The religious, monastic system, founded c. 500 B.C. on the basis of
pantheistic Brahminism. The speculations of the Vedanta school of religious
thought, in the eighth and following centuries, B.C., gave rise to several
rival schemes of salvation. These movements started with the same morbid
view that conscious life is a burden and not worth the living, and that true
happiness is to be had only in a state like dreamless sleep free from all
desires, free from conscious action. They took for granted the Upanishad
doctrine of the endless chain of births, but they differed from pantheistic
Brahminism both in their attitude towards the Vedas and in their plan for
securing freedom from rebirth and from conscious existence. In their
absolute rejection of Vedic rites, they stamped themselves as heresies. Of
these the one destined to win greatest renown was Buddhism.
THE FOUNDER : BUDDHA
Of Buddha, the founder of this great movement, legendary tradition has much
to say, but very little of historical worth is known. His father seems to
have been a petty raja, ruling over a small community on the southern border
of the district now known as Nepal. Buddha's family name was Gotama
(Sanskrit Gautama), and it was probably by this name that he was known in
life. In all likelihood it was after his death that his disciples bestowed
on him a number of laudatory names, the most common being Buddha, i.e. "the
enlightened". Like the newborn youths of his day, he must have spent some
time in the study of the sacred Vedas. After the immemorial custom of the
East, he married at an early age, and, if tradition may be trusted,
exercised a prince's privilege of maintaining a harem. His principal wife
bore him a son. His heart was not at rest. The pleasures of the world soon
palled upon him, and abandoning his home he retired to the forest, where as
a hermit he spent several years in austere self-discipline, studying
doubtless, the way of salvaion as taught in the Upanishads. Even this did
not bring peace to his mind. He gave up the rigorous fasts and
mortifications, which nearly cost him his life, and devoted himself in his
own way to long and earnest meditation, the fruit of which was his firm
belief that he had discovered the only true method of escaping from the
misery of rebirth and of attaining to Nirvana. He then set out to preach his
gospel of deliverance, beginning at Benares. His magnetic personality and
his earnest, impressive eloquence soon won over to his cause a number of the
warrior caste. Brahmins, too, felt the persuasiveness of his words, and it
was not long before he was surrounded by a band of enthusiastic disciples,
in whose company he went from place to place, by making converts by his
preaching. These soon became very numerous and were formed into a great
brotherhood of monks. Such was the work to which Buddha gave himself with
unsparing zeal for over forty years. At length, worn out by his long life of
activity, he fell sick after a meal of dried boar's flesh, and died in the
eightieth year of his age. The approximate date of his death is 480 B.C. It
is noteworthy that Buddha was a contemporary of two other famous religious
philosophers, Pythagoras and Confucius.
In the sacred books of later times Buddha is depicted as a character without
flaw, adorned with every grace of mind and heart. There may be some
hesitation in taking the highly coloured portrait of Buddhist tradition as
the exact representation of the original, but Buddha may be credited with
the qualities of a great and good man. The records depict him moving about
from place to place, regardless of personal comfort, calm and fearless, mild
and compassionate, considerate towards poor and rich alike, absorbed with
the one idea of freeing all men from the bonds of misery, and irresistible
in his manner of setting forth the way of deliverance. In his mildness, his
readiness to overlook insults, his zeal, chastity, and simplicity of life,
he reminds one not a little of St. Francis of Assisi. In all pagan antiquity
no character has been depicted as so noble and attractive.
BUDDHIST TEXTS
The chief sources for early Buddhism are the sacred books comprised in the
first two divisions of the Ti-pitaka (triple-basket), the threefold Bible of
the Southern School of Buddhists. In India, today, the Buddhists are found
only in the North, in Nepal, and in the extreme South, in the island of
Ceylon. They represent two different schools of thought, the Northern
worshipping Buddha as supreme personal deity though at the same time
adopting most of the degrading superstitions of Hinduism, the Southern
adhering in great measure to the original teachings of Buddha. Each school
has a canon of sacred books. The Northern canon is in Sanskrit, the Southern
in Pali, a softer tongue, into which Sanskrit was transformed by the people
of the South. The Southern canon, Ti-pitaka, which reflects more faithfully
the teachings of Buddha and his early disciples, embraces
- the Vinaya-pitaka, a collection of books on the disciplinary rules
of the order,
- the Sutta-pitaka, didactic tracts consisting in part of alleged
discourses of Buddha; and
- the Abhidhamma-pitaka, comprising more detailed treatises on
doctrinal subjects.
