Initial commitHEADmain

6 files changed, 29374 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7b82bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+*.txt text eol=lf
+*.htm text eol=lf
+*.html text eol=lf
+*.md text eol=lf
diff --git a/75283-0.txt b/75283-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e40adaf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/75283-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12697 @@
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75283 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+ OUTLINES
+ OF
+ MAHAYANA BUDDHISM
+
+ BY
+ DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI
+
+
+
+
+ CHICAGO
+ THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
+ 1908
+
+
+
+
+ PREFACE.
+
+{v}
+
+The object of this book is twofold: (1) To refute the many wrong
+opinions which are entertained by Western critics concerning the
+fundamental teachings of Mahâyâna Buddhism; (2) To awake interest
+among scholars of comparative religion in the development of the
+religious sentiment and faith as exemplified by the growth of one of
+the most powerful spiritual forces in the world. The book is therefore
+at once popular and scholarly. It is popular in the sense that it
+tries to expose the fallacy of the general attitude assumed by other
+religionists towards Mahâyânism. It aims to be scholarly, on the
+other hand, when it endeavors to expound some of the most salient
+features of the doctrine, historically and systematically.
+
+In attempting the accomplishment of this latter object, however, the
+author makes no great claim, because it is impossible to present
+within this prescribed space all the data that are available for a
+comprehensive and systematic elucidation of the Mahâyâna Buddhism,
+whose history began in the sixth century before the Christian era and
+ran through a period of more than two thousand years before it assumed
+the form in which it is at present taught in the Orient. During this
+long period, the Mahâyâna {vi} doctrine was elaborated by the best
+minds that India, Tibet, China, and Japan ever produced. It is no
+wonder then that so many diverse and apparently contradictory
+teachings are all comprised under the general name of Mahâyâna
+Buddhism. To expound all these theories even tentatively would be
+altogether outside the scope of such a work as this. All that I could
+or hoped to do was to discuss a few of the most general and most
+essential topics of Mahâyânism, making this a sort of introduction
+to a more detailed exposition of the system as a whole as well as in
+particular.
+
+To attain the first object, I have gone occasionally outside the
+sphere within which I had properly to confine the work. But this
+deviation seemed imperative for the reason that some critics are so
+prejudiced that even seemingly self-evident truths are not comprehended
+by them. I may be prejudiced in my own way, but very frequently I have
+wondered how completely and how wretchedly some people can be made the
+prey of self-delusion.
+
+The doctrinal history of Mahâyâna Buddhism is very little known to
+Occidental scholars. This is mainly due to the inaccessibility of
+material which is largely written in the Chinese tongue, one of the
+most difficult of languages for foreigners to master. In this age of
+liberal culture, it is a great pity that so few of the precious stones
+contained in the religion of Buddha are obtainable by Western people.
+Human nature is essentially the same the world over, and {vii}
+whenever and wherever conditions mature we see the same spiritual
+phenomena; and this fact ever strengthens our faith in the universality
+of truth and in the ultimate reign of lovingkindness. It is my sincere
+desire that in so far as my intellectual attainment permits I shall be
+allowed to pursue my study and to share my findings with my
+fellow-beings.
+
+In concluding this prelude, the author wishes to say that this little
+book is presented to the public with a full knowledge of its many
+defects, to revise which he will not fail to make use of every
+opportunity offered him.
+
+                                        /Daisetz T. Suzuki/.
+
+{viii}
+
+
+
+
+ CONTENTS.
+
+{ix}
+
+Preface
+
+Introduction
+
+(1) _The Mahâyâna and Hînayâna Buddhism._ Why the Two Doctrines?--The
+Original Meaning of Mahâyâna.--An Older Classification of
+Buddhists.--Mahâyâna Buddhism defined.
+
+(2) _Is the Mahâyâna Buddhism the genuine teaching of Buddha?_ No Life
+Without Growth.--Mahâyânism a Living Religion.
+
+(3) _Some Misstatements about the Mahâyânism._ Why Injustice Done to
+Buddhism.--Examples of Injustice.--Monier
+Monier-Williams.--Beal.--Waddell.
+
+(4) _The Significance of Religion._ No Revealed Religion.--The
+Mystery.--Intellect and Imagination.--The Contents of Faith vary.
+
+Chapter I. A General Characterisation of Buddhism.
+
+No God and No Soul.--Karma.--Avidyâ.--Non-âtman.--The Non-âtmanness of
+Things.--Dharmakâya.--Nirvâna.--Intellectual Tendency of Buddhism.
+
+Chapter II. Historical Characterisation of Mahâyânism.
+
+Sthiramati’s Conception of Mahâyânism.--Seven Principal Features of
+Mahâyânism.--Ten Essential Features of Mahâyânism.
+
+{x}
+
+Speculative Mahâyânism.
+
+Chapter III. Practice and Speculation.
+
+Relation of Feeling and Intellect.--Buddhism and Speculation.--Religion
+and Metaphysics.
+
+Chapter IV. Classification of Knowledge.
+
+Three Forms of Knowledge.--Illusion.--Relative Knowledge.--Absolute
+Knowledge.--World-Views founded on the three Forms of
+Knowledge.--Two Forms of Knowledge.--Transcendental Truth and Relative
+Understanding.
+
+Chapter V. Bhûtatathâtâ (Suchness).
+
+Indefinability.--The “Thundrous Silence.”--Suchness
+Conditioned.--Questions Defying Solution.--The Theory of
+Ignorance.--Dualism and Moral Evil.
+
+Chapter VI. The Tathâgata-Garbha and the Âlaya-vijnâna.
+
+The Garbha and Ignorance.--The Âlaya-vijñâna and its Evolution.--The
+Manas.--The Sâmkhya Philosophy and Mahâyânism.
+
+Chapter VII. The Theory of Non-âtman or Non-ego.
+
+Âtman.--Buddha’s First Line of Inquiry.--The Skandha.--King Milinda
+and Nâgasena.--Ananda’s Attempts to Locate the Soul.--Âtman and the
+“Old Man.”--The Vedântic Conception.--Nâgârjuna on the
+Soul.--Non-âtman-ness of Things.--Svabhâva.--The Real Significance of
+Emptiness.
+
+Chapter VIII. Karma.
+
+Definition.--The Working of Karma.--Karma and Social injustice.--An
+Individualistic View of Karma.--Karma and Determinism.--The Maturing
+of Good Stock and the Accumulation of Good Merits.--Immortality.
+
+{xi}
+
+Practical Mahâyânism.
+
+Chapter IX. The Dharmakâya.
+
+God.--Dharmakâya.--Dharmakâya as Religious Object.--More Detailed
+Characterisation.--The Dharmakâya and Individual Beings.--The
+Dharmakâya as Love.--Later Mahâyânists’ View of the Dharmakâya.--The
+Freedom of the Dharmakâya.--The Will of the Dharmakâya.
+
+Chapter X. The Doctrine of Trikâya.
+
+The Human and the Super-human Buddha.--An Historical View.--Who was
+Buddha?--The Trikâya as Explained in the _Suvarna-Prabhâ_.--Revelation
+in All Stages of Culture.--The Sambhogakâya.--A Mere Subjective
+Existence.--Attitude of Modern Mahâyânists.--Recapitulation.
+
+Chapter XI. The Bodhisattva.
+
+The Three Yânas.--Strict Individualism.--The Doctrine of
+Parivarta.--Bodhisattva in “Primitive” Buddhism.--We are all
+Bodhisattvas.--The Buddha’s Life.--The Bodhisattva and Love.--The
+Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta.--Love and Karunâ.--Nâgârjuna and
+Sthiramati on Bodhicitta.--The Awakening of the Bodhicitta.--The
+Bodhisattva’s Pranidhâna.
+
+Chapter XII. Ten Stages of Bodhisattvahood.
+
+Gradation in our Spiritual Life.--Pramuditâ.--Vimalâ.--Prabhâkarî.
+--Arcismatî.--Sudurjanâ.--Abhimukhî.--Dûrangamâ.--Acalâ.--Sâdhumatî.
+--Dharmameghâ.
+
+{xii}
+
+Chapter XIII. Nirvâna.
+
+Nihilistic Nirvâna not the First Object.--Nirvâna is Positive.--The
+Mahâyânistic Conception of Nirvâna.--Nirvâna as the
+Dharmakâya.--Nirvâna in its Fourth Sense.--Nirvâna and Samsâra are
+One.--The Middle Course.--How to Realise Nirvâna.--Love Awakens
+Intelligence.--Conclusion.
+
+Appendix, Hymns of Mahâyâna Faith.
+
+Index.
+
+Endnotes.
+
+
+
+
+ INTRODUCTION.
+
+{1}
+
+
+ 1. THE MAHÂYÂNA AND THE HÎNAYÂNA
+ BUDDHISM.
+
+/The/ terms “Mahâyâna” and “Hînayâna” may sound unfamiliar to most of
+our readers, perhaps even to those who have devoted some time to the
+study of Buddhism. They have hitherto been induced to believe that
+there is but one form of Buddhism, and that there exists no such
+distinction as Mahâyânism and Hînayânism. But, as a matter of fact,
+there are diverse schools in Buddhism just as in other religious
+systems. It is said that, within a few hundred years after the demise
+of Buddha, there were more than twenty different schools,[1] all
+claiming {2} to be the orthodox teaching of their master. These,
+however, seem to have vanished into insignificance one after another,
+when there arose a new school quite different in its general
+constitution from its predecessors, but far more important in its
+significance as a religious movement. This new school or rather system
+made itself so prominent in the meantime as to stand distinctly alone
+from all the other schools, which later became a class by itself.
+Essentially, it taught everything that was considered to be Buddhistic,
+but it was very comprehensive in its principle and method and scope.
+And, by reason of this, Buddhism was now split into two great systems,
+Mahâyânism and Hînayânism, the latter indiscriminately including all
+the minor schools which preceded Mahâyânism in their formal
+establishment.
+
+Broadly speaking, the difference between Mahâyânism and Hînayânism is
+this: Mahâyânism is more liberal and progressive, but in many respects
+too metaphysical and full of speculative thoughts that frequently reach
+a dazzling eminence: Hînayânism, on the other hand, is somewhat
+conservative and may be considered in many points to be a rationalistic
+ethical system simply.
+
+Mahâyâna literally means “great vehicle” and Hînayâna “small or
+inferior vehicle,” that is, of salvation. This distinction is
+recognised only by the followers of Mahâyânism, because it was by
+them that the unwelcome title of Hînayânism was given to their rival
+brethren,--thinking that they were more progressive {3} and had a more
+assimilating energy than the latter. The adherents of Hînayânism, as
+a matter of course, refused to sanction the Mahâyânist doctrine as
+the genuine teaching of Buddha, and insisted that there could not be
+any other Buddhism than their own, to them naturally the Mahâyâna
+system was a sort of heresy.
+
+Geographically, the progressive school of Buddhism found its
+supporters in Nepal, Tibet, China, Corea, and Japan, while the
+conservative school established itself in Ceylon,[2] Siam, and Burma.
+Hence the Mahâyâna and the Hînayâna are also known respectively
+Northern and Southern Buddhism.
+
+_En passant_, let me remark that this distinction, however, is not
+quite correct, for we have some {4} schools in China and Japan, whose
+equivalent or counterpart cannot be found in the so-called Northern
+Buddhism, that is, Buddhism flourishing in Northern India. For
+instance, we do not have in Nepal or in Tibet anything like the
+Sukhâvatî sects of Japan or China. Of course, the general essential
+ideas of the Sukhâvatî philosophy are found in the sûtra literature
+as well as in the writings of such authors as Açvaghoṣa, Asanga, and
+Nâgârjuna. But those ideas were not developed and made into a new sect
+as they were in the East. Therefore, it may be more proper to divide
+Buddhism into three, instead of two, geographical sections: Southern,
+Northern, and Eastern.
+
+
+ _Why the two Doctrines?_
+
+In spite of this distinction, the two schools, Hînayânism and
+Mahâyânism, are no more than two main issues of one original source,
+which was first discovered by Çâkyamuni; and, as a matter of course,
+we find many common traits which are essential to both of them. The
+spirit that animated the innermost heart of Buddha is perceptible in
+Southern as well as in Northern Buddhism. The difference between them
+is not radical or qualitative as imagined by some. It is due, on the
+one hand, to a general unfolding of the religious consciousness and a
+constant broadening of the intellectual horizon, and, on the other
+hand, to the conservative efforts to literally preserve the monastic
+rules and traditions. Both schools started with the same spirit,
+pursuing the {5} same course. But after a while one did not feel any
+necessity for broadening the spirit of the master and adhered to his
+words as literally as possible; whilst the other, actuated by a liberal
+and comprehensive spirit, has drawn nourishments from all available
+sources, in order to unfold the germs in the original system that were
+vigorous and generative. These diverse inclinations among primitive
+Buddhists naturally led to the dissension of Mahâyânism and Hînayânism.
+
+We cannot here enter into any detailed accounts as to what external
+and internal forces were acting in the body of Buddhism to produce the
+Mahâyâna system, or as to how gradually it unfolded itself so as to
+absorb and assimilate all the discordant thoughts that came in contact
+with it. Suffice it to state and answer in general terms the question
+which is frequently asked by the uninitiated: “Why did one Buddhism
+ever allow itself to be differentiated into two systems, which are
+apparently in contradiction in more than one point with each other?”
+In other words, “How can there be two Buddhisms equally representing
+the true doctrine of the founder?”
+
+The reason is plain enough. The teachings of a great religious founder
+are as a rule very general, comprehensive, and many-sided: and,
+therefore, there are great possibilities in them to allow various
+liberal interpretations by his disciples. And it is on this very
+account of comprehensiveness that enables followers of diverse needs,
+characters, and trainings to {6} satisfy their spiritual appetite
+universally and severally with the teachings of their master. This
+comprehensiveness, however, is not due to the intentional use by the
+leader of ambiguous terms, nor is it due to the obscurity and
+confusion of his own conceptions. The initiator of a movement,
+spiritual as well as intellectual, has no time to think out all its
+possible details and consequences. When the principle of the movement
+is understood by the contemporaries and the foundation of it is
+solidly laid down, his own part as initiator is accomplished; and the
+remainder can safely be left over to his successors. The latter will
+take up the work and carry it out in all its particulars, while making
+all necessary alterations and ameliorations according to circumstances.
+Therefore, the rôle to be played by the originator is necessarily
+indefinite and comprehensive.
+
+Kant, for instance, as promoter of German philosophy, has become the
+father of such diverse philosophical systems as Jacobi’s, Fichte’s,
+Hegel’s, Schopenhauer’s, etc., while each of them endeavored to
+develop some points indefinitely or covertly or indirectly stated by
+Kant himself. Jesus of Nazareth, as instigator of a revolutionary
+movement against Judaism, did not have any stereotyped theological
+doctrines, such as were established later by Christian doctors. The
+indefiniteness of his views was so apparent that it caused even among
+his personal disciples a sort of dissension, while a majority of his
+disciples cherished a visionary hope for the advent {7} of a divine
+kingdom on earth. But those externalities which are doomed to pass, do
+not prevent the spirit of the movement once awakened by a great leader
+from growing more powerful and noble.
+
+The same thing can be said of the teachings of the Buddha. What he
+inspired in his followers was the spirit of that religious system
+which is now known as Buddhism. Guided by this spirit, his followers
+severally developed his teachings as required by their special needs
+and circumstances, finally giving birth to the distinction of
+Mahâyânism and Hînayânism.
+
+
+ _The Original Meaning of Mahâyâna._
+
+The term Mahâyâna was first used to designate the highest principle,
+or being, or knowledge, of which the universe with all its sentient
+and non-sentient beings is a manifestation, and through which only
+they can attain final salvation (_mokṣa_ or _nirvâna_). Mahâyâna was
+not the name given to any religious doctrine, nor had it anything to
+do with doctrinal controversy, though later it was so utilised by the
+progressive party.
+
+Açvaghoṣa, the first Mahâyâna expounder known to us,--living about the
+time of Christ,--used the term in his religio-philosophical book
+called _Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahâyâna_[3] as
+synonymous with Bhûtatathâtâ, or Dharmakâyâ,[4] the {8} highest
+principle of Mahâyânism. He likened the recognition of, and faith in,
+this highest being and principle into a conveyance which will carry us
+safely across the tempestuous ocean of birth and death (_samsâra_) to
+the eternal shore of Nirvâna.
+
+Soon after him, however, the controversy between the two schools of
+Buddhism, conservatives and progressionists as we might call them,
+became more and more pronounced; and when it reached its climax which
+was most probably in the times of Nâgârjuna and Âryadeva, i.e., a
+few centuries after Açvaghoṣa, the progressive party ingeniously
+invented the term Hînayâna in contrast to Mahâyâna, the latter
+having been adopted by them as the watchword of their own school. The
+Hînayânists and the Tîrthakas[5] then were sweepingly condemned by
+the Mahâyânists as inadequate to achieve a universal salvation of
+sentient beings.
+
+
+ _An Older Classification of Buddhists._
+
+Before the distinction of Mahâyânists and Hînayânists became definite,
+that is to say, at the time of Nâgârjuna or even before it, those
+Buddhists who held a more progressive and broader view tried to
+distinguish three yânas among the followers of the Buddha, viz.,
+Bodhisattva-yâna, Pratyekabuddha-yâna, and Çrâvaka-yâna; yâna being
+another name for class.
+
+{9}
+
+The Bodhisattva is that class of Buddhists who, believing in the Bodhi
+(intelligence or wisdom), which is a reflection of the Dharmakâya in
+the human soul, direct all their spiritual energy toward realising and
+developing it for the sake of their fellow-creatures.
+
+The Pratyekabuddha is a “solitary thinker” or a philosopher, who,
+retiring into solitude and calmly contemplating on the evanescence of
+worldly pleasures, endeavors to attain his own salvation, but remains
+unconcerned with the sufferings of his fellow-beings. Religiously
+considered, a Pratyekabuddha is cold, impassive, egotistic, and lacks
+love for all mankind.
+
+The Çrâvaka which means “hearer” is inferior in the estimate of
+Mahâyânists even to the Pratyekabuddha, for he does not possess any
+intellect that enables him to think independently and to find out by
+himself the way to final salvation. Being endowed, however, with a
+pious heart, he is willing to listen to the instructions of the Buddha,
+to believe in him, to observe faithfully all the moral precepts given
+by him, and rests fully contented within the narrow horizon of his
+mediocre intellect.
+
+To a further elucidation of Bodhisattvahood and its important bearings
+in the Mahâyâna Buddhism, we devote a special chapter below. For
+Mahâyânism is no more than the Buddhism of Bodhisattvas, while the
+Pratyekabuddhas and the Çrâvakas are considered by Mahâyânists to be
+adherents of Hînayânism.
+
+{10}
+
+
+ _The Mahâyâna Buddhism Defined._
+
+We can now form a somewhat definite notion as to what the Mahâyâna
+Buddhism is. It is the Buddhism which, inspired by a progressive
+spirit, broadened its original scope, so far as it did not contradict
+the inner significance of the teachings of the Buddha, and which
+assimilated other religio-philosophical beliefs within itself,
+whenever it felt that, by so doing, people of more widely different
+characters and intellectual endowments could be saved. Let us be
+satisfied at present with this statement, until we enter into a more
+detailed exposition of its doctrinal peculiarities in the pages that
+follow.
+
+It may not be out of place, while passing, to remark that the term
+Mahâyânism is used in this work merely in contradistinction to that
+form of Buddhism, which is flourishing in Ceylon and Burma and other
+central Asiatic nations, and whose literature is principally written
+in the language called Pâli, which comes from the same stock as
+Sanskrit. The term “Mahâyâna” does not imply, as it is used here, any
+sense of superiority over the Hînayâna. When the historical aspect of
+Mahâyânism is treated, it may naturally develop that its over-zealous
+and one-sided devotees unnecessarily emphasised its controversial and
+dogmatical phase at the sacrifice of its true spirit; but the reader
+must not think that this work has anything to do with those
+complications. In fact, Mahâyânism professes to be a boundless ocean
+in which all form {11} of thought and faith can find its congenial and
+welcome home; why then should we make it militate against its own
+fellow-doctrine, Hînayânism?
+
+
+
+
+ 2. IS THE MAHÂYÂNA BUDDHISM THE GENUINE
+ TEACHING OF THE BUDDHA?
+
+What is generally known to the Western nations by the name of Buddhism
+is Hînayânism, whose scriptures as above stated are written in Pâli
+and studied mostly in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam. It was through this
+language that the first knowledge of Buddhism was acquired by
+Orientalists; and naturally they came to regard Hînayânism or Southern
+Buddhism as the only genuine teachings of the Buddha. They insisted,
+and some of them still insist, that to have an adequate and thorough
+knowledge of Buddhism, they must confine themselves solely to the
+study of the Pâli, that whatever may be learned from other sources,
+i.e., from the Sanskrit, Tibetan, or Chinese documents should be
+considered as throwing only a side-light on the reliable information
+obtained from the Pâli, and further that the knowledge derived from
+the former should in certain cases be discarded as accounts of a
+degenerated form of Buddhism. Owing to these unfortunate hypotheses,
+the significance of Mahâyânism as a living religion has been entirely
+ignored; and even those who are regarded as best authorities on the
+subject appear greatly misinformed and, what is worse, altogether
+prejudiced.
+
+{12}
+
+
+ _No Life Without Growth._
+
+This is very unfair on the part of the critics, because what religion
+is there in the whole history of mankind that has not made any
+development whatever, that has remained the same, like the granite,
+throughout its entire course? Let us ask whether there is any religion
+which has shown some signs of vitality and yet retained its primitive
+form intact and unmodified in every respect. Is not changeableness,
+that is, susceptibility to irritation the most essential sign of
+vitality? Every organism grows, which means a change in some way or
+other. There is no form of life to be found anywhere on earth, that
+does not grow or change, or that has not any inherent power of
+adjusting itself to the surrounding conditions.
+
+Take, for example, Christianity. Is Protestantism the genuine teaching
+of Jesus of Nazareth? or does Catholicism represent his true spirit?
+Jesus himself did not have any definite notion of Trinity doctrine,
+nor did he propose any suggestion for ritualism. According to the
+Synoptics, he appears to have cherished a rather immature conception
+of the kingdom of God than a purely ideal one as conceived by Paul,
+and his personal disciples who were just as illiterate philosophically
+as the master himself were anxiously waiting in all probability for
+its mundane realisation. But what Christians, Catholics or Protestants,
+in these days of enlightenment, would dare {13} give a literal
+explanation to this material conception of the coming kingdom?
+
+Again, think of Jesus’s view on marriage and social life. Is it not an
+established fact that he highly advocated celibacy and in the case of
+married people strict continence, and also that he greatly favored
+pious poverty and asceticism in general? In these respects, the monks
+of the Medieval Ages and the Catholic priests of the present day
+(though I cannot say they are ascetic and poor in their living) must
+be said to be in more accord with the teaching of the master than
+their Protestant brethren. But what Protestants would seriously
+venture to defend all those views of Jesus, in spite of their avowed
+declaration that they are sincerely following in the steps of their
+Lord? Taking all in all, these contradictions do not prevent them,
+Protestants as well as Catholics, from calling themselves Christians
+and even good, pious, devoted Christians, as long as they are
+consciously or unconsciously animated by the same spirit, that was
+burning in the son of the carpenter of Nazareth, an obscure village of
+Galilee, about two thousand years ago.
+
+The same mode of reasoning holds good in the case of Mahâyânism, and
+it would be absurd to insist on the genuineness of Hînayânism at the
+expense of the former. Take for granted that the Mahâyâna school of
+Buddhism contains some elements absorbed from other Indian
+religio-philosophical systems; but what of it? Is not Christianity
+also an amalgamation, {14} so to speak, of Jewish, Greek, Roman,
+Babylonian, Egyptian, and other pagan thoughts? In fact every healthy
+and energetic religion is historical, in the sense that, in the course
+of its development, it has adapted itself to the ever-changing
+environment, and has assimilated within itself various elements which
+appeared at first even threatening its own existence. In Christianity,
+this process of assimilation, adaptation, and modification has been
+going on from its very beginning. As the result, we see in the
+Christianity of to-day its original type so metamorphosed, so far as
+its outward appearance is concerned, that nobody would now take it for
+a faithful copy of the prototype.
+
+
+ _Mahâyânism a Living Faith._
+
+So with Mahâyânism. Whatever changes it has made during its historical
+evolution, its spirit and central ideas are all those of its founder.
+The question whether or not it is genuine, entirely depends on our
+interpretation of the term “genuine.” If we take it to mean the
+lifeless preservation of the original, we should say that Mahâyânism
+is not the genuine teaching of the Buddha, and we may add that
+Mahâyânists would be proud of the fact, because being a living
+religious force it would never condescend to be the corpse of a
+by-gone faith. The fossils, however faithfully preserved, are nothing
+but rigid inorganic substances from which life is forever departed.
+{15} Mahâyânism is far from this; it is an ever-growing faith and
+ready in all times to cast off its old garments as soon as they are
+worn out. But its spirit originally inspired by the “Teacher of Men
+and Gods” (_çâstadevamanuṣyânam_) is most jealously guarded against
+pollution and degeneration. Therefore, as far as its spirit is
+concerned, there is no room left to doubt its genuineness; and those
+who desire to have a complete survey of Buddhism cannot ignore the
+significance of Mahâyânism.
+
+It is naught but an idle talk to question the historical value of an
+organism, which is now full of vitality and active in all its
+functions, and to treat it like an archeological object, dug out from
+the depths of the earth, or like a piece of bric-à-brac, discovered
+in the ruins of an ancient royal palace. Mahâyânism is not an object
+of historical curiosity. Its vitality and activity concern us in our
+daily life. It is a great spiritual organism; its moral and religious
+forces are still exercising an enormous power over millions of souls;
+and its further development is sure to be a very valuable contribution
+to the world-progress of the religious consciousness. What does it
+matter, then, whether or not Mahâyânism is the genuine teaching of the
+Buddha?
+
+Here is an instance of most flagrant contradictions present in our
+minds, but of which we are not conscious on account of our preconceived
+ideas. Christian critics vigorously insist on the genuineness of their
+own religion, which is no more than a {16} hybrid, at least outwardly;
+but they want to condemn their rival religion as degenerated, because
+it went through various stages of development like theirs. It is of no
+practical use to trouble with this nonsensical question,--the question
+of the genuineness of Mahâyânism, which by the way is frequently
+raised by outsiders as well as by some unenlightened Buddhists
+themselves.
+
+
+
+
+ 3. SOME MISSTATEMENTS ABOUT THE
+ MAHÂYÂNA DOCTRINES.
+
+Before entering fully into the subject proper of this work, let us
+glance over some erroneous opinions about the Mahâyâna doctrines,
+which are held by some Western scholars, and naturally by all
+uninitiated readers, who are like the blind led by the blind. It may
+not be altogether a superfluous work to give them a passing review in
+this chapter and to show broadly what Mahâyânism is not.
+
+
+ _Why Injustice is done to Buddhism._
+
+The people who have had their thoughts and sentiments habitually
+trained by one particular set of religious dogmas, frequently misjudge
+the value of those thoughts that are strange and unfamiliar to them.
+We may call this class of people bigots or religious enthusiasts. They
+may have fine religious and moral sentiments as far as their own
+religious training goes; but, when examined from a broader point of
+view, they are to a great extent vitiated {17} with prejudices,
+superstitions, and fanatical beliefs, which, since childhood, have
+been pumped into their receptive minds, before they were sufficiently
+developed and could form independent judgments. This fact so miserably
+spoils their purity of sentiment and obscures their transparency of
+intellect, that they are disqualified to perceive and appreciate
+whatever is good and true and beautiful in the so-called heathen
+religions. This is the main reason why those Christian missionaries
+are incapable of rightly understanding the spirit of religion
+generally--I mean, those missionaries who come to the East to
+substitute one set of superstitions for another.
+
+This strong general indictment against the Christian missionaries,
+however, is by no means prompted by any partisan spirit. My desire, on
+the contrary, is to do justice to those thoughts and sentiments that
+have been working consciously or unconsciously in the human mind from
+time immemorial and shall work on till the day of the last judgment,
+if there ever be such a day. To see what these thoughts and sentiments
+are, which, by the way, constitute the kernel of every religion, we
+must without any reluctance throw off all the prejudices we are liable
+to cherish, though quite unknowingly; and keeping always in view what
+is most essential in the religious consciousness, we must not confound
+it with its accessories, which are doomed to die in the course of
+time.
+
+{18}
+
+
+ _Examples of Injustice._
+
+As specimen of injustice done to the Mahâyâna Buddhism by Christian
+critics, we quote the following passages from Monier-William’s
+_Buddhism_, Waddell’s _Buddhism in Tibet_, and Samuel Beal’s _Buddhism
+in China_, all of which are representative works each in its own field.
+
+
+ _Monier Monier-Williams._
+
+Monier Monier-Williams is a well-known authority on Sanskrit
+literature, and his works in this department will long remain as a
+valuable contribution to human knowledge. But, unfortunately, as soon
+as he attempts to enter the domain of religious controversy, his
+intellect becomes piteously obscured by his preconceived ideas. He
+thinks, for instance, that the principal feature of Mahâyânism consists
+merely in amplifying the number of Bodhisattvas, who are contented,
+according to his view, with their “perpetual residence in the heavens,
+and quite willing to put off all desires for Buddhahood and
+Parinirvana.” (P. 190.)
+
+This remark is so absurd that it will at once be rejected by any one
+who has a first-hand knowledge of the Mahâyâna system, as even unworthy
+of refutation, but Monier-Williams takes special pains to give to his
+characterisation of the Mahâyâna doctrine a show of rational
+explanation. “Of course,” says he, “men instinctively recoiled from
+utter self-annihilation, {19} and so the Buddha’s followers ended in
+changing the true idea of Nirvana and converting it from a condition
+of non-existence into a state of lazy beatitude in celestial regions
+(!), while they encouraged all men--whether monks or laymen--to make a
+sense of dreamy bliss in Heaven (!), and not total extinction of life,
+the end of all their efforts.” (P. 156.)
+
+This view of the Buddhist heaven as interpreted by Monier-Williams is
+nothing but the conception of the Christian heaven colored with
+paganism. Nothing is more foreign to Buddhists than this distinguished
+Sankritist’s interpretation of celestial existence. The life of devas
+(celestial beings) is just as much subject to the law of birth and
+death as that of men on earth. What consolation would there be for the
+Mahâyânists striving after the highest principle of existence, only
+to find themselves transmigrated to a celestial abode, that is also
+full of sorrows and sufferings? Always working for the welfare of
+their fellow-creatures, the Bodhisattvas never desire any earthly or
+heavenly happiness for themselves. Whatever merits, according to the
+law of karma, there be stored up for their good work, they do not have
+any wish to enjoy them by themselves, but they will have all these
+merits turned over (_parivarta_) to the interests of their
+fellow-beings. This is the ideal of Bodhisattvas, i.e., of the
+followers of Mahâyânism.
+
+{20}
+
+
+ _Beal._
+
+Samuel Beal who is considered by Western scholars to be an authority
+on Chinese Buddhism, referring to the Mahâyâna conception of
+Dharmakâya,[6] says in his _Buddhism in China_ (p. 156): “We can
+have little doubt, then, that from early days worship was offered by
+Buddhists at several spots, consecrated by the presence of the Teacher,
+to an invisible presence. This presence was formulated by the later
+Buddhists under the phrase, ‘the Body of the Law’, Dharmakâya.”
+
+Then, alluding to Buddha’s instruction that says after his Parinirvana
+the Law given by him should be regarded as himself, Beal proceeds to
+say: “Here was the germ from which proceeded the idea or formula of an
+invisible presence: teaching and power of the Law (_Dharma_)
+represented the Dharmakâya or Law-Body of Buddha, present with the
+order, and fit for reverence.”
+
+To interpret Dharmakâya as the Body of the Law is quite inadequate
+and misleading. To the Hînayânists, there is nothing beside the
+Tripitaka as the object of reverence, and, therefore, the notion of
+the Body of the Law has no meaning to them. The idea {21} is distinctly
+Mahâyânistic, but Beal is not well informed about its real significance
+as understood by the Buddhists. The chief reason of his
+misinterpretation, as I judge, lies in his rendering _dharma_ by “law”,
+while _dharma_ here means “that which subsists,” or “that which
+maintains itself even when all the transient modes disappear,” in
+short, “being,” or “substance.” Dharmakâya, therefore, would be a sort
+of the Absolute, or Essence-Body of all things. This notion plays such
+an important rôle in Mahâyânism that an adequate knowledge of it is
+indispensable to understand the constitution of Mahâyânism as a
+religious system.
+
+
+ _Waddell._
+
+Let us state one more case of misrepresentation by Western scholars of
+the Mahâyâna Buddhism. Waddell, author of _Buddhism in Tibet_,
+referring to the point of divergence between the so-called Northern
+Buddhism and the Southern, says (pp. 10-11): “It was the theistic
+Mahâyâna doctrine which substituted, for the agnostic idealism and
+simple morality of Buddha, a speculative theistic system with a
+mysticism of sophistic nihilism in the background.”
+
+And again: “This Mahâyâna [meaning Nâgârjuna’s Mâdhyamika school] was
+essentially a sophistic nihilism, or rather Parinirvana, while ceasing
+to be extinction of life, was converted a mystic state which admitted
+of no definition.”
+
+{22}
+
+It may not be wrong to call Mahâyânism a speculative theistic system
+in a wide sense, but it must be asked on what ground Waddell thinks
+that it has in its background “a mysticism of sophistic nihilism”.
+Could a religious system be called sophistry when it makes a close
+inquiry into the science of dialectics, in order to show how futile it
+is to seek salvation through the intellect alone? Could a religious
+system be called a nihilism when it endeavors to reach the highest
+reality which transcends the phenomenality of concrete individual
+existences? Could a doctrine be called nihilistic when it defines the
+absolute as neither void (_çûnya_) nor not-void (_açûnya_)?
+
+I could cull some more passages from other Buddhist scholars of the
+West and show how far Mahâyânism has been made by them a subject of
+misrepresentation. But since this work is not a polemic, but devoted
+to a positive exposition of its basic doctrines, I refrain from so
+doing. Suffice it to state that one of the main causes of the injustice
+done to Buddhism by the Christian critics comes from their
+preconceptions, of which they may not be aware, but which all the more
+vitiate their “impartial” judgments.
+
+
+
+
+ 4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RELIGION.
+
+Those misconceptions about Buddhism as above stated induce me to
+digress in this introductory part and to say a few words concerning
+the distinction {23} between the form and the spirit of religion. A
+clear knowledge of this distinction will greatly facilitate the
+formation of a correct notion about Mahâyânism and will also help us
+duly to appreciate its significance as a living religious faith.
+
+By the spirit of religion I mean that element in religion which remains
+unchanged throughout its successive stages of development and
+transformation: while the form of it is the external shell which is
+subject to any modification required by circumstances.
+
+
+ _No Revealed Religion._
+
+It admits of no doubt that religion, as everything else under the sun,
+is subject to the laws of evolution, and that, therefore, there is no
+such thing as a revealed religion, whose teachings are supposed to
+have been delivered to us direct from the hands of an anthropomorphic
+or anthropopsychic supernatural being, and which, like an inorganic
+substance, remains forever the same, without changing, without growing,
+without modifying itself in accord with the surrounding conditions.
+Unless people are so blinded by a belief in this kind of religion as
+to insist that its dogmas have suffered absolutely no change whatever
+since its “revelation,” they must recognise like every clear-headed
+person the fact that there are some ephemeral elements in every
+religion, which must carefully be distinguished from its quintessence
+which remains eternally the same.
+
+When this discrimination is not observed, prejudice {24} will at once
+assert itself, inducing them to imagine that the religion in which
+they were brought up with all its truths and superstitions is the only
+orthodox religion in the world, and all the other religions are
+nothing else than heathenism, idolatry, atheism, apostasy, and the
+like. This attitude of such religionists, however, serves only to
+betray their own narrowness of mind and dimness of spiritual insight.
+No one who desires to penetrate into the innermost recesses of the
+human heart and who longs to feel the fullest meaning of life, should
+foster in himself in the least degree a disposition of bigotry.
+
+
+ _The Mystery._
+
+Religion is the inmost voice of the human heart that under the yoke of
+a seemingly finite existence groans and travails in pain. Mankind,
+from their first appearance on earth, have never been satisfied with
+the finiteness and impermanency of life. They have always been
+yearning after something that will liberate them from the slavery of
+this mortal coil, or from the cursed bondage of metempsychosis, as
+Hindu thinkers express it. This something, however, on account of its
+transcending all the principles of separation and individuation, which
+characterise the phenomena of this mundane existence, has always
+remained as something indefinite, inadequate, chaotic, and full of
+mystery. And, according to different degrees of intellectual
+development in different ages and nations, people have endeavored to
+invest this {25} mysterious something with all sorts of human feelings
+and intelligence. Most of modern scientists are now content with the
+hypothesis that the mystery is unfathomable by the human mind, which
+is conditioned by the law of relativity, and that our business here,
+moral as well as intellectual, can be executed without troubling
+ourselves with this ever-haunting problem of mystery;--this doctrine
+is called agnosticism.
+
+But this hypothesis can in no wise be considered the final sentence
+passed on the mystery. From the scientific point of view, the maxim of
+agnosticism is excellent, as science does not pretend to venture into
+the realm of non-relativity. Dissatisfaction, however, presents itself,
+when we attempt to silence by this hypothesis the last demand of the
+human heart.
+
+
+ _Intellect and Imagination._
+
+The human heart is not an intellectual crystal. When the intellect
+displays itself in its full glory, the heart still aches and struggles
+to get hold of something beyond. The intellect may sometimes declare
+that it has at last laid its hand on what is demanded by the heart.
+Time passes on, and the mystery is examined from the other points that
+escaped consideration before, and, to the great disappointment of the
+heart, the supposed solution is found to be wanting. The intellect is
+baffled. But the human heart never gets tired of its yearnings and
+demands a satisfaction ever more pressingly. Should they be considered
+a mere nightmare of imagination? Surely {26} not, for herein lies the
+field where religion claims supreme authority, and its claim is
+perfectly right.
+
+But religion cannot fabricate whatever it pleases; it must work in
+perfect accord with the intellect. As the essential nature of man does
+not consist solely in intellect, or will, or feeling, but in the
+coördination of these psychical elements, religion must guard herself
+against the unrestrained flight of imagination. Most of the
+superstitions fondly cherished by a pious heart are due to the
+disregard of the intellectual element in religion.
+
+The imagination creates: the intellect discriminates. Creation without
+discrimination is wild: discrimination without creation is barren.
+Religion and science, when they do not work with mutual understanding,
+are sure to be one-sided. The soul makes an abnormal growth at one
+point, loses its balance, and is finally given up to a collapse of the
+entire system. Those pious religious enthusiasts who see a natural
+enemy in science and denounce it with all their energy, are, in my
+opinion, as purblind and distorted in their view, as those men of
+science who think that science alone must claim the whole field of
+soul-activities as well as those of nature. I am not in sympathy with
+either of them: for one is just as arrogant in its claim as the other.
+Without a careful examination of both sides of a shield, we are not
+competent to give a correct opinion upon it.
+
+But the imagination is not the exclusive possession of religion, nor
+is discrimination or ratiocination the {27} monopoly of science. They
+are reciprocal and complementary: one cannot do anything without the
+other. The difference between science and religion is not that between
+certitude and probability. The difference is rather in their respective
+fields of activity. Science is solely concerned with things
+conditional, relative, and finite. When it explains a given phenomenon
+by some fixed laws which are in turn nothing but a generalisation of
+particular facts, the task of science is done, and any further attempt
+to go beyond this, i.e., to make an inquiry into the whence, whither,
+and why of things, is beyond its realm. But the human soul does not
+remain satisfied here, it asks for the ultimate principle underlying
+all so-called scientific laws and hypotheses. Science is indifferent
+to the teleology of things: a mechanical explanation of them appeases
+its intellectual curiosity. But in religion teleology is of paramount
+importance, it is one of the most fundamental problems, and a system
+which does not give any definite conception on this point is no
+religion. Science, again, does not care if there is something beyond
+or outside its manifold laws and theories; but a religion which does
+not possess a God or anything corresponding to it, ceases to be so,
+for it fails to give consolation to the human heart.
+
+
+ _The Contents of Faith vary._
+
+The solution of religious problems, as far as they fall within the
+sphere of relative experience, is largely {28} a matter of personal
+conviction, determined by one’s intellectual development, external
+circumstances, education, disposition, etc. The conceptions of faith
+thus formulated are naturally infinitely diversified; even among the
+followers of a certain definite set of dogmas, each will understand
+them in his own way, owing to individual peculiarities. If we could
+subject their conceptions of faith to a strict analysis as a chemist
+does his materials, we should detect in them all the possible forms of
+differentiation. But all these things belong to the exterior of
+religion and have nothing to do with the essentials which underlie
+them.
+
+The abiding elements of religion come from within, and consist mainly
+in the mysterious sentiment that lies hidden in the deepest depths of
+the human heart, and that, when awakened, shakes the whole structure
+of personality and brings about a great spiritual revolution, which
+results in a complete change of one’s world-conception. When this
+mysterious sentiment finds expression and formulates its conceptions
+in the terms of intellect, it becomes a definite system of beliefs,
+which is popularly called religion, but which should properly be
+termed dogmatism, that is, an intellectualised form of religion. On
+the other hand, the outward forms of religion consist of those
+changing elements that are mainly determined by the intellectual and
+moral development of the times as well as by individual esthetical
+feelings.
+
+True Christians and enlightened Buddhists may, therefore, find their
+point of agreement in the recognition {29} of the inmost religious
+sentiment that constitutes the basis of our being, though this
+agreement does by no means prevent them from retaining their
+individuality in the conceptions and expressions of faith. My
+conviction is: If the Buddha and the Christ changed their accidental
+places of birth, Gautama might have been a Christ rising against the
+Jewish traditionalism, and Jesus a Buddha, perhaps propounding the
+doctrine of non-ego and Nirvâna and Dharmakâya.
+
+However great a man may be, he cannot but be an echo of the spirit of
+the times. He never stands, as is supposed by some, so aloof and
+towering above the masses as to be practically by himself. On the
+contrary, “he,” as Emerson says, “finds himself in the river of the
+thoughts and events, forced onward by the ideas and necessities of his
+contemporaries.” So it was with the Buddha, and so with the Christ.
+They were nothing but the concrete representatives of the ideas and
+feelings that were struggling in those times against the established
+institutions, which were degenerating fast and menaced the progress of
+humanity. But at the same time those ideas and sentiments were the
+outburst of the Eternal Soul, which occasionally makes a solemn
+announcement of its will, through great historical figures or through
+great world-events.
+
+ * * *
+
+Believing that a bit of religio-philosophical exposition as above
+indulged will prepare the minds of {30} my Christian readers sincerely
+to take up the study of a religious system other than their own, I now
+proceed to a systematical elucidation of the Mahâyâna Buddhism, as it
+is believed at present in the Far East.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+ A GENERAL CHARACTERISATION OF BUDDHISM.
+
+{31}
+
+
+ _No God and no Soul._
+
+/Buddhism/ is considered by some to be a religion without a God and
+without a soul. The statement is true and untrue according to what
+meaning we give to those terms.
+
+Buddhism does not recognise the existence of a being, who stands aloof
+from his “creations,” and who meddles occasionally with human affairs
+when his capricious will pleases him. This conception of a supreme
+being is very offensive to Buddhists. They are unable to perceive any
+truth in the hypotheses, that a being like ourselves created the
+universe out of nothing and first peopled it with a pair of sentient
+beings; that, owing to a crime committed by them, which, however,
+could have been avoided if the creator so desired, they were condemned
+by him to eternal damnation; that the creator in the meantime feeling
+pity for the cursed, or suffering the bite of remorse for his somewhat
+rash deed, despatched his only beloved son to the earth for the
+purpose of rescuing mankind from universal misery, etc., etc. If
+Buddhism is called atheism on account of its {32} refusal to take
+poetry for actual fact, its followers would have no objection to the
+designation.
+
+Next, if we understand by soul âtman, which, secretly hiding itself
+behind all mental activities, direct them after the fashion of an
+organist striking different notes as he pleases, Buddhists outspokenly
+deny the existence of such a fabulous being. To postulate an
+independent âtman outside a combination of the five Skandhas[7], of
+which an individual being is supposed by Buddhists to consist, is to
+unreservedly welcome egoism with all its pernicious corollaries. And
+what distinguishes Buddhism most characteristically and emphatically
+from all other religions is the doctrine of non-âtman or non-ego,
+exactly opposite to the postulate of a soul-substance which is
+cherished by most of religious enthusiasts. In this sense, Buddhism is
+undoubtedly a religion without the soul.
+
+To make these points clearer in a general way, let us briefly treat in
+this chapter of such principal tenets of Buddhism as Karma, Âtman,
+Avidyâ, Nirvâna, Dharmakâya, etc. Some of these doctrines being the
+common property of the two schools of Buddhism, Hînayânism and
+Mahâyânism, their brief, comprehensive exposition here will furnish
+our readers with a general notion about the constitution of Buddhism,
+and will also prepare them to pursue a further specific exposition of
+the Mahâyâna doctrine which follows.
+
+{33}
+
+
+ _Karma._
+
+One of the most fundamental doctrines established by Buddha is that
+nothing in this world comes from a single cause, that the existence of
+a universe is the result of a combination of several causes (_hetu_)
+and conditions (_pratyaya_), and is at the same time an active force
+contributing to the production of an effect in the future. As far as
+phenomenal existences are concerned, this law of cause and effect
+holds universally valid. Nothing, even God, can interfere with the
+course of things thus regulated, materially as well as morally. If a
+God really exists and has some concern about our worldly affairs, he
+must first conform himself to the law of causation. Because the
+principle of karma, which is the Buddhist term for causation morally
+conceived, holds supreme everywhere and all the time.
+
+The conception of karma plays the most important rôle in Buddhist
+ethics. Karma is the formative principle of the universe. It determines
+the course of events and the destiny of our existence. The reason why
+we cannot change our present state of things as we may will, is that
+it has already been determined by the karma that was performed in our
+previous lives, not only individually but collectively. But, for this
+same reason, we shall be able to work out our destiny in the future,
+which is nothing but the resultant of several factors that are working
+and that are being worked by ourselves in this life.
+
+{34}
+
+Therefore, says Buddha:
+
+
+ “By self alone is evil done,
+ By self is one disgraced;
+ By self is evil left undone,
+ By self alone is he purified;
+ Purity and impurity belong to self:
+ No one can purify another.”[8]
+
+
+Again,
+
+
+ “Not in the sky
+ Nor in the midst of the sea,
+ Nor entering a cleft of the mountains,
+ Is found that realm on earth
+ Where one may stand and be
+ From an evil deed absolved.”[9]
+
+
+This doctrine of karma may be regarded as an application in our
+ethical realm of the theory of the conservation of energy. Everything
+done is done once for all; its footprints on the sand of our moral and
+social evolution are forever left; nay, more than left, they are
+generative, good or evil, and waiting for further development under
+favorable conditions. In the physical world, even the slightest
+possible movement of our limbs cannot but affect the general cosmic
+motion of the earth, however infinitesimal it be; and if we had a
+proper instrument, we could surely measure its precise extent of
+effect. So is it even with our deeds. A deed once performed, together
+with its subjective motives, can never vanish without leaving some
+impressions either on the individual {35} consciousness or on the
+supra-individual, i.e., social consciousness.
+
+We need not further state that the conception of karma in its general
+aspect is scientifically verified. In our moral and material life,
+where the law of relativity rules supreme, the doctrine of karma must
+be considered thoroughly valid. And as long as its validity is
+admitted in this field, we can live our phenomenal life without
+resorting to the hypothesis of a personal God, as declared by Lamarck
+when his significant work on evolution was presented to Emperor
+Napoleon.
+
+But it will do injustice to Buddhism if we designate it agnosticism or
+naturalism, denying or ignoring the existence of the ultimate,
+unifying principle, in which all contradictions are obliterated.
+Dharmakâya is the name given by Buddhists to this highest principle,
+viewed not only from the philosophical but also from the religious
+standpoint. In the Dharmakâya, Buddhists find the ultimate
+significance of life, which, when seen from its phenomenal aspect,
+cannot escape the bondage of karma and its irrefragable laws.
+
+
+ _Avidyâ._
+
+What claims our attention next, is the problem of nescience, which is
+one of the most essential features of Buddhism. Buddhists think,
+nescience (in Sanskrit _avidyâ_) is the subjective aspect of karma,
+involving us in a series of rebirths. Rebirth, considered by itself,
+is no moral evil, but rather a necessary {36} condition of progress
+toward perfection, if perfection ever be attainable here. It is an
+evil only when it is the outcome of ignorance,--ignorance as to the
+true meaning of our earthly existence.
+
+Ignorant are they who do not recognise the evanescence of worldly
+things and who tenaciously cleave to them as final realities; who
+madly struggle to shun the misery brought about by their own folly;
+who savagely cling to the self against the will of God, as Christians
+would say; who take particulars as final existences and ignore One
+pervading reality which underlies them all; who build up an adamantine
+wall between the mine and thine: in a word, ignorant are those who do
+not understand that there is no such thing as an ego-soul, and that
+all individual existences are unified in the system of Dharmakâya.
+Buddhism, therefore, most emphatically maintains that to attain the
+bliss of Nirvana we must radically dispel this illusion, this
+ignorance, this root of all evil and suffering in this life.
+
+The doctrine of nescience or ignorance is technically expressed in the
+following formula, which is commonly called the Twelve Nidânas or
+Pratyayasamutpada, that is to say Chains of Dependence:
+
+(1) There is Ignorance (_avidyâ_) in the beginning; (2) from Ignorance
+Action (_sanskâra_) comes forth; (3) from Action Consciousness
+(_vijñâna_) comes forth; (4) from Consciousness Name-and-Form
+(_nâmarûpa_) comes forth; (5) from Name-and-Form the Six Organs
+(_ṣadâyâtana_) come forth; (6) from the Six Organs {37} Touch
+(_sparça_) comes forth; (7) from Touch Sensation (_vedanâ_) comes
+forth; (8) from Sensation Desire (_tṛṣnâ_) comes forth; (9) from Desire
+Clinging (_upâdâna_) comes forth; (10) from Clinging Being (_bhâva_)
+comes forth; (11) from Being Birth (_jati_) comes forth; and (12) from
+Birth Pain (_duḥkha_) comes forth.
+
+According to Vasubandhu’s _Abhidharmakoça_, the formula is explained
+as follows: Being ignorant in our previous life as to the significance
+of our existence, we let loose our desires and act wantonly. Owing to
+this karma, we are destined in the present life to be endowed with
+consciousness (_vijñâna_), name-and-form (_nâmarûpa_), the six organs
+of sense (_ṣadâyâtana_), and sensation (_vedanâ_). By the exercise of
+these faculties, we now desire for, hanker after, cling to, these
+illusive existences which have no ultimate reality whatever. In
+consequence of this “Will to Live” we potentially accumulate or make
+up the karma that will lead us to further metempsychosis of birth and
+death.
+
+The formula is by no means logical, nor is it exhaustive, but the
+fundamental notion that life started in ignorance or blind will
+remains veritable.
+
+
+ _Non-Atman._
+
+The problem of nescience naturally leads to the doctrine usually known
+as that of non-Atman, i.e., non-ego, to which allusion was made at the
+beginning {38} of this chapter. This doctrine of Buddhism is one of
+the subjects that have caused much criticism by Christian scholars.
+Its thesis runs: There is no such thing as ego-soul, which, according
+to the vulgar interpretation, is the agent of our mental activities.
+And this is the reason why Buddhism is sometimes called a religion
+without the soul, as aforesaid.
+
+This Buddhist negation of the ego-soul is perhaps startling to the
+people, who, having no speculative power, blindly accept the
+traditional, materialistic view of the soul. They think, they are very
+spiritual in endorsing the dualism of soul and flesh, and in making
+the soul something like a corporeal entity, though far more ethereal
+than an ordinary object of the senses. They think of the soul as being
+more in the form of an angel, when they teach that it ascends to
+heaven immediately after its release from the material imprisonment.
+
+They further imagine that the soul, because of its imprisonment in the
+body, groans in pain for its liberty, not being able to bear its
+mundane limitations. The immortality of the soul is a continuation
+after the dismemberment of material elements of this ethereal, astral,
+ghost-like entity,--very much resembling the Samkhyan _Lingham_ or the
+Vedantic _sûkṣama-çârîra_. Self-consciousness will not a whit suffer
+in its continued activity, as it is the essential function of the
+soul. Brothers and sisters, parents and sons and daughters, wives and
+husbands, all transfigured and sublimated, will meet again in the {39}
+celestial abode, and perpetuate their home life much after the manner
+of their earthly one. People who take this view of the soul and its
+immortality must feel a great disappointment or even resentment, when
+they are asked to recognise the Buddhist theory of non-âtman.
+
+The absurdity of ascribing to the soul a sort of astral existence
+taught by some theosophists is due to the confusion of the name and
+the object corresponding to it. The soul, or what is tantamount
+according to the vulgar notion, the ego, is a name given to a certain
+coördination of mental activities. Abstract names are invented by us
+to economise our intellectual labors, and of course have no
+corresponding realities as particular presences in the concrete
+objective world. Vulgar minds have forgotten the history of the
+formation of abstract names. Being accustomed always to find certain
+objective realities or concrete individuals answering to certain
+names, they--those naïve realists--imagine that all names, irrespective
+of their nature, must have their concrete individual equivalents in
+the sensual world. Their idealism or spiritualism, so called, is in
+fact a gross form of materialism, in spite of their unfounded fear for
+the latter as atheistic and even immoral;--curse of ignorance!
+
+The non-âtman theory does not deny that there is a coördination or
+unification of various mental operations. Buddhism calls this system
+of coördination vijñâna, not âtman. Vijñâna is consciousness, while
+{40} âtman is the ego conceived as a concrete entity,--a hypostatic
+agent which, abiding in the deepest recess of the mind, directs all
+subjective activities according to its own discretion. This view is
+radically rejected by Buddhism.
+
+A familiar analogy illustrating the doctrine of non-âtman is the
+notion of a wheel or that of a house. Wheel is the name given to a
+combination in a fixed form of the spokes, axle, tire, hub, rim, etc.;
+house is that given to a combination of roofs, pillars, windows,
+floors, walls, etc., after a certain model and for a certain purpose.
+Now, take all these parts independently, and where is the house or the
+wheel to be found? House or wheel is merely the name designating a
+certain form in which parts are systematically and definitely disposed.
+What an absurdity, then, it must be to insist on the independent
+existence of the wheel or of the house as an agent behind the
+combination of certain parts thus definitely arranged!
+
+It is wonderful that Buddhism clearly anticipated the outcome of
+modern psychological researches at the time when all other religious
+and philosophical systems were eagerly cherishing dogmatic
+superstitions concerning the nature of the ego. The refusal of modern
+psychology to have soul mean anything more than the sum-total of all
+mental experiences, such as sensations, ideas, feelings, decisions,
+etc., is precisely a rehearsal of the Buddhist doctrine of non-âtman.
+It does not deny that there is a unity of consciousness, {41} for to
+deny this is to doubt our everyday experiences, but it refuses to
+assert that this unity is absolute, unconditioned, and independent.
+Everything in this phenomenal phase of existence, is a combination of
+certain causes (_hetu_) and conditions (_pratyaya_) brought together
+according to the principle of karma; and everything that is compound
+is finite and subject to dissolution, and, therefore, always limited
+by something else. Even the soul-life, as far as its phenomenality
+goes, is no exception to this universal law. To maintain the existence
+of a soul-substance which is supposed to lie hidden behind the
+phenomena of consciousness, is not only misleading, but harmful and
+productive of some morally dangerous conclusions. The supposition that
+there is something where there is really nothing, makes us cling to
+this chimerical form, with no other result than subjecting ourselves
+to an eternal series of sufferings. So we read in the _Lankâvatâra
+Sûtra_, III:
+
+
+ “A flower in the air, or a hare with horns,
+ Or a pregnant maid of stone:
+ To take what is not for what is,
+ ’Tis called a judgment false.
+
+ “In a combination of causes,
+ The vulgar seek the reality of self.
+ As truth they understand not,
+ From birth to birth they transmigrate.”
+
+
+
+ _The Non-Atman-ness of Things._
+
+Mahâyânism has gone a step further than Hînayânism in the development
+of the doctrine of non-âtman, for it expressly disavows, besides the
+denial {42} of the existence of the ego-substance, a noumenal
+conception of things, i.e., the conception of particulars as having
+something absolute in them. Hînayânism, indeed, also disfavors this
+conception of thinginess, but it does so only implicitly. It is
+Mahâyânism that definitely insists on the non-existence of a personal
+(_pudgala_) as well as a thingish (_dharma_) ego.
+
+According to the vulgar view, particular existences are real, they
+have permanent substantial entities, remaining forever as such. They
+think, therefore, that organic matter remains forever organic just as
+much as inorganic matter remains inorganic; that, as they are
+essentially different, there is no mutual transformation between them.
+The human soul is different from that of the lower animals and sentient
+beings from non-sentient beings; the difference being well-defined and
+permanent, there is no bridge over which one can cross to the other.
+We may call this view naturalistic egoism.
+
+Mahâyânism, against this egoistic conception of the world, extends
+its theory of non-âtman to the realm lying outside us. It maintains
+that there is no irreducible reality in particular existences, so long
+as they are combinations of several causes and conditions brought
+together by the principle of karma. Things are here because they are
+sustained by karma. As soon as its force is exhausted, the conditions
+that made their existence possible lose efficience and dissolve, and
+in their places will follow other conditions and existences. Therefore,
+what is organic {43} to-day, may be inorganic to-morrow, and _vice
+versa_. Carbon, for instance, which is stored within the earth appears
+in the form of coal or graphite or diamond; but that which exists on
+its surface is found sometimes combined with other elements in the
+form of an animal or a vegetable, sometimes in its free elementary
+state. It is the same carbon everywhere; it becomes inorganic or
+organic, according to its karma, it has no âtman in itself which
+directs its transformation by its own self-determining will. Mutual
+transformation is everywhere observable; there is a constant shifting
+of forces, an eternal transmigration of the elements,--all of which
+tend to show the transitoriness and non-âtman-ness of individual
+existences. The universe is moving like a whirl-wind, nothing in it
+proving to be stationary, nothing in it rigidly adhering to its own
+form of existence.
+
+Suppose, on the other hand, there were an âtman behind every
+particular being; suppose, too, it were absolute and permanent and
+self-acting; and this phenomenal world would then come to a
+standstill, and life be forever gone. For is not changeability the
+most essential feature and condition of life, and also the strongest
+evidence for the non-existence of individual things as realities? The
+physical sciences recognise this universal fact of mutual
+transformation in its positive aspect and call it the law of the
+conservation of energy and of matter. Mahâyânism, recognising its
+negative side, proposes the doctrine of the non-âtman-ness of things,
+that is to say, the {44} impermanency of all particular existences.
+Therefore, it is said, “_Sarvam anityam, sarvam çûnyam, sarvam
+anâtman_.” (All is transitory, all is void, all is without ego.)
+
+Mahâyânists condemn the vulgar view that denies the consubstantiality
+and reciprocal transformation of all beings, not only because it is
+scientifically untenable, but mainly because, ethically and religiously
+considered, it is fraught with extremely dangerous ideas,--ideas which
+finally may lead a “brother to deliver up the brother to death and the
+father the child,” and, again, it may constrain “the children to rise
+up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.” Why?
+Because this view, born of egoism, would dry up the well of human love
+and sympathy, and transform us into creatures of bestial selfishness;
+because this view is not capable of inspiring us with the sense of
+mutuality and commiseration and of making us disinterestedly feel for
+our fellow-beings. Then, all fine religious and humane sentiments
+would depart from our hearts, and we should be nothing less than rigid,
+lifeless corpses, no pulse beating, no blood running. And how many
+victims are offered every day on this altar of egoism! They are not
+necessarily immoral by nature, but blindly led by the false conception
+of life and the world, they have been rendered incapable of seeing
+their own spiritual doubles in their neighbors. Being ever controlled
+by their sensual impulses, they sin against humanity, against nature,
+and against themselves.
+
+{45}
+
+We read in the _Mahâyâna-abhisamaya Sûtra_ (Nanjo, no. 196):
+
+
+ “Empty and calm and devoid of ego
+ Is the nature of all things:
+ There is no individual being
+ That in reality exists.
+
+ “Nor end nor beginning having
+ Nor any middle course,
+ All is a sham, here’s no reality whatever:
+ It is like unto a vision and a dream.
+
+ “It is like unto clouds and lightning,
+ It is like unto gossamer or bubbles floating
+ It is like unto fiery revolving wheel,
+ It is like unto water-splashing.
+
+ “Because of causes and conditions things are here:
+ In them there’s no self-nature [i.e., âtman]:
+ All things that move and work,
+ Know them as such.
+
+ “Ignorance and thirsty desire,
+ The source of birth and death they are:
+ Right contemplation and discipline by heart,
+ Desire and ignorance obliterate.
+
+ “All beings in the world,
+ Beyond words they are and expressions:
+ Their ultimate nature, pure and true,
+ Is like unto vacuity of space.”[10]
+
+
+ _The Dharmakâya._
+
+The Dharmakâya, which literally means “body or system of being,” is,
+according to the Mahâyânists, {46} the ultimate reality that underlies
+all particular phenomena; it is that which makes the existence of
+individuals possible; it is the _raison d’être_ of the universe; it is
+the norm of being, which regulates the course of events and thoughts.
+The conception of Dharmakâya is peculiarly Mahâyânistic, for the
+Hînayâna school did not go so far as to formulate the ultimate
+principle of the universe; its adherents stopped short at a
+positivistic interpretation of Buddhism. The Dharmakâya remained for
+them to be the Body of the Law, or the Buddha’s personality as embodied
+in the truth taught by him.
+
+The Dharmakâya may be compared in one sense to the God of Christianity
+and in another sense to the Brahman or Paramâtman of Vedantism. It is
+different, however, from the former in that it does not stand
+transcendentally above the universe, which, according to the Christian
+view, was created by God, but which is, according to Mahâyânism, a
+manifestation of the Dharmakâya himself. It is also different from
+Brahman in that it is not absolutely impersonal, nor is it a mere
+being. The Dharmakâya, on the contrary, is capable of willing and
+reflecting, or, to use Buddhist phraseology, it is _Karunâ_ (love) and
+_Bodhi_ (intelligence), and not the mere state of being.
+
+This pantheistic and at the same time entheistic Dharmakâya is working
+in every sentient being, for sentient beings are nothing but a
+self-manifestation of the Dharmakâya. Individuals are not isolated
+existences, as imagined by most people. If isolated, {47} they are
+nothing, they are so many soap-bubbles which vanish one after another
+in the vacuity of space. All particular existences acquire their
+meaning only when they are thought of in their oneness in the
+Dharmakâya. The veil of Mâya, i.e., subjective ignorance may temporally
+throw an obstacle to our perceiving the universal light of Dharmakâya,
+in which we are all one. But when our Bodhi or intellect, which is by
+the way a reflection of the Dharmakâya in the human mind, is so fully
+enlightened, we no more build the artificial barrier of egoism before
+our spiritual eye; the distinction between the _meum_ and _teum_ is
+obliterated, no dualism throws the nets of entanglement over us; I
+recognise myself in you and you recognise yourself in me; _tat tvam
+asi_. Or,
+
+
+ “What is here, that is there;
+ What is there, that is here:
+ Who sees duality here,
+ From death to death goes he.”[11]
+
+
+This state of enlightenment may be called the spiritual expansion of
+the ego, or, negatively, the ideal annihilation of the ego. A
+never-drying stream of sympathy and love which is the life of religion
+will now spontaneously flow out of the fountainhead of Dharmakâya.
+
+The doctrine of non-ego teaches us that there is no reality in
+individual existences, that we do not have any transcendental entity
+called ego-substance. {48} The doctrine of Dharmakâya, to supplement
+this, teaches us that we all are one in the System of Being and only
+as such are immortal. The one shows us the folly of clinging to
+individual existences and of coveting the immortality of the ego-soul;
+the other convinces us of the truth that we are saved by living into
+the unity of Dharmakâya. The doctrine of non-âtman liberates us from
+the shackle of unfounded egoism; but as mere liberation does not mean
+anything positive and may perchance lead us to asceticism, we apply
+the energy thus released to the execution of the will of Dharmakâya.
+
+The questions: “Why have we to love our neighbors as ourselves? Why
+have we to do to others all things whatsoever we would that they
+should do to us?” are answered thus by Buddhists: “It is because we
+are all one in the Dharmakâya, because when the clouds of ignorance
+and egoism are totally dispersed, the light of universal love and
+intelligence cannot help but shine in all its glory. And, enveloped in
+this glory, we do not see any enemy, nor neighbor, we are not even
+conscious of whether we are one in the Dharmakâya. There is no ‘my
+will’ here, but only ‘thy will,’ the will of Dharmakâya, in which we
+live and move and have our being.”
+
+The Apostle Paul says: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
+shall all be made alive.” Why? Buddhists would answer, “because Adam
+asserted his egoism in giving himself up to ignorance, (the tree of
+knowledge is in truth the tree of ignorance, {49} for from it comes
+the duality of me and thee); while Christ on the contrary surrendered
+his egoistic assertion to the intelligence of the universal Dharmakâya.
+That is why we die in the former and are made alive in the latter.”
+
+
+ _Nirvâna._
+
+The meaning of Nirvâna has been variously interpreted by non-Buddhist
+students from the philological and the historical standpoint; but it
+matters little what conclusions they have reached, as we are not going
+to recapitulate them here; nor do they at all affect our presentation
+of the Buddhists’ own view as below. For it is the latter that concerns
+us here most and constitutes the all-important part of the problem. We
+have had too much of non-Buddhist speculation on the question at issue.
+The majority of the critics, while claiming to be fair and impartial,
+have, by some preconceived ideas, been led to a conclusion, which is
+not at all acceptable to intelligent Buddhists. Further, the fact has
+escaped their notice that Pâli literature from which they chiefly
+derive their information on the subject represents the views of one of
+the many sects that arose soon after the demise of the Master and were
+constantly branching off at and after the time of King Açoka. The
+probability is, that Buddha himself did not have any stereotyped
+conception of Nirvana, and, as most great minds do, expressed his ideas
+outright as formed under various circumstances; though of course they
+could not be {50} in contradiction with his central beliefs, which must
+have remained the same throughout the course of his religious life.
+Therefore, to understand a problem in all its apparently contradictory
+aspects, it is very necessary to grasp at the start the spirit of the
+author of the problem, and when this is done the rest will be
+understood comparatively much easier. Non-Buddhist critics lack in
+this most important qualification; therefore, it is no wonder that
+Buddhists themselves are always reluctant to accede to their
+interpretations.
+
+Enough for apology. Nirvâna, according to Buddhists, does not signify
+an annihilation of consciousness nor a temporal or permanent
+suppression of mentation[12], as imagined by some; but it is the {51}
+annihilation of the notion of ego-substance and of all the desires
+that arise from this erroneous conception. But this represents the
+negative side of the doctrine, and its positive side consists in
+universal love or sympathy (_karunâ_) for all beings.
+
+These two aspects of Nirvâna, i.e., negatively, the destruction of
+evil passions, and, positively, the practice of sympathy, are
+complementary to each other; and when we have one we have the other.
+Because, as soon as the heart is freed from the cangue of egoism, the
+same heart, hitherto so cold and hard, undergoes a complete change,
+shows animation, and, joyously escaping from self-imprisonment, finds
+its freedom in the bosom of Dharmakâya. In this latter sense, Nirvâna
+is the “humanisation” of Dharmakâya, that is to say, “God’s will done
+in earth as it is in heaven.” If we make use of the {52} terms,
+subjective and objective. Nirvâna is the former, and the Dharmakâya is
+the latter, phase of one and the same principle. Again,
+psychologically, Nirvâna is enlightenment, the actualisation of the
+Bodhicitta[13] (Heart of Intelligence).
+
+The gospel of love and the doctrine of Nirvâna may appear to some to
+contradict each other, for they think that the former is the source of
+energy and activity, while the latter is a lifeless, inhuman, ascetic
+quietism. But the truth is, love is the emotional aspect and Nirvâna
+the intellectual aspect of the inmost religious consciousness which
+constitutes the essence of the Buddhist life.
+
+That Nirvâna is the destruction of selfish desires is plainly shown in
+this stanza:
+
+
+ “To the giver merit is increased;
+ When the senses are controlled anger arises not,
+ The wise forsake evil,
+ By the destruction of desire, sin, and infatuation,
+ A man attains to Nirvâna.”[14]
+
+
+The following which was breathed forth by Buddha against a certain
+class of monks, testifies that when Nirvâna is understood in the sense
+of quietism or pessimism, he vigorously repudiated it:
+
+
+ “Fearing an endless chain of birth and death,
+ And the misery of transmigration,
+ Their heart is filled with worry,
+ But they desire their safety only.
+
+{53}
+
+ “Quietly sitting and reckoning the breaths,
+ They’re bent on the Anâpânam.[15]
+ They contemplate on the filthiness of the body,--
+ Thinking how impure it is!
+
+ “They shun the dust of the triple world,
+ And in ascetic practise their safety they seek:
+ Incapable of love and sympathy are they,
+ For on Nirvâna abides their thought.”[16]
+
+
+Against this ascetic practise of some monks, the Buddha sets forth
+what might be called the ideal of the Buddhist life:
+
+
+ “Arouse thy will, supreme and great,
+ Practise love and sympathy, give joy and protection;
+ Thy love like unto space,
+ Be it without discrimination, without limitation.
+
+ “Merits establish, not for thy own sake,
+ But for charity universal;
+ Save and deliver all beings,
+ Let them attain the wisdom of the Great Way.”
+
+
+It is apparent that the ethical application of the doctrine of Nirvâna
+is naught else than the Golden {54} Rule,[17] so called. The Golden
+Rule, however, does not give any reason why we should so act, it is a
+mere command whose authority is ascribed to a certain superhuman being.
+This does not satisfy an intellectually disposed mind, which refuses
+to accept anything on mere authority, for it wants to go to the bottom
+of things and see on what ground they are standing. Buddhism has solved
+this problem by finding the oneness of things in Dharmakâya, from which
+flows the eternal stream of love and sympathy. As we have seen before,
+when the cursed barrier of egoism is broken down, there remains nothing
+that can prevent us from loving others as ourselves.
+
+Those who wish to see nothing but an utter barrenness of heart after
+the annihilation of egoism, are much mistaken in their estimation of
+human nature. For they think its animation comes from selfishness, and
+that all forms of activity in our life are propelled simply by the
+desire to preserve self and the race. They, therefore, naturally
+shrink from the doctrine that teaches that all things worldly are
+empty, and that there is no such thing as ego-substance whose {55}
+immortality is so much coveted by most people. But the truth is, the
+spring of love does not lie in the idea of self, but in its removal.
+For the human heart, being a reflection of the Dharmakâya which is
+love and intelligence, recovers its intrinsic power and goodness, only
+when the veil of ignorance and egoism is cast aside. The animation,
+energy, strenuousness, which were shown by a self-centered will, and
+which therefore were utterly despicable, will not surely die out with
+the removal of their odious atmosphere in which egoism had enveloped
+them. But they will gain an ever nobler interpretation, ever more
+elevating and satisfying significance; for they have gone through a
+baptism of fire, by which the last trace of egoism has been thoroughly
+consumed. The old evil master is eternally buried, but the willing
+servants are still here and ever ready to do their service, now more
+efficiently, for their new legitimate and more authoritative lord.
+
+Destruction is in common parlance closely associated with nothingness,
+hence Nirvâna, the destruction of egoism, is ordinarily understood as
+a synonym of nihilism. But the removal of darkness does not bring
+desolation, but means enlightenment and order and peace. It is the
+same chamber, all the furniture is left there as it was before. In
+darkness chaos reigned, goblins walked wild; in enlightenment
+everything is in its proper place. And did we not state plainly that
+Nirvâna was enlightenment?
+
+{56}
+
+
+ _The Intellectual Tendency of Buddhism._
+
+One thing which in this connection I wish to refer to, is what makes
+Buddhism appear somehow cold and impassive. By this I mean its
+intellectuality.
+
+The fact is that anything coming from India greatly savors of
+philosophy. In ancient India everybody of the higher castes seems to
+have indulged in intellectual and speculative exercises. Being rich in
+natural resources and thus the struggle for existence being reduced to
+a minimum, the Brahmans and the Kṣatriyas gathered themselves under
+most luxuriously growing trees, or retired to the mountain-grottoes
+undisturbed by the hurly-burly of the world, and there they devoted
+all their leisure hours to metaphysical speculations and discussions.
+Buddhism, as a product of these people, is naturally deeply imbued
+with intellectualism.
+
+Further, in India there was no distinction between religion and
+philosophy. Every philosophical system was at the same time a religion,
+and _vice versa_. Philosophy with the Hindus was not an idle display
+of logical subtlety which generally ends in entangling itself in the
+meshes of sophistry. Their aim of philosophising was to have an
+intellectual insight into the significance of existence and the
+destiny of humanity. They did not believe in anything blindly nor
+accept anything on mere tradition. Buddha most characteristically
+echoes this sentiment when he says, “Follow my teachings not as taught
+by a Buddha, but as {57} being in accord with truth.” This spirit of
+self-reliance and self-salvation later became singularly Buddhistic.
+Even when Buddha was still merely an enthusiastic aspirant for Nirvâna,
+he seems to have been strongly possessed of this spirit, for he most
+emphatically declared the following famous passage, in response to the
+pathetic persuasion of his father’s ministers, who wanted him to come
+home with them: “The doubt whether there exists anything or not, is
+not to be settled for me by another’s words. Arriving at the truth
+either by mortification or by tranquilisation, I will grasp myself
+whatever is ascertainable about it. It is not mine to receive a view
+which is full of conflicts, uncertainties, and contradictions. What
+enlightened men would go by other’s faith? The multitudes are like the
+blind led in the darkness by the blind.”[18]
+
+To say simply, “Love your enemy,” was not satisfactory to the Hindu
+mind, it wanted to see the reason why. And as soon as the people were
+convinced intellectually, they went even so far as to defend the faith
+with their lives. It was not an uncommon event that before a party of
+Hindu philosophers entered into a discussion they made an agreement
+that the penalty of defeats should be the sacrifice of the life. They
+were, above all, a people of intellect, though of course not lacking
+in religious sentiment.
+
+It is no wonder, then, that Buddha did not make the first proclamation
+of his message by “Repent, for {58} the kingdom of heaven is at hand,”
+but by the establishment of the Four Noble Truths.[19] One appeals to
+the feeling, and the other to the intellect. That which appeals to the
+intellect naturally seems to be less passionate, but the truth is,
+feeling without the support of intellect leads to fanaticism and is
+always ready to yield itself to bigotry and superstition.
+
+The doctrine of Nirvâna is doubtless more intellectual than the
+Christian gospel of love. It first recognises the wretchedness of
+human life as is proved by our daily experiences; it then finds its
+cause in our subjective ignorance as to the true meaning of existence,
+and in our egocentric desires which, obscuring our spiritual insight,
+make us tenaciously cling to things chimerical; it then proposes the
+complete annihilation of egoism, the root of all evil, by which,
+subjectively, tranquillity of heart is restored, and, objectively, the
+realisation of universal love becomes possible. Buddhism, thus,
+proceeds most logically in the development of its doctrine of Nirvâna
+and universal love.
+
+Says Victor Hugo (_Les Misérables_, vol. II): “The reduction of the
+universe to a single being, the expansion of a single being even to
+God, this is love.” When a man clings to the self and does not want
+{59} to identify himself with other fellow-selves, he cannot expand
+his being to God. When he shuts himself in the narrow shell of ego and
+keeps all the world outside, he cannot reduce the universe to his
+innermost self. To love, therefore, one must first enter Nirvâna.
+
+The truth is everywhere the same and is attained through the removal
+of ignorance. But as individual disposition differs according to the
+previous karma, some are more prone to intellectualism, while the
+others to sentimentality (in its psychological sense). Let us then
+follow our own inclination conscientiously and not speak evil of
+others. This is called the Doctrine of Middle Path.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+ HISTORICAL CHARACTERISATION OF
+ MAHÂYÂNISM.
+
+{60}
+
+/We/ are now in a position to enter into a specific exposition of the
+Mahâyâna doctrine. But, before doing so, it will be well for us first
+to consider the views that were held by the Hindu Buddhist thinkers
+concerning its characteristic features; in other words, to make an
+historical survey of its peculiarities.
+
+As stated in the Introduction, the term Mahâyâna was invented in the
+times of Nâgârjuna and Âryadeva (about the third or fourth century
+after Christ), when doctrinal struggles between the Çrâvaka and the
+Bodhisattva classes reached a climax. The progressive Hindu Buddhists,
+desiring to announce the essential features of their doctrine, did so
+naturally at the expense of their rival and by pointing out why theirs
+was greater than, or superior to, Hînayânism. Their views were thus
+necessarily vitiated by a partisan spirit, and instead of impartially
+and critically enumerating the principal characteristics of Mahâyânism,
+they placed rather too much stress upon those points that do not in
+these latter days appear to be very essential, but that were then
+considered by them to be of paramount importance. These points,
+nevertheless, {61} throw some light on the nature of Mahâyâna Buddhism
+as historically distinguished from its consanguineous rival and
+fellow-doctrine.
+
+
+ _Sthiramati’s Conception of Mahâyânism._
+
+Sthiramati[20] in his _Introduction to Mahâyânism_ states that
+Mahâyânism is a special doctrine for the Bodhisattvas, who are to be
+distinguished from the other two classes, viz, the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas. The essential difference of the doctrine consists in
+the belief that objects of the senses are merely phenomenal and have
+no absolute reality, that the indestructible Dharmakâya which is
+all-pervading constitutes the norm of existence, that all
+Bodhisattvas[21] are incarnations of the Dharmakâya, who not by
+their evil karma previously accumulated, but by their boundless love
+for all mankind, assume {62} corporeal existences, and that persons
+who thus appear in the flesh, as avatars of the Buddha supreme,
+associate themselves with the masses in all possible social relations,
+in order that they might thus lead them to a state of enlightenment.
+
+While this is a very summary statement of the Mahâyâna doctrine, a
+more elaborate and extended enumeration of its peculiar features in
+contradistinction to those of Hînayânism, is made in the _Miscellanea
+on Mahâyâna Metaphysics_,[22] _The Spiritual Stages of the
+Yogâcâra_,[23] _An Exposition of the Holy Doctrine_,[24] _A
+Comprehensive Treatise on Mahâyânism_,[25] and others. Let us first
+explain the “Seven General Characteristics” as described in the first
+three works here mentioned.
+
+
+ _Seven Principal Features of Mahâyânism._
+
+According to Asanga, who lived a little later than Nâgârjuna, that
+is, at the time when Mahâyânism was further divided into the Yogâcârya
+and the Mâdhyamika school, the seven features peculiar to Mahâyânism
+as distinguished from Hînayânism, are as follows:
+
+(1) _Its Comprehensiveness._ Mahâyânism does not confine itself to
+the teachings of one Buddha alone; {63} but wherever and whenever
+truth is found, even under the disguise of most absurd superstitions,
+it makes no hesitation to winnow the grain from the husk and
+assimilate it in its own system. Innumerable good laws taught by
+Buddhas[26] of all ages and localities are all taken up in the
+coherent body of Mahâyânism.
+
+(2) _Universal love for All Sentient Beings._ Hînayânism confines
+itself to the salvation of individuals only; it does not extend its
+bliss universally, as each person must achieve his own deliverance.
+Mahâyânism, on the other hand, aims at general salvation; it
+endeavors to save us not only individually, but universally. All the
+motives, efforts, and actions of the Bodhisattvas pivot on the
+furtherance of universal welfare.
+
+(3) _Its Greatness in Intellectual Comprehension._ Mahâyânism
+maintains the theory of non-âtman not only in regard to sentient
+beings but in regard to things in general. While it denies the
+hypothesis of a metaphysical agent directing our mental operations, it
+also rejects the view that insists on the noumenal or thingish reality
+of existences as they appear to our senses.
+
+(4) _Its Marvelous Spiritual Energy._ The Bodhisattvas never become
+tired of working for universal salvation, {64} nor do they despair
+because of the long time required to accomplish this momentous object.
+To try to attain enlightenment in the shortest possible period and to
+be self-sufficient without paying any attention to the welfare of the
+masses, is not the teaching of Mahâyânism.
+
+(5) _Its Greatness in the Exercise of the Upâya._ The term _upâya_
+literally means expediency. The great fatherly sympathetic heart of
+the Bodhisattva has inexhaustible resources at his command in order
+that he might lead the masses to final enlightenment, each according
+to his disposition and environment. Mahâyânism does not ask its
+followers to escape the metempsychosis of birth and death for the sake
+of entering into the lethargic tranquillity of Nirvâna; for
+metempsychosis in itself is no evil, and Nirvâna in its coma is not
+productive of any good. And as long as there are souls groaning in
+pain, the Bodhisattva cannot rest in Nirvâna; there is no rest for
+his unselfish heart, so full of love and sympathy, until he leads all
+his fellow-beings to the eternal bliss of Buddhahood. To reach this
+end he employs innumerable means (_upâya_) suggested by his
+disinterested lovingkindness.
+
+(6) _Its Higher Spiritual Attainment._ In Hînayânism the highest bliss
+attainable does not go beyond Arhatship which is ascetic saintliness.
+But the followers of Mahâyânism attain even to Buddhahood with all its
+spiritual powers.
+
+(7) _Its Greater Activity._ When the Bodhisattva {65} reaches the
+stage of Buddhahood, he is able to manifest himself everywhere in the
+ten quarters of the universe[27] and to minister to the spiritual
+needs of all sentient beings.
+
+These seven peculiarities are enumerated to be the reasons why the
+doctrine defended by the progressive Buddhists is to be called
+Mahâyânism, or the doctrine of great vehicle, in contradistinction to
+Hînayânism, the doctrine of small vehicle. In each case, therefore,
+Asanga takes pains to draw the line of demarcation distinctly between
+the two schools of Buddhism and not between Buddhism and all other
+religious doctrines which existed at his time.
+
+
+ _The Ten Essential Features of Buddhism._
+
+The following statement of the ten essential features of Mahâyânism as
+presented in the _Comprehensive Treatise on Mahâyânism_, is made from
+a different standpoint from the preceding one, for it is the
+pronunciamento of the Yogâcâra school of Asanga {66} and Vasubandhu
+rather than that of Mahâyânism generally. This school together with
+the Mâdhyamika school of Nâgârjuna constitute the two divisions of
+Hindu Mahâyânism.[28]
+
+The points enumerated by Asanga and Vasubandhu as most essential in
+their system are ten.
+
+(1) It teaches an immanent existence of all things in the
+_Âlayavijñâna_ or All-Conserving Soul. The conception of an
+All-Conserving Soul, it is claimed, was suggested by Buddha in the
+so-called Hînayâna sûtras; but on account of its deep meaning and
+of the liability of its being confounded with the ego-soul conception,
+he did not disclose its full significance in their sûtras; but made
+it known only in the Mahâyâna sûtras.
+
+According to the Yogâcâra school, the Âlaya is not an universal, but
+an individual mind or soul, whatever we may term it, in which the
+“germs” of all things exist in their ideality.[29] The objective
+world in reality does not exist, but by dint of subjective {67}
+illusion that is created by ignorance, we project all these “germs” in
+the Âlayavijñâna to the outside world, and imagine that they are
+there really as they are; while the Manovijñâna (ego-consciousness)
+which is too a product of illusion, tenaciously clinging to the
+Âlayavijñâna as the real self, never abandons its egoism. The
+Âlayavijñâna, however, is indifferent to, and irresponsible for, all
+these errors on the part of the Manovijñâna.[30]
+
+(2) The Yogâcâra school distinguishes three kinds of knowledge: 1.
+Illusion (_parikalpita_), 2. Discriminative or Relative Knowledge
+(_paratantra_), and 3. Perfect Knowledge (_pariniṣpanna_).
+
+The distinction may best be illustrated by the well-known analogy of a
+rope and a snake. Deceived by a similarity in appearance, men
+frequently take a rope lying on the ground for a poisonous snake and
+{68} are terribly shocked on that account. But when they approach and
+carefully examine it, they become at once convinced of the
+groundlessness of this apprehension, which was the natural sequence of
+illusion. This may be considered to correspond to what Kant calls
+_Schein_.
+
+Most people, however, do not go any further in their inquiry. They are
+contented with the sensual, empirical knowledge of an object with
+which they come in contact. When they understand that the thing they
+mistook for a snake was really nothing but a yard of innocent rope,
+they think their knowledge of the object is complete, and do not
+trouble themselves with a philosophical investigation as to whether
+the rope which to them is just what it appears to be, has any real
+existence in itself. They do not stop a moment to reflect that their
+knowledge is merely relative, for it does not go beyond the phenomenal
+significance of the things they perceive.
+
+But is an object in reality such as it appears to be to our senses?
+Are particular phenomena as such really actual? What is the value of
+our knowledge concerning those so-called realities? When we make an
+investigation into such problems as these, the Yogâcâra school says,
+we find that their existence is only relative and has no absolute
+value whatever independent of the perceiving subject. They are the
+“ejection” of our ideas into the outside world, which are centred and
+conserved in our Âlayavijñâna and which are awakened into activity by
+subjective {69} ignorance. This clear insight into the nature of
+things, i.e., into their non-realness as âtman, constitutes perfect
+knowledge.
+
+(3) When we attain to the perfect knowledge, we recognise the ideality
+of the universe. There is no such thing as an objective world, which
+is really an illusive manifestation of the mind called Âlayavijñâna.
+But even this supposedly real existence of the Âlayavijñâna is a
+product of particularisation called forth by the ignorant Manovijñâna.
+The Manovijñâna, or empirical ego, as it might be called, having no
+adequate knowledge as to the true nature of the Âlaya, takes the latter
+for a metaphysical agent, that like the master of a puppet-show manages
+all mental operations according to its humour. As the silkworm
+imprisons itself in the cocoon created by itself, the Manovijñâna,
+entangling itself in ignorance and confusion, takes its own illusory
+creations for real realities.
+
+(4) For the regulation of moral life, the Yogâcâra with the other
+Mahâyâna schools, proposes the practising of the six Pâramitâs (virtues
+of perfection), which are: 1. _Dana_ (giving), 2. _Çîla_ (moral
+precept), 3. _Kṣânti_ (meekness), 4. _Vîrya_ (energy), 5. _Dhyâna_
+(meditation), 6. _Prajñâ_ (knowledge or wisdom). In way of explanation,
+says Asanga: “By not clinging to wealth or pleasures (1), by not
+cherishing any thoughts to violate the precepts (2), by not feeling
+dejected in the face of evils (3), by not awakening any thought of
+indolence while practising goodness (4), {70} by maintaining serenity
+of mind in the midst of disturbance and confusion of this world (5),
+and finally by always practising _ekacitta_[31] and by truthfully
+comprehending the nature of things (6), the Bodhisattvas recognise the
+truth of _vijñânamâtra_,--the truth that there is nothing that is not
+of ideal or subjective creation.”
+
+(5) Mahâyânism teaches that there are ten spiritual stages of
+Bodhisattvahood, viz., 1. Pramuditâ, 2. Vimalâ, 3 Prabhâkarî, 4.
+Arcismatî, 5. Sudurjayâ, 6. Abhimukhî, 7. Dûrangamâ, 8. Acalâ, 9.
+Sâdhumatî, 10. Dharmameghâ[32]. By passing through all these stages
+one after another, we are believed to reach the oneness of Dharmakâya.
+
+(6) The Yogâcârists claim that the precepts that are practised by the
+followers of Mahâyânism are far superior to those of Hînayânists. The
+latter tend to externalism and formalism, and do not go deep into our
+spiritual, subjective motives. Now, there are physical, verbal, and
+spiritual precepts observed by the Buddha. The Hînayânists observe the
+first two neglecting the last which is by far more important than the
+rest. For instance, the Çrâvaka’s interpretation of the ten Çikṣas[33]
+is literal and not spiritual; {71} further, they follow these precepts
+because they wish to attain Nirvâna for their own sake, and not for
+others’. The Bodhisattva, on the other hand, does not wish to be bound
+within the narrow circle of moral restriction. Aiming at an universal
+emancipation of mankind, he ventures even violating the ten çikṣas, if
+necessary. The first çikṣa, for instance, forbids the killing of any
+living being; but the Bodhisattva does not hesitate to go to war, in
+case the cause he espouses is right and beneficient to humanity at
+large.
+
+(7) As Mahâyânism insists on the purification of the inner life, its
+teaching applies not to things outward, its principles are not of the
+ascetic and exclusive kind. The Mahâyânists do not shun to commingle
+themselves with the “dust of worldliness”; they aim at the realisation
+of the Bodhi; they are not afraid of being thrown into the whirlpool
+of metempsychosis; they endeavor to impart spiritual benefits to all
+sentient beings without regard to their attitude, whether hostile or
+friendly, towards themselves; having immovable faith in the Mahâyâna,
+they never become contaminated by vanity and worldly pleasures with
+which they may constantly be in touch; they have a clear insight into
+the doctrine of non-âtman; being free from all spiritual faults, they
+live in perfect accord with the laws of Suchness and discharge their
+duties without the {72} least conceit or self-assertion: in a word,
+their inner life is a realisation of the Dharmakâya.
+
+(8) The intellectual superiority of the Bodhisattva is shown by his
+possession of knowledge of non-particularisation (_anânârtha_).[34]
+This knowledge, philosophically considered, is the knowledge of the
+absolute, or the knowledge of the universal. The Bodhisattva’s mind is
+free from the dualism of samsâra (birth-and-death) and nirvâna, of
+positivism and negativism, of being and non-being, of object and
+subject, of ego and non-ego. His knowledge, in short, transcends the
+limits of final realities, soaring high to the realm of the absolute
+and the abode of non-particularity.
+
+(9) In consequence of this intellectual elevation, the Bodhisattva
+perceives the working of birth and death in nirvâna, and nirvâna in
+the transmigration of birth and death. He sees the “ever-changing
+many” in the “never-changing one,” and the “never-changing {73} one”
+in the “ever-changing many.” His inward life is in accord at once with
+the laws of transitory phenomena and with those of transcendental
+Suchness. According to the former, he does not recoil as ascetics do
+when he comes in contact with the world of the senses; he is not
+afraid of suffering the ills that the flesh is heir to; but, according
+to the latter, he never clings to things evanescent, his inmost
+consciousness forever dwells in the serenity of eternal Suchness.
+
+(10) The final characteristic to be mentioned as distinctly
+Mahâyânistic is the doctrine of Trikâya. There is, it is asserted,
+the highest being which is the ultimate cause of the universe and in
+which all existences find their essential origin and significance.
+This is called by the Mahâyânists Dharmakâya. The Dharmakâya, however,
+does not remain in its absoluteness, it reveals itself in the realm of
+cause and effect. It then takes a particular form. It becomes a devil,
+or a god, or a deva, or a human being, or an animal of lower grade,
+adapting itself to the degrees of the intellectual development of the
+people. For it is the people’s inner needs which necessitate the
+special forms of manifestation. This is called Nirmânakâya, that is,
+the body of transformation. The Buddha who manifested himself in the
+person of Gautama, the son of King of Çuddhodâna about two thousand
+five hundred years ago on the Ganges, is a form of Nirmânakâya. The
+third one is called Sambhogakâya, or body of bliss. This is the
+spiritual {74} body of a Buddha, invested with all possible grandeur
+in form and in possession of all imaginable psychic powers. The
+conception of Sambhogakâya is full of wild imaginations which are not
+easy of comprehension by modern minds.[35]
+
+These characteristics enumerated at seven or ten as peculiarly
+Mahâyânistic are what the Hindu Buddhist philosophers of the first
+century down to the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era
+thought to be the most essential points of their faith and what they
+thought entitled it to be called the “Great Vehicle” (_Mahâyâna_) of
+salvation, in contradistinction to the faith embraced by their
+conservative brethren. But, as we view them now, the points here
+specified are to a great extent saturated with a partisan spirit, and
+besides they are more or less scattered and unconnected statements of
+the so-called salient features of Mahâyânism. Nor do they furnish much
+information concerning the nature of Mahâyânism as a coherent system
+of religious teachings. They give but a general and somewhat obscure
+delineation of it, and that in opposition to Hînayânism. In point of
+fact, Mahâyânism is a school of Buddhism and has many characteristics
+in common with Hînayânism. Indeed, the spirit of the former is also
+that of the latter, and as far as the general trend of Buddhism is
+concerned there is no need of emphasising {75} the significance of one
+school over the other. On the following pages I shall try to present a
+more comprehensive and impartial exposition of the Buddhism, which has
+been persistently designated by its followers as Mahâyânism.
+
+
+
+
+ SPECULATIVE MAHÂYÂNISM.
+
+{76}
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+ PRACTISE AND SPECULATION.
+
+/Mahâyânism/ perhaps can best be treated in two main divisions, as it
+has distinctly two principal features in its doctrinal development. I
+may call one the speculative phase of Mahâyânism and the other
+practical. The first part is essentially a sort of Buddhist
+metaphysics, where the mind is engaged solely in ratiocination and
+abstraction. Here the intellect plays a very prominent part, and some
+of the most abstruse problems of philosophy are freely discussed.
+Speculative followers of Buddhism have taken great interest in the
+discussion of them and have written many volumes on various
+subjects.[36] {77} The second or practical phase of Mahâyânism
+deals with such religious beliefs that constitute the life and essence
+of the system. Mahâyânists might have reasoned wrongfully to explain
+their practical faith, but the faith itself is the outburst of the
+religious sentiment which is inherent in human nature. This practical
+part, therefore, is by far more important, and in fact it can be said
+that the speculative part is merely a preparatory step toward it.
+Inasmuch as Mahâyânism is a religion and not a philosophical system,
+it must be practical, that is, it must directly appeal to the inmost
+life of the human heart.
+
+
+ _Relation of Feeling and Intellect in Religion._
+
+So much has been said about the relation between philosophy and
+religion; and there are many scholars who so firmly believe in the
+identity of religion either with superstitions or with supernatural
+revelation, that the denial of this assertion is considered by them
+practically to be the disavowal of all religions. For, according to
+them, there is no midway in religion. A religion which is rational and
+yet practical is no religion. Now, Buddhism is neither a vagary of
+imagination nor a revelation from above, and on this account it has
+been declared by some to be a philosophy. The title “Speculative
+Mahâyânism” thus, is apt to {78} be taken as a confirmation of such
+opinion. To remove all the misconceptions, therefore, which might be
+entertained concerning the religious nature of Mahâyânism and its
+attitude toward intellectualism, I have deemed it wise here to say a
+few words about the relation between feeling and intellect in religion.
+
+There is no doubt that religion is essentially practical; it does not
+necessarily require theorisation. The latter, properly speaking, is
+the business of philosophy. If religion was a product of the intellect
+solely, it could not give satisfaction to the needs of man’s whole
+being. Reason constitutes but a part of the organised totality of an
+individual being. Abstraction however high, and speculation however
+deep, do not as such satisfy the inmost yearnings of the human heart.
+But this they can do when they enter into one’s inner life and
+constitution; that is, when abstraction becomes a concrete fact and
+speculation a living principle in one’s existence; in short, when
+philosophy becomes religion.
+
+Philosophy as such, therefore, is generally distinguished from
+religion. But we must not suppose that religion as the deepest
+expression of a human being can eliminate altogether from it the
+intellectual element. The most predominant rôle in religion may be
+played by the imagination and feeling, but ratiocination must not fail
+to assert its legitimate right in the co-ordination of beliefs. When
+this right is denied, religion becomes fanaticism, superstition, fata
+morgana, and even a menace to the progress of humanity.
+
+{79}
+
+The intellect is critical, objective, and always tries to stand apart
+from the things that are taken up for examination. This alienation or
+keeping itself aloof from concrete facts on the part of the intellect,
+constantly tends to disregard the real significance of life, of which
+it is also a manifestation. Therefore, the conflict between feeling
+and reason, religion and science, instinct and knowledge, has been
+going on since the awakening of consciousness.
+
+Seeing this fact, intellectual people are generally prone to condemn
+religion as barring the freedom and obstructing the progress of
+scientific investigations. It is true that religion went frequently to
+the other extreme and tried to suppress the just claim of reason; it
+is true that this was especially the case with Christianity, whose
+history abounds with regretable incidents resulting from its violent
+encroachments upon the domain of reason. It is also true that the
+feeling and the intellect are sometimes at variance, that what the
+feeling esteems as the most valuable treasure is at times relentlessly
+crushed by the reason, while the feeling looks with utmost contempt at
+the results that have been reached by the intellect after much
+lucubration. But this fatal conflict is no better than the fight which
+takes place between the head and the tail of a hydra when it is cut in
+twain; it always results in self-destruction.
+
+We cannot live under such a miserable condition forever; when we know
+that it is altogether due to a myopia on the part of our understanding.
+The {80} truth is that feeling and reason “cannot do without one
+another, and must work together inseparably in the process of human
+development, since reason without feeling could have nothing to act
+for and would be impotent to act, while feeling without reason would
+act tyrannically and blindly--that is to say, if either could exist
+and act at all without the other; for in the end it is not feeling nor
+reason, which acts, but it is the man who acts according as he feels
+and reasons”. (H. Maudsley’s _Natural Causes and Supernatural
+Seemings_, p. vii). If it is thus admitted that feeling and reason
+must co-ordinate and co-operate in the realisation of human ideals,
+religion, though essentially a phenomenon of the emotional life,
+cannot be indifferent to the significance of the intellect. Indeed,
+religion, as much as philosophy, has ever been speculating on the
+problems that are of the most vital importance to human life. In
+Christianity speculation has been carried on under the name of
+theology, though it claims to be fundamentally a religion of faith. In
+India, however, as mentioned elsewhere, there was no dividing line
+between philosophy and religion; and every teaching, every system, and
+every doctrine, however abstract and speculative it might appear to
+the Western mind, was at bottom religious and always aimed at the
+deliverance of the soul. There was no philosophical system that did
+not have some practical purpose.
+
+Indian thinkers could not separate religion from {81} philosophy,
+practice from theory. Their philosophy flowed out of the very spring
+of the human heart and was not a mere display of fine intellectuation.
+If their thinking were not in the right direction and led to a fallacy
+which made life more miserable, they were ever ready to surrender
+themselves to a superior doctrine as soon as it was discovered. But
+when they thought they were in the right track, they did not hesitate
+to sacrifice their life for it. Their philosophy had as much fire as
+religion.
+
+
+ _Buddhism and Speculation._
+
+Owing to this fact, Buddhism as much as Hinduism is full of abstract
+speculations and philosophical reflections so much so that some
+Christian critics are inclined to deny the religiosity of Buddhism.
+But no student of the science of comparative religion would indorse
+such a view nowadays. Buddhism, in spite of its predominant
+intellectualism, is really a religious system. There is no doubt that
+it emphasises the rational element of religion more than any other
+religious teachings, but on that account we cannot say that it
+altogether disregards the importance of the part to be played by the
+feeling. Its speculative, philosophical phase is really a preparation
+for fully appreciating the subjective significance of religion, for
+religion is ultimately subjective, that is to say, the essence of
+religion is love and faith, or, to use Buddhist phraseology, it is the
+expression of the Bodhi which {82} consists in _prajñâ_[37]
+(intelligence or wisdom) and _karunâ_ (love or compassion). Mere
+knowledge (not _prajñâ_) has very little value in human life. When
+not guided by love and faith, it readily turns out to be the most
+obedient servant of egoism and sensualism. What Tennyson says in the
+following verses is perfectly true with Buddhism:
+
+
+ “Who loves not knowledge? Who shall rail
+  Against her beauty? May she mix
+  With men and prosper! Who shall fix
+ Her pillars? Let her work prevail.
+
+ “But on her forehead sits a fire;
+  She sets her forward countenance
+  And leaps into the future chance,
+ Submitting all things to desire.
+
+ “Half grown as yet, a child, and vain--
+  She cannot fight the fear of death.
+  What is she, cut from love and faith,
+ But some wild Pallas from the brain
+
+ “Of demons? fiery-hot to burst
+  All barriers in her onward race
+  For power. Let her know her place;
+ She is the second, not the first.
+
+ “A higher hand must make her mild,
+  If all be not in vain, and guide
+  Her footsteps, moving side by side
+ With Wisdom, like the younger child.”
+
+
+{83}
+
+But it must be remembered that Buddhism never ignores the part which
+is played by the intellect in the purification of faith. For it is by
+the judicious exercise of the intellect, that all religious
+superstitions and prejudices are finally destroyed.
+
+The intellect is so far of great consequence, and we must respect it
+as the thunderbolt of Vajrapani, which crushes everything that is mere
+sham and false. But at the same time we must also remember that the
+quintessence of religion like the house built on the solid rock never
+suffers on account of this destruction. Its foundation lies too deeply
+buried in human {84} heart to be damaged by knowledge or science. So
+long as there is a human heart warm with blood and burning with the
+fire of life, the intellect however powerful will never be able to
+trample it under foot. Indeed, the more severely the religious
+sentiment is tested in the crucible of the intellect, the more
+glorious and illuminating becomes its intrinsic virtue. The true
+religion is, therefore, never reluctant to appear before the tribunal
+of scientific investigation. In fact by ignoring the ultimate
+significance of the religious consciousness, science is digging its
+own grave. For what purpose has science other than the unravelling of
+the mysteries of nature and reading into the meaning of existence? And
+is this not what constitutes the foundation of religion? Science
+cannot be final, it must find its reason in religion; as a mere
+intellectual exercise it is not worthy of our serious consideration.
+
+
+ _Religion and Metaphysics._
+
+The French sociologist, M. Guyau, says in his _Irreligion of the
+Future_ (English translation p. 10):
+
+“Every positive and historical religion presents three distinctive and
+essential elements: (1) An attempt at a mythical and non-scientific
+explanation of natural phenomena (divine intervention, miracles,
+efficacious prayers, etc.), or of historical facts (incarnation of
+Jesus Christ or of Buddha, revelation, and so forth); (2) A system of
+dogmas, that is to say, of symbolic ideas, of imaginative beliefs,
+forcibly {85} imposed upon one’s faith as absolute verities, even
+though they are susceptible of no scientific demonstration or
+philosophical justification; (3) A cult and a system of rites, that is
+to say, of more or less immutable practices regarded as possessing a
+marvelous efficacy upon the course of things, a propitiatory virtue. A
+religion without myth, without dogma, without cult, without rite, is
+no more than that somewhat bastard product, ‘natural religion,’ which
+is resolvable to a system of metaphysical hypotheses.”
+
+M. Guyau seems to think that what will be left in religion, when
+severed from its superstitions and imaginary beliefs and mysterious
+rites, is a system of metaphysical speculations, and that, therefore,
+it is not a religion. But in my opinion the French sociologist shares
+the error that is very prevalent among the scientific men of to-day.
+He is perfectly right in trying to strip religion of all its ephemeral
+elements and external integuments, but he is entirely wrong when he
+does this at the expense of its very essence, which consists of the
+inmost yearnings of the human heart. And this essence has no affinity
+with the superstitions which grow round it like excrescences as the
+results of insufficient or abnormal nourishment. Nor does it concern
+itself with mere philosophising and constructing hypotheses about
+metaphysical problems. Far from it. Religion is a cry from the abysmal
+depths of the human heart, that can never be silenced, until it finds
+that something and identifies itself with it, which reveals the
+teleological {86} significance of life and the universe. But this
+something has a subjective value only, as Goethe makes Faust exclaim,
+“Feeling is all in all, name for it I have none.” Why? Because it
+cannot objectively or intellectually be demonstrated, as in the case
+with those laws which govern phenomenal existences,--the proper
+objects of the discursive human understanding. And this subjectivity
+of religion is what makes “all righteousnesses as filthy garments.” If
+religion deprived of its dogmas and cults is to be considered, as M.
+Guyau thinks, nothing but a system of metaphysics, we utterly lose
+sight of its subjective significance or its emotional element, which
+indeed constitutes its _raison d’être_.
+
+ * * *
+
+Having this in view we proceed to see first on what metaphysical
+hypothesis speculative Mahâyâna Buddhism is built up; but the reader
+must remember that this phase of Mahâyânism is merely a preliminary
+to its more essential part, which we expound later under the heading
+of “Practical Mahâyânism,” in contradistinction to “Speculative
+Mahâyânism.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+ CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE.
+
+{87}
+
+
+ _Three Forms of Knowledge._
+
+/Mahâyânism/ generally distinguishes two or three forms of knowledge.
+This classification is a sort of epistemology, inasmuch as it proposes
+to ascertain the extent and nature of human knowledge, from a
+religious point of view. Its object is to see what kind of human
+knowledge is most reliable and valuable for the annihilation of
+ignorance and the attainment of enlightenment. The Mahâyâna school
+which has given most attention to this division of Buddhist philosophy
+is the Yogâcâra of Asanga and Vasubandhu. The _Lankâvatarâ_ and the
+_Sandhinirmocana_ and some other Sûtras, on which the school claims to
+have its doctrinal foundation, teach three forms of knowledge. The
+sûtra literature, however, as a rule does not enter into any detailed
+exposition of the subject; it merely classifies knowledge and points
+out what form of knowledge is most desirable by the Buddhists. To
+obtain a fuller and more discursive elucidation, we must come to the
+Abhidharma Pitaka of that school. Of the text books most generally
+studied of the {88} Yogâcâra, we may mention Vasubandhu’s
+_Vijñânamâtra_ with its commentaries and Asanga’s _Comprehensive
+Treatise on Mahâyânism_. The following statements are abstracted
+mainly from these documents.
+
+The three forms of knowledge as classified by the Yogâcâra are: (1)
+Illusion (_parikalpita_), (2) Relative Knowledge (_paratantra_), and
+(3) Absolute Knowledge (_pariniṣpanna_).
+
+
+ _Illusion._
+
+Illusion (_parikalpita_), to use Kantian phraseology, is a
+sense-perception not co-ordinated by the categories of the
+understanding; that is to say, it is a purely subjective elaboration,
+not verified by objective reality and critical judgment. So long as we
+make no practical application of it, it will harbor no danger; there
+is no evil in it, at least religiously. Perceptual illusion is a
+psychical fact, and as such it is justified. A straight rod in water
+appears crooked on account of the refraction of light; a sensation is
+often felt in the limb after it has been amputated, for the nervous
+system has not yet adjusted itself to the new condition. They are all
+illusions, however. They are doubtless the correct interpretation of
+the sense-impressions in question, but they are not confirmed by other
+sense-impressions whose coördination is necessary to establish an
+objective reality. The moral involved in this is: all sound inferences
+and correct behavior must be based on critical knowledge and not on
+illusory premises.
+
+{89}
+
+Reasoning in this wise, the Mahâyânists declare that the egoism
+fostered by vulgar minds belongs to this class of knowledge, though of
+a different order, and that those who tenaciously cling to egoism as
+their final stronghold are believers in an intellectual fata morgana,
+and are like the thirsty deer that madly after the visionary water in
+the desert, or like the crafty monkey that tries to catch the lunar
+reflection in the water. Because the belief in the existence of a
+metaphysical agent behind our mental phenomena is not confirmed by
+experience and sound judgment, it being merely a product of
+unenlightened subjectivity.
+
+Besides this ethical and philosophical egoism, all forms of
+world-conception which is founded on the sandy basis of subjective
+illusion, such as fetichism, idolatry, anthropomorphism,
+anthropopsychism, and the like, must be classed under the
+_parikalpita-lakṣana_ as doctrines having illusionary premises.
+
+
+ _Relative Knowledge._
+
+Next comes the _paratantra-lakṣana_, a _welt-anschauung_ based upon
+relative knowledge, or better, upon the knowledge of the law of
+relativity. According to this view, everything in the world has a
+relative and conditional existence, and nothing can claim an absolute
+reality free from all limitations. This closely corresponds to the
+theory advanced by most of modern scientists, whose agnosticism denies
+our intellectual capability of transcending the law of relativity.
+
+{90}
+
+The _paratantra-lakṣana_, therefore, consists in the knowledge
+derived from our daily intercourse with the outward world. It deals
+with the highest abstractions we can make out of our sensuous
+experiences. It is positivistic in its strictest sense. It says: The
+universe has only a relative existence, and our knowledge is
+necessarily limited. Even the highest generalisation cannot go beyond
+the law of relativity. It is impossible for us to know the first cause
+and the ultimate end of existence; nor have we any need to go thus
+beyond the sphere of existence, which would inevitably involve us in
+the maze of mystic imagination.
+
+The _paratantra-lakṣana_, therefore, is a positivism, agnosticism, or
+empiricism in its spirit. Though the Yogâcâra Buddhists do not use all
+these modern philosophical terms, the interpretation here given is
+really what they intended to mean by the second form of knowledge. A
+world-conception based on this view, it is declared by the
+Mahâyânists, is sound as far as our perceptual knowledge is concerned;
+but it does not exhaust the entire field of human experience, for it
+does not take into account our spiritual life and our inmost
+consciousness. There is something in the human heart that refuses to
+be satisfied with merely systematising under the so-called laws of
+nature those multitudinous impressions which we receive from the
+outside world. There is a singular feeling, or sentiment, or yearning,
+whatever we may call it, in our inmost heart, which defies any plainer
+{91} description than a mere suggestion or an indirect statement. This
+somewhat mystic consciousness seems despite its obscureness to contain
+the meaning of our existence as well as that of the universe. The
+intellect may try to persuade us with all its subtle reasonings to
+subdue this disquieting feeling and to remain contented with the
+systematising of natural laws, so called. But it is deceiving itself
+by so doing; because the intellect is but a servant to the heart, and
+so far as it is not forced to self-contradiction, it must accommodate
+itself to the needs of the heart. That is to say, we must transcend
+the narrow limits of conditionality and see what indispensable
+postulates are underlying our life and experiences. The recognition
+of these indispensable postulates of life constitutes the Yogâcâra’s
+third form of knowledge called _pariniṣpanna-lakṣana_.
+
+
+ _Absolute Knowledge._
+
+_Pariniṣpanna-lakṣana_ literally means the world-view founded on the
+most perfect knowledge. According to this view, the universe is a
+monistico-pantheistic system. While phenomenal existences are
+regulated by natural laws characterised by conditionality and
+individuation, they by no means exhaust all our experiences which are
+stored in our inmost consciousness. There must be something,--this is
+the absolute demand of humanity, the ultimate postulate of
+experience,--be it Will, or Intelligence, which, underlying and
+animating all existences, forms {92} the basis of cosmic, ethical, and
+religious life. This highest Will, or Intelligence, or both may be
+termed God, but the Mahâyânists call it religiously Dharmakâya,
+ontologically Bhûtatathâtâ, and psychologically Bodhi or Sambodhi.
+And they think it must be immanent in the universe manifesting itself
+in all places and times; it must be the cause of perpetual creation;
+it must be the principle of morality. This being so, how do we come to
+the recognition of its presence? The Buddhists say that when our minds
+are clear of illusions, prejudices, and egotistic assumptions, they
+become transparent and reflect the truth like a dust-free mirror. The
+illumination thus gained in our consciousness constitutes the
+so-called _pariniṣpanna_, the most perfect knowledge, that leads to
+Nirvâna, final salvation, and eternal bliss.
+
+
+ _World-views Founded on the Three
+ Forms of Knowledge._
+
+The reason will be obvious to the reader why the Yogâcâra school
+distinguishes three classes of world-conception founded on the three
+kinds of knowledge. The _parikalpita-lakṣana_ is most primitive and
+most puerile. However, in these days of enlightenment, what is
+believed by the masses is naught else than a _parikalpita_ conception
+of the world. The material existence as it appears to our senses is to
+them all in all. They seem to be unable to shake off the yoke of
+egoistic illusion and naïve realism. Their God must be transcendent
+and anthropopathic, {93} and always willing to meddle with worldly
+affairs as his whim pleases. How different the world is, in which the
+multitudes of unreflecting minds are living, from that which is
+conceived by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas! Hartmann, a German thinker, is
+right, when he says that the masses are at least a century behind in
+their intellectual culture. But the most strange thing in the world is
+that, in spite of all their ignorance and superstitious beliefs, the
+waves of universal transformation are ever carrying them onward to a
+destination, of which, perhaps, they have not the slightest suspicion.
+
+The _paratantra-lakṣana_ advances a step further, but the fundamental
+error involved in it is its persistent self-contradictory disregard
+for what our inmost consciousness is constantly revealing to us. The
+intellect alone can by no means unravel the mystery of our entire
+existence. In order to reach the highest truth, we must boldly plunge
+with our whole being into a region where absolute darkness defying the
+light of intellect is supposed to prevail. This region which is no
+more nor less than the field of religious consciousness is shunned by
+most of the intellectual people on the plea that the intellect by its
+very nature is unable to fathom it. But the only way that leads us to
+the final pacification of the heart-yearnings is to go beyond the
+horizons of limiting reason and to resort to the faith that has been
+planted in the heart as the _sine qua non_ of its own existence and
+vitality. And by faith I mean _Prajñâ_ (wisdom), transcendental {94}
+knowledge, that comes direct from the intelligence-essence of the
+Dharmakâya. A mind, so tired in vainly searching after truth and bliss
+in the verbiage of philosophy and the nonsense of ritualism, finds
+itself here completely rested bathing in the rays of divine
+effulgence,--whence this is, it does not question, being so filled
+with supramundane blessings which alone are felt. Buddhism calls this
+exalted spiritual state Nirvâna or Mokṣa; and _pariniṣpanna-lakṣana_
+is a world-conception which naturally follows from this subjective,
+ideal enlightenment.[38]
+
+
+ _Two Forms of Knowledge._
+
+The other Hindu Mahâyânism, the Mâdhyamika school of Nâgârjuna,
+distinguishes two, instead of three, orders of knowledge, but
+practically the Yogâcâra and the Mâdhyamika come to the same
+conclusion.[39]
+
+{95}
+
+The two kinds of knowledge or truth distinguished by the Mâdhyamika
+philosophy are _Samvṛtti-satya_ and _Paramârtha-satya_, that is,
+conditional truth and transcendental truth. We read in Nâgârjuna’s
+_Mâdhyamika Çâstra_ (Buddhist Text Society edition, pp. 180, 181):
+
+
+ “On two truths is founded
+ The holy doctrine of Buddhas:
+ Truth conditional,
+ And truth transcendental.
+
+ “Those who verily know not
+ The distinction of the two truths.
+ Know not the essence
+ Of Buddhism which is meaningful.”[40]
+
+
+The conditional truth includes illusion and relative knowledge of the
+Yogâcâra school, while the transcendental truth corresponds to the
+absolute knowledge.
+
+In explaining these two truths, the Mâdhyamika philosophers have made
+a constant use of the terms, _çûnya_ and _açûnya_, void and not-void,
+which unfortunately became a cause of the misunderstanding by Christian
+scholars of Nâgârjuna’s transcendental philosophy. Absolute truth is
+void in its ultimate nature, for it contains nothing concrete or real
+or individual that makes it an object of particularisation. But this
+must not be understood, as is done by some superficial critics, in the
+sense of absolute {96} nothingness. The Mâdhyamika philosophers make
+the _satya_ (transcendental truth) empty when contrasted with the
+realness of phenomenal existences. Because it is not real in the sense
+a particular being is real; but it is empty since it transcends the
+principle of individuation. When considered absolutely, it can neither
+be empty nor not-empty, neither _çûnya_ nor _açûnya_, neither _asti_
+nor _nâsti_, neither _abhâva_ nor _bhâva_, neither real nor unreal.
+All these terms imply relation and contrast, while the _Paramârtha_
+Satya is above them, or better, it unifies all contrasts and antitheses
+in its absolute oneness. Therefore, even to designate it at all may
+lead to the misunderstanding of the true nature of the _Satya_, for
+naming is particularising. It is not, as such, an object of
+intellectuation or of demonstrative knowledge. It underlies everything
+conditional and phenomenal, and does not permit itself to be a
+particular object of discrimination.
+
+
+ _Transcendental Truth and Relative
+ Understanding._
+
+One may say: If transcendental truth is of such an abstract nature,
+beyond the reach of the understanding, how can we ever hope to attain
+it and enjoy its blessings? But Nâgârjuna says that it is not
+absolutely out of the ken of the understanding; it is, on the
+contrary, through the understanding that we become acquainted with the
+quarter towards which our spiritual efforts should be directed, only
+{97} let us not cling to the means by which we grasp the final
+reality. A finger is needed to point at the moon, but when we have
+recognised the moon, let us no more trouble ourselves with the finger.
+The fisherman carries a basket to take the fish home, but what need
+has he to worry about the basket when the contents are safely on the
+table? Only so long as we are not yet aware of the way to
+enlightenment, let us not ignore the value of relative knowledge or
+conditional truth or _lokasamvṛttisatya_ as Nâgârjuna terms it.
+
+
+ “If not by worldly knowledge,
+ The truth is not understood;
+ When the truth is not approached,
+ Nirvâna is not attained.”[41]
+
+
+From this, it is to be inferred that Buddhism never discourages the
+scientific, critical investigation of religious beliefs. For it is one
+of the functions of science that it should purify the contents of a
+belief and that it should point out in which direction our final
+spiritual truth and consolation have to be sought. Science alone which
+is built on relative knowledge is not able to satisfy all our religious
+cravings, but it is certainly able to direct us to the path of
+enlightenment. When this path is at last revealed, we shall know how
+to avail ourselves of the discovery, as then Prajñâ (or Sambodhi, or
+Wisdom) becomes the {98} guide of life. Here we enter into the region
+of the unknowable. The spiritual facts we experience are not
+demonstrable, for they are so direct and immediate that the uninitiated
+are altogether at a loss to get a glimpse of them.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+ BHÛTATATHÂTÂ (SUCHNESS).
