Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
Cornell University Library
BL 1451.T61
The original of tliis bool< is in
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022981280
THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
MAP TO ILLUSTRATE (l) THE ROUTE TAKEN BY BUDDHA WHEN HE FLED
FROM home; (2) THAT PROBABLY TAKEN BY HIM WHEN HE
LEFT pAtALIPUTRA ON HIS LAST JOURNEY.
The continuous straight line shows No. and the dotted line
i No. 2.
'
THE
BY THE
'
Ayam eva Ariyo Atthangiko Maggo
Dhammacakkappavattana-Suttam, § 3.
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G.
1903
TO
Bedford,
December, 1902.
certainty, nor has the course taken by them between any two points
been ascertained beyond all doubt. Hence it has not been possible to
calculate with accuracy the value of either a yojana or & li. But the
value of the identifications proposed by Dr. Hoey in the two papers
contributed on this subject to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal seems to me to be very considerable. The map will enable
the reader to follow any further discoveries that may be made. The
probable site of Sravastt has been discovered, and will soon be made
public.
NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF
THE ENGLISH LETTERS EMPLOYED IN
THESE PAGES TO TRANSLITERATE
PALI AND SANSKRIT WORDS
CONTENTS
PAGES
Preface ix
Introduction viv
LECTURE I
LECTURE II
xvi CONTENTS
PAGE
—The Ego— Previous Budcihas—The Future Buddha— Trans-
migration — The God of Death — The Deities also and suffer
LECTURE III
—
mokkham Uposatho, or Buddhist Sabbath Defects of Bud- —
dhist Moral System —
The Asavos BenevoIence-^The Ten — '
Fetters '
—
Meaning of Ignorance (Avijja)
'
Disgust '
— ' '
CONTENTS xvii
PAGES
—
and Christian Love to God No Aim of Existence in Bud-
— —
dhism Christianity reveals Divine Purpose Buddhist Half-
truths— Earth's Pleasures unsatisfying — Other-Worldliness
'
'
also Vain — Buddhist Equanimity and Christ's Peace — Im- ' '
—
Buddhism on Christianity Supposed Resemblances between
Gospel Passages and Buddhist Writings —
Parable of the
Mustard Seed— Greater Resemblance to Teaching of Greek
—
Philosophers Professor Rhys Davids' Opinion Influence —
of Buddhism on Corrupt Forms of Christianity Barlaam and —
— —
Josaphat ^Monastic System Lamaism and the Papacy
— —
Gnosticism Manichaeism Apocryphal Gospels and Maha-
yana Books — 'Romantic History
of Buddha' Uncertain —
Date of Buddhist Works— Harnack on the Date of the New
Testament Writings— Metteyo Buddha— Conclusion 160- 201
202
Note on Buddha's Birth
Bibliography ^°^
INTRODUCTION
such a '
raft '
is not enough to carry man safely over the
ocean of existence, but that '
some word of God '
—nay,
rather,The Word of God
'
' Himself — is requisite.
for good or ill which it has, when its pyecepts have been
carried into practice, exercised on its professors, must be
taken into account as well, for the tree is known by his
'
fruit.'
xxiv INTRODUCTION
production of a Mahdi, a Khallfeh, a Mad Mulla, who
have very fairly reproduced the character and the con-
duct of Muhammad. A revival of pristine Buddhism
might, if successful, show us characters more peaceful, it
'
far-off"D\v'uie event,
To which the whole creation moves.
—
LECTURE I
'"HE period
\.
T
' I at which Buddhism arose in India was
one which, whether we consider it from a poHti-
cal or from an intellectual standpoint, must un-
doubtedly be regarded as one of the most remarkable in
the history of the world. The fall of Babylon in e.g. 538,
when the Persian Empire under Cyrus arose on the ruins
of the Assyrio-Baby Ionian, was one of the great turning-
points in history, for it marked the passing away of the
temporal power of the Semites and the accession of the
Aryan (Japhetic) family of nations to the sovereignty of
the world. In a somewhat similar manner, though more
gradually, had the Semites themselves, more than a
thousand years previously, wrested the pre-eminence from
Accadians, Elamites, and Egyptians, members of another
great division of the human race, known in the Bible as
the Hamitic family. From the time of Cyrus to the pre-
sent day the world has been ruled by the Aryan race, and
their elevation to this exalted position took- place in the
lifetime of Gotamo Buddha.
the growing political
The same period which witnessed
ascendancy of the Aryan family of nations that which —
I
2 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
may be approximately included between the sixth and the
fifth centuries before the Christian era —
was noted for its
fertility in the deepest religious and philosophical thought.
To it we trace back the origin of Hellenic as well as that
of Indian philosophy. And, although our ignorance of
the time at which Zoroaster lived renders it impossible
to assert with any certainty that the great religious and
intellectual movement associated with his name coincided
with the period of which we are now speaking, yet much
may be said in favour of such a supposition. Nor was
this great outburst of mental, and in some measure of
spiritual, earnestness and by any means confined
effort
to the Aryan nations, as we learn from a study of the
contemporary Chinese i and Hebrew writings. Over the
whole, or nearly the whole, of the civilized world at that
epoch there seems to have brooded a spirit of inquiry
which is perhaps without a parallel in the intellectual
history of mankind. With its results, as far as the Western
WiOrld is concerned, all students of Greek philosophy are
acquainted. Completely independent, doubtless, of the
^ilniost contemporary movement of Grecian thought, there
gradually diffused itself in India at the time of which we
write, and perhaps somewhat previously, a very general
feeling of dissatisfaction with the religious doctrines of the
—
Brahmanical faith of unbelief in the deities then wor-
shipped by the Indian Aryans. This gave rise to a desire
to obtain by thought and investigation some more satis-
factory answer to the great problem of human existence
and of human suffering than was afforded by the hymns
of the Rig Veda, the earliest ethnic scripture of the Aryan
family, written in an ancient dialect, the meaning of which
had almost ceased to be understood. Times had very
1 Confucius was born in 551 e.g., and died in B.C.
478. Lao-tse
was his contemporary and that of Buddha.
2 '
I —
'
'
El /i^ Tis divaiTO d<ripa\4ffTcpov Kal 6,Ki.v5vvlyripov iirl jSejSoioT^pou
dx'TIIMTos 9i
'Kbyov Belov nms Si.airopevSiji'ai.
— ' PhsEdo,' xxxv. 85 D.
- '
With regard to the relation of Buddhism to the six orthodox
Suttas. But this is very different from the opinion held by certain
scholars, that Buddha and his disciples actually borrowed from our
Satras. know nothing of.Samkhya literature before the Samkhya-
We
karikas, which belong to the sixth century after Christ '
(Max MuUer,
'
Six Systems,' pp. 119, "o)-
6 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
For, indeed, nothing short of this was what Buddha
aimed at achieving, and doubtless believed that he had
achieved. Brahmanism, in its earUest form, had origin-
ally been exclusively the faith of the Aryan conquerors
of Hindustan and, although the descendants of the
;
later times to
proclaim the new faith, the monks of his
Order were but carrying out the wishes and putting into
practice the principles which their teacher had taught
them. Nay, more, they believed that they were but
obeying his express command.^ In order properly to
estimate the importance of Buddha's action in the matter,
we must remember that no previous attempt had ever
been made in the history of the world to found anything
of the nature of a universal religion.Judaism, it is true,
contained within those of its sacred books which existed
before Buddha's time the Divine promise that, in future
ages, all the nations of the world would receive blessing
through the coming Saviour but Judaism itself was as ;
the year and more that had elapsed since he began to exert himself for
'
kata —
' Those
' [supposed] true gods which at this time were in
Jambudvipa are now made [to be regarded as] false.' (See BUhler's
'Three New Edicts of Asoka," pp. 25-27.)
8 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
pagate the tenets they had embraced proves that
Buddhism had shown itself to be in some respects a
great advance upon the attempts previously made in .
' ' Det begynnelselbsa hogsta Brahman kallas icke varande och icke
icke-varande ' (Elkund, 'Nirvana,' p. 75, quoting from Dahlmann,
' Nirvana,' p. 54). Cf. Bhagavadgita, xi., si. 37, where Arjuna,
addressing Krishna, says :
'
Ananta devesa jagannivSsa
Tvam aksharam, sadasat, tat paraip yat.'
' This was in particular the doctrine of the VedSnta philosophy, but
it largely affected the SAnkhya school also. The Bhagavadgtta and
several Upanishads are connected with both systems: 'In der Philo-
sophie des Mahabharata — ihre technische Benennung ist Samkhya-Yoga
— ist Brahman noch immer dasselbe einige, ewige Sein, wie es in den
Upanishaden verkiindigt wird' (Elkund, 'Nirvana,' resume, p. vi).
* M.^pTj 5^ <pL\oiTO(pias Tpia, (pvo'iKdi', JidiKov, diaXeKTiKdv. ^vfftKov fx^v
TO Trepl KdtTfiov Kol Twv iv adr^ '
-tjOlkov 5k to wepl ^iov koX tQv wpot T}fias
—
causes suffering birth, sickness, death, separation from
what is dear to us and union with what is hateful ^ '
Die UberzeuguDg von dem Elende des Daseins und das durchdringehde
Geflihl der Erlosungsbedurftigkeit geben dem Buddhismus Gestalt und
Faibe' (J.Dahlmann, 'Buddha,' p. 15).
^ Grau, 'The Goal of the Human Race,' English translation,
pp, 145 et seq.
' Grau, op. cit., pp. 146, 147 ; cf. Oldenberg, 'Buddha : sein Lcben,
seine Lehre, seine Gemeinde,' p. 258 et seq.
LIFE AND WORK OF THE BUDDHA ii
^ The aim of the Sankhya school of Kapila was very similar, for in
Isvara-Krishna's ' Sslnkhya-Karika ' the leading principle of the philo-
sophy of Kapila is thus stated :
'
Duhkhatrayabhighatajjijnasa tadapaghatake hetau' (verse l).
'
From the assault of the threefold kinds of suffering [arises] the
desire to know the method by which they may be repelled.'
The '
threefold kinds of suffering ' referred to in the S4nkhya philo-
sophy are respectively the suffering which originates from one's self,
that caused by animate things of this world, and that produced by the
action of the deities (devas).
''
Buhler ('Three New Edicts of Asoka,' p. 20) says that he agrees
with Professor Max Miiller, General Cunningham, and others, on the
12 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
His birth therefore occurred in b.c. 557-558, as he is said
to have Hved for eighty ^ years. Tradition states that the
place of his birth was a grove named Lumbini,^ near
the city of Kapilavastu,^ at the foot of Mount Palpa
in the Himalaya ranges, within the present territory of
Nipal. The traditional spot has quite recently been dis-
covered, and an inscription of King Piyadassi (Asoka)*
found there states that, in the twentieth year of his reign,
the King visited the spot, which on the stone itself he
calls '
the birthplace of Sakya^ - Muni.' His father,
Suddhodanp, is termed in the Buddhavamso " a raja,
'
Imassa janika mata Maya nama bhavissati.
Pita Suddhodano nama ayam hessati (Jotamo.'
But in this last extract Suddhodano is not called a raja ; see also
Mahavaggo, i. 54, i.
' 'The idea that Buddha's father, Suddhodana, enjoyed this royal
dignity is quite foreign to the oldest forms in which the traditions
regarding the family are presented to us ; rather, we have nothing
more or less to contemplate in Suddhodana than one of the great and
wealthy land-owners of the S§.kya race, whom later legends first trans-
formed into the great King Suddhodana (' Buddha,' p. 99). Elsewhere '
(pp. 416, 417) he denies the antiquity of the tradition which makes
Buddha's father a King. Vide also Men. Williams, ' Buddhism,' p, 22.