Most of the Vinavas and some of the Suttas have been made accessible to
English readers in the "Sacred Books of the East". The Ti-pitaka seems to
date back to the second and third centuries B.C., but a few additions were
made even after it was committed to writing in the early part of the first
century of the Christian Era. While there may be doctrinal and disciplinary
parts from the time of Buddha none of the twenty-nine books comprised in the
Ti-pitaka can be proved to be older than 300 B.C. These books stripped of
their tiresome repetitions, would be about equal in size to the Bible,
though on the whole they are vastly inferior to the Sacred Scripture in
spirituality, depth of thought, variety of subject, and richness of
expression.
There are also a few extra-canonical books, likewise in Pali on which the
Southern Buddhists set great value, the Dipavansa and Mahavansa, which give
an uncritical history of Buddhism down to about A.D. 300, the "Commentaries
of Buddhagosa", and the Milinda Panha, ably translated by Rhys Davids under
the title "The Questions of King Milinda". These works belong to the fourth
and following centuries of our era. In the Tri-pitaka of the Northern School
are included the well-known Saddharma-pundarika (Lotus of the True Law), and
the legendary biographies of Buddha, the Buddha Charita, and the Lalita
Vistara (Book of Exploits), which are generally assigned to the last quarter
of the first century A.D. Besides the Tri-pitaka, the Northern Buddhists
reckon as canonical several writings of more recent times adapted from the
abominable Hindu Tantras.
PRIMITIVE BUDDHISM
Buddhism was by no means entirely original. It had much in common with the
pantheistic Vedanta teaching, from which it sprang belief in karma, whereby
the character of the present life is the net product of the good and evil
acts of a previous existence; belief in a constant series of rebirths for
all who set their heart on preserving their individual existence; the
pessimistic view that life at its best is misery and not worth living. And
so the great end for which Buddha toiled was the very one which gave colour
to the pantheistic scheme of salvation propounded by the Brahmin ascetics,
namely, the liberation of men from misery by setting them free from
attachment to conscious existence. It was in their conception of the final
state of the saved, and of the method by which it was to be attained that
they differed. The pantheistic Brahmin said:
Recognize your identity with the great impersonal god, Brahma, you thereby
cease to be a creature of desires; you are no longer held fast in the chain
of rebirths; at death you lose your individuality, your conscious existence,
to become absorbed in the all-god Brahma.
In Buddha's system, the all-god Brahma was entirely ignored. Buddha put
abstruse speculation in the background, and, while not ignoring the value of
right knowledge, insisted on the saving part of the will as the one thing
needful. To obtain deliverance from birth, all forms of desire must be
absolutely quenched, not only very wicked craving, but also the desire of
such pleasures and comforts as are deemed innocent and lawful, the desire
even to preserve one's conscious existence. It was through this extinction
of every desire that cessation of misery was to be obtained. This state of
absence of desire and pain was known as Nirvana (Nibbana). This word was not
coined by Buddha, but in his teaching, it assumed a new shade of meaning.
Nirvana means primarily a "blowing out", and hence the extinction of the
fire of desire, ill-will, delusion, of all, in short, that binds the
individual to rebirth and misery. It was in the living Buddhist saint a
state of calm repose, of indifference to life and death, to pleasure and
pain, a state of imperturbable tranquility, where the sense of freedom from
the bonds of rebirth caused the discomforts as well as the joys of life to
sink into insignance. But it was not till after death that Nirvana was
realized in its completeness. Some scholars have so thought. And, indeed, if
the psychological speculations found in the sacred books are part of
Buddha's personal teaching, it is hard to see how he could have held
anything else as the final end of man. But logical consistency is not to be
looked for in an Indian mystic. If we may trust the sacred books, he
expressly refused on several occasions to pronounce either on the existence
or the non-existence of those who had entered into Nirvana, on the ground
that it was irrelevant, not conducive to peace and enlightenment. His
intimate disciples held the same view. A monk who interpreted Nirvana to
mean annihilation was taken to task by an older monk, and convinced that he
had no right to hold such an opinion, since the subject was wrapped in
impenetrable mystery. The learned nun Khema gave a similar answer to the
King of Kosala, who asked if the deceased Buddha was still in existence.
