 |
263. Q. As a novice what is he called?
A. Samanera, a pupil.[2]
264. Q. At what age can a Samanera be ordained as Sramana—monk?
A. Not before his twentieth year.
265. Q. When ready for ordination what happens?
A. At a meeting of Bhikkhus he is presented by a Bhikkhu as his proposer, who reports that he is qualified, and the candidate says: "I ask the Sangha, Reverend Sirs, for the Upasampada (ordination) ceremony, etc."
His introducer then recommends that he be admitted. He is then accepted.
266. Q. What then?
A. He puts on the robes and repeats the Three Refuges {Tisarana) and Ten Precepts (Dasa Sila.)
267. Q. What are the two essentials to be observed?
A. Poverty and Chastity. A Bhikkhu before ordination must possess eight things, viz., his robes, a girdle for his loins, a begging-bowl, water-strainer, razor, needle, fan, sandals. Within limitations strictly specified in the Vinaya, he may hold certain other properties.
268. Q. What about the public confession of faults?
A. Once every fortnight, a Patimokka (Disburdenment) ceremony is performed, when every Bhikkhu confesses to the assembly such faults as he has committed and takes such penances as may be prescribed.
269. Q. What daily routine must he follow?
A. He rises before daylight, washes, sweeps the vihara, sweeps around the Bo-tree that grows near every vihara, brings the drinking-water for the day and filters it; retires for meditation, offers flowers before the dagoba, or relic-mound, or before the Bo-tree; then takes his begging-bowl and goes from house to house collecting food—which he must not ask for, but receive in his bowl as given voluntarily by the householders. He returns, bathes his feet and eats, after which he resumes meditation.
270. Q. Must we believe that there is no merit in the offering of flowers (mala puja) as an act of worship?
A. That act itself is without merit as a mere formality; but if one offers a flower as the sweetest, purest expression of heartfelt reverence for a holy being, then, indeed, is the offering an act of ennobling worship.
271. Q. What next does the Bhikkhu do?
A. He pursues his studies. At sunset he again sweeps the sacred places, lights a lamp, listens to the instructions of his superior, and confesses to him any fault he may have committed.
272. Q. Upon what are his four earnest meditations (Sati-patthana) made?
A. 1. On the body, Kayanapassana. 2. On the feeling, Vedananupassana. 3. On the mind, Chittannpassana. 4. On the doctrine, Dhammanupassana.
273. Q. What is the aim of the four Great Efforts (Sammappadhana)?
A. To suppress one's animal desires and grow in goodness.
274. Q. For the perception by the Bhikkhu of the highest truth, is reason said to be the best, or intuition?
A. Intuition—a mental state in which any desired truth is instantaneously grasped.
275. Q. And when can that development be reached?
A. When one, by the practice of Jnana, comes to its fourth stage of unfolding.
276. Q. Are we to believe that in the final stage of Jnana, and in the condition called Samadhi, the mind is a blank and thought is arrested?
A. Quite the contrary. It is then that one's consciousness is most intensely active, and one's power to gain knowledge correspondingly vast.
277. Q. Try to give me a simile?
A. In the ordinary waking state one's view of knowledge is as limited as the sight of a man who walks on a road between high hills; in the higher consciousness of Jnana and Samadhi it is like the sight of the eagle poised in the upper sky and overlooking a whole country.
278. Q. What do our books say about the Buddha's use of this faculty?
A. They tell us that it was his custom, every morning, to glance over the world and, by his divine (clairvoyant) sight, see where there were persons ready to receive the truth. He would then contrive, if possible, that it should reach them. When persons visited him he would look into their minds, read their secret motives, and then preach to them according to their needs.
[1] The Upasaka and Upasika observe these on the Buddhist Uposatha (Sabbath) days (in Skr. Upavasata). They are the 8th, 14th and 15th days of each half lunar month.
[2] The relationship to his Guru, or teacher, is almost like that of godson to godfather among Christians, only more real, for the teacher becomes father, mother, family and all to him.
PART IV
THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
279. Q. As regards the number its followers, how does Buddhism at this date compare with the other chief religions?
A. The followers of the Buddha Dharma outnumber those of every other religion.
280. Q. What is the estimated number?
A. About five hundred millions (5,000 lakhs or 500 crores): this is five-thirteenths, or not quite half, of the estimated population of the globe.
281. Q. Have many great battles been fought and many countries conquered; has much human blood been spilt to spread the Buddha Dharma?
A. History does not record one of those cruelties and crimes as having been committed to propagate our religion. So far as we know, it has not caused the spilling of a drop of blood. (See footnote ante—Professor Kolb's testimony.)
282. Q. What, then, is the secret of its wonderful spread?
A. It can be nothing else than its intrinsic excellence: its self-evident basis of truth, its sublime moral teaching, and its sufficiency for all human needs.
283. Q. How has it been propagated?
A. The Buddha, during the forty-five years of his life as a Teacher, travelled widely in India and preached the Dharma. He sent his wisest and best disciples to do the same throughout India.
284. Q. When did He send for his pioneer missionaries?
A. On the full-moon day of the month Wap (October).
285. Q. What did he tell them?
A. He called them together and said: "Go forth, Bhikkhus, go and preach the law to the world. Work for the good of others as well as for your own.... Bear ye the glad tidings to every man. Let no two of you take the same way."
286. Q. How long before the Christian era did this happen?
A. About six centuries.
287. Q. What help did Kings give?
A. Besides the lower classes, great Kings, Rajas and Maharajas were converted and gave their influence to spread the religion.
288. Q. What about pilgrims?
A. Learned pilgrims came in different centuries to India and carried back with them books and teachings to their native lands. So, gradually, whole nations forsook their own faiths and became Buddhists.
289. Q. To whom, more than to any other person, is the world indebted for the permanent establishment of Buddha's religion?
A. To the Emperor Ashoka, surnamed the Great, sometimes Piyadasi, sometimes Dharmashoka. He was the son of Bindusara, King of Magadha, arid grandson of Chandragupta, who drove the Greeks out of India.
290. Q. When did he reign?
A. In the third century B.C., about two centuries after the Buddha's time. Historians disagree as to his exact date, but not very greatly.
291. Q. What made him great?
A. He was the most powerful monarch in Indian history, as warrior and as statesman; but his noblest characteristics were his love of truth and justice, tolerance of religious differences, equity of government, kindness to the sick, to the poor, and to animals. His name is revered from Siberia to Ceylon.
292. Q. Was he born a Buddhist?
A. No, he was converted in the tenth year after his anointment as King, by Nigrodha Samanera, an Arhat.
293. Q. What did he do for Buddhism?
A. He drove out bad Bhikkhus, encouraged good ones, built monasteries and dagobas everywhere, established gardens, opened hospitals for men and animals, convened a council at Patna to revise and re-establish the Dharma, promoted female religious education, and sent embassies to five Greek kings, his allies, and to all the sovereigns of India, to preach the doctrines of the Buddha. It was he who built the monuments at Kapilavastu, Buddha Gaya, Isipatana and Kusinara, our four chief places of pilgrimage, besides thousands more.
294. Q. What absolute proofs exist as to his noble character?
A. Within recent years there have been discovered, in all parts of India, fourteen Edicts of his, inscribed on living rocks, and eight on pillars erected by his orders. They fully prove him to have been one of the wisest and most high-minded sovereigns who ever lived.
29.5. Q. What character do these inscriptions give to Buddhism?
A. They show it to be a religion of noble tolerance, of universal brotherhood, of righteousness and justice. It has no taint of selfishness, sectarianism or intolerance. They have done more than anything else to win for it the respect in which it is now held by the great pandits of western countries.
296. Q. What most precious gift did Dharmashoka make to Buddhism?
A. He gave his beloved son, Mahinda, and daughter, Sanghamitta, to the Order, and sent them to Ceylon to introduce the religion.
297. Q. Is this fact recorded in the history of Ceylon?
A. Yes, it is all recorded in the Mahavansa, by the keepers of the royal records, who were then living and saw the missionaries.
298. Q. Is there some proof of Sanghamitta's mission still visible?
A. Yes; she brought with her to Ceylon a branch of the very Bodhi tree under which the Buddha sat when he became Enlightened, and it is still growing.
299. Q. Where?
A. At Annradhapura. The history of it has been officially preserved to the present time. Planted in 306 B.C., it is the oldest historical tree in the world.
300. Q. Who was the reigning sovereign at that time?
A. Devanampiyatissa. His consort, Queen Anula, had invited Sanghamitta to come and establish the Bhikkhuni branch of the Order.
301. Q. Who came with Sanghamitta?
A. Many other Bhikkhunis. She, in due time, admitted the Queen and many of her ladies, together with five hundred virgins, into the Order.
302. Q. Can we trace the effects of the foreign work of the Emperor Ashoka's missionaries?
A. His son and daughter introduced Buddhism into Ceylon: his monks gave it to the whole of Northern India, to fourteen Indian nations outside its boundaries, and to five Greek kings, his allies, with whom he made treaties to admit his religious preachers.
303. Q. Can you name them?
A. ANTIOCHUS of Syria, PTOLEMY of Egypt, ANTIGONUS of Macedon, MARGAS of Cyrene, and ALEXANDER of Epiros.
304. Q. Where do we learn this?
A. From the Edicts themselves of Ashoka the Great, inscribed by him on rocks and stone pillars, which are still standing and can be seen by everybody who chooses to visit the places.