+
+{99}
+
+/From/ the ontological point of view, Paramârtha-satya or Pariniṣpanna
+(transcendental truth) is called Bhûtatathâtâ, which literally means
+“suchness of existence.” As Buddhism does not separate being from
+thought nor thought from being, what is suchness in the objective
+world, is transcendental truth in the subjective world, and _vice
+versa_ Bhûtatathâtâ, then, is the Godhead of Buddhism, and it marks
+the consummation of all our mental efforts to reach the highest
+principle, which unifies all possible contradictions and spontaneously
+directs the course of world-events. In short, it is the ultimate
+postulate of existence. Like Paramârtha-satya, as above stated, it
+does not belong to the domain of demonstrative knowledge or sensuous
+experience; it is unknowable by the ordinary processes of
+intellectuation, which the natural sciences use in the formulation of
+general laws; and it is grasped, declare the Buddhists, only by the
+minds that are capable of exercising what might be called religious
+intuition.
+
+Açvaghoṣa argues, in his _Awakening of Faith_ for the indefinability
+of this first principle. When we say it is çûnya or empty, on account
+of its being independent {100} of all the thinkable qualities, which
+we attribute to things relative and conditional, people would take it
+for the nothingness of absolute void. But when we define it as a real
+reality, as it stands above the evanescence of phenomena, they would
+imagine that there is something individual and existing outside the
+pale of this universe, which, though as concrete as we ourselves are,
+lives an eternal life. It is like describing to the blind what an
+elephant looks like; each one of them gets but a very indistinct and
+imperfect conception of the huge creature, yet every one of them
+thinks he has a true and most comprehensive idea of it.[42]
+Açvaghoṣa, thus, wishes to eschew all definite statements concerning
+the ultimate nature of being, but as language is the only mode with
+which we mortals can express our ideas and communicate them to others,
+he thinks the best expression that can be given to it is Bhûtatathâtâ,
+i.e., “suchness of existence,” or simply, “suchness.”
+
+Bhûtatathâtâ (suchness), thus absolutely viewed, does not fall under
+the category of being and non-being; and minds which are kept within
+the narrow circle of contrasts, must be said to be incapable of
+grasping it as it truly is. Says Nâgârjuna in his Çâstra (Ch. XV.):
+
+
+ “Between thisness (_svabhâva_) and thatness (_parabhâva_),
+ Between being and non-being,
+ Who discriminates,
+ The truth of Buddhism he perceives not.”[43]
+
+
+{101}
+
+Or,
+
+
+ “To think ‘it is’, is eternalism,
+ To think ‘it is not’, is nihilism:
+ Being and non-being,
+ The wise cling not to either.”[44]
+
+
+Again,
+
+
+ “The dualism of ‘to be’ and ‘not to be,’
+ The dualism of pure and not-pure:
+ Such dualism having abandoned,
+ The wise stand not even in the middle.”[45]
+
+
+To quote, again, from the _Awakening of Faith_ (pp. 58-59): “In its
+metaphysical origin, Bhûtatathâtâ has nothing to do with things
+defiled, i.e., conditional: it is free from all signs of
+individualisation, such as exist in phenomenal objects: it is
+independent of an unreal, particularising consciousness.”
+
+
+ _Indefinability._
+
+Absolute Suchness from its very nature thus defies all definitions. We
+cannot even say that it is, for everything that is presupposes that
+which is not: existence and non-existence are relative terms as much
+as subject and object, mind and matter, this and that, one and other:
+one cannot be conceived {102} without the other. “It is not so (_na
+iti_)[46],” therefore, may be the only way our imperfect human tongue
+can express it. So the Mahâyânists generally designate absolute
+Suchness as Çûnyatâ or void.
+
+But when this most significant word, çûnyatâ, is to be more fully
+interpreted, we would say with Açvaghoṣa that “Suchness is neither
+that which is existence nor that which is non-existence; neither that
+which is at once existence and non-existence, nor that which is not at
+once existence and non-existence; it is neither that which is unity
+nor that which is plurality; neither that which is at once unity and
+plurality, nor that which is not at once unity and plurality.”[47]
+
+{103}
+
+Nâgârjuna’s famous doctrine of “The Middle Path of Eight No’s”
+breathes the same spirit, which declares:
+
+
+ “There is no death, no birth, no destruction, no persistence,
+ No oneness, no manyness, no coming, no departing,”[48]
+
+
+Elsewhere, he expresses the same idea in a somewhat paradoxical
+manner, making the historical Buddha a real concrete manifestation of
+Suchness:
+
+
+ “After his passing, deem not thus:
+ ‘The Buddha still is here,’
+ He is above all contrasts,
+ To be and not to be.
+
+ “While living, deem not thus:
+ ‘The Buddha is now here.’
+ He is above all contrasts,
+ To be and not to be.”[49]
+
+
+This view of Suchness as no-ness abounds in the literature of the
+Dhyâna school of Mahâyânism. To cite one instance: When
+Bodhi-Dharma[50], the founder {104} of the Dhyâna sect, saw Emperor
+Wu of Liang dynasty (A.D. 502-556), he was asked what the first
+principle of the Holy Doctrine was, he did not give any lengthy,
+periphrastic statement after the manner of a philosopher, but
+laconically replied, “Vast emptiness and nothing holy.” The Emperor
+was bewildered and did not know how to take the words of his holy
+adviser. Naturally, he did not expect such an abrupt answer, and,
+being greatly disappointed, ventured another question: “Who is he,
+then, that stands before me?” By this he meant to repudiate the
+doctrine of absolute Suchness. His line of argument being this: If
+there is nothing in the ultimate nature of things that distinguishes
+between holiness and sinfulness, why this world of contrasts, where
+some are revered as holy, for instance, Bodhi-Dharma who is at this
+very moment standing in front of him with the mission of propagating
+the holy teachings of Buddha? Bodhi-Dharma, however, was a mystic and
+was fully convinced of the insufficiency of the human tongue to
+express the highest truth which is revealed only {105} intuitively to
+the religious consciousness. His conclusive answer was, “I do not
+know”.[51]
+
+This “I do not know” is not to be understood in the spirit of
+agnosticism, but in the sense of “God when understood is no God,” for
+_in se est et per se conceptur_. This way of describing Suchness by
+negative terms only, excluding all differences of name and form
+(_nâmarûpa_) to reach a higher kind of affirmation, seems to be the
+most appropriate one, inasmuch as the human understanding is limited
+in so many respects; but, nevertheless, it has caused much
+misinterpretation even among Buddhists themselves, not to mention
+those Christian Buddhist scholars of to-day, who sometimes appear
+almost wilfully to misconstrue the significance of the çûnyatâ
+philosophy. It was to avoid these unfortunate misinterpretations that
+the Mahâyânists frequently made the paradoxical assertion that
+absolute Suchness is empty and not empty, çûnya and açunya, being
+and non-being, sat and asat, one and many, this and that.
+
+
+ _The “Thundrous Silence.”_
+
+There yet remains another mode of explaining absolute Suchness, which
+though most practical and most effective for the religiously disposed
+minds, may prove very inadequate to a sceptical intellect. {106} It is
+the “thundrous silence” of Vimalakîrti in response to an inquiry
+concerning the nature of Suchness or the “Dharma of Non-duality,” as
+it is termed in the Sûtra.[52]
+
+Bodhisattva Vimalakîrti once asked a host of Bodhisattvas led by
+Mañjuçri, who came to visit him, to express their views as to how to
+enter into the Dharma of Non-duality. Some replied, “Birth and death
+are two, but the Dharma itself was never born and will never die.
+Those who understand this are said to enter into the Dharma of
+Non-duality.” Some said, “‘I’ and ‘mine’ are two. Because I think ‘I
+am’ there are things called ‘mine.’ But as there is no ‘I am’ where
+shall we look for things ‘mine’? By thus reflecting we enter into the
+Dharma of Non-duality.” Some replied, “Samsâra and Nirvâna are two.
+But when we understand the ultimate nature of Samsâra, Samsâra
+vanishes from our consciousness, and there is neither bondage nor
+release, neither birth nor death. By thus reflecting we enter into the
+Dharma of Non-duality”. Others said, “Ignorance and enlightenment are
+two. No ignorance, no enlightenment, and there is no dualism. Why?
+Because those who have entered a meditation in which there is no
+sense-impression, no cogitation, are free from ignorance as well as
+from enlightenment. This holds true with all the other dualistic
+categories. Those who enter thus into the thought of sameness are
+{107} said to enter into the Dharma of Non-duality.” Still others
+answered, “To long for Nirvâna and to shun worldliness are of dualism.
+Long not for Nirvâna, shun not worldliness, and we are free from
+dualism. Why? Because bondage and release are relative terms, and when
+there is no bondage from the beginning, who wishes to be released? No
+bondage, no release, and therefore no longing, no shunning: this is
+called the entering into the Dharma of Non-duality.”
+
+Many more answers of similar nature came forth from all the
+Bodhisattvas in the assembly except the leader Mañjuçri. Vimalakîrti
+now requested him to give his own view, and to this Mañjuçri
+responded, “What I think may be stated thus: That which is in all
+beings wordless, speechless, shows no signs, is not possible of
+cognisance, and is above all questionings and answerings,--to know
+this is said to enter into the Dharma of Non-duality.”
+
+Finally, the host Vimalakîrti himself was demanded by Mañjuçri to
+express his idea of Non-duality, but he kept completely silent and
+uttered not a word. Thereupon, Mañjuçri admiringly exclaimed, “Well
+done, well done! The Dharma of Non-duality is truly above letters and
+words!”[53]
+
+{108}
+
+Now, of this Suchness, the Mahâyânists distinguish two aspects, as
+it is comprehended by our consciousness, which are conditional and
+non-conditional, or the phenomenal world of causality and the
+transcendental realm of absolute freedom. This distinction corresponds
+to that, in the field of knowledge, of relative truth and
+transcendental truth.[54]
+
+{109}
+
+
+ _Suchness Conditioned._
+
+Absolute transcendental Suchness defying all means of characterisation
+does not, as long as it so remains, have any direct significance in
+the phenomenal world and human life. When it does, it must become
+conditional Suchness as _Gesetzmässigkeit_ in nature and as ethical
+order in our practical life. Suchness as absolute is too remote, too
+abstract, and may have only a metaphysical value. Its existence or
+non-existence seems not to affect us in our daily social life,
+inasmuch as it is transcendental. In order to enter into our limited
+consciousness, to become the norm of our conscious activities, to
+regulate the course of the evolutionary tide in nature, Suchness must
+surrender its “splendid isolation,” must abandon its absoluteness.
+
+When Suchness thus comes down from its sovereign-seat in the realm of
+unthinkability, we have this universe unfolded before our eyes in all
+its diversity and magnificence. Twinkling stars inlaid in the vaulted
+sky; the planet elaborately decorated with verdant meadows, towering
+mountains, and rolling waves; the birds cheerfully singing in the
+woods; the beasts wildly running through the thickets; the summer
+heavens ornamented with white fleecy clouds and on {110} earth all
+branches and leaves growing in abundant luxury; the winter prairie
+destitute of all animation, only with naked trees here and there
+trembling in the dreary north winds; all these manifestations, not
+varying a hair’s breadth of deviation from their mathematical,
+astronomical, physical, chemical, and biological laws, are naught else
+than the work of conditional Suchness in nature.
+
+When we turn to human life and history, we have the work of
+conditional Suchness manifested in all forms of activity as passions,
+aspirations, imaginations, intellectual efforts, etc. It makes us
+desire to eat when hungry, and to drink when thirsty; it makes the man
+long for the woman, and the woman for the man; it keeps children in
+merriment and frolic; it braces men and women bravely to carry the
+burden of life. When we are oppressed, it causes us to cry, “Let us
+have liberty or die”; when we are treated with injustice, it leads us
+even to murder and fire and revolution; when our noble sentiments are
+aroused to the highest pitch, it makes us ready to sacrifice all that
+is most dear to us. In brief, all the kaleidoscopic changes of this
+phenomenal world, subjective as well as objective, come from the
+playing hands of conditional Suchness It not only constitutes the
+goodness and blessings of life, but the sins, crimes, and misery which
+the flesh is heir to.[55]
+
+{111}
+
+Açvaghoṣa in his _Awakening of Faith_ speaks of the Heart (_hṛdaya_)
+of Suchness and of the Heart of Birth-and-Death. By the Heart of
+Suchness he means the absolute and by the Heart of Birth-and-Death a
+manifestation of the absolute in this world of particulars. “They are
+not separate,” however, says he, but they are one, for the Heart of
+{112} Suchness is the Heart of Birth-and-Death. It is on account of
+our limited senses and finite mind that we have a world of particulars,
+which, as it is, is no more than a fragment of the absolute
+Bhûtatathâtâ. And yet it is through this fragmentary manifestation
+that we are finally enabled to reach the fundamental nature of being
+in its entirety. Says Açvaghoṣa, “Depending on the Tathâgata-garbha,
+there evolves the Heart of Birth-and-Death. What is immortal and what
+is mortal are harmoniously blended, for they are not one, nor are they
+separate..... Herein all things are organised. Hereby all things are
+created.”
+
+The above is from the ontological standpoint. When viewed
+psychologically, the Heart of Suchness is enlightenment, for Buddhism
+makes no distinction between being and thought, world and mind. The
+ultimate nature of the two is considered to be absolutely one. Now,
+speaking of the nature of enlightenment, Açvaghoṣa says: “It is like
+the emptiness of space and the brightness of the mirror in that it is
+true, and real, and great. It completes and perfects all things. It is
+free from the condition of destructibility. In it is reflected every
+phase of life and activity in the world. Nothing goes out of it,
+nothing enters into it, nothing is annihilated, nothing is destroyed.
+It is one eternal soul, no forms of defilement can defile it. It is
+the essence of intelligence. By reason of its numerous immaculate
+virtues which inhere in it, it perfumes the hearts of all beings.”
+Thus, the Heart of Suchness, which is enlightenment and {113} the
+essence of intelligence, constantly works in and through the hearts of
+all human beings, that is, in and through our finite minds. In this
+sense, Buddhism declares that truth is not to be sought in highly
+abstract philosophical formulæ, but in the phenomena of our everyday
+life such as eating, dressing, walking, sleeping, etc. The Heart of
+Suchness acts and does not abstract; it synthesises and does not
+“dissect to murder.”
+
+
+ _Questions Defying Solution._
+
+Speaking of the world as a manifestation of Suchness, we are here
+beset with the most puzzling questions that have baffled the best
+minds ever since the dawn of intellect. They are: Why did Suchness
+ever leave its abode in the mysterious realm of transcendentality and
+descend on earth where every form of misery greets us on all sides?
+What inherent necessity was there for it to mingle in the dust of
+worldliness while it could enjoy the unspeakable bliss of its own
+absoluteness? In other words, why did absolute Suchness ever become
+conditional Suchness? To dispose of these questions as not concerning
+human interests is the creed of agnosticism and positivism; but the
+fact is, they are not questions whimsically framed by the human mind
+when it was in the mood of playing with itself. They are queries of
+the most vital importance ever put to us, and the significance of life
+entirely hangs on our interpretation of them.
+
+{114}
+
+Buddhism confesses that the mystery is unsolvable purely by the human
+mind, for it is absolutely beyond the region of finite intellect and
+the power of a logical demonstrability. The mystery can only be solved
+in a practical way when we attain the highest spiritual enlightenment
+of Buddhahood, in which the Bodhi with its unimpeded supernatural
+light directly looks into the very abyss of Suchness. The Bodhi or
+Intelligence which constitutes the kernel of our being, is a partial
+realisation in us of Suchness. When this intelligence is merged and
+expands in the Body of Suchness, as the water in a vessel poured into
+the waters of the boundless ocean, it at once perceives and realises
+its nature, its destiny, and its significance in life.
+
+Buddhism is a religion and leaves many topics of metaphysics unsolved,
+at least logically. Though it is more intellectual and philosophical
+than any other religion, it does not pretend to build a complete
+system of speculation. As far as theorisation is concerned, Buddhism
+is dogmatic and assumes many propositions without revealing their
+dialectical processes. But they are all necessary and fundamental
+hypotheses of the religious consciousness; they are the ultimate
+demands of the human soul. Religion has no positive obligation to
+prove its propositions after the fashion of the natural sciences. It
+is enough for religion to state the facts as they are, and the
+intellect, though hampered by limitations inherent in it, has to try
+her best to put them together in a coherent system.
+
+{115}
+
+The solution, then, by Buddhism of those queries stated above cannot
+be said to be very logical and free from serious difficulties, but
+practically it serves all required purposes and is conducive to
+religious discipline. By this I mean the Buddhist theory of Nescience
+or Ignorance (_avidyâ_).
+
+
+ _Theory of Ignorance._
+
+The theory of nescience or ignorance (_avidyâ_) is an attempt by
+Buddhists to solve the relation between the one and the many, between
+absolute Suchness and conditional Suchness, between Dharmakâya and
+Sarvasattva, between wisdom (_bodhi_) and sin (_kleça_), between
+Nirvâna and Samsâra. But Buddhism does not give us any systematic
+exposition of the doctrine. What it says is categorical and dogmatic.
+“This universe is really the Dharmadhâtu;[56] it is characterised by
+sameness (_samatâ_); there is no differentiation (_visama_) in it; it
+is even emptiness itself (_çûnyatâ_); all things have no _pudgala_
+(self). But, because of nescience, there are four or six _mahâbhûta_
+(elements), five _skandha_ (aggregates), six (or eight) _vijñâna_
+(senses), and twelve _nidâna_ (chains of causation). All these names
+and forms (_nâmarûpa_) are of nescience or ignorance.” Or, according
+to Açvaghoṣa, “The Heart of Suchness is the vast All of one
+Dharmadhâtu; it is the essence of all doctrines. The ultimate nature
+does not perish, nor does it {116} decay. All particular objects exist
+because of confused subjectivity (_smṛti_).[57] Independent of
+confused subjectivity, there is no outside world to be perceived and
+discriminated.” “Everything that is subject to the law of birth and
+death exists only because of ignorance and karma.” Such statements as
+these are found almost everywhere in the Buddhist literature; but as
+to the question how and why this negative principle of ignorance came
+to assert itself in the body of Suchness, we are at a loss where to
+find an authoritative and definite answer to it.
+
+One thing, however, is certain, which is this: Ignorance (_avidyâ_)
+is principium individium, that creates the multitudinousness of
+phenomena in the absolute oneness of being, that tosses up the roaring
+billows of existence in the eternal ocean of Suchness, that breaks the
+silence of Nirvâna and starts the wheel of metempsychosis perpetually
+rolling, that, veiling the transpicuous mirror of Bodhi, affects the
+reflection of Suchness therein, that transforms the sameness (_samatâ_)
+of Suchness to the duality of thisness and thatness and leads many
+confused minds to egoism with all its pernicious corollaries.
+
+Perhaps, the best way to attack the problem of ignorance is to
+understand that Buddhism is a thoroughly idealistic doctrine as every
+true religion should be, and that psychologically, and not
+ontologically, {117} should Suchness be conceived, and further, that
+nescience is inherent in Suchness, though only hypothetically,
+illusively, apparently, and not really in any sense.
+
+According to Brahmanism, there was in the beginning only one being;
+and this being willed to be two; which naturally resulted in the
+differentiation of subject and object, mind and nature. In Buddhism,
+however, Suchness is not explicitly stated as having had any desire to
+be other than itself, at least when it is purely metaphysically
+conceived. But as Buddhism interprets this world of particularisation
+as a manifestation of Suchness conditioned by the principle of
+ignorance, ignorance must be considered, however illusory in its
+ultimate nature, to have potentially or rather negatively existed in
+the being of Suchness; and when Suchness, by its transcendental
+freedom of will, affirmed itself, it did so by negating itself, that
+is, by permitting itself to be conditioned by the principle of
+ignorance or individuation. The latter, as is expressly stated
+everywhere in Buddhist sûtras and çâstras, is no more than an illusion
+and a negative quantity, it is merely the veil of Mâya. This chimerical
+nature of ignorance preserves the essential absoluteness of the first
+principle and makes the monism of the Mahâyâna doctrine thoroughly
+consistent. What is to be noted here, however, is this: Buddhism does
+not necessarily regard this world of particulars as altogether
+evanescent and dream-like. When ignorance alone is taken notice {118}
+of and the presence of Suchness in all this multitudinousness of
+things is denied, this existence is positively declared to be void.
+But when an enlightened mind perceives Suchness even in the midst of
+the utter darkness of ignorance, this life assumes an entirely new
+aspect, and we come to realise the illusiveness of all evils.
+
+To return to the subject, ignorance or nescience is defined by
+Açvaghoṣa as a spark of consciousness[58] that spontaneously flashes
+from the unfathomable depths of Suchness. According to this, ignorance
+and consciousness are interchangeable terms, though with different
+shades of meaning. Ignorance is, so to speak, the _raison d’être_ of
+consciousness, is that which makes the appearance of the latter
+possible, while ignorance itself is in turn an illusive emanation of
+Suchness. It is then evident that the awakening of consciousness marks
+the first step toward the rising of this universe from the abyss of
+the self-identity of Suchness. For the unfolding of consciousness
+implies the separation of the perceiving and the perceived, the
+_viṣayin_ and the _viṣaya_, of subject and object, mind and nature.
+
+The eternal abyss of Suchness, so called, is the point where
+subjectivity and objectivity are merged in absolute oneness. It is the
+time, though strictly {119} speaking chronology does not apply here,
+when all “the ten thousand things” of the world have not yet been
+differentiated and even when the God who “created the heaven and
+earth” has not yet made his debut. To use psychological terms, it is
+a state of transcendental or transmarginal consciousness, where all
+sense-perceptions and conceptual images vanish, and where we are in a
+state of absolute unconsciousness. This sounds mystical; but it is an
+established fact that in the field of our mental activities there is
+an abyss where consciousness sometimes suddenly disappears. This
+region beyond the threshold of awaredness, though often a trysting
+place for psychical abnormalities, has a great religious significance,
+which cannot be ignored by superficial scientific arguments. Here is
+the region where the consciousness of subject and object is completely
+annihilated, but here we do not have the silence and darkness of a
+grave, nor is it a state of absolute nothingness. The self is here
+lost in the presence of something indescribable, or better, it expands
+so as to embrace the world-all within itself, and is not conscious of
+any egoistic elation or arrogance; but it merely feels the fulness of
+reality and a touch of celestial joy that cannot be imparted to others
+by anything human. The most convincing spiritual insight into the
+nature of being comes from this source. Enlightenment is the name
+given by Buddhists to the actual gaining of this insight. Bodhi or
+Prajñâ or intelligence is the term for the {120} spiritual power that
+brings about this enlightenment.
+
+When the mind emerges from this state of sameness, consciousness
+spontaneously comes back as it vanished before, retaining the memory
+of the experience so unique and now confronting the world of contrasts
+and mutual dependence, in which our empirical ego moves. The transition
+from one state to the other is like a flash of lightning scintilating
+from behind the clouds; though the two, the subliminal and the
+superficial consciousness, seem to be one continuous form of activity,
+permitting no hiatus between them. At any rate, this awakening of
+subjectivity and the leaving behind of transmarginal consciousness
+marks the start of ignorance. Therefore, psychologically speaking,
+ignorance must be considered synonymous with the awakening of
+consciousness in a sentient being.
+
+Here we have the most mysterious fact that baffles all our
+intellectual efforts to unravel, which is: How and why has ignorance,
+or what is tantamount, consciousness, ever been awakened from the
+absolute calmness (_çānti_) of being? How and why have the waves of
+mentation ever been stirred up in the ocean of eternal tranquillity?
+Açvaghoṣa simply says, “spontaneously.” This by no means explains
+anything, or at least it is not in the line with our so-called
+scientific interpretations, nor does it give us any reason why.
+Nevertheless, religiously and practically viewed, “spontaneous” is the
+most graphic and vigorous term there is for describing the actual
+state of things {121} as they pass before our mental eye. In fact,
+there is always something vague and indefinite in all our psychological
+experiences. With whatever scientific accuracy, with whatever
+objective precision we may describe the phenomena that take place in
+the mind, there is always something that eludes our scrutiny, is too
+slippery, as it were, to take hold of; so that after all our strenuous
+intellectual efforts to be exact and perspicuous in our expositions,
+we are still compelled to leave much to the imagination of the reader.
+In case he happens to be lacking in the experience which we have
+endeavored to describe we shall vainly hope to awaken in him the said
+impression with the same degree of intensity and realness.
+
+It is for this reason that Açvaghoṣa and other Mahâyânists declare
+that the rising of consciousness out of the abysmal depths of Suchness
+is _felt_ by Buddhas and other enlightened minds only that have
+actually gone through the experience. The why of ignorance nobody can
+explain as much as the why of Suchness. But when we personally
+experience this spiritual fact, we no more feel the need of harboring
+any doubt about how or why. Everything becomes transparent, and the
+rays of supernatural enlightenment shine like a halo round our
+spiritual personality. We move as dictated by the behest of Suchness,
+i.e., by the Dharmakâya, and in which we feel infinite bliss and
+satisfaction. This religious experience is the most unique phenomenon
+in the life of a sentient being.
+
+{122}
+
+
+ _Dualism and Moral Evil._
+
+As we cannot think that the essence of the external world to be other
+than that of our own mind, that is to say, as we cannot think subject
+and object to be different in their ultimate nature, our conclusion
+naturally is that the same principle of Ignorance which gathers the
+clouds of subjectivity, calls up the multitudinousness of phenomena in
+the world-mind of Suchness. The universe in its entirety is an
+infinite mind, and our limited mind with its transmarginal
+consciousness is a microcosm. What the finite mind feels in its inmost
+self, must also be what the cosmic mind feels; nay, we can go one step
+further, and say that when the human mind enters the region lying
+beyond the border of subjectivity and objectivity, it is in communion
+with the heart of the universe, whose secrets are revealed here
+without reserve. Therefore, Buddhism does not make any distinction
+between knowing and being, enlightenment and Suchness. When the mind
+is free from ignorance and no more clings to things particular, it is
+said to be in harmony and even one with Suchness.
+
+We must, however, remember that ignorance as the principle of
+individuation and a spontaneous expression of Suchness, is no moral
+evil. The awakening of subjectivity or the dawn of consciousness forms
+part of the necessary cosmic process. The separation of subject and
+object, or the appearance of a phenomenal world, is nothing but a
+realisation {123} of the cosmic mind (Dharmakâya). As such Ignorance
+performs an essential function in the evolution of the world-totality.
+Ignorance is inherent in Buddhas as well as in all sentient beings.
+Every one of us cannot help perceiving an external world (_viṣaya_)
+and forming conceptions and reasoning and feeling and willing. We do
+not see any moral fault here. If there is really anything morally
+wrong, then we cannot do anything with it, we are utterly helpless
+before it, for it is not our fault, but that of the cosmic soul from
+which and in which we have our being.
+
+Ignorance has produced everywhere a state of relativity and reciprocal
+dependence. Birth is inseparably linked with death, congregation with
+segregation, evolution with involution, attraction with repulsion, the
+centripetal with the centrifugal force, the spring with the fall, the
+tide with the ebb, joy with sorrow, God with Satan, Adam with Eve,
+Buddha with Devadatta, etc., etc., _ad infinitum_. These are necessary
+conditions of existence; and if existence is an evil, they must be
+abolished, and with their abolition the very reason of existence is
+abolished, which means absolute nothingness, an impossibility as long
+as we exist. The work of ignorance in the world of conditional
+Suchness is quite innocent, and Buddhists do not recognise any fault
+in its existence, if not contaminated by confused subjectivity. Those
+who speak of the curse of existence, or those who conceive Nirvâna to
+be the abode of non-existence {124} and the happiness of absolute
+annihilation, are considered by Buddhists to be unable to understand
+the significance of Ignorance.
+
+Is there then no fault to be found with Ignorance? Not in Ignorance
+itself, but in our defiled attachment to it, that is, when we are
+ignorant of Ignorance. It is wrong to cling to the dualism of subject
+and object as final and act accordingly. It is wrong to take the work
+of ignorance as ultimate and to forget the foundation on which it
+stands. It is wrong, thinking that the awakening of consciousness
+reveals the whole world, to ignore the existence of unseen realities.
+In short, evils quickly follow our steps when we try to realise the
+conclusions of ignorance without knowing its true relation to Suchness.
+Egoism is the most fundamental of all errors and evils.
+
+When we speak of ignorance as hindering the light of intelligence from
+penetrating to the bottom of reality, we usually understand the term
+ignorance not in the philosophical sense of principium individuum, but
+in the sense of confused subjectivity, which conceives the work of
+Ignorance as the final reality culminating in egoism. So, we might say
+that while the principle of Ignorance is philosophically justified,
+its unenlightened actualisation in our practical life is altogether
+unwarranted and brings on us a series of dire calamities.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+ THE TATHÂGATA-GARBHA AND THE
+ ÂLAYA-VIJÑÂNA.
+
+{125}
+
+/Suchness/ (_Bhûtatathâtâ_), the ultimate principle of existence, is
+known by so many different names, as it is viewed in so many different
+phases of its manifestation. Suchness is the Essence of Buddhas, as it
+constitutes the reason of Buddhahood; it is the Dharma, when it is
+considered the norm of existence; it is the Bodhi when it is the
+source of intelligence; Nirvana, when it brings eternal peace to a
+heart troubled with egoism and its vile passions; Prajñâ (wisdom),
+when it intelligently directs the course of nature; the Dharmakâya,
+when it is religiously considered as the fountain-head of love and
+wisdom; the Bodhicitta (intelligence-heart), when it is the awakener
+of religious consciousness; Çûnyatâ (vacuity), when viewed as
+transcending all particular forms; the summum bonum (_kuçalam_), when
+its ethical phase is emphasised; the Highest Truth (_paramârtha_),
+when its epistemological feature is put forward; the Middle Path
+(_mâdhyamârga_), when it is considered above the onesidedness and
+limitation of individual existences; the Essence of Being
+(_bhûtakoti_), when its ontological aspect is taken into {126}
+account; the Tathâgata-garbha (the Womb of Tathâgata), when it is
+thought of in analogy to mother earth, where all the germs of life are
+stored, and where all precious stones and metals are concealed under
+the cover of filth. And it is of this last aspect of Suchness that I
+here propose to consider at some length.
+
+
+ _The Tathâgata-Garbha and Ignorance._
+
+Tathâgata-Garbha literally means Tathâgata’s womb[59] or treasure or
+store, in which the essence of Tathâgatahood remains concealed under
+the veil of Ignorance. It may rightly be called the womb of universe,
+from which issues forth the multitudinousness of things, mental as
+well as physical.
+
+The Tathâgata-Garbha, therefore, may be explained ontologically as a
+state of Suchness quickened by Ignorance and ready to be realised in
+the world of particulars, that is, when it is about to transform
+itself to the duality of subject and object, though there is yet no
+perceptible manifestation of motility in any form. Psychologically, it
+is the transcendental soul of man just coming under the bondage of the
+law of karmaic causation. Though pure and free in its nature as the
+expression of Suchness in man, the transcendental {127} soul or pure
+intelligence is now influenced by the principle of birth-and-death and
+subjects itself to organic determinations. As it is, it is yet devoid
+of differentiation and limitation, save that there is a bare
+possibility of them. It will, however, as soon as it is actualised in
+a special form, unfold all its particularities subject to their own
+laws; it will hunger, desire, strive, and even be annoyed by its
+material bonds, and then, beginning to long for liberation, will
+struggle inwardly. Here is then no more of the absolute freedom of
+Suchness, as long as its phenomenal phase alone is considered, since
+the Garbha works under the constraint of particularisation. The
+essence of Tathâgatahood, however, is here preserved intact, and,
+whenever it is possible, our finite minds are able to feel its
+presence and power. Hypothetically, therefore, the Garbha is always in
+association with passions and desires that are of Ignorance.
+
+We read in the _Çrimâlâ-Sûtra_: “With the storage of passions attached
+we find the Tathâgata-Garbha,” or, “The Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata
+not detached from the storage of passions is called Tathâgata-Garbha.”
+In Buddhism, passion or desire or sin (_kleça_) is generally used in
+contrast to intelligence or Bodhi or Nirvâna. As the latter,
+religiously considered, represents a particular manifestation in the
+human mind of the Dharmakâya or Bhûtatathâtâ, so the former is a
+reflection of universal Ignorance in the microcosm. Therefore, the
+human soul in which, according to Buddhism, intelligence and desire
+are merged, should {128} be regarded as an individuation of the
+Tathâgata-Garbha. And it is in this capacity that the Garbha is called
+_Âlayavijñâna_.
+
+
+ _The Âlayavijñâna and its Evolution._
+
+As we have seen, the Âlayavijñâna or All-Conserving Soul is a
+particularised expression in the human mind of the Tathâgata-Garbha.
+It is an individual, ideal reflex of the cosmic Garbha. It is this
+“psychic germ,” as the Âlaya is often designated, that stores all the
+mental possibilities, which are set in motion by the impetus of an
+external world, which works on the Âlaya through the six senses
+(_vijñâna_).
+
+Mahâyânism is essentially idealistic and does not make a radical,
+qualitative distinction between subject and object, thought and being,
+mind and nature, consciousness and energy. Therefore, the being and
+activity of the Âlaya are essentially those of the Garbha; and again,
+as the Garbha is the joint creation of universal Ignorance and
+Suchness, so is the Âlaya the product of desire (_kleça_) and wisdom
+(_bodhi_). The Garbha and the Âlaya, however, are each in itself
+innocent and absolutely irresponsible for the existing state of
+affairs. And let it be remarked here that Buddhism does not condemn
+this life and universe for their wickedness as was done by some
+religious teachers and philosophers. The so-called wickedness is not
+radical in nature and life. It is merely superficial. It is the work
+of ignorance and desire, and when they are converted to do service for
+the {129} Bodhi, they cease to be wicked or sinful or evil. Buddhists,
+therefore, strongly insist on the innate and intrinsic goodness of the
+Âlaya and the Garbha.
+
+Says Açvaghoṣa in his _Awakening of Faith_ (p. 75): “In the
+All-Conserving Soul (_Âlaya_) Ignorance obtains, and from
+non-enlightenment [thus produced] starts that which sees, that which
+represents, that which apprehends an objective world, and that which
+constantly particularises.” Here we have the evolution of the Garbha
+in its psychological manifestation; in other words, we have here the
+evolution of the Âlayavijñâna. When the Garbha or Âlaya comes under
+the influence of birth-and-death (_samsâra_), it no longer retains its
+primeval indifference or sameness (_samatâ_); but there come to exist
+that which sees (_viṣayin_) and that which is seen (_viṣaya_), a mind
+and an objective world. From the interaction of these two forms of
+existence, we have now before our eyes the entire panorama of the
+universe swiftly and noiselessly moving with its never-tiring steps.
+A most favorite simile with Buddhists to illustrate these incessant
+activities of the phenomenal world, is to compare them to the waves
+that are seen forever rolling in a boundless ocean, while the body of
+waters which make up the ocean is compared to Suchness, and the wind
+that stirs up the waves to the principle of birth-and-death or
+ignorance which is the same thing. So we read in the _Lankâvatâra
+Sûtra_:
+
+{130}
+
+
+ “Like unto the ocean-waves,
+ Which by a raging storm maddened
+ Against the rugged precipice strike
+ Without interruption;
+ Even so in the Alaya-sea
+ Stirred by the objectivity-wind
+ All kinds of mentation-waves
+ Arise a-dancing, a-rolling.”[60]
+
+
+But all the psychical activities thus brought into full view, should
+not be conceived as different from the Mind (_citta_) itself. It is
+merely in the nature of our understanding that we think of attributes
+apart from their substance, the latter being imagined to be in
+possession and control of the former. There is, however, in fact no
+substance _per se_, independent of its attributes, and no attributes
+detached from that which unites them. And this is one of the
+fundamental conceptions of Buddhism, that there is no soul-in-itself
+considered apart from its various manifestations such as imagination,
+sensation, intellectuation, etc. The innumerable ripples and waves and
+billows of mentation that are stirred in the depths of the
+Tathâgata-Garbha, are not things foreign or external to it, but they
+are all particular expressions of the same essence, they are working
+out its immanent destiny. So continues the _Lankâvatâra Sûtra_:
+
+{131}
+
+
+ “The saline crystal and its red-bluishness,
+ The milky sap and its sweetness,
+ Various flowers and their fruits,
+ The sun and the moon and their luminosity:
+ These are neither separable nor inseparable.
+ As waves are stirred in the water,
+ Even so the seven modes of mentation
+ Are awakened in the Mind and united with it.
+ When the waters are troubled in the ocean,
+ We have waves that roll each in its own way:
+ So with the Mind All-Conserving.
+ When stirred, therein diverse mentations arise:
+ Citta, Manas, and Manovijñâna.
+ These we distinguish as attributes,
+ In substance they differ not from each other;
+ For they are neither attributing nor attributed.
+ The sea-water and the waves,
+ One varies not from the other:
+ It is even so with the Mind and its activities;
+ Between them difference nowhere obtains.
+ Citta is karma-accumulating,
+ Manas reflects an objective world,
+ Manovijñâna is the faculty of judgment,
+ The five Vijñânas are the differentiating senses.”[61]
+
+
+{132}
+
+
+ _The Manas._
+
+The Âlayavijñâna which is sometimes, as in the preceding quotations,
+simply called _citta_ (mind), is, as such, no more than a state of
+Suchness, allowing itself to be influenced by the principle of
+birth-and-death, i.e., by Ignorance; and there has in it taken place
+as yet no “awakening” or “stirring up” (_vṛtti_), from which results a
+consciousness. When the Manas is evolved, however, we have a sign of
+mentality thereby set in motion, for the Manas, according to the
+Mahâyânists, marks the dawn of consciousness in the universe.
+
+The Manas, deriving its reason of consciousness from the Citta or
+Âlaya, reflects on it as well as on an external world, and becomes
+conscious of the distinction between me and not-me. But since this
+not-I or external world is nothing but an unfoldment of the Âlaya
+itself, the Manas must be said really to be self-reflecting, when it
+discriminates between subject and object. If the Âlaya is not yet
+conscious of itself, the Manas is, as the latter comes to realise the
+state of self-awareness. The Âlaya is perhaps to be compared in a
+sense to the Kantian “ego of transcendental apperception”; while the
+Manas is the actual center of self-consciousness. But the Manas and
+the Âlaya (or Citta) are not two different things in the sense that
+one emanates from the other or that one is created by the other. It is
+better to understand {133} the Manas as a state or condition of the
+Citta in its evolution.
+
+Now, the Manas is not only contemplative, but capable of volition. It
+awakens the desire to cling to the state of individuation, it harbors
+egoism, passion, and prejudice; it wills and creates: for Ignorance,
+the principle of birth-and-death, is there in its full force, and the
+absolute identity of Suchness is here forever departed. Therefore, the
+Manas really marks the beginning of concrete, particularising
+consciousness-waves in the eternal ocean of the All-Conserving Mind.
+The mind which was hitherto indifferent and neutral here acquires a
+full consciousness; discriminates between ego and non-ego; feels pain
+and pleasure; clings to that which is agreeable and shrinks from that
+which is disagreeable; urges activities according to judgments, false
+or truthful; memorises what has been experienced, and stores it
+all:--in short, all the modes of mentation come into play with the
+awakening of the Manas.
+
+According to Açvaghoṣa, with the evolution of the Manas there arise
+five important psychical activities which characterise the human mind.
+They are: (1) motility, that is the capability of creating karma; (2)
+the power to perceive; (3) the power to respond; (4) the power to
+discriminate; and (5) individuality. Through the exercise of these
+five functions, the Manas is able to create according to its will, to
+be a perceiving subject, to respond to the stimuli of an external
+world, to deliver judgments {134} over what it likes and what it
+dislikes, and finally to retain all its own “karma-seeds” in the past
+and to mature them for the future, according to circumstances.
+
+With the advent of the Manas, the evolution of the Citta is complete.
+Practically, it is the consummation of mentality, for
+self-consciousness is ripe now. The will can affirm its ego-centric,
+dualistic activities, and the intellect can exercise its
+discriminating, reasoning, and image-retaining faculties. The Manas
+now becomes the center of psychic coördination. It receives messages
+from the six senses and pronounces over the impressions whatever
+judgments, intellectual or volitional, which are needed at the time
+for its own conservation. It also reflects on its own sanctum, and,
+perceiving there the presence of the Âlaya, wrongfully jumps to the
+conclusion that herein lies the real, ultimate ego-soul, from which it
+derives the notions of authority, unity, and permanency.
+
+As is evident, the Manas is a double-edged sword. It may destroy
+itself by clinging to the error of ego-conception, or it may, by a
+judicious exercise of its reasoning faculty, destroy all the
+misconceptions that arise from a wrong interpretation of the principle
+of Ignorance. The Manas destroys itself by being overwhelmed by the
+dualism of _ego_ and _alter_, by taking them for final, irreducible
+realities, and by thus fostering absolute ego-centric thoughts and
+desires, and by making itself a willing prey of an indomitable egoism,
+religiously and morally. On the other hand, when it {135} sees an
+error in the conception of the absolute reality of individuals, when
+it perceives a play of Ignorance in the dualism of me and not-me, when
+it recognises the _raison d’être_ of existence in the essence of
+Tathâgatahood, i.e., in Suchness, when it realises that the Âlaya
+which is mistaken for the ego is no more than an innocent and
+irreproachable reflection of the cosmic Garbha, it at once transcends
+the sphere of particularity and becomes the very harbinger of eternal
+enlightenment.
+
+Buddhists, therefore, do not see any error or evil in the evolution of
+the Mind (_âlaya_). There is nothing faulty in the awakening of
+consciousness, in the dualism of subject and object, in the
+individualising operation of birth-and-death (_samsâra_), only so
+long as our Manas keeps aloof from the contamination of false egoism.
+The gravest error, however, permeates every fiber of our mind with all
+its wickedness and irrationality, as soon as the nature of the
+evolution of the Âlaya is wrongfully interpreted by the abuse of the
+functions of the Manas.[62]
+
+{136}
+
+Though Mahâyânism most emphatically denies the existence of a personal
+ego which is imagined to be lodging within the body and to be the
+spiritual master of it, it does not necessarily follow that it denies
+the unity of consciousness or personality or individuality. In fact,
+the assumption of Manovijñâna by Buddhists most conclusively proves
+that they have an ego in a sense, the denial of whose empirical
+existence is tantamount to the denial of the most concrete facts of
+our daily experiences. What is most persistently negated by them is
+not the existence of ego, but its final, ultimate reality. But to
+discuss this subject more fully we have a special chapter below
+devoted to “Âtman.”
+
+
+ _The Sâmkhya Philosophy and Mahâyânism._
+
+If we draw a comparison between the Sâmkhya philosophy and Mahâyânism,
+the Âlayavijñâna may {137} be considered an unification of Soul
+(_puruṣa_) and Nature (_prakṛtî_), and the Manovijñâna a combination
+of Buddhi (intellect) or Mahat (great element) with Ahankâra (ego).
+According to the _Sâmkhyakârika_ (11), the essential nature of Prakṛtî
+is the power of creation, or, to use Buddhist phraseology, it is blind
+activity; while that of Puruṣa is witnessing (_sakṣitvâ_) and
+perceiving (_drastṛtvâ_). (_The Kârika_, 19.) A modern philosopher
+would say, Puruṣa is intelligence and Prakṛtî the will; and when they
+are combined and blended in one, they make Hartmann’s _Unbewusste
+Geist_ (unconscious spirit). The All-Conserving Mind (_Âlaya_) in a
+certain sense resembles the Unconscious, as it is the manifestation of
+Suchness, the principle of enlightenment, in its evolutionary aspect
+as conditioned by Ignorance; and Ignorance apparently {138} corresponds
+to the will as the principle of blind activity. The Sâmkhya philosophy
+is an avowed dualism and permits the existence of two principles
+independent of each other. Mahâyânism is fundamentally monistic and
+makes Ignorance merely a condition necessary to the unfolding of
+Suchness.[63] Therefore, what the Sâmkhya splits into two, Mahâyânism
+puts together in one.
+
+So is the parallelism between the Manovijñâna, and Buddhi and Ahankâra.
+Buddhi, intellect, is defined as _adhyavasâya_ (_Kârika_, 23), while
+Ahankâra is interpreted as _abhimanas_ (_Kârika_, 24), which is
+evidently self-consciousness. As to the exact meaning of _adhyavasâya_,
+there is a divergence of opinion: “ascertainment,” “judgment,”
+“determination,” “apprehension” are some of the English equivalents
+chosen for it. But the inner signification of Buddhi is clear enough;
+it indicates the awakening of knowledge, the dawn of rationality, the
+first shedding of light on the dark recesses of unconsciousness; so
+the commentators give as the synonyms _mati_ (understanding), _khyâti_
+(cognition), _jñânam_, _prajñâ_, etc., the last two of these, which
+mean knowledge or intelligence, being also technical terms of
+Mahâyânism. And, as we have seen above, these senses are what the
+Buddhists give to their Manovijñâna, save that the {139} latter in
+addition has the faculty of discriminating between _teum_ and _meum_,
+while in the Sâmkhya this is reserved for Ahankâra. Thus, here, too,
+in place of the Sâmkhya dualism, we have the Buddhist unity.
+
+Another point we have to take notice here in comparing the two great
+Hindu religio-philosophical systems, is that the Sâmkhya philosophy
+pluralises the Soul (_puruṣa_, _Kârika_, 18), while Buddhism
+postulates one universal Citta or Âlaya. According to the followers
+of Kapila, therefore, there must be as many souls as there are
+individuals, and at every departure or advent of an individual there
+must be assumed a corresponding soul passing away or coming into
+existence, though we do not know its whence and whither. Buddhism, on
+the other hand, denies the existence of any individual mind apart from
+the All-Conserving Mind (_Âlaya_) which is universal. Individuality
+first appears at the awakening of the Manovijñâna. The quintessence
+of the Mind is Suchness and is not subject to the limitations of time
+and space as well as the law of causation. But as soon as it asserts
+itself in the world of particularisation, it negates itself thereby,
+and, becoming specialised, gives rise to individual souls.[64]
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+ THE THEORY OF NON-ATMAN OR NON-EGO.
+
+{140}
+
+/If/ I am requested to formulate the ground-principles of the
+philosophy of Mahâyâna Buddhism, and, indeed, of all the schools of
+Buddhism, I would suggest the following:
+
+
+(1) All is momentary (_sarvam kṣanikam_).
+
+(2) All is empty (_sarvam çûnyam_).
+
+(3) All is without self (_sarvam anâtmam_).
+
+(4) All is such as it is (_sarvam tathâtvam_).
+
+
+These four tenets, as it were, are so closely interrelated that, stand
+or fall, they all inevitably share one and the same fate together.
+Whatever different views the various schools of Buddhism may hold on
+points of minor importance, they all concur at least on these four
+principal propositions.
+
+Of these four propositions, the first, the second, and the fourth have
+been elucidated above, more or less explicitly. If the existence of a
+relative world is the work of ignorance and as such has no final
+reality, it must be considered illusory and empty; though it does not
+necessarily follow that on this account our life is not worth living.
+We must not {141} confuse the moral value of existence with the
+ontological problem of its phenomenality. It all depends on our
+subjective attitude whether or not our world and life become full of
+significance. When the illusiveness or phenomenality of individual
+existences is granted and we use the world accordingly, that is, “as
+not abusing it,” we escape the error and curse of egoism and take
+things as they are presented to us, as reflecting the Dharma of
+Suchness. We no more cling to forms of particularity as something
+ultimate and absolutely real and as that in which lies the essence of
+our life. We take them for such as they are, and recognise their
+reality only in so far as they are considered a partial realisation of
+Suchness, and do not go any further. Suchness, indeed, lies not hidden
+_behind_ them, but exists immanently _in_ them. Things are empty and
+illusory so long as they are particular things and are not thought of
+in reference to the All that is Suchness and Reality.
+
+From this, it logically follows that in this world of relativity all
+is momentary, that nothing is permanent, so far as isolated, particular
+existences are concerned. Even independently of the statement made
+above, the doctrine of universal impermanency is an almost self-evident
+truth experienced everywhere, and does not require any special
+demonstration to prove its validity. The desire for immortality which
+is so conspicuous and persistent in all the stages of development of
+the religious consciousness that the very desire has been thought to
+be the essence of all {142} religious systems, is the most conclusive
+proof that things on this earth are in a constant flux of becoming,
+and that there is nothing permanent or stationary in our individual
+existences; if otherwise, people would never have sought for
+immortality.
+
+If this be granted as a fact of our everyday experience, we naturally
+ask: “Why are things so changeable? Why is life so fleeting? What is
+it that makes things so mutable and transitory?” To this, the
+Buddhist’s answer is: Because the universe is a resultant product of
+many efficient forces that are acting according to different
+karmas;--the destiny of those forces being that no one force or no one
+set of forces can constantly be predominant over all the others, but
+that when one has exhausted its potential karma, it is replaced by
+another that has been steadily coming forward in the meantime. Hence
+the universal cadence of birth and death, of the spring and the fall,
+of the tide and the ebb, of integration and disintegration. Where
+there is attraction, there is repulsion; where there is the
+centripetal force, there is the centrifugal force. Because it is the
+law of karma that at the very moment of birth the arms of death are
+around the neck of life. The universe is nothing but a grand rhythmic
+manifestation of certain forces working in conformity to their
+predetermined laws; or, to use Buddhist terminology, this _lokadhâtu_
+(material world) consists in a concatenation of _hetus_ (causes) and
+_pratyayas_ (conditions) regulated by their karma. {143} If this were
+not so, there would be either a certain fixed state of things in which
+perfect equilibrium would be maintained, or an inexpressible confusion
+of things of which no knowledge or experience would be possible. In
+the former case, we should have universal stagnation and eternal
+death; in the latter case, there would be no universe, no life,
+nothing but absolute chaos. Therefore, so long as we have the world
+before us, in which all the possible varieties of particularisation
+are manifested it cannot be otherwise than in a state of constant
+vicissitudes and therefore of universal transitoriness.
+
+Now, the Buddhist argument for the theory of non-ego is this: If
+individual existences are due to relations obtaining between diverse
+forces, which act sometimes in unison with and sometimes in opposition
+to one another as predetermined by their karma, they cannot be said to
+have any transcendental agency behind them, which is a permanent unity
+and absolute dictator. In other words, there is no âtman or ego-soul
+behind our mental activities, and no thing-in-itself (_svabhâva_), so
+to speak, behind each particular form of existence. This is called the
+Buddhist theory of non-âtman or non-ego.
+
+
+ _Âtman._
+
+Buddhists use the term “âtman” in two senses: first, in the sense of
+personal ego,[65] and secondly, in {144} that of thing-in-itself,
+perhaps, with a slight modification of its commonly accepted meaning.
+Let us use the term “âtman” here in its first sense as equivalent to
+_bhûtâtman_, for we are going first to treat of the doctrine of
+non-ego, and later of that of no-thing-in-itself.
+
+Âtman is usually translated “life,” “ego,” or “soul,”[66] and is a
+technical term used both by Vedanta philosophers and Buddhists. But we
+have to note at the beginning that they do not use the term in the
+same sense. When the Vedanta philosophy, especially the later one,
+speaks of âtman as our inmost self which is identical with the
+universal Brahma, it is used in its most abstract metaphysical sense
+and does not mean the soul whatever, as the latter is {145} commonly
+understood by vulgar minds. On the other hand, Buddhists understand by
+âtman this vulgar, materialistic conception of the soul (_bhûtâtman_)
+and positively denies its existence as such. If we, for convenience’
+sake, distinguish between phenomenal and noumenal in our notion of ego
+or soul, the âtman of Buddhism is the phenomenal ego, namely, a
+concrete agent that is supposed to do the acting, thinking, and
+feeling; while the âtman of Vedantists is the noumenal ego as the
+_raison d’être_ of our psychical life. The one is in fact material,
+however ethereal it might be conceived. The other is a highly
+metaphysical conception transcending the reach of human discursive
+knowledge. The latter may be identified with Paramâtman and the former
+with Jîvâtman. Paramâtman is a universal soul from which, according to
+Vedantism, emanates this world of phenomena, and in a certain sense it
+may be said to correspond to the Tathâgata-garbha of Buddhism.
+Jîvâtman is the ego-soul as it is conceived by ignorant people as an
+independent entity directing all the mental activities. It is this
+latter âtman that was found to be void by Buddha when he arose from
+his long meditation, declaring:
+
+
+ “Many a life to transmigrate,
+ Long quest, no rest, hath been my fate,
+ Tent-designer[67] inquisitive for:
+ Painful birth from state to state.
+
+{146}
+
+ “Tent-designer! I know thee now;
+ Never again to build art thou:
+ Quite out are all thy joyful fires,
+ Rafter broken and roof-tree gone,
+ Gain eternity--dead desires.”[68]
+
+
+ _Buddha’s First Line of Inquiry._
+
+Buddhism finds the source of all evils and sufferings in the vulgar
+material conception of the ego-soul, and concentrates its entire
+ethical force upon the destruction of the ego-centric notions and
+desires. The Buddha seems, since the beginning of his wandering life,
+to have conceived the idea that the way of salvation must lie somehow
+in the removal of this egoistic prejudice, for so long as we are not
+liberated from its curse we are liable to become the prey of the three
+venomous passions: covetousness, infatuation, and anger, and to suffer
+the misery of birth and death and disease and old age. Thus, when he
+received his first instructions from the Sâmkhya philosopher, Arada,
+he was not satisfied, because he did not teach how to abandon this
+ego-soul itself. The Buddha argued: “I consider that the embodied
+ego-soul, though freed from the evolvent-evolutes,[69] {147} is still
+subject to the condition of birth and has the condition of a seed. The
+seed may remain dormant so long as it is deprived of the opportunity
+of coming into contact with the requisite conditions of quickening and
+being quickened, but since its germinating power has not been
+destroyed, it will surely develop all its potentialities as soon as it
+is brought into that necessary contact. Even though the ego-soul free
+from entanglement [i.e. from the bondage of Prakṛti] is declared to
+be liberated, yet, so long as the ego-soul remains, there can be no
+absolute abandonment of it, there can be no real abandonment of
+egoism.”[70]
+
+The Buddha then proceeds to indicate the path through which he reached
+his final conclusion and declares: “There is no real separation of the
+qualities and their subject; for fire cannot be conceived apart from
+its heat and form.” When this argument is logically carried out, it
+leads nowhere but to the Buddhist doctrine of non-âtman, that says:
+The existence of an ego-soul cannot be conceived apart from sensation,
+perception, imagination, intelligence, volition, etc., and, therefore,
+it is absurd to think that there is an independent individual
+soul-agent which makes our consciousness its workshop.
+
+To imagine that an object can be abstracted from its qualities, not
+only logically but in reality, that there is some unknown quantity
+that is in {148} possession of such and such characteristic marks
+(_lakṣana_) whereby it makes itself perceivable by our senses, says
+Buddhism, is wrong and unwarranted by reason. Fire cannot be conceived
+apart from its form and heat; waves cannot be conceived apart from the
+water and its commotion; the wheel cannot exist outside of its rim,
+spokes, axle, etc. All things, thus, are made of _hetus_ and
+_pratyayas_, of causes and conditions, of qualities and attributes;
+and it is impossible for our pudgala or âtman or ego or soul to be
+any exception to this universal condition of things.
+
+Let me in this connection state an interesting incident in the history
+of Chinese Buddhism. Hui-K’e, the second patriarch of the Dhyâna sect
+in China, was troubled with this ego-problem before his conversion. He
+was at first a faithful Confucian, but Confucianism did not satisfy
+all his spiritual wants. His soul was wavering between agnosticism and
+scepticism, and consequently he felt an unspeakable anguish in his
+inmost heart. When he learned of the arrival of Bodhidharma in his
+country, he hastened to his monastery and implored him to give him
+some spiritual advice. But Bodhidharma did not utter a word, being
+seemingly absorbed in his deep meditation. Hui-K’e, however, was
+determined to obtain from him some religious instructions at all
+hazards. So it is reported that he was standing at the same spot seven
+days and nights, when he at last cut off his left arm with the sword
+he was carrying (being {149} a military officer) and placed it before
+Dharma, saying: “This arm is a token of my sincere desire to be
+instructed in the Holy Doctrine. My soul is troubled and annoyed; pray
+let your grace show me the way to pacify it.” Dharma quietly arose
+from his meditation and said: “Where is your soul? Bring it here and I
+will have it pacified.” Hui-K’e replied: “I have been searching for it
+all these years, but I have never succeeded in laying a hand on it.”
+Dharma then exclaimed: “There, I have your soul pacified!” At this, it
+is said, a flash of spiritual enlightenment went across the mind of
+Hui-K’e, and his “soul” was pacified once for all.
+
+
+ _The Skandhas._
+
+When the five skandhas are combined according to their previous karma
+and present a temporal existence in the form of a sentient being,
+vulgar minds imagine that they have here an individual entity
+sustained by an immortal ego-substratum. In fact, the material body
+(_rûpakâya_) alone is not what makes the ego-soul, nor the sensation
+(_vedanâ_), nor the deeds (_sanskâra_), nor the consciousness
+(_vijñâna_), nor the conception (_samjñâ_); but only when they are
+all combined in a certain form they make a sentient being. Yet this
+combination is not the work of a certain independent entity, which,
+according to its own will, combines the five skandhas in one form and
+then hides itself in it. The combination of the constituent {150}
+elements, Buddhism declares, is achieved by themselves after their
+karma. When a certain number of atoms of hydrogen and of oxygen are
+brought together, they attract each other on their own accord or owing
+to their own karma, and the result is water. The ego of water, so to
+speak, did not will to bring the two elements and make itself out of
+them. Even so is it with the existence of a sentient being, and there
+is no need of hypostasising a fabulous ego-monster behind the
+combination of the five skandhas.
+
+Skandha (_khanda_ in Pâli) literally means “aggregate” or
+“agglomeration”, and, according to the Chinese exegetists, it is
+called so, because our personal existence is an aggregate of the five
+constituent elements of being, because it comes to take a definite
+individual form when the skandhas are brought together according to
+their previous karma. The first of the five aggregates is matter
+(_rûpa_), whose essential quality is thought to consist in resistance.
+The material part of our existence in the five sense-organs called
+_indryas_: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and the body. The second skandha
+is called sensation or sense-impression (_vedanâ_), which results from
+the contact of the six vijñânas (senses) with the viṣaya (external
+world). The third is called _samjñâ_ which corresponds to our
+conception. It is the psychic power by which we are enabled to form
+the abstract images of particular objects. The fourth is _sanskâra_
+which may be rendered action or deed. Our intelligent consciousness,
+{151} responding to impressions received which are either agreeable or
+disagreeable or indifferent, acts accordingly; and these acts bear
+fruit in the coming generations.
+
+Sanskâra, the fourth constituent of being, comprises two categories,
+mental (_caitta_) and non-mental (_cittaviprayukta_). And the mental
+is subdivided into six: fundamental (_mahâbhûmi_), good (_kuçala_),
+tormenting (_kleça_), evil (_akuçala_), tormenting minor (_upakleça_),
+and indefinite (_aniyata_). It may be interesting to enumerate what
+all these sankâras are, as they shed light on the practical ethics of
+Buddhism.
+
+There are ten fundamental sanskâras belonging to the category of
+mental or psychic activities: 1. cetanâ (mentation), 2. sparça
+(contact), 3. chanda (desire), 4. mati (understanding), 5. smṛti
+(recollection), 6. manaskara (concentration), 7. adhimokṣa (unfettered
+intelligence), 8. samâdhi (meditation). The ten good sanskâras are: 1.
+çraddhâ (faith), 2. vîrya (energy), 3. upekṣa (complacency), 4. hrî
+(modesty), 5. apatrapâ (shame), 6 alobha (non-covetousness), 7. adveṣa
+(freedom from hatred), 8. ahimsa (gentleness of heart), 9. praçradbhi
+(mental repose), 10. apramâda (attentiveness).
+
+The six tormenting sanskâras are as follows: 1. moha (folly), 2.
+pramâda (wantonness), 3. kâusidya (indolence), 4. açrâddhya
+(scepticism), 5. styāna (slothfulness), 6. âuddhatpa (unsteadiness).
+
+The two minor evil sanskâras are: 1. ahrîkatâ, state of not being
+modest, or arrogance, or self-assertiveness, {152} and 2. anapatrapa,
+being lost to shame, or to be without conscience.
+
+The ten minor tormenting sanskâras are: 1. krodha (anger), 2. mrakṣa
+(secretiveness), 3. mâtsarya (niggardliness), 4. îrṣya (envy). 5.
+pradâça (uneasiness), 6. vihimsâ (noxiousness), 7. upanâha (malignity),
+8. mâyâ (trickiness), 9. çâthya (dishonesty), 10. mada (arrogance).
+
+The eight indefinite sanskâras are: 1. kâukṛtya (repentance), 2.
+middha (sleep), 3. vitarka (inquiry), 4. vicâra (investigation), 5.
+râga (excitement), 6. pratigha (wrath), 7. mâna (self-reliance), 8.
+vicikitsâ (doubting).
+
+The second grand category of sanskâra which is not included under
+“mental” or “psychic,” comprises fourteen items as follows: 1. prâpti
+(attainment), 2. aprâpti (non-attainment), 3. sabhâgatâ (grouping),
+4 asanjñika (unconsciousness), 5. asanjñisamâpatti (unconscious
+absorption in religious meditation), 6. nirodhasamâpatti
+(annihilation-trance of a heretic), 7. jîvita (vitality), 8. jâti
+(birth), 9. sthiti (existing), 10. jarâ (decadence), 11. anityatâ
+(transitoriness), 12. nâmakâya (name), 13. padakâya (phrase), 14.
+vyañjanakâya (sentence).
+
+Now, to return to the main problem. The fifth skandha is called
+_vijñâna_, commonly rendered consciousness, which, however, is not
+quite correct. The vijñâna is intelligence or mentality, it is the
+psychic power of discrimination, and in many cases it can be
+translated by sense. There are, according to Hînayânists, six
+vijñânas or senses: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactual,
+and cogitative; according {153} to Mahâyânism there are eight
+vijñânas: the manovijñâna and the âlayavijñâna, being added to the
+above six. This psychological phase of Mahâyâna philosophy is
+principally worked out by the Yogâcâra school, whose leading thinkers
+are Asanga and Vasubandhu.
+
+
+ _King Milinda and Nâgasena._
+
+Buddhist literature, Northern as well as Southern, abounds with
+expositions of the doctrine of non-ego, as it is one of the most
+important foundation-stones on which the magnificent temple of
+Buddhism is built. The dialogue[71] between King Milinda and
+Nâgasena, among many others, is very interesting for various reasons
+and full of suggestive thoughts, and we have the following discussion
+of theirs concerning the problem of ego abstracted from the Dialogue.
+
+At their first meeting the King asks Nâgasena, “How is your Reverence
+known, and what is your name?”
+
+To this the monk-philosopher replies: “I am known as Nâgasena, and it
+is by that name that my brethren in the faith address me. But although
+parents give such a name as Nâgasena, or Sûrasena, Vîrasena, or
+Sîhasena, yet this Nâgasena and so on--is only a generally understood
+term, a designation in common use. For there is no permanent self
+involved in the matter.”
+
+Being greatly surprised by this answer, the King {154} volleys upon
+Nâgasena a series of questions as follows:
+
+“If there be no permanent self involved in the matter, who is it, pray,
+who gives to you members of the Order your robes and food and lodging
+and necessaries for the sick? Who is it who enjoys such things when
+given? Who is it who lives a life of righteousness? Who is it who
+devotes himself to meditation? Who is it who attains to the goal of
+the Excellent Way, to the Nirvâna of Arhatship? And who is it who
+destroys living creatures? who is it who takes what is not his own?
+who is it who lives an evil life of worldly lusts, who speaks lies,
+who drinks strong drink, who in a word commits any one of the five
+sins which work out their bitter fruit even in this life? If that be
+so, there is neither merit nor demerit; there is neither doer nor
+cause of good or evil deeds; there is neither fruit nor result of good
+or evil karma. If we are to think that were a man to kill you there
+would be no murder,[72] then it follows that there are no real
+masters or teachers in your Order, that your ordinations are void. You
+tell me that your brethren in the Order are in the habit of addressing
+you as Nâgasena. Now, what is that Nâgasena? Do you mean to say that
+the hair is Nâgasena?”
+
+This last query being denied by the Buddhist sage, the King asks: “Or
+is it the nails, the skin, the flesh, the nerves, the bones, the
+marrow, the kidneys, {155} the heart, the liver, the abdomen, the
+spleen, the lungs, the larger intestines, the smaller intestines, the
+faeces, the bile, the phlegm, the pus, the blood, the sweat, the fat,
+the tears, the serum, the saliva, the mucus, the oil that lubricates
+the joints, the urine, or the brain or any or all of these, that is
+Nâgasena?
+
+“Is it the material form that is Nâgasena, or the sensations, or the
+ideas, or the confections (deeds), or the consciousness, that is
+Nâgasena?”
+
+To all these questions, the King, having received a uniform denial,
+exclaims in excitement: “Then, thus, ask as I may, I can discover no
+Nâgasena. Nâgasena is a mere empty sound. Who then is the Nâgasena
+that we see before us?[73] It is a falsehood that your Reverence has
+spoken, an untruth?”
+
+Nâgasena does not give any direct answer, but quietly proposes some
+counter-questions to the King. Ascertaining that he came in a carriage
+to the Buddhist philosopher, he asks: “Is it the wheel, or the
+framework, or the ropes, or the spokes of the wheels, or the goad,
+that are the chariot?”
+
+To this, the king says, “No,” and continues: “It is on account of its
+having all these things that it {156} comes under the generally
+understood term, the designation in common use, of ‘chariot.’”
+
+“Very good,” says Nâgasena, “Your Majesty has rightly grasped the
+meaning of ‘chariot.’ And just even so it is on account of all these
+things you questioned me about the thirty-two kinds of organic matter
+in a human body, and the five skandhas (constituent elements of being)
+that I come under the generally-understood term, the designation in
+common use, of ‘Nâgasena.’”
+
+Then, the sage quotes in way of confirmation a passage from the
+_Samyutta Nikâya_: “Just as it is by the condition precedent of the
+co-existence of its various parts that the word ‘chariot’ is used,
+just so it is that when the skandhas are there we talk of a ‘being.’”
+
+ * * *
+
+To further illustrate the theory of non-âtman from earlier Buddhist
+literature, let me quote the following from the _Jâtaka Tales_ (No.
+244):
+
+The Bodhisattva said to a pilgrim. “Will you have a drink of
+Ganges-water fragrant with the scent of the forest?”
+
+The pilgrim tried to catch him in his words: “What is the Ganges? Is
+the sand the Ganges? Is the water the Ganges? Is the hither bank the
+Ganges? Is the further bank the Ganges?”
+
+But the Bodhisattva retorted, “If you except the {157} water, the
+sand, the hither bank, and the further bank, where can you find any
+Ganges?”
+
+Following this argument we might say, “Where is the ego-soul, except
+imagination, volition, intellection, desire, aspiration, etc.?”
+
+
+ _Ananda’s Attempts to Locate the Soul._
+
+In the _Surangama Sutra_[74], Buddha exposes the absurdity of the
+hypothesis of an individual concrete soul-substance by subverting
+Ândanda’s seven successive attempts to determine its whereabouts.
+Most people who firmly believe in personal immortality, will see how
+vague and chimerical and logically untenable is their notion of the
+soul, when it is critically examined as in the following case. Ânanda’s
+conception of the soul is somewhat puerile, but I doubt whether even
+in our enlightened age the belief {158} entertained by the multitude
+is any better than his.
+
+When questioned by the Buddha as to the locality of the soul, Ânanda
+asserts that it resides within the body. Thereupon, the Buddha says:
+“If your intelligent soul resides within your corporeal body, how is
+it that it does not see your inside first? To illustrate, what we see
+first in this lecture hall is the interior and it is only when the
+windows are thrown open that we are able to see the outside garden and
+woods. It is impossible for us who are sitting in the hall to see the
+outside only and not to see the inside. Reasoning in a similar way,
+why does not the soul that is considered to be within the body see the
+internal organs first such as the stomach, heart, veins etc.? If
+however it does not see the inside, surely it cannot be said to reside
+within the body.”
+
+Ânanda now proposes to solve the problem by locating the soul outside
+the body. He says that the soul is like a candle-light placed without
+this hall. Where the light shines everything is visible, but within
+the room there are no candles burning, and therefore here prevails
+nothing but darkness. This explains the incapacity of the soul to see
+the inside of the body. But the Buddha argues that “it is impossible
+for the soul to be outside. If so, what the soul feels may not be felt
+by the body, and what the body feels may not be felt by the soul, as
+there is no relationship between the two. The fact, however, is that
+when you, Ânanda, see my hand thus stretched, you are conscious that
+you have the perception of {159} it. As far as there is a
+correspondence between the soul and the body, the soul cannot be said
+to be residing outside the body.”
+
+The third hypothesis assumed by Ânanda is that the soul hides itself
+just behind the sense-organs. Suppose a man put a pair of lenses over
+his eyes. Cannot he see the outside world through them? The reason why
+it cannot see the inside is that it resides within the sense-organs.
+
+But says the Buddha: “When we have a lens over an eye, we perceive
+this lens as well as the outside world. If the soul is hidden behind
+the sense-organ, why does it not see the sense-organ itself? As it
+does not in fact, it cannot be residing in the place you mention.”
+
+Ananda proposes another theory. “Within, we have the stomach, liver,
+heart, etc.: without, we have so many orifices. Where the internal
+organs are, there is darkness; but where we have openings, there is
+light. Close the eyes and the soul sees the darkness inside. Open the
+eyes and it sees the brightness outside. What do you say to this
+theory?”
+
+The Buddha says: “If you take the darkness you see when the eyes are
+closed for your inside, do you consider this darkness as something
+confronting your soul, or not? In the first case, wherever there
+prevails a darkness, that must be thought to be your interior organs.
+In the latter case, seeing is impossible, for seeing presupposes the
+existence of subject and object. Besides this, there is another
+difficulty. Granting {160} your supposition that the eye could turn
+itself inward or outward and see the darkness of the interior or the
+brightness of the external world, it could also see your own face when
+the eye is opened. If it could not do so, it must be said to be
+incapable of turning the sight inward.”
+
+The fifth assumption as made by Ânanda is that the soul is the essence
+of understanding or intelligence, which is not within, nor without,
+nor in the middle, but which comes into actual existence as soon as it
+confronts the objective world, for it is taught by the Buddha that the
+world exists on account of the mind and the mind on account of the
+world.
+
+To this the Buddha replies: “According to your argument, the soul must
+be said to exist before it comes in contact with the world; otherwise,
+the contact cannot have any sense. The soul, then, exists as an
+individual presence, not after nor at the time of a contact with the
+external world, but assuredly before the contact. Granting this, we
+come back again to the old difficulties: Does the soul come out of
+your inside, or does it come in from the outside? In case of the first
+alternative, the soul must be able to see its own face.”
+
+Ânanda interrupts: “Seeing is done by the eyes, and the soul has
+nothing to do with it.”
+
+The Buddha objects: “If so, a dead man has eyes just as perfect as a
+living man.[75] He must be able {161} to see things, but if he sees
+at all, he cannot be dead. Well, if your intelligent soul has a
+concrete existence, should it be thought simple or compound? Should it
+be thought of as filling the body or being present only in a particular
+spot? If it is a simple unit, when one of your limbs is touched, all
+the four will at once be conscious of the touch, which really means no
+touch. If the soul is a compound body, how can it distinguish itself
+from another soul? If it is filling the body all over, there will be
+no localisation of sensation, as must be the case according to the
+first supposition of a simple soul-unit. Finally, if it occupies only
+a particular part of the body, you may experience certain feelings on
+that spot only, and all the other parts will remain perfectly
+anesthetic. All these hypotheses are against the actual facts of our
+experience and cannot be logically maintained.”
+
+For the sixth time, Ânanda ventures to untie the Gordian knot of the
+soul-problem. “As the soul cannot be located neither within nor
+without, it must be somewhere in the middle.” But the Buddha again
+refutes this, saying: “This ‘middle’ is extremely indefinite. Should
+it be located as a point in space or somewhere on the body? If it is
+on the surface of the body, {162} it is not the middle; if it is in
+the body, it is then within. If it is said to occupy a point in space,
+how should that point be indicated? Without an indication, a point is
+no point; and if an indication is needed, it can be fixed anywhere
+arbitrarily, and then there will be no end of confusion.”
+
+Ânanda interposes and says that he does not mean this kind of “middle.”
+The eye and the color conditioning each other, there comes to exist
+visual perception. The eye has the faculty to discriminate, and the
+color-world has no sensibility; but the perception takes place in
+their “middle,” that is, in their interaction; and then it is said that
+there exists a soul.
+
+Says the Buddha: “If the soul, as you say, exists in the relation
+between the sense-organs (_indṛya_) and their respective sense-objects
+(_viṣaya_), should we consider the soul as uniting and partaking the
+natures of these two incongruous things, viṣaya and indṛya? If the
+soul partakes something of each, it has no characteristics of its own.
+If it unites the two natures, the distinction between subject and
+object exists no more. ‘In the middle’ is an empty word; that is to
+say, to conceive the soul as the relation between the indryas and the
+viṣayas is to make it an airy nothing.”
+
+The seventh and final hypothesis offered by Ânanda is that the soul
+is the state of non-attachment, and that, therefore, it has no
+particular locality in which it abides. But this is also mercilessly
+attacked by the Buddha who declares: “Attachment presupposes the
+existence of beings to which a mind-may be attached. {163} Now, should
+we consider these things (_dharmas_) such as the world, space, land,
+water, birds, beasts, etc. as existing or not existing? If the
+external world does not exist, we cannot speak about non-attachment,
+as there is nothing to attach from the first. If the external world
+really is, how can we manage not to come in contact with it? When we
+say that things are devoid of all characteristic marks, it amounts to
+the declaration that they are non-existent. But they are not
+non-existent, they must have certain characteristics that distinguish
+themselves. Now, the external world has certainly some marks
+(_lakṣana_) and it must by all means be considered as existing. There
+then is no room for your theory of non-attachment.”
+
+At this, Ânanda surrenders and the Buddha discloses his theory of
+Dharmakâya, which we shall expound at some length in the chapter
+specially devoted to it.
+
+ * * *
+
+By way of a summary of the above, let me remark that the Buddhists do
+not deny the existence of the so-called empirical ego in
+contradistinction to the noumenal ego, which latter can be considered
+to correspond to the Buddhist âtman. Vasubandhu in his treatise on
+the Yogâcâra’s idealistic philosophy declares that the existence of
+âtman and dharma is only hypothetical, provisional, apparent, and not
+in any sense real and ultimate. To express this in modern terms, the
+soul and the world, or subject and object, have only relative
+existence, and no absolute reality can {164} be ascribed to them.
+Psychologically speaking, every one of us has an ego or soul which
+means the unity of consciousness; and physically, this world of
+phenomena is real either as a manifestation of one energy or as a
+composite of atoms or electrons, as is considered by physicists.
+
+To confine ourselves to the psychological question, what Buddhism most
+emphatically insists on is the non-existence of a concrete,
+individual, irreducible soul-substance, whose immortality is so much
+coveted by most unenlightened people. Individuation is only relative
+and not absolute. Buddhism knows how far the principle could safely
+and consistently be carried out, and its followers will not forget
+where to stop and destroy the wall, almost adamantine to some
+religionists, of individualism. Absolute individualism, as the
+Buddhists understand it, incapacitates us to follow the natural flow
+of sympathy; to bathe in the eternal sunshine of divinity which not
+only surrounds but penetrates us; to escape the curse of individual
+immortality which is strangely so much sought after by some people; to
+trace this mundane life to its fountainhead of which it drinks so
+freely, yet quite unknowingly; to rise rejuvenated from the consuming
+fire of Kâla (Chronos). To think that there is a mysterious something
+behind the empirical ego and that this something comes out triumphantly
+after the fashion of the immortal phœnix from the funeral pyre of
+corporeality, is not Buddhistic.
+
+What I would remark here in connection with this {165} problem of the
+soul, is its relation to that of Âlayavijñâna, of which it is said
+that the Buddha was very reluctant to talk, on account of its being
+easily confounded with the notion of the ego. The Âlaya, as was
+explained, is a sort of universal soul from which our individual
+empirical souls are considered to have evolved. The Manas which is the
+first offspring of the Âlaya is endowed with the faculty of
+discrimination, and from the wrongful use of this faculty there arises
+in the Manas the conception of the Âlaya as the ego,--the real
+concrete soul-substratum.
+
+The Âlaya, however, is not a particular phenomenon, for it is a state
+of Suchness in its evolutionary disposition and has nothing in it yet
+to suggest its concrete individuality. When the Manas finds out its
+error and lifts the veil of Ignorance from the body of the Âlaya, it
+soon becomes convinced of the ultimate nature of the soul, so called.
+For the soul is not individual, but supra-individual.
+
+
+ _Âtman and the “Old Man.”_
+
+When the Buddhists exclaim: “Put away your egoism, for the ego is an
+empty notion, a mere word without reality,” some of our Christian
+readers may think that if there is no ego, what will become of our
+personality or individuality? Though this point will become clearer as
+we proceed, let us remark here that what Buddhism understands by ego
+or âtman may be considered to correspond in many respects to the
+Christian notion of “flesh” or the {166} “old man,” which is the
+source of all our sinful acts. Says Paul: “I am crucified with Christ;
+nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
+which I live now in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
+who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. ii, 20.) When this
+passage is interpreted by the Buddhists, the “I” that was annihilated
+through crucifixion, is our false notion of an ego-soul (_âtman_);
+and the “I” that is living through the grace of God is the Bodhi, a
+reflex in us of the Dharmakâya.
+
+When Christians put the spirit and the flesh in contrast and advise us
+to “walk in the spirit” and not to “fulfil the lust of the flesh,” it
+must be said that they understand by the flesh our concrete, material
+existence whose characteristic is predominantly individual, and by the
+spirit, that which transcends particularity and egoism; for “love,
+joy, peace, long-suffering, faith, meekness, temperance,” and suchlike
+virtues are possible only when our egocentric, âtman-made desires are
+utterly abnegated. Buddhism is more intellectual than Christianity or
+Judaism and prefers philosophical terms which are better understood
+than popular language which leads often to confusion. Compared with
+the Buddhists’ conception of âtman, the “flesh” lacks in perspicuity
+and exactitude, not to speak of its dualistic tendency which is
+extremely offensive to the Buddhists.
+
+{167}
+
+
+ _The Vedantic Conception._
+
+Though the doctrine of non-âtman is pre-eminently Buddhistic, other
+Hindu philosophers did not neglect to acknowledge its importance in
+our religious life. Having grown in the same soil under similar
+circumstances, the following passage which is taken from the
+_Yogavâsistha_ (which is supposed to be a Vedantic work, Upaçama P.,
+ch. LII, 31, 44) sounds almost like Buddhistic:
+
+“I am absolute, I am the light of intelligence, I am free from the
+defilement of egoism. O thou that art unreal! I am not bound by thee,
+the seed of egoism.”[76]
+
+The author then argues: Where shall we consider the ego-soul, so
+called, to be residing in this body of flesh and bones? and what does
+it look like? We move our limbs, but the movement is due to the vital
+airs (_vâta_). We think, but consciousness is a manifestation of the
+great mind (_mahâcitta_). We cease to exist, but extinction belongs
+to the body (_kâya_). Now, take apart what we imagine to constitute
+our personal existence. The flesh is one thing, the blood is another,
+and so on with mentation (_bodha_) and vitality (_spanda_). The ear
+hears, the tongue tastes, the eye sees, the mind {168} thinks, but
+what and where is that which we call “ego”?
+
+Then comes the conclusion: “In reality, there is no such thing as the
+ego-soul, nor is there any mine and thine, nor imagination. All this
+is nothing but the manifestation of the universal soul which is the
+light of pure intelligence.”[77]
+
+
+ _Nâgârjuna on the Soul._
+
+In conclusion, let me quote some passage bearing on the subject from
+Nâgârjuna’s _Discourse on the Middle Path_ (chapter 9):[78] “Some
+say that there are seeing, hearing, feeling, etc., because there is
+something which exists even prior to those [manifestations]. For how
+could seeing, etc. come from that which does not exist? Therefore, it
+must be admitted that that being [i.e. soul] existed prior to those
+[manifestations].
+
+“But [this hypothesis of the prior (_pûrva_) or independent existence
+of the soul is wrong, because] how could that being be known if it
+existed prior to seeing, feeling, etc.? If that being could exist
+without seeing, etc., the latter too could surely exist without that
+being. But how could a thing which could not be known by any sign
+exist before it is known? How could _this_ exist without _that_, and
+how could {169} _that_ exist without _this_? [Are not all things
+relative and conditioning one another?]
+
+“If that being called soul could not exist prior to all manifestations
+such as seeing, etc., how could it exist prior to each of them taken
+individually?
+
+“If it is the same soul that sees, hears, feels, etc., it must be
+assumed that the soul exists prior to each of these manifestations.
+This, however, is not warranted by facts. [Because in that case one
+must be able to hear with the eyes, see with the ears, as one soul is
+considered to direct all these diverse faculties at its will.]
+
+“If, on the other hand, the hearer is one, and the seer is another,
+the feeler must be still another. Then, there will be hearing, seeing,
+etc. simultaneously,--which leads to the assumption of a plurality of
+souls.[79] [This too is against experience.]
+
+“Further, the soul does not exist in the element (_bhûta_) on which
+seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. depend. [To use modern expression, the
+soul does not exist in the nerves which respond to the external
+stimuli.]
+
+“If seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. have no soul that exists prior to
+them, they too have no existence as such. For how could _that_ exist
+without _this_, and _this_ without _that_? Subject and object are
+mutually conditioned. The soul as it is has no independent, individual
+reality whatever. Therefore, the hypothesis that contends for the
+existence of an ego-soul prior {170} to simultaneous with, or posterior
+to, seeing, etc., is to be abandoned as fruitless, for the ego-soul
+existeth not.”
+
+
+ _Non-âtman-ness of Things._
+
+The word “âtman” is used by the Buddhists not only psychologically in
+the sense of soul, self, or ego, but also ontologically in the sense
+of substance or thing-in-itself or thinginess; and its existence in
+this capacity is also strongly denied by them. For the same reason
+that the existence of an individual ego-soul is untenable, they reject
+the hypothesis of the permanent existence of an individual object as
+such. As there is no transcendent agent in our soul-life, so there is
+no real, eternal existence of individuals as individuals, but a system
+of different attributes, which, when the force of karma is exhausted,
+ceases to subsist. Individual existences cannot be real by their
+inherent nature, but they are illusory, and will never remain permanent
+as such; for they are constantly becoming, and have no selfhood though
+they may so appear to our particularising senses on account of our
+subjective ignorance. They are in reality cûnya and anâtman, they are
+empty and void of âtman.
+
+
+ _Svabhâva._
+
+The term “svabhâva” (self-essence or noumenon) is sometimes used by
+the Mahâyânists in place of âtman, and they would say that all dharmas
+have no self-essence, {171} _sarvam dharmam niḥsvabhâvam_, which is to
+say, that all things in their phenomenal aspect are devoid of
+individual selves, that it is only due to our ignorance that we believe
+in the thinginess of things, whereas there is no such thing as svabhâva
+or âtman or noumenon which resides in them. Svabhâva and âtman are thus
+habitually used by Buddhists as quite synonymous.
+
+What do they exactly understand by “svabhâva” whose existence is
+denied in a particular object as perceived by our senses? This has
+never been explicitly defined by the Mahâyânists, but they seem to
+understand by svabhâva something concrete, individual, yet independent,
+unconditional, and not subject to the law of causation
+(_pratyayasamutpâda_). It, therefore, stands in opposition to
+çûnyatâ, emptiness, as well as to conditionality. Inasmuch as all
+beings are transient and empty in their inherent being, they cannot
+logically be said to be in possession of self-essence which defies the
+law of causation. All things are mutually conditioning and limiting,
+and apart from their relativity they are non-existent and cannot be
+known by us. Therefore, says Nâgârjuna, “If substance be different
+from attribute, it is then beyond comprehension.”[80] For “a jag is
+not to be known independent of matter et cetera, and matter in turn is
+not to be known independent of ether et cetera.”[81] {172} As there
+is no subject without object, so there is no substance without
+attribute; for one is the condition for the other. Does self-essence
+then exist in causation? No, “whatever is subject to conditionality,
+is by its very nature tranquil and empty.” (_Pratîtya yad yad bhavati,
+tat tac çântam svabhâvataḥ._) Whatever owes its existence to a
+combination of causes and conditions is without self-essence, and
+therefore it is tranquil (_çânta_), it is empty, it is unreal (_asat_),
+and the ultimate nature of this universal emptiness is not within the
+sphere of intellectual demonstrability, for the human understanding is
+not capable of transcending its inherent limitations.
+
+Says Pingalaka, a commentator of Nâgârjuna: “The cloth exists on
+account of the thread; the matting is possible on account of the
+rattan. If the thread had its own fixed, unchangeable self-essence, it
+could not be made out of the flax. If the cloth had its own fixed,
+unchangeable self-essence, it could not be made from the thread. But
+as in point of fact the cloth comes from the thread and the thread
+from the flax, it must be said that the thread as well as the cloth
+had no fixed, unchangeable self-essence. It is just like the relation
+that obtains between the burning and the burned. They are brought
+together under certain conditions, and thus there takes place a
+phenomenon called burning. The burning and the burned, each has no
+reality of its own. For when one is absent the other is put out of
+existence. It is so with all things in this world, they are all empty,
+{173} without self, without absolute existence, they are like the
+will-o’-the-wisp.”[82]
+
+
+ _The Real Significance of Emptiness._
+
+From these statements it will be apparent that the emptiness of things
+(_çûnyatâ_) does not mean nothingness, as is sometimes interpreted
+by some critics, but it simply means conditionality or transitoriness
+of all phenomenal existences, it is a synonym for aniyata or pratîtya.
+Therefore, emptiness, according to the Buddhists, signifies,
+negatively, the absence of particularity, the non-existence of
+individuals as such, and positively, the ever-changing state of the
+phenomenal world, a constant flux of becoming, an eternal series of
+causes and effects. It must never be understood in the sense of
+annihilation or absolute nothingness, for nihilism is as much
+condemned by Buddhism as naïve realism. “The Buddha proclaimed
+emptiness as a remedy for all doctrinal controversies, but those who
+in turn cling to emptiness are beyond treatment.” A medicine is
+indispensable as long as there is a disease to heal, but it turns
+poisonous when applied after the restoration of perfect health. To
+make this point completely clear, let me quote the following from
+Nâgârjuna’s _Mâdhyamika Çâstra_ (Chap. XXIV). “[Some one may object to
+the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness, declaring:] If all is void
+(_çûnya_) and {174} there is neither creation nor destruction, then it
+must be concluded that even the Fourfold Noble Truth does not exist.
+If the Fourfold Noble Truth does not exist, the recognition of
+Suffering, the stoppage of Accumulation, the attainment of Cessation,
+and the advancement of Discipline,--all must be said to be
+unrealisable. If they are altogether unrealisable, there cannot be any
+of the four states of saintliness; and without these states there
+cannot be anybody who will aspire for them. If there are no wise men,
+the Sangha is then impossible. Further, as there is no Fourfold Noble
+Truth, there is no Good Law (_saddharma_); and as there is neither
+Good Law nor Sangha, the existence of Buddha himself must be an
+impossibility. Those who talk of emptiness, therefore, must be said to
+negate the Triple Treasure (_triratna_) altogether. Emptiness not only
+destroys the law of causation and the general principle of retribution
+(_phalasadbhâvam_), but utterly annihilates the possibility of a
+phenomenal world.”
+
+“[To this it is to be remarked that]
+
+“Only he is annoyed over such scepticism who understands not the true
+significance and interpretation of emptiness (_çûnyatâ_).
+
+“The Buddha’s teaching rests on the discrimination of two kinds of
+truth (_satya_): absolute and relative. Those who do not have any
+adequate knowledge of them are unable to grasp the deep and subtle
+meaning of Buddhism. [The essence of being, dharmata, is beyond verbal
+definition or intellectual comprehension, {175} for there is neither
+birth nor death in it, and it is even like unto Nirvâna. The nature
+of Suchness, tattva, is fundamentally free from conditionality, it is
+tranquil, it distances all phenomenal frivolities, it discriminates
+not, nor is it particularised].[83]
+
+“But if not for relative truth, absolute truth is unattainable, and
+when absolute truth is not attained, Nirvâna is not to be gained.
+
+“The dull-headed who do not perceive the truth rightfully go to
+self-destruction, for they are like an awkward magician whose trick
+entangles himself, or like an unskilled snake-catcher who gets himself
+hurt. The World-honored One knew well the abstruseness of the Doctrine
+which is beyond the mental capacity of the multitudes and was inclined
+not to disclose it before them.
+
+“The objection that Buddhism onesidedly adheres to emptiness and
+thereby exposes itself to grave errors, entirely misses the mark; for
+there are no errors in emptiness. Why? Because it is on account of
+emptiness that all things are at all possible, and without emptiness
+all things will come to naught. Those who deny emptiness and find
+fault with it, are like a horseman who forgets that he is on
+horseback.
+
+“If they think that things exist because of their self-essence
+(_svabhâva_), [and not because of their emptiness,] they thereby make
+things come out of causelessness (_ahetupratyaya_), they destroy those
+{176} relations that exist between the acting and the act and the
+acted; and they also destroy the conditions that make up the law of
+birth and death.
+
+“All is declared empty because there is nothing that is not a product
+of universal causation (_pratyayasamutpâda_). This law of causation,
+however, is merely provisional, though herein lies the middle path.
+
+“As thus there is not an object (_dharma_) which is not conditioned
+(_pratîtya_), so there is nothing that is not empty.
+
+“If all is not empty, then there is no death nor birth, and withal
+disappears the Fourfold Noble Truth.
+
+“How could there be Suffering, if not for the law of causation?
+Impermanence is suffering. But with self-essence there will be no
+impermanence. [So long as impermanence is the condition of life,
+self-essence which is a causeless existence, is out of question.]
+Suppose Suffering is self-existent, then it could not come from
+Accumulation, which in turn becomes impossible when emptiness is not
+admitted. Again, when Suffering is self-existent, then there could be
+no Cessation, for with the hypothesis of self-essence Cessation
+becomes a meaningless term. Again, when Suffering is self-existent,
+then there will be no Path. But as we can actually walk on the Path,
+the hypothesis of self-essence is to be abandoned.
+
+“If there is neither Suffering nor Cessation, it must be said that the
+Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering is also non-existent.
+
+“If there is really self-essence, Suffering could not {177} be
+recognised now, as it had not been recognised, for self-essence as
+such must remain forever the same. [That is to say, enlightened minds,
+through the teaching of Buddha, now recognise the existence of
+Suffering, though they did not recognise it when they were still
+uninitiated. If things were all in a fixed, self-determining state on
+account of their self-essence, it would be impossible for those
+enlightened men to discover what they had never observed before. The
+recognition of the Fourfold Noble Truth is only possible when this
+phenomenal world is in a state of constant becoming, that is, when it
+is empty as it really is.]
+
+“As it is with the recognition of Suffering, so it is with the
+stoppage of Accumulation, the attainment of Cessation, the realisation
+of Path as well as with the four states of saintliness.
+
+“If, on account of self-essence, the four states of saintliness were
+unattainable before, how could they be realised now, still upholding
+the hypothesis of self-essence? [But we can attain to saintliness as a
+matter of fact, for there are many holy men who through their
+spiritual discipline have emerged from their former life of ignorance
+and darkness. If everything had its own self-essence which makes it
+impossible to transform from one state to another, how could a person
+desire to ascend, if he ever so desire, higher and higher on the scale
+of existence?]
+
+“If there were no four states of saintliness (_catvâri phalâni_), then
+there would be no aspirants for it. {178} And if there were no eight
+wise men (_puruṣapuñgala_), there could exist no Sangha.
+
+“Again, when there could not be the Fourfold Noble Truth, the Law
+would be impossible, and without the Sangha and the Law how could the
+Buddha exist? You might say: ‘A Buddha does not exist on account of
+wisdom (_Bodhi_), nor does wisdom exist on account of the Buddha.’ But
+if a man did not have Buddha-essence [that is, Bodhi] he could not
+hope to attain to Buddhahood, however strenuously he might exert
+himself in the ways of Bodhisattva.
+
+“Further, if all is not empty but has self-essence, [i.e. if all is in
+a fixed, unchangeable state of sameness], how could there be any
+doing? How could there be good and evil? If you maintain that there is
+an effect (_phala_) which does not come from a cause good or evil,
+[which is the practical conclusion of the hypothesis of self-essence],
+then it means that retribution is independent of our deed, good or
+evil. [But is this justified by our experience?]
+
+“If it must then be admitted that our deed good or evil becomes the
+cause of retribution, retribution must be said to come from our deed,
+good or evil; then how could we say there is no emptiness?
+
+“When you negate the doctrine of emptiness, the law of universal
+causation, you negate the possibility of this phenomenal world. When
+the doctrine of emptiness is negated, there remains nothing that ought
+to be done; and a thing is called done which is not yet accomplished;
+and he is said to be a doer who has {179} not done anything whatever.
+If there were such a thing as self-essence, the multitudinousness of
+things must be regarded as uncreated and imperishable and eternally
+existing which is tantamount to eternal nothingness.
+
+“If there were no emptiness there would be no attainment of what has
+not yet been attained, nor would there be the annihilation of pain,
+nor the extinction of all the passions (_sarvakleça_).
+
+“Therefore, it is taught by the Buddha that those who recognise the
+law of universal causation, recognise the Buddha as well as Suffering,
+Accumulation, Cessation, and the Path.”
+
+ * * *
+
+The Mahâyânistic doctrines thus formulated and transmitted down to
+the present days are: There is no such thing as the ego; mentation is
+produced by the co-ordination of various vijñânas or senses.
+
+Individual existences have no selfhood or self-essence or reality, for
+they are but an aggregate of certain qualities sustained by efficient
+karma. The world of particulars is the work of Ignorance as declared
+by Buddha in his Formula of Dependence (Twelve Nidânas). When this
+veil of Mâya is uplifted, the universal light of Dharmakâya shines in
+all its magnificence. Individual existences then as such lose their
+significance and become sublimated and ennobled in the oneness of
+Dharmakâya. Egoistic prejudices are forever vanquished, and the aim of
+our lives is no more the {180} gratification of selfish cravings, but
+the glorification of Dharma as it works its own way through the
+multitudinousness of things. The self does not stand any more in a
+state of isolation (which is an illusion), it is absorbed in the
+universal body of Dharma, it recognises itself in other selves animate
+as well as inanimate, and all things are in Nirvâna. When we reach
+this state of ideal enlightenment, we are said to have realised the
+Buddhist life.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+ KARMA.
+
+{181}
+
+
+ _Definition._
+
+/Karma/, or Sanskâra which is sometimes used as its synonym,--though
+the latter gives a slightly different shade of meaning,--comes from
+the Sanskrit root _kṛ_, “to do,” “to make,” “to perform,” “to effect,”
+“to produce,” etc. Both terms mean activity in its concrete as well as
+in its abstract sense, and form an antithesis to intelligence,
+contemplation, or ideation in general. When karma is used in its most
+abstract sense, it becomes an equivalent to “beginningless ignorance,”
+which is universally inherent in nature, and corresponds to the Will
+or blind activity of Schopenhauer; for ignorance as we have seen above
+is a negative manifestation of Suchness (_Bhûtatathâtâ_) and marks the
+beginning or unfolding of a phenomenal world, whose existence is
+characterised by incessant activities actuated by the principle of
+karma. When Goethe says in Faust, “In Anfang war die That,” he uses
+the term “That” in the sense of karma as it is here understood.
+
+When karma is used in its concrete sense, it is the {182} principle of
+activity in the world of particulars or nâmarûpas: it becomes in the
+physical world the principle of conservation of energy, in the
+biological realm that of evolution and heredity etc., and in the moral
+world that of immortality of deeds. Sanskara, when used as an
+equivalent of karma, corresponds to this concrete signification of it,
+as it is the case in the Twelve Chains of Dependence (_Nidânas_, or
+_Pratyâyasamutpâda_).[84] Here it follows ignorance (_avidyâ_) and
+precedes consciousness (_vijñâna_). Ignorance in this case means
+simply privation of enlightenment, and does not imply any sense of
+activity which is expressed in Sanskâra. It is only when it is coupled
+with the latter that it becomes the principle of activity, and creates
+as its first offspring consciousness or mentality. In fact, ignorance
+and blind activity are one, their logical difference being this: the
+former emphasises the epistemological phase and the latter the
+ethical; or, we might say, one is statical and the other dynamical. If
+we are to draw a comparison between the first four of the Twelve
+Nidânas and the several processes of evolution that takes place in the
+Tathâgata-garbha as described above, we can take Ignorance and the
+principle of blind activity, sanskâra, {183} in the Twelve Chains as
+corresponding to the All-conserving Soul (_âlayavijñâna_), and the
+Vijñâna, consciousness of the Twelve Chains, to the Manovijñâna, and
+the Nâmârûpa to this visible world, _viṣaya_, in which the principle
+of karma works in its concrete form.
+
+As we have a special chapter devoted to “Ignorance” as an equivalent
+of karma in its abstract sense, let us here treat of the Buddhist
+conception of karma in the realm of names and forms, i.e. of karma in
+its concrete sense. But we shall restrict ourselves to the activity of
+karmaic causation in the moral world, as we are not concerned with
+physics or biology.
+
+
+ _The Working of Karma._
+
+The Buddhist conception of karma briefly stated is this: Any act, good
+or evil, once committed and conceived, never vanishes like a bubble in
+water, but lives, potentially or actively as the case may be, in the
+world of minds and deeds. This mysterious moral energy, so to speak,
+is embodied in and emanates from every act and thought, for it does
+not matter whether it is actually performed, or merely conceived in
+the mind. When the time comes, it is sure to germinate and grow with
+all its vitality. Says Buddha:
+
+
+ “Karma even after the lapse of a hundred kalpas,
+ Will not be lost nor destroyed;
+ As soon as all the necessary conditions are ready,
+ Its fruit is sure to ripe.”[85]
+
+{184}
+
+Again,
+
+
+ “Whatever a man does, the same he in himself will find,
+ The good man, good: and evil he that evil has designed;
+ And so our deeds are all like seeds, and bring forth fruit in kind.”[86]
+
+
+A grain of wheat, it is said, which was accidentally preserved in good
+condition in a tomb more than a thousand years old, did not lose its
+germinating energy, and, when planted with proper care, it actually
+started to sprout. So with karma, it is endowed with an enormous
+vitality, nay, it is even immortal. However remote the time of their
+commission might have been, the karma of our deeds never dies; it must
+work out its own destiny at whatever cost, if not overcome by some
+counteracting force. The law of karma is irrefragable.
+
+The irrefragability of karma means that the law of causation is
+supreme in our moral sphere just as much as in the physical, that life
+consists in a concatenation of causes and effects regulated by the
+principle of karma, that nothing in the life of an individual or a
+nation or a race happens without due cause and sufficient reason, that
+is, without previous karma. The Buddhists, therefore, do not believe
+in any special act of grace or revelation in our religious realm and
+moral life. The idea of deus ex machina is banned in Buddhism. Whatever
+is suffered or enjoyed morally in our present life is due to the karma,
+accumulated {185} since the beginning of life on earth. Nothing sown,
+nothing reaped.
+
+Whatever has been done leaves an ineffable mark in the individual’s
+life and even in that of the universe; and this mark will never be
+erased save by sheer exhaustion of the karma or by the interruption of
+an overwhelming counter-karma. In case the karma of an act is not
+actualised during one’s own life-time, it will in that of one’s
+successors, who may be physical or spiritual. Not only “the evil that
+men do lives after them,” but also the good, for it will not be
+“interred with their bones,” as vulgar minds imagine. We read in the
+_Samyukta Nikâya_, III, 1-4:
+
+
+ “Assailed by death, in life’s last throes,
+ At quitting of this human state,
+ What is it one can call his own?
+ What with him take as he goes hence?
+ What is it follows after him,
+ And like a shadow ne’er departs?
+
+ “His good deeds and his wickedness,
+ Whate’er a mortal does while here;
+ ’Tis this that he can call his own,
+ This with him take as he goes hence.
+ This is what follows after him,
+ And like a shadow ne’er departs.
+
+ “Let all, then, noble deeds perform,
+ A treasure-store for future weal;
+ For merit gained this life within,
+ Will yield a blessing in the next.”[87]
+
+
+{186}
+
+In accordance with this karmaic preservation, Buddhists do not expect
+to have their sins expatiated by other innocent people so long as
+their own hearts remain unsoftened as ever. But when the all-embracing
+love of Buddhas for all sentient beings kindles even the smallest
+spark of repentance and enlightenment in the heart of a sinner, and
+when this ever-vacillating light grows to its full magnitude under
+propitious conditions, the sinner gets fully awakened from the evil
+karma of eons, and enters, free from all curses, into the eternity of
+Nirvâna.
+
+
+ _Karma and Social Injustice._
+
+The doctrine of karma is very frequently utilised by some Buddhists to
+explain a state of things which must be considered cases of social
+injustice.
+
+There are some people who are born rich and noble and destined to
+enjoy all forms of earthly happiness and all the advantages of social
+life, though they have done nothing that justifies them in luxuriating
+in such a fashion any more than their poor neighbors. These people,
+however, are declared by some pseudo-Buddhists to be merely harvesting
+the crops of good karma they had prepared in their former lives. On
+the other hand, the poor, needy, and low that are struggling to eke
+out a mere existence in spite of their moral rectitude and honest
+industry, are considered to be suffering the evil karma which had been
+accumulated during their previous lives. The law of moral retribution
+is never {187} suspended, as they reason, on account of the changes
+which may take place in a mortal being. An act, good or evil, once
+performed, will not be lost in the eternal succession and interaction
+of incidents, but will certainly find the sufferer of its due
+consequence, and it does not matter whether the actor has gone through
+the vicissitudes of birth and death. For the Buddhist conception of
+individual identity is not that of personal continuity, but of karmaic
+conservation. Whatever deeds we may commit, they invariably bear their
+legitimate fruit and follow us even after death. Therefore, if the
+rich and noble neglect to do their duties or abandon themselves to the
+enjoyment of sensual pleasures, then they are sure in their future
+births, if not in their present life, to gather the crops they have
+thus unwittingly prepared for themselves. The poor, however hard their
+lot in this life, can claim their rightful rewards, if they do not get
+despaired of their present sufferings and give themselves up to
+temptations, but dutifully continue to do things good and meritorious.
+Because as their present fate is the result of their former deeds, so
+will be their future fortune the fruit of their present deeds.
+
+This view as held by some pseudo-Buddhists gives us a wrong impression
+about the practical working of the principle of karma in this world of
+nâmarûpas, for it tries to explain by karmaic theory the phenomena
+which lie outside of the sphere of its applicability. As I understand,
+what the theory of karma {188} proposes to explain is not cases of
+social injustice and economic inequality, but facts of moral causation.
+
+The overbearing attitude of the rich and the noble, the unnecessary
+sufferings of the poor, the over-production of criminals, and suchlike
+social phenomena arise from the imperfection of our present social
+organisation, which is based upon the doctrine of absolute private
+ownership. People are allowed to amass wealth unlimitedly for their
+own use and to bequeath it to the successors who do not deserve it in
+any way. And they do not pay regard to the injuries this system may
+incur upon the general welfare of the community to which they belong,
+and upon other members individually. The rich might have slaughtered
+economically and consequently politically and morally millions of
+their brethren before they could reach places of social eminence they
+now occupy and enjoy to its full extent. They might have sacrificed
+hundreds of thousands of victims on the altar of Mammon in order to
+carry out their vast scheme of self-aggrandisement. And, what is
+worse, the wealth thus accumulated by an individual is allowed by the
+law to be handed down to his descendants, who are in a sense the
+parasitic members of the community. They are privileged to live upon
+the sweat and blood of others, who know not where to lay their heads,
+and who are daily succumbing to the heavy burden, not of their free
+choice, but forced upon them by society.
+
+Let us here closely see into the facts. There is one portion of
+society that does almost nothing toward {189} the promotion of the
+general welfare, and there is another portion that, besides carrying
+the burden not of its own, is heroically struggling for bare existence.
+These sad phenomena which, owing to the imperfection of social
+organisation, we daily witness about us,--should we attribute them to
+diversity of individual karma and make individuals responsible for
+what is really due to the faulty organisation of the community to which
+they belong? No, the doctrine of karma certainly must not be understood
+to explain the cause of our social and economical imperfection.
+
+The region where the law of karma is made to work supreme is our moral
+world, and cannot be made to extend also over our economic field.
+Poverty is not necessarily the consequence of evil deeds, nor is
+plenitude that of good acts. Whether a person is affluent or needy is
+mostly determined by the principle of economy as far as our present
+social system is concerned. Morality and economy are two different
+realms of human activity. Honesty and moral rectitude do not
+necessarily guarantee well-being. Dishonesty and the violation of the
+moral law, on the contrary, are very frequently utilised as handmaids
+of material prosperity. Do we not thus see many good, conscientious
+people around us who are wretchedly poverty-stricken? Shall we take
+them as suffering the curse of evil karma in their previous lives,
+when we can understand the fact perfectly well as a case of social
+injustice? It is not necessary by any means, nay, it is even productive
+of evil, to establish a relation {190} between the two things that in
+the nature of their being have no causal dependence. Karma ought not
+to be made accountable for economic inequality.
+
+A virtuous man is contented with his cleanliness of conscience and
+purity of heart. Obscure as is his present social position, and
+miserable as are his present pecuniary conditions, he has no mind to
+look backward and find the cause of his social insignificance there,
+nor is he anxious about his future earthly fortune which might be
+awaiting him when his karmaic energy appears in a new garment. His
+heart is altogether free from such vanities and anxieties. He is
+sufficient unto himself as he is here and now. And, as to his
+altruistic aspect of his moral deeds, he is well conscious that their
+karma would spiritually benefit everybody that gets inspired by it,
+and also that it would largely contribute to the realisation of
+goodness on this earth. Why, then, must we contrive such a poor theory
+of karma as is maintained by some, in order that they might give him a
+spiritual solace for his material misfortune?
+
+Vulgar people are too eager to see everything and every act they
+perform working for the accumulation of earthly wealth and the
+promotion of material welfare. They would want to turn even moral
+deeds which have no relation to the economic condition of life into
+the opportunities to attain things mundane. They would desire to have
+the law of karmaic causation applied to a realm, where prevails an
+entirely different set of laws. In point of fact, what proceeds from
+{191} meritorious deeds is spiritual bliss only,--contentment,
+tranquillity of mind, meekness of heart, and immovability of
+faith,--all the heavenly treasures which could not be corrupted by
+moth or rust. And what more can the karma of good deeds bring to us?
+And what more would a man of pious heart desire to gain from his being
+good? “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye
+shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the
+life more than meat and the body more than raiment?” Let us then do
+away with the worldly interpretation of karma, which is so contrary to
+the spirit of Buddhism.
+
+As long as we live under the present state of things, it is impossible
+to escape the curse of social injustice and economic inequality. Some
+people must be born rich and noble and enjoying a superabundance of
+material wealth, while others must be groaning under the unbearable
+burden imposed upon them by cruel society. Unless we make a radical
+change in our present social organisation, we cannot expect every one
+of us to enjoy equal opportunity and fair chance. Unless we have a
+certain form of socialism installed which is liberal and rational and
+systematic, there must be some who are economically more favored than
+others. But this state of affairs is a phenomenon of worldly
+institution and is doomed to die away sooner or later. The law of
+karma, on the contrary, is an eternal ordinance of the will of the
+Dharmakâya as manifested in this world of {192} particulars. We must
+not confuse a transient accident of human society with an absolute
+decree issued from the world-authority.
+
+
+ _An Individualistic View of Karma._
+
+There is another popular misconception concerning the doctrine of
+karma, which seriously mars the true interpretation of Buddhism. I
+mean by this an individualistic view of the doctrine. This view
+asserts that deeds, good or evil, committed by a person determine only
+his own fate, no other’s being affected thereby in any possible way,
+and that the reason why we should refrain from doing wrong is: for we,
+and not others, have to suffer its evil consequences. This conception
+of karma which I call individualistic, presupposes the absolute
+reality of an individual soul and its continuance as such in a new
+corporeal existence which is made possible by its previous karma.
+Because an individual soul is here understood as an independent unit,
+which stands in no relation to others, and which therefore neither
+does influence nor is influenced by them in any wise. All that is done
+by oneself is suffered by oneself only and no other people have
+anything to do with it, nor do they suffer a whit thereby.
+
+Buddhism, however, does not advocate this individualistic
+interpretation of karmaic law, for it is not in accord with the theory
+of non-âtman, nor with that of Dharmakâya.
+
+According to the orthodox theory, karma simply means the conservation
+or immortality of the inner {193} force of deeds regardless of their
+author’s physical identity. Deeds once committed, good or evil, leave
+permanent effects on the general system of sentient beings, of which
+the actor is merely a component part; and it is not the actor himself
+only, but everybody constituting a grand psychic community called
+“Dharmadhâtu” (spiritual universe), that suffers or enjoys the outcome
+of a moral deed.
+
+Because the universe is not a theatre for one particular soul only; on
+the contrary, it belongs to all sentient beings, each forming a
+psychic unit; and these units are so intimately knitted together in
+blood and soul that the effects of even apparently trifling deeds
+committed by an individual are felt by others just as much and just as
+surely as the doer himself. Throw an insignificant piece of stone into
+a vast expanse of water, and it will certainly create an almost
+endless series of ripples, however imperceptible, that never stop till
+they reach the furthest shore. The tremulation thus caused is felt by
+the sinking stone as much as the water disturbed. The universe that
+may seem to crude observers merely as a system of crass physical
+forces is in reality a great spiritual community, and every one of
+sentient beings forms its component part. This most complicated, most
+subtle, most sensitive, and best organised mass of spiritual atoms
+transmits its current of moral electricity from one particle to
+another with utmost rapidity and surety. Because this community is at
+bottom an expression of one Dharmakâya. However diversified {194} and
+dissimilar it may appear in its material individual aspect, it is
+after all no more than an evolution of one pervading essence, in which
+the multitudinousness of things finds its unity and identity.
+Therefore, it is for the interests of the community at large, and not
+for their own welfare only, that sincere Buddhists refrain from
+transgressing moral laws and are encouraged to promote goodness. Those
+whose spiritual insight thus penetrates deep into the inner unity and
+interaction of all human souls are called Bodhisattvas.
+
+It is with this spirit, let me repeat, that pious Buddhists do not
+wish to keep for themselves any merits created by their acts of love
+and benevolence, but wish to turn them over (_parivarta_) to the
+deliverance of all sentient creatures from the darkness of ignorance.
+The most typical way of concluding any religious treatise by Buddhists,
+therefore, runs generally in the following manner:
+
+
+ “The deep significance of the three karmas as taught by Buddha,
+ I have thus completed elucidating in accord with the Dharma and logic:
+ By dint of this merit I pray to deliver all sentient beings
+ And to make them soon attain to perfect enlightenment.”[88]
+
+
+Or,
+
+
+ “All the merits arising from this my exposition
+ May abide and be universally distributed among all beings;
+ And may they ascend in the scale of existence and increase in bliss
+  and wisdom,
+ And soon attain to an enlightenment supreme, perfect, great, and
+  far-reaching.”[89]
+
+{195}
+
+The reason why a moral deed performed by one person would contribute
+to the attainment by others of supreme enlightenment, is that souls
+which are ordinarily supposed to be individual and independent of
+others are not so in fact, but are very closely intermingled with one
+another, so that a stir produced in one is sooner or later transmitted
+to another influencing it rightfully or wrongfully. The karmaic effect
+of my own deed determines not only my own future, but to a not little
+extent that of others; hence those invocations just quoted by pious
+Buddhists who desire to dedicate all the merits they can attain to the
+general welfare of the masses.
+
+The ever-increasing tendency of humanity to widen and facilitate
+communication in every possible way is a phenomenon illustrative of
+the intrinsic oneness of human souls. Isolation kills, for it is
+another name for death. Every soul that lives and grows desires to
+embrace others, to be in communion with them, to be supplemented by
+them, and to expand infinitely so that all individual souls are
+brought together and united in the one soul. Under this condition only
+a man’s karma is enabled to influence other people, and his merits can
+be utilised for the promotion of general enlightenment.
+
+{196}
+
+
+ _Karma and Determinism._
+
+If the irrefragability of karma means the predetermination of our
+moral life, some would reason, the doctrine is fatalism pure and
+simple. It is quite true that our present life is the result of the
+karma accumulated in our previous existences, and that as long as the
+karma preserves its vitality there is no chance whatever to escape its
+consequences, good or evil. It is also true that as the meanest
+sparrow shall not fall on the ground without the knowledge of God, and
+as the very hairs of our heads are all numbered by him, so even a
+single blade of grass does not quiver before the evening breeze
+without the force of karma. It is also true that if our intellect were
+not near-sighted as it is, we could reduce a possible complexity of
+the conditions under which our life exists into its simplest terms,
+and thus predict with mathematical precision the course of a life
+through which it is destined to pass. If we could record all our
+previous karma from time immemorial and all its consequences both on
+ourselves and on those who come in contact with us, there would be no
+difficulty in determining our future life with utmost certainty. The
+human intellect, however, as it happens, is incapable of undertaking a
+work of such an enormous magnitude, we cannot perceive the full
+significance of determinism; but, from the divine point of view,
+determinism seems to be perfectly justified, for there cannot be any
+short-sightedness on the part of a world-soul as to the destiny of the
+universe, which {197} is nothing but its own expression. It is only
+from the human point of view that we feel uncertain about our final
+disposition and endeavor to explain existence now from a mechanical,
+now from a teleological standpoint, and yet, strange enough, at the
+bottom of our soul we feel that there is something mysterious here
+which makes us cry, either in despair or in trustful resignation, “Let
+thy will be done.” While this very confidence in “thy will” proves
+that we have in our inmost consciousness and outside the pale of
+intellectual analysis a belief in the supreme order, which is
+absolutely preordained and which at least is not controllable by our
+finite, limited, fragmentary mind, yet the doctrine of karma must not
+be understood in the strictest sense of fatalism.
+
+As far as a general theory of determinism is concerned, Buddhism has
+no objection to it. Grant that there is a law of causation, that every
+deed, actualised or thought of, leaves something behind, and that this
+something becomes a determining factor for our future life; then how
+could we escape the conclusion that “each of us is inevitable” as
+Whitman sings? Religious confidence in a divine will that is supposed
+to give us always the best of things, is in fact no more than a
+determinism. But if, in applying the doctrine to our practical life,
+we forget to endeavor to unfold all the possibilities that might lie
+in us, but could be awakened only after strenuous efforts, there will
+be no moral characters, no personal responsibility, no noble
+aspirations; the mind will be nothing but a reflex nervous system and
+life a sheer machinery.
+
+{198}
+
+In fact karma is not a machine which is not incapable of regeneration
+and self-multiplication. Karma is a wonderful organic power; it grows,
+it expands, and even gives birth to a new karma. It is like unto a
+grain of mustard, the least of all seeds, but, being full of vitality,
+it grows as soon as it comes in contact with the nourishing soil and
+becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the
+branches thereof. Its mystery is like that of sympathetic waves that
+pass through all the hearts which feel the great deeds of a hero or
+listen to the story of a self-sacrificing mother. Karma, good or evil,
+is contagious and sympathetic in its work. Even a most insignificant
+act of goodness reaps an unexpectedly rich crop. Even to the vilest
+rogue comes a chance for repentance by dint of a single good karma
+ever effected in his life, which has extended through many a kalpa.
+And the most wonderful thing in our spiritual world is that the karma
+thus bringing repentance and Nirvâna to the heart of the meanest
+awakens and rekindles a similar karma potentially slumbering in other
+hearts and leads them to the final abode of enlightenment.
+
+Inasmuch as we confine ourselves to general, superficial view of the
+theory of karma, it leads to a form of determinism, but in our
+practical life which is a product of extremely complicated factors,
+the doctrine of karma allows in us all kinds of possibilities and all
+chances of development. We thus escape the mechanical conception of
+life, we are saved from the despair of predetermination, though this
+is true to a great extent; {199} and we are assured of the
+actualisation of hopes, however remote it may be. Though the curse of
+evil karma may sometimes hang upon us very heavily, there is no reason
+to bury our aspirations altogether in the grave; on the contrary, let
+us bear it bravely and perform all the acts of goodness to destroy the
+last remnant of evil and to mature the stock of good karma.
+
+
+ _The Maturing of Good Stock (kuçalamûla) and the
+ Accumulation of merits (punyaskandha)._
+
+One of the most significant facts, which we cannot well afford to
+ignore while treating of the doctrine of karma, is the Buddhist belief
+that Çâkyamuni reached his supreme Buddhahood only after a long
+practise of the six virtues of perfection (_pâramitâs_) through many
+a rebirth. This belief constitutes the very foundation of the ethics
+of Buddhism and has all-important bearings on the doctrine of karma.
