black.”2 Many pages are also devoted to the rules in
relation to the shoes or slippers.
In relation to women the rules were very strict,
the monks not being allowed to touch a woman's
hand or walk along the road with her (except under
certain conditions), or to preach the Dhamma to her
in more than five or six words, “without the pres-
ence of a man who had arrived at the years of
discretion.” The grossest breach of morality, however,
was ranked with the offense of having a needle-case
made of the wrong material — each one being a Pākit-
tiya. These offenses range in their gravity with the
dukkata, and require only simple confession. 4
UNSANITARY LAWS.
It must be confessed that, in some respects, the
law of Buddha was very far from being sanitary.
1 Patimokkba, Sec. iii, 17.
2 Ibid, Sec. vi, 58.
3 Compare Aniyata Dhamma, 2, and Pakittiya Dhamma, 45 and 44, with 86.
4 See Kulla-vagga, XI, 1, 10,
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
139
1 ر
For instance, the following statement is made in the
Mahā-vagga : “Now, at that time, a certain Bhikkhu
had a disease not human. He went to a place where
swine were slaughtered, and ate the raw flesh and
drank the blood. Thereby his sickness was abated.
They told this thing to the Blessed One, and he re-
plied: 'I allow, O Bhikkhus, in the case of disease
not human, the use of raw flesh and blood.'”1
“Now, at that time," again says the Maha-vagga,
“a certain Bhikkhu had jaundice.” On this occasion
the Buddha prescribed as a medicine an article too
revolting for description.2
Although the killing of any animal or insect was
strictly forbidden, still there is frequent mention of
the eating of flesh, and on one occasion it was charged
that « Sīha has killed a great ox and has made a
meal for Gautama; the Gautama knowingly eats of
the meat of an animal killed for this very purpose,
and has thus become virtually the author of that deed
(of killing the animal).” The offense seemed to con-
sist in eating animals when the monks knew that they
had been killed purposely for them.
“Let no one, O Bhikkhus, knowingly eat meat of
an animal killed for that purpose.
scribe, O Bhikkhus, that fish is pure to you, if you
have not seen, if you have not heard, if you do not
suspect, that it has been caught specially to be given
I pre-
you.”3
“At that time the king's elephants died
when the Bhikkhus came and asked for alms they
1 Maha-v., VI, 10, 2.
? Ibid, VI, 14, 7.
3 Ibid, VI, 31, 13–14.
140
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
gave them elephant's flesh. The Bhikkhus ate that
elephant's flesh. The people were annoyed and be-
came angry. How can they eat elephant's flesh ?
Elephants are an attribute of royalty. If the king
knew that, they would not be in favor.' They told
this thing to the Blessed One. 'Let no one, O Bhik-
khus, eat elephant's flesh; he who does so commits a
dukkața offense.
At that time the king's horses died, and when the
Bhikkhus asked for alms they gave them horse flesh.
Then the people were annoyed
and asked :
“How can they eat horse flesh ? Horses are an attri-
bute of royalty. If the king knew that, they would
not be in favor.” Then they told this thing to the
Blessed One: “Let no one, O Bhikkhus, eat horse
flesh. He who does so commits a dukkața offense.” 1
It will be noted that in these cases there is no sug-
gestion that it was not healthful or proper to eat the
flesh of animals that had died a natural death, but the
offense is placed upon the ground that the king would
be displeased if he knew that they had eaten of ani-
mals which "are an attribute of royalty.” It is further
stated that they ate dog's flesh, and, again, that they
ate serpent's flesh.
“And the serpent king went to the place where
the Blessed One was
and said to him: "There
are, Lord, unbelieving serpents who are disinclined (to
the faith), these might do harm to the Bhikkhus,
even on trifling occasions. Pray, Lord, let not their
reverences eat serpent's flesh. In consequence of that
1 Maha, V1, 23, 10.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
141
the Blessed One thus addressed them: “Let no one,
O Bhikkhus, eat serpent's flesh.
He who does so com-
mits a dukkața offense.” 1
“They ate lion's flesh, then the lions, attracted by
the smell of lion's flesh, fell on them in the forest.
Let no one, O Bhikkhus, eat lion's flesh. The
same thing is repeated in the case of a tiger, panther,
bear and hyena. In each case they are admonished
not to eat the food, not because it was an offense
against the law, but because the animals, attracted by
the smell of their kind, attacked the monks. There
is also, in these sacred Pāli texts, a story of a monk
who was sick, and wanted some broth when there was
no meat to be had. Whereupon, a devoted lay woman
cut off a portion of her own flesh, and had a broth
made of it for the sick man. In case of snake-bite,
the monks were given “ashes, manure, urine and clay.”
Again, when a certain monk had taken poison,
Buddha prescribed a most loathsome decoction to be
taken into the stomach.3
They were allowed the fat of bears, of fish, of alli-
gators, of swine and other animals, provided it was
received, mixed and cooked at the proper time. “If
the fat be received, 0 Bhikkhus! at the wrong time,
cooked at the wrong time, mixed at the wrong time,
and then taken, the Bhikkhu is guilty of three duk-
kata offenses."
UNSANITARY CLOTHING.
Not only did they at times use the flesh of animals
which had died a natural death, and take the most
I Maha, VI, 23, 13.
2 Maba-v., VI, 23, 3.
3 Ibid, VI, 14, 6.
142
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
disgusting compounds of filth for medicine, but they
were allowed to go to cemeteries for their robes. The
whole of section four, in the eighth Khandhaka, is
devoted to the proper conduct of monks toward each
other during their visits to the cemetery for that pur-
pose. At that time a party of monks went into a
cemetery to get robes, and the others did not wait for
their return. Therefore, they refused to divide the
robes with those who did not wait for them, but the
Buddha ordered them to divide with them. At an-
other time, two parties went to the cemetery, but
only those who arrived first were fortunate enough to
obtain robes, and they refused to divide with the less
fortunate party. On this occasion Buddha's decision
was as follows: “I prescribe, O Bhikkhus! that you
are not obliged to give a part against your will to
those who have gone to the cemetery later than your-
selves."i Not only were they allowed unsanitary food
and clothing, but they were forbidden to bathe at
intervals of less than half a month, except on special
occasions.
PROTECTION FROM VENOMOUS SERPENTS.
As a safeguard against the bite of the venomous
serpents which infest India, Buddha instructed his
monks to repeat a formula in which they declared
their great love for the four breeds of royal serpents.
“Now at that time a certain Bhikkhu died of the
bite of a snake. They told this matter to the Blessed
One. “Now, surely, that Bhikkhu, O Bhikkhus, had
1 Ibid, VIII, 1, 2, 4; I, 5.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
143
not let his love flow out over the four royal breeds of
serpents! Had he done so he would not die of the
bite of a snake.
I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to
make use of a safeguard for yourselves, for your
security and protection, by letting your love flow out
over the four royal breeds of serpents. And thus,
0 Bhikkhus, are you to do so:
“I love (here follow the names of the four royal
breeds of snakes).
“I love live things that have no feet; the bipeds,
too, I love.
“I love four-footed creatures, and things with many
feet.
“Let no footless thing do hurt to me, nor thing
that has two feet.
Made is my safeguard,
made is my defense. Let living things retreat whilst
I revere the Blessed One, the Buddhas, seven,
preme.” 1
This early statement has been expanded also into
Jātaka, in which all the verses which are here given,
and some others, are used as a snake charm.2 In
another place they were allowed supports to their beds
as a protection from snakes, but they were forbidden
to have them more than eight inches high.3
Su-
THE SERPENT WHO JOINED THE ORDER.
was
" At that time there a serpent who was
aggrieved at and ashamed of having been born as a
serpent. Now he thought: What am I to do in
i Kulla-vagga, v, 6, 1.
2 Khandha-vatta Jataka, No. 203, in Prof. Fausbölle edition, Vol. II, pp.
144-148.
3 Kulla-vagga, vi, 2.5,
144
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
order to become released from being a serpent and
quickly to obtain human nature.
If I could
obtain pabbaggā I should be released from being a
serpent and quickly obtain human nature.'
" Then that serpent, in the shape of a youth, went
to the Bhikkhus and asked them for the pabbaggā
ordination ; the Bhikkhus conferred on him the pab-
baggā and upasampada ordinations.
“At that time the serpent dwelt with a certain
Bhikkhu who arose at dawn, and was walking up and
down in the open air. When the Bhikkhu had left,
the serpent thought he was safe from discovery, nd
fell asleep in his natural shape. The whole Vihāra
was filled with the snake's body; his windings jutted
out of the window. Then the Bhikkhu thought: 'I
will go back to the Vihāra,' and opening the door he
saw the whole Vihāra filled with the snake's body and
the windings jutting out of the window. Then he
was terrified and cried out, bringing his friends to the
scene.
“Then the serpent awoke in the noise, and sat
down upon a seat. The Bhikkhus asked him who he
was, and he answered: 'I am a serpent, reverend sirs,'
and told them the whole story, and they told it to
the Blessed One. The Blessed One ordered the fra-
ternity of Bhikkhus to assemble, and then said to the
serpent: You serpents are not capable of spiritual
growth in this doctrine and discipline. However, ser-
pent, go and observe fast on the fourteenth, fifteenth
and eighth day of each half month ; thus will you be
released from being a serpent and quickly obtain
human nature.'
.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
145
“ Then the serpent shed tears, and made an outcry
and went away.
Then the Blessed One said to the
Bhikkhus: “Let an animal that has not received the
upasampadā ordination not receive it; if it has re-
ceived it, let it be expelled from the fraternity.'”i
1 در و
NUNS.
Important Buddhistic authorities 2 agree that women
were indebted to the good offices of Ananda for
the privilege of taking holy vows. Gautami, who
had faithfully nursed the Buddha after the death of
his mother, besought him repeatedly to allow women
to enter the order, but he constantly refused. Such
was her devotion that she succeeded in gathering
together five hundred
women, who
shaved their
heads, put on bhikshuni's clothing and followed him
into the Natika country, coming into his presence
wearied, ragged and covered with dust.
Here the faithful Gautami again presented her
plea, but only to be refused as on other occasions.
She, therefore, took her seat outside of the house and
wept. It was there that Ananda saw her, and kindly
inquired the cause of her grief. Upon learning it he
went immediately to Buddha and presented a plea in
her behalf.
" Ananda,” replied Buddha, "ask not that women
be admitted to the order; for if women enter, the
rules of the order will not last long.
field of sugar cane is blighted, it is worthless, good for
nothing; so will it be, Ananda, if women enter the
If a
1 Maha-vagga, 1, 63, 1.
2 Kulla-yagga, X, 1, 3; also Vinaya-pitaka.
146
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
order, the rules of the order will not last long.”1 He
also compared women to the five kinds of dangerous
serpents, the angry, the spiteful, the hating, the un-
grateful, and the venomous. Nevertheless, in response
to Ananda's repeated pleadings he gave Gautami per-
mission to enter the order if she complied with the
following rules :
1. She must thoroughly understand the nature of
a bhikshuni (or nun).
2. A bhikshuni being near bhikshus (or monks)
shall be taught twice a month.
3. A bhikshuni shall not pass the period of was 3
in a place where there are no bhikshus,
4. A bhikshuni during was shall be sufficiently sep-
arated from the bhikshus, so as not to hear them or
fear proximity.
5. A bhikshuni by words reviving recollections shall
not damage the morals of a bhikshu.
6. A bhikshuni shall not be wrathful, abusive, nor
do anything sinful.
ry. A bhikshuni shall confess her sins to a bhikshu
every fortnight.
8. A bhikshuni, though she has been ordained a
hundred years, shall always speak kindly to a bhikshu,,
even if he be recently ordained. She shall honor him,
rise up before him, reverence him, and bow down to
him.4
Gautami accepted these conditions, and she and
i Vinaya-pitaka, f. 330a.
2 Tibetan Dulya, X, f. 1276.
3 The period called " was" is, in Ceylon, the finest part of the year. It
includes the four riliny months from June to October,
4 Dulya, f. 331. Also Kulla-v., 10, 1, 4.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
147
others were permitted to take the vows. Afterward,
however, Ananda was bitterly reproached for his
agency in the matter of having an order of nuns
founded. Kāsyapa is represented as saying to him :
• Ānanda, thou wast the Blessed One's close attendant
but if thou sayest that thou hast done no
wrong to the congregation, how comes it that when
the Blessed One said that women were as dangerous
as snakes, and said it would be wrong to admit them
to the order, thou didst ask that they might be
allowed to enter it?"
"Bear with me awhile," replied Ananda. "I
thought of all that Gautami had endured, and how it
was she that had nursed the Blessed One when his
mother died. I only asked that women who are rela-
tives and friends might enter the order — surely that
was no subject of shame."
BUDDHA'S PROPHECY.
Although he had given permission for women to
take the vows in compliance with the constant en-
treaty of Ananda and the woman to whom he was
indebted for his continued existence after the death of
his mother, still Buddha also censured Ananda for his
part in the matter, and it was upon this occasion that
Buddha uttered the memorable prophecy that his doc-
trine would continue only five hundred years.
“If, Ananda, women had not received permission to
go out from the household life and enter the homeless
state under the doctrine and discipline of the Tathā-
gata, then would the pure religion have lasted long,
148
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
the good law would have stood fast for a thousand
years. But since, Ananda, women have now received
that permission, the pure religion, Ananda, will not
now last so long, the good law will now stand fast for
only five hundred years.
RESULTS OF MONKHOOD.
It must be confessed that Buddha was a a woman-
hater as well as a hater of the marriage covenant, and
his Order of Monks resulted to a great extent in moral
disaster. In herding men together and depriving them
of the society of womanhood for life, he did violence
to every instinct of nature and invited the worst of
crimes.
ós Of course an immediate result was that, although
according to Buddha's ordinance, any one who aimed
at perfect sanctity was bound to live a celibate life, the
rule against marriage was admitted to be inapplicable
to the majority of human beings living in the world.
The mass of people, in short, were necessarily offenders
against the primary law of Buddhism. Though called
lay-Buddhists, they were not wise men' in the Bud-
dhist sense of the term. There is evidence that among
certain monkish communities, in northern countries,
the law against marriage was soon relaxed. It is well
known that at the present day Lamaseries in Sikkim
and Tibet swarm with the children of the monks,
though called their nephews and nieces. And far
worse than this, Buddhism ultimately allied itself with
Tāntrism, or the worship of the female principle
1 Kulla-vagga, X, 1. 6.
THE BUDDHIST ORDER OF MONKS.
149
(śakti), and under its sanction encouraged the grossest
violations of decency and the worst forms of prof-
ligacy."1
Scholars have called attention to the collection of
moral horrors existing in some parts of the Pārājika
books — the disgusting detail of every conceivable form
of revolting vice, supposed to be perpetrated or perpe-
trable by the monks.” 2
“It is, indeed," says Williams, “one of the strange
phenomena of the present day that even educated peo-
ple are apt to fall into raptures over the precepts of
Buddhism, attracted by the bright gems which its
admirers delight in culling out of its moral code, and
in displaying ostentatiously, while keeping out of
sight all its dark spots, all its trivialities and senseless
repetitions; not to speak of all those evidences of deep
corruption beneath a whited surface — all those signifi-
cant precepts and prohibitions in its books of disci-
pline, which, indeed, no Christian could soil his lips by
uttering.”
i
" 3
I Williams, B., p. 152.
