living on the gifts of the believers. But the Christian pastors, too, live on the gifts of the Christians, just as much as the Buddhist clergy do; yet no one calls them idle and unprofitable. Apart from their moral and religious functions it was mostly the monks who, in their pilgrimages in search of quiet spots, built roads and spanned bridges, thus making travelling and communication easy. It was often the monks who encouraged the people in the cultivation of the arts of peace and life. Often they themselves led the people in the transformation of waste land into rice fields." But, perhaps, the greatest value of Buddhism to Japan was educational. Going hand-in-hand with Chinese culture, Buddhism offered the boon of education to all. The Buddhist schools became centres of popular instruction. The village schools were all connected with Buddhist temples. The common people were taught the arts of reading and writing, ethics and philosophy for a nominal cost. The Buddhist bhikshu was the schoolmaster everywhere, and even the Imperial household employed Buddhist instructors. In Burma also every monastery is a school, and the bhikshus impart the elements of education to all, free of charge. No wonder that in Burma every man is able to read and write! Only in a Buddhist country such a simple solution of the problem of mass education would have been possible. Some critics allege that the Buddha failed to inculcate the civic virtues comprehended in the idea of patriotism. This objection rests on ignorance. The Buddha actually taught the Vajji, a mighty people living in the neighbourhood of Magadha, the prime conditions of social welfare, the fundamental principles of that social order from which alone all civic virtues develop. Ajātasatru, the king of Magadha, once planned an attack upon the Vajji, and sent his prime-minister to inform the Buddha of his purpose. When the Blessed One received the message, he asked Ananda if the Vajji held full and frequent assemblies. On Ananda's answering in the affirmative, the Master said: "So long as the Vajji hold these full and frequent assemblies, they may be expected not to decline, but to prosper. So long as they meet in concord, so long as they honour their elders, so long as they respect womanhood, so long as they remain righteous, performing all proper duties, so long. as they extend rightful protection, defence and support to the holy ones, the Vajji may be expected not to decline but to prosper." Then, turning to the king's messenger the Buddha said: "When I staid at Vaisālī, I taught the Vajji these conditions of welfare, that so long as they should remain well instructed, so long as they will continue in the right path, so long as they should live up to the precepts of righteousness, we could expect them not to decline, but to prosper." As soon as the prime-minister had gone, the Buddha called together the bhikshus and spoke to them on the conditions of the welfare of a community. So long, O bhikshus, as the brethren hold full and frequent assemblies, meeting in concord, rising in concord, and attending in concord to the affairs of the Sangha; so long as they, O brethren, do not abrogate that which experience has proved to be good, and introduced nothing except such things as have been carefully tested; so long as their elders practise justice; so long as the brethren esteem, revere, and support their elders, and hearken unto their words; so long as the brethren are not under the influence of craving, but delight in the blessings of religion, so that good and holy men shall come to them and dwell among them in quiet; so long as the brethren shall not be addicted to sloth and idleness; so long as the brethren shall exercise themselves in the sevenfold higher wisdom of mental activity, search after truth, energy, joy, modesty, self-control, earnest contemplation, and equanimity of mind; so long the Sangha may be expected not to decline but to prosper. Therefore, O bhikshus, be full of faith, modest in heart, afraid of sin, anxious to learn, strong in energy, active in mind, and full of wisdom." It is said in the Mārasamyutta (Vagga 2) that the Blessed One once asked himself if it would not be possible, following the teachings of the Dharma, to rule as a king who does not himself slaughter living beings, nor permits slaughter by others; who does not himself oppress people, nor sanctions oppression by others; who has himself no troubles and sorrows, nor causes trouble and sorrow to others. There can be no doubt that Emperor Asoka, the Dharmaraja of the Buddhist books,* ,* sought to realise this ideal. By precept and example he tried to make his people better and happier. "In this way," says Asoka in his edicts, "acts of religion are promoted in the world, as well as the practice of religion. viz., mercy and charity, truth and purity, kindness and goodness. The manifold acts of goodness which I accomplish serve as an example." "For me there cannot be too much activity in the administration of justice. It is my duty to procure by my instructions the good of the public; and in incessant activity and the proper administration of justice lies the root of public good, and nothing is more efficacious than this. All my endeavours have but this one object,-to pay this debt due to my people!" "All men (are like) my children. As I desire that (my) children should be safe now and hereafter, so do I desire (this) to all men." No sovereign ever rendered to his country a greater service than Asoka did to India. No wonder that his name is venerated from the Volga to Japan and from Siam to Lake Baikal ! "If the greatness of a man," as Koeppent says, may be measured by the number of hearts that cherish his memory and by the number of lips that have uttered and still utter his name with reverence, then surely Asoka is greater than Cæsar or Charles the Great." 