+
+The doctrine of karma ethically considered is this: Sentient beings
+can attain to perfection not by an intervention from on high, but
+through long, steady, unflinching personal efforts towards the
+actualisation of ideals, or, in other words, towards the maturing of
+good stock (_kuçalamûla_) and the accumulation of merits
+(_punyaskandha_). This can be accomplished only through the karma of
+good deeds untiringly practised throughout many a generation. Each
+single act of goodness we perform to-day is recorded with {200} strict
+accuracy in the annals of human evolution and is so much the gain for
+the cause of righteousness. On the contrary, every deed of ill-will,
+every thought of self-aggrandisement, every word of impurity, every
+assertion of egoism, is a drawback to the perfection of humanity. To
+speak concretely, the Buddha represents the crystalisation in the
+historical person of Çâkyamuni of all the good karma that was
+accumulated in innumerable kalpas previous to his birth. And if
+Devadatta, as legend has him, was really the enemy of the Buddha, he
+symbolises in him the evil karma that was being stored up with the
+good deeds of all Buddhas. Later Buddhism has thus elaborated to
+represent in these two historical figures the concrete results of good
+and evil karma, and tries to show in what direction its followers
+should exercise their spiritual energy.
+
+The doctrine of karma is, therefore, really the theory of evolution
+and heredity as working in our moral field. As Walt Whitman fitly
+sings, in every one of us, “converging objects of the universe” are
+perpetually flowing, through every one of us is “afflatus surging and
+surging--the current and index.” And these converging objects and this
+afflatus are no more than our karma which is interwoven in our being
+and which is being matured from the very beginning of consciousness
+upon the earth. Each generation either retards or furthers the
+maturing of karma and transmits to the succeeding one its stock either
+impaired or augmented. Those who are blind enough not to {201} see the
+significance of life, those who take their ego for the sole reality,
+and those who ignore the spiritual inheritance accumulated from time
+immemorial,--are the most worthless, most ungrateful, and most
+irresponsible people of the world. Buddhism calls them the children of
+Mâra engaged in the work of destruction.
+
+Dr. G. R. Wilson of Scotland states a very pretty story about a royal
+robe in his article on “The Sense of Danger” (_The Monist_, 1903,
+April), which graphically illustrates how potential karma stored from
+time out of mind is saturated in every fibre of our subliminal
+consciousness or in the Âlayavijñâna, as Buddhists might say. The
+story runs as follows:
+
+“An Oriental robe it was, whose beginning was in a prehistoric dynasty
+of which the hieroglyphics are undecipherable. With that pertinacity
+and durability so characteristic of the East, this royal garment has
+been handed down, not through hundreds of years, but through hundreds
+of generations,--generations, some of them, unconsciously long and
+stale and dreary; others short and quick and merry. A garment of kings,
+this, and of queens, a garment to which, as tradition prescribed, each
+monarch added something of quality,--a jewel of price, a patch of
+gold, a hem of rich embroidery,--and with each contribution a legend,
+worked into the imperishable fibre, told the story of the giver. Did
+something of the personality of these kings and queens linger in the
+work of their hands? If so, the robe was no dead thing, no mere
+covering to be lightly assumed or lightly laid aside, but a living
+{202} power, royal influence, and the wearer, all unwitting, must have
+taken on something of the character of the dead. It is a princess of
+the royal blood, perhaps, sensitive and mystical, trembling on the
+apprehensive verge of monarchy, who dons the robe, and as she dons it,
+tingles to its message. These great rubies that blaze upon its front
+are the souvenirs of bloody conquerors. As she fingers them idly, she
+is thrilled with an emotion she does not understand, for in her blood
+something answers to the fighting spirit they embody. Pearls are for
+peace. That rope has been strung by kings and queens who favored art
+and learning; and as the girl’s fingers stray towards them the
+inspiration changes and her mind reverts to the purposes of the
+civilised scholar. Here is a gaudy hem, the legacy of an unfaithful
+queen, steeped in intrigue all her life until her murder ended it; and
+as the maiden lifts it to examine it more closely, she learns with
+shame and blushes, yet not knowing what has wrought this change in
+her, that, deep down in her character, are mischievous possibilities,
+possibilities of wickedness and disgrace that will dog the footsteps
+of her reign. Suchlike are the suggestions which the hidden parts of
+the mind bring forth, and in such subtle manner are they born.”
+
+The doctrine of karma thus declares that an act of love and good-will
+you are performing here is not for your selfish interests, but it
+simply means the appreciation of the works of your worthy ancestors
+and the discharge of your duties towards {203} all humanity and your
+contribution to the world-treasury of moral ideals. Mature good stock,
+accumulate merits, purify evil karma, remove the ego-hindrance, and
+cultivate love for all beings; and the heavenly gate of Nirvâna will
+be opened not only to you, but to the entire world.
+
+We can sing with Walt Whitman the immortality of karma and the eternal
+progress of humanity, thus:
+
+
+ “Did you guess anything lived only its moment?
+ The world does not so exist--no part palpable or impalpable so exist;
+ No consummation exists without being from some long previous
+  consummation--and that from some other,
+ Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit nearer the beginning
+  than any.”[90]
+
+
+ _Immortality._
+
+We read in the _Milinda-pañha_:
+
+“Your Majesty, it is as if a man were to ascend to the story of a
+house with a light, and eat there; and the light in burning were to
+set fire to the thatch; and the thatch in burning were to set fire to
+the house; and the house in burning were to set fire to the village;
+and the people of the village were to seize him, and say, ‘Why, O man,
+did you set fire to the village?’ and he were to say, ‘I did not set
+fire to the village. The fire of the lamp by whose light I ate was a
+different one from the one which set fire to the village’; {204} and
+they, quarreling, were to come to you. Whose cause, Your Majesty,
+would you sustain?”
+
+“That of the people of the village, Reverend Sir,” etc.
+
+“And why?”
+
+“Because, in spite of what the man might say, the latter fire sprang
+from the former.”
+
+“In exactly the same way, Your Majesty, although the name and form
+which is born into the next existence is different from the name and
+form which is to end at death, nevertheless, it is sprung from it.
+Therefore is one not freed from one’s evil deeds.”
+
+The above is the Buddhist notion of individual identity and its
+conservation, which denies the immortality of the ego-soul and upholds
+that of karma.
+
+Another good way, perhaps, of illustrating this doctrine is to follow
+the growth and perpetuation of the seed. The seed is in fact a
+concrete expression of karma. When a plant reaches a certain stage of
+development, it blooms and bears fruit. This fruit contains in it a
+latent energy which under favorable conditions grows to a mature plant
+of its own kind. The new plant now repeats the processes which its
+predecessors went through, and an eternal perpetuation of the plant is
+attained. The life of an individual plant cannot be permanent
+according to its inherent nature, it is destined to be cut short some
+time in its course. But this is not the case with the current of an
+ever-lasting vitality that has been running in the plant ever since
+the beginning of the world. Because this current is not individual in
+its nature and stands above the vicissitudes {205} which take place in
+the life of particular plants. It may not be manifested in its kinetic
+form all the time, but potentially it is ever present in the being of
+the seed. Changes are simply a matter of form, and do not interfere
+with the current of life in the plant, which is preserved in the
+universe as the energy of vegetation.
+
+This energy of vegetation is that which is manifested in a mature
+plant, that which makes it blossom in the springtime, that which goes
+to seed, that which lies apparently dormant in the seeds, and that
+which resuscitates them to sprout among favorable surroundings. This
+energy of vegetation, this mysterious force, when stated in Buddhist
+phraseology, is nothing else than the vegetative expression of karma,
+which in the biological world constitutes the law of heredity, or the
+transmission of acquired character, or some other laws which might be
+discovered by the biologist. And it is when this force manifests
+itself in the moral realm of human affairs that karma obtains its
+proper significance as the law of moral causation.
+
+Now, there are several forms of transmission, by means of which the
+karma of a person or a people or a nation or a race is able to
+perpetuate itself to eternity. A few of them are described below.
+
+One may be called genealogical, or, perhaps, biological. Suppose here
+are descendants of an illustrious family, some of whose ancestors
+distinguished themselves by bravery, or benevolence, or intelligence,
+or by some other praiseworthy deeds or faculties. These {206} people
+are as a rule respected by their neighbors as if their ancestral
+spirits were transmitted through generations and still lingering among
+their consanguineous successors. Some of them in the line might have
+even been below the normal level in their intellect and morals, but
+this fact does not altogether nullify the possibility and belief that
+others of their family might some day develop the faculties possessed
+by the forefathers, dormant as they appear now, through the
+inspiration they could get from the noble examples of the past. The
+respect they are enjoying and the possibility of inspiration they may
+have are all the work of the karma generated by the ancestors. The
+author or authors of the noble karma are all gone now, their bones
+have long returned to their elements, their ego-souls are no more,
+their concrete individual personalities are things of the past; but
+their karma is still here and as fresh as it was on the day of its
+generation and will so remain till the end of time. If some of them,
+on the other hand, left a black record behind them, the evil karma
+will tenaciously cling to the history of the family, and the
+descendants will have to suffer the curse as long as its vitality is
+kept up, no matter how innocent they themselves are.
+
+Here one important thing I wish to note is the mysterious way in which
+evil karma works. Evil does not always generate evils only; it very
+frequently turns out to be a condition, if not a cause, which will
+induce a moral being to overcome it with his {207} utmost spiritual
+efforts. His being conscious of the very fact that his family history
+is somehow besmirched with dark spots, would rekindle in his heart a
+flickering light of goodness. His stock of good karma finally being
+brought into maturity, his virtues would then eclipse the evils of the
+past and turn a new page before him, which is full of bliss and glory.
+Everything in this world, thus, seems to turn to be merely a means for
+the final realisation of Good. Buddhists ascribe this spiritual
+phenomenon to the virtues of the upâya (expediency) of the Dharmakâya
+or Amitâbha Buddha.[91]
+
+To return to the subject. It does not need any further illustration to
+show that all these things which have been said about the family are
+also true of the race, the tribe, clan, nation, or any other form of
+community. History of mankind in all its manifold aspects of existence
+is nothing but a grand drama visualising the Buddhist doctrine of
+karmaic immortality. It is like an immense ocean whose boundaries
+nobody knows and the waves of events now swelling and surging, now
+ebbing, now whirling, now refluxing, in all times, day and night,
+illustrate how the laws {208} of karma are at work in this actual
+life. One act provokes another and that a third and so on to eternity
+without ever losing the chain of karmaic causation.
+
+Next, we come to a form of karma which might be called historical. By
+this I mean that a man’s karma can be immortalised by some historical
+objects, such as buildings, literary works, productions of art,
+implements, or instruments. In fact, almost any object, human or
+natural, which, however insignificant in itself, is associated with
+the memory of a great man, bears his karma, and transmits it to
+posterity.
+
+Everybody is familiar with the facts that all literary work embodies
+in itself the author’s soul and spirit, and that posterity can feel
+his living presence in the thoughts and sentiments expressed there,
+and that whenever the reader draws his inspiration from the work and
+actualises it in action, the author and the reader, though corporeally
+separate and living in different times, must be said spiritually
+feeling the pulsation of one and the same heart. And the same thing is
+true of productions of art. When we enter a gallery decorated with the
+noble works of Græcean or Roman artists, we feel as if we were
+breathing right in the midst of these art-loving people and seem to
+reawaken in us the same impressions that were received by them. We
+forget, as they did, the reality of our particular existence, we are
+unconsciously raised above it, and our imagination is filled with
+things not earthly. What a mysterious power it is!--the {209} power by
+which those inanimate objects carry us away to a world of ideals! What
+a mysterious power it is that reawakens the spirits of by-gone artists
+on a sheet of canvas or in a piece of marble! It was not indeed
+entirely without truth that primitive or ignorant people intuitively
+believed in the spiritual power of idols. What they failed to grasp
+was the distinction between the subjective presence of a spirit and
+its objective reality. As far as their religious feeling, and not
+their critical intellect, was concerned, they were perfectly justified
+in believing in idolatry. Taking all in all, these facts unmistakably
+testify the Buddhist doctrine of the immortality of karma. A chord of
+karma touched by mortals of bygone ages still vibrates in their works,
+and the vibration with its full force is transmitted to the sympathetic
+souls down to the present day.
+
+Architectural creations bear out the doctrine of karma with no less
+force than works of art and literature. As the uppermost bricks on an
+Egyptian pyramid would fall on the ground with the same amount of
+energy that required to raise them up in the times of Pharaohs; as a
+burning piece of coal in the furnace that was dug out from the heart
+of the earth emits the same quantity of heat that it absorbed from the
+sun some hundred thousand years ago; even so every insignificant bit
+of rock or brick or cement we may find among the ruins of Babylonian
+palaces, Indian topes, Persian kiosks, Egyptian obelisks, or Roman
+pantheons, is fraught with the same spirit and soul that actuated
+{210} the ancient peoples to construct those gigantic architectural
+wonders. The spirit is here, not in its individual form, but in its
+karmaic presence. When we pick these insignificant, unseemly pieces,
+our souls become singularly responsive to inspirations coming from
+those of the past, and our mental eyes vividly perceive the splendor
+of the gods, glory of the kings, peace of the nation, prosperity of
+the peoples, etc., etc. Because our souls and theirs are linked with
+the chain of karmaic causation through the medium of those visible
+remains of ancient days. Because the karma of those old peoples is
+still breathing its immortality in those architectural productions and
+sending its sympathetic waves out to the beholders. When thus we come
+to be convinced of the truth of the immortality of karma, we can truly
+exclaim with Christians, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where
+is thy victory?”
+
+It is hardly necessary to give any further illustration to establish
+the doctrine of karma concerning its historical significance. All
+scientific apparatus and instruments are an undying eye-witness of the
+genius of the inventors. All industrial machines and agricultural
+implements most concretely testify the immortality of karma created by
+the constructors, in exact proportion as they are beneficial to the
+general welfare and progress of humanity. The instruments or machines
+or implements may be superseded by later and better ones, and possibly
+altogether forgotten by succeeding generations, but this does not
+annul the fact that the {211} improved ones were only possible through
+the knowledge and experience which came from the use of the older
+ones, in other words, that the ideas and thoughts of the former
+inventors are still surviving through those of their successors, just
+as much as in the case of genealogical karma-transmission. Whatever
+garb the karma of a person may wear in its way down to posterity, it
+is ever there where its inspiration is felt. Even in an article of
+most trivial significance, even in a piece of rag, or in a slip of
+time-worn paper, only let there be an association with the memory of
+the deceased; and an unutterable feeling imperceptibly creeps into the
+heart of the beholder; and if the deceased were known for his
+saintliness or righteousness, this would be an opportunity for our
+inspiration and moral elevation according to how our own karma at that
+moment is made up.
+
+We now come to see more closely the spiritual purport of karmaic
+activity. Any intelligent reader could infer from what has been said
+above what important bearing the Buddhist doctrine of karma has on our
+moral and spiritual life. The following remarks, however, will greatly
+help him to understand the full extent of the doctrine and to pass an
+impartial judgment on its merits.
+
+Here, if not anywhere else, looms up most conspicuously the
+characteristic difference between Buddhism and Christianity as to
+their conception of soul-activity. Christianity, if I understand it
+rightly, conceives our soul-phenomena as the work of an {212}
+individual ego-entity, which keeps itself mysteriously hidden
+somewhere within the body. To Christians, the soul is a metaphysical
+being, and its incarnation in the flesh is imprisonment. It groans
+after emancipation, it craves for the celestial abode, where, after
+bodily death, it can enjoy all the blessings due to its naked
+existence. It finds the nectar of immortality up in Heaven and in the
+presence of God the father and Christ the son, and not in the
+perpetuation of karma in this universe. The soul of the wicked, on the
+other hand, is eternally damned, if it is conceded that they have any
+soul. As soon as it is liberated from the bodily incarceration, it is
+hurled into the infernal fire, and is there consumed suffering
+unspeakable agony. Christianity, therefore, does not believe in the
+transmigration or reincarnation of a soul. A soul once departed from
+the flesh never returns to it; it is either living an eternal life in
+Heaven or suffering an instant annihilation in Hell. This is the
+necessary conclusion from their premises of an individual concrete
+ego-soul.
+
+Buddhism, however, does not teach the metaphysical existence of the
+soul. All our mental and spiritual experiences, it declares, are due
+to the operations of karma which inherits its efficiency from its
+previous “seeds of activity” (_karmabîja_), and which has brought the
+five skandhas into the present state of co-ordination. The present
+karma, while in its force, generates in turn the “seeds of activity”
+which under favorable conditions grow to maturity again. Therefore, as
+long {213} as the force of karma is thus successively generated, there
+are the five skandhas constantly coming into existence and working
+co-ordinately as a person. Karma-reproduction, so to speak, effected
+in this manner, is the Buddhist conception of the transmigration of a
+soul.
+
+A Japanese national hero, General Kusunoki Masashige, who was an
+orthodox Buddhist, is said to have uttered the following words when he
+fell in the battle-field: “I will be reborn seven times yet and
+complete discharging my duties for the Imperial House.” And he did not
+utter these words to no purpose. Because even to-day, after the lapse
+of more than seven hundred years, his spirit is still alive among his
+countrymen, and indeed his bronze statue on horseback is solemnly
+guarding the Japanese Imperial palace. He was reborn more than seven
+times and will be reborn as long as the Japanese as a nation exist on
+earth. This constant rebirth or reincarnation means no more nor less
+than the immortality of karma. Says Buddha: “Ye disciples, take after
+my death those moral precepts and doctrines which were taught to you
+for my own person, for I live in them.” To live in karma, and not as
+an ego-entity, is the Buddhist conception of immortality. Therefore,
+the Buddhists will perfectly agree with the sentiment expressed by a
+noted modern poet in these lines:
+
+
+ “We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not in breaths:
+ In feelings, not in figures on a dial,
+ We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
+ Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”
+
+
+{214}
+
+Some may like to call this kind of immortality unsatisfactory, and
+impetuously demand that the ego-soul, instead of mysterious force of
+karma, should be made immortal, as it is more tangible and better
+appreciated by the masses. The Buddhist response to such a demand
+would be; “If their intellectual and moral insight is not developed
+enough to see truth in the theory of karma, why, we shall let them
+adhere as long as they please to their crude, primitive faith and rest
+contented with it.” Even the Buddha could not make children find
+pleasure in abstract metaphysical problems, whatever truth and genuine
+spiritual consolation there might be in them. What their hearts are
+after are toys and fairy-tales and parables. Therefore, a motto of
+Buddhism is: “Minister to the patients according to their wants and
+conditions.” We cannot make a plant grow even an inch higher by
+artificially pulling its roots; we have but to wait till it is ready
+for development. Unless a child becomes a man, we must not expect of
+him to put away childish things.
+
+The conclusion that could be drawn from the above is obvious. If we
+desire immortality, let there be the maturing of good karma and the
+cleansing of the heart from the contamination of evils. In good karma
+we are made to live eternally, but in evil one we are doomed, not only
+ourselves but every one that follows our steps on the path of evils.
+Karma is always generative; therefore, good karma is infinite bliss,
+and evil one is eternal curse. It was for this reason that at the
+appearance of the Buddha in the Jambudvîpa {215} heaven and earth
+resounded with the joyous acclamation of gods and men. It was a signal
+triumph for the cause of goodness. The ideal of moral perfection found
+a concrete example in the person of Çâkyamuni. It showed how the
+stock of good karma accumulated and matured from the beginning of
+consciousness on earth could be crystalised in one person and brought
+to an actuality even in this world of woes. The Buddha, therefore, was
+the culmination of all the good karma previously stored up by his
+spiritual ancestors. And he was at the same time the starting point
+for the fermentation of new karma, because his moral “seeds of
+activity” which were generated during his lifetime have been scattered
+liberally wherever his virtues and teachings could be promulgated.
+That is, his karma-seeds have been sown in the souls of all sentient
+beings. Every one of these seeds which are infinite in number will
+become a new centre of moral activity. In proportion how strong it
+grows and begins to bear fruit, it destroys the seeds of evil doers.
+Good karma is a combined shield and sword, while it protects itself it
+destroys all that is against it. Therefore, good karma is not only
+statically immortal, but it is dynamically so; that is to say, its
+immortality is not a mere absence of birth and death, but a constant
+positive increase in its moral efficiency.
+
+Pious Buddhists believe that every time Buddha’s name is invoked with
+a heart free from evil thoughts, he enters right into the soul and
+becomes integral part of his being. This does not mean, however, that
+{216} Buddha’s ego-substratum which might have been enjoying its
+immortal spiritual bliss in the presence of an anthropomorphic God
+descends on earth at the invocation of his name and renders in that
+capacity whatever help the supplicant needs. It means, on the other
+hand, that the Buddhist awakens in his personal karma that which
+constituted Buddhahood in the Buddha and nourishes it to maturity.
+That which constitutes Buddhahood is not the personal ego of the
+Buddha, but his karma. Every chemical element, whenever occasioned to
+befree itself from a combination, never fails to generate heat which
+it absorbed at the time of combination with other elements; and this
+takes place no matter how remote the time of combination was. It is
+even so with the karma-seed of Buddha. It might have been in the
+barren soil of a sinful heart, and, being deeply buried there for many
+a year, might have been forgotten altogether by the owner. But, sooner
+or later, it will never fail to grow under favorable conditions and
+generate what it gained from the Buddha in the beginning of the world.
+And this regeneration will not be merely chemical, but predominantly
+biological; for it is the law which conditions the immortality of
+karma.
+
+
+
+
+ PRACTICAL BUDDHISM.
+
+{217}
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+ THE DHARMAKÂYA.
+
+/We/ have considered the doctrine of Suchness (_Bhûtatathâtâ_) under
+“Speculative Buddhism,” where it appeared altogether too abstract to
+be of any practical use to our earthly life. The theory as such did
+not seem to have any immediate bearings on our religious consciousness.
+The fact is, it must pass through some practical modification before
+it fully satisfies our spiritual needs. As there is no concrete figure
+in this world that is a perfect type of mathematical exactitude,--since
+everything here must be perceived through our more or less distorted
+physical organs; even so with pure reason: however perfect in itself,
+it must appear to us more or less modified while passing through our
+affective-intellectual objectives. This modification of pure reason,
+however, is necessary from the human point of view; because mere
+abstraction is contentless, lifeless, and has no value for our
+practical life, and again, because our religious cravings will not be
+satisfied with empty concepts lacking vitality.
+
+We may sometimes ignore the claims of reason {218} and rest satisfied,
+though usually unconsciously, with assertions which are conflicting
+when critically examined, but we cannot disregard by any means those
+of the religious sentiment, which finds satisfaction only in the very
+fact of things. If it ever harbored some flagrant contradictions in
+the name of faith, it was because its ever-pressing demands had to be
+met with even at the expense of reason. The truth is: the religious
+consciousness first of all demands fact, and when it attains that, it
+is not of much consequence to it whether or not its intellectual
+interpretation is logically tenable. If on the other hand logic be
+all-important and demand the first consideration and the sentiment had
+to follow its trail without a murmuring, our life would surely lose
+its savory aspect, turn tasteless, our existence would become void,
+the world would be a mere succession of meaningless events, and what
+remains would be nothing else than devastation, barrenness, and
+universal misery. The truth is, in this life the will predominates and
+the intellect subserves; which explains the fact that while all
+existing religions on the one hand display some logical inaccuracy and
+on the other hand a mechanical explanation of the world is gaining
+ground more and more, religion is still playing an important part
+everywhere in our practical life. Abstraction is good for the exercises
+of the intellect, but when it is the question of life and death we
+must have something more substantial and of more vitality than
+theorisation. It may not be a mathematically exact {219} and certain
+proposition, but it must be a working, living, real theory, that is,
+it must be a faith born of the inmost consciousness of our being.
+
+What practical transformations then has the doctrine of Suchness, in
+order to meet the religious demands, to suffer?
+
+
+ _God._
+
+Buddhism does not use the word God. The word is rather offensive to
+most of its followers, especially when it is intimately associated in
+vulgar minds with the idea of a creator who produced the world out of
+nothing, caused the downfall of mankind, and, touched by the pang of
+remorse, sent down his only son to save the depraved. But, on account
+of this, Buddhism must not be judged as an atheism which endorses an
+agnostic, materialistic interpretation of the universe. Far from it.
+Buddhism outspokenly acknowledges the presence in the world of a
+reality which transcends the limitations of phenomenality, but which
+is nevertheless immanent everywhere and manifests itself in its full
+glory, and in which we live and move and have our being.
+
+God or the religious object of Buddhism is generally called
+Dharmakâya-Buddha and occasionally Vairocana-Buddha or
+Vairocana-Dharmakâya-Buddha; still another name for it is
+Amitâbha-Buddha or Amitâyur-Buddha,--the latter two being mostly
+used by the followers of the Sukhâvatî sect of Japan and China.
+{220} Again, very frequently we find Çâkyamuni, the Buddha, and the
+Tathâgata stripped of his historical personality and identified with
+the highest truth and reality. These, however, by no means exhaust a
+legion of names invented by the fertile imagination of Buddhists for
+their object of reverence as called forth by their various spiritual
+needs.
+
+
+ _Dharmakâya._
+
+Western scholars usually translate Dharmakâya by “Body of the Law”
+meaning by the Law the doctrine set forth by Çâkyamuni the Buddha.
+It is said that when Buddha was preparing himself to enter into
+eternal Nirvâna, he commanded his disciples to revere the Dharma or
+religion taught by him as his own person, because a man continues to
+live in the work, deeds, and words left behind himself. So, Dharmakâya
+came to be understood by Western scholars as meaning the person of
+Buddha incarnated in his religion. This interpretation of the term is
+not very accurate, however, and is productive of some very serious
+misinterpretations concerning the fundamental doctrines of Mahâyânism.
+Historically, the Body of the Law as the Buddha incarnate might have
+been the sense of Dharmakâya, as we can infer from the occasional use
+of the term in some Hînayâna texts. But as it is used by Eastern
+Buddhists, it has acquired an entirely new significance, having
+nothing to do with the body of religious teachings established by the
+Buddha.
+
+{221}
+
+This transformation in the conception of Dharmakâya has been effected
+by the different interpretation the term Dharma came to receive from
+the hand of the Mahâyânists. Dharma is a very pregnant word and
+covers a wide range of meaning. It comes from the root _dhṛ_, which
+means “to hold,” “to carry”, “to bear,” and the primitive sense of
+dharma was “that which carries or bears or supports,” and then it came
+to signify “that which forms the norm, or regulates the course of
+things,” that is, “law,” “institution,” “rule,” “doctrine,” then,
+“duty,” “justice,” “virtue,” “moral merit,” “character,” “attribute,”
+“essential quality,” “substance,” “that which exists,” “reality,”
+“being,” etc., etc. The English equivalent most frequently used for
+dharma by Oriental scholars is law or doctrine. This may be all right
+as far as the Pâli texts go; but when we wish to apply this
+interpretation to the Mahâyâna terms, such as Dharmadhâtu, Dharmakâya,
+Dharmalakṣa, Dharmaloka, etc., we are placed in an awkward position
+and are at a loss how to get at the meaning of those terms. There are
+passages in Mahâyâna literature in which the whole significance of the
+text depends upon how we understand the word dharma. And it may even
+be said that one of the many reasons why Christian students of Buddhism
+so frequently fail to recognise the importance of Mahâyânism is due to
+their misinterpretation of dharma. Max Mueller, therefore, rightly
+remarks in his introduction to an English translation of the
+_Vajracchedîka Sûtra_, when he says: “If we {222} were always to
+translate dharma by law, it seems to me that the whole drift of our
+treatise would become unintelligible.” Not only that particular text
+of Mahâyânism, but its entire literature would become utterly
+incomprehensible.
+
+In Mahâyânism Dharma means in many cases “thing,” “substance,” or
+“being,” or “reality,” both in its particular and in its general
+sense, though it is also frequently used in the sense of law or
+doctrine. Kâya may be rendered “body,” not in the sense of personality,
+but in that of system, unity, and organised form. Dharmakâya, the
+combination of dharma and kâya, thus means the organised totality of
+things or the principle of cosmic unity, though not as a purely
+philosophical concept, but as an object of the religious consciousness.
+Throughout this work, however, the original Sanskrit form will be
+retained in preference to any English equivalents that have been used
+heretofore; for Dharmakâya conveys to the minds of Eastern Buddhists a
+peculiar religious flavor, which, when translated by either God or the
+All or some abstract philosophical terms, suffers considerably.
+
+
+ _Dharmakâya as Religious Object._
+
+As aforesaid, the Dharmakâya is not a product of philosophical
+reflection and is not exactly equivalent to Suchness; it has a
+religious signification as the object of the religious consciousness.
+The Dharmakâya is a soul, a willing and knowing being, one that is
+{223} will and intelligence, thought and action. It is, as understood
+by the Mahâyânists, not an abstract metaphysical principle like
+Suchness, but it is living spirit, that manifests itself in nature as
+well as in thought. The universe as an expression of this spirit is
+not a meaningless display of blind forces, nor is it an arena for the
+struggle of diverse mechanical powers. Further, Buddhists ascribe to
+the Dharmakâya innumerable merits and virtues and an absolute perfect
+intelligence, and makes it an inexhaustible fountain-head of love and
+compassion; and it is in this that the Dharmakâya finally assumes a
+totally different aspect from a mere metaphysical principle, cold and
+lifeless.
+
+The _Avatamsaka Sûtra_ gives some comprehensive statements concerning
+the nature of the Dharmakâya as follows:
+
+“The Dharmakâya, though manifesting itself in the triple world, is
+free from impurities and desires. It unfolds itself here, there, and
+everywhere responding to the call of karma. It is not an individual
+reality, it is not a false existence, but is universal and pure. It
+comes from nowhere, it goes to nowhere; it does not assert itself, nor
+is it subject to annihilation. It is forever serene and eternal. It is
+the One, devoid of all determinations. This Body of Dharma has no
+boundary, no quarters, but is embodied in all bodies. Its freedom or
+spontaneity is incomprehensible, its spiritual presence in things
+corporeal is incomprehensible. All forms of corporeality are involved
+therein, it is able to create all things. Assuming any concrete {224}
+material body as required by the nature and condition of karma, it
+illuminates all creations. Though it is the treasure of intelligence,
+it is void of particularity. There is no place in the universe where
+this Body does not prevail. The universe becomes, but this Body
+forever remains. It is free from all opposites and contraries, yet it
+is working in all things to lead them to Nirvâna.”
+
+
+ _More Detailed Characterisation._
+
+The above gives us a general, concise view as to what the Dharmakâya
+is, but let me quote the following more detailed description of it, in
+order that we may more clearly and definitely see into the
+characteristically Buddhistic conception of the highest being.[92]
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Tathâgata[93] is not a particular dharma,
+nor a particular form of activity, nor has it a particular body, nor
+does it abide in a particular place, nor is its work of salvation
+confined to one particular people. On the contrary, it involves in
+itself infinite dharmas, infinite activities, infinite bodies, infinite
+spaces, and universally works for the salvation of all things.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is like unto space. Space[94] contains in
+itself all material existences and all the vacuums that obtain between
+them. Again, it establishes {225} itself in all possible quarters, and
+yet we cannot say of it that it is or it is not in this particular
+spot, for space has no palpable form. Even so with the Dharmakâya of
+the Tathâgata. It presents itself in all places, in all directions,
+in all dharmas, and in all beings; yet the Dharmakâya itself has not
+been thereby particularised. Because the Body of the Tathâgata has no
+particular body but manifests itself everywhere and anywhere in
+response to the nature and condition of things.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is like unto space. Space is boundless,
+comprehends in itself all existence, and yet shows no trace of passion
+[partiality]. It is even so with the Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata. It
+illuminates all good works worldly as well as religious, but it
+betrays no passion or prejudice. Why? Because the Dharmakâya is
+perfectly free from all passions and prejudices.[95]
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is like unto the Sun. The benefits conferred
+by the light of the sun upon all living beings on earth are
+incalculable: e.g. by dispelling darkness it gives nourishment to all
+trees, herbs, grains, plants, and grass; it vanquishes humidity; it
+illuminates ether whereby benefitting all the {226} living beings in
+air; its rays penetrate into the waters whereby bringing forth the
+beautiful lotus-flowers into full blossom; it impartially shines on
+all figures and forms and brings into completion all the works on
+earth. Why? Because from the sun emanate infinite rays of life-giving
+light.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Sun-Body of the
+Tathâgata which in innumerable ways bestows benefits upon all beings.
+That is, it benefits us by destroying evils, all good things thus
+being quickened to growth; it benefits us with its universal
+illumination which vanquishes the darkness of ignorance harbored in
+all beings; it benefits us through its great compassionate heart which
+saves and protects all beings; it benefits us through its great loving
+heart which delivers all beings from the misery of birth and death; it
+benefits us by the establishment of a good religion whereby we are all
+strengthened in our moral activities; it benefits us by giving us a
+firm belief in the truth which cleanses all our spiritual impurities;
+it benefits by helping us to understand the doctrine by virtue of
+which we are not led to disavow the law of causation; it benefits us
+with a divine vision which enables us to observe the metempsychosis of
+all beings; it benefits us by avoiding injurious deeds which may
+destroy the stock of merits accumulated by all beings; it benefits us
+with an intellectual light which unfolds the mind-flowers of all
+beings; it benefits us with an aspiration whereby we are enlivened to
+practice all that constitutes Buddhahood. Why? Because the Sun-Body
+{227} of the Tathâgata universally emits the rays of the Light of
+Intelligence.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! When the day breaks, the rising sun shines
+first on the peaks of all the higher mountains, then on those of high
+mountains, and finally all over the plains and fields; but the sunlight
+itself does not make this thought: I will shine first on all the
+highest mountains and then gradually ascending higher and higher shine
+on the plains and fields. The reason why one gets the sunlight earlier
+than another is simply because there is a gradation of height on the
+surface of the earth.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Tathâgata who is in
+possession of innumerable and immeasurable suns of universal
+intelligence. The innumerable rays of the Light of Intelligence,
+emanating everlastingly from the spiritual Body of the Tathâgata,
+will first fall on the Bodhisattvas and Mahâsattvas who are the
+highest peaks among mankind, then on the Nidânabuddhas, then on the
+Çrâvakas, then on those beings who are endowed with definitely good
+character, as they will each according to his own capacity
+unhesitatingly embrace the doctrine of deliverance, and finally on all
+common mortals whose character may be either indefinite or definitely
+bad, providing them with those conditions which will prove beneficial
+in their future births. But the Light of Intelligence emanating from
+the Tathâgata does not make this thought: ‘I will first shine on the
+Bodhisattvas {228} and then gradually pass over to all common mortals,
+etc.’ The Light is universal and illuminates everything without any
+prejudice, yet on account of the diversity that obtains among sentient
+beings as to their character, aspirations, etc., the Light of
+Intelligence is diversely perceived by them.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! When the sun rises above the horizon, those
+people born blind, on account their defective sight, cannot see the
+light at all, but they are nevertheless benefited by the sunlight, for
+it gives them just as much as to any other beings all that is
+necessary for the maintenance of life: it dispels dampness and
+coldness and makes them feel agreeable, it destroys all the injurious
+germs that are produced on account of the absence of sunshine, and
+thus keeps the blind as well as the not-blind comfortable and healthy.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Sun of Intelligence of
+the Tathâgata. All those beings whose spiritual vision is blinded by
+false doctrine, or by the violation of Buddha’s precepts, or by
+ignorance, or by evil influences, never perceive the Light of
+Intelligence; because they are devoid of faith. But they are
+nevertheless benefited by the Light; for it disperses indiscriminately
+for all beings the sufferings arising from the four elements, and
+gives them physical comforts; for it destroys the root of all passions,
+prejudices, and pains for unbelievers as well as for believers... By
+virtue of this omnipresent Light of Intelligence, the Bodhisattvas
+will attain perfect purity and the {229} knowledge of all things, the
+Nidânabuddhas and Çravakas will destroy all passions and desires;
+mortals poorly endowed and those born blind will rid of impurities,
+control the senses, and believe in the four views;[96] and those
+creatures living in the evil paths of existence such as hell, world of
+ghosts, and the animal realm, will be freed from their evils and
+torture and will, after death, be born in the human or celestial
+world...
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Light of Dharmakâya is like unto the full
+moon which has four wondrous attributes: (1) It outdoes in its
+brilliance all stars and satellites; (2) It shows in its size increase
+and decrease as observable in the Jambudvîpa; (3) Its reflection is
+seen in every drop or body of clear water; (4) Whoever is endowed with
+perfect sight, perceives it vis-a-vis.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! Even so with the Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata,
+that has four wondrous attributes: (1) It eclipses the stars of the
+Nidânabuddhas, Çrâvakas, etc.; (2) It shows in its earthly life a
+certain variation which is due to the different natures of the beings
+to whom it manifests itself,[97] while the Dharmakâya {230} itself
+is eternal and shows no increase or decrease in any way; (3) Its
+reflection is seen in the Bodhi (intelligence) of every pure-hearted
+sentient being; (4) All who understand the Dharma and obtain
+deliverance, each according to his own mental calibre, think that they
+have really recognised in their own way the Tathâgata face to face,
+while the Dharmakâya itself is not a particular object of
+understanding, but universally brings all Buddha-works into
+completion.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Dharmakâya is like unto the Great Brahmarâja
+who governs three thousand chiliocosms. The Râja by a mysterious trick
+makes himself seen universally by all living beings in his realm and
+causes them to think that each of them has seen him face to face; but
+the Râja himself has never divided his own person nor is he in
+possession of diverse features.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! Even so with the Tathâgata; he has never
+divided himself into many, nor has he ever assumed diverse features.
+But all beings, each according to his understanding and strength of
+faith, recognise the Body of the Tathâgata, while he has never made
+this thought that he will show himself to such and such particular
+people and not to others...
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Dharmakâya is like unto the maniratna in
+the waters, whose wondrous {231} light transforms everything that
+comes in contact with it to its own color. The eyes that perceive it
+become purified. Wherever its illumination reaches, there is a
+marvelous display of gems of every description, which gives pleasure
+to all beings to see.
+
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Dharmakâya of the
+Tathâgata, which may rightly be called the treasure of treasures, the
+thesaurus of all merits, and the mine of intelligence. Whoever comes
+in touch with this light, is all transformed into the same color as
+that of the Buddha. Whoever sees this light, all obtains the purest
+eye of Dharma. Whoever comes in touch with this light, rids of poverty
+and suffering, attains wealth and eminence, enjoys the bliss of the
+incomparable Bodhi”......
+
+
+ _Dharmakâya and Individual Beings._
+
+From these statements it is evident that the Dharmakâya or the Body
+of the Tathâgata, or the Body of Intelligence, whatever it may be
+designated, is not a mere philosophical abstraction, standing aloof
+from this world of birth and death, of joy and sorrow, calmly
+contemplates on the folly of mankind; but that it is a spiritual
+existence which is “absolutely one, is real and true, and forms the
+raison d’être of all beings, transcends all modes of upâya, is free
+from desires and struggles [or compulsion], and stands outside the
+pale of our finite understanding.”[98] It is {232} also evident that
+the Dharmakâya though itself free from ignorance (_avidyâ_) and
+passion (_kleça_) and desire (_tṛṣnâ_), is revealed in the finite and
+fragmental consciousness of human being, so that we can say in a sense
+that “this body of mine is the Dharmakâya”--though not absolutely; and
+also in a generalised form that “the body of all beings is the
+Dharmakâya, and the Dharmakâya is the body of all beings,”--though in
+the latter only imperfectly and fractionally realised. As we thus
+partake something in ourselves of the Dharmakâya, we all are ultimately
+destined to attain Buddhahood when the human intelligence, Bodhi, is
+perfectly identified with, or absorbed in, that of the Dharmakâya, and
+when our earthly life becomes the realisation of the will of the
+Dharmakâya.
+
+
+ _The Dharmakâya as Love._
+
+Here an important consideration forces itself upon us which is, that
+the Dharmakâya is not only an intelligent mind but a loving heart,
+that it is not only a god of rigorism who does not allow a hair’s
+breadth deviation from the law of karma, but also an incarnation of
+mercy that is constantly belaboring to develop the most insignificant
+merit into a field yielding rich harvests. The Dharmakâya relentlessly
+punishes the wrong and does not permit the exhaustion of their karma
+without sufficient reason; and yet its hands are always directing our
+life toward the actualisation {233} of supreme goodness. “Pangs of
+nature, sins of will, defects of doubt, and stains of
+blood,”--discouraging and gloomy indeed is the karma of evil-doers!
+But the Dharmakâya, infinite in love and goodness, is incessantly
+managing to bring this world-transaction to a happy terminus. Every
+good we do is absorbed in the universal stock of merits which is no
+more nor less than the Dharmakâya. Every act of lovingkindness we
+practice is conceived in the womb of Tathâgata, and therein nourished
+and matured, is again brought out to this world of karma to bear its
+fruit. Therefore, no life walks on earth with aimless feet; no chaff
+is thrown into the fire unquenchable. Every existence, great or
+insignificant, is a reflection of the glory of the Dharmakâya and as
+such worthy of its all-embracing love.
+
+For further corroboration of this view let us cite at random from a
+Mahâyâna sutra:[99]
+
+
+ “With one great loving heart
+ The thirsty desires of all beings he quencheth with coolness
+  refreshing;
+ With compassion, of all doth he think,
+ Which like space knows no bounds;
+ Over the world’s all creation
+ With no thought of particularity he revieweth.
+
+ “With a great heart compassionate and loving,
+ All sentient beings by him are embraced;
+ With means (_upâya_) which are pure, free from stain, and all
+  excellent,
+ He doth save and deliver all creatures innumerable.
+
+{234}
+
+ “With unfathomable love and with compassion
+ All creations caressed by him universally;
+ Yet free from attachment his heart is.
+
+ “As his compassion is great and is infinite,
+ Bliss unearthly on every being he confereth,
+ And himself showeth all over the universe;
+ He’ll not rest till all Buddhahood truly attains.”
+
+
+ _Later Mahâyânists’ view of the Dharmakâya._
+
+The above has been quoted almost exclusively from the so-called sûtra
+literature of Mahâyâna Buddhism, which is distinguished from the
+other religio-philosophical treatises of the school, because the
+sûtras are considered to be the accounts of Buddha himself as recorded
+by his immediate disciples.[100] Let us now see by way of further
+elucidation what views were held concerning the Dharmakâya by such
+writers as Asanga, Vasubandhu, etc.
+
+We read in the _General Treatise on Mahâyânism_ by Asanga and
+Vasubandhu the following statement:
+
+“When the Bodhisattvas think of the Dharmakâya, how have they to
+picture it to themselves?
+
+“Briefly stated, they will think of the Dharmakâya by picturing to
+themselves its seven characteristics, which constitute the faultless
+virtues and essential {235} functions of the Kâya. (1) Think of the
+free, unrivaled, unimpeded activity of the Dharmakâya, which is
+manifested in all beings; (2) Think of the eternality of all perfect
+virtues in the Dharmakâya; (3) Think of its absolute freedom from all
+prejudice, intellectual and affective; (4) Think of those spontaneous
+activities that uninterruptedly emanate from the will of the
+Dharmakâya; (5) Think of the inexhaustible wealth, spiritual and
+physical, stored in the Body of the Dharma; (6) Think of its
+intellectual purity which has no stain of onesidedness; (7) Think of
+the earthly works achieved for the salvation of all beings by the
+Tathâgatas who are reflexes of the Dharmakâya.”
+
+As regards the activity of the Dharmakâya, which is shown in every
+Buddha’s work of salvation, Asanga enumerates five forms of operation:
+(1) It is shown in his power of removing evils which may befall us in
+the course of life, though the Buddha is unable to cure any physical
+defects which we may have, such as blindness, deafness, mental
+aberration, etc. (2) It is shown in his irresistible spiritual
+domination over all evil-doers, who, base as they are, cannot help
+doing some good if they ever come in the presence of the Buddha. (3)
+It is shown in his power of destroying various unnatural and
+irrational methods of salvation which are practiced by followers of
+asceticism, hedonism, or Ishvaraism. (4) It is shown in his power of
+curing those diseased minds that believe in the reality, permanency,
+and indivisibility of the ego-soul, that is, in the pudgalavâda. (5)
+It is shown in his inspiring {236} influence over those Bodhisattvas
+who have not yet attained to the stage of immovability as well as over
+those Çrâvakas whose faith and character are still in a state of
+vacillation.
+
+
+ _The Freedom of the Dharmakâya._
+
+Those spiritual influences over all beings of the Dharmakâya through
+the enlightened mind of a Buddha, which we have seen above as stated
+by Asanga, are fraught with religious significance. According to the
+Buddhist view, those spiritual powers everlastingly emanating from the
+Body of Dharma have no trace of human elaboration or constrained
+effort, but they are a spontaneous overflow from its immanent
+necessity, or, as I take it, from its free will. The Dharmakâya does
+not make any conscious, struggling efforts to shower upon all sentient
+creatures its innumerable merits, benefits, and blessings. If there
+were in it any trace of elaboration, that would mean a struggle within
+itself of divers tendencies, one trying to gain ascendency over
+another. And it is apparent that any struggle and its necessary ally,
+compulsion, are incompatible with our conception of the highest
+religious reality. Absolute spontaneity and perfect freedom is one of
+those necessary attributes which our religious consciousness cannot
+help ascribing to its object of reverence. Buddhists therefore
+repeatedly affirm that the activity of the Dharmakâya is perfectly
+free from all effort and coercion, external and internal. Its every
+act of creation or salvation {237} or love emanates from its own free
+will, unhampered by any struggling exertion which characterises the
+doings of mankind. This free will which is divine, standing in such a
+striking contrast with our own “free will” which is human and at best
+very much limited, is called by the Buddhists the Dharmakâya’s
+“Purvapranidhânabala.”[101]
+
+As the Dharmakâya works of its own accord it does not seek any
+recompense for its deed; and it is evident that every act of the
+Dharmakâya is always for the best welfare of its creatures, for they
+are its manifestations and it must know what they need. We do not have
+to ask for our “daily bread,” {238} nor have we to praise or eulogise
+its virtues to court its special grace, nor is there any necessity for
+us to offer prayer or supplication to the Dharmakâya. Consider the
+lilies of the field which neither toil nor spin,--and I might
+add,--which ask not for any favoritism from above; yet are they not
+arrayed even better than Solomon in all his glory? The Dharmakâya
+shines in its august magnificence everywhere there is life, nay, even
+where there is death. We are all living in the midst of it and yet,
+strange to say, as “the fish knows not the presence of water about
+itself,” and also as “the mountaineers recognise not the mountains
+among which they hunt,” even so we know not whence that power comes
+whose work is made manifest in us and whither it finally leadeth us.
+In spite of this profound ignorance, we really feel that we are here,
+and thereby we rest supremely contented. For we believe that all this
+is wrought through the mysterious and miraculous will of the
+Dharmakâya, who does all excellent works and seeks no recompense
+whatever.
+
+
+ _The Will of the Dharmakâya._
+
+Summarily speaking, the Dharmakâya assumes three essential aspects as
+reflected in our religious consciousness: first, it is intelligence
+(_prajñâ_); secondly, it is love (_karunâ_); and thirdly, it is the
+will (_pranidhânabala_). We know that it is intelligence from the
+declaration that the Dharmakâya directs the course of the universe,
+not blindly but rationally; we know again that it is love because it
+embraces all {239} beings with fatherly tenderness;[102] and finally
+we must assume that it is a will, because the Dharmakâya has firmly
+set down its aim of activity in that good shall be the final goal of
+all evil in the universe. Without the will, love and intelligence will
+not be realised; without love, the will and intelligence will lose
+their impulse; without intelligence, love and the will will be
+irrational. In fact, the three are co-ordinates and constitute the
+oneness of the Dharmakâya; and by oneness I mean the absolute, and
+not the numerical, unity of all these three things in the being of the
+Dharmakâya, for intelligence and love and the will are differentiated
+as such only in our human, finite consciousness.
+
+Some Buddhists may not agree entirely with the view here expounded.
+They may declare: “We conform to your view when you say the Dharmakâya
+is intelligence and love, as this is expressly stated in the sûtras
+and çâstras; but we do not see how it could be made a will. Indeed,
+the Scriptures say that the Dharmakâya is in possession of the
+Pranidhânabala, but this bala or power is not necessarily the will, it
+is the power of prayers or intense vows. The Dharmakâya actually made
+solemn vows, and their spiritual energy abiding in the world of
+particulars works out its original plan and makes possible the
+universal salvation of all creatures.”
+
+It is quite true that the word pranidhânabala means {240} literally
+“the power of original prayers.” But this literary rendering totally
+ignores its inner significance without which the nature of the
+Dharmakâya would become unintelligible. We admit that the Dharmakâya
+knows no higher existence by which it is conditioned, nor has it any
+fragmentary, limited consciousness like that of human being, nor has
+it any intrinsic want by which it is necessitated to appeal to
+something other than itself. It is, therefore, utterly nonsensical to
+speak of its prayer, “original” or borrowed, as some Buddhists are
+inclined to think. On the other hand, we are perfectly justified in
+saying that whatever is done by the Dharmakâya is done by its own
+free will independent of all the determinations that might affect it
+from outside.
+
+But I can presume the reason why they speak of the prayers of the
+Dharmakâya instead of its will. Here we have an instance of emotional
+outburst. The fervency of the intense religious sentiment not
+infrequently carries us beyond the limits of the intellect, landing us
+in a region full of mysteries and contradictions. It anthropomorphises
+everything beyond the proper measure of intellection and ascribes all
+earthly human feelings and passions to an object which the mind
+well-balanced demands to be above all the forms of human helplessness.
+The Buddhists, especially those of the Sukhâvatî sect,[103] recognise
+the existence {241} of an all-powerful will, all-embracing love, and
+all-knowing intelligence in the Dharmakâya, but they want to represent
+it more concretely and in a more humanly fashion before the mental
+vision of the less intellectual followers. The result thus is that the
+Dharmakâya in spite of its absoluteness made prayers to himself to
+emancipate all sentient beings from the sufferings of birth and death.
+But are not these self-addressed prayers of the Dharmakâya which
+sprang out of its inmost nature exactly what constitutes its will?
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+ THE DOCTRINE OF TRIKÂYA.
+
+{242}
+
+ (/Buddhist Theory of Trinity/.)
+
+
+ _The Human and the Super-human Buddha._
+
+/One/ of the most remarkable differences between the Pâli and the
+Sanskrit, that is, between the Hînayâna and the Mahâyâna Buddhist
+literature, is in the manner of introducing the characters or persons
+who take principal parts in the narratives. In the former, sermons are
+delivered by the Buddha as a rule in such a natural and plain language
+as to make the reader feel the presence of the teacher,
+fatherly-hearted and philosophically serene; while in the latter
+generally we have a mysterious, transcendent figure, more celestial
+than human, surrounded and worshipped by beings of all kinds, human,
+celestial, and even demoniac, and this mystical central character
+performing some supernatural feats which might well be narrated by an
+intensely poetical mind.
+
+In the Pâli scriptures, the texts as a rule open with the formula,
+“Thus it was heard by me” (_Evam me sutam_), then relate the events,
+if any, which induced the Buddha to deliver them, and finally lead the
+reader to the main subjects which are generally written in {243} lucid
+style. Their opening or introductory matter is very simple, and we do
+not notice anything extraordinary in its further development. But with
+the Mahâyâna texts it is quite different. Here we have, as soon as
+the curtain rises with the stereotyped formula, “Evam mayâ çrutam,”
+a majestic prologue dramatically or rather grotesquely represented,
+which prepares the mind of the audience to the succeeding scenes, in
+which some of the boldest religio-philosophical proclamations are
+brought forth. The perusal of this introductory part alone will
+stupefy the reader by its rather monstrous grandeur, and he may
+without much ado declare that what follows must be extraordinary and
+may be even nonsensical.
+
+The following is an illustration showing the typical manner of
+introducing the characters in the Mahâyâna texts.[104]
+
+“Thus it was heard by me. Buddha was once staying at Râjagriha, on
+the Gridhrakuta mountain. He was in the Hall of Ratnachandra in the
+Double Tower of Chandana. Ten years passed since his attainment of
+Buddhahood. He was surrounded by a hundred thousand Bhikṣus and
+Bodhisattvas and Mahâsattvas numbering sixty times as many as the
+sands of the Ganges. All of them were in possession of the greatest
+spiritual energy; they had paid homage to thousands of hundred
+millions {244} of niyutas[105] of Buddhas; they were able to set
+rolling the never-sliding-back Wheel of Dharma; and whoever heard
+their names could establish themselves firmly in the Highest Perfect
+Knowledge. Their names were.... [Here about fifty Bodhisattvas are
+mentioned.]
+
+“All these Bodhisattvas numbering sixty times as many as the sands of
+the Ganges coming from innumerable Buddha-countries were accompanied
+by numberless Devas, Nâgas, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, Açuras, Garudas,
+Kinnaras, and Mahoragas.[106] This great assembly all joined in
+revering, honoring, paying homage to the Bhagavat, the World-honored
+One.
+
+“At this time the Bhagavat in the Double Tower of Chandana seated
+himself in the assigned seat, entered upon a samâdhi, and displayed a
+marvelous phenomenon. There appeared innumerable lotus-flowers with
+thousand-fold petals and each flower as large as a carriage-wheel.
+They had perfectly beautiful color and fragrant odour, but their
+petals containing celestial beings in them were not yet unfolded. They
+all were raised now by themselves high up in the heavens and hung over
+the earth like a canopy of pearls. Each one of these lotus-flowers
+emitted innumerable rays of light and simultaneously grew in size with
+wonderful vitality. But through the divine power of Buddha they all of
+{245} a sudden changed color and withered. All the celestial Buddhas
+sitting cross-legged within the flowers now came into full view, shone
+with innumerable hundred thousand-fold rays of light. At this moment
+the transcendent glory of the spot was beyond description.”...
+
+As is here thus clearly shown, the Buddha in the Mahâyâna scriptures
+is not an ordinary human being walking in a sensuous world; he is
+altogether dissimilar to that son of Suddhodana, who resigned the
+royal life, wandered in the wilderness, and after six years’ profound
+meditation and penance discovered the Fourfold Noble Truth and the
+Twelve Chains of Dependence; and we cannot but think that the Mahâyâna
+Buddha is the fictitious creation of an intensely poetic mind. Let it
+be so. But the question which engages us now is, “How did the
+Buddhists come to relegate the human Buddha to oblivion, as it were,
+and assign a mysterious being in his place invested with all possible
+or sometimes impossible majesty and supernaturality?” This question,
+which marks the rise of Mahâyâna Buddhism, brings us to the doctrine
+of Trikâya,--which in a sense corresponds to the Christian theory of
+trinity.
+
+According to this doctrine, the Buddhists presume a triple existence
+of the Tathâgata, that is, the Tathâgata is conceived by them as
+manifesting himself in three different forms of existence: the Body of
+Transformation, the Body of Bliss, and the Body of Dharma. Though they
+are conceived as three, they are in fact all the manifestations of one
+Dharmakâya,--the Dharmakâya that revealed itself in the historical
+Çâkyamuni {246} Buddha as a Body of Transformation, and in the Mahâyâna
+Buddha as a Body of Bliss. However differently they may appear from
+the human point of view, they are nothing but the expression of one
+eternal truth, in which all things have their _raison d’être_.
+
+
+ _An Historical View._
+
+At present we are not in possession of any historical documents that
+will throw light on the question as to how early this doctrine of
+Trikâya or Buddhist trinity conception came to be firmly established
+among Northern Buddhists and found its way in an already-finished form
+as such into the Mahâyâna scriptures. As far as we know, it was
+Açvaghoṣa, the first Mahâyâna philosopher, who incorporated this
+conception in his _Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahâyâna_
+as early as the first century before Christ. This work, as the author
+declares, is a sort of synopsis of the Mahâyâna teachings, elucidating
+their principal features as taught by the Buddha in his various sûtras.
+It is not an original work which expounds the individual views of
+Açvaghoṣa concerning Buddhism. He wrote the book in a concise and
+comprehensive form, in order that the later generations who remote
+from the Buddha could not have the privilege of being inspired by his
+august presence, might peruse it with concentration of mind and
+synthetically grasp the whole significance of many lengthy and
+voluminous sûtras. Therefore, in the _Awakening of Faith_, we are
+supposed {247} not to find any Mahâyâna doctrines that were not
+already taught by the Buddha and incorporated in the sûtras.
+Everything Açvaghoṣa treats in his work must be considered merely a
+recapitulation of the doctrines which were not only formulated but
+firmly established as the Mahâyâna faith long before him. His is
+simply the work of a recorder. He carefully scanned all the Mahâyâna
+scriptures that had existed prior to his time and faithfully collected
+all the principal teachings of Mahâyânism here and there scatteringly
+told in them. His merit lies in compilation and systematisation.
+
+This being the case, we must assume that all the doctrines that are
+found in Açvaghoṣa and distinct from those usually held to be
+Hînayânistic are the teachings elaborated by Buddhists from the time
+of Buddha’s death down to the time of Açvaghoṣa. But as the latter
+apparently believes all these doctrines as Buddha’s own and raises no
+doubt concerning their later origin, even if they were so, we must
+assume again that these doctrines were in a state of completion long
+before Açvaghoṣa’s time. If our calculation is correct that he lived
+in the first century before Christ, the Mahâyâna faith must be said to
+have been formulated at least two hundred years prior to his
+age,--taking this presumably as the time that is required for the
+formulation and dogmatical establishment of a doctrine. This
+calculation places the development of the Mahâyâna faith during the
+first century after the Buddha, and, we know, it was during this time
+that so many schools and divisions,--among {248} which we must also
+find the so-called “primitive” Buddhism of Ceylon, arose among the
+Buddhists,--each claiming to be the only authentic transmission of the
+Buddha’s teaching. Did Mahâyânism come out of this turmoil of
+contention? Did it boldly raise itself from this chaos and claim to
+have solved all the questions and doubts that agitated the minds of
+Buddhists after the Nirvâna? For certain we do not know anything
+concerning the chronology of the development of Buddhist philosophy
+and dogmas in India, at least before Açvaghoṣa; but, as far as our
+Chinese Buddhist literature records, we must conclude that this was
+most probably the case.
+
+To give our readers a glimpse of the state of things that were taking
+place in those early days of Buddhism in India, I will quote some
+passages from Vasumitra’s _Discourse on the Points of Controversy by
+the Different Schools of Buddhism_,--the work once referred to in the
+beginning of this book. The two principal schools that arose soon
+after the Nirvâna of the Buddha were, as is well known, the Elders
+and the Great Council, and though they were further divided into a
+number of smaller sections and their views became so complex and
+intermixed that some of the Elders shared similar views with the Great
+Council School and vice versa, yet we can fairly distinguish one from
+the other and describe the essential peculiarities of each school.
+These points of difference, generally speaking, are as follows,
+confining ourselves to their conceptions about the Buddha:
+
+{249}
+
+(1) According to the School of the Great Council, the Buddha’s
+personality is transcendental (_lokottara_), and all the Tathâgatas
+are free from the defilements that might come from the material
+existence (_bhâva-âçrava_).[107] For in the Buddha all evil passions
+hereditary and acquired were eternally uprooted, and his presence on
+earth was absolutely spotless. (_The Vibhaṣa_, CLXXIII.) Contending
+this view, the Elders held that the Buddha’s personality was not free
+from Bhâvâçrava, though his mind was fully enlightened. His corporeal
+existence was the product of blind love veiled with ignorance and
+tangled with attachment. If this were not so, the Buddha’s feature
+would not have awakened an impure affection in the heart of a maiden,
+an ill-will in the heart of a highwayman, stupidity in the mind of an
+ascetic, and arrogance in that of a haughty Brahman. These incidents
+which {250} happened during the life of the Buddha evince that his
+corporeal presence was apt to agitate others’ hearts, and to that
+extent it was contaminated by Bhâvâçrava.
+
+(2) The Great Council School insists that every word uttered by a
+Tathâgata has a religious, spiritual meaning and purports to the
+edification of his fellow-beings; that his one utterance is variously
+interpreted by his audience each according to his own disposition, but
+all to his spiritual welfare; that every instruction given out by the
+Buddha is rational and perfect. Against these views the Elders think
+that the Buddha occasionally uttered things which had nothing to do
+with the enlightenment of others; that even with the Buddha something
+was out of his attainment, for instance, he could not make every one
+of his hearers perfectly understand his preachings; that though the
+Buddha never taught anything irrational and heretical, yet all his
+speeches were not perfect, he said some things which had no concern
+with rationality or orthodoxy.
+
+(3) The corporeal body (_rûpakâya_) of the Buddha has no limits
+(_koṭi_); his majestic power has no limits; every Buddha’s life is
+unlimited; a Buddha knows no fatigue, knows not when to rest, always
+occupying himself with the enlightenment of all sentient beings and
+with the awakening in their hearts of pure faith. Against these
+tendencies of the Great Council School to deify the historical Buddha,
+the Elders generally insist on the humanity of Buddhahood. Though the
+{251} Elders agree with the Great Council in that the body assumed by
+the Buddha as the result of his untiring accumulation of good karma
+through eons of his successive existences possesses a wonderful power,
+spiritual and material, they do not conceive it to be beyond all
+limitations.
+
+(4) The Great Council School says that with the Buddha sleep is not
+necessary and he has no dreams. The Elders admit that the Buddha never
+dreams, but denies that he does not need any sleep.
+
+(5) As the Buddha is always in the state of a deep, exalted spiritual
+meditation, it is not necessary for him to think what to say when
+requested to answer certain questions. Though he might appear to the
+inquirers as if he thoroughly cogitates over the problems presented to
+him for solution, the Buddha’s response is in fact immediate and
+without any efforts. The Elders, on the other hand, presume the
+Buddha’s mental calculation as to how to express his ideas as best
+suited to the understanding of the audience. Indeed, he does not
+cogitate over the problem itself, for with him everything is
+transparent, but he thinks over the best method of presenting his
+ideas before his pupils.[108]
+
+{252}
+
+Now to return to the doctrine of Dharmakâya and Trikâya. When we
+consider these controversies as above stated, it is apparent that
+among many other questions which arose soon after the demise of the
+Buddha Çâkyamuni, there was one, which in all probability most
+agitated the minds of his disciples. I mean the question of the
+personality of Buddha. Was he merely a human being like ourselves?
+Then, how could he reach such a height of moral perfection? Or was he
+a divine being? But Buddha himself did not communicate anything to his
+disciples concerning his divinity, nor did he tell them to accept the
+Dharma on account of his divine personality, but solely for the sake
+of truth. But for all that how could the disciples ever eradicate from
+their hearts the feeling of sacred reverence for their teacher, which
+was so indelibly engraved there? Whenever they recalled the sermons,
+anecdotes, or gâthâs of their master, the truth and spirit embodied
+in them and the author must have become so closely associated that
+they could not but ask themselves: “What in the Buddha caused him to
+perceive and declare these solemn profound truths? What was it that
+formed in him such a noble majestic character? What was there in the
+mind of Buddha that raised him to such a perfection of intellectual
+and religious life? How was it possible that, possessed of such
+exalted moral and spiritual virtues, Buddha too had to succumb to the
+law of birth and death that is the lot of common mortals?” Some such
+questions must have been repeatedly asked before they {253} could
+answer them by the doctrines of Dharmakâya and Trikâya.
+
+
+ _Who was the Buddha?_
+
+The evidence that these questions were constantly disturbing the minds
+of the disciples ever since the Master’s entrance into Parinirvâna,
+is scatteringly revealed throughout the Buddhist texts both Southern
+and Northern. The regret of the immediate followers that they did not
+ask the Buddha to prolong his earthly life, while the Buddha told them
+that he could do so if he wished, and their lamentation over the
+remains of the Blessed One, “How soon the Light of the World has
+passed away!”[109]--these utterances may be considered the first
+drops foreboding the showers of doubt and speculation as to his
+personality.
+
+According to the _Suvarna Prabhâ Sûtra_,[110] a Bodhisattva, by the
+name of Ruciraketu, was greatly annoyed by the doubt why Çâkyamuni
+Tathâgata had such a short life terminating only at eighty. He {254}
+taught the disciples that those who did not injure any living beings,
+and those who generously practised charity, in their former lives,
+could enjoy a considerably long life on earth; why then was the life
+of the Blessed One himself cut so short, who practised those virtues
+from time immemorial? The sûtra now records that this doubt was
+dispelled by the declaration of four Tathâgatas who mysteriously
+appeared to the sceptic and told him that “Every drop of water in the
+vast ocean can be counted, but the age of Çâkyamuni none can
+measure. Crush the mount Sumeru into particles as fine as mustard
+seeds and we can count them, but the age of Çâkyamuni none can
+measure..... the Buddha never entered into Parinirvana; the Good
+Dharma will never perish. He showed an earthly death merely for the
+benefits of sentient beings.”.....
+
+Here we have the conception of a spiritual Dharmakâya germinating out
+of the corporeal death of Çâkyamuni.[111] Here we have the bridge
+that spans {255} the wide gap between the human Çâkyamuni Buddha and
+the spiritual existence of the Dharmakâya. The Buddha did not die
+after he partook of the food offered by Chunda. His age was not
+eighty. His life did not pass to an airy nothingness when his cinerary
+urns were divided among kings and Brahmans. His virtues and merits
+which were accumulated throughout innumerable kalpas, could not come
+to naught so abruptly. What constituted the essence of his life--and
+that of ours too--could not perish with the vicissitudes of the
+corporeal existence. The Buddha as a particular individual being was
+certainly subject to transformation--so is every mortal, but his truth
+must abide forever. His Dharmakâya is above birth and death and even
+above Nirvâna; but his Body of Transformation comes out of the womb
+of Tathâgata as destined by karma and vanishes into it when the karma
+exhausts its force. The Buddha who is still seated at the summit of
+the Gridhrakuta, delivering to all beings the message of joy and
+bliss, and who among other precious teachings bequeathed to us {256}
+such sûtras as the _Avatamsaka_, the _Pundarîka_, etc., is no more
+nor less than an expression of the eternal spirit. Thus came the
+doctrine of Dharmakâya to be formulated by the Mahâyânists, and
+from this the transition to that of Trikâya was but a natural sequence.
+Because one without the other could not give an adequate solution of
+the problems above cited.
+
+
+ _The Trikâya as Explained in the Suvarna Prabhâ._
+
+What then is the Trikâya or triple body of the Tathâgata? It is (1)
+Nirmâna Kâya, the Body of Transformation; (2): Sambhoga Kâya, the Body
+of Bliss; and (3) Dharma Kâya, the Body of Dharma. If we draw a
+parallelism between the Buddhist and the Christian trinity, the Body
+of Transformation may be considered to correspond to Christ in the
+flesh, the Body of Bliss either to Christ in glory or to Holy Ghost,
+and Dharmakâya to Godhead.
+
+Let us again quote from the _Suvarna Prabhâ_, in which (I-tsing’s
+translation, chap. III.) we find the following statements concerning
+the doctrine of Trikâya.
+
+“The Tathâgata, when he was yet at the stage of discipline, practised
+divers deeds of morality for the sake of sentient beings. The practise
+finally attained perfection, reached maturity, and by virtue of its
+merits he acquired a wonderful spiritual power. The power enabled him
+to respond to the thoughts, deeds, and livings of sentient beings. He
+thoroughly understood them and never missed the right opportunity
+{257} [to respond to their needs]. He revealed himself in the right
+place and in the right moment; he acted rightly, assuming various
+bodily forms [in response to the needs of mortal souls]. These bodily
+forms are called the Nirmânakâya of the Tathâgata.
+
+“But when the Tathâgatas, in order to make the Bodhisattvas thoroughly
+conversant with the Dharma, to instruct them in the highest reality,
+to let them understand that birth-and-death (_samsâra_) and Nirvâna
+are of one taste, to destroy the thoughts of the ego, individuality,
+and the fear [of transmigration], and to promote happiness, to lay
+foundation for innumerable Buddha-dharmas, to be truly in accord with
+Suchness, the knowledge of Suchness, and the Spontaneous Will,
+manifest themselves to the Bodhisattvas in a form which is perfect
+with the thirty-two major and eighty minor features of excellence and
+shining with the halo around the head and the back, the Tathâgatas are
+said to have assumed the Body of Bliss or Sambhogakâya.[112]
+
+“When all possible obstacles arising from sins [material, intellectual,
+and emotional] are perfectly removed, and when all possible good
+dharmas are preserved, there would remain nothing but Suchness and the
+knowledge of Suchness,--this is the Dharmakâya.
+
+“The first two forms of the Tathâgata are provisional [and temporal]
+existences; but the last one is a reality, wherein the former two find
+the reason of {258} their existence. Why? Because when deprived of the
+Dharma of Suchness and of knowledge of non-particularity, no
+Buddha-dharma can ever exist; because it is Suchness and Knowledge of
+Suchness that absorbs within itself all possible forms of
+Buddha-wisdom and renders possible a complete extinction of all
+passions and sins [arising from particularity].”
+
+According to the above, the Dharmakâya which is tantamount to Suchness
+or Knowledge of Suchness is absolute; but like the moon whose image is
+reflected in a drop of water as well as in the boundless expanse of
+the waves, the Dharmakâya assumes on itself all possible aspects from
+the grossest material form to the subtlest spiritual existence. When
+it responds to the needs of the Bodhisattvas whose spiritual life is
+on a much higher plane than that of ordinary mortals, it takes on
+itself the Body of Bliss or Sambhogakâya. This Body is a supernatural
+existence, and almost all the Buddhas in the Mahâyâna scriptures
+belong to this class of being. Açvaghoṣa (p. 101) says: “The Body has
+infinite forms. The form has infinite attributes. The attribute has
+infinite excellences. And the accompanying fruition, that is, the
+region where they are destined to be born [by their previous karma],
+also has infinite merits and ornamentations. Manifesting itself
+everywhere, the Body of Bliss is infinite, boundless, limitless,
+unintermittent [in its activity] which comes directly from the Mind
+[Dharmakâya].”
+
+But the Buddhas revealed to the eyes of common {259} mortals are not
+of this kind. They are common mortals themselves, and the earthly
+Çâkyamuni who came out of the womb of Mâyâdevî and passed away under
+the sâla trees at the age of eighty years was one of them. He was
+essentially a manifestation of the Dharmakâya, and as such we ordinary
+people also partake something of him. But the masses, unless favored
+by good karma accumulated in the past, are generally under the spell
+of ignorance. They do not see the glory of Dharmakâya in its perfect
+purity shining in the lilies of the field and sung by the fowls of the
+air. They are blindly groping in the dark wilderness, they are vainly
+seeking, they are wildly knocking. To the needs of these people the
+Dharmakâya responds by assuming an earthly form as a human Buddha.
+
+
+ _Revelation in All Stages of Culture._
+
+_En passant_, let us remark that it is in this sense that Christ is
+conceived by Buddhists also as a manifestation of the Dharmakâya in a
+human form. He is a Buddha and as such not essentially different from
+Çâkyamuni. The Dharmakâya revealed itself as Çâkyamuni to the Indian
+mind, because that was in harmony with its needs. The Dharmakâya
+appeared in the person of Christ on the Semitic stage, because it
+suited their taste best in this way. The doctrine of Trikâya, however,
+goes even further and declares that demons, animal gods,
+ancestor-worship, nature-worship, and what not, are all due to the
+activity and revelation of the Dharmakâya responding to the spiritual
+needs of barbarous {260} and half-cultured people. The Buddhists think
+that the Dharmakâya never does things that are against the spiritual
+welfare of its creatures, and that whatever is done by it is for their
+best interests at that moment of revelation, no matter how they
+comprehend the nature of the Dharmakâya. The Great Lord of Dharma
+never throws a pearl before the swine, for he knows the animal’s needs
+are for things more substantial. He does not reveal himself in an
+exalted spiritual form to the people whose hearts are not yet capable
+of grasping anything beyond the grossly material. As they understand
+animal gods better than a metaphysical or highly abstracted being, let
+them have them and derive all possible blessings and benefits through
+their worshiping. But as soon as they become dissatisfied with the
+animal or human-fashioned gods, there must not be a moment’s hesitation
+to let them have exactly what their enlightened understanding can
+comprehend.[113] {261} They are thus all the while being led, though
+unconsciously on their part, to the higher and higher region of
+mystery, till they come fully to grasp the true and real meaning of
+the Dharmakâya in its absolute purity, or, to use Christian
+terminology, till “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
+glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory, even as
+by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor III. 18.)
+
+The Mahâyânists now argue that the reason why Çâkyamuni entered into
+Parinirvana when his worldly career was thought by him to be over is
+that by this his resignation to the law of birth and death, he wished
+to exemplify in him the impermanency of worldly life and the folly of
+clinging to it as final reality. As for his Dharmakâya, it has an
+eternal life, it was never born, and it would never perish; and when
+called by the spiritual needs of the Bodhisattvas, it will cast off
+the garb of absoluteness and preach in the form of a Sambhogakâya
+“never-ceasing sermons which run like a stream for ever and aye.” It
+will be evident from this that Buddhists are ready to consider all
+religious or moral leaders of mankind, whatever their nationality, as
+the Body of Transformation of the Dharmakâya. Translated into Christian
+thoughts, God reveals himself in every being that is worthy of him. He
+reveals himself not only at a certain {262} period in history, but
+everywhere and all the time. His glory is perceived throughout all the
+stages of human culture. This manifestation, from the very nature of
+God, cannot be intermittent and sporadic as is imagined by some
+“orthodox Christians.” The following from St. Paul’s first Epistle to
+the Corinthians (Chap. XIII), when read in this connection, sounds
+almost like a Buddhist philosopher’s utterance: “Now there are
+diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities
+of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of
+operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the
+manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
+For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the
+word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same
+Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another
+the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another divers kinds
+of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these
+worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
+severally as he will. For as the body is one and hath many members,
+and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so
+also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body,
+whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have
+been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
+
+{263}
+
+
+ _The Sambhogakâya._
+
+One peculiar point in the doctrine of Trikâya, which modern minds find
+rather difficult to comprehend, is the conception of the Sambhogakâya,
+or the Body of Bliss. We can understand the relation between the
+Dharmakâya and Nirmânakâya, the latter being similar to the notion of
+God incarnate or to that of Avatara. Inasmuch as the Dharmakâya does
+not exist outside the triple world but in it as the raison d’être of
+its existence, all beings must be considered a partial manifestation
+of it; and in this sense Buddhists sometimes call themselves
+Bodhisattvas, that is, beings of intelligence, because intelligence
+(_Bodhi_) is the psychological aspect of the Dharmakâya as realised in
+sentient beings. But the conception of Sambhogakâya is altogether too
+mysterious to be fathomed by a limited consciousness. The fact becomes
+more apparent when we are told that the Sambhogakâya, Body of Bliss,
+is a corporeal existence and at the same time filling the universe and
+that there are two forms of the Body of Bliss, one for self-enjoyment
+and the other as a sort of religious object for the Bodhisattvas.
+
+That the Body of Bliss is corporeal and yet infinite has already been
+shown by the quotations from the _Suvarna Prabhâ_ and Açvaghoṣa on
+the preceding pages. For further confirmation of this point no less
+authority than Asanga and Vasubandhu will be here referred to.
+
+In _A Comprehensive Treatise on the Mahâyana_ and {264} in its
+commentary, the author Asanga and the commentator Vasubandhu endeavor
+to prove why the Body of Bliss cannot be the raison d’être of the
+Dharmakâya, instead of vice versa; and in this connection they argue
+that (1) the Body of Bliss consists of the five Skandhas, that is, of
+material form (_rûpa_), sensation (_vedanâ_), ideas (_samjñâ_), deeds
+(_sanskâra_), and consciousness (_vijñâna_); (2) it is subject to
+particularisation; (3) it reveals different virtues and characters
+according to the desires of Bodhisattvas; (4) even to the same
+individual it appears differently at different times; (5) when it
+manifests itself simultaneously before an assemblage of Bodhisattvas
+of divers characters and qualifications, it at once assumes divers
+forms, in order to satisfy their infinitely diversified inclinations;
+(6) it is a creation of the Âlayavijñâna, All-conserving Mind.
+
+These six peculiarities of the Body of Bliss as enumerated by Asanga
+and Vasubandhu make it indeed entirely dependent on the Dharmakâya,
+but they do not place us in any better position to penetrate into the
+deep mystery of its nature. Its supernatural incomprehensibility
+remains the same forever. In a certain sense, however, the Body of
+Bliss may be considered to be corresponding to the Christian idea of
+an angel. Supernaturalness and luminosity are the two characters
+possessed by both, but angels are merely messengers of God
+communicating the latter’s will to human beings. When they reveal
+themselves to a specially favored person, it is not of their own {265}
+account. When they speak to him at all, it is by the name of the being
+who sent them. They do not represent him, they do not act his own will
+by themselves. On the contrary, the Body of Bliss is the master of its
+own. It is an expression of the Dharmakâya. It instructs and benefits
+all the creatures who come to it. It acts according to its own will
+and judgment. In these respects the Body of Bliss is altogether
+different from the Christian conception of angels. But will it be more
+appropriately compared to Christ in glory?
+
+Let us make another quotation from later authorities than Asanga and
+his brother Vasubandhu, and let us see more convincingly what
+complicated notions are involved in the idea of the Body of Bliss.
+According to the commentators on Vasubandhu’s _Vijñânamâtra Çâstra_
+(a treatise on the Yoga philosophy),[114] the Body of Bliss has two
+distinct aspects: (1) The body obtained by the Tathâgata for his
+self-enjoyment, by dint of his religious discipline through eons; (2)
+The body which the Tathâgata manifests to the {266} Bodhisattvas in
+Pure Land (_sukhâvatî_). This last body is in possession of wonderful
+spiritual powers, reveals the Wheel of Dharma, resolves all the
+religious doubts raised by the Bodhisattvas, and lets them enjoy the
+bliss of the Mahâyâna Dharma.
+
+
+ _A Mere Subjective Existence._
+
+Judging from all these characterisations, the most plausible
+conclusion that suggests itself to modern sceptical minds is that the
+Sambhogakâya must be a mere creation of an intelligent, finite mind,
+which is intently bent on reaching the highest reality, but, not being
+able, on account of its limitations, to grasp the object in its
+absoluteness, the finite mind fabricates all its ideals after its own
+fashion into a spiritual-material being, which is logically a
+contradiction, but religiously an object deserving veneration and
+worship. And this being is no more than the Body of Bliss.[115] It
+lies half way between the pure being of Dharmakâya and the earthly
+form of Nirmânakâya, the Body of Transformation. It does not belong
+to either, but partakes something of both. It is in a sense spiritual
+{267} like the Dharmakâya, and yet it cannot go beyond material
+limitations, for it has a form, definite and determinate. When the
+human soul is thirsty after a pure being or an absolute which cannot
+be comprehended in a palpable form, it creates a hybrid, an imitation,
+or a reflection, and tries to be satisfied with it, just as a little
+girl has her innate and not yet fully developed maternity satisfied by
+tenderly embracing and nursing the doll, an inanimate imitation of a
+real living baby. And the Mahâyânists seem to have made most of this
+childish humanness. They produced as many sûtras as their spiritual
+yearnings demanded, quite regardless of historical facts, and made the
+Body of Bliss of the Tathâgata the author of all these works. For if
+the Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata never entered into Parinirvâna, why
+then could he not deliver sermons and cite gâthâs as often as beings
+of intelligence (Bodhisattvas) felt their needs? The _Suvarna Prabhâ_
+(fas. 2, chap. 3) again echoes this sentiment as follows:
+
+“To illustrate by analogy, the sun or the moon does not make any
+conscious discrimination, nor does the water-mirror, nor the light
+[conceived separate from the body from which it emanates]. But when
+all these three are brought together, there is produced an image [of
+the sun or the moon in the water]. So it is with Suchness and
+Knowledge of Suchness. It is not possessed of any particular
+consciousness, but by virtue of the Spontaneous Will [inherent in the
+nature of Suchness, or what is the same thing, in the {268}
+Dharmakâya], the Body of Transformation or of Bliss [as a shadow of
+the Dharmakâya] reveals itself in response to the spiritual needs of
+sentient beings.
+
+“And, again, as the water-mirror boundlessly expanding reflects in all
+different ways the images of âkâsa (void space) through the medium
+of light, while space itself is void of all particular marks, so the
+Dharmakâya reflects its images severally in the receiving minds of
+believers, and this by virtue of Spontaneous Will. The Will creates
+the Body of Transformation as well as the Body of Bliss in all their
+possible aspects, while the original, the Dharmakâya, does not suffer
+one whit a change on this account.”
+
+According to this, it is evident that whenever our spiritual needs
+become sufficiently intense there is a response from the Dharmakâya,
+and that this response is not always uniform as the recipient minds
+show different degrees of development, intellectually and spiritually.
+If we call this communion between sentient souls and the Dharmakâya
+an inspiration, all the phenomena that flow out of fulness of heart
+and reflect purity of soul should be called “works of inspiration”;
+and in this sense the Mahâyânists consider their scriptures as
+emanating directly from the fountainhead of the Dharmakâya.
+
+
+ _Attitude of Modern Mahâyânists._
+
+Modern Mahâyânists in full accordance with this interpretation of
+the Doctrine of Trikâya do not place {269} much importance on the
+objective aspects of the Body of Bliss (_Sambhogakâya_). They consider
+them at best the fictitious products of an imaginative mind; they
+never tarry a moment to think that all these mysterious Tathâgatas or
+Bodhisattvas who are sometimes too extravagantly and generally too
+tediously described in the Mahâyâna texts are objective realities,
+that the Sukhâvatîs or Pure Lands[116] are decorated with such
+worldly stuff as gold, silver, emerald, cat’s eye, pearl, and other
+precious stones, that pious Buddhists would be transferred after their
+death to these ostentatiously ornamented heavens, be seated on the
+pedestals of lotus-flowers, surrounded by innumerable Bodhisattvas and
+Buddhas, and would enjoy all the spiritual enjoyments that human mind
+can conceive. On the contrary, modern Buddhists look with disdain on
+these egotistic materialistic conceptions of religious life. For, to a
+fully enlightened soul, of what use could those worldly treasures {270}
+be? What happiness, earthly or heavenly, does such a soul dream of,
+outside the bliss of embracing the will of the Dharmakâya as his own?
+
+
+ _Recapitulation._
+
+To sum up, the Buddha in the Pâli scriptures was a human being, though
+occasionally he is credited to have achieved things supernatural and
+superhuman. His historical career began with the abandonment of a
+royal life, then the wandering in the wilderness, and a long earnest
+meditation on the great problems of birth-and-death, and his final
+enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, then his fifty years’ religious
+peregrination along the valleys of the Ganges, and the establishment
+of a religious system known as Buddhism, and finally his eternal
+entrance into the “Parinirvâna that leaves nothing behind”
+(_anupadhiçeṣanirvâna_). And as far as plain historical facts are
+concerned, these seem to exhaust the life of Çâkyamuni on earth. But
+the deep reverence which was felt by his disciples could not be
+satisfied with this prosaic humanness of their master and made him
+something more than a mortal soul. So even the Pâli tradition gives
+him a supramundane life besides the earthly one. He is supposed to
+have been a Bodhisattva in the Tuṣita heaven before his entrance into
+the womb of Mâyâdevî. The honor of Bodhisattvahood was acceded to him
+on account of his deeds of self-sacrifice which were praised throughout
+his innumerable past incarnations. While he was walking {271} among us
+in the flesh, he was glorified with the thirty-two major and eighty
+minor excellent characteristics of a great man.[117] But he was not
+the first Buddha that walked on earth to teach the Dharma, for there
+were already seven Buddhas before him, nor was he the last one that
+would appear among us, for {272} a Bodhisattva by the name of Maitreya
+is now in heaven and making preparations for the attainment of
+Buddhahood in time to come. But here stopped the Pâli writers, they
+did not venture to make any further speculation on the nature of
+Buddhahood. Their religious yearnings did not spur them to a higher
+flight of the imagination. They recited simple sûtras or gâthâs,
+observed the çilas (moral precepts) as strictly and literally as they
+could, and thought the spirit of their Master still alive in these
+instructions;--let alone the personality of the Tathâgata.
+
+But there was at the same time another group of the disciples of the
+Buddha, whose religious and intellectual inclinations were not of the
+same type as their fellow-believers; and on that account a simple
+faith in the Buddha as present in his teachings did not quite satisfy
+them. They perhaps reasoned in this fashion: “If there were seven
+Buddhas before the advent of the Great Muni of Çakya and there would
+be one more who is to come, where, let us ask, did they derive their
+authority and knowledge to preach? How is it that there cannot be any
+more Buddhas, that they do not come to us much oftener? If they were
+human beings like ourselves, why not we ourselves be Buddhas?” These
+questions, when logically carried out, naturally led them to the
+theory of Dharmakâya, that all the past Buddhas, and those to come,
+and even we ordinary mortals made of clay and doomed to die soon, owe
+the raison d’être of their existence to the Dharmakâya, which alone
+is immortal in us {273} as well as in Buddhas. The first religious
+effort we have to make is, therefore, to recognise this archetype of
+all Buddhas and all beings. But the Dharmakâya as such is too abstract
+for the average mind to become the object of its religious
+consciousness; so they personified or rather materialised it. In other
+words, they idealised Çâkyamuni, endowed him not only with the
+physical signs (_lakṣas_) of greatness as in the Pâli scriptures,
+but with those of celestial transfiguration, and called him a Body of
+Bliss of the Tathâgata; while the historical human Buddha was called
+a Body of Transformation and all sentient beings Bodhisattvas, that
+is, beings of intelligence destined to become Buddhas.
+
+This idealised Buddha, or, what is the same thing, a personified
+Dharmakâya, according to the Mahâyâna Buddhists, not only revealed
+himself in the particular person of Siddhârtha Gautama in Central
+Asia a few thousand years ago, but is revealing himself in all times
+and all places. There is no specially favored spot on the earth where
+only the Buddha makes his appearance; from the zenith of Akaniṣta
+heaven down to the bottom of Nâraka, he is manifesting uninterruptedly
+and unintermittently and is working out his ideas, of which, however,
+our limited understanding is unable to have an adequate knowledge. The
+_Avatamsaka Sûtra_ (Buddhabhadra’s translation, fas. 45, chap. 34)
+describes how the Buddha works out his scheme of salvation in all
+possible ways. (See also the _Saddharma_ {274} _pundarîka_, Kern’s
+translation, chap. 2, p. 30 et seq., and also pp. 413-411.).
+
+“In this wise the Buddha teaches and delivers all sentient beings
+through his religious teachings whose number is innumerable as atoms.
+He may reveal sometimes in the world of devas, sometimes in that of
+Nâgas, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras, Mahoragas, etc.,
+sometimes in the world of Brahmans, sometimes in the world of human
+beings, sometimes in the palace of Yâmarâja (king of death), sometimes
+in the underworld of damned spirits, ghosts, and beasts. His
+all-swaying compassion, intelligence, and will would not rest until
+all beings had been brought under his shelter through all possible
+means of salvation. He may achieve his work of redemption sometimes by
+means of his name, sometimes by means of memory, sometimes of voice,
+sometimes of perfect illumination, sometimes of the net of
+illumination. Whenever and wherever conditions are ripe for his
+appearance, he would never fail to present himself before sentient
+beings and also to manifest views of grandeur and splendor.
+
+“The Buddha does not depart from his own region, he does not depart
+from his seat in the tower; yet he reveals himself in all the ten
+quarters of the globe. He would sometimes emanate from his own body
+the clouds of Nirmânakâyas, or sometimes reveal himself in an
+undivided personality, and itinerating in all quarters would teach and
+deliver all sentient beings. He may assume sometimes the form of a
+Çrâvaka, sometimes that of a Brahmadeva, sometimes that of {275} an
+ascetic, sometimes that of a good physician, sometimes that of a
+tradesman, sometimes that of a Bhikṣu [or honest worker], sometimes
+that of an artist, sometimes that of a deva. Again, he may reveal
+himself sometimes in all the forms of art and industry, sometimes in
+all the places of congregation, such as towns, cities, villages, etc.
+And whatever his subjects for salvation may be, and whatever his
+surroundings, he will accommodate himself to all possible conditions
+and achieve his work of enlightenment and salvation”[118]....
+
+The practical sequence of this doctrine of Trikâya is apparent; it
+has ever more broadened the spirit of tolerance in Buddhists. As the
+Dharmakâya universally responds to the spiritual needs of all sentient
+beings in all times and in all places and at any stage of their
+spiritual development, Buddhists consider all spiritual leaders,
+whatever their nationality and personality, as the expressions of the
+one omnipotent Dharmakâya. And as the Dharmakâya always manifests
+itself for the best interests of sentient creatures, even those
+doctrines and their authors that are apparently against the teachings
+of Buddhism are tolerated through the conviction that they are all
+moving according to the Spontaneous Will that pervades everywhere and
+works all the time. Though, superficially, they may appear as evils,
+their central and final aim is goodness and harmony which are destined
+by the Will of the Dharmakâya to overcome this world of tribulations
+and {276} contradictions. The general intellectual tendency of
+Buddhism has done a great deal towards cultivating a tolerant spirit
+in its believers, and we must say that the doctrine of Trinity which
+appears sometimes too radical in its pantheistic spirit has
+contributed much to this cause.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+ THE BODHISATTVA.
+
+{277}
+
+/Next/ to the conception of Buddha, what is important in Mahâyâna
+Buddhism is that of Bodhisattva (intelligence-being) and of that which
+constitutes its essence, Bodhicitta, intelligence-heart. As stated
+above, the followers of Mahâyânism do not call themselves Çrâvakas
+or Pratyekabuddhas or Arhats as do those of Hînayânism; but they
+distinguish themselves by the title of Bodhisattva. What this means
+will be the subject-matter of this chapter.
+
+Let us begin with a quotation from the _Saddharma-pundarîka Sûtra_,
+in which a well-defined distinction between the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas and the Bodhisattvas is given.[119]
+
+
+ _The Three Yânas._
+
+“Now, Çâriputra, the beings who have become wise, have faith in the
+Tathâgata, the father of the world, and consequently apply themselves
+to his commandments.
+
+“Amongst them there are some who, wishing to follow the dictate of an
+authoritative voice, apply themselves to the commandment of the
+Tathâgata to {278} acquire the knowledge of the Four Great Truths,
+for the sake of their own complete Nirvana. These, one may say, to be
+those who, seeking the vehicle of the Çrâvaka, fly from the triple
+world.....
+
+“Other beings desirous of the unconditioned knowledge, of
+self-restraint and tranquillity, apply themselves to the commandment
+of the Tathâgata to learn to understand the Twelve Chains of
+Dependence, for the sake of their own complete Nirvana. These, one may
+say, to be those who, seeking the vehicle of the Pratyekabuddha, fly
+from the triple world.....
+
+“Other beings again desirous of omniscience, Buddha-knowledge,
+absolute knowledge, unconditioned knowledge, apply themselves to the
+commandment of the Tathâgata and to learn to understand the knowledge,
+powers, and conviction of the Tathâgata, for the sake of the common
+weal and happiness, out of compassion to the world, for the benefit,
+weal and happiness of the world at large, of both gods and men, for
+the sake of the complete Nirvana of all beings. These, one may say,
+to be those who seeking the Great Vehicle (_Mahâyâna_) fly from the
+triple world. Therefore, they are called Bodhisattva-mahâsattvas.”.....
+
+This characterisation of the Bodhisattvas as distinct from the
+Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas constitutes one of the most significant
+features of Mahâyâna Buddhism. Here the Bodhisattva does not exert
+himself in religious discipline for the sake of his own weal, but for
+the sake of the spiritual benefit of all his fellow-creatures. If he
+will, he could, {279} like the Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas, enter
+into eternal Nirvana that never slides back; he could enjoy the
+celestial bliss of undisturbed tranquillity in which all our worldly
+tribulations are forever buried; he could seclude himself from the
+hurly-burly of the world, and, sitting cross-legged in a lonely cave,
+quietly contemplate on the evanescence of human interests and the
+frivolity of earthly affairs, and then self-contentedly await the time
+of final absorption into the absolute All, as streams and rivers
+finally run into one great ocean and become of one taste. But, in
+spite of all these self-sufficient blessings, the Bodhisattva would
+not seek his own ease, but he would mingle himself in the turmoil of
+worldly life and devote all his energy to the salvation of the masses
+of people, who, on account of their ignorance and infatuation, are
+forever transmigrating in the triple world, without making any
+progress towards the final goal of humanity.
+
+Along this Bodhisattvaic devotion, however, there was another current
+of religious thought and practice running among the followers of
+Buddha. By this I mean the attitude of the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas. Both of them sought peace of mind in asceticism and
+cold philosophical speculation. Both of them were intently inclined to
+gain Nirvana which may be likened unto an extinguished fire. It was
+not theirs to think of the common weal of all beings, and, therefore,
+when they attained their own redemption from earthly sins and
+passions, their religious discipline was completed, and no further
+attempt was {280} made by them to extend the bliss of their personal
+enlightenment to their fellow-creatures.[120] They recoiled from
+mingling themselves among vulgar people lest their holy life should
+get contaminated. They did not have confidence enough in their own
+power to help the masses to break the iron yoke of ignorance and
+misery. Moreover, everybody was supposed to exert himself for his own
+emancipation, however unbearable his pain was for others could not do
+anything to alleviate it. Sympathy was of no avail; because the reward
+of his own karma good or evil could be suffered by himself alone, nor
+could it be avoidable even by the doer himself. Things done were done
+{281} once for all, and their karma made an indelible mark on the
+pages of his destiny. Even Buddha who was supposed to have attained
+that exalted position by practising innumerable pious deeds in all his
+former lives, could not escape the fruit of evil karma which was quite
+unwittingly committed by him. This iron arm of karma seizes everybody
+in person and does not allow any substitute whatever. Those who wish
+to give a halt to the working of karma could do so only by applying a
+counter-force to it, and this with no other hand than his own. The
+Mahâyânist conception of Bodhisattvahood may be considered an effort
+somewhat to mitigate this ruthless mechanical rigidity of the law of
+karma.
+
+{282}
+
+
+ _Strict Individualism._
+
+The Buddhism of the Çrâvakas and the Pratyekabuddhas is the most
+unscrupulous application to our ethico-religious life of the
+individualistic theory of karma. All things done are done by oneself;
+all things left undone are left undone by oneself. They would say:
+“Your salvation is exclusively your own business, and whatever
+sympathy I may have is of no avail. All that I can do toward helping
+you is to let you see intellectually the way to emancipation. If you
+do not follow it, you have but to suffer the fruition of your folly. I
+am helpless with all my enlightenment, even with my Nirvana, to
+emancipate you from the misery of perpetual metempsychosis.” But with
+the Buddhism of the Mahâyâna Bodhisattvas the case is entirely
+different. It is all-sympathy, it is all-compassion, it is all-love. A
+Bodhisattva would not seclude himself into the absolute tranquillity
+of Nirvana, simply because he wishes to emancipate his
+fellow-creatures also from the bondage of ignorance and infatuation.
+Whatever rewards he may get for his self-enjoyment as the karma of his
+virtuous deeds, he would turn them over (_parivarta_) towards the
+uplifting of the suffering masses. And this self-sacrifice, this
+unselfish devotion to the welfare of his fellow-beings constitutes the
+essence of Bodhisattvahood. The ideal Bodhisattva, therefore, is
+thought to be no more than an incarnation of Intelligence and Love, of
+Prajñâ and Karunâ.
+
+The irrefragability of karma seems to be satisfactory {283} from the
+intellectual and individualistic standpoint, for the intellect demands
+a thorough application of logic, and individualism does not allow the
+transferring of responsibility from one person to another. From this
+viewpoint, therefore, a rigorous enforcement as demanded by Hînayânism
+of the principle of self-emancipation does not show any logical fault;
+divine grace must be suspended as the curse of karma produced by
+ignorance tenaciously clings to our soul. But when viewed from the
+religious side of the question, this inflexibility of karma is more
+than poor mortals can endure. They want something more elastic and
+pliable that yields to the supplication of the feeling. When
+individuals are considered nothing but isolated, disconnected atoms,
+between which there is no unifying bond which is the feeling, they are
+too weak to resist and overcome the ever-threatening force of evil,
+whose reality as long as a world of particulars exists cannot be
+contradicted. This religious necessity felt in our inmost
+consciousness may explain the reason why Mahâyâna Buddhism proposed
+the doctrine of parivarta (turning over) founded on the oneness of
+Dharmakâyâ.
+
+
+ _The Doctrine of Parivarta._
+
+The doctrine of turning over (_parivarta_) of one’s own merits to
+others is a great departure from that which seems to have been the
+teaching of “primitive Buddhism.” In fact, it is more than a departure,
+it {284} is even in opposition to the latter in some measure. Because
+while individualism is a predominant feature in the religious practice
+of the Çrâvakas and the Pratyekabuddhas, universalism or
+supra-individualism, if I am allowed to use these terms, is the
+principle advocated by the Bodhisattvas. The latter believe that all
+beings, being a manifestation of the Dharmakâya, are in their essence
+of one nature; that individual existences are real so far as
+subjective ignorance is concerned; and that virtues and merits issuing
+directly from the Dharmakâya which is intelligence and love, cannot
+fail to produce universal benefit and to effect final emancipation of
+all beings. Thus, the religion of the Bodhisattvas proposes to achieve
+what was thought impossible by the Çrâvakas and the Pratyekabuddhas,
+that is, the turning over of one’s own merits to the service of others.
+
+It is in this spirit that the Bodhisattvas conceive the seriousness of
+the significance of life; it is in this spirit that, pondering over
+the reason of their existence on earth, they come to the following
+view of life:
+
+“All ignorant beings are daily and nightly performing evil deeds in
+innumerable ways; and, on this account, their suffering beggars
+description. They do not recognise the Tathâgata, do not listen to
+his teachings, do not pay homage to the congregation of holy men. And
+this evil karma will surely bring them a heavy crop of misery. This
+reflection fills the heart of a Bodhisattva with gloomy feelings,
+which in turn {285} gives rise to the immovable resolution, that he
+himself will carry all the burdens for ignorant beings and help them
+to reach the final goal of Nirvana. Inestimably heavy as these burdens
+are, he will not swerve nor yield under their weight. He will not rest
+until all ignorant beings are freed from the entangling meshes of
+desire and sin, until they are uplifted above the darkening veil of
+ignorance and infatuation; and this his marvelous spiritual energy
+defies the narrow limitations of time and space, and will extend even
+to eternity when the whole system of worlds comes to a conclusion.
+Therefore, all the innumerable meritorious deeds practised by the
+Bodhisattvas are dedicated to the emancipation of ignorant beings.
+
+“The Bodhisattvas do not feel, however, that they are being compelled
+by any external force to devote their lives to the edification and
+uplifting of the masses. They do not recognise any outward authority,
+the violation of which may react upon them in the form of a punishment.
+They have already passed beyond this stage of world-conception which
+implies a dualism; they are on the contrary moving in a much wider and
+higher sphere of thought. All that is done by them springs from their
+spontaneous will, from the free activity of the Bodhicitta, which
+constitutes their reason of existence; and thus there is nothing
+compulsory in their thoughts and movements. [To use Laotzean
+terminology, they are practising non-action, _wu wei_, and whatever
+may appear to the ignorant and unenlightened as a strenuous and
+restless life, is merely a natural {286} overflow from the
+inexhaustible fount of energy called Bodhicitta, heart of
+intelligence].”[121]
+
+
+ _Bodhisattva in “Primitive” Buddhism._
+
+The notion of Bodhisattva was not entirely absent in “primitive”
+Buddhism, only it did not have such a wide signification. All Buddhas
+were Bodhisattvas in their former lives. The Jâtaka stories minutely
+describe what self-sacrificing deeds were done by them and how by the
+karma of these merits they finally attained Buddhahood. Çâkyamuni
+was not the only Buddha, but there had already been seven or
+twenty-four Buddhas prior to him, and the coming Buddha to be known as
+Maitreya is believed to be disciplining himself in the Tuṣita heaven
+and going through the stages of Bodhisattvahood. The one who is thus
+destined to be the future Buddha must be extraordinarily gifted in
+spiritual energy. He must pass through eons of self-discipline, must
+practise deeds of non-atman with unflinching courage and fortitude
+through innumerable existences.
+
+The following quotation from the Jâtaka tales will be sufficient to
+see what ponderous and exacting conditions were conceived by the
+so-called Hînayânists to be necessary for a human being to become a
+fully qualified Buddha.[122]
+
+{287}
+
+“Of men it is he, and only he, who is in a fit condition by the
+attainment of saintship in that same existence, that can successfully
+make a wish to be a Buddha. Of those in a fit condition it is only he
+who makes the wish in the presence of a living Buddha that succeeds in
+his wish; after the death of a Buddha a wish made at a relic shrine,
+or at the foot of a Bo-tree, will not be successful. Of those who make
+the wish in the presence of a Buddha it is he and only he who has
+retired from the world that can successfully make the wish, and not
+one who is a layman. Of those who have retired from the world it is
+only he who is possessed of the Five High Powers and is master of the
+Eight Attainments that can successfully make the wish, and no one can
+do so who is lacking in these excellences. Of those, even, who possess
+these excellences, it is he, and only he, who has such firm resolve
+that he is ready to sacrifice his life for the Buddhas that can
+successfully make the wish, but no other. Of those who possess this
+resolve it is he, and only he, who has great zeal, determination,
+strenuousness, and endeavor in striving for the qualities that make a
+Buddha that is successful. The following comparisons will show the
+intensity of the zeal. If he is such a one as to think: ‘The man who,
+if all within the rim of the world were to become water, would be
+ready to swim across it with his own arms and get further shore,--he
+is the one to attain the Buddhaship: or, in case all within the rim of
+the world were to become a {288} jungle of bamboo, would be ready to
+elbow and trample his way through it and get to the further side,--he
+is the one to attain the Buddhaship; or, in case all within the rim of
+the world were to become a _terra firma_ of thick-set javelins, would
+be ready to tread on them and go afoot to the further side,--he is the
+one to attain the Buddhaship; or, in case all within the rim of the
+world were to become live coals, would be ready to tread on them and
+so get to the further side,--he is the one to attain the
+Buddhaship,’--if he deems not even one of these feats too hard for
+himself but has such great zeal, determination, strenuousness, and
+power of endeavor that he would perform these feats in order to attain
+the Buddhaship, then, but not otherwise, will his wish succeed.”
+
+From this it is apparent that everybody could not become a Buddha in
+“primitive” Buddhism; the highest aspiration that could be cherished
+by him was to believe in the teachings of Buddha, to follow the
+precepts laid down by him, and to attain at most to Arhatship. The
+idea of Arhatship, however, was considered by Mahâyânists cold,
+impassionate, and hard-hearted, for the saint calmly reviews the sight
+of the suffering masses; and therefore Arhatship was altogether
+unsatisfactory to be the object for the Bodhisattvas of their high
+religious aspirations.
+
+The Mahâyânists wanted to go even beyond the attainment of Arhatship,
+however exalted its spirituality may be. They wanted to make every
+humble soul {289} a being like Çâkyamuni, they wanted lavishly to
+distribute the bliss of enlightenment; they wanted to remove all the
+barriers that were supposed to lie between Buddhahood and the common
+humanity. But how could they do this when the iron hands of karma held
+tight the fate of each individual! How was it possible for him to
+identify his being with the ideal of mankind? Perhaps this serious
+problem could not very well be solved by Buddhists, when their memory
+of the majestic personality of Çâkyamuni was still vivid before their
+mental eyes. It was probably no easy task for them to overcome the
+feeling of awe and reverence which was so deeply engraved in their
+hearts, and to raise themselves to such a height as reached by their
+Master, even ideally. This was certainly an act of sacrilege. But, as
+time advances, the personal recollection of the Master would naturally
+wane and would not play so much influence as their own religious
+consciousness which is ever fresh and active. Generally speaking, all
+great historical characters that command the reverence and awe of
+posterity do so only when their words or acts or both unravel the
+deepest secrets of the human heart. And this feeling of awe and
+reverence and even of worship is not due so much to the great
+characters themselves as to the worshiper’s own religious
+consciousness. History passes, but the heart persists. An individual
+called Çâkyamuni may be forgotten in the course of time, but the
+sacred chord in the inmost heart struck by him reverberates through
+eternity. So with the Mahâyâna Buddhists, {290} the religious sentiment
+at last asserted itself in spite of the personal recollection and
+reverential feeling for the Master. And perhaps in the following way
+was the reasoning then advanced by them relative to the great problem
+of Buddhahood.
+
+
+ _We are all Bodhisattvas._
+
+As Çâkyamuni was a Bodhisattva in his former lives destined to become
+a Buddha, so we are all Bodhisattvas and even Buddhas in a certain
+sense, when we understand that all sentient beings, the Buddha not
+excepted, are one in the Dharmakâya. The Dharmakâya manifests in us as
+Bodhi which is the essence of Buddhas as well as of Bodhisattvas. This
+Bodhi can suffer no change whatever in quantity even when the
+Bodhisattva attains finally to the highest human perfection as
+Çâkyamuni Buddha. In this spirit, therefore, the Buddha exclaimed when
+he obtained enlightenment, “It is marvelous indeed that all beings
+animate and inanimate universally partake of the nature of
+Tathâgatahood.” The only difference between a Buddha and the ignorant
+masses is that the latter do not make manifest in them the glory of
+Bodhi.
+
+They only are not Bodhisattvas who, enveloped in the divine rays of
+light in a celestial abode, philosophically review the world of
+tribulations. Even we mortals made of dust are Bodhisattvas,
+incarnates of the Bodhi, capable of being united in the all-embracing
+love of the Dharmakâya and also of obliterating the {291} individual
+curse of karma in the eternal and absolute intelligence of the
+Dharmakâya. As soon as we come to live in this love and intelligence,
+individual existences are no hindrance to the turning over
+(_parivarta_) of one’s spiritual merits (_punya_) to the service of
+others. Let us only have an insight into the spirituality of our
+existence and we are all Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. Let us abandon the
+selfish thought of entering into Nirvana that is conceived to
+extinguish the fire of heart and leave only the cold ashes of
+intellect. Let us have sympathy for all suffering beings and turn over
+all our merits, however small, to their benefit and happiness. For in
+this way we are all made the Bodhisattvas.[123]
+
+
+ _The Buddha’s Life._
+
+This spirit of universal love prevails in all Mahâyâna literature,
+and the Bodhisattvas are everywhere represented as exercising it with
+utmost energy. The Mahâyânists, therefore, could not rest satisfied
+with a simple, prosaic, and earthly account of Çâkyamuni, {292} they
+wanted to make it as ideal and poetic as possible, illustrating the
+gospel of love, as was conceived by them, in every phase of the life
+of the Buddha.
+
+The Mahâyânists first placed the Buddha in the Tuṣita heaven before
+his birth, (as was done by the Hînayânists), made him feel pity for
+the distressed world below, made him resolve to deliver it from “the
+ocean of misery which throws up sickness as its foam, tossing with the
+waves of old age, and rushing with the dreadful onflow of death,” and
+after his Parinirvana, they made him abide forever on the peak of the
+Mount Vulture delivering the sermon of immortality to a great
+assemblage of spiritual beings. In this wise, they explained the
+significance of the appearance of Çâkyamuni on earth, which was
+nothing but a practical demonstration of the “Great Loving Heart”
+(_mahâkarunâcitta_).
+
+
+ _The Bodhisattva and Love._
+
+Nâgârjuna in his work on the _Bodhicitta_[124] elucidates the
+Mahâyânist notion of Bodhisattvahood as follows:
+
+“Thus the essential nature of all Bodhisattvas is a great loving heart
+(_mahâkarunâcitta_), and all sentient beings constitute the object
+of its love. Therefore, all the Bodhisattvas do not cling to the
+blissful taste {293} that is produced by the divers modes of mental
+tranquilisation (_dhyâna_), do not covet the fruit of their
+meritorious deeds, which may heighten their own happiness.
+
+“Their spiritual state is higher than that of the Çrâvakas, for they
+do not leave all sentient beings behind them [as the Çrâvakas do].
+They practise altruism, they seek the fruit of Buddha-knowledge
+[instead of Çrâvaka-knowledge].
+
+“With a great loving heart they look upon the sufferings of all
+beings, who are diversely tortured in Avici Hell in consequence of
+their sins--a hell whose limits are infinite and where an endless
+round of misery is made possible on account of all sorts of karma
+[committed by sentient creatures]. The Bodhisattvas filled with pity
+and love desire to suffer themselves for the sake of those miserable
+beings.
+
+“But they are well acquainted with the truth that all those diverse
+sufferings causing diverse states of misery are in one sense
+apparitional and unreal, while in another sense they are not so. They
+know also that those who have an intellectual insight into the
+emptiness (_çûnyatâ_) of all existences, thoroughly understand why
+those rewards of karma are brought forth in such and such ways
+[through ignorance and infatuation].
+
+“Therefore, all Bodhisattvas, in order to emancipate sentient beings
+from misery, are inspired with great spiritual energy and mingle
+themselves in the filth of birth and death. Though thus they make
+themselves {294} subject to the laws of birth and death, their hearts
+are free from sins and attachments. They are like unto those
+immaculate, undefiled lotus-flowers which grow out of mire, yet are
+not contaminated by it.
+
+“Their great hearts of sympathy which constitute the essence of their
+being never leave suffering creatures behind [in their journey towards
+enlightenment]. Their spiritual insight is in the emptiness
+(_çûnyatâ_) of things, but [their work of salvation] is never outside
+the world of sins and sufferings.”
+
+
+ _The Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta._
+
+What is the meaning of the word “Bodhisattva”? It is a Sanskrit term
+consisting of two words, “Bodhi,” and “sattva.” _Bodhi_ which comes
+from the root _budh_ meaning “to wake,” is generally rendered
+“knowledge” or “intelligence.” _Sattva_ (_sat-tva_) literally means
+“state of being”; thus “existence,” “creature,” or “that which is,”
+being its English equivalent. “Bodhisattva” as one word means “a being
+of intelligence,” or “a being whose essence is intelligence.” Why the
+Mahâyânists came to adopt this word in contradistinction to Çrâvaka is
+easily understood, when we see what special significance they attached
+to the conception of Bodhi in their philosophy. When Bodhi was used by
+the Çrâvakas in the simple sense of knowledge, it did not bear any
+particular import. But as soon as it came to express some metaphysical
+relation to the conception of Dharmakâya, it ceased to be used in its
+generally accepted sense.
+
+{295}
+
+Bodhi, according to the Mahâyânists, is an expression of the
+Dharmakâya in the human consciousness. Philosophically speaking,
+Suchness or Bhûtatathâtâ is an ontological term, and Dharmakâya or
+Tathâgata or Buddha bears a religious significance; while all these
+three, Bodhi, Bhûtatathâtâ, and Dharmakâya, and their synonyms are
+nothing but different aspects of one and the same reality refracting
+through the several defective lenses of a finite intellect.
+
+Bodhi, though essentially an epistemological term, assumes a
+psychological sense when it is used in conjunction with citta, i.e.
+heart or soul. Bodhicitta, or Bodhihṛdaya which means the same thing,
+is more generally used than Bodhi singly in the Mahâyâna texts,
+especially when its religious import is emphasised above its
+intellectual one. Bodhicitta, viz. intelligence-heart is a reflex in
+the human heart of its religious archetype, the Dharmakâya.
+
+Bodhicitta when further amplified is called
+anuttara-samyak-sambodhicitta, that is, “intelligence-heart that is
+supreme and most perfect.”
+
+It will be easily understood now that what constitutes the essence of
+the Bodhicitta is the very same thing that makes up the Dharmakâya.
+For the former is nothing but an expression of the latter, though
+finitely, fragmentarily, imperfectly realised in us. The citta is an
+image and the Dharmakâya the prototype, yet one is just as real as
+the other, only the two must not be conceived dualistically. There is
+a Dharmakâya, there is a human heart, and the former reflects itself
+{296} in the latter much after the fashion of the lunar reflection in
+the water:--to think in this wise is not perfectly correct; because
+the fundamental teaching of Buddhism is to view all these three
+conceptions, the Dharmakâya, human heart, and the reflections of the
+former in the latter, as different forms of one and the same activity.
+
+
+ _Love and Karunâ._
+
+The Bodhicitta or Intelligence-heart, therefore, like the Dharmakâya
+is essentially love and intelligence, or, to use Sanskrit terms,
+_karunâ_ and _prajñâ_. Here some may object to the use of the term
+“love” for karunâ, perhaps on the ground that karunâ does not exactly
+correspond to the Christian notion of love, as it savors more of the
+sense of commiseration. But if we understand by love a sacrifice of
+the self for the sake of others (and it cannot be more than that),
+then karunâ can correctly be rendered love, even in the Christian
+sense. Is not the Bodhisattva willing to abandon his own Nirvanic
+peace for the interests of suffering creatures? Is he not willing to
+dedicate the karma of his meritorious deeds performed in his
+successive existences to the general welfare of his fellow-beings? Is
+not his one fundamental motive that governs all his activities in life
+directed towards a universal emancipation of all sentient beings? Is
+he not perfectly willing to forsake all the thoughts and passions that
+arise from egoism and to embrace the will of the Dharmakâya? If this
+be the case, then there is {297} no reason why karunâ should not
+be rendered by love.
+
+Christians say that without love we are become sounding brass or a
+tinkling cymbal; and Buddhists would declare that without karunâ we
+are like unto a dead vine hanging over a frozen boulder, or like unto
+the cold ashes left after a blazing fire.
+
+Some may say, however, that the Buddhist sympathy or commiseration
+somewhat betrays a sense of passive contemplation on evils. When
+Christians say that God loves his creatures, the love implies activity
+and shows God’s willingness to do whatever for the actual benefits of
+his subject-beings. Quite true. Yet when the Buddha is stated to have
+declared that all sentient beings in the triple world are his own
+children or that he will not enter into his final Nirvana unless all
+beings in the three thousand great chiliocosms, not a single soul
+excepted, are emancipated from the misery of birth and death, his
+self-sacrificing love must be considered to be all-comprehensive and
+at the same time full of energy and activity. Whatever objections
+there may be, we do not see any sufficient reason against speaking of
+the love-essence of the Dharmakâya and the Bodhicitta.
+
+
+ _Nâgârjuna and Sthiramati on the Bodhicitta._
+
+Says Nâgârjuna in his _Discourse on the Transcendentality of the
+Bodhicitta_: “The Bodhicitta is free from all determinations, that is,
+it is not included in the categories of the five skandhas, the twelve
+âyatanas, and the eighteen dhâtus. It is not a particular {298}
+existence which is palpable. It is non-atmanic, universal. It is
+uncreated and its self-essence is void [_çûnya_, immaterial, or
+transcendental].
+
+“One who understands the nature of the Bodhicitta sees everything with
+a loving heart, for love is the essence of the Bodhicitta.
+
+“The Bodhicitta is the highest essence.
+
+“Therefore, all Bodhisattvas find their raison d’être of existence in
+this great loving heart.
+
+“The Bodhicitta, abiding in the heart of sameness (_samatâ_) creates
+individual means of salvation (_upaya_).[125] {299} One who
+understands this heart becomes emancipated from the dualistic view of
+birth and death and performs such acts as are beneficial both to
+oneself and to others.”
+
+Sthiramati advocates in his _Discourse on the
+Mahâyâna-Dharmadhâtu_[126] the same view as Nâgârjuna’s on the
+nature of the Bodhicitta, which I summarise here: “Nirvâna, Dharmakâya,
+Tathâgata, Tathâgata-garbha, Paramârtha, Buddha, Bodhicitta, or
+Bhûtatathâtâ,--all these terms signify merely so many different
+aspects of one and the same reality; and Bodhicitta is the name given
+to a form of the Dharmakâya or Bhûtatathâtâ as it manifests itself in
+the human heart, and its perfection, or negatively its liberation from
+all egoistic impurities, constitutes the state of Nirvana.”
+
+Being a reflex of the Dharmakâya, the Bodhicitta is practically the
+same as the original in all its characteristics; so continues
+Sthiramati: “It is free from compulsive activities; it has no
+beginning, it has no end; it cannot be defiled by impurities, it
+cannot be obscured by egoistic individualistic prejudices; it is
+incorporeal, it is the spiritual essence of Buddhas, {300} it is the
+source of all virtues earthly as well as transcendental; it is
+constantly becoming, yet its original purity is never lost.
+
+“It may be likened unto the ever-shining sunlight which may
+temporarily be hidden behind the clouds. All the modes of passion and
+sin arising from egoism may sometimes darken the light of the
+Bodhicitta, but the Citta itself forever remains free from these
+external impurities. It may again be likened unto all-comprehending
+space which remains eternally identical, whatever happenings and
+changes may occur in things enveloped therein. When the Bodhicitta
+manifests itself in a relative world, it looks as if being subject to
+constant becoming, but in reality it transcends all determinations, it
+is above the reach of birth and death (_samsâra_).
+
+“So long as it remains buried under innumerable sins arising from
+ignorance and egoism, it is productive of no earthly or heavenly
+benefit. Like the lotus-flower whose petals are yet unfolded, like the
+gold that is deeply entombed under the débris of dung and dirt, or
+like the light of the full moon eclipsed by Açura; the Bodhicitta,
+when blindfolded by the clouds of passion, avarice, ignorance, and
+folly, does not reveal its intrinsic spiritual worth.
+
+“Destroy at once with your might and main all those entanglements;
+then like the full-bloomed lotus-flower, like genuine gold purified
+from dirt and dust, like the moon in a cloudless sky, like the sun in
+its full glory, like mother earth producing all kinds of {301}
+cereals, like the ocean containing innumerable treasures, the eternal
+bliss of the Bodhicitta will be upon all sentient beings. All sentient
+beings are then emancipated from the misery of ignorance and folly,
+their hearts are filled with love and sympathy and free from the
+clinging to things worthless.
+
+“However defiled and obscured the Bodhicitta may find itself in
+profane hearts, it is essentially the same as that in all Buddhas.
+Therefore, says the Muni of Çakya: ‘O Çâriputra, the world of sentient
+beings is not different from the Dharmakâya; the Dharmakâya is not
+different from the world of sentient beings. What constitutes the
+Dharmakâya is the world of sentient beings; and what constitutes the
+world of sentient beings is the Dharmakâya.’