2 Ibid, n. p. 543. Also Columbo,
Also Columbo, “Nineteenth century," July, 1888.
3 B., p. 451.
CHAPTER VIII.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE,
LITERARY
ACTIVITY
IN
THE
EAST
THE
ART
OF
WRITING-
EXTENT OF THE
BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES
THE DATE OF THE CANON
THE TRI-PITAKA
THE VINAYA TEXTS-CARE OF THE BOWLS
TOOTH
STICKS- THE WONDERS OF BUDDHA GREAT EFFI-
CACY OF RECITATION — INTEGRITY OF THE TEXT.
THERE
WHERE was a period of great intellectual activity in
the East about five hundred years before Christ.
Within a few decades, before and after this date, we
find many prominent teachers and also kings, who
were the patrons of letters.
Persia had her Zoroaster, and under Darius a col-
lection of texts in the Aryan language was made and
promulgated throughout the empire. The Hebrews had
their Daniel, whose influence was felt at the court of
the king, who held him captive; and China had Con-
fucius, who was the exponent of her laws. . Greece
had her Pythagoras and her Socrates, while, according
to Mitford, no Grecian state had its laws put in writ-
ing until about the same period.
In India this period was marked by the formation
of the Upanishads, which contain the doctrinal portion
of the Vedas, and it also witnessed the reformation of
150
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE.
151
Buddha, who led the reaction against the tyranny of
the Brāhmanic priesthood. Here were the beginnings
of a literature radically different from the hymns of
the Vedas, although Buddhism is largely indebted to
the philosophy of the Brāhmans.
There is a sublimity in the early Vedic hymns
which is lacking in most of the later productions, and
the genuine eloquence which is sometimes found in
the extravagant description of Buddhist writers too
often degenerates into coarse or commonplace expres-
sions. Still, there are beautiful thoughts, which are
worthy of a place in any school of letters, and we find
also many admonitions to purity of thought and life,
which, although not original with Buddha, belong to
the universal code of ethics.
Various portions of the early literature of Bud-
dhism have been considered in the foregoing pages ;?
there should be, however, some classification of the
books belonging to the sacred canon.
It will be remembered that no claim of inspiration
is made for these writings. This would have been in-
consistent with the whole tenor of the teaching of a
man who recognized no God higher than himself.
The fact that these maxims and traditions were taught
for generations, by recital only, may account for the
constant repetitions which everywhere meet the eye,
and were, perhaps, introduced as aids to the memory.
THE ART OF WRITING.
Max Müller claims that the practice of writing
came in toward the latter part of the Sūtra period,”
2 ور
1 See pp. 45, 77, 85, 104.
2 Sutra period, about 500 B.C.
152
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
while Oldenberg and Rhys Davidsargue that the art
was unknown in India during the age of Buddha,
and for a long time afterward. This statement is
questioned by Williams and others; still it is certain
that for some time after writing was known, it was
considered desecration to make use of it for the pres-
ervation of the sacred books. 3
Although writing may not have been commonly
practiced by the Hindūs at this time, still it had
been known in India, for, during the reign of Ahasu-
erus, king of Persia (who has been identified as
Xerxes I), the king sent a written proclamation to
the Jews who were in his dominions, and also to
“the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are
from India unto Ethiopia.” This imperial
imperial decree
was written in various languages, so that every people,
including the Jews and Hindūs, received it in their
own language and according to the writing of their
own province. 4
The Buddhists claim that their scriptures were re-
duced to writing in the first century before Christ,
but much of their literature has been produced since
then, and Fa Hian says that even in his time (about
four hundred years after Christ), the various masters
handed down the doctrines by word of mouth through
the whole of Northern India, and had no written
5
1 Sa. Bks. E. Vol. XI, p. xxii.
2“The art of writing was not common in India at this time, but it is diffi-
cult to accept the theory of those who claim that it had not been invented."
-Williains, B., 20. 19.
3“ Those who sell the l'edas," says the Mahabharattal, und even those
who write them, shall go to hell."
4 Esth. viii, 8-11.
5 See note to p. 43.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE.
153
copies of them. It is well known that
that among the
Semitic races the art of writing was understood for
hundreds of years before it became common in India.2
EXTENT OF THE BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES.
It is claimed that the bulk of this literature has
been largely overestimated. Rhys Davids has made so
thorough an examination of the subject that he has
even counted the words in a portion of the Sūtras,
and based his conclusion upon a careful calculation of
the whole. “The Buddhist scriptures," he says, “in-
cluding all repetitions and all those books which
contain extracts from the others, contain rather less
than twice as many words as are found in our Bible,
and a translation of them into English would be
1 Fa Hian, Ch. 36, q. by Roys Davids, B., p. 240.
2 See the early Assyrian tablets and also those of Egypt. In the winter of
1887 a very remarkable discovery was made among the mounds of Tel-el-
Amarna in Upper Egypt. It was here that clay tablets were found bearing
inscriptions in the Babylonian language, and when deciphered and trans-
lated, they proved to be copies of letters and dispatches from the kings and
governors of Babylonia and Assyria, of Syria, Mesopotamia and Eastern
Capadocia, of Phænicia and Palestine. These imperishable documents
prove that all over the civilized East, in the century before the Exodus, active
literary intercourse was carried on tbrough the medium of a common
language.
It is evident, therefore, that throughout Western Asia, schools and
libraries must have existed, in which clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform
characters were stored up, and where the language and syllabary of Baby-
lonia were taught and learned.
Such a library must have existed in th: Canaanite city of Kirjath-Sepher,
or “Book Town" of Judges i, 12, and if its site can ever be recovered and
excavated, we may expect to find there its collection of books, written upon
the imperishable clay.
Many dispatches from Palestine, which have been assigned to about the
fifteenth century before Christ, have been recovered, translated and pub.
lished. (See "Records of the Past," edited by Prof. A. H. Sayce, Vol. II, PP.
58-63.) The authenticity of the cuneiform dispatches found at Tel-el-
Amarna, in Egypt, has lately received an unexpected confirmation from
tablets found at Tel-el-Hesy, probably the Biblical Lachish.
154
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
1 وو
about four times as long. Such a literature is by no
means unmanageable.”
" These repetitions are so numerous that without
them the Buddhist Bible would probably be shorter
than ours. Thus, the whole of the Dhamma-pada and
the Sutta-nipāta are believed to have been taken from
other books; and even in the Nikäyas whole para-
graphs and chapters are repeated under different
heads; the Subha-Sutta, for instance, contains almost
the whole of the Samaņa-phala Sutta and a great part
of the Brahmājala Sutta."2 The bulky Kanjur and
Tanjur of the Tibetans has been sufficiently translated
to establish the fact that the principal portion of the
matter was a translation from the same Sanskrit orig-
inals which had been discovered in Nepal by Mr.
Hodgson.
THE DATE OF THE CANON.
The Buddhist canon has only been traced back to
the first century before Christ, when as the Bud-
dhists claim) it was reduced to writing in Ceylon
under king Vattagāmani, but the books undoubtedly
contain much older matter. The Buddhists suppose
that the canon was settled at the first Council, or soon
after the death of Buddha, being then handed down
by oral tradition until it was committed to writing.
1 Rhys Davids, B., p. 19.
2 Burnouf, Lotus, 448, 465, note õ.
3 This assemblage can scarcely with any fitness be called a Council. Nor
can the fact of its meeting together in any formal manner be established on
any trustworthy historical basis.
There, in all likelihood, they (the
monks who were gathered together) made the first step toward a methodical
arrangement, but it is doubtful whether any systematic collections were
composed. – Milliams, p. 55.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE.
155
But there are many difficulties here, and the chro-
nological evidence is far from satisfactory.
" The evidence on which we have to rely," says
F. Max Müller, “is such that we must not be sur-
prised if those who are accustomed to test historical
and chronological evidence in Greece and Rome de-
cline to be convinced by it. As a general rule I quite
agree that we cannot be too sceptical in assigning a
date to ancient books.
We have the com-
mentaries on the Pāli canon translated or composed
by Buddha-ghosha, who confessedly consulted various
manuscripts. This was in the beginning of the fifth
century of the Christian era, and there is nothing
improbable, though I would say no more, in supposing
that some of the manuscripts consulted by Buddha-
ghosha dated from the first century before Christ.” 1
THE TRI-PITAKA.
The sacred canon of the Buddhists is called the
Tri-pitaka, or the “ Three Baskets," and these are
composed of smaller works. The first basket, or
Vinaya, contains all that has reference to morality.
The second contains the Sütras, 2 or the discourses of
Buddha. The third includes works treating on a vari-
ety of subjects -- philosophy, metaphysics, discipline and
ethics.
THE VINAYA TEXTS, OR FIRST BASKET.
These texts compose the “first basket," and they
are divided into three sets of rules :
1 Int. Dhamma-pada, pp. 12–14.
2 Sutras in Sanskrit; the Pali word is Sutta, and the words are, therefore,
sometimes used interchangeably.
156
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
1st. The Khandhaka in two collections, called the
Mahā-vagga, or great section, and the Kulla-vagga, or
minor section.
2d. The Vibhanga, or systematic arrangement, and
explanation of the Pātimokkha, or release precepts.
These are the rules for setting free, through penances,
those who had offended against the order.
3d. The Parivāra-pātha, which is a comparatively
modern summary of the other two divisions.
Extracts have already been freely given from im-
portant portions of the Law, and these early texts also
devote hundreds of pages to the most trivial acts in
the daily life of the monks. For instance, much space
is devoted to the proper care of the bowls in which
they begged their daily bread.
CARE OF THE BOWLS.
"Now at that time the Bhikkhus put away water
in their bowls, and the bowls were split. They told
this thing to the Blessed One. You are not, O Bhik-
khus, to put away your bowls with water in them.
Whosoever does so is guilty of a dukkața offense. I
enjoin upon you, O Bhikkhus, to dry your bowls in
the sunshine before you put them away.'
"Now at that time the Bhikkhus dried their bowls
in the sunshine with water in them; and the bowls
became evil smelling. They told this thing to the
Blessed One. You are not, o Bhikkhus, to dry your
bowls in the sunshine with water in them. Whosoever
does so is guilty of a dukkața. I allow you, O Bhik-
khus, to empty out the water, and then warm the
bowls before you put them away.'
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE.
157
“Now at that time the Bhikkhus put their bowls
away in a warm place, and the color of their bowls
Was spoilt. They told this thing to the Blessed One.
You are not, O Bhikkhus, to put your bowls away
in a warm place. Whosoever does so is guilty of a
dukkața. I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to dry your bowls
in a warm place, and then put them away.
"Now at that time a number of bowls were left in
the open air without supports, and the bowls were
turned over by a whirlwind and broken. They told
this thing to the Blessed One. “I allow you, O Bhik-
khus, the use of supports for your bowls when they
are left out.'
“Now at that time the Bhikkhus put their bowls
away at the edge of the sleeping benches in the
verandahs, and the bowls fell down and were broken."
When they told this to the Buddha he reproved them
in the same formula as before.
Now at that time the Bhikkhus hung up their
bowls on pins in the walls or on hooks. The ping or
hooks falling down the bowls were broken.” In this
case Buddha reproved them as before.
“Now at that time the Bhikkhus put their bowls
down on a bed or a chair, and sitting down thought-
lessly the bowls were broken." And again they were
reproved.
“Now at that time the Bhikkhus kept their bowls
in their laps, and rising up thoughtlessly they upset
them and the bowls were
broken.” 1
The
formula is repeated hundreds of times in relation to
the most trivial matters.
same
1 Kulla-vagga, V, 9, 3-10, 1.
158
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
TOOTH STICKS.
Again in the matter of tooth sticks, as well as
other trifles, long instructions are given; for instance,
the following:
“Now at that time the Bhikkhus did not use tooth
sticks, and their mouths got a bad odor. They told
this matter to the Blessed One. There are five dis-
advantages, O Bhikkhus, in not using tooth sticks; it
is bad for the eyes 1- the mouth becomes bad smell-
ing--the passages by which the flavors of the food
pass are not pure - bile and phlegm get into the food
-- and the food does not taste well. These are the
five disadvantages in not using tooth sticks. I allow
you, O Bhikkhus, tooth sticks.'
“Now at that time they used long sticks, and even
struck people with them. They told this thing to the
Blessed One. You are not, O Bhikkhus, to use long
tooth sticks. Whosoever does so shall be guilty of a
dukkața. I allow you, O Bhikkhus, tooth sticks up
to eight finger breadths in length.
- Now at that time a certain Bhikkhu when using
too short a tooth stick got it stuck in his throat.
They told this matter to the Blessed One. You are
not, 0 Bhikkhus, to use too short a tooth stick.
Whosoever does so shall be guilty of a dukkața. I
allow you, O Bhikkhus, tooth sticks of four finger
breadths long at the least." » 2
1 It appears that Buddha actually believed that the use of tooth picks was
good for the eyes. (See note 1, Kulla-vagga, v, 31.)
2 Kulla-vagga, V, 31, 1-2.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE.
159
THE WONDERS OF BUDDHA.
These early Pāli texts also give many of the
“wonders” which are said to have been performed by
Buddha. It is said of him that at one time he asked
Kassapa to allow him to spend the night in the room
where the sacred fire was kept. But the host ob-
jected, saying there was a venomous serpent, or Nāga
king, having great supernatural powers, which occupied
the room.
When Buddha persisted, however, Kassapa
gave his consent. When the Blessed One entered the
room the snake was annoyed, and sent forth a cloud of
smoke.
Then the 6 chief of men
schief of men”] sent forth a cloud of
smoke.
Then the Nāga sent forth flames, and the Blessed
One sent forth flames, and he conquered the Nāga,
and leaving intact the skin and flesh and bones of
the Nāga, he threw him into his alms bowl (from
which he took his daily food) and showed him to
Kassapa, saying: "Here you see the Näga, his fire
has been conquered by my fire.' ”2
Another wonder was told by Buddha himself to
Kassapa, which is given as follows: “I had rags,
Kassapa, taken from a dust heap (with which he was
going to make himself a robe), and I thought:
* Where shall I wash these rags ?' Then Sakka, the
king of the devas, understanding the thought which
had arisen in my mind, dug a tank with his hand,
1 The " chief of men,' as a term applied to Buddha, is more literally
rendered “the snake among men. See Maha-vagga, 11. 1. 15, 6.
2 This account has been greatly condensed. See Maha-vagga, 1, 15, 3.
.
160
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
and said: “Lord, might the Blessed One wash the
rags here?
“And I thought: "What shall I rub the rags
upon ? Then Sakka put a great stone there and said :
'Lord, might the Blessed One rub the rags upon this
stone ?'
