ness to comprehend theism as well as atheism, monism as well as dualism, polytheism and pantheism, fetichism and animism, idolatry and iconomachy, contemplative quietists and boisterous jumpers, gods and demons, saints and heroes, higher beings and lower beings, worlds above and worlds below, heavens and hells; and yet makes it the one religion which imposes no dogma or article of faith on any of its followers. If on the whole the underlying spirit leads to a beautiful and noble life, and manifests itself in kindness, charity and tolerance, in forbearance and forgiveness, in fortitude and cheerfulness, in a sense of the largeness and mystery of things, why should not a little superstition be permitted? Among religions, Buddhism is the only one that breathes a spirit of unbounded generosity and compassion for all beings. Nowhere in the life of the Buddha do we come across the drowning of pigs by handing them over to devils, or the cursing of fig trees for not bearing fruit out of season. Buddhism has always shrunk from inflicting pain even in self-defence. Not only did it teach that knowledge (pragna) without benevolence (maitri) is barren, but it carried out this teaching so consistently in practice as even to endanger its own existence. It has always deprecated war between nation and nation. It has constantly discouraged capital punishment. It sought everywhere to abolish bloody sacrifices. As the Mahāvastu says, it is the advent of the Buddha that put an end to asvamedham, purushamedham, pundarikam and other kinds of abominations in India. A tangible way in which a religion manifests its actual influence upon civilization is art. The great glory of Buddhism is that it has always ministered to the satisfaction of aesthetic aspirations. Wherever Buddhism has prevailed, artistic pagodas, vast vihāras, beautiful stupas have come into existence. The finest buildings in Japan are the Buddhist temples. The beauty and charm of the frescoes of Ajanta caves serve as monumental proofs of the wonderful inspiration which the religion of the Tathāgata imparted to art. Brahmanism had no art of its own in India, and the plastic arts of later Vaishnavism and Saivaism are the bastard children of the sculpture of the bhikshus. As Dr. Grünwedel1 says, the figurative part of Brahman art, so far as we are now acquainted with it, is based essentially upon Buddhist elements-so much so indeed that the Saiva figures which originated at the same time as the Northern Buddhist,appear to have fixed types, whilst the iconography of the Vishnu cult embraces chiefly Buddhist elements to which different interpretation has been given. But still more dependent on Buddhism are the representations of Jaina arts." In satisfying the æsthetic aspirations of its adherents Buddhism has in no way deviated from its fundamental principles. For the Buddhist all enjoyment is negative, and only by the perpetuation of this negation can selfishness be destroyed. In the appreciation of the artistic and the beautiful one loses one's self. Hence a fostering of the love of the beautiful can not but minister to individual salvation, and the promotion of art necessarily serves as a means of universal salvation. 2 Not only for the arts, such as architecture and sculpture, painting and engraving, is India indebted to Buddhism, but also for science and culture in general. The best era of Indian medicine was contemporary with the ascendancy of Buddhism. The ancient Brahmans might have derived the rudiments of anatomy from the dissection of animals in sacrifices. But the true schools of Indian medicine rose in the public hospitals established by Asoka and other Buddhist kings in every city. Charaka, the author of the well-known Charakasanhita, was the court physician of the Bhuddhist king Kanishka. Nāgārjuna3 infused new life into the science of Ayur Veda. To his lofty intellect and extensive scholarship India owes the revised edition of Suçruta now in use. The latter part of Suçruta's treatise, which bears the name of Uttaratantra, is entirely the work of Nāgārjuna's independent research and thought. In the spirit of a true Buddhist Nagarjuna popularised the science of Ayur Veda by teaching it without reserve to all classes without distinction of caste. All sciences and arts were studied 1 Buddhistische Kunst in Indian. 