+
+“As far as the Dharmakâya or the Bodhicitta is concerned, there is no
+radical distinction to be made between profane hearts and the Buddha’s
+heart; yet when observed from the human standpoint [that is, from the
+phenomenal side of existence] the following general classification can
+be made:
+
+“(1) The heart hopelessly distorted by numberless egoistic sins and
+condemned to an eternal transmigration of birth and death which began
+in the timeless past, is said to be in the state of profanity.
+
+“(2) The heart that, loathing the misery of wandering in birth and
+death and taking leave of all sinful and depraved conditions, seeks
+the Bodhi in the ten virtues of perfection (_pâramitâ_) and 84,000
+Buddha-dharmas and disciplines itself in all meritorious deeds, {302}
+is said to be the [spiritual] state of a Bodhisattva.
+
+“(3) The state in which the heart is emancipated from the obscuration
+of all passions, has distanced all sufferings, has eternally effaced
+the stain of all sins and corruptions, is pure, purer, and purest,
+abides in the essence of Dharma, has reached the height from which the
+states of all sentient beings are surveyed, has attained the
+consummation of all knowledges, has realised the highest type of
+manhood, has gained the power of spiritual spontaneity which frees one
+from attachment and hesitation,--this spiritual state is that of the
+fully, perfectly, enlightened Tathâgata”.
+
+
+ _The Awakening of the Bodhicitta._
+
+The Bodhicitta is present in the hearts of all sentient beings. Only
+in Buddhas it is fully awakened and active with its immaculate
+virility, while in ordinary mortals it is dormant and miserably
+crippled by its unenlightened intercourse with the world of
+sensuality. One of the most favorite parables told by the Mahâyânists
+to illustrate this point is to compare the Bodhicitta to the moonlight
+in the heavens. When the moon shines with her silvery light in the
+clear, cloudless skies, she is reflected in every drop and in every
+mass of water on the earth. The crystal dews on the quivering leaves
+reflect her like so many pearls hung on the branches. Every little
+water-pool, probably formed temporarily by heavy showers in the
+daytime, reflects her like so many stars descended {303} on earth.
+Perhaps some of the pools are muddy and others even filthy, but the
+moonlight does not refuse to reflect her immaculate image in them. The
+image is just as perfect there as in a clear, undisturbed, transparent
+lake, where cows quench their thirst and swans bathe their taintless
+feathers. Wherever there is the least trace of water, there is seen a
+heavenly image of the goddess of night. Even so with the Bodhicitta:
+where there exists a little warmth of the heart, there it unfailingly
+glorifies itself in its best as circumstances permit.
+
+Now, the question is: How should this dormant Bodhicitta in our hearts
+be awakened to its full sense? This is answered more or less
+definitely in almost all the Mahâyâna writings, and we may here
+recite the words of Vasubandhu from his _Discourse on the Awakening of
+the Bodhicitta_,[127] for they give us a somewhat systematic
+statement of those conditions which tend to awaken the Bodhicitta from
+its lethargic inactivity. (Chap. II.)
+
+The Bodhicitta or Intelligence-heart is awakened in us (1) by thinking
+of the Buddhas, (2) by reflecting on the faults of material existence,
+(3) by observing the deplorable state in which sentient beings are
+living, and finally (4) by aspiring after those virtues which are
+acquired by a Tathâgata in the highest enlightenment.
+
+{304}
+
+To describe these conditions more definitely:
+
+(1) _By thinking of the Buddhas._ “All Buddhas in the ten quarters, of
+the past, of the future, and of the present, when first started on
+their way to enlightenment, were not quite free from passions and sins
+(_kleça_) any more than we are at present; but they finally succeeded
+in attaining the highest enlightenment and became the noblest beings.
+
+“All the Buddhas, by strength of their inflexible spiritual energy,
+were capable of attaining perfect enlightenment. If enlightenment is
+attainable at all, why should we not attain it?
+
+“All the Buddhas, erecting high the torch of wisdom through the
+darkness of ignorance and keeping awake an excellent heart, submitted
+themselves to penance and mortification, and finally emancipated
+themselves from the bondage of the triple world. Following their
+steps, we, too, could emancipate ourselves.
+
+“All the Buddhas, the noblest type of mankind, successfully crossed
+the great ocean of birth and death and of passions and sins; why,
+then, we, being creatures of intelligence, could also cross the sea of
+transmigration.
+
+“All the Buddhas manifesting great spiritual power sacrificed the
+possessions, body, and life, for the attainment of omniscience
+(_sarvajñâ_); and we, too, could follow their noble examples.”
+
+(2) _The faults of the material existence._ “This our bodily existence
+consisting of the five skandhas and the four mahats (elements) is a
+perpetuator of innumerable {305} evil deeds; and therefore it should
+be cast aside. This our bodily existence constantly secretes from its
+nine orifices filths and impurities which are truly loathsome; and
+therefore it should be cast aside. This our bodily existence,
+harboring within itself anger, avarice, and infatuation, and other
+innumerable evil passions, consumes a good heart; and therefore it
+should be destroyed. This our bodily existence is like a bubble, like
+a spatter, and is decaying every minute. It is an undesirable
+possession and should be abandoned. This our bodily existence engulfed
+in ignorance is creating evil karma all the time, which throws us into
+the whirlpool of transmigration through the six gatis.”
+
+(3) _The miserable conditions of sentient beings which arouse the
+sympathy of the Bodhisattvas._ “All sentient beings are under the
+bondage of ignorance. Spell-bound by folly and infatuation, they are
+suffering the severest pain. Not believing in the law of karma, they
+are accumulating evils; going astray from the path of righteousness,
+they are following false doctrines; sinking deeper in the whirlpool of
+passions, they are being drowned in the four waters of sin.
+
+“They are being tortured with all sorts of pain. They are needlessly
+haunted by the fear of birth and death and old age, and do not seek
+the path of emancipation. Mortified with grief, anxiety, tribulation,
+they do not refrain from committing further foul deeds. Clinging to
+their beloved ones and being always afraid of separation, they do not
+understand that there {306} is no individual reality, that individual
+existences are not worth clinging to. Trying to shun enmity, hatred,
+pain, they cherish more hatred.”........
+
+(4) _The virtues of the Tathâgata._ “All the Tathâgatas, by virtue
+of their discipline, have acquired a noble, dignified mien which
+aspires every beholder with the thought that dispels pain and woe. The
+Dharmakâya of all the Tathâgatas is immortal and pure and free from
+evil attachments. All the Tathâgatas are possessed of moral
+discipline, tranquillity, intelligence, and emancipation. They are not
+hampered by intellectual prejudices and have become the sanctuary of
+immaculate virtues. They have the ten bâlas (powers), four abhayas
+(fearlessness), great compassion, and the three smṛtyupasthânas
+(contemplations). They are omniscient, and their love for suffering
+beings knows no bounds and brings all creatures back to the path of
+righteousness, who have gone astray on account of ignorance.”
+
+ * * *
+
+In short, the Intelligence-heart or Bodhicitta is awakened in us
+either when love for suffering creatures (which is innate in us) is
+called forth, or when our intellect aspires after the highest
+enlightenment, or when these two psychical activities are set astir
+under some favorable circumstances. As the Bodhicitta is a
+manifestation of the Dharmakâya in our limited conscious mind, it
+constantly longs for a unification with {307} its archetype, in spite
+of the curse of ignorance heavily weighing upon it. When this
+unification is not effected for any reason, the heart (_citta_) shows
+its dissatisfaction in some way or other. The dissatisfaction may take
+sometimes a morbid course, and may result in pessimism, or misanthropy,
+or suicide, or asceticism, or some other kindred eccentric practices.
+But if properly guided and naturally developed, the more intense the
+dissatisfaction, the more energetic will be the spiritual activity of
+a Bodhisattva.
+
+
+ _The Bodhisattva’s Pranidhâna._
+
+Having awakened his Bodhicitta from its unconscious slumber, a
+Bodhisattva will now proceed to make his vows.
+
+Let me remark here, however, that “vow” is not a very appropriate term
+to express the meaning of the Sanskrit _pranidhâna_. Pranidhâna is a
+strong wish, aspiration, prayer, or an inflexible determination to
+carry out one’s will even through an infinite series of rebirths.
+Buddhists have such a supreme belief in the power of will or spirit
+that, whatever material limitations, the will is sure to triumph over
+them and gain its final aim. So, every Bodhisattva is considered to
+have his own particular pranidhânas in order to perform his share in
+the work of universal salvation. His corporeal shadow may vanish as
+its karma is exhausted, but his pranidhâna survives and takes on a
+new garment, which procedure being necessary to {308} keep it ever
+effective. All that is needed for a Bodhisattva to do this is to make
+himself a perfect incarnation of his own aspirations, putting
+everything external and foreign under their controlling spiritual
+power. Buddhists are so thoroughly idealistic and their faith in ideas
+and ideals is so unshakable that they firmly believe that whatever
+they aspire to will come out finally as real fact; and, therefore, the
+more intense and permanent and born of the inmost needs of humanity,
+the more certain are our yearnings to be satisfied. (This belief, by
+the way, will help to explain the popular belief among the Buddhists
+that any strong passion possessed by a man will survive him and take a
+form, animate or inanimate, which will best achieve its end.)
+
+According to Vasubandhu whom we have quoted several times, the
+Bodhisattvas generally are supposed to make the following ten
+pranidhânas, which naturally spring from a great loving heart now
+awakened in them:[128]
+
+(1) “Would that all the merits I have accumulated in the past as well
+as in the present be distributed among all sentient beings and make
+them all aspire after supreme knowledge, and also that this my
+pranidhâna be constantly growing in strength and sustain me
+throughout my rebirths.
+
+(2) “Would that, through the merits of my work, {309} I may, wherever
+I am born, come in the presence of all Buddhas and pay them homage.
+
+(3) “Would that I be allowed all the time to be near Buddhas like
+shadow following object, and never to be away from them.
+
+(4) “Would that all Buddhas instruct me in religious truths as best
+suited to my intelligence and let me finally attain the five spiritual
+powers of the Bodhisattva.
+
+(5) “Would that I be thoroughly conversant with scientific knowledge
+as well as the first principle of religion and gain an insight into
+the truth of the Good Law.
+
+(6) “Would that I be able to preach untiringly the truth to all
+beings, and gladden them, and benefit them, and make them intelligent.
+
+(7) “Would that, through the divine power of the Buddha, I be allowed
+to travel all over the ten quarters of the world, pay respect to all
+the Buddhas, listen to their instructions in the Doctrine, and
+universally benefit all sentient beings.
+
+(8) “Would that, by causing the wheel of immaculate Dharma to revolve,
+all sentient beings in the ten quarters of the universe who may listen
+to my teachings or hear my name, be freed from all passions and awaken
+in them the Bodhicitta.
+
+(9) “Would that I all the time accompany and protect all sentient
+beings and remove for them things which are not beneficial to them and
+give them innumerable blessings, and also that through the sacrifice
+{310} of my body, life, and possessions I embrace all creatures and
+thereby practise the Right Doctrine.
+
+(10) “Would that, though practising the Doctrine in person, my heart
+be free from the consciousness of compulsion and unnaturalness, as all
+the Bodhisattvas practise the Doctrine in such a way as not practising
+it yet leaving nothing unpractised; for they have made their
+pranidhânas for the sake of all sentient beings.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+ TEN STAGES OF BODHISATTVAHOOD.
+
+{311}
+
+
+ _Gradation in our Spiritual Life._
+
+/Theoretically/ speaking, as we have seen above, the Bodhi or
+Bodhicitta is in every sentient being, and in this sense he is a
+Bodhisattva. In profane hearts it may be found enveloped in ignorance
+and egoism, but it can never be altogether annulled. For the Bodhi,
+when viewed from its absolute aspect, transcends the realm of birth
+and death (_samsâra_), is beyond the world of toil and trouble and is
+not subject to any form of defilement. But when it assumes a relative
+existence and is only partially manifested under the cover of
+ignorance, there appear various stages of actualisation or of
+perfection. In some beings it may attain a more meaningful expression
+than in others, while there may be even those who apparently fail on
+account of their accursed karma to show the evidence of its presence.
+This latter class is usually called “Icchantika,” that is, people who
+are completely overwhelmed by the passions. They are morally and
+religiously a mere corpse which even a great spiritual physician finds
+it almost impossible to resuscitate. But, philosophically considered,
+the glory of the Bodhi must be admitted {312} to be shining even in
+these dark, ignorant souls. Such souls, perhaps, will have to go round
+many a cycle of transmigration, before their karma loses its poignancy
+and becomes susceptible to a moral influence with which they may come
+in contact.
+
+This accursed force of karma is not the same in all beings, it admits
+of all possible degrees of strength, and causes some to suffer more
+intensely than others. But there is no human heart or soul that is
+absolutely free from the shackle of karma and ignorance, because this
+very existence of a phenomenal world is a product of ignorance, though
+this fact does not prove that this life is evil. The only heart that
+transcends the influence of karma and ignorance and is all-purity,
+all-love, and all-intelligence, is the Dharmakâya or the absolute
+Bodhi itself. The life of a Bodhisattva and indeed the end of our
+religious aspiration is to unfold, realise, and identify ourselves
+with the love and intelligence of that ideal and yet real Dharmakâya.
+
+The awakening of the Bodhicitta (or intelligence-heart) marks the
+first step towards the highest good of human life. This awakening must
+pass through several stages of religious discipline before it attains
+perfection. These stages are generally estimated by the Mahâyânists
+at ten. They appear, however, to our modern sceptical minds to be of
+no significant consequence, nor can we detect any very practical and
+well-defined distinction between successive stages. We fail to
+understand what religious necessity impelled the Hindu Buddhists to
+establish such apparently unimportant {313} stages one after another
+in our religious life. We can see, however, that the first awakening
+of the Bodhicitta does not transform us all at once to Buddhahood; we
+have yet to overcome with strenuous efforts the baneful influence of
+karma and ignorance which asserts itself too readily in our practical
+life. But the marking of stages as in the gradation of the Daçabhûmî
+in our spiritual progress seems to be altogether too artificial.
+Nevertheless I here take pains as an historical survey to enumerate
+the ten stages and to give some features supposed to be most
+characteristic of each Bhûmî (stage) as expounded in the _Avatamsaka
+Sutra_. Probably they will help us to understand what moral
+conceptions and what religious aspirations were working in the
+establishment of the doctrine of Daçabhûmî, for it elaborately
+describes what was considered by the Mahâyânists to be the essential
+constituents of Bodhisattvahood, and also shows what spiritual routine
+a Buddhist was expected to pursue.
+
+The ten stages are: (1) Pramuditâ, (2) Vimalâ, (3) Prabhâkarî, (4)
+Arcismatî, (5) Sudurjayâ, (6) Abhimukhî, (7) Dûrangamâ, (8) Acalâ, (9)
+Sâdhumatî, (10) Dharmameghâ.
+
+
+ (1) _The Pramuditâ._
+
+Pramuditâ means “delight” or “joy” and marks the first stage of
+Bodhisattvahood, at which the Buddhists emerge from a cold,
+self-sufficing, and almost nihilistic contemplation of Nirvâna as
+fostered by the Çrâvakas {314} and Pratyekabuddhas. This spiritual
+emergence and emancipation is psychologically accompanied by an
+intense feeling of joy, as that which is experienced by a person when
+he unexpectedly recognises the most familiar face in a faraway land of
+strangers. For this reason the first stage is called “joy.”
+
+Even in the midst of perfect tranquillity of Nirvâna in which all
+passions are alleged to have died away as declared by ascetics or
+solitary philosophers, the inmost voice in the heart of the
+Bodhisattva moans in a sort of dissatisfaction or uneasiness, which,
+though undefined and seemingly of no significance, yet refuses to be
+eternally buried in the silent grave of annihilation. He vainly gropes
+in the darkness; he vainly seeks consolation in the samâdhi of
+non-resistance or non-activity; he vainly finds eternal peace in the
+gospel of self-negation; his soul is still troubled, not exactly
+knowing the reason why. But as soon as the Bodhicitta
+(intelligence-heart) is awakened from its somnolence, as soon as the
+warmth of love (_mahâkarunâ_) penetrates into the coldest cell of
+asceticism, as soon as the light of supreme enlightenment
+(_mahâprajñâ_) dawns upon the darkest recesses of ignorance, the
+Bodhisattva sees at once that the world is not made for self-seclusion
+nor for self-negation, that the Dharmakâya is the source of “universal
+effulgence,” that Nirvâna if relatively viewed in contrast to
+birth-and-death is nothing but sham and just as unreal as any worldly
+existence; and these insights finally lead him to feel that he cannot
+rest quiet until all sentient beings are {315} emancipated from the
+snarl of ignorance and elevated to the same position as now occupied
+by himself.
+
+
+ (2) _The Vimalâ._
+
+Vimalâ means “freedom from defilement,” or, affirmatively, “purity.”
+When the Bodhisattva attains, through the spiritual insight gained at
+the first stage, to rectitude and purity of heart, he reaches the
+second stage. His heart is now thoroughly spotless, it is filled with
+tenderness, he fosters no anger, no malice. He is free from all the
+thoughts of killing any animate beings. Being contented with what
+belongs to himself, he casts no covetous eyes on things not his own.
+Faithful to his own betrothed, he does not harbor any evil thoughts on
+others. His words are always true, faithful, kind, and considerate. He
+likes truth, honesty, and never flatters.
+
+
+ (3) _The Prabhâkarî._
+
+Prabhâkarî means “brightness,” that is, of the intellect. This
+predominantly characterises the spiritual condition of the Bodhisattva
+at this stage. Here he gains the most penetrating insight into the
+nature of things. He recognises that all things that are created are
+not permanent, are conducive to misery, have no abiding selfhood
+(_âtman_), are destitute of purity, and subject to final decay. He
+recognises also that the real nature of things, however, is neither
+created nor subject to destruction, it is eternally abiding in the
+selfsame essence, and transcends the limits of time {316} and space.
+Ignorant beings not seeing this truth are always worrying over things
+transient and worthless, and constantly consuming their spiritual
+energy with the fire of avarice, anger, and infatuation, which in turn
+accumulates for their future existences the ashes of misery and
+suffering. This wretched condition of sentient beings further
+stimulates the loving heart of the Bodhisattva to seek the highest
+intelligence of Buddha, which, giving him great spiritual energy,
+enables him to prosecute the gigantic task of universal emancipation.
+His desire for the Buddha-intelligence and his faith in it are of such
+immense strength that he would not falter even for a moment, if he is
+only assured of the attainment of the priceless treasure, to plunge
+himself into the smeltering fire of a volcano.
+
+
+ (4) _The Arciṣmatî._
+
+Arciṣmatî, meaning “inflammation,” is the name given to the fourth
+stage, at which the Bodhisattva consumes all the sediments of
+ignorance and evil passions in the fiery crucible of the purifying
+Bodhi. He practises here most strenuously the thirty-seven virtues
+called Bodhipâkṣikas which are conducive to the perfection of the
+Bodhi. These virtues consist of seven categories:
+
+(I) Four Contemplations (_smṛtyusthâna_): 1. On the impurity of the
+body; 2. On the evils of sensuality; 3. On the evanescence of the
+worldly interests; 4. On the non-existence of âtman in things
+composite.
+
+(II) Four Righteous Efforts (_samyakprahâna_): 1. To {317} prevent
+evils from arising; 2. To suppress evils already existing; 3. To
+produce good not yet in existence; 4. To preserve good already in
+existence.
+
+(III) Four Forces of the Will (_ṛddhipâda_): 1. The determination
+to accomplish what is willed; 2. The energy to concentrate the mind on
+the object in view; 3. The power of retaining the object in memory; 4.
+The intelligence that perceives the way to Nirvâna.
+
+(IV) Five Powers (_indrya_), from which all moral good is produced: 1.
+Faith; 2. Energy; 3. Circumspection; 4. Equilibrium, or tranquillity
+of mind; 5 Intelligence.
+
+(V) Five Functions (_bala_): Same as the above.[129]
+
+(VI) Seven Constituents of the Bodhi (_bodhyanga_): 1. The retentive
+power; 2. Discrimination; 3. Energy; 4. Contentment; 5. Modesty; 6.
+The balanced mind; 7. Large-heartedness.
+
+(VII) The Eightfold Noble Path (_âryamârga_): 1. Right view; 2. Right
+resolve; 3. Right speech; 4. Right conduct; 5. Right livelihood; 6.
+Right recollection; 8. Right tranquilisation, or contemplation.
+
+{318}
+
+
+ (5) _The Sudurjayâ._
+
+Sudurjayâ means “very difficult to conquer.” The Bodhisattva reaches
+this stage when he, completely armed with the thirty-seven
+Bodhipâkṣikas and guided by the beacon-light of Bodhi, undauntedly
+breaks through the column of evil passions. Provided with the two
+spiritual provisions, love and wisdom, and being benefitted by the
+spirits of all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future, the
+Bodhisattva has developed an intellectual power to penetrate deep into
+the system of existence. He perceives the Fourfold Noble Truth in its
+true light; he perceives the highest reality in the Tathâgata; he
+also perceives that the highest reality, though absolutely one in its
+essence, manifests itself in a world of particulars, that relative
+knowledge (_samvrtti_) and absolute knowledge (_paramârtha_) are two
+aspects of one and the same truth, that when subjectivity is disturbed
+there appears particularity, and that when it is not disturbed there
+shines only the eternal light of Tathâgatajñâ (Tathâgata-knowledge).
+
+
+ (6) _The Abhimukhî._
+
+Abhimukhî means “showing one’s face,” that is, the presentation of
+intelligence (_prajñâ_) before the Bodhisattva at this stage.
+
+The Bodhisattva enters upon this stage by reflecting on the essence of
+all dharmas which are throughout of one nature. When he perceives the
+truth, his heart is filled with great love, he serenely contemplates
+on {319} the life of ignorant beings who are constantly going astray
+yielding themselves to evil temptations, clinging to the false
+conception of egoism, and thus making themselves the prey of eternal
+damnation. He then proceeds to contemplate the development of evils
+generally. There is ignorance, there is karma; and in this fertile
+soil of blind activity the seeds of consciousness are sown; the
+moisture of desire thoroughly soaks them, to which the water of egoism
+or individuation is poured on. The bed for all forms of particularity
+is well prepared, and the buds of nâmarûpas (name-and-form) most
+vigorously thrive here. From these we have the flowers of sense-organs,
+and which come in contact with other existences and produce
+impressions, feel agreeable sensations, and tenaciously cling to them.
+From this clinging or the will to live as the principle of
+individuation or as the principle of bhâva as is called in the Twelve
+Nidânas, another body consisting of the five skandhas comes into
+existence, and, passing through all the phases of transformation,
+dissolves and disappears. All sentient beings are thus kept in a
+perpetual oscillation of combination and separation, of pleasure and
+pain, birth and death. But the insight of the Bodhisattva has gone
+deeply into the inmost essence of things, which forever remains the
+same and in which there is no production and dissolution.
+
+
+ (7) _The Dûrangamâ._
+
+Dûrangamâ means “going far away.” The Bodhisattva enters upon this
+stage by attaining the so-called {320} Upâyajñâ, i.e. the knowledge
+that enables him to produce any means or expediency suitable for his
+work of salvation. He himself abides in the principles of _çûnyatâ_
+(transcendentality), _animitta_ (non-individuality), and _apranihita_
+(desirelessness), but his lovingkindness keeps him busily engaged
+among sentient beings. He knows that Buddhas are not creatures
+radically and essentially different from himself, but he does not stop
+tendering them due homage. He is always contemplating on the nature of
+the Absolute, but he does not abandon the practice of accumulating
+merits. He is no more encumbered with worldly thoughts, yet he does
+not disdain managing secular affairs. He keeps himself perfectly aloof
+from the consuming fire of passion, but he plans all possible means
+for the sake of sentient beings to quench the enraging flames of
+avarice (_lobha_), anger (_dveṣa_), and infatuation (_moha_). He
+knows that all individual existences are like dream, mirage, or the
+reflection of the moon in the water, but he works and toils in the
+world of particulars and submits himself to the domination of karma.
+He is well aware of the transcendental nature of Pure Land
+(_sukhâvatî_), but he describes it with material colors for the sake
+of unenlightened masses. He knows that the Dharmakâya of all the
+Buddhas is not a material existence, but he does not refuse to dignify
+himself with the thirty-two major and eighty minor excellent features
+of a great man or god (_mahâpuruṣa_). He knows that the language of
+all the Buddhas does not fall within the ken of human comprehension,
+but {321} he endeavors with all contrivances (_upâya_) to make it
+intelligible enough to the understanding of people. He knows that all
+the Buddhas perceive the past, present, and future in the twinkling of
+an eye, but he adapts himself to divers conditions of the material
+world and endeavors to help sentient beings to understand the
+significance of the Bodhi according to their destinies and
+dispositions. In short, the Bodhisattva himself lives on a higher
+plane of spirituality far removed from the defilements of worldliness;
+but he does not withdraw himself to this serene, unmolested
+subjectivity; he boldly sets out in the world of particulars and
+senses; and, placing himself on the level of ignorant beings, he works
+like them, he toils like them, and suffers like them; and he never
+fails all these times to practise the gospel of lovingkindness and to
+turn over (_parivarta_) all his merits towards the emancipation and
+spiritual edification of the masses, that is, he never gets tired of
+practising the ten virtues of perfection (_pâramitâ_).
+
+That is to say, (1) the Bodhisattva practises the virtue of charity
+(_dâna_) by freely giving away to all sentient creatures all the
+merits that he has acquired by following the path of Buddhas. (2) He
+practises the virtue of good conduct (_çîla_) by destroying all the
+evil passions that disturb serenity of mind. (3) He practises the
+virtue of patience (_kṣânti_), for he never gets irritated or excited
+over what is done to him by ignorant beings. (4) He practises the
+virtue of strenuousness (_vriya_), for he never gets tired of {322}
+accumulating merits and of promoting good-will among his
+fellow-creatures. (5) He practises the virtue of calmness (_dhyâna_),
+for his mind is never distracted in steadily pursuing his way to
+supreme knowledge. (6) He practises the virtue of intelligence
+(_prajñâ_), for he always restrains his thoughts from wandering away
+from the path of absolute truth. (7) He practises the virtue of
+tactfulness (_upâya_), for he has an inexhaustible mine of
+expediencies ready at his command for the work of universal salvation.
+(8) He practises the virtue of will-to-do (_pranidhâna_) by
+determinedly following the dictates of the highest intelligence. (9)
+He practises the virtue of strength (_bala_), for no evil influences,
+no heretical thoughts can ever frustrate or slacken his efforts for
+the general welfare of people. (10) Finally, he practises the virtue
+of knowledge, (_jñâna_), by truthfully comprehending and expounding
+the ultimate nature of beings.
+
+
+ (8) _The Acalâ._
+
+Acalâ, “immovable,” is the name for the eighth stage of
+Bodhisattvahood. When a Bodhisattva, transcending all forms of
+discursive or deliberate knowledge, acquires the highest, perfect
+knowledge called _anutpattikadharmakṣânti_, he is said to have gone
+beyond the seventh stage. Anutpattikadharmakṣânti literally means
+“not-created-being-forbearance”; and the Buddhists use the term in the
+sense of keeping one’s thoughts in conformity to the views that
+nothing in this world {323} has ever been created, that things are
+such as they are, i.e. they are Suchness itself. This knowledge is
+also called non-conscious or non-deliberate knowledge in
+contradistinction to relative knowledge that constitutes all our
+logical and demonstrative knowledge. Strictly speaking, this so-called
+knowledge is not knowledge in its ordinary signification, it is a sort
+of unconscious or subconscious intelligence, or immediate knowledge as
+some call it, in which not only willing and acting, but also knowing
+and willing are one single, undivided exhibition of activity, all
+logical or natural transition from one to the other being altogether
+absent. Here indeed knowledge is will and will is action; “Let there
+be light,” and there is light, and the light is good; it is the state
+of a divine mind.
+
+At this stage of perfection, the Bodhisattva’s spiritual condition is
+compared to that of a person who, attempting when in a dreamy state to
+cross deep waters, musters all his energy, plans all schemes, and,
+while at last at the point of starting on the journey, suddenly wakes
+up and finds all his elaborate preparations to no purpose. The
+Bodhisattva hitherto showed untiring spiritual efforts to attain the
+highest knowledge, steadily practised all virtues tending to the
+acquirement of Nirvâna, and heroically endeavored to exterminate all
+evil passions, and at the culmination of all these exercises, he
+enters all of a sudden upon the stage of Acalâ and finds the previous
+elaboration mysteriously vanished from his conscious mind. He
+cherishes {324} now no desire for Buddhahood, Nirvâna, or Bodhicitta,
+much less after worldliness, egoism, or the satisfaction of evil
+passions. The conscious striving that distinguished all his former
+course has now given way to a state of spontaneous activity, of
+saintly innocence, and of divine playfulness. He wills and it is done.
+He aspires and it is actualised. He is nature herself, for there is no
+trace in his activity that betrays any artificial lucubration, any
+voluntary or compulsory restraint. This state of perfect ideal freedom
+may be called esthetical, which characterises the work of a genius.
+There is here no trace of consciously following some prescribed laws,
+no pains of elaborately conforming to the formula. To put this
+poetically, the inner life of the Bodhisattva at this stage is like
+the lilies of the field whose glory is greater than that of Solomon in
+all his human magnificence.
+
+Kant’s remarks on this point are very suggestive, and I will quote the
+following from his _Kritik der Urteilskraft_ (Reclam edition, p. 173):
+
+“Also muss die Zweckmässigkeit im Produkte der schönen Kunst, ob sie
+zwar absichtlich ist, doch nicht absichtlich scheinen: d.i., schöne
+Kunst muss als Natur anzusehen sein, ob man sich ihrer zwar als Kunst
+bewusst ist. Als Natur aber erscheint ein Produkt der Kunst dadurch,
+dass zwar alle Pünktlichkeit in der Uebereinkunst mit Regeln, nach
+denen allein das Produkt das werden kann, was es soll sein,
+angetroffen wird, aber ohne Peinlichkeit, d.i., ohne eine Spur zu
+zeigen, dass die Regel dem Künstler vor Augen {325} geschwebt und
+seinen Gemüthskräften Fesseln angelegt haben.”[130]
+
+
+ (9) _The Sâdhumatî._
+
+Sâdhumatî, meaning “good intelligence,” is the name given to the
+ninth stage of Bodhisattvahood. All the Bodhisattvas are said to have
+reached here, when sentient beings are benefitted by the Bodhisattva’s
+attainment of the highest perfect knowledge, which is unfathomable by
+the ordinary human intelligence. The knowledge leads them to the
+Dharma of the deepest mystery, to the Samâdhi of perfect spirituality,
+to the Dhâranî of divine spontaneity, to Love of absolute purity, to
+the Will of utmost freedom.
+
+The Bodhisattva will acquire at this stage the four Pratisamvids
+(comprehensive knowledge), which are (1) Dharmapratisamvid, (2)
+Arthapratisamvid, (3) Niruktipratisamvid, (4) Pratibhanapratisamvid.
+By the Dharmapratisamvid, the Bodhisattvas understand the {326}
+self-essence (_svabhâva_) of all beings; by the Arthapratisamvid,
+their individual attributes; by the Niruktipratisamvid, their
+indestructibility; by the Pratibhanapratisamvid, their eternal order.
+Again, by the first intelligence they understand that all individual
+dharmas have no absolute reality; by the second, that they are all
+subject to the law of constant becoming; by the third, that they are
+no more than mere names; by the fourth, that even mere names as such
+are of some value. Again, by the first intelligence, they comprehend
+that all dharmas are of one reality which is indestructible; by the
+second, that this one reality differentiating itself becomes subject
+to the law of causation; by the third, that by virtue of a superior
+understanding all Buddhas become the object of admiration and the
+haven of all sentient beings; by the fourth, that in the one body of
+truth all Buddhas preach infinite lights of the Dharma.
+
+
+ (10) _The Dharmameghâ._
+
+Dharmameghâ, “clouds of dharma,” is the name of the tenth and final
+stage of Bodhisattvahood. The Bodhisattvas have now practised all
+virtues of purity, accumulated all the constituents of Bodhi, are
+fortified with great power and intelligence, universally practise the
+principle of great love and sympathy, have deeply penetrated into the
+mystery of individual existences, fathomed the inmost depths of
+sentiency, followed step by step the walk of all the Tathâgatas. Every
+thought cherished by the Bodhisattva now dwells in {327} all the
+Tathâgatas’ abode of eternal tranquillity, and every deed practised
+by him is directed towards the ten balas (power),[131] four
+vaiçâradyas (conviction),[132] and eighteen avenikas (unique
+characteristics),[133] of the Buddha. By these virtues the Bodhisattva
+has now acquired the knowledge of all things (_sarvajñâ_), is dwelling
+in the sanctum sanctorum of all dhâraṇîs and samâdhis, have arrived at
+the summit of all activities.
+
+{328}
+
+The Bodhisattva at this stage is a personification of love and
+sympathy, which freely issue from the fount of his inner will. He
+gathers the clouds of virtue and wisdom, in which he manifests himself
+in manifold figures; he produces the lightnings of Buddhi, Vidyâs,
+and Vaiçâradyas; and shaking the whole world with the thunder of
+Dharma he crushes all the evil ones; and pouring forth the showers of
+Good Law he quenches the burning flames of ignorance {329} and passion
+in which all sentient creatures are being consumed.
+
+ * * *
+
+The above presentation of the Daçabhûmî[134] of Bodhisattvahood
+allows us to see what ideal life is held out by the Mahâyânists
+before their own eyes and in what respect it differs from that of the
+Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas as well as from that of other religious
+followers. Mahâyânism is not contented to make us mere transmitters
+or “hearers” of the teachings of the Buddha, it wants to inspire with
+all the religious and ethical motives that stirred the noblest heart
+of Çâkyamuni to its inmost depths. It fully recognises the intrinsic
+worth of the human soul; and, holding up its high ideals and noble
+aspirations, it endeavors to develop all the possibilities of our
+soul-life, which by our strenuous efforts and all-defying courage will
+one day be realised even on this earth of impermanence. We as
+individual existences are nothing but shadows which will vanish as
+soon as the conditions disappear that make them possible; we as mortal
+beings are no more than the {330} thousands of dusty particles that
+are haphazardly and powerlessly scattered about before the cyclone of
+karma; but when we are united in the love and intelligence of the
+Dharmakâya in which we have our being, we are Bodhisattvas, and we
+can immovably stand against the tempest of birth and death, against
+the overwhelming blast of ignorance. Then even an apparently
+insignificant act of lovingkindness will lead finally to the eternal
+abode of bliss, not the actor alone, but the whole community to which
+he belongs. Because a stream of love spontaneously flows from the lake
+of Intelligence-heart (_Bodhicitta_) which is fed by the inexhaustible
+spring of the Dharmakâya, while ignorance leads only to egoism,
+hatred, avarice, disturbance, and universal misery.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+ NIRVÂNA.
+
+{331}
+
+/Nirvâna/, according to Mahâyâna Buddhism, is not understood in its
+nihilistic sense. Even with the Çrâvakas or Hînayânists, Nirvâna in
+this sense is not so much the object of their religious life as the
+recognition of the Fourfold Noble Truth, or the practise of the
+Eightfold Path, or emancipation from the yoke of egoism. It is mostly
+due, as far as I can see, to non-Buddhist critics that the conception
+of Nirvâna has been selected among others as one of the most
+fundamental teachings of Buddha, declaring it at the same time to
+consist in the annihilation of all human passions and aspirations,
+noble as well as worthless.
+
+In fact, Nirvâna literally means “extinction” or “dissolution” of the
+five skandhas, and therefore it may be said that the entering into
+Nirvâna is tantamount to the annihilation of the material existence
+and of all the passions. Catholic Buddhists, however, do not understand
+Nirvâna in the sense of emptiness, for they say that Buddhism is not a
+religion of death nor for the dead, but that it teaches how to attain
+eternal life, how to gain an insight into the real nature of things,
+and how to regulate our conduct {332} in accordance with the highest
+truth. Therefore, Buddhism, when rightly understood in the spirit of
+its founder, is something quite different from what it is commonly
+supposed to be by the general public.
+
+I will endeavor in the following pages to point out that Nirvâna in
+the sense of a total annihilation of human activities, is by no means
+the primary and sole object of Buddhists, and then proceed to
+elucidate in what signification it is understood in the Mahâyâna
+Buddhism and see what relative position Nirvâna in its Mahâyânistic
+sense occupies in the body of Buddhism.
+
+
+ _Nihilistic Nirvâna not the First Object._
+
+In order to see the true signification of Nirvâna, it is necessary
+first to observe in what direction Buddha himself ploughed the waves
+in his religious cruise and upon what shore he finally debarked. This
+will show us whether or not Nirvâna as nihilistic nothingness is the
+primary and sole object of Buddhism, to which every spiritual effort
+of its devotees is directed.
+
+If the attainment of negativistic Nirvâna were the sole aim of
+Buddhism, we should naturally expect Buddha’s farewell address to be
+chiefly dealing with that subject. In his last sermon, however, Buddha
+did not teach his disciples to concentrate all their moral efforts on
+the attainment of Nirvânic quietude disregarding all the forms of
+activity that exhibit themselves in life. Far from it. He told them,
+according to the _Mahânibbâna sutta_ (the Book of the Great {333}
+decease, _S. B. E._ Vol. XI. p. 114) that “Decay is inherent in all
+component things! Work out your salvation with diligence!” This
+exhortation of the strenuous life is quite in harmony with the last
+words of Buddha as recorded in Açvaghoṣa’s _Buddhacarita_ (Chinese
+translation, Chap. XXVI). They were:
+
+
+ “Even if I lived a kalpa longer,
+ Separation would be an inevitable end.
+ A body composed of various aggregates,
+ Its nature is not to abide forever.
+
+ “Having finished benefiting oneself and others,
+ Why live I longer to no purpose?
+ Of gods and men that should be saved,
+ Each and all had been delivered.
+
+ “O ye, my disciples!
+ Without interruption transmit the Good Dharma!
+ Know ye that things are destined to decay!
+ Never again abandon yourselves to grief!
+
+ “But pursue the Way with diligence,
+ And arrive at the Home of No-separation!
+ I have lit the Lamp of Intelligence,
+ That shining dispels the darkness of the world.
+
+ “Know ye that the world endureth not!
+ As ye should feel happy [when ye see]
+ The parents suffering a mortal disease
+ Are released by a treatment from pain;
+
+ “So with me, I now give up the vessel of misery,
+ Transcend[135] the current of birth and death,
+ And am eternally released from all pain and suffering.
+ This too must be deemed blest.
+
+{334}
+
+ “Ye should well guard yourselves!
+ Never give yourselves up to indulgence!
+ All that exists finally comes to an end!
+ I now enter into Nirvâna.”[136]
+
+
+In this we find Buddha’s characteristic admonition to his disciples
+not to waste time but to work out their salvation with diligence and
+rigor, but we fail to find the gospel of annihilation, the supposedly
+fundamental teaching of Buddhism.
+
+Did then Buddha start in his religious discipline to attain the
+absolute annihilation of all human aspirations and after a long
+meditation reach the conclusion that contradicted his premises? Far
+from it. His first and last ambition was nothing else than the
+emancipation of all beings from ignorance, misery, and suffering
+through enlightenment, knowledge, and truth. When Mâra the evil one
+was exhausting all his evil powers upon the destruction of the Buddha
+in the beginning of his career, the good gods in the heavens exclaimed
+to the evil one:[137]
+
+“Take not on thyself, O Mâra, this vain fatigue,--throw aside thy
+malevolence and retire to thy home. This sage cannot be shaken by thee
+any more than the mighty mountain Meru by the wind.
+
+{335}
+
+“Even fire might lose its hot nature, water its fluidity, earth its
+steadiness, but never will he abandon his resolution, who has acquired
+his merit by a long course of actions through unnumbered eons.
+
+“Such is the purpose of his, that heroic effort, that glorious
+strength, that compassion for all beings,--until he attains the
+highest wisdom [or suchness, _tattva_], he will never rise from his
+seat, just as the sun does not rise without dispelling the darkness.
+
+“Pitying the world lying distressed amidst diseases and passions, he,
+the great physician, ought not to be hindered, who undergoes all his
+labors for the sake of the remedy-knowledge.
+
+“He, who, when he beholds the world drowned in the great flood of
+existence and unable to reach the further shore, strives to bring them
+safely across,--would any right-minded soul offer him wrong?
+
+“The tree of knowledge, whose roots go deep in firmness, and whose
+fibres are patience,--whose flowers are moral actions and whose
+branches are memory and thought,--and which gives out the Dharma as
+its fruit,--surely when it is growing it should not be cut down.”
+
+These words of the good gods in the heavens truthfully echo the motive
+that stirred Çâkyamuni to take up his gigantic task of universal
+salvation, and we are unable here as before to perceive a particle of
+the nihilistic speculation which is supposed to characterise Nirvâna.
+The Buddha from the very first of his religious course searched after
+the light that will illuminate {336} the whole universe and dispel the
+darkness of nescience.
+
+What enlightenment, then, did the Buddha, pursuing his first object,
+finally gain? What truth was it that he is said to have discovered
+under the Bodhi tree after six years’ penance and deep meditation? As
+is universally recognised, it was no more than the Fourfold Noble
+Truth and the Twelve Chains of Dependence, which are acknowledged by
+the Mahâyânists as well as by the Hînayânists as the essentially
+original teachings of the Buddha. What then was his subjective state
+when he discovered these truths? How did he feel in his inmost being
+after this intellectual triumph over egoistic thoughts and passions?
+According to the Southern tradition, the famous Hymn of Victory is
+said to be his utterance on this occasion. It reads (The _Dharmapada_,
+153):
+
+
+ “Many a life to transmigrate,
+ Long quest, no rest, hath been my fate,
+ Tent-designer inquisitive for;
+ Painful birth from state to state.
+
+ “Tent-designer, I know thee now;
+ Never again to build art thou;
+ Quite out are all thy joyful fires,
+ Rafter broken and roof-tree gone;
+ Into the vast my heart goes on,
+ Gains Eternity--dead desires.”[138]
+
+
+In this Hymn of Victory, the “tent-designer” means {337} the ego that
+is supposed to be a subtle existence behind our mental experiences. As
+was pointed out elsewhere the negative phase of Buddhism consists in
+the eradication of this ego-substratum or the “designer” of eternal
+transmigration. The Buddha now finds out that this ego-soul is a
+fantasmagoria and has no final existence; and with this insight his
+ego-centric desires that troubled him so long are eternally dead; he
+feels the breaking up of their limitations; he is absorbed in the
+Eternal Vast, in which we all live and move and have our being. No
+shadow is perceptible here that suggests anything of an absolute
+nothingness supposed to be the attribute of Nirvâna.
+
+Before proceeding further, let us see what the Mahâyâna tradition
+says concerning this point. The tradition varies in this case as in
+many others. According to Beal’s _Romantic History of Buddha_, which
+is a translation of a Chinese version of the _Buddhacarita_ (_Fo pen
+hing ching_),[139] Buddha is reported to have exclaimed this:
+
+
+ “Through ages past have I acquired continual merit,
+ That which my heart desired have I now attained,
+ How quickly have I arrived at the ever-constant condition,
+ And landed on the very shore of Nirvâna.
+ The sorrows and opposition of the world,
+ The Lord of the Kâmalokas, Mâra Pisuna,
+ These are unable now to affect, they are wholly destroyed;
+ By the power of religious merit and of wisdom are they cast away.
+ Let a man but persevere with unflinching resolution,
+ And seek Supreme Wisdom, it will not be hard to acquire it;
+ When once obtained, then farewell to all sorrows,
+ All sin and guilt are forever done away.”[140]
+
+{338}
+
+Viewing the significance of Buddhism in this light, it is evident that
+Buddha did not emphasise so much the doctrine of Nirvâna in the sense
+of a total abnegation of human aspirations as the abandonment of
+egoism and the practical regulation of our daily life in accordance
+with this view. Nirvâna in which all the passions noble and base are
+supposed to have been “blown out like a lamp” was not the most coveted
+object of Buddhist life. On the contrary, Buddhism advises all its
+followers to exercise most strenuously all their spiritual energy to
+attain perfect freedom from the bondage of ignorance and egoism;
+because that is the only way in which we can conquer the vanity of
+worldliness and enjoy the bliss of eternal life. The following verse
+from the _Visuddhi Magga_ (XXI) practically {339} sums up the teaching
+of Buddhism as far as its negative and individual phase is concerned:
+
+
+ “Behold how empty is the world,
+ Mogharâja! In thoughtfulness
+ Let one remove belief in self,
+ And pass beyond the realm of death.
+ The king of death will never find
+ The man who thus the world beholds.”[141]
+
+
+ _Nirvâna is Positive._
+
+It is not my intention here to investigate the historical side of this
+question; we are not concerned with the problem of how the followers
+of Buddha gradually developed the positive aspect of Nirvâna in
+connection with the practical application of his moral and religious
+{340} teachings; nor are we engaged in tracing the process of
+evolution through which Buddha’s noble resolution to save all sentient
+beings from ignorance and misery was brought out most conspicuously by
+his later devotees. What I wish to state here about the positive
+conception of Nirvâna and its development is this: The Mahâyâna
+Buddhism was the first religious teaching in India that contradicted
+the doctrine of Nirvâna as conceived by other Hindu thinkers who saw
+in it a complete annihilation of being, for they thought that
+existence is evil, and evil is misery, and the only way to escape
+misery is to destroy the root of existence, which is nothing less than
+the total cessation of human desires and activities in Nirvânic
+unconsciousness. The Yoga taught self-forgetfulness in deep
+meditation; the Samkhya, the absolute separation of Puruṣa from
+Prakṛti, which means undisturbed self-contemplation; the Vedânta,
+absorption in the Brahma, which is the total suppression of all
+particulars; and thus all of them considered emancipation from human
+desires and aspirations a heavenly bliss, that is, Nirvâna.
+Metaphysically speaking, they might have been correct each in its own
+way, but, ethically considered, their views had little significance in
+our practical life and showed a sad deficiency in dealing with
+problems of morality.
+
+The Buddha was keenly aware of this flaw in their doctrines. He
+taught, therefore, that Nirvâna does not consist in the complete
+stoppage of existence, but in the practise of the Eightfold Path. This
+moral {341} practise leads to the unalloyed joy of Nirvâna, not as
+the tranquillisation of human aspirations, but as the fulfilment or
+unfolding of human life. The word Nirvâna in the sense of annihilation
+was in existence prior to Buddha, but it was he who gave a new
+significance to it and made it worthy of attainment by men of moral
+character. All the doctrinal aspects of Nirvâna are later additions or
+rather development made by Buddhist scholars, according to whom their
+arguments are solidly based on some canonical passages. Whatever the
+case may be, my conviction is that those who developed the positive
+significance of Nirvâna are more consistent with the spirit of the
+founder than those who emphasised another aspect of it. In the _Udâna_
+we read (IV., 9):
+
+
+ “He whom life torments not,
+ Who sorrows not at the approach of death,
+ If such a one is resolute and has seen Nirvâna,
+ In the midst of grief, he is griefless.
+ The tranquil-minded Bhikkhu, who has uprooted the thirst for
+  existence,
+ By him the succession of births is ended,
+ He is born no more.”[142]
+
+
+According to the Mahâyânistic conception Nirvâna is not the
+annihilation of the world and the putting an end to life; but it is to
+live in the whirlpool of birth and death and yet to be above it. It is
+affirmation and fulfilment, and this is done not blindly and
+egoistically, for Nirvâna is enlightenment. Let us see how this is.
+
+{342}
+
+
+ _The Mahâyânistic Conception of Nirvâna._
+
+While the conception of Nirvâna seems to have remained indefinite and
+confused as far as Hînayânism goes, the Mahâyâna Buddhists have
+attached several definite shades of meaning to Nirvâna and tried to
+give each of them some special, distinctive character. When it is used
+in its most comprehensive metaphysical sense, it becomes synonymous
+with Suchness (_tattva_) or with the Dharmakâya. When we speak of
+Buddha’s entrance into Nirvâna, it means the end of material
+existence, i.e., death. When it is used in contrast to birth and death
+(_samsâra_) or to passion and sin (_kleça_), it signifies in the
+former case an eternal life or a state of immortality, and in the
+latter case a state of consciousness that follows from the recognition
+of the presence of the Dharmakâya in individual existences. Nirvâna
+has thus become a very comprehensive term, and this fact adds much to
+the confusion and misunderstanding with which it has been treated ever
+since Buddhism became known to the Occident. The so-called “primitive
+Buddhism” is not altogether unfamiliar with all these meanings given
+to Nirvâna, though in some cases they might have been but faintly
+foreshadowed. Most of European missionaries and scholars have ignored
+this fact and wanted to see in Nirvâna but one definite, stereotyped
+sense which will loosen or untie all the difficult knots connected
+with its use. One scholar would select a certain passage in a certain
+sûtra, where the meaning {343} is tolerably distinct, and taking this
+as the key endeavor to solve all the rest; while another scholar would
+do the same thing with another passage from the scriptures and refute
+other fellow-workers. The majority of them, however, have found for
+missionary purposes to be advantageous to hold one meaning prominently
+above all the others that may be considered possibly the meaning of
+Nirvâna. This one meaning that has been made specially conspicuous is
+its negativistic interpretation.
+
+According to the _Vijñânamâtra çâstra_ (Chinese version Vol. X.), the
+Mahâyâna Buddhists distinguish four forms of Nirvâna. They are:
+
+(1) _Absolute Nirvâna_, as a synonym of the Dharmakâya. It is
+eternally immaculate in its essence and constitutes the truth and
+reality of all existences. Though it manifests itself in the world of
+defilement and relativity, its essence forever remains undefiled.
+While it embraces in itself innumerable incomprehensible spiritual
+virtues, it is absolutely simple and immortal; its perfect
+tranquillity may be likened unto space in which every conceivable
+motion is possible, but which remains in itself the same. It is
+universally present in all beings whether animate or inanimate[143]
+and makes their existence real. In one respect it can be identified
+with them, that is, it can be pantheistically viewed; but in the other
+respect it is transcendental, {344} for every being as it is is not
+Nirvâna. This spiritual significance is, however, beyond the ken of
+ordinary human understanding and can be grasped only by the highest
+intelligence of Buddha.
+
+(2) _Upadhiçeṣa Nirvâna_, or Nirvâna that has some residue. This is a
+state of enlightenment which can be attained by Buddhists in their
+lifetime. The Dharmakâya which was dormant in them is now awakened and
+freed from the “affective obstacles,”[144] but they are yet under the
+bondage of birth and death; and thus they are not yet absolutely free
+from the misery of life: something still remains in them that makes
+them suffer pain.
+
+(3) _Anupadhiçeṣa Nirvâna_, or Nirvâna that has no residue. This is
+attained when the Tathâgata-essence (the Dharmakâya) is released from
+the pain of birth and death as well as from the curse of passion and
+sin. This form of Nirvâna seems to be what is generally understood by
+Occidental missionary-scholars as the Nirvâna of Buddhists. While in
+lifetime, they have been emancipated from the egoistic conception of
+the soul, they have practised the Eightfold Path, and they {345} have
+destroyed all the roots of karma that makes possible their
+metempsychosis in the world of birth and death (_samsâra_), though as
+the inevitable sequence of their previous karma they have yet to
+suffer all the evils inherent in the material existence. But at last
+they have had even this mortal coil dissolved away, and have returned
+to the original Absolute from which by virtue of ignorance they had
+come out and gone through a cycle of births and deaths. This state of
+supramundane bliss in the realm of the Absolute is Anupadiçeṣa
+Nirvâna, that is, Nirvâna that has no residue.
+
+(4) _The Nirvâna that has no abode._ In this, the Buddha-essence has
+not only been freed from the curse of passion and sin (_kleça_), but
+from the intellectual prejudice, which most tenaciously clings to the
+mind. The Buddha-essence or the Dharmakâya is revealed here in its
+perfect purity. All-embracing love and all-knowing intelligence
+illuminate the path. He who has attained to this state of subjective
+enlightenment is said to have no abode, no dwelling place, that is to
+say, he is no more subject to the transmigration of birth and death
+(_samsâra_), nor does he cling to Nirvâna as the abode of complete
+rest; in short, he is above Samsâra and Nirvâna. His sole object in
+life is to benefit all sentient beings to the end of time; but this he
+proposes to do not by his human conscious elaboration and striving.
+Simply actuated by his all-embracing love which is of the Dharmakâya,
+he wishes to deliver all his fellow-creatures from misery, he does
+{346} not seek his own emancipation from the turmoil of life. He is
+fully aware of the transitoriness of worldly interests, but on this
+account he desires not to shun them. With his all-knowing intelligence
+he gains a spiritual insight into the ultimate nature of things and
+the final course of existence. He is one of those religious men “that
+weep, as though they wept not; that rejoice as though they rejoiced
+not; that buy, as though they possessed not; that use this world, as
+not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passes away.” Nay, he is
+in one sense more than this; his life is full of positive activity,
+because his heart and soul are devoted to the leading of all beings to
+final emancipation and supreme bliss. When a man attains to this stage
+of spiritual life, he is said to be in the Nirvâna that has no abode.
+
+A commentator on the _Vijñânamâtra Çâstra_ adds that of these four
+forms of Nirvâna the first is possessed by every sentient being,
+whether it is actualised in its human perfection or lying dormant _in
+posse_ and miserably obscured by ignorance; that the second and third
+are attained by all the Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas, while it is a
+Buddha alone that is in possession of all the four forms of Nirvâna.
+
+
+ _Nirvâna as the Dharmakâya._
+
+It is manifest from the above statement that in Mahâyânism Nirvâna
+has acquired several shades of meaning psychological and ontological.
+This apparent confusion, however, is due to the purely idealistic
+{347} tendency of Mahâyânism, which ignores the distinction usually
+made between being and thought, object and subject, the perceived and
+the perceiving. Nirvâna is not only a subjective state of
+enlightenment but an objective power through whose operation this
+beatific state becomes attainable. It does not simply mean a total
+absorption in the Absolute or of emancipation from earthly desires in
+lifetime as exemplified in the life of the Arhat. Mahâyânists perceive
+in Nirvâna not only this, but also its identity with the Dharmakâya,
+or Suchness, and recognise its universal spiritual presence in all
+sentient beings.
+
+When Nâgârjuna says in his _Mâdhyamika Çâstra_[145] that: “That is
+called Nirvâna which is not wanting, is not acquired, is not
+intermittent, is not non-intermittent, is not subject to destruction,
+and is not created;” he evidently speaks of Nirvâna as a synonym of
+Dharmakâya, that is, in its first sense as above described. Chandra
+Kîrti, therefore, rightly comments that Nirvâna is
+_sarva-kalpanâ-kṣaya-rûpam_,[146] i.e., that which transcends all
+the forms of determination. {348} Nirvâna is an absolute, it is above
+the relativity of existence (_bhâva_) and non-existence
+(_abhâva_).[147]
+
+Nirvâna is sometimes spoken of as possessing four attributes; (1)
+eternal (_nitya_), (2) blissful (_sukha_), (3) self-acting (_âtman_),
+and (4) pure (_çuçi_). Judging from these qualities thus ascribed to
+Nirvâna as its essential features, Nirvâna is here again identified
+with the highest reality of Buddhism, that is, with the Dharmakâya.
+It is eternal because it is immaterial; it is blissful because it is
+above all sufferings; it is self-acting because it knows no
+compulsion; it is pure because it is not defiled by passion and
+error.[148]
+
+{349}
+
+
+ _Nirvâna in its Fourth Sense._
+
+No further elucidation is needed for the first signification of
+Nirvâna, for we have treated it already when explaining the nature of
+the Dharmakâya. Nor is it necessary for us to dwell upon the second
+and the third phases of it. The Occidental missionary-scholars and
+Orientalists, however one-sided and often biased, have almost
+exhaustively investigated these points from the Pâli sources. What
+remains for us now is to analyse the Mahâyânistic conception of
+Nirvâna which was stated above as its fourth signification.
+
+Nirvâna, briefly speaking, is a realisation in this life of the
+all-embracing love and all-knowing intelligence of Dharmakâya. It is
+the unfolding of the reason of existence, which in the ordinary human
+life remains more or less eclipsed by the shadow of ignorance and
+egoism. It does not consist in the mere observance of the moral
+precepts laid down by Buddha, nor in the blind following of the
+Eightfold Path, nor in retirement from the world and absorption in
+abstract meditation. The Mahâyânistic Nirvâna is full of energy and
+activity which issues from the all-embracing love of the Dharmakâya.
+There is no passivity in it, nor a keeping aloof from the hurly-burly
+of worldliness. {350} He who is in this Nirvâna does not seek a rest
+in the annihilation of human aspirations, does not flinch in the face
+of endless transmigration. On the contrary, he plunges himself into
+the ever-rushing current of Samsâra and sacrifices himself to save
+his fellow-creatures from being eternally drowned in it.
+
+Though thus the Mahâyâna Nirvâna is realised only in the mire of
+passions and errors, it is never contaminated by the filth of
+ignorance. Therefore, he that is abiding in Nirvâna, even in the
+whirlpool of egoism and in the darkness of sin, does not lose his
+all-seeing insight that penetrates deep into the ultimate nature of
+being. He is aware of the transitoriness of things. He knows that this
+life is a mere passing moment in the eternal manifestation of the
+Dharmakâya, whose work can be realised only in boundless space and
+endless time. As he is fully awake to this knowledge, he never gets
+engrossed in the world of sin. He lives in the world like unto the
+lotus-flower, the emblem of immaculacy, which grows out of the mire
+and yet shares not its defilement. He is also like unto a bird flying
+in the air that does not leave any trace behind it. He may again be
+likened unto the clouds that spontaneously gather around the mountain
+peak, and, soaring high as the wind blows, vanish away to the region
+where nobody knows. In short, he is living in, and yet beyond, the
+realm of Samsâra and Nirvâna.
+
+We read in the _Vimalakirti Sûtra_ (chap. VIII.):
+
+“Vimalakirti asks Mañjuçri: ‘How is it that you {351} declare all
+[human] passions and errors are the seeds of Buddhahood?’
+
+“Mañjuçri replies: ‘O son of good family! Those who cling to the view
+of non-activity [_asamskrita_] and dwell in a state of eternal
+annihilation do not awaken in them supremely perfect knowledge
+[_anuttara-samyak-sambodhi_]. Only the Bodhisattvas, who dwell in the
+midst of passions and errors, and who, passing through the [ten]
+stages, rightly contemplate the ultimate nature of things, are able to
+awaken and attain intelligence [_prajñâ_].
+
+“‘Just as the lotus-flowers do not grow in the dry land, but in the
+dark-colored, waterly mire, O son of good family, it is even so [with
+intelligence (_prajñâ_ or _bodhi_)] In non-activity and eternal
+annihilation which are cherished by the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas, there is no opportunity for the seeds and sprouts of
+Buddhahood to grow. Intelligence can grow only in the mire and dirt of
+passion and sin. It is by virtue of passion and sin that the seeds and
+sprouts of Buddhahood are able to grow.
+
+“‘O son of good family! Just as no seeds can grow in the air, but in
+the filthy, muddy soil,--and there even luxuriously,--O son of good
+family, it is even so [with the Bodhi]. It does not grow out of
+non-activity and eternal annihilation. It is only out of the
+mountainous masses of egoistic, selfish thoughts that Intelligence is
+awakened and grows to the incomprehensible wisdom of Buddha-seeds.
+
+“‘O son of good family! Just as we cannot obtain {352} priceless
+pearls unless we dive into the depths of the four great oceans, O son
+of good family, it is even so [with Intelligence]. If we do not dive
+deep into the mighty ocean of passion and sin, how could we get hold
+of the precious gem of Buddha-essence? Let it therefore be understood
+that the primordial seeds of Intelligence draw their vitality from the
+midst of passion and sin.’” In a Pauline epistle we read, “From the
+foulness of the soil, the beauty of new life grows.” And Emerson
+sings:
+
+
+ “Let me go where’er I will,
+ I hear a sky-born music still.
+ ’Tis not in the high stars alone,
+  Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
+ Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone,
+  Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
+ But in the mud and scum of things.
+ There always, always, something sings.”
+
+
+Do we not see here a most explicit statement of the Mahâyânistic
+sentiment?
+
+
+ _Nirvâna and Samsâra are One._
+
+The most remarkable feature in the Mahâyânistic conception of Nirvâna
+is expressed in this formula: “Yas kleças so bodhi, yas samsâras tat
+nirvânam.” What is sin or passion, that is Intelligence, what is birth
+and death (or transmigration), that is Nirvâna. This is a rather bold
+and revolutionising proposition in the dogmatic history of Buddhism.
+But it is no more than the natural development of the spirit that was
+breathed by its founder.
+
+{353}
+
+In the _Viçeṣacinta-brahma-paripṛccha Sûtra_,[149] it is said that
+(chap. II):
+
+“Samsâra is Nirvâna, because there is, when viewed from the ultimate
+nature of the Dharmakâya, nothing going out of, nor coming into,
+existence, [samsâra being only apparent]: Nirvâna is samsâra, when it
+is coveted and adhered to.”
+
+In another place (_op. cit._) the idea is expressed in much plainer
+terms: “The essence of all things is in truth free from attachment,
+attributes, and desires; therefore, they are pure, and, as they are
+pure, we know that what is the essence of birth and death that is the
+essence of Nirvâna, and that what is the essence of Nirvâna that is
+the essence of birth and death (_samsâra_). In other words, Nirvâna
+is not to be sought outside of this world, which, though transient, is
+in reality no more than Nirvâna itself. Because it is contrary to our
+reason to imagine that there is Nirvâna and there is birth and death
+(_samsâra_), and that the one lies outside the pale of the other,
+and, therefore, that we can attain Nirvâna only after we have
+annihilated or escaped the world of birth and death. If we are not
+hampered by our confused subjectivity, this our worldly life is an
+activity of Nirvâna itself.”
+
+Nâgârjuna repeats the same sentiment in his _Mâdhyamika Çâstra_, when
+he says:
+
+{354}
+
+
+ “Samsâra is in no way to be distinguished from Nirvâna:
+ Nirvâna is in no way to be distinguished from Samsâra.”[150]
+
+
+Or,
+
+
+ “The sphere of Nirvâna is the sphere of Samsâra:
+ Not the slightest distinction exists between them.”[151]
+
+
+Asanga goes a step further and boldly declares that all the
+Buddha-dharmas, of which Nirvâna or Dharmakâya forms the foundation,
+are characterised with the passions, errors, and sins of vulgar minds.
+He says in _Mahâyâna-Sangraha Çâstra_ (the Chinese Tripitaka, Japanese
+edition of 1881, _wang_ VIII., p. 84):
+
+“(1) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with eternality, for the
+Dharmakâya is eternal.
+
+“(2) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with an extinguishing power,
+for they extinguish all the obstacles for final emancipation.
+
+“(3) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with regeneration, for the
+Nirmânakâya [Body of Transformation] constantly regenerates.
+
+“(4) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the power of
+attainment, for by the attainment [of truth] they subjugate
+innumerable evil passions as cherished by ignorant beings.
+
+“(5) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the desire to gain, ill
+humor, folly, and all the other {355} passions of vulgar minds, for it
+is through the Buddha’s love that those depraved souls are saved.
+
+“(6) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with non-attachment and
+non-defilement, for Suchness which is made perfect by these virtues
+cannot be defiled by any evil powers.
+
+“(7) All Buddha-dharmas are above attachment and defilement, for
+though all Buddhas reveal themselves in the world, worldliness cannot
+defile them.”[152]
+
+Buddha-dharma means any thing, or any virtue, or any faculty, that
+belongs to Buddhahood. Non-attachment is a Buddha-dharma, love is a
+Buddha-dharma, wisdom is a Buddha-dharma. and in fact anything is a
+Buddha-dharma which is an attribute of the Perfect One, not to mention
+the Dharmakâya or Nirvâna which constitutes the very essence of
+Buddhahood. Therefore, the conclusion which is to be drawn from those
+seven propositions of Asanga as above quoted is this: Not only is this
+world of constant transformation as a whole Nirvâna, but its apparent
+errors and sins and evils are also the various phases of the
+manifestation of Nirvâna.
+
+The above being the Mahâyânistic view of Nirvâna, it is evident that
+Nirvâna is not something transcendental or that which stands above
+this world of birth {356} and death, joy and sorrow, love and hate,
+peace and struggle. Nirvâna is not to be sought in the heavens nor
+after a departure from this earthly life nor in the annihilation of
+human passions and aspirations. On the contrary, it must be sought in
+the midst of worldliness, as life with all its thrills of pain and
+pleasure is no more than Nirvâna itself. Extinguish your life and
+seek Nirvâna in anchoretism, and your Nirvâna is forever lost. Consign
+your aspirations, hopes, pleasures, and woes, and everything that
+makes up a life to the eternal silence of the grave, and you bury
+Nirvâna never to be recovered. In asceticism, or in meditation, or in
+ritualism, or even in metaphysics, the more impetuously you pursue
+Nirvâna, the further away it flies from you. It was the most serious
+mistake ever committed by any religious thinkers to imagine that
+Nirvâna which is the complete satisfaction of our religious feeling
+could be gained by laying aside all human desires, ambitions, hopes,
+pains, and pleasures. Have your own Bodhi (intelligence) thoroughly
+enlightened through love and knowledge, and everything that was
+thought sinful and filthy turns out to be of divine purity. It is the
+same human heart, formerly the fount of ignorance and egoism, now the
+abode of eternal beatitude--Nirvâna shining in its intrinsic
+magnificence.
+
+Suppose a torch light is taken into a dark cell, which people had
+hitherto imagined to be the abode of hideous, uncanny goblins, and
+which on that account they wanted to have completely destroyed to the
+{357} ground. The bright light now ushered in at once disperses the
+darkness, and every nook and corner therein is perfectly illumined.
+Everything in it now assumes its proper aspect. And to their surprise
+people find that those figures which they formerly considered to be
+uncanny and horrible are nothing but huge precious stones, and they
+further learn that every one of those stones can be used in some way
+for the great benefit of their fellow-creatures. The dark cell is the
+human heart before the enlightenment of Nirvâna, the torch light is
+love and intelligence. When love warms and intelligence brightens, the
+heart finds every passion and sinful desire that was the cause of
+unbearable anguish now turned into a divine aspiration. The heart
+itself, however, remains the same just as much as the cell, whose
+identity was never affected either by darkness or by brightness. This
+parable nicely illustrates the Mahâyânistic doctrine of the identity
+of Nirvâna and Samsâra, and of the Bodhi and Kleça, that is, of
+intelligence and passion.
+
+Therefore, it is said:
+
+
+ “All sins transformed into the constituents of enlightenment!
+ The vicissitudes of Samsâra transformed into the beatitude of Nirvâna!
+ All these come from the exercise of the great religious discipline
+  (_upâya_);
+ Beyond our understanding, indeed, is the mystery of all Buddhas.”[153]
+
+
+{358}
+
+
+ _The Middle Course._
+
+In one sense the Buddha always showed an eclectic, conciliatory,
+synthetic spirit in his teachings. He refused to listen to any extreme
+doctrine which elevates one end too high at the expense of the other
+and culminates in the collapse of the whole edifice. When the Buddha
+left his seat of enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, he made it his
+mission to avoid both extremes, asceticism and hedonism. He proved
+throughout his life to be a calm, dignified, thoughtful,
+well-disciplined person, and at no time irritable in character,--in
+this latter respect being so different from the sage of Nazareth, who
+in anger cast out all the tradesmen in the temple and overthrew the
+tables of the money-changers, and who cursed the fig tree on which he
+could not find any fruit but leaves unfit to appease his hunger. The
+doctrine of the Middle Path (_Mâdhyamârga_), whatever it may mean
+morally and intellectually, always characterised the life and doctrine
+of Buddha as well as the later development of his teachings. His
+followers, however different in their individual views, professed as a
+rule to pursue steadily the Middle Path as paved by the Master. Even
+when Nâgârjuna proclaimed his celebrated doctrine of Eight No’s which
+seems to superficial critics nothing but an absolute nihilism, he said
+that the Middle Path could be found only in those eight no’s.[154]
+
+{359}
+
+Mahâyânism has certainly applied this synthetic method of Buddha to
+its theory of Nirvâna and ennobled it by fully developing its immanent
+signification. In the _Discourse on Buddha-essence_, Vasubandhu quotes
+the following passage from the _Çrimala Sûtra_, which plainly shows
+the path along which the Mahâyânists traveled before they reached
+their final conclusion: “Those who see only the transitoriness of
+existence are called nihilists, and those who see only the eternality
+of Nirvâna are called eternalists. Both views are incorrect.”
+Vasubandhu then proceeds to say: “Therefore, the Dharmakâya of the
+Tathâgata is free from both extremes, and on that account it is called
+the Great Eternal Perfection. When viewed from this absolute standpoint
+of Suchness, the logical distinction between Nirvâna and Samsâra cannot
+in reality be maintained, and hereby we enter upon the realm of
+non-duality.” And this realm of non-duality is the Middle Path of
+Nirvâna, not in its nihilistic, but in its Mahâyânistic, significance.
+
+
+ _How to Realise Nirvâna._
+
+How can we attain the Middle Path of Nirvâna? How can we realise a
+life that is neither pessimistic asceticism nor materialistic
+hedonism? How can we steer through the whirlpools of Samsâra without
+being {360} swallowed up and yet braving their turbulent gyration? The
+answer to this can readily be given, when we understand, as repeatedly
+stated above, that this life is the manifestation of the Dharmakâya,
+and that the ideal of human existence is to realise within the
+possibilities of his mind and body all that he can conceive of the
+Dharmakâya. And this we have found to be all-embracing love and
+all-seeing intelligence. Destroy then your ignorance at one blow and
+be done with your egoism, and there springs forth an eternal stream of
+love and wisdom.
+
+Says Vasubandhu: “By virtue of Prajñâ [intelligence or wisdom], our
+egoistic thoughts are destroyed: by virtue of Karuṇâ [love],
+altruistic thoughts are cherished. By virtue of Prajñâ, the
+[affective] attachment inherent in vulgar minds is abolished; by
+virtue of Karuṇâ, the [intellectual] attachment as possessed by the
+Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas is abolished. By virtue of Prajñâ,
+Nirvâna [in its transcendental sense] is not rejected; by virtue of
+Karuṇâ, Samsâra [with its changes and transmigrations] is not rejected.
+By virtue of Prajñâ the truth of Buddhism is attained; by virtue of
+Karuṇâ, all sentient beings are matured [for salvation].”
+
+The practical life of a Buddhist runs in two opposite, though not
+antagonistic, directions, one upward and the other downward, and the
+two are synthesised in the Middle Path of Nirvâna. The upward
+direction points to the intellectual comprehension of the truth, while
+the downward one to a realisation of all-embracing {361} love among
+his fellow-creatures. One is complemented by the other. When the
+intellectual side is too much emphasised at the expense of the
+emotional, we have a Pratyekabuddha, a solitary thinker, whose
+fountain of tears is dry and does not flow over the sufferings of his
+fellow-beings. When the emotional side alone is asserted to the
+extreme, love acquires the egoistic tint that colors everything coming
+in contact with it. Because it does not discriminate and takes
+sensuality for spirituality. If it does not turn out sentimentalism,
+it will assume a hedonistic form. How many superstitious, or foul, or
+even atrocious deeds in the history of religion have been committed
+under the beautiful name of religion, or love of God and mankind! It
+makes the blood run cold when we think how religious fanatics burned
+alive their rivals or opponents at the stake, cruelly butchered
+thousands of human lives within a day, brought desolation and ruin
+throughout the land of their enemies,--and all these works of the
+Devil executed for sheer love of God! Therefore, says Devala, the
+author of the _Discourse on the Mahâpuruṣa_ (Great Man): “The wise
+do not approve lovingkindness without intelligence, nor do they
+approve intelligence without lovingkindness; because one without the
+other prevents us from reaching the highest path.” Knowledge is the
+eye, love is the limb. Directed by the eye, the limb knows how to
+move; furnished with the limb, the eye can attain what it perceives.
+Love alone is blind, knowledge alone is lame. It is only when one is
+supplemented {362} by the other that we have a perfect, complete man.
+
+In Buddha as the ideal human being we recognise the perfection of love
+and intelligence; for it was in him that the Dharmakâya found its
+perfect realisation in the flesh. But as far as the Bodhisattvas are
+concerned, their natural endowments are so diversified and their
+temperament is so uneven that in some the intellectual elements are
+more predominant while in others the emotional side is more pronounced,
+that while some are more prone to practicality others preferably look
+toward intellectualism. Thus, as a matter of course, some Bodhisattvas
+will be more of philosophers than of religious seers. They may tend in
+some cases to emphasise the intellectual side of religion more than
+its emotional side and uphold the importance of prajñâ (intelligence)
+above that of karuṇâ (love). But the Middle Path of Nirvâna lies in
+the true harmonisation of prajñâ and karuṇâ, of bodhi and upâya, of
+knowledge and love, of intellect and feeling.
+
+
+ _Love Awakens Intelligence._
+
+But if we have to choose between the two, let us first have
+all-embracing love, the Buddhists would say; for it is love that
+awakens in us an intense desire to find the way of emancipating the
+masses from perpetual sufferings and eternal transmigration. The
+intellect will now endeavor to realise its highest possibilities; the
+Bodhi will exhibit its fullest strength. When it is found out that
+this life is an expression of the Dharmakâya which is one and eternal,
+that {363} individual existences have no selfhood (_âtman_ or
+_svabhâva_) as far as they are due to the particularisation of
+subjective ignorance, and, therefore, that we are true and real only
+when we are conceived as one in the absolute Dharmakâya, the
+Bodhisattva’s love which caused him to search after the highest truth
+will now unfold its fullest significance.
+
+This love, or faith in the Mahâyâna, as it is sometimes called, is
+felt rather vaguely at the first awakening of the religious
+consciousness, and agitates the mind of the aspirant, whose life has
+hitherto been engrossed in every form of egocentric thought and
+desire. He no more finds an unalloyed satisfaction, as the Çrâvakas
+or the Pratyekabuddhas do, in his individual emancipation from the
+curse of Samsâra. However sweet the taste of release from the bond of
+ignorance, it is lacking something that makes the freedom perfectly
+agreeable to the Bodhisattva who thinks more of others than of
+himself; to be sweet as well as acceptable, it must be highly savored
+with lovingkindness which embraces all his fellow-beings as his own
+children. The emancipation of the Çrâvaka or of the Pratyekabuddha
+is like a delicious food which is wanting in saline taste, for it is
+no more than a dry, formal philosophical emancipation. Love is that
+which stimulates a man to go beyond his own interests. It is the
+mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The sacred motive that induces
+them to renounce a life of Nirvânic self-complacency, is nothing but
+their boundless love for all beings. They do {364} not wish to rest in
+their individual emancipation, they want to have all sentient creatures
+without a single exception emancipated and blest in paradisiacal
+happiness. Love, therefore, bestows on us two spiritual benefits: (1)
+It saves all beings from misery and (2) awakens in us the
+Buddha-intelligence.
+
+The following passages quoted at random from Devala’s _Mahâpuruṣa_
+will help our readers to understand the true signification of Nirvâna
+and the value of love (_karuṇâ_) as estimated by the Mahâyânists.
+
+“Those who are afraid of transmigration and seek their own benefits
+and happiness in final emancipation, are not at all comparable to
+those Bodhisattvas, who rejoice when they come to assume a material
+existence once again, for it affords them another opportunity to
+benefit others. Those who are only capable of feeling their own
+selfish sufferings may enter into Nirvâna [and not trouble themselves
+with the sufferings of other creatures like themselves]; but the
+Bodhisattva who feels in himself all the sufferings of his
+fellow-beings as his own, how can he bear the thought of leaving
+others behind while he is on his way to final emancipation, and when
+he himself is resting in Nirvânic quietude?..... Nirvâna in truth
+consists in rejoicing at other’s being made happy, and Samsâra in not
+so feeling. He who feels a universal love for his fellow-creatures
+will rejoice in distributing blessings among them and find his Nirvâna
+in so doing.[155]
+
+{365}
+
+“Suffering really consists in pursuing one’s egotistic happiness,
+while Nirvâna is found in sacrificing one’s welfare for the sake of
+others. People generally think that it is an emancipation when they
+are released from their own pain, but a man with loving heart finds it
+in rescuing others from misery.
+
+“With people who are not kindhearted, there is no sin that will not be
+committed by them. They are called the most wicked whose hearts are
+not softened at the sight of others’ misfortune and suffering.
+
+“When all beings are tortured by avarice, passion, ill humor,
+infatuation, and folly, and are constantly threatened by the misery of
+birth and death, disease and decay..... how can the Bodhisattva live
+among them and not feel pity for them?
+
+“Of all good virtues, lovingkindness stands foremost.... It is the
+source of all merit.... It is the {366} mother of all Buddhas.... It
+induces others to take refuge in the incomparable Bodhi.
+
+“The loving heart of a Bodhisattva is annoyed by one thing, that all
+beings are constantly tortured and threatened by all sorts of pain.”
+
+Let us quote another interesting passage from a Mahâyâna sûtra.
+
+When Vimalakirti was asked why he did not feel well, he made the
+following reply, which is full of religious significance: “From
+ignorance there arises desire and that is the cause of my illness. As
+all sentient beings are ill, so am I ill. When all sentient beings are
+healed of their illness, I shall be healed of my illness, too. Why?
+The Bodhisattva suffers birth and death because of sentient beings. As
+there is birth and death, so there is illness. When sentient beings
+are delivered from illness, the Bodhisattvas will suffer no more
+illness. When an only son in a good family is sick, the parents feel
+sick too: when he is recovered they are well again. So it is with the
+Bodhisattva. He loves all sentient beings as his own children. When
+they are sick, he is sick too. When they are recovered, he is well
+again. Do you wish to know whence this [sympathetic] illness is? The
+illness of the Bodhisattva comes from his all-embracing love
+(_mahâkarunâ_).”
+
+This gospel of universal love is the consummation of all religious
+emotions whatever their origin. Without this, there is no
+religion--that is, no religion that is animated with life and spirit.
+For it is in the fact {367} and nature of things that we are not moved
+by mere contemplation or mere philosophising. Every religion may have
+its own way of intellectually interpreting this fact, but the
+practical result remains the same everywhere, viz. that it cannot
+survive without the animating energy of love. Whatever sound and fine
+reasoning there may be in the doctrine of the Çrâvaka and the
+Pratyekabuddha, the force that is destined to conquer the world and to
+deliver us from misery is not intellection, but the will, i.e. the
+pûrvapranidhâna of the Dharmakâya.
+
+
+ _Conclusion._
+
+We now conclude. What is most evident from what we have seen above is
+that the Mahâyâna Nirvâna is not the annihilation of life but its
+enlightenment, that it is not the nullification of human passions and
+aspirations but their purification and ennoblement. This world of
+eternal transmigration is not a place which should be shunned as the
+playground of evils, but should be regarded as the place of
+ever-present opportunities given to us for the purpose of unfolding
+all our spiritual possibilities and powers for the sake of the
+universal welfare. There is no need for us to shrink, like the snail
+into his cozy shelter, before the duties and burdens of life. The
+Bodhisattva, on the contrary, finds Nirvâna in a concatenation of
+births and deaths and boldly faces the problem of evil and solves it
+by purifying the Bodhi from subjective ignorance.
+
+{368}
+
+His rule of conduct is:
+
+
+ “Sabba pâpassa akaranam,
+ Kusalassa upasampada,
+ Sacitta pariyodapanam;
+ Etam buddhânu sâsanam.”[156]
+
+
+His aspirations are solemnly expressed in this, which we hear daily
+recited in the Mahâyâna Buddhist temples and monasteries and
+seminaries:
+
+
+ “Sentient beings, however innumerable, I take vow to save;
+ Evil passions, however inextinguishable, I take vow to destroy;
+ The avenues of truth, however numberless, I take vow to study;
+ The way of the Enlightened, however unsurpassable, I take vow to
+  attain.”
+
+
+And an indefatigable pursuit of these noble aims will finally lead to
+the heaven of the Buddhists, Nirvâna, which is not a state of eternal
+quietude, but the source of energy and intelligence.
+
+By way of summary, and to avoid all misconceptions, let me repeat once
+more that Nirvâna is thus no negation of life, nor is it an idle
+contemplation on the misery of existence. The life of a Buddhist
+consists by no means in the monotonous repetition of reciting the
+sûtras and going his rounds for meals. Far from that. He enters into
+all the forms of life-activity, for he does not believe that universal
+emancipation {369} is achieved by imprisoning himself in the cloister.
+
+Theoretically speaking, Nirvâna is the dispersion of the clouds of
+ignorance hovering around the light of Bodhi. Morally, it is the
+suppression of egoism and the awakening of love (_karunâ_).
+Religiously, it is the absolute surrender of the self to the will of
+the Dharmakâya. When the clouds of ignorance are dispersing, our
+intellectual horizon gets clearer and wider; we perceive that our
+individual existences are like bubbles and lightnings, but that they
+obtain reality in their oneness with the Body of Dharma. This
+conviction compels us to eternally abandon our old egoistic conception
+of life. The ego finds its significance only when it is conceived in
+relation to the not-ego, that is, to the _alter_; in other words,
+self-love has no meaning whatever unless it is purified by love for
+others. But this love for others must not remain blind and
+unenlightened, it must be in harmony with the will of the Dharmakâya
+which is the norm of existence and the reason of being. The mission of
+love is ennobled and fulfilled in its true sense when we come to the
+faith that says “thy will be done.” Love without this resignation to
+the divine ordinance is merely another form of egoism: the root is
+already rotten, how can its trunk, stems, leaves, and flowers make a
+veritable growth?
+
+Let us then conclude with the following reflections of the Bodhisattva,
+in which we read the whole signification of Buddhism.
+
+{370}
+
+“Having practised all the six virtues of perfection (_pâramitâ_) and
+innumerable other meritorious deeds, the Bodhisattva reflects in this
+wise:
+
+“‘All the good deeds practised by me are for the benefit of all
+sentient beings, for their ultimate purification [from sin]. By the
+merit of these good deeds I pray that all sentient beings be released
+from the innumerable sufferings suffered by them in their various
+abodes of existence. By the turning over (_parivarta_) of these deeds
+I would be a haven for all beings and deliver them from their
+miserable existences; I would be a great beacon-light to all beings
+and dispel the darkness of ignorance and make the light of intelligence
+shine.’
+
+“He reflects again in this wise:
+
+“‘All sentient beings are creating evil karma in innumerable ways, and
+by reason of this karma they suffer innumerable sufferings. They do
+not recognise the Tathâgata, do not listen to the Good Law, do not
+pay homage to the congregation of holy men. All these beings carry an
+innumerable amount of great evil karma and are destined to suffer in
+innumerable ways. For their sake I will in the midst of the three evil
+creations suffer all their sufferings and deliver every one of them.
+Painful as these sufferings are, I will not retreat, I will not be
+frightened, I will not be negligent, I will not forsake my
+fellow-beings. Why? Because it is the will [of the Dharmakâya] that
+all sentient beings should be universally emancipated.’
+
+{371}
+
+“He reflects again in this wise:
+
+“‘My conduct will be like the sun-god who with his universal
+illumination seeks not any reward, who ceases not on account of one
+unrighteous person to make a great display of his magnificent glory,
+who on account of one unrighteous person abandons not the salvation of
+all beings. Through the dedication (_parivarta_) of all my merits I
+would make every one of my fellow-creatures happy and joyous.’” (The
+_Avatamsaka Sûtra_, fas XIV).
+
+{372}
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+{373}
+
+{374}
+
+{375}
+
+ HYMNS OF MAHÂYÂNA FAITH.
+
+ DHARMAKÂYA (TATHÂGATA).[a01]
+
+ In all beings there abideth the Dharmakâya;
+ With all virtues dissolved in it, it liveth in eternal calmness.
+ It knoweth nor birth nor death, coming nor going;
+ Not one, not two; not being, not becoming;
+ Yet present everywhere in worlds of beings:
+ This is what is perceived by all Tathâgatas.
+ All virtues, material and immaterial,
+ Dependent on the Dharmakâya, are eternally pure in it.
+
+ Like unto the sky is the ultimate nature of the Dharmakâya;
+ Far away from the six dusts, it is defilement-free.
+ Of no form and devoid of all attributes is the Dharmakâya,
+ In which are void both actor and action:
+ The Dharmakâya of all Buddhas, thus beyond comprehension,
+ Quells all the struggles of sophistry and dialectics,
+ Distances all the efforts of intellection,
+ Thoughts all are dead in it, and suchness alone abideth.
+
+ ---
+
+{376}
+
+ THE DHARMAKÂYA OF TATHÂGATA.[a02]
+
+ In all the worlds over the ten quarters,
+ O ye, sentient creatures living there,
+ Behold the most venerable of men and gods,
+ Whose spiritual Dharma-body is immaculate and pure.
+
+ As through the power of one mind,
+ A host of thoughts is evolved:
+ So from one Dharma-body of Tathâgata,
+ Are produced all the Buddha-bodies.
+
+ In Bodhi nothing dual there existeth,
+ Nor is any thought of self present:
+ The Dharma-body, undefiled and non-dual,
+ In its full splendor manifesteth itself everywhere.
+
+ Its ultimate reality is like unto the vastness of space;
+ Its manifested forms are like unto magic shows;
+ Its virtues excellent are inexhaustible,
+ This, indeed, the spiritual state of Buddhas only.
+
+ All the Buddhas of the present, past, and future,
+ Each one of them is an issue of the Dharma-body immaculate and pure;
+ Responding to the needs of sentient creatures,
+ They manifest themselves everywhere, assuming corporeality which is
+  beautiful.
+
+ They never made the premeditation
+ That they would manifest in such and such forms.
+ Separated are they from all desire and anxiety,
+ And free and self-acting are their responses.
+
+{377}
+
+ They do not negate the phenomenality of dharmas,
+ Nor do they affirm the world of individuals:
+ But manifesting themselves in all forms,
+ They teach and convert all sentient creatures.
+
+ The Dharma-body is not changeable,
+ Neither is it unchangeable;
+ All dharmas [in essence] are without change,
+ But manifestations are changeable.
+
+ The Sambodhi knoweth no bounds,
+ Extending as far as the limits of the Dharmaloka itself;
+ Its depths are bottomless, and its extent limitless;
+ Words and speeches are powerless to describe it.
+
+ Of all the ways that lead to Enlightenment
+ The Tathâgata knoweth the true significance;
+ Wandering freely all over the worlds,
+ Obstacles he encountereth nowhere.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE TATHÂGATA. (1)[a03]
+
+ The Tathâgata appeared not on earth,
+ Nor did he enter into Nirvana;
+ By the supreme power of his inmost will,
+ He reveals himself freely as he wills.[a04]
+
+ This fact is beyond comprehension,
+ Belongs not to the sphere of a limited consciousness,
+ Only an intelligence perfect and gone beyond
+ Is able to have an insight into the realm of Buddhas.
+
+{378}
+
+ The material body is not the Tathâgata,
+ Nor is the voice, nor the sound:
+ Yet he is not beyond the visible and the audible:
+ The Buddha has indeed a power miraculous.
+
+ People of little faith are unable to know
+ The inmost adytum of Buddhahood.
+ It is by the perfecting of primordial karma-intelligence
+ That the realm of all Buddhas is revealed.
+
+ All Buddhas come from nowhere,
+ And depart for nowhere:
+ The Body of Dharma that is pure, immaculate, and incomprehensible,
+ Is invested with a power miraculously free.
+
+ In infinity of worlds,
+ Revealing itself in the body of Tathâgata,
+ It universally preaches the Law supremely excellent,
+ And in its heart no attachment lingers.
+
+ An intellect that knows no limits or bounds
+ Perceives no obstacles in all dharmas,
+ And penetrates into the depths of the Dharmaloka,
+ Revealing itself with a power miraculously divine.
+
+ All sentient beings and all creatures,
+ It understandeth thoroughly without difficulty:
+ Its Bodies of Transformation are innumerable,
+ And universally revealed in all the worlds.
+
+ Those who seek after All-knowledge
+ May in course of time attain perfect enlightenment;
+ Let them above all purify the heart
+ And complete their discipline in Bodhisattvahood.
+
+{379}
+
+ And then they will see the Tathâgata’s
+ Immeasurable power that comes from his free will;
+ Devoid of all doubts they are, and accompanied
+ With sages whose virtue is unsurpassable.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE TATHÂGATA (2).[a05]
+
+ The Tathâgata, in pure golden color,
+ And in person resplendent and majestic,
+ In innumerable ages past,
+ All merits hath accumulated.
+
+ With bliss and wisdom all in perfection,
+ And the highest enlightenment attaining.
+ And with great loving heart animated,
+ He now appeareth in this world of endurance.
+
+ Men and devas and the eight hosts of demons,
+ All pay him homage most reverent,
+ Who, from his inmost self-being,
+ Preacheth the deepest spiritual Dharma.
+
+ Which is so unfathomably deep,
+ That Buddha alone can understand it:
+ Multitudes of beings, ignorant and blind,
+ Listening to it, are unable to comprehend.
+
+ The Tathâgata is the great leader of beings;
+ With skill that is excellent and marvellous,
+ Guiding all those ignorant souls,
+ By degrees bringeth them to Enlightenment.
+
+{380}
+
+ The heart of all beings is miraculously bright,
+ And eternally calm in its being.
+ Pure and immaculate and defilement-free,
+ It is replenished with all merits.
+
+ Its essence is like unto the sky:
+ Devoid of all limitations,
+ Knoweth neither birth nor death,
+ And there is neither coming nor departing.
+
+ Eternally abiding in the Dharma-essence,
+ It is immovable as the Mount Sumeru;
+ The oneness in it of all beings
+ Is indeed beyond finite knowledge.
+
+ Vulgar minds from time immemorial,
+ Blindly clinging to all passions,
+ Are thrown deep into the ocean of pain,
+ And know not how to escape.
+
+ The most profound doctrine of Tathâgata,
+ Full of meaning, spiritual and transcendental,
+ With recipient intellects in all degrees,
+ In harmony unfoldeth he the Law.
+
+ A shower of one taste from above
+ Covering all the ten quarters,
+ Grasses and trees, woods and forests,
+ Roots and trunks, large and small,
+
+ Of all growing on this vast earth,
+ Nothing is there that thereby itself benefiteth not.
+ The Law delivered by the Tathâgata
+ May even be likened unto it.
+
+{381}
+
+ With one voice which is wondrous,
+ He giveth utterance to thoughts innumerable,
+ That are received by audience of all sort,
+ Each understanding them in his own way.
+
+ In this wise among the assemblage,
+ None is there but that enters upon Buddha-knowledge
+ Such is Buddha’s miraculous power,
+ Truly called “Incomprehensible.”
+
+ ---
+
+ REPENTANCE.[a06]
+
+ Those who repent as prescribed by the Dharma,
+ Altogether their earthly sins uproot;
+ As fire on doomsday the world will consume,
+ With its mountain peaks and infinite seas.
+
+ Repentance burns up of earthly desires the fuel;
+ Repentance to heaven the sinners is leading;
+ Repentance the bliss of the four Dhyânas imparteth;
+ Repentance brings showers of jewels and gems;
+
+ Repentance a holy life renders firm as a diamond;
+ Repentance transports to the palace of bliss everlasting;
+ Repentance from the triple world’s prison releases;
+ Repentance makes blossom the bloom of the Bodhi.
+
+ ---
+
+{382}
+
+ ALL BEINGS ARE MOTHERS AND FATHERS.
+
+ All sentient beings in transmigration travel through the six gatis,
+ Like unto a wheel revolving without beginning and end,
+ Becoming in turn fathers and mothers, men and women:
+ Generations and generations, each owes something to others.
+
+ Ye should then regard all beings as fathers and mothers;
+ Though this truth is too hidden to be recognised without the aid of
+  Holy Knowledge,
+ All men are your fathers,
+ All women are your mothers.
+
+ While not yet requiting their love received in your prior lives,
+ Why should ye, thinking otherwise, harbor enmity?
+ Ever thinking of love, endeavor ye to benefit one another;
+ And provoke ye not hostility, quarreling and insulting.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE TEN PARÂMITÂS.
+
+ O ye, sons of Buddha, in the Holy Way trained,
+ With the Heart of Highest Intelligence awakened,
+ And living in seclusion at the Aranyaka,
+ Should practice the ten pâramitâs.
+
+ At daily meal think ye first of almsgiving,
+ And also distribute among beings the Treasure of Law;
+ When the three rings[a07] are pure, it is called true charity;
+ Through this practice perfected are the merits of discipline.
+
+{383}
+
+ Would ye understand the merits of almsgiving?
+ Know ye that it comes from the heart pure, and not from the wealth
+  given;
+ A precious treasure with a heart unclean,
+ Is surpassed by a mite with a heart clean.
+
+ Wealth giving is a dâna-pâramitâ,
+ And there are other dâna-pâramitâs:
+ To give away one’s life, wife, or children,
+ This is called blood-giving.
+
+ Should a man of good family come and ask for the Law
+ Let him have all the Mahâyâna sûtras explained,
+ And awaken in him the Heart of Highest Intelligence;
+ This is called a true pâramitâ.
+
+ With sympathy and pure faith and conscience,
+ Embrace ye all beings and befree them from greed,
+ That they might attain to the highest intelligence of the Tathâgata:
+ The giving of wealth and of the Law is the first pâramitâ.
+
+ Firmly observing the three sets of the Bodhisattva-çîlas,[a08]
+ O ye, evolve the Bodhi, distance birth-and-death,
+ Guard the Law of Buddha and make it long live in the world,
+ Repent the violation of the çîlas, and be always mindful of the true
+  ones.
+
+ Subdue ye anger and hate and cultivate in your heart love and
+  sympathy;
+ Mindful of the karma past, harbor ye not evil thoughts against
+  offenders;
+ Be not reluctant for the sake of all beings to sacrifice life:
+ This is called the pâramitâ of meekness.
+
+ In practicing what is hard to practice, hesitate ye not awhile;
+ With ever-increasing energy through three asankheya kalpas,
+ Defile not yourselves, but always discipline the heart;
+ And for the sake of all creatures seek ye salvation.
+
+{384}
+
+ Entering into and rising from the Samâdhi, spiritual freedom is
+  obtained:
+ Transforming yourselves and travelling in all the ten quarters,
+ Have for all beings the cause of evil desire removed,
+ And let them seek deliverance in the doctrine of Samâdhi.
+
+ Would ye desire to attain to True Intelligence?
+ Friendly approach Bodhisattvas and Tathâgatas;
+ Gladly listening to the doctrine transcendental and sublime,
+ Attain ye the three disciplines[a09] and remove the two
+  obstacles[a10].
+
+ Recognising difference in the disposition of beings,
+ Apply the medicine proper for each disease:
+ Love and sympathy, skill and expediency, each fitting the case,
+ Try the proper means for the benefit of the multitudes.
+
+ Would ye know the true meaning of existence?
+ The middle path lies in non-attachment, neither “yea” nor “nay”;
+ Intelligence pure is unfathomable and unites in Suchness;
+ Identify mine with thine, embracing the whole.
+
+ By the force of intellect, grasping the nature of beings,
+ Teach the masses each in accord with his capacity;
+ The force of intellect penetrating through the heart of all beings,
+ Destroys the root of transmigration in birth and death.
+
+ Intelligently judging between black and white,
+ Conscientiously take hold of one and put the other aside, and let
+  each rest in its place;
+ Samsâra and Nirvâna are but one in their essence;
+ Fulfilling the meaning of existence, cherish ye not self-conceit.
+
+ These ten deeds of excellence
+ Comprise all eighty-four thousand virtues;
+ Each in its class excels all the others,
+ And is called the Pâramitâ of Bodhisattva.
+
+{385}
+
+ Eighty-four thousand samâdhis
+ Becalm the disturbant mind of all beings;
+ Eighty-four thousand dhâranîs
+ Keep away all the prejudices and evil influences.
+
+ The Great Sage, King of Dharma, with marvellous skill,
+ Teacheth the Law in three ways and converteth all beings;
+ Casting the net of the Doctrine in the ocean of birth and death,
+ He draweth out men and gods to the abode of bliss.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BODHI.[a11]
+
+ All things are of the Bodhi,
+ The Bodhi is in all things;
+ The Bodhi and all things are one:
+ Who knoweth this is called the World-honored.
+
+ ---
+
+ NIRVANA AND THE THREE EVILS.
+
+ Greed is Nirvana;
+ So is hate, and folly;
+ In these three passions
+ There dwells a Buddha-dharma inexpressible.
+
+ Who severalises, thinking,
+ There’s greed, and hate, and folly,
+ He is as far from Buddha,
+ As heaven from earth.
+
+ The Bodhi and greed,
+ They’re one, not two:
+ Out of one Dharma-gate cometh all;
+ Here’s sameness, no diversity.
+
+{386}
+
+ This hearing, the vulgar stand aghast;
+ Far from the Buddha-path are they.
+ The heart, when innocent of greed,[a12]
+ Is never troubled.
+
+ In whose mind self is lurking still,
+ And who imagines that something he has,
+ Greedy is this man called,
+ And he is bound for hell.
+
+ What is the true nature of greed,
+ That is the nature of Buddha-dharma;
+ What is the nature of Buddha-dharma,
+ That is the nature of greed.[a13]
+
+ These two are of one nature;
+ That is, of no-nature;
+ Who knoweth this truth,
+ Would be the world-leader.
+
+ ---
+
+ NON-ATMAN AND PREJUDICE.[a14]
+
+ There once was an ignorant man;
+ So afraid of the sky was he
+ That piteously crying he wandered away.
+ Of its sudden collapse he was fearful.
+ But the sky has no boundary,
+ And to nobody ’t will be harmful.
+ It was due to his ignorance
+ That he trembled so fitfully.
+ With the Bhikshus and Brahmans
+ It is even so, who are prejudiced.
+ Learning that empty is the world,
+ Alarmed are they at heart;
+ And wrongly imagine that if empty were the nature of Âtman
+ Nothingness would be the end of all work.
+
+ ---
+
+{387}
+
+ NON-ACTION.
+
+ As the vacuity of sky,
+ Being so clear and free of cloud and fog,
+ Upon the earth below,
+ Betrays no signs a shower to give:
+ So the enlightened
+ Betray no learning, no intelligence:
+ And we, sentient beings,
+ Can trace no efforts in their deliverance of the Law.[a15]
+
+ ---
+
+ SELF-DELUSION.
+
+ There lived once a painter,
+ Who such a monstrous Yaksha painted
+ That he himself was terrified
+ And losing all his senses on the ground he fell:
+ ’Tis even so with vulgar minds;
+ Infatuated, self-deluded by the senses,
+ Of their own error they are unaware,
+ And go from birth to birth without an end.
+
+ ---
+
+ ALL IN ONE.
+
+ As all the waters in the valley
+ Are emptied in the ocean
+ Which is of one and the same taste:
+ So the enlightened,
+ Whatever is
+ Good and beneficial,
+ Turn over to the Bodhi
+ And to that Reality
+ In which all things become of one and the same taste.
+
+ ---
+
+{388}
+
+ NIHILISM.
+
+ The vast vacuity of space,
+ How limitless and measureless!
+ But in the midst of the void
+ How could a farmer sow his seeds?
+ ’Tis even so with Nihilism:
+ The past is gone forever,
+ The future’s not here yet,
+ And in the present no Buddha-seeds have they.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE NIHILIST.
+
+ A man who suffers from a disease incurable,
+ However excellent his treatment be,
+ Impossible he will find his health to gain,
+ For his defies all means of remedy.
+ ’Tis even so with them who walk in the way of emptiness;
+ No matter whereso’er they be,
+ How blindly they are clinging unto it!
+ Such I declare to be incurable.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA (1)
+
+ As in its oneness the element earth
+ Embraces diversities of objects,
+ And discriminates not this or that;
+ Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+ As in its oneness the element fire
+ Burns everything on earth,
+ And discriminates not in its nature;
+ Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+{389}
+
+ As waters in the vast ocean,
+ Absorbing hundreds of streams,
+ Are of the same taste forever;
+ Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+ As the dragon-god with thunder and lightning
+ Brings showers on the earth all over,
+ And the rain-drops discriminate not;
+ Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA. (2)
+
+ As in her oneness mother earth
+ Creates diversities of seeds
+ And in her inmost no discrimination knows;
+ E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+ As in the cloudless sky the sun
+ O’er the ten quarters all illuminates,
+ And in its brightness shows no difference;
+ E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+ As high up in the heavens is the moon
+ Beheld by all beings on earth,
+ And there’s nowhere her glory reaches not;
+ E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+ The Brahma-râja great
+ In thousands of worlds himself all manifests
+ And knows in his being no diversities;
+ E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.
+
+ ---
+
+{390}
+
+ THE PASSIONS AND WISDOM.
+
+ Only in the filthiness of soil,
+ Could the seed be sown and grow;
+ Even so in the mire of passion
+ Cherished by all sentient beings
+ All over the world,
+ If by the sons of Buddha well attended to,
+ There will grow the seed of Buddha-dharma.
+
+ Just as in filth and mud
+ The lotus grows and blooms,
+ Even so in a heart defiled with evil karma
+ The seeds of Buddha-dharma are growing.
+
+ ---
+
+ IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT. (1)
+
+ A mansion there was once which was a hundred thousand years of age;
+ No occupant was there, nor doors nor windows;
+ Devas and men, all of a sudden,
+ There came and burned a lamp;
+ And the darkness that dwelt so long
+ Departed instantly without a word.
+ The inky darkness that the mansion filled
+ Resisted not, “I’ve lived here for ages,
+ And I’ll never be removed from here.”
+ Even with karma-consciousness and the horde of passions in the heart,
+ The analogy holds true.
+ Though there abiding many hundred thousand kalpas,
+ Their ultimate nature is not true nor real.
+ When a traveler, day or night,
+ Enters upon the truthful path,
+ The lamp of wisdom burns in its full splendor;
+ And the horde of evil passions
+ Cannot tarry there, even for a moment.
+
+ ---
+
+{391}
+
+ IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT. (2)
+
+ Bright shines the lamp,
+ And the inky night is gone.
+ But with the darkness
+ The quarters vanish not;
+ Yet this illuminating lamp,
+ If not in the dark, nowhere doth shine:
+ For light and dark depend upon each other;
+ No selfhood having,[a16] they’re empty.
+ ’Tis even so with enlightenment.
+ In comes enlightenment,
+ And out goes ignorance of its own accord.
+ But both are like unto the flowers in the air,
+ For neither by itself exists;
+ Impossible is one alone, either to keep or to forego.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BODHISATTVA AND ALL BEINGS[a17]
+
+ Great Mother Earth
+ All creatures
+ Provides and nourishes,
+ But from none of them
+ She seeks a favor special, nor is she to any partial:
+ So is the Bodhisattva.
+ Since his awakening of the Heart,
+ Until he gains the depths of the Law
+ And realises the highest knowledge,
+ He toils to save all creatures,
+ Himself no favor seeking, nor to others granting any;
+ Regardless of friend and enemy,
+ Embracing all with single heart,
+ He fashions one and all for Bodhi.
+
+ * * *
+
+{392}
+
+ The element Water
+ All permeating
+ Makes herbs and trees
+ In luxury grow,
+ Yet any favor special it nor shows nor seeks;
+ So is the Bodhisattva;
+ With a pure heart of love
+ All sentient beings equally embraces he;
+ All permeating gradually, universally,
+ The seeds immaculate he nourishes,
+ Which, breaking down all evils powerful,
+ Obtain the fruit of Buddha-knowledge.
+
+ * * *
+
+ The element Fire
+ Matures and ripens all
+ The tender shoots of the cereals;
+ Yet the element fire
+ From those young plants
+ No favor seeks, nor any shows to them;
+ So is the Bodhisattva:
+ With knowledge-fire
+ Matures he all
+ The tender shoots of creatures;
+ Yet he from them
+ No favor special seeks, nor shows he any.
+
+ * * *
+
+ The element Air,
+ By reason of its virtue,
+ Pervades all over Buddha-lands;
+ With the Bodhisattva
+ ’Tis even so,
+ Who with consummate skill
+ To Buddha’s children
+ Preaches the Doctrine Holy.
+
+ ---
+
+{393}
+
+ THE BODHISATTVA.
+
+ /His Firmness/.
+
+ As Mâra, the evil one,
+ Commanding his four armies,
+ Even by the devas in the Kâmaloka,
+ Cannot be overwhelmed;
+ So is the Bodhisattva,
+ Whose heart, pure and clean,
+ By all the hosts of Evil,
+ Cannot be tempted, nor confused.
+
+ /His Progress/.
+
+ As the new moon,
+ In size increasing gradually,
+ Becomes perfect and full in the end;
+ Even so the Bodhisattva,
+ With a heart defilement-free,
+ All the good dharmas seeking and performing,
+ In virtue gradually progresses,
+ And finally obtains the Law of Purity, perfect and full.
+
+ /His Enlightenment/.
+
+ The rising sun,
+ All illumining,
+ All forms and images in the world
+ In glory are revealed;
+ So is the Bodhisattva:
+ The light of knowledge emitting,
+ And sentient beings illumining,
+ Bringeth he all to wisdom.
+
+{394}
+
+ /His Fearlessness/.
+
+ Lion, the king of beasts,
+ Majestic, overpowering,
+ And in the forest wandering,
+ Knows he no fear, no terror;
+ So is the Bodhisattva:
+ Calmly abiding in Learning,
+ Intelligence, and Morality,
+ Throughout the universe,
+ Wherever he wanders about,
+ Knows he no fear, no doubt.
+
+ /His Energy/.
+
+ The giant elephant,
+ With energy wondrous,
+ A burden heavy carrying,
+ Shows not the least fatigue;
+ So is the Bodhisattva:
+ Bearing, for the sake of the masses,
+ The misery of the flesh,
+ He shows not the least apathy.
+
+ /His Purity/.
+
+ The lotus-flower,
+ Though growing in the marshy land,
+ By dirt, or mire, or filth
+ Is not defiled;
+ So is the Bodhisattva:
+ Though living in this world,
+ No form of passion
+ Ever touches him.
+
+{395}
+
+ /His Self-sacrifice/.
+
+ There lived once a man
+ Who craftily and skillfully
+ Felled the trunks of trees,
+ But left the roots untouched,
+ That after due time
+ They might once more be growing;
+ ’Tis even so with the Bodhisattva:
+ With the upâya that is excellent,
+ Desires and passions down he fells,
+ But leaves their seed unscathed
+ By reason of his all-embracing love,
+ And thereby ever and anon comes he on earth.[a18]
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BODHISATTVA’S HOMELESS LIFE.[a19]
+
+ The homeless Bodhisat regards the home life [or the world at large]
+ As a hurricane that abates not awhile,
+ Or as the moon’s illusive image in water cast,
+ Which the imagination takes deliberately for the real.
+
+ The water in itself contains no lunar image [real];
+ The real moon, dependent on water clear, a shadow casts;
+ So are all beings unreal; only conditionally they exist;
+ Yet ’tis imagined by the vulgar that an Atman they have.
+
+ The Atman is the product of conditions, and real it is not;
+ But for a reality the imagination it takes.
+ Have the two prejudices[a20] removed,
+ And we perceive Intelligence most high and peerless.
+
+{396}
+
+ Our confused imagination is like unto a black storm,
+ Blowing over the woods of birth and death, stirs up the leaves of
+  consciousness:
+ By the four winds of fallacy ’tis haunted all the time,
+ And five damnation-causes it produces,
+ Entwining are indeed the roots of evil, which are three,
+ Through birth and death doth transmigration ever onward move.
+
+ Who to the Sutras listen and in them devoutly believe,
+ The right view they acquire, removing all the thoughts which are
+  fallacious,
+ And every instant growing are Seeds of Intelligence,
+ And the Samâdhi of knowledge great and of spirituality is awakened.
+
+ When well disciplined in speculation deep and subtle,
+ In the dark no more we grope, nor do we reap the crop of pain;
+ Perceiving Suchness in the ultimate nature of things,
+ Subject and object both gone, and vanished are all sins.
+
+ Female and male, they’re attributes, and they are void essentially:
+ The ignorant imagine and create the two which only relatively exist.
+ The Buddha has destroyed permanently the cause of ignorance,
+ And in the ultimate reality nothing particular sees he, male or
+  female.
+
+ The excellent fruit of wisdom, if ever attained, remains the same for
+  aye;
+ The vulgar nathless imagine wrongly and see therein a thing concrete
+  and definite.
+ The Buddha’s features thirty-two are after all no-features;
+ Who sees no-features in the features, the feature true he understands.
+
+{397}
+
+ To wander homeless, and immaculate deeds to practise,
+ Over the heart to watch, in solitude quietly to sit:
+ This is the rightful way the Bodhisattva cleanses his heart;
+ Erelong will he attain the fruit of enlightenment.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BUDDHIST.[a21]
+
+ Encourage not, for your self-interests,
+ Heterodoxy and false doctrines;
+ A merciful heart for all have ye;
+ Remove stupidity and untruth from your minds;
+ Be ye Tathâgata’s most faithful servants;
+ And teach the masses who are ignorant,
+ To them the Bodhi impart, on yourselves it practising;
+ And thereby make the Buddha’s name resound on earth;
+ Deliver the multitudes from sin and initiate them
+ To the perfect enlightenment of the Buddha:
+ Ye by these virtues firmly stand,
+ And your Intelligence-heart doth never fail.
+
+ ---
+
+ HYMN TO THE BODHISATTVA.[a22]
+
+ With lovingkindness, a Great Being who saves and protects,
+ Regards all beings impartially as his only child;
+ Energetically, cheerfully, and without stint,
+ His life he sacrifices, uprooting pain, and bringing bliss
+  unspeakable.
+
+ Surely he will attain the height of truth and beauty,
+ Forever be freed from the entanglement of birth and death.
+ And erelong will he the fruit of enlightenment obtain,
+ Eternally peaceful, and in the Uncreate joy finding.
+
+ ---
+
+{398}
+
+ A VOW OF THE BODHISATTVA.[a23]
+
+ For the sake of all sentient beings on earth,
+ I aspire for the abode of enlightenment which is most high;
+ In all-embracing love awakened, and with a heart steadily firm,
+ Even my life I will sacrifice, dear as it is.
+
+ In enlightenment no sorrows are found, no burning desires;
+ ’Tis enjoyed by all men who are wise.
+ All sentient creatures from the turbulent waters of the triple world,
+ I’ll release, and to eternal peace them I’ll lead.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE TRUE HOMELESS ONE.[a24]
+
+ Though not wearing the yellow robe,
+ Whose heart is free from defilement,
+ In the doctrine of Buddhas,
+ He is the true homeless one.
+
+ Though not devoid of showy ornaments,
+ Who has cut off all entanglements,
+ And in whose heart exists neither knottiness nor looseness,
+ He is the true homeless one.
+
+ Though not initiated by the Rules,
+ Whose heart is clean of all evil thoughts,
+ And open only to tranquillity, intelligence, and virtuous deeds,
+ He is the true homeless one.
+
+ Though not instructed in the Law,
+ Whose insight goes deep into the ultimate,
+ And is no more deluded by sham appearances,
+ He is the true homeless one.
+
+{399}
+
+ The mind that takes no thought of the ego,
+ That goes beyond the illusory phenomena,
+ Yet sinks not into stupidity
+ Truly awakened to Intelligence it is.
+
+ Whose mind, awakened to Intelligence,
+ Sees no substantiality in the ego,
+ And, not seeing, yet remains firm,
+ This man cannot be injured.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BODHISATTVA’S SPIRITUAL LIFE.[a25]
+
+ Like unto the vast ocean that receives
+ All the waters, and yet overflows not;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Who knoweth no fatigue in seeking the merits of the Dharma.
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean that absorbs
+ All the streams, and yet shows no increase;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Who, receiving the deepest Dharma, nothing gaineth.[a26]
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean that refuses to take filth,
+ And wherein when absorbed doth foulness change to purity;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Whom all the filth of passion cannot tarnish.
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean whose bottom is unfathomable;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Whose virtues and wisdom are so immeasurable
+ That none ever knows their limits.
+
+{400}
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean in which there’s no diversity,
+ All the waters and streams pouring thereinto become of one taste
+  alone;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Who listeneth to one note of Dharma.
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean that existeth not
+ For the interests of one individual;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Whose aspirations are for the benefit of all.
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean that embosoms the jewel called
+  “all-jewel.”
+ Of which all jewels are produced;
+ Even so is the jewel-treasure of the Bodhisattva,
+ For it is through this that all the other jewels shine.
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean that produces the three kinds of
+  jewel,
+ And yet discriminates not between them;
+ Even so is the teaching of the Bodhisattva,
+ Who, equally delivering the three yânas, maketh not any distinction.
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean that by degrees becomes deeper;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Who, practising virtues for the sake of all,
+ Forever aspireth after the deepest omniscience.
+
+ Again, like unto the vast ocean that harbors not a corpse;
+ Even so is the Bodhisattva,
+ Who, with the heart of purity and the vow of Bodhi,
+ Harboreth not a passion, nor the thought of the Çrâvaka.
+
+ ---
+
+{401}
+
+ THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (1)[a27]
+
+ Perceiving all in one,
+ And one in all,
+ The Bodhisattva diligent in his work
+ Is never given up to indolence.
+
+ Pain he shunneth not, to pleasure he clingeth not,
+ As he is ever bent on the deliverance of all beings;
+ To him all Buddhas will themselves reveal,
+ And of their presence he is never weary.
+
+ He is in the deepest depths of the Dharma,
+ Where is found the inexhaustible ocean of merit.
+ All sentient beings in the fivefold path of existence,
+ He loveth as his own child;
+ Removing things unclean and filthy,
+ Supplying them with dharmas pure and immaculate.
+
+ ---
+
+ THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (2)[a28]
+
+ While to the doctrine most high listening,
+ The Light of Pure Intelligence within me glows,
+ That shining over all the universe
+ All the enlightened ones to me reveals.
+
+ Who think there are individuals
+ They put themselves in the position most difficult;
+ Dharmas have no ego-master which is real,
+ For they are merely names and expressions.
+
+ The vulgar and ignorant know not
+ That within themselves they have a reality true and real,
+ That the Tathâgata is not of any particular form;
+ Therefore the Tathâgata they see not.
+
+{402}
+
+ Dirt and dust obscuring their intelligence-eye,
+ Enlightenment perfect and true they see not;
+ And throughout kalpas immeasurable and innumerable,
+ In the stream of birth and death they go a-rolling.
+
+ Wandering and rolling is Samsâra,
+ No-more-a-rolling is Nirvâna;
+ Yet Samsâra and Nirvâna,
+ Absolutely, exists neither of them.
+
+ To believer in falsehood and sophistry,
+ Samsâra is here and Nirvâna there;
+ Clearly they grasp not the Dharma of ancient sages,
+ Nor understand the Path Incomparable.
+
+ Those who thus cling to forms individual,
+ Of Buddha’s universal enlightenment, though they hear,
+ Themselves negate, and away they wander from the right course of
+  thought;
+ Therefore, they cannot see the Buddha.
+
+ Who the Dharma of Truth perceive,
+ Serene they are for aye, and abide in Suchness;
+ Enlightenment most truthful they understand,
+ Transcending words and all the modes of speech.
+
+ Illusory are all forms individual;
+ No such thing as dharma here exists:
+ No enlightened ones
+ Seek Truth in things particular.
+
+ Whose insight to the past extends,
+ To the future and over the present,
+ And who fore’er abides in serenity of Suchness,
+ He’s said to be a Tathâgata.
+
+ ---
+
+{403}
+
+ THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (3)[a29]
+
+ I would rather suffer sufferings innumerable
+ That I might listen to the voices of Buddhas,
+ Than enjoy all sorts of pleasure
+ And not hear Buddhas’ names.
+
+ The reason why since ages out of mind
+ We suffer sufferings countless
+ And transmigrate through birth and death,
+ Is that we have not heard Buddhas’ names.
+
+ A reality that exists in things unreal,
+ A perfect Intellect synthetising truth and falsehood,
+ And that which transcends all the modes of relativity,
+ This is called the Bodhi.
+
+ Buddhas of the present are not products of composite conditions,
+ Nor are those of the past, nor those of the future.
+ What is formless in all forms,
+ That is the true essence of Buddhas.
+
+ Who thus perceives
+ The deepest significance of all existences,
+ In innumerable Buddhas, he will see
+ The truth and reality of the Dharma-body.
+
+ The Dharma-body knows truth as true,
+ And falsehood as false,
+ And well understands the realm of reality;
+ Therefore, it is called perfect intellect.
+
+ The enlightened has nothing enlightened,
+ Which is the true spirituality of all Buddhas:
+ And in this wise they behave,
+ Neither to be one nor to be two.
+
+{404}
+
+ They see the one in the many,
+ They see the many in the one
+ The Dharma has nothing to depend upon;
+ How could it be a product of combination?
+
+ The actor and the action,
+ Neither really subsists:
+ Who can understand this,
+ Seeks not reality in either of them.
+
+ And here where reality is unseekable,
+ Buddhas find there the resting abode
+ The Dharma has nothing to depend upon;
+ And the enlightened have nothing to cling to.
+
+{405}
+
+
+
+
+ NOTES
+ TO THE APPENDIX.
+
+[a01] This and the following are translations from some Mahâyâna texts
+in the Buddhist Tripitaka, which were rendered into the Chinese
+language at various times from Sanskrit mostly through the co-operation
+of the Hindu missionaries and Chinese scholars. A detailed analysis of
+these texts is most urgently needed, as they contain many informations
+of great importance not only concerning the history of Buddhism in
+India but also concerning early Hindu culture generally. A rather
+incomplete idea as to their contents and material and general character
+will be attained by the perusal of Rev. Nanjo’s _Catalogue of the
+Chinese Tripitaka_, Oxford, 1883.
+
+_Mahâyâna-mûlajâta-hṛdayabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra_, (Nanjo, no. 955,) fas.
+iii.
+
+[a02] The _Avatamsaka_, fas. xiv., p. 73.