“And I thought : What shall I take hold of
when going up out of the tank ?
“Then a deity which resided in a tree bent down
a branch, and said: “Lord, might not the Blessed One
take hold of this branch when going up ?'
“And I thought: “Where shall I lay the rags (in
order to dry them)?'
“Then Sakka, the king of the devas, put a great
stone there, and said: “Lord, might the Blessed One
lay the rags on this stone ?'
“ Then Kassapa thought: "Truly the great Saman
possesses high magical powers and facilities, since
Sakka, the king of the devas, does service to him.'"1
દ
GREAT EFFICACY OF RECITATION.
These early texts were repeated over and over again;
indeed, the daily life of the monks began with a reci-
tation of the Law, and it was supposed that a talis-
manic virtue attended the sound of the words.
To illustrate the great meritorious efficacy of the
constant intoning of the words, a story is told of five
hundred bats that lived together in a cave where two
monks performed their daily recitations. These bats
gained such merit, by simply hearing the sound, that
| Maha-vagga, 1, 20, 1-7.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE.
161
as
when they died they were all reborn men and
ultimately as gods. 1
It is also stated that a certain frog, being fortunate
enough to hear Buddha's voice while he was reciting
the Law, acquired so much merit thereby that he was
born in one of the heavens.2
It is faith in the wonderful efficacy of constant
repetition which has given birth to the prayer wheels,
which are supposed to repeat certain formulas with
every revolution of the wheel.
INTEGRITY OF THE TEXT,
In relation to the integrity of the early Päli texts
from which the foregoing quotations are made, the
translators express their opinion in the following
language :
Though we must believe that the Vinaya, before
it was reduced to writing, was handed down for about
three hundred years solely by memory, and that it
lived only in the minds of the Bhikkhus, who were
versed in the Vinaya,' we do not think it is at
all necessary, or even possible, to impugn the sub-
stantial accuracy of the texts handed down in a man-
ner that seems to moderns so unsafe.
The text, as
it lies before us, stands so well against all proofs,
whether we compare its different parts one with
another, or with the little that is yet known of its
northern counterparts, that we are justified in regard-
ing these Pāli books, as in fact the authentic mirror
of the old Magadhi text, as fixed in the central schools
I Williams, B., p. 557,
2 Elardy, p. 392.
162
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
» 1
of the most ancient Buddhist Church.'
This being
true, we must have in these early works the most
authentic teachings of Buddha.
We also have in the Vinaya-pitaka an invaluable
and indisputable record of the mental characteristics
and capabilities of these earliest followers of the Bud-
dhist faith.
1 Sa. Bks. E., Vol. XIII, p. xxxvi. (Int.)
CHAPTER IX.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
THE SECOND PITAKA
THE MAHĀ-PARINIBBĀNA SUT-
TANA
-THE PROXIMATE
CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES
THE DHAMMA-PADA PUNISHMENT THE SUTTA-
NIPĀTA—THE THIRD PIȚAKA-THE MAHĀ-YĀNA, OR
NORTHERN SCHOOL - THE BUDDHA-KARITA-KĀVYA -
THE SŪTRAS OF JAPAN THE AMITĀYUR-DHYANA
THE VAGRAK-KHEDIKĀ — THE DOCTRINAL TEACHING
OF THE SÜTRA THE PRAGÑA-PĀRAMITĀ — THE
TĀNTRA LITERATURE ---STRIKING CONTRASTS.
.
THE
HE Second Pitaka contains the ethical doctrines
which first constituted the whole Buddhist law.
It is a collection of Sūtras, many of which are them-
selves composed of smaller works.
The most important of these books are the Mahā-
parinibbāna Sutta, or Book of the Great Decease; the
Dhamma-pada, or Precepts of the Law; the Jātakas,
with their commentaries; the Sutta-nipāta, or collec-
tion of discourses; the Khuddaka-pātha, or short
readings, verses by the elder monks, and verses by the
elder nuns. We have also the Majjhima, the Samyutta,
the Anguttara, and there are others which contain the
joyous utterances of Buddha at different crises of his
life or treat of his sayings.
163
164
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
One of these minor Suttas treats of the mansions
of the gods which move about at will and sometimes
descend upon the earth, and another gives informa-
tion concerning departed spirits.
The Niddesa is a commentary on the Sutta-nipāta;
another Sutta treats of the supernatural knowledge of
the Arhats, and we have also the Buddha-vansa, or his-
tory of the twenty-four Buddhas who preceded Gau-
tama, and of Gautama himself. Another contains stories
which are based upon the Jātakas describing Gau-
tama's acquisition of the ten virtues in former births.
THE MAHĀ-PARINIBBĀNA,
This is one of the longest as well as the most
valuable of the Suttas, and it is considered one of the
oldest parts of the canon except the Pātimokkha. It
treats of the death of Buddha and of the events
which shortly preceded it, and has, therefore, been
considered in connection with that subject. It con-
tains several discourses which be delivered to his
followers, some of which have been given in the
foregoing pages. As might be supposed, his teachings
here were often a repetition of the doctrines which
he had previously taught, but his instructions per-
tained to many subjects. For instance, a short time
before his death he explained to Ananda the cause of
earthquakes. The following is his solution of the
problem:
THE PROXIMATE CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES.
- Then the venerable Ananda went up to the place
where the Blessed One was, and did obeisance to the
I See pp. 77, 80.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
165
Blessed One, and seated himself respectfully at one
side and said: Wonderful, indeed, and marvelous is
it, that this mighty earthquake should arise.
What may be the proximate, what the remote cause
of the appearance of this earthquake ? '
Eight are the proximate, eight the remote causes,
Ananda, for the appearance of the mighty earthquake.
This great earth, Ananda, is established on water; the
water on wind, and the wind rests upon space.
And
at such a time, Ananda, as the mighty winds blow,
the waters are shaken by the mighty winds as they
blow, and by the moving water the earth is shaken.
These are the first causes, proximate and remote, of
the appearance of the mighty earthquake.
“Again, Ananda, a Samaņa, or a Brāhman of great
intellectual power who has the feelings of his heart
well under his control, or a god, or a fairyl of great
or mighty power— when such an one by intense medi-
tation has succeeded in realizing the comparative
value of things, he can make this earth move and
tremble and be shaken violently.2 These are the
second causes, proximate and remote, of the appear-
ance of a mighty earthquake.
“Again, Ananda, when a Bodhisat (or future Bud-
dha) consciously and deliberately leaves his temporary
1 The word here rendered fairy is devata, and the term includes gods of
all sorts, tree and river nymphs, the kindly fairies, or ghosts who haunt
houses, spirits in the ground, etc.—Oldenberg and Davids.
2 Buddha-ghosha, the Buddbist commentator, tells a long story in rela-
tion to this subject, to the effect that the nephew of Naga Thera attained
Aratship on the day of bis admission to the order. He then proceeded to
heaven, and standing on the pinnacle of the palace of the king of the gods
he shook the whole place with his great toe, much to the annoyance and
consternation of the exalted dwellers therein.-SU. Bks. E., Vol. XI, n, D. 46.
166
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
form in the heaven of delight and descends into his
mother's womb, then is this earth made to shake and
tremble violently. These are the third causes, proxi-
mate or remote, of a mighty earthquake.
“Again, Ananda, when a Bodhisat deliberately and
consciously quits his mother. womb, then the earth
quakes and is shaken violently. This is the fourth
cause, proximate and remote, of the appearance of a
mighty earthquake.
“Again, Ananda, when a Tathāgata (or Buddha)
arrives at the supreme and perfect enlightenment, then
this earth quakes and is shaken violently. This is the
fifth cause, proximate and remote, of a mighty earth-
quake.
“When a Tathāgata founds a sublime kingdom of
righteousness, then this earth . is shaken vio-
lently. This is the sixth cause, proximate and remote,
of a mighty earthquake.
Again, Ananda, when a Tathāgata consciously
and deliberately rejects the remainder of this life
this is the seventh cause
of the
appearance of a mighty earthquake.
“Again, Ananda, when a Tathāgata passes entirely
away (or dies) with that utter passing away in which
nothing whatever is left behind, then this earth
is shaken violently. This is the eighth cause of the
appearance of a mighty earthquake.”
There are several short Suttas of minor import-
ance, some of which have been quoted in the preced-
ing pages, but a much finer literary style, as well as a
higher grade of morality, is found in the
.
1 Maha-parinibbana Sutta, chap. iii, 2.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURĖ, CONTINUED.
167
DHAMMA-PADA.
It is thought that we now possess this work in
very much the same form as it existed in the fifth
century of the Christian era, and that the original
may have been one of the books which was reduced
to writing in the first century before our era, having
previously existed in the language of Magadha. And
although all Indian manuscripts are comparatively
modern, and the chronological evidence concerning
them quite uncertain, still these verses may be treated
as those which the early Buddhists believed to be the
utterances of their founder.
The following extracts will give a good general
idea of the teaching which is found in this valuable
work :
PUNISHMENT.
“ All men tremble at punishment, all men fear
death; remember you are like unto them, and do not
kill, do not cause slaughter.
"All men tremble at punishment, all
men love
life; remember thou art like unto them, and do not
kill.
“He who seeking his own happiness, punishes or
kills beings who also long for happiness, will not find
happiness after death.
“He who seeking his own happiness, does not
1 Mr. A. Burnell, who has probably handled more Indian manuscripts
than anybody else, bas expressed his conviction that no manuscript written
one thousand years ago is now existent in India, and that it is almost impos-
sible to find one written five hundred years ago, for most manuscripts which
claim to be of that date are merely copies of old manuscripts, the dates of
which are repeated by the copyists.-Indian Antiquary, 1880, p. 233.
168
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
punish or kill beings who also long for happiness,
will find happiness after death.
“ Do not speak harshly to anybody; those who are
spoken to harshly, will answer thee in the same way,
Angry speech is painful, blows for blows will touch thee.
- A fool does not know when he commits evil
deeds; but the wicked burns by his own deeds as if
burnt by fire.
“He who inflicts pain on innocent and harmless
persons, will soon come to one of these ten states. He
will have cruel suffering, loss, injury of the body,
heavy affliction, or loss of mind, or a misfortune com-
ing from the king, or a fearful accusation, or loss of
relations, or destruction of treasures, or lightning fire
will burn his houses, and when the body is destroyed
the fool will go to hell.
“Not nakedness, not platted (or matted) hair, or
lying on the earth ; not rubbing with dust, nor sitting
motionless, can purify a mortal who has not overcome
desires.” 1
The Jātaka and their commentaries have been con-
sidered in the foregoing pages and copious extracts
have been given.?
The Buddha-vansa gives a history of the twenty-
four Buddhas who preceded Gautama, and these have
been briefly examined. 3
THE SUTTA-NIPĀTA.
This collection of discourses is an important contri-
bution to the correct understanding of Primitive Bud-
3 Twenty-four Buddhas. See chap. ii.
1 Dhamma-pada, X, 129–141.
2 See pp. 45, 85, 104.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
169
dhism, for we have here a picture of the lives of
hermits before monasteries were built.
Buddha here teaches that all family life and all as-
sociation with others should be avoided.
“As a beast unbound in the forest goes feeding at
pleasure, so let the wise man, considering only his own
will, wander alone like the rhinoceros.”I Each of the
forty-one verses of one of the Suttas 2 ends with the
words : "Let one wander alone like a rhinoceros."
In the Nipāta, Buddha teaches that no one is puri-
fied by philosophy or by virtuous works,3 only by
believing in Buddha and in the Dhamma.4 He must
become what Buddha is, and what then is he? Bud-
dha is a visionary in the good sense of the word, that
is, his knowledge is intuitive. He is also an ascetic,
one who forsakes the home and wanders from house
to the houseless state. An ascetic has no prejudiced
views, he has shaken off every philosophical view,8
he is not pleased nor displeased with anything,' he is
indifferent to learning, 10 he does not cling to good and
evil,11 he has cut off all passion and all desire.12 He
has reached peace, he has gone to the unchangeable
state of Nibbāna.13 This state has been brought about
by the destruction of consciousness, 14 by the cessation
of sensation,15 by being without breathing. 16
Sin, according to this Sutta, is desire in all its
:
1 Sutta-nipata, verse 38.
2 The Kbaggavisana.
3 Nipata, v. 839.
4 yy. 185, 1142.
svv. 837, 207.
Ovv. 273, 375.
7 y. 802.
8 v. 787.
9 p. 813.
10 y. 911.
1l vy. 520, 547.
12 yy. 2, 795, 916,
13 y. 203.
14 yy. 734, 735.
15 v. 1110.
10 y. 1089,
170
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
forms, especially the "thirst for existence,"i for name
and form-individual existence.2
As long as a man is led by desire he will be whirled
about in existence, but desire originates in the body,
and consequently the human body is looked upon as a
contemptible thing, one whole Sutta being devoted to
à revolting description of it. 4
Bliss is emancipation from the body and matter.
One must destroy the elements of existence that one
may not come to exist again. The wise hold that
there is nothing really existing, 6 and those whose
minds are disgusted with a future existence, go out
like a lamp. As a flame blown out by the wind
goes out and cannot be reckoned as existing, even so
a Muni, delivered from name and body, disappears
and cannot be reckoned as existing. 8
Exert thyself, then, being wise and thoughtful in
this world, let one having listened to my utterance
learn his own extinction,” 9
THE THIRD PITAKA.
The third Pitaka was called the Abhi-dhamma
(further dharma), or additional precepts relative to
law and philosophy. It is held by modern scholars to
be of a later origin and supplementary to the Suttas.
It is composed of seven small prose works treating of
various subjects. The first is an enumeration of the
conditions of existence; the second is devoted to "ex-
1 v. 1067.
2 vv. 354, 1098.
3 y. 740.
See the Vigaya.
5 vv. 1120, 1122,
By. 1069.
7 Vy. 234, 353, 354.
8 V. 1073.
9 y, 1061.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
171
planations ;" the third contains “discussions on one
thousand controverted points ;” the fourth claims to
be an explanation of personality ; the fifth is an ac-
count of the elements; the sixth treats of pairs, and
the seventh of causes.
THE MAHĀ-YĀNA, OR NORTHERN SCHOOL.
Besides these numerous works which constitute the
Tri-pitaka, or three collections of works of the South-
ern Buddhists, there are the Pāli commentaries, which
were translated into Singhalese, according to tradition,
by Mahendra. Afterward the original Pāli text was
lost, and some of the commentaries were retranslated
into Pāli by Buddha-ghosha at the end of the fourth
and beginning of the fifth century of our era.
The Mahā-yāna, or “Great Vehicle," cannot be said
to possess any true canon distinct from the Tri-pitaka,
though some Nepalese Sanskrit works composed in
later times are held to be canonical by Northern Bud-
dhists. The formation of a Northern School, as
distinct from the Southern, followed the conversion of
Kanishka, the Indo-Scythian king of Kashmir, who
came from the North and became a zealous Buddhist.