305. Q. Through what western religious brotherhoods did the Buddha Dharma mingle itself with western thought?
A. Through the sects of the Therapeuts of Egypt and the Essenes of Palestine.
306. Q. When were Buddhist books first introduced into China?
A. As early as the second or third century B.C. Five of Dharmashoka's monks are said—in the Samanta Pasadika and the Sarattha Dipani—two Pali books—to have been sent to the five divisions of China.
307. Q. Whence and when did it reach Korea?
A. From China, in the year A. D. 372.
308. Q. Whence and when did it reach Japan?
A. From Korea, in A. D. 552.
309. Q. Whence and when did it reach Cochin China, Formosa, Java, Mongolia, Yorkand, Balk, Bokhara, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries?
A. Apparently in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.
310. Q. From Ceylon, whither and when did it spread?
A. To Burma, in A.D. 450, and thence gradually into Arakan, Kamboya and Pegu. In the seventh century (A.D. 638) it spread to Siam, where it is now, as it has been always since then, the State religion.
311. Q. From Kashmir, where else did it spread besides to China?
A. To Nepal and Tibet.
312. Q. Why is it that Buddhism, which was once the prevailing religion throughout India, is now almost extinct there?
A. Buddhism was at first pure and noble, the very teaching of the Tathagata; its Sangha were virtuous and observed the Precepts; it won all hearts and spread joy through many nations, as the morning light sends life through the flowers. But after some centuries, bad Bhikkhus got ordination (Upasampada) the Sangha became rich, lazy, and sensual, the Dharma was corrupted, and the Indian nation abandoned it.
313. Q. Did anything happen about the ninth or tenth century A.D. to hasten its downfall?
A. Yes.
314. Q. Anything besides the decay of spirituality, the corruption of the Sangha, and the reaction of the populace from a higher ideal of man to unintelligent idolatry?
A. Yes. It is said that the Mussalmans invaded, overran and conquered large areas of India; everywhere doing their utmost to stamp out our religion.
315. Q. What cruel acts are they charged with doing?
A. They burnt, pulled down or otherwise destroyed our viharas, slaughtered our Bhikkhus, and consumed with fire our religious books.
316. Q. Was our literature completely destroyed in India?
A. No. Many Bhikkhus fled across the borders into Tibet and other safe places of refuge, carrying their books with them.
317. Q. Have any traces of these books been recently discovered?
A. Yes. Rai Bhadur Sarat Chandra Das, C.I.E., a noted Bengali pandit, saw hundreds of them in the vihara libraries of Tibet, brought copies of some of the most important back with him, and is now employed by the Government of India in editing and publishing them.
318. Q. In which country have we reason to believe the sacred books of primitive Buddhism have been best preserved and least corrupted?
A. Ceylon. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that in this island Buddhism has, for specified reasons, "retained almost its pristine purity to modern times".
319. Q. Has any revision of the text of the Pitakas been made in modern times?
A. Yes. A careful revision of the Vinaya Pitaka was made in Ceylon in the year A.D. 1875, by a convention of the most learned Bhikkhus, under the presidency of H. Sumangala, Pradhana Sthavira.
320. Q. Has there been any friendly intercourse in the interest of Buddhism between the peoples of the Southern and those of the Northern Buddhist countries?
A. In the year A.D. 1891, a successful attempt was made to get the Pradhana Nayakas of the two great divisions to agree to accept fourteen propositions as embodying fundamental Buddhistic beliefs recognised and taught by both divisions. These propositions, drafted by Colonel Olcott, were carefully translated into Burmese, Sinhalese and Japanese, discussed one by one, unanimously adopted and signed by the chief monks, and published in January 1892.
321. Q. With what good result?
A. As the result of the good understanding now existing, a number of Japanese bhikkhus and samaneras have been sent to Ceylon and India to study Pali and Samskrt.
322. Q. Are there signs that the Buddha Dharma is growing in favour in non-Buddhistic countries?[1]
A. There are. Translations of our more valuable books are appearing, many articles in reviews, magazines and newspapers are being published, and excellent original treatises by distinguished writers are coming from the press. Moreover, Buddhist and non-Buddhist lecturers are publicly discoursing on Buddhism to large audiences in western countries. The Shin Shu sect of Japanese Buddhists have actually opened missions at Honolulu, San Francisco, Sacramento and other American places.
323. Q. What two leading ideas of ours are chiefly taking hold upon the western mind?
A. Those of Karma and Reincarnation. The rapidity of their acceptance is very surprising.
324. Q. What is believed to be the explanation of this?
A. Their appeals to the natural instinct of justice, and their evident reasonableness.
[1] See Appendix.
PART V
BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE
325. Q. Has Buddhism any right to be considered a scientific religion, or may it be classified as a "revealed" one?
A. Most emphatically it is not a revealed religion. The Buddha did not so preach, nor is it so understood. On the contrary, he gave it out as the statement of eternal truths, which his predecessors had taught like himself.
326. Q. Repeat again the name of the Sutta, in which the Buddha tells us not to believe in an alleged revelation without testing it by one's reason and experience?
A. The Kalama Sutta, of the Anguthara Nikaya.
327. Q. Do Buddhists accept the theory that everything has been formed out of nothing by a Creator?
A. The Buddha taught that two things are causeless, viz., Akasha, and Nirvana. Everything has come ont of Akasha, in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and, after a certain existence, passes away. Nothing ever came out of nothing. We do not believe in miracles; hence we deny creation, and cannot conceive of a creation of something out of nothing. Nothing organic is eternal. Everything is in a state of constant flux, and undergoing change and reformation, keeping up the continuity according to the law of evolution.
328. Q. Is Buddhism opposed to education, and to the study of science?
A. Quite the contrary: in the Sigalowada Sutta in a discourse preached by the Buddha, He specified as one of the duties of a teacher that he should give his pupils "instruction in science and lore". The Buddha's higher teachings are for the enlightened, the wise, and the thoughtful.
329. Q. Can you show any further endorsement of Buddhism by science?
A. The Buddha's doctrine teaches that there were many progenitors of the human race; also that there is a principle of differentiation among men; certain individuals have a greater capacity for the rapid attainment of Wisdom and arrival at Nirvana than others.
330. Q. Any other?
A. Buddhism supports the teaching of the indestructibility of force.
331. Q. Should Buddhism be called a chart of science or a code of morals?
A. Properly speaking, a pure moral philosophy, a system of ethics and transcendental metaphysics. It is so eminently practical that the Buddha kept silent when Malunka asked about the origin of things.
332. Q. Why did he do that?
A. Because he thought that our chief aim should be to see things as they exist around us and try to make them better, not to waste time in intellectual speculations.
333. Q. What do Buddhists say is the reason for the occasional birth of very good and wise children of bad parents, and that of very bad ones of good parents?
A. It is because of the respective Karmas of children and parents; each may have deserved that such unusual relationships should be formed in the present birth.
334. Q. Is anything said about the body of the Buddha giving out a bright light?
A. Yes, there was a divine radiance sent forth from within by the power of his holiness.
335. Q. What is it called in Pali?
A. Buddharansi, the Buddha rays.
336. Q. How many colours could be seen in it?
A. Six, linked in pairs.
337. Q. Their names?
A. Nila, Pita, Lohita, Avadata, Mangasta, Prabhasvra.
338. Q. Did other persons emit such shining light?
A. Yes, all Arhats did and, in fact, the light shines stronger and brighter in proportion to the spiritual development of the person.
339. Q. Where do we see these colours represented?
A. In all viharas where there are painted images of the Buddha. They are also seen in the stripes of the Buddhist Flag, first made in Ceylon but now widely adopted throughout Buddhist countries.
340. Q. In which discourse does the Buddha himself speak of this shining about him?
A. In the Maha-Parinibbana Sutta, Ananda his favourite disciple, noticing the great splendour which came from his Master's body, the Buddha said that on two occasions this extraordinary shining occurs, (a) just after a Tathagata gains the supreme insight, and (b) on the night when he passes finally away.
341. Q. Where do we read of this great brightness being emitted from the body of another Buddha?
A. In the story of Sumedha and Dipankara Buddha, found in the Nidanakatha of the Jataka book, or story of the reincarnations of the Bodhisattva Siddhartha Gautama.
342. Q. How is it described?
A. As a halo of a fathom's depth.
343. Q. What do the Hindus call it?
A. Tejas; its extended radiance they call Prakasha.
344. Q. What do Europeans call it now?
A. The human aura.
345. Q. What great scientist has proved the existence of this aura by carefully conducted experiments?
A. The Baron Von Reichenbach. His experiments are fully described in his Researches, published in 1844-5. Dr. Baraduc, of Paris, has, quite recently, photographed this light.
346. Q. Is this bright aura a miracle or a natural phenomenon?
A. Natural. It has been proved that not only all human beings but animals, trees, plants and even stones have it.
347. Q. What peculiarity has it in the case of a Buddha or an Arhat?
A. It is immensely brighter and more extended than in cases of other beings and objects. It is the evidence of their superior development in the power of Iddhi. The light has been seen coming from dagobas in Ceylon where relics of the Buddha are said to be enshrined.
348. Q. Do people of other religions besides Buddhism and Hinduism also believe in this light?
A. Yes, in all pictures of Christian artists this light is represented as shining about the bodies of their holy personages. The same belief is found to have existed in other religions.
349. Q. What historical incident supports the modern theory of hypnotic suggestion?
A. That of Chullapanthaka, as told in the Pali Commentary on the Dhammapada, etc.
350. Q. Give me the facts.
A. He was a bhikkhu who became an Arhat. On that very day the Buddha sent a messenger to call him. When the man reached the Vihara, he saw three hundred bhikkhus in one group, each exactly like the others in every respect. On his asking which was Chullapanthaka, every one of the three hundred figures replied: "I am Chullapanthaka."