2 The Buddha taught: "Whosoever would wait on me, let him wait on the sick "-Mahavagga. He was the fourteenth patriarch. in the chief centres of Buddhist civilization, such as the great Buddhist university of Nalanda. According to the great orientalist Theodore Benfey the very bloom of the intellectual life of India, whether it found expression in Buddhist or Brahminical works, proceeded substantially from the Dharma, and was contemporaneous with the period in which Buddhism flourished. "The noblest survivals of Buddhism in India," says Sir W. W. Hunter, "are to be found, however, not among any peculiar body, but in the religion of the people; in that principle of the brotherhood of man, with the reassertion of which each new revival of Hinduism starts; in the asylum which the great Vaishnava sect affords to women, who have fallen victims to caste rules, to the widow and the outcaste; in that gentleness and charity to all men, which take the place of a poor law in India, and give a high significance to the half satirical epithet of the " mild' Hindu." When Buddhism took root in China, it started a new development and gave such a great impetus to Confucianism as to produce in it some deep thinkers like Luh Siang San, Chu Tze and Wan Yang Ming. Wherever Buddhism entered into the life of a people, it always gave them refinement and embellishment. In his Things Japanese Prof. Basil Hall Chamberlain says: "All education was for centuries in Buddhist hands, as was the care of the poor and sick. Buddhism introduced art, introduced medicine, moulded the folklore of the country, created the dramatic poetry, deeply influenced politics and every sphere of social and intellectual activity. In a word Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese nation grew up." The tree is known by its fruits. Buddhism put reason in the place of authority; it discarded metaphysical speculation to make room for the practical realities of life; it raised the self-perfected sage to the position of the gods of theology; it set up a spiritual brotherhood in place of hereditary priesthood; it replaced scholasticism by a popular doctrine of righteousness; it introduced a communal life in the place of isolated anchoret life; it infused a cosmopolitan spirit against national exclusiveness. Dogma and miracle are wisdom to the Christian; kismet and fanaticism are wisdom to the Moslem ; caste and ceremonialism are wisdom to the Brahman; asceticism and nakedness are wisdom to the Jain; mysticism and magic are wisdom to the Taoist ; formalism and outward piety are wisdom to the Confucian; ancestor-worship and loyalty to the Mikado are wisdom to the Shintoist; but love and purity are the first wisdom to the Buddhist. To work out his salvation the Buddhist must renounce all selfish desires, and live to build up a character of which the outward signs are purity of heart, compassion for all, courage and wisdom born of calm insight into truth, and that tolerance and freedom of thought which does not hinder one's house-mates in possessing their beliefs in peace. Of Buddhism alone can it be said that it has discarded all animism, all dogmatism, all sensuality, all asceticism, all ceremonialism, that it consists in charity and benevolence, self-denial and self-consecration. It alone teaches that there is hope for man only in man, and that "that love is false Which clings to love for selfish sweets of love." THE THE MORALITY OF BUDDHISM. HE goal of Buddhism is the freedom from sorrow and suffering. This cannot be attained except by the destruction of all selfish cravings. The self as such manifests its activity in trishna or grasping desire. If the self is to be annihilated, trishna must be suppressed. For the annhilalation of an organ really consists in reducing the interval of time between two inhibitory states of that organ. Accordingly, if the self, considered as the organ producing sorrow and misery, is to be annihilated, it can be effected only by the infinite prolongation of the state in which all trishṇā or upādāna is absent, that is to say, only by the continual avoidance of all evil and the doing of good. "If the Noble Path be followed, Rest and freedom will be man's; Sin and trouble will drag him along." All acts of human beings become evil by ten transgressions, and by the avoidance of these their conduct becomes good. These ten transgressions are the three sins of the body, the four sins of speech, and the three sins of the mind. The three sins of the body are murder, theft and adultery. The four sins of speech are lying, slander, abuse and idle talk. The three sins of the mind are covetousness, hatred and error. "If a man having such faults," says the Blessed One, "does not repent, but allows his heart to remain at rest, sins will rush upon him like water to the sea. When vice has thus become more powerful, it is still harder than before to abandon it. If a bad man, becoming sensible of his faults, abandons them and acts virtuously, his sins will day by day diminish and be destroyed, till he obtains full enlightenment." Accordingly the Enlightened One taught the following ten precepts* for the guidance and salvation of his followers. *These ten precepts (daçakçalani) should not be confounded with the ten precepts (daçaçikshapada) specially intended for the Sramaneras. The ten virtues here enumerated are to be practised by all Buddhists. |