He probably reigned in the second half of the first
century of the Christian era. It was during his reign
that a fourth Council was held, which consisted of five
hundred monks. These men composed three Sanskțit
works, which were commentaries on the three Pāli
pitakas. These were the earliest books of the Mahā-
yāna, or Northern School, which afterward formulated
its doctrines on the banks of the Indus, while the
172
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
Pāli canon of the South represented the true doctrine
promulgated on the Ganges.
Kashmīr was a center of Sanskrit learning, and
Kanishka, who was its patron, sustained to Northern
Buddhism about the same relation which Asoka had
borne to the Southern element. Therefore, in time,
,
other books of Northern Buddhism were written in
Sanskrit, with occasional stanzas which were partly in
Sanskțit and partly in Prākļit.1
THE BUDDHA-KARITA-KĀVYA.
This is one of the most important works of the
Northern School, and it is claimed that the author
was the contemporary and spiritual adviser of Ka-
nishka. It contains an account of the life of Buddha,
and is in many points quite in harmony with other
Buddhistic works on this subject. For instance, in
relation to the conception of Gautama, it is said of
him : “Assuming the form of a huge elephant, white
like Himālaya, armed with six tusks, with his face
perfumed with the flowing ichor, he entered the womb
of the queen of king Áuddhodana, to destroy the evils
of the world." This work also describes the revolting
scene in the harem, which is given by many Bud-
dhistic authorities as a potent influence in deciding
Buddha to leave his home. There is no mention here
of any farewell look at his wife and child ; indeed,
his wife is not spoken of at all until the return of
the horse and groom, when she joins in the loud wail
of the other women, and complains that her husband
i Williams, B., p. 68.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED,
173
even
32
left her “helplessly asleep in the night,” and
accuses the horse of treachery and dishonorable con-
duct in bearing him away.
She also here bemoans his great personal beauty,
and her description of his person is in harmony with
other early accounts. She alludes to his feet in the
following language: “Those two feet of his, tender,
with their beautiful web spread between the toes
how can they (bearing a wheel in the middle)
walk on the hard ground of the skirts of the forest? "
Here, as elsewhere, she also cites the fact that other
monarchs have led faithful religious lives without de-
serting their families, and expresses a wish to share
his penance and privations as others had allowed their
wives to do.
“He wishes to practice a religious life after aban-
doning me, his lawful wife, widowed. Where is his
religion, who wishes to follow penance, without his
lawful wife to share it with him?
never heard of the monarchs of olden time, his own
ancestors
how they went with their wives
into the forest — that he wishes to follow a religious
life without me.
He does not see that hus-
band and wife both consecrated in sacrifices
and both destined to enjoy the same results
afterward -he, therefore, grudges me a share in his
He surely
are
merit.” 1
In this via of the latter part of the first century
of the Christian era the temptation of Māra is given,
though it is omitted in some earlier texts, and the
1 Bk., viii, 62, 63.
174
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
description of the contest is much like the one which
has been given in the foregoing pages.
The Lalita Vistara is also a standard work of the
Northean School, but it has been previously considered
in connection with the life of Buddha.2
THE SŪTRAS OF JAPAN.
A majority of the inhabitants of Japan are Bud-
dhists, and about one-third of these belong to the
Shin-shiu sect. The books upon which they found
their faith are the two Sukhāvati-vyuhas, the large
and the small, and the Amitāyur-dhyāna-sūtra. They
are sometimes called the Large Sūtra, the Small Sūtra,
and the Sūtra of Meditation. The same three books
also form the chief authority of the Gõdoshiu sect.
The followers of this sect claim that in the third
century an Indian student came to China and trans-
lated the larger of these, and still later 3 another
teacher
and translated the other two. The
Larger and Smaller Sūtras differ with each other on
several points, but the most important variation is
found in the fact that the Smaller Sūtra lays great
stress on the fact that people can be saved, or can be
born in the Land of Bliss, if only they remember and
repeat the name of Buddha Amitabha 4 two, three, four
or more nights before their death, and it distinctly
denies that people are born in the Paradise of Ami-
came
1 See p. 56.
2 See p. 44.
3 In the year 400 A. D. Buddhism was introduced into Japan, by way of
Corea, in 552 A. D.
4 Amitabha was represented by Buddha Gautama us one of the Buddhas
who preceded him. (See Larger Sukhavati-vyuba, Int. p. 10.)
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
175
tābha as a reward or necessary result of good works
performed in this present life.1
This," says Prof. F. Max Müller,
rówould seem
to take away one of the fundamental doctrines of Bud-
dhism, namely, the doctrine of karman, or of the
continuous working of our deeds, whether good or bad.
The Larger Sūtra also lays great stress on
prayer and faith in Amitābha, but it never neglects
'the stock of merit' necessary for salvation. It would
almost seem as if this popular and easy doctrine had
secured to itself the name of Mahā-yāna, as meaning
'the broad way' in opposition to the Hina-yāna." 2
2 ور
THE AMITĀYUR-DHYĀNA, OR SŪTRA OF MEDITATION.
An outline of this work may be briefly given as
follows: “Vaidehī, seeing the wicked actions of her
son, began to feel weary of this world. Gautama then
taught her how to be born in the pure land, enumer-
ating three kinds of good actions. The first is worldly
goodness, which includes good actions in general, such
as filial piety, respect of elders, loyalty and faithful-
ness. The second is the goodness of morality, and all
those who do not oppose the general rule of reproving
wickedness and exhorting to the practice of virtue are
included in this goodness. The third is the goodness of
practice, which includes the four truths and the six per-
1 Sanghavarman's translation of the 18, 20 and 21, is as follows: When
I have attained Buddhahood, if those who are in the ten quarters believe in
me and wish to be born in my country, and should have thought of me ten
times (or repeated my name), if they should not be born there, may I not
obtain perfect knowledge ; barring only those who have committed the five
deadly sins, and who have spoken evil of the good Law."-Note by Bunyiu
Nanjio, M. A., p. 73.
2 Larger Sukhavati-vyuba, Int. p. 9.
1976
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
fections. Much of this Sūtra is devoted to instructions
concerning the proper method of meditation. In rela-
tion to Buddha Amitāyus the directions are as follows:
“ Further, when this perception is gained, you
should next proceed to meditate on the bodily marksi
and the light of Buddha Amitäyus.
- Thou shouldst know, 0 Ananda, that the body
of Buddha Amitāyus is a hundred thousand million
times as bright as the color of the gold of the
heavenly abode of Yama. The height of that Buddha
is six hundred thousand niyutas of kotis 2 of yojanas,
innumerable as are the sands of the river Gangā.
- The white twist of hair between the eyebrows, all
turning to the right, is just like the five Sumēru
mountains.
“ The eyes of Buddha are like the water of the
four great oceans.
“ All the roots of hair of his body issue forth brill-
iant rays which are also like the Sumëra mountains.
- The halo of that Buddha is like a hundred mill-
ion of niyutas of koțis, innumerable as the sands of
the Gangā ; each of these Buddhas has for attendants
a great assembly of numberless Bodhisattas, who are
also miraculously created.
“ Buddha Amitāyus has eighty-four thousand signs
of perfection, each sign is possessed of eighty-four
minor marks of excellence, each mark has eighty-four
1 All the Buddhas were possessed of these bodily marks of perfection.
See page 48.
2 The numbers in Buddhist literature, ivhen they exceed a koti or ten
millions, become very vague, nor is their value always the same. Ayuta
represents & hundred kotis ; niyuta represents a hundred ayutas. (See
Smaller Sukhavati-vyuha, p. 91.) A yojana, four or more miles.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
177
thousand rays, each ray extends so far as to shine over
the worlds of the ten quarters, whereby Buddha em-
braces and protects all the beings who think upon him,
and does not exclude any.
1 در
THE VAGRAKKHEDIKĀ OR DIAMOND CUTTER.
This is a metaphysical treatise, and it is one of the
most highly valued works in Buddhist literature. The
name has sometimes been rendered "The Perfection
of Wisdom.” The Tibetans value it very highly, and
many copies have been made.
“ Translated , literally into English,” says F. Max
Müller, “it must often strike the reader as sheer non-
sense and hollow repetition.
“Nor can anything be said in defense of the form
or style adopted in this treatise by the Buddhist phi-
losophers, who wished to convince their hearers of the
truth of their philosophy. This philosophy, or, at least,
its underlying doctrine, is not unknown to us. It is
simply a denial of the reality of the phenomenal
world.” 2
The doctrine of metaphysics, which is here taught,
has been presented in the foregoing pages, and the
value placed upon these Gāthās may be learned from
the following extract :
"Bhagavat said: "What do you think, O Subhūti,
if there were as many Gangā rivers as there are grains
of sand in the large river Gangā, would the grains of
sand be many ?
“Subhūti said: "Those Gangā rivers would, indeed,
3 See p. 184.
1 Amitayur-dhyana-sutra, Sec. 18.
2 Int. Vagrakkhedika, p. 14.
178
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
man
or
be many, much more, the grains of sand in those
Gangā rivers."
“Bhagavat said: “I tell you, O Subhūti ! I an-
nounce to you if a man or woman were to fill with
the seven treasures, as many worlds as there would be
grains of sand in those Gangā rivers, and present them
as a gift to the holy Tathāgatas; what do you think,
O Subhūti! would that
woman, on the
strength of this, produce a large stock of merit?'
“Subhūti said : Yes, O Bhagavat, that man or
that woman would, on the strength of this, produce
a large stock of merit, immeasurable and innumerable.'
“Bhagavat said: “And if, 0. Subhūti, a woman
or man, having filled so many worlds with the seven
treasures, should give them as a gift to the holy and
"enlightened Tathāgatas, and if another son or daugh-
ter of a good family, after taking from this treatise
of the Law one Gāthā of four lines only, should fully
teach others and explain it, he, indeed, would, on the
strength of this, produce a larger stock of merit, im-
measurable and innumerable.' » 1
DOCTRINAL TEACHING OF THE SŬTRA.
The metaphysics which form the basis of the
teaching of this work may be better understood from
the following extract:
“O Bhagavat, knowledge has been produced in me.
Never, indeed, O Bhagavat, has such a teaching of
the Law been heard by me before. Those Bodhisattas
will be endowed with the highest wonder who, when
i Vagrakkhedika, XI.
2 Will possess miraculous powers and will be admired.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
179
0
0
this Sūtra is being preached, hear it, and will frame
to themselves a true idea. And why? Because what
is a true idea, is not a true idea.
But, O
Bhagavat, there will not arise in them any idea of a
self, any idea of a being, of a living being, or a
person, nor does there exist for them any idea or po
idea. And why?
why? Because the blessed Buddhas are
freed from all ideas.'
“O Subhūti, I remember the past five hundred
births when I was a preacher of endurance. At that
time also I had no idea of a self, of a being, of a
living being, of a person.
" Therefore, then, 0 Subhūti, a noble-minded Bod-
hisatta, after putting aside all ideas, should raise his
mind to the highest perfect knowledge.
“He should frame his mind so as not to believe
in form, sound, smell, taste, or anything that can be
touched, in something, in nothing, or anything.
“And why? Because what is believed, is not be-
lieved. Therefore, the Tathāgata preaches: A gift
should not be given by one who believes in form,
sound, smell, taste, anything that
be
touched.'» 1
or
can
THE PRAGNA-PÄRAMITĀ (TRANSCENDENT WISDOM).
The Sūtra, although very brief, is said to be really
the most popular and one of the most important of
all the sacred texts upon which Buddhism takes its
stand in Japan. This treatise of the Law is to be
seen everywhere on shrines, temples and monasteries,
i Vagrakkhedika, XIV.
180
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
although probably more admired than understood by
the masses of the people. The same eulogy is pro-
nounced upon its value as that previously given in
relation to the Diamond-cutter, and in nearly the same
language. Although it is spoken of in the singular
number, it is really composed of two Sūtras, the
larger and the smaller.
As they both teach the same doctrine of meta-
physics, and the smaller merely repeats the ideas of
the other, the following extract from the larger will
give a very definite idea of both :
“If the son or daughter of a family wishes to per-
form the study of the deep Pragãā-pāramitā, he must
think thus: There are five Skandhas, and these, he
considered by their nature, empty. Form is emptiness,
and emptiness, indeed, is form.
What is
form, that is emptiness; what is emptiness, that is
form.
"Thus, 0 Sāriputra, all things have the character
of emptiness
they are faultless, and not
faultless; they are not imperfect, and not perfect.
Therefore, here in emptiness there is no form, no
perception, no eye, ear, nose, body, mind.
are :
1 Every being is composed of five constituent elements, called Skandhas,
and these are continually combining, dissolving and recombining. They
1. Form (the organized body). 2. Sensation. 3. Perception. 4.
Aggregate of formations (a combination of properties, faculties or mental
tendencies, fifty-two in number). 5. Consciousness or thought. This is the
most important, and is the only soul recognized by Buddhists. It was this
view which enabled Buddha to teach transmigration while denying the ex-
istence of any spirit separate from the body, for although when a man dies
all these elements are dissolved, yet by the force resulting from his actions,
combined with the sin of "clinging to existence," a new set of five, of
which consciousness is still the dominant faculty, starts into being, and a
new creature is immediately created.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONTINUED.
181
There is no knowledge, no obtaining, or not obtaining
of Nirvāņa. But when the envelopment of conscious-
ness has been annihilated, then he becomes free from
all fear, beyond the reach of change, enjoying the final
Nirvāņa.”1
THE TĀNTRA LITERATURE.
“The Tāntra literature has also had its growth
and development, and some unhappy scholar of a
future age may have to trace its loathsome history.
The nauseous taste repelled even the self-
sacrificing industry of Burnout when he found the
later Tantra books to be as immoral as they were
absurd. The pen,' he says, 'refuses to transcribe
doctrines as miserable in respect to form as they are
odious and degrading in respect to meaning.'” 2
STRIKING CONTRASTS.
There is probably no other collection of sacred
books in the world which presents such peculiar and
forcible contrasts as do those of Buddhism. Scholars
have repeatedly noted “the feeble utterances, the
tedious diffuseness, and, I might almost say, the “inane
twaddle' and childish repetitions of the greater por-
tion of the Tri-pitaka,"3 while, on the other hand,
the Dhamma-pada and portions of some other books
contain gems of thought and beauty of expression
which will compare favorably with the literary stand-
1 Larger Pragna-paramita.
2 Rhys Davids, B., p. 208. Burnouſ, Int. p. 588. The secret Tantric doc-
trines are found in the seventh division of the enumeration of the nine
Nepalese canonical scriptures.
3 See Williams, B., p. 558; also Max Müller (Int. Vagrakkhedika, p. 14),
and many others.
182
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
ards of any people. The contrast is forcible, not only
in relation to the style of the books in question, but
there is also a pure literature and that which is
notably impure. We find in some of the books of
Buddhism an exalted morality, and admonitions to
purity of thought, word and deed. These works also
inculcate the duties of charity, self-sacrifice and be-
nevolence.