351. Q. What did the messenger do?
A. In his confusion he returned and reported to the Buddha.
352. Q. What did the Buddha then tell him?
A. To return to the vihara and, if the same thing happened, to catch by the arm the first figure who said he was Chullapanthaka and lead him to him. The Buddha knew that the new Arhat would make this display of his acquired power to impress illusionary pictures of himself upon the messenger.
353. Q. What is this power of illusion called in Pali?
A. Manomaya Iddhi.
354. Q. Were the illusionary copies of the Arhat's person material? Were they composed of substance and could they have been felt and handled by the messenger?
A. No; they were pictures impressed by his thought and trained will-power upon the messenger's mind.
355. Q. To what would you compare them?
A. To a man's reflection in a mirror, being exactly like him yet without solidity.
356. Q. To make such an illusion on the messenger's mind, what was necessary?
A. That Chullapanthaka should clearly conceive in his own mind his exact appearance, and then impress that, with as many duplicates or repetitions as he chose, upon the sensitive brain of the messenger.
357. Q. What is this process now called?
A. Hypnotic suggestion.
358. Q. Could any third party have also seen these illusionary figures?
A. That would depend on the will of the Arhat or hypnotiser.
359. Q. What do you mean?
A. Supposing that fifty or five hundred persons were there, instead of one, the Arhat could will that the illusion should be seen by all alike; or, if he chose, he could will that the messenger should be the only one to see them.
360. Q. Is this branch of science well known in our day?
A. Very well known; it is familiar to all students of mesmerism and hypnotism.
361. Q. In what does our modern scientific belief support the theory of Karma, as taught in Buddhism?
A. Modern scientists teach that every generation of men is heir to the consequences of the virtues and the vices of the preceding generation, not in the mass, as such, but in every individual case. Every one of us, according to Buddhism, gets a birth which represents the causes generated by him in an antecedent birth. This is the idea of Karma.
362. Q. What say the Vasettha Sutta about the causation in Nature?
A. It says: "The world exists by cause; all things exist by cause, all beings are bound by cause."
363. Q. Does Buddhism teach the unchangeableness of the visible universe; our earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms?
A. No. It teaches that all are constantly changing, and all must disappear in course of time.
364. Q. Never to reappear?
A. Not so: the principle of evolution, guided by Karma, individual and collective, will evolve another universe with its contents, as our universe was evolved out of the Akasha.
365. Q. Does Buddhism admit that man has in his nature any latent powers for the production of phenomena commonly called "miracles"?
A. Yes; but they are natural, not supernatural. They may be developed by a certain system which is laid down in our sacred books, the Visuddhi Marga for instance.
366. Q. What is this branch of science called?
A. The Pali name is Iddhi-vidhanana.
367. Q. How many kinds are there?
A. Two: Bahira, i.e., one in which the phenomena-working power may be temporarily obtained by ascetic practices and also by resort to drugs, the recitation of mantras (charms), or other extraneous aids; and Sasaniks, that in which the power in question is acquired by interior self-development, and covers all and more than the phenomena of Laukika Iddhi.
368. Q. What class of men enjoy these powers?
A. They gradually develop in one which pursues a certain course of ascetic practice called Dhyana.
369. Q. Can this Iddhi power be lost?[1]
A. The Bahira can be lost, but the Sasanika never, when once acquired. Lokottara knowledge once obtained is never lost, and it is by this knowledge only that the absolute condition of Nirvana is known by the Arhat. And this knowledge can be got by following the noble life of the Eightfold Path.
370. Q. Had Buddha the Lokottara Iddhi?
A. Yes, in perfection.
371. Q. And his disciples also had it?
A. Yes, some but not all equally; the capacity for acquiring these occult powers varies with the individual.
372. Q. Give examples?
A. Of all the disciples of the Buddha, Mogallana was possessed of the most extraordinary powers for making phenomena, while Ananda could develop none during the twenty-five years in which he was the personal and intimate disciple of the Buddha himself. Later he did, as the Buddha had foretold he would.
373. Q. Does a man acquire these powers suddenly or gradually?
A. Normally, they gradually develop themselves as the disciple progressively gains control over his lower nature in a series of births.[2]
374. Q. Does Buddhism pretend that the miracle of raising those who are dead is possible?
A. No. The Buddha teaches the contrary, in that beautiful story of Kisa Gotami and the mustard-seed. But when a person only seems to be dead but is not actually so, resuscitation is possible.
375. Q. Give me an idea of these successive stages of the Lokottara development in Iddhi?
A. There are six degrees attainable by Arhats; what is higher than them is to be reached only by a Buddha.
376. Q. Describe the six stages or degrees?
A. We may divide them into two groups, of three each. The first to include (1) Progressive retrospection, viz., a gradually acquired power to look backward in time towards the origin of things; (2) Progressive foresight, or power of prophecy; (3) Gradual extinction of desires and attachments to material things.
377. Q. What would the second group include?
A. The same faculties, but inimitably developed. Thus, the full Arhat possesses perfect retrospection, perfect foresight, and has absolutely extinguished the last trace of desire and selfish attractions.
378. Q. What are the four means for obtaining Iddhi?
A. The will, its exertion, mental development, and discrimination between right and wrong.
379. Q. Our Scriptures relate hundreds of instances of phenomena produced by Arhats: what did you say was the name of this faculty or power?
A. Iddhi vidha. One possessing this can, by manipulating the forces of Nature, produce any wonderful phenomenon, i.e., make any scientific experiment he chooses.
380. Q. Did the Buddha encourage displays of phenomena?
A. No; he expressly discouraged them as tending to create confusion in the minds of those who were not acquainted with the principles involved. They also tempt their possessors to show them merely to gratify idle curiosity and their own vanity. Moreover, similar phenomena can be shown by magicians and sorcerers learned in the Laukika, or the baser form of Iddhi science. All false pretensions to supernatural attainment by monks are among the unpardonable sins (Tevijja Sutta).
381. Q. You spoke of a "deva" having appeared to the Prince Siddhartha under a variety of forms; what do Buddhists believe respecting races of elemental invisible beings having relations with mankind?
A. They believe that there are such beings who inhabit worlds or spheres of their own. The Buddhist doctrine is that, by interior self-development and conquest over his baser nature, the Arhat becomes superior to even the most formidable of the devas, and may subject and control the lower orders.
382. Q. How many kinds of devas are there?
A. Three: Kamavachara (those who are still under the domination of the passions); Rupavachara (a higher class, which still retain an individual form): Arapavachara (the highest in degree of purification, who are devoid of material forms).
383. Q. Should we fear any of them?
A. He who is pure and compassionate in heart and of a courageous mind need fear nothing: no man, god, brahmarakkhas, demon or deva, can injure him, but some have power to torment the impure, as well as those who invite their approach.
[1] Sumangala Sthavira explains to me that those transcendent powers are permanently possessed only by one who has subdued all the passions (Klesa), in other words, an Arhat. The powers may be developed by a bad man and used for doing evil things, but their activity is but brief, the rebellious passions again dominate the sorcerer, and he becomes at last their victim.
[2] When the powers suddenly show themselves, the inference is that the individual had developed himself in the next anterior birth. We do not believe in eccentric breaks in natural law.
APPENDIX
The following text of the fourteen items of belief which have been accepted as fundamental principles in both the Southern and Northern sections of Buddhism, by authoritative committees to whom they were submitted by me personally, have so much historical importance that they are added to the present edition of THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM as an Appendix. It has very recently been reported to me by H. E. Prince Ouchtomsky, the learned Russian Orientalist, that having had the document translated to them, the Chief Lamas of the great Mongolian Buddhist monasteries declared to him that they accept every one of the propositions as drafted, with the one exception that the date of the Buddha is by them believed to have been some thousands of years earlier than the one given by me. This surprising fact had not hitherto come to my knowledge. Can it be that the Mongolian Sangha confuse the real epoch of Sakya Muni with that of his alleged next predecessor? Be this as it may, it is a most encouraging fact that the whole Buddhistic world may now be said to have united to the extent at least of these Fourteen Propositions.
H. S. O.
FUNDAMENTAL BUDDHISTIC BELIEFS
I Buddhists are taught to show the same tolerance, forbearance, and brotherly love to all men, without distinction; and an unswerving kindness towards the members of the animal kingdom.
II The universe was evolved, not created; and its functions according to law, not according to the caprice of any God.
III The truths upon which Buddhism is founded are natural. They have, we believe, been taught in successive kalpas, or world-periods, by certain illuminated beings called BUDDHAS, the name BUDDHA meaning "Enlightened".
IV The fourth Teacher in the present kalpa was Sakya Muni, or Gautama Buddha, who was born in a Royal family in India about 2,500 years ago. He is an historical personage and his name was Siddhartha Gautama.
V Sakya Muni taught that ignorance produces desire, unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth, and rebirth, the cause of sorrow. To get rid of sorrow, therefore, it is necessary to escape rebirth; to escape rebirth, it is necessary to extinguish desire; and to extinguish desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance.
VI Ignorance fosters the belief that rebirth is a necessary thing. When ignorance is destroyed the worthlessness of every such rebirth, considered as an end in itself, is perceived, as well as the paramount need of adopting a course of life by which the necessity for such repeated rebirths can be abolished. Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is only one existence for man, and the other illusion that this one life is followed by states of unchangeable pleasure or torment.
VII The dispersion of all this ignorance can be attained by the persevering practice of an all-embracing altruism in conduct, development of intelligence, wisdom in thought, and destruction of desire for the lower personal pleasures.