+
+[a03] _The Avatamsaka_, (Buddhabhadra’s translation), fas. xiv, p. 72.
+
+[a04] To conceive the Tathâgata as a personal being who appeared on
+earth for a certain limited time and then eternally disappeared is not
+Mahâyânistic. He reveals himself constantly and of his own will in
+this world of particulars.
+
+[a05] _Sarvadharma-pravṛtti-nirdeça Sûtra_ (Nanjo, no. 1012).
+
+[a06] _Mahâyâna-mûlajâta-hrdavabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra_ (Nanjo 955), fas.
+iii, p. 75.
+
+[a07] The three rings are: 1. the giver, 2. the receiver, and 3. the
+thing given, material or immaterial.
+
+[a08] Precepts. The three sets are: 1. one relating to good behavior,
+2. to the accumulation of merit, and 3. to lovingkindness toward all
+beings.
+
+{406}
+
+[a09] The mental (subjective), physical (objective), and oral.
+
+[a10] The intellectual and the affective.
+
+[a11] _Sarvadharma-pravṛtti-nirdeça Sûtra._
+
+[a12] Literally, “when greed is neither born nor dead.” This means, to
+live in the world as not living in it. This subjective divine
+innocence is thought by Buddhists the essence of the religious life.
+The consciousness of one’s worth, or self-conceit, is a great obstacle
+in the path of perfect virtue. As in the case of mechanical work or
+physical exercise, we attain perfect skillfulness only when the work
+is involuntarily done, i.e., without any conscious effort on the part
+of the performer; so in our moral and spiritual life we attain the
+height of virtuousness or saintliness when we identify ourselves with
+the reason of our being. This is Laotze’s doctrine of non-action or
+non-resistance, and also the teaching of the _Bhagavadgîta_. As
+remarked elsewhere, when a man reaches this stage of religious life,
+he ceases to be human, but divine, in the sense that he transcends the
+world of good and evil and eternally abides in the realm of the
+beautiful.
+
+[a13] This is a very radical statement and is enough to frighten timid
+moralists and “God-fearing” pietists. Therefore, it is said that “Give
+not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
+swine.” But think not that this is expounding antinomianism.
+
+[a14] This and all the following are taken from the _Kâṣyapa-Parivarta_
+(Nanjo, 805).
+
+[a15] This gâthâ may not be very intelligible to our readers. The
+sense is: Whatever is done by a Buddha or Bodhisattva does not come
+from logical calculation or deliberate premeditation, but immediately
+from his inmost heart, which, in most natural and freest manner,
+responds to the needs of the suffering. This response is altogether
+free from all human elaboration, for the Buddha shows no painful and
+struggling efforts in so doing. Everything he does is like the work of
+nature herself. His life is above the narrow sphere of human morality
+which is marked with a desperate struggle between good and evil. His
+is in the realm of the divinely beautiful.
+
+{407}
+
+[a16] “Having no selfhood” (_svabhâva_), means that things have no
+independent existence, no self-nature which will eternally preserve
+their thingish identity. This theory has been explained in the chapter
+dealing with the doctrine of non-atman. To state summarily, darkness
+and light are conditioned by each other; apart from darkness there is
+no light, and conversely, without light darkness has no meaning. Even
+so with enlightenment and ignorance: one independent of the other,
+they have no existence, they cannot be conceived. They are like
+imaginary flowers in the air projected there by a confused
+subjectivity. They are nothing but our ideal fabrication. To cling to
+God only, forgetting that we are living in the world below, in the
+world of relativity, is just as much one-sided as to lose ourselves in
+the whirlpool of earthly pleasures without the thought of God. Life,
+however, is not antithetic, but synthetic. Truth is never one-sided,
+it is always in the middle. Therefore, seek enlightenment in ignorance
+and truth in error. A dualistic interpretation of the world and life
+is not approved by Buddhists. Compare the sentiment expressed herein
+with Emerson’s poem as elsewhere quoted, in which these lines occur:
+
+
+ “But in the mud and scum of things,
+ There always, always, something sings.”
+
+
+[a17] _The Kâṣyapaharivarta Sûtra_ (Nanjo, 805.).
+
+[a18] The sense is: The Bodhisattva never desires a complete
+absorption in the Absolute, in which no individual existences are
+distinguishable. He always leaves the “Will to live” unhurt, as it
+were, so that he could come in this world of particulars ever and
+anon. What he has destroyed is the egoistic assertion of the Will, for
+the aim of Buddhism is not to remove the eternal principle of life,
+but to manifest it in its true significance. The wishes of the
+Bodhisattva, therefore, are never egocentric; he knows that
+transmigration and rebirth are painful, but as it is by rebirth alone
+that he could mingle himself in the world of sin and save the
+suffering creatures therein, he never shuns the misery of life. His
+work of revelation is constant and eternal.
+
+[a19] _The Mahâyâna-mûlajâti-hrdayabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra_, fas. IV.
+
+{408}
+
+[a20] The two prejudices or obstacles that lie in our way to
+enlightenment are: 1 that which arises from intellectual
+shortsightedness; 2. that which arises from impurity of heart.
+
+[a21] _Sûtra on Mahâkâṣyapa’s Question Concerning the Absolute._
+
+[a22] _Suvarna-Prabhâ Sûtra._
+
+[a23] _Suvarna-Prabhâ Sûtra_, Chap. 26
+
+[a24] _Padmapani Sûtra_, Fas. 8.
+
+[a25] _The Avatamsaka Sutra._
+
+[a26] This means that the heart of the Bodhisattva which is pure and
+eternal in its essential nature has nothing added externally to it by
+studying the Dharma; for the Dharma is nothing else than the
+expression of his own heart.
+
+[a27] The _Avatamsaka_, fas. IX, p. 48. This pantheistic thought of
+the One-All is generally considered to be Buddhistic; but the truth is
+that every genuine religious sentiment inevitably leads us to this
+final conviction. Even in the so-called transcendental monotheistic
+Christianity, we find the pantheistic thought boldly proclaimed and
+put in contrast to the idea of “our Father which art in Heaven.” For
+instance, read the following passage from Thomas à Kempis: “He to whom
+all things are one, he who reduceth all things to one, and seeth all
+things in one, may enjoy a quiet mind, and remain at peace in God.”
+(Chap. III.) The passage in the Gospel of John declaring that “the
+Father is in me and I in him,” when logically carried out, comes to
+echo the same sentiment entertained by Buddhists, who recognise a
+manifestation of the Dharmakâya in all beings, animate as well as
+inanimate. The Christianity of to-day is that of Paul as expounded in
+his letters, but the future one will advance a few steps more and will
+be that of John.
+
+[a28] From the _Avatamsaka Sutra_.
+
+[a29] From the _Avatamsaka Sutra_.
+
+
+
+
+ INDEX.
+
+{409}
+
+Abhimukî (sixth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 318.
+
+Acalâ (eighth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 322.
+
+Açoka, King, 49.
+
+Açrava (evil), explained, 249 ft.
+
+Açûnya, 22, 95.
+
+Açvaghosha, 4, 8, 61 ft., 65 ft., 111, 115; on Âlaya, 66 ft., 129, 139
+ft.; _Awakening of Faith_, 7; on Suchness, 99; on Ignorance, 118; and
+Dionysius, 102 ft.; _Buddhacarita_, quoted, 147; on Mahâyânism, 246;
+on the Sambhogakâya, 258, 333.
+
+Agnosticism, 25.
+
+Âlaya (or Âlaya-vijñâna), All-conserving Soul, 66; as depository of
+“germs”, 66; creator of the universe, 68; and the Garbha, 125 et seq.;
+its evolution, 128; and the soul, 165; and the twelve nidânas, 183.
+
+Amitâbha, 207, 219, 269.
+
+Anânârtha (non-particularisation), 72.
+
+Ânanda attempts to locate the soul, 157.
+
+Ânâpânam, exercise in breathing, 53 ft.
+
+Arada, 146.
+
+Arcismatî (fourth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 316.
+
+Arhatship and Mahâyânism, 288.
+
+Âryadeva, 3 ft., 8, 60.
+
+Asanga (and Vasubandhu), 4, 62, 65, 69, 87, 88, 153, 231, 234, 263,
+354.
+
+{410}
+
+Asceticism repudiated, 52, 53.
+
+Atman, and Samkhyan Lingham, 38; and the Vedantic çarîra, 38; and
+Vijñâna, 39; and unity of consciousness, 40; and karma, 41; and
+impermanency, 43; and egoism, 44; and the “old man”, 165. (_See also_
+“ego” and “soul”.)
+
+Atonement, vicarious, 291 ft.
+
+_Avatamsaka Sûtra_, The, on Bodhisattva’s reflections, 369 et seq.
+
+Avenikas (unique features), 327 ft.
+
+Avidyâ (ignorance), 35 et seq., 115.
+
+
+Balas, the ten, of the Buddha, 327.
+
+Beal, Samuel, refuted, 20 et seq. _Catena of Buddhist Scriptures_,
+quoted, 157 ft.; _Romantic History of Buddha_, quoted, on Buddha’s
+enlightenment, 337.
+
+_Bhagavadgîta_, quoted, 126 ft.
+
+Bhûtatathâtâ (Suchness), 99 et seq; and Mahâyâna, 7; and perfect
+knowledge, 92.
+
+Bodhi (wisdom), 46; and Prajñâ etc., defined, 82 ft.; as perfect
+knowledge, 92; its meaning explained, 294; by Nâgârjuna, 297; as a
+reflex of Dharmakâya, 299; how awakened in human heart, 302.
+
+Bodhicitta (Intelligence-heart), 52. (_See also_ “Bodhi.”)
+
+Bodhi-Dharma, of Dhyâna sect, 103, 149, 155.
+
+Bodhipakshikas, the seven, 316 et seq.
+
+Bodhisattva, above samsara and nirvana, 72; in the three yânas, 277;
+the conception of, in primitive Buddhism, 286; we are, 290; and love,
+292; his ten pranidhanas, 308; his reflections, 369.
+
+Bodhisattvahood, ten stages of, 70, 311 et seq.
+
+Bodhisattva-yâna, 9.
+
+_Brahdaranyaka Upanishad_, quoted, 102 ft.
+
+{411}
+
+Buddha, and his self-relying spirit, 57; culmination of good karma,
+215; in the Mahâyâna texts, 243; the idealisation of, historically
+treated, 249 et seq.; in the Trikâya, 252; the human, and the
+spiritual Dharmakâya, 255; his 32 major and 80 minor marks of
+greatness, 271; in the process of idealisation, 289; in the
+Mahâyânism, 291; and Mâra, 334; on the ego-soul in the beginning of
+his religious career, 337.
+
+_Buddhacarita_, quoted, 57.
+
+Buddhadharma, 355.
+
+_Buddha-Essence, Discourse on_, 357 ft.
+
+Buddha-intelligence, 364.
+
+Buddhism(s), geographically divided, 3, 4; two, 4 et seq.; and
+atheism, 31; and the soul problem, 31 et seq.; and agnosticism, 35;
+and modern psychology, 40; intellectual, 56 et seq.; liberal, 56 et
+seq.; and speculation, 81 et seq.; and science, 97.
+
+Buddhist(s) classified, 8 et seq.; life and love, 52; ideal, 53;
+aspiration, 368; rule of conduct, 368.
+
+
+Çâkyamuni contrasted to Devadatta, 200.
+
+Carlyle’s _Hero-Worship_, quoted, 325 ft.
+
+Causation, universal, and emptiness, 176.
+
+Christ and Buddha, compared, 57, 58.
+
+Christian conception of the ego-soul, 166.
+
+Christianity, the growth of, compared with Mahâyânism, 12 et seq.; and
+its founder, 13; not intellectual, 79.
+
+Çikshas (moral rules), ten, 70 ft.
+
+Confucius, 63 ft.
+
+Consciousness, subliminal, 201.
+
+Conservation of energy, and karma, 34.
+
+Convictions, the four, of the Buddha, 327.
+
+{412}
+
+Çrâvaka, 277.
+
+Çrâvaka-yâna, 9.
+
+_Çrimâla Sûtra_, quoted, 127.
+
+Çûnyatâ, (or çûnya), 22, 95; and Christian critics, 105; explained,
+173; and universal causation, 176.
+
+
+Daçabhûmi, (_see_ “ten stages of Bodhisattvahood”), 311, 329.
+
+Deussen, P., quoted, 107.
+
+Devala, 361, 364.
+
+Dharma, its meaning, 21, 221.
+
+Dharmadhatu, 115 ft., 193.
+
+Dharmakâya, Mahâyâna, 7; briefly explained, 20, 45 et seq.; the
+highest principle, 35; and Brahman, 46; and Paramâtman, 46; and God of
+Christians, 46; as love and wisdom, 46, 54, 55; and non-ego, 47; and
+the Golden Rule, 48; and Bodhisattvas, 61; its universal incarnation,
+63 ft.; in the Trikâya, 73, 257; as perfect knowledge, 92; and prajñâ,
+94; as a cosmic mind, 123; a unity, 193; and Suchness, 217; as God,
+219; as religious object, 222; in the _Avatamsaka Sutra_, 223; its
+detailed characterisation, 224; in the phenomenal world, 231; as love,
+232; as a loving heart in the _Avatamsaka_, 233; its seven
+characteristics, 234; by Asanga and Vasubandhu, 234; its five modes of
+operation, 235; its freedom, 236; its pûrvanidhânabala, 237; as
+rational will, 238; as father, 239; and its perpetual revelation, 259;
+the evolution of its conception, 272; all beings are one in, 290; and
+the Bodhi, 295.
+
+_Dharmapada_, The, quoted, 34, 145, 336, 368.
+
+Dharmamegha (tenth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 326.
+
+Dharmapala, the Anâgarika, 3 ft.
+
+_Discourse on Buddha-Essence_, The, by Vasubandhu, 357.
+
+Dûrangama (seventh stage of Bodhisattvahood), 319.
+
+{413}
+
+
+Ego, not the source of energy, 55; noumenal, 145, 163; phenomenal,
+145; empirical, 163.
+
+Egoism and the evolution of Manas, 134.
+
+Ego-soul, and its attributes, 147; and the five skandhas, 149; located
+by Ananda, 157; and the Christian flesh, 166; and the Vedantic
+conception, 167 et seq.; and Nâgârjuna, 168; and svabhava, 171; and
+Christians, 212; as conceived by Buddha when he started on his
+religious career, 337. (_See also_ “Ego”, “âtman” and “soul”).
+
+Ekacitta, (one mind or thought), 70 ft.
+
+Elders, the School of, 248 et seq.
+
+Elephant and the blind, 100.
+
+Emerson, quoted, 29.
+
+Enlightenment, 55, 119; and manas, 134; two obstacles to, 344 ft.
+
+
+Faith, its contents vary, 27 et seq.
+
+Fatalism, 196.
+
+
+Gautama and Christ, 29. (_See also_ “Buddha”).
+
+God, the Buddhist, 219. (_See also_ “Dharmakâya”).
+
+Goethe’s Faust, quoted, 181.
+
+Golden Rule, the, universal, 54.
+
+Great Council School, the, 248 et seq.
+
+Guyau, French sociologist, 50 ft., 84.
+
+
+Hartmann’s Unbewusste, 137.
+
+Hetus and Pratyayas, 33, 41, 142, 148.
+
+Hînayânism, 1, 60, 63, 280.
+
+Hugo, Victor, quoted, 58.
+
+Hui-K’e, second patriarch of Zen sect, 148.
+
+{414}
+
+
+Iccantika (incapable of salvation), 311.
+
+Ignorance, 35 et seq.; and evolution, 115; and consciousness, 120; no
+evil, 122; when evil? 124; and Tathâgata-Garbha, 126; and Manas, 133;
+and Prakrit, 138 ft.
+
+_Imitation of Christ_, 364 fn.
+
+Immortality, 38; and Dharmakâya, 54; karmaic and not individual, 214.
+
+Injustice, social, and karma, 186
+
+Intelligence, awakened by love, 362.
+
+
+_Jâtaka Tales_, the, quoted, 156.
+
+Jesus, 6.
+
+Jîvâtman, 145.
+
+
+Kant, 6; _Critique of Pure Reason_, quoted, 324.
+
+Karma, and the law of causation, 33; briefly explained, 33 et seq.;
+and non-atman, 42; and suchness, 181; defined, 181; the working of,
+183; irrefragable, 184; and injustice, 186; and the moral laws, 189;
+an individualistic view, 192; and the desire to communicate, 195; and
+determinism, 196; not like a machine, 198; and immortality, 203; and
+Walt Whitman (quoted), 203; how transmitted, 205; and Dharmakâya, 207;
+and productions of art, 208; and invention, 210; and “seeds of
+activity,” 212.
+
+Karma-seeds, 134.
+
+Karunâ (love), 46, 82, 238, 296; and Prajñâ, 360.
+
+_Kathopanishad_, quoted, 47.
+
+Knowledge (sambodhi), 3 ft.; three kinds of, 67, 87.
+
+Kuçalamûla, 199.
+
+
+_Lalita Vistara_, quoted, on Nirvana, 338 fn.
+
+{415}
+
+_Lankavatara Sutra_, quoted, 41, 130.
+
+Laotze, 63 ft.
+
+Laotzean _Wu wei_, 285.
+
+Love, and ego, 55; and Nirvana, 362.
+
+
+_Madhyâmika_, The, on Nirvana, 347.
+
+Madhyâmika school, 21, 62, 66; and the Yogacarya, on truth, 95.
+
+_Mahâpurusa, Discourse on the_, 361.
+
+Mahâsangika, 1 ft.
+
+Mahâyâna, 1 et seq; its original meaning, 7; and Bodhisattvas, 61; and
+Hînayâna, 70; and spiritual life, 71; and Samkhya, 136.
+
+_Mahâyâna-Abhisamaya Sutra_, quoted, 45.
+
+_Mahâyâna-Sangraha Çâstra_, 354.
+
+Mahâyânism, (Mahâyâna Buddhism), defined, 10 et seq.; is it genuine?
+11 et seq.; as a living faith, 14 et seq.; and its Christian critics,
+15; misunderstood, 16 et seq.; historically treated, 60 et seq.; and
+Sthiramati, 61 et seq.; its seven features, 62 et seq.; and
+metempsychosis, 64; ten essential features, 65 et seq.; in its two
+phases, 76 et seq.; no nihilism, 135 ft.; the development of, 247; and
+individualism, 282.
+
+Maitreya, 272.
+
+Manas (self-consciousness), 132.
+
+Mañjuçri, 106.
+
+Manovijñâna (ego-consciousness), 67, 69.
+
+Masashige, Kusunoki, 213.
+
+Maudsley, H., quoted, 80.
+
+Max Mueller, quoted, 108 ft., 110 ft., 221.
+
+Mâya, subjective ignorance, 47.
+
+Merits, the accumulation of, 199.
+
+{416}
+
+Middle path, Doctrine of the, 59, 358; of Eight No’s, 103.
+
+_Milinda-Panha_, quoted, 203.
+
+Mitra, Rajendra, referred to, 329 ft.
+
+Monier Monier-Williams, refuted, 18 et seq.
+
+
+Nâgârjuna, 3 ft., 4, 8, 21, 60, 66, 95, 96, 100, 103, 168, 171, 173,
+292, 297, 353.
+
+Nâgasena and King Milinda, 153.
+
+“Na iti,” 102.
+
+Nânâtva, (difference), 72 ft.
+
+Nidânas, the twelve, 36 et seq., 179, 182.
+
+Nirmanakâya, (Body of Transformation), 73, 257, 268.
+
+Nirvana, 19; and its non-Buddhist critics, 49; briefly explained, 49
+et seq.; and the surrender of ego, 50; and Dharmakâya, 51; and love,
+51, 58; and pessimism, 52; and ethics, 53; and Parinishpanna
+(knowledge), 94; what is, 331 et seq.; not nihilistic, 332;
+Mahâyânistic, 341; and Dharmakâya, 342; the Mahâyânistic conception
+of, 342 et seq.; absolute, 343; four forms of, 343; upadhiçesa, 344;
+Anupadhiçesa, 344, that has no abode, 345; and I Cor. 7, 30-31, 346;
+as synonym of Dharmakâya, 346 by Chandra Kirti, 347; its four
+attributes, 348; its religious phase, 349; and Emerson, 352; and
+samsara are one, 352; and St. Paul, 352; and the Eight No’s of
+Nâgârjuna, 358; the realisation of, 360; as the Middle Path, 362;
+comprehensively treated, 367 et seq.
+
+Non-âtman, 37 et seq.; in things, 41 et seq, 170; and impermanence of
+things, 141, (_see also_ “non-ego”, “self”, “soul”, “ego”).
+
+Non-duality, the Dharma of, 106.
+
+Non-ego and Dharmakâya, 47; and the Ganges water, 156.
+
+{417}
+
+No’s, The Eight, of Nâgârjuna, 358.
+
+
+“Old man” and Atman, 165.
+
+
+Paramârtha-satya (absolute truth), 91 et seq.
+
+Paramâtman, 145.
+
+Pâramitâ, 3 ft.; six, 68; ten, 321.
+
+Paratantra (relative knowledge), 67; explained, 89.
+
+Parikalpita (illusion), 67; explained, 88.
+
+Parinishpanna (perfect knowledge), 67; explained, 91.
+
+Parivarta, (turning over), 19, 194; doctrine of, 283.
+
+Paul, Apostle, quoted, 48, 166, 260, 262.
+
+Pingalaka, Nâgârjuna’s commentator, quoted, 172.
+
+Prabhâkarî (third stage of Bodhisattvahood), 315.
+
+Prajñâ (and Bodhi), defined, 82 ft.; 82, 97, 119, 238, 360.
+
+Prakṛti (Samkyan primordial matter), 66 ft.
+
+Pramûditâ (first stage of Bodhisattvahood), 313.
+
+Pranidhâna, a Bodhisattva’s, 307.
+
+Pratisamvids, the four, 325.
+
+Pratyâyasamutpâda, (Nidânas), 36 et seq.
+
+Pratyekabuddha, 278.
+
+Pratyekabuddha-yâna, 9.
+
+Precepts, the ten moral, 70 ft.
+
+Pudgala (ego), 42, 143 ft.
+
+Punyaskandha, 199.
+
+Pure Lands, 269.
+
+Purusha (Samkyan soul), 66 ft.
+
+Pûrvanidhânabala, 237.
+
+
+Religion, its significance, 22 et seq.; not revealed, 23; and mystery,
+24; its intellectual and emotional sides, 25 et seq.; and science, 26;
+intellect and feeling in, 77; and philosophy, 78; subjective, 81 et
+seq.; not a philosophical system, 85.
+
+{418}
+
+Rockhill’s _Life of the Buddha_, quoted, on Nirvana, 338 fn.
+
+
+_Saddharma Pundarîka_, quoted, 260 ft., 274, 277.
+
+Sadhumatî, (ninth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 325.
+
+Samatâ (sameness), 72 ft.
+
+Sambodhi, (_see_ “Bodhi”).
+
+Sambhogakâya (Body of Bliss), 65 ft., 73, 257; in Açvaghosha, 258; its
+six features, 264; a mere subjective existence, 266.
+
+Samkhya philosophy, and Yogacarya school, 67 ft.; referred to, 146
+ft.; on Nirvana, 340.
+
+Samvrtti-satya (conditional truth), 95 et seq.
+
+_Samyukta Nikaya_, quoted, 156, 185.
+
+Sanskaras, enumerated, 151 et seq.
+
+Schopenhauer, 181.
+
+Skandhas, the five, 32 ft., 149.
+
+Soul-substance, denied, 164.
+
+Sthavira, 1 ft.
+
+Sthiramati, on Mahâyânism, 61 et seq.; on Bodhicitta, 299.
+
+Suchness, (_see also_ Bhûtatathâtâ), 3; the first principle of
+Buddhism, 99 et seq.; indefinable, 101; conditioned, 109; in history,
+110; in the world, 113; and the Bodhi, 114; and ignorance, 117; in its
+various modes, 125; and Dharmakâya, 127; and karma, 181.
+
+Sudurjayâ, (fifth stage of Bodhisattvahood), 318.
+
+Sukhâvatî sect, the, 4, 240.
+
+Sumedha, the story of, 280.
+
+_Sûrangama Sutra_, quoted, 157.
+
+_Suvarna Prabha Sutra_, 253 ft.
+
+Svabhava, and non-ego, 170 et seq.; and emptiness, 175.
+
+{419}
+
+
+“Tat tvam asi,” 47, 135 ft.
+
+Tathâgata-Garbha, 125, 145.
+
+Teleology, 86.
+
+Tennyson, quoted, 82.
+
+Tîrthakas, 8.
+
+Tolstoi, quoted, in connection with karma, 207 ft.
+
+Trikâya, (trinity), 73, 242, 256, 275.
+
+Truth (satya), conditional and transcendental, 95.
+
+
+_Udâna_, quoted, 52, 338 ft., 341.
+
+Universe, a mind, 122.
+
+Upâya (expediency), 64, 260 ft.; its meaning explained, 298 ft.
+
+Upâyajñâ, 320.
+
+
+Vaiçaradyas (convictions), the four, 327 ft.
+
+Vairocana, 219.
+
+Vasubandhu, 87, 153; his _Abhidharmakoça_, referred to, 37; on
+Mahâyâna, 66; _On the Completion of Karma_, quoted, 194; _The
+Distinguishing of the Mean_, quoted, 195; on _Bodhicitta_, 303; on
+Nirvana, 357, 359, 360.
+
+Vasumitra, on _Various Schools of Buddhism_, 1 ft.
+
+Vedanta philosophy, and the Mahâyânism, 108 ft.; on Nirvana, 340; on
+Atman, 144.
+
+_Vicesacinta-brahma-Pariprccha Sutra_, 353.
+
+Victory, the hymn of, 336.
+
+Vijñâna, and atman, 39.
+
+Vijnânamâtra, (nothing but ideas), 70.
+
+_Vijnânamâtra çâstra_, 265 ft., 343.
+
+Vimala (second stage of Bodhisattvahood), 315.
+
+Vimalakîrti, 106, 350, 366.
+
+_Visuddhi Magga_, quoted, 339, 348 ft.
+
+{420}
+
+
+Waddell, refuted, 21 et seq.
+
+Whitman, Walt, quoted, 155 ft., 197.
+
+Wilson, Dr. G. R., quoted, 201.
+
+
+Yoga philosophy, The, on Nirvana, 340.
+
+Yogacarya school, 62, 65, 87, 92, 95.
+
+_Yogavasistha_, a vedantic book, quoted, 167.
+
+
+
+
+ ENDNOTES.
+
+ INTRODUCTION NOTES.
+
+[1] According to Vasumitra’s _Treatise on the Points of Contention
+by the Different Schools of Buddhism_, of which there are three
+Chinese translations, the earliest being one by Kumârajîva (who came
+to China in A.D. 401), the first great schism seems to have broken out
+about one hundred years after the Buddha. The leader of the dissenters
+was Mahâdeva, and his school was known as the Mahâsangîka (Great
+Council), while the orthodox was called the school of Sthaviras
+(Elders). Since then the two schools subdivided themselves into a
+number of minor sections, twenty of which are mentioned by Vasumitra.
+The book is highly interesting as throwing light on the early pages of
+the history of Buddhism in India.
+((1))
+
+[2] The Anagârika Dharmapala of Ceylon objects to this geographical
+distinction. He does not see any reason why the Buddhism of Ceylon
+should be regarded as Hînayânism, when it teaches a realisation of the
+Highest Perfect Knowledge (_Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi_) and also of the
+six Virtues of Perfection (_Pâramitâ_),--these two features, among
+some others, being considered to be characteristic of Mahâyânism. It
+is possible that when the so-called Mahâyânism gained great power all
+over Central India in the times of Nâgârjuna and Âryadeva, it also
+found its advocates in the Isle of Lion, or at least the followers of
+Buddha there might have been influenced to such an extent as to modify
+their conservative views. At the present stage of the study of
+Buddhism, however, it is not yet perfectly clear to see how this took
+place. When a thorough comparative review of Pâli, Singhalese,
+Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese Buddhist documents is effected, we
+shall be able to understand the history and development of Buddhism to
+its full extent.
+
+[3] Translated into English by the author, 1900. The Open Court Pub.
+Co. Chicago.
+
+[4] These terms are explained elsewhere.
+
+[5] Followers of any religious sects other than Buddhism. The term
+is sometimes used in a contemptuous sense, like heathen by Christians.
+
+[6] The conception of Dharmakâya constitutes the central point in
+the system of Mahâyânism, and the right comprehension of it is of
+vital importance. The Body of the Law, as it is commonly rendered in
+English, is not exact and leads frequently to a misconception of the
+entire system. The point is fully discussed below.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER I NOTES.
+
+[7] They are: (1) form or materiality (_rûpa_), (2) sensation
+(_vedanâ_), (3) conception (_samjnâ_), (4) action or deeds (_samkâra_),
+and (5) consciousness (_vijnâna_). These terms are explained
+elsewhere.
+
+[8] _The Dhammapada_, v. 165. Tr. by A. J. Edmunds.
+
+[9] _The Dhammapada_, v. 127.
+
+[10] This last passage should not be understood in the sense of a
+total abnegation of existence. It means simply the transcendentality
+of the highest principle.
+
+[11] _The Kathopaniṣad_, IV. 10.
+
+[12] Guyau, a French sociologist, refers to the Buddhist conception
+of Nirvâna in his _Non-Religion of the Future_. I take his
+interpretation as typical of those non-Buddhist critics who are very
+little acquainted with the subject but pretend to know much. (English
+translation, pp. 472-474.)
+
+“Granted the wretchedness of life, the remedy that pessimists propose
+is the new religious salvation that modern Buddhists are to make
+fashionable... The conception is that of Nirvâna. To sever all the
+ties which attach you to the external world; to prune away all the
+young offshoots of desire, and recognise that to be rid of them is a
+deliverance; to practise a sort of complete psychial circumcision; to
+recoil upon yourself and to believe that by so doing you enter into
+the society of the great totality of things (the mystic would say, of
+God); to create an inner vacuum, and to feel dizzy in the void and,
+nevertheless, to believe that the void is plenitude supreme, pleroma,
+these have always constituted temptations to mankind. Mankind has been
+tempted to meddle with them, as it has been tempted to creep up to the
+verge of dizzy precipices and look over... Nirvâna leads, in fact, to
+the annihilation of the individual and of the race, and to the logical
+absurdity that the vanquished are the victors over the trials and
+miseries of life.”
+
+Then, the author recites the case of one of his acquaintances, who
+made a practical experiment of Nirvâna, rejecting variety in his diet,
+giving up meat, wine, every kind of ragout, every form of condiment,
+and reducing to its lowest possible terms the desire that is most
+fundamental in every living being--the desire of food, and substituting
+a certain number of cups of pure milk. “Having thus blunted his sense
+of taste and the grosser of his appetites, having abandoned all
+physical activity, he thought to find a recompense in the pleasure of
+abstract meditation and of esthetic contemplation. He entered to a
+state which was not that of dreamland, but neither was it that of real
+life, with its definite details.”
+
+[13] For detailed explanation of this term see Chapter XI.
+
+[14] _The Udâna_, Ch. VIII, p. 118. Translation by General Strong.
+
+[15] This is a peculiarly Indian religious practice, which consists
+in counting one’s exhaling and inhaling breaths. When a man is
+intensely bent on the practise, he gradually passes to a state of
+trance, forgetting everything that is going on around and within
+himself. The practise may have the merit of alleviating nervousness
+and giving to the mind the bliss of relaxation, but it oftentimes
+leads the mind to a self-hypnotic state.
+
+[16] Here Nirvâna is evidently understood to mean self-abnegation
+or world-flight or quietism, which is not in accord with the true
+Buddhist interpretation of the term.
+
+[17] The sentiment of the Golden Rule is not the monopoly of
+Christianity; it has been expressed by most of the leaders of thought,
+thus, for instance: “Requite hatred with virtue” (Lao-tze). “Hate is
+only appeased by love” (Buddha). “Do not do to others what ye would
+not have done to you by others” (Confucius). “One must neither return
+evil, nor do any evil to any one among men, not even if one has to
+suffer from them” (Plato, _Crito_, 49).
+
+[18] _The Buddhacarita_, Book IX, 63-64.
+
+[19] According to one Northern Buddhist tradition, Buddha is
+recorded to have exclaimed at the time of his supreme spiritual
+beatitude: “Wonderful! All sentient beings are universally endowed
+with the intelligence and virtue of the Tathâgata!”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER II NOTES.
+
+[20] His date is not known, but judging from the contents of his
+works, of which we have at present two or three among the Chinese
+Tripitaka, it seems that he lived later than Açvaghoṣa, but prior to,
+or simultaneously with, Nâgârjuna. This little book occupies a very
+important position in the development of Mahâyânism in India. Next to
+Açvaghoṣa’s _Awakening of Faith_, the work must be carefully studied
+by scholars who want to grasp every phase of the history of Mahâyâna
+school as far as it can be learned through the Chinese documents.
+
+[21] Be it remarked here that a Bodhisattva is not a particularly
+favored man in the sense of chosen people or elect. We are all in a
+way Bodhisattvas, that is, when we recognise the truth that we are
+equally in possession of the Samyak-sambodhi, Highest True
+Intelligence, and through which everybody without exception can attain
+final enlightenment.
+
+[22] _Mahâyâna-abhidharma-sangîti-çâstra_, by Asanga. Nanjo, No.
+1199.
+
+[23] _Yogâcârya-bhûmi-çâstra_, Nanjo, No. 1170. The work is supposed
+to have been dictated to Asanga by a mythical Bodhisattva.
+
+[24] By Asanga. Nanjo, 1177.
+
+[25] _Mahâyâna-samparigraha-çâstra_, by Asanga. Nanjo, 1183.
+
+[26] Perceiving an incarnation of the Dharmakâya in every spiritual
+leader regardless of his nationality and professed creed, Mahâyânists
+recognise a Buddha in Socrates, Mohammed, Jesus, Francis of Assisi,
+Confucius, Laotze, and many others.
+
+[27] Ancient Hindu Buddhists, with their fellow-philosophers,
+believed in the existence of spiritually transfigured beings, who, not
+hampered by the limitations of space and time, can manifest themselves
+everywhere for the benefit of all sentient beings. We notice some
+mysterious figures in almost all Mahâyâna sûtras, who are very often
+described as shedding innumerable rays of light from the forehead and
+illuminating all the three thousand worlds simultaneously. This may
+merely be a poetic exaggeration. But this Sambhogakâya or Body of
+Bliss (see Açvaghoṣa’s _Awakening of Faith_, p. 101) is very difficult
+for us to comprehend as it is literally described. For a fuller
+treatment see the chapter on “Trikâya.”
+
+[28] Though I am very much tempted to digress and to enter into a
+specific treatment concerning these two Hindu Mahâyâna doctrines, I
+reluctantly refrain from so doing, as it requires a somewhat lengthy
+treatment and does not entirely fall within the scope of the present
+work.
+
+[29] That Açvaghoṣa’s conception of the Âlaya varies with the view
+here presented may be familiar to readers of his _Awakening of Faith_.
+This is one of the most abstruse problems in the philosophy of Mahâyâna
+Buddhism, and there are several divergent theories concerning its
+nature, attributes, activities, etc. In a work like this, it is
+impossible to give even a general statement of those controversies,
+however interesting they may be to students of the history of
+intellectual development in India.
+
+The Âlayavijñâna, to use the phraseology of Samkhya philosophy, is a
+composition, so to speak, of the Soul (_puruṣa_) and Primordial Matter
+(_prakṛti_). It is the Soul, so far as it is neutral and indifferent
+to all those phenomenal manifestations, that are going on within as
+well as without us. It is Primordial Matter, inasmuch as it is the
+reservoir of everything, whose lid being lifted by the hands of
+Ignorance, there instantly springs up this universe of limitation and
+relativity. Enlightenment or Nirvâna, therefore, consists in
+recognising the error of Ignorance and not in clinging to the products
+of imagination.
+
+[30] For a more detailed explanation of the ideal philosophy of the
+Yogâcâra, see my article on the subject in _Le Muséon_, 1905.
+
+[31] “One mind” or “one heart” meaning the mental attitude which is
+in harmony with the monistic view of nature in its broadest sense.
+
+[32] These ten stages of spiritual development are somewhat minutely
+explained below. See Chapter XII.
+
+[33] The ten moral precepts of the Buddha are: (1) Kill no living
+being; (2) Take nothing that is not given; (3) Keep matrimonial
+sanctity; (4) Do not lie; (5) Do not slander; (6) Do not insult; (7)
+Do not chatter; (8) Be not greedy; (9) Bear no malice; (10) Harbor no
+scepticism.
+
+[34] Mahâyânism recognises two “entrances” through which a
+comprehensive knowledge of the universe is obtained. One is called the
+“entrance of sameness” (_samatâ_) and the other the “entrance of
+diversity” (_nânâtva_). The first entrance introduces us to the
+universality of things and suggests a pantheistic interpretation of
+existence. The second leads us to the particularity of things
+culminating in monotheism or polytheism, as it is viewed from
+different standpoints. The Buddhists declare that neither entrance
+alone can lead us to the sanctum sanctorum of existence; and in order
+to obtain a sound, well-balanced knowledge of things in general, we
+must go through both the entrances of universality and particularity.
+
+[35] The doctrine of Trikâya will be given further elucidation in
+the chapter bearing the same title.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER III NOTES.
+
+[36] No efforts have yet been made systematically to trace the
+history of the development of the Mahâyâna thoughts in India as well
+as in China and Japan. We have enough material at least to follow the
+general course it has taken, as far as the Chinese and Tibetan
+collections of Tripitaka are concerned. When a thorough comparison by
+impartial, unprejudiced scholars of these documents has been made with
+the Pali and Sanskrit literature, then we shall be able to write a
+comprehensive history of the human thoughts that have governed the
+Oriental people during the last two thousand years. When this is done,
+the result can further be compared with the history of other religious
+systems, thus throwing much light on the general evolution of humanity.
+
+[37] _Prajñâ_, _bodhi_, _buddhi_, _vidyâ_ and _jñâ_ or _jñâna_ are
+all synonymous and in many cases interchangeable. But they allow a
+finer discrimination. Speaking in a general way, _prajñâ_ is reason,
+_bodhi_ wisdom or intelligence, _buddhi_ enlightenment, _vidyâ_
+ideality or knowledge, and _jñâ_ or _jñâna_ intellect. Of these five
+terms, _prajñâ_ and _bodhi_ are essentially Buddhistic and have
+acquired technical meaning, In this work both _prajñâ_ and _bodhi_ are
+mostly translated by intelligence, for their extent of meaning closely
+overlaps each other. But this is rather vague, and wherever I thought
+the term intelligence alone to be misleading, I either left the
+originals untranslated, or inserted them in parentheses. To be more
+exact, _prajñâ_ in many cases can safely be rendered by faith, not a
+belief in revealed truths, but a sort of immediate knowledge gained by
+intuitive intelligence. _Prajñâ_ corresponds in some respects to
+wisdom, meaning the foundation of all reasonings and experiences. It
+may also be considered an equivalent for Greek _sophia_. Bodhi, on the
+other hand, has a decidedly religious and moral significance. Besides
+being _prajñâ_ itself, it is also love (_karunâ_): for, according to
+Buddhism, these two, _prajñâ_ and _karunâ_, constitute the essence of
+Bodhi. May Bodhi be considered in some respects synonymous with the
+divine wisdom as understood by Christian dogmatists? But there is
+something in the Buddhist notion of Bodhi that cannot properly be
+expressed by wisdom or intelligence. This seems to be due to the
+difference of philosophical interpretation by Buddhists and Christians
+of the conception of God. It will become clearer as we proceed farther.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV NOTES.
+
+[38] For detailed exposition of the three forms of knowledge, the
+reader is requested to peruse Asanga’s _Comprehensive Treatise on
+Mahâyânism_ (Nanjo’s Catalogue, No. 1183), Vasubandhu’s work on
+Mahâyâna idealism (_Vijnânamâtra Çâstra_, Nanjo, No. 1215), the _Sûtra
+on the Mystery of Deliverance_ (_Sandhinirmocana-sûtra_, Nanjo. Nos.
+246 and 247), etc.
+
+[39] When the eminent representatives of both parties, such as
+Dharmapala and Bhavaviveka, were at the height of their literary
+activity in India about the fifth or sixth century after Christ, their
+partisan spirit incited them bitterly to denounce each other,
+forgetting the common ground on which their principles were laid down.
+Their disagreement in fact on which they put an undue emphasis was of
+a very trifling nature. It was merely a quarrel over phraseology, for
+one insisted on using certain words just in the sense which the other
+negated.
+
+[40]
+
+ “Dve satye samupâçritya buddhânâm dhardeçanâ
+ Lokasamvṛttisatyañ ca satyañ ca paramârthataḥ.
+ Ye ca anayor na jânanti vibhâgam satyayor dvayoḥ,
+ Te tatvam na vijânanti gambhîrabuddhaçâsane.”
+
+
+[41]
+
+ Vyavahâram anâçritya paramârtho na deçyate,
+ Paramârtham anâgamya nirvâṇam na adhigamyata.
+                    _The Mâdhyamika_, p. 181.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER V NOTES.
+
+[42]
+Cf. _The Udâna_, chapter VI.
+
+[43]
+
+ Svabhâvam parabhâvanca, bhâvancâbhâvameva ca,
+ Ye paçyanti, na paçyante tatvam hi buddhaçâsane.
+
+
+[44]
+
+ Astîti çâçvatagrâho, nâstîtyucchedadarçanam:
+ Tasmâdastitvanâstitve nâçriyeta vicaksanah
+
+
+[45]
+
+ Astîti nâstîti ubhe ‘pi antâ
+ Çuddhî açuddhîti ime ‘pi antâ;
+ Tasmâdubhe anta vivarjayitvâ
+ Madhye ‘pi syânam na karoti paṇditah.
+
+
+[46] This is the famous phrase in the _Brhadaranyaka Upanisad_
+occurring in several places (II, 3, 6; III, 9, 26; IV, 2, 4; IV, 4,
+22; IV, 5, 5). The Atman or Brahman, it says, “is to be described by
+No, No! He is incomprehensible, for he cannot be comprehended; he is
+imperishable, for he cannot perish; he is unattached, for he does not
+attach himself; unfettered, he does not suffer, he does not fail. Him
+(who knows), these two do not overcome, whether he says that for some
+reason he has done evil, or for some reason he has done good--he
+overcomes both, and neither what he has done, nor what he has omitted
+to do, affects him.”
+
+[47] _The Awakening of Faith_, p. 59. Cf. this with the utterances
+of Dionysius the Areopagite, as quoted by Prof. W. James in his
+_Varieties of Religious Experience_, pp. 416-417: “The cause of all
+things is neither soul nor intellect; nor has it imagination, opinion,
+or reason, or intelligence; nor is it spoken or thought. It is neither
+number, nor order, nor magnitude, nor littleness, nor equality, nor
+inequality, nor similarity, nor dissimilarity. It neither stands, nor
+moves, nor rests.... It is neither essence, nor eternity, nor time.
+Even intellectual contact does not belong to it. It is neither science
+nor truth. It is not even royalty nor wisdom; not one; not unity; not
+divinity or goodness; nor even spirit as we know it.”.... _ad libitum_.
+
+[48]
+
+ Anirodham anutpâdam anucchedam açâçvatam,
+ Anekârtham anânârtham anâgamam anirgamam.
+      (_Mâdhyamika Çâstra_, first stanza.)
+
+
+[49]
+
+ Param nirodhâdbhagavân bhavatîtyeva nohyate,
+ Na bhavatyubhayam ceti nobhayam ceti nohyate:
+ Atiṣṭhamâno ‘pi bhagavân bhavatîtyeva nohyate,
+ Na bhavatyubhayam ceti nobhayam ceti nohyate.
+                         (_Mâdhyamika_, p. 199).
+
+
+[50] He was the third son of king of Kâçi (?) in southern India. He
+came to China A.D. 527 and after a vain attempt to convert Emperor Wu
+to his own view, he retired to a monastery, where, it is reported, he
+spent all day in gazing at the wall without making any further venture
+to propagate his mysticism. But finally he found a most devoted
+disciple in the person of Shen Kuang, who was once a Confucian, and
+through whom the Dhyâna school became one of the most powerful Mahâyâna
+sect in China as well as in Japan. Dharma died in the year 535. Besides
+the one here mentioned, he had another audience with the Emperor. At
+that time, the Emperor said to Dharma: “I have dedicated so many
+monasteries, copied so many sacred books, and converted so many bhiksus
+and bhiksunis: what do you think my merits are or ought to be?” To
+this, however, Dharma replied curtly, “No merit whatever.”
+
+[51] Another interesting utterance by a Chinese Buddhist, who,
+earnestly pondering over the absoluteness of Suchness for several
+years, understood it one day all of a sudden, is: “The very instant
+you say it is something (or a nothing), you miss the mark.”
+
+[52] _The Vimalakîrti Sûtra_, Kumârajîva’s translation, Part II,
+Chapter 5.
+
+[53]
+Deussen relates, in his address delivered before the Bombay
+Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a similar attitude
+of a Vedantist mystic in regard to the highest Brahma. “The
+Bhava, therefore, when asked by the king Vaksalin, to explain the
+Brahman, kept silence. And when the king repeated his request
+again and again, the rishi broke out into the answer: ‘I tell it you,
+but you don’t understand it; _çânto ’yam âtmâ_, this âtmâ is silence!’”
+
+[54] It is a well-known fact that the Vedanta philosophy, too,
+makes a similar distinction between Brahman as sagunam (qualified) and
+Brahman as nirgunam (unqualified). The former is relative, phenomenal,
+and has characteristics of its own; but the latter is absolute, having
+no qualification whatever to speak of, it is absolute Suchness. (See
+Max Mueller’s _The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy_, p. 220 et seq.)
+
+Here, a very interesting question suggests itself: Which is the
+original and which is the copy, Mahâyânism or Vedantism? Most of
+European Sanskrit scholars would fain wish to dispose of it at once by
+declaring that Buddhism must be the borrower. But I am strongly
+inclined to the opposite view, for there is reliable evidence in favor
+of it. In a writing of Açvaghoṣa, who dates much earlier than Çankara
+or Badarayana we notice this distinction of absolute Suchness and
+relative Suchness. He writes in his _Awakening of Faith_ (p. 55 et
+seq.) that though Suchness is free from all modes of limitation and
+conditionality, and therefore it cannot be thought of by our finite
+consciousness, yet on account of Avidyâ inherent in the human mind
+absolute Suchness manifests itself in the phenomenal world, thereby
+subjecting itself to the law of causality and relativity and proceeds
+to say that there is a twofold aspect in Suchness from the point of
+view of its explicability. The first aspect is trueness as negation
+(_çûnyatâ_) in the sense that it is completely set apart from the
+attributes of all things unreal, that it is a veritable reality. The
+second aspect is trueness as affirmation (_açûnyatâ_), in the sense
+that it contains infinite merits, that it is self-existent. Considering
+the fact that Açvaghoṣa comes earlier than any Vedanta philosophers,
+it stands to reason to say that the latter might have borrowed the
+idea of distinguishing the two aspects of Brahma from their Buddhist
+predecessors.
+
+Çankara also makes a distinction between _saguna_ and _nirguna vidya_,
+whose parallel we find in the Mahâyânist _samvṛtti_ and _paramârtha
+satya_.
+
+[55] While passing, I cannot help digressing and entering on a
+polemic in this footnote. The fact is, Western Buddhist critics
+stubbornly refuse to understand correctly what is insisted by Buddhists
+themselves. Even scholars who are supposed to be well informed about
+the subject, go astray and make false charges against Buddhism. Max
+Mueller, for example, declares in his _Six Systems of Indian
+Philosophy_ (p. 242) that “An important distinction between Buddhists
+and Vedantists is that the former holds the world to have arisen from
+what is not, the latter from what is, the Sat or Brahman.” The reader
+who has carefully followed my exposition above will at once detect in
+this Max Mueller’s conclusion an incorrect statement of Buddhist
+doctrine. As I have repeatedly said, Suchness, though described in
+negative terms, is not a state of nothingness, but the highest possible
+synthesis that the human intellect can reach. The world did not come
+from the void of Suchness, but from its fulness of reality. If it were
+not so, to where does Buddhism want us to go after deliverance from
+the evanescence and nothingness of the phenomenal world?
+
+Max Mueller in another place (op. cit. p. 210) speaks of the
+Vedantists’ assertion of the reality of the objective world for
+practical purposes (_vyavahârârtham_) and of their antagonistic
+attitude toward “the nihilism of the Buddhists.” “The Buddhists” this
+seems to refer to the followers of the Mâdhyamika school, but a careful
+perusal of their texts will reveal that what they denied was not the
+realness of the world as a manifestation of conditional Suchness, but
+its independent realness and our attachment to it as such. The
+Mâdhyamika school was not in any sense a nihilistic system. True, its
+advocates used many negative terms, but what they meant by them was
+obvious enough to any careful reader.
+
+[56] Dharmadhâtu is the world as seen by an enlightened mind, where
+all forms of particularity do not contradict one another, but make one
+harmonious whole.
+
+[57] The word literally means recollection or memory. Açvaghoṣa
+uses it as a synonym of ignorance, and so do many other Buddhist
+philosophers.
+
+[58] _Smṛti_ or _citta_ or _vijñâna_. They are all used by Açvaghoṣa
+and other Buddhist authors as synonymous. _Smṛti_ literally means
+memory; _citta_, thought or mentation; and _vijñâna_ is generally
+rendered by consciousness, though not very accurately.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI NOTES.
+
+[59] Cf. the _Bhagavadgîtâ_ (_S. B. E._ Vol. VIII, chap. XIV, p.
+107): “The Brahman is a womb for me, in which I cast the seed. From
+that, O descendant of Bharata! is the birth of all things. Of the
+bodies, O son of Kunti! which are born from all wombs, the main womb
+is the great Brahman, and I am the father, the giver of the seed.”
+
+[60] This is translated from the Chinese of Çikṣananda; the Sanskrit
+reads as follows:
+
+
+ “Tarangâ hi udadher yadvat pavanapratyaya îritâ,
+ Nṛtyamânâh pravartante vyucchedaç ca na vidhyate:
+ Âlayodhyas tathâ nityam viṣayapavana îritaḥ,
+ Cittâis tarangavijñânâir nṛtyamânâḥ pravartate.”
+
+
+[61]
+From the Chinese. The Sanskrit reads as follows:
+
+
+ “Nîle rakte ‘tha lavaṇe çankhe kṣîre ca çârkare,
+ Kaṣayâiḥ phalapuṣpâdyâih kiraṇâ yatha bhâskare:
+ No ‘nyena ca nânanyena tarangâ hi udadher matâ;
+ Vijñânâni tathâ sapta, cittena saha samyuktâ.
+ Udadheḥ pariṇâmo ‘sâu tarangânâm vicitratâ,
+ Âlayam hi tathâ cittam vijñânâkhyam pravartate;
+ Cittam manaç ca vijñânam lakṣaṇârtham prakalpyate;
+ Âbhinna lakṣanâ hi aṣtâu na lakṣyâ na ca lakṣaṇâ.
+ Udadheç ca tarangânâm yathâ nâsti viçeṣanâ.
+ Vijñânânam tathâ citte pariṇâmo na labhyate.
+ Cittena cîyate karmaḥ, manasâ ca vicîyate,
+ Vijñânena vijânâti, dṛçyam kalpeti pañcabhiḥ.”
+
+
+[62] A little digression here. It has frequently been affirmed of
+the ethics of Mahâyânism that as it has a nihilistic tendency its
+morality turns towards asceticism ignoring the significance of the
+sentiment and instinct. It is true that Mahâyânism perfectly agrees
+with Vedantism when the latter declares: “If the killer thinks that he
+kills, if the killed thinks that he is killed, they do not understand;
+for this one does not kill, nor is that one killed.” (_The
+Katopanishad_, II 19.) This belief in non-action (Laotzean _Wu Wei_)
+apparently denies the existence of a world of relativity, but he will
+be a superficial critic who will stop short at this absolute aspect of
+Mahâyâna philosophy and refuses to consider its practical side. As we
+have seen above, Buddhists do not conceive the evolution of the
+Manovijñâna as a fault on the part of the cosmic mind, nor do they
+think the assertion of Ignorance altogether wrong and morally evil.
+Therefore, Mahâyânism does not deny the claim of reality to the world
+of the senses, though of course relatively, and not absolutely.
+
+Again, “Tat tvam asi” (thou art it) or “I am the Buddha”--this
+assertion, though arrogant it may seem to some, is perfectly
+justifiable in the realm of absolute identity, where the serene light
+of Suchness alone pervades. But when we descend on earth and commingle
+in the hurly-burly of our practical, dualistic life, we cannot help
+suffering from its mundane limitations. We hunger, we thirst, we
+grieve at the loss of the dearest, we feel remorse over errors
+committed. Mahâyânism does not teach the annihilation of those human
+passions and feelings.
+
+There was once a recluse-philosopher, who was considered by the
+villagers to have completely vanquished all natural desires and human
+ambitions. They almost worshipped him and thought him to be superhuman.
+One day early in Winter, a devotee approached him and reverentially
+inquired after his health. The sage at once responded in verse:
+
+
+ “A hermit truly I am, world-renounced;
+ Yet when the ground is white with snow,
+ A chill goes through me and I shiver.”
+
+
+A false conception of religious saintliness as cherished by so many
+pious-hearted, but withal ignorant, minds, has led them into some of
+the grossest superstitions, whose curse is still lingering even among
+us. Our earthly life has so many limitations and tribulations. The
+ills that the flesh is heir to must be relieved by some material,
+scientific methods.
+
+[63] That the Buddhist Ignorance corresponds to the Sâmkhya
+Prakṛti can be seen also from the fact that some Samkhya commentators
+give to Prakṛti as its synonyms such terms as _çâkti_ (energy) which
+reminds of karma or sankâra, _tamas_ (darkness), _mâyâ_, and even the
+very word _avidyâ_ (ignorance)
+
+[64] This view of the oneness of the Âlaya or Citta (mind) may not
+be acceptable to some Mahâyânists, particularly to those who advocate
+the Yogâcâra philosophy; but the present author is here trying to
+expound a more orthodox and more typical and therefore more
+widely-recognised doctrine of Mahâyânism, i.e., that of Açvaghoṣa.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII NOTES.
+
+[65] _Pudgala_ or _pudgalasamjña_ is sometimes used by Mahâyânists
+as a synonym of âtman. The Buddhist âtman in the sense of
+ego-substratum may be considered to correspond to the Vedantist
+Jîvâtman, which is used in contradistinction to Paramâtman, the
+supreme being or Brahma.
+
+[66] Mahâyâna Buddhists generally understand the essential
+characteristic of âtman to consist in freedom, and by freedom they
+mean eternality, absolute unity, and supreme authority. A being that
+is transitory is not free, as it is conditioned by other beings, and
+therefore it has no âtman. A being that is an aggregate of elemental
+matter or forms of energy is not absolute, for it is a state of mutual
+relationship, and therefore it has no âtman. Again, a being that has
+no authoritative command over itself and other beings, is not free,
+for it will be subjected to a power other than itself, and therefore
+it has no âtman. Now, take anything that we come across in this world
+of particulars; and does it not possess one or all of these three
+qualities: transitoriness, compositeness, and helplessness or
+dependence? Therefore, all concrete individual existences not
+excepting human beings have no âtman, have no ego, that is eternal,
+absolute, and supreme.
+
+[67] Tent-designer is a figurative term for the ego-soul. Following
+the prevalent error, the Buddha at first made an earnest search after
+the ego that was supposed to be snugly sitting behind our mental
+experiences, and the result was this utterance.
+
+[68] _The Dharmapada_, vs. 153-154. Tr. by A. J. Edmunds.
+
+[69] _Prakṛtivikṛtayas._ This is a technical term of Sâmkhya
+philosophy and means the modes of Prakrti, as evolved from it and as
+further evolving on. See Satis Chandra Banarji, _Samkhya-Philosophy_,
+p. XXXIII et seq.
+
+[70] The passages quoted here as well as one in the next paragraph
+are taken from Açvaghoṣa’s _Buddhacarita_.
+
+[71] _The Questions of King Milinda, Sacred Books of the East_,
+Vol. XXXV.
+
+[72] This reminds us of the passage quoted elsewhere from the
+_Katha-Upanishad_; cf. the footnote to it.
+
+[73] As cited elsewhere, Bodhi-Dharma of the Dhyâna sect, when
+questioned in a similar way, replied, “I do not know.” Walt Whitman
+echoes the same sentiment in the following lines:
+
+
+ “A child said, what is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
+ How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than
+  he.”
+
+
+[74] There seem to be two Chinese translations of this Sûtra, one
+by Kumârajîva and the other by Paramârtha, but apparently they are
+different texts bearing the same title. Besides these two, there is
+another text entirely in Chinese transliteration. Owing to
+insufficiency of material at my disposal here, I cannot say anything
+definite about the identity or diversity of these documents. The
+following discussion that is reported to have taken place between the
+Buddha and Ananda is an abstract prepared from the first and the
+second fasciculi of Paramârtha’s (?) translation. Beal gives in his
+_Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese_ (pp. 286-369) an
+English translation of the first four fasc. of the _Surangama_. Though
+this translation is not quite satisfactory in many points the reader
+may find there a detailed account of the discussion which is here only
+partially and roughly recapitulated.
+
+[75] Cf. the following which is extracted from the _Questions of
+King Milinda_ (Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXXV, 133): “If there be
+a soul [distinct from the body] which does all this, then if the door
+of the eye were thrown down [if the eye were plucked out] could it
+stretch out its head, as it were, through the larger aperture and
+[with greater range] see forms much more clearly than before? Could
+one hear sounds better if the ears were cut off, or taste better if
+the tongue were pulled out, or feel touch better if the body were
+destroyed?”
+
+[76]
+
+ Nirvikalpo ‘smi ciddipo nirahankaravasanaḥ
+ Tvaya ahankarabijena na sambaddho ‘smi asanmaya (31)
+
+
+[77]
+
+ Yathâ bhûtatayâ na ahammano na tvam na vâsanâ
+ Atmâ çuddhacidabhasaḥ kevalo yam vijṛbhate. (44)
+
+
+[78] The following is a somewhat free translation of the original
+Chinese of Kumârajîva, which pretty closely agrees with the Sanskrit
+text published by the Buddhist Text Society of India.
+
+[79] The Sanskrit text does not give this passage.
+
+[80]
+
+ Lakṣyâl lakṣaṇam anyac cet syât tal lakṣyam alakṣanam.
+
+
+[81]
+
+ Rûpâdi vyatirekena yathâ kumbho na vidyate,
+ Vâhyâdi vyatireṇa tathâ rûpam na vidyate.
+
+
+[82] Abstracted from Pingalaka’s _Commentary on the Mâdhyamika
+Çâstra_, Chapter VII. The Chinese translation is by Kumârajîva.
+
+[83] The passage in parentheses is taken from Chandrakîrti’s
+_Commentary on Nâgârjuna_, pp. 180-181.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII NOTES.
+
+[84] The Twelve Nidânas are: (1) Ignorance (_avidyâ_), (2) action
+(_sanskâra_), (3) Consciousness (_vijñâna_), (4) Name-and-form
+(_nâmarûpa_), (5) Six Sense-organs (_âyatana_), (6) Contact (_sparça_),
+(7) Sensation (_vedanâ_), (8) Desire (_trṣnâ_), (9) Attachment
+(_upâdâna_), (10) Procreation (_bhâva_), (11) birth (_jati_), (12) Old
+Age, Death, etc. (_jarâ_, _marana_, _çoka_, etc.).
+
+[85] From a Chinese Mahâyâna sutra.
+
+[86] The Pâli Jâtaka, no. 222. Translation by W. H. Rouse.
+
+[87] Warren’s _Buddhism in Translations_, p. 214.
+
+[88] _On the Completion of Karma_, by Vasubandhu. Nanjo, No. 1222.
+
+[89] _The Distinguishing of the Mean_, by Vasubandhu. Nanjo, 1248.
+
+[90] “Manhattan’s Streets I Saunter’d, Pondering.” I might have
+quoted the whole poem, if not for limitation of space.
+
+[91] If we understand the following words of Tolstoi in the light
+which we gain from the Buddhist doctrine of karmaic immortality, we
+shall perhaps find more meaning in them than the author himself wished
+to impart: “My brother who is dead acts upon me now more strongly than
+he did in life; he even penetrates my being and lifts me up towards
+him.”
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER IX NOTES.
+
+[92] The _Avatamsaka Sûtra_, Chinese translation by Buddhabhadra,
+fas. XXXIV.
+
+[93] That is the Dharmakâya personified.
+
+[94] In Hindu philosophy space is always conceived as an objective
+entity in which all things exist.
+
+[95] This should be understood in the sense that “God maketh his
+sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
+and on the unjust.” The Dharmakâya is universal in its love, as space
+is in its comprehensiveness. Because it is absolutely free from human
+desires and passions that are the product of egoism and therefore tend
+always to be discriminative and exclusive.
+
+[96] The four views are: That the physical body is productive of
+impurities; that sensuality causes pain; that the individual soul is
+not permanent; and that all things are devoid of the Atman.
+
+[97] That is to say: The Dharmakâya, that assumes all forms of
+existence according to what class of being it is manifesting itself,
+is sometimes conceived by the believers to be a short-lived god,
+sometimes an immortal spirit, sometimes a celestial being of one
+hundred kalpas, and sometimes an existence of only a moment. As there
+are so many different dispositions, characters, karmas, intellectual
+attainments, moral environments, etc., so there are as many Dharmakâyas
+as subjectively represented in the minds of sentient beings, though
+the Dharmakâya, objectively considered, is absolutely one.
+
+[98] Asanga’s _General Treatise on Mahâyânism_. (_Mahâyâna
+samparigraha_).
+
+[99] The _Avatamsaka Sûtra_, chap. 13, “On Merit.”
+
+[100] This is by no means the case, for some of the Mahâyâna sûtras
+are undoubtedly productions of much later writers than the immediate
+followers of the Buddha, though of course it is very likely that some
+of the most important Mahâyâna canonical books were compiled within a
+few hundred years after the Nirvana of the Master.
+
+[101] “Purvapranidhânabala” is frequently translated “the power of
+original (or primitive) prayer.” Literally, pûrva means “former” or
+“original” or “primitive”; and pranidhâna, “desire” or “vow” or
+“prayer”; and bala, “power.” So far as literary rendering is concerned,
+“power of original prayer” seems to be the sense of the original
+Sanskrit. But when we speak of primitive prayers of the Dharmakâya or
+Tathâgata, how shall we understand it? Has prayer any sense in this
+connection? The Dharmakâya can by its own free will manifest in any
+form of existence and finish its work in whatever way it deems best.
+There is no need for it to utter any prayer in the agony of struggle
+to accomplish. There is in the universe no force whatever which is
+working against it so powerfully as to make it cry for help; and there
+cannot be any struggle or agony in the activity of the Dharmakâya. The
+term prayer therefore is altogether misleading and inaccurate and
+implicates us in a grave error which tends to contradict the general
+Buddhist conception of Dharmakâya. We must dispense with the term
+entirely in order to be in perfect harmony with the fundamental
+doctrine of Buddhism. This point will receive further consideration
+later.
+
+[102] “I am the father of all beings, and they are my children.”
+(The _Avatamsaka_, the _Pundarîka_, etc.)
+
+[103] To get more fully acquainted with the significance of the
+Sukhâvatî doctrine, the reader is advised to look up the Sukhâvatî
+sûtras in the _Sacred Books of the East_, Vol. XLIX.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER X NOTES.
+
+[104] What follows is selected from a short sûtra called _The
+Mahâvaipulya-Tathâgatagarbha Sûtra_, translated into Chinese by
+Buddhabhadra of the Eastern Tsin dynasty (A.D. 371-420). Nanjo, No.
+384.
+
+[105] _Niyuta_ is an exceedingly large number, but generally
+considered to be equal to one billion.
+
+[106] All these are unhuman forms of existence, including demons,
+dragon-kings, winged beasts, etc.
+
+[107] Âçrava literally means “oozing,” or “flowing out,” and the
+Chinese translators rendered it by _lou_, dripping, or leaking. Roughly
+speaking, it is a general name for evils, principally material and
+sensuous. According to an Indian Buddhist scholar, Âçrava has threefold
+sense: (1) “keeping,” for it retains all sentient beings in the
+whirlpool of birth and death; (2) “flowing,” for it makes all sentient
+beings run in the stream of birth and death; (3) “leaking,” or
+“oozing,” for it lets such evils as avarice, anger, lust, etc., ooze
+out from the six sense-organs after the fashion of an ulcer, which
+lets out blood and filthy substance. The cause of Âçrava is a blind
+will, and its result is birth and death. Specifically, Bhâvâçrava is
+one of the three Âçravas, which are (1) kâmâçrava, (2) vidyâçrava, and
+(3) bhâvâçrava. The first is egotistic desires, the second is
+ignorance, and the third is the material existence which we have to
+suffer on account of our previous karma.
+
+[108] Our thoughtful readers must have noticed here that the
+conceptions of the Buddha as entertained by the Mahâsangika School
+(Great Council) closely resemble those of the Mahâyâna Buddhism.
+Though we are still unable to trace step by step the development of
+Mahâyânism in India, the hypothesis assumed by most of Japanese
+Buddhist scholars is that the Mahâsangika was Mahâyânistic in tendency.
+
+[109] The _Mahâparinibbâna sutta_.
+
+[110] There are three Chinese translations of this sûtra: the first,
+by Dharmarakṣa during the first two decades of the fifth century A.D.;
+the second, by Paramârtha of the Liang dynasty, who came to China A.D.
+546 and died A.D. 569; and the third, by I-tsing of the Tang dynasty
+who came back from his Indian pilgrimage in the year 695 and translated
+this sûtra A.D. 703. The last is the only complete Chinese translation
+of the _Suvarnâ Prabhâ_. A part of the original Sanskrit text recovered
+in Nepal was published by the Buddhist Text Society of India in 1898.
+Nanjo, Nos. 126, 127, 130.
+
+[111] The notion that great men never die seems to be universal.
+Spiritually they would never perish, because the ideas that moved them
+and made them prominent in the history of humanity are born of truth.
+And in this sense every person who is possessed of worthy thoughts is
+immortal, while souls that are made of trumpery are certainly doomed
+to annihilation. But the masses are not satisfied with this kind of
+immortality. They must have something more tangible, more sensual, and
+more individual. The notion of bodily resurrection of Christ is a fine
+illustration of this truth. When the followers of Christ opened the
+master’s grave, they did not find his body, so says legend, and they
+at once conceived the idea of resurrection, for they reasoned that
+such a great man as Jesus could not suffer the same fate that befalls
+common mortals only. The story of his corporeal resurrection now
+took wing and went wild; some heard him speak to them, some saw him
+break bread, and others even touched his wounds. What a grossly
+materialistic conception early Christians (and alas, even some of the
+twentieth century) cherished about resurrection and immortality! It is
+no wonder, therefore, that primitive Buddhists raised a serious
+question about the personality of Buddha which culminated in the
+conception of the Sambhogakâya, Body of Bliss, by Mahâyânists.
+
+[112] Compare this to the transfigured Christ.
+
+[113] Cf. I Cor. XIII, II. “When I was a child, I spake as a child,
+I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a
+man, I put away childish things.” This point of our ever-ascending
+spiritual progress is well illustrated in the _Saddharma-pundarîka
+Sûtra_. See Chapters II, III, IV, V, and XI. The following passage
+quoted from chap. II, p. 49 (Kern’s translation) will give a tolerably
+adequate view concerning diversity of means and unity of purpose as
+here expounded: “Those highest of men have, all of them, revealed most
+holy laws by means of illustrations, reasons and arguments, with many
+hundred proofs of skillfulness (_upâyakauçalya_). And all of them have
+manifested but one vehicle and introduced but one on earth; by one
+vehicle have they led to full ripeness inconceivably many thousands of
+kotis of beings.” As was elsewhere noted, this doctrine is sometimes
+known as the theory of Upâya. Upâya is very difficult term to translate
+into English; it literally means “way,” “method,” or “strategy.” For
+fuller interpretation see p. 298, footnote.
+
+[114] This is one of the most important philosophical works of the
+Yogacâra school. Vasubandhu wrote the text (Nanjo, No. 1215) which
+consists only of thirty verses, but there appeared many commentators
+after the death of the author, who naturally entertained widely
+different views among themselves on the subject-matter, as it is too
+tersely treated in the text. Hsüen Tsang made selections out of the
+ten noted Hindu exegetists in A.D. 659 and translated them into the
+Chinese language. The compilation consists of ten fascicles and is
+known as _Discourse on the Ideality of the Universe_ (a free rendering
+of the Chinese title _Chang wei shi lun_, Nanjo, No. 1197).
+
+[115] May I venture to say that the conception of God as entertained
+by most Christians is a Body of Bliss rather than the Dharmakâya
+itself? In some respects their God is quite spiritual, but in others
+he is thought of as a concrete material being like ourselves. It seems
+to me that the human soul is ever struggling to free itself from this
+paradox, though without any apparent success, while the masses are not
+so intellectual and reflective enough as to become aware of this
+eternal contradiction which is too deeply buried in their minds.
+
+[116] The reader must not think that there is but one Pure Land
+which is elaborately described in the _Sukhâvatî Vyûha Sûtra_ as the
+abode of the Tathâgata Amitâbha, situated innumerable leagues away in
+the West. On the contrary, the Mahâyâna texts admit the existence of
+as innumerable pure lands as there are Tathâgatas and Bodhisattvas,
+and every single one of these holy regions has no boundary and is
+coexistent with the universe, and, therefore, their spheres necessarily
+intercrossing and overlapping one another. It would look to every
+intelligent mind that those innumerable Buddha-countries existing in
+such a mysterious and incomprehensible manner cannot be anything else
+than our own subjective creation.
+
+[117] For a description of these marks see the _Dharmasangraha_, pp.
+53 ff. A process of mystifying or deifying the person of Buddha seems
+to have been going on immediately after the death of the Master; and
+the Mahâyânistic conception of Nirmânakâya and Sambhogakâya is merely
+the consummation of this process. Southern Buddhists who are sometimes
+supposed to represent a more “primitive” form of Buddhism describe
+just as much as Mahâyânism the thirty-two major and eighty minor
+excellent physical marks of a great man as having been possessed by
+Çâkyamuni, (for instance, see the _Milindapañha_, _S. B. E._ Vol. XXXV.
+p. 116). But any person with common sense will at once see the
+absurdity of representing any human being with those physical
+peculiarities. And this seems to have inspired more rational
+Mahâyânists to abandon the traditional way of portraying the human
+Buddha with those mysterious signs. They transferred them through the
+doctrine of Trikâya to the characterisation of the Sambhogakâya
+Buddha, that is, to the Buddha enjoying in a celestial abode the fruit
+of his virtuous earthly life. The Buddha who walked in the flesh as
+the son of King Suddhodana was, however, no more than an ordinary
+human being like ourselves, because he appeared to us in a form of
+Nirmânakâya, i.e. as a Body of Transformation, devoid of any such
+physical peculiarities known as thirty-two or eighty lakṣanas.
+Southern Buddhists, so called, seem, however, to have overlooked the
+ridiculousness of attributing these fantastic signs to the human
+Buddha; and this fact explains that as soon as the memory of the
+personal disciples of Buddha about his person vanished among the later
+followers, intense speculation and resourceful imagination were
+constantly exercised until the divers schools settled the question
+each in its own way.
+
+[118] Cf. I Cor. XI. 19 et seq.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI NOTES.
+
+[119]
+Kern’s English translation (_S. B. E._ Vol. XXI), Chap. III, p. 80.
+
+[120] It should be noted here that the idea of universal salvation
+was lacking altogether in the followers of Hînayânism. But what
+distinguished it so markedly from Mahâyânism is that the former did
+not extend the idea wide enough, but confined it to Buddhahood only.
+Buddha attained omniscience in order that he might deliver the world,
+but we, ordinary mortals, are too ignorant and too helpless to aspire
+for Buddhahood; let us be contented with paying homage to Buddha and
+faithfully observing his precepts as laid down by him for our spiritual
+edification. Our knowledge and energy are too limited to cope with
+such a gigantic task as to achieve a universal salvation of mankind;
+let a Buddha or Bodhisattva attempt it while we may rest with a
+profound confidence in him and in his work. Thoughts somewhat like
+these must have been going about in the minds of the Hînayânists, when
+their Mahâyâna brethren were making bold to strive after Buddhahood
+themselves. The difference between the two schools of Buddhism, when
+most concisely expressed, is this: While one has a most submissive
+confidence in the Buddha, the other endeavors to follow his example by
+placing himself in his position. The following quotation (“the Story
+of Sumedha,” a Jâtaka tale, from Warren’s _Buddhism_, p. 14) in which
+Sumedha, one of the Buddha’s former incarnations, expresses his
+resolve to be a Buddha, may just as well be considered as that of a
+Mahâyânist himself, while the Hînayânists would not dare to make this
+wish their own:
+
+
+ “Or why should I, valorous man,
+ The ocean seek to cross alone?
+ Omniscience first will I achieve,
+ And men and gods convey across.
+
+ “Since now I make this earnest wish,
+ In presence of this Best of Men,
+ Omniscience sometime I’ll achieve,
+ And multitude convey across.
+
+ “I’ll rebirth’ circling stream arrest,
+ Destroy existence’s three modes;
+ I’ll climb the sides of Doctrine’s ship,
+ And men and gods convey across.”
+
+
+[121] This is a very rough summary of the doctrine that is known as
+Parivarta and expounded in the _Avatamsaka Sûtra_, fas. 21-22 where
+ten forms of Parivarta are distinguished and explained at length.
+
+[122] Warren’s _Buddhism in Translations_, the “Story of Sumedha,”
+pp. 14-15.
+
+[123] It may be interesting to Christian readers to note in this
+connection that modern Buddhists do not reject altogether the idea of
+vicarious atonement, for their religious conviction as seen here
+admits the parivarta of a Bodhisattva’s merits to the spiritual
+welfare of his fellow-creatures. But they will object to the Christian
+interpretation that Jesus was sent down on earth by his heavenly
+father for the special mission to atone for the original sin through
+the shedding of his innocent blood, for this is altogether too puerile
+and materialistic.
+
+[124] The full title of the work is _A Treatise on the
+Transcendentality of Bodhicitta_ (Nanjo, No. 1304). It is a little
+book consisting of seven or eight sheets in big Chinese type. It was
+translated into Chinese by Dânapâla (Shih Hu) during the tenth century
+of the Christian Era.
+
+[125] Upaya, meaning “expedient,” “stratagem,” “device,” or “craft,”
+has a technical sense in Buddhism. It is used in contrast to
+intelligence (_prajñâ_) and is synonymous with love (_karunâ_). So,
+Vimalakîrti says in the sûtra bearing his name (chap. 8, verses 1-4):
+“Prajñâ is the mother of the Bodhisattva and Upaya his father; there
+is no leader of humanity who is not born of them.” Intelligence
+(_prajñâ_) is the one, the universal, representing the principle of
+sameness (_samatâ_), while Upaya is the many, being the principle of
+manifoldness (_nânâtvâ_). From the standpoint of pure intelligence,
+the Bodhisattvas do not see any particular suffering existences, for
+there is nothing that is not of the Dharmakâya: but when they see the
+universe from the standpoint of their love-essence, they recognise
+everywhere the conditions of misery and sin that arise from clinging
+to the forms of particularity. To remove these, they devise all
+possible means that are directed towards the attainment of the final
+aim of existence. There is only one religion, religion of truth, but
+there are many ways, many means, many upayas, all issuing from the
+all-embracing love of the Dharmakâya and equally efficient to lead the
+masses to supreme enlightenment and universal good. Therefore,
+ontologically speaking, this universe, the Buddhists would say, is
+nothing but a grand display of Upayas by the Dharmakâya that desires
+thereby to lead all sentient beings to the ultimate realisation of
+Buddhahood. In many cases, thus, it is extremely difficult to render
+upaya by any of its English equivalents and yet to retain its original
+technical sense unsuffered. This is also the case with many other
+Buddhist terms, among which we may mention Bodhi, Dharmakâya, Prajñâ,
+Citta, Parivarta, etc. The Chinese translators have _fang p’ien_ for
+upaya which means “means-accommodation.”
+
+[126] Its full title is _A Discourse on the Non-duality of the
+Mahâyâna-Dharmadhâtu_. It consists of less than a dozen pages in
+ordinary Chinese large print. It was translated by Deva-prajñâ and
+others in the year 691 A.D.
+
+[127] This work was translated by Kumârajîva into Chinese at the
+beginning of the fifth century A.D. It is divided into two fascicles,
+each consisting of about one score of Chinese pages.
+
+[128] The above is a liberal rendering of the first part of the
+Chapter III, in Vasubandhu’s _Bodhicitta_.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII NOTES.
+
+[129] The distinction between the five indriyas and the five balas
+seems to be rather redundant. But the Hindu philosophers usually
+distinguish actor from action, agent from function or operation. Thus
+the sense-organs are distinguished from sensations or
+sense-consciousnesses, and the manovijñâna (mind) from its functions
+such as thinking, attention, memory, etc. The âtman has thus come to
+be considered the central agent that controls all the sensuous and
+intellectual activities. Though the Buddhists do not recognise this
+differentiation of actor and action in reality, they sometimes loosely
+follow the popular usage.
+
+[130] In this connection it is very interesting also to note that
+Carlyle expresses the same sentiment about the greatness of Shakespeare
+in his _Hero Worship_. “If I say that Shakspeare is the greatest of
+Intellects, I have said all concerning him. But there is more in
+Shakspeare’s intellect than we have yet seen It is what I call an
+unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it that he himself is
+aware of. Novalis beautifully remarks of him, that those dramas of his
+are Products of Nature too, as deep as Nature herself. I find a great
+truth in this saying, Shakspeare’s Art is not Artifice; the noblest
+worth of it is not there by plan or precontrivance. It grows from the
+deeps of Nature, through this noble sincere soul, who is a voice of
+Nature.”
+
+[131] The ten powers of the Buddha are: (1) The mental power which
+discriminates between right and wrong, (2) The knowledge of the
+retribution of karma, (3) The knowledge of all the different stages of
+creation, (4) The knowledge of all the different forms of deliverance,
+(5) The knowledge of all the different dispositions of sentient
+beings, (6) The knowledge of the final destination of all deeds, (7)
+The knowledge of all the different practices of meditation,
+deliverance, and tranquilisation, (8) The knowledge of former
+existences, (9) The unlimited power of divination, (10) The knowledge
+of the complete subjection of evil desires (_âçrava_).
+
+[132] The four convictions (_vaiçâradyas_) of the Buddha are: (1)
+That he has attained the highest enlightenment, (2) That he has
+destroyed all evil desires, (3) That he has rightly described the
+obstacles that lie in the way to a life of righteousness, (4) That he
+has truthfully taught the way of salvation.
+
+[133] The eighteen unique characteristics which distinguish the
+Buddha from the rest of mankind are: (1) He commits no errors. Since
+time out of mind, he has disciplined himself in morality, meditation,
+intelligence, and lovingkindness, and as the result his present life
+is without faults and free from all evil thoughts. (2) He is faultless
+in his speeches. Whatever he speaks comes from his transcendental
+eloquence and leads the audience to a higher conception of life. (3)
+His mind is faultless. As he has trained himself in samâdhi, he is
+always calm, serene, and contented. (4) He retains his sameness of
+heart (_samâhitacitta_), that is, his love for sentient beings is
+universal and not discriminative. (5) His mind is free from thoughts
+of particularity (_nânâtvasamjñâ_), that is, it is abiding in truth
+transcendental, his thoughts are not distracted by objects of the
+senses. (6) Resignation (_upekṣâ_). The Buddha knows everything, yet
+he is calmly resigned. (7) His aspiration is unfathomable, that is,
+his desire to save all beings from the sufferings of ignorance knows
+no bounds. (8) His energy is inexhaustible, which he applies with
+utmost vigor to the salvation of benighted souls. (9) His mentation
+(_smṛti_) is inexhaustible, that is, he is ever conscious of all the
+good doctrines taught by all the Buddhas of the past, present, and
+future. (10) His intelligence (_prajñâ_) is inexhaustible, that is,
+being in possession of all-intelligence which knows no limits, he
+preaches for the benefits of all beings. (11) His deliverance
+(_vimukti_) is permanent, that is, he has eternally distanced all evil
+passions and sinful attachments. (12) His knowledge of deliverance
+(_vimuktijñâna_) is perfect, that is, his intellectual insight into
+all states of deliverance is without a flaw. (13) He possesses a
+wisdom which directs all his bodily movements towards the benefit and
+enlightenment of sentient beings. (14) He possesses a wisdom which
+directs all his speeches toward the edification and conversion of his
+fellow-creatures. (15) He possesses a wisdom which reflects in his
+clear mind all the turbulent states of ignorant souls, from which he
+removes the dark veil of nescience and folly. (16) He knows all the
+past. (17) He knows all the future. (18) He knows all the present.
+
+[134] For an elaborate exposition of the Daçabhûmî, see the
+_Avatamsaka_ (sixty volume edition, fas. 24-27), the _Çûrangama_,
+Vasubandhu’s Commentary on Asanga’s _Comprehensive Treatise on
+Mahâyanism_ (fas. 10-11), the _Vijnânamâtra Çâstra_ (fas. 9), etc.,
+and for a special treatment of the subject consult the sûtra bearing
+the name, which by the way exists in a Sanskrit version and whose
+brief sketch is given by Rajendra Mitra in his _Nepalese Buddhist
+Literature_, p. 81 et seq.
+
+
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII NOTES.
+
+[135] Literally, “to advance against.”
+
+[136] Cf. Beal’s translation in the _S. B. E._ Vol XIX. pp. 306-307,
+vs. 2095-2101. Beal utterly misunderstands the Chinese original.
+
+[137] The _Buddhacarita_, Cowell’s translation in the _S. B. E._
+Vol. XLIX. p. 145.
+
+[138] From A. J. Edmunds’s translation of _Dhammapada_.
+
+[139] P. 225. Beal’s translation is not always reliable, and I
+would have my own if the Chinese original were at all accessible.
+
+[140] The gâthâs supposed to be the first utterance of the Buddha
+after his enlightenment, according to Rockhill’s _Life of the Buddha_
+(p. 33) compiled from Tibetan sources, give an inkling of nihilism,
+though I am inclined to think that the original Tibetan will allow a
+different interpretation when examined by some one who is better
+acquainted with the spirit of Buddhism than Rockhill. Rockhill betrays
+in not a few cases his insufficient knowledge of the subject he treats.
+His translation of the gâthâs is as follows:
+
+
+ “All the pleasures of the worldly joys,
+ All which are known among the gods,
+ Compared with the joy of ending existence,
+ Are not as its sixteenth part.
+
+ “Sorry is he whose burden is heavy,
+ And happy he who has cast it down;
+ When once he has cast off his burden,
+ He will seek to be burthened no more.
+
+ “When all existences are put away,
+ When all notions are at an end,
+ When all things are perfectly known,
+ Then no more will craving come back.”
+
+
+In the _Udâna_, II., 2, we have a stanza corresponding to the first
+gâthâ here cited, but the _Udâna_ does not say “the joy of ending
+existence,” but “the destruction of desire.”
+
+According to the _Lalita Vistara_, the Buddha’s utterance of victory
+is (Râjendra Mitra’s Edition p. 448):
+
+
+ “Cinna vartmopaçânta rajâh çuṣkâ âçravâ na punaḥ çravanti.
+ Chinne vartmani varttate duḥkhasyaiṣonta ucyate.”
+
+
+[141] Warren’s _Buddhism in Translations_, p. 376.
+
+[142] General D. M. Strong’s translation, p. 64.
+
+[143] The text does not expressly say “animate or inanimate”, but
+this is the author’s own interpretation according to the general
+spirit of Mahâyânism.
+
+[144] There are two obstacles to final emancipation: (1) affective,
+and (2) intellectual. The former is our unenlightened affective or
+emotional or subjective life and the latter our intellectual prejudice.
+Buddhists should not only be pure in heart but be perfect in
+intelligence. Pious men are of course saved from transmigration, but
+to attain perfect Buddhahood they must have a clear, penetrating
+intellectual insight into the significance of life and existence and
+the destiny of the universe. This emphasising of the rational element
+in religion is one of the most characteristic points of Buddhism.
+
+[145] This is one of the most important philosophical texts of
+Mahâyânism. Its original Sanskrit with the commentary of Chandra Kîrti
+has been edited by Satis Chandra Acharya and published by the Buddhist
+Text Society of India. The original lines run as follows (p. 193):
+
+
+ “Aprahînam, asamprâptam, anucchinnam, açâçvatam,
+ Aniruddham, anutpannam, evam nirvânam ucyate.”
+
+
+[146] Literally, that which is characterised by the absence of all
+characterisation.
+
+[147] Cf. the following from the _Mâdhyamika_:
+
+ “Bhaved abbâvo bhâvaç ca nirvânam ubhayam katham:
+ Asamskṛtam ca nirvânam bhâvâbhavâi ca samskṛtam.”
+ Or, “Tasmânna bhâvo nâbhâvo nirvânamiti yujyate.”
+
+
+[148] In the _Visuddhi-Magga_ XXI. (Warren’s translation, p. 376 et
+seq.), we read that there are three starting points of deliverance
+arising from the consideration of the three predominant qualities of
+the constituents of being: 1. The consideration of their beginnings
+and ends leads the thoughts to the unconditioned; 2. The insight into
+their miserableness agitates the mind and leads the thoughts to the
+desireless; 3. The consideration of the constituents of being as not
+having an ego leads the thoughts to the empty. And these three, we are
+told, constitute the three aspects of Nirvâna as unconditioned,
+desireless, and empty. Here we have an instance in the so-called
+Southern “primitive” Buddhism of viewing Nirvâna in the Mahâyânistic
+light which I have here explained at length.
+
+_En passant_, let us remark that as Buddha did not leave any document
+himself embodying his whole system, there sprang up soon after his
+departure several schools explaining the Master’s view in divers ways,
+each claiming the legitimate interpretation; that in view of this fact
+it is illogical to conclude that Southern Buddhism is the authoritative
+representation par excellence of original Buddhism, while the Eastern
+or the Northern is a mere degeneration.
+
+[149] There are three Chinese translations of this Mahâyâna text, by
+Dharmarakṣa, Kumârajîva, and Bodhiruci, between 265 and 517 A.D.
+
+[150]
+
+ Samsârasya ca nirvânât kincid asti viçeṣaṇam:
+ Na nirvâṇasya samsârât kincid asti viçesaṇam.
+
+
+[151]
+
+ Nirvâṇasya ca yâ kotiḥ kotiḥ samsârasya ca,
+ Vidyâdanantaraṃ kincit susukṣnaṃ vidyate.
+
+
+[152] Concerning the similarity in meaning of this statement to the
+one just preceding, a commentator says that the sixth is the statical
+view of Suchness (or Dharmakâya) and the seventh its dynamical view.
+One explains what the highest reality of Buddhism is and the other
+what it does or works.
+
+[153] _The Discourse on Buddha-essence_ by Vasubandhu. The Japanese
+Tripitaka edition of 1881, fas. II., p. 84, where the stanza is quoted
+from the _Sûtra on the Incomprehensible_.
+
+[154] This is expressed in the first verse of the _Mâdhyamika
+Çâstra_, which runs as follows:
+
+ “Anirodham anutpâdam anucchedam açâçvatam
+ Anekârtham anânârtham anâgamam anirgamam.”
+
+
+Literally translated these lines read:
+
+
+ “No annihilation, no production, no destruction, no persistence,
+ No unity, no plurality, no coming in, no going out.”
+
+
+[155] Compare this Buddhist sentiment of universal love with that of
+the Christian religion and we shall see the truth that all religions
+are one at the bottom. We read in Thomas à Kempis’s _Imitation of
+Christ_ (ch. XIII): “My son, I descended from heaven for thy salvation;
+I took upon me thy sorrows, not necessity but love drawing me thereto;
+that thou thyself mightest learn patience and bear temporal sufferings
+without repining. For from the hour of my birth, even until my death
+on the cross, I was not without suffering of grief.” This is exactly
+the sentiment that stimulates the Bodhisattvas to their gigantic task
+of universal salvation. Those who are free from sectarian biases will
+admit without hesitation that there is but one true religion which may
+assume various forms according to circumstances. “Many are the roads
+to the summit, but when reached there we have but one universal
+moonlight.”
+
+[156] The _Dharmapada_, XIV. 5. Mr. A. J. Edmunds’s translation is,
+
+
+ “Ceasing to do all wrong,
+ Initiation into goodness,
+ Cleansing the heart:
+ This the religion of the Buddhas.”
+
+
+
+
+ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES.
+
+Page numbers are given in {curly brackets}.
+
+The following have been left as-printed:
+
+Archaic and inconsistent spellings (_e.g._, Corea, Nirvâna/Nirvana,
+coördination/co-ordination, efficience/efficiency,
+Âlaya-vijñâna/Âlayavijñâna, etc.).
+
+Ellipses of varying lengths.
+
+(p. 317) The Eightfold Noble Path is listed omitting the seventh step
+(Right mindfulness). Also, the sixth step is usually given as “Right
+effort,” not “Right recollection.”
+
+The usage of both “fn.” and “ft.” to denote “footnote” in the Index.
+
+Lastly, some syntactical errors with possible corrections given in
+square brackets:
+
+(p. 83) “Its foundation lies too deeply buried in [the] human heart to
+be damaged by knowledge or science.”
+
+(p. 104) “When Bodhi-Dharma... saw Emperor Wu of [the] Liang dynasty
+(A.D. 502-556), he was asked...”
+
+(p. 214) “In good karma we are made to live eternally, but in [an]
+evil one we are doomed...”
+
+(p. 215) “Pious Buddhists believe that... he enters right into the
+soul and becomes [an] integral part of his being.”
+
+Alterations to the text:
+
+Abandon the use of drop-caps.
+
+Convert footnotes to endnotes and add a corresponding entry in the
+TOC.
+
+Punctuation corrections: several missing/invisible periods and a few
+commas, some quotation mark pairings/nestings, etc.
+
+[TOC]
+
+Add missing “Two Forms of Knowledge” subsection under Chapter IV.
+
+Under Chapter XII, change “Bhimukhî” to “Abhimukhî”.
+
+[Introduction]
+
+Change “the other schools, which _latter_ became a class by itself” to
+_later_.
+
+“led to the dissension _af_ Mahâyânism and Hînayânism” to _of_.
+
+“Kant, for instance, as _promotor_ of German philosophy” to _promoter_.
+
+“a few _centnries_ after Açvaghoṣa, the progressive party” to
+_centuries_.
+
+“while the _Prayekabuddhas_ and the Çrâvakas are considered” to
+_Pratyekabuddhas_.
+
+“Buddhism cannot ignore the _significane_ of Mahâyânism” to
+_significance_.
+
+“their rival religion as _denegerated_, because it went” to
+_degenerated_.
+
+“This fact so miserably spoils their _purityof_ sentiment” to _purity
+of_.
+
+“his intellect becomes _pitiously_ obscured by his” to _piteously_.
+
+“_refering_ to the Mahâyâna conception of Dharmakâya” to _referring_.
+
+[Chapter I]
+
+“that, owing to a crime _commited_ by them” to _committed_.
+
+“do not recognise the evanescence of _wordly_ things” to _worldly_.
+
+“The _dotrine_ of nescience or ignorance is technically” to _doctrine_.
+
+“sons and daughters, wives _aud_ husbands, all transfigured” to _and_.
+
+“and which therefore were utterly _desplicable_” to _despicable_.
+
+“in response to the pathetic _persuation_ of his father’s” to
+_persuasion_.
+
+[Chapter II]
+
+“Sthiramati in his _Indroduction_ to Mahâyânism” to _Introduction_.
+
+“As the silkworm imprisons itself in the _cacoon_ created” to _cocoon_.
+
+“realm of the absolute and the abode of _non-particurality_” to
+_non-particularity_.
+
+[Chapter III]
+
+“satisfy the inmost _yearings_ of the human heart” to _yearnings_.
+
+“which consists of the inmost _yearings_ of the human heart” to
+_yearnings_.
+
+[Chapter IV]
+
+“World-views Founded on the Three _Froms_ of Knowledge” to _Forms_.
+
+(p. 94, fn. 1) “Nanjo. Nos. 246 _aud_ 247), etc.” to _and_.
+
+“From this, it is to be _infered_ that Buddhism never” to _inferred_.
+
+[Chapter V]
+
+(_Nâgârjana’s_ famous doctrine of “The Middle Path) to _Nâgârjuna’s_.
+
+“is no more than a fragment of the _absoulte_ Bhûtatathâtâ” to
+_absolute_.
+
+“to be very logical and free from serious _dufficulties_” to
+_difficulties_.
+
+“Adam with Eve, Buddha with Devadatta, etc., _ect_.,” to _etc_.
+
+[Chapter VI]
+
+“and _Buddi_ and Ahankâra. Buddhi, intellect, is defined” to _Buddhi_.
+
+(p.139, fn. 1) “doctrine of Mahâyânism, i.e.. that of” change third
+period to a comma.
+
+[Chapter VII]
+
+“fixed state of things in which perfect _equillibrium_” to
+_equilibrium_.
+
+“the noumenal ego as the raison _d’ être_ of our” to _d’être_.
+
+(literally means “aggregate” or “_aglomeration_”) to _agglomeration_.
+
+(saying: “_This‘middle’_ is extremely indefinite) to _This ‘middle’_.
+
+“the hypothesis of the _permament_ existence of an” to _permanent_.
+
+(The term “_sabhâva_” (self-essence or noumenon) is) to _svabhâva_.
+
+“they are like the _will-‘o-the-wisp_” to _will-o’-the-wisp_.
+
+“If the Fourfold Noble Truth _dœs_ not exist” to _does_.
+
+“The _Buddha ’s_ teaching rests on the discrimination” to _Buddha’s_.
+
+[Chapter VIII]
+
+“He is _sufficent_ unto himself as he is here and now” to _sufficient_.
+
+“and the accumulation of of merits (_punyaskandha_)” delete one _of_.
+
+“Every one of these seeds which are _infinte_ in number” to _infinite_.
+
+[Chapter IX]
+
+“than devastation, _barreness_, and universal misery” to _barrenness_.
+
+“Even so with the _Dharkâya_ of the Tathâgata” to _Dharmakâya_.
+
+“Even so with the Dharmakâya of _theT athâgata_” to _the Tathâgata_.
+
+“such as blindness, deafness, mental _abberration_, etc.” to
+_aberration_.
+
+“It _anthroposises_ everything beyond the proper measure” to
+_anthropomorphises_.
+
+[Chapter X]
+
+(p. 243, fn. 1) “the Eastern Tsin dynasty (A.D, 371-420)” change the
+comma to a period.
+
+“the work once _refered_ to in the beginning of this book” to
+_referred_.
+
+“describe the the essential peculiarities of each school” delete one
+_the_.
+
+(p. 253, fn. 2) “A part of the _orginal_ Sanskrit text” to _original_.
+
+“Asanga and Vasubandhu will be here _refered_ to” to _referred_.
+
+“pious Buddhists would be _transfered_ after their death” to
+_transferred_.
+
+(p. 271, fn. 1) “eighty minor _exellent_ physical marks of a great” to
+_excellent_.
+
+(_same_) “They _transfered_ them through the doctrine of Trikâya” to
+_transferred_.
+
+[Chapter XI]
+
+“which was quite unwittingly _commited_ by him” to _committed_.
+
+“does not allow the _transfering_ of responsibility” to _transferring_.
+
+“It is _uncreate_ and its self-essence is void” to _uncreated_.
+
+[Chapter XII]
+
+“On the evanescence of the _wordly_ interests” to _worldly_.
+
+“3. Circumspection; 4. _Equillibrium_, or tranquillity” to
+_Equilibrium_.
+
+“aloof from the consuming fire of _passsion_” to _passion_.
+
+“He practises the virtue of _strenuousuess_ (_vriya_)” to
+_strenuousness_.
+
+[Chapter XIII]
+
+“And am eternally released from all pain and _suffe ring_” to
+_suffering_.
+
+(p. 334, fn. 2) “Cowell’s translation in the S. B. E. Vol. _ILIX_. p.
+145” to _XLIX_.
+
+“When we speak of _Buddha ’s_ entrance into Nirvâna” to _Buddha’s_.
+
+“love is a Buddha-dharma, wisdom is a _Buddha dharma_” to
+_Buddha-dharma_.
+
+“emancipation of the Çrâvaka or of the _Prayekabuddha_” to
+_Pratyekabuddha_.
+
+“hearts are not softened at the sight of others, misfortune and
+suffering” change the comma to a (possessive) apostrophe.
+
+“he does not believe that universal _emanciipation_” to _emancipation_.
+
+“but that _thay_ obtain reality in their oneness with” to _they_.
+
+“do not pay homage to the _congregration_ of holy men” to
+_congregation_.
+
+[Appendix]
+
+“Devoid of all _liminations_” to _limitations_.
+
+“None is there but that enters upon _Buddh a-knowledge_” to
+_Buddha-knowledge_.
+
+“All _senient_ beings in transmigration travel through” to _sentient_.
+
+“I’ll release, and to eternal _pease_ them I’ll lead” to _peace_.
+
+“In the stream of birth and death they go _arolling_” to _a-rolling_.
+
+“No-more-_arolling_ is Nirvâna” to _a-rolling_.
+
+Change two incidents of _Nonjo_ to _Nanjo_.
+
+“The Avatamsaka _Sutru_” to _Sutra_.
+
+[Index]
+
+(_Imitation of Christ_, _365_ fn.) to _364_.
+
+(_Lalita Vistara_, quoted, on Nirvana, _339_ fn.) to _338_.
+
+(Max Mueller, quoted, 108 ft., _111_ ft., 221.) to _110_.
+
+(Prajñâ (and Bodhi), defined, _62_ ft.; 82, 97, 119, 238, 360.) to
+_82_.
+
+(Prakṛti (Samkyan primordial matter), _67_ ft.) to _66_.
+
+(Purusha (Samkyan soul), _67_ ft.) to _66_.
+
+(“Tat tvam asi,” 47, _136_ ft.) to _135_.
+
+(_Udâna_, quoted, 52, _339_ ft., 341.) to _338_.
+
+(Upâya (expediency), 64, _261_ ft.; its meaning) to _260_.
+
+ [End of text]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75283 ***
diff --git a/75283-h/75283-h.htm b/75283-h/75283-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..592c3d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/75283-h/75283-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,16660 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+ <meta charset="UTF-8">
+ <title>
+  Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism | Project Gutenberg
+ </title>
+ <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
+ <style>
+
+/* Headers and Divisions */
+ h1, h2, h3, h4 {margin:2em 0em 1em 0em; page-break-before:always; text-align:center;}
+
+/* General */
+
+ body {margin:0% 5% 0% 5%;}
+
+ .nobreak {page-break-before:avoid;}
+
+ p {margin:0em 0em 0em 0em; text-align:justify; text-indent:1em;}
+ .center {margin:0em 0em 0em 0em; text-align:center; text-indent:0em;}
+ .noindent {text-indent:0em;}
+ .spacer {margin:0.5em 0em 0.5em 0em; text-align:center; text-indent:0em;}
+
+ hr {margin:1em auto 1em auto; text-align:center; width:20%;}
+ .pagenum  {color:gray; font-size:70%; left:96%; position:absolute; text-align:right; text-indent:0em;}
+
+ .toc_c {font-variant:small-caps; margin:1em 0em 0em 0em; text-align:center; text-indent:0em;}
+ .toc_l {font-variant:small-caps; margin:1em 0em 0em 2em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .toc_p {margin:0em 0em 0em 2em; text-indent:1em;}
+
+ .right {text-align:right;}
+ .rt1 {margin:0em 1em 0em 0em; text-align:right; text-indent:0em;}
+
+ .chap_sub {font-size:80%;}
+ .font60 {font-size:60%;}
+ .font70 {font-size:70%;}
+ .font80 {font-size:80%;}
+ .sc {font-variant:small-caps;}
+
+/* special formatting */
+
+ .stanza {margin:1em 0em 0em 0em; text-indent:0em;}
+ .i0 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 2em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i1 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 3em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i2 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 4em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i3 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 5em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i4 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 6em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i5 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 7em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i6 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 8em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i7 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 9em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i8 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 10em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i9 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 11em; text-indent:-2em;}
+ .i10 {display:inline-block; margin:0em 0em 0em 12em; text-indent:-2em;}
+
+ blockquote {margin:1em 2em 1em 2em;}
+ .ch_ss {margin:2em 0em 1em 0em; text-align:center; text-indent:0em;}
+ .idx {margin:0em 0em 0em 2em; text-indent:-2em;}
+
+ .mt1 {margin-top:1em;}
+ .mt2 {margin-top:2em;}
+ .mt3 {margin-top:3em;}
+ .mt4 {margin-top:4em;}
+ .mt6 {margin-top:4em;}
+ .mb1 {margin-bottom:1em;}
+
+</style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75283 ***</div>
+
+<h1>
+<span class="font70">OUTLINES</span><br>
+<span class="font60">OF</span><br>
+MAHAYANA BUDDHISM
+</h1>
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="font70">BY</span><br>
+DAISETZ TEITARO SUZUKI
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt6">
+<span class="font70">CHICAGO</span><br>
+THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY<br>
+1908
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="preface">
+PREFACE.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{v}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The object of this book is twofold: (1) To refute the many wrong
+opinions which are entertained by Western critics concerning the
+fundamental teachings of Mahâyâna Buddhism; (2) To awake interest
+among scholars of comparative religion in the development of the
+religious sentiment and faith as exemplified by the growth of one of
+the most powerful spiritual forces in the world. The book is therefore
+at once popular and scholarly. It is popular in the sense that it
+tries to expose the fallacy of the general attitude assumed by other
+religionists towards Mahâyânism. It aims to be scholarly, on the
+other hand, when it endeavors to expound some of the most salient
+features of the doctrine, historically and systematically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In attempting the accomplishment of this latter object, however, the
+author makes no great claim, because it is impossible to present
+within this prescribed space all the data that are available for a
+comprehensive and systematic elucidation of the Mahâyâna Buddhism,
+whose history began in the sixth century before the Christian era and
+ran through a period of more than two thousand years before it assumed
+the form in which it is at present taught in the Orient. During this
+long period, the Mahâyâna <span class="pagenum">{vi}</span> doctrine was elaborated by the best
+minds that India, Tibet, China, and Japan ever produced. It is no
+wonder then that so many diverse and apparently contradictory
+teachings are all comprised under the general name of Mahâyâna
+Buddhism. To expound all these theories even tentatively would be
+altogether outside the scope of such a work as this. All that I could
+or hoped to do was to discuss a few of the most general and most
+essential topics of Mahâyânism, making this a sort of introduction
+to a more detailed exposition of the system as a whole as well as in
+particular.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To attain the first object, I have gone occasionally outside the
+sphere within which I had properly to confine the work. But this
+deviation seemed imperative for the reason that some critics are so
+prejudiced that even seemingly self-evident truths are not comprehended
+by them. I may be prejudiced in my own way, but very frequently I have
+wondered how completely and how wretchedly some people can be made the
+prey of self-delusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrinal history of Mahâyâna Buddhism is very little known to
+Occidental scholars. This is mainly due to the inaccessibility of
+material which is largely written in the Chinese tongue, one of the
+most difficult of languages for foreigners to master. In this age of
+liberal culture, it is a great pity that so few of the precious stones
+contained in the religion of Buddha are obtainable by Western people.
+Human nature is essentially the same the world over, and <span class="pagenum">{vii}</span>
+whenever and wherever conditions mature we see the same spiritual
+phenomena; and this fact ever strengthens our faith in the universality
+of truth and in the ultimate reign of lovingkindness. It is my sincere
+desire that in so far as my intellectual attainment permits I shall be
+allowed to pursue my study and to share my findings with my
+fellow-beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In concluding this prelude, the author wishes to say that this little
+book is presented to the public with a full knowledge of its many
+defects, to revise which he will not fail to make use of every
+opportunity offered him.
+</p>
+
+<p class="mt1 rt1">
+<span class="sc">Daisetz T. Suzuki</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{viii}</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<h2>
+CONTENTS.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{ix}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#preface">Preface</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#int">Introduction</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#intp1">(1) <i>The Mahâyâna and Hînayâna Buddhism.</i></a> <a href="#intp1s1">Why the Two Doctrines?</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp1s2">The
+Original Meaning of Mahâyâna.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp1s3">An Older Classification of
+Buddhists.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp1s4">Mahâyâna Buddhism defined.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#intp2">(2) <i>Is the Mahâyâna Buddhism the genuine teaching of Buddha?</i></a> <a href="#intp2s1">No Life
+Without Growth.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp2s2">Mahâyânism a Living Religion.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#intp3">(3) <i>Some Misstatements about the Mahâyânism.</i></a> <a href="#intp3s1">Why Injustice Done to
+Buddhism.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp3s2">Examples of Injustice.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp3s3">Monier
+Monier-Williams.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp3s4">Beal.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp3s5">Waddell.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#intp4">(4) <i>The Significance of Religion.</i></a> <a href="#intp4s1">No Revealed Religion.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp4s2">The
+Mystery.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp4s3">Intellect and Imagination.</a>&mdash;<a href="#intp4s4">The Contents of Faith vary.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch01">Chapter I. A General Characterisation of Buddhism.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch01s01">No God and No Soul.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch01s02">Karma.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch01s03">Avidyâ.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch01s04">Non-âtman.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch01s05">The Non-âtmanness of
+Things.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch01s06">Dharmakâya.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch01s07">Nirvâna.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch01s08">Intellectual Tendency of Buddhism.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch02">Chapter II. Historical Characterisation of Mahâyânism.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch02s01">Sthiramati’s Conception of Mahâyânism.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch02s02">Seven Principal Features of
+Mahâyânism.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch02s03">Ten Essential Features of Mahâyânism.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{x}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_c">
+<a href="#part1">Speculative Mahâyânism.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch03">Chapter III. Practice and Speculation.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch03s01">Relation of Feeling and Intellect.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch03s02">Buddhism and Speculation.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch03s03">Religion
+and Metaphysics.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch04">Chapter IV. Classification of Knowledge.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch04s01">Three Forms of Knowledge.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch04s02">Illusion.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch04s03">Relative Knowledge.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch04s04">Absolute
+Knowledge.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch04s05">World-Views founded on the three Forms of
+Knowledge.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch04s06">Two Forms of Knowledge.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch04s07">Transcendental Truth and Relative
+Understanding.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch05">Chapter V. Bhûtatathâtâ (Suchness).</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch05s01">Indefinability.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch05s02">The “Thundrous Silence.”</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch05s03">Suchness
+Conditioned.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch05s04">Questions Defying Solution.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch05s05">The Theory of
+Ignorance.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch05s06">Dualism and Moral Evil.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch06">Chapter VI. The Tathâgata-Garbha and the Âlaya-vijnâna.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch06s01">The Garbha and Ignorance.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch06s02">The Âlaya-vijñâna and its Evolution.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch06s03">The
+Manas.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch06s04">The Sâmkhya Philosophy and Mahâyânism.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch07">Chapter VII. The Theory of Non-âtman or Non-ego.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch07s01">Âtman.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s02">Buddha’s First Line of Inquiry.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s03">The Skandha.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s04">King Milinda
+and Nâgasena.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s05">Ananda’s Attempts to Locate the Soul.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s06">Âtman and the
+“Old Man.”</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s07">The Vedântic Conception.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s08">Nâgârjuna on the
+Soul.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s09">Non-âtman-ness of Things.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s10">Svabhâva.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch07s11">The Real Significance of
+Emptiness.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch08">Chapter VIII. Karma.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch08s01">Definition.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch08s02">The Working of Karma.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch08s03">Karma and Social injustice.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch08s04">An
+Individualistic View of Karma.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch08s05">Karma and Determinism.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch08s06">The Maturing
+of Good Stock and the Accumulation of Good Merits.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch08s07">Immortality.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{xi}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_c">
+<a href="#part2">Practical Mahâyânism.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch09">Chapter IX. The Dharmakâya.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch09s01">God.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s02">Dharmakâya.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s03">Dharmakâya as Religious Object.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s04">More Detailed
+Characterisation.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s05">The Dharmakâya and Individual Beings.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s06">The
+Dharmakâya as Love.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s07">Later Mahâyânists’ View of the Dharmakâya.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s08">The
+Freedom of the Dharmakâya.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch09s09">The Will of the Dharmakâya.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch10">Chapter X. The Doctrine of Trikâya.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch10s01">The Human and the Super-human Buddha.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s02">An Historical View.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s03">Who was
+Buddha?</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s04">The Trikâya as Explained in the <i>Suvarna-Prabhâ</i>.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s05">Revelation
+in All Stages of Culture.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s06">The Sambhogakâya.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s07">A Mere Subjective
+Existence.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s08">Attitude of Modern Mahâyânists.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch10s09">Recapitulation.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch11">Chapter XI. The Bodhisattva.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch11s01">The Three Yânas.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s02">Strict Individualism.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s03">The Doctrine of
+Parivarta.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s04">Bodhisattva in “Primitive” Buddhism.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s05">We are all
+Bodhisattvas.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s06">The Buddha’s Life.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s07">The Bodhisattva and Love.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s08">The
+Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s09">Love and Karunâ.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s10">Nâgârjuna and
+Sthiramati on Bodhicitta.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s11">The Awakening of the Bodhicitta.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch11s12">The
+Bodhisattva’s Pranidhâna.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch12">Chapter XII. Ten Stages of Bodhisattvahood.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch12s01">Gradation in our Spiritual Life.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s02">Pramuditâ.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s03">Vimalâ.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s04">Prabhâkarî.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s05">Arcismatî.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s06">Sudurjanâ.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s07">Abhimukhî.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s08">Dûrangamâ.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s09">Acalâ.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s10">Sâdhumatî.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch12s11">Dharmameghâ.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum">{xii}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#ch13">Chapter XIII. Nirvâna.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_p">
+<a href="#ch13s01">Nihilistic Nirvâna not the First Object.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s02">Nirvâna is Positive.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s03">The
+Mahâyânistic Conception of Nirvâna.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s04">Nirvâna as the
+Dharmakâya.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s05">Nirvâna in its Fourth Sense.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s06">Nirvâna and Samsâra are
+One.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s07">The Middle Course.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s08">How to Realise Nirvâna.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s09">Love Awakens
+Intelligence.</a>&mdash;<a href="#ch13s10">Conclusion.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#appendix">Appendix, Hymns of Mahâyâna Faith.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#index">Index.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="toc_l">
+<a href="#endnotes">Endnotes.</a>
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="int">
+INTRODUCTION.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p001">{1}</span>
+</p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="intp1">
+1. THE MAHÂYÂNA AND THE HÎNAYÂNA<br>
+BUDDHISM.
+</h3>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">The</span> terms “Mahâyâna” and “Hînayâna” may sound unfamiliar to most of
+our readers, perhaps even to those who have devoted some time to the
+study of Buddhism. They have hitherto been induced to believe that
+there is but one form of Buddhism, and that there exists no such
+distinction as Mahâyânism and Hînayânism. But, as a matter of fact,
+there are diverse schools in Buddhism just as in other religious
+systems. It is said that, within a few hundred years after the demise
+of Buddha, there were more than twenty different schools,<sup><a href="#n001b" id="n001a">[1]</a></sup> all
+claiming <span class="pagenum" id="p002">{2}</span> to be the orthodox teaching of their master. These,
+however, seem to have vanished into insignificance one after another,
+when there arose a new school quite different in its general
+constitution from its predecessors, but far more important in its
+significance as a religious movement. This new school or rather system
+made itself so prominent in the meantime as to stand distinctly alone
+from all the other schools, which later became a class by itself.
+Essentially, it taught everything that was considered to be Buddhistic,
+but it was very comprehensive in its principle and method and scope.
+And, by reason of this, Buddhism was now split into two great systems,
+Mahâyânism and Hînayânism, the latter indiscriminately including all
+the minor schools which preceded Mahâyânism in their formal
+establishment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Broadly speaking, the difference between Mahâyânism and Hînayânism is
+this: Mahâyânism is more liberal and progressive, but in many respects
+too metaphysical and full of speculative thoughts that frequently reach
+a dazzling eminence: Hînayânism, on the other hand, is somewhat
+conservative and may be considered in many points to be a rationalistic
+ethical system simply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mahâyâna literally means “great vehicle” and Hînayâna “small or
+inferior vehicle,” that is, of salvation. This distinction is
+recognised only by the followers of Mahâyânism, because it was by
+them that the unwelcome title of Hînayânism was given to their rival
+brethren,&mdash;thinking that they were more progressive <span class="pagenum" id="p003">{3}</span> and had a more
+assimilating energy than the latter. The adherents of Hînayânism, as
+a matter of course, refused to sanction the Mahâyânist doctrine as
+the genuine teaching of Buddha, and insisted that there could not be
+any other Buddhism than their own, to them naturally the Mahâyâna
+system was a sort of heresy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Geographically, the progressive school of Buddhism found its
+supporters in Nepal, Tibet, China, Corea, and Japan, while the
+conservative school established itself in Ceylon,<sup><a href="#n002b" id="n002a">[2]</a></sup> Siam, and Burma.
+Hence the Mahâyâna and the Hînayâna are also known respectively
+Northern and Southern Buddhism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>En passant</i>, let me remark that this distinction, however, is not
+quite correct, for we have some <span class="pagenum" id="p004">{4}</span> schools in China and Japan, whose
+equivalent or counterpart cannot be found in the so-called Northern
+Buddhism, that is, Buddhism flourishing in Northern India. For
+instance, we do not have in Nepal or in Tibet anything like the
+Sukhâvatî sects of Japan or China. Of course, the general essential
+ideas of the Sukhâvatî philosophy are found in the sûtra literature
+as well as in the writings of such authors as Açvaghoṣa, Asanga, and
+Nâgârjuna. But those ideas were not developed and made into a new sect
+as they were in the East. Therefore, it may be more proper to divide
+Buddhism into three, instead of two, geographical sections: Southern,
+Northern, and Eastern.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp1s1">
+<i>Why the two Doctrines?</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of this distinction, the two schools, Hînayânism and
+Mahâyânism, are no more than two main issues of one original source,
+which was first discovered by Çâkyamuni; and, as a matter of course,
+we find many common traits which are essential to both of them. The
+spirit that animated the innermost heart of Buddha is perceptible in
+Southern as well as in Northern Buddhism. The difference between them
+is not radical or qualitative as imagined by some. It is due, on the
+one hand, to a general unfolding of the religious consciousness and a
+constant broadening of the intellectual horizon, and, on the other
+hand, to the conservative efforts to literally preserve the monastic
+rules and traditions. Both schools started with the same spirit,
+pursuing the <span class="pagenum" id="p005">{5}</span> same course. But after a while one did not feel any
+necessity for broadening the spirit of the master and adhered to his
+words as literally as possible; whilst the other, actuated by a liberal
+and comprehensive spirit, has drawn nourishments from all available
+sources, in order to unfold the germs in the original system that were
+vigorous and generative. These diverse inclinations among primitive
+Buddhists naturally led to the dissension of Mahâyânism and Hînayânism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We cannot here enter into any detailed accounts as to what external
+and internal forces were acting in the body of Buddhism to produce the
+Mahâyâna system, or as to how gradually it unfolded itself so as to
+absorb and assimilate all the discordant thoughts that came in contact
+with it. Suffice it to state and answer in general terms the question
+which is frequently asked by the uninitiated: “Why did one Buddhism
+ever allow itself to be differentiated into two systems, which are
+apparently in contradiction in more than one point with each other?”
+In other words, “How can there be two Buddhisms equally representing
+the true doctrine of the founder?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The reason is plain enough. The teachings of a great religious founder
+are as a rule very general, comprehensive, and many-sided: and,
+therefore, there are great possibilities in them to allow various
+liberal interpretations by his disciples. And it is on this very
+account of comprehensiveness that enables followers of diverse needs,
+characters, and trainings to <span class="pagenum" id="p006">{6}</span> satisfy their spiritual appetite
+universally and severally with the teachings of their master. This
+comprehensiveness, however, is not due to the intentional use by the
+leader of ambiguous terms, nor is it due to the obscurity and
+confusion of his own conceptions. The initiator of a movement,
+spiritual as well as intellectual, has no time to think out all its
+possible details and consequences. When the principle of the movement
+is understood by the contemporaries and the foundation of it is
+solidly laid down, his own part as initiator is accomplished; and the
+remainder can safely be left over to his successors. The latter will
+take up the work and carry it out in all its particulars, while making
+all necessary alterations and ameliorations according to circumstances.