Whether the Perfect One exists after death, whether he does not exist after
death, whether he exists and at the same time does not exist after death,
whether he neither exists nor does not exist after death, has not been
revealed by Buddha. Since, then, the nature of Nirvana was too mysterious to
be grasped by the Hindu mind, too subtle to be expressed in terms either of
existence or of non-existence, it would be idle to attempt a positive
solution of the question. It suffices to know that it meant a state of
unconscious repose, an eternal sleep which knew no awakening. In this
respect it was practically one with the ideal of the pantheistic Brahmin.
In the Buddhist conception of Nirvana no account was taken of the all-god
Brahma. And as prayers and offerings to the traditional gods were held to be
of no avail for the attainment of this negative state of bliss, Buddha, with
greater consistency than was shown in pantheistic Brahminism, rejected both
the Vedas and the Vedic rites. It was this attitude which stamped Buddhism
as a heresy. For this reason, too, Buddha has been set down by some as an
atheist. Buddha, however, was not an atheist in the sense that he denied the
existence of the gods. To him the gods were living realities. In his alleged
sayings, as in the Buddhist scriptures generally, the gods are often
mentioned, and always with respect. But like the pantheistic Brahmin, Buddha
did not acknowledge his dependence on them. They were like men, subject to
decay and rebirth. The god of today might be reborn in the future in some
inferior condition, while a man of great virtue might succeed in raising
himself in his next birth to the rank of a god in heaven. The very gods,
then, no less than men, had need of that perfect wisdom that leads to
Nirvana, and hence it was idle to pray or sacrifice to them in the hope of
obtaining the boon which they themselves did not possess. They were inferior
to Buddha, since he had already attained to Nirvana. In like manner, they
who followed Buddha's footsteps had no need of worshipping the gods by
prayers and offerings. Worship of the gods was tolerated, however, in the
Buddhist layman who still clung to the delusion of individual existence, and
preferred the household to the homeless state. Moreover, Buddha's system
conveniently provided for those who accepted in theory the teaching that
Nirvana alone was the true end of man but who still lacked the courage to
quench all desires. The various heavens of Brahminic theology, with their
positive, even sensual, delights were retained as the reward of virtuous
souls not yet ripe for Nirvana. To aspire after such rewards was permitted
to the lukewarm monk; it was commended to the layman. Hence the frequent
reference, even in the earliest Buddhist writings to heaven and its positive
delights as an encouragement to right conduct. Sufficient prominence is not
generally given to this more popular side of Buddha's teaching, without
which his followers would have been limited to an insignificant and
short-lived band of heroic souls. It was this element, so prominent in the
inscriptions of Asoka, that tempered the severity of Buddha's doctrine of
Nirvana and made his system acceptable to the masses.
In order to secure that extinction of desire which alone could lead to
Nirvana, Buddha prescribed for his followers a life of detachment from the
comforts, pleasures, and occupations of the common run of men. To secure
this end, he adopted for himself and his disciples the quiet, secluded,
contemplative life of the Brahmin ascetics. It was foreign to his plan that
his followers should engage in any form of industrial pursuits, lest they
might thereby be entangled in worldly cares and desires. Their means of
subsistence was alms; hence the name commonly applied to Buddhist monks was
bhikkus, beggars. Detachment from family life was absolutely necessary.