^ Vide Mon. Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary, new edition, s.v. Saka.
* The Buddha's Scythian origin explains what is said
tradition of
about ManSs' indebtedness to Scythianus (by which Buddha is evidently
meant) in a Greek ecclesiastical historian (Socrates, 'Hist. Ecc.,'
lib. i., cap. xxii.).
* But Mon. Williams doubts this, and believes that this name was
acquire until after his attainment to Bodhi (see below), and means 'the
Knower.'
14 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
Siddhartha (in Pali, Siddhattho), but he is also often
styled Gautama (in Pali, Gotamo), which seems to have
been a family name. Maya, we are informed, died
sfeveni (Jays after her son's birth, and he was brought
up by her sister,^ his foster-mother, Mahaprajapati (in
Pah, Mahapajapati), who was herself also one of
Suddhodano's wives. The sacred books of the southern
Buddhists, which alone afford any information on the
subject worthy of even the slightest consideration, con-
tain no biography of the noble youth,^ the nearest
approach to one being the short account in verse found
in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Buddhavamso. But
certain details are to be found scattered about among
the other books* of the Southern Canon. His youth
was passed at Kapilavastu or in its neighbourhood, but
the early Buddhist records tell us nothing whatever
' The story of the child's prtsentation to the Rishi Asito (Nalaka-
suttam of the Sutta-Nipato), or Kftladevalo (Jat. Atth, i., p. 54), is
evidently of later origin. underwent great amplification in later
It
latter passage, as from this very passage is borrowed (in the Lalita-
Vistara, p. 521 ; Jataka, i., p. 6r, etc.) the story of Buddha's disgust at
seeing the dishevelled condition of the sleeping women (so Rhys Davids
and Oldenberg think :
'
Sacred Books of the East,' vol. xiii., p. 102).
p. 4i»)-
- Buddhavamso, xxvi., canto 15.
6
place.
^ E.g., by Sir Edwin Arnold in the ' Light of Asia ' ; also by
Mon. Williams, ' Buddha,' p. 25. She is so called in the '
Romantic
History.' ,
the Northern Buddhists, though they are of very late date as compared
with those of the Southern Canon, she is often called '
Gopa. She is
'
called ' Yasodhara ' in the Buddha-carita (i. 26, 46, et passini). Vide
the subject discussed in Rhys Davids' 'Buddhism' {Non-Christian
Religious Systems Series), p. 50 et seq.
' This is so even in the Jataka (i. 58, 60, etc. ).
* Mahavaggo, i. 54, I, 2.
* This is stated also in the introduction to the Jataka (i. Co et seq.).
We are there told that Buddha named his son Rahulo, or a 'hindrance,'
'
'
Ekunatimso vayasS, Subhadda,
Yam pabbajim kirnkusaUnvest.
Vass^ni paSiiiSsasam^dhikani
Yato aham pabbajito, Subhadda,
Nayassa dhammassa padesavatti.
2
8 '
and in all lands, having learnt that the world cannot give
them peace of heart, have similarly determined to forsake
the world with all its joys and sorrows, its pleasures and
' '
De Republica,' book iv., § ii.
" So in the SaJikhya philosophy the Purusha, ultimately by Know-
ledge (Jndnani), reaches the conviction of his own non-existence :
thus reflected, O
mendicants, in my own mind, all that
buoyancy of youth, which dwells in the young, sank
within me.' He proceeds to use similar language
regarding his thoughts concerning and his dread of
sickness and death, and thus concludes, While I, '
' A later legend, which we first meet with in the introduction lo the
Jataka, relates that the sight of a decrepit old man, a sick man, a
corpse, and a monk, finally decided Siddhartha to leave the world
(Jataka, i. 58, 59). The writer there quotes from the Digha-Nikayo.
A much amplified and still more legendary account is given in the
'Romantic History of Buddha,' Beal's translation, p. 115 et seg.
* The Jataka (i. 66) says that first of all he went to Rajagaham, and
there met King Bimbisaro but this probably took place later.
;
The Hindus regard this tree as sacred, and no one will venture to
utter an untruth under a pipal-\xe.t ; hence, probably, Buddha chose
one to reflect under.
:
which formed the basis of all his later teaching), when '
kein Gott-Schbpfer, von dessen Gnade oder dessen Willen der Bestand
der Welt abhinge. Alles entsteht und entwLckelt sich durch und aus
sich selbst, kraft seines eigenen Willens und gemass seiner inneren
Natur und Beschaffenheit (seinem Karma). Einen persbnlichen Gott-
Schbpfer hat nur die Unwissenheit der Menschen erfunden. Die
Buddhisten aber verwerfen durchaus den Glauben an einen persbnlichen
Gott und halten die Lehre von einer Schopfung aus Nichts fur einen
Irrwahn' (p. 40).
26 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
that Buddhism teaches that there is no God,i the Creator
of the world.
If it be asked in what that knowledge consisted which
Buddha deemed himself to have acquired, and in what
way it seemed to him efficacious in emancipating him
from all '
world fetters ' (samyojandni), this will be best
understood from a study of the language he used in the
first sermon which he is stated to have preached after
^ The very discussion of the question by whom the world was created
The later
^ traditions say '
seven times seven days ' (Buddhaghosa's
Commentary ; Beal, '
Romantic Legend,' p. 236 ei seq. ; Lalita-Vistara,
5 et seq.
''
0/1. cit., §
" Dhammacakkappavattana-Suttam. It is quoted in Mah^vaggo,
i. 6 : 17-29.
* Of this sermon Subhadra Bhikschu says :
' Diese Predigt enthalt
in kurzen Worten die Grundziige der ganzen Lehre' ('Buddhisiischer
Katechismus,' sixth edition, p. 18, § 45). His interpretation, however,
of the title of the discourse, which he renders '
Verkiindigung der
moralischen Weltordnung, oder die Griindung des Reiches der ewigen
Gerechtigkeit,' is incorrect. Many other writers also, by using Christian
technical theological terms as translations of Buddhist ones, convey to
: :
the ordinary reader an altogether false idea that Buddhism has much in
common with Christianity.
1 With this 'Middle Course,' compare what Aristotle says : "On ijiv
odv iarlv t) dperT] t] tiBik^ /j.err6r7js, rai irOj, Kal in fie<r6Tris Sio KaKiuv,
rijs iih Ka6' iircpp6\^v ttJs Si Kar' ^Weiij/it/, Kai 8ti roiaiTT) iffrl Sib. rb
^
(rTOXO.(rTiK^ ToO fjUffov elvat toO iv TOis Trd$€<nv Kal rats Trpd^etTLV^ i/cai^uis
'
Auream quisque mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.'
'
Odes,' ii. 10.
and goes same way,' as the Buddlias who preceded him. Cf. the
in the
thus :
'
Dve 'me, bhikkhave, anta pabbajitena na sevitabba.
'
Katame dve ?
'
Yo, cayarn kamesu kamasukhallikanuyogo, hino, gammo, pothuj-
janiko, anariyo, anatthasainhito : yo, cayam atta-kilamatlianuyogo,
dukkho, anariyo, anatthasainhito. Ete kho, bhikkhave, ubho ante
anupagamma, majjhima patipada TathSgatena abhisambuddhS, cakkhu-
karanl, nanakarani, upasamSya, abhi&aaya, sarnbodhaya, nibbanaya
samvattati.
'Katama ca sa, bhikkhave, majjhimS patipada Tathagatena abhisam-
buddha, cakkhukarani, nanakaranJ, upasamaya, abhiii&aya, sarnbodh-
aya, nibbanaya samvattati ?
'
Ayam eva ariyo atthaiigiko maggo, seyyathidam Sammaditthi, :
the desire which one does not obtain, that, too, is painful
— in short, the five elements ^ of attachment to existence
are painful.
This again, indeed, O mendicants, is the Noble Truth
'
'
Idam kho pana, bhikkhave, dukkhanirodham ariyasaccam, yo
tassa yeva tanhS,ya asesa-virS,ga-nirodho cigo patinissago mutti an&-
layo.
' Idam kho pana, bhikkhave, dukkhanirodhag^minl patipadS, ariya-
saccam.
'
Ayam eva ariyo atthailgiko maggo, seyyathidam : sammaditthi,' etc.
'Idam dukkham ariyasaccan-ti, me, bhikkhave, pubbe ananussutesu
dhammesu cakkhum udapadi, fl&nam udapadi, paMa udapadi, vijjS,
udapMi, aloko udapadi ' (Mahavaggo, i. 6 : 17-23).
1 The 'five elements of existence' are Form {r^pa). Sensation
(vedand), Perception {sannd), Functions (samkhdrd), and Consciousness
(vinndna). The ' functions ' are those of Body {kdyasamkhdro), Speech
(vdclsamkhdro), and Thought (citlasamkkdro). Vide the SammS-
ditthisuttanta of the Majjh.-Nik., quoted in 'Sacred Books of the
East,' vol. xiii., p. 76, note. The first consists of inhalation and
expiration ; the second of attention and investigation ; the third of
ideas, sensations, and all attributes of mind except attention and
investigation.
' Vide Childers' Pali Dictionary, s.v. Vibhavo, and
Vijesinho's Com-
mentary quoted there. The latter says that 'bhavatanhS' means a
desire for an eternity of existence, while vibhavatanhS means a desire '
'
: :
27-29).
;
thus expressed, ' All that has an origin has also an end.'*
It is on this doctrine or axiom that the Buddhist bases
his hope of ultimately attaining Nirvana.
All the lengthy addresses or sermons which Buddha is
recorded to have delivered during the many years which
elapsed between his attaining Buddhahood and his death
treat of the same general dogmas which are enunciated
in this first sermon. The 'Noble Eightfold Path' in
which he taught men to walk had as its object the
deliverance of his followers from the suffering which
constituted, in his opinion, the whole of existence in
each and every one of the worlds. It is true, as we
' Dhammacakkhurn,
* '
Yam kifici samudayadhammam, sabbam tam nirodha-dhamman-ti
{Mahavaggo, i. 6 : 29).
3
34 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
displaying that knowledge in the matter of the details of
his numerous previous births, he always brought it to
bear solely on the elucidation of the doctrines" briefly
enunciated in the preceding discourse. In fact, so far
was Buddha from encouraging inquiry into the origin
of the universe, the existence and the nature of the
Deity, and other such deep and all-important matters,
that he directly discouraged his disciples from consider-
ing them at all, teaching them that such investigations
were practically useless, and likely to distract men's
attention from what he held to be the only matter of
any real and vital importance progress in the way of—
escape from the suffering and misery of existence. His
system, therefore, does not in any way deserve the title
of a religion, for that cannot be a religion in which God
is left out. Buddhism is, and professes to be, a purely
human philosophy, or, rather, a system of exact know-
ledge (yvuo-ts), though this knowledge was in practice
extremely limited in its extent. Buddha did not, indeed,
deny the existence of superhuman intelligences ^ the —
devas or gods of the Hindu mythology on the contrary, ;
' '
Gotter leugnet der Buddhismus nicht, legt Ihnen aber auch keine
besondere Wichtigkeit bei : er bedarf ihrer einfach nicht, weder zur
Stiitze seiner Moral noch zur Erlangung der Erlosung. Wer an Gotter
glauben will, raag es thun, nur darf er nicht vergessen, dass die Gotter,
wie alio lebenden Wesen, verganglich und in der Wiedergeburt unter-
worfen wenn ihr Lehen auch nach Millionen Erdenjahren zahlt,
sind,
und dass der zur Erkenntniss gelangte Heilige, vor AUem aber der
Buddha, weit iiber alle Gotter erhaben ist (' Buddh. Katechismus,'
'
^ This is plain, not only from the extracts given above, but also from
the tales related (^.^., in the Mahavaggo, i. 16-18, 20) of the reverence
paid to Buddha, and the services performed for him by the four
MaharSjas (the rulers of the lowest of the devalokas ; their names are
Dhatarattho, Virulho, Virupakkho, and Vessavano, and they are the
Regents of North, South, East, and West respectively), by Sakko
(Indra), Brahma, etc. Sakko, King of the inferior devas, says to the
people of Rajagaham (Rajagribarn, now Rajgir) :
'
I am the servitor of
him who is wise, entirely self-controlled, the unrivalled Buddha, the
Arahat, the most fortunate one upon the earth ' (Mahavaggo, i. 22 : 14).