VIII The desire to live being the cause of rebirth, when that is extinguished rebirths cease and the perfected individual attains by meditation that highest state of peace called Nirvana.
IX Sakya Muni taught that ignorance can be dispelled and sorrow removed by the knowledge of the four Noble Truths, viz.:
1. The miseries of existence;
2. The cause productive of misery, which is the desire ever renewed of satisfying oneself without being able ever to secure that end;
3. The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of oneself from it;
4. The means of obtaining this destruction of desire. The means which he pointed out is called the Noble Eightfold Path, viz.: Right Belief; Right Thought; Right Speech; Right Action; Right Means of Livelihood; Right Exertion; Right Remembrance; Right Meditation.
X Right Meditation leads to spiritual enlightenment, or the development of that Buddha-like faculty which is latent in every man.
XI The essence of Buddhism, as summed up by the Tathagatha (Buddha) himself, as:
To cease from all sin, To get virtue, To purify the heart.
XII The universe is subject to a natural causation known as "Karma". The merits and demerits of a being in past existences determine his condition in the present one. Each man, therefore, has prepared the causes of the effects which he now experiences.
XIII The obstacles to the attainment of good karma may be removed by the observance of the following precepts, which are embraced in the moral code of Buddhism, viz.: (1) Kill not; (2) Steal not; (3) Indulge in no forbidden sexual pleasure; (4) Lie not; (5) Take no intoxication or stupefying drug or liquor. Five other precepts which need not be here enumerated should be observed by those who would attain, more quickly than the average layman, the release from misery and rebirth.
XIV Buddhism discourages superstitious credulity. Gautama Buddha taught it to be the duty of a parent to have his child educated in science and literature. He also taught that no one should believe what is spoken by any sage, written in any book, or affirmed by tradition, unless it accord with reason.
Drafted as a common platform upon which all Buddhists can agree.
H. S. OLCOTT, P.T.S.
Respectfully submitted for the approval of the High Priests of the nations which we severally represent, in the Buddhist Conference held at Adyar, Madras, on the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th of January, 1891 (A.B. 2434).
Japan . . . . . ( Kozen Gunaratana ( Chiezo Tokuzawa Burmah . . . . . U. Hmoay Tha Aung Ceylon . . . . . Dhammapala Hevavitarana. The Maghs of Chittagong . . . Krshna Chandra Chowdry, by his appointed Proxy, Maung Tha Dwe.
BURMAH
Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Burmah, this 3rd day of February, 1891 (A. B. 2434):
Tha-tha-na-baing Saydawgyi; Aung Myi Shwebon Sayadaw; Me-ga-waddy Sayadaw; Hmat-Khaya Sayadaw; Hti-lin Sayadaw; Myadaung Sayadaw; Hla-Htwe Sayadaw; and sixteen others.
CEYLON
Approved on behalf of the Buddhists of Ceylon this 25th day of February, 1891 (A.B. 2434); Mahannwara upawsatha pusparama viharadhipati Hippola Dhamma Rakkhita Sobhitabhidhana Maha Nayaka Sthavirayan wahanse wamha.
(Hippola Dhamma Rakkhita Sabhitabhidhana, High Priest of the Malwatta Vihare at Kandy).
(Sd.) HIPPOLA.
Mahanuwara Asgiri viharadhipati Yatawatte Chandajottyabhidhana Maha Nayaka Sthavirayan wahanse wamha—(Yatawatte Chandajottyabhidhana, High Priest of Asgiri Tihare at Kandy).
(Sd.) YATAWATTE
Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Sripadasthane saha Kolamba palate pradhana Nayaka Sthavirayo (Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala, High Priest of Adam's Peak and the District of Colombo).
(Sd.) H. SUMANGALA
Maligawe Prachina Pustakalayadhyakshaka Suriyagoda Sonuttara Sthavirayo (Suriyagoda Sonuttara, Librarian of the Oriental Library at the Temple of the Tooth Relic at Kandy).
(Sd.) S. SONUTTARA
Sugata Sasanadhaja Vinaya chariya Dhammalankarabhidhana Nayaka Sthavira.
(Sd.) W. DHAMMALANKARA
Pawara neruttika chariya Maha Vibhavi Subhuti of Waskaduwa.
(Sd.) W. SUBHUTI
JAPAN
Accepted as included within the body of Northern Buddhism.
Shaku Genyu (Shingon Shu) Fukuda Nichiyo (Nichiren " ) Sanada Seyko (Zen " ) Ito Quan Shyu ( " " ) Takehana Hakuyo (Jodo " ) Kono Rioshin (Ji-Shu " ) Kiro Ki-ko (Jodo Seizan " ) Harutani Shinsho (Tendai " ) Manabe Shun-myo (Shingon " )
CHITTAGONG
Accepted for the Buddhists of Chittagong.
Nagawa Parvata Vihaaradhipati Guna Megu Wini-Lankara, Harbing, Chittagong, Bengal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Buddhist Catechism has been compiled from personal studies in Ceylon, and in part from the following works:
Vinaya Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Davids and Oldenberg. Buddhist Literature in China . . . . . . Beal. Catena of Buddhist Scriptures . . . . . Do. Buddhaghosa's Parables . . . . . . . . . Rogers. Buddhist Birth Stories . . . . . . . . . Fausboll and Davids. Legend of Gautama . . . . . . . . . . . Bigandet. Chinese Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . Edkins. Kalpa Sutra and Nava Patva . . . . . . . Stevenson. Buddha and Early Buddhism . . . . . . . Lillie. Sutta Nipata . . . . . . . . . . . . Sir Coomara Swami. Nagananda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Broyd. Kusa Jataka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steele. Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rhys-Davids. Dhammapada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fausboll and Max Mueller. Romantic History of Buddha . . . . . . . Beal. Udanavarga . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rockhill. Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects . . . . . B. Nanjio. The Gospel of Buddha . . . . . . . . . . Paul Carus. The Dharma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Do. Ancient India . . . . . . . . . . . . . R. C. Dutt. The "Sacred Books of the East" Series . Max Mueller's Edition. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Printed by Annie Besant Vasanta Press Adyar Madras
* * * * * * * * *
[Note: the version of this book that follows contains many macron-ized characters, vowels with a horizontal bar above them. The macron indicates that the vowel is pronounced long, e.g. a-macron is pronounced as in "way". Since these characters are Unicode, they cannot be displayed in a Latin1/ISO-8859 file. They have been indicated as in the line below. In the UTF8 version of this file, the actual characters have been used. The HTML file uses entities to display the characters.]
Namō Tassā Bhagavatō Arahatō Sammā Sambuddhassa
THE
BUDDHIST CATECHISM
BY
HENRY S. OLCOTT
PRESIDENT-FOUNDER OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
Approved and recommended for use in Buddhist schools by H. Sumangala, Pradhana Nayaka Sthavira, High Priest of Sripada and the Western Province and Principal of the Vidyodaya Parivena
FORTY-FOURTH EDITION. (Corrected)
Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras
LONDON AND BENARES: THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
1915
DEDICATION
In token of respect and affection I dedicate to my counsellor and friend of many years, Hikkaduwe Sumangala, Pradhāna Nāyaka Sthavīra and High Priest of Adam's Peak (Sripada) and the Western Province, THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM, in its revised form.
H. S. OLCOTT
Adyar, 1903.
CONTENTS
THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA
THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE
THE SANGHA
THE RISE AND SPREAD OF BUDDHISM
BUDDHISM AND SCIENCE
APPENDIX—The Fourteen Propositions accepted by the Northern and Southern Buddhists as a Platform of Unity
CERTIFICATE TO THE FIRST EDITION
VIDYODAYA COLLEGE,
Colombo, 7th July, 1881.
I hereby certify that I have carefully examined the Sinhalese version of the Catechism prepared by Colonel H. S. Olcott, and that the same is in agreement with the Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church. I recommend the work to teachers in Buddhist schools, mid to all others who may wish to impart information to beginners about the essential features of our religion.
H. SUMANGALA,
High Priest of Sripada and Galle, and Principal of the Vidyodaya Parivena.
VIDYODAYA COLLEGE,
April 7, 1897.
I have gone over the thirty-third (English) edition of the Catechism, with the help of interpreters, and confirm my recommendation for its use in Buddhist schools.
H. SUMANGALA.
PREFACE
TO THE THIRTY-THIRD EDITION
In the working out of my original plan, I have added more questions and answers in the text of each new English edition of the Catechism, leaving it to its translators to render them into whichever of the other vernaculars they may be working in. The unpretending aim in view is to give so succinct and yet comprehensive a digest of Buddhistic history, ethics and philosophy as to enable beginners to understand and appreciate the noble ideal taught by the Buddha, and thus make it easier for them to follow out the Dharma in its details. In the present edition a great many new questions and answers have been introduced, while the matter has been grouped within five categories, viz.: (1) The Life of the Buddha; (2) the Doctrine; (3) the Sangha, or monastic order; (4) a brief history of Buddhism, its Councils and propaganda; (5) some reconciliation of Buddhism with science. This, it is believed, will largely increase the value of the little book, and make it even more suitable for use in Buddhist schools, of which, in Ceylon, over one hundred have already been opened by the Sinhalese people under the general supervision of the Theosophical Society. In preparing this edition I have received valuable help from some of my oldest and best qualified Sinhalese colleagues. The original edition was gone over with me word by word, by that eminent scholar and bhikkhu, H. Sumangala, Pradhāna Nāyaka, and the Assistant Principal of his Pālī College at Colombo, Hyeyantuduve Anunayaka Terunnanse; and the High Priest has also kindly scrutinised the present revision and given me invaluable points to embody. It has the merit, therefore, of being a fair presentation of the Buddhism of the "Southern Church," chiefly derived from first-hand sources. The Catechism has been published in twenty languages, mainly by Buddhists, for Buddhists.