Married life was to be avoided as a pit of hot coals, for it was
incompatible with the quenching of desire and the extinction of individual
existence. In like manner, worldly possessions and worldly power had to be
renounced-everything that might minister to pride, greed, or
self-indulgence. Yet in exacting of his followers a life of severe
simplicity, Buddha did not go to the extremes of fanaticism that
characterized so many of the Brahmin ascetics. He chose the middle path of
moderate asceticism which he compared to a lute, which gives forth the
proper tones only when the strings are neither too tight nor too slack. Each
member was allowed but one set of garments, of yellowish colour and of cheap
quality. These, together with his sleeping mat, razor, needle,
water-strainer, and alms bowl, constituted the sum of his earthly
possessions. His single meal, which had to be taken before noon, consisted
chiefly of bread, rice, and curry, which he gathered daily in his alms-bowl
by begging. Water or rice-milk was his customary drink, wine and other
intoxicants being rigorously forbidden, even as medicine. Meat, fish, and
delicacies were rarely eaten except in sickness or when the monk dined by
invitation with some patron. The use of perfumes, flowers, ointments, and
participation in worldly amusements fell also into the class of things
prohibited. In theory, the moral code of Buddhism was little more than a
copy of that of Brahminism. Like the latter, it extended to thoughts and
desires, no less than to words and deeds. Unchastity in all its forms,
drunkenness, lying, stealing, envy, pride, harshness are fittingly
condemned. But what, perhaps, brings Buddhism most strikingly in contact
with Christianity is its spirit of gentleness and forgiveness of injuries.
To cultivate benevolence towards men of all classes, to avoid anger and
physical violence, to be patient under insult, to return good for evil-all
this was inculated in Buddhism and helped to make it one of the gentlest of
religions. To such an extent was this carried that the Buddhist monk, like
the Brahmin ascetic, had to avoid with the greatest care the destruction of
any form of animal life.
In course of time, Buddha extended his monastic system to include women.
Communities of nuns while living near the monks, were entirely secluded from
them. They had to conform to the same rule of life, to subsist on alms, and
spend their days in retirement and contemplation. They were never as
numerous as the monks, and later became a very insignificant factor in
Buddhism. In thus opening up to his fellow men and women what he felt to be
the true path of salvation, Buddha made no discrimination in social
condition. Herein lay one of the most striking contrasts between the old
religion and the new. Brahminism was inextricably intertwined with
caste-distinctions. It was a privilege of birth, from which the Sudras and
members of still lower classes were absolutely excluded. Buddha, on the
contrary, welcomed men of low as well as high birth and station. Virtue, not
blood, was declared to be the test of superiority. In the brotherhood which
he built around him, all caste-distinctions were put aside. The despised
Sudra stood on a footing of equality with the high-born Brahmin. In this
religious democracy of Buddhism lay, doubtless, one of its strongest
influences for conversion among the masses. But in thus putting his
followers on a plane of equal consideration, Buddha had no intention of
acting the part of a social reformer. Not a few scholars have attributed to
him the purpose of breaking down caste-distinctions in society and of
introducing more democratic conditions. Buddha had no more intention of
abolishing caste than he had of abolishing marriage. It was only within the
limits of his own order that he insisted on social equality just as he did
on celibacy. Wherever Buddhism has prevailed, the caste-system has remained
untouched.
Strictly speaking, Buddha's order was composed only of those who renounced
the world to live a life of contemplation as monks and nuns. The very
character of their life, however, made them dependent on the charity of men
and women who preferred to live in the world and to enjoy the comforts of
the household state. Those who thus sympathized with the order and
contributed to its support, formed the lay element in Buddhism. Through this
friendly association with the order, they could look to a happy reward after
death, not Nirvana but the temporary de!ights of heaven, with the additional
prospect of being able at some future birth to attain to Nirvana, if they so
desired. The majority, however, did not share the enthusiasm of the Buddhist
Arhat or saint for Nirvana, being quite content to hope for a life of
positive, though impermanent, bliss in heaven.
SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
The lack of all religious rites in Buddhism was not keenly felt during the
lifetime of its founder. Personal devotion to him took the place of
religious fervour. But he was not long dead when this very devotion to him
began to assume the form of religious worship. His reputed relics,
consisting of his bones, teeth, alms-bowl, cremation-vessel, and ashes from
his funeral pyre, were enclosed in dome-shaped mounds called Dagobas, or
Topes, or Stupas, and were honoured with offerings of lights, flowers, and
incense. Pictures and statues of Buddha were multiplied on every side, and
similarly honoured, being carried about on festal days in solemn procession.
The places, too, associated with his birth, enlightenment, first preaching,
and death were accounted especially sacred, and became the objects of
pilgrimage and the occasion of recurring festivals. But as Buddha had
entered into Nirvana and could not be sensible of these religious honours,
the need was felt of a living personality to whom the people could pray. The
later speculations of Buddhist monks brought such a personality to light in
Metteyya (Maitreya), the loving one, now happily reigning in heaven as a
bodhisattva, a divine being destined in the remote future to become a
Buddha, again to set in motion the wheel of the law. To this Metteyya the
Buddhists turned as the living object of worship of which they had so long
felt the need, and they paid him religious homage as the future saviour of
the world.