3—2
:
of the Law."
He then announced his own intention of going forth
as far as Uruvela on the same errand.
Much success seems to have attended the preaching
of Buddha's disciples. Converts came with them to
Buddha in considerable numbers, desiring to be ad-
mitted to full membership in his Order (Sangho). At
first Buddha himself in person admitted them but when ;
'
" I go to Buddha as a refuge ;
^ Mahavaggo, i. 14.
LIFE AND WORK OF THE BUDDHA 39
ful One, turning his own body into fire, sent forth flames. When they
both shone forth with their flames, the fire-room looked as if it were
burning and blazing, as if it were all in flames.' Thus conquering the
serpent, Buddha, the next morning, without injuring him, threw him
into his alms-bowl, and exhibited him to Uruvela Kassapo. On that
occasion dark blue and red, light red, yellow, and crystal-coloured
'
spot.' He
then compelled the Jatilo Uruvela Kassapo to acknowledge
that he had not obtained arahat&hvp and to seek admission into the
Order. He was followed in this by all the Jatilas, who were convinced
and converted by the recital of the 3,500 miracles which Buddha had
performed in their midst (MahSvaggo, i. 15-20).
' Mahdvaggo, i. 22 : 3.
2 Ibid., 22: s
i. 17, 18. Ibid., i. 23.
'
'
In the forenoon the Worshipful One, having put on
his under-robes, took his alms-bowl, and, clad in his
yellow robe {civaram), went to the dwelling-place of
Sakko Suddhodano. Having gone thither, he sat down
on a seat which had been prepared for him. Then the
Princess, Rahulo's mother, said to young Rahulo, " This
is thy father, O Rahulo go and ask him for thine
;
poetical romance, founded for the most part upon the late Sanskrit
romance entitled Mahabhinishkramana-Siitra ('The Chapter of the
'
'
not this illustrate the Horatian maxim, Dnlce est desipere in loco ?
'
'
eight miles north of the city of AyodhyS,. But this is probably in-
correct. Its site has not been positively identified, but it will probably
^ Mahavaggo, i, 62 : ; </! 49
i i, 2.:
14. IS-
* CuUavaggo, vi. 4
46 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
night Prince Ajatasattu, Bimbisaro's son, accompanied
by a large retinue, came to see him. On that occasion
Buddha was reposing in a park which belonged to the
famous physician Jivako,i a lay adherent, whose mar-
vellous cures are mentioned in the Mahavaggo.^ On
another occasion Buddha received a visit from the
wealthy young Licchavi^ nobles, when he resided near
the city of Vesali. There, too, the courtesan AmbapS.15*
invited Buddha and
his monks to lunch in a mango-
grove which belonged to her, and which she afterwards
presented to the Order. In the Pali Ipooks we frequently
read of such invitations to luncheon being accepted by
Buddha. When no such provision was made for the
supply of his daily wants, Buddha went forth in the
morning, clad in his yellow robe and carrying his
alms-bowl, thus silently begging food as he passed from
door to door through the streets. Opponents as well as
inquirers frequently sought his presence. On these
occasions he is generally represented as victorious in the
dispute, and he often succeeded in silencing his inter-
locutors, if not in converting them. When anyone came
to seek admission to his Order, Buddha's address to the
postulant was always, we are told, couched in the follow-
ing words :
' Come hither, O mendicant well preached :
in particular by those
and poverty. Every of chastity
fortnight^ public confession was enjoined according to
a set form of question and answer (the Patimokkham).
Although no man was excluded from membership be-
cause of his low* caste, yet very few converts are
' Cullavaggo, A. I,
^
Cf.Oldenberg, pp. 162, 163.
* Uposatho pannaraso, the fifteenth day of the half-month : Piti-
mokkhatn, Nidanam( = Introduction) Mahavaggo, ii. 3 and 34. But ;
—
a Canddlo the pariah of that age is mentioned in the —
sacred writings as a member of the Order. For the
lower order of the people, for those born to toil in
manual labour, hardened by the struggle for existence,
the announcement of the connexion of misery with all
forms of existence was not made, nor was the dialectic
of the law of the painful concatenation of causes and
effects calculated to satisfy the " poor in spirit." " To
the wise belongeth this law," it is said, " not to the
foolish." Very unlike the word of that Man who suffered
" Httle children " to come unto Him, " for of such is the
kingdom God." For children and those who are like
of
children the arms of Buddha are not opened.' And,
again, '
Princes ^ and nobles, Brahmans and merchants,
we find among those who " took their refuge in Buddha,
the Law and the Order " i.e., who made their pro-
theirhome and go into homelessness, lose their old name and their
old paternity, and bear only the one appellation, " Ascetics who follow
the son of the Sakya house '
'
(Cullavaggo, ix. i : 4). See the whole
attitude of Buddha towards caste, fully discussed in Copleston's
'Buddhism,' cap. xvii., pp. 227-240.
1 Oldenberg, pp. 63 and 154.
2 Op. nt., pp. 156-158. 3 Op. cit., p. 163.
—
Beamte jeder Art, so lang sie ira Dienste sind, und Unmiindige, vifelche
die Erleubnis ihrer Eltern oder Vormiinder nicht besitzen.' But we
must remember that what was refused was admission to an Order of
monks, and the object of the exclusion of such classes of persons was
to prevent complaint that people had entered the Order for the sake of
obtaining some mundane advantage.
4
so THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
and the Stoics, for ideas afterwards the property in some
cases of the one,i in other instances that of the other
Buddhist writings.
school, are to be found in the earliest
We are not Kings like Pasenadi
surprised to find
(Prasenajif) and Bimbisaro among Buddha's lay adher-
ents, any more than to discover an Emperor Aurelius
Antoninus among the professors of the philosophy of
the Porch. And, if we find among the adherents of
Zeno's school a slave like Epictetus, or among Buddha's
disciples a man of humble position like the one solitary
Thero^ Sunito, the exception merely proves the truth
of the rule.
Buddha had, no doubt, a considerable amount of
opposition to encounter, but it arose rather from the
grief naturally felt by parents and relations at seeing
their children and connexions renounce the world to
become monks than from anything else. His teaching
—
Buddha's attitude towards the mass of men all that cannot become
'
mendicants —
is, in spite of some noble-sounding expressions of universal
'
Not through matted locks, not through descent,
Not through birth, does one become a Brahman :
' Vide, e.g., the whole of the last (the twenty-sixth) chapter of the
Dhammapadam, entitled Brahmanavap;go.
'
^ '
Na jatahi, na gottena,
Na jacca hoti Brahmano :
by ousting Buddha
attain to the longed-for pre-eminence
himself from the headship of the Order. Devadatto
hoped to gain the support of the more zealous of the
monks by urging that the rules of self-denial which had
been imposed upon them should be made much more
rigorous. He demanded that five fresh and very strict
rules should be made regarding the conduct of the
^ Cullavaggo, vii. z.
days '
{Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. Ixix., part i..
No. I, 1900).
' MahSparinibbana-Suttarp, pp. 12-14.
' '
'
In whatever spot the learned man fixes his abode,
There, having fed the virtuous, self-restrained, religious men.
Whatsoever deities there may be there, to them let him present a
gift.
'
Y&ntdha bhtit^ni sam^atftni,
Bhumm&ni va, y^ni v^ antalikkhe,
Sabb' eva bhuta suman^ bhavantu,
Atho pi sakkacca sunantu bhasitam.
'
Tasm^ hi, bh(^tS., nisametha sabbe ;
should act. We
are told that he perceived that many
^«W5, inhabited the spot where the people of Magadha
were fortifying Pataligimo, and he approved of the
conduct of these people in both worshipping the gods,
to gain their favour and protection, and in showing him
respect and providing food for himself and his followers.
We never find Buddha commanding his own mendicant
Order to feed other ascetics. That they could not do, as
they were themselves dependent upon the alms of the
pious. Nor does he ever enjoin upon his followers the
duty of worshipping the devas, from whom they could
hope for no aid, and who were inferior to the Buddhist
avahats.
While spending the rainy season in retirement at
Beluva, near Vesali, Buddha became dangerously ill.i
On that occasion his faithful attendant Anando urged
him to give some parting directions to his followers, to
be by them observed after his death. Buddha rebuked
Ratana-Sutlam, I, 2, 15.
is said :
'
We revere Buddha, the Tath&gato, who is honoured by gods
and men.' Such invocations, however, no doubt made it easy for
Buddhists to fall into demon- worship, as they have done in Ceylon,
'
Moreover,! Anando, what does the Order of Mendi-
cants look for from me ? The Law, Anando, has been set
forth by me, having made nothing esoteric^ and nothing
exoteric. There is not therein, in the affairs of the
TathS,gato, a " teacher's handful."^ He whose words,
Anando, may be such as these, "/ shall keep on foot
the Order of Mendicants," or, "To my ordinance is the
Order of Mendicants subject" let him,* forsooth, Anando, —
utter some command with regard to the Order of Mendi-
cants. The word of the Tath^gato, indeed, is not thus :
'
Just* now, indeed, Anando, at the CapMam shrine
to-day, wicked Maro approached the place where I was,
and, having approached, stood to one side. Standing to
one side, indeed, Anando, wicked MS.ro said this to me
" Sir, let the Worshipful One now become extinct (or
enter Nirvana), let the Prosperous* One become extinct.
Sir, it is now time for the Worshipful One's complete
extinction. Moreover, indeed, the Worshipful One did
utter this speech, saying, I shall not become extinct,
'
male and female mendicants, but also the male and female
lay adherents, were fully competent to do without Buddha's
further assistance, and again urged him to keep his implied
promise of becoming extinct. Buddha tells us that he said
in reply to this temptation
'
Be noti anxious. Wicked One; soon will the Tatha-
gato's extinction take place. After the lapse of three
months from the present time, the Tathagato will become
extinct.' And, in concluding his recital, Buddha said,
'
Just now, indeed, Anando, at the Capalam shrine to-day
has the Tathagato, while thoughtful and conscious, re-
nounced the aggregate 2 of his life.'
On hearing this sad news, Anando began to entreat
his beloved master to prolong his existence in this world
to the end of the present vast world-cycle (Pali kappo,
Sanskrit kalpa). Sir,' he said, let the Worshipful One
' '
P- 35)-
' Op. cit., p. 36.
* Dr. Hoey has very clearly proved that VesaiJ must be identical
with, or very close to, the modern town of Cherand, at the junction of
the Ganges, Son, and Gogra rivers (/. A. 'S. B., vol. Ixix., part i.,
No. 1, 1900).
' Op. cil., p. 36.