It is entirely natural for the author as well as the
reader to seek for these gems alone and display them
freely to others. But a wrong impression is usually
conveyed by presenting only one side of a question,
and careful writers must avoid this mistake, which too
many have made, unconsciously, perhaps, to themselves.
Therefore, some brave historian of the future must
wade through the revolting horrors of the Pārājika
books, and give also an exposition of the odious doc-
trines which Burnouf and others could not bring them-
selves to transcribe. These things, however, should
always be kept strictly within the pale of critical
scholarship, for the world has no need of them. The
problem which requires explanation is the existence of
such doctrines in a sacred literature.
Why should the same canon contain works which
differ so greatly in literary style and in teaching, as
do the texts of the Tri-pitaka and the Dhamma-pada,
with its classic beauty and pure morality ?
Why should the Tāntra literature and the unmen-
tionable ceremonies of Śiva worship find a place in
the same system of philosophy with “the noble eight-
fold path ?",
1 See p. 149.
CHAPTER X.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
BUDDHA'S
INDEBTEDNESS
TO
BRĀHMANISM
THE
DHAMMA-PADA
SIMILARITIES TO
OLD TESTAMENT
TEACHINGS -
POSSIBLE. SOURCES
OF
INFORMATION
SUMMARY.
THE
HE striking contrasts which Buddhism presents
both in morals and literature are worthy of
more than a passing notice, and the faithful student
must inquire whence they came.
Prof. F. Max Müller has repeatedly pointed out the
fact that the Buddhists are indebted to the Brāhmans
for almost all of their philosophical speculations, and
it should also be noted that, even in the choice of a
name derived from the Sanskrit root buch, the Bud-
dha adopted the phraseology of the Sankhya phi-
losophy and of the Brāhmans. The Sankhya system
made Buddhi (intellect) its great principle, and the
Satapatha-brāhmaṇa called a man who had attained to
perfect knowledge of Self, prati-buddha.?
Again, the doctrines which grew out of his own
special knowledge, Gautama called Dharma 3 (law),
1 Prof. F. Max Müller, Int. Amitayur-dhyana-sutra, p. 22. Sa. Bks. E.,
Vol. XLIX.
2 XIV, 7, 2, 17. This was first pointed out by Prof. A. Weber.
3 Dharma or Dhamma,
183
184
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
using the same term which was employed by the
Brāhmans.
Buddha's “ way of knowledge,” though it developed
into many paths, was primarily a knowledge of the
truth that all life was merely one link in a series of
successive existences and inseparably bound up with
misery, and this extreme pessimism, which was the
fundamental doctrine of Buddhism, was taught by the
Brāhmans five centuries before Christ, and it con-
tinued to be a thoroughly Hindū doctrine long after
the disappearance of Buddhism from India.
Indeed, all Indian philosophy was a scheme for
getting rid of the ceaseless round of existence, which
was taught in the doctrine of metem psychosis, and
annihilation was looked upon as
upon as a welcome deliver-
ance.
In India the Upanishads, and the systems of phi-
losophy which followed them, were all attuned to this
same minor key, the real object of the authors being
the discovery of a plan for removing the misery which
they believed to result from repeated bodily existence,
and from all action, good or bad, in the present, pre-
vious, and future births.
Gautama's adherence to these ideas is repeatedly
shown in his teaching. He had a way, however, of
clothing old ideas in a new dress, which proved very
attractive to his followers, and he rejected, too, some
of the radical ideas of the Upanishads, although his
sympathy with much of their teaching was very strong.
The term Nirvāṇa, for instance, was not original
with Gautama; it was an expression which was com-
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
185
mon to both Brāhmanism and Buddhism, and most of
its synonyms are still common to both; nevertheless, he
gave a different shade to the meaning of the word,
for he could not advocate that it meant "the ex-
tinction in the Supreme Being” of those who
attained Nirvāṇa, while he refused to admit the exist-
ence of such a Being.
THE DHAMMA-PADA
This work, which is the most valuable of all the
Buddhistic writings, also contains within itself some
striking contrasts and inculcates ideas which are ap-
parently derived from very different sources.
“By earnestness did Indra rise to the lordship of
the gods." This verse, and all others which contain
allusions to this deity, must be of Brāhmanic origin,
for Indra was the Jove of early Indian mythology.
He is represented as being the king of the celestial
beings who occupy his paradise, although after one
hundred years of the gods, another, and possibly a
man, may by great sacrifices usurp his position.
“Without ceasing, I shall run through the course
of many births.” 3
This sentiment is also in accord-
ance with the doctrine of transmigration, which was
taught in both Egypt and India long before Gau-
tama's time.
Again, we find the following statement: “The
man who wears dirty garments, who is emaciated, who
lives alone in the forest and meditates, him I call,
1 This doctrine was taught in the Upanishads, and later in the Bhagavad-
gita (v. 24).
2 Dhamma-pada, v. 30.
3 Dhamma, v. 395.
186
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
indeed, a Brāhmaṇa." Here is an endorsement of the
asceticism which was practiced under the dominion of
Brāhmanism, and also by Buddha and some of his
followers.
But while these and many others are evidently of
purely Hindū origin, there are others which are very
different.
SIMILARITIES TO OLD TESTAMENT TEACHINGS.
Many of the most valuable of these precepts will
be found to be almost identical in sentiment with
proverbs which Solomon uttered about five hundred
years before the birth of Buddha. From a multitude
of forcible illustrations of this statement we select a
few :
'For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time;
hatred ceases by love; this is an old rule. ”i
The cold rule,” however, had been more tersely
expressed in Proverbs, where it is said that “Hatred
stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins.” 2
Again, in the Dhamma-pada it is said :
evil doer suffers in this world, and he suffers in the
next. He suffers when he thinks of the evil he has
done, he suffers more when going on the evil path.”3
This sentiment had been more eloquently expressed
by the prophet Isaiah in the words : “The wicked are
like the troubled sea when
sea when it cannot rest, whose
waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace,
saith my God, to the wicked." 4
In the Dhamma-pada it is said : “Thoughtlessness
" The
1 Dhamma, v. 5.
2 Proverbs, x, 12.
3 Dhamma, v. 17.
4 Isaiah, lvii, 20-21.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
187
ور
is the path of death. Those who reflect do not die-
those who are thoughtless are dead already.” 1
This idea had been expressed in Proverbs as fol-
lows: “In the way of righteousness is life, and in the
pathway thereof there is no death.”2
Again, in the Buddhist work it is said: “If an
earnest person has aroused himself, if he is not for-
getful, if his deeds are pure, if he acts with consid-
eration
then his glory shall increase.” 3
The Psalmist, however, had written : «He that
walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and
speaketh the truth in his heart
he that
doeth these things shall never be moved.” 4
The Dhamma-pada says: "Fools follow after vanity,
the wise man keeps earnestness as his best jewel.” 5
Solomon had previously written : - The crown of
the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is
their folly.” 6
In the Dhamma-pada we find the admonition :
“Follow not after vanity, nor after the enjoyment of
love and lust.” 7
The Psalmist had previously enquired :
“How long
will ye love vanity and seek after leasing ?
In the sayings of Buddha we find the following:
"If a traveler does not meet with one who is his
equal, let him keep to his solitary journey; there is no
companionship with a fool.”g
Solomon had, however, expressed the sentiment more
98
1 Dhamma, v. 21.
2 Prov., xii, 28.
3 Dhamma, v. 34.
4 Psalms, xv, 2, 5.
5 Dhamma, v. 28.
Proverbs, xiv, 24.
7 Dhamma, y. 27.
8 Psalıns, iv, 2.
9 Dhamma, V. 61.
188
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
» 1
forcibly when he said: “Let a bear robbed of her
whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.'
Buddha said: "A fool who knoweth his foolishness
is wise, at least so far.”2
In Proverbs it had been said : “Even a fool, when
he holdeth his peace, is counted wise.” 3
In the Dhamma-pada we find the wise admonition :
“Do not have evil doers for friends, do not have low
people, have virtuous people for friends." 4
The Psalmist had previously written : “Blessed is
the man that walketh not in the counsel of the un-
godly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in
in the seat of the scornful.” 5 And Solomon had de-
clared : “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise,
but the companion of fools shall be destroyed.” 6
Again, it is stated in the Dhamma-pada: “If one
man conquers in battle a thousand times a thousand
men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest
of conquerers."
This verse appears to be almost a repetition of the
statement that «He that ruleth his spirit is greater
than he that taketh a city.
The saying of Buddha : " The wicked man burns
by his own deeds, as if burnt by fire,” 9 reminds one
forcibly of the question in Proverbs concerning sin :
"Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes
not be burned ? Can one go upon hot coals and his
feet not be burned ?" 10
"7
>8
1 Proverbs, xyii, 12.
2 Dhamma, v. 63.
3 Proverbs, xvii, 28.
4 Dhamma, v. 78.
5 Psalms, i, 1.
6 Proverbs, xiii, 20.
? Dbama, y. 103.
8 Proverbs, xvi, 32.
9 Dhamma, v. 36.
10 Prov., vi, 27-28.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
189
3 در
In the Dhamma-pada it is said : “He who always
greets and reveres the aged, four things increase unto
him, life, beauty, happiness and power.”] This is a
strange sentiment to find in a system which taught
that all life was misery, that beauty and happiness
were to be shunned and power ignored. But centuries
before Buddha, Moses had written: “Thou shalt rise
up before the hoary head and honor the face of the
old man." 2
In the Dhamma-pada it is said: “Do not kill, nor
cause slaughter;"3 but it had long before been written
upon tables of stone: “Thou shalt not kill." 4
In the precepts of Buddha we find the wise ad-
monition: “Do not speak harshly to anybody. Those
who are spoken to harshly will answer thee in the
same way.
This sentiment had been more briefly
stated in these words: "A soft answer turneth away
wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.
In the Dhamma-pada it is said : “He who dwells
in the law, delights in the law, meditates in the law,
follows the law, will never fall away from the true
law."? This is almost a repetition of the words of
the Psalmist: “His delight is in the law of the
Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and
"5
" 6
night.”8
In the precepts of Buddha it is said :
"If a man
hold himself dear, let him watch himself carefully."9
This appears to be an
to be an echo of the admonition to
1 Dhamma, v. 109.
2 Lev., xix, 32.
3 Dhamma, v. 129.
4 Exodus, xx, 13.
5 Dhamma, V. 133.
6 Prov., xv, 1.
7 Dhamma, v. 364.
8 Psalms, i, 2.
9 Dhamma, v. 157.
190
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
66
“Take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently."1
and many similar passages.
In the Dhamma-pada it is said : - The fault of
others is easily perceived, but that of one's self is diffi-
cult to perceive.”2
This is the same sentiment found in Proverbs :
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes,
his neighbor findeth no favor in his eyes." 3
Again, in the Dhamma-pada it is said :
tremble at punishment; all men love life ; remember
that thou art like unto them, and do not kill, nor
cause slaughter."4
Not only is this injunction preceded by the com-
mandment that “Thou shalt not kill,” but the whole
sentiment had been more forcibly and broadly ex-
pressed hundreds of years before Buddha was born,
in the command: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
66 All men
thyself.” 5
» 6
It has been freely charged that Christ borrowed
“the golden rule” from Buddha, or from Confucius,
regardless of the fact that the sentiment expressed in
Matthew is ascribed “to the law and the prophets."
Many other similarities might be cited between the
verses of the Dhamma-pada and the older literature of
the Hebrews, but it can hardly be claimed that even
these are accidental.
It is certain that every moral principle which has
1 Deut., iy, 9, also Prov., iv, 23.
4 Dhamma, v. 252.
2 Dhamma, v. 352.
5 Lev., xix, 18.
3 Proverbs, xxi, 2, 10.
O Matthew, vii, 12.
7 Compare especially Dhamma, 34, with Psalms, xv, 2, 5, and Dhamma, 66,
with Prov., xviii, 7. Again, compare Dhamma, 69, with Eccl., viii, 2; also
Dhamma, 82, with Psalms, cxix, 165, and Isaiah, xlvii, 18, and many others.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
191
been inculcated by either Buddha or his followers was
freely taught by Moses and the prophets long before
the birth of Gautama.
It is true that Buddhism has ten commandments,
the first four of which are virtually the same as those
belonging to the Mosaic decalogue, but this fact need
not be considered, as it is a circumstance which might
easily happen. It is more significant, however, that a
story is found in the Jätakas which is apparently
based upon the wise decision of Solomon. “The
Hebrew story,” says Rhys Davids, “in which a similar
judgment is ascribed to Solomon, occurs in the book
of Kings, which is more than a century older than
the time of Gautama
and it should be re-
membered that the chronicle in question was based,
for the most part, on tradition current much earlier
among the Jewish people, and probably on earlier
documents.”2 Not only does it appear very possible
that Buddhism has been indebted to the earlier writ-
ings, but there are some things, even in Brāhmanism,
which would indicate that there may have been some
connection between the people of India and the Jews.
For instance, the Hindū temple is on the same plan
as the tabernacle in the wilderness, and scholars are
asking whence the Hindus can have derived this
plan:
Not only this, but Surgeon-General Gordon, in his
able paper before the Victoria Institute, or Philosoph-
ical Society of Great Britain, on the “Philosophy and
Medical Knowledge of Ancient India," has cited a
1 See p. 125.
2 B. B. S., Int. pp. xvi, xly.
192
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
great number of points in which the Code of Manu is
found to be almost identical with the much earlier
Mosaic Code. 1
When a book presents many ideas which are nearly
identical with those of another, it is customary, in the
world of letters, to decide who has done the borrow-
ing merely upon the question of chronological prece-
dence. It may be well, however, to briefly consider
some of the points of contact between the two nations.
POSSIBLE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
It was formerly believed that little, if any, inter-
course took place between the Semitic and Aryan
peoples in early times, but later discoveries have shown
that commerce, and even political and literary rela-
tions, obtained to a much greater extent than the
scholars of the last century supposed.2 Phoenicia has
been found to be the connecting link between Palestine
and Greece, both in architecture and art. Not only
is this true of Greece, but of other countries as well.
The presence of teak at Mugheir proves that the
commerce of Babylonia extended as far as India, and
Professor Sayce also claims that before the sixth cen-
tury before Christ the Phænicians had penetrated to
the northwestern coast of India, and her pearls and
ivories flowed into their harbors.3 It will be remem-
bered, too, that Solomon was indebted to Phoenicia
for his active commerce with India, and during the
building of the temple the fleets of Hiram and Solo-
1 Surgeon-General Gordon, M. D., C. B., Q. H. P. (Trans. Vic. Inst., Vol.
XXV, No. 99.)