The emergence of the Northern School
Such was the character of the religious worship observed by those who
departed the least from Buddha's teachings. It is what is found today in the
so-called Southern Buddhism, held by the inhabitants of Ceylon, Burma, and
Siam. Towards the end of first century A.D., however, a far more radical
change took place in the religious views of the great mass of Buddhists in
Northern India. Owing, doubtless, to the ever growing popularity of the
cults of Vishnu and Siva, Buddhism was so modified as to allow the worship
of an eternal, supreme deity, Adi-Buddha, of whom the historic Buddha was
declared to have been an incarnation, an avatar. Around this supreme Buddha
dwelling in highest heaven, were grouped a countless number of bodhisattvas,
destined in future ages to become human Buddhas for the sake of erring man.
To raise oneself to the rank of bodhisattva by meritorious works was the
ideal now held out to pious souls. In place of Nirvana, Sukhavati became the
object of pious longing, the heaven of sensuous pleasures, where Amitabha,
an emanation of the eternal Buddha, reigned. For the attainment of
Sukhavati, the necessity of virtuous conduct was not altogether forgotten,
but an extravagant importance was attached to the worship of relics and
statues, pilgrimages, and, above all, to the reciting of sacred names and
magic formulas. Many other gross forms of Hindu superstition were also
adopted. This innovation, completely subversive of the teaching of Buddha,
supplanted the older system in the North. It was known as the Mahayana, or
Great Vehicle, in distinction to the other and earlier form of Buddhism
contemptuously styled the Hinayana or Little Vehicle, which held its own in
the South. It is only by the few millions of Southern Buddhists that the
teachings of Buddha have been substantially preserved.
Buddha's order seems to have grown rapidly, and through the good will of
rulers, whose inferior origin debarred them from Brahmin privileges, to have
become in the next two centuries a formidable rival of the older religion.
The interesting rock-edicts of Asoka-a royal convert to Buddhism who in the
second quarter of the third century B.C. held dominion over the greater part
of India-give evidence that Buddhism was in a most flourishing condition,
while a tolerant and kindly spirit was displayed towards other forms of
religion. Under his auspices missionaries were sent to evangelize Ceylon in
the South, and in the North, Kashmer, Kandahar, and the so-called Yavana
country, identified by most scholars with the Greek settlements in the Kabul
valley and vicinity, and later known as Bactria. In all these places
Buddhism quickly took root and flourished, though in the Northern countries
the religion became later on corrupted and transformed into the Mahayana
form of worship.
Buddhism in China
In the first century of the Christian Era, the knowledge of Buddha made its
way to China. At the invitation of the Emperor Ming-ti, Buddhist monks came
in A.D. 67 with sacred books, pictures, and relics. Conversions multiplied,
and during the next few centuries the religious communications between the
two countries were very close. Not only did Buddhist missionaries from India
labour in China, but many Chinese monks showed their zeal for the newly
adopted religion by making pilgrimages to the holy places in India. A few of
them wrote interesting accounts, still extant, of what they saw and heard in
their travels. Of these pilgrims the most noted are Fahien, who travelled in
India and Ceylon in the years A.D. 399-414, and Hiouen-Tsang who made
extensive travels in India two centuries later (A.D. 629-645). The
supplanting of the earlier form of Buddhism in the northern countries of
India in the second century led to a corresponding change in the Buddhism of
China. The later missionaries, being mostly from the North of India, brought
with them the new doctrine, and in a short time the Mahayana or Northern
Buddhism prevailed. Two of the bodhisattvas of Mahayana theology became the
favourite objects of worship with the Chinese-Amitabha, lord of the
Sukhavati paradise, and Avalokitesvara, extravagantly praised in the "Lotus
of the True Law" as ready to extricate from every sort of danger those who
think of him or cherish his name. The latter, known as Fousa Kwanyin, is
worshipped, now as a male deity, again as the goddess of mercy, who comes to
the relief of the faithful. Amitabha goes by the Chinese name Amita, or
Mito. Offerings of flowers and incense made before his statues and the
frequent repetition, of his name are believed to ensure a future life of
bliss in his distant Western paradise. An excessive devotion to statues and
relics, the employment of magic arts to keep off evil spirits, and the
observance of many of the gross superstitions of Taoism, complete the
picture of Buddhism in China, a sorry representation of what Buddha made
known to men. Chinese Buddhism was introduced into Korea in the fourth
century, and from there taken to Japan two centuries later. The Buddhism of
these countries is in the main like that of China, with the addition of a
number of local superstitions. Annam was also evangelized by Chinese
Buddhists at an early period.