+Therefore, the rôle to be played by the originator is necessarily
+indefinite and comprehensive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Kant, for instance, as promoter of German philosophy, has become the
+father of such diverse philosophical systems as Jacobi’s, Fichte’s,
+Hegel’s, Schopenhauer’s, etc., while each of them endeavored to
+develop some points indefinitely or covertly or indirectly stated by
+Kant himself. Jesus of Nazareth, as instigator of a revolutionary
+movement against Judaism, did not have any stereotyped theological
+doctrines, such as were established later by Christian doctors. The
+indefiniteness of his views was so apparent that it caused even among
+his personal disciples a sort of dissension, while a majority of his
+disciples cherished a visionary hope for the advent <span class="pagenum" id="p007">{7}</span> of a divine
+kingdom on earth. But those externalities which are doomed to pass, do
+not prevent the spirit of the movement once awakened by a great leader
+from growing more powerful and noble.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The same thing can be said of the teachings of the Buddha. What he
+inspired in his followers was the spirit of that religious system
+which is now known as Buddhism. Guided by this spirit, his followers
+severally developed his teachings as required by their special needs
+and circumstances, finally giving birth to the distinction of
+Mahâyânism and Hînayânism.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp1s2">
+<i>The Original Meaning of Mahâyâna.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The term Mahâyâna was first used to designate the highest principle,
+or being, or knowledge, of which the universe with all its sentient
+and non-sentient beings is a manifestation, and through which only
+they can attain final salvation (<i>mokṣa</i> or <i>nirvâna</i>). Mahâyâna was
+not the name given to any religious doctrine, nor had it anything to
+do with doctrinal controversy, though later it was so utilised by the
+progressive party.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Açvaghoṣa, the first Mahâyâna expounder known to us,&mdash;living about the
+time of Christ,&mdash;used the term in his religio-philosophical book
+called <i>Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahâyâna</i><sup><a href="#n003b" id="n003a">[3]</a></sup> as
+synonymous with Bhûtatathâtâ, or Dharmakâyâ,<sup><a href="#n004b" id="n004a">[4]</a></sup> the <span class="pagenum" id="p008">{8}</span> highest
+principle of Mahâyânism. He likened the recognition of, and faith in,
+this highest being and principle into a conveyance which will carry us
+safely across the tempestuous ocean of birth and death (<i>samsâra</i>) to
+the eternal shore of Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Soon after him, however, the controversy between the two schools of
+Buddhism, conservatives and progressionists as we might call them,
+became more and more pronounced; and when it reached its climax which
+was most probably in the times of Nâgârjuna and Âryadeva, i.e., a
+few centuries after Açvaghoṣa, the progressive party ingeniously
+invented the term Hînayâna in contrast to Mahâyâna, the latter
+having been adopted by them as the watchword of their own school. The
+Hînayânists and the Tîrthakas<sup><a href="#n005b" id="n005a">[5]</a></sup> then were sweepingly condemned by
+the Mahâyânists as inadequate to achieve a universal salvation of
+sentient beings.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp1s3">
+<i>An Older Classification of Buddhists.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before the distinction of Mahâyânists and Hînayânists became definite,
+that is to say, at the time of Nâgârjuna or even before it, those
+Buddhists who held a more progressive and broader view tried to
+distinguish three yânas among the followers of the Buddha, viz.,
+Bodhisattva-yâna, Pratyekabuddha-yâna, and Çrâvaka-yâna; yâna being
+another name for class.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p009">{9}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhisattva is that class of Buddhists who, believing in the Bodhi
+(intelligence or wisdom), which is a reflection of the Dharmakâya in
+the human soul, direct all their spiritual energy toward realising and
+developing it for the sake of their fellow-creatures.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Pratyekabuddha is a “solitary thinker” or a philosopher, who,
+retiring into solitude and calmly contemplating on the evanescence of
+worldly pleasures, endeavors to attain his own salvation, but remains
+unconcerned with the sufferings of his fellow-beings. Religiously
+considered, a Pratyekabuddha is cold, impassive, egotistic, and lacks
+love for all mankind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Çrâvaka which means “hearer” is inferior in the estimate of
+Mahâyânists even to the Pratyekabuddha, for he does not possess any
+intellect that enables him to think independently and to find out by
+himself the way to final salvation. Being endowed, however, with a
+pious heart, he is willing to listen to the instructions of the Buddha,
+to believe in him, to observe faithfully all the moral precepts given
+by him, and rests fully contented within the narrow horizon of his
+mediocre intellect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To a further elucidation of Bodhisattvahood and its important bearings
+in the Mahâyâna Buddhism, we devote a special chapter below. For
+Mahâyânism is no more than the Buddhism of Bodhisattvas, while the
+Pratyekabuddhas and the Çrâvakas are considered by Mahâyânists to be
+adherents of Hînayânism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p010">{10}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp1s4">
+<i>The Mahâyâna Buddhism Defined.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We can now form a somewhat definite notion as to what the Mahâyâna
+Buddhism is. It is the Buddhism which, inspired by a progressive
+spirit, broadened its original scope, so far as it did not contradict
+the inner significance of the teachings of the Buddha, and which
+assimilated other religio-philosophical beliefs within itself,
+whenever it felt that, by so doing, people of more widely different
+characters and intellectual endowments could be saved. Let us be
+satisfied at present with this statement, until we enter into a more
+detailed exposition of its doctrinal peculiarities in the pages that
+follow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may not be out of place, while passing, to remark that the term
+Mahâyânism is used in this work merely in contradistinction to that
+form of Buddhism, which is flourishing in Ceylon and Burma and other
+central Asiatic nations, and whose literature is principally written
+in the language called Pâli, which comes from the same stock as
+Sanskrit. The term “Mahâyâna” does not imply, as it is used here, any
+sense of superiority over the Hînayâna. When the historical aspect of
+Mahâyânism is treated, it may naturally develop that its over-zealous
+and one-sided devotees unnecessarily emphasised its controversial and
+dogmatical phase at the sacrifice of its true spirit; but the reader
+must not think that this work has anything to do with those
+complications. In fact, Mahâyânism professes to be a boundless ocean
+in which all form <span class="pagenum" id="p011">{11}</span> of thought and faith can find its congenial and
+welcome home; why then should we make it militate against its own
+fellow-doctrine, Hînayânism?
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="intp2">
+2. IS THE MAHÂYÂNA BUDDHISM THE GENUINE<br>
+TEACHING OF THE BUDDHA?
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+What is generally known to the Western nations by the name of Buddhism
+is Hînayânism, whose scriptures as above stated are written in Pâli
+and studied mostly in Ceylon, Burma, and Siam. It was through this
+language that the first knowledge of Buddhism was acquired by
+Orientalists; and naturally they came to regard Hînayânism or Southern
+Buddhism as the only genuine teachings of the Buddha. They insisted,
+and some of them still insist, that to have an adequate and thorough
+knowledge of Buddhism, they must confine themselves solely to the
+study of the Pâli, that whatever may be learned from other sources,
+i.e., from the Sanskrit, Tibetan, or Chinese documents should be
+considered as throwing only a side-light on the reliable information
+obtained from the Pâli, and further that the knowledge derived from
+the former should in certain cases be discarded as accounts of a
+degenerated form of Buddhism. Owing to these unfortunate hypotheses,
+the significance of Mahâyânism as a living religion has been entirely
+ignored; and even those who are regarded as best authorities on the
+subject appear greatly misinformed and, what is worse, altogether
+prejudiced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p012">{12}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp2s1">
+<i>No Life Without Growth.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is very unfair on the part of the critics, because what religion
+is there in the whole history of mankind that has not made any
+development whatever, that has remained the same, like the granite,
+throughout its entire course? Let us ask whether there is any religion
+which has shown some signs of vitality and yet retained its primitive
+form intact and unmodified in every respect. Is not changeableness,
+that is, susceptibility to irritation the most essential sign of
+vitality? Every organism grows, which means a change in some way or
+other. There is no form of life to be found anywhere on earth, that
+does not grow or change, or that has not any inherent power of
+adjusting itself to the surrounding conditions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Take, for example, Christianity. Is Protestantism the genuine teaching
+of Jesus of Nazareth? or does Catholicism represent his true spirit?
+Jesus himself did not have any definite notion of Trinity doctrine,
+nor did he propose any suggestion for ritualism. According to the
+Synoptics, he appears to have cherished a rather immature conception
+of the kingdom of God than a purely ideal one as conceived by Paul,
+and his personal disciples who were just as illiterate philosophically
+as the master himself were anxiously waiting in all probability for
+its mundane realisation. But what Christians, Catholics or Protestants,
+in these days of enlightenment, would dare <span class="pagenum" id="p013">{13}</span> give a literal
+explanation to this material conception of the coming kingdom?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again, think of Jesus’s view on marriage and social life. Is it not an
+established fact that he highly advocated celibacy and in the case of
+married people strict continence, and also that he greatly favored
+pious poverty and asceticism in general? In these respects, the monks
+of the Medieval Ages and the Catholic priests of the present day
+(though I cannot say they are ascetic and poor in their living) must
+be said to be in more accord with the teaching of the master than
+their Protestant brethren. But what Protestants would seriously
+venture to defend all those views of Jesus, in spite of their avowed
+declaration that they are sincerely following in the steps of their
+Lord? Taking all in all, these contradictions do not prevent them,
+Protestants as well as Catholics, from calling themselves Christians
+and even good, pious, devoted Christians, as long as they are
+consciously or unconsciously animated by the same spirit, that was
+burning in the son of the carpenter of Nazareth, an obscure village of
+Galilee, about two thousand years ago.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The same mode of reasoning holds good in the case of Mahâyânism, and
+it would be absurd to insist on the genuineness of Hînayânism at the
+expense of the former. Take for granted that the Mahâyâna school of
+Buddhism contains some elements absorbed from other Indian
+religio-philosophical systems; but what of it? Is not Christianity
+also an amalgamation, <span class="pagenum" id="p014">{14}</span> so to speak, of Jewish, Greek, Roman,
+Babylonian, Egyptian, and other pagan thoughts? In fact every healthy
+and energetic religion is historical, in the sense that, in the course
+of its development, it has adapted itself to the ever-changing
+environment, and has assimilated within itself various elements which
+appeared at first even threatening its own existence. In Christianity,
+this process of assimilation, adaptation, and modification has been
+going on from its very beginning. As the result, we see in the
+Christianity of to-day its original type so metamorphosed, so far as
+its outward appearance is concerned, that nobody would now take it for
+a faithful copy of the prototype.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp2s2">
+<i>Mahâyânism a Living Faith.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So with Mahâyânism. Whatever changes it has made during its historical
+evolution, its spirit and central ideas are all those of its founder.
+The question whether or not it is genuine, entirely depends on our
+interpretation of the term “genuine.” If we take it to mean the
+lifeless preservation of the original, we should say that Mahâyânism
+is not the genuine teaching of the Buddha, and we may add that
+Mahâyânists would be proud of the fact, because being a living
+religious force it would never condescend to be the corpse of a
+by-gone faith. The fossils, however faithfully preserved, are nothing
+but rigid inorganic substances from which life is forever departed.
+<span class="pagenum" id="p015">{15}</span> Mahâyânism is far from this; it is an ever-growing faith and
+ready in all times to cast off its old garments as soon as they are
+worn out. But its spirit originally inspired by the “Teacher of Men
+and Gods” (<i>çâstadevamanuṣyânam</i>) is most jealously guarded against
+pollution and degeneration. Therefore, as far as its spirit is
+concerned, there is no room left to doubt its genuineness; and those
+who desire to have a complete survey of Buddhism cannot ignore the
+significance of Mahâyânism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is naught but an idle talk to question the historical value of an
+organism, which is now full of vitality and active in all its
+functions, and to treat it like an archeological object, dug out from
+the depths of the earth, or like a piece of bric-à-brac, discovered
+in the ruins of an ancient royal palace. Mahâyânism is not an object
+of historical curiosity. Its vitality and activity concern us in our
+daily life. It is a great spiritual organism; its moral and religious
+forces are still exercising an enormous power over millions of souls;
+and its further development is sure to be a very valuable contribution
+to the world-progress of the religious consciousness. What does it
+matter, then, whether or not Mahâyânism is the genuine teaching of the
+Buddha?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here is an instance of most flagrant contradictions present in our
+minds, but of which we are not conscious on account of our preconceived
+ideas. Christian critics vigorously insist on the genuineness of their
+own religion, which is no more than a <span class="pagenum" id="p016">{16}</span> hybrid, at least outwardly;
+but they want to condemn their rival religion as degenerated, because
+it went through various stages of development like theirs. It is of no
+practical use to trouble with this nonsensical question,&mdash;the question
+of the genuineness of Mahâyânism, which by the way is frequently
+raised by outsiders as well as by some unenlightened Buddhists
+themselves.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="intp3">
+3. SOME MISSTATEMENTS ABOUT THE<br>
+MAHÂYÂNA DOCTRINES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+Before entering fully into the subject proper of this work, let us
+glance over some erroneous opinions about the Mahâyâna doctrines,
+which are held by some Western scholars, and naturally by all
+uninitiated readers, who are like the blind led by the blind. It may
+not be altogether a superfluous work to give them a passing review in
+this chapter and to show broadly what Mahâyânism is not.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp3s1">
+<i>Why Injustice is done to Buddhism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The people who have had their thoughts and sentiments habitually
+trained by one particular set of religious dogmas, frequently misjudge
+the value of those thoughts that are strange and unfamiliar to them.
+We may call this class of people bigots or religious enthusiasts. They
+may have fine religious and moral sentiments as far as their own
+religious training goes; but, when examined from a broader point of
+view, they are to a great extent vitiated <span class="pagenum" id="p017">{17}</span> with prejudices,
+superstitions, and fanatical beliefs, which, since childhood, have
+been pumped into their receptive minds, before they were sufficiently
+developed and could form independent judgments. This fact so miserably
+spoils their purity of sentiment and obscures their transparency of
+intellect, that they are disqualified to perceive and appreciate
+whatever is good and true and beautiful in the so-called heathen
+religions. This is the main reason why those Christian missionaries
+are incapable of rightly understanding the spirit of religion
+generally&mdash;I mean, those missionaries who come to the East to
+substitute one set of superstitions for another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This strong general indictment against the Christian missionaries,
+however, is by no means prompted by any partisan spirit. My desire, on
+the contrary, is to do justice to those thoughts and sentiments that
+have been working consciously or unconsciously in the human mind from
+time immemorial and shall work on till the day of the last judgment,
+if there ever be such a day. To see what these thoughts and sentiments
+are, which, by the way, constitute the kernel of every religion, we
+must without any reluctance throw off all the prejudices we are liable
+to cherish, though quite unknowingly; and keeping always in view what
+is most essential in the religious consciousness, we must not confound
+it with its accessories, which are doomed to die in the course of
+time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p018">{18}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp3s2">
+<i>Examples of Injustice.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As specimen of injustice done to the Mahâyâna Buddhism by Christian
+critics, we quote the following passages from Monier-William’s
+<i>Buddhism</i>, Waddell’s <i>Buddhism in Tibet</i>, and Samuel Beal’s <i>Buddhism
+in China</i>, all of which are representative works each in its own field.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp3s3">
+<i>Monier Monier-Williams.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Monier Monier-Williams is a well-known authority on Sanskrit
+literature, and his works in this department will long remain as a
+valuable contribution to human knowledge. But, unfortunately, as soon
+as he attempts to enter the domain of religious controversy, his
+intellect becomes piteously obscured by his preconceived ideas. He
+thinks, for instance, that the principal feature of Mahâyânism consists
+merely in amplifying the number of Bodhisattvas, who are contented,
+according to his view, with their “perpetual residence in the heavens,
+and quite willing to put off all desires for Buddhahood and
+Parinirvana.” (P. 190.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This remark is so absurd that it will at once be rejected by any one
+who has a first-hand knowledge of the Mahâyâna system, as even unworthy
+of refutation, but Monier-Williams takes special pains to give to his
+characterisation of the Mahâyâna doctrine a show of rational
+explanation. “Of course,” says he, “men instinctively recoiled from
+utter self-annihilation, <span class="pagenum" id="p019">{19}</span> and so the Buddha’s followers ended in
+changing the true idea of Nirvana and converting it from a condition
+of non-existence into a state of lazy beatitude in celestial regions
+(!), while they encouraged all men&mdash;whether monks or laymen&mdash;to make a
+sense of dreamy bliss in Heaven (!), and not total extinction of life,
+the end of all their efforts.” (P. 156.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This view of the Buddhist heaven as interpreted by Monier-Williams is
+nothing but the conception of the Christian heaven colored with
+paganism. Nothing is more foreign to Buddhists than this distinguished
+Sankritist’s interpretation of celestial existence. The life of devas
+(celestial beings) is just as much subject to the law of birth and
+death as that of men on earth. What consolation would there be for the
+Mahâyânists striving after the highest principle of existence, only
+to find themselves transmigrated to a celestial abode, that is also
+full of sorrows and sufferings? Always working for the welfare of
+their fellow-creatures, the Bodhisattvas never desire any earthly or
+heavenly happiness for themselves. Whatever merits, according to the
+law of karma, there be stored up for their good work, they do not have
+any wish to enjoy them by themselves, but they will have all these
+merits turned over (<i>parivarta</i>) to the interests of their
+fellow-beings. This is the ideal of Bodhisattvas, i.e., of the
+followers of Mahâyânism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p020">{20}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp3s4">
+<i>Beal.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Samuel Beal who is considered by Western scholars to be an authority
+on Chinese Buddhism, referring to the Mahâyâna conception of
+Dharmakâya,<sup><a href="#n006b" id="n006a">[6]</a></sup> says in his <i>Buddhism in China</i> (p. 156): “We can
+have little doubt, then, that from early days worship was offered by
+Buddhists at several spots, consecrated by the presence of the Teacher,
+to an invisible presence. This presence was formulated by the later
+Buddhists under the phrase, ‘the Body of the Law’, Dharmakâya.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, alluding to Buddha’s instruction that says after his Parinirvana
+the Law given by him should be regarded as himself, Beal proceeds to
+say: “Here was the germ from which proceeded the idea or formula of an
+invisible presence: teaching and power of the Law (<i>Dharma</i>)
+represented the Dharmakâya or Law-Body of Buddha, present with the
+order, and fit for reverence.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To interpret Dharmakâya as the Body of the Law is quite inadequate
+and misleading. To the Hînayânists, there is nothing beside the
+Tripitaka as the object of reverence, and, therefore, the notion of
+the Body of the Law has no meaning to them. The idea <span class="pagenum" id="p021">{21}</span> is distinctly
+Mahâyânistic, but Beal is not well informed about its real significance
+as understood by the Buddhists. The chief reason of his
+misinterpretation, as I judge, lies in his rendering <i>dharma</i> by “law”,
+while <i>dharma</i> here means “that which subsists,” or “that which
+maintains itself even when all the transient modes disappear,” in
+short, “being,” or “substance.” Dharmakâya, therefore, would be a sort
+of the Absolute, or Essence-Body of all things. This notion plays such
+an important rôle in Mahâyânism that an adequate knowledge of it is
+indispensable to understand the constitution of Mahâyânism as a
+religious system.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp3s5">
+<i>Waddell.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us state one more case of misrepresentation by Western scholars of
+the Mahâyâna Buddhism. Waddell, author of <i>Buddhism in Tibet</i>,
+referring to the point of divergence between the so-called Northern
+Buddhism and the Southern, says (pp. 10-11): “It was the theistic
+Mahâyâna doctrine which substituted, for the agnostic idealism and
+simple morality of Buddha, a speculative theistic system with a
+mysticism of sophistic nihilism in the background.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And again: “This Mahâyâna [meaning Nâgârjuna’s Mâdhyamika school] was
+essentially a sophistic nihilism, or rather Parinirvana, while ceasing
+to be extinction of life, was converted a mystic state which admitted
+of no definition.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p022">{22}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It may not be wrong to call Mahâyânism a speculative theistic system
+in a wide sense, but it must be asked on what ground Waddell thinks
+that it has in its background “a mysticism of sophistic nihilism”.
+Could a religious system be called sophistry when it makes a close
+inquiry into the science of dialectics, in order to show how futile it
+is to seek salvation through the intellect alone? Could a religious
+system be called a nihilism when it endeavors to reach the highest
+reality which transcends the phenomenality of concrete individual
+existences? Could a doctrine be called nihilistic when it defines the
+absolute as neither void (<i>çûnya</i>) nor not-void (<i>açûnya</i>)?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could cull some more passages from other Buddhist scholars of the
+West and show how far Mahâyânism has been made by them a subject of
+misrepresentation. But since this work is not a polemic, but devoted
+to a positive exposition of its basic doctrines, I refrain from so
+doing. Suffice it to state that one of the main causes of the injustice
+done to Buddhism by the Christian critics comes from their
+preconceptions, of which they may not be aware, but which all the more
+vitiate their “impartial” judgments.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="intp4">
+4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RELIGION.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+Those misconceptions about Buddhism as above stated induce me to
+digress in this introductory part and to say a few words concerning
+the distinction <span class="pagenum" id="p023">{23}</span> between the form and the spirit of religion. A
+clear knowledge of this distinction will greatly facilitate the
+formation of a correct notion about Mahâyânism and will also help us
+duly to appreciate its significance as a living religious faith.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By the spirit of religion I mean that element in religion which remains
+unchanged throughout its successive stages of development and
+transformation: while the form of it is the external shell which is
+subject to any modification required by circumstances.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp4s1">
+<i>No Revealed Religion.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It admits of no doubt that religion, as everything else under the sun,
+is subject to the laws of evolution, and that, therefore, there is no
+such thing as a revealed religion, whose teachings are supposed to
+have been delivered to us direct from the hands of an anthropomorphic
+or anthropopsychic supernatural being, and which, like an inorganic
+substance, remains forever the same, without changing, without growing,
+without modifying itself in accord with the surrounding conditions.
+Unless people are so blinded by a belief in this kind of religion as
+to insist that its dogmas have suffered absolutely no change whatever
+since its “revelation,” they must recognise like every clear-headed
+person the fact that there are some ephemeral elements in every
+religion, which must carefully be distinguished from its quintessence
+which remains eternally the same.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When this discrimination is not observed, prejudice <span class="pagenum" id="p024">{24}</span> will at once
+assert itself, inducing them to imagine that the religion in which
+they were brought up with all its truths and superstitions is the only
+orthodox religion in the world, and all the other religions are
+nothing else than heathenism, idolatry, atheism, apostasy, and the
+like. This attitude of such religionists, however, serves only to
+betray their own narrowness of mind and dimness of spiritual insight.
+No one who desires to penetrate into the innermost recesses of the
+human heart and who longs to feel the fullest meaning of life, should
+foster in himself in the least degree a disposition of bigotry.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp4s2">
+<i>The Mystery.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Religion is the inmost voice of the human heart that under the yoke of
+a seemingly finite existence groans and travails in pain. Mankind,
+from their first appearance on earth, have never been satisfied with
+the finiteness and impermanency of life. They have always been
+yearning after something that will liberate them from the slavery of
+this mortal coil, or from the cursed bondage of metempsychosis, as
+Hindu thinkers express it. This something, however, on account of its
+transcending all the principles of separation and individuation, which
+characterise the phenomena of this mundane existence, has always
+remained as something indefinite, inadequate, chaotic, and full of
+mystery. And, according to different degrees of intellectual
+development in different ages and nations, people have endeavored to
+invest this <span class="pagenum" id="p025">{25}</span> mysterious something with all sorts of human feelings
+and intelligence. Most of modern scientists are now content with the
+hypothesis that the mystery is unfathomable by the human mind, which
+is conditioned by the law of relativity, and that our business here,
+moral as well as intellectual, can be executed without troubling
+ourselves with this ever-haunting problem of mystery;&mdash;this doctrine
+is called agnosticism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But this hypothesis can in no wise be considered the final sentence
+passed on the mystery. From the scientific point of view, the maxim of
+agnosticism is excellent, as science does not pretend to venture into
+the realm of non-relativity. Dissatisfaction, however, presents itself,
+when we attempt to silence by this hypothesis the last demand of the
+human heart.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp4s3">
+<i>Intellect and Imagination.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The human heart is not an intellectual crystal. When the intellect
+displays itself in its full glory, the heart still aches and struggles
+to get hold of something beyond. The intellect may sometimes declare
+that it has at last laid its hand on what is demanded by the heart.
+Time passes on, and the mystery is examined from the other points that
+escaped consideration before, and, to the great disappointment of the
+heart, the supposed solution is found to be wanting. The intellect is
+baffled. But the human heart never gets tired of its yearnings and
+demands a satisfaction ever more pressingly. Should they be considered
+a mere nightmare of imagination? Surely <span class="pagenum" id="p026">{26}</span> not, for herein lies the
+field where religion claims supreme authority, and its claim is
+perfectly right.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But religion cannot fabricate whatever it pleases; it must work in
+perfect accord with the intellect. As the essential nature of man does
+not consist solely in intellect, or will, or feeling, but in the
+coördination of these psychical elements, religion must guard herself
+against the unrestrained flight of imagination. Most of the
+superstitions fondly cherished by a pious heart are due to the
+disregard of the intellectual element in religion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The imagination creates: the intellect discriminates. Creation without
+discrimination is wild: discrimination without creation is barren.
+Religion and science, when they do not work with mutual understanding,
+are sure to be one-sided. The soul makes an abnormal growth at one
+point, loses its balance, and is finally given up to a collapse of the
+entire system. Those pious religious enthusiasts who see a natural
+enemy in science and denounce it with all their energy, are, in my
+opinion, as purblind and distorted in their view, as those men of
+science who think that science alone must claim the whole field of
+soul-activities as well as those of nature. I am not in sympathy with
+either of them: for one is just as arrogant in its claim as the other.
+Without a careful examination of both sides of a shield, we are not
+competent to give a correct opinion upon it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the imagination is not the exclusive possession of religion, nor
+is discrimination or ratiocination the <span class="pagenum" id="p027">{27}</span> monopoly of science. They
+are reciprocal and complementary: one cannot do anything without the
+other. The difference between science and religion is not that between
+certitude and probability. The difference is rather in their respective
+fields of activity. Science is solely concerned with things
+conditional, relative, and finite. When it explains a given phenomenon
+by some fixed laws which are in turn nothing but a generalisation of
+particular facts, the task of science is done, and any further attempt
+to go beyond this, i.e., to make an inquiry into the whence, whither,
+and why of things, is beyond its realm. But the human soul does not
+remain satisfied here, it asks for the ultimate principle underlying
+all so-called scientific laws and hypotheses. Science is indifferent
+to the teleology of things: a mechanical explanation of them appeases
+its intellectual curiosity. But in religion teleology is of paramount
+importance, it is one of the most fundamental problems, and a system
+which does not give any definite conception on this point is no
+religion. Science, again, does not care if there is something beyond
+or outside its manifold laws and theories; but a religion which does
+not possess a God or anything corresponding to it, ceases to be so,
+for it fails to give consolation to the human heart.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="intp4s4">
+<i>The Contents of Faith vary.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The solution of religious problems, as far as they fall within the
+sphere of relative experience, is largely <span class="pagenum" id="p028">{28}</span> a matter of personal
+conviction, determined by one’s intellectual development, external
+circumstances, education, disposition, etc. The conceptions of faith
+thus formulated are naturally infinitely diversified; even among the
+followers of a certain definite set of dogmas, each will understand
+them in his own way, owing to individual peculiarities. If we could
+subject their conceptions of faith to a strict analysis as a chemist
+does his materials, we should detect in them all the possible forms of
+differentiation. But all these things belong to the exterior of
+religion and have nothing to do with the essentials which underlie
+them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The abiding elements of religion come from within, and consist mainly
+in the mysterious sentiment that lies hidden in the deepest depths of
+the human heart, and that, when awakened, shakes the whole structure
+of personality and brings about a great spiritual revolution, which
+results in a complete change of one’s world-conception. When this
+mysterious sentiment finds expression and formulates its conceptions
+in the terms of intellect, it becomes a definite system of beliefs,
+which is popularly called religion, but which should properly be
+termed dogmatism, that is, an intellectualised form of religion. On
+the other hand, the outward forms of religion consist of those
+changing elements that are mainly determined by the intellectual and
+moral development of the times as well as by individual esthetical
+feelings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+True Christians and enlightened Buddhists may, therefore, find their
+point of agreement in the recognition <span class="pagenum" id="p029">{29}</span> of the inmost religious
+sentiment that constitutes the basis of our being, though this
+agreement does by no means prevent them from retaining their
+individuality in the conceptions and expressions of faith. My
+conviction is: If the Buddha and the Christ changed their accidental
+places of birth, Gautama might have been a Christ rising against the
+Jewish traditionalism, and Jesus a Buddha, perhaps propounding the
+doctrine of non-ego and Nirvâna and Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+However great a man may be, he cannot but be an echo of the spirit of
+the times. He never stands, as is supposed by some, so aloof and
+towering above the masses as to be practically by himself. On the
+contrary, “he,” as Emerson says, “finds himself in the river of the
+thoughts and events, forced onward by the ideas and necessities of his
+contemporaries.” So it was with the Buddha, and so with the Christ.
+They were nothing but the concrete representatives of the ideas and
+feelings that were struggling in those times against the established
+institutions, which were degenerating fast and menaced the progress of
+humanity. But at the same time those ideas and sentiments were the
+outburst of the Eternal Soul, which occasionally makes a solemn
+announcement of its will, through great historical figures or through
+great world-events.
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Believing that a bit of religio-philosophical exposition as above
+indulged will prepare the minds of <span class="pagenum" id="p030">{30}</span> my Christian readers sincerely
+to take up the study of a religious system other than their own, I now
+proceed to a systematical elucidation of the Mahâyâna Buddhism, as it
+is believed at present in the Far East.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="ch01">
+CHAPTER I.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">A GENERAL CHARACTERISATION OF BUDDHISM.</span>
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p031">{31}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s01">
+<i>No God and no Soul.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Buddhism</span> is considered by some to be a religion without a God and
+without a soul. The statement is true and untrue according to what
+meaning we give to those terms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhism does not recognise the existence of a being, who stands aloof
+from his “creations,” and who meddles occasionally with human affairs
+when his capricious will pleases him. This conception of a supreme
+being is very offensive to Buddhists. They are unable to perceive any
+truth in the hypotheses, that a being like ourselves created the
+universe out of nothing and first peopled it with a pair of sentient
+beings; that, owing to a crime committed by them, which, however,
+could have been avoided if the creator so desired, they were condemned
+by him to eternal damnation; that the creator in the meantime feeling
+pity for the cursed, or suffering the bite of remorse for his somewhat
+rash deed, despatched his only beloved son to the earth for the
+purpose of rescuing mankind from universal misery, etc., etc. If
+Buddhism is called atheism on account of its <span class="pagenum" id="p032">{32}</span> refusal to take
+poetry for actual fact, its followers would have no objection to the
+designation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next, if we understand by soul âtman, which, secretly hiding itself
+behind all mental activities, direct them after the fashion of an
+organist striking different notes as he pleases, Buddhists outspokenly
+deny the existence of such a fabulous being. To postulate an
+independent âtman outside a combination of the five Skandhas<sup><a href="#n007b" id="n007a">[7]</a></sup>, of
+which an individual being is supposed by Buddhists to consist, is to
+unreservedly welcome egoism with all its pernicious corollaries. And
+what distinguishes Buddhism most characteristically and emphatically
+from all other religions is the doctrine of non-âtman or non-ego,
+exactly opposite to the postulate of a soul-substance which is
+cherished by most of religious enthusiasts. In this sense, Buddhism is
+undoubtedly a religion without the soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To make these points clearer in a general way, let us briefly treat in
+this chapter of such principal tenets of Buddhism as Karma, Âtman,
+Avidyâ, Nirvâna, Dharmakâya, etc. Some of these doctrines being the
+common property of the two schools of Buddhism, Hînayânism and
+Mahâyânism, their brief, comprehensive exposition here will furnish
+our readers with a general notion about the constitution of Buddhism,
+and will also prepare them to pursue a further specific exposition of
+the Mahâyâna doctrine which follows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p033">{33}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s02">
+<i>Karma.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the most fundamental doctrines established by Buddha is that
+nothing in this world comes from a single cause, that the existence of
+a universe is the result of a combination of several causes (<i>hetu</i>)
+and conditions (<i>pratyaya</i>), and is at the same time an active force
+contributing to the production of an effect in the future. As far as
+phenomenal existences are concerned, this law of cause and effect
+holds universally valid. Nothing, even God, can interfere with the
+course of things thus regulated, materially as well as morally. If a
+God really exists and has some concern about our worldly affairs, he
+must first conform himself to the law of causation. Because the
+principle of karma, which is the Buddhist term for causation morally
+conceived, holds supreme everywhere and all the time.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The conception of karma plays the most important rôle in Buddhist
+ethics. Karma is the formative principle of the universe. It determines
+the course of events and the destiny of our existence. The reason why
+we cannot change our present state of things as we may will, is that
+it has already been determined by the karma that was performed in our
+previous lives, not only individually but collectively. But, for this
+same reason, we shall be able to work out our destiny in the future,
+which is nothing but the resultant of several factors that are working
+and that are being worked by ourselves in this life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p034">{34}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Therefore, says Buddha:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“By self alone is evil done,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By self is one disgraced;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By self is evil left undone,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By self alone is he purified;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Purity and impurity belong to self:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No one can purify another.”<sup><a href="#n008b" id="n008a">[8]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Again,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Not in the sky</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor in the midst of the sea,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor entering a cleft of the mountains,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is found that realm on earth</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Where one may stand and be</span><br>
+<span class="i0">From an evil deed absolved.”<sup><a href="#n009b" id="n009a">[9]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+This doctrine of karma may be regarded as an application in our
+ethical realm of the theory of the conservation of energy. Everything
+done is done once for all; its footprints on the sand of our moral and
+social evolution are forever left; nay, more than left, they are
+generative, good or evil, and waiting for further development under
+favorable conditions. In the physical world, even the slightest
+possible movement of our limbs cannot but affect the general cosmic
+motion of the earth, however infinitesimal it be; and if we had a
+proper instrument, we could surely measure its precise extent of
+effect. So is it even with our deeds. A deed once performed, together
+with its subjective motives, can never vanish without leaving some
+impressions either on the individual <span class="pagenum" id="p035">{35}</span> consciousness or on the
+supra-individual, i.e., social consciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We need not further state that the conception of karma in its general
+aspect is scientifically verified. In our moral and material life,
+where the law of relativity rules supreme, the doctrine of karma must
+be considered thoroughly valid. And as long as its validity is
+admitted in this field, we can live our phenomenal life without
+resorting to the hypothesis of a personal God, as declared by Lamarck
+when his significant work on evolution was presented to Emperor
+Napoleon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it will do injustice to Buddhism if we designate it agnosticism or
+naturalism, denying or ignoring the existence of the ultimate,
+unifying principle, in which all contradictions are obliterated.
+Dharmakâya is the name given by Buddhists to this highest principle,
+viewed not only from the philosophical but also from the religious
+standpoint. In the Dharmakâya, Buddhists find the ultimate
+significance of life, which, when seen from its phenomenal aspect,
+cannot escape the bondage of karma and its irrefragable laws.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s03">
+<i>Avidyâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What claims our attention next, is the problem of nescience, which is
+one of the most essential features of Buddhism. Buddhists think,
+nescience (in Sanskrit <i>avidyâ</i>) is the subjective aspect of karma,
+involving us in a series of rebirths. Rebirth, considered by itself,
+is no moral evil, but rather a necessary <span class="pagenum" id="p036">{36}</span> condition of progress
+toward perfection, if perfection ever be attainable here. It is an
+evil only when it is the outcome of ignorance,&mdash;ignorance as to the
+true meaning of our earthly existence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ignorant are they who do not recognise the evanescence of worldly
+things and who tenaciously cleave to them as final realities; who
+madly struggle to shun the misery brought about by their own folly;
+who savagely cling to the self against the will of God, as Christians
+would say; who take particulars as final existences and ignore One
+pervading reality which underlies them all; who build up an adamantine
+wall between the mine and thine: in a word, ignorant are those who do
+not understand that there is no such thing as an ego-soul, and that
+all individual existences are unified in the system of Dharmakâya.
+Buddhism, therefore, most emphatically maintains that to attain the
+bliss of Nirvana we must radically dispel this illusion, this
+ignorance, this root of all evil and suffering in this life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of nescience or ignorance is technically expressed in the
+following formula, which is commonly called the Twelve Nidânas or
+Pratyayasamutpada, that is to say Chains of Dependence:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1) There is Ignorance (<i>avidyâ</i>) in the beginning; (2) from Ignorance
+Action (<i>sanskâra</i>) comes forth; (3) from Action Consciousness
+(<i>vijñâna</i>) comes forth; (4) from Consciousness Name-and-Form
+(<i>nâmarûpa</i>) comes forth; (5) from Name-and-Form the Six Organs
+(<i>ṣadâyâtana</i>) come forth; (6) from the Six Organs <span class="pagenum" id="p037">{37}</span> Touch
+(<i>sparça</i>) comes forth; (7) from Touch Sensation (<i>vedanâ</i>) comes
+forth; (8) from Sensation Desire (<i>tṛṣnâ</i>) comes forth; (9) from Desire
+Clinging (<i>upâdâna</i>) comes forth; (10) from Clinging Being (<i>bhâva</i>)
+comes forth; (11) from Being Birth (<i>jati</i>) comes forth; and (12) from
+Birth Pain (<i>duḥkha</i>) comes forth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to Vasubandhu’s <i>Abhidharmakoça</i>, the formula is explained
+as follows: Being ignorant in our previous life as to the significance
+of our existence, we let loose our desires and act wantonly. Owing to
+this karma, we are destined in the present life to be endowed with
+consciousness (<i>vijñâna</i>), name-and-form (<i>nâmarûpa</i>), the six organs
+of sense (<i>ṣadâyâtana</i>), and sensation (<i>vedanâ</i>). By the exercise of
+these faculties, we now desire for, hanker after, cling to, these
+illusive existences which have no ultimate reality whatever. In
+consequence of this “Will to Live” we potentially accumulate or make
+up the karma that will lead us to further metempsychosis of birth and
+death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The formula is by no means logical, nor is it exhaustive, but the
+fundamental notion that life started in ignorance or blind will
+remains veritable.
+
+
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s04">
+<i>Non-Atman.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The problem of nescience naturally leads to the doctrine usually known
+as that of non-Atman, i.e., non-ego, to which allusion was made at the
+beginning <span class="pagenum" id="p038">{38}</span> of this chapter. This doctrine of Buddhism is one of
+the subjects that have caused much criticism by Christian scholars.
+Its thesis runs: There is no such thing as ego-soul, which, according
+to the vulgar interpretation, is the agent of our mental activities.
+And this is the reason why Buddhism is sometimes called a religion
+without the soul, as aforesaid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This Buddhist negation of the ego-soul is perhaps startling to the
+people, who, having no speculative power, blindly accept the
+traditional, materialistic view of the soul. They think, they are very
+spiritual in endorsing the dualism of soul and flesh, and in making
+the soul something like a corporeal entity, though far more ethereal
+than an ordinary object of the senses. They think of the soul as being
+more in the form of an angel, when they teach that it ascends to
+heaven immediately after its release from the material imprisonment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They further imagine that the soul, because of its imprisonment in the
+body, groans in pain for its liberty, not being able to bear its
+mundane limitations. The immortality of the soul is a continuation
+after the dismemberment of material elements of this ethereal, astral,
+ghost-like entity,&mdash;very much resembling the Samkhyan <i>Lingham</i> or the
+Vedantic <i>sûkṣama-çârîra</i>. Self-consciousness will not a whit suffer
+in its continued activity, as it is the essential function of the
+soul. Brothers and sisters, parents and sons and daughters, wives and
+husbands, all transfigured and sublimated, will meet again in the <span class="pagenum" id="p039">{39}</span>
+celestial abode, and perpetuate their home life much after the manner
+of their earthly one. People who take this view of the soul and its
+immortality must feel a great disappointment or even resentment, when
+they are asked to recognise the Buddhist theory of non-âtman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The absurdity of ascribing to the soul a sort of astral existence
+taught by some theosophists is due to the confusion of the name and
+the object corresponding to it. The soul, or what is tantamount
+according to the vulgar notion, the ego, is a name given to a certain
+coördination of mental activities. Abstract names are invented by us
+to economise our intellectual labors, and of course have no
+corresponding realities as particular presences in the concrete
+objective world. Vulgar minds have forgotten the history of the
+formation of abstract names. Being accustomed always to find certain
+objective realities or concrete individuals answering to certain
+names, they&mdash;those naïve realists&mdash;imagine that all names, irrespective
+of their nature, must have their concrete individual equivalents in
+the sensual world. Their idealism or spiritualism, so called, is in
+fact a gross form of materialism, in spite of their unfounded fear for
+the latter as atheistic and even immoral;&mdash;curse of ignorance!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The non-âtman theory does not deny that there is a coördination or
+unification of various mental operations. Buddhism calls this system
+of coördination vijñâna, not âtman. Vijñâna is consciousness, while
+<span class="pagenum" id="p040">{40}</span> âtman is the ego conceived as a concrete entity,&mdash;a hypostatic
+agent which, abiding in the deepest recess of the mind, directs all
+subjective activities according to its own discretion. This view is
+radically rejected by Buddhism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A familiar analogy illustrating the doctrine of non-âtman is the
+notion of a wheel or that of a house. Wheel is the name given to a
+combination in a fixed form of the spokes, axle, tire, hub, rim, etc.;
+house is that given to a combination of roofs, pillars, windows,
+floors, walls, etc., after a certain model and for a certain purpose.
+Now, take all these parts independently, and where is the house or the
+wheel to be found? House or wheel is merely the name designating a
+certain form in which parts are systematically and definitely disposed.
+What an absurdity, then, it must be to insist on the independent
+existence of the wheel or of the house as an agent behind the
+combination of certain parts thus definitely arranged!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is wonderful that Buddhism clearly anticipated the outcome of
+modern psychological researches at the time when all other religious
+and philosophical systems were eagerly cherishing dogmatic
+superstitions concerning the nature of the ego. The refusal of modern
+psychology to have soul mean anything more than the sum-total of all
+mental experiences, such as sensations, ideas, feelings, decisions,
+etc., is precisely a rehearsal of the Buddhist doctrine of non-âtman.
+It does not deny that there is a unity of consciousness, <span class="pagenum" id="p041">{41}</span> for to
+deny this is to doubt our everyday experiences, but it refuses to
+assert that this unity is absolute, unconditioned, and independent.
+Everything in this phenomenal phase of existence, is a combination of
+certain causes (<i>hetu</i>) and conditions (<i>pratyaya</i>) brought together
+according to the principle of karma; and everything that is compound
+is finite and subject to dissolution, and, therefore, always limited
+by something else. Even the soul-life, as far as its phenomenality
+goes, is no exception to this universal law. To maintain the existence
+of a soul-substance which is supposed to lie hidden behind the
+phenomena of consciousness, is not only misleading, but harmful and
+productive of some morally dangerous conclusions. The supposition that
+there is something where there is really nothing, makes us cling to
+this chimerical form, with no other result than subjecting ourselves
+to an eternal series of sufferings. So we read in the <i>Lankâvatâra
+Sûtra</i>, III:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“A flower in the air, or a hare with horns,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Or a pregnant maid of stone:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To take what is not for what is,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis called a judgment false.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“In a combination of causes,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The vulgar seek the reality of self.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As truth they understand not,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">From birth to birth they transmigrate.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s05">
+<i>The Non-Atman-ness of Things.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mahâyânism has gone a step further than Hînayânism in the development
+of the doctrine of non-âtman, for it expressly disavows, besides the
+denial <span class="pagenum" id="p042">{42}</span> of the existence of the ego-substance, a noumenal
+conception of things, i.e., the conception of particulars as having
+something absolute in them. Hînayânism, indeed, also disfavors this
+conception of thinginess, but it does so only implicitly. It is
+Mahâyânism that definitely insists on the non-existence of a personal
+(<i>pudgala</i>) as well as a thingish (<i>dharma</i>) ego.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the vulgar view, particular existences are real, they
+have permanent substantial entities, remaining forever as such. They
+think, therefore, that organic matter remains forever organic just as
+much as inorganic matter remains inorganic; that, as they are
+essentially different, there is no mutual transformation between them.
+The human soul is different from that of the lower animals and sentient
+beings from non-sentient beings; the difference being well-defined and
+permanent, there is no bridge over which one can cross to the other.
+We may call this view naturalistic egoism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mahâyânism, against this egoistic conception of the world, extends
+its theory of non-âtman to the realm lying outside us. It maintains
+that there is no irreducible reality in particular existences, so long
+as they are combinations of several causes and conditions brought
+together by the principle of karma. Things are here because they are
+sustained by karma. As soon as its force is exhausted, the conditions
+that made their existence possible lose efficience and dissolve, and
+in their places will follow other conditions and existences. Therefore,
+what is organic <span class="pagenum" id="p043">{43}</span> to-day, may be inorganic to-morrow, and <i>vice
+versa</i>. Carbon, for instance, which is stored within the earth appears
+in the form of coal or graphite or diamond; but that which exists on
+its surface is found sometimes combined with other elements in the
+form of an animal or a vegetable, sometimes in its free elementary
+state. It is the same carbon everywhere; it becomes inorganic or
+organic, according to its karma, it has no âtman in itself which
+directs its transformation by its own self-determining will. Mutual
+transformation is everywhere observable; there is a constant shifting
+of forces, an eternal transmigration of the elements,&mdash;all of which
+tend to show the transitoriness and non-âtman-ness of individual
+existences. The universe is moving like a whirl-wind, nothing in it
+proving to be stationary, nothing in it rigidly adhering to its own
+form of existence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suppose, on the other hand, there were an âtman behind every
+particular being; suppose, too, it were absolute and permanent and
+self-acting; and this phenomenal world would then come to a
+standstill, and life be forever gone. For is not changeability the
+most essential feature and condition of life, and also the strongest
+evidence for the non-existence of individual things as realities? The
+physical sciences recognise this universal fact of mutual
+transformation in its positive aspect and call it the law of the
+conservation of energy and of matter. Mahâyânism, recognising its
+negative side, proposes the doctrine of the non-âtman-ness of things,
+that is to say, the <span class="pagenum" id="p044">{44}</span> impermanency of all particular existences.
+Therefore, it is said, “<i>Sarvam anityam, sarvam çûnyam, sarvam
+anâtman</i>.” (All is transitory, all is void, all is without ego.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mahâyânists condemn the vulgar view that denies the consubstantiality
+and reciprocal transformation of all beings, not only because it is
+scientifically untenable, but mainly because, ethically and religiously
+considered, it is fraught with extremely dangerous ideas,&mdash;ideas which
+finally may lead a “brother to deliver up the brother to death and the
+father the child,” and, again, it may constrain “the children to rise
+up against their parents and cause them to be put to death.” Why?
+Because this view, born of egoism, would dry up the well of human love
+and sympathy, and transform us into creatures of bestial selfishness;
+because this view is not capable of inspiring us with the sense of
+mutuality and commiseration and of making us disinterestedly feel for
+our fellow-beings. Then, all fine religious and humane sentiments
+would depart from our hearts, and we should be nothing less than rigid,
+lifeless corpses, no pulse beating, no blood running. And how many
+victims are offered every day on this altar of egoism! They are not
+necessarily immoral by nature, but blindly led by the false conception
+of life and the world, they have been rendered incapable of seeing
+their own spiritual doubles in their neighbors. Being ever controlled
+by their sensual impulses, they sin against humanity, against nature,
+and against themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p045">{45}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We read in the <i>Mahâyâna-abhisamaya Sûtra</i> (Nanjo, no. 196):
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Empty and calm and devoid of ego</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is the nature of all things:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">There is no individual being</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That in reality exists.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Nor end nor beginning having</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor any middle course,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All is a sham, here’s no reality whatever:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is like unto a vision and a dream.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“It is like unto clouds and lightning,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is like unto gossamer or bubbles floating</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is like unto fiery revolving wheel,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is like unto water-splashing.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Because of causes and conditions things are here:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In them there’s no self-nature [i.e., âtman]:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All things that move and work,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Know them as such.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Ignorance and thirsty desire,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The source of birth and death they are:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Right contemplation and discipline by heart,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Desire and ignorance obliterate.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“All beings in the world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Beyond words they are and expressions:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Their ultimate nature, pure and true,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is like unto vacuity of space.”<sup><a href="#n010b" id="n010a">[10]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s06">
+<i>The Dharmakâya.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Dharmakâya, which literally means “body or system of being,” is,
+according to the Mahâyânists, <span class="pagenum" id="p046">{46}</span> the ultimate reality that underlies
+all particular phenomena; it is that which makes the existence of
+individuals possible; it is the <i>raison d’être</i> of the universe; it is
+the norm of being, which regulates the course of events and thoughts.
+The conception of Dharmakâya is peculiarly Mahâyânistic, for the
+Hînayâna school did not go so far as to formulate the ultimate
+principle of the universe; its adherents stopped short at a
+positivistic interpretation of Buddhism. The Dharmakâya remained for
+them to be the Body of the Law, or the Buddha’s personality as embodied
+in the truth taught by him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Dharmakâya may be compared in one sense to the God of Christianity
+and in another sense to the Brahman or Paramâtman of Vedantism. It is
+different, however, from the former in that it does not stand
+transcendentally above the universe, which, according to the Christian
+view, was created by God, but which is, according to Mahâyânism, a
+manifestation of the Dharmakâya himself. It is also different from
+Brahman in that it is not absolutely impersonal, nor is it a mere
+being. The Dharmakâya, on the contrary, is capable of willing and
+reflecting, or, to use Buddhist phraseology, it is <i>Karunâ</i> (love) and
+<i>Bodhi</i> (intelligence), and not the mere state of being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This pantheistic and at the same time entheistic Dharmakâya is working
+in every sentient being, for sentient beings are nothing but a
+self-manifestation of the Dharmakâya. Individuals are not isolated
+existences, as imagined by most people. If isolated, <span class="pagenum" id="p047">{47}</span> they are
+nothing, they are so many soap-bubbles which vanish one after another
+in the vacuity of space. All particular existences acquire their
+meaning only when they are thought of in their oneness in the
+Dharmakâya. The veil of Mâya, i.e., subjective ignorance may temporally
+throw an obstacle to our perceiving the universal light of Dharmakâya,
+in which we are all one. But when our Bodhi or intellect, which is by
+the way a reflection of the Dharmakâya in the human mind, is so fully
+enlightened, we no more build the artificial barrier of egoism before
+our spiritual eye; the distinction between the <i>meum</i> and <i>teum</i> is
+obliterated, no dualism throws the nets of entanglement over us; I
+recognise myself in you and you recognise yourself in me; <i>tat tvam
+asi</i>. Or,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“What is here, that is there;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">What is there, that is here:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who sees duality here,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">From death to death goes he.”<sup><a href="#n011b" id="n011a">[11]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+This state of enlightenment may be called the spiritual expansion of
+the ego, or, negatively, the ideal annihilation of the ego. A
+never-drying stream of sympathy and love which is the life of religion
+will now spontaneously flow out of the fountainhead of Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of non-ego teaches us that there is no reality in
+individual existences, that we do not have any transcendental entity
+called ego-substance. <span class="pagenum" id="p048">{48}</span> The doctrine of Dharmakâya, to supplement
+this, teaches us that we all are one in the System of Being and only
+as such are immortal. The one shows us the folly of clinging to
+individual existences and of coveting the immortality of the ego-soul;
+the other convinces us of the truth that we are saved by living into
+the unity of Dharmakâya. The doctrine of non-âtman liberates us from
+the shackle of unfounded egoism; but as mere liberation does not mean
+anything positive and may perchance lead us to asceticism, we apply
+the energy thus released to the execution of the will of Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The questions: “Why have we to love our neighbors as ourselves? Why
+have we to do to others all things whatsoever we would that they
+should do to us?” are answered thus by Buddhists: “It is because we
+are all one in the Dharmakâya, because when the clouds of ignorance
+and egoism are totally dispersed, the light of universal love and
+intelligence cannot help but shine in all its glory. And, enveloped in
+this glory, we do not see any enemy, nor neighbor, we are not even
+conscious of whether we are one in the Dharmakâya. There is no ‘my
+will’ here, but only ‘thy will,’ the will of Dharmakâya, in which we
+live and move and have our being.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Apostle Paul says: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
+shall all be made alive.” Why? Buddhists would answer, “because Adam
+asserted his egoism in giving himself up to ignorance, (the tree of
+knowledge is in truth the tree of ignorance, <span class="pagenum" id="p049">{49}</span> for from it comes
+the duality of me and thee); while Christ on the contrary surrendered
+his egoistic assertion to the intelligence of the universal Dharmakâya.
+That is why we die in the former and are made alive in the latter.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s07">
+<i>Nirvâna.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The meaning of Nirvâna has been variously interpreted by non-Buddhist
+students from the philological and the historical standpoint; but it
+matters little what conclusions they have reached, as we are not going
+to recapitulate them here; nor do they at all affect our presentation
+of the Buddhists’ own view as below. For it is the latter that concerns
+us here most and constitutes the all-important part of the problem. We
+have had too much of non-Buddhist speculation on the question at issue.
+The majority of the critics, while claiming to be fair and impartial,
+have, by some preconceived ideas, been led to a conclusion, which is
+not at all acceptable to intelligent Buddhists. Further, the fact has
+escaped their notice that Pâli literature from which they chiefly
+derive their information on the subject represents the views of one of
+the many sects that arose soon after the demise of the Master and were
+constantly branching off at and after the time of King Açoka. The
+probability is, that Buddha himself did not have any stereotyped
+conception of Nirvana, and, as most great minds do, expressed his ideas
+outright as formed under various circumstances; though of course they
+could not be <span class="pagenum" id="p050">{50}</span> in contradiction with his central beliefs, which must
+have remained the same throughout the course of his religious life.
+Therefore, to understand a problem in all its apparently contradictory
+aspects, it is very necessary to grasp at the start the spirit of the
+author of the problem, and when this is done the rest will be
+understood comparatively much easier. Non-Buddhist critics lack in
+this most important qualification; therefore, it is no wonder that
+Buddhists themselves are always reluctant to accede to their
+interpretations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Enough for apology. Nirvâna, according to Buddhists, does not signify
+an annihilation of consciousness nor a temporal or permanent
+suppression of mentation<sup><a href="#n012b" id="n012a">[12]</a></sup>, as imagined by some; but it is the <span class="pagenum" id="p051">{51}</span>
+annihilation of the notion of ego-substance and of all the desires
+that arise from this erroneous conception. But this represents the
+negative side of the doctrine, and its positive side consists in
+universal love or sympathy (<i>karunâ</i>) for all beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These two aspects of Nirvâna, i.e., negatively, the destruction of
+evil passions, and, positively, the practice of sympathy, are
+complementary to each other; and when we have one we have the other.
+Because, as soon as the heart is freed from the cangue of egoism, the
+same heart, hitherto so cold and hard, undergoes a complete change,
+shows animation, and, joyously escaping from self-imprisonment, finds
+its freedom in the bosom of Dharmakâya. In this latter sense, Nirvâna
+is the “humanisation” of Dharmakâya, that is to say, “God’s will done
+in earth as it is in heaven.” If we make use of the <span class="pagenum" id="p052">{52}</span> terms,
+subjective and objective. Nirvâna is the former, and the Dharmakâya is
+the latter, phase of one and the same principle. Again,
+psychologically, Nirvâna is enlightenment, the actualisation of the
+Bodhicitta<sup><a href="#n013b" id="n013a">[13]</a></sup> (Heart of Intelligence).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The gospel of love and the doctrine of Nirvâna may appear to some to
+contradict each other, for they think that the former is the source of
+energy and activity, while the latter is a lifeless, inhuman, ascetic
+quietism. But the truth is, love is the emotional aspect and Nirvâna
+the intellectual aspect of the inmost religious consciousness which
+constitutes the essence of the Buddhist life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That Nirvâna is the destruction of selfish desires is plainly shown in
+this stanza:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“To the giver merit is increased;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When the senses are controlled anger arises not,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The wise forsake evil,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By the destruction of desire, sin, and infatuation,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A man attains to Nirvâna.”<sup><a href="#n014b" id="n014a">[14]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+The following which was breathed forth by Buddha against a certain
+class of monks, testifies that when Nirvâna is understood in the sense
+of quietism or pessimism, he vigorously repudiated it:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Fearing an endless chain of birth and death,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the misery of transmigration,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Their heart is filled with worry,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But they desire their safety only.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p053">{53}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Quietly sitting and reckoning the breaths,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">They’re bent on the Anâpânam.<sup><a href="#n015b" id="n015a">[15]</a></sup></span><br>
+<span class="i0">They contemplate on the filthiness of the body,&mdash;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Thinking how impure it is!</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“They shun the dust of the triple world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in ascetic practise their safety they seek:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Incapable of love and sympathy are they,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For on Nirvâna abides their thought.”<sup><a href="#n016b" id="n016a">[16]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Against this ascetic practise of some monks, the Buddha sets forth
+what might be called the ideal of the Buddhist life:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Arouse thy will, supreme and great,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Practise love and sympathy, give joy and protection;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Thy love like unto space,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Be it without discrimination, without limitation.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Merits establish, not for thy own sake,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But for charity universal;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Save and deliver all beings,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Let them attain the wisdom of the Great Way.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+It is apparent that the ethical application of the doctrine of Nirvâna
+is naught else than the Golden <span class="pagenum" id="p054">{54}</span> Rule,<sup><a href="#n017b" id="n017a">[17]</a></sup> so called. The Golden
+Rule, however, does not give any reason why we should so act, it is a
+mere command whose authority is ascribed to a certain superhuman being.
+This does not satisfy an intellectually disposed mind, which refuses
+to accept anything on mere authority, for it wants to go to the bottom
+of things and see on what ground they are standing. Buddhism has solved
+this problem by finding the oneness of things in Dharmakâya, from which
+flows the eternal stream of love and sympathy. As we have seen before,
+when the cursed barrier of egoism is broken down, there remains nothing
+that can prevent us from loving others as ourselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those who wish to see nothing but an utter barrenness of heart after
+the annihilation of egoism, are much mistaken in their estimation of
+human nature. For they think its animation comes from selfishness, and
+that all forms of activity in our life are propelled simply by the
+desire to preserve self and the race. They, therefore, naturally
+shrink from the doctrine that teaches that all things worldly are
+empty, and that there is no such thing as ego-substance whose <span class="pagenum" id="p055">{55}</span>
+immortality is so much coveted by most people. But the truth is, the
+spring of love does not lie in the idea of self, but in its removal.
+For the human heart, being a reflection of the Dharmakâya which is
+love and intelligence, recovers its intrinsic power and goodness, only
+when the veil of ignorance and egoism is cast aside. The animation,
+energy, strenuousness, which were shown by a self-centered will, and
+which therefore were utterly despicable, will not surely die out with
+the removal of their odious atmosphere in which egoism had enveloped
+them. But they will gain an ever nobler interpretation, ever more
+elevating and satisfying significance; for they have gone through a
+baptism of fire, by which the last trace of egoism has been thoroughly
+consumed. The old evil master is eternally buried, but the willing
+servants are still here and ever ready to do their service, now more
+efficiently, for their new legitimate and more authoritative lord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Destruction is in common parlance closely associated with nothingness,
+hence Nirvâna, the destruction of egoism, is ordinarily understood as
+a synonym of nihilism. But the removal of darkness does not bring
+desolation, but means enlightenment and order and peace. It is the
+same chamber, all the furniture is left there as it was before. In
+darkness chaos reigned, goblins walked wild; in enlightenment
+everything is in its proper place. And did we not state plainly that
+Nirvâna was enlightenment?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p056">{56}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch01s08">
+<i>The Intellectual Tendency of Buddhism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One thing which in this connection I wish to refer to, is what makes
+Buddhism appear somehow cold and impassive. By this I mean its
+intellectuality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fact is that anything coming from India greatly savors of
+philosophy. In ancient India everybody of the higher castes seems to
+have indulged in intellectual and speculative exercises. Being rich in
+natural resources and thus the struggle for existence being reduced to
+a minimum, the Brahmans and the Kṣatriyas gathered themselves under
+most luxuriously growing trees, or retired to the mountain-grottoes
+undisturbed by the hurly-burly of the world, and there they devoted
+all their leisure hours to metaphysical speculations and discussions.
+Buddhism, as a product of these people, is naturally deeply imbued
+with intellectualism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Further, in India there was no distinction between religion and
+philosophy. Every philosophical system was at the same time a religion,
+and <i>vice versa</i>. Philosophy with the Hindus was not an idle display
+of logical subtlety which generally ends in entangling itself in the
+meshes of sophistry. Their aim of philosophising was to have an
+intellectual insight into the significance of existence and the
+destiny of humanity. They did not believe in anything blindly nor
+accept anything on mere tradition. Buddha most characteristically
+echoes this sentiment when he says, “Follow my teachings not as taught
+by a Buddha, but as <span class="pagenum" id="p057">{57}</span> being in accord with truth.” This spirit of
+self-reliance and self-salvation later became singularly Buddhistic.
+Even when Buddha was still merely an enthusiastic aspirant for Nirvâna,
+he seems to have been strongly possessed of this spirit, for he most
+emphatically declared the following famous passage, in response to the
+pathetic persuasion of his father’s ministers, who wanted him to come
+home with them: “The doubt whether there exists anything or not, is
+not to be settled for me by another’s words. Arriving at the truth
+either by mortification or by tranquilisation, I will grasp myself
+whatever is ascertainable about it. It is not mine to receive a view
+which is full of conflicts, uncertainties, and contradictions. What
+enlightened men would go by other’s faith? The multitudes are like the
+blind led in the darkness by the blind.”<sup><a href="#n018b" id="n018a">[18]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To say simply, “Love your enemy,” was not satisfactory to the Hindu
+mind, it wanted to see the reason why. And as soon as the people were
+convinced intellectually, they went even so far as to defend the faith
+with their lives. It was not an uncommon event that before a party of
+Hindu philosophers entered into a discussion they made an agreement
+that the penalty of defeats should be the sacrifice of the life. They
+were, above all, a people of intellect, though of course not lacking
+in religious sentiment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is no wonder, then, that Buddha did not make the first proclamation
+of his message by “Repent, for <span class="pagenum" id="p058">{58}</span> the kingdom of heaven is at hand,”
+but by the establishment of the Four Noble Truths.<sup><a href="#n019b" id="n019a">[19]</a></sup> One appeals to
+the feeling, and the other to the intellect. That which appeals to the
+intellect naturally seems to be less passionate, but the truth is,
+feeling without the support of intellect leads to fanaticism and is
+always ready to yield itself to bigotry and superstition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of Nirvâna is doubtless more intellectual than the
+Christian gospel of love. It first recognises the wretchedness of
+human life as is proved by our daily experiences; it then finds its
+cause in our subjective ignorance as to the true meaning of existence,
+and in our egocentric desires which, obscuring our spiritual insight,
+make us tenaciously cling to things chimerical; it then proposes the
+complete annihilation of egoism, the root of all evil, by which,
+subjectively, tranquillity of heart is restored, and, objectively, the
+realisation of universal love becomes possible. Buddhism, thus,
+proceeds most logically in the development of its doctrine of Nirvâna
+and universal love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Says Victor Hugo (<i>Les Misérables</i>, vol. II): “The reduction of the
+universe to a single being, the expansion of a single being even to
+God, this is love.” When a man clings to the self and does not want
+<span class="pagenum" id="p059">{59}</span> to identify himself with other fellow-selves, he cannot expand
+his being to God. When he shuts himself in the narrow shell of ego and
+keeps all the world outside, he cannot reduce the universe to his
+innermost self. To love, therefore, one must first enter Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The truth is everywhere the same and is attained through the removal
+of ignorance. But as individual disposition differs according to the
+previous karma, some are more prone to intellectualism, while the
+others to sentimentality (in its psychological sense). Let us then
+follow our own inclination conscientiously and not speak evil of
+others. This is called the Doctrine of Middle Path.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="ch02">
+CHAPTER II.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">HISTORICAL CHARACTERISATION OF<br>
+MAHÂYÂNISM.</span>
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p060">{60}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">We</span> are now in a position to enter into a specific exposition of the
+Mahâyâna doctrine. But, before doing so, it will be well for us first
+to consider the views that were held by the Hindu Buddhist thinkers
+concerning its characteristic features; in other words, to make an
+historical survey of its peculiarities.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As stated in the Introduction, the term Mahâyâna was invented in the
+times of Nâgârjuna and Âryadeva (about the third or fourth century
+after Christ), when doctrinal struggles between the Çrâvaka and the
+Bodhisattva classes reached a climax. The progressive Hindu Buddhists,
+desiring to announce the essential features of their doctrine, did so
+naturally at the expense of their rival and by pointing out why theirs
+was greater than, or superior to, Hînayânism. Their views were thus
+necessarily vitiated by a partisan spirit, and instead of impartially
+and critically enumerating the principal characteristics of Mahâyânism,
+they placed rather too much stress upon those points that do not in
+these latter days appear to be very essential, but that were then
+considered by them to be of paramount importance. These points,
+nevertheless, <span class="pagenum" id="p061">{61}</span> throw some light on the nature of Mahâyâna Buddhism
+as historically distinguished from its consanguineous rival and
+fellow-doctrine.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch02s01">
+<i>Sthiramati’s Conception of Mahâyânism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sthiramati<sup><a href="#n020b" id="n020a">[20]</a></sup> in his <i>Introduction to Mahâyânism</i> states that
+Mahâyânism is a special doctrine for the Bodhisattvas, who are to be
+distinguished from the other two classes, viz, the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas. The essential difference of the doctrine consists in
+the belief that objects of the senses are merely phenomenal and have
+no absolute reality, that the indestructible Dharmakâya which is
+all-pervading constitutes the norm of existence, that all
+Bodhisattvas<sup><a href="#n021b" id="n021a">[21]</a></sup> are incarnations of the Dharmakâya, who not by
+their evil karma previously accumulated, but by their boundless love
+for all mankind, assume <span class="pagenum" id="p062">{62}</span> corporeal existences, and that persons
+who thus appear in the flesh, as avatars of the Buddha supreme,
+associate themselves with the masses in all possible social relations,
+in order that they might thus lead them to a state of enlightenment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While this is a very summary statement of the Mahâyâna doctrine, a
+more elaborate and extended enumeration of its peculiar features in
+contradistinction to those of Hînayânism, is made in the <i>Miscellanea
+on Mahâyâna Metaphysics</i>,<sup><a href="#n022b" id="n022a">[22]</a></sup> <i>The Spiritual Stages of the
+Yogâcâra</i>,<sup><a href="#n023b" id="n023a">[23]</a></sup> <i>An Exposition of the Holy Doctrine</i>,<sup><a href="#n024b" id="n024a">[24]</a></sup> <i>A
+Comprehensive Treatise on Mahâyânism</i>,<sup><a href="#n025b" id="n025a">[25]</a></sup> and others. Let us first
+explain the “Seven General Characteristics” as described in the first
+three works here mentioned.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch02s02">
+<i>Seven Principal Features of Mahâyânism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to Asanga, who lived a little later than Nâgârjuna, that
+is, at the time when Mahâyânism was further divided into the Yogâcârya
+and the Mâdhyamika school, the seven features peculiar to Mahâyânism
+as distinguished from Hînayânism, are as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1) <i>Its Comprehensiveness.</i> Mahâyânism does not confine itself to
+the teachings of one Buddha alone; <span class="pagenum" id="p063">{63}</span> but wherever and whenever
+truth is found, even under the disguise of most absurd superstitions,
+it makes no hesitation to winnow the grain from the husk and
+assimilate it in its own system. Innumerable good laws taught by
+Buddhas<sup><a href="#n026b" id="n026a">[26]</a></sup> of all ages and localities are all taken up in the
+coherent body of Mahâyânism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(2) <i>Universal love for All Sentient Beings.</i> Hînayânism confines
+itself to the salvation of individuals only; it does not extend its
+bliss universally, as each person must achieve his own deliverance.
+Mahâyânism, on the other hand, aims at general salvation; it
+endeavors to save us not only individually, but universally. All the
+motives, efforts, and actions of the Bodhisattvas pivot on the
+furtherance of universal welfare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(3) <i>Its Greatness in Intellectual Comprehension.</i> Mahâyânism
+maintains the theory of non-âtman not only in regard to sentient
+beings but in regard to things in general. While it denies the
+hypothesis of a metaphysical agent directing our mental operations, it
+also rejects the view that insists on the noumenal or thingish reality
+of existences as they appear to our senses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(4) <i>Its Marvelous Spiritual Energy.</i> The Bodhisattvas never become
+tired of working for universal salvation, <span class="pagenum" id="p064">{64}</span> nor do they despair
+because of the long time required to accomplish this momentous object.
+To try to attain enlightenment in the shortest possible period and to
+be self-sufficient without paying any attention to the welfare of the
+masses, is not the teaching of Mahâyânism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(5) <i>Its Greatness in the Exercise of the Upâya.</i> The term <i>upâya</i>
+literally means expediency. The great fatherly sympathetic heart of
+the Bodhisattva has inexhaustible resources at his command in order
+that he might lead the masses to final enlightenment, each according
+to his disposition and environment. Mahâyânism does not ask its
+followers to escape the metempsychosis of birth and death for the sake
+of entering into the lethargic tranquillity of Nirvâna; for
+metempsychosis in itself is no evil, and Nirvâna in its coma is not
+productive of any good. And as long as there are souls groaning in
+pain, the Bodhisattva cannot rest in Nirvâna; there is no rest for
+his unselfish heart, so full of love and sympathy, until he leads all
+his fellow-beings to the eternal bliss of Buddhahood. To reach this
+end he employs innumerable means (<i>upâya</i>) suggested by his
+disinterested lovingkindness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(6) <i>Its Higher Spiritual Attainment.</i> In Hînayânism the highest bliss
+attainable does not go beyond Arhatship which is ascetic saintliness.
+But the followers of Mahâyânism attain even to Buddhahood with all its
+spiritual powers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(7) <i>Its Greater Activity.</i> When the Bodhisattva <span class="pagenum" id="p065">{65}</span> reaches the
+stage of Buddhahood, he is able to manifest himself everywhere in the
+ten quarters of the universe<sup><a href="#n027b" id="n027a">[27]</a></sup> and to minister to the spiritual
+needs of all sentient beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These seven peculiarities are enumerated to be the reasons why the
+doctrine defended by the progressive Buddhists is to be called
+Mahâyânism, or the doctrine of great vehicle, in contradistinction to
+Hînayânism, the doctrine of small vehicle. In each case, therefore,
+Asanga takes pains to draw the line of demarcation distinctly between
+the two schools of Buddhism and not between Buddhism and all other
+religious doctrines which existed at his time.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch02s03">
+<i>The Ten Essential Features of Buddhism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following statement of the ten essential features of Mahâyânism as
+presented in the <i>Comprehensive Treatise on Mahâyânism</i>, is made from
+a different standpoint from the preceding one, for it is the
+pronunciamento of the Yogâcâra school of Asanga <span class="pagenum" id="p066">{66}</span> and Vasubandhu
+rather than that of Mahâyânism generally. This school together with
+the Mâdhyamika school of Nâgârjuna constitute the two divisions of
+Hindu Mahâyânism.<sup><a href="#n028b" id="n028a">[28]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The points enumerated by Asanga and Vasubandhu as most essential in
+their system are ten.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1) It teaches an immanent existence of all things in the
+<i>Âlayavijñâna</i> or All-Conserving Soul. The conception of an
+All-Conserving Soul, it is claimed, was suggested by Buddha in the
+so-called Hînayâna sûtras; but on account of its deep meaning and
+of the liability of its being confounded with the ego-soul conception,
+he did not disclose its full significance in their sûtras; but made
+it known only in the Mahâyâna sûtras.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the Yogâcâra school, the Âlaya is not an universal, but
+an individual mind or soul, whatever we may term it, in which the
+“germs” of all things exist in their ideality.<sup><a href="#n029b" id="n029a">[29]</a></sup> The objective
+world in reality does not exist, but by dint of subjective <span class="pagenum" id="p067">{67}</span>
+illusion that is created by ignorance, we project all these “germs” in
+the Âlayavijñâna to the outside world, and imagine that they are
+there really as they are; while the Manovijñâna (ego-consciousness)
+which is too a product of illusion, tenaciously clinging to the
+Âlayavijñâna as the real self, never abandons its egoism. The
+Âlayavijñâna, however, is indifferent to, and irresponsible for, all
+these errors on the part of the Manovijñâna.<sup><a href="#n030b" id="n030a">[30]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(2) The Yogâcâra school distinguishes three kinds of knowledge: 1.
+Illusion (<i>parikalpita</i>), 2. Discriminative or Relative Knowledge
+(<i>paratantra</i>), and 3. Perfect Knowledge (<i>pariniṣpanna</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The distinction may best be illustrated by the well-known analogy of a
+rope and a snake. Deceived by a similarity in appearance, men
+frequently take a rope lying on the ground for a poisonous snake and
+<span class="pagenum" id="p068">{68}</span> are terribly shocked on that account. But when they approach and
+carefully examine it, they become at once convinced of the
+groundlessness of this apprehension, which was the natural sequence of
+illusion. This may be considered to correspond to what Kant calls
+<i>Schein</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Most people, however, do not go any further in their inquiry. They are
+contented with the sensual, empirical knowledge of an object with
+which they come in contact. When they understand that the thing they
+mistook for a snake was really nothing but a yard of innocent rope,
+they think their knowledge of the object is complete, and do not
+trouble themselves with a philosophical investigation as to whether
+the rope which to them is just what it appears to be, has any real
+existence in itself. They do not stop a moment to reflect that their
+knowledge is merely relative, for it does not go beyond the phenomenal
+significance of the things they perceive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But is an object in reality such as it appears to be to our senses?
+Are particular phenomena as such really actual? What is the value of
+our knowledge concerning those so-called realities? When we make an
+investigation into such problems as these, the Yogâcâra school says,
+we find that their existence is only relative and has no absolute
+value whatever independent of the perceiving subject. They are the
+“ejection” of our ideas into the outside world, which are centred and
+conserved in our Âlayavijñâna and which are awakened into activity by
+subjective <span class="pagenum" id="p069">{69}</span> ignorance. This clear insight into the nature of
+things, i.e., into their non-realness as âtman, constitutes perfect
+knowledge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(3) When we attain to the perfect knowledge, we recognise the ideality
+of the universe. There is no such thing as an objective world, which
+is really an illusive manifestation of the mind called Âlayavijñâna.
+But even this supposedly real existence of the Âlayavijñâna is a
+product of particularisation called forth by the ignorant Manovijñâna.
+The Manovijñâna, or empirical ego, as it might be called, having no
+adequate knowledge as to the true nature of the Âlaya, takes the latter
+for a metaphysical agent, that like the master of a puppet-show manages
+all mental operations according to its humour. As the silkworm
+imprisons itself in the cocoon created by itself, the Manovijñâna,
+entangling itself in ignorance and confusion, takes its own illusory
+creations for real realities.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(4) For the regulation of moral life, the Yogâcâra with the other
+Mahâyâna schools, proposes the practising of the six Pâramitâs (virtues
+of perfection), which are: 1. <i>Dana</i> (giving), 2. <i>Çîla</i> (moral
+precept), 3. <i>Kṣânti</i> (meekness), 4. <i>Vîrya</i> (energy), 5. <i>Dhyâna</i>
+(meditation), 6. <i>Prajñâ</i> (knowledge or wisdom). In way of explanation,
+says Asanga: “By not clinging to wealth or pleasures (1), by not
+cherishing any thoughts to violate the precepts (2), by not feeling
+dejected in the face of evils (3), by not awakening any thought of
+indolence while practising goodness (4), <span class="pagenum" id="p070">{70}</span> by maintaining serenity
+of mind in the midst of disturbance and confusion of this world (5),
+and finally by always practising <i>ekacitta</i><sup><a href="#n031b" id="n031a">[31]</a></sup> and by truthfully
+comprehending the nature of things (6), the Bodhisattvas recognise the
+truth of <i>vijñânamâtra</i>,&mdash;the truth that there is nothing that is not
+of ideal or subjective creation.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(5) Mahâyânism teaches that there are ten spiritual stages of
+Bodhisattvahood, viz., 1. Pramuditâ, 2. Vimalâ, 3 Prabhâkarî, 4.
+Arcismatî, 5. Sudurjayâ, 6. Abhimukhî, 7. Dûrangamâ, 8. Acalâ, 9.
+Sâdhumatî, 10. Dharmameghâ<sup><a href="#n032b" id="n032a">[32]</a></sup>. By passing through all these stages
+one after another, we are believed to reach the oneness of Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(6) The Yogâcârists claim that the precepts that are practised by the
+followers of Mahâyânism are far superior to those of Hînayânists. The
+latter tend to externalism and formalism, and do not go deep into our
+spiritual, subjective motives. Now, there are physical, verbal, and
+spiritual precepts observed by the Buddha. The Hînayânists observe the
+first two neglecting the last which is by far more important than the
+rest. For instance, the Çrâvaka’s interpretation of the ten Çikṣas<sup><a href="#n033b" id="n033a">[33]</a></sup>
+is literal and not spiritual; <span class="pagenum" id="p071">{71}</span> further, they follow these precepts
+because they wish to attain Nirvâna for their own sake, and not for
+others’. The Bodhisattva, on the other hand, does not wish to be bound
+within the narrow circle of moral restriction. Aiming at an universal
+emancipation of mankind, he ventures even violating the ten çikṣas, if
+necessary. The first çikṣa, for instance, forbids the killing of any
+living being; but the Bodhisattva does not hesitate to go to war, in
+case the cause he espouses is right and beneficient to humanity at
+large.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(7) As Mahâyânism insists on the purification of the inner life, its
+teaching applies not to things outward, its principles are not of the
+ascetic and exclusive kind. The Mahâyânists do not shun to commingle
+themselves with the “dust of worldliness”; they aim at the realisation
+of the Bodhi; they are not afraid of being thrown into the whirlpool
+of metempsychosis; they endeavor to impart spiritual benefits to all
+sentient beings without regard to their attitude, whether hostile or
+friendly, towards themselves; having immovable faith in the Mahâyâna,
+they never become contaminated by vanity and worldly pleasures with
+which they may constantly be in touch; they have a clear insight into
+the doctrine of non-âtman; being free from all spiritual faults, they
+live in perfect accord with the laws of Suchness and discharge their
+duties without the <span class="pagenum" id="p072">{72}</span> least conceit or self-assertion: in a word,
+their inner life is a realisation of the Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(8) The intellectual superiority of the Bodhisattva is shown by his
+possession of knowledge of non-particularisation (<i>anânârtha</i>).<sup><a href="#n034b" id="n034a">[34]</a></sup>
+This knowledge, philosophically considered, is the knowledge of the
+absolute, or the knowledge of the universal. The Bodhisattva’s mind is
+free from the dualism of samsâra (birth-and-death) and nirvâna, of
+positivism and negativism, of being and non-being, of object and
+subject, of ego and non-ego. His knowledge, in short, transcends the
+limits of final realities, soaring high to the realm of the absolute
+and the abode of non-particularity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(9) In consequence of this intellectual elevation, the Bodhisattva
+perceives the working of birth and death in nirvâna, and nirvâna in
+the transmigration of birth and death. He sees the “ever-changing
+many” in the “never-changing one,” and the “never-changing <span class="pagenum" id="p073">{73}</span> one”
+in the “ever-changing many.” His inward life is in accord at once with
+the laws of transitory phenomena and with those of transcendental
+Suchness. According to the former, he does not recoil as ascetics do
+when he comes in contact with the world of the senses; he is not
+afraid of suffering the ills that the flesh is heir to; but, according
+to the latter, he never clings to things evanescent, his inmost
+consciousness forever dwells in the serenity of eternal Suchness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(10) The final characteristic to be mentioned as distinctly
+Mahâyânistic is the doctrine of Trikâya. There is, it is asserted,
+the highest being which is the ultimate cause of the universe and in
+which all existences find their essential origin and significance.
+This is called by the Mahâyânists Dharmakâya. The Dharmakâya, however,
+does not remain in its absoluteness, it reveals itself in the realm of
+cause and effect. It then takes a particular form. It becomes a devil,
+or a god, or a deva, or a human being, or an animal of lower grade,
+adapting itself to the degrees of the intellectual development of the
+people. For it is the people’s inner needs which necessitate the
+special forms of manifestation. This is called Nirmânakâya, that is,
+the body of transformation. The Buddha who manifested himself in the
+person of Gautama, the son of King of Çuddhodâna about two thousand
+five hundred years ago on the Ganges, is a form of Nirmânakâya. The
+third one is called Sambhogakâya, or body of bliss. This is the
+spiritual <span class="pagenum" id="p074">{74}</span> body of a Buddha, invested with all possible grandeur
+in form and in possession of all imaginable psychic powers. The
+conception of Sambhogakâya is full of wild imaginations which are not
+easy of comprehension by modern minds.<sup><a href="#n035b" id="n035a">[35]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These characteristics enumerated at seven or ten as peculiarly
+Mahâyânistic are what the Hindu Buddhist philosophers of the first
+century down to the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era
+thought to be the most essential points of their faith and what they
+thought entitled it to be called the “Great Vehicle” (<i>Mahâyâna</i>) of
+salvation, in contradistinction to the faith embraced by their
+conservative brethren. But, as we view them now, the points here
+specified are to a great extent saturated with a partisan spirit, and
+besides they are more or less scattered and unconnected statements of
+the so-called salient features of Mahâyânism. Nor do they furnish much
+information concerning the nature of Mahâyânism as a coherent system
+of religious teachings. They give but a general and somewhat obscure
+delineation of it, and that in opposition to Hînayânism. In point of
+fact, Mahâyânism is a school of Buddhism and has many characteristics
+in common with Hînayânism. Indeed, the spirit of the former is also
+that of the latter, and as far as the general trend of Buddhism is
+concerned there is no need of emphasising <span class="pagenum" id="p075">{75}</span> the significance of one
+school over the other. On the following pages I shall try to present a
+more comprehensive and impartial exposition of the Buddhism, which has
+been persistently designated by its followers as Mahâyânism.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="part1">
+SPECULATIVE MAHÂYÂNISM.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p076">{76}</span>
+</p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="ch03">
+CHAPTER III.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">PRACTISE AND SPECULATION.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Mahâyânism</span> perhaps can best be treated in two main divisions, as it
+has distinctly two principal features in its doctrinal development. I
+may call one the speculative phase of Mahâyânism and the other
+practical. The first part is essentially a sort of Buddhist
+metaphysics, where the mind is engaged solely in ratiocination and
+abstraction. Here the intellect plays a very prominent part, and some
+of the most abstruse problems of philosophy are freely discussed.
+Speculative followers of Buddhism have taken great interest in the
+discussion of them and have written many volumes on various
+subjects.<sup><a href="#n036b" id="n036a">[36]</a></sup> <span class="pagenum" id="p077">{77}</span> The second or practical phase of Mahâyânism
+deals with such religious beliefs that constitute the life and essence
+of the system. Mahâyânists might have reasoned wrongfully to explain
+their practical faith, but the faith itself is the outburst of the
+religious sentiment which is inherent in human nature. This practical
+part, therefore, is by far more important, and in fact it can be said
+that the speculative part is merely a preparatory step toward it.
+Inasmuch as Mahâyânism is a religion and not a philosophical system,
+it must be practical, that is, it must directly appeal to the inmost
+life of the human heart.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch03s01">
+<i>Relation of Feeling and Intellect in Religion.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So much has been said about the relation between philosophy and
+religion; and there are many scholars who so firmly believe in the
+identity of religion either with superstitions or with supernatural
+revelation, that the denial of this assertion is considered by them
+practically to be the disavowal of all religions. For, according to
+them, there is no midway in religion. A religion which is rational and
+yet practical is no religion. Now, Buddhism is neither a vagary of
+imagination nor a revelation from above, and on this account it has
+been declared by some to be a philosophy. The title “Speculative
+Mahâyânism” thus, is apt to <span class="pagenum" id="p078">{78}</span> be taken as a confirmation of such
+opinion. To remove all the misconceptions, therefore, which might be
+entertained concerning the religious nature of Mahâyânism and its
+attitude toward intellectualism, I have deemed it wise here to say a
+few words about the relation between feeling and intellect in religion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is no doubt that religion is essentially practical; it does not
+necessarily require theorisation. The latter, properly speaking, is
+the business of philosophy. If religion was a product of the intellect
+solely, it could not give satisfaction to the needs of man’s whole
+being. Reason constitutes but a part of the organised totality of an
+individual being. Abstraction however high, and speculation however
+deep, do not as such satisfy the inmost yearnings of the human heart.
+But this they can do when they enter into one’s inner life and
+constitution; that is, when abstraction becomes a concrete fact and
+speculation a living principle in one’s existence; in short, when
+philosophy becomes religion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Philosophy as such, therefore, is generally distinguished from
+religion. But we must not suppose that religion as the deepest
+expression of a human being can eliminate altogether from it the
+intellectual element. The most predominant rôle in religion may be
+played by the imagination and feeling, but ratiocination must not fail
+to assert its legitimate right in the co-ordination of beliefs. When
+this right is denied, religion becomes fanaticism, superstition, fata
+morgana, and even a menace to the progress of humanity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p079">{79}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The intellect is critical, objective, and always tries to stand apart
+from the things that are taken up for examination. This alienation or
+keeping itself aloof from concrete facts on the part of the intellect,
+constantly tends to disregard the real significance of life, of which
+it is also a manifestation. Therefore, the conflict between feeling
+and reason, religion and science, instinct and knowledge, has been
+going on since the awakening of consciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Seeing this fact, intellectual people are generally prone to condemn
+religion as barring the freedom and obstructing the progress of
+scientific investigations. It is true that religion went frequently to
+the other extreme and tried to suppress the just claim of reason; it
+is true that this was especially the case with Christianity, whose
+history abounds with regretable incidents resulting from its violent
+encroachments upon the domain of reason. It is also true that the
+feeling and the intellect are sometimes at variance, that what the
+feeling esteems as the most valuable treasure is at times relentlessly
+crushed by the reason, while the feeling looks with utmost contempt at
+the results that have been reached by the intellect after much
+lucubration. But this fatal conflict is no better than the fight which
+takes place between the head and the tail of a hydra when it is cut in
+twain; it always results in self-destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We cannot live under such a miserable condition forever; when we know
+that it is altogether due to a myopia on the part of our understanding.
+The <span class="pagenum" id="p080">{80}</span> truth is that feeling and reason “cannot do without one
+another, and must work together inseparably in the process of human
+development, since reason without feeling could have nothing to act
+for and would be impotent to act, while feeling without reason would
+act tyrannically and blindly&mdash;that is to say, if either could exist
+and act at all without the other; for in the end it is not feeling nor
+reason, which acts, but it is the man who acts according as he feels
+and reasons”. (H. Maudsley’s <i>Natural Causes and Supernatural
+Seemings</i>, p. vii). If it is thus admitted that feeling and reason
+must co-ordinate and co-operate in the realisation of human ideals,
+religion, though essentially a phenomenon of the emotional life,
+cannot be indifferent to the significance of the intellect. Indeed,
+religion, as much as philosophy, has ever been speculating on the
+problems that are of the most vital importance to human life. In
+Christianity speculation has been carried on under the name of
+theology, though it claims to be fundamentally a religion of faith. In
+India, however, as mentioned elsewhere, there was no dividing line
+between philosophy and religion; and every teaching, every system, and
+every doctrine, however abstract and speculative it might appear to
+the Western mind, was at bottom religious and always aimed at the
+deliverance of the soul. There was no philosophical system that did
+not have some practical purpose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Indian thinkers could not separate religion from <span class="pagenum" id="p081">{81}</span> philosophy,
+practice from theory. Their philosophy flowed out of the very spring
+of the human heart and was not a mere display of fine intellectuation.
+If their thinking were not in the right direction and led to a fallacy
+which made life more miserable, they were ever ready to surrender
+themselves to a superior doctrine as soon as it was discovered. But
+when they thought they were in the right track, they did not hesitate
+to sacrifice their life for it. Their philosophy had as much fire as
+religion.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch03s02">
+<i>Buddhism and Speculation.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Owing to this fact, Buddhism as much as Hinduism is full of abstract
+speculations and philosophical reflections so much so that some
+Christian critics are inclined to deny the religiosity of Buddhism.
+But no student of the science of comparative religion would indorse
+such a view nowadays. Buddhism, in spite of its predominant
+intellectualism, is really a religious system. There is no doubt that
+it emphasises the rational element of religion more than any other
+religious teachings, but on that account we cannot say that it
+altogether disregards the importance of the part to be played by the
+feeling. Its speculative, philosophical phase is really a preparation
+for fully appreciating the subjective significance of religion, for
+religion is ultimately subjective, that is to say, the essence of
+religion is love and faith, or, to use Buddhist phraseology, it is the
+expression of the Bodhi which <span class="pagenum" id="p082">{82}</span> consists in <i>prajñâ</i><sup><a href="#n037b" id="n037a">[37]</a></sup>
+(intelligence or wisdom) and <i>karunâ</i> (love or compassion). Mere
+knowledge (not <i>prajñâ</i>) has very little value in human life. When
+not guided by love and faith, it readily turns out to be the most
+obedient servant of egoism and sensualism. What Tennyson says in the
+following verses is perfectly true with Buddhism:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Who loves not knowledge? Who shall rail</span><br>
+<span class="i1">Against her beauty? May she mix</span><br>
+<span class="i1">With men and prosper! Who shall fix</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Her pillars? Let her work prevail.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“But on her forehead sits a fire;</span><br>
+<span class="i1">She sets her forward countenance</span><br>
+<span class="i1">And leaps into the future chance,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Submitting all things to desire.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Half grown as yet, a child, and vain&mdash;</span><br>
+<span class="i1">She cannot fight the fear of death.</span><br>
+<span class="i1">What is she, cut from love and faith,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But some wild Pallas from the brain</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Of demons? fiery-hot to burst</span><br>
+<span class="i1">All barriers in her onward race</span><br>
+<span class="i1">For power. Let her know her place;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">She is the second, not the first.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“A higher hand must make her mild,</span><br>
+<span class="i1">If all be not in vain, and guide</span><br>
+<span class="i1">Her footsteps, moving side by side</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With Wisdom, like the younger child.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p083">{83}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it must be remembered that Buddhism never ignores the part which
+is played by the intellect in the purification of faith. For it is by
+the judicious exercise of the intellect, that all religious
+superstitions and prejudices are finally destroyed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The intellect is so far of great consequence, and we must respect it
+as the thunderbolt of Vajrapani, which crushes everything that is mere
+sham and false. But at the same time we must also remember that the
+quintessence of religion like the house built on the solid rock never
+suffers on account of this destruction. Its foundation lies too deeply
+buried in human <span class="pagenum" id="p084">{84}</span> heart to be damaged by knowledge or science. So
+long as there is a human heart warm with blood and burning with the
+fire of life, the intellect however powerful will never be able to
+trample it under foot. Indeed, the more severely the religious
+sentiment is tested in the crucible of the intellect, the more
+glorious and illuminating becomes its intrinsic virtue. The true
+religion is, therefore, never reluctant to appear before the tribunal
+of scientific investigation. In fact by ignoring the ultimate
+significance of the religious consciousness, science is digging its
+own grave. For what purpose has science other than the unravelling of
+the mysteries of nature and reading into the meaning of existence? And
+is this not what constitutes the foundation of religion? Science
+cannot be final, it must find its reason in religion; as a mere
+intellectual exercise it is not worthy of our serious consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch03s03">
+<i>Religion and Metaphysics.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The French sociologist, M. Guyau, says in his <i>Irreligion of the
+Future</i> (English translation p. 10):
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Every positive and historical religion presents three distinctive and
+essential elements: (1) An attempt at a mythical and non-scientific
+explanation of natural phenomena (divine intervention, miracles,
+efficacious prayers, etc.), or of historical facts (incarnation of
+Jesus Christ or of Buddha, revelation, and so forth); (2) A system of
+dogmas, that is to say, of symbolic ideas, of imaginative beliefs,
+forcibly <span class="pagenum" id="p085">{85}</span> imposed upon one’s faith as absolute verities, even
+though they are susceptible of no scientific demonstration or
+philosophical justification; (3) A cult and a system of rites, that is
+to say, of more or less immutable practices regarded as possessing a
+marvelous efficacy upon the course of things, a propitiatory virtue. A
+religion without myth, without dogma, without cult, without rite, is
+no more than that somewhat bastard product, ‘natural religion,’ which
+is resolvable to a system of metaphysical hypotheses.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+M. Guyau seems to think that what will be left in religion, when
+severed from its superstitions and imaginary beliefs and mysterious
+rites, is a system of metaphysical speculations, and that, therefore,
+it is not a religion. But in my opinion the French sociologist shares
+the error that is very prevalent among the scientific men of to-day.
+He is perfectly right in trying to strip religion of all its ephemeral
+elements and external integuments, but he is entirely wrong when he
+does this at the expense of its very essence, which consists of the
+inmost yearnings of the human heart. And this essence has no affinity
+with the superstitions which grow round it like excrescences as the
+results of insufficient or abnormal nourishment. Nor does it concern
+itself with mere philosophising and constructing hypotheses about
+metaphysical problems. Far from it. Religion is a cry from the abysmal
+depths of the human heart, that can never be silenced, until it finds
+that something and identifies itself with it, which reveals the
+teleological <span class="pagenum" id="p086">{86}</span> significance of life and the universe. But this
+something has a subjective value only, as Goethe makes Faust exclaim,
+“Feeling is all in all, name for it I have none.” Why? Because it
+cannot objectively or intellectually be demonstrated, as in the case
+with those laws which govern phenomenal existences,&mdash;the proper
+objects of the discursive human understanding. And this subjectivity
+of religion is what makes “all righteousnesses as filthy garments.” If
+religion deprived of its dogmas and cults is to be considered, as M.
+Guyau thinks, nothing but a system of metaphysics, we utterly lose
+sight of its subjective significance or its emotional element, which
+indeed constitutes its <i>raison d’être</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having this in view we proceed to see first on what metaphysical
+hypothesis speculative Mahâyâna Buddhism is built up; but the reader
+must remember that this phase of Mahâyânism is merely a preliminary
+to its more essential part, which we expound later under the heading
+of “Practical Mahâyânism,” in contradistinction to “Speculative
+Mahâyânism.”
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch04">
+CHAPTER IV.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">CLASSIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p087">{87}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch04s01">
+<i>Three Forms of Knowledge.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Mahâyânism</span> generally distinguishes two or three forms of knowledge.
+This classification is a sort of epistemology, inasmuch as it proposes
+to ascertain the extent and nature of human knowledge, from a
+religious point of view. Its object is to see what kind of human
+knowledge is most reliable and valuable for the annihilation of
+ignorance and the attainment of enlightenment. The Mahâyâna school
+which has given most attention to this division of Buddhist philosophy
+is the Yogâcâra of Asanga and Vasubandhu. The <i>Lankâvatarâ</i> and the
+<i>Sandhinirmocana</i> and some other Sûtras, on which the school claims to
+have its doctrinal foundation, teach three forms of knowledge. The
+sûtra literature, however, as a rule does not enter into any detailed
+exposition of the subject; it merely classifies knowledge and points
+out what form of knowledge is most desirable by the Buddhists. To
+obtain a fuller and more discursive elucidation, we must come to the
+Abhidharma Pitaka of that school. Of the text books most generally
+studied of the <span class="pagenum" id="p088">{88}</span> Yogâcâra, we may mention Vasubandhu’s
+<i>Vijñânamâtra</i> with its commentaries and Asanga’s <i>Comprehensive
+Treatise on Mahâyânism</i>. The following statements are abstracted
+mainly from these documents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The three forms of knowledge as classified by the Yogâcâra are: (1)
+Illusion (<i>parikalpita</i>), (2) Relative Knowledge (<i>paratantra</i>), and
+(3) Absolute Knowledge (<i>pariniṣpanna</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch04s02">
+<i>Illusion.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Illusion (<i>parikalpita</i>), to use Kantian phraseology, is a
+sense-perception not co-ordinated by the categories of the
+understanding; that is to say, it is a purely subjective elaboration,
+not verified by objective reality and critical judgment. So long as we
+make no practical application of it, it will harbor no danger; there
+is no evil in it, at least religiously. Perceptual illusion is a
+psychical fact, and as such it is justified. A straight rod in water
+appears crooked on account of the refraction of light; a sensation is
+often felt in the limb after it has been amputated, for the nervous
+system has not yet adjusted itself to the new condition. They are all
+illusions, however. They are doubtless the correct interpretation of
+the sense-impressions in question, but they are not confirmed by other
+sense-impressions whose coördination is necessary to establish an
+objective reality. The moral involved in this is: all sound inferences
+and correct behavior must be based on critical knowledge and not on
+illusory premises.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p089">{89}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Reasoning in this wise, the Mahâyânists declare that the egoism
+fostered by vulgar minds belongs to this class of knowledge, though of
+a different order, and that those who tenaciously cling to egoism as
+their final stronghold are believers in an intellectual fata morgana,
+and are like the thirsty deer that madly after the visionary water in
+the desert, or like the crafty monkey that tries to catch the lunar
+reflection in the water. Because the belief in the existence of a
+metaphysical agent behind our mental phenomena is not confirmed by
+experience and sound judgment, it being merely a product of
+unenlightened subjectivity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Besides this ethical and philosophical egoism, all forms of
+world-conception which is founded on the sandy basis of subjective
+illusion, such as fetichism, idolatry, anthropomorphism,
+anthropopsychism, and the like, must be classed under the
+<i>parikalpita-lakṣana</i> as doctrines having illusionary premises.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch04s03">
+<i>Relative Knowledge.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next comes the <i>paratantra-lakṣana</i>, a <i>welt-anschauung</i> based upon
+relative knowledge, or better, upon the knowledge of the law of
+relativity. According to this view, everything in the world has a
+relative and conditional existence, and nothing can claim an absolute
+reality free from all limitations. This closely corresponds to the
+theory advanced by most of modern scientists, whose agnosticism denies
+our intellectual capability of transcending the law of relativity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p090">{90}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <i>paratantra-lakṣana</i>, therefore, consists in the knowledge
+derived from our daily intercourse with the outward world. It deals
+with the highest abstractions we can make out of our sensuous
+experiences. It is positivistic in its strictest sense. It says: The
+universe has only a relative existence, and our knowledge is
+necessarily limited. Even the highest generalisation cannot go beyond
+the law of relativity. It is impossible for us to know the first cause
+and the ultimate end of existence; nor have we any need to go thus
+beyond the sphere of existence, which would inevitably involve us in
+the maze of mystic imagination.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <i>paratantra-lakṣana</i>, therefore, is a positivism, agnosticism, or
+empiricism in its spirit. Though the Yogâcâra Buddhists do not use all
+these modern philosophical terms, the interpretation here given is
+really what they intended to mean by the second form of knowledge. A
+world-conception based on this view, it is declared by the
+Mahâyânists, is sound as far as our perceptual knowledge is concerned;
+but it does not exhaust the entire field of human experience, for it
+does not take into account our spiritual life and our inmost
+consciousness. There is something in the human heart that refuses to
+be satisfied with merely systematising under the so-called laws of
+nature those multitudinous impressions which we receive from the
+outside world. There is a singular feeling, or sentiment, or yearning,
+whatever we may call it, in our inmost heart, which defies any plainer
+<span class="pagenum" id="p091">{91}</span> description than a mere suggestion or an indirect statement. This
+somewhat mystic consciousness seems despite its obscureness to contain
+the meaning of our existence as well as that of the universe. The
+intellect may try to persuade us with all its subtle reasonings to
+subdue this disquieting feeling and to remain contented with the
+systematising of natural laws, so called. But it is deceiving itself
+by so doing; because the intellect is but a servant to the heart, and
+so far as it is not forced to self-contradiction, it must accommodate
+itself to the needs of the heart. That is to say, we must transcend
+the narrow limits of conditionality and see what indispensable
+postulates are underlying our life and experiences. The recognition
+of these indispensable postulates of life constitutes the Yogâcâra’s
+third form of knowledge called <i>pariniṣpanna-lakṣana</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch04s04">
+<i>Absolute Knowledge.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Pariniṣpanna-lakṣana</i> literally means the world-view founded on the
+most perfect knowledge. According to this view, the universe is a
+monistico-pantheistic system. While phenomenal existences are
+regulated by natural laws characterised by conditionality and
+individuation, they by no means exhaust all our experiences which are
+stored in our inmost consciousness. There must be something,&mdash;this is
+the absolute demand of humanity, the ultimate postulate of
+experience,&mdash;be it Will, or Intelligence, which, underlying and
+animating all existences, forms <span class="pagenum" id="p092">{92}</span> the basis of cosmic, ethical, and
+religious life. This highest Will, or Intelligence, or both may be
+termed God, but the Mahâyânists call it religiously Dharmakâya,
+ontologically Bhûtatathâtâ, and psychologically Bodhi or Sambodhi.
+And they think it must be immanent in the universe manifesting itself
+in all places and times; it must be the cause of perpetual creation;
+it must be the principle of morality. This being so, how do we come to
+the recognition of its presence? The Buddhists say that when our minds
+are clear of illusions, prejudices, and egotistic assumptions, they
+become transparent and reflect the truth like a dust-free mirror. The
+illumination thus gained in our consciousness constitutes the
+so-called <i>pariniṣpanna</i>, the most perfect knowledge, that leads to
+Nirvâna, final salvation, and eternal bliss.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch04s05">
+<i>World-views Founded on the Three<br>
+Forms of Knowledge.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The reason will be obvious to the reader why the Yogâcâra school
+distinguishes three classes of world-conception founded on the three
+kinds of knowledge. The <i>parikalpita-lakṣana</i> is most primitive and
+most puerile. However, in these days of enlightenment, what is
+believed by the masses is naught else than a <i>parikalpita</i> conception
+of the world. The material existence as it appears to our senses is to
+them all in all. They seem to be unable to shake off the yoke of
+egoistic illusion and naïve realism. Their God must be transcendent
+and anthropopathic, <span class="pagenum" id="p093">{93}</span> and always willing to meddle with worldly
+affairs as his whim pleases. How different the world is, in which the
+multitudes of unreflecting minds are living, from that which is
+conceived by Buddhas and Bodhisattvas! Hartmann, a German thinker, is
+right, when he says that the masses are at least a century behind in
+their intellectual culture. But the most strange thing in the world is
+that, in spite of all their ignorance and superstitious beliefs, the
+waves of universal transformation are ever carrying them onward to a
+destination, of which, perhaps, they have not the slightest suspicion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <i>paratantra-lakṣana</i> advances a step further, but the fundamental
+error involved in it is its persistent self-contradictory disregard
+for what our inmost consciousness is constantly revealing to us. The
+intellect alone can by no means unravel the mystery of our entire
+existence. In order to reach the highest truth, we must boldly plunge
+with our whole being into a region where absolute darkness defying the
+light of intellect is supposed to prevail. This region which is no
+more nor less than the field of religious consciousness is shunned by
+most of the intellectual people on the plea that the intellect by its
+very nature is unable to fathom it. But the only way that leads us to
+the final pacification of the heart-yearnings is to go beyond the
+horizons of limiting reason and to resort to the faith that has been
+planted in the heart as the <i>sine qua non</i> of its own existence and
+vitality. And by faith I mean <i>Prajñâ</i> (wisdom), transcendental <span class="pagenum" id="p094">{94}</span>
+knowledge, that comes direct from the intelligence-essence of the
+Dharmakâya. A mind, so tired in vainly searching after truth and bliss
+in the verbiage of philosophy and the nonsense of ritualism, finds
+itself here completely rested bathing in the rays of divine
+effulgence,&mdash;whence this is, it does not question, being so filled
+with supramundane blessings which alone are felt. Buddhism calls this
+exalted spiritual state Nirvâna or Mokṣa; and <i>pariniṣpanna-lakṣana</i>
+is a world-conception which naturally follows from this subjective,
+ideal enlightenment.<sup><a href="#n038b" id="n038a">[38]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch04s06">
+<i>Two Forms of Knowledge.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The other Hindu Mahâyânism, the Mâdhyamika school of Nâgârjuna,
+distinguishes two, instead of three, orders of knowledge, but
+practically the Yogâcâra and the Mâdhyamika come to the same
+conclusion.<sup><a href="#n039b" id="n039a">[39]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p095">{95}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two kinds of knowledge or truth distinguished by the Mâdhyamika
+philosophy are <i>Samvṛtti-satya</i> and <i>Paramârtha-satya</i>, that is,
+conditional truth and transcendental truth. We read in Nâgârjuna’s
+<i>Mâdhyamika Çâstra</i> (Buddhist Text Society edition, pp. 180, 181):
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“On two truths is founded</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The holy doctrine of Buddhas:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Truth conditional,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And truth transcendental.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Those who verily know not</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The distinction of the two truths.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Know not the essence</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Of Buddhism which is meaningful.”<sup><a href="#n040b" id="n040a">[40]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+The conditional truth includes illusion and relative knowledge of the
+Yogâcâra school, while the transcendental truth corresponds to the
+absolute knowledge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In explaining these two truths, the Mâdhyamika philosophers have made
+a constant use of the terms, <i>çûnya</i> and <i>açûnya</i>, void and not-void,
+which unfortunately became a cause of the misunderstanding by Christian
+scholars of Nâgârjuna’s transcendental philosophy. Absolute truth is
+void in its ultimate nature, for it contains nothing concrete or real
+or individual that makes it an object of particularisation. But this
+must not be understood, as is done by some superficial critics, in the
+sense of absolute <span class="pagenum" id="p096">{96}</span> nothingness. The Mâdhyamika philosophers make
+the <i>satya</i> (transcendental truth) empty when contrasted with the
+realness of phenomenal existences. Because it is not real in the sense
+a particular being is real; but it is empty since it transcends the
+principle of individuation. When considered absolutely, it can neither
+be empty nor not-empty, neither <i>çûnya</i> nor <i>açûnya</i>, neither <i>asti</i>
+nor <i>nâsti</i>, neither <i>abhâva</i> nor <i>bhâva</i>, neither real nor unreal.
+All these terms imply relation and contrast, while the <i>Paramârtha</i>
+Satya is above them, or better, it unifies all contrasts and antitheses
+in its absolute oneness. Therefore, even to designate it at all may
+lead to the misunderstanding of the true nature of the <i>Satya</i>, for
+naming is particularising. It is not, as such, an object of
+intellectuation or of demonstrative knowledge. It underlies everything
+conditional and phenomenal, and does not permit itself to be a
+particular object of discrimination.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch04s07">
+<i>Transcendental Truth and Relative<br>
+Understanding.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One may say: If transcendental truth is of such an abstract nature,
+beyond the reach of the understanding, how can we ever hope to attain
+it and enjoy its blessings? But Nâgârjuna says that it is not
+absolutely out of the ken of the understanding; it is, on the
+contrary, through the understanding that we become acquainted with the
+quarter towards which our spiritual efforts should be directed, only
+<span class="pagenum" id="p097">{97}</span> let us not cling to the means by which we grasp the final
+reality. A finger is needed to point at the moon, but when we have
+recognised the moon, let us no more trouble ourselves with the finger.
+The fisherman carries a basket to take the fish home, but what need
+has he to worry about the basket when the contents are safely on the
+table? Only so long as we are not yet aware of the way to
+enlightenment, let us not ignore the value of relative knowledge or
+conditional truth or <i>lokasamvṛttisatya</i> as Nâgârjuna terms it.
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“If not by worldly knowledge,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The truth is not understood;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When the truth is not approached,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nirvâna is not attained.”<sup><a href="#n041b" id="n041a">[41]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+From this, it is to be inferred that Buddhism never discourages the
+scientific, critical investigation of religious beliefs. For it is one
+of the functions of science that it should purify the contents of a
+belief and that it should point out in which direction our final
+spiritual truth and consolation have to be sought. Science alone which
+is built on relative knowledge is not able to satisfy all our religious
+cravings, but it is certainly able to direct us to the path of
+enlightenment. When this path is at last revealed, we shall know how
+to avail ourselves of the discovery, as then Prajñâ (or Sambodhi, or
+Wisdom) becomes the <span class="pagenum" id="p098">{98}</span> guide of life. Here we enter into the region
+of the unknowable. The spiritual facts we experience are not
+demonstrable, for they are so direct and immediate that the uninitiated
+are altogether at a loss to get a glimpse of them.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch05">
+CHAPTER V.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">BHÛTATATHÂTÂ (SUCHNESS).</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p099">{99}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">From</span> the ontological point of view, Paramârtha-satya or Pariniṣpanna
+(transcendental truth) is called Bhûtatathâtâ, which literally means
+“suchness of existence.” As Buddhism does not separate being from
+thought nor thought from being, what is suchness in the objective
+world, is transcendental truth in the subjective world, and <i>vice
+versa</i> Bhûtatathâtâ, then, is the Godhead of Buddhism, and it marks
+the consummation of all our mental efforts to reach the highest
+principle, which unifies all possible contradictions and spontaneously
+directs the course of world-events. In short, it is the ultimate
+postulate of existence. Like Paramârtha-satya, as above stated, it
+does not belong to the domain of demonstrative knowledge or sensuous
+experience; it is unknowable by the ordinary processes of
+intellectuation, which the natural sciences use in the formulation of
+general laws; and it is grasped, declare the Buddhists, only by the
+minds that are capable of exercising what might be called religious
+intuition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Açvaghoṣa argues, in his <i>Awakening of Faith</i> for the indefinability
+of this first principle. When we say it is çûnya or empty, on account
+of its being independent <span class="pagenum" id="p100">{100}</span> of all the thinkable qualities, which
+we attribute to things relative and conditional, people would take it
+for the nothingness of absolute void. But when we define it as a real
+reality, as it stands above the evanescence of phenomena, they would
+imagine that there is something individual and existing outside the
+pale of this universe, which, though as concrete as we ourselves are,
+lives an eternal life. It is like describing to the blind what an
+elephant looks like; each one of them gets but a very indistinct and
+imperfect conception of the huge creature, yet every one of them
+thinks he has a true and most comprehensive idea of it.<sup><a href="#n042b" id="n042a">[42]</a></sup>
+Açvaghoṣa, thus, wishes to eschew all definite statements concerning
+the ultimate nature of being, but as language is the only mode with
+which we mortals can express our ideas and communicate them to others,
+he thinks the best expression that can be given to it is Bhûtatathâtâ,
+i.e., “suchness of existence,” or simply, “suchness.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bhûtatathâtâ (suchness), thus absolutely viewed, does not fall under
+the category of being and non-being; and minds which are kept within
+the narrow circle of contrasts, must be said to be incapable of
+grasping it as it truly is. Says Nâgârjuna in his Çâstra (Ch. XV.):
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Between thisness (<i>svabhâva</i>) and thatness (<i>parabhâva</i>),</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Between being and non-being,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who discriminates,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The truth of Buddhism he perceives not.”<sup><a href="#n043b" id="n043a">[43]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p101">{101}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Or,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“To think ‘it is’, is eternalism,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To think ‘it is not’, is nihilism:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Being and non-being,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The wise cling not to either.”<sup><a href="#n044b" id="n044a">[44]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Again,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“The dualism of ‘to be’ and ‘not to be,’</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The dualism of pure and not-pure:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Such dualism having abandoned,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The wise stand not even in the middle.”<sup><a href="#n045b" id="n045a">[45]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+To quote, again, from the <i>Awakening of Faith</i> (pp. 58-59): “In its
+metaphysical origin, Bhûtatathâtâ has nothing to do with things
+defiled, i.e., conditional: it is free from all signs of
+individualisation, such as exist in phenomenal objects: it is
+independent of an unreal, particularising consciousness.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch05s01">
+<i>Indefinability.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Absolute Suchness from its very nature thus defies all definitions. We
+cannot even say that it is, for everything that is presupposes that
+which is not: existence and non-existence are relative terms as much
+as subject and object, mind and matter, this and that, one and other:
+one cannot be conceived <span class="pagenum" id="p102">{102}</span> without the other. “It is not so (<i>na
+iti</i>)<sup><a href="#n046b" id="n046a">[46]</a></sup>,” therefore, may be the only way our imperfect human tongue
+can express it. So the Mahâyânists generally designate absolute
+Suchness as Çûnyatâ or void.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But when this most significant word, çûnyatâ, is to be more fully
+interpreted, we would say with Açvaghoṣa that “Suchness is neither
+that which is existence nor that which is non-existence; neither that
+which is at once existence and non-existence, nor that which is not at
+once existence and non-existence; it is neither that which is unity
+nor that which is plurality; neither that which is at once unity and
+plurality, nor that which is not at once unity and plurality.”<sup><a href="#n047b" id="n047a">[47]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p103">{103}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nâgârjuna’s famous doctrine of “The Middle Path of Eight No’s”
+breathes the same spirit, which declares:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“There is no death, no birth, no destruction, no persistence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No oneness, no manyness, no coming, no departing,”<sup><a href="#n048b" id="n048a">[48]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Elsewhere, he expresses the same idea in a somewhat paradoxical
+manner, making the historical Buddha a real concrete manifestation of
+Suchness:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“After his passing, deem not thus:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">‘The Buddha still is here,’</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is above all contrasts,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To be and not to be.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“While living, deem not thus:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">‘The Buddha is now here.’</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is above all contrasts,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To be and not to be.”<sup><a href="#n049b" id="n049a">[49]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+This view of Suchness as no-ness abounds in the literature of the
+Dhyâna school of Mahâyânism. To cite one instance: When
+Bodhi-Dharma<sup><a href="#n050b" id="n050a">[50]</a></sup>, the founder <span class="pagenum" id="p104">{104}</span> of the Dhyâna sect, saw Emperor
+Wu of Liang dynasty (A.D. 502-556), he was asked what the first
+principle of the Holy Doctrine was, he did not give any lengthy,
+periphrastic statement after the manner of a philosopher, but
+laconically replied, “Vast emptiness and nothing holy.” The Emperor
+was bewildered and did not know how to take the words of his holy
+adviser. Naturally, he did not expect such an abrupt answer, and,
+being greatly disappointed, ventured another question: “Who is he,
+then, that stands before me?” By this he meant to repudiate the
+doctrine of absolute Suchness. His line of argument being this: If
+there is nothing in the ultimate nature of things that distinguishes
+between holiness and sinfulness, why this world of contrasts, where
+some are revered as holy, for instance, Bodhi-Dharma who is at this
+very moment standing in front of him with the mission of propagating
+the holy teachings of Buddha? Bodhi-Dharma, however, was a mystic and
+was fully convinced of the insufficiency of the human tongue to
+express the highest truth which is revealed only <span class="pagenum" id="p105">{105}</span> intuitively to
+the religious consciousness. His conclusive answer was, “I do not
+know”.<sup><a href="#n051b" id="n051a">[51]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This “I do not know” is not to be understood in the spirit of
+agnosticism, but in the sense of “God when understood is no God,” for
+<i>in se est et per se conceptur</i>. This way of describing Suchness by
+negative terms only, excluding all differences of name and form
+(<i>nâmarûpa</i>) to reach a higher kind of affirmation, seems to be the
+most appropriate one, inasmuch as the human understanding is limited
+in so many respects; but, nevertheless, it has caused much
+misinterpretation even among Buddhists themselves, not to mention
+those Christian Buddhist scholars of to-day, who sometimes appear
+almost wilfully to misconstrue the significance of the çûnyatâ
+philosophy. It was to avoid these unfortunate misinterpretations that
+the Mahâyânists frequently made the paradoxical assertion that
+absolute Suchness is empty and not empty, çûnya and açunya, being
+and non-being, sat and asat, one and many, this and that.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch05s02">
+<i>The “Thundrous Silence.”</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There yet remains another mode of explaining absolute Suchness, which
+though most practical and most effective for the religiously disposed
+minds, may prove very inadequate to a sceptical intellect. <span class="pagenum" id="p106">{106}</span> It is
+the “thundrous silence” of Vimalakîrti in response to an inquiry
+concerning the nature of Suchness or the “Dharma of Non-duality,” as
+it is termed in the Sûtra.<sup><a href="#n052b" id="n052a">[52]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bodhisattva Vimalakîrti once asked a host of Bodhisattvas led by
+Mañjuçri, who came to visit him, to express their views as to how to
+enter into the Dharma of Non-duality. Some replied, “Birth and death
+are two, but the Dharma itself was never born and will never die.
+Those who understand this are said to enter into the Dharma of
+Non-duality.” Some said, “&hairsp;‘I’ and ‘mine’ are two. Because I think ‘I
+am’ there are things called ‘mine.’ But as there is no ‘I am’ where
+shall we look for things ‘mine’? By thus reflecting we enter into the
+Dharma of Non-duality.” Some replied, “Samsâra and Nirvâna are two.
+But when we understand the ultimate nature of Samsâra, Samsâra
+vanishes from our consciousness, and there is neither bondage nor
+release, neither birth nor death. By thus reflecting we enter into the
+Dharma of Non-duality”. Others said, “Ignorance and enlightenment are
+two. No ignorance, no enlightenment, and there is no dualism. Why?
+Because those who have entered a meditation in which there is no
+sense-impression, no cogitation, are free from ignorance as well as
+from enlightenment. This holds true with all the other dualistic
+categories. Those who enter thus into the thought of sameness are
+<span class="pagenum" id="p107">{107}</span> said to enter into the Dharma of Non-duality.” Still others
+answered, “To long for Nirvâna and to shun worldliness are of dualism.