2 See note to p. 153.
3 Sayce, An, Emp., pp. 176, 181, 208.
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
193
mon brought from Ophirl gold and precious stones,
and abundance of algum trees. There is also reason
to believe that there was a great commerce by land
between the East and West by way of Palmyra and
Mesopotamia. Though intercourse by sea,” says
Rhys Davids, “was not continued after Solomon's time,
the gold of Ophir, ivory, jade and Eastern gems still
continued to find their way to the West; and it would
be an interesting task for an Assyrian or Hebrew
scholar to trace the evidence of this overland route in
other ways.”3
- Nor should we,
says Prof. Max Müller, “when
looking for channels of communication between the
ancient kingdoms of Asia, forget the Jews, who were
more or less at home in every part of the world. We
must remember that they came originally from Ur of
1 It is true there is some difference of opinion in reference to the locality
of Ophir, but the commerce was of long continuance, and the navies of Solo-
mon and Hiram came once in every three years, “bringing gold and silver,
ivory, apes and peacocks." Every one of these are distinctively Iudian
products, and Professor Lassen considers it unnecessary to examine con-
jectures concerning other localities, from the fact that products which are
said to come from Ophir have Indian names, even in the Hebrew text, when
they are destitute of genuine Hebrew names.
In the Septuagint, the translators have invariably rendered the word
Ophir, as Souphir, in its various forms, and, according to Coptic lexico-
graphers, Soupher is the general name applied by the Copts to India and its
islands.
Josephus says that Solomon's fleets bad India for their goal (Ant. vi, 4).
See also Professor Sayce (An. Emp., p. 189) and Rhys Davids (B. B. S., Int.,
p. xlvi); also Carl von Ritter, the eminent German geographer (Geog. Pal.,
Vol. I, pp. 116, 126; also Reland (Dissertatio de Ophir), Vitringa (Geog.
Sacra., p. 114), Thenius (Exeget. Handbuch, I Kings, X, 22), Bertheau (Exe-
get. Handbuch, 2 Chron., viii, 18) and Ewald (Geschichte, III, 347, 2d edition).
2 Almug or algum trees furnished the peculiar wood which was used for
the terraces of the temple, and it is defined as being “the red sandal wood
of India
hard, heavy, close grained and of a fine red color."-Cyclo-
pædia Britannica.
3 Rhys Davids (B. B. S., xlvii),
.
194
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
1 رو
the Chaldees, then migrated to Canaan, and afterward
sojourned in Egypt before they settled in Palestine.
After this, we know they were led into captivity, and
lived in close proximity and held daily intercourse
with Medians, Persians, Babylonians and Assyrians." i
Not only is it true that India was one of the prov-
inces of Darius at the time when the prophet Daniel
held a high position at the king's court, but later
events show that the Jews were very numerous in India
during the life of Buddha. Ahasuerus, who “reigned
from India even unto Ethiopia,” has been definitely
identified as Xerxes I.2 He was contemporary with
Buddha,3 and during his reign the Jews were so
numerous in India and the other provinces of his
dominion that they made a successful stand against
their enemies when the king instructed them to do
And the great victory which was then obtained
was celebrated by the institution of the annual feast
of Purim, which is observed by the Jewish people even
to this day. 4 Therefore the Jewish people must
have been exceedingly numerous in and around India
during the time of Buddha, and it is a well known
fact that they carried their sacred books, their system
So.
1 Max Müller, Inaugural Address before the Ninth International Congress
of Orientalists.
2 In a recent letter to the author on this subject, Prof. A. H. Sayce says:
“Ahasuerus and Xerxes are the same name, and there is only one Xerxes to
whom the account in the book of Esther can refer. That is the famous
Xerxes I. Thanks to the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, we
now know that the Persian kings did not have two names, so that the old
attempt to identify the Xerxes of Esther with Darius or Artaxerxes can
never be renewed."
3 Xerxes came to the throne about 485 B. C.
4 Esther, ix, 26–32. It is a well known fact that no historic evidence is
considered so strong as the existence of the annual celebration of an event,
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
195
of ethics and their form of worship into every country
where they obtained a foothold.
obtained a footbold. Hence, opportu-
nities were apparently abundant for Buddha and his
contemporaries to learn the proverbs and oft-repeated
sayings of this peculiar people. If it be true, as Max
Müller asserts, that “the Indian alphabet certainly
came from a Semitic alphabet,"l we may well believe
that the alphabet was not the only literary heritage
which the people of India received from the Semites.
1ور
SUMMARY.
In relation to this department of letters, we have
seen that it found its origin at a time when there was
a general intellectual activity throughout the East, ,
and the official canon of the Buddhist church is
supposed to date from the first century before Christ.
The "three baskets" which compose this canon
contain all which refers to morality in these books,
and also the discourses of Buddha on various sub-
jects, as well as his definite instructions to monks in
reference to the trivial affairs of life. They contain,
too, works which treat upon a variety of subjects, in-
cluding philosophy and discipline. The Law required
and hence the faithful keeping of the Purim feast hus added greatly to the
weight of testimony in this department of history.
The Talmud is composed of the Mishna and Gemera. The former is the
text and the latter is the commentary upon it.
The composers of the Mishna were men belonging to the Sanhedrin
many years before the destruction of Jerusalem. There is one section of
the Talmud, called the Megillah (scroll), which treats of the book of
Esther, the feast of Purim, etc. The Megillah Esther is read by the Hebrews
on the day of the Purim feast. There is no doubt but it was written in Persin,
as it contains many Persian words, and it is ascribed to the time of Arta-
xerxes Longimanus, who was the son and successor of Xerxes J, and who
came to the throne about 465 B. C.
1 Max Müller, Inaugural Address, p. 29.
196
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
that these early texts should be constantly recited, and
great merit was accumulated thereby. The phrase-
ology of the Vinaya is thought to be substantially
accurate, even though it was long handed down by
memory, and, therefore, we have here an invaluable
record of the mental characteristics of the early Bud-
dhists.
We have seen, too, that there are strange contrasts
in the literature of Buddhism that while the greater
part of the sacred canon abounds with tedious diffuse-
ness and may be considered almost without literary
merit, there are other portions which present not only
a desirable code of ethics, but also much poetry of
expression. While the greater part of this teaching
is burdened with luxuriant imagination and crowded
with absurd statements, still there is much which is
so greatly superior to this that the careful student
is forced to the conclusion that the conflicting ele-
ments were derived from very different sources. It is
impossible to think of the moral horrors of the Tāntra
literature as emanating from the same source with the
simple beauty of the Dhamma-pada, neither can one
conceive of the revolting ceremonies of Śiva worship
as a component part of any system of ethics. These
forcible antagonisms must be explained in some way,
and the most natural conclusion is that they were de-
rived from the various races with whom the Buddhists
have come in contact.
Beginning with a simple pessimistic declaration,
Buddhism has, in later times, branched out into a
great number of complicated and self-contradictory
EARLY BUDDHIST LITERATURE, CONCLUDED.
197
propositions "Its teaching," says Williams, “has be-
come both negative and positive, agnostic and gnostic.
It passes from atheism and materialism to theism,
polytheism and spiritualism.
“It is, under one aspect, mere pessimism ; under
another, pure philanthropy ; under another, monastic
communism ; under another, high morality; under
another, a variety of materialistic philosophy; under
another, simple demonology; under another, a mere
farrago of superstitions, including necromancy, witch-
craft, idolatry and fetishism. In some form or an-
other, it may be held with almost any religion, and
embraces something from almost every creed. It is
founded upon philosophical Brāhmanism, has much in
common with Sankhya and Vedānta ideas, is closely
connected with Vaishnavism, and in
of its
phases with both Saivism and Sāktism, and yet it is,
properly speaking, opposed to every one of these
systems."1 The readiness with which this system allies
itself with the leading idea of every people whom it
approaches has been frequently noted, so much so
that it has been called the "universal borrower," and
when upon American soil it even claims some of the
doctrines of Christianity. This inveterate tendency for
borrowing must account for the numerous inconsist-
encies which obtain in its teachings and literature.
some
i Williams, B., p. 13.
CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION.
PRIMITIVE
BUDDHISM
IN
INDIA
ORIGIN
OF
THE
SYSTEM
ATHEISM
TRANSMIGRATION
KARMA
PESSIMISM METAPHYSICS THE ACCUMULATION OF
MIERIT NIRVĀŅA- LITERATURE ORIGINALITY OF
BUDDHA
CAUSES OF EXTENSIVE INFLUENCE.
W!
E have seen that Buddhism, so long as it re-
mained in its primitive form, was a blessing to
India, because it encouraged benevolence, self-sacrifice,
tolerance and humanity - because it opposed the tyr-
anny of the Brāhmanic priesthood and deprecated war
between nations.
In its earliest phase it was not a religion, but
merely a system of philosophy which was founded
upon extreme pessimism ; still, it promoted, to a
certain extent, intellectual and moral progress. It
taught respect for life and compassion toward the
lower animals.
It was a benefit to woman, even though it made
war upon the home, because it gave her some sem-
blance of equality by allowing her to become a nun
under much the same rules which obtained in com-
munities of men. Although it was claimed that she
could never attain perfection except by becoming a
198
CONCLUSION,
199
man, and although during the reign of Buddhism in
India living women were burned upon the dead bodies
of their husbands, still this system advocates a certain
amount of social freedom. It does not require the im-
prisonment of wives and daughters in the harem, and
the marriage of very young children is not enforced.
We have noted that, although some ideas may have
been obtained from other races, the metaphysical and
speculative doctrines of Buddhism have found their
origin upon Indian soil and in the earlier creeds of
the Hindūs. Even points which were thoroughly an-
tagonistic to the Vedic philosophy indicate that they
could not have existed without their predecessor.
While Gautama denied the existence of a Creator
and repudiated the Veda and all Vedic sacrifices, still
he made the philosophy of the Brāhmans the point of
departure for his own teaching.
The Sānkhya philosophy, in its original form,
claims the name of orlordless” or “ atheistic” as its
distinctive title, but while Buddha's whole system of
negation was founded upon atheism, he still recog-
nized the various gods of the Hindū pantheon. And
his followers became the worshipers of “lords many,
and gods many," to such an extent that more idols
are found in Buddhist countries than among any
other people.
1 Unknown thousands of lives were sacrificed in this barbarous manner,
as hundreds and sometimes thousands of women were burned alive every
year. At the close of the last century seventy widows were burned upon the
funeral pyre of one raja.
The horrible custom had obtained in Iudia ever since the days of Alex-
ander until abolished by the English government in the carly part of the
present century.
200
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISDI.
We have seen that the doctrine of metem psychosis
was promulgated by Egyptian and Hindū for centuries
before the birth of Gautama. In the Upanishads 1
(which contain the doctrinal portion of the Veda), we
find that the Indian philosophers attempted to devise
some plan, or theory, whereby the eternal cycle of ex-
istence in constant migration could be avoided.
It remained, however, for Buddha to teach the
transmigration of character, and, in some cases, the
transfer of consciousness, even while ignoring the ex-
istence of a soul.
In immediate connection with the theory of me-
tempsychosis we have found the doctrine that the
effect of good or bad actions extended from former
lives to the present, and from the present to all future
existences. But we meet with these ideas everywhere
in the poetry, the philosophy and the religion of the
Hindūs; they cannot be claimed as the property of
any particular system. There is no forgiveness in the
doctrine of karma; a man is bound hand and foot by
the inevitable consequences of his own evil actions.
Even the extreme pessimism of Buddha was taught
in the doctrinal portion of the Vedas. The Upani-
shads and other important works were replete with
the doctrine that everything was for the worst in
1 The doctrine of transmigration is found in the first of the series of the
Upanishads, and sometimes there is a curious consistency in the various
changes for instance, the man who has stolen perfumery becomes a musk-
rat; one who has stolen grain becomes a rat; one who has stolen water
becomes a water-fowl; one who has stolen meat becomes a vulture; one
who has stolen oil becomes a cockroach, etc.
Although the Upanishads, as such, were not formulated until about the
time of Buddha, their doctrines originated much earlier.
CONCLUSION.
201
this, the worst of all possible worlds.1 Therefore,
Buddha started out with the idea that the highest ob-
ject to be attained is the escape from pain. Life, in
his eyes, was only suffering, and birth was the cause
of all evil, from which even death could not deliver
him, because of transmigration. There was no deliv-
erance from evil except by breaking through the
prison walls of continued life and by extirpating the
last cause of existence.
In relation to metaphysics the old Vedānta philoso-
phers thought they were free when they arrived at the
knowledge that nothing existed but Brāhman- that all
phenomena are merely the result of ignorance. But
Buddha pushed the doctrine of negation still farther,
and claimed that there is no reality anywhere, neither
in the past nor in the future. "True wisdom consists
in perceiving the nothingness of all things, and in a
desire to become nothing, 'to be blown out,' to enter
into Nirvāņa. Emancipation is obtained by total ex-
tinction.
If to be, is misery, then not to be,
must be felicity, and this is the highest reward that
Buddha offered to his disciples." 2
Buddha had no conception of sin as an offense
against God. He taught his followers to get rid of
the demerit of evil action and accumulate a stock of
merit by good actions. This, too, was a genuine
Hindū idea. It is even
It is even now the vital portion of
Brāhmanism and Hindūism, as well as Zoroastrianism
and Confucianism.
1 See the Maitrayani Upanishad. Also Bhartri-hari, Vairagya-sataka, III,
32, 50.
2 F. Max Müller, Chips, Vol. I, p. 227.
202
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
It is even more vital to Buddhism, as there is no
forgiveness in this system, and good actions are rep-
resented as the only counterpoise of evil conduct.
Hence we find that great sacrifice is required in order
to produce great merit, and people made a practice of
buying birds (which had been caught by professional
bird-catchers for that purpose) and giving them their
liberty. Those who were to become Buddhas gave
away their wives and their children “to serve others,”
and the Buddha who received more radiance than any
of the others was he who gave his children to be
eaten by a demon, while the father looked contentedly
on as they were "devoured like a bunch of roots.” 1
It was a system of balancing up accounts, and coun-
teracting by such “good actions” the great accumu-
lation of demerit which had obtained in consequence
of the evil actions, not only of the present life but of
all the previous forms of existence.
We have seen, too, that Nirvana was not original
with Buddha. It occurred also in the literature of the
Brāhmans, as a synonym of “deliverance," "cessa-
tion” and “o
and “release.”2 Brāhmanism had a confused idea
that the human soul might be absorbed into the Uni-
versal Spirit, but Buddhism could not unite the soul,
1 See Rhys Davids (B. B. S., p. 33).
2 Different views of Nirvana, as conceived by the Brahmans, may be found
in an extract from the Lankavatara, translated by Burnouf, p. 514.
3 The Vedanta philosophers supposed that after the destruction of ignor-
ance and all its effects, all was again merged into Brahman, the true source
of being, thought and happiness.
But while some of the Upanishads, like the Katha, taught the immortality
of the soul and the absorption of everything into Brahman, others show that
this apparent monotheism is simply pantheism, and that the universe itself
is supposed to be Brahma. Not only this, but Brahma is himself represented
as dying, as well as the souls which have been absorbed into his substance,
CONCLUSION.
203
which it repudiated, with a God whom it ignored,
therefore the Nirvāņa of this system could never be
interpreted as "absorption into the divine essence.”