Tibetan Buddhiism
Buddhism was first introduced into Tibet in the latter part of the seventh
century, but it did not begin to thrive till the ninth century. In 1260, the
Buddhist conqueror of Tibet, Kublai Khan, raised the head lama, a monk of
the great Sakja monastery, to the position of spiritual and temporal ruler.
His modern successors have the title of Dalai Lama. Lamaism is based on the
Northern Buddhism of India, after it had become saturated with the
disgusting elements of Siva worship. Its deities are innumerable, its
idolatry unlimited. It is also much given to the use of magic formulas and
to the endless repetition of sacred names. Its favourite formula is, Om mani
padme hum (O jewel in the lotus, Amen), which, written on streamers exposed
to the wind, and multiplied on paper slips turned by hand or wind or water,
in the so-called prayer-wheels, is thought to secure for the agent
unspeakable merit. The Dalai Lama, residing in the great monastery at Lhasa,
passes for the incarnation of Amitabha, the Buddha of the Sukhavati
paradise. Nine months after his death, a newly born babe is selected by
divination as the reincarnate Buddha.
Catholic missionaries to Tibet in the early part of the last century were
struck by the outward resemblances to Catholic liturgy and discipline that
were presented by Lamaism-its infallible head, grades of clergy
corresponding to bishop and priest, the cross, mitre, dalmatic, cope,
censer, holy water, etc. At once voices were raised proclaiming the
Lamaistic origin of Catholic rites and practices. Unfortunately for this
shallow theory, the Catholic Church was shown to have possessed these
features in common with the Christian Oriental churches long before Lamaism
was in existence. The wide propagation of Nestorianism over Central and
Eastern Asia as early as A.D. 635 offers a natural explanation for such
resemblances as are accretions on Indian Buddhism. The missionary zeal of
Tibetan lamas led to the extension of their religion to Tatary in the
twelfth and following centuries. While Northern Buddhism was thus exerting a
widespread influence over Central and Eastern Asia, the earlier form of
Buddhism was making peaceful conquests of the countries and islands in the
South. In the fifth century missionaries from Ceylon evangelized Burma.
Within the next two centuries, it spread to Siam, Cambodia, Java, and
adjacent islands.
Buddhism Today
The number of Buddhists throughout the world is commonly estimated at about
four hundred and fifty millions, that is, about one-third of the human race.
But on this estimate the error is made of classing an the Chinese and
Japanese as Buddhists. Professor Legge, whose years of experience in China
give special weight to his judgment, declares that the Buddhists in the
whole world are not more than, one hundred millions, being far outnumbered
not only by Christians, but also by the adherents of Confucianism and
Hinduism. Professor Monier Williams holds the same views. Even if Buddhism,
however, outranked Christianity in the number of adherents, it would be a
mistake to attribute to the religion of Buddha, as some do, a more
successful propagandism than to the religion of Christ. The latter has made
its immense conquests, not by compromising with error and superstition, but
by winning souls to the exclusive acceptance of its saving truths. Wherever
it has spread, it has maintained its individuality. On the other hand, the
vast majority of the adherents of Buddhism cling to forms of creed and
worship that Buddha, if alive, would reprobate. Northern Buddhism became the
very opposite of what Buddha taught to men, and in spreading to foreign
lands accommodated itself to the degrading superstitions of the peoples it
sought to win. It is only the Southern Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam
who deserve to be identified with the order founded by Buddha. They number
at most but thirty millions of souls.
"Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future:
it transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology;
it covers both the natural & spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things,
natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity" Albert Einstein
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