+Long not for Nirvâna, shun not worldliness, and we are free from
+dualism. Why? Because bondage and release are relative terms, and when
+there is no bondage from the beginning, who wishes to be released? No
+bondage, no release, and therefore no longing, no shunning: this is
+called the entering into the Dharma of Non-duality.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many more answers of similar nature came forth from all the
+Bodhisattvas in the assembly except the leader Mañjuçri. Vimalakîrti
+now requested him to give his own view, and to this Mañjuçri
+responded, “What I think may be stated thus: That which is in all
+beings wordless, speechless, shows no signs, is not possible of
+cognisance, and is above all questionings and answerings,&mdash;to know
+this is said to enter into the Dharma of Non-duality.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally, the host Vimalakîrti himself was demanded by Mañjuçri to
+express his idea of Non-duality, but he kept completely silent and
+uttered not a word. Thereupon, Mañjuçri admiringly exclaimed, “Well
+done, well done! The Dharma of Non-duality is truly above letters and
+words!”<sup><a href="#n053b" id="n053a">[53]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p108">{108}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, of this Suchness, the Mahâyânists distinguish two aspects, as
+it is comprehended by our consciousness, which are conditional and
+non-conditional, or the phenomenal world of causality and the
+transcendental realm of absolute freedom. This distinction corresponds
+to that, in the field of knowledge, of relative truth and
+transcendental truth.<sup><a href="#n054b" id="n054a">[54]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p109">{109}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch05s03">
+<i>Suchness Conditioned.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Absolute transcendental Suchness defying all means of characterisation
+does not, as long as it so remains, have any direct significance in
+the phenomenal world and human life. When it does, it must become
+conditional Suchness as <i>Gesetzmässigkeit</i> in nature and as ethical
+order in our practical life. Suchness as absolute is too remote, too
+abstract, and may have only a metaphysical value. Its existence or
+non-existence seems not to affect us in our daily social life,
+inasmuch as it is transcendental. In order to enter into our limited
+consciousness, to become the norm of our conscious activities, to
+regulate the course of the evolutionary tide in nature, Suchness must
+surrender its “splendid isolation,” must abandon its absoluteness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Suchness thus comes down from its sovereign-seat in the realm of
+unthinkability, we have this universe unfolded before our eyes in all
+its diversity and magnificence. Twinkling stars inlaid in the vaulted
+sky; the planet elaborately decorated with verdant meadows, towering
+mountains, and rolling waves; the birds cheerfully singing in the
+woods; the beasts wildly running through the thickets; the summer
+heavens ornamented with white fleecy clouds and on <span class="pagenum" id="p110">{110}</span> earth all
+branches and leaves growing in abundant luxury; the winter prairie
+destitute of all animation, only with naked trees here and there
+trembling in the dreary north winds; all these manifestations, not
+varying a hair’s breadth of deviation from their mathematical,
+astronomical, physical, chemical, and biological laws, are naught else
+than the work of conditional Suchness in nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we turn to human life and history, we have the work of
+conditional Suchness manifested in all forms of activity as passions,
+aspirations, imaginations, intellectual efforts, etc. It makes us
+desire to eat when hungry, and to drink when thirsty; it makes the man
+long for the woman, and the woman for the man; it keeps children in
+merriment and frolic; it braces men and women bravely to carry the
+burden of life. When we are oppressed, it causes us to cry, “Let us
+have liberty or die”; when we are treated with injustice, it leads us
+even to murder and fire and revolution; when our noble sentiments are
+aroused to the highest pitch, it makes us ready to sacrifice all that
+is most dear to us. In brief, all the kaleidoscopic changes of this
+phenomenal world, subjective as well as objective, come from the
+playing hands of conditional Suchness It not only constitutes the
+goodness and blessings of life, but the sins, crimes, and misery which
+the flesh is heir to.<sup><a href="#n055b" id="n055a">[55]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p111">{111}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Açvaghoṣa in his <i>Awakening of Faith</i> speaks of the Heart (<i>hṛdaya</i>)
+of Suchness and of the Heart of Birth-and-Death. By the Heart of
+Suchness he means the absolute and by the Heart of Birth-and-Death a
+manifestation of the absolute in this world of particulars. “They are
+not separate,” however, says he, but they are one, for the Heart of
+<span class="pagenum" id="p112">{112}</span> Suchness is the Heart of Birth-and-Death. It is on account of
+our limited senses and finite mind that we have a world of particulars,
+which, as it is, is no more than a fragment of the absolute
+Bhûtatathâtâ. And yet it is through this fragmentary manifestation
+that we are finally enabled to reach the fundamental nature of being
+in its entirety. Says Açvaghoṣa, “Depending on the Tathâgata-garbha,
+there evolves the Heart of Birth-and-Death. What is immortal and what
+is mortal are harmoniously blended, for they are not one, nor are they
+separate..... Herein all things are organised. Hereby all things are
+created.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The above is from the ontological standpoint. When viewed
+psychologically, the Heart of Suchness is enlightenment, for Buddhism
+makes no distinction between being and thought, world and mind. The
+ultimate nature of the two is considered to be absolutely one. Now,
+speaking of the nature of enlightenment, Açvaghoṣa says: “It is like
+the emptiness of space and the brightness of the mirror in that it is
+true, and real, and great. It completes and perfects all things. It is
+free from the condition of destructibility. In it is reflected every
+phase of life and activity in the world. Nothing goes out of it,
+nothing enters into it, nothing is annihilated, nothing is destroyed.
+It is one eternal soul, no forms of defilement can defile it. It is
+the essence of intelligence. By reason of its numerous immaculate
+virtues which inhere in it, it perfumes the hearts of all beings.”
+Thus, the Heart of Suchness, which is enlightenment and <span class="pagenum" id="p113">{113}</span> the
+essence of intelligence, constantly works in and through the hearts of
+all human beings, that is, in and through our finite minds. In this
+sense, Buddhism declares that truth is not to be sought in highly
+abstract philosophical formulæ, but in the phenomena of our everyday
+life such as eating, dressing, walking, sleeping, etc. The Heart of
+Suchness acts and does not abstract; it synthesises and does not
+“dissect to murder.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch05s04">
+<i>Questions Defying Solution.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Speaking of the world as a manifestation of Suchness, we are here
+beset with the most puzzling questions that have baffled the best
+minds ever since the dawn of intellect. They are: Why did Suchness
+ever leave its abode in the mysterious realm of transcendentality and
+descend on earth where every form of misery greets us on all sides?
+What inherent necessity was there for it to mingle in the dust of
+worldliness while it could enjoy the unspeakable bliss of its own
+absoluteness? In other words, why did absolute Suchness ever become
+conditional Suchness? To dispose of these questions as not concerning
+human interests is the creed of agnosticism and positivism; but the
+fact is, they are not questions whimsically framed by the human mind
+when it was in the mood of playing with itself. They are queries of
+the most vital importance ever put to us, and the significance of life
+entirely hangs on our interpretation of them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p114">{114}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhism confesses that the mystery is unsolvable purely by the human
+mind, for it is absolutely beyond the region of finite intellect and
+the power of a logical demonstrability. The mystery can only be solved
+in a practical way when we attain the highest spiritual enlightenment
+of Buddhahood, in which the Bodhi with its unimpeded supernatural
+light directly looks into the very abyss of Suchness. The Bodhi or
+Intelligence which constitutes the kernel of our being, is a partial
+realisation in us of Suchness. When this intelligence is merged and
+expands in the Body of Suchness, as the water in a vessel poured into
+the waters of the boundless ocean, it at once perceives and realises
+its nature, its destiny, and its significance in life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhism is a religion and leaves many topics of metaphysics unsolved,
+at least logically. Though it is more intellectual and philosophical
+than any other religion, it does not pretend to build a complete
+system of speculation. As far as theorisation is concerned, Buddhism
+is dogmatic and assumes many propositions without revealing their
+dialectical processes. But they are all necessary and fundamental
+hypotheses of the religious consciousness; they are the ultimate
+demands of the human soul. Religion has no positive obligation to
+prove its propositions after the fashion of the natural sciences. It
+is enough for religion to state the facts as they are, and the
+intellect, though hampered by limitations inherent in it, has to try
+her best to put them together in a coherent system.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p115">{115}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The solution, then, by Buddhism of those queries stated above cannot
+be said to be very logical and free from serious difficulties, but
+practically it serves all required purposes and is conducive to
+religious discipline. By this I mean the Buddhist theory of Nescience
+or Ignorance (<i>avidyâ</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch05s05">
+<i>Theory of Ignorance.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The theory of nescience or ignorance (<i>avidyâ</i>) is an attempt by
+Buddhists to solve the relation between the one and the many, between
+absolute Suchness and conditional Suchness, between Dharmakâya and
+Sarvasattva, between wisdom (<i>bodhi</i>) and sin (<i>kleça</i>), between
+Nirvâna and Samsâra. But Buddhism does not give us any systematic
+exposition of the doctrine. What it says is categorical and dogmatic.
+“This universe is really the Dharmadhâtu;<sup><a href="#n056b" id="n056a">[56]</a></sup> it is characterised by
+sameness (<i>samatâ</i>); there is no differentiation (<i>visama</i>) in it; it
+is even emptiness itself (<i>çûnyatâ</i>); all things have no <i>pudgala</i>
+(self). But, because of nescience, there are four or six <i>mahâbhûta</i>
+(elements), five <i>skandha</i> (aggregates), six (or eight) <i>vijñâna</i>
+(senses), and twelve <i>nidâna</i> (chains of causation). All these names
+and forms (<i>nâmarûpa</i>) are of nescience or ignorance.” Or, according
+to Açvaghoṣa, “The Heart of Suchness is the vast All of one
+Dharmadhâtu; it is the essence of all doctrines. The ultimate nature
+does not perish, nor does it <span class="pagenum" id="p116">{116}</span> decay. All particular objects exist
+because of confused subjectivity (<i>smṛti</i>).<sup><a href="#n057b" id="n057a">[57]</a></sup> Independent of
+confused subjectivity, there is no outside world to be perceived and
+discriminated.” “Everything that is subject to the law of birth and
+death exists only because of ignorance and karma.” Such statements as
+these are found almost everywhere in the Buddhist literature; but as
+to the question how and why this negative principle of ignorance came
+to assert itself in the body of Suchness, we are at a loss where to
+find an authoritative and definite answer to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One thing, however, is certain, which is this: Ignorance (<i>avidyâ</i>)
+is principium individium, that creates the multitudinousness of
+phenomena in the absolute oneness of being, that tosses up the roaring
+billows of existence in the eternal ocean of Suchness, that breaks the
+silence of Nirvâna and starts the wheel of metempsychosis perpetually
+rolling, that, veiling the transpicuous mirror of Bodhi, affects the
+reflection of Suchness therein, that transforms the sameness (<i>samatâ</i>)
+of Suchness to the duality of thisness and thatness and leads many
+confused minds to egoism with all its pernicious corollaries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Perhaps, the best way to attack the problem of ignorance is to
+understand that Buddhism is a thoroughly idealistic doctrine as every
+true religion should be, and that psychologically, and not
+ontologically, <span class="pagenum" id="p117">{117}</span> should Suchness be conceived, and further, that
+nescience is inherent in Suchness, though only hypothetically,
+illusively, apparently, and not really in any sense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to Brahmanism, there was in the beginning only one being;
+and this being willed to be two; which naturally resulted in the
+differentiation of subject and object, mind and nature. In Buddhism,
+however, Suchness is not explicitly stated as having had any desire to
+be other than itself, at least when it is purely metaphysically
+conceived. But as Buddhism interprets this world of particularisation
+as a manifestation of Suchness conditioned by the principle of
+ignorance, ignorance must be considered, however illusory in its
+ultimate nature, to have potentially or rather negatively existed in
+the being of Suchness; and when Suchness, by its transcendental
+freedom of will, affirmed itself, it did so by negating itself, that
+is, by permitting itself to be conditioned by the principle of
+ignorance or individuation. The latter, as is expressly stated
+everywhere in Buddhist sûtras and çâstras, is no more than an illusion
+and a negative quantity, it is merely the veil of Mâya. This chimerical
+nature of ignorance preserves the essential absoluteness of the first
+principle and makes the monism of the Mahâyâna doctrine thoroughly
+consistent. What is to be noted here, however, is this: Buddhism does
+not necessarily regard this world of particulars as altogether
+evanescent and dream-like. When ignorance alone is taken notice <span class="pagenum" id="p118">{118}</span>
+of and the presence of Suchness in all this multitudinousness of
+things is denied, this existence is positively declared to be void.
+But when an enlightened mind perceives Suchness even in the midst of
+the utter darkness of ignorance, this life assumes an entirely new
+aspect, and we come to realise the illusiveness of all evils.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return to the subject, ignorance or nescience is defined by
+Açvaghoṣa as a spark of consciousness<sup><a href="#n058b" id="n058a">[58]</a></sup> that spontaneously flashes
+from the unfathomable depths of Suchness. According to this, ignorance
+and consciousness are interchangeable terms, though with different
+shades of meaning. Ignorance is, so to speak, the <i>raison d’être</i> of
+consciousness, is that which makes the appearance of the latter
+possible, while ignorance itself is in turn an illusive emanation of
+Suchness. It is then evident that the awakening of consciousness marks
+the first step toward the rising of this universe from the abyss of
+the self-identity of Suchness. For the unfolding of consciousness
+implies the separation of the perceiving and the perceived, the
+<i>viṣayin</i> and the <i>viṣaya</i>, of subject and object, mind and nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eternal abyss of Suchness, so called, is the point where
+subjectivity and objectivity are merged in absolute oneness. It is the
+time, though strictly <span class="pagenum" id="p119">{119}</span> speaking chronology does not apply here,
+when all “the ten thousand things” of the world have not yet been
+differentiated and even when the God who “created the heaven and
+earth” has not yet made his debut. To use psychological terms, it is
+a state of transcendental or transmarginal consciousness, where all
+sense-perceptions and conceptual images vanish, and where we are in a
+state of absolute unconsciousness. This sounds mystical; but it is an
+established fact that in the field of our mental activities there is
+an abyss where consciousness sometimes suddenly disappears. This
+region beyond the threshold of awaredness, though often a trysting
+place for psychical abnormalities, has a great religious significance,
+which cannot be ignored by superficial scientific arguments. Here is
+the region where the consciousness of subject and object is completely
+annihilated, but here we do not have the silence and darkness of a
+grave, nor is it a state of absolute nothingness. The self is here
+lost in the presence of something indescribable, or better, it expands
+so as to embrace the world-all within itself, and is not conscious of
+any egoistic elation or arrogance; but it merely feels the fulness of
+reality and a touch of celestial joy that cannot be imparted to others
+by anything human. The most convincing spiritual insight into the
+nature of being comes from this source. Enlightenment is the name
+given by Buddhists to the actual gaining of this insight. Bodhi or
+Prajñâ or intelligence is the term for the <span class="pagenum" id="p120">{120}</span> spiritual power that
+brings about this enlightenment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the mind emerges from this state of sameness, consciousness
+spontaneously comes back as it vanished before, retaining the memory
+of the experience so unique and now confronting the world of contrasts
+and mutual dependence, in which our empirical ego moves. The transition
+from one state to the other is like a flash of lightning scintilating
+from behind the clouds; though the two, the subliminal and the
+superficial consciousness, seem to be one continuous form of activity,
+permitting no hiatus between them. At any rate, this awakening of
+subjectivity and the leaving behind of transmarginal consciousness
+marks the start of ignorance. Therefore, psychologically speaking,
+ignorance must be considered synonymous with the awakening of
+consciousness in a sentient being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here we have the most mysterious fact that baffles all our
+intellectual efforts to unravel, which is: How and why has ignorance,
+or what is tantamount, consciousness, ever been awakened from the
+absolute calmness (<i>çānti</i>) of being? How and why have the waves of
+mentation ever been stirred up in the ocean of eternal tranquillity?
+Açvaghoṣa simply says, “spontaneously.” This by no means explains
+anything, or at least it is not in the line with our so-called
+scientific interpretations, nor does it give us any reason why.
+Nevertheless, religiously and practically viewed, “spontaneous” is the
+most graphic and vigorous term there is for describing the actual
+state of things <span class="pagenum" id="p121">{121}</span> as they pass before our mental eye. In fact,
+there is always something vague and indefinite in all our psychological
+experiences. With whatever scientific accuracy, with whatever
+objective precision we may describe the phenomena that take place in
+the mind, there is always something that eludes our scrutiny, is too
+slippery, as it were, to take hold of; so that after all our strenuous
+intellectual efforts to be exact and perspicuous in our expositions,
+we are still compelled to leave much to the imagination of the reader.
+In case he happens to be lacking in the experience which we have
+endeavored to describe we shall vainly hope to awaken in him the said
+impression with the same degree of intensity and realness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is for this reason that Açvaghoṣa and other Mahâyânists declare
+that the rising of consciousness out of the abysmal depths of Suchness
+is <i>felt</i> by Buddhas and other enlightened minds only that have
+actually gone through the experience. The why of ignorance nobody can
+explain as much as the why of Suchness. But when we personally
+experience this spiritual fact, we no more feel the need of harboring
+any doubt about how or why. Everything becomes transparent, and the
+rays of supernatural enlightenment shine like a halo round our
+spiritual personality. We move as dictated by the behest of Suchness,
+i.e., by the Dharmakâya, and in which we feel infinite bliss and
+satisfaction. This religious experience is the most unique phenomenon
+in the life of a sentient being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p122">{122}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch05s06">
+<i>Dualism and Moral Evil.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we cannot think that the essence of the external world to be other
+than that of our own mind, that is to say, as we cannot think subject
+and object to be different in their ultimate nature, our conclusion
+naturally is that the same principle of Ignorance which gathers the
+clouds of subjectivity, calls up the multitudinousness of phenomena in
+the world-mind of Suchness. The universe in its entirety is an
+infinite mind, and our limited mind with its transmarginal
+consciousness is a microcosm. What the finite mind feels in its inmost
+self, must also be what the cosmic mind feels; nay, we can go one step
+further, and say that when the human mind enters the region lying
+beyond the border of subjectivity and objectivity, it is in communion
+with the heart of the universe, whose secrets are revealed here
+without reserve. Therefore, Buddhism does not make any distinction
+between knowing and being, enlightenment and Suchness. When the mind
+is free from ignorance and no more clings to things particular, it is
+said to be in harmony and even one with Suchness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We must, however, remember that ignorance as the principle of
+individuation and a spontaneous expression of Suchness, is no moral
+evil. The awakening of subjectivity or the dawn of consciousness forms
+part of the necessary cosmic process. The separation of subject and
+object, or the appearance of a phenomenal world, is nothing but a
+realisation <span class="pagenum" id="p123">{123}</span> of the cosmic mind (Dharmakâya). As such Ignorance
+performs an essential function in the evolution of the world-totality.
+Ignorance is inherent in Buddhas as well as in all sentient beings.
+Every one of us cannot help perceiving an external world (<i>viṣaya</i>)
+and forming conceptions and reasoning and feeling and willing. We do
+not see any moral fault here. If there is really anything morally
+wrong, then we cannot do anything with it, we are utterly helpless
+before it, for it is not our fault, but that of the cosmic soul from
+which and in which we have our being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ignorance has produced everywhere a state of relativity and reciprocal
+dependence. Birth is inseparably linked with death, congregation with
+segregation, evolution with involution, attraction with repulsion, the
+centripetal with the centrifugal force, the spring with the fall, the
+tide with the ebb, joy with sorrow, God with Satan, Adam with Eve,
+Buddha with Devadatta, etc., etc., <i>ad infinitum</i>. These are necessary
+conditions of existence; and if existence is an evil, they must be
+abolished, and with their abolition the very reason of existence is
+abolished, which means absolute nothingness, an impossibility as long
+as we exist. The work of ignorance in the world of conditional
+Suchness is quite innocent, and Buddhists do not recognise any fault
+in its existence, if not contaminated by confused subjectivity. Those
+who speak of the curse of existence, or those who conceive Nirvâna to
+be the abode of non-existence <span class="pagenum" id="p124">{124}</span> and the happiness of absolute
+annihilation, are considered by Buddhists to be unable to understand
+the significance of Ignorance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is there then no fault to be found with Ignorance? Not in Ignorance
+itself, but in our defiled attachment to it, that is, when we are
+ignorant of Ignorance. It is wrong to cling to the dualism of subject
+and object as final and act accordingly. It is wrong to take the work
+of ignorance as ultimate and to forget the foundation on which it
+stands. It is wrong, thinking that the awakening of consciousness
+reveals the whole world, to ignore the existence of unseen realities.
+In short, evils quickly follow our steps when we try to realise the
+conclusions of ignorance without knowing its true relation to Suchness.
+Egoism is the most fundamental of all errors and evils.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we speak of ignorance as hindering the light of intelligence from
+penetrating to the bottom of reality, we usually understand the term
+ignorance not in the philosophical sense of principium individuum, but
+in the sense of confused subjectivity, which conceives the work of
+Ignorance as the final reality culminating in egoism. So, we might say
+that while the principle of Ignorance is philosophically justified,
+its unenlightened actualisation in our practical life is altogether
+unwarranted and brings on us a series of dire calamities.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch06">
+CHAPTER VI.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">THE TATHÂGATA-GARBHA AND THE<br>
+ÂLAYA-VIJÑÂNA.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p125">{125}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Suchness</span> (<i>Bhûtatathâtâ</i>), the ultimate principle of existence, is
+known by so many different names, as it is viewed in so many different
+phases of its manifestation. Suchness is the Essence of Buddhas, as it
+constitutes the reason of Buddhahood; it is the Dharma, when it is
+considered the norm of existence; it is the Bodhi when it is the
+source of intelligence; Nirvana, when it brings eternal peace to a
+heart troubled with egoism and its vile passions; Prajñâ (wisdom),
+when it intelligently directs the course of nature; the Dharmakâya,
+when it is religiously considered as the fountain-head of love and
+wisdom; the Bodhicitta (intelligence-heart), when it is the awakener
+of religious consciousness; Çûnyatâ (vacuity), when viewed as
+transcending all particular forms; the summum bonum (<i>kuçalam</i>), when
+its ethical phase is emphasised; the Highest Truth (<i>paramârtha</i>),
+when its epistemological feature is put forward; the Middle Path
+(<i>mâdhyamârga</i>), when it is considered above the onesidedness and
+limitation of individual existences; the Essence of Being
+(<i>bhûtakoti</i>), when its ontological aspect is taken into <span class="pagenum" id="p126">{126}</span>
+account; the Tathâgata-garbha (the Womb of Tathâgata), when it is
+thought of in analogy to mother earth, where all the germs of life are
+stored, and where all precious stones and metals are concealed under
+the cover of filth. And it is of this last aspect of Suchness that I
+here propose to consider at some length.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch06s01">
+<i>The Tathâgata-Garbha and Ignorance.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tathâgata-Garbha literally means Tathâgata’s womb<sup><a href="#n059b" id="n059a">[59]</a></sup> or treasure or
+store, in which the essence of Tathâgatahood remains concealed under
+the veil of Ignorance. It may rightly be called the womb of universe,
+from which issues forth the multitudinousness of things, mental as
+well as physical.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Tathâgata-Garbha, therefore, may be explained ontologically as a
+state of Suchness quickened by Ignorance and ready to be realised in
+the world of particulars, that is, when it is about to transform
+itself to the duality of subject and object, though there is yet no
+perceptible manifestation of motility in any form. Psychologically, it
+is the transcendental soul of man just coming under the bondage of the
+law of karmaic causation. Though pure and free in its nature as the
+expression of Suchness in man, the transcendental <span class="pagenum" id="p127">{127}</span> soul or pure
+intelligence is now influenced by the principle of birth-and-death and
+subjects itself to organic determinations. As it is, it is yet devoid
+of differentiation and limitation, save that there is a bare
+possibility of them. It will, however, as soon as it is actualised in
+a special form, unfold all its particularities subject to their own
+laws; it will hunger, desire, strive, and even be annoyed by its
+material bonds, and then, beginning to long for liberation, will
+struggle inwardly. Here is then no more of the absolute freedom of
+Suchness, as long as its phenomenal phase alone is considered, since
+the Garbha works under the constraint of particularisation. The
+essence of Tathâgatahood, however, is here preserved intact, and,
+whenever it is possible, our finite minds are able to feel its
+presence and power. Hypothetically, therefore, the Garbha is always in
+association with passions and desires that are of Ignorance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We read in the <i>Çrimâlâ-Sûtra</i>: “With the storage of passions attached
+we find the Tathâgata-Garbha,” or, “The Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata
+not detached from the storage of passions is called Tathâgata-Garbha.”
+In Buddhism, passion or desire or sin (<i>kleça</i>) is generally used in
+contrast to intelligence or Bodhi or Nirvâna. As the latter,
+religiously considered, represents a particular manifestation in the
+human mind of the Dharmakâya or Bhûtatathâtâ, so the former is a
+reflection of universal Ignorance in the microcosm. Therefore, the
+human soul in which, according to Buddhism, intelligence and desire
+are merged, should <span class="pagenum" id="p128">{128}</span> be regarded as an individuation of the
+Tathâgata-Garbha. And it is in this capacity that the Garbha is called
+<i>Âlayavijñâna</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch06s02">
+<i>The Âlayavijñâna and its Evolution.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we have seen, the Âlayavijñâna or All-Conserving Soul is a
+particularised expression in the human mind of the Tathâgata-Garbha.
+It is an individual, ideal reflex of the cosmic Garbha. It is this
+“psychic germ,” as the Âlaya is often designated, that stores all the
+mental possibilities, which are set in motion by the impetus of an
+external world, which works on the Âlaya through the six senses
+(<i>vijñâna</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mahâyânism is essentially idealistic and does not make a radical,
+qualitative distinction between subject and object, thought and being,
+mind and nature, consciousness and energy. Therefore, the being and
+activity of the Âlaya are essentially those of the Garbha; and again,
+as the Garbha is the joint creation of universal Ignorance and
+Suchness, so is the Âlaya the product of desire (<i>kleça</i>) and wisdom
+(<i>bodhi</i>). The Garbha and the Âlaya, however, are each in itself
+innocent and absolutely irresponsible for the existing state of
+affairs. And let it be remarked here that Buddhism does not condemn
+this life and universe for their wickedness as was done by some
+religious teachers and philosophers. The so-called wickedness is not
+radical in nature and life. It is merely superficial. It is the work
+of ignorance and desire, and when they are converted to do service for
+the <span class="pagenum" id="p129">{129}</span> Bodhi, they cease to be wicked or sinful or evil. Buddhists,
+therefore, strongly insist on the innate and intrinsic goodness of the
+Âlaya and the Garbha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Says Açvaghoṣa in his <i>Awakening of Faith</i> (p. 75): “In the
+All-Conserving Soul (<i>Âlaya</i>) Ignorance obtains, and from
+non-enlightenment [thus produced] starts that which sees, that which
+represents, that which apprehends an objective world, and that which
+constantly particularises.” Here we have the evolution of the Garbha
+in its psychological manifestation; in other words, we have here the
+evolution of the Âlayavijñâna. When the Garbha or Âlaya comes under
+the influence of birth-and-death (<i>samsâra</i>), it no longer retains its
+primeval indifference or sameness (<i>samatâ</i>); but there come to exist
+that which sees (<i>viṣayin</i>) and that which is seen (<i>viṣaya</i>), a mind
+and an objective world. From the interaction of these two forms of
+existence, we have now before our eyes the entire panorama of the
+universe swiftly and noiselessly moving with its never-tiring steps.
+A most favorite simile with Buddhists to illustrate these incessant
+activities of the phenomenal world, is to compare them to the waves
+that are seen forever rolling in a boundless ocean, while the body of
+waters which make up the ocean is compared to Suchness, and the wind
+that stirs up the waves to the principle of birth-and-death or
+ignorance which is the same thing. So we read in the <i>Lankâvatâra
+Sûtra</i>:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p130">{130}</span>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Like unto the ocean-waves,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Which by a raging storm maddened</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Against the rugged precipice strike</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Without interruption;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so in the Alaya-sea</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Stirred by the objectivity-wind</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All kinds of mentation-waves</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Arise a-dancing, a-rolling.”<sup><a href="#n060b" id="n060a">[60]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+But all the psychical activities thus brought into full view, should
+not be conceived as different from the Mind (<i>citta</i>) itself. It is
+merely in the nature of our understanding that we think of attributes
+apart from their substance, the latter being imagined to be in
+possession and control of the former. There is, however, in fact no
+substance <i>per se</i>, independent of its attributes, and no attributes
+detached from that which unites them. And this is one of the
+fundamental conceptions of Buddhism, that there is no soul-in-itself
+considered apart from its various manifestations such as imagination,
+sensation, intellectuation, etc. The innumerable ripples and waves and
+billows of mentation that are stirred in the depths of the
+Tathâgata-Garbha, are not things foreign or external to it, but they
+are all particular expressions of the same essence, they are working
+out its immanent destiny. So continues the <i>Lankâvatâra Sûtra</i>:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p131">{131}</span>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“The saline crystal and its red-bluishness,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The milky sap and its sweetness,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Various flowers and their fruits,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The sun and the moon and their luminosity:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">These are neither separable nor inseparable.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As waves are stirred in the water,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so the seven modes of mentation</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Are awakened in the Mind and united with it.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When the waters are troubled in the ocean,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">We have waves that roll each in its own way:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So with the Mind All-Conserving.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When stirred, therein diverse mentations arise:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Citta, Manas, and Manovijñâna.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">These we distinguish as attributes,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In substance they differ not from each other;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For they are neither attributing nor attributed.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The sea-water and the waves,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">One varies not from the other:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is even so with the Mind and its activities;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Between them difference nowhere obtains.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Citta is karma-accumulating,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Manas reflects an objective world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Manovijñâna is the faculty of judgment,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The five Vijñânas are the differentiating senses.”<sup><a href="#n061b" id="n061a">[61]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p132">{132}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch06s03">
+<i>The Manas.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Âlayavijñâna which is sometimes, as in the preceding quotations,
+simply called <i>citta</i> (mind), is, as such, no more than a state of
+Suchness, allowing itself to be influenced by the principle of
+birth-and-death, i.e., by Ignorance; and there has in it taken place
+as yet no “awakening” or “stirring up” (<i>vṛtti</i>), from which results a
+consciousness. When the Manas is evolved, however, we have a sign of
+mentality thereby set in motion, for the Manas, according to the
+Mahâyânists, marks the dawn of consciousness in the universe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Manas, deriving its reason of consciousness from the Citta or
+Âlaya, reflects on it as well as on an external world, and becomes
+conscious of the distinction between me and not-me. But since this
+not-I or external world is nothing but an unfoldment of the Âlaya
+itself, the Manas must be said really to be self-reflecting, when it
+discriminates between subject and object. If the Âlaya is not yet
+conscious of itself, the Manas is, as the latter comes to realise the
+state of self-awareness. The Âlaya is perhaps to be compared in a
+sense to the Kantian “ego of transcendental apperception”; while the
+Manas is the actual center of self-consciousness. But the Manas and
+the Âlaya (or Citta) are not two different things in the sense that
+one emanates from the other or that one is created by the other. It is
+better to understand <span class="pagenum" id="p133">{133}</span> the Manas as a state or condition of the
+Citta in its evolution.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, the Manas is not only contemplative, but capable of volition. It
+awakens the desire to cling to the state of individuation, it harbors
+egoism, passion, and prejudice; it wills and creates: for Ignorance,
+the principle of birth-and-death, is there in its full force, and the
+absolute identity of Suchness is here forever departed. Therefore, the
+Manas really marks the beginning of concrete, particularising
+consciousness-waves in the eternal ocean of the All-Conserving Mind.
+The mind which was hitherto indifferent and neutral here acquires a
+full consciousness; discriminates between ego and non-ego; feels pain
+and pleasure; clings to that which is agreeable and shrinks from that
+which is disagreeable; urges activities according to judgments, false
+or truthful; memorises what has been experienced, and stores it
+all:&mdash;in short, all the modes of mentation come into play with the
+awakening of the Manas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to Açvaghoṣa, with the evolution of the Manas there arise
+five important psychical activities which characterise the human mind.
+They are: (1) motility, that is the capability of creating karma; (2)
+the power to perceive; (3) the power to respond; (4) the power to
+discriminate; and (5) individuality. Through the exercise of these
+five functions, the Manas is able to create according to its will, to
+be a perceiving subject, to respond to the stimuli of an external
+world, to deliver judgments <span class="pagenum" id="p134">{134}</span> over what it likes and what it
+dislikes, and finally to retain all its own “karma-seeds” in the past
+and to mature them for the future, according to circumstances.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the advent of the Manas, the evolution of the Citta is complete.
+Practically, it is the consummation of mentality, for
+self-consciousness is ripe now. The will can affirm its ego-centric,
+dualistic activities, and the intellect can exercise its
+discriminating, reasoning, and image-retaining faculties. The Manas
+now becomes the center of psychic coördination. It receives messages
+from the six senses and pronounces over the impressions whatever
+judgments, intellectual or volitional, which are needed at the time
+for its own conservation. It also reflects on its own sanctum, and,
+perceiving there the presence of the Âlaya, wrongfully jumps to the
+conclusion that herein lies the real, ultimate ego-soul, from which it
+derives the notions of authority, unity, and permanency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As is evident, the Manas is a double-edged sword. It may destroy
+itself by clinging to the error of ego-conception, or it may, by a
+judicious exercise of its reasoning faculty, destroy all the
+misconceptions that arise from a wrong interpretation of the principle
+of Ignorance. The Manas destroys itself by being overwhelmed by the
+dualism of <i>ego</i> and <i>alter</i>, by taking them for final, irreducible
+realities, and by thus fostering absolute ego-centric thoughts and
+desires, and by making itself a willing prey of an indomitable egoism,
+religiously and morally. On the other hand, when it <span class="pagenum" id="p135">{135}</span> sees an
+error in the conception of the absolute reality of individuals, when
+it perceives a play of Ignorance in the dualism of me and not-me, when
+it recognises the <i>raison d’être</i> of existence in the essence of
+Tathâgatahood, i.e., in Suchness, when it realises that the Âlaya
+which is mistaken for the ego is no more than an innocent and
+irreproachable reflection of the cosmic Garbha, it at once transcends
+the sphere of particularity and becomes the very harbinger of eternal
+enlightenment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhists, therefore, do not see any error or evil in the evolution of
+the Mind (<i>âlaya</i>). There is nothing faulty in the awakening of
+consciousness, in the dualism of subject and object, in the
+individualising operation of birth-and-death (<i>samsâra</i>), only so
+long as our Manas keeps aloof from the contamination of false egoism.
+The gravest error, however, permeates every fiber of our mind with all
+its wickedness and irrationality, as soon as the nature of the
+evolution of the Âlaya is wrongfully interpreted by the abuse of the
+functions of the Manas.<sup><a href="#n062b" id="n062a">[62]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p136">{136}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though Mahâyânism most emphatically denies the existence of a personal
+ego which is imagined to be lodging within the body and to be the
+spiritual master of it, it does not necessarily follow that it denies
+the unity of consciousness or personality or individuality. In fact,
+the assumption of Manovijñâna by Buddhists most conclusively proves
+that they have an ego in a sense, the denial of whose empirical
+existence is tantamount to the denial of the most concrete facts of
+our daily experiences. What is most persistently negated by them is
+not the existence of ego, but its final, ultimate reality. But to
+discuss this subject more fully we have a special chapter below
+devoted to “Âtman.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch06s04">
+<i>The Sâmkhya Philosophy and Mahâyânism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If we draw a comparison between the Sâmkhya philosophy and Mahâyânism,
+the Âlayavijñâna may <span class="pagenum" id="p137">{137}</span> be considered an unification of Soul
+(<i>puruṣa</i>) and Nature (<i>prakṛtî</i>), and the Manovijñâna a combination
+of Buddhi (intellect) or Mahat (great element) with Ahankâra (ego).
+According to the <i>Sâmkhyakârika</i> (11), the essential nature of Prakṛtî
+is the power of creation, or, to use Buddhist phraseology, it is blind
+activity; while that of Puruṣa is witnessing (<i>sakṣitvâ</i>) and
+perceiving (<i>drastṛtvâ</i>). (<i>The Kârika</i>, 19.) A modern philosopher
+would say, Puruṣa is intelligence and Prakṛtî the will; and when they
+are combined and blended in one, they make Hartmann’s <i>Unbewusste
+Geist</i> (unconscious spirit). The All-Conserving Mind (<i>Âlaya</i>) in a
+certain sense resembles the Unconscious, as it is the manifestation of
+Suchness, the principle of enlightenment, in its evolutionary aspect
+as conditioned by Ignorance; and Ignorance apparently <span class="pagenum" id="p138">{138}</span> corresponds
+to the will as the principle of blind activity. The Sâmkhya philosophy
+is an avowed dualism and permits the existence of two principles
+independent of each other. Mahâyânism is fundamentally monistic and
+makes Ignorance merely a condition necessary to the unfolding of
+Suchness.<sup><a href="#n063b" id="n063a">[63]</a></sup> Therefore, what the Sâmkhya splits into two, Mahâyânism
+puts together in one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So is the parallelism between the Manovijñâna, and Buddhi and Ahankâra.
+Buddhi, intellect, is defined as <i>adhyavasâya</i> (<i>Kârika</i>, 23), while
+Ahankâra is interpreted as <i>abhimanas</i> (<i>Kârika</i>, 24), which is
+evidently self-consciousness. As to the exact meaning of <i>adhyavasâya</i>,
+there is a divergence of opinion: “ascertainment,” “judgment,”
+“determination,” “apprehension” are some of the English equivalents
+chosen for it. But the inner signification of Buddhi is clear enough;
+it indicates the awakening of knowledge, the dawn of rationality, the
+first shedding of light on the dark recesses of unconsciousness; so
+the commentators give as the synonyms <i>mati</i> (understanding), <i>khyâti</i>
+(cognition), <i>jñânam</i>, <i>prajñâ</i>, etc., the last two of these, which
+mean knowledge or intelligence, being also technical terms of
+Mahâyânism. And, as we have seen above, these senses are what the
+Buddhists give to their Manovijñâna, save that the <span class="pagenum" id="p139">{139}</span> latter in
+addition has the faculty of discriminating between <i>teum</i> and <i>meum</i>,
+while in the Sâmkhya this is reserved for Ahankâra. Thus, here, too,
+in place of the Sâmkhya dualism, we have the Buddhist unity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another point we have to take notice here in comparing the two great
+Hindu religio-philosophical systems, is that the Sâmkhya philosophy
+pluralises the Soul (<i>puruṣa</i>, <i>Kârika</i>, 18), while Buddhism
+postulates one universal Citta or Âlaya. According to the followers
+of Kapila, therefore, there must be as many souls as there are
+individuals, and at every departure or advent of an individual there
+must be assumed a corresponding soul passing away or coming into
+existence, though we do not know its whence and whither. Buddhism, on
+the other hand, denies the existence of any individual mind apart from
+the All-Conserving Mind (<i>Âlaya</i>) which is universal. Individuality
+first appears at the awakening of the Manovijñâna. The quintessence
+of the Mind is Suchness and is not subject to the limitations of time
+and space as well as the law of causation. But as soon as it asserts
+itself in the world of particularisation, it negates itself thereby,
+and, becoming specialised, gives rise to individual souls.<sup><a href="#n064b" id="n064a">[64]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch07">
+CHAPTER VII.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">THE THEORY OF NON-ATMAN OR NON-EGO.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p140">{140}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">If</span> I am requested to formulate the ground-principles of the
+philosophy of Mahâyâna Buddhism, and, indeed, of all the schools of
+Buddhism, I would suggest the following:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>
+(1) All is momentary (<i>sarvam kṣanikam</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(2) All is empty (<i>sarvam çûnyam</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(3) All is without self (<i>sarvam anâtmam</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(4) All is such as it is (<i>sarvam tathâtvam</i>).
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+These four tenets, as it were, are so closely interrelated that, stand
+or fall, they all inevitably share one and the same fate together.
+Whatever different views the various schools of Buddhism may hold on
+points of minor importance, they all concur at least on these four
+principal propositions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of these four propositions, the first, the second, and the fourth have
+been elucidated above, more or less explicitly. If the existence of a
+relative world is the work of ignorance and as such has no final
+reality, it must be considered illusory and empty; though it does not
+necessarily follow that on this account our life is not worth living.
+We must not <span class="pagenum" id="p141">{141}</span> confuse the moral value of existence with the
+ontological problem of its phenomenality. It all depends on our
+subjective attitude whether or not our world and life become full of
+significance. When the illusiveness or phenomenality of individual
+existences is granted and we use the world accordingly, that is, “as
+not abusing it,” we escape the error and curse of egoism and take
+things as they are presented to us, as reflecting the Dharma of
+Suchness. We no more cling to forms of particularity as something
+ultimate and absolutely real and as that in which lies the essence of
+our life. We take them for such as they are, and recognise their
+reality only in so far as they are considered a partial realisation of
+Suchness, and do not go any further. Suchness, indeed, lies not hidden
+<i>behind</i> them, but exists immanently <i>in</i> them. Things are empty and
+illusory so long as they are particular things and are not thought of
+in reference to the All that is Suchness and Reality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this, it logically follows that in this world of relativity all
+is momentary, that nothing is permanent, so far as isolated, particular
+existences are concerned. Even independently of the statement made
+above, the doctrine of universal impermanency is an almost self-evident
+truth experienced everywhere, and does not require any special
+demonstration to prove its validity. The desire for immortality which
+is so conspicuous and persistent in all the stages of development of
+the religious consciousness that the very desire has been thought to
+be the essence of all <span class="pagenum" id="p142">{142}</span> religious systems, is the most conclusive
+proof that things on this earth are in a constant flux of becoming,
+and that there is nothing permanent or stationary in our individual
+existences; if otherwise, people would never have sought for
+immortality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If this be granted as a fact of our everyday experience, we naturally
+ask: “Why are things so changeable? Why is life so fleeting? What is
+it that makes things so mutable and transitory?” To this, the
+Buddhist’s answer is: Because the universe is a resultant product of
+many efficient forces that are acting according to different
+karmas;&mdash;the destiny of those forces being that no one force or no one
+set of forces can constantly be predominant over all the others, but
+that when one has exhausted its potential karma, it is replaced by
+another that has been steadily coming forward in the meantime. Hence
+the universal cadence of birth and death, of the spring and the fall,
+of the tide and the ebb, of integration and disintegration. Where
+there is attraction, there is repulsion; where there is the
+centripetal force, there is the centrifugal force. Because it is the
+law of karma that at the very moment of birth the arms of death are
+around the neck of life. The universe is nothing but a grand rhythmic
+manifestation of certain forces working in conformity to their
+predetermined laws; or, to use Buddhist terminology, this <i>lokadhâtu</i>
+(material world) consists in a concatenation of <i>hetus</i> (causes) and
+<i>pratyayas</i> (conditions) regulated by their karma. <span class="pagenum" id="p143">{143}</span> If this were
+not so, there would be either a certain fixed state of things in which
+perfect equilibrium would be maintained, or an inexpressible confusion
+of things of which no knowledge or experience would be possible. In
+the former case, we should have universal stagnation and eternal
+death; in the latter case, there would be no universe, no life,
+nothing but absolute chaos. Therefore, so long as we have the world
+before us, in which all the possible varieties of particularisation
+are manifested it cannot be otherwise than in a state of constant
+vicissitudes and therefore of universal transitoriness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, the Buddhist argument for the theory of non-ego is this: If
+individual existences are due to relations obtaining between diverse
+forces, which act sometimes in unison with and sometimes in opposition
+to one another as predetermined by their karma, they cannot be said to
+have any transcendental agency behind them, which is a permanent unity
+and absolute dictator. In other words, there is no âtman or ego-soul
+behind our mental activities, and no thing-in-itself (<i>svabhâva</i>), so
+to speak, behind each particular form of existence. This is called the
+Buddhist theory of non-âtman or non-ego.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s01">
+<i>Âtman.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhists use the term “âtman” in two senses: first, in the sense of
+personal ego,<sup><a href="#n065b" id="n065a">[65]</a></sup> and secondly, in <span class="pagenum" id="p144">{144}</span> that of thing-in-itself,
+perhaps, with a slight modification of its commonly accepted meaning.
+Let us use the term “âtman” here in its first sense as equivalent to
+<i>bhûtâtman</i>, for we are going first to treat of the doctrine of
+non-ego, and later of that of no-thing-in-itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Âtman is usually translated “life,” “ego,” or “soul,”<sup><a href="#n066b" id="n066a">[66]</a></sup> and is a
+technical term used both by Vedanta philosophers and Buddhists. But we
+have to note at the beginning that they do not use the term in the
+same sense. When the Vedanta philosophy, especially the later one,
+speaks of âtman as our inmost self which is identical with the
+universal Brahma, it is used in its most abstract metaphysical sense
+and does not mean the soul whatever, as the latter is <span class="pagenum" id="p145">{145}</span> commonly
+understood by vulgar minds. On the other hand, Buddhists understand by
+âtman this vulgar, materialistic conception of the soul (<i>bhûtâtman</i>)
+and positively denies its existence as such. If we, for convenience’
+sake, distinguish between phenomenal and noumenal in our notion of ego
+or soul, the âtman of Buddhism is the phenomenal ego, namely, a
+concrete agent that is supposed to do the acting, thinking, and
+feeling; while the âtman of Vedantists is the noumenal ego as the
+<i>raison d’être</i> of our psychical life. The one is in fact material,
+however ethereal it might be conceived. The other is a highly
+metaphysical conception transcending the reach of human discursive
+knowledge. The latter may be identified with Paramâtman and the former
+with Jîvâtman. Paramâtman is a universal soul from which, according to
+Vedantism, emanates this world of phenomena, and in a certain sense it
+may be said to correspond to the Tathâgata-garbha of Buddhism.
+Jîvâtman is the ego-soul as it is conceived by ignorant people as an
+independent entity directing all the mental activities. It is this
+latter âtman that was found to be void by Buddha when he arose from
+his long meditation, declaring:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Many a life to transmigrate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Long quest, no rest, hath been my fate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Tent-designer<sup><a href="#n067b" id="n067a">[67]</a></sup> inquisitive for:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Painful birth from state to state.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p146">{146}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Tent-designer! I know thee now;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Never again to build art thou:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Quite out are all thy joyful fires,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Rafter broken and roof-tree gone,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Gain eternity&mdash;dead desires.”<sup><a href="#n068b" id="n068a">[68]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s02">
+<i>Buddha’s First Line of Inquiry.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhism finds the source of all evils and sufferings in the vulgar
+material conception of the ego-soul, and concentrates its entire
+ethical force upon the destruction of the ego-centric notions and
+desires. The Buddha seems, since the beginning of his wandering life,
+to have conceived the idea that the way of salvation must lie somehow
+in the removal of this egoistic prejudice, for so long as we are not
+liberated from its curse we are liable to become the prey of the three
+venomous passions: covetousness, infatuation, and anger, and to suffer
+the misery of birth and death and disease and old age. Thus, when he
+received his first instructions from the Sâmkhya philosopher, Arada,
+he was not satisfied, because he did not teach how to abandon this
+ego-soul itself. The Buddha argued: “I consider that the embodied
+ego-soul, though freed from the evolvent-evolutes,<sup><a href="#n069b" id="n069a">[69]</a></sup> <span class="pagenum" id="p147">{147}</span> is still
+subject to the condition of birth and has the condition of a seed. The
+seed may remain dormant so long as it is deprived of the opportunity
+of coming into contact with the requisite conditions of quickening and
+being quickened, but since its germinating power has not been
+destroyed, it will surely develop all its potentialities as soon as it
+is brought into that necessary contact. Even though the ego-soul free
+from entanglement [i.e. from the bondage of Prakṛti] is declared to
+be liberated, yet, so long as the ego-soul remains, there can be no
+absolute abandonment of it, there can be no real abandonment of
+egoism.”<sup><a href="#n070b" id="n070a">[70]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Buddha then proceeds to indicate the path through which he reached
+his final conclusion and declares: “There is no real separation of the
+qualities and their subject; for fire cannot be conceived apart from
+its heat and form.” When this argument is logically carried out, it
+leads nowhere but to the Buddhist doctrine of non-âtman, that says:
+The existence of an ego-soul cannot be conceived apart from sensation,
+perception, imagination, intelligence, volition, etc., and, therefore,
+it is absurd to think that there is an independent individual
+soul-agent which makes our consciousness its workshop.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To imagine that an object can be abstracted from its qualities, not
+only logically but in reality, that there is some unknown quantity
+that is in <span class="pagenum" id="p148">{148}</span> possession of such and such characteristic marks
+(<i>lakṣana</i>) whereby it makes itself perceivable by our senses, says
+Buddhism, is wrong and unwarranted by reason. Fire cannot be conceived
+apart from its form and heat; waves cannot be conceived apart from the
+water and its commotion; the wheel cannot exist outside of its rim,
+spokes, axle, etc. All things, thus, are made of <i>hetus</i> and
+<i>pratyayas</i>, of causes and conditions, of qualities and attributes;
+and it is impossible for our pudgala or âtman or ego or soul to be
+any exception to this universal condition of things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let me in this connection state an interesting incident in the history
+of Chinese Buddhism. Hui-K’e, the second patriarch of the Dhyâna sect
+in China, was troubled with this ego-problem before his conversion. He
+was at first a faithful Confucian, but Confucianism did not satisfy
+all his spiritual wants. His soul was wavering between agnosticism and
+scepticism, and consequently he felt an unspeakable anguish in his
+inmost heart. When he learned of the arrival of Bodhidharma in his
+country, he hastened to his monastery and implored him to give him
+some spiritual advice. But Bodhidharma did not utter a word, being
+seemingly absorbed in his deep meditation. Hui-K’e, however, was
+determined to obtain from him some religious instructions at all
+hazards. So it is reported that he was standing at the same spot seven
+days and nights, when he at last cut off his left arm with the sword
+he was carrying (being <span class="pagenum" id="p149">{149}</span> a military officer) and placed it before
+Dharma, saying: “This arm is a token of my sincere desire to be
+instructed in the Holy Doctrine. My soul is troubled and annoyed; pray
+let your grace show me the way to pacify it.” Dharma quietly arose
+from his meditation and said: “Where is your soul? Bring it here and I
+will have it pacified.” Hui-K’e replied: “I have been searching for it
+all these years, but I have never succeeded in laying a hand on it.”
+Dharma then exclaimed: “There, I have your soul pacified!” At this, it
+is said, a flash of spiritual enlightenment went across the mind of
+Hui-K’e, and his “soul” was pacified once for all.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s03">
+<i>The Skandhas.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the five skandhas are combined according to their previous karma
+and present a temporal existence in the form of a sentient being,
+vulgar minds imagine that they have here an individual entity
+sustained by an immortal ego-substratum. In fact, the material body
+(<i>rûpakâya</i>) alone is not what makes the ego-soul, nor the sensation
+(<i>vedanâ</i>), nor the deeds (<i>sanskâra</i>), nor the consciousness
+(<i>vijñâna</i>), nor the conception (<i>samjñâ</i>); but only when they are
+all combined in a certain form they make a sentient being. Yet this
+combination is not the work of a certain independent entity, which,
+according to its own will, combines the five skandhas in one form and
+then hides itself in it. The combination of the constituent <span class="pagenum" id="p150">{150}</span>
+elements, Buddhism declares, is achieved by themselves after their
+karma. When a certain number of atoms of hydrogen and of oxygen are
+brought together, they attract each other on their own accord or owing
+to their own karma, and the result is water. The ego of water, so to
+speak, did not will to bring the two elements and make itself out of
+them. Even so is it with the existence of a sentient being, and there
+is no need of hypostasising a fabulous ego-monster behind the
+combination of the five skandhas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Skandha (<i>khanda</i> in Pâli) literally means “aggregate” or
+“agglomeration”, and, according to the Chinese exegetists, it is
+called so, because our personal existence is an aggregate of the five
+constituent elements of being, because it comes to take a definite
+individual form when the skandhas are brought together according to
+their previous karma. The first of the five aggregates is matter
+(<i>rûpa</i>), whose essential quality is thought to consist in resistance.
+The material part of our existence in the five sense-organs called
+<i>indryas</i>: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and the body. The second skandha
+is called sensation or sense-impression (<i>vedanâ</i>), which results from
+the contact of the six vijñânas (senses) with the viṣaya (external
+world). The third is called <i>samjñâ</i> which corresponds to our
+conception. It is the psychic power by which we are enabled to form
+the abstract images of particular objects. The fourth is <i>sanskâra</i>
+which may be rendered action or deed. Our intelligent consciousness,
+<span class="pagenum" id="p151">{151}</span> responding to impressions received which are either agreeable or
+disagreeable or indifferent, acts accordingly; and these acts bear
+fruit in the coming generations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sanskâra, the fourth constituent of being, comprises two categories,
+mental (<i>caitta</i>) and non-mental (<i>cittaviprayukta</i>). And the mental
+is subdivided into six: fundamental (<i>mahâbhûmi</i>), good (<i>kuçala</i>),
+tormenting (<i>kleça</i>), evil (<i>akuçala</i>), tormenting minor (<i>upakleça</i>),
+and indefinite (<i>aniyata</i>). It may be interesting to enumerate what
+all these sankâras are, as they shed light on the practical ethics of
+Buddhism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There are ten fundamental sanskâras belonging to the category of
+mental or psychic activities: 1. cetanâ (mentation), 2. sparça
+(contact), 3. chanda (desire), 4. mati (understanding), 5. smṛti
+(recollection), 6. manaskara (concentration), 7. adhimokṣa (unfettered
+intelligence), 8. samâdhi (meditation). The ten good sanskâras are: 1.
+çraddhâ (faith), 2. vîrya (energy), 3. upekṣa (complacency), 4. hrî
+(modesty), 5. apatrapâ (shame), 6 alobha (non-covetousness), 7. adveṣa
+(freedom from hatred), 8. ahimsa (gentleness of heart), 9. praçradbhi
+(mental repose), 10. apramâda (attentiveness).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The six tormenting sanskâras are as follows: 1. moha (folly), 2.
+pramâda (wantonness), 3. kâusidya (indolence), 4. açrâddhya
+(scepticism), 5. styāna (slothfulness), 6. âuddhatpa (unsteadiness).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two minor evil sanskâras are: 1. ahrîkatâ, state of not being
+modest, or arrogance, or self-assertiveness, <span class="pagenum" id="p152">{152}</span> and 2. anapatrapa,
+being lost to shame, or to be without conscience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ten minor tormenting sanskâras are: 1. krodha (anger), 2. mrakṣa
+(secretiveness), 3. mâtsarya (niggardliness), 4. îrṣya (envy). 5.
+pradâça (uneasiness), 6. vihimsâ (noxiousness), 7. upanâha (malignity),
+8. mâyâ (trickiness), 9. çâthya (dishonesty), 10. mada (arrogance).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The eight indefinite sanskâras are: 1. kâukṛtya (repentance), 2.
+middha (sleep), 3. vitarka (inquiry), 4. vicâra (investigation), 5.
+râga (excitement), 6. pratigha (wrath), 7. mâna (self-reliance), 8.
+vicikitsâ (doubting).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The second grand category of sanskâra which is not included under
+“mental” or “psychic,” comprises fourteen items as follows: 1. prâpti
+(attainment), 2. aprâpti (non-attainment), 3. sabhâgatâ (grouping),
+4 asanjñika (unconsciousness), 5. asanjñisamâpatti (unconscious
+absorption in religious meditation), 6. nirodhasamâpatti
+(annihilation-trance of a heretic), 7. jîvita (vitality), 8. jâti
+(birth), 9. sthiti (existing), 10. jarâ (decadence), 11. anityatâ
+(transitoriness), 12. nâmakâya (name), 13. padakâya (phrase), 14.
+vyañjanakâya (sentence).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, to return to the main problem. The fifth skandha is called
+<i>vijñâna</i>, commonly rendered consciousness, which, however, is not
+quite correct. The vijñâna is intelligence or mentality, it is the
+psychic power of discrimination, and in many cases it can be
+translated by sense. There are, according to Hînayânists, six
+vijñânas or senses: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactual,
+and cogitative; according <span class="pagenum" id="p153">{153}</span> to Mahâyânism there are eight
+vijñânas: the manovijñâna and the âlayavijñâna, being added to the
+above six. This psychological phase of Mahâyâna philosophy is
+principally worked out by the Yogâcâra school, whose leading thinkers
+are Asanga and Vasubandhu.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s04">
+<i>King Milinda and Nâgasena.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhist literature, Northern as well as Southern, abounds with
+expositions of the doctrine of non-ego, as it is one of the most
+important foundation-stones on which the magnificent temple of
+Buddhism is built. The dialogue<sup><a href="#n071b" id="n071a">[71]</a></sup> between King Milinda and
+Nâgasena, among many others, is very interesting for various reasons
+and full of suggestive thoughts, and we have the following discussion
+of theirs concerning the problem of ego abstracted from the Dialogue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At their first meeting the King asks Nâgasena, “How is your Reverence
+known, and what is your name?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this the monk-philosopher replies: “I am known as Nâgasena, and it
+is by that name that my brethren in the faith address me. But although
+parents give such a name as Nâgasena, or Sûrasena, Vîrasena, or
+Sîhasena, yet this Nâgasena and so on&mdash;is only a generally understood
+term, a designation in common use. For there is no permanent self
+involved in the matter.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Being greatly surprised by this answer, the King <span class="pagenum" id="p154">{154}</span> volleys upon
+Nâgasena a series of questions as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If there be no permanent self involved in the matter, who is it, pray,
+who gives to you members of the Order your robes and food and lodging
+and necessaries for the sick? Who is it who enjoys such things when
+given? Who is it who lives a life of righteousness? Who is it who
+devotes himself to meditation? Who is it who attains to the goal of
+the Excellent Way, to the Nirvâna of Arhatship? And who is it who
+destroys living creatures? who is it who takes what is not his own?
+who is it who lives an evil life of worldly lusts, who speaks lies,
+who drinks strong drink, who in a word commits any one of the five
+sins which work out their bitter fruit even in this life? If that be
+so, there is neither merit nor demerit; there is neither doer nor
+cause of good or evil deeds; there is neither fruit nor result of good
+or evil karma. If we are to think that were a man to kill you there
+would be no murder,<sup><a href="#n072b" id="n072a">[72]</a></sup> then it follows that there are no real
+masters or teachers in your Order, that your ordinations are void. You
+tell me that your brethren in the Order are in the habit of addressing
+you as Nâgasena. Now, what is that Nâgasena? Do you mean to say that
+the hair is Nâgasena?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This last query being denied by the Buddhist sage, the King asks: “Or
+is it the nails, the skin, the flesh, the nerves, the bones, the
+marrow, the kidneys, <span class="pagenum" id="p155">{155}</span> the heart, the liver, the abdomen, the
+spleen, the lungs, the larger intestines, the smaller intestines, the
+faeces, the bile, the phlegm, the pus, the blood, the sweat, the fat,
+the tears, the serum, the saliva, the mucus, the oil that lubricates
+the joints, the urine, or the brain or any or all of these, that is
+Nâgasena?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Is it the material form that is Nâgasena, or the sensations, or the
+ideas, or the confections (deeds), or the consciousness, that is
+Nâgasena?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To all these questions, the King, having received a uniform denial,
+exclaims in excitement: “Then, thus, ask as I may, I can discover no
+Nâgasena. Nâgasena is a mere empty sound. Who then is the Nâgasena
+that we see before us?<sup><a href="#n073b" id="n073a">[73]</a></sup> It is a falsehood that your Reverence has
+spoken, an untruth?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nâgasena does not give any direct answer, but quietly proposes some
+counter-questions to the King. Ascertaining that he came in a carriage
+to the Buddhist philosopher, he asks: “Is it the wheel, or the
+framework, or the ropes, or the spokes of the wheels, or the goad,
+that are the chariot?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this, the king says, “No,” and continues: “It is on account of its
+having all these things that it <span class="pagenum" id="p156">{156}</span> comes under the generally
+understood term, the designation in common use, of ‘chariot.’&hairsp;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Very good,” says Nâgasena, “Your Majesty has rightly grasped the
+meaning of ‘chariot.’ And just even so it is on account of all these
+things you questioned me about the thirty-two kinds of organic matter
+in a human body, and the five skandhas (constituent elements of being)
+that I come under the generally-understood term, the designation in
+common use, of ‘Nâgasena.’&hairsp;”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, the sage quotes in way of confirmation a passage from the
+<i>Samyutta Nikâya</i>: “Just as it is by the condition precedent of the
+co-existence of its various parts that the word ‘chariot’ is used,
+just so it is that when the skandhas are there we talk of a ‘being.’&hairsp;”
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To further illustrate the theory of non-âtman from earlier Buddhist
+literature, let me quote the following from the <i>Jâtaka Tales</i> (No.
+244):
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhisattva said to a pilgrim. “Will you have a drink of
+Ganges-water fragrant with the scent of the forest?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The pilgrim tried to catch him in his words: “What is the Ganges? Is
+the sand the Ganges? Is the water the Ganges? Is the hither bank the
+Ganges? Is the further bank the Ganges?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the Bodhisattva retorted, “If you except the <span class="pagenum" id="p157">{157}</span> water, the
+sand, the hither bank, and the further bank, where can you find any
+Ganges?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Following this argument we might say, “Where is the ego-soul, except
+imagination, volition, intellection, desire, aspiration, etc.?”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s05">
+<i>Ananda’s Attempts to Locate the Soul.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the <i>Surangama Sutra</i><sup><a href="#n074b" id="n074a">[74]</a></sup>, Buddha exposes the absurdity of the
+hypothesis of an individual concrete soul-substance by subverting
+Ândanda’s seven successive attempts to determine its whereabouts.
+Most people who firmly believe in personal immortality, will see how
+vague and chimerical and logically untenable is their notion of the
+soul, when it is critically examined as in the following case. Ânanda’s
+conception of the soul is somewhat puerile, but I doubt whether even
+in our enlightened age the belief <span class="pagenum" id="p158">{158}</span> entertained by the multitude
+is any better than his.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When questioned by the Buddha as to the locality of the soul, Ânanda
+asserts that it resides within the body. Thereupon, the Buddha says:
+“If your intelligent soul resides within your corporeal body, how is
+it that it does not see your inside first? To illustrate, what we see
+first in this lecture hall is the interior and it is only when the
+windows are thrown open that we are able to see the outside garden and
+woods. It is impossible for us who are sitting in the hall to see the
+outside only and not to see the inside. Reasoning in a similar way,
+why does not the soul that is considered to be within the body see the
+internal organs first such as the stomach, heart, veins etc.? If
+however it does not see the inside, surely it cannot be said to reside
+within the body.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ânanda now proposes to solve the problem by locating the soul outside
+the body. He says that the soul is like a candle-light placed without
+this hall. Where the light shines everything is visible, but within
+the room there are no candles burning, and therefore here prevails
+nothing but darkness. This explains the incapacity of the soul to see
+the inside of the body. But the Buddha argues that “it is impossible
+for the soul to be outside. If so, what the soul feels may not be felt
+by the body, and what the body feels may not be felt by the soul, as
+there is no relationship between the two. The fact, however, is that
+when you, Ânanda, see my hand thus stretched, you are conscious that
+you have the perception of <span class="pagenum" id="p159">{159}</span> it. As far as there is a
+correspondence between the soul and the body, the soul cannot be said
+to be residing outside the body.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The third hypothesis assumed by Ânanda is that the soul hides itself
+just behind the sense-organs. Suppose a man put a pair of lenses over
+his eyes. Cannot he see the outside world through them? The reason why
+it cannot see the inside is that it resides within the sense-organs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But says the Buddha: “When we have a lens over an eye, we perceive
+this lens as well as the outside world. If the soul is hidden behind
+the sense-organ, why does it not see the sense-organ itself? As it
+does not in fact, it cannot be residing in the place you mention.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ananda proposes another theory. “Within, we have the stomach, liver,
+heart, etc.: without, we have so many orifices. Where the internal
+organs are, there is darkness; but where we have openings, there is
+light. Close the eyes and the soul sees the darkness inside. Open the
+eyes and it sees the brightness outside. What do you say to this
+theory?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Buddha says: “If you take the darkness you see when the eyes are
+closed for your inside, do you consider this darkness as something
+confronting your soul, or not? In the first case, wherever there
+prevails a darkness, that must be thought to be your interior organs.
+In the latter case, seeing is impossible, for seeing presupposes the
+existence of subject and object. Besides this, there is another
+difficulty. Granting <span class="pagenum" id="p160">{160}</span> your supposition that the eye could turn
+itself inward or outward and see the darkness of the interior or the
+brightness of the external world, it could also see your own face when
+the eye is opened. If it could not do so, it must be said to be
+incapable of turning the sight inward.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fifth assumption as made by Ânanda is that the soul is the essence
+of understanding or intelligence, which is not within, nor without,
+nor in the middle, but which comes into actual existence as soon as it
+confronts the objective world, for it is taught by the Buddha that the
+world exists on account of the mind and the mind on account of the
+world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To this the Buddha replies: “According to your argument, the soul must
+be said to exist before it comes in contact with the world; otherwise,
+the contact cannot have any sense. The soul, then, exists as an
+individual presence, not after nor at the time of a contact with the
+external world, but assuredly before the contact. Granting this, we
+come back again to the old difficulties: Does the soul come out of
+your inside, or does it come in from the outside? In case of the first
+alternative, the soul must be able to see its own face.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ânanda interrupts: “Seeing is done by the eyes, and the soul has
+nothing to do with it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Buddha objects: “If so, a dead man has eyes just as perfect as a
+living man.<sup><a href="#n075b" id="n075a">[75]</a></sup> He must be able <span class="pagenum" id="p161">{161}</span> to see things, but if he sees
+at all, he cannot be dead. Well, if your intelligent soul has a
+concrete existence, should it be thought simple or compound? Should it
+be thought of as filling the body or being present only in a particular
+spot? If it is a simple unit, when one of your limbs is touched, all
+the four will at once be conscious of the touch, which really means no
+touch. If the soul is a compound body, how can it distinguish itself
+from another soul? If it is filling the body all over, there will be
+no localisation of sensation, as must be the case according to the
+first supposition of a simple soul-unit. Finally, if it occupies only
+a particular part of the body, you may experience certain feelings on
+that spot only, and all the other parts will remain perfectly
+anesthetic. All these hypotheses are against the actual facts of our
+experience and cannot be logically maintained.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the sixth time, Ânanda ventures to untie the Gordian knot of the
+soul-problem. “As the soul cannot be located neither within nor
+without, it must be somewhere in the middle.” But the Buddha again
+refutes this, saying: “This ‘middle’ is extremely indefinite. Should
+it be located as a point in space or somewhere on the body? If it is
+on the surface of the body, <span class="pagenum" id="p162">{162}</span> it is not the middle; if it is in
+the body, it is then within. If it is said to occupy a point in space,
+how should that point be indicated? Without an indication, a point is
+no point; and if an indication is needed, it can be fixed anywhere
+arbitrarily, and then there will be no end of confusion.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ânanda interposes and says that he does not mean this kind of “middle.”
+The eye and the color conditioning each other, there comes to exist
+visual perception. The eye has the faculty to discriminate, and the
+color-world has no sensibility; but the perception takes place in
+their “middle,” that is, in their interaction; and then it is said that
+there exists a soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Says the Buddha: “If the soul, as you say, exists in the relation
+between the sense-organs (<i>indṛya</i>) and their respective sense-objects
+(<i>viṣaya</i>), should we consider the soul as uniting and partaking the
+natures of these two incongruous things, viṣaya and indṛya? If the
+soul partakes something of each, it has no characteristics of its own.
+If it unites the two natures, the distinction between subject and
+object exists no more. ‘In the middle’ is an empty word; that is to
+say, to conceive the soul as the relation between the indryas and the
+viṣayas is to make it an airy nothing.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The seventh and final hypothesis offered by Ânanda is that the soul
+is the state of non-attachment, and that, therefore, it has no
+particular locality in which it abides. But this is also mercilessly
+attacked by the Buddha who declares: “Attachment presupposes the
+existence of beings to which a mind-may be attached. <span class="pagenum" id="p163">{163}</span> Now, should
+we consider these things (<i>dharmas</i>) such as the world, space, land,
+water, birds, beasts, etc. as existing or not existing? If the
+external world does not exist, we cannot speak about non-attachment,
+as there is nothing to attach from the first. If the external world
+really is, how can we manage not to come in contact with it? When we
+say that things are devoid of all characteristic marks, it amounts to
+the declaration that they are non-existent. But they are not
+non-existent, they must have certain characteristics that distinguish
+themselves. Now, the external world has certainly some marks
+(<i>lakṣana</i>) and it must by all means be considered as existing. There
+then is no room for your theory of non-attachment.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this, Ânanda surrenders and the Buddha discloses his theory of
+Dharmakâya, which we shall expound at some length in the chapter
+specially devoted to it.
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By way of a summary of the above, let me remark that the Buddhists do
+not deny the existence of the so-called empirical ego in
+contradistinction to the noumenal ego, which latter can be considered
+to correspond to the Buddhist âtman. Vasubandhu in his treatise on
+the Yogâcâra’s idealistic philosophy declares that the existence of
+âtman and dharma is only hypothetical, provisional, apparent, and not
+in any sense real and ultimate. To express this in modern terms, the
+soul and the world, or subject and object, have only relative
+existence, and no absolute reality can <span class="pagenum" id="p164">{164}</span> be ascribed to them.
+Psychologically speaking, every one of us has an ego or soul which
+means the unity of consciousness; and physically, this world of
+phenomena is real either as a manifestation of one energy or as a
+composite of atoms or electrons, as is considered by physicists.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To confine ourselves to the psychological question, what Buddhism most
+emphatically insists on is the non-existence of a concrete,
+individual, irreducible soul-substance, whose immortality is so much
+coveted by most unenlightened people. Individuation is only relative
+and not absolute. Buddhism knows how far the principle could safely
+and consistently be carried out, and its followers will not forget
+where to stop and destroy the wall, almost adamantine to some
+religionists, of individualism. Absolute individualism, as the
+Buddhists understand it, incapacitates us to follow the natural flow
+of sympathy; to bathe in the eternal sunshine of divinity which not
+only surrounds but penetrates us; to escape the curse of individual
+immortality which is strangely so much sought after by some people; to
+trace this mundane life to its fountainhead of which it drinks so
+freely, yet quite unknowingly; to rise rejuvenated from the consuming
+fire of Kâla (Chronos). To think that there is a mysterious something
+behind the empirical ego and that this something comes out triumphantly
+after the fashion of the immortal phœnix from the funeral pyre of
+corporeality, is not Buddhistic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What I would remark here in connection with this <span class="pagenum" id="p165">{165}</span> problem of the
+soul, is its relation to that of Âlayavijñâna, of which it is said
+that the Buddha was very reluctant to talk, on account of its being
+easily confounded with the notion of the ego. The Âlaya, as was
+explained, is a sort of universal soul from which our individual
+empirical souls are considered to have evolved. The Manas which is the
+first offspring of the Âlaya is endowed with the faculty of
+discrimination, and from the wrongful use of this faculty there arises
+in the Manas the conception of the Âlaya as the ego,&mdash;the real
+concrete soul-substratum.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Âlaya, however, is not a particular phenomenon, for it is a state
+of Suchness in its evolutionary disposition and has nothing in it yet
+to suggest its concrete individuality. When the Manas finds out its
+error and lifts the veil of Ignorance from the body of the Âlaya, it
+soon becomes convinced of the ultimate nature of the soul, so called.
+For the soul is not individual, but supra-individual.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s06">
+<i>Âtman and the “Old Man.”</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the Buddhists exclaim: “Put away your egoism, for the ego is an
+empty notion, a mere word without reality,” some of our Christian
+readers may think that if there is no ego, what will become of our
+personality or individuality? Though this point will become clearer as
+we proceed, let us remark here that what Buddhism understands by ego
+or âtman may be considered to correspond in many respects to the
+Christian notion of “flesh” or the <span class="pagenum" id="p166">{166}</span> “old man,” which is the
+source of all our sinful acts. Says Paul: “I am crucified with Christ;
+nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life
+which I live now in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God,
+who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. ii, 20.) When this
+passage is interpreted by the Buddhists, the “I” that was annihilated
+through crucifixion, is our false notion of an ego-soul (<i>âtman</i>);
+and the “I” that is living through the grace of God is the Bodhi, a
+reflex in us of the Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Christians put the spirit and the flesh in contrast and advise us
+to “walk in the spirit” and not to “fulfil the lust of the flesh,” it
+must be said that they understand by the flesh our concrete, material
+existence whose characteristic is predominantly individual, and by the
+spirit, that which transcends particularity and egoism; for “love,
+joy, peace, long-suffering, faith, meekness, temperance,” and suchlike
+virtues are possible only when our egocentric, âtman-made desires are
+utterly abnegated. Buddhism is more intellectual than Christianity or
+Judaism and prefers philosophical terms which are better understood
+than popular language which leads often to confusion. Compared with
+the Buddhists’ conception of âtman, the “flesh” lacks in perspicuity
+and exactitude, not to speak of its dualistic tendency which is
+extremely offensive to the Buddhists.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p167">{167}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s07">
+<i>The Vedantic Conception.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though the doctrine of non-âtman is pre-eminently Buddhistic, other
+Hindu philosophers did not neglect to acknowledge its importance in
+our religious life. Having grown in the same soil under similar
+circumstances, the following passage which is taken from the
+<i>Yogavâsistha</i> (which is supposed to be a Vedantic work, Upaçama P.,
+ch. LII, 31, 44) sounds almost like Buddhistic:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am absolute, I am the light of intelligence, I am free from the
+defilement of egoism. O thou that art unreal! I am not bound by thee,
+the seed of egoism.”<sup><a href="#n076b" id="n076a">[76]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The author then argues: Where shall we consider the ego-soul, so
+called, to be residing in this body of flesh and bones? and what does
+it look like? We move our limbs, but the movement is due to the vital
+airs (<i>vâta</i>). We think, but consciousness is a manifestation of the
+great mind (<i>mahâcitta</i>). We cease to exist, but extinction belongs
+to the body (<i>kâya</i>). Now, take apart what we imagine to constitute
+our personal existence. The flesh is one thing, the blood is another,
+and so on with mentation (<i>bodha</i>) and vitality (<i>spanda</i>). The ear
+hears, the tongue tastes, the eye sees, the mind <span class="pagenum" id="p168">{168}</span> thinks, but
+what and where is that which we call “ego”?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then comes the conclusion: “In reality, there is no such thing as the
+ego-soul, nor is there any mine and thine, nor imagination. All this
+is nothing but the manifestation of the universal soul which is the
+light of pure intelligence.”<sup><a href="#n077b" id="n077a">[77]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s08">
+<i>Nâgârjuna on the Soul.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In conclusion, let me quote some passage bearing on the subject from
+Nâgârjuna’s <i>Discourse on the Middle Path</i> (chapter 9):<sup><a href="#n078b" id="n078a">[78]</a></sup> “Some
+say that there are seeing, hearing, feeling, etc., because there is
+something which exists even prior to those [manifestations]. For how
+could seeing, etc. come from that which does not exist? Therefore, it
+must be admitted that that being [i.e. soul] existed prior to those
+[manifestations].
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But [this hypothesis of the prior (<i>pûrva</i>) or independent existence
+of the soul is wrong, because] how could that being be known if it
+existed prior to seeing, feeling, etc.? If that being could exist
+without seeing, etc., the latter too could surely exist without that
+being. But how could a thing which could not be known by any sign
+exist before it is known? How could <i>this</i> exist without <i>that</i>, and
+how could <span class="pagenum" id="p169">{169}</span> <i>that</i> exist without <i>this</i>? [Are not all things
+relative and conditioning one another?]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If that being called soul could not exist prior to all manifestations
+such as seeing, etc., how could it exist prior to each of them taken
+individually?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If it is the same soul that sees, hears, feels, etc., it must be
+assumed that the soul exists prior to each of these manifestations.
+This, however, is not warranted by facts. [Because in that case one
+must be able to hear with the eyes, see with the ears, as one soul is
+considered to direct all these diverse faculties at its will.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If, on the other hand, the hearer is one, and the seer is another,
+the feeler must be still another. Then, there will be hearing, seeing,
+etc. simultaneously,&mdash;which leads to the assumption of a plurality of
+souls.<sup><a href="#n079b" id="n079a">[79]</a></sup> [This too is against experience.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Further, the soul does not exist in the element (<i>bhûta</i>) on which
+seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. depend. [To use modern expression, the
+soul does not exist in the nerves which respond to the external
+stimuli.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. have no soul that exists prior to
+them, they too have no existence as such. For how could <i>that</i> exist
+without <i>this</i>, and <i>this</i> without <i>that</i>? Subject and object are
+mutually conditioned. The soul as it is has no independent, individual
+reality whatever. Therefore, the hypothesis that contends for the
+existence of an ego-soul prior <span class="pagenum" id="p170">{170}</span> to simultaneous with, or posterior
+to, seeing, etc., is to be abandoned as fruitless, for the ego-soul
+existeth not.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s09">
+<i>Non-âtman-ness of Things.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The word “âtman” is used by the Buddhists not only psychologically in
+the sense of soul, self, or ego, but also ontologically in the sense
+of substance or thing-in-itself or thinginess; and its existence in
+this capacity is also strongly denied by them. For the same reason
+that the existence of an individual ego-soul is untenable, they reject
+the hypothesis of the permanent existence of an individual object as
+such. As there is no transcendent agent in our soul-life, so there is
+no real, eternal existence of individuals as individuals, but a system
+of different attributes, which, when the force of karma is exhausted,
+ceases to subsist. Individual existences cannot be real by their
+inherent nature, but they are illusory, and will never remain permanent
+as such; for they are constantly becoming, and have no selfhood though
+they may so appear to our particularising senses on account of our
+subjective ignorance. They are in reality cûnya and anâtman, they are
+empty and void of âtman.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s10">
+<i>Svabhâva.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The term “svabhâva” (self-essence or noumenon) is sometimes used by
+the Mahâyânists in place of âtman, and they would say that all dharmas
+have no self-essence, <span class="pagenum" id="p171">{171}</span> <i>sarvam dharmam niḥsvabhâvam</i>, which is to
+say, that all things in their phenomenal aspect are devoid of
+individual selves, that it is only due to our ignorance that we believe
+in the thinginess of things, whereas there is no such thing as svabhâva
+or âtman or noumenon which resides in them. Svabhâva and âtman are thus
+habitually used by Buddhists as quite synonymous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What do they exactly understand by “svabhâva” whose existence is
+denied in a particular object as perceived by our senses? This has
+never been explicitly defined by the Mahâyânists, but they seem to
+understand by svabhâva something concrete, individual, yet independent,
+unconditional, and not subject to the law of causation
+(<i>pratyayasamutpâda</i>). It, therefore, stands in opposition to
+çûnyatâ, emptiness, as well as to conditionality. Inasmuch as all
+beings are transient and empty in their inherent being, they cannot
+logically be said to be in possession of self-essence which defies the
+law of causation. All things are mutually conditioning and limiting,
+and apart from their relativity they are non-existent and cannot be
+known by us. Therefore, says Nâgârjuna, “If substance be different
+from attribute, it is then beyond comprehension.”<sup><a href="#n080b" id="n080a">[80]</a></sup> For “a jag is
+not to be known independent of matter et cetera, and matter in turn is
+not to be known independent of ether et cetera.”<sup><a href="#n081b" id="n081a">[81]</a></sup> <span class="pagenum" id="p172">{172}</span> As there
+is no subject without object, so there is no substance without
+attribute; for one is the condition for the other. Does self-essence
+then exist in causation? No, “whatever is subject to conditionality,
+is by its very nature tranquil and empty.” (<i>Pratîtya yad yad bhavati,
+tat tac çântam svabhâvataḥ.</i>) Whatever owes its existence to a
+combination of causes and conditions is without self-essence, and
+therefore it is tranquil (<i>çânta</i>), it is empty, it is unreal (<i>asat</i>),
+and the ultimate nature of this universal emptiness is not within the
+sphere of intellectual demonstrability, for the human understanding is
+not capable of transcending its inherent limitations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Says Pingalaka, a commentator of Nâgârjuna: “The cloth exists on
+account of the thread; the matting is possible on account of the
+rattan. If the thread had its own fixed, unchangeable self-essence, it
+could not be made out of the flax. If the cloth had its own fixed,
+unchangeable self-essence, it could not be made from the thread. But
+as in point of fact the cloth comes from the thread and the thread
+from the flax, it must be said that the thread as well as the cloth
+had no fixed, unchangeable self-essence. It is just like the relation
+that obtains between the burning and the burned. They are brought
+together under certain conditions, and thus there takes place a
+phenomenon called burning. The burning and the burned, each has no
+reality of its own. For when one is absent the other is put out of
+existence. It is so with all things in this world, they are all empty,
+<span class="pagenum" id="p173">{173}</span> without self, without absolute existence, they are like the
+will-o’-the-wisp.”<sup><a href="#n082b" id="n082a">[82]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch07s11">
+<i>The Real Significance of Emptiness.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From these statements it will be apparent that the emptiness of things
+(<i>çûnyatâ</i>) does not mean nothingness, as is sometimes interpreted
+by some critics, but it simply means conditionality or transitoriness
+of all phenomenal existences, it is a synonym for aniyata or pratîtya.
+Therefore, emptiness, according to the Buddhists, signifies,
+negatively, the absence of particularity, the non-existence of
+individuals as such, and positively, the ever-changing state of the
+phenomenal world, a constant flux of becoming, an eternal series of
+causes and effects. It must never be understood in the sense of
+annihilation or absolute nothingness, for nihilism is as much
+condemned by Buddhism as naïve realism. “The Buddha proclaimed
+emptiness as a remedy for all doctrinal controversies, but those who
+in turn cling to emptiness are beyond treatment.” A medicine is
+indispensable as long as there is a disease to heal, but it turns
+poisonous when applied after the restoration of perfect health. To
+make this point completely clear, let me quote the following from
+Nâgârjuna’s <i>Mâdhyamika Çâstra</i> (Chap. XXIV). “[Some one may object to
+the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness, declaring:] If all is void
+(<i>çûnya</i>) and <span class="pagenum" id="p174">{174}</span> there is neither creation nor destruction, then it
+must be concluded that even the Fourfold Noble Truth does not exist.
+If the Fourfold Noble Truth does not exist, the recognition of
+Suffering, the stoppage of Accumulation, the attainment of Cessation,
+and the advancement of Discipline,&mdash;all must be said to be
+unrealisable. If they are altogether unrealisable, there cannot be any
+of the four states of saintliness; and without these states there
+cannot be anybody who will aspire for them. If there are no wise men,
+the Sangha is then impossible. Further, as there is no Fourfold Noble
+Truth, there is no Good Law (<i>saddharma</i>); and as there is neither
+Good Law nor Sangha, the existence of Buddha himself must be an
+impossibility. Those who talk of emptiness, therefore, must be said to
+negate the Triple Treasure (<i>triratna</i>) altogether. Emptiness not only
+destroys the law of causation and the general principle of retribution
+(<i>phalasadbhâvam</i>), but utterly annihilates the possibility of a
+phenomenal world.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“[To this it is to be remarked that]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Only he is annoyed over such scepticism who understands not the true
+significance and interpretation of emptiness (<i>çûnyatâ</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Buddha’s teaching rests on the discrimination of two kinds of
+truth (<i>satya</i>): absolute and relative. Those who do not have any
+adequate knowledge of them are unable to grasp the deep and subtle
+meaning of Buddhism. [The essence of being, dharmata, is beyond verbal
+definition or intellectual comprehension, <span class="pagenum" id="p175">{175}</span> for there is neither
+birth nor death in it, and it is even like unto Nirvâna. The nature
+of Suchness, tattva, is fundamentally free from conditionality, it is
+tranquil, it distances all phenomenal frivolities, it discriminates
+not, nor is it particularised].<sup><a href="#n083b" id="n083a">[83]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But if not for relative truth, absolute truth is unattainable, and
+when absolute truth is not attained, Nirvâna is not to be gained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The dull-headed who do not perceive the truth rightfully go to
+self-destruction, for they are like an awkward magician whose trick
+entangles himself, or like an unskilled snake-catcher who gets himself
+hurt. The World-honored One knew well the abstruseness of the Doctrine
+which is beyond the mental capacity of the multitudes and was inclined
+not to disclose it before them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The objection that Buddhism onesidedly adheres to emptiness and
+thereby exposes itself to grave errors, entirely misses the mark; for
+there are no errors in emptiness. Why? Because it is on account of
+emptiness that all things are at all possible, and without emptiness
+all things will come to naught. Those who deny emptiness and find
+fault with it, are like a horseman who forgets that he is on
+horseback.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If they think that things exist because of their self-essence
+(<i>svabhâva</i>), [and not because of their emptiness,] they thereby make
+things come out of causelessness (<i>ahetupratyaya</i>), they destroy those
+<span class="pagenum" id="p176">{176}</span> relations that exist between the acting and the act and the
+acted; and they also destroy the conditions that make up the law of
+birth and death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All is declared empty because there is nothing that is not a product
+of universal causation (<i>pratyayasamutpâda</i>). This law of causation,
+however, is merely provisional, though herein lies the middle path.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As thus there is not an object (<i>dharma</i>) which is not conditioned
+(<i>pratîtya</i>), so there is nothing that is not empty.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If all is not empty, then there is no death nor birth, and withal
+disappears the Fourfold Noble Truth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How could there be Suffering, if not for the law of causation?
+Impermanence is suffering. But with self-essence there will be no
+impermanence. [So long as impermanence is the condition of life,
+self-essence which is a causeless existence, is out of question.]
+Suppose Suffering is self-existent, then it could not come from
+Accumulation, which in turn becomes impossible when emptiness is not
+admitted. Again, when Suffering is self-existent, then there could be
+no Cessation, for with the hypothesis of self-essence Cessation
+becomes a meaningless term. Again, when Suffering is self-existent,
+then there will be no Path. But as we can actually walk on the Path,
+the hypothesis of self-essence is to be abandoned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If there is neither Suffering nor Cessation, it must be said that the
+Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering is also non-existent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If there is really self-essence, Suffering could not <span class="pagenum" id="p177">{177}</span> be
+recognised now, as it had not been recognised, for self-essence as
+such must remain forever the same. [That is to say, enlightened minds,
+through the teaching of Buddha, now recognise the existence of
+Suffering, though they did not recognise it when they were still
+uninitiated. If things were all in a fixed, self-determining state on
+account of their self-essence, it would be impossible for those
+enlightened men to discover what they had never observed before. The
+recognition of the Fourfold Noble Truth is only possible when this
+phenomenal world is in a state of constant becoming, that is, when it
+is empty as it really is.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As it is with the recognition of Suffering, so it is with the
+stoppage of Accumulation, the attainment of Cessation, the realisation
+of Path as well as with the four states of saintliness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If, on account of self-essence, the four states of saintliness were
+unattainable before, how could they be realised now, still upholding
+the hypothesis of self-essence? [But we can attain to saintliness as a
+matter of fact, for there are many holy men who through their
+spiritual discipline have emerged from their former life of ignorance
+and darkness. If everything had its own self-essence which makes it
+impossible to transform from one state to another, how could a person
+desire to ascend, if he ever so desire, higher and higher on the scale
+of existence?]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If there were no four states of saintliness (<i>catvâri phalâni</i>), then
+there would be no aspirants for it. <span class="pagenum" id="p178">{178}</span> And if there were no eight
+wise men (<i>puruṣapuñgala</i>), there could exist no Sangha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Again, when there could not be the Fourfold Noble Truth, the Law
+would be impossible, and without the Sangha and the Law how could the
+Buddha exist? You might say: ‘A Buddha does not exist on account of
+wisdom (<i>Bodhi</i>), nor does wisdom exist on account of the Buddha.’ But
+if a man did not have Buddha-essence [that is, Bodhi] he could not
+hope to attain to Buddhahood, however strenuously he might exert
+himself in the ways of Bodhisattva.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Further, if all is not empty but has self-essence, [i.e. if all is in
+a fixed, unchangeable state of sameness], how could there be any
+doing? How could there be good and evil? If you maintain that there is
+an effect (<i>phala</i>) which does not come from a cause good or evil,
+[which is the practical conclusion of the hypothesis of self-essence],
+then it means that retribution is independent of our deed, good or
+evil. [But is this justified by our experience?]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If it must then be admitted that our deed good or evil becomes the
+cause of retribution, retribution must be said to come from our deed,
+good or evil; then how could we say there is no emptiness?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When you negate the doctrine of emptiness, the law of universal
+causation, you negate the possibility of this phenomenal world. When
+the doctrine of emptiness is negated, there remains nothing that ought
+to be done; and a thing is called done which is not yet accomplished;
+and he is said to be a doer who has <span class="pagenum" id="p179">{179}</span> not done anything whatever.
+If there were such a thing as self-essence, the multitudinousness of
+things must be regarded as uncreated and imperishable and eternally
+existing which is tantamount to eternal nothingness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If there were no emptiness there would be no attainment of what has
+not yet been attained, nor would there be the annihilation of pain,
+nor the extinction of all the passions (<i>sarvakleça</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Therefore, it is taught by the Buddha that those who recognise the
+law of universal causation, recognise the Buddha as well as Suffering,
+Accumulation, Cessation, and the Path.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mahâyânistic doctrines thus formulated and transmitted down to
+the present days are: There is no such thing as the ego; mentation is
+produced by the co-ordination of various vijñânas or senses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Individual existences have no selfhood or self-essence or reality, for
+they are but an aggregate of certain qualities sustained by efficient
+karma. The world of particulars is the work of Ignorance as declared
+by Buddha in his Formula of Dependence (Twelve Nidânas). When this
+veil of Mâya is uplifted, the universal light of Dharmakâya shines in
+all its magnificence. Individual existences then as such lose their
+significance and become sublimated and ennobled in the oneness of
+Dharmakâya. Egoistic prejudices are forever vanquished, and the aim of
+our lives is no more the <span class="pagenum" id="p180">{180}</span> gratification of selfish cravings, but
+the glorification of Dharma as it works its own way through the
+multitudinousness of things. The self does not stand any more in a
+state of isolation (which is an illusion), it is absorbed in the
+universal body of Dharma, it recognises itself in other selves animate
+as well as inanimate, and all things are in Nirvâna. When we reach
+this state of ideal enlightenment, we are said to have realised the
+Buddhist life.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch08">
+CHAPTER VIII.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">KARMA.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p181">{181}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch08s01">
+<i>Definition.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Karma</span>, or Sanskâra which is sometimes used as its synonym,&mdash;though
+the latter gives a slightly different shade of meaning,&mdash;comes from
+the Sanskrit root <i>kṛ</i>, “to do,” “to make,” “to perform,” “to effect,”
+“to produce,” etc. Both terms mean activity in its concrete as well as
+in its abstract sense, and form an antithesis to intelligence,
+contemplation, or ideation in general. When karma is used in its most
+abstract sense, it becomes an equivalent to “beginningless ignorance,”
+which is universally inherent in nature, and corresponds to the Will
+or blind activity of Schopenhauer; for ignorance as we have seen above
+is a negative manifestation of Suchness (<i>Bhûtatathâtâ</i>) and marks the
+beginning or unfolding of a phenomenal world, whose existence is
+characterised by incessant activities actuated by the principle of
+karma. When Goethe says in Faust, “In Anfang war die That,” he uses
+the term “That” in the sense of karma as it is here understood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When karma is used in its concrete sense, it is the <span class="pagenum" id="p182">{182}</span> principle of
+activity in the world of particulars or nâmarûpas: it becomes in the
+physical world the principle of conservation of energy, in the
+biological realm that of evolution and heredity etc., and in the moral
+world that of immortality of deeds. Sanskara, when used as an
+equivalent of karma, corresponds to this concrete signification of it,
+as it is the case in the Twelve Chains of Dependence (<i>Nidânas</i>, or
+<i>Pratyâyasamutpâda</i>).<sup><a href="#n084b" id="n084a">[84]</a></sup> Here it follows ignorance (<i>avidyâ</i>) and
+precedes consciousness (<i>vijñâna</i>). Ignorance in this case means
+simply privation of enlightenment, and does not imply any sense of
+activity which is expressed in Sanskâra. It is only when it is coupled
+with the latter that it becomes the principle of activity, and creates
+as its first offspring consciousness or mentality. In fact, ignorance
+and blind activity are one, their logical difference being this: the
+former emphasises the epistemological phase and the latter the
+ethical; or, we might say, one is statical and the other dynamical. If
+we are to draw a comparison between the first four of the Twelve
+Nidânas and the several processes of evolution that takes place in the
+Tathâgata-garbha as described above, we can take Ignorance and the
+principle of blind activity, sanskâra, <span class="pagenum" id="p183">{183}</span> in the Twelve Chains as
+corresponding to the All-conserving Soul (<i>âlayavijñâna</i>), and the
+Vijñâna, consciousness of the Twelve Chains, to the Manovijñâna, and
+the Nâmârûpa to this visible world, <i>viṣaya</i>, in which the principle
+of karma works in its concrete form.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we have a special chapter devoted to “Ignorance” as an equivalent
+of karma in its abstract sense, let us here treat of the Buddhist
+conception of karma in the realm of names and forms, i.e. of karma in
+its concrete sense. But we shall restrict ourselves to the activity of
+karmaic causation in the moral world, as we are not concerned with
+physics or biology.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch08s02">
+<i>The Working of Karma.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Buddhist conception of karma briefly stated is this: Any act, good
+or evil, once committed and conceived, never vanishes like a bubble in
+water, but lives, potentially or actively as the case may be, in the
+world of minds and deeds. This mysterious moral energy, so to speak,
+is embodied in and emanates from every act and thought, for it does
+not matter whether it is actually performed, or merely conceived in
+the mind. When the time comes, it is sure to germinate and grow with
+all its vitality. Says Buddha:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Karma even after the lapse of a hundred kalpas,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Will not be lost nor destroyed;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As soon as all the necessary conditions are ready,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Its fruit is sure to ripe.”<sup><a href="#n085b" id="n085a">[85]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p184">{184}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Whatever a man does, the same he in himself will find,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The good man, good: and evil he that evil has designed;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And so our deeds are all like seeds, and bring forth fruit in kind.”<sup><a href="#n086b" id="n086a">[86]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+A grain of wheat, it is said, which was accidentally preserved in good
+condition in a tomb more than a thousand years old, did not lose its
+germinating energy, and, when planted with proper care, it actually
+started to sprout. So with karma, it is endowed with an enormous
+vitality, nay, it is even immortal. However remote the time of their
+commission might have been, the karma of our deeds never dies; it must
+work out its own destiny at whatever cost, if not overcome by some
+counteracting force. The law of karma is irrefragable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The irrefragability of karma means that the law of causation is
+supreme in our moral sphere just as much as in the physical, that life
+consists in a concatenation of causes and effects regulated by the
+principle of karma, that nothing in the life of an individual or a
+nation or a race happens without due cause and sufficient reason, that
+is, without previous karma. The Buddhists, therefore, do not believe
+in any special act of grace or revelation in our religious realm and
+moral life. The idea of deus ex machina is banned in Buddhism. Whatever
+is suffered or enjoyed morally in our present life is due to the karma,
+accumulated <span class="pagenum" id="p185">{185}</span> since the beginning of life on earth. Nothing sown,
+nothing reaped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whatever has been done leaves an ineffable mark in the individual’s
+life and even in that of the universe; and this mark will never be
+erased save by sheer exhaustion of the karma or by the interruption of
+an overwhelming counter-karma. In case the karma of an act is not
+actualised during one’s own life-time, it will in that of one’s
+successors, who may be physical or spiritual. Not only “the evil that
+men do lives after them,” but also the good, for it will not be
+“interred with their bones,” as vulgar minds imagine. We read in the
+<i>Samyukta Nikâya</i>, III, 1-4:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Assailed by death, in life’s last throes,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">At quitting of this human state,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">What is it one can call his own?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">What with him take as he goes hence?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">What is it follows after him,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And like a shadow ne’er departs?</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“His good deeds and his wickedness,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whate’er a mortal does while here;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis this that he can call his own,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This with him take as he goes hence.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This is what follows after him,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And like a shadow ne’er departs.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Let all, then, noble deeds perform,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A treasure-store for future weal;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For merit gained this life within,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Will yield a blessing in the next.”<sup><a href="#n087b" id="n087a">[87]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p186">{186}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In accordance with this karmaic preservation, Buddhists do not expect
+to have their sins expatiated by other innocent people so long as
+their own hearts remain unsoftened as ever. But when the all-embracing
+love of Buddhas for all sentient beings kindles even the smallest
+spark of repentance and enlightenment in the heart of a sinner, and
+when this ever-vacillating light grows to its full magnitude under
+propitious conditions, the sinner gets fully awakened from the evil
+karma of eons, and enters, free from all curses, into the eternity of
+Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch08s03">
+<i>Karma and Social Injustice.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of karma is very frequently utilised by some Buddhists to
+explain a state of things which must be considered cases of social
+injustice.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There are some people who are born rich and noble and destined to
+enjoy all forms of earthly happiness and all the advantages of social
+life, though they have done nothing that justifies them in luxuriating
+in such a fashion any more than their poor neighbors. These people,
+however, are declared by some pseudo-Buddhists to be merely harvesting
+the crops of good karma they had prepared in their former lives. On
+the other hand, the poor, needy, and low that are struggling to eke
+out a mere existence in spite of their moral rectitude and honest
+industry, are considered to be suffering the evil karma which had been
+accumulated during their previous lives. The law of moral retribution
+is never <span class="pagenum" id="p187">{187}</span> suspended, as they reason, on account of the changes
+which may take place in a mortal being. An act, good or evil, once
+performed, will not be lost in the eternal succession and interaction
+of incidents, but will certainly find the sufferer of its due
+consequence, and it does not matter whether the actor has gone through
+the vicissitudes of birth and death. For the Buddhist conception of
+individual identity is not that of personal continuity, but of karmaic
+conservation. Whatever deeds we may commit, they invariably bear their
+legitimate fruit and follow us even after death. Therefore, if the
+rich and noble neglect to do their duties or abandon themselves to the
+enjoyment of sensual pleasures, then they are sure in their future
+births, if not in their present life, to gather the crops they have
+thus unwittingly prepared for themselves. The poor, however hard their
+lot in this life, can claim their rightful rewards, if they do not get
+despaired of their present sufferings and give themselves up to
+temptations, but dutifully continue to do things good and meritorious.
+Because as their present fate is the result of their former deeds, so
+will be their future fortune the fruit of their present deeds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This view as held by some pseudo-Buddhists gives us a wrong impression
+about the practical working of the principle of karma in this world of
+nâmarûpas, for it tries to explain by karmaic theory the phenomena
+which lie outside of the sphere of its applicability. As I understand,
+what the theory of karma <span class="pagenum" id="p188">{188}</span> proposes to explain is not cases of
+social injustice and economic inequality, but facts of moral causation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The overbearing attitude of the rich and the noble, the unnecessary
+sufferings of the poor, the over-production of criminals, and suchlike
+social phenomena arise from the imperfection of our present social
+organisation, which is based upon the doctrine of absolute private
+ownership. People are allowed to amass wealth unlimitedly for their
+own use and to bequeath it to the successors who do not deserve it in
+any way. And they do not pay regard to the injuries this system may
+incur upon the general welfare of the community to which they belong,
+and upon other members individually. The rich might have slaughtered
+economically and consequently politically and morally millions of
+their brethren before they could reach places of social eminence they
+now occupy and enjoy to its full extent. They might have sacrificed
+hundreds of thousands of victims on the altar of Mammon in order to
+carry out their vast scheme of self-aggrandisement. And, what is
+worse, the wealth thus accumulated by an individual is allowed by the
+law to be handed down to his descendants, who are in a sense the
+parasitic members of the community. They are privileged to live upon
+the sweat and blood of others, who know not where to lay their heads,
+and who are daily succumbing to the heavy burden, not of their free
+choice, but forced upon them by society.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us here closely see into the facts. There is one portion of
+society that does almost nothing toward <span class="pagenum" id="p189">{189}</span> the promotion of the
+general welfare, and there is another portion that, besides carrying
+the burden not of its own, is heroically struggling for bare existence.
+These sad phenomena which, owing to the imperfection of social
+organisation, we daily witness about us,&mdash;should we attribute them to
+diversity of individual karma and make individuals responsible for
+what is really due to the faulty organisation of the community to which
+they belong? No, the doctrine of karma certainly must not be understood
+to explain the cause of our social and economical imperfection.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The region where the law of karma is made to work supreme is our moral
+world, and cannot be made to extend also over our economic field.
+Poverty is not necessarily the consequence of evil deeds, nor is
+plenitude that of good acts. Whether a person is affluent or needy is
+mostly determined by the principle of economy as far as our present
+social system is concerned. Morality and economy are two different
+realms of human activity. Honesty and moral rectitude do not
+necessarily guarantee well-being. Dishonesty and the violation of the
+moral law, on the contrary, are very frequently utilised as handmaids
+of material prosperity. Do we not thus see many good, conscientious
+people around us who are wretchedly poverty-stricken? Shall we take
+them as suffering the curse of evil karma in their previous lives,
+when we can understand the fact perfectly well as a case of social
+injustice? It is not necessary by any means, nay, it is even productive
+of evil, to establish a relation <span class="pagenum" id="p190">{190}</span> between the two things that in
+the nature of their being have no causal dependence. Karma ought not
+to be made accountable for economic inequality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A virtuous man is contented with his cleanliness of conscience and
+purity of heart. Obscure as is his present social position, and
+miserable as are his present pecuniary conditions, he has no mind to
+look backward and find the cause of his social insignificance there,
+nor is he anxious about his future earthly fortune which might be
+awaiting him when his karmaic energy appears in a new garment. His
+heart is altogether free from such vanities and anxieties. He is
+sufficient unto himself as he is here and now. And, as to his
+altruistic aspect of his moral deeds, he is well conscious that their
+karma would spiritually benefit everybody that gets inspired by it,
+and also that it would largely contribute to the realisation of
+goodness on this earth. Why, then, must we contrive such a poor theory
+of karma as is maintained by some, in order that they might give him a
+spiritual solace for his material misfortune?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vulgar people are too eager to see everything and every act they
+perform working for the accumulation of earthly wealth and the
+promotion of material welfare. They would want to turn even moral
+deeds which have no relation to the economic condition of life into
+the opportunities to attain things mundane. They would desire to have
+the law of karmaic causation applied to a realm, where prevails an
+entirely different set of laws. In point of fact, what proceeds from
+<span class="pagenum" id="p191">{191}</span> meritorious deeds is spiritual bliss only,&mdash;contentment,
+tranquillity of mind, meekness of heart, and immovability of
+faith,&mdash;all the heavenly treasures which could not be corrupted by
+moth or rust. And what more can the karma of good deeds bring to us?
+And what more would a man of pious heart desire to gain from his being
+good? “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye
+shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the
+life more than meat and the body more than raiment?” Let us then do
+away with the worldly interpretation of karma, which is so contrary to
+the spirit of Buddhism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As long as we live under the present state of things, it is impossible
+to escape the curse of social injustice and economic inequality. Some
+people must be born rich and noble and enjoying a superabundance of
+material wealth, while others must be groaning under the unbearable
+burden imposed upon them by cruel society. Unless we make a radical
+change in our present social organisation, we cannot expect every one
+of us to enjoy equal opportunity and fair chance. Unless we have a
+certain form of socialism installed which is liberal and rational and
+systematic, there must be some who are economically more favored than
+others. But this state of affairs is a phenomenon of worldly
+institution and is doomed to die away sooner or later. The law of
+karma, on the contrary, is an eternal ordinance of the will of the
+Dharmakâya as manifested in this world of <span class="pagenum" id="p192">{192}</span> particulars. We must
+not confuse a transient accident of human society with an absolute
+decree issued from the world-authority.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch08s04">
+<i>An Individualistic View of Karma.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is another popular misconception concerning the doctrine of
+karma, which seriously mars the true interpretation of Buddhism. I
+mean by this an individualistic view of the doctrine. This view
+asserts that deeds, good or evil, committed by a person determine only
+his own fate, no other’s being affected thereby in any possible way,
+and that the reason why we should refrain from doing wrong is: for we,
+and not others, have to suffer its evil consequences. This conception
+of karma which I call individualistic, presupposes the absolute
+reality of an individual soul and its continuance as such in a new
+corporeal existence which is made possible by its previous karma.
+Because an individual soul is here understood as an independent unit,
+which stands in no relation to others, and which therefore neither
+does influence nor is influenced by them in any wise. All that is done
+by oneself is suffered by oneself only and no other people have
+anything to do with it, nor do they suffer a whit thereby.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhism, however, does not advocate this individualistic
+interpretation of karmaic law, for it is not in accord with the theory
+of non-âtman, nor with that of Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the orthodox theory, karma simply means the conservation
+or immortality of the inner <span class="pagenum" id="p193">{193}</span> force of deeds regardless of their
+author’s physical identity. Deeds once committed, good or evil, leave
+permanent effects on the general system of sentient beings, of which
+the actor is merely a component part; and it is not the actor himself
+only, but everybody constituting a grand psychic community called
+“Dharmadhâtu” (spiritual universe), that suffers or enjoys the outcome
+of a moral deed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Because the universe is not a theatre for one particular soul only; on
+the contrary, it belongs to all sentient beings, each forming a
+psychic unit; and these units are so intimately knitted together in
+blood and soul that the effects of even apparently trifling deeds
+committed by an individual are felt by others just as much and just as
+surely as the doer himself. Throw an insignificant piece of stone into
+a vast expanse of water, and it will certainly create an almost
+endless series of ripples, however imperceptible, that never stop till
+they reach the furthest shore. The tremulation thus caused is felt by
+the sinking stone as much as the water disturbed. The universe that
+may seem to crude observers merely as a system of crass physical
+forces is in reality a great spiritual community, and every one of
+sentient beings forms its component part. This most complicated, most
+subtle, most sensitive, and best organised mass of spiritual atoms
+transmits its current of moral electricity from one particle to
+another with utmost rapidity and surety. Because this community is at
+bottom an expression of one Dharmakâya. However diversified <span class="pagenum" id="p194">{194}</span> and
+dissimilar it may appear in its material individual aspect, it is
+after all no more than an evolution of one pervading essence, in which
+the multitudinousness of things finds its unity and identity.
+Therefore, it is for the interests of the community at large, and not
+for their own welfare only, that sincere Buddhists refrain from
+transgressing moral laws and are encouraged to promote goodness. Those
+whose spiritual insight thus penetrates deep into the inner unity and
+interaction of all human souls are called Bodhisattvas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is with this spirit, let me repeat, that pious Buddhists do not
+wish to keep for themselves any merits created by their acts of love
+and benevolence, but wish to turn them over (<i>parivarta</i>) to the
+deliverance of all sentient creatures from the darkness of ignorance.
+The most typical way of concluding any religious treatise by Buddhists,
+therefore, runs generally in the following manner:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“The deep significance of the three karmas as taught by Buddha,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">I have thus completed elucidating in accord with the Dharma and logic:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By dint of this merit I pray to deliver all sentient beings</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And to make them soon attain to perfect enlightenment.”<sup><a href="#n088b" id="n088a">[88]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Or,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“All the merits arising from this my exposition</span><br>
+<span class="i0">May abide and be universally distributed among all beings;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And may they ascend in the scale of existence and increase in bliss and wisdom,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And soon attain to an enlightenment supreme, perfect, great, and far-reaching.”<sup><a href="#n089b" id="n089a">[89]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p195">{195}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The reason why a moral deed performed by one person would contribute
+to the attainment by others of supreme enlightenment, is that souls
+which are ordinarily supposed to be individual and independent of
+others are not so in fact, but are very closely intermingled with one
+another, so that a stir produced in one is sooner or later transmitted
+to another influencing it rightfully or wrongfully. The karmaic effect
+of my own deed determines not only my own future, but to a not little
+extent that of others; hence those invocations just quoted by pious
+Buddhists who desire to dedicate all the merits they can attain to the
+general welfare of the masses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ever-increasing tendency of humanity to widen and facilitate
+communication in every possible way is a phenomenon illustrative of
+the intrinsic oneness of human souls. Isolation kills, for it is
+another name for death. Every soul that lives and grows desires to
+embrace others, to be in communion with them, to be supplemented by
+them, and to expand infinitely so that all individual souls are
+brought together and united in the one soul. Under this condition only
+a man’s karma is enabled to influence other people, and his merits can
+be utilised for the promotion of general enlightenment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p196">{196}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch08s05">
+<i>Karma and Determinism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the irrefragability of karma means the predetermination of our
+moral life, some would reason, the doctrine is fatalism pure and
+simple. It is quite true that our present life is the result of the
+karma accumulated in our previous existences, and that as long as the
+karma preserves its vitality there is no chance whatever to escape its
+consequences, good or evil. It is also true that as the meanest
+sparrow shall not fall on the ground without the knowledge of God, and
+as the very hairs of our heads are all numbered by him, so even a
+single blade of grass does not quiver before the evening breeze
+without the force of karma. It is also true that if our intellect were
+not near-sighted as it is, we could reduce a possible complexity of
+the conditions under which our life exists into its simplest terms,
+and thus predict with mathematical precision the course of a life
+through which it is destined to pass. If we could record all our
+previous karma from time immemorial and all its consequences both on
+ourselves and on those who come in contact with us, there would be no
+difficulty in determining our future life with utmost certainty. The
+human intellect, however, as it happens, is incapable of undertaking a
+work of such an enormous magnitude, we cannot perceive the full
+significance of determinism; but, from the divine point of view,
+determinism seems to be perfectly justified, for there cannot be any
+short-sightedness on the part of a world-soul as to the destiny of the
+universe, which <span class="pagenum" id="p197">{197}</span> is nothing but its own expression. It is only
+from the human point of view that we feel uncertain about our final
+disposition and endeavor to explain existence now from a mechanical,
+now from a teleological standpoint, and yet, strange enough, at the
+bottom of our soul we feel that there is something mysterious here
+which makes us cry, either in despair or in trustful resignation, “Let
+thy will be done.” While this very confidence in “thy will” proves
+that we have in our inmost consciousness and outside the pale of
+intellectual analysis a belief in the supreme order, which is
+absolutely preordained and which at least is not controllable by our
+finite, limited, fragmentary mind, yet the doctrine of karma must not
+be understood in the strictest sense of fatalism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As far as a general theory of determinism is concerned, Buddhism has
+no objection to it. Grant that there is a law of causation, that every
+deed, actualised or thought of, leaves something behind, and that this
+something becomes a determining factor for our future life; then how
+could we escape the conclusion that “each of us is inevitable” as
+Whitman sings? Religious confidence in a divine will that is supposed
+to give us always the best of things, is in fact no more than a
+determinism. But if, in applying the doctrine to our practical life,
+we forget to endeavor to unfold all the possibilities that might lie
+in us, but could be awakened only after strenuous efforts, there will
+be no moral characters, no personal responsibility, no noble
+aspirations; the mind will be nothing but a reflex nervous system and
+life a sheer machinery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p198">{198}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact karma is not a machine which is not incapable of regeneration
+and self-multiplication. Karma is a wonderful organic power; it grows,
+it expands, and even gives birth to a new karma. It is like unto a
+grain of mustard, the least of all seeds, but, being full of vitality,
+it grows as soon as it comes in contact with the nourishing soil and
+becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the
+branches thereof. Its mystery is like that of sympathetic waves that
+pass through all the hearts which feel the great deeds of a hero or
+listen to the story of a self-sacrificing mother. Karma, good or evil,
+is contagious and sympathetic in its work. Even a most insignificant
+act of goodness reaps an unexpectedly rich crop. Even to the vilest
+rogue comes a chance for repentance by dint of a single good karma
+ever effected in his life, which has extended through many a kalpa.
+And the most wonderful thing in our spiritual world is that the karma
+thus bringing repentance and Nirvâna to the heart of the meanest
+awakens and rekindles a similar karma potentially slumbering in other
+hearts and leads them to the final abode of enlightenment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Inasmuch as we confine ourselves to general, superficial view of the
+theory of karma, it leads to a form of determinism, but in our
+practical life which is a product of extremely complicated factors,
+the doctrine of karma allows in us all kinds of possibilities and all
+chances of development. We thus escape the mechanical conception of
+life, we are saved from the despair of predetermination, though this
+is true to a great extent; <span class="pagenum" id="p199">{199}</span> and we are assured of the
+actualisation of hopes, however remote it may be. Though the curse of
+evil karma may sometimes hang upon us very heavily, there is no reason
+to bury our aspirations altogether in the grave; on the contrary, let
+us bear it bravely and perform all the acts of goodness to destroy the
+last remnant of evil and to mature the stock of good karma.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch08s06">
+<i>The Maturing of Good Stock (kuçalamûla) and the<br>
+Accumulation of merits (punyaskandha).</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the most significant facts, which we cannot well afford to
+ignore while treating of the doctrine of karma, is the Buddhist belief
+that Çâkyamuni reached his supreme Buddhahood only after a long
+practise of the six virtues of perfection (<i>pâramitâs</i>) through many
+a rebirth. This belief constitutes the very foundation of the ethics
+of Buddhism and has all-important bearings on the doctrine of karma.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of karma ethically considered is this: Sentient beings
+can attain to perfection not by an intervention from on high, but
+through long, steady, unflinching personal efforts towards the
+actualisation of ideals, or, in other words, towards the maturing of
+good stock (<i>kuçalamûla</i>) and the accumulation of merits
+(<i>punyaskandha</i>). This can be accomplished only through the karma of
+good deeds untiringly practised throughout many a generation. Each
+single act of goodness we perform to-day is recorded with <span class="pagenum" id="p200">{200}</span> strict
+accuracy in the annals of human evolution and is so much the gain for
+the cause of righteousness. On the contrary, every deed of ill-will,
+every thought of self-aggrandisement, every word of impurity, every
+assertion of egoism, is a drawback to the perfection of humanity. To
+speak concretely, the Buddha represents the crystalisation in the
+historical person of Çâkyamuni of all the good karma that was
+accumulated in innumerable kalpas previous to his birth. And if
+Devadatta, as legend has him, was really the enemy of the Buddha, he
+symbolises in him the evil karma that was being stored up with the
+good deeds of all Buddhas. Later Buddhism has thus elaborated to
+represent in these two historical figures the concrete results of good
+and evil karma, and tries to show in what direction its followers
+should exercise their spiritual energy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of karma is, therefore, really the theory of evolution
+and heredity as working in our moral field. As Walt Whitman fitly
+sings, in every one of us, “converging objects of the universe” are
+perpetually flowing, through every one of us is “afflatus surging and
+surging&mdash;the current and index.” And these converging objects and this
+afflatus are no more than our karma which is interwoven in our being
+and which is being matured from the very beginning of consciousness
+upon the earth. Each generation either retards or furthers the
+maturing of karma and transmits to the succeeding one its stock either
+impaired or augmented. Those who are blind enough not to <span class="pagenum" id="p201">{201}</span> see the
+significance of life, those who take their ego for the sole reality,
+and those who ignore the spiritual inheritance accumulated from time
+immemorial,&mdash;are the most worthless, most ungrateful, and most
+irresponsible people of the world. Buddhism calls them the children of
+Mâra engaged in the work of destruction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dr. G. R. Wilson of Scotland states a very pretty story about a royal
+robe in his article on “The Sense of Danger” (<i>The Monist</i>, 1903,
+April), which graphically illustrates how potential karma stored from
+time out of mind is saturated in every fibre of our subliminal
+consciousness or in the Âlayavijñâna, as Buddhists might say. The
+story runs as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An Oriental robe it was, whose beginning was in a prehistoric dynasty
+of which the hieroglyphics are undecipherable. With that pertinacity
+and durability so characteristic of the East, this royal garment has
+been handed down, not through hundreds of years, but through hundreds
+of generations,&mdash;generations, some of them, unconsciously long and
+stale and dreary; others short and quick and merry. A garment of kings,
+this, and of queens, a garment to which, as tradition prescribed, each
+monarch added something of quality,&mdash;a jewel of price, a patch of
+gold, a hem of rich embroidery,&mdash;and with each contribution a legend,
+worked into the imperishable fibre, told the story of the giver. Did
+something of the personality of these kings and queens linger in the
+work of their hands? If so, the robe was no dead thing, no mere
+covering to be lightly assumed or lightly laid aside, but a living
+<span class="pagenum" id="p202">{202}</span> power, royal influence, and the wearer, all unwitting, must have
+taken on something of the character of the dead. It is a princess of
+the royal blood, perhaps, sensitive and mystical, trembling on the
+apprehensive verge of monarchy, who dons the robe, and as she dons it,
+tingles to its message. These great rubies that blaze upon its front
+are the souvenirs of bloody conquerors. As she fingers them idly, she
+is thrilled with an emotion she does not understand, for in her blood
+something answers to the fighting spirit they embody. Pearls are for
+peace. That rope has been strung by kings and queens who favored art
+and learning; and as the girl’s fingers stray towards them the
+inspiration changes and her mind reverts to the purposes of the
+civilised scholar. Here is a gaudy hem, the legacy of an unfaithful
+queen, steeped in intrigue all her life until her murder ended it; and
+as the maiden lifts it to examine it more closely, she learns with
+shame and blushes, yet not knowing what has wrought this change in
+her, that, deep down in her character, are mischievous possibilities,
+possibilities of wickedness and disgrace that will dog the footsteps
+of her reign. Suchlike are the suggestions which the hidden parts of
+the mind bring forth, and in such subtle manner are they born.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of karma thus declares that an act of love and good-will
+you are performing here is not for your selfish interests, but it
+simply means the appreciation of the works of your worthy ancestors
+and the discharge of your duties towards <span class="pagenum" id="p203">{203}</span> all humanity and your
+contribution to the world-treasury of moral ideals. Mature good stock,
+accumulate merits, purify evil karma, remove the ego-hindrance, and
+cultivate love for all beings; and the heavenly gate of Nirvâna will
+be opened not only to you, but to the entire world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We can sing with Walt Whitman the immortality of karma and the eternal
+progress of humanity, thus:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Did you guess anything lived only its moment?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The world does not so exist&mdash;no part palpable or impalpable so exist;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No consummation exists without being from some long previous consummation&mdash;and that from some other,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Without the farthest conceivable one coming a bit nearer the beginning than any.”<sup><a href="#n090b" id="n090a">[90]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch08s07">
+<i>Immortality.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We read in the <i>Milinda-pañha</i>:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Your Majesty, it is as if a man were to ascend to the story of a
+house with a light, and eat there; and the light in burning were to
+set fire to the thatch; and the thatch in burning were to set fire to
+the house; and the house in burning were to set fire to the village;
+and the people of the village were to seize him, and say, ‘Why, O man,
+did you set fire to the village?’ and he were to say, ‘I did not set
+fire to the village. The fire of the lamp by whose light I ate was a
+different one from the one which set fire to the village’; <span class="pagenum" id="p204">{204}</span> and
+they, quarreling, were to come to you. Whose cause, Your Majesty,
+would you sustain?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That of the people of the village, Reverend Sir,” etc.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And why?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Because, in spite of what the man might say, the latter fire sprang
+from the former.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In exactly the same way, Your Majesty, although the name and form
+which is born into the next existence is different from the name and
+form which is to end at death, nevertheless, it is sprung from it.