H. S. O.
ADYAR, 17th May, 1897.
PREFACE
TO THE THIRTY-SIXTH EDITION
The popularity of this little work seems undiminished, edition after edition being called for. While the present one was in the press a second German edition, re-translated by the learned Dr. Erich Bischoff, was published at Leipzig, by the Griebens Co., and a third translation into French, by my old friend and colleague, Commandant D. A. Courmes, was being got ready at Paris. A fresh version in Sinhalese is also preparing at Colombo. It is very gratifying to a declared Buddhist like myself to read what so ripe a scholar as Mr. G. R. S. Mead, author of Fragments of of a Faith Forgotten, Pistis Sophia, and many other works on Christian origins, thinks of the value of the compilation. He writes in the Theosophical Review: "It has been translated into no less than twenty different languages, and may be said without the faintest risk of contradiction, to have been the busiest instrument of Buddhist propaganda for many a day in the annals of that long somnolent dharma. The least that learned Buddhists of Ceylon can do to repay the debt of gratitude they owe to Colonel Olcott and other members of the Theosophical Society who have worked for them, is to bestir themselves to throw some light on their own origins and doctrines."
I am afraid we shall have to wait long for this help to come from the Buddhist bhikkhus, almost the only learned men of Ceylon; at least I have not been able during an intimate intercourse of twenty-two years, to arouse their zeal. It has always seemed to me incongruous that an American, making no claims at all to scholarship, should be looked to by the Sinhalese to help them teach the dharma to their children; and as I believe I have said in an earlier edition, I only consented to write THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM after I had found that no bhikkhu would undertake it. Whatever its demerits, I can at least say that the work contains the essence of some 15,000 pages of Buddhist teaching that I have read in connexion with my work.
H. S. O.
ADYAR, 7th February, 1903.
PREFACE
TO THE FORTIETH EDITION
The popularity of this little work is proved by the constant demand for new editions, in English and other languages. In looking over the matter for the present edition, I have found very little to change or to add, for the work seems to present a very fair idea of the contents of Southern Buddhism; and, as my object is never to write an extended essay on the subject, I resist the temptation to wander off into amplifications of details which, however interesting to the student of comparative religion, are useless in a rational scheme of elementary instruction.
The new Sinhalese version (38th edition) which is being prepared by my respected friend, D. B. Jayatilaka, Principal of Ānanda (Buddhist) College, Colombo, is partly printed, but cannot be completed until he is relieved of some of the pressure upon his time. The Tamil version (41st edition) has been undertaken by the leaders of the Panchama community of Madras, and will shortly issue from the press. The Spanish version (39th edition) is in the hands of my friend, Senor Xifre, and the French one (37th edition) in those of Commandant Courmes.
So the work goes on, and by this unpretending agency the teachings of the Buddha Dharma are being carried throughout the world.
H. S. O.
ADYAR, 7th January, 1905.
PREFACE
TO THE FORTY-SECOND EDITION
The writer of this Catechism has passed away from earth, but, before he left the body, he had arranged with the High Priest Sumangala to make some small corrections in the text. These are incorporated in the present edition by the High Priest's wish, expressed to me in Colombo, in November 1907.
I have not altered the numbering of the questions, as it might cause confusion in a class to change the numbers, if some pupils had the older editions and some the new.
ADYAR, ) 17th February, 1908. ) ANNIE BESANT
THE BUDDHIST CATECHISM
PART I
THE LIFE OF THE BUDDHA
1. Question. Of what religion[1] are you?
Answer. The Buddhist.
2. Q. What is Buddhism?
A. It is a body of teachings given out by the great personage known as the Buddha.
3. Q. Is "Buddhism" the best name for this teaching?
A. No; that is only a western term: the best name for it is Bauddha Dharma.
4. Q. Would you call a person a Buddhist who had merely been born of Buddha parents?
A. Certainly not. A Buddhist is one who not only professes belief in the Buddha as the noblest of Teachers, in the Doctrine preached by Him, and in the Brotherhood of Arhats, but practises His precepts in daily life.
5. Q. What is a male lay Buddhist called?
A. An Upāsaka.
6. Q. What a female?
A. An Upāsika.
7. Q. When was this doctrine first preached?
A. There is some disagreement as to the actual date, but according to the Sinhalese Scriptures it was in the year 2513 of the (present) Kali-Yuga.
8. Q. Give the important dates in the last birth of the Founder?
A. He was born under the constellation Visā on a Tuesday in May, in the year 2478 (K.Y.); he retired to the jungle in the year 2506; became Buddha in 2513; and, passing out of the round of rebirths, entered Paranirvāna in the year 2558, aged eighty years. Each of these events happened on a day of full moon, so all are conjointly celebrated in the great festival of the full-moon of the month Wesak (Vaisākha), corresponding to the month of May.
9. Q. Was the Buddha God?
A. No. Buddha Dharma teaches no "divine" incarnation.
10. Q. Was he a man?
A. Yes; but the wisest, noblest and most holy being, who had developed himself in the course of countless births far beyond all other beings, the previous BUDDHAS alone excepted.
11. Q. Were there other Buddhas before him?
A. Yes; as will be explained later on.
12. Q. Was Buddha his name?
A. No. It is the name of a condition or state of mind, of the mind after it has reached the culmination of development.
13. Q. What is its meaning?
A. Enlightened; or, he who has the all-perfect wisdom. The Pālī phrase is Sabbannu, the One of Boundless Knowledge. In Samskrt it is Sarvajna.
14. Q. What was the Buddha's real name then?
A. SIDDHĀRTHA was his royal name, and GAUTAMA, or GOTAMA, his family name. He was Prince of Kapilavāstu and belonged to the illustrious family of the Okkāka, of the Solar race.
15. Q. Who were his father and mother?
A. King Suddhodana and Queen Māyā, called Mahā Māyā.
16. Q. What people did this King reign over?
A. The Sākyas; an Aryan tribe of Kshattriyas.
17. Q. Where was Kapilavāstu?
A. In India, one hundred miles north-east of the City of Benares, and about forty miles from the Himalaya mountains. It is situated in the Nepāl Terai. The city is now in ruins.
18. Q. On what river?
A. The Rohīnī, now called the Kohana.
19. Q. Tell me again when Prince Siddhārtha was born?
A. Six hundred and twenty-three years before the Christian era.
20. Q. Is the exact spot known?
A. It is now identified beyond question. An archaeologist in the service of the Government of India has discovered in the jungle of the Nepāl Terai a stone pillar erected by the mighty Buddhist sovereign, Asoka, to mark the very spot. The place was known in those times as the Lumbinī Garden.
21. Q. Had the Prince luxuries and splendours like other Princes?
A. He had; his father, the King, built him three magnificent palaces—for the three Indian seasons—the cold, the hot, and the rainy—of nine, five, and three stories respectively, and handsomely decorated.
22. Q. How were they situated?
A. Around each palace were gardens of the most beautiful and fragrant flowers, with fountains of spouting water, the trees full of singing birds, and peacocks strutting over the ground.
23. Q. Was he living alone?
A. No; in his sixteenth year he was married to the Princess Yasodharā, daughter of the King Suprabuddha. Many beautiful maidens, skilled in dancing and music, were also in continual attendance to amuse him.
24. Q. How did he get his wife?
A. In the ancient Kshattriya or warrior fashion, by overcoming all competitors in games and exercises of skill and prowess, and then selecting Yasodharā out of all the young princesses, whose fathers had brought them to the tournament or mela.
25. Q. How, amid all this luxury, could a Prince become all-wise?
A. He had such natural wisdom that when but a child he seemed to understand all arts and sciences almost without study. He had the best teachers, but they could teach him nothing that he did not seem to comprehend immediately.
26. Q. Did he become Buddha in his splendid palaces?
A. No. He left all and went alone into the jungle.
27. Q. Why did he do this?
A. To discover the cause of our sufferings and the way to escape from them.
28. Q. Was it not selfishness that made him do this?
A. No; it was boundless love for all beings that made him devote himself to their good.
29. Q. But how did he acquire this boundless love?
A. Throughout numberless births and aeons of years he had been cultivating this love, with the unfaltering determination to become a Buddha.
30. Q. What did he this time relinquish?
A. His beautiful palaces, his riches, luxuries and pleasures, his soft beds, fine dresses, rich food, and his kingdom; he even left his beloved wife and only son, Rāhula.
31. Q. Did any other man ever sacrifice so much for our sake?
A. Not one in this present world-period: this is why Buddhists so love him, and why good Buddhists try to be like him.
32. Q. But have not many men given up all earthly blessings, and even life itself, for the sake of their fellow-men?
A. Certainly. But we believe that this surpassing unselfishness and love for humanity showed themselves in his renouncing the bliss of Nirvāna countless ages ago, when he was born as the Brāhmana Sumedha, in the time of Dīpānkara Buddha: he had then reached the stage where he might have entered Nirvāna, had he not loved mankind more than himself. This renunciation implied his voluntarily enduring the miseries of earthly lives until he became Buddha, for the sake of teaching all beings the way to emancipation and to give rest to the world.