* 'Handa dSni, bhikkhave, ^mantay.^mi vo : vayadhammS saflkhSra,
appamfidena sampadetha naciram Tathagatassa parinibbanam bhavis-
:
(Mahaparinibbana-Suttam, p. 37).
LIFE AND WORK OF THE BUDDHA 6i
'
My' age is full ripe, my life is brief,
^ '
Paripakko vayo mayham, parittam mama jtvitarn,
Pah^a vo gamiss^mi, katam me saranam attano.
AppamattS,, satimanto, susilS. hotha, bhikkhavo,
SusamShitasankapp^ sacittam anurakkhutha.
Yo imasmirn dhammavinaye appamatto vihessati,
Pah^ya jMisamsS,ram, dukkhass' antain karissatlti.'
Mahaparinibbana-Suttam, p. 37.
^ Near the modern town of Titaria (Dr. Hoey, article iny. A. S. B.,
vol. Ixix., part L, No. i, 1900).
3 Now Pappaur, near Si wan (Dr. Hoey, op. cit.).
* Vide note to ji. 53, and Mahaparinibbana-Suttarii, pp. 41,- 42.
^ This stream is probably either the Daha or the.Sattiar, both of
'
Buddha,' having come to the River KakutthS
With its pellucid, glad, calm waters.
The thoroughly weary-looking Teacher plunged in.
The Tathagato, quite matchless in the world.
Having both bathed and drunk, the Teacher crossed over,
Pre-eminent in the midst of the Order of Mendicants.
Here the Teacher, the Establisher in the Law, the Worshipful One,
The great Sage, came to the mango-grove (Ambavanain).
He addressed a mendicant, Cundako by name :
time the twin ?&l-\x&es burst into full bloom with untimely
flowers they strew the Tath§.gato's body they sprinkle
; ;
1 Mahftparinibbana-Suttain, p. 47 :
'
Gantv^na Buddho nadiyain
Kakutthaiii,' etc.
2 Ibid., p. 49. 8 /^2^_
LIFE AND WORK OF THE BUDDHA 63
'
In^ large numbers Anando, are the
in the ten spheres,
devas assembled to behold the Tathagato, so that ... all
around, for a distance of twelve stages, there is not a
space as large* as the top of a hair that is not pervaded
with mighty devas. The devas, Anando, murmur, saying,
" Lo, we have come from afar to see the Tathagato.
Sometimes, on some occasions, Tathigatos arise in the
world, perfect, omniscient and to-day, at the last watch ;
1 Mahaparinibbana-Suttam, p. 49.
2 Op. cit., p. 50. 3 Op. cit., pp. SO. 51-
*
Cf. the saying of Heraclitus, Xldcra ^uxw" etvai, Kal Stufi^voiv irXij/ji;
(Diog. Laertius, lib. ix., cap. i., § 6), and that of Pythagoras, ETval re
irdrra rbv &ipa ipvxSiv i/iirXeav (op. cit , lib. viii., cap. i., § 19, 32).
:
cipice they turn about and revolve, saying " Very soon
;
:
'
extinct.' ^
?'^
'
Shrouded in darkness, do ye not seek a torch
Do not
Those wise answers of the far-off Sage
'
'
I am the Light of the World he that followeth Me
;
shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the Light
of Life'?
' ' AnicfcS, vata sankhstr^ uppSidavajiadhammino
Uppajjitva nirujjhanti : tesam vupasamo sukho-ti.'
MahiparinibbSna-Suttam, p. 62.
For a translation of the commentary on these lines, vide Rhys Davids'
Hibbert Lectures for 1881, pp. 212-214.
" ' Andhakarena onaddhit padtparn na gavessatha ?'
Dhammapadam, si. 146.
' L. Morris, ' The Wanderer.'
* '"Eytl> elfu. t6 0ffls toC xiirfiov "
6 &ko\ovBuv yu,oi oi ijA) vepmariivy iv
T^ (Tkot/^, <IXX' '4^eL TO 0ws r^s fw^s.
LECTURE II
^ As, for example, what Buddha is related to have stated about his
own previous existences, about the gods and demons, the heavens and
the hells, about the size and configuration of the various worlds and
their inhabitants, about the cause of the eclipses of the sun and moon,
and many other such matters, some of which are treated of in the
present lecture.
5—2
68 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
—
Buddha's death as far as their present form is concerned
— and handed down by oral tradition among his followers
until they were finally committed to writing from memory
about eighty 1 years before the Christian era.
In the present lecture we are not called upon to deal
with the corruptions of Buddhism, which have practically
changed a philosophy with no room for God in it into
a number of polytheistic religions. These religions, it
is true, though varying very much among themselves,
have for many centuries continued to exist in different
countries, and they claim the allegiance of a very large
number of our fellow-creatures. But they do not fairly
represent Buddhism in its original form, and therefore
can no more be dealt with as if they did than can Roman
Catholic and Greek Christianity be fairly brought for-
ward as giving a correct idea of the teaching of Jesus
Christ. On the other hand, although Buddhism, as
taught by its founder himself, can hardly be said to exist
any longer except in the ancient Pali books (though
these, too, show evident proofs of the early growth of
myth), yet it is essential to a proper comprehension of
any one of the many forms of modern Buddhism to
know what were the doctrines which Buddha taught.
Making every allowance for the corrections which found
their way into the books of the Pali Canon before they
assumed their present form, it is still possible by care-
fully studying those works to obtain a fairly correct
general idea of the teaching of Buddha as it has been
handed down by tradition from the lips of his earliest
disciples.
The canonical books of the Buddhists consist of three
main divisions, called the '
Three Pitakas {Tipifakam, '
PP- 49> S°- He shows that the word 'Abhidhamma' does not mean
'metaphysics.'
' The Maha-Vamso, quotedby Max Miiller, '
Six Systems of Indian
Philosophy,' p. 5 ; but see Childers, Pali Dictionary, preface, p. ix,
note. Professor Rhys Dfivids, in speaking of the Vinaya-Pitalcam,
says :
'
The must be older than the year 350 B.C. It
great bulk of it ,
P- 55)-
go, i. 23 :
5, quoted above, Lecture I., p. 41, note 1.
THE CHIEF DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM 71
'
O mendicants,^ it is through want of knowledge and
Mah^parinibMna-Suttam, § 2, I, p. 15.
'
Mahaparinibbana-Suttam, § 2, 1
'^
Catunnam, bhikkhave, ariya-
: '
' " Through the non-perception of the Four Noble Truths as they
really are,
The long road has been transmigrated in those, in those very births.
Those, these have been seen : lust is eradicated ;
' The original runs thus: 'Jati pi dukkha, jara pi dukkha, vyadhi
pi .dukkha,maranam pi dukkha, soka-parideva-dukkha-domanassa-
upayasa dukkha yam p'iccham na labhati, tam pi dukkham saii-
; ;
vv. 222-227)
'
Turn porro puer, ut ssevis proiectus ab undis
Navita, nudus humi iacet, iiifans, indigus omni
Vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
Nixibus ex alveo matris natuia profudit,
Vagituque locum lugubri complct, ut iequum'st
Cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum.'
' '
Aho ! vata mayam na jatidhamma assama, na-ca vata no jat
agaccheyyati (Saccavibhango, § 9).
'
* '
Na kho pan' etam icchaya pattabbam.'
° Rup-upadanakkhandho, vedan-upadan.ikkhandho, saiifiupadanak-
'
'
Perfect opinion, perfect resolve, perfect speech, perfect
employment, perfect conduct, perfect exertion, perfect
thought, perfect self-concentration.'^
The last and final step on this path leads the devotee
through four stages of mystic trance {jhdnam), the fourth
of which is thus described Through abandonment of
:
'
§8).
" See Childers' Pall Dictionary, s.v. Vibhavo.
^ '
Ayam Maggo seyyathidam Sammaditthi,
eva ariyo atthafigiko : :
'
The evil done by one is being suffered for by one's self,
The evil not done by one is being cleared avi(ay by one's self
The pure and the impure separately one does not : purify another.'
the Sanskrit vdta, Latin ventus, English wind), with the termination
-narp,. Hence it literally means 'the being puffed out,' or 'the state
of being puffed out.' In Sanskrit the word is used as an adjective
(nirvdna, m., f., n.), meaning blown out,' of a lamp.
'
'
The wicked man, too, sees good, until his evil matureth ;
And when his evil matureth, then the wicked man sees evil things.
Once more i^
'
Here he grieves, hereafter grieves
The evil-doer, in both worlds he grieves ;
'
Papo pi passati bhadram, yava paparn na paccati
Yada-ca paccati papam, atha papo papani passati.
Bhadro pi passati papam,
'
—
" Evil has been done by me," thus [saying] he is tormented :
—
" Good has been done by me," thus [saying] he is happy :
'
Cf. ^schylus, ' Agam., verses 757-760 :
But yEschylus thought of the results in this life, seen from a different
point'of view.
'
'
The man long exiled, safely come from afar,
Relatives, friends, and well-wishers welcome when come :
'
All beings will die ends in death : for life :
^ '
Cirappavasiin purisam durato sotthim agatam
Natimitta suhajja-ca abhinandanti agatain ;
Note that the gods also must die and transmigrate as do men,
though their lives are much longer and happier than ours. They are
also exposed to JMaro's attacks (Samy.-Nik., V., v., § 7 : 5).
^ Mahavaggo, I. i. 2.
' ;'
Consciousness, Name-and-Form
in consequence of ;
with the fire of Greed, with the fire of Anger, with the
fire of Infatuation.' In another place, in a conversation
with Pasenadi, King of Kosala, Buddha declares that
these three things. Greed (lobho), Anger (doso), and In-
fatuation imoho), which are called the three Roots of Evil
(akusalamulani), are the causes of injury, pain, and misery.*
^ '
Sabbo adipito loko : sabbo loko padhupito :
Buddha allows of the possibility that a good man should after death be
united with Brahma (Dialogue with Vasettha, 'Buddhist Suttas from
the Pall,' p. 203), yet 'such a union with Brahma, as is here referred
to, is not supposed, in early Buddhism, to be the highest thing which
men should seek after. There can be no finality in sucli a union ;
.
it must end, like every other life save that of the Arahat, in rebirth.
And far better than that, an aim far worthier of the truly intelligent
man, is to reach here on earth the Nirvana of a perfect life in Arahat-
ship' (Hibbert Lectures, pp. 69, 70). Brahma, in Buddhist theology,
is only a sort of angel, perishable like all other beings (see the note on
'Absorption '
in Copleston's ' Buddhism,' pp. 216-218).
^ Such is Professor Oldenberg's opinion ('Buddha,' English transla-
tion, pp. 214-216). Cf. the verses :
'
Sabbe sankhara anicca-ti, yada pannaya passati,
Atha nibbindati dukkhe ; esa maggo visuddhiya.
6—2
'
' But the idea that the Ego does not exist seems to lie at the root of
much of Buddha's leaching. Hence it is that not 'personality,' but
merely the term 'name and form' (ndmarOpaTti), is used for 'indi-
viduality '
in the explanation of the chain of causation already quoted.
Moreover, in complete accordance with all this, and supporting his
teaching by references to the Pali canonical books, Nagiiseno disproves
the existence of the Ego, showing that what is supposed to be a person
is merely a collection of the five Khandhos (Milindapafiho, pp. 25-28),
and quoting in support of this Bhikkhunl-Samyutta (Samyutta-Nikayo,
book v.), § 10: 6. See Rhys Davids, Hibbert Lectures for 1881,
pp. 208, 212-214. Ill 'I'e Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king (iv., § 1449) the same
idea is expressed in these words :
'
All is empty ! neither '
self" nor
place for "self," but all the world is like a phantasy: this is the way
' See the whole list and all that is known about them in the chapters
'
Truly to many a refuge go they, to mountains and groves,
To gardens and tree-shrines, men terror-stricken.