With Buddha, Nirvāņa must have meant either non-
existence or the path that leads to that condition.i
- The wise hold that there is really nothing exist-
ing, and those whose minds are disgusted with a
future existence go out like the lamp. As a flame
blown out by the wind goes out, and cannot be con-
sidered as existing, even so a Muni, delivered from
name and body, cannot be reckoned as existing. Exert
thyself, then, being wise ; let one having listened to my
utterance learn his own extinction.” 2
LITERATURE.
The literature, of course, was largely founded upon
these doctrines which existed in some form among the
earlier philosophies of India, and the florid description
which is often found is also a natural growth of the
Indian school of letters.
We have, too, the secret Tântric doctrines and the
elucidation of the ceremonies of Śiva worship, which
was the most revolting feature of Brāhmanism.
But we have also portions of books, and in one
instance almost a whole Sutta (the Dhamma-pada),
treating of morality, virtue, self-control and wisdom.
Here is an element which, although a part of the
and in strict accordance with the pantheistic idea, the whole universe
expires with him, to be reorganized again when he comes from the death
state. (See Chandogya Upanishad, 3-14.)
I See pp. 126, 132.
2 Extract from the discourse of Buddba, found in the Sutta-nipata, v. 1069.
See also verses 234, 353, 354, 1073, 1061 and many others.
204
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
system, is so entirely different from the great mass of
Buddhist literature that it cannot be considered as
coming from the same source, and it appears to have
been derived from a different race. It is a noteworthy
fact that we find here many striking similarities to the
sentiments of Biblical writers which were given to the
world long before the time of Buddha.
ORIGINALITY OF BUDDHA.
It is evident that the principal theories of Bud-
dhism lived in India long before Gautama's time.
Atheism and transmigration, the doctrine of karma,
the principles of pessimism, the theories of meta-
physics, the effort to accumulate merit, and even the
idea of Nirvāņa, were already in existence and ready
for his work.
That which was new and original with Buddha was
the changing of a philosophical system into a practical
doctrine. He took the thoughts of the few and pro-
mulgated them among the many. Although he did not
wish to abolish caste as a social institution, and though
there is no trace of social leveling, or of democratic
communism in his discourses, still he opposed the
exclusive privileges which were claimed by the Brāh-
mans and protested against their cruel treatment of the
lower castes.
He disregarded the exclusiveness of the priests and
addressed himself to all classes, and hence Buddhism
was a reaction against Brāhmanism even while retain-
ing much of its faith.
CONCLUSION.
205
CAUSES OF EXTENSIVE INFLUENCE.
“How a religion,” says Max Müller, “which taught
the annihilation of all existence, of all thought, of all
individuality and personality, as the highest object of
all endeavor, 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 self-sacrifice, it could have exercised a beneficial in-
fluence
is a riddle which no one has been
able to solve.” 1
Virtue is enjoined, not because it necessarily leads
to happiness. On the contrary, happiness is to be
shunned, and the only reward of virtue is that it sub-
dues the passions and thus prepares the mind for that
knowledge which is to end in complete annihilation
or utter extinction.
Buddhism says:
“ Act rightly
through your own efforts, and for the final getting rid
of all suffering, of all individuality, of all life in your-
selves.”
Buddha affirmed of himself that he came into the
world by the force derived from his own acts. By
that force alone he had passed through innumerable
bodies of gods, demi-gods, demons, men and animals,
until he entered the side of his mother in the form
of a white elephant. He declared that all enlighten-
ment and wisdom were to be obtained by his followers
through themselves and their own intuitions, and that
only after a long and painful discipline in countless
successive bodily existences.
I F. Max Müller, Chips, Vol. I, p. 243,
206
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
He did not admonish his followers to lead a life of
usefulness and activity, but to shun the world, to
withdraw from it, to become indolent and live as pau-
pers upon the earnings of others.
He did not teach them to expect a world renewed
and perfected, but a never-ending succession of evil
worlds forever coming into existence, developing, de-
caying, perishing and reviving, all of them always full
of disappointment, illusion, transmutation and ever-
lasting misery.
He did not teach that bodily existence is subject to
only one transformation, but he taught the passage
through countless bodies of men, animals, demons,
ghosts and dwellers in various heavens and hells with-
out any progressive development, but in a constant
jumble of metamorphoses. The man who had spent
years in one of the heavens was liable to be born
the next time as a reptile, or in hell.
He taught that the body, whether of man or of any
higher being, can never be the abode of anything but
evil; that a man, or even a god, may become an ani-
mal of any kind or the most loathsome vermin.
Instead of teaching that all affection should be puri-
fied and exalted, he claimed that all affections should
be utterly destroyed.
Instead of teaching men to go to work and honor-
ably earn their own bread — instead of admonishing
them to provide for their own households, he com-
manded them to abandon wife and children, and leave
ihem to starvation if need be, while the husband and
father begged his own bread from door to door.
OONCLUSION.
207
Instead of teaching his followers to ask what they
should do to inherit eternal life, he taught them to
seek for the path to eternal extinction, and proclaimed
as the only true creed, the doctrine of the ultimate
resolution of everything into nothing, of every entity
into pure nonentity.
We may well ask, then, by what means he made his
views popular even with the people of India ?
It is evident that the system of the Brāhmans had
run its course, Their ascendancy had assumed a polit-
ical character. By means of the laws of caste their
influence had pervaded the whole social fabric, not as
a healthful influence, but as a deadly poison.
It was impossible for one to assert any freedom of
thought or action without being impeded on all sides
by the Brāhmanic law, and the oppressed and discon-
tented people were ripe for a change. The ceremo-
nials had become so constant, so expensive and so
unendurable, that when Buddha proclaimed them use-
less the multitudes gladly flocked to his standard.
His success was also greatly accelerated by political
events. Chandra-gupta had assumed his supremacy in
India in defiance of the laws of caste, which forbade
the kingship to any but the military class. Neither he
nor his successors could hope for the support of the
Brāhmans, therefore his grandson Asoka gladly availed
himself of the influence of the new sect. The low-
born king saw his natural allies in the multitude of
mendicants who opposed the Brāhmanic law, and
would, if possible, set aside the power which denied
his right to the throne. He therefore gave all of his
208
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM.
influence to the Buddhists, and they soon attained an
importance which their founder little anticipated.
It mattered not to the people of India that the
expensive gifts with which they had been accustomed
to fee the Brāhmans were merely diverted into another
channel, and they welcomed the army of beggars who
seemed to deliver them from the exactions of the
priesthood.
" Those who see in Buddhism not a social but a
religious reform have been deceived by the later Bud-
dhist literature, and particularly by the controversies
between the Buddhists and Brāhmans, which, in later
times, led to the expulsion of the former from India
and to the political re-establishment of Brāhmanism."1
Buddha began with a very simple creed - only the
promulgation of “the four verities.” He proclaimed
that all existence involved only sorrow and suffering ;
that sorrow was produced by our affections and desire
of any kind, especially the desire for life. He also
claimed that our affections must be destroyed in order
to destroy the root of sorrow, and that he could teach
mankind to eradicate all affection.
This creed was easily understood, and he received
people of every caste, who were thus relieved from the
expensive and burdensome ceremonies of Brāhmanism.
Not only this, but his most enthusiastic devotees were
also sure of being supported without work on the
charitable contributions of the lay members, and we
cannot wonder that the number of his followers rap-
idly increased, for the doctrine of indolence and inac-
IF. Max Müller, Chips, Vol. I, p. 221.
CONCLUSION.
209
، نانا
tion is especially attractive, to the people of warm
.
But human nature could not be changed, and the
system which began by refusing any form of prayer to
the helpless children of earth, soon counted its “pray-
ing machines” by thousands. And he who had denied
the existence not only of a Creator, but of any abso-
lute being, was himself deified by the hungry hearts of
millions who felt the need of a Father to whom they
could go with their burdens and their sorrows.
INDEX.
B.
A.
Attavada, 75.
Abhi-dhamma Pitaka, 170. Austerities, 20, 69.
Achievement, Highest, 31, 39. Avalokitesvara, eleven heads of,
Activity, Literary, in the East, 113.
150, n. 153.
Agnosticism, 105, 197.
Ahasuerus, 152, 194.
Babylonia, 192.
Alexander, 17.
Babylonians, 194.
Alphabet, Indian, 195; Semitic, Baskets, Three, 155, 195.
194.
173.
Bas-reliefs Illustrating Birth
Amitabha Buddha, 175; Paradise Stories, 86.
of, 174.
Bats, Five Hundred, 160.
Amitayur-dhyana, 163, 174, 175. Belief, Orthodox, 87.
Amravatti, Relic Mounds in, 48; Benares, 65, 97; Discourse at, 71,
Buddhist Carvings at, 86.
Ananda, 51, 79, 96, 145, 147, Bhagavad-gita, n. 70.
164.
Bharbut, Buddhist carvings at,
Ancient Empires, n. 192, n. 193. 86, n. 92, 103; Great Tope at,
Anguttara Nikaya, 86, 163.
n 101.
Animals, Sacred, 81, 103; vener- Bigandet, 25.
ation for, 102.
Births, Series of, 32, 87, 88, 103.
Anomadassin, 36.
Birth Stories, 33, 82, 101.
Antelope, the Wily, 82, 93. Bodhisat, 35, 46, 50, 52, 53, 56;
Arahats, 59, 130, 131.
Shrewdness of, 90, 94, 96, 98,
Artaxerxes Longimanus, n. 195. 101.
Asankheyyas, 32.
Bo-tree, 55, 57, 70, 113.
Asankheyya Sutta, n. 85.
Book of the Great Decease, 43,
Arabian Nights, n. 99.
77, 163, 164.
Asceticism, 63, 68, 69.
Bowls, care of, 150, 156.
Asia, Eastern, 14, 18.
Borrower, Universal, 196.
Asiatic Society of Bengal, 24; Brahma, Archangel, 47, 56, n.
Journal of, n. 56; of London, 70, 71, 77, 79, 109; gods, 89,
24.
109, 110.
Asoka, 17, 172, 207.
Brahmans, 16, 18, 69, 83, 89, 108,
Asuras, 111.
151, 199, 204, 207.
Assyrians, 194.
Brahmanism, 14, 18, 28, 69, 83,
Assyrian Tablets, n. 153.
118, 120, 126, 191, 201, 202,
Atheism, 19, 104, 107, 108, 109, 208; Austerities of, 69; In-
198, n. 204.
debtedness to, 151, 183.
211
212
INDEX.
Brahma-jala Sutta, n. 85, 154. 44, 77, 87, 104, 137, 150, 163,
British Museum, 113.
183.
Brothers, Lay, 134.
Buddhist Scriptures, Extent of,
Buddha Gautama, Asceticism of, 153.
63, 68; Atheism of, 19, 108; Buddhists, Northern, 44, 115,
Birth of, 42, 46, 47, 63, 64, 66; 132; Southern, 50.
Numerous dates assigned to Bull who won the Bet, 82, 94.
birth of, 64, n. 80; Biography Burmah, 15, 29.
of, 43, 63, 81; Benevolence of, Burmese, 21.
35, 40, 47, 57, 202; Buddhistic Burnouf, 9, 26, n. 25, 50, 130,
Account of, 42; Former Births
132, 182.
of, 46, n. 61, 81, 82, 84, 89,
101; Five Human, 110; Death
of, 43, 63, 80; Historic Sketch
C.
of, 63; Originality of, 198, 204; Calcutta, 24.
Images of, 112; "Indebtedness Canon, Date of, 150, 154; Per-
to Brahmanism, 151, 183.
petuated Orally, 17, 42, 43, 88,
Buddha-karita, 46, n. 49, n. 53,
152, 161.
121, 163, 172.
Caste, 16, 17, 18, 85, 204, 207.
Buddha Names, Allegorical, 65. Catholicism, 15.
Buddhas, Future, 32; Numerous, Causes of Extensive Influence,
31, 38, 40.
198, 205.
Buddha, Physical Signs of, 42, Ceylon, 15, 18, 25, 28, 64, 110.
48, 59, 173, 176; Predecessors Chandra-gupta, 17.
of, 31, 38, 174; Prophecy of, Channa, 53, 54, 207.
147; Teachings of, 60, 71, 73, Chicago Public Library, 8.
75, 77, 101, 107, 122, 124, 125, China, 14, 24, 28, 150, 174; Bud-
127, 135, 136, 139, 142, 146, dhism a disturbing influence
156, 158, 162, 164, 167, 169.
in, 30.
Buddhas, Three, 37, 38; Wonders Childers, 25, 128, 131.
of, 150, 159.
Christ, 190.
Buddha-ghosha, 155, 171. Christianity, 28, 29, n. 67, 197.
Buddha-vansa, 168.
Chiliocosm, 39.
Buddhism, A Blessing to India, Commandments, Ten, 125, 189.
13, 18, 20, 30; A Benefit to Confession, 137, 138, 146.
Women, 13, 21; Critical Study Confucius, 30, 150, 190.
of, 13, 23; In China, 17, 30; Confucianism, 29, 201.
Disappearance from India, 28; Congress of Religions, 105.
Highest Achievement of, 39, Converts, First, 154.
40, 41; Nihilism of, 129, 205; Contrasts, Striking, 181.
Number of Adherents, 1, 13, Councils, 17, 45, 86, 87, 154.
27; Origin and Teachings, 13, Cowell, Prof. E. B., 25, n. 100.
31, 42, 82, 104, 133, 156, 163; Clothing, Unsanitary, 141, 142.
Primitive, 13, 15, 20, 168, 198;
Summum bonum of, 20, 130,
132.
Buddhists, Canon of, 8, 38, 45; | Daniel, 150, 194.
Canon Perpetuated Orally, 42, Darius, 150, 194.
88, 161.
Dates, Numerous, 64, n. 80.
.
Buddhist Literature, 25, 27, 43, Davids, T. W. Rhys, 25, 33, 44,
D.
INDEX.
213
ens, 161.
G.
E.
H.
45, 46, 87, 101, 130, 152, 153, Foucaux, 45.
191, 193.
Four Truths, 76.
Delusion, 106, 107.
Freer, 1. 45.
Demon, Sharp-fanged, 35; Wor- Frog born into one of the heav-
ship, 15, 110, 112, 197.
Demerit, 125, 201, 202.
Fundamental Prohibitions, 125.
Deva-datta, 92, 93; Punishment
of, 121.
Deva-loka, 38.
Dhamma-pada, n. 71, 110, 120, Gautama, 8, 31, 32, 33, 36, 37,
154, 163, 167, 181, 182, 185,
38, 42, 51, 55, 66, 67, 68, 70,
188, 190, 196, 203.
86, 89, 93, 184, 191, 199, 200,
Dhammas, Nine, 44.
204,
Diacritical Points, 11.
Gautami, 145, 146.
Diamond-cutter, 104, 180.
Gemera, n. 195.
Dipavamsa, n. 48, 85.
Godoshiu Sect, 174.
Dipankara, 31, 32, 34, 59.