33. Q. How old was he when he went to the jungle?
A. He was in his twenty-ninth year.
34. Q. What finally determined him to leave all that men usually love so much and go to the jungle?
A. A Deva[2] appeared to him when driving out in his chariot, under four impressive forms, on four different occasions.
35. Q. What were these different forms?
A. Those of a very old man broken down by age, of a sick man, of a decaying corpse, and of a dignified hermit.
36. Q. Did he alone see these?
A. No, his attendant, Channa, also saw them.
37. Q. Why should these sights, so familiar to everybody, have caused him to go to the jungle?
A. We often see such sights: he had not seen them, so they made a deep impression on his mind.
38. Q. Why had he not also seen them?
A. The Brāhmana astrologers had foretold at his birth that he would one day resign his kingdom and, become a BUDDHA. The King, his father, not wishing to lose an heir to his kingdom, had carefully prevented his seeing any sights that might suggest to him human misery and death. No one was allowed even to speak of such things to the Prince. He was almost like a prisoner in his lovely palaces and flower gardens. They were surrounded by high walls, and inside everything was made as beautiful as possible, so that he might not wish to go and see the sorrow and distress that are in the world.
39. Q. Was he so kind-hearted that the King feared he might really wish to leave everything for the world's sake?
A. Yes; he seems to have felt for all beings so strong a pity and love as that.
40. Q. And how did he expect to learn the cause of sorrow in the jungle?
A. By removing far away from all that could prevent his thinking deeply of the causes of sorrow and the nature of man.
41. Q. How did he escape from the palace?
A. One night, when all were asleep, he arose, took a last look at his sleeping wife and infant son; called Channa, mounted his favourite white horse Kanthaka, and rode to the palace gate. The Devas had thrown a deep sleep upon the King's guard who watched the gate, so that they could not hear the noise of the horse's hoofs.
42. Q. But the gate was locked, was it not?
A. Yes; but the Devas caused it to open without the slightest noise, and he rode away into the darkness.
43. Q. Whither did he go?
A. To the river Anomā, a long way from Kapilavāstu.
44. Q. What did he then do?
A. He sprang from his horse, cut off his beautiful hair with his sword, put on the yellow dress of an ascetic, and giving his ornaments and horse to Channa, ordered him to take them back to his father, the King.
45. Q. What then?
A. He went afoot towards Rājagrha, the capital city of King Bimbisāra, of Magadha.
46. Q. Who visited him there?
A. The King with his whole Court.[3]
46a. Q. Thence whither did he go?
A. To Uruvela, near the present Mahābōdhi Temple at Buddha Gayā.
47. Q. Why did he go there?
A. In the forests were hermits—very wise men, whose pupil he afterwards became, in the hope of finding the knowledge of which he was in search.
48. Q. Of what religion were they?
A. The Hindu religion: they were Brāhmanas.[4]
49. Q. What did they teach?
A. That by severe penances and torture of the body a man may acquire perfect wisdom.
50. Q. Did the Prince find this to be so?
A. No; he learned their systems and practised all their penances, but he could not thus discover the cause of human sorrow and the way to absolute emancipation.
51. Q. What did he then do?
A. He went away into the forest near Uruvela, and spent six years in deep meditation, undergoing the severest discipline in mortifying his body.
52. Q. Was he alone?
A. No; five Brāhman companions attended him.
53. Q. What were their names?
A. Kondanna, Bhaddiya, Vappa, Mahānāma, and Assaji.
54. Q. What plan of discipline did he adopt to open his mind to know the whole truth?
A. He sat and meditated, concentrating his mind upon the higher problems of life, and shutting out from his sight and hearing all that was likely to interrupt his inward reflections.
55. Q. Did he fast?
A. Yes, through the whole period. He took less and less food and water until, it is said, he ate scarcely more than one grain of rice or of sesamum seed each day.
56. Q. Did this give him the wisdom he longed for?
A. No. He grew thinner and thinner in body and fainter in strength until, one day, as he was slowly walking about and meditating, his vital force suddenly left him and he fell to the ground unconscious.
57. Q. What did his companions think of that?
A. They fancied he was dead; but after a time he revived.
58. Q. What then?
A. The thought came to him that knowledge could never be reached by mere fasting or bodily suffering, but must be gained by the opening of the mind. He had just barely escaped death from self-starvation, yet had not obtained the Perfect Wisdom. So he decided to eat, that he might live at least long enough to become wise.
59. Q. Who gave him food?
A. He received food from Sujatā, a nobleman's daughter, who saw him sitting at the foot of a nyagrodha (banyan) tree. He arose, took his alms-bowl, bathed in the river Neranjāra, ate the food, and went into the jungle.
60. Q. What did he do there?
A. Having formed his determination after these reflections, he went at evening to the Bōdhi, or Asvattha tree, where the present Mahābōdhi Temple stands.
61. Q. What did he do there?
A. He determined not to leave the spot until he attained perfect wisdom.
62. Q. At which side of the tree did he seat himself?
A. The side facing the east.[5]
63. Q. What did he obtain that night?
A. The knowledge of his previous births, of the causes of rebirths, and of the way to extinguish desires. Just before the break of the next day his mind was entirely opened, like the full-blown lotus flower; the light of supreme knowledge, or the Four Truths, poured in upon him. He had become BUDDHA—the Enlightened, the all-knowing—the Sarvajna.
64. Q. Had he at last discovered the cause of human misery?
A. At last he had. As the light of the morning sun chases away the darkness of night, and reveals to sight the trees, fields, rocks, seas, rivers, animals, men and all things, so the full light of knowledge rose in his mind, and he saw at one glance the causes of human suffering and the way to escape from them.
65. Q. Had he great struggles before gaining this perfect wisdom?
A. Yes, mighty and terrible struggles. He had to conquer in his body all those natural defects and human appetites and desires that prevent our seeing the truth. He had to overcome all the bad influences of the sinful world around him. Like a soldier fighting desperately in battle against many enemies, he struggled: like a hero who conquers, he gained his object, and the secret of human misery was discovered.
66. Q. What use did he make of the knowledge thus gained?
A. At first he was reluctant to teach it to the people at large.
67. Q. Why?
A. Because of its profound importance and sublimity. He feared that but few people would understand it.
68. Q. What made him alter this view?[6]
A. He saw that it was his duty to teach what he had learnt as clearly and simply as possible, and trust to the truth impressing itself upon the popular mind in proportion to each one's individual Karma. It was the only way of salvation, and every being had an equal right to have it pointed out to him. So he determined to begin with his five late companions, who had abandoned him when he broke his fast.
69. Q. Where did he find them?
A. In the deer-park at Isipatana, near Benares.
70. Q. Can the spot be now identified?
A. Yes, a partly ruined stūpa, or dagoba, is still standing on that very spot.
71. Q. Did those five companions readily listen to him?
A. At first, no; but so great was the spiritual beauty of his appearance, so sweet and convincing his teaching, that they soon turned and gave him the closest attention.
72. Q. What effect did this discourse have upon them?
A. The aged Kondanna, one who "understood" (Anna), was the first to lose his prejudices, accept the Buddha's teaching, become his disciple, and enter the Path leading to Arhatship. The other four soon followed his example.
73. Q. Who were his next converts?
A. A rich young layman, named Yasa, and his father, a wealthy merchant. By the end of three months the disciples numbered sixty persons.
74. Q. Who were the first women lay disciples?
A. The mother and wife of Yasa.
75. Q. What did the Buddha do at that time?[7]
A. He called the disciples together, gave them full instructions, and sent them out in all directions to preach his doctrine.
76. Q. What was the essence of it?
A. That the way of emancipation lies in leading the holy life and following the rules laid down, which will be explained later on.
77. Q. Tell me what name he gave to this course of life?
A. The Noble Eightfold Path.
78. Q. How is it called in the Pālī language?
A. Ariyo atthangiko maggo.
79. Q. Whither did the Buddha then go?
A. To Uruvela.
80. Q. What happened there?
A. He converted a man named Kāshyapa, renowned for his learning and teacher of the Jatilas, a great sect of fire-worshippers, all of whom became also his followers.
81. Q. Who was his next great convert?
A. King Bimbisāra, of Magadha.
82. Q. Which two of the Buddha's most learned and beloved disciples were converted at about this time?
A. Sāriputra and Moggallāna, formerly chief disciples of Sanjaya, the ascetic.
83. Q. For what did they become renowned?
A. Sāriputra for his profound learning (Prajna), Moggallāna for his exceptional spiritual powers (Iddhi).
84. Q. Are these wonder-working powers miraculous?
A. No, but natural to all men and capable of being developed by a certain course of training.
85. Q. Did the Buddha hear again from his family after leaving them?
A. Oh yes, seven years later, while he was living at Rājagrha, his father. King Suddhodana, sent a message to request him to come and let him see him again before he died.
86. Q. Did he go?
A. Yes. His father went with all his relatives and ministers to meet him and received him with great joy.
87. Q. Did he consent to resume his old rank?
A. No. In all sweetness he explained to his father that the Prince Siddhārtha had passed out of existence, as such, and was now changed into the condition of a Buddha, to whom all beings were equally akin and equally dear. Instead of ruling over one tribe or nation, like an earthly king, he, through his Dharma, would win the hearts of all men to be his followers.
88. Q. Did he see Yasodharā and his son Rāhula?
A. Yes. His wife, who had mourned for him with deepest love, wept bitterly. She also sent Rāhula to ask him to give him his inheritance, as the son of a prince.
89. Q. What happened?
A. To one and all he preached the Dharma as the cure for all sorrows. His father, son, wife, Ānanda (his half-brother), Devadatta (his cousin and brother-in-law), were all converted and became his disciples. Two other famous ones were Anuruddha, afterwards a great metaphysician, and Upāli, a barber, afterwards the greatest authority on Vinaya. Both of these gained great renown.