This refuge indeed is not safe.
This, refuge indeed is not the highest,
Not to this refuge having come
Isone freed from all suffering.
But he, who to both Buddha and the Law
And the Community has gone for refuge.
The four Noble Truths
By perfect understanding doth he see,
Suffering, suffering's origination.
And suffering's termination.
And the Noble Eightfold Path
Leading to the cessation of suffering.
This indeed is the safe refuse, this is the highest refuge :
'^ '
Bahum ve saranain yanti pabbatani vanani-ca
Aramarukkha-cetyani manussa bhayatajjita.
N' etam kho saranam khemam,
N' etam kho saranam uttamam,
N' etam saranam agamma
Sabba-dukkha pamuccati.
Yo-ca Buddhafl-ca DhammaB-ca
Sainghafi-ca saranam gato,
Cattari aryasaccani
Sammapaiinaya passati,
Dukkham, dukkhasamuppadam,
Dukkhassa-ca atikkamam,
Aryan-c'atthangikain maggam
Dukkhupasamagaminam.
Etam kho saranarn khemam, etam saranam uttamaiji,
Etain saranam agamma sabba-dukkha pamuccati.'
Dham., sU. 188-192.
THE CHIEF DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM 87
idh' eva ma,rati, idha mato annatra uppajjati evam kho, maharSja, ;
—
samsaro hotlti.' 'One born here, great king, dies just here; having
died here he comes into existence elsewhere born there he dies just
:
tration. —
As, great king, were any man whatever, having eaten a ripe
mango, to plant the kernel, a great mango-tree having sprung up
thence would give its fruits and were that man, having eaten a ripe
:
'
Where 2 dost thou then desire to be reborn, O nun ?'
^ '
Kattha nu tvam, bhikkhuni, uppajjitu-kama?-ti.'
'
Na khvaham, avuso, katthaci uppajjitu-kama-ti.'
'
Tavatimsa-ca Yama-ca Tusita-capi devaia,
Nimmanaratino deva, ye deva Vasavattino ;
mind rejoice.'
If the heavenly 1 beings are so very far from happiness,
'
With reference to the unsatisfactory nature of heavenly joys,
Buddha is represented in the Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king (iv., §§ 1440-1444)
as saying : '
My rules are full of grace, able to rescue from destruction
(evil ways of birth), and cause a man to ascend to heaven and share in
the art of
" giving up " all search, for " giving up " desire is the joy of
perfect-rest (NirvSna). Know thou that age, disease, and death, these
' :; : :: ' ; '
To the man freed from affection there is no grief, much less fear.
From pleasure is born grief, from pleasure is born fear
To the man freed from pleasure there is no grief, much less fear.
From desire is born grief, from desire is born fear :
To the man freed from desire there is no grief, much less fear.
are the great sorrows of the world. Rightly considering the world,
we put away birth and old age, disease and death ; (but now) because
we see that men at large inherit sorrow caused by age, disease, and
death, (we gather that,)when born in heaven, the case is also thus:
for no continuance there for any, and where there is no
there is
'
Ma piyehi samaganchi appiyehi kudacanam ;
'
Pupphan' eva pacinantam vyasattamanasam naram,
Suttam gamam mahogho va, Maccu adaya gacchati.
Pupphan' eva pacinantam vyasattamanasam naram,
Atittam yeva kamesu, Antako kurute vasam.'
; ; ' ;
'
Very ^ happily indeed welive free from hate among the hating ;
' '
Susukham vata jivama verinesu averino ;
' " How now, lady, does the Tathagato exist beyond
death ?"
'
" This, indeed, Great King, has not been clearly
statedby the Worshipful One, that the Tathagato exists
beyond death."
" What again, lady ? does the Tathagato not exist
'
1 '
Bhagava parinibbayL ' (Mahaparinibbana-Suttam, p. 62, Childers'
edition).
2 Samyutta-Nikayo, vol. ii., quoted by Oldenberg (p. 440)
'
Kim nu kho, ayye, hoti Tathagato param marana?-ti.'
'
Abyakatam kho etam, maharaja, Bhagavata, hoti Tathagato param
raarana-ti.'
'
Kim pan', ayye, na hoti Tathagato param marana?-ti.'
'
Etam pi kho, maharaja, abyakatam Bhagavata, na hoti Tathagato
param marana-ti.*
'
Kim nu kho, ayye, hoti-ca na-ca hoti Tathagato param marana ?-ti.
'
Abyakatam kho etam, maharaja, Bhagavata. .
.'
,
'
Kim pan', ayye, n'eva hoti na na hoti Tath^ato param marana ?-ti.'
'
Etain pi kho, maharaja, abyakatam Bhagavata.'
96 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
' " What again, lady ? is the Tathllgato neither existent
nor non-existent beyond death ?"
" This indeed too, Great King, has not been clearly
'
'
stated by the Worshipful One."
We see then that,though his disciples naturally clung
to the hope that somehow or other their teacher would
continue to exist after death, yet this hope could find abso-
lutely nothingi in his teaching upon which to build. And
a life after death a part of
yet, not only is the desire for
man's very nature, but anthropological investigations ^
have shown that all nations have instinctively believed,
as all nations still do, in the After-life. Even Hindu
philosophy, with its denial of the true existence of any-
thing but the Supreme Soul, the Paramdtmd, into which
a man becomes reabsorbed as soon as he can realize the
illusion {mayo) of personal being, still in a measure taught
that man existed after death, at least in the same way as
a raindrop exists when ithas fallen into and been absorbed
in the ocean. And even although, as we have seen,
Buddha had himself declared that oneman cannot bear
another man's sins, that each man must eat the fruit of
his own doings and can never escape the punishment of
his evil deeds, yet the hope that Buddha might continue
to exist after death was so natural that (in spite of all
' That Buddha does not live after death is taught in the Fo-sho-
hing-tsan-king (v., §§ 2036-2038) in these words :
'
The pains ot
birth, old age, disease and death, the endless sorrows of the world,
the countless miseries of "hereafter," dreaded by all the devas, he has
removed all these accumulated sorrows say, who would not revere :
him? — to escape the joys of after-life, this is the world's chief joy !
To add the pains of other births, this is the world's worst sorrow.
Buddha, escaped from the pain of birth, shall have no joy of the
*' hereafter" !'
•whose thoughts are fixed on the Supreme Spirit,' then "a sage ' t
'
Mutto 'ham Mara-pasena, ye dibba ye-ca manusa :
7
'
pious members —
Order (Sangho) generally speak-
of the
ing, for the mendicants alone —
and only for the very
earnest ones even among them. A lay adherent^ must
generally content himself with the lower hope of entering
at death into a state of existence somewhat less miserable
than that in which he has been living here on earth, a
state in which he will be some degrees nearer to Nirvana
than he now is. But his ultimate goal and reward, if he
toil along the Noble Eightfold Path through this, and
Karma by which —
he here evidently means sensation of
pain and evil-doing in the past all that sensation has ;
'
' 'Paj8/3el, ris ^/laprey, oBros f) ol yoyets airov, tva Tv<p\os yevvTiSii ;
who had just died, having attained the great age of 120
years. Sir,' says Pasenadi,
'
my^ grandmother was, '
come death are liable to death, and have death as their goal.'
Not being able to obtain much consolation from this
statement, and perhaps hoping to hear something more
to the purpose, Pasenadi replied
Wonderful, Sir marvellous. Sir how well, Sir, this
'
! !
that have not overcome death are liable to death, and have
'
death as their goal."
^ '
Ayyaka kho pana me, bhante, piya ahosi, manapa.'
^ '
Sabbe satta, maharaja, marana - dhamma marana - pariyosana
maranam anatita-ti.
maranam anatlta-ti.
'
Evam etam, maharaja, evam etain, maharaja : sabbe satta marana-
dhamma marana-pariyosana maranam anatita-ti. Seyyathapi, maharaja,
' " All beings will die, for life ends in death.
According to their deeds shall they go, receiving the fruit of good
and evil,
boy could run alone he died. The young girl in her love
for it carried the dead child clasped to her bosom, and
went from house to house of her pitying friends, asking
them to give her medicine for it. But a Buddhist men-
dicant, thinking, "She does not understand," said to her,
PP- I33i The 134- story is also given in the commentary upon the
Dhammapadam.
THE CHIEF DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM 105
" My
good girl, I myself have no such medicine as you
ask but I think I know of one who has." " Oh, tell
for,
me who that is," said Kisa-gotami. " The Buddha can
give you medicine go to him," was the answer.
;
She
went to Gotamo, and, doing homage to him, said, " Lord
and master, do you know any medicine that will be good
for my child ?" " Yes, I know of some," said the Teacher.
Now, it was the custom for patients or their friends to
provide the herbs which the doctors required, so she
asked what herbs he would want. " I want some
mustard-seed," he said; and, when the poor girl eagerly
promised to bring some of so common a drug, he added,
'
You must get it from some house where no son, or
'
Midon no one
: immortal even Hercules died.'
is ; To^ '
'
Inscriptt. Antiqq.: Sylloge,' p. 275).
THE CHIEF DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM 107
some cause heretical, nor yet, again, did he affirm there was no cause for
the beginning of the world. . . . Thus, you see, the thought of Isvara
is overthrown in this discussion (sdstra),and all such contradictory
assertions should be exposed ; if not, the blame is ours.'
: :
pity for both gods and men.' In fact, this part of Buddha's
teaching reminds us very strongly of Pindar's view,^
*'Ev AvSpuVf Sv deujv y^vos ' ^k /uas dk w^ofiev
/iarpos i/x^dTepoL • dtetpyei di Troira KeKpi/Uva
SOvafus,
'
Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse'st
Immortali ssvo summa cum
pace fruatur
Semota ab nostris rebus seiunctaque longe :
THE CHIEF DOCTRINES OF BUDDHISM 109
^ '
Appamadena Maghava devanam setthatam gato.'
Dhammapadam, si. 30.
" Bhumma deva. They and all the other classes of deities are
enumerated in the Dhammacakkappavatana-Suttarn (Mahavaggo, L,
vi., 30).
§ Moreover, there are other genii or spirits called Yakkhos
(Sanskrit Yaksha), Rakkhasos (Sanskrit R&kshasa), etc., and others
named Nagos (San-skrit Naga), or snakes, which could occasionally
forms or bodies, but the rest are devoid of form, and con-
sist of effulgence only. The ruler of the whole of the
Brahma-worlds is Brahma, or Mahabrahma (the Great
Brahma). We thus see something like one of the Hindu
triads ruling the superhuman or divine region of the
Buddhist faith, Sakko, Maro, and Brahma, of whom two
are identical with two of the Hindu gods {Sakko being
Pali for Sdkra, one of Indra's names in Sanskrit) in name.
But in nature they have changed greatly from the Hindu
conception of them. Being liable to transmigration,
change, decay and death, they can lay claim to no per-
manence. The being who in Buddha's day was Maha-
brahma had, we are told,^ at one time been a monk
called Sahako, who, in the time of a previous Buddha
named Kassapo, had by his merits raised himself to that
position. Gotamo Buddha himself had in previous births
attained to that dignity no fewer than four times.* The
Sakko of Buddha's time had once been a young Brahman
named Magho,^ and it is to this that reference is made in
' " Honour be to thee, O hero ! freed thou art on every side.