Gogerly, 25.
Discourse at Benares, 63, 71.
Gopa, 50.
Dukkata, 156 158.
Gordon, Surgeon-General, 191,
192.
Gospels, Similarities to, 67.
Greece, 150, 192.
Earthquakes, Cause of, 163, 164. Greeks, 28.
East India Company, 24.
Ecclesiastes, n. 190.
Egypt, 82, n. 153, 185.
Egyptians, 82, 83, 200.
Heaven, 104, 118, 119.
Eitel's Lectures, n. 102.
Hebrews, 150, 189.
Elephant, White, 47, 86, 172, 205. Hell, 114, 120.
Enlightenment, 16, 63, 10, n. 122, Hells, thirty-six, 121; of Brah-
166, 205.
manism, 121; Buddha's de-
Escape, the, 42, 53.
scription of, 122.
Ethics, Code of, 125, 151.
Herodotus, 82.
Ethiopia, 152, 194.
Hinduism, 14, 29, 118, 201.
Evidences, Chronological, 155,
Hindustan, 16.
Eye of Truth, 136.
Hindu gods recognized by Bud-
Exodus, n. 189.
dha, 108, 118.
Hodgson, 154.
Historic Sense, 42.
Fa Hian, n. 64, 152.
Fatal Meal, 77.
Fausböll, 25.
Idolatry, 104, 112.
Fairy, or devata, 165.
Idols, 113, 115, 199.
Fire Sermon, 62, 75.
Incantations, 23.
First Path, fruit of, 60.
Indian Antiquary, n. 100.
First Writings, date of 43. India, 3, 13, 14, 17, 18, 23, 30,
Fish, Lament of, 97; and his 42, 88, 90, 102, 110, 112, 129,
Wife, 82, 96.
142, 150, 152, 192, 194, 195,
Flesh, of dogs, 140; human, 141; 207.
of lions, 140; of serpents, 140. Indra, 54, 185.
F.
I.
214
INDEX.
40.
J.
129.
M.
Infants, Sacrifice of, 23.
Lama, Grand, 15.
Influence of Christian and Mo- Lassen, 25, 193.
hammedan Thought, 109. Language, Mongolian, 25.
Institute, Victoria, 9.
Lawgiver, Jewish, 125.
Integrity of the Texts, 161. Laws, Unsanitary, 138.
International Congress of Ori- Legge, Dr. James, 9, 28, 30, n.
entalists, n. 29, n. 30, n. 39, n. 38, n. 39, n. 40, n. 67, n. 111.
Leviticus, n. 189. n. 190.
Introduction á l'Histoire du Bud- Liberty, Social, 20.
dhism, 25.
Literature, Buddhist, 150, 168,
Isaiah, 186.
196, 198, 203; Tantra, 149, 163,
181, 182, 196; Semitic, 98.
Literary Record, Trübner's, n.
Jainism, 29.
Japan, 14, 15, 24, 29.
Jatakas, 33, 42, 45, 46, 82, 85,
163, 164, 168, 191; early col- Magic, 110.
lections of, 86.
Maha-yana, 106, 110, 163, 171.
Jetavana, 93, 96, 100.
Mahendra, '171.
Jews, the, 15, 191, 193, 194. Maha-vagga, 43, n. 53, n. 58, 71,
Josephus, 193.
75, 122, 139, 156, 175.
Judge, the Wise, 99.
Maha-parinibbana-Suttana, 77,
Julien, Stanislaus, 27.
n. 79, 163, 164, n. 166.
Mahavamsa, n. 43.
Mahoragas, 111.
Maitreya, 112.
Kalpa, 11. 31, 32.
Majjhima, 168.
Kapila, doctrines of, 65.
Mara, 55, 57, 79, 108, 110, 127.
Kanishka, King, 45, 171, 172.
Mango grove, 78.
Kanjur, 154.
Mangala, 31, 34, 35.
Kanthaka, 53, 54.
Karma, 84, 107, 120, 175, 200, Manifestations, Sphere of, 31, 38.
Manuscript, Indian, 167.
204.
Matthew, 190.
Kassapa, 59, 109, 160.
Marriages, Child, 22.
Kashmir, King of, 171.
Maya, 66, 67.
Kern, 25, 64.
Meal, the Fatal, 63, 65, 77.
Khandhaka, 156.
Medians, 194.
Khuddaka-patha, 163
Medical Knowledge of Ancient
Kings, Book of, 98, 191.
India, 191.
Koeppen, n. 114.
Medicines, Loathsome, 141.
Konagamana, 62.
Megillah, n. 195.
Kondanna, 31, 34, 72.
Mendicants, Order of, 61, 79.
Kasola, 66.
Memories of Pre-existent Condi-
Kulla-vagga, 156, n. 157, n. 158.
tions, 85.
Kunda, 78.
Metaphysics, 102, 104, 108, 122,
177, 184, 198, 200.
Metaphysician, Buddhist, 129.
Lalita Vistara, 42, 44, 46, n. 48, Merit, Accumulation of, 22, 198,
n. 49, n. 51, 55, n. 85, 174. 201, 202.
Lamas, 115.
Meru Mountain, 119.
K.
L.
INDEX.
215
0.
P.
Mesopotamnia, n. 153, 198. Nuns, 21, 133; Indebted to An
Mishna, n. 195.
anda, 145; Rules pertaining
Mitford, 150.
to, 146.
Mohammedanism, 28.
Northern School, 163.
Monastery, First, 42, 61.
Mongolia, 30
Monks, Directions for, 133, 137;
Frauds Perpetrated by, 112;
Ordination of, 133, 134; 'Order Occult Meaning, n. 114.
Offense, Dukkata, 136.
from Serpents, 133; Unsani- | Oldenberg, Dr., 9, 25, 43, 55, 65,
tary Clothing of, 133; Unsani-
68, 70, 90, 124, 125, 128, 152.
tary Laws for, 133.
Om! mani padme Hum! 114,
Monkhood, 21, 133; Formula for
115.
Admission, '47,134; Results of, Order, Growth of, 134.
Ophir, 193.
133, 148.
Monkeys and the Demon, 82, 90. Origin and Growth of Religion,
Morality, 104, 125, 182.
D. 44, n. 84.
Morris, 25.
Orthodox Belief, 82.
Moses, 191, 189.
Oxford University, 28.
Mucalinda the Snake King, 58,
111; Tree, 58.
, 192
Müller, Prof. F. Max, 9, 11, 25, Padmuttara, 31, 36.
27, 63, 104, 129, 132, 151, 155, Paduma, 36.
175, 177, 183, 193.
Pali, 25, 27; Canon, 25, 150, 154,
Myth, Theory of, 63.
155; Characters, 25; Early
Texts, 42, 43, 55, 67, 70, 155,
159, 160, 161, 163, 168, 167,
169; Pitakas, 68, 84, 86, 88;
Naga, 35, 159; Worship, 15, 111. Suttas, 101.
Naga-kanyas, or female Nagas, Palestine, n. 153, 192, 194.
111.
Path, Eight-fold, 71, 125, 182.
Nanda, King, 16.
Patimakkha, 137, 164.
Nandi Visala, 95, 96.
Pathoma Sompothiyan, n, 47.
Nanjio, Bunyiu, n. 38, n. 175. Parimitas, 126.
Narada, 36.
Pari-nirvana, 103, 104, 131.
Nepal, 24, 44, 110, 154.
Parivara-patha, 156.
Nepalese Sanskrit Works, 171. Parajika Books, 149, 182.
Nikanyas, 154.
Patna, Council of, 87.
Nirvana, 39, 40, 41, 42, 103, 104, Pattini, goddess, 110.
124, 126, 131, 181, 185, 198, Philosophies, 7, 184, 191.
201, 202, 204; Contradictory Phænicia, 192.
Teaching of Buddhistic Au- Phænicians, 192.
thorities, 127, 128; Not Origi- Persians, 28, 194.
nal with Buddha, 126; Various Pessimism, 104, 117, 118, 184,
Theories Concerning, 127, 128; 197, 198, 206, 208.
Signification of, 126.
Perfections, Ten, 92.
Non-existence of the Soul, 63, 74, Pitaka, Second, 163; Third, 163,
106.
170; Vinaya, 94, 109, 150, 155.
N.
216
INDEX.
S.
Pippala, or Pipal Tree, 69, 113. Ritter, Carl Von, 193.
Pisacas, 111.
Rites and Ceremonies, 75.
Possible Borrowing from Semitic Ritual, Vedic, 16.
Literature, 98.
Robes, Directions for Making,
Possible Sources of Information, 138.
182, 192.
Roman, 28.
Polytheism, 104, 109, 118, 119, Rome, Church of, 15.
197.
Rugs, Directions for Making, 37.
Prayer, 104, 114, 116, 209; Bells,
116; Jewel, 114; Wheels, 30,
115, 209.
Pragna-paramita, 163, 180.
Sabbasava Sutta, 106.
Pretas, 111.
Saddharma Pundarika, 86.
Priesthood, Brahmanic, 17, 18, Sacred Books of the East, 8, n.
20.
43, n. 46, n. 85, n. 165, n. 109,
Pronunciation, 11.
n. 165.
Prophecy of Buddha, 133, 147. Sacrifices, 110.
Proverbs, 186, 187, 188, n. 189, Saint Hilaire, Barthélemy, 9, 29,
190.
n. 67, 130.
Psalms, n. 187, n. 188, n. 189, n. Saivism, 110, 117, 197.
190.
Sakka, King of the Devas, 159,
Psalmist, 187, 188, 189.
160.
Pujawaliya, n, 49.
Saktism, 110, 197.
Punishment, 120, 122, 123, 163, Sakwala, 56.
167, 168
Sakya-muni, 29, 64, 65.
Pyrrhonism, Metaphysical, 129. Sakya-sina, 64.
Sakyas, 50, 64, 66.
Salvation, 104, 124.
Samana-phala-sutta, n. 84, 164.
Samyutta Nikaya, n. 128.
Races, Semitic, 153.
Sanchi, 48, 86.
Rahula, 51, 60, 61, 68.
Sankhya, n. 114, 183, 197, 199.
Ragnun, Great Bell at, 37. Sara-sagraha, n. 43.
Rajendra-lala Mitra, 44.
Satapatha-brahmana, 183.
Rajayatana Tree, 58.
Sayce, Prof. A. H., 9, n. 153,
Rakshasas, 111.
192, 193.
Recitation of the Law, 15, 16, Scholars, Oriental, 10, 24, 87.
160.
Schilling, Baron, 115.
Refuge in Buddha, 77; in Law, Schools of Thought, 17.
77; in Order, 77.
Science of Religion, n. 43.
Regions of Desire, 39; of Form, Schlagintweit, Dr., n. 115.
39; Without Form, 39. Schmidt, 24.
Relic Mounds, 47,
Scriptures, Buddhist, 17, 42, 43,
Republicanism, Doctrines of, 16. 86, 150, 154, 161; Extent of,
Renan, 22, 116.
150.
Renunciation, Great, 42, 52. Senart, 28, n. 45, 64.
Return Home, 42, 59.
Serpents, Five Kinds of, 146;
Resources, Four, 135, 136.
Four Royal Breeds of, 143;
Revata, 31, 36.
How they may obtain Human
Rig-veda, 83.
Nature, 144; Protection from,
R.
INDEX.
217
142, 143; Who joined the Or- | Tantrism, 110, 148.
der, 133, 143.
Taoist, 14.
Sex, Change of, 22, 198.
Taoism, 28.
Shamanism, 15.
Tathagata, 40, 43, 108, 147;
Shintoism, 15.
Final Éxtinction of, 7, 79,
Siam, 15.
127.
Siddhata, 37.
Tel-el-Amarna, n. 153.
Similarities to the Gospels, 67; Temple, Hindu, 191.
to Old Testament Teaching, Temptation, Great, 42, 55, 173.
183, 186, 204.
Text, Integrity of, 150.
Sikhin, 61.
Texts, Vinaya, 94, 108, 150, 155,
Singhalese, 27.
161.
Siva, 14, 15, 110, 182, 196, 203. Tibet, 15, 20.
Skandhas, 39, 74, n. 180.
Tibetans, 154; Canon of, 24.
Sobhita, 31, 36.
Tooth Sticks, 150, 158.
Societé Asiatique, 24, 25. Tradition, Vedic, 48.
Socrates, 150.
Transmigration, 23, 26, 70, 82,
Solomon, 186, 188, 191, 192. 84, 198, 200, 201, 204, 205, 206;
Solomon, Judgment of, 98.
Origin of the Theory, 82; Re-
Soul, Heresy of Belief in, 74; lief from, 63, 71, 76, 118.
Non-existence of, 63, 74, 106, Tri-pitaka, 150, 155, 171, 181,
200.
182.
Souphir, 193.
Truths, Four, 71, 76.
Studies in Religious History, n.
22, n. 117.
Subha-sutta, 154.
Sudra, 16, 17.
Suddhodana, 66, 172.
Upanishads, 83, 150, 200.
Upasampada, 136, 137, 144.
Sujata, 31, 37.
Universal Spirit, 202,
Sukhavati-vyhua, 32, 174.
Unsanitary Clothing, 133, 142;
Sumana, 31, 35, 36.
Food, 139, 140; Laws, 133,
Summary, 183, 195.
136,
Sumedha, 31, 36.
Sumeru Mountain, 37.
Sutta, Nipata, 154, 163, 164, 168;
Extracts from, 169; Pitaka, n. Vagrakkhedika, 104, 163, 177;
74.
Doctrinal Teaching of, 163,
Suttee, Prevalence of, 23, 199. 178.
Sutras, Discourses of Buddha, Various Forms Assumed, 82, 88.
155.
Vedas, 150, 199.
Sutra Period, 151.
Vedic Hyınns, 151; Philosophy,
Sravasti, 37.
199; Sacrifices, 199.
Vessabhu, 62.
Vesali, Council of, 86, 88.
Victoria Institute, 9, 191, 192.
Tabernacle, 191.
Vibhanga, 156.
Talmud, n. 195.
Vinaya Pitaka, 94, 108, 162, 196.
Tanjur, 154.
Vishnu, 14.
Tantra Literature, 149, 163, 182. Vispassin, 37, 61.
Tantric Doctrines, 203.
Visions, Four, 42, 52, 68.
U.
T.
218
INDEX.
W.
Y.
Was, the Rainy Season, 100. Yakshas, n. 99.
Weber, 25.
Yakshini, 99, 100.
Williams, Sir Monier Monier-, 9, Yama, 120.
11, 25, n. 31, 43, 44, 45, 89, Yasodhara, 50, 51; Lament of,
131, 149, 152, 197.
54, 173.
Wilson, Prof. H. H., 44.
Yoga, 20.
Wise Judge, 82.
Wisdom, Supreme, 32.
Woman, Benefit to, 3, 13, 21, Zoroaster, 150.
198.
Zoroastrianism, 28, 201.
Writing, Art of, 151.
Z.
X.
Xerxes, 152, 194.
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