90. Q. Who was the first Bhikkuni?
A. Prajāpatī, the aunt and foster-mother of Prince Siddhārtha. With her, Yasodharā and many other ladies were admitted into the Order as Bhikkhunis or female devotees.
91. Q. What effect did the taking up of the religious life by his sons, Siddhārtha and Ānanda, his nephew, Devadatta, his son's wife, Yasudharā, and his grandson, Rāhula, have upon the old King Suddhodana?
A. It grieved him much and he complained to the Buddha, who then made it a rule of the Order that no person should thenceforth be ordained without the consent of his parents if alive.
92. Q. Tell me about the fate of Devadatta?
A. He was a man of great intelligence and rapidly advanced in the knowledge of the Dharma, but being also extremely ambitious, he came to envy and hate the Buddha, and at last plotted to kill him. He also influenced Ajātashatru, son of King Bimbisāra, to murder his noble father, and to become his—Devadatta's—disciple.
93. Q. Did he do any injury to the Buddha?
A. Not the least, but the evil he plotted against him recoiled upon himself, and he met with an awful death.
94. Q. For how many years was the Buddha engaged in teaching?
A. Forty-five years, during which time he preached a great many discourses. His custom and that of his disciples was to travel and preach during the eight dry months, but during the season of Way—the rains—he and they would stop in the pānsulas and vihāras which had been built for them by various kings and other wealthy converts.
95. Q. Which were the most famous of these buildings?
A. Jetāvanārāma; Veluvanārāma; Pubbārāma; Nigrodhārāma and Isipatanārāma.
96. Q. What kind of people were converted by him and his disciples?
A. People of all ranks, nations and castes; rājas and coolies, rich and poor, mighty and humble, the illiterate and the most learned. His doctrine was suited to all.
97. Q. Give some account of the decease of the Buddha?
A. In the forty-fifth season after his attaining Buddhahood, on the full-moon day of May, knowing that his end was near, he came at evening to Kusināgāra, a place about one hundred and twenty miles from Benares. In the sāla grove of the Mallas, the Uparvartana of Kusināgāra, between two sāla trees, he had his bedding spread with the head towards the north according to the ancient custom. He lay upon it, and with his mind perfectly clear, gave his final instructions to his disciples and bade them farewell.
98. Q. Did he also make new converts in those last tours?
A. Yes, a very important one, a great Brāhmana pandit named Subhadra. He had also preached to the Mallya princes and their followers.
99. Q. At day-break what happened?
A. He passed into the interior condition of Samādhi and thence into Nirvāna.
100. Q. What were his last words to his disciples?
A. "Bhikkhus," he said, "I now impress it upon you, the parts and powers of man must be dissolved. Work out your salvation with diligence."
101. Q. What convincing proof have we that the Buddha, formerly Prince Siddhārtha, was a historical personage?
A. His existence is apparently as clearly proved as that of any other character of ancient history.
102. Q. Name some of the proofs?
A. (1) The testimony of those who personally knew him.
(2) The discovery of places and the remains of buildings mentioned in the narrative of his time.
(3) The rock-inscriptions, pillars and dagobas made in memory of him by sovereigns who were near enough to his time to be able to verify the story of his life.
(4) The unbroken existence of the Sangha which he founded, and their possession of the facts of his life transmitted from generation to generation from the beginning.
(5) The fact that in the very year of his death and at various times subsequently, conventions and councils of the Sangha were held, for the verification of the actual teachings of the Founder, and the handing down of those verified teachings from teacher to pupil, to the present day.
(6) After his cremation his relics were divided among eight kings and a stūpa was erected over each portion. The portion given to King Ajātashatru, and by him covered with a stūpa at Rājagrha, was taken, less than two centuries later, by the Emperor Asoka and distributed throughout his Empire. He, of course, had ample means of knowing whether the relics were those of the Buddha or not, since they had been in charge of the royal house of Patna from the beginning.
(7) Many of the Buddha's disciples, being Arhats and thus having control over their vital powers, must have lived to great ages, and there was nothing to have prevented two or three of them, in succession to each other, to have covered the whole period between the death of the Buddha and the reign of Asoka, and thus to have enabled the latter to get from his contemporary every desired attestation of the fact of the Buddha's life.[7]
(8) The "Mahāvansa," the best authenticated ancient history known to us, records the events of Sinhalese history to the reign of King Vijaya, 543 B.C.—almost the time of the Buddha—and gives most particulars of his life, as well as those of the Emperor Asoka and all other sovereigns related to Buddhistic history.
103. Q. By what names of respect is the Buddha called?
A. Sākyamuni (the Sākya Sage); Sākya-Simha (the Sākyan Lion); Sugata (the Happy One); Satthta (the Teacher); Jina (the Conqueror), Bhagavat (the Blessed One); Lokanātha (the Lord of the World); Sarvajna (the Omniscient One); Dharmarāja (the King of Truth); Tathāgata (the Great Being), etc.
[1] The word "religion" is most inappropriate to apply to Buddhism which is not a religion, but a moral philosophy, as I have shown later on. But, by common usage the word has been applied to all groups of people who profess a special moral doctrine, and is so employed by statisticians. The Sinhalese Buddhists have never yet had any conception of what Europeans imply in the etymological construction of the Latin root of this term. In their creed there is no such thing as a "binding" in the Christian sense—a submission to or merging of self in a Divine Being. Āgama is their vernacular word to express their relation to Buddhism and the BUDDHA. It is pure Samskrt, and means "approach, or coming"; and as "Buddha" is enlightenment, the compound word by which they indicate Buddhism—Buddhāgama—would be properly rendered as "an approach or coming to enlightenment," or possibly as a following of the Doctrine of SĀKYAMUNI. The missionaries, finding Āgama ready to their hand, adopted it as the equivalent for "religion"; and Christianity is written by them Christianāgama, whereas it should be Christianibandhana, for bandhana is the etymological equivalent for "religion". The name Vibhajja vāda—one who analyses—is another name given to a Buddhist, and Advayavādī is a third. With this explanation, I continue to employ under protest the familiar word when speaking of Buddhistic philosophy, for the convenience of the ordinary reader.
[2] See the definition of deva given later.
[3] For an admirable account of this interview consult Dr. Paul Carus' Gospel of Buddha, page 20, et seq.
[4] The term Hindū, once a contemptuous term, used by the Musalmāns to designate the people of Sindh, whom they conquered, is now used in an ecclesiastical sense.
[5] No reason is given in the canonical books for the choice of this side of the tree, though an explanation is to be found in the popular legends upon which the books of Bishop Bigandet and other European commentators are based. There are always certain influences coming upon us from the different quarters of the sky. Sometimes the influence from one quarter will be best, sometimes that from another quarter. But the Buddha thought that the perfected man is superior to all extraneous influences.
[6] The ancient story is that the God Brahmā himself implored him not to withhold the glorious truth.
[7] Brāhmanism not being offered to non-Hindūs, Buddhism is consequently, the oldest missionary religion in the world. The early missionaries endured every hardship, cruelty, and persecution, with unfaltering courage.
[8] At the Second Council there were two pupils of Ānanda, consequently centenarians, while in Asoka's Council there were pupils of those pupils.
PART II
THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE
106. Q. What is the meaning of the word Buddha?
A. The enlightened, or he who has the perfect wisdom.
107. Q. You have said that there were other Buddhas before this one?
A. Yes; our belief is that, under the operation of eternal causation, a Buddha takes birth at intervals, when mankind have become plunged into misery through ignorance, and need the wisdom which it is the function of a Buddha to teach. (See also Q. 11.)
108. Q. How is a Buddha developed?
A. A person, hearing and seeing one of the Buddhas on earth, becomes seized with the determination so to live that at some future time, when he shall become fitted for it, he also will be a Buddha for the guiding of mankind out of the cycle of rebirth.
109. Q. How does he proceed?
A. Throughout that birth and every succeeding one, he strives to subdue his passions, to gain wisdom by experience, and to develop his higher faculties. He thus grows by degrees wiser, nobler in character, and stronger in virtue, until, finally, after numberless re-births he reaches the state when he can become Perfected, Enlightened, All-wise, the ideal Teacher of the human race.
110. Q. While this gradual development is going on throughout all these births, by what name do we call him?
A. Bōdhisat, or Bōdhisattva. Thus the Prince Siddhartha Gautama was a Bōdhisattva up to the moment when, under the blessed Bōdhi tree at Gayā, he became Buddha.
111. Q. Have we any account of his various rebirths as a Bodhisattva?
A. In the Jātakatthakathā, a book containing stories of the Bōdhisattva's reincarnations, there are several hundred tales of that kind.
112. Q. What lesson do these stories teach?
A. That a man can carry, throughout a long series of reincarnations, one great, good purpose which enables him to conquer bad tendencies and develop virtuous ones.
113. Q. Can we fix the number of reincarnations through which a Bōdhisattva must pass before he can become a Buddha?
A. Of course not: that depends upon his natural character, the state of development to which he has arrived when he forms the resolution to become a Buddha, and other things.
114. Q. Have we a way of classifying Bōdhisattvas? If so, explain it.
A. Bōdhisattvas—the future Buddhas—are divided into three classes.
115. Q. Proceed. How are these three kinds of Bōdhisats named?
A. Pannādhika, or Udghatitajna—"he who attains least quickly"; Saddhādhika, or Vipachitajna—"he who attains less quickly"; and Viryādhika, or Gneyya—"he who attains quickly". The Pannādhika Bōdhisats take the course of Intelligence; the Saddhādhika take the course of Faith; the Viryaāhika take the course of energetic Action. The first is guided by Intelligence and does not hasten; the second is full of Faith, and does not care to take the guidance of Wisdom; and the third never delays to do what is good. Regardless of the consequences to himself, he does it when he sees that it is best that it should be done.