I have fallen into distress ; be thou my refuge !"
'
" To the Tathagato, the arahat, has the sun betaken himself for
refuge
Release the sun, Rahu : the Buddhas are full of pity for the
world.
Him who in the darkness, in the gloom, is the illuminator, shining,
disk-formed, terribly hot,
Swallow thou not, Rahu, walking in the atmosphere ; release my
child the sun, Rahu !"
8
:'
Having come with excited aspect, why dost thou stand frightened?"
(Rahu rephed :)
'
" My head would have split into seven pieces, alive I should have
obtained no pleasure,
(I have been addressed in verse by Buddha), had I not released
the sun."
^
Cf. Subhadra Bhikschu, ' Buddhistischer Katechismus,' p. vi, where
that writer speaks of Buddhism as ' Eine Lehre, welche frei von
Dogmen und Formenwesen, im Einklang mit der A'atur und ihren
Gesetzen, die hochsten, Geist und Herz gleichermassen befriedigenden
Wahrheiten in so einfachem Gewande enthalt, dass sie selbst dem
bescheidenen Verstande fassbar sind, ' etc.
:
^ '
Quisquis bonus verusque Christianus est, Domini sui esse intel-
legat, ubicumque invenerit, Veritatem ' (Aug., 'De Doct. Christiana,'
lib. ii., 18).
'
LECTURE III
'
Na antalikkhe, na sainudda-majjhe,
Na pabbatanam vivaram pavissa
Na vijjati so jagatippadeso
Yatthatthito munceyya papakamma.'^
Dhammapadam, si. 127.
des ewigen Friedens, des Nirwana, jenes erhabenen Zieles, das jenseits
von Gut und Bose, Schuld und Leiden liegt, jenseits alles Denkens
und Vorstellens, und entriickt alien Gesetzen und Formen der Endlich-
keit' (' Budd. Katechismus,' p. 53, note).
' '
Est quidem vera lex, recta ratio, naturae congruens, diffusa in
omnes, constans, sempiterna ;
quse vocet ad officium, iubendo ; vetando,
a fraude deterreat tamen neque probos frustra iubet, aut vetat
: quse ;
nee improbos iubendo aut vetando raovet. Huic legi nee abrogari fas
est, neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet, neque tota abrogari potest, nee
vero aut per senatum aut per populum solvi hac lege possumus. Neque
,ii8 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
by his defective outlook on the world that it prevents his
conscience from guiding him aright. While, therefore,
we find much that is noble in the Moral Precepts of
,Buddha, much, on the other hand, at once strikes us as
defective, and even wrong. Those duties which are
incumbent upon the Buddhist are so because, and only
because, their performance assists him in attaining
Nirvana ultimately. Things which are forbidden are so,
not because they are wrong in themselves, but simply
because they tend to produce evil consequences to himself
primarily. They should also be avoided because they
tend to hinder other beings from attaining Nirvana.
The foundation, therefore, of the whole moral system of
Buddhism is found in the Four Noble Truths^ of SuiFer-
ing, theCause of Suflfering, the Cessation of Suffering,
and the Path which leads to the Cessation of Suffering,
and we have already dealt with these Truths in our '
'
first lecture.
est quserendus explanator aut interpres eius alius. Nee erit alia lex
Romae, alia Athenis, alia nunc, alia posthac ; sed et omnes gentps et
hulus inventor, disceptator, lator cui qui non parebit, ipse se fugiet,
;
may be well to quote what have been called the Bud- '
' " Many gods and men have thought about boons,
Desiring prosperity : mention the best boon."
'
Both not to serve fools and to serve the wise (learned),
'
Both to dwell in a favoured land and meritorious conduct in a
former state,
And a perfect aspiration for one's self : this is the best boon.
'
Both much learning^ and skill and discipline vpell mastered,
And the word which is well-spoken : this is the best boon.
'
Attendance on mother and father, cherishing of child and wife.
And an untroubled calling •? this is the best boon.
'
Both almsgiving and a religious walk and the cherishing of
relatives,
And blameless deeds i this is the best boon.
'
Ceasing, abstaining, and refraining from drinking harmful strong,
drink,
And diligence in matters : this is the best boon.
' Both respectfulness and lowliness and contentment and gratitude.
Hearing the Law in due season this is the best boon.
:
' Both penance and a religious walk, acquaintance with the Noble
Truths,
And the realization of Nirvana : this is the best boon.
'
The mind of one touched by worldly matters, of whom does not
shake
The sorrowless, passionless well-being : this is the best boon.
^ '
Laity, not members of the Order '
(Questions of Milinda, vi. 4 ;
' The man who continues to view pleasant things, not restraining
his senses,
And being immoderate in food, indolent, weak.
Him verily Maro vanquishes as the wind a feeble tree.
The man who continues to view unpleasant things, well restraining
his senses.
And moderate in food, faithful, exerting his strength,
Him verily Maro vanquishes not, as the wind a rocky mountain.'^
'
Not other men's faults, not other men's^doings and omissions.
Should one observe, but his own doings and omissions. '^
'
Like a bright, fair-coloured flower without scent.
So word of one who acts not is fruitless.
the well-spoken
Like a bright, fair-coloured flower with scent.
So the well-spoken word of one who acts is fruitful.'*
'Long is the night to the watcher, long is the stage to the weary,
Long is the transmigration of fools, not understanding the true Law.'^
The drinker in of the Law lies down happily with serene mind
'
;
The wise man always rejoices in the Law proclaimed by the noble.
For conduit-makers guide the water,
Fletchers bend the arrow,
Carpenters bend the tree,
Wise men tame themselves. '-
' If a man
has done evil, let him not do it again and again.
Let him not find pleasure therein painful is the accumulating of
:
evil.
'
Whoever injures an uncorrupt man,
A person pure, undefiled.
The comes back to that very fool
ill
'
Wicked deeds are ea.sy, and harmful to one's self
What verily is both harmless and good, verily that is extremely
difficult."
' Let one conquer anger by mildness, let one conquer wickedness
with goodness.
Let him conquer the miser with a gift, the false speaker with the
truth.'''
' Afar oflF shine the good like the Himalaya mountain ;
The wicked are not perceived here, as arrows shot by night. '^
1 2
t)ham., si. 60. Qp „-^ _ g)i_ 7g^ go
Op. • Op.
<*
cit., sll. 117, 118. cit., si. 125.
5 Op. cit., si. 163. ^ Op. cit., sll. 172, 173.
' Op. cit., si. 223. Cf. '
Be not overcome of evil,' etc. (Rom. xii. 21).
" Op. cit., si. 304.
: : ;
Taking one's self as an instance (of this), let one not kill nor cause
to kill.
And again
' Whoso destroys life and speaks falsehood.
Takes in the world what is not given, and approaches another's wife.
And the man who addicts himself to drinking intoxicants.
This man even here in the world digs up his own root.''
What man is wrathful, and full of hate, and cloaking his vices,
'
an outcast.
wrath,
Being questioned as a witness, lies him know to be an outcast. :
Whoso, having gone to another man's house, having eaten good food,
Does not in return honour him when he comes him know to be :
an outcast.
Whoso either a monk or any other mendicant
Brahman or a
Deceives by false speakinghim know to be an outcast.
:
outcast.
Whoso here proclaims the unreal, being enveloped in infatuation,
Coveting a trifle : him know to be an outcast.
Whoso both exalts himself and despises another,
Being vile through his arrogance : him know to be an outcast.
Whoso is wrathful and ignoble, ill-wishing, envious, evil.
Not by birth does one become a Brahman, not by birth does one
become an outcast
By conduct one becomes a Brahman, by conduct one becomes an
outcast.''
' But the mendicants are permitted to eat four kinds of sweet food
after mid-day. These are called navanl/atfi, madhu, phSjnitatp,, telaip,
(butter, honey, raw sugar, and oil made from the seeds of the Sesamum
Iniiicum). See commentary in FausboU's Dhammapadam, edition of
1855.
BUDDHA'S MORAL TEACHING 129
1 Oldenber^', '
liufWha,' English translation, pp. 357, 358; Pati-
'
Pirajika ' (' Sacred Books of the East,' vol. xiii., p. 3).
Sanskrit upavasatha.
9
130 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
or fasting-day, is one which occurs four times a month,
half-month as well.^
It will be noticed that, as the strict Buddhist does not
acknowledge any Creator and knows no God whom he
is bound to worship, there is no precept in the slightest
degree resembling the first fourcommandments of the
Mosaic Code. The fifth commandment of the Mosaic
Code is from the ten Moral Precepts of the
also absent
Buddhists, but we have seen that it is practically ac-
knowledged in the Vasala-Suttam and elsewhere as bind-
ing upon all men. Yet transgression of any of these
precepts, great or small, is not in any way regarded as a
moral offence. It is evil, in the first place, because it
injures the committerof the deed by entailing evil con-
sequences in this or in some other existence, and still
more because it tends to prevent him from reaching the
—
goal at which he aims Nirvana. In the second place, it
is evil because it violates one's duty to one's fellow-
Metta-Suttam, or '
Chapter on Benevolence,' in which
Buddha tells his disciples what eleven advantages a man
may expect from entertaining a feeling of friendship or
urriversal benevolence. A man who does this, he says,
'
awakens happily, sees not an evil dream,
sleeps^ happily,
is dear to men, is dear to superhuman beings, the deities
'
Metta-Suttara.
^ Part of the Khuddaka-Nikayo.
—
'
Sattha, one of the titles frequently given to Buddha in the Pali
canonical books.
^ Childets, s.v. Silabbatam, and the Buddhist explanation there given.
' Quoted below, p. 143.
* Lecture I., p. 57.
—
that learning is recollecting : ^airl yb.p t^v ^vxv" rod avSpSirov ttpai
ABdvarov, Ktd rork ijiv reXevrav, S d-ij iiro6vTi<rKeiv KoKoDn, Tork U t6,\lv
ylyveaBai' dwSWvffeai d' oiSiirore ire offj- i) fvxn dddvards re
. .
odaa Kol iroWdxis yeyovvta, Kal kupaKma Kal rd ivddSe Kal rd 4v q.5ov
Kal vdvTa xpij/'""'i*i "i^"' ^o"''"' n 06 /le/ndd-riKei' •
iba-re o6Sh ffavfiaffrdy
Kal irepl dpeTTJs Kal wepl dWav oUv re etvai. air-qv dvafivri(T$TJPai. d ye Kal
Trp&repov ipriffTaTO.
: — —
'
Faith is man's best possession here (below),
The Law well performed brings happiness,
Truth is indeed the sweetest of tastes.
Living wisely they call the best life.'
'
How, then, does one cross the flood (of passion) ?
How, then, does one cross the ocean (of existence) ?
How, then, does one overcome suffering ?
How, then, does one become purified ?'
'
By faith one crosses the flood.
By diligence the ocean ;
' The end, the absence of desire, the deathless, transcendent (state)
\Vhich the steadfast Sakya-ascetic attained,
With that condition there is nothing equal. . . .
' immortality.'
It is evident from this how thoroughly negative in its
essence Buddhist morality is, as far, at least, as the
members of the Order are concerned. The lay adherent
isexpected to give alms to the monk, but the monk owes
no duty to the layman, except to teach him when he
needs teaching. We find, indeed, universal benevo- '
lence '
enjoined, and the duty of not putting any living
creature to death, because we know how much
they all
dread it. But we do not find that this benevolence is to
be exhibited, except in a negative way, by abstaining from
doing harm. Buddhism does not enjoin the duty of
comforting the sorrowful, helping the poor (unless they
be monks), healing or tending the sick, or even performing
ordinary duties towards parents or children, except, 9.gain,
in the case of those lay adherents who are not regarded as
in any real sense Buddhists. In fagt, the man who has
entered on the Noble Eightfold Path has abandoned
'
'
• Kapiraja-cariyam Sattamam.