66 Spurning both sensuality and asceticism the Dharma urges a healthy simplification in living, discerning that the higher life must be rooted in hygiene, and not in hysteria. It therefore regards the mortification of all desire, the stultification of the will, as mere madness. Though it freely accepts the inevitable, it does not despair but diverts the mind from things that cannot satisfy-because they cannot endure to aims intellectual and ethical. It is not the severing of the ties of life that constitutes renunciation, but the utter eradication of egoism. It is not the shaving of the head, nor the mowing of the chin, nor the donning of the yellow robe that constitutes bhikshuta, but it is the weeding of the heart from passion and pride, from lust and greed. * See Divyāvadāna. † Religion des Buddha. Restrained of hand, restrained of foot, restrained in speech, the best of the self-controlled, reflective, calm, content, alone, it is he that is a true bhikshu ".* says the Dhammapada. Still the bhikshu is no ascetic. He may not overeat, but he eats enough to keep himself healthy and strong. He may not use garlands, scents, unguents, or ornaments, but he is clean and tidy. His yellow robes may not be fine and charming, but they are decent and comfortable. He may not live in a proud dwelling, but he always lives under a roof sheltered from the weather. He may not use a high or broad bed, but he sleeps on a soft couch. He may abstain from dancing, singing and stage plays, but he never cuts himself off from society. He may live a retired life, but he is freely accessible to men and women, with whom he talks on religious subjects. Not being a priest he may have no concern with births, deaths, or marriages, but he is devoted to spreading the knowledge of the Dharma. He may not beg his food, he may not speak of his wants to others, but he lives on their charity not because of indolence, but because it is a part of the discipline that trains his mind to humility. He struggles on the path of righteousness, not because he hopes to obtain heavenly gifts, but because in the fulness of gladness he will make an end of grief. He is honoured not for his learning or wisdom, but for the sanity and purity of his life, which serves as an example to others to "Dismiss their ideals of wealth and grandeur betimes, * The Buddhistic books speak of five classes of bhikshus : samjnabhikshu; pratijñābhikshu; bhikshaṇaçīlo bhikshu; jñāptichaturthakarmadyupasampanno bhikshu; and bhinnakleço bhikshu Of these the last is the highest, and the fourth respectable. The rest are disreputable. BUDDHISM AND PESSIMISM. N his principal work, The World as Will and Idea, Schopen philosophy as the standard of truth, I would be obliged to concede to Buddhism the pre-eminence over the rest. In any case it must be a satisfaction to me to see my teaching in such close agreement with a religion which the majority of mankind upon the earth hold as their own." To Schopenhauer this avowal of a close agreement between his philosophy and Buddhism might have been a gratification, but for Buddhism it has certainly proved a misfortune. It has given rise to a serious misconception about Buddhism. The Buddhist ideal has been misjudged to be the result of a Schopenhauerian pessimism as to the worth and promise of life. Nothing can really be more untrue than the identification of Buddhism with any form of pessimism. The keynote of Schopenhauer's philosophy is that inward. discord is the very law of human nature. Consequently man, so long as he is conscious, must be an unhappy creature. "Painless the battle of life," says Schopenhauer, "cannot be, it may not end without bloodshed, and in any case man must mourn." On the contrary, the very aim of Buddhism is inward harmony, the Great Peace in which one can find refuge from the struggle and turmoil of life. "He whose delight is inward, who is tranquil and happy when alonehim they call a true bhikshu :" says the Dhammapāda. Not to despair, not to mourn is the burden of much of the teaching of the Buddha to his disciples. When Ananda was mourning over Sariputra's death, the Blessed One said : "Ananda, often and often have I sought to bring shelter to your mind from the misery caused by such grief as this. There are two things alone that can separate us from father and mother, from brother and sister, from all those who are most cherished by us, and those two things are distance and death. Think not that I, though the Buddha, have not felt |