116. Q. When our Bōdhisattva became Buddha, what did he see was the cause of human misery? Tell me in one word.
A. Ignorance (Avidyā).
117. Q. Can you tell me the remedy?
A. To dispel Ignorance and become wise (Prājna).
118. Q. Why does ignorance cause suffering?
A. Because it makes us prize what is not worth prizing, grieve when we should not grieve, consider real what is not real but only illusionary, and pass our lives in the pursuit of worthless objects, neglecting what is in reality most valuable.
119. Q. And what is that which is most valuable?
A. To know the whole secret of man's existence and destiny, so that we may estimate at no more than their actual value this life and its relations; and so that we may live in a way to ensure the greatest happiness and the least suffering for our fellow-men and ourselves.
120. Q. What is the light that can dispel this ignorance of ours and remove all sorrows?
A. The knowledge of the "Four Noble Truths," as the Buddha called them.
121. Q. Name these Four Noble Truths?
A. 1. The miseries of evolutionary existence resulting in births and deaths, life after life.
2. The cause productive of misery, which is the selfish desire, ever renewed, of satisfying one's self, without being able ever to secure that end.
3. The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of one's self from it.
4. The means of obtaining this destruction of desire.
122. Q. Tell me some things that cause sorrow?
A. Birth, decay, illness, death, separation from objects we love, association with those who are repugnant, craving for what cannot be obtained.
123. Q. Do these differ with each individual?
A. Yes: but all men suffer from them in degree.
124. Q. How can we escape the sufferings which result from unsatisfied desires and ignorant cravings?
A. By complete conquest over, and destruction of, this eager thirst for life and its pleasures, which causes sorrow.
125. Q. How may we gain such a conquest?
A. By following the Noble Eight-fold Path which the Buddha discovered and pointed out.
126. Q. What do you mean by that word: what is this Noble Eight-fold Path? (For the Pālī name see Q. 79.)
A. The eight parts of this path are called angas. They are: 1. Right Belief (as to the law of Causation, or Karma); 2. Right Thought; 3. Right Speech; 4. Right Action; 5. Right Means of Livelihood; 6. Right Exertion; 7. Right Remembrance and Self-discipline; 8. Right Concentration of Thought. The man who keeps these angas in mind and follows them will be free from sorrow and ultimately reach salvation.
127. Q. Can you give a better word for salvation?
A. Yes, emancipation.
128. Q. Emancipation, then, from what?
A. Emancipation from the miseries of earthly existence and of rebirths, all of which are due to ignorance and impure lusts and cravings.
129. Q. And when this salvation or emancipation is attained, what do we reach?
A. NIRVĀNA.
130. Q. What is Nirvāna?
A. A condition of total cessation of changes, of perfect rest, of the absence of desire and illusion and sorrow, of the total obliteration of everything that goes to make up the physical man. Before reaching Nirvāna man is constantly being reborn; when he reaches Nirvāna he is born no more.
131. Q. Where can be found a learned discussion of the word Nirvāna and a list of the other names by which the old Pālī writers attempt to define it?
A. In the famous Dictionary of the Pālī Language, by the late Mr. B. O. Childers, is a complete list.[1]
132. Q. But some people imagine that Nirvāna is some sort of heavenly place, a Paradise. Does Buddhism teach that?
A. No. When Kūtadanta asked the Buddha "Where is Nirvāna," he replied that it was "wherever the precepts are obeyed".
133. Q. What causes us to be reborn?
A. The unsatisfied selfish desire (Skt., trshnā; Pālī, tanhā) for things that belong to the state of personal existence in the material world. This unquenched thirst for physical existence (bhāva) is a force, and has a creative power in itself so strong that it draws the being back into mundane life.
134. Q. Are our rebirths in any way affected by the nature of our unsatisfied desires?
A. Yes, and by our individual merits or demerits.
135. Q. Does our merit or demerit control the state, condition or form in which we shall be re-born?
A. It does. The broad rule is that if we have an excess of merit we shall be well and happily born the next time; if an excess of demerit, our next birth will be wretched and full of suffering.
136. Q. One chief pillar of Buddhistic doctrine is, then, the idea that every effect is the result of an actual cause, is it not?
A. It is; of a cause either immediate or remote.
137. Q. What do we call this causation?
A. Applied to individuals, it is Karma, that is, action. It means that our own actions or deeds bring upon us whatever of joy or misery we experience.
138. Q. Can a bad man escape from the outworkings of his Karma?
A. The Dhammapada says: "There exists no spot on the earth, or in the sky, or in the sea, neither is there any in the mountain-clefts, where an (evil) deed does not bring trouble (to the doer)."
139. Q. Can a good man escape?
A. As the result of deeds of peculiar merit, a man may attain certain advantages of place, body, environment and teaching in his next stage of progress, which ward off the effects of bad Karma and help his higher evolution.
140. What are they called?
A. Gati Sampatti, Upādhi Sampatti, Kāla Sampatti and Payoga Sampatti.
141. Q. Is that consistent or inconsistent with common sense and the teachings of modern science?
A. Perfectly consistent: there can be no doubt of it.
142. Q. May all men become Buddhas?
A. It is not in the nature of every man to become a Buddha; for a Buddha is developed only at long intervals of time, and seemingly, when the state of humanity absolutely requires such a teacher to show it the forgotten Path to Nirvāna. But every being may equally reach Nirvāna, by conquering Ignorance and gaining Wisdom.
143. Q. Does Buddhism teach that man is reborn only upon our earth?
A. As a general rule that would be the case, until he had evolved beyond its level; but the inhabited worlds are numberless. The world upon which a person is to have his next birth, as well as the nature of the rebirth itself, is decided by the preponderance of the individual's merit or demerit. In other words, it will be controlled by his attractions, as science would describe it; or by his Karma, as we, Buddhists, would say.
144. Q. Are there worlds more perfectly developed, and others less so than our Earth?
A. Buddhism teaches that there are whole Sakwalas, or systems of worlds, of various kinds, higher and lower, and also that the inhabitants of each world correspond in development with itself.
145. Q. Has not the Buddha summed up his whole doctrine in one gāthā, or verse?
A. Yes.
146. Q. Repeat it?
A. Sabba pāpassa akaranm, Kusalassa upasampadā Sachitta pariyo dapanam— Etam Buddhānusāsanam.
"To cease from all evil actions, To generate all that is good, To cleanse one's mind: This is the constant advice of the Buddhas."
147. Q. Have the first three of these lines any very striking characteristics?
A. Yes: the first line embodies the whole spirit of the Vinaya Pitaka, the second that of the Sutta, the third that of the Abhidhamma. They comprise only eight Pālī words, yet, as the dew-drop reflects the stars, they sparkle with the spirit of all the Buddha Dharma.
148. Q. Do these precepts show that Buddhism is an active or a passive religion?
A. To "cease from sin" may be called passive, but to "get virtue" and "to cleanse one's own heart," or mind, are altogether active qualities. Buddha taught that we should not merely not be evil, but that we should be positively good.
149. Q. Who or what are the "Three Guides"[2] that a Buddhist Is supposed to follow?
A. They are disclosed in the formula called the Tisarana: "I follow Buddha as my Guide: I follow the Law as my Guide: I follow the Order as my Guide." These three are, in fact, the Buddha Dharma.
150. Q. What does he mean when repeating this formula?
A. He means that he regards the Buddha as his all-wise Teacher, Friend and Exemplar; the Law, or Doctrine, as containing the essential and immutable principles of Justice and Truth and the path that leads to the realisation of perfect peace of mind on earth; and the Order as the teachers and exemplars of that excellent Law taught by Buddha.
151. Q. But are not some of the members of this "Order" men intellectually and morally inferior?
A. Yes; but we are taught by the Buddha that only those who diligently attend to the Precepts, discipline their minds, and strive to attain or have attained one of the eight stages of holiness and perfection, constitute his "Order". It is expressly stated that the Order referred to in the "Tisarana" refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala"—the Noble Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of perfection. The mere wearing of yellow robes, or even ordination, does not of itself make a man pure or wise or entitle him to reverence.
152. Q. Then it is not such unworthy bhikkhus as they, whom the true Buddhist would lake as his guides?
A. Certainly not.
153. Q. What are the five observances, or universal precepts, called the Pancha Sīla, which are imposed on the laity in general?
A. They are included in the following formula,, which Buddhists repeat publicly at the vihāras (temples):
I observe the precept to refrain from destroying the life of beings.
I observe the precept to refrain from stealing.
I observe the precept to abstain from unlawful sexual intercourse.[3]
I observe the precept to refrain from falsehood.
I observe the precept to abstain from using intoxicants.
154. Q. What strikes the intelligent person on reading these Sīlas?
A. That one who observes them strictly must escape from every cause productive of human misery. If we study history we shall find that it has all sprung from one or another of these causes.
155. Q. In which Sīlas is the far-seeing wisdom of the Buddha most plainly shown?
A. In the first, third and fifth; for the taking of life, sensuality, and the use of intoxicants, cause at least ninety-five per cent of the sufferings among men.
156. Q. What benefits does a man derive from the observance of these Precepts?
A. He is said to acquire more or less merit according to the manner and time of observing the precepts, and the number observed; that is, if he observes only one precept, violating the other four, he acquires the merit of the observance of that precept only; and the longer he keeps that precept the greater will be the merit. He who keeps all the precepts inviolate will cause himself to have a higher and happier existence hereafter. |
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