'
I. Yada aham kapi asim nadi-kule dari-saye,
sumsumarena gamanam na labhami 'ham.
Pilito
'
2. Yamh' okase aham thatva oraparam patam' aham,
Tatth' acchi satthu vadhako kumbhilo ruddadassano.
'
3. So mam asamsi, Ehi-ti : aham Emi-ti tam vadi
Tassa matthakam akkamma parakule patitthahim.
'
4. Na tassa alikam bhanitam yatha vacam akas' aham :
' But if the story thus briefly told in the Cariya-Pitakam is identical
a lie, thereby saving his own life. It is hard, however, for the Western
reader to understand how this proves that in previous births Buddha
possessed the Perfection of Truth.
^ Cariya-Pitakam, book iii., story xiii. ; found also in the AsJti-
Nipato.
' Suvanna-Sama-cariyam.
'
I. Samo yada vane asim Sakkena abhinimmito,
Pavane siha-vyagghe-ca mettayam upanamayim.
:
'
r. When I was an elephant, nourishing my mother on the mountain-
slope.
Then there is not on earth my like in virtue.
'
2. A forester, having seen me on the mountain-slope, informed the
King,
"An elephant worthy of thee, great King, dwells in the grove."
'
3. He has no need of ditch nor of stake-pit :
'
2. Siha-vyagghehi dipehi acchehi mahisehi-ca
Pasadamiga-varahehi parivaretva vane vasim.
'
3. Na mam koci uttassati na pi bhayami kassaci
Mettabalen' upatthaddho ramami pavane tada-ti.'
'
10. If they had cut me and lances,
to pieces there with hatchets
I would not have even been angry with them through my dread
of breaking the precepts.'
'
Hadayain dadeyyam, cakkhum, mainsam pi ruhiram pi-ca
Daddeyyam kayain yacetvayadi koci yacayem mama.'
154 T^HE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
were to ask me. One day the Brahmans came to him
*
—
take Kanha this younger sister is light I shall take ;
'
Yadi passanti pavane dariki phalite dume,
tesam phalSnam hetumhi uparodanti darika.
Rodante dftrike disvi ubbidha vipula duma,
Sayam ev' onamitvSna upagacchanti darike.'
BUDDHA'S MORAL TEACHING 155
life was soon to be put an end to, and that through what
'
a traveller came to me. He asked for my little children,
for both Jali and Kanhajina. Having seen the beggar
who had come, mirth arose within me. Having taken
both children, I gave them then to the Brahman. When
I had abandoned my own children to the Brahman
'
Pavane vasamanassa addhiko mam upagami,
ayaci puttake mayham Jalikanhajine c'ubho.
Yicakam upagatam disva, haso me upapajjatha ;
In the '
Circular in Connection with the Chinese Emergency,' issued
by the Buddhists of Japan, and dated October 1 1, igoo, the theory is
tacitly accepted that the Buddhists in China have taken a leading part
in the Boxer movement there. The Japanese Buddhists say that they
have 'perceived, with no small regret, that Buddhism in China has so
completely declined as to have lost all vestige of influence upon the
morals of men' (C.M.S. Intelligencer, February, 1901, p. 118).
In his edition of the '
Lalita-Vistara ' (Introduction, p. w et seq.),
the pleasures of the world, and the way[s] in which some of the
pleasures are described are simply revolting.' The same writer goes
on to give some further details which are too vile to be transcribed
here, and proves what he says by quoting certain verses of this book in
the original Sanskrit. This shows what the much-bepraised ' Esoteric
Buddhism of India really was, and makes it clear that it is not only
'
'Love took up the harp of Life and smote on all the chords
with might
Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out
of sight. '^
'
but proved to him a mystery incapable of solution. He
could see nothing in existence, in any form of existence,
but misery. Existence itself seemed to him therefore
an evil, unmeaning, leading to no goal, requiring to be
I
^ Tennyson, ' Locksley Hall. ^.
-'T ' I John IV. 19 : Sfieis d^aTrffl/tei', on airbs rpuTos 'r/yiitri&ei/ iifMS.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY 163
^
Eph. iii. II : . . . Karh TrpdOefftv riov alit)vujy -i^v iirol'ri<rei' iv ri^ 'Kpttrrt^.
^ '
O yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill.'
/did.
s Hid., liv.
'
P> ' 2 Cor. iv. l8: Ti ytip pXewi/ieva irpbuKaipa. Cf. Dhammapadam,
cap. XX., si. 277 :
'
Sapias, vina liques, et spatio brevi
Spem longam reseces. Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
^stas ; carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero.'
delight thyself and live well when once the body is reduced to ashes,
:
cf. Maitrt Upanishad, vii. 9, and the first chapter of Sayana's Sarva- '
darsana-sangraha ').
\
saw
Eccles.
that all
2; cf. Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king, III., xiv., 1146: 'He
i.
'
Peace I leave with you ; My peace I give unto you :
^ Eccles.
'^ '
xii. 13, 14, Revised Version.
>p^John xiv. 27 : 'Etlpijvqv d,<ply]fii iifuv, eipijvriv ttjv i^T]v SLdufu Ofuv
oil KoSibs 6 tcdtrfios SiSuo-iv, iy(b Sidcofu vfuv.
'
Caranti bala dummedha amitten6va attana, :
1 -
'
airelpii duSpunros, toDto xal 0epl<rei 8n i awelpiav e/s rfiv ffdpKa ^avroS Ik
TTJs ffQ,pKbs 6epi(TeL ipBopdv, 6 5^ (rireipiov els rb irveufia £k tov irve^fiaTos
BepUrei ^uxfiv althviov.
;
^ Rev. xxii. II :
'0 adiKuv 6,5lk7}it&t(ji ^ti, Kal b ^VTrapbs jtviravdip-ia ^1,
KoX & SlKouot SiKOj.offivrii' iroi.T)(r6,Tiii in, koX 6 Ayios kyuurBrfrw (ri.
itriumph, and that for evil there will, when God's pur-
'
'
^ ' What was good be good, with, for evil, so much good more
shall ;
^ I Pet. iii. 9.
* Dham., sll. 3-5, 133, 134.
' Confucian ' Analects,' book XV., cap. xxiii.
* Matt. vii. 12.
' '
Clamabatque ssepius, quod a quibusdam sive ludseis sive Chris-
tianis audierat, et tenebat ; idque per prseconem quum aliquem emen-
datet, dici iubebat, "Quod tibi fieri non vis, alteri ne feceris." Quam
sententiam usque adeo dilexit, ut et in Palatio et in publicis operibus
proescribi iuberet ' i,M\u Lampridii 'Alexander Severus,' li.). The
command in this negative form is apparently taken from Christian
writers (cf. Augustine, ' De Doct. Christiana,' lib. iii.).
' Perhaps the nearest to the Golden Rule are the vfords attributed
to Aristotle, of whom it is said that, wfhen asked, nCs tv tojs <pl\oi%
irpoaiptpoliiiBa, lie replied, 'Os fti' ei^al/ieSa airoiis rj/uv vpoaifiipfaBai
:
because Buddha held that such a life was holier than any
—
other for the idea of holiness can hardly be said to exist
in Buddhism —but because a celibate^ was more free
from all human ties, and therefore less bound to exist-
(Diogenes Laertius, lib. V., cap. i., § 11). Thales, when asked, IIus S.v
ipia-ra Kal SiKaibraTa ^iiiffoi/iei' ; replied, ''Eiav & tois &Wms emTi/iQfiev,
airol nil dpiifiev {pp. cit., lib. I., cap, i., § 9).
1
Cf. the Cariya-Pitakam and the Jatakam, passim.
'^
Cf. the story of Vessantaro, quoted in Lecture III.
3 Dham., sU. 287-289, 294, 295, 330, and especially Dham., 345,
346 (from Kosala-Samyuttain, cap. i., a., 3)
'
Na tam dalhain bandhanam ahu dhira,
Sarattaratta manikundalesu,
Puttesu, daresu-ca, ya apckha.
:
10, 24).
^ For the state of things in Ceylon, vide Copleston, 'Buddhism,'
p. 483-
' 'H a/iaprla iarlr i) ivo/iia {l John iii. 4).
: :
its bright one that all joy was fleeting and transitory,
;
I am freed from the great bond : thou art smitten down, -O deadly
One.'2
'
The possessor of sons rejoices in his sons,
So also does the owner of kine rejoice in his kine :
fieratrx^'^y 7*^5 '''O^ ^cXtUttov tpOcreus. &piffTov y&p TrdffL Kai Trdaats t6 fi^
yeviaBou.' to pAv toi (UetA toSto, koI to Trp&Tov tQ>v AWuv i,vv(rTbv,
yet not unto despair. '^ And who that has once heard that
triumph-song at the end of i Cor. xv. can ever forget the
hopefulness —nay, rather, the joyful certainty —which
sounds forth from its grandly-solemn tones ? O death, '
through our Lord Jesus Christ. '^ Our Lord just before
His Passion tells His disciples :
'
Ye shall be sorrowful,
but your sorrow shall be turned into joy,'* and bids them
' Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be ful-
filled.'^ And, even amid all the fiery trial by which they
were Peter can write to and of his fellow-
tried, St.
1
Cf. Horace, '
Odes,' book iii. ode iii.
'
lustum tenacem propositi virum,
et
Phil. iv. 7.
12
;
world, but that Thou wouldest keep them from the evil.'^
He told His were the light of the
disciples that they
world, warning them
Let your light so shine
therefore, '
forth before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'^ Instead of
withdrawing from the ordinary avocations of the world,
they were to remember that they were the salt of the '
oneJ '
; but, nevertheless, He who created all things, and
for whose^ pleasure they are and were created, has said,
'
All souls are Mine.'^ The Bible teaches us that this is
God's world, however marred by human rebellion and
cbnsequent misery ; it is not abandoned or rejected by
Him, whom we are taught to call our Father, without
whose permission not even a sparrow can fall to the
ground,* nor can a hair of our head perish.^ We are
called to be workers together with God,^ who has
' '
the sea.'i"
Again, where can we find a greater contrast than
between the practical Atheism of Buddhism and the
teaching of our Lord on the subject of our heavenly
Father's love and care for us ? In Buddhism there is no
room for God in Christianity God is everywhere present.
;
1=
John XV. 5. 13 Phil.
iv. 13.
—
' '
Giebt es ein radikales oder absolutes Bbses? —Nein. AUes
Irdisches ist relativ. AUes ist eine Vorhaltnissgrosse, auch das
moralisch Gute und Bose. Beide Ausdrucke bezeichnen nur den
stSrkeren oder geringeren Grad des Egoisraus eines lebenden Wesens,
dessen Wurzeln Lebenswille und Unwissenheit sind' (Subhadra Bhik-
schu, ' Buddhistischer Katechismus,' p. 53).
]82 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
even to the case of suicide. In answer to the inquiry
whether suicide is an evil deed or a sin, he says:
'
Suicide, provided that duties undertaken towards other
persons are in nowise thereby violated, is no evil deed,
for each living being has an indisputable right over his
own life. But suicide is a foolish act, for it endeavours
to cut off forcibly a thread of life which will necessarily
1 '
1st der —
Selbstmord ein Unrecht oder eine Siinde ? Der Selbstmord
ist, dadurch nicht etwa iibernommene Pflichten gegen andere
falls
^ Lev. xix. 2.
"
1
84 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
the world as it is, this earth and the other worlds which
together form the material universe. Hence, he tells us
the wonderful tales about Mount Meru (also called Sineru),
the enormous lakes and trees, the huge lions and other
animals of the Himalayas (Himavat), oceans 840,000 miles
deep, the Jambu-tree, from which India takes its name of
Jambudipo —which is only 1,000 miles high — fishes 10,000
miles in length, the chariot-like form of India, and
other matters of that description, of which the Enghsh
reader will find an account in Hardy's works^ on
Buddhism. We do not wonder at finding such errors
in the Buddhist Sacred Canon, for all false religions
contain such. The Muhammadan Traditions (Ahddith)
of both the Sunnis and the Shi'ahs abound in similar
absurdities,^ as many of the Rabbinical^ writings.
do
But the very Buddha made such mistakes in
fact that
matters in which men can now put his assertions to the
test — if we attribute these statements to him, as his
disciples do — renders it impossible for any educated
man to believe that Buddha was in reality omniscient.
Hence, the spread of education is fatal to Buddhism.
Contrast all this with the Bible.
that oppo- We know
nents have for many centuries endeavoured to convince
us that the book abounds in historical, scientific, and
other errors, and some of them have at least succeeded
^ These examples are taken from his Legends and Theories of the
'
' The reticence of Holy Scripture with regard to those matters which
were not of spiritual import is especially remarkable when we remember
the false geography and astronomy of such apocryphal works as the
Book of Enoch, the Visio Pauli, and many others.
^ See Hommel's ' Die Altisraelitische Uberlieferung,' passim, and
also Sayce's The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments.'
'
Veda :
'
The gods lived constantly in fear of death, the mighty Ender
(Antaka).'
' 2 Sam. xii. 23.
2 Kosala-Samyuttam, cap. iii., 2:5:' Sabbe satta, maharaja, marana-
which work most of the attempted comparisons of the Gospel history with
laterBuddhist legends are based, in his Hibbert Lectures, pp. 198-204.
R. Davids points out that the Tibetan version of that work was made
(as Foucaux acknowledges) '
at some date which cannot be earlier, but
may be much later, than the sixth century of our era, or 1,000 years
after the birth of Gotama ' (p. 192). '
All that we can at present say is
that books of a similar character were in existence as early as six or
seven hundred years after the birth of Gotama, and that one of these
may turn out to be substantially the same as ours (p, 200). '
3. Old Hebreiv.
Ps. ciii. 13 : ' Like as a father pitieth his own children '
; cf. Maha-
parinibbana-Suttarn, p. 14 : ' Tato nam anukampati mata puttain va
orasam.'
4. Gospel and Epistles.
Matt. vii. 12 (Golden Rule); cf. Dham., sU. 129, 130, and Con-
fucius' '
Reciprocity.
Rom. xii. 21 ; cf. Dham., si. 223.
5. Modern.
1. Shakespeare :
'
How far that little candle casts his beams ! So
shines a good deed in a naughty world Dham., si. 304. '
; cf.
2. Persian :
'
An kih na danad va na danad kih na danad '
—
a very natural question whether all this is any proof
that the Christian writers,who lived about 500 years
after theBuddhist writers, borrowed their ideas from
India. ... I can find no evidence whatever of any
absurdum est.
^ TovTov yap Kal to tpov€i!>€iv iiray opeieiy, p/q 6tl ye dirTea-daL twv
iiSioiv, Kotvop SIkuov rjiuv ixhvruiv ^vxv^ (Diog. Laertius, lib. viii.,
cap. i., § 12 ; but see § lS,^n.). Note also that Pythagoras is said to
have claimed to remember all that took place during all his own trans-
13
194 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
slightest comparison is sufficient to show that they
rested throughout on a basis of doctrine fundamentally
opposed.'i
But though it is impossible to deduce any part of the
teaching of the New Testament from Buddhist sources,
yet an
it is indisputable fact that Buddhism has not been
without its very decided influence upon some corrupt
forms of Christianity. One example of this is the story
of Barlaam and Josaphat. This tale was at one time
well known in many parts of Europe, and it has been
—
shown^ that Josaphat though, through a mistaken belief
that he was an early Christian saint, he has been
canonized by the Roman and Greek Churches is none —
other than Buddha himself! Again, the whole of the
monastic system is non-Christian. Its more noted forms
of self-denial, its prohibition of private property among
members of the Order, while permitting the Order itself
'
If all this be chance, it is a most stupendous miracle
of coincidence — it is, in fact, ten thousand miracles.
And cannot be objected that the resemblance is in
it
1 Sir Monier Monier- Williams (' Buddhism,' pp. 69, 70) enumerates
nine Nepalese canonical Scriptures (Dharmas or Laws) : (i) Prajfia-
paramita, (2) Ganda-vyuha, (3) Dasa-bhumisvara, Samadhi-raja, (4)
(S) Lankavatara, (6) Saddharma-pundarika, Tathagata-guhyaka,
(7)
(8) Lalita-vistara, (9) Suvarna-prabhasa. Non-canonical are the Maha-
: '
p. 347)-
^ Qur'sln (Siirah xix., v. 23)
-*tfI-o C
&jij| gOlE. ^5)1 ^ls*J| U»l=-l»
igS THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
In the Arabic 'Gospel of the Infancy '^ and in the
Qu'ran^ we find the statement that Jesus spoke when an
infant in the cradle and asserted His Divine mission.
So also of Buddha it is stated in these later legends that,
when he was born, he 'forthwith^ walked seven steps
towards each quarter of the horizon and, as he walked, ;
at each step there sprang from the earth beneath his feet
a lotus flower and, as he looked steadfastly in each
;
tsan-king (pp. 3 and 4) much the same story is told, but there Buddha
says : This birth is in the condition of a Buddha : after this I have
'
done with renewed birth : now only am I born this once, for the
purpose of saving all the world.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY 199
must be historical, for no poet or dramatist ever lived who could have
'imagined the life and character revealed in the Gospels.' Cf. Row's
'Jesus of the Evangelists'; also Ecce Homo';
'
also 'The Fact of
Christ,' P. C. Simpson (Hodder and Stoughton, 3s. 6d.).
^ E..g, Strauss and Renan.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY 201
kairagrihnat,
mandarapushpanikaraih saha tasya miirdhni khannirmale ca vinipet-
aturambudhare. „ „, ,^ -^
Buddha-Canta, i. 17-27.
'
lines 7529 and 7530, that He came forth from the crown
of Mary's head.^ But this is doubtless taken from the
classical myth of the birth of Athene from the head of
Zeus.
A —BUDDHIST TEXTS.
I—ISSUES OF THE PALI TEXT SOCIETV.
(a) Arrangement of Years.
1882.
1. Journal.
1. Journal.
2. Buddhavansa and Cariya Pit- 2. Saipyutta, vol. ii.
aka.
3. Anguttara, part ii.
3. Ayaranga.
1889.
1883.
1. Journal.
1. Journal.
2. Digha, vol. i.
2. Thera-theri-gatha.
3. Peta Vatthu.
3. Puggala.
1884. 1890.
1. Journal. 1. Journal.
2. Samyutta, vol. i.
2. Samyutta, vol. iii.
3. Itivuttaka.
1885.
1. Journal.
1891.
2. Anguttara, part i.
1895. (conclusion).
1. Anguttara, part iii.
2. Yogavacara Manual.
3. Majjhima, vol. ii., part i. 1901.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 209
Name of Text. Year. Editor.
13- *Gandha Vamsa 1886 Prof. Minayeff.
14. Itivuttaka 1890 Prof. Windisch.
IS- KathaVatthu 1894-95 Mr. A. C. Taylor.
16. Katha Vatthu Commentary ... 1889 Prof. Minayeff.
17- *Khudda Sikkha J 883 Prof. Ed. MUUer.
18. *Mula Sikkha 1883 jj >>
19. Majjhima Nikaya, vol. i. 1887 Mr. Trenckner.
20. *PajjaMadhu Mr. Gooneratne.
21. *Panca Gati DipanI M. L&n Feer.
22. Peta Vatthu Prof. Minayeff.
23. Peta Vatthu Commentary 1894 Prof. Hardy.
24. Puggala PaSiiatti 1883 Dr. Morris.
25. *Saddhammopayana 1887
26. *Saddhamma Sangaha i8go Saddhananda.
27. Samyutta Nikaya, vol. i. 1884 M. L^on Feer.
11 „ vol. ii. 1888
>> >> vol. iii. l88q
,, ,, vol. iv.
press) .
14
THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
(a) PaM,
Attanagalluvamsa, ed. Colombo, 1866.
J. d'Alwis ;
{b) Sanskrit.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BiGANDET, Bishop :
' Life and Legend of Gaudama '; Triibner, London,
1888. 2 vols., 2IS.
'The Order of Buddhist Monks '; Triibner, London, i856.
Blonay : ' Materiaux pour servir a I'Histoire de la Deesse bouddhique
Tar4'; 1895. 2s. 6d.
BuRNOUF : 'Introduction a rHistoire du Buddhisme indien': 1876.
17s.
Le Lotus de la bonne Loi '; 1853. £3 3s.
'
March 6, 1897).
'Three New Edicts of Asoka'; Bombay, 1897. 3s.
Bunsen, E. de (Baron) :
'
The Angel Messiah of Buddhists, Essenes,
and Christians'; Longmans, London, 1880. IDs. 6d.
14 —
212 THE NOBLE EIGHTFOLD PATH
COBBOLD, A. Shintoism, Buddhism, and Christianity'; S.P.C.K.,
: '
London, 1892.
Dahlmann, J. Buddha '; Berlin, 1898. e^. :
'
'Nirvana'; 1896.
DoDS, Marcus Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ '; Hodder and :
'
1872. I5.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 213
3s. 6d.
LiLLiE, A. :
' Buddha and Early Buddhism '; Trubner, London, 188 1.
7s. 6d.
'Buddha and Buddhism'; Clark, Edinburgh, 1900. 3s.
ROCKHILL, W. W. i
'
UdHnavarga '; Triibner, London. 9s.
Buddhism, vols, x,, xi., xiii., xvii., xix., xx., xxi., xxxv., xxxvi.,
xlix.) ; Clarendon Press, Oxford. IDs. 6d. each.
Francs 3.50.
ScHCEBEL, Charles Le Bouddha et le Bouddhisme '; Paris, 1857. :
'
Berlin, 1846.
Senart, E. : 'Essai sur la Legende du Bouddha'; Paris, 1882.
15 francs.
Seydel, Rudolf : '
Das Evangelium von Jesu in s. Verhaltnissen zu
Buddha-Sage'; Leipzig, 1882. 8s.
'
Buddha und Christus'; 1881. Is.
'
Die Buddhalegende und das Leben Jesu nach den Evangelien ';
1884. 2S.
1896. IDS.
5 francs.
Taranatha : 'Geschichte der Buddhismus in Indien'; 1869. 6s.
TiLBE, H. H. :
'
Pali Buddhism'; Rangoon, 1900. Is. 6d.
Titcomb, Bishop: ' Buddhism, Past and Present '; R.T.S., London,
1883. 3s.
Upham, Ed. : ' The History and Doctrine of Buddhism '; Ackerman,
London, 1829. £e, 5s.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 215
ViRiEUX, E. :
'
Le Bouddha, sa Vie, et sa Doctrine'; Paris, 1884.
4 francs.
VoiGT, G. . Buddhismus und Christenthum
'
1887. Is. 6d. '
;
THE END