+Therefore is one not freed from one’s evil deeds.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The above is the Buddhist notion of individual identity and its
+conservation, which denies the immortality of the ego-soul and upholds
+that of karma.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another good way, perhaps, of illustrating this doctrine is to follow
+the growth and perpetuation of the seed. The seed is in fact a
+concrete expression of karma. When a plant reaches a certain stage of
+development, it blooms and bears fruit. This fruit contains in it a
+latent energy which under favorable conditions grows to a mature plant
+of its own kind. The new plant now repeats the processes which its
+predecessors went through, and an eternal perpetuation of the plant is
+attained. The life of an individual plant cannot be permanent
+according to its inherent nature, it is destined to be cut short some
+time in its course. But this is not the case with the current of an
+ever-lasting vitality that has been running in the plant ever since
+the beginning of the world. Because this current is not individual in
+its nature and stands above the vicissitudes <span class="pagenum" id="p205">{205}</span> which take place in
+the life of particular plants. It may not be manifested in its kinetic
+form all the time, but potentially it is ever present in the being of
+the seed. Changes are simply a matter of form, and do not interfere
+with the current of life in the plant, which is preserved in the
+universe as the energy of vegetation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This energy of vegetation is that which is manifested in a mature
+plant, that which makes it blossom in the springtime, that which goes
+to seed, that which lies apparently dormant in the seeds, and that
+which resuscitates them to sprout among favorable surroundings. This
+energy of vegetation, this mysterious force, when stated in Buddhist
+phraseology, is nothing else than the vegetative expression of karma,
+which in the biological world constitutes the law of heredity, or the
+transmission of acquired character, or some other laws which might be
+discovered by the biologist. And it is when this force manifests
+itself in the moral realm of human affairs that karma obtains its
+proper significance as the law of moral causation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, there are several forms of transmission, by means of which the
+karma of a person or a people or a nation or a race is able to
+perpetuate itself to eternity. A few of them are described below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One may be called genealogical, or, perhaps, biological. Suppose here
+are descendants of an illustrious family, some of whose ancestors
+distinguished themselves by bravery, or benevolence, or intelligence,
+or by some other praiseworthy deeds or faculties. These <span class="pagenum" id="p206">{206}</span> people
+are as a rule respected by their neighbors as if their ancestral
+spirits were transmitted through generations and still lingering among
+their consanguineous successors. Some of them in the line might have
+even been below the normal level in their intellect and morals, but
+this fact does not altogether nullify the possibility and belief that
+others of their family might some day develop the faculties possessed
+by the forefathers, dormant as they appear now, through the
+inspiration they could get from the noble examples of the past. The
+respect they are enjoying and the possibility of inspiration they may
+have are all the work of the karma generated by the ancestors. The
+author or authors of the noble karma are all gone now, their bones
+have long returned to their elements, their ego-souls are no more,
+their concrete individual personalities are things of the past; but
+their karma is still here and as fresh as it was on the day of its
+generation and will so remain till the end of time. If some of them,
+on the other hand, left a black record behind them, the evil karma
+will tenaciously cling to the history of the family, and the
+descendants will have to suffer the curse as long as its vitality is
+kept up, no matter how innocent they themselves are.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here one important thing I wish to note is the mysterious way in which
+evil karma works. Evil does not always generate evils only; it very
+frequently turns out to be a condition, if not a cause, which will
+induce a moral being to overcome it with his <span class="pagenum" id="p207">{207}</span> utmost spiritual
+efforts. His being conscious of the very fact that his family history
+is somehow besmirched with dark spots, would rekindle in his heart a
+flickering light of goodness. His stock of good karma finally being
+brought into maturity, his virtues would then eclipse the evils of the
+past and turn a new page before him, which is full of bliss and glory.
+Everything in this world, thus, seems to turn to be merely a means for
+the final realisation of Good. Buddhists ascribe this spiritual
+phenomenon to the virtues of the upâya (expediency) of the Dharmakâya
+or Amitâbha Buddha.<sup><a href="#n091b" id="n091a">[91]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To return to the subject. It does not need any further illustration to
+show that all these things which have been said about the family are
+also true of the race, the tribe, clan, nation, or any other form of
+community. History of mankind in all its manifold aspects of existence
+is nothing but a grand drama visualising the Buddhist doctrine of
+karmaic immortality. It is like an immense ocean whose boundaries
+nobody knows and the waves of events now swelling and surging, now
+ebbing, now whirling, now refluxing, in all times, day and night,
+illustrate how the laws <span class="pagenum" id="p208">{208}</span> of karma are at work in this actual
+life. One act provokes another and that a third and so on to eternity
+without ever losing the chain of karmaic causation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Next, we come to a form of karma which might be called historical. By
+this I mean that a man’s karma can be immortalised by some historical
+objects, such as buildings, literary works, productions of art,
+implements, or instruments. In fact, almost any object, human or
+natural, which, however insignificant in itself, is associated with
+the memory of a great man, bears his karma, and transmits it to
+posterity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Everybody is familiar with the facts that all literary work embodies
+in itself the author’s soul and spirit, and that posterity can feel
+his living presence in the thoughts and sentiments expressed there,
+and that whenever the reader draws his inspiration from the work and
+actualises it in action, the author and the reader, though corporeally
+separate and living in different times, must be said spiritually
+feeling the pulsation of one and the same heart. And the same thing is
+true of productions of art. When we enter a gallery decorated with the
+noble works of Græcean or Roman artists, we feel as if we were
+breathing right in the midst of these art-loving people and seem to
+reawaken in us the same impressions that were received by them. We
+forget, as they did, the reality of our particular existence, we are
+unconsciously raised above it, and our imagination is filled with
+things not earthly. What a mysterious power it is!&mdash;the <span class="pagenum" id="p209">{209}</span> power by
+which those inanimate objects carry us away to a world of ideals! What
+a mysterious power it is that reawakens the spirits of by-gone artists
+on a sheet of canvas or in a piece of marble! It was not indeed
+entirely without truth that primitive or ignorant people intuitively
+believed in the spiritual power of idols. What they failed to grasp
+was the distinction between the subjective presence of a spirit and
+its objective reality. As far as their religious feeling, and not
+their critical intellect, was concerned, they were perfectly justified
+in believing in idolatry. Taking all in all, these facts unmistakably
+testify the Buddhist doctrine of the immortality of karma. A chord of
+karma touched by mortals of bygone ages still vibrates in their works,
+and the vibration with its full force is transmitted to the sympathetic
+souls down to the present day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Architectural creations bear out the doctrine of karma with no less
+force than works of art and literature. As the uppermost bricks on an
+Egyptian pyramid would fall on the ground with the same amount of
+energy that required to raise them up in the times of Pharaohs; as a
+burning piece of coal in the furnace that was dug out from the heart
+of the earth emits the same quantity of heat that it absorbed from the
+sun some hundred thousand years ago; even so every insignificant bit
+of rock or brick or cement we may find among the ruins of Babylonian
+palaces, Indian topes, Persian kiosks, Egyptian obelisks, or Roman
+pantheons, is fraught with the same spirit and soul that actuated
+<span class="pagenum" id="p210">{210}</span> the ancient peoples to construct those gigantic architectural
+wonders. The spirit is here, not in its individual form, but in its
+karmaic presence. When we pick these insignificant, unseemly pieces,
+our souls become singularly responsive to inspirations coming from
+those of the past, and our mental eyes vividly perceive the splendor
+of the gods, glory of the kings, peace of the nation, prosperity of
+the peoples, etc., etc. Because our souls and theirs are linked with
+the chain of karmaic causation through the medium of those visible
+remains of ancient days. Because the karma of those old peoples is
+still breathing its immortality in those architectural productions and
+sending its sympathetic waves out to the beholders. When thus we come
+to be convinced of the truth of the immortality of karma, we can truly
+exclaim with Christians, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where
+is thy victory?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is hardly necessary to give any further illustration to establish
+the doctrine of karma concerning its historical significance. All
+scientific apparatus and instruments are an undying eye-witness of the
+genius of the inventors. All industrial machines and agricultural
+implements most concretely testify the immortality of karma created by
+the constructors, in exact proportion as they are beneficial to the
+general welfare and progress of humanity. The instruments or machines
+or implements may be superseded by later and better ones, and possibly
+altogether forgotten by succeeding generations, but this does not
+annul the fact that the <span class="pagenum" id="p211">{211}</span> improved ones were only possible through
+the knowledge and experience which came from the use of the older
+ones, in other words, that the ideas and thoughts of the former
+inventors are still surviving through those of their successors, just
+as much as in the case of genealogical karma-transmission. Whatever
+garb the karma of a person may wear in its way down to posterity, it
+is ever there where its inspiration is felt. Even in an article of
+most trivial significance, even in a piece of rag, or in a slip of
+time-worn paper, only let there be an association with the memory of
+the deceased; and an unutterable feeling imperceptibly creeps into the
+heart of the beholder; and if the deceased were known for his
+saintliness or righteousness, this would be an opportunity for our
+inspiration and moral elevation according to how our own karma at that
+moment is made up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We now come to see more closely the spiritual purport of karmaic
+activity. Any intelligent reader could infer from what has been said
+above what important bearing the Buddhist doctrine of karma has on our
+moral and spiritual life. The following remarks, however, will greatly
+help him to understand the full extent of the doctrine and to pass an
+impartial judgment on its merits.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, if not anywhere else, looms up most conspicuously the
+characteristic difference between Buddhism and Christianity as to
+their conception of soul-activity. Christianity, if I understand it
+rightly, conceives our soul-phenomena as the work of an <span class="pagenum" id="p212">{212}</span>
+individual ego-entity, which keeps itself mysteriously hidden
+somewhere within the body. To Christians, the soul is a metaphysical
+being, and its incarnation in the flesh is imprisonment. It groans
+after emancipation, it craves for the celestial abode, where, after
+bodily death, it can enjoy all the blessings due to its naked
+existence. It finds the nectar of immortality up in Heaven and in the
+presence of God the father and Christ the son, and not in the
+perpetuation of karma in this universe. The soul of the wicked, on the
+other hand, is eternally damned, if it is conceded that they have any
+soul. As soon as it is liberated from the bodily incarceration, it is
+hurled into the infernal fire, and is there consumed suffering
+unspeakable agony. Christianity, therefore, does not believe in the
+transmigration or reincarnation of a soul. A soul once departed from
+the flesh never returns to it; it is either living an eternal life in
+Heaven or suffering an instant annihilation in Hell. This is the
+necessary conclusion from their premises of an individual concrete
+ego-soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhism, however, does not teach the metaphysical existence of the
+soul. All our mental and spiritual experiences, it declares, are due
+to the operations of karma which inherits its efficiency from its
+previous “seeds of activity” (<i>karmabîja</i>), and which has brought the
+five skandhas into the present state of co-ordination. The present
+karma, while in its force, generates in turn the “seeds of activity”
+which under favorable conditions grow to maturity again. Therefore, as
+long <span class="pagenum" id="p213">{213}</span> as the force of karma is thus successively generated, there
+are the five skandhas constantly coming into existence and working
+co-ordinately as a person. Karma-reproduction, so to speak, effected
+in this manner, is the Buddhist conception of the transmigration of a
+soul.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A Japanese national hero, General Kusunoki Masashige, who was an
+orthodox Buddhist, is said to have uttered the following words when he
+fell in the battle-field: “I will be reborn seven times yet and
+complete discharging my duties for the Imperial House.” And he did not
+utter these words to no purpose. Because even to-day, after the lapse
+of more than seven hundred years, his spirit is still alive among his
+countrymen, and indeed his bronze statue on horseback is solemnly
+guarding the Japanese Imperial palace. He was reborn more than seven
+times and will be reborn as long as the Japanese as a nation exist on
+earth. This constant rebirth or reincarnation means no more nor less
+than the immortality of karma. Says Buddha: “Ye disciples, take after
+my death those moral precepts and doctrines which were taught to you
+for my own person, for I live in them.” To live in karma, and not as
+an ego-entity, is the Buddhist conception of immortality. Therefore,
+the Buddhists will perfectly agree with the sentiment expressed by a
+noted modern poet in these lines:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not in breaths:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In feelings, not in figures on a dial,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p214">{214}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some may like to call this kind of immortality unsatisfactory, and
+impetuously demand that the ego-soul, instead of mysterious force of
+karma, should be made immortal, as it is more tangible and better
+appreciated by the masses. The Buddhist response to such a demand
+would be; “If their intellectual and moral insight is not developed
+enough to see truth in the theory of karma, why, we shall let them
+adhere as long as they please to their crude, primitive faith and rest
+contented with it.” Even the Buddha could not make children find
+pleasure in abstract metaphysical problems, whatever truth and genuine
+spiritual consolation there might be in them. What their hearts are
+after are toys and fairy-tales and parables. Therefore, a motto of
+Buddhism is: “Minister to the patients according to their wants and
+conditions.” We cannot make a plant grow even an inch higher by
+artificially pulling its roots; we have but to wait till it is ready
+for development. Unless a child becomes a man, we must not expect of
+him to put away childish things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The conclusion that could be drawn from the above is obvious. If we
+desire immortality, let there be the maturing of good karma and the
+cleansing of the heart from the contamination of evils. In good karma
+we are made to live eternally, but in evil one we are doomed, not only
+ourselves but every one that follows our steps on the path of evils.
+Karma is always generative; therefore, good karma is infinite bliss,
+and evil one is eternal curse. It was for this reason that at the
+appearance of the Buddha in the Jambudvîpa <span class="pagenum" id="p215">{215}</span> heaven and earth
+resounded with the joyous acclamation of gods and men. It was a signal
+triumph for the cause of goodness. The ideal of moral perfection found
+a concrete example in the person of Çâkyamuni. It showed how the
+stock of good karma accumulated and matured from the beginning of
+consciousness on earth could be crystalised in one person and brought
+to an actuality even in this world of woes. The Buddha, therefore, was
+the culmination of all the good karma previously stored up by his
+spiritual ancestors. And he was at the same time the starting point
+for the fermentation of new karma, because his moral “seeds of
+activity” which were generated during his lifetime have been scattered
+liberally wherever his virtues and teachings could be promulgated.
+That is, his karma-seeds have been sown in the souls of all sentient
+beings. Every one of these seeds which are infinite in number will
+become a new centre of moral activity. In proportion how strong it
+grows and begins to bear fruit, it destroys the seeds of evil doers.
+Good karma is a combined shield and sword, while it protects itself it
+destroys all that is against it. Therefore, good karma is not only
+statically immortal, but it is dynamically so; that is to say, its
+immortality is not a mere absence of birth and death, but a constant
+positive increase in its moral efficiency.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pious Buddhists believe that every time Buddha’s name is invoked with
+a heart free from evil thoughts, he enters right into the soul and
+becomes integral part of his being. This does not mean, however, that
+<span class="pagenum" id="p216">{216}</span> Buddha’s ego-substratum which might have been enjoying its
+immortal spiritual bliss in the presence of an anthropomorphic God
+descends on earth at the invocation of his name and renders in that
+capacity whatever help the supplicant needs. It means, on the other
+hand, that the Buddhist awakens in his personal karma that which
+constituted Buddhahood in the Buddha and nourishes it to maturity.
+That which constitutes Buddhahood is not the personal ego of the
+Buddha, but his karma. Every chemical element, whenever occasioned to
+befree itself from a combination, never fails to generate heat which
+it absorbed at the time of combination with other elements; and this
+takes place no matter how remote the time of combination was. It is
+even so with the karma-seed of Buddha. It might have been in the
+barren soil of a sinful heart, and, being deeply buried there for many
+a year, might have been forgotten altogether by the owner. But, sooner
+or later, it will never fail to grow under favorable conditions and
+generate what it gained from the Buddha in the beginning of the world.
+And this regeneration will not be merely chemical, but predominantly
+biological; for it is the law which conditions the immortality of
+karma.
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="part2">
+PRACTICAL BUDDHISM.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p217">{217}</span>
+</p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="ch09">
+CHAPTER IX.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">THE DHARMAKÂYA.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">We</span> have considered the doctrine of Suchness (<i>Bhûtatathâtâ</i>) under
+“Speculative Buddhism,” where it appeared altogether too abstract to
+be of any practical use to our earthly life. The theory as such did
+not seem to have any immediate bearings on our religious consciousness.
+The fact is, it must pass through some practical modification before
+it fully satisfies our spiritual needs. As there is no concrete figure
+in this world that is a perfect type of mathematical exactitude,&mdash;since
+everything here must be perceived through our more or less distorted
+physical organs; even so with pure reason: however perfect in itself,
+it must appear to us more or less modified while passing through our
+affective-intellectual objectives. This modification of pure reason,
+however, is necessary from the human point of view; because mere
+abstraction is contentless, lifeless, and has no value for our
+practical life, and again, because our religious cravings will not be
+satisfied with empty concepts lacking vitality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We may sometimes ignore the claims of reason <span class="pagenum" id="p218">{218}</span> and rest satisfied,
+though usually unconsciously, with assertions which are conflicting
+when critically examined, but we cannot disregard by any means those
+of the religious sentiment, which finds satisfaction only in the very
+fact of things. If it ever harbored some flagrant contradictions in
+the name of faith, it was because its ever-pressing demands had to be
+met with even at the expense of reason. The truth is: the religious
+consciousness first of all demands fact, and when it attains that, it
+is not of much consequence to it whether or not its intellectual
+interpretation is logically tenable. If on the other hand logic be
+all-important and demand the first consideration and the sentiment had
+to follow its trail without a murmuring, our life would surely lose
+its savory aspect, turn tasteless, our existence would become void,
+the world would be a mere succession of meaningless events, and what
+remains would be nothing else than devastation, barrenness, and
+universal misery. The truth is, in this life the will predominates and
+the intellect subserves; which explains the fact that while all
+existing religions on the one hand display some logical inaccuracy and
+on the other hand a mechanical explanation of the world is gaining
+ground more and more, religion is still playing an important part
+everywhere in our practical life. Abstraction is good for the exercises
+of the intellect, but when it is the question of life and death we
+must have something more substantial and of more vitality than
+theorisation. It may not be a mathematically exact <span class="pagenum" id="p219">{219}</span> and certain
+proposition, but it must be a working, living, real theory, that is,
+it must be a faith born of the inmost consciousness of our being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What practical transformations then has the doctrine of Suchness, in
+order to meet the religious demands, to suffer?
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s01">
+<i>God.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddhism does not use the word God. The word is rather offensive to
+most of its followers, especially when it is intimately associated in
+vulgar minds with the idea of a creator who produced the world out of
+nothing, caused the downfall of mankind, and, touched by the pang of
+remorse, sent down his only son to save the depraved. But, on account
+of this, Buddhism must not be judged as an atheism which endorses an
+agnostic, materialistic interpretation of the universe. Far from it.
+Buddhism outspokenly acknowledges the presence in the world of a
+reality which transcends the limitations of phenomenality, but which
+is nevertheless immanent everywhere and manifests itself in its full
+glory, and in which we live and move and have our being.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+God or the religious object of Buddhism is generally called
+Dharmakâya-Buddha and occasionally Vairocana-Buddha or
+Vairocana-Dharmakâya-Buddha; still another name for it is
+Amitâbha-Buddha or Amitâyur-Buddha,&mdash;the latter two being mostly
+used by the followers of the Sukhâvatî sect of Japan and China.
+<span class="pagenum" id="p220">{220}</span> Again, very frequently we find Çâkyamuni, the Buddha, and the
+Tathâgata stripped of his historical personality and identified with
+the highest truth and reality. These, however, by no means exhaust a
+legion of names invented by the fertile imagination of Buddhists for
+their object of reverence as called forth by their various spiritual
+needs.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s02">
+<i>Dharmakâya.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Western scholars usually translate Dharmakâya by “Body of the Law”
+meaning by the Law the doctrine set forth by Çâkyamuni the Buddha.
+It is said that when Buddha was preparing himself to enter into
+eternal Nirvâna, he commanded his disciples to revere the Dharma or
+religion taught by him as his own person, because a man continues to
+live in the work, deeds, and words left behind himself. So, Dharmakâya
+came to be understood by Western scholars as meaning the person of
+Buddha incarnated in his religion. This interpretation of the term is
+not very accurate, however, and is productive of some very serious
+misinterpretations concerning the fundamental doctrines of Mahâyânism.
+Historically, the Body of the Law as the Buddha incarnate might have
+been the sense of Dharmakâya, as we can infer from the occasional use
+of the term in some Hînayâna texts. But as it is used by Eastern
+Buddhists, it has acquired an entirely new significance, having
+nothing to do with the body of religious teachings established by the
+Buddha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p221">{221}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This transformation in the conception of Dharmakâya has been effected
+by the different interpretation the term Dharma came to receive from
+the hand of the Mahâyânists. Dharma is a very pregnant word and
+covers a wide range of meaning. It comes from the root <i>dhṛ</i>, which
+means “to hold,” “to carry”, “to bear,” and the primitive sense of
+dharma was “that which carries or bears or supports,” and then it came
+to signify “that which forms the norm, or regulates the course of
+things,” that is, “law,” “institution,” “rule,” “doctrine,” then,
+“duty,” “justice,” “virtue,” “moral merit,” “character,” “attribute,”
+“essential quality,” “substance,” “that which exists,” “reality,”
+“being,” etc., etc. The English equivalent most frequently used for
+dharma by Oriental scholars is law or doctrine. This may be all right
+as far as the Pâli texts go; but when we wish to apply this
+interpretation to the Mahâyâna terms, such as Dharmadhâtu, Dharmakâya,
+Dharmalakṣa, Dharmaloka, etc., we are placed in an awkward position
+and are at a loss how to get at the meaning of those terms. There are
+passages in Mahâyâna literature in which the whole significance of the
+text depends upon how we understand the word dharma. And it may even
+be said that one of the many reasons why Christian students of Buddhism
+so frequently fail to recognise the importance of Mahâyânism is due to
+their misinterpretation of dharma. Max Mueller, therefore, rightly
+remarks in his introduction to an English translation of the
+<i>Vajracchedîka Sûtra</i>, when he says: “If we <span class="pagenum" id="p222">{222}</span> were always to
+translate dharma by law, it seems to me that the whole drift of our
+treatise would become unintelligible.” Not only that particular text
+of Mahâyânism, but its entire literature would become utterly
+incomprehensible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Mahâyânism Dharma means in many cases “thing,” “substance,” or
+“being,” or “reality,” both in its particular and in its general
+sense, though it is also frequently used in the sense of law or
+doctrine. Kâya may be rendered “body,” not in the sense of personality,
+but in that of system, unity, and organised form. Dharmakâya, the
+combination of dharma and kâya, thus means the organised totality of
+things or the principle of cosmic unity, though not as a purely
+philosophical concept, but as an object of the religious consciousness.
+Throughout this work, however, the original Sanskrit form will be
+retained in preference to any English equivalents that have been used
+heretofore; for Dharmakâya conveys to the minds of Eastern Buddhists a
+peculiar religious flavor, which, when translated by either God or the
+All or some abstract philosophical terms, suffers considerably.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s03">
+<i>Dharmakâya as Religious Object.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As aforesaid, the Dharmakâya is not a product of philosophical
+reflection and is not exactly equivalent to Suchness; it has a
+religious signification as the object of the religious consciousness.
+The Dharmakâya is a soul, a willing and knowing being, one that is
+<span class="pagenum" id="p223">{223}</span> will and intelligence, thought and action. It is, as understood
+by the Mahâyânists, not an abstract metaphysical principle like
+Suchness, but it is living spirit, that manifests itself in nature as
+well as in thought. The universe as an expression of this spirit is
+not a meaningless display of blind forces, nor is it an arena for the
+struggle of diverse mechanical powers. Further, Buddhists ascribe to
+the Dharmakâya innumerable merits and virtues and an absolute perfect
+intelligence, and makes it an inexhaustible fountain-head of love and
+compassion; and it is in this that the Dharmakâya finally assumes a
+totally different aspect from a mere metaphysical principle, cold and
+lifeless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <i>Avatamsaka Sûtra</i> gives some comprehensive statements concerning
+the nature of the Dharmakâya as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Dharmakâya, though manifesting itself in the triple world, is
+free from impurities and desires. It unfolds itself here, there, and
+everywhere responding to the call of karma. It is not an individual
+reality, it is not a false existence, but is universal and pure. It
+comes from nowhere, it goes to nowhere; it does not assert itself, nor
+is it subject to annihilation. It is forever serene and eternal. It is
+the One, devoid of all determinations. This Body of Dharma has no
+boundary, no quarters, but is embodied in all bodies. Its freedom or
+spontaneity is incomprehensible, its spiritual presence in things
+corporeal is incomprehensible. All forms of corporeality are involved
+therein, it is able to create all things. Assuming any concrete <span class="pagenum" id="p224">{224}</span>
+material body as required by the nature and condition of karma, it
+illuminates all creations. Though it is the treasure of intelligence,
+it is void of particularity. There is no place in the universe where
+this Body does not prevail. The universe becomes, but this Body
+forever remains. It is free from all opposites and contraries, yet it
+is working in all things to lead them to Nirvâna.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s04">
+<i>More Detailed Characterisation.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The above gives us a general, concise view as to what the Dharmakâya
+is, but let me quote the following more detailed description of it, in
+order that we may more clearly and definitely see into the
+characteristically Buddhistic conception of the highest being.<sup><a href="#n092b" id="n092a">[92]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Tathâgata<sup><a href="#n093b" id="n093a">[93]</a></sup> is not a particular dharma,
+nor a particular form of activity, nor has it a particular body, nor
+does it abide in a particular place, nor is its work of salvation
+confined to one particular people. On the contrary, it involves in
+itself infinite dharmas, infinite activities, infinite bodies, infinite
+spaces, and universally works for the salvation of all things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is like unto space. Space<sup><a href="#n094b" id="n094a">[94]</a></sup> contains in
+itself all material existences and all the vacuums that obtain between
+them. Again, it establishes <span class="pagenum" id="p225">{225}</span> itself in all possible quarters, and
+yet we cannot say of it that it is or it is not in this particular
+spot, for space has no palpable form. Even so with the Dharmakâya of
+the Tathâgata. It presents itself in all places, in all directions,
+in all dharmas, and in all beings; yet the Dharmakâya itself has not
+been thereby particularised. Because the Body of the Tathâgata has no
+particular body but manifests itself everywhere and anywhere in
+response to the nature and condition of things.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is like unto space. Space is boundless,
+comprehends in itself all existence, and yet shows no trace of passion
+[partiality]. It is even so with the Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata. It
+illuminates all good works worldly as well as religious, but it
+betrays no passion or prejudice. Why? Because the Dharmakâya is
+perfectly free from all passions and prejudices.<sup><a href="#n095b" id="n095a">[95]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is like unto the Sun. The benefits conferred
+by the light of the sun upon all living beings on earth are
+incalculable: e.g. by dispelling darkness it gives nourishment to all
+trees, herbs, grains, plants, and grass; it vanquishes humidity; it
+illuminates ether whereby benefitting all the <span class="pagenum" id="p226">{226}</span> living beings in
+air; its rays penetrate into the waters whereby bringing forth the
+beautiful lotus-flowers into full blossom; it impartially shines on
+all figures and forms and brings into completion all the works on
+earth. Why? Because from the sun emanate infinite rays of life-giving
+light.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Sun-Body of the
+Tathâgata which in innumerable ways bestows benefits upon all beings.
+That is, it benefits us by destroying evils, all good things thus
+being quickened to growth; it benefits us with its universal
+illumination which vanquishes the darkness of ignorance harbored in
+all beings; it benefits us through its great compassionate heart which
+saves and protects all beings; it benefits us through its great loving
+heart which delivers all beings from the misery of birth and death; it
+benefits us by the establishment of a good religion whereby we are all
+strengthened in our moral activities; it benefits us by giving us a
+firm belief in the truth which cleanses all our spiritual impurities;
+it benefits by helping us to understand the doctrine by virtue of
+which we are not led to disavow the law of causation; it benefits us
+with a divine vision which enables us to observe the metempsychosis of
+all beings; it benefits us by avoiding injurious deeds which may
+destroy the stock of merits accumulated by all beings; it benefits us
+with an intellectual light which unfolds the mind-flowers of all
+beings; it benefits us with an aspiration whereby we are enlivened to
+practice all that constitutes Buddhahood. Why? Because the Sun-Body
+<span class="pagenum" id="p227">{227}</span> of the Tathâgata universally emits the rays of the Light of
+Intelligence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! When the day breaks, the rising sun shines
+first on the peaks of all the higher mountains, then on those of high
+mountains, and finally all over the plains and fields; but the sunlight
+itself does not make this thought: I will shine first on all the
+highest mountains and then gradually ascending higher and higher shine
+on the plains and fields. The reason why one gets the sunlight earlier
+than another is simply because there is a gradation of height on the
+surface of the earth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Tathâgata who is in
+possession of innumerable and immeasurable suns of universal
+intelligence. The innumerable rays of the Light of Intelligence,
+emanating everlastingly from the spiritual Body of the Tathâgata,
+will first fall on the Bodhisattvas and Mahâsattvas who are the
+highest peaks among mankind, then on the Nidânabuddhas, then on the
+Çrâvakas, then on those beings who are endowed with definitely good
+character, as they will each according to his own capacity
+unhesitatingly embrace the doctrine of deliverance, and finally on all
+common mortals whose character may be either indefinite or definitely
+bad, providing them with those conditions which will prove beneficial
+in their future births. But the Light of Intelligence emanating from
+the Tathâgata does not make this thought: ‘I will first shine on the
+Bodhisattvas <span class="pagenum" id="p228">{228}</span> and then gradually pass over to all common mortals,
+etc.’ The Light is universal and illuminates everything without any
+prejudice, yet on account of the diversity that obtains among sentient
+beings as to their character, aspirations, etc., the Light of
+Intelligence is diversely perceived by them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! When the sun rises above the horizon, those
+people born blind, on account their defective sight, cannot see the
+light at all, but they are nevertheless benefited by the sunlight, for
+it gives them just as much as to any other beings all that is
+necessary for the maintenance of life: it dispels dampness and
+coldness and makes them feel agreeable, it destroys all the injurious
+germs that are produced on account of the absence of sunshine, and
+thus keeps the blind as well as the not-blind comfortable and healthy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Sun of Intelligence of
+the Tathâgata. All those beings whose spiritual vision is blinded by
+false doctrine, or by the violation of Buddha’s precepts, or by
+ignorance, or by evil influences, never perceive the Light of
+Intelligence; because they are devoid of faith. But they are
+nevertheless benefited by the Light; for it disperses indiscriminately
+for all beings the sufferings arising from the four elements, and
+gives them physical comforts; for it destroys the root of all passions,
+prejudices, and pains for unbelievers as well as for believers... By
+virtue of this omnipresent Light of Intelligence, the Bodhisattvas
+will attain perfect purity and the <span class="pagenum" id="p229">{229}</span> knowledge of all things, the
+Nidânabuddhas and Çravakas will destroy all passions and desires;
+mortals poorly endowed and those born blind will rid of impurities,
+control the senses, and believe in the four views;<sup><a href="#n096b" id="n096a">[96]</a></sup> and those
+creatures living in the evil paths of existence such as hell, world of
+ghosts, and the animal realm, will be freed from their evils and
+torture and will, after death, be born in the human or celestial
+world...
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Light of Dharmakâya is like unto the full
+moon which has four wondrous attributes: (1) It outdoes in its
+brilliance all stars and satellites; (2) It shows in its size increase
+and decrease as observable in the Jambudvîpa; (3) Its reflection is
+seen in every drop or body of clear water; (4) Whoever is endowed with
+perfect sight, perceives it vis-a-vis.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! Even so with the Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata,
+that has four wondrous attributes: (1) It eclipses the stars of the
+Nidânabuddhas, Çrâvakas, etc.; (2) It shows in its earthly life a
+certain variation which is due to the different natures of the beings
+to whom it manifests itself,<sup><a href="#n097b" id="n097a">[97]</a></sup> while the Dharmakâya <span class="pagenum" id="p230">{230}</span> itself
+is eternal and shows no increase or decrease in any way; (3) Its
+reflection is seen in the Bodhi (intelligence) of every pure-hearted
+sentient being; (4) All who understand the Dharma and obtain
+deliverance, each according to his own mental calibre, think that they
+have really recognised in their own way the Tathâgata face to face,
+while the Dharmakâya itself is not a particular object of
+understanding, but universally brings all Buddha-works into
+completion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Dharmakâya is like unto the Great Brahmarâja
+who governs three thousand chiliocosms. The Râja by a mysterious trick
+makes himself seen universally by all living beings in his realm and
+causes them to think that each of them has seen him face to face; but
+the Râja himself has never divided his own person nor is he in
+possession of diverse features.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! Even so with the Tathâgata; he has never
+divided himself into many, nor has he ever assumed diverse features.
+But all beings, each according to his understanding and strength of
+faith, recognise the Body of the Tathâgata, while he has never made
+this thought that he will show himself to such and such particular
+people and not to others...
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! The Dharmakâya is like unto the maniratna in
+the waters, whose wondrous <span class="pagenum" id="p231">{231}</span> light transforms everything that
+comes in contact with it to its own color. The eyes that perceive it
+become purified. Wherever its illumination reaches, there is a
+marvelous display of gems of every description, which gives pleasure
+to all beings to see.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“O ye, sons of Buddha! It is even so with the Dharmakâya of the
+Tathâgata, which may rightly be called the treasure of treasures, the
+thesaurus of all merits, and the mine of intelligence. Whoever comes
+in touch with this light, is all transformed into the same color as
+that of the Buddha. Whoever sees this light, all obtains the purest
+eye of Dharma. Whoever comes in touch with this light, rids of poverty
+and suffering, attains wealth and eminence, enjoys the bliss of the
+incomparable Bodhi”......
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s05">
+<i>Dharmakâya and Individual Beings.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From these statements it is evident that the Dharmakâya or the Body
+of the Tathâgata, or the Body of Intelligence, whatever it may be
+designated, is not a mere philosophical abstraction, standing aloof
+from this world of birth and death, of joy and sorrow, calmly
+contemplates on the folly of mankind; but that it is a spiritual
+existence which is “absolutely one, is real and true, and forms the
+raison d’être of all beings, transcends all modes of upâya, is free
+from desires and struggles [or compulsion], and stands outside the
+pale of our finite understanding.”<sup><a href="#n098b" id="n098a">[98]</a></sup> It is <span class="pagenum" id="p232">{232}</span> also evident that
+the Dharmakâya though itself free from ignorance (<i>avidyâ</i>) and
+passion (<i>kleça</i>) and desire (<i>tṛṣnâ</i>), is revealed in the finite and
+fragmental consciousness of human being, so that we can say in a sense
+that “this body of mine is the Dharmakâya”&mdash;though not absolutely; and
+also in a generalised form that “the body of all beings is the
+Dharmakâya, and the Dharmakâya is the body of all beings,”&mdash;though in
+the latter only imperfectly and fractionally realised. As we thus
+partake something in ourselves of the Dharmakâya, we all are ultimately
+destined to attain Buddhahood when the human intelligence, Bodhi, is
+perfectly identified with, or absorbed in, that of the Dharmakâya, and
+when our earthly life becomes the realisation of the will of the
+Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s06">
+<i>The Dharmakâya as Love.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here an important consideration forces itself upon us which is, that
+the Dharmakâya is not only an intelligent mind but a loving heart,
+that it is not only a god of rigorism who does not allow a hair’s
+breadth deviation from the law of karma, but also an incarnation of
+mercy that is constantly belaboring to develop the most insignificant
+merit into a field yielding rich harvests. The Dharmakâya relentlessly
+punishes the wrong and does not permit the exhaustion of their karma
+without sufficient reason; and yet its hands are always directing our
+life toward the actualisation <span class="pagenum" id="p233">{233}</span> of supreme goodness. “Pangs of
+nature, sins of will, defects of doubt, and stains of
+blood,”&mdash;discouraging and gloomy indeed is the karma of evil-doers!
+But the Dharmakâya, infinite in love and goodness, is incessantly
+managing to bring this world-transaction to a happy terminus. Every
+good we do is absorbed in the universal stock of merits which is no
+more nor less than the Dharmakâya. Every act of lovingkindness we
+practice is conceived in the womb of Tathâgata, and therein nourished
+and matured, is again brought out to this world of karma to bear its
+fruit. Therefore, no life walks on earth with aimless feet; no chaff
+is thrown into the fire unquenchable. Every existence, great or
+insignificant, is a reflection of the glory of the Dharmakâya and as
+such worthy of its all-embracing love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For further corroboration of this view let us cite at random from a
+Mahâyâna sutra:<sup><a href="#n099b" id="n099a">[99]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“With one great loving heart</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The thirsty desires of all beings he quencheth with coolness refreshing;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With compassion, of all doth he think,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Which like space knows no bounds;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Over the world’s all creation</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With no thought of particularity he revieweth.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“With a great heart compassionate and loving,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All sentient beings by him are embraced;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With means (<i>upâya</i>) which are pure, free from stain, and all excellent,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He doth save and deliver all creatures innumerable.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p234">{234}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“With unfathomable love and with compassion</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All creations caressed by him universally;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet free from attachment his heart is.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“As his compassion is great and is infinite,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Bliss unearthly on every being he confereth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And himself showeth all over the universe;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He’ll not rest till all Buddhahood truly attains.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s07">
+<i>Later Mahâyânists’ view of the Dharmakâya.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The above has been quoted almost exclusively from the so-called sûtra
+literature of Mahâyâna Buddhism, which is distinguished from the
+other religio-philosophical treatises of the school, because the
+sûtras are considered to be the accounts of Buddha himself as recorded
+by his immediate disciples.<sup><a href="#n100b" id="n100a">[100]</a></sup> Let us now see by way of further
+elucidation what views were held concerning the Dharmakâya by such
+writers as Asanga, Vasubandhu, etc.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We read in the <i>General Treatise on Mahâyânism</i> by Asanga and
+Vasubandhu the following statement:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When the Bodhisattvas think of the Dharmakâya, how have they to
+picture it to themselves?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Briefly stated, they will think of the Dharmakâya by picturing to
+themselves its seven characteristics, which constitute the faultless
+virtues and essential <span class="pagenum" id="p235">{235}</span> functions of the Kâya. (1) Think of the
+free, unrivaled, unimpeded activity of the Dharmakâya, which is
+manifested in all beings; (2) Think of the eternality of all perfect
+virtues in the Dharmakâya; (3) Think of its absolute freedom from all
+prejudice, intellectual and affective; (4) Think of those spontaneous
+activities that uninterruptedly emanate from the will of the
+Dharmakâya; (5) Think of the inexhaustible wealth, spiritual and
+physical, stored in the Body of the Dharma; (6) Think of its
+intellectual purity which has no stain of onesidedness; (7) Think of
+the earthly works achieved for the salvation of all beings by the
+Tathâgatas who are reflexes of the Dharmakâya.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As regards the activity of the Dharmakâya, which is shown in every
+Buddha’s work of salvation, Asanga enumerates five forms of operation:
+(1) It is shown in his power of removing evils which may befall us in
+the course of life, though the Buddha is unable to cure any physical
+defects which we may have, such as blindness, deafness, mental
+aberration, etc. (2) It is shown in his irresistible spiritual
+domination over all evil-doers, who, base as they are, cannot help
+doing some good if they ever come in the presence of the Buddha. (3)
+It is shown in his power of destroying various unnatural and
+irrational methods of salvation which are practiced by followers of
+asceticism, hedonism, or Ishvaraism. (4) It is shown in his power of
+curing those diseased minds that believe in the reality, permanency,
+and indivisibility of the ego-soul, that is, in the pudgalavâda. (5)
+It is shown in his inspiring <span class="pagenum" id="p236">{236}</span> influence over those Bodhisattvas
+who have not yet attained to the stage of immovability as well as over
+those Çrâvakas whose faith and character are still in a state of
+vacillation.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s08">
+<i>The Freedom of the Dharmakâya.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Those spiritual influences over all beings of the Dharmakâya through
+the enlightened mind of a Buddha, which we have seen above as stated
+by Asanga, are fraught with religious significance. According to the
+Buddhist view, those spiritual powers everlastingly emanating from the
+Body of Dharma have no trace of human elaboration or constrained
+effort, but they are a spontaneous overflow from its immanent
+necessity, or, as I take it, from its free will. The Dharmakâya does
+not make any conscious, struggling efforts to shower upon all sentient
+creatures its innumerable merits, benefits, and blessings. If there
+were in it any trace of elaboration, that would mean a struggle within
+itself of divers tendencies, one trying to gain ascendency over
+another. And it is apparent that any struggle and its necessary ally,
+compulsion, are incompatible with our conception of the highest
+religious reality. Absolute spontaneity and perfect freedom is one of
+those necessary attributes which our religious consciousness cannot
+help ascribing to its object of reverence. Buddhists therefore
+repeatedly affirm that the activity of the Dharmakâya is perfectly
+free from all effort and coercion, external and internal. Its every
+act of creation or salvation <span class="pagenum" id="p237">{237}</span> or love emanates from its own free
+will, unhampered by any struggling exertion which characterises the
+doings of mankind. This free will which is divine, standing in such a
+striking contrast with our own “free will” which is human and at best
+very much limited, is called by the Buddhists the Dharmakâya’s
+“Purvapranidhânabala.”<sup><a href="#n101b" id="n101a">[101]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As the Dharmakâya works of its own accord it does not seek any
+recompense for its deed; and it is evident that every act of the
+Dharmakâya is always for the best welfare of its creatures, for they
+are its manifestations and it must know what they need. We do not have
+to ask for our “daily bread,” <span class="pagenum" id="p238">{238}</span> nor have we to praise or eulogise
+its virtues to court its special grace, nor is there any necessity for
+us to offer prayer or supplication to the Dharmakâya. Consider the
+lilies of the field which neither toil nor spin,&mdash;and I might
+add,&mdash;which ask not for any favoritism from above; yet are they not
+arrayed even better than Solomon in all his glory? The Dharmakâya
+shines in its august magnificence everywhere there is life, nay, even
+where there is death. We are all living in the midst of it and yet,
+strange to say, as “the fish knows not the presence of water about
+itself,” and also as “the mountaineers recognise not the mountains
+among which they hunt,” even so we know not whence that power comes
+whose work is made manifest in us and whither it finally leadeth us.
+In spite of this profound ignorance, we really feel that we are here,
+and thereby we rest supremely contented. For we believe that all this
+is wrought through the mysterious and miraculous will of the
+Dharmakâya, who does all excellent works and seeks no recompense
+whatever.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch09s09">
+<i>The Will of the Dharmakâya.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Summarily speaking, the Dharmakâya assumes three essential aspects as
+reflected in our religious consciousness: first, it is intelligence
+(<i>prajñâ</i>); secondly, it is love (<i>karunâ</i>); and thirdly, it is the
+will (<i>pranidhânabala</i>). We know that it is intelligence from the
+declaration that the Dharmakâya directs the course of the universe,
+not blindly but rationally; we know again that it is love because it
+embraces all <span class="pagenum" id="p239">{239}</span> beings with fatherly tenderness;<sup><a href="#n102b" id="n102a">[102]</a></sup> and finally
+we must assume that it is a will, because the Dharmakâya has firmly
+set down its aim of activity in that good shall be the final goal of
+all evil in the universe. Without the will, love and intelligence will
+not be realised; without love, the will and intelligence will lose
+their impulse; without intelligence, love and the will will be
+irrational. In fact, the three are co-ordinates and constitute the
+oneness of the Dharmakâya; and by oneness I mean the absolute, and
+not the numerical, unity of all these three things in the being of the
+Dharmakâya, for intelligence and love and the will are differentiated
+as such only in our human, finite consciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some Buddhists may not agree entirely with the view here expounded.
+They may declare: “We conform to your view when you say the Dharmakâya
+is intelligence and love, as this is expressly stated in the sûtras
+and çâstras; but we do not see how it could be made a will. Indeed,
+the Scriptures say that the Dharmakâya is in possession of the
+Pranidhânabala, but this bala or power is not necessarily the will, it
+is the power of prayers or intense vows. The Dharmakâya actually made
+solemn vows, and their spiritual energy abiding in the world of
+particulars works out its original plan and makes possible the
+universal salvation of all creatures.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is quite true that the word pranidhânabala means <span class="pagenum" id="p240">{240}</span> literally
+“the power of original prayers.” But this literary rendering totally
+ignores its inner significance without which the nature of the
+Dharmakâya would become unintelligible. We admit that the Dharmakâya
+knows no higher existence by which it is conditioned, nor has it any
+fragmentary, limited consciousness like that of human being, nor has
+it any intrinsic want by which it is necessitated to appeal to
+something other than itself. It is, therefore, utterly nonsensical to
+speak of its prayer, “original” or borrowed, as some Buddhists are
+inclined to think. On the other hand, we are perfectly justified in
+saying that whatever is done by the Dharmakâya is done by its own
+free will independent of all the determinations that might affect it
+from outside.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But I can presume the reason why they speak of the prayers of the
+Dharmakâya instead of its will. Here we have an instance of emotional
+outburst. The fervency of the intense religious sentiment not
+infrequently carries us beyond the limits of the intellect, landing us
+in a region full of mysteries and contradictions. It anthropomorphises
+everything beyond the proper measure of intellection and ascribes all
+earthly human feelings and passions to an object which the mind
+well-balanced demands to be above all the forms of human helplessness.
+The Buddhists, especially those of the Sukhâvatî sect,<sup><a href="#n103b" id="n103a">[103]</a></sup> recognise
+the existence <span class="pagenum" id="p241">{241}</span> of an all-powerful will, all-embracing love, and
+all-knowing intelligence in the Dharmakâya, but they want to represent
+it more concretely and in a more humanly fashion before the mental
+vision of the less intellectual followers. The result thus is that the
+Dharmakâya in spite of its absoluteness made prayers to himself to
+emancipate all sentient beings from the sufferings of birth and death.
+But are not these self-addressed prayers of the Dharmakâya which
+sprang out of its inmost nature exactly what constitutes its will?
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch10">
+CHAPTER X.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">THE DOCTRINE OF TRIKÂYA.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p242">{242}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+(<span class="sc">Buddhist Theory of Trinity</span>.)
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s01">
+<i>The Human and the Super-human Buddha.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">One</span> of the most remarkable differences between the Pâli and the
+Sanskrit, that is, between the Hînayâna and the Mahâyâna Buddhist
+literature, is in the manner of introducing the characters or persons
+who take principal parts in the narratives. In the former, sermons are
+delivered by the Buddha as a rule in such a natural and plain language
+as to make the reader feel the presence of the teacher,
+fatherly-hearted and philosophically serene; while in the latter
+generally we have a mysterious, transcendent figure, more celestial
+than human, surrounded and worshipped by beings of all kinds, human,
+celestial, and even demoniac, and this mystical central character
+performing some supernatural feats which might well be narrated by an
+intensely poetical mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the Pâli scriptures, the texts as a rule open with the formula,
+“Thus it was heard by me” (<i>Evam me sutam</i>), then relate the events,
+if any, which induced the Buddha to deliver them, and finally lead the
+reader to the main subjects which are generally written in <span class="pagenum" id="p243">{243}</span> lucid
+style. Their opening or introductory matter is very simple, and we do
+not notice anything extraordinary in its further development. But with
+the Mahâyâna texts it is quite different. Here we have, as soon as
+the curtain rises with the stereotyped formula, “Evam mayâ çrutam,”
+a majestic prologue dramatically or rather grotesquely represented,
+which prepares the mind of the audience to the succeeding scenes, in
+which some of the boldest religio-philosophical proclamations are
+brought forth. The perusal of this introductory part alone will
+stupefy the reader by its rather monstrous grandeur, and he may
+without much ado declare that what follows must be extraordinary and
+may be even nonsensical.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following is an illustration showing the typical manner of
+introducing the characters in the Mahâyâna texts.<sup><a href="#n104b" id="n104a">[104]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thus it was heard by me. Buddha was once staying at Râjagriha, on
+the Gridhrakuta mountain. He was in the Hall of Ratnachandra in the
+Double Tower of Chandana. Ten years passed since his attainment of
+Buddhahood. He was surrounded by a hundred thousand Bhikṣus and
+Bodhisattvas and Mahâsattvas numbering sixty times as many as the
+sands of the Ganges. All of them were in possession of the greatest
+spiritual energy; they had paid homage to thousands of hundred
+millions <span class="pagenum" id="p244">{244}</span> of niyutas<sup><a href="#n105b" id="n105a">[105]</a></sup> of Buddhas; they were able to set
+rolling the never-sliding-back Wheel of Dharma; and whoever heard
+their names could establish themselves firmly in the Highest Perfect
+Knowledge. Their names were.... [Here about fifty Bodhisattvas are
+mentioned.]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All these Bodhisattvas numbering sixty times as many as the sands of
+the Ganges coming from innumerable Buddha-countries were accompanied
+by numberless Devas, Nâgas, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, Açuras, Garudas,
+Kinnaras, and Mahoragas.<sup><a href="#n106b" id="n106a">[106]</a></sup> This great assembly all joined in
+revering, honoring, paying homage to the Bhagavat, the World-honored
+One.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“At this time the Bhagavat in the Double Tower of Chandana seated
+himself in the assigned seat, entered upon a samâdhi, and displayed a
+marvelous phenomenon. There appeared innumerable lotus-flowers with
+thousand-fold petals and each flower as large as a carriage-wheel.
+They had perfectly beautiful color and fragrant odour, but their
+petals containing celestial beings in them were not yet unfolded. They
+all were raised now by themselves high up in the heavens and hung over
+the earth like a canopy of pearls. Each one of these lotus-flowers
+emitted innumerable rays of light and simultaneously grew in size with
+wonderful vitality. But through the divine power of Buddha they all of
+<span class="pagenum" id="p245">{245}</span> a sudden changed color and withered. All the celestial Buddhas
+sitting cross-legged within the flowers now came into full view, shone
+with innumerable hundred thousand-fold rays of light. At this moment
+the transcendent glory of the spot was beyond description.”...
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As is here thus clearly shown, the Buddha in the Mahâyâna scriptures
+is not an ordinary human being walking in a sensuous world; he is
+altogether dissimilar to that son of Suddhodana, who resigned the
+royal life, wandered in the wilderness, and after six years’ profound
+meditation and penance discovered the Fourfold Noble Truth and the
+Twelve Chains of Dependence; and we cannot but think that the Mahâyâna
+Buddha is the fictitious creation of an intensely poetic mind. Let it
+be so. But the question which engages us now is, “How did the
+Buddhists come to relegate the human Buddha to oblivion, as it were,
+and assign a mysterious being in his place invested with all possible
+or sometimes impossible majesty and supernaturality?” This question,
+which marks the rise of Mahâyâna Buddhism, brings us to the doctrine
+of Trikâya,&mdash;which in a sense corresponds to the Christian theory of
+trinity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to this doctrine, the Buddhists presume a triple existence
+of the Tathâgata, that is, the Tathâgata is conceived by them as
+manifesting himself in three different forms of existence: the Body of
+Transformation, the Body of Bliss, and the Body of Dharma. Though they
+are conceived as three, they are in fact all the manifestations of one
+Dharmakâya,&mdash;the Dharmakâya that revealed itself in the historical
+Çâkyamuni <span class="pagenum" id="p246">{246}</span> Buddha as a Body of Transformation, and in the Mahâyâna
+Buddha as a Body of Bliss. However differently they may appear from
+the human point of view, they are nothing but the expression of one
+eternal truth, in which all things have their <i>raison d’être</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s02">
+<i>An Historical View.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At present we are not in possession of any historical documents that
+will throw light on the question as to how early this doctrine of
+Trikâya or Buddhist trinity conception came to be firmly established
+among Northern Buddhists and found its way in an already-finished form
+as such into the Mahâyâna scriptures. As far as we know, it was
+Açvaghoṣa, the first Mahâyâna philosopher, who incorporated this
+conception in his <i>Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahâyâna</i>
+as early as the first century before Christ. This work, as the author
+declares, is a sort of synopsis of the Mahâyâna teachings, elucidating
+their principal features as taught by the Buddha in his various sûtras.
+It is not an original work which expounds the individual views of
+Açvaghoṣa concerning Buddhism. He wrote the book in a concise and
+comprehensive form, in order that the later generations who remote
+from the Buddha could not have the privilege of being inspired by his
+august presence, might peruse it with concentration of mind and
+synthetically grasp the whole significance of many lengthy and
+voluminous sûtras. Therefore, in the <i>Awakening of Faith</i>, we are
+supposed <span class="pagenum" id="p247">{247}</span> not to find any Mahâyâna doctrines that were not
+already taught by the Buddha and incorporated in the sûtras.
+Everything Açvaghoṣa treats in his work must be considered merely a
+recapitulation of the doctrines which were not only formulated but
+firmly established as the Mahâyâna faith long before him. His is
+simply the work of a recorder. He carefully scanned all the Mahâyâna
+scriptures that had existed prior to his time and faithfully collected
+all the principal teachings of Mahâyânism here and there scatteringly
+told in them. His merit lies in compilation and systematisation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This being the case, we must assume that all the doctrines that are
+found in Açvaghoṣa and distinct from those usually held to be
+Hînayânistic are the teachings elaborated by Buddhists from the time
+of Buddha’s death down to the time of Açvaghoṣa. But as the latter
+apparently believes all these doctrines as Buddha’s own and raises no
+doubt concerning their later origin, even if they were so, we must
+assume again that these doctrines were in a state of completion long
+before Açvaghoṣa’s time. If our calculation is correct that he lived
+in the first century before Christ, the Mahâyâna faith must be said to
+have been formulated at least two hundred years prior to his
+age,&mdash;taking this presumably as the time that is required for the
+formulation and dogmatical establishment of a doctrine. This
+calculation places the development of the Mahâyâna faith during the
+first century after the Buddha, and, we know, it was during this time
+that so many schools and divisions,&mdash;among <span class="pagenum" id="p248">{248}</span> which we must also
+find the so-called “primitive” Buddhism of Ceylon, arose among the
+Buddhists,&mdash;each claiming to be the only authentic transmission of the
+Buddha’s teaching. Did Mahâyânism come out of this turmoil of
+contention? Did it boldly raise itself from this chaos and claim to
+have solved all the questions and doubts that agitated the minds of
+Buddhists after the Nirvâna? For certain we do not know anything
+concerning the chronology of the development of Buddhist philosophy
+and dogmas in India, at least before Açvaghoṣa; but, as far as our
+Chinese Buddhist literature records, we must conclude that this was
+most probably the case.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To give our readers a glimpse of the state of things that were taking
+place in those early days of Buddhism in India, I will quote some
+passages from Vasumitra’s <i>Discourse on the Points of Controversy by
+the Different Schools of Buddhism</i>,&mdash;the work once referred to in the
+beginning of this book. The two principal schools that arose soon
+after the Nirvâna of the Buddha were, as is well known, the Elders
+and the Great Council, and though they were further divided into a
+number of smaller sections and their views became so complex and
+intermixed that some of the Elders shared similar views with the Great
+Council School and vice versa, yet we can fairly distinguish one from
+the other and describe the essential peculiarities of each school.
+These points of difference, generally speaking, are as follows,
+confining ourselves to their conceptions about the Buddha:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p249">{249}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1) According to the School of the Great Council, the Buddha’s
+personality is transcendental (<i>lokottara</i>), and all the Tathâgatas
+are free from the defilements that might come from the material
+existence (<i>bhâva-âçrava</i>).<sup><a href="#n107b" id="n107a">[107]</a></sup> For in the Buddha all evil passions
+hereditary and acquired were eternally uprooted, and his presence on
+earth was absolutely spotless. (<i>The Vibhaṣa</i>, CLXXIII.) Contending
+this view, the Elders held that the Buddha’s personality was not free
+from Bhâvâçrava, though his mind was fully enlightened. His corporeal
+existence was the product of blind love veiled with ignorance and
+tangled with attachment. If this were not so, the Buddha’s feature
+would not have awakened an impure affection in the heart of a maiden,
+an ill-will in the heart of a highwayman, stupidity in the mind of an
+ascetic, and arrogance in that of a haughty Brahman. These incidents
+which <span class="pagenum" id="p250">{250}</span> happened during the life of the Buddha evince that his
+corporeal presence was apt to agitate others’ hearts, and to that
+extent it was contaminated by Bhâvâçrava.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(2) The Great Council School insists that every word uttered by a
+Tathâgata has a religious, spiritual meaning and purports to the
+edification of his fellow-beings; that his one utterance is variously
+interpreted by his audience each according to his own disposition, but
+all to his spiritual welfare; that every instruction given out by the
+Buddha is rational and perfect. Against these views the Elders think
+that the Buddha occasionally uttered things which had nothing to do
+with the enlightenment of others; that even with the Buddha something
+was out of his attainment, for instance, he could not make every one
+of his hearers perfectly understand his preachings; that though the
+Buddha never taught anything irrational and heretical, yet all his
+speeches were not perfect, he said some things which had no concern
+with rationality or orthodoxy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(3) The corporeal body (<i>rûpakâya</i>) of the Buddha has no limits
+(<i>koṭi</i>); his majestic power has no limits; every Buddha’s life is
+unlimited; a Buddha knows no fatigue, knows not when to rest, always
+occupying himself with the enlightenment of all sentient beings and
+with the awakening in their hearts of pure faith. Against these
+tendencies of the Great Council School to deify the historical Buddha,
+the Elders generally insist on the humanity of Buddhahood. Though the
+<span class="pagenum" id="p251">{251}</span> Elders agree with the Great Council in that the body assumed by
+the Buddha as the result of his untiring accumulation of good karma
+through eons of his successive existences possesses a wonderful power,
+spiritual and material, they do not conceive it to be beyond all
+limitations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(4) The Great Council School says that with the Buddha sleep is not
+necessary and he has no dreams. The Elders admit that the Buddha never
+dreams, but denies that he does not need any sleep.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(5) As the Buddha is always in the state of a deep, exalted spiritual
+meditation, it is not necessary for him to think what to say when
+requested to answer certain questions. Though he might appear to the
+inquirers as if he thoroughly cogitates over the problems presented to
+him for solution, the Buddha’s response is in fact immediate and
+without any efforts. The Elders, on the other hand, presume the
+Buddha’s mental calculation as to how to express his ideas as best
+suited to the understanding of the audience. Indeed, he does not
+cogitate over the problem itself, for with him everything is
+transparent, but he thinks over the best method of presenting his
+ideas before his pupils.<sup><a href="#n108b" id="n108a">[108]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p252">{252}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now to return to the doctrine of Dharmakâya and Trikâya. When we
+consider these controversies as above stated, it is apparent that
+among many other questions which arose soon after the demise of the
+Buddha Çâkyamuni, there was one, which in all probability most
+agitated the minds of his disciples. I mean the question of the
+personality of Buddha. Was he merely a human being like ourselves?
+Then, how could he reach such a height of moral perfection? Or was he
+a divine being? But Buddha himself did not communicate anything to his
+disciples concerning his divinity, nor did he tell them to accept the
+Dharma on account of his divine personality, but solely for the sake
+of truth. But for all that how could the disciples ever eradicate from
+their hearts the feeling of sacred reverence for their teacher, which
+was so indelibly engraved there? Whenever they recalled the sermons,
+anecdotes, or gâthâs of their master, the truth and spirit embodied
+in them and the author must have become so closely associated that
+they could not but ask themselves: “What in the Buddha caused him to
+perceive and declare these solemn profound truths? What was it that
+formed in him such a noble majestic character? What was there in the
+mind of Buddha that raised him to such a perfection of intellectual
+and religious life? How was it possible that, possessed of such
+exalted moral and spiritual virtues, Buddha too had to succumb to the
+law of birth and death that is the lot of common mortals?” Some such
+questions must have been repeatedly asked before they <span class="pagenum" id="p253">{253}</span> could
+answer them by the doctrines of Dharmakâya and Trikâya.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s03">
+<i>Who was the Buddha?</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The evidence that these questions were constantly disturbing the minds
+of the disciples ever since the Master’s entrance into Parinirvâna,
+is scatteringly revealed throughout the Buddhist texts both Southern
+and Northern. The regret of the immediate followers that they did not
+ask the Buddha to prolong his earthly life, while the Buddha told them
+that he could do so if he wished, and their lamentation over the
+remains of the Blessed One, “How soon the Light of the World has
+passed away!”<sup><a href="#n109b" id="n109a">[109]</a></sup>&mdash;these utterances may be considered the first
+drops foreboding the showers of doubt and speculation as to his
+personality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the <i>Suvarna Prabhâ Sûtra</i>,<sup><a href="#n110b" id="n110a">[110]</a></sup> a Bodhisattva, by the
+name of Ruciraketu, was greatly annoyed by the doubt why Çâkyamuni
+Tathâgata had such a short life terminating only at eighty. He <span class="pagenum" id="p254">{254}</span>
+taught the disciples that those who did not injure any living beings,
+and those who generously practised charity, in their former lives,
+could enjoy a considerably long life on earth; why then was the life
+of the Blessed One himself cut so short, who practised those virtues
+from time immemorial? The sûtra now records that this doubt was
+dispelled by the declaration of four Tathâgatas who mysteriously
+appeared to the sceptic and told him that “Every drop of water in the
+vast ocean can be counted, but the age of Çâkyamuni none can
+measure. Crush the mount Sumeru into particles as fine as mustard
+seeds and we can count them, but the age of Çâkyamuni none can
+measure..... the Buddha never entered into Parinirvana; the Good
+Dharma will never perish. He showed an earthly death merely for the
+benefits of sentient beings.”.....
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here we have the conception of a spiritual Dharmakâya germinating out
+of the corporeal death of Çâkyamuni.<sup><a href="#n111b" id="n111a">[111]</a></sup> Here we have the bridge
+that spans <span class="pagenum" id="p255">{255}</span> the wide gap between the human Çâkyamuni Buddha and
+the spiritual existence of the Dharmakâya. The Buddha did not die
+after he partook of the food offered by Chunda. His age was not
+eighty. His life did not pass to an airy nothingness when his cinerary
+urns were divided among kings and Brahmans. His virtues and merits
+which were accumulated throughout innumerable kalpas, could not come
+to naught so abruptly. What constituted the essence of his life&mdash;and
+that of ours too&mdash;could not perish with the vicissitudes of the
+corporeal existence. The Buddha as a particular individual being was
+certainly subject to transformation&mdash;so is every mortal, but his truth
+must abide forever. His Dharmakâya is above birth and death and even
+above Nirvâna; but his Body of Transformation comes out of the womb
+of Tathâgata as destined by karma and vanishes into it when the karma
+exhausts its force. The Buddha who is still seated at the summit of
+the Gridhrakuta, delivering to all beings the message of joy and
+bliss, and who among other precious teachings bequeathed to us <span class="pagenum" id="p256">{256}</span>
+such sûtras as the <i>Avatamsaka</i>, the <i>Pundarîka</i>, etc., is no more
+nor less than an expression of the eternal spirit. Thus came the
+doctrine of Dharmakâya to be formulated by the Mahâyânists, and
+from this the transition to that of Trikâya was but a natural sequence.
+Because one without the other could not give an adequate solution of
+the problems above cited.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s04">
+<i>The Trikâya as Explained in the Suvarna Prabhâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What then is the Trikâya or triple body of the Tathâgata? It is (1)
+Nirmâna Kâya, the Body of Transformation; (2): Sambhoga Kâya, the Body
+of Bliss; and (3) Dharma Kâya, the Body of Dharma. If we draw a
+parallelism between the Buddhist and the Christian trinity, the Body
+of Transformation may be considered to correspond to Christ in the
+flesh, the Body of Bliss either to Christ in glory or to Holy Ghost,
+and Dharmakâya to Godhead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us again quote from the <i>Suvarna Prabhâ</i>, in which (I-tsing’s
+translation, chap. III.) we find the following statements concerning
+the doctrine of Trikâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Tathâgata, when he was yet at the stage of discipline, practised
+divers deeds of morality for the sake of sentient beings. The practise
+finally attained perfection, reached maturity, and by virtue of its
+merits he acquired a wonderful spiritual power. The power enabled him
+to respond to the thoughts, deeds, and livings of sentient beings. He
+thoroughly understood them and never missed the right opportunity
+<span class="pagenum" id="p257">{257}</span> [to respond to their needs]. He revealed himself in the right
+place and in the right moment; he acted rightly, assuming various
+bodily forms [in response to the needs of mortal souls]. These bodily
+forms are called the Nirmânakâya of the Tathâgata.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But when the Tathâgatas, in order to make the Bodhisattvas thoroughly
+conversant with the Dharma, to instruct them in the highest reality,
+to let them understand that birth-and-death (<i>samsâra</i>) and Nirvâna
+are of one taste, to destroy the thoughts of the ego, individuality,
+and the fear [of transmigration], and to promote happiness, to lay
+foundation for innumerable Buddha-dharmas, to be truly in accord with
+Suchness, the knowledge of Suchness, and the Spontaneous Will,
+manifest themselves to the Bodhisattvas in a form which is perfect
+with the thirty-two major and eighty minor features of excellence and
+shining with the halo around the head and the back, the Tathâgatas are
+said to have assumed the Body of Bliss or Sambhogakâya.<sup><a href="#n112b" id="n112a">[112]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When all possible obstacles arising from sins [material, intellectual,
+and emotional] are perfectly removed, and when all possible good
+dharmas are preserved, there would remain nothing but Suchness and the
+knowledge of Suchness,&mdash;this is the Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The first two forms of the Tathâgata are provisional [and temporal]
+existences; but the last one is a reality, wherein the former two find
+the reason of <span class="pagenum" id="p258">{258}</span> their existence. Why? Because when deprived of the
+Dharma of Suchness and of knowledge of non-particularity, no
+Buddha-dharma can ever exist; because it is Suchness and Knowledge of
+Suchness that absorbs within itself all possible forms of
+Buddha-wisdom and renders possible a complete extinction of all
+passions and sins [arising from particularity].”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the above, the Dharmakâya which is tantamount to Suchness
+or Knowledge of Suchness is absolute; but like the moon whose image is
+reflected in a drop of water as well as in the boundless expanse of
+the waves, the Dharmakâya assumes on itself all possible aspects from
+the grossest material form to the subtlest spiritual existence. When
+it responds to the needs of the Bodhisattvas whose spiritual life is
+on a much higher plane than that of ordinary mortals, it takes on
+itself the Body of Bliss or Sambhogakâya. This Body is a supernatural
+existence, and almost all the Buddhas in the Mahâyâna scriptures
+belong to this class of being. Açvaghoṣa (p. 101) says: “The Body has
+infinite forms. The form has infinite attributes. The attribute has
+infinite excellences. And the accompanying fruition, that is, the
+region where they are destined to be born [by their previous karma],
+also has infinite merits and ornamentations. Manifesting itself
+everywhere, the Body of Bliss is infinite, boundless, limitless,
+unintermittent [in its activity] which comes directly from the Mind
+[Dharmakâya].”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the Buddhas revealed to the eyes of common <span class="pagenum" id="p259">{259}</span> mortals are not
+of this kind. They are common mortals themselves, and the earthly
+Çâkyamuni who came out of the womb of Mâyâdevî and passed away under
+the sâla trees at the age of eighty years was one of them. He was
+essentially a manifestation of the Dharmakâya, and as such we ordinary
+people also partake something of him. But the masses, unless favored
+by good karma accumulated in the past, are generally under the spell
+of ignorance. They do not see the glory of Dharmakâya in its perfect
+purity shining in the lilies of the field and sung by the fowls of the
+air. They are blindly groping in the dark wilderness, they are vainly
+seeking, they are wildly knocking. To the needs of these people the
+Dharmakâya responds by assuming an earthly form as a human Buddha.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s05">
+<i>Revelation in All Stages of Culture.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>En passant</i>, let us remark that it is in this sense that Christ is
+conceived by Buddhists also as a manifestation of the Dharmakâya in a
+human form. He is a Buddha and as such not essentially different from
+Çâkyamuni. The Dharmakâya revealed itself as Çâkyamuni to the Indian
+mind, because that was in harmony with its needs. The Dharmakâya
+appeared in the person of Christ on the Semitic stage, because it
+suited their taste best in this way. The doctrine of Trikâya, however,
+goes even further and declares that demons, animal gods,
+ancestor-worship, nature-worship, and what not, are all due to the
+activity and revelation of the Dharmakâya responding to the spiritual
+needs of barbarous <span class="pagenum" id="p260">{260}</span> and half-cultured people. The Buddhists think
+that the Dharmakâya never does things that are against the spiritual
+welfare of its creatures, and that whatever is done by it is for their
+best interests at that moment of revelation, no matter how they
+comprehend the nature of the Dharmakâya. The Great Lord of Dharma
+never throws a pearl before the swine, for he knows the animal’s needs
+are for things more substantial. He does not reveal himself in an
+exalted spiritual form to the people whose hearts are not yet capable
+of grasping anything beyond the grossly material. As they understand
+animal gods better than a metaphysical or highly abstracted being, let
+them have them and derive all possible blessings and benefits through
+their worshiping. But as soon as they become dissatisfied with the
+animal or human-fashioned gods, there must not be a moment’s hesitation
+to let them have exactly what their enlightened understanding can
+comprehend.<sup><a href="#n113b" id="n113a">[113]</a></sup> <span class="pagenum" id="p261">{261}</span> They are thus all the while being led, though
+unconsciously on their part, to the higher and higher region of
+mystery, till they come fully to grasp the true and real meaning of
+the Dharmakâya in its absolute purity, or, to use Christian
+terminology, till “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the
+glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory, even as
+by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor III. 18.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mahâyânists now argue that the reason why Çâkyamuni entered into
+Parinirvana when his worldly career was thought by him to be over is
+that by this his resignation to the law of birth and death, he wished
+to exemplify in him the impermanency of worldly life and the folly of
+clinging to it as final reality. As for his Dharmakâya, it has an
+eternal life, it was never born, and it would never perish; and when
+called by the spiritual needs of the Bodhisattvas, it will cast off
+the garb of absoluteness and preach in the form of a Sambhogakâya
+“never-ceasing sermons which run like a stream for ever and aye.” It
+will be evident from this that Buddhists are ready to consider all
+religious or moral leaders of mankind, whatever their nationality, as
+the Body of Transformation of the Dharmakâya. Translated into Christian
+thoughts, God reveals himself in every being that is worthy of him. He
+reveals himself not only at a certain <span class="pagenum" id="p262">{262}</span> period in history, but
+everywhere and all the time. His glory is perceived throughout all the
+stages of human culture. This manifestation, from the very nature of
+God, cannot be intermittent and sporadic as is imagined by some
+“orthodox Christians.” The following from St. Paul’s first Epistle to
+the Corinthians (Chap. XIII), when read in this connection, sounds
+almost like a Buddhist philosopher’s utterance: “Now there are
+diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities
+of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of
+operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the
+manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
+For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the
+word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same
+Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another
+the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another divers kinds
+of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues; but all these
+worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man
+severally as he will. For as the body is one and hath many members,
+and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so
+also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body,
+whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have
+been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p263">{263}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s06">
+<i>The Sambhogakâya.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One peculiar point in the doctrine of Trikâya, which modern minds find
+rather difficult to comprehend, is the conception of the Sambhogakâya,
+or the Body of Bliss. We can understand the relation between the
+Dharmakâya and Nirmânakâya, the latter being similar to the notion of
+God incarnate or to that of Avatara. Inasmuch as the Dharmakâya does
+not exist outside the triple world but in it as the raison d’être of
+its existence, all beings must be considered a partial manifestation
+of it; and in this sense Buddhists sometimes call themselves
+Bodhisattvas, that is, beings of intelligence, because intelligence
+(<i>Bodhi</i>) is the psychological aspect of the Dharmakâya as realised in
+sentient beings. But the conception of Sambhogakâya is altogether too
+mysterious to be fathomed by a limited consciousness. The fact becomes
+more apparent when we are told that the Sambhogakâya, Body of Bliss,
+is a corporeal existence and at the same time filling the universe and
+that there are two forms of the Body of Bliss, one for self-enjoyment
+and the other as a sort of religious object for the Bodhisattvas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That the Body of Bliss is corporeal and yet infinite has already been
+shown by the quotations from the <i>Suvarna Prabhâ</i> and Açvaghoṣa on
+the preceding pages. For further confirmation of this point no less
+authority than Asanga and Vasubandhu will be here referred to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In <i>A Comprehensive Treatise on the Mahâyana</i> and <span class="pagenum" id="p264">{264}</span> in its
+commentary, the author Asanga and the commentator Vasubandhu endeavor
+to prove why the Body of Bliss cannot be the raison d’être of the
+Dharmakâya, instead of vice versa; and in this connection they argue
+that (1) the Body of Bliss consists of the five Skandhas, that is, of
+material form (<i>rûpa</i>), sensation (<i>vedanâ</i>), ideas (<i>samjñâ</i>), deeds
+(<i>sanskâra</i>), and consciousness (<i>vijñâna</i>); (2) it is subject to
+particularisation; (3) it reveals different virtues and characters
+according to the desires of Bodhisattvas; (4) even to the same
+individual it appears differently at different times; (5) when it
+manifests itself simultaneously before an assemblage of Bodhisattvas
+of divers characters and qualifications, it at once assumes divers
+forms, in order to satisfy their infinitely diversified inclinations;
+(6) it is a creation of the Âlayavijñâna, All-conserving Mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These six peculiarities of the Body of Bliss as enumerated by Asanga
+and Vasubandhu make it indeed entirely dependent on the Dharmakâya,
+but they do not place us in any better position to penetrate into the
+deep mystery of its nature. Its supernatural incomprehensibility
+remains the same forever. In a certain sense, however, the Body of
+Bliss may be considered to be corresponding to the Christian idea of
+an angel. Supernaturalness and luminosity are the two characters
+possessed by both, but angels are merely messengers of God
+communicating the latter’s will to human beings. When they reveal
+themselves to a specially favored person, it is not of their own <span class="pagenum" id="p265">{265}</span>
+account. When they speak to him at all, it is by the name of the being
+who sent them. They do not represent him, they do not act his own will
+by themselves. On the contrary, the Body of Bliss is the master of its
+own. It is an expression of the Dharmakâya. It instructs and benefits
+all the creatures who come to it. It acts according to its own will
+and judgment. In these respects the Body of Bliss is altogether
+different from the Christian conception of angels. But will it be more
+appropriately compared to Christ in glory?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us make another quotation from later authorities than Asanga and
+his brother Vasubandhu, and let us see more convincingly what
+complicated notions are involved in the idea of the Body of Bliss.
+According to the commentators on Vasubandhu’s <i>Vijñânamâtra Çâstra</i>
+(a treatise on the Yoga philosophy),<sup><a href="#n114b" id="n114a">[114]</a></sup> the Body of Bliss has two
+distinct aspects: (1) The body obtained by the Tathâgata for his
+self-enjoyment, by dint of his religious discipline through eons; (2)
+The body which the Tathâgata manifests to the <span class="pagenum" id="p266">{266}</span> Bodhisattvas in
+Pure Land (<i>sukhâvatî</i>). This last body is in possession of wonderful
+spiritual powers, reveals the Wheel of Dharma, resolves all the
+religious doubts raised by the Bodhisattvas, and lets them enjoy the
+bliss of the Mahâyâna Dharma.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s07">
+<i>A Mere Subjective Existence.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Judging from all these characterisations, the most plausible
+conclusion that suggests itself to modern sceptical minds is that the
+Sambhogakâya must be a mere creation of an intelligent, finite mind,
+which is intently bent on reaching the highest reality, but, not being
+able, on account of its limitations, to grasp the object in its
+absoluteness, the finite mind fabricates all its ideals after its own
+fashion into a spiritual-material being, which is logically a
+contradiction, but religiously an object deserving veneration and
+worship. And this being is no more than the Body of Bliss.<sup><a href="#n115b" id="n115a">[115]</a></sup> It
+lies half way between the pure being of Dharmakâya and the earthly
+form of Nirmânakâya, the Body of Transformation. It does not belong
+to either, but partakes something of both. It is in a sense spiritual
+<span class="pagenum" id="p267">{267}</span> like the Dharmakâya, and yet it cannot go beyond material
+limitations, for it has a form, definite and determinate. When the
+human soul is thirsty after a pure being or an absolute which cannot
+be comprehended in a palpable form, it creates a hybrid, an imitation,
+or a reflection, and tries to be satisfied with it, just as a little
+girl has her innate and not yet fully developed maternity satisfied by
+tenderly embracing and nursing the doll, an inanimate imitation of a
+real living baby. And the Mahâyânists seem to have made most of this
+childish humanness. They produced as many sûtras as their spiritual
+yearnings demanded, quite regardless of historical facts, and made the
+Body of Bliss of the Tathâgata the author of all these works. For if
+the Dharmakâya of the Tathâgata never entered into Parinirvâna, why
+then could he not deliver sermons and cite gâthâs as often as beings
+of intelligence (Bodhisattvas) felt their needs? The <i>Suvarna Prabhâ</i>
+(fas. 2, chap. 3) again echoes this sentiment as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To illustrate by analogy, the sun or the moon does not make any
+conscious discrimination, nor does the water-mirror, nor the light
+[conceived separate from the body from which it emanates]. But when
+all these three are brought together, there is produced an image [of
+the sun or the moon in the water]. So it is with Suchness and
+Knowledge of Suchness. It is not possessed of any particular
+consciousness, but by virtue of the Spontaneous Will [inherent in the
+nature of Suchness, or what is the same thing, in the <span class="pagenum" id="p268">{268}</span>
+Dharmakâya], the Body of Transformation or of Bliss [as a shadow of
+the Dharmakâya] reveals itself in response to the spiritual needs of
+sentient beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And, again, as the water-mirror boundlessly expanding reflects in all
+different ways the images of âkâsa (void space) through the medium
+of light, while space itself is void of all particular marks, so the
+Dharmakâya reflects its images severally in the receiving minds of
+believers, and this by virtue of Spontaneous Will. The Will creates
+the Body of Transformation as well as the Body of Bliss in all their
+possible aspects, while the original, the Dharmakâya, does not suffer
+one whit a change on this account.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to this, it is evident that whenever our spiritual needs
+become sufficiently intense there is a response from the Dharmakâya,
+and that this response is not always uniform as the recipient minds
+show different degrees of development, intellectually and spiritually.
+If we call this communion between sentient souls and the Dharmakâya
+an inspiration, all the phenomena that flow out of fulness of heart
+and reflect purity of soul should be called “works of inspiration”;
+and in this sense the Mahâyânists consider their scriptures as
+emanating directly from the fountainhead of the Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s08">
+<i>Attitude of Modern Mahâyânists.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Modern Mahâyânists in full accordance with this interpretation of
+the Doctrine of Trikâya do not place <span class="pagenum" id="p269">{269}</span> much importance on the
+objective aspects of the Body of Bliss (<i>Sambhogakâya</i>). They consider
+them at best the fictitious products of an imaginative mind; they
+never tarry a moment to think that all these mysterious Tathâgatas or
+Bodhisattvas who are sometimes too extravagantly and generally too
+tediously described in the Mahâyâna texts are objective realities,
+that the Sukhâvatîs or Pure Lands<sup><a href="#n116b" id="n116a">[116]</a></sup> are decorated with such
+worldly stuff as gold, silver, emerald, cat’s eye, pearl, and other
+precious stones, that pious Buddhists would be transferred after their
+death to these ostentatiously ornamented heavens, be seated on the
+pedestals of lotus-flowers, surrounded by innumerable Bodhisattvas and
+Buddhas, and would enjoy all the spiritual enjoyments that human mind
+can conceive. On the contrary, modern Buddhists look with disdain on
+these egotistic materialistic conceptions of religious life. For, to a
+fully enlightened soul, of what use could those worldly treasures <span class="pagenum" id="p270">{270}</span>
+be? What happiness, earthly or heavenly, does such a soul dream of,
+outside the bliss of embracing the will of the Dharmakâya as his own?
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch10s09">
+<i>Recapitulation.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To sum up, the Buddha in the Pâli scriptures was a human being, though
+occasionally he is credited to have achieved things supernatural and
+superhuman. His historical career began with the abandonment of a
+royal life, then the wandering in the wilderness, and a long earnest
+meditation on the great problems of birth-and-death, and his final
+enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, then his fifty years’ religious
+peregrination along the valleys of the Ganges, and the establishment
+of a religious system known as Buddhism, and finally his eternal
+entrance into the “Parinirvâna that leaves nothing behind”
+(<i>anupadhiçeṣanirvâna</i>). And as far as plain historical facts are
+concerned, these seem to exhaust the life of Çâkyamuni on earth. But
+the deep reverence which was felt by his disciples could not be
+satisfied with this prosaic humanness of their master and made him
+something more than a mortal soul. So even the Pâli tradition gives
+him a supramundane life besides the earthly one. He is supposed to
+have been a Bodhisattva in the Tuṣita heaven before his entrance into
+the womb of Mâyâdevî. The honor of Bodhisattvahood was acceded to him
+on account of his deeds of self-sacrifice which were praised throughout
+his innumerable past incarnations. While he was walking <span class="pagenum" id="p271">{271}</span> among us
+in the flesh, he was glorified with the thirty-two major and eighty
+minor excellent characteristics of a great man.<sup><a href="#n117b" id="n117a">[117]</a></sup> But he was not
+the first Buddha that walked on earth to teach the Dharma, for there
+were already seven Buddhas before him, nor was he the last one that
+would appear among us, for <span class="pagenum" id="p272">{272}</span> a Bodhisattva by the name of Maitreya
+is now in heaven and making preparations for the attainment of
+Buddhahood in time to come. But here stopped the Pâli writers, they
+did not venture to make any further speculation on the nature of
+Buddhahood. Their religious yearnings did not spur them to a higher
+flight of the imagination. They recited simple sûtras or gâthâs,
+observed the çilas (moral precepts) as strictly and literally as they
+could, and thought the spirit of their Master still alive in these
+instructions;&mdash;let alone the personality of the Tathâgata.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But there was at the same time another group of the disciples of the
+Buddha, whose religious and intellectual inclinations were not of the
+same type as their fellow-believers; and on that account a simple
+faith in the Buddha as present in his teachings did not quite satisfy
+them. They perhaps reasoned in this fashion: “If there were seven
+Buddhas before the advent of the Great Muni of Çakya and there would
+be one more who is to come, where, let us ask, did they derive their
+authority and knowledge to preach? How is it that there cannot be any
+more Buddhas, that they do not come to us much oftener? If they were
+human beings like ourselves, why not we ourselves be Buddhas?” These
+questions, when logically carried out, naturally led them to the
+theory of Dharmakâya, that all the past Buddhas, and those to come,
+and even we ordinary mortals made of clay and doomed to die soon, owe
+the raison d’être of their existence to the Dharmakâya, which alone
+is immortal in us <span class="pagenum" id="p273">{273}</span> as well as in Buddhas. The first religious
+effort we have to make is, therefore, to recognise this archetype of
+all Buddhas and all beings. But the Dharmakâya as such is too abstract
+for the average mind to become the object of its religious
+consciousness; so they personified or rather materialised it. In other
+words, they idealised Çâkyamuni, endowed him not only with the
+physical signs (<i>lakṣas</i>) of greatness as in the Pâli scriptures,
+but with those of celestial transfiguration, and called him a Body of
+Bliss of the Tathâgata; while the historical human Buddha was called
+a Body of Transformation and all sentient beings Bodhisattvas, that
+is, beings of intelligence destined to become Buddhas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This idealised Buddha, or, what is the same thing, a personified
+Dharmakâya, according to the Mahâyâna Buddhists, not only revealed
+himself in the particular person of Siddhârtha Gautama in Central
+Asia a few thousand years ago, but is revealing himself in all times
+and all places. There is no specially favored spot on the earth where
+only the Buddha makes his appearance; from the zenith of Akaniṣta
+heaven down to the bottom of Nâraka, he is manifesting uninterruptedly
+and unintermittently and is working out his ideas, of which, however,
+our limited understanding is unable to have an adequate knowledge. The
+<i>Avatamsaka Sûtra</i> (Buddhabhadra’s translation, fas. 45, chap. 34)
+describes how the Buddha works out his scheme of salvation in all
+possible ways. (See also the <i>Saddharma</i> <span class="pagenum" id="p274">{274}</span> <i>pundarîka</i>, Kern’s
+translation, chap. 2, p. 30 et seq., and also pp. 413-411.).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In this wise the Buddha teaches and delivers all sentient beings
+through his religious teachings whose number is innumerable as atoms.
+He may reveal sometimes in the world of devas, sometimes in that of
+Nâgas, Yakṣas, Gandharvas, Asuras, Garudas, Kinnaras, Mahoragas, etc.,
+sometimes in the world of Brahmans, sometimes in the world of human
+beings, sometimes in the palace of Yâmarâja (king of death), sometimes
+in the underworld of damned spirits, ghosts, and beasts. His
+all-swaying compassion, intelligence, and will would not rest until
+all beings had been brought under his shelter through all possible
+means of salvation. He may achieve his work of redemption sometimes by
+means of his name, sometimes by means of memory, sometimes of voice,
+sometimes of perfect illumination, sometimes of the net of
+illumination. Whenever and wherever conditions are ripe for his
+appearance, he would never fail to present himself before sentient
+beings and also to manifest views of grandeur and splendor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Buddha does not depart from his own region, he does not depart
+from his seat in the tower; yet he reveals himself in all the ten
+quarters of the globe. He would sometimes emanate from his own body
+the clouds of Nirmânakâyas, or sometimes reveal himself in an
+undivided personality, and itinerating in all quarters would teach and
+deliver all sentient beings. He may assume sometimes the form of a
+Çrâvaka, sometimes that of a Brahmadeva, sometimes that of <span class="pagenum" id="p275">{275}</span> an
+ascetic, sometimes that of a good physician, sometimes that of a
+tradesman, sometimes that of a Bhikṣu [or honest worker], sometimes
+that of an artist, sometimes that of a deva. Again, he may reveal
+himself sometimes in all the forms of art and industry, sometimes in
+all the places of congregation, such as towns, cities, villages, etc.
+And whatever his subjects for salvation may be, and whatever his
+surroundings, he will accommodate himself to all possible conditions
+and achieve his work of enlightenment and salvation”<sup><a href="#n118b" id="n118a">[118]</a></sup>....
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The practical sequence of this doctrine of Trikâya is apparent; it
+has ever more broadened the spirit of tolerance in Buddhists. As the
+Dharmakâya universally responds to the spiritual needs of all sentient
+beings in all times and in all places and at any stage of their
+spiritual development, Buddhists consider all spiritual leaders,
+whatever their nationality and personality, as the expressions of the
+one omnipotent Dharmakâya. And as the Dharmakâya always manifests
+itself for the best interests of sentient creatures, even those
+doctrines and their authors that are apparently against the teachings
+of Buddhism are tolerated through the conviction that they are all
+moving according to the Spontaneous Will that pervades everywhere and
+works all the time. Though, superficially, they may appear as evils,
+their central and final aim is goodness and harmony which are destined
+by the Will of the Dharmakâya to overcome this world of tribulations
+and <span class="pagenum" id="p276">{276}</span> contradictions. The general intellectual tendency of
+Buddhism has done a great deal towards cultivating a tolerant spirit
+in its believers, and we must say that the doctrine of Trinity which
+appears sometimes too radical in its pantheistic spirit has
+contributed much to this cause.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch11">
+CHAPTER XI.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">THE BODHISATTVA.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p277">{277}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Next</span> to the conception of Buddha, what is important in Mahâyâna
+Buddhism is that of Bodhisattva (intelligence-being) and of that which
+constitutes its essence, Bodhicitta, intelligence-heart. As stated
+above, the followers of Mahâyânism do not call themselves Çrâvakas
+or Pratyekabuddhas or Arhats as do those of Hînayânism; but they
+distinguish themselves by the title of Bodhisattva. What this means
+will be the subject-matter of this chapter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us begin with a quotation from the <i>Saddharma-pundarîka Sûtra</i>,
+in which a well-defined distinction between the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas and the Bodhisattvas is given.<sup><a href="#n119b" id="n119a">[119]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s01">
+<i>The Three Yânas.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Now, Çâriputra, the beings who have become wise, have faith in the
+Tathâgata, the father of the world, and consequently apply themselves
+to his commandments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Amongst them there are some who, wishing to follow the dictate of an
+authoritative voice, apply themselves to the commandment of the
+Tathâgata to <span class="pagenum" id="p278">{278}</span> acquire the knowledge of the Four Great Truths,
+for the sake of their own complete Nirvana. These, one may say, to be
+those who, seeking the vehicle of the Çrâvaka, fly from the triple
+world.....
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Other beings desirous of the unconditioned knowledge, of
+self-restraint and tranquillity, apply themselves to the commandment
+of the Tathâgata to learn to understand the Twelve Chains of
+Dependence, for the sake of their own complete Nirvana. These, one may
+say, to be those who, seeking the vehicle of the Pratyekabuddha, fly
+from the triple world.....
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Other beings again desirous of omniscience, Buddha-knowledge,
+absolute knowledge, unconditioned knowledge, apply themselves to the
+commandment of the Tathâgata and to learn to understand the knowledge,
+powers, and conviction of the Tathâgata, for the sake of the common
+weal and happiness, out of compassion to the world, for the benefit,
+weal and happiness of the world at large, of both gods and men, for
+the sake of the complete Nirvana of all beings. These, one may say,
+to be those who seeking the Great Vehicle (<i>Mahâyâna</i>) fly from the
+triple world. Therefore, they are called Bodhisattva-mahâsattvas.”.....
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This characterisation of the Bodhisattvas as distinct from the
+Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas constitutes one of the most significant
+features of Mahâyâna Buddhism. Here the Bodhisattva does not exert
+himself in religious discipline for the sake of his own weal, but for
+the sake of the spiritual benefit of all his fellow-creatures. If he
+will, he could, <span class="pagenum" id="p279">{279}</span> like the Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas, enter
+into eternal Nirvana that never slides back; he could enjoy the
+celestial bliss of undisturbed tranquillity in which all our worldly
+tribulations are forever buried; he could seclude himself from the
+hurly-burly of the world, and, sitting cross-legged in a lonely cave,
+quietly contemplate on the evanescence of human interests and the
+frivolity of earthly affairs, and then self-contentedly await the time
+of final absorption into the absolute All, as streams and rivers
+finally run into one great ocean and become of one taste. But, in
+spite of all these self-sufficient blessings, the Bodhisattva would
+not seek his own ease, but he would mingle himself in the turmoil of
+worldly life and devote all his energy to the salvation of the masses
+of people, who, on account of their ignorance and infatuation, are
+forever transmigrating in the triple world, without making any
+progress towards the final goal of humanity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Along this Bodhisattvaic devotion, however, there was another current
+of religious thought and practice running among the followers of
+Buddha. By this I mean the attitude of the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas. Both of them sought peace of mind in asceticism and
+cold philosophical speculation. Both of them were intently inclined to
+gain Nirvana which may be likened unto an extinguished fire. It was
+not theirs to think of the common weal of all beings, and, therefore,
+when they attained their own redemption from earthly sins and
+passions, their religious discipline was completed, and no further
+attempt was <span class="pagenum" id="p280">{280}</span> made by them to extend the bliss of their personal
+enlightenment to their fellow-creatures.<sup><a href="#n120b" id="n120a">[120]</a></sup> They recoiled from
+mingling themselves among vulgar people lest their holy life should
+get contaminated. They did not have confidence enough in their own
+power to help the masses to break the iron yoke of ignorance and
+misery. Moreover, everybody was supposed to exert himself for his own
+emancipation, however unbearable his pain was for others could not do
+anything to alleviate it. Sympathy was of no avail; because the reward
+of his own karma good or evil could be suffered by himself alone, nor
+could it be avoidable even by the doer himself. Things done were done
+<span class="pagenum" id="p281">{281}</span> once for all, and their karma made an indelible mark on the
+pages of his destiny. Even Buddha who was supposed to have attained
+that exalted position by practising innumerable pious deeds in all his
+former lives, could not escape the fruit of evil karma which was quite
+unwittingly committed by him. This iron arm of karma seizes everybody
+in person and does not allow any substitute whatever. Those who wish
+to give a halt to the working of karma could do so only by applying a
+counter-force to it, and this with no other hand than his own. The
+Mahâyânist conception of Bodhisattvahood may be considered an effort
+somewhat to mitigate this ruthless mechanical rigidity of the law of
+karma.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p282">{282}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s02">
+<i>Strict Individualism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Buddhism of the Çrâvakas and the Pratyekabuddhas is the most
+unscrupulous application to our ethico-religious life of the
+individualistic theory of karma. All things done are done by oneself;
+all things left undone are left undone by oneself. They would say:
+“Your salvation is exclusively your own business, and whatever
+sympathy I may have is of no avail. All that I can do toward helping
+you is to let you see intellectually the way to emancipation. If you
+do not follow it, you have but to suffer the fruition of your folly. I
+am helpless with all my enlightenment, even with my Nirvana, to
+emancipate you from the misery of perpetual metempsychosis.” But with
+the Buddhism of the Mahâyâna Bodhisattvas the case is entirely
+different. It is all-sympathy, it is all-compassion, it is all-love. A
+Bodhisattva would not seclude himself into the absolute tranquillity
+of Nirvana, simply because he wishes to emancipate his
+fellow-creatures also from the bondage of ignorance and infatuation.
+Whatever rewards he may get for his self-enjoyment as the karma of his
+virtuous deeds, he would turn them over (<i>parivarta</i>) towards the
+uplifting of the suffering masses. And this self-sacrifice, this
+unselfish devotion to the welfare of his fellow-beings constitutes the
+essence of Bodhisattvahood. The ideal Bodhisattva, therefore, is
+thought to be no more than an incarnation of Intelligence and Love, of
+Prajñâ and Karunâ.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The irrefragability of karma seems to be satisfactory <span class="pagenum" id="p283">{283}</span> from the
+intellectual and individualistic standpoint, for the intellect demands
+a thorough application of logic, and individualism does not allow the
+transferring of responsibility from one person to another. From this
+viewpoint, therefore, a rigorous enforcement as demanded by Hînayânism
+of the principle of self-emancipation does not show any logical fault;
+divine grace must be suspended as the curse of karma produced by
+ignorance tenaciously clings to our soul. But when viewed from the
+religious side of the question, this inflexibility of karma is more
+than poor mortals can endure. They want something more elastic and
+pliable that yields to the supplication of the feeling. When
+individuals are considered nothing but isolated, disconnected atoms,
+between which there is no unifying bond which is the feeling, they are
+too weak to resist and overcome the ever-threatening force of evil,
+whose reality as long as a world of particulars exists cannot be
+contradicted. This religious necessity felt in our inmost
+consciousness may explain the reason why Mahâyâna Buddhism proposed
+the doctrine of parivarta (turning over) founded on the oneness of
+Dharmakâyâ.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s03">
+<i>The Doctrine of Parivarta.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctrine of turning over (<i>parivarta</i>) of one’s own merits to
+others is a great departure from that which seems to have been the
+teaching of “primitive Buddhism.” In fact, it is more than a departure,
+it <span class="pagenum" id="p284">{284}</span> is even in opposition to the latter in some measure. Because
+while individualism is a predominant feature in the religious practice
+of the Çrâvakas and the Pratyekabuddhas, universalism or
+supra-individualism, if I am allowed to use these terms, is the
+principle advocated by the Bodhisattvas. The latter believe that all
+beings, being a manifestation of the Dharmakâya, are in their essence
+of one nature; that individual existences are real so far as
+subjective ignorance is concerned; and that virtues and merits issuing
+directly from the Dharmakâya which is intelligence and love, cannot
+fail to produce universal benefit and to effect final emancipation of
+all beings. Thus, the religion of the Bodhisattvas proposes to achieve
+what was thought impossible by the Çrâvakas and the Pratyekabuddhas,
+that is, the turning over of one’s own merits to the service of others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is in this spirit that the Bodhisattvas conceive the seriousness of
+the significance of life; it is in this spirit that, pondering over
+the reason of their existence on earth, they come to the following
+view of life:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All ignorant beings are daily and nightly performing evil deeds in
+innumerable ways; and, on this account, their suffering beggars
+description. They do not recognise the Tathâgata, do not listen to
+his teachings, do not pay homage to the congregation of holy men. And
+this evil karma will surely bring them a heavy crop of misery. This
+reflection fills the heart of a Bodhisattva with gloomy feelings,
+which in turn <span class="pagenum" id="p285">{285}</span> gives rise to the immovable resolution, that he
+himself will carry all the burdens for ignorant beings and help them
+to reach the final goal of Nirvana. Inestimably heavy as these burdens
+are, he will not swerve nor yield under their weight. He will not rest
+until all ignorant beings are freed from the entangling meshes of
+desire and sin, until they are uplifted above the darkening veil of
+ignorance and infatuation; and this his marvelous spiritual energy
+defies the narrow limitations of time and space, and will extend even
+to eternity when the whole system of worlds comes to a conclusion.
+Therefore, all the innumerable meritorious deeds practised by the
+Bodhisattvas are dedicated to the emancipation of ignorant beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Bodhisattvas do not feel, however, that they are being compelled
+by any external force to devote their lives to the edification and
+uplifting of the masses. They do not recognise any outward authority,
+the violation of which may react upon them in the form of a punishment.
+They have already passed beyond this stage of world-conception which
+implies a dualism; they are on the contrary moving in a much wider and
+higher sphere of thought. All that is done by them springs from their
+spontaneous will, from the free activity of the Bodhicitta, which
+constitutes their reason of existence; and thus there is nothing
+compulsory in their thoughts and movements. [To use Laotzean
+terminology, they are practising non-action, <i>wu wei</i>, and whatever
+may appear to the ignorant and unenlightened as a strenuous and
+restless life, is merely a natural <span class="pagenum" id="p286">{286}</span> overflow from the
+inexhaustible fount of energy called Bodhicitta, heart of
+intelligence].”<sup><a href="#n121b" id="n121a">[121]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s04">
+<i>Bodhisattva in “Primitive” Buddhism.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The notion of Bodhisattva was not entirely absent in “primitive”
+Buddhism, only it did not have such a wide signification. All Buddhas
+were Bodhisattvas in their former lives. The Jâtaka stories minutely
+describe what self-sacrificing deeds were done by them and how by the
+karma of these merits they finally attained Buddhahood. Çâkyamuni
+was not the only Buddha, but there had already been seven or
+twenty-four Buddhas prior to him, and the coming Buddha to be known as
+Maitreya is believed to be disciplining himself in the Tuṣita heaven
+and going through the stages of Bodhisattvahood. The one who is thus
+destined to be the future Buddha must be extraordinarily gifted in
+spiritual energy. He must pass through eons of self-discipline, must
+practise deeds of non-atman with unflinching courage and fortitude
+through innumerable existences.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following quotation from the Jâtaka tales will be sufficient to
+see what ponderous and exacting conditions were conceived by the
+so-called Hînayânists to be necessary for a human being to become a
+fully qualified Buddha.<sup><a href="#n122b" id="n122a">[122]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p287">{287}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Of men it is he, and only he, who is in a fit condition by the
+attainment of saintship in that same existence, that can successfully
+make a wish to be a Buddha. Of those in a fit condition it is only he
+who makes the wish in the presence of a living Buddha that succeeds in
+his wish; after the death of a Buddha a wish made at a relic shrine,
+or at the foot of a Bo-tree, will not be successful. Of those who make
+the wish in the presence of a Buddha it is he and only he who has
+retired from the world that can successfully make the wish, and not
+one who is a layman. Of those who have retired from the world it is
+only he who is possessed of the Five High Powers and is master of the
+Eight Attainments that can successfully make the wish, and no one can
+do so who is lacking in these excellences. Of those, even, who possess
+these excellences, it is he, and only he, who has such firm resolve
+that he is ready to sacrifice his life for the Buddhas that can
+successfully make the wish, but no other. Of those who possess this
+resolve it is he, and only he, who has great zeal, determination,
+strenuousness, and endeavor in striving for the qualities that make a
+Buddha that is successful. The following comparisons will show the
+intensity of the zeal. If he is such a one as to think: ‘The man who,
+if all within the rim of the world were to become water, would be
+ready to swim across it with his own arms and get further shore,&mdash;he
+is the one to attain the Buddhaship: or, in case all within the rim of
+the world were to become a <span class="pagenum" id="p288">{288}</span> jungle of bamboo, would be ready to
+elbow and trample his way through it and get to the further side,&mdash;he
+is the one to attain the Buddhaship; or, in case all within the rim of
+the world were to become a <i>terra firma</i> of thick-set javelins, would
+be ready to tread on them and go afoot to the further side,&mdash;he is the
+one to attain the Buddhaship; or, in case all within the rim of the
+world were to become live coals, would be ready to tread on them and
+so get to the further side,&mdash;he is the one to attain the
+Buddhaship,’&mdash;if he deems not even one of these feats too hard for
+himself but has such great zeal, determination, strenuousness, and
+power of endeavor that he would perform these feats in order to attain
+the Buddhaship, then, but not otherwise, will his wish succeed.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From this it is apparent that everybody could not become a Buddha in
+“primitive” Buddhism; the highest aspiration that could be cherished
+by him was to believe in the teachings of Buddha, to follow the
+precepts laid down by him, and to attain at most to Arhatship. The
+idea of Arhatship, however, was considered by Mahâyânists cold,
+impassionate, and hard-hearted, for the saint calmly reviews the sight
+of the suffering masses; and therefore Arhatship was altogether
+unsatisfactory to be the object for the Bodhisattvas of their high
+religious aspirations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mahâyânists wanted to go even beyond the attainment of Arhatship,
+however exalted its spirituality may be. They wanted to make every
+humble soul <span class="pagenum" id="p289">{289}</span> a being like Çâkyamuni, they wanted lavishly to
+distribute the bliss of enlightenment; they wanted to remove all the
+barriers that were supposed to lie between Buddhahood and the common
+humanity. But how could they do this when the iron hands of karma held
+tight the fate of each individual! How was it possible for him to
+identify his being with the ideal of mankind? Perhaps this serious
+problem could not very well be solved by Buddhists, when their memory
+of the majestic personality of Çâkyamuni was still vivid before their
+mental eyes. It was probably no easy task for them to overcome the
+feeling of awe and reverence which was so deeply engraved in their
+hearts, and to raise themselves to such a height as reached by their
+Master, even ideally. This was certainly an act of sacrilege. But, as
+time advances, the personal recollection of the Master would naturally
+wane and would not play so much influence as their own religious
+consciousness which is ever fresh and active. Generally speaking, all
+great historical characters that command the reverence and awe of
+posterity do so only when their words or acts or both unravel the
+deepest secrets of the human heart. And this feeling of awe and
+reverence and even of worship is not due so much to the great
+characters themselves as to the worshiper’s own religious
+consciousness. History passes, but the heart persists. An individual
+called Çâkyamuni may be forgotten in the course of time, but the
+sacred chord in the inmost heart struck by him reverberates through
+eternity. So with the Mahâyâna Buddhists, <span class="pagenum" id="p290">{290}</span> the religious sentiment
+at last asserted itself in spite of the personal recollection and
+reverential feeling for the Master. And perhaps in the following way
+was the reasoning then advanced by them relative to the great problem
+of Buddhahood.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s05">
+<i>We are all Bodhisattvas.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As Çâkyamuni was a Bodhisattva in his former lives destined to become
+a Buddha, so we are all Bodhisattvas and even Buddhas in a certain
+sense, when we understand that all sentient beings, the Buddha not
+excepted, are one in the Dharmakâya. The Dharmakâya manifests in us as
+Bodhi which is the essence of Buddhas as well as of Bodhisattvas. This
+Bodhi can suffer no change whatever in quantity even when the
+Bodhisattva attains finally to the highest human perfection as
+Çâkyamuni Buddha. In this spirit, therefore, the Buddha exclaimed when
+he obtained enlightenment, “It is marvelous indeed that all beings
+animate and inanimate universally partake of the nature of
+Tathâgatahood.” The only difference between a Buddha and the ignorant
+masses is that the latter do not make manifest in them the glory of
+Bodhi.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They only are not Bodhisattvas who, enveloped in the divine rays of
+light in a celestial abode, philosophically review the world of
+tribulations. Even we mortals made of dust are Bodhisattvas,
+incarnates of the Bodhi, capable of being united in the all-embracing
+love of the Dharmakâya and also of obliterating the <span class="pagenum" id="p291">{291}</span> individual
+curse of karma in the eternal and absolute intelligence of the
+Dharmakâya. As soon as we come to live in this love and intelligence,
+individual existences are no hindrance to the turning over
+(<i>parivarta</i>) of one’s spiritual merits (<i>punya</i>) to the service of
+others. Let us only have an insight into the spirituality of our
+existence and we are all Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. Let us abandon the
+selfish thought of entering into Nirvana that is conceived to
+extinguish the fire of heart and leave only the cold ashes of
+intellect. Let us have sympathy for all suffering beings and turn over
+all our merits, however small, to their benefit and happiness. For in
+this way we are all made the Bodhisattvas.<sup><a href="#n123b" id="n123a">[123]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s06">
+<i>The Buddha’s Life.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This spirit of universal love prevails in all Mahâyâna literature,
+and the Bodhisattvas are everywhere represented as exercising it with
+utmost energy. The Mahâyânists, therefore, could not rest satisfied
+with a simple, prosaic, and earthly account of Çâkyamuni, <span class="pagenum" id="p292">{292}</span> they
+wanted to make it as ideal and poetic as possible, illustrating the
+gospel of love, as was conceived by them, in every phase of the life
+of the Buddha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Mahâyânists first placed the Buddha in the Tuṣita heaven before
+his birth, (as was done by the Hînayânists), made him feel pity for
+the distressed world below, made him resolve to deliver it from “the
+ocean of misery which throws up sickness as its foam, tossing with the
+waves of old age, and rushing with the dreadful onflow of death,” and
+after his Parinirvana, they made him abide forever on the peak of the
+Mount Vulture delivering the sermon of immortality to a great
+assemblage of spiritual beings. In this wise, they explained the
+significance of the appearance of Çâkyamuni on earth, which was
+nothing but a practical demonstration of the “Great Loving Heart”
+(<i>mahâkarunâcitta</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s07">
+<i>The Bodhisattva and Love.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nâgârjuna in his work on the <i>Bodhicitta</i><sup><a href="#n124b" id="n124a">[124]</a></sup> elucidates the
+Mahâyânist notion of Bodhisattvahood as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thus the essential nature of all Bodhisattvas is a great loving heart
+(<i>mahâkarunâcitta</i>), and all sentient beings constitute the object
+of its love. Therefore, all the Bodhisattvas do not cling to the
+blissful taste <span class="pagenum" id="p293">{293}</span> that is produced by the divers modes of mental
+tranquilisation (<i>dhyâna</i>), do not covet the fruit of their
+meritorious deeds, which may heighten their own happiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Their spiritual state is higher than that of the Çrâvakas, for they
+do not leave all sentient beings behind them [as the Çrâvakas do].
+They practise altruism, they seek the fruit of Buddha-knowledge
+[instead of Çrâvaka-knowledge].
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“With a great loving heart they look upon the sufferings of all
+beings, who are diversely tortured in Avici Hell in consequence of
+their sins&mdash;a hell whose limits are infinite and where an endless
+round of misery is made possible on account of all sorts of karma
+[committed by sentient creatures]. The Bodhisattvas filled with pity
+and love desire to suffer themselves for the sake of those miserable
+beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But they are well acquainted with the truth that all those diverse
+sufferings causing diverse states of misery are in one sense
+apparitional and unreal, while in another sense they are not so. They
+know also that those who have an intellectual insight into the
+emptiness (<i>çûnyatâ</i>) of all existences, thoroughly understand why
+those rewards of karma are brought forth in such and such ways
+[through ignorance and infatuation].
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Therefore, all Bodhisattvas, in order to emancipate sentient beings
+from misery, are inspired with great spiritual energy and mingle
+themselves in the filth of birth and death. Though thus they make
+themselves <span class="pagenum" id="p294">{294}</span> subject to the laws of birth and death, their hearts
+are free from sins and attachments. They are like unto those
+immaculate, undefiled lotus-flowers which grow out of mire, yet are
+not contaminated by it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Their great hearts of sympathy which constitute the essence of their
+being never leave suffering creatures behind [in their journey towards
+enlightenment]. Their spiritual insight is in the emptiness
+(<i>çûnyatâ</i>) of things, but [their work of salvation] is never outside
+the world of sins and sufferings.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s08">
+<i>The Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What is the meaning of the word “Bodhisattva”? It is a Sanskrit term
+consisting of two words, “Bodhi,” and “sattva.” <i>Bodhi</i> which comes
+from the root <i>budh</i> meaning “to wake,” is generally rendered
+“knowledge” or “intelligence.” <i>Sattva</i> (<i>sat-tva</i>) literally means
+“state of being”; thus “existence,” “creature,” or “that which is,”
+being its English equivalent. “Bodhisattva” as one word means “a being
+of intelligence,” or “a being whose essence is intelligence.” Why the
+Mahâyânists came to adopt this word in contradistinction to Çrâvaka is
+easily understood, when we see what special significance they attached
+to the conception of Bodhi in their philosophy. When Bodhi was used by
+the Çrâvakas in the simple sense of knowledge, it did not bear any
+particular import. But as soon as it came to express some metaphysical
+relation to the conception of Dharmakâya, it ceased to be used in its
+generally accepted sense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p295">{295}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bodhi, according to the Mahâyânists, is an expression of the
+Dharmakâya in the human consciousness. Philosophically speaking,
+Suchness or Bhûtatathâtâ is an ontological term, and Dharmakâya or
+Tathâgata or Buddha bears a religious significance; while all these
+three, Bodhi, Bhûtatathâtâ, and Dharmakâya, and their synonyms are
+nothing but different aspects of one and the same reality refracting
+through the several defective lenses of a finite intellect.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bodhi, though essentially an epistemological term, assumes a
+psychological sense when it is used in conjunction with citta, i.e.
+heart or soul. Bodhicitta, or Bodhihṛdaya which means the same thing,
+is more generally used than Bodhi singly in the Mahâyâna texts,
+especially when its religious import is emphasised above its
+intellectual one. Bodhicitta, viz. intelligence-heart is a reflex in
+the human heart of its religious archetype, the Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bodhicitta when further amplified is called
+anuttara-samyak-sambodhicitta, that is, “intelligence-heart that is
+supreme and most perfect.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It will be easily understood now that what constitutes the essence of
+the Bodhicitta is the very same thing that makes up the Dharmakâya.
+For the former is nothing but an expression of the latter, though
+finitely, fragmentarily, imperfectly realised in us. The citta is an
+image and the Dharmakâya the prototype, yet one is just as real as
+the other, only the two must not be conceived dualistically. There is
+a Dharmakâya, there is a human heart, and the former reflects itself
+<span class="pagenum" id="p296">{296}</span> in the latter much after the fashion of the lunar reflection in
+the water:&mdash;to think in this wise is not perfectly correct; because
+the fundamental teaching of Buddhism is to view all these three
+conceptions, the Dharmakâya, human heart, and the reflections of the
+former in the latter, as different forms of one and the same activity.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s09">
+<i>Love and Karunâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhicitta or Intelligence-heart, therefore, like the Dharmakâya
+is essentially love and intelligence, or, to use Sanskrit terms,
+<i>karunâ</i> and <i>prajñâ</i>. Here some may object to the use of the term
+“love” for karunâ, perhaps on the ground that karunâ does not exactly
+correspond to the Christian notion of love, as it savors more of the
+sense of commiseration. But if we understand by love a sacrifice of
+the self for the sake of others (and it cannot be more than that),
+then karunâ can correctly be rendered love, even in the Christian
+sense. Is not the Bodhisattva willing to abandon his own Nirvanic
+peace for the interests of suffering creatures? Is he not willing to
+dedicate the karma of his meritorious deeds performed in his
+successive existences to the general welfare of his fellow-beings? Is
+not his one fundamental motive that governs all his activities in life
+directed towards a universal emancipation of all sentient beings? Is
+he not perfectly willing to forsake all the thoughts and passions that
+arise from egoism and to embrace the will of the Dharmakâya? If this
+be the case, then there is <span class="pagenum" id="p297">{297}</span> no reason why karunâ should not
+be rendered by love.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Christians say that without love we are become sounding brass or a
+tinkling cymbal; and Buddhists would declare that without karunâ we
+are like unto a dead vine hanging over a frozen boulder, or like unto
+the cold ashes left after a blazing fire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some may say, however, that the Buddhist sympathy or commiseration
+somewhat betrays a sense of passive contemplation on evils. When
+Christians say that God loves his creatures, the love implies activity
+and shows God’s willingness to do whatever for the actual benefits of
+his subject-beings. Quite true. Yet when the Buddha is stated to have
+declared that all sentient beings in the triple world are his own
+children or that he will not enter into his final Nirvana unless all
+beings in the three thousand great chiliocosms, not a single soul
+excepted, are emancipated from the misery of birth and death, his
+self-sacrificing love must be considered to be all-comprehensive and
+at the same time full of energy and activity. Whatever objections
+there may be, we do not see any sufficient reason against speaking of
+the love-essence of the Dharmakâya and the Bodhicitta.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s10">
+<i>Nâgârjuna and Sthiramati on the Bodhicitta.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Says Nâgârjuna in his <i>Discourse on the Transcendentality of the
+Bodhicitta</i>: “The Bodhicitta is free from all determinations, that is,
+it is not included in the categories of the five skandhas, the twelve
+âyatanas, and the eighteen dhâtus. It is not a particular <span class="pagenum" id="p298">{298}</span>
+existence which is palpable. It is non-atmanic, universal. It is
+uncreated and its self-essence is void [<i>çûnya</i>, immaterial, or
+transcendental].
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“One who understands the nature of the Bodhicitta sees everything with
+a loving heart, for love is the essence of the Bodhicitta.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Bodhicitta is the highest essence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Therefore, all Bodhisattvas find their raison d’être of existence in
+this great loving heart.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Bodhicitta, abiding in the heart of sameness (<i>samatâ</i>) creates
+individual means of salvation (<i>upaya</i>).<sup><a href="#n125b" id="n125a">[125]</a></sup> <span class="pagenum" id="p299">{299}</span> One who
+understands this heart becomes emancipated from the dualistic view of
+birth and death and performs such acts as are beneficial both to
+oneself and to others.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sthiramati advocates in his <i>Discourse on the
+Mahâyâna-Dharmadhâtu</i><sup><a href="#n126b" id="n126a">[126]</a></sup> the same view as Nâgârjuna’s on the
+nature of the Bodhicitta, which I summarise here: “Nirvâna, Dharmakâya,
+Tathâgata, Tathâgata-garbha, Paramârtha, Buddha, Bodhicitta, or
+Bhûtatathâtâ,&mdash;all these terms signify merely so many different
+aspects of one and the same reality; and Bodhicitta is the name given
+to a form of the Dharmakâya or Bhûtatathâtâ as it manifests itself in
+the human heart, and its perfection, or negatively its liberation from
+all egoistic impurities, constitutes the state of Nirvana.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Being a reflex of the Dharmakâya, the Bodhicitta is practically the
+same as the original in all its characteristics; so continues
+Sthiramati: “It is free from compulsive activities; it has no
+beginning, it has no end; it cannot be defiled by impurities, it
+cannot be obscured by egoistic individualistic prejudices; it is
+incorporeal, it is the spiritual essence of Buddhas, <span class="pagenum" id="p300">{300}</span> it is the
+source of all virtues earthly as well as transcendental; it is
+constantly becoming, yet its original purity is never lost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It may be likened unto the ever-shining sunlight which may
+temporarily be hidden behind the clouds. All the modes of passion and
+sin arising from egoism may sometimes darken the light of the
+Bodhicitta, but the Citta itself forever remains free from these
+external impurities. It may again be likened unto all-comprehending
+space which remains eternally identical, whatever happenings and
+changes may occur in things enveloped therein. When the Bodhicitta
+manifests itself in a relative world, it looks as if being subject to
+constant becoming, but in reality it transcends all determinations, it
+is above the reach of birth and death (<i>samsâra</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“So long as it remains buried under innumerable sins arising from
+ignorance and egoism, it is productive of no earthly or heavenly
+benefit. Like the lotus-flower whose petals are yet unfolded, like the
+gold that is deeply entombed under the débris of dung and dirt, or
+like the light of the full moon eclipsed by Açura; the Bodhicitta,
+when blindfolded by the clouds of passion, avarice, ignorance, and
+folly, does not reveal its intrinsic spiritual worth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Destroy at once with your might and main all those entanglements;
+then like the full-bloomed lotus-flower, like genuine gold purified
+from dirt and dust, like the moon in a cloudless sky, like the sun in
+its full glory, like mother earth producing all kinds of <span class="pagenum" id="p301">{301}</span>
+cereals, like the ocean containing innumerable treasures, the eternal
+bliss of the Bodhicitta will be upon all sentient beings. All sentient
+beings are then emancipated from the misery of ignorance and folly,
+their hearts are filled with love and sympathy and free from the
+clinging to things worthless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“However defiled and obscured the Bodhicitta may find itself in
+profane hearts, it is essentially the same as that in all Buddhas.
+Therefore, says the Muni of Çakya: ‘O Çâriputra, the world of sentient
+beings is not different from the Dharmakâya; the Dharmakâya is not
+different from the world of sentient beings. What constitutes the
+Dharmakâya is the world of sentient beings; and what constitutes the
+world of sentient beings is the Dharmakâya.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As far as the Dharmakâya or the Bodhicitta is concerned, there is no
+radical distinction to be made between profane hearts and the Buddha’s
+heart; yet when observed from the human standpoint [that is, from the
+phenomenal side of existence] the following general classification can
+be made:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(1) The heart hopelessly distorted by numberless egoistic sins and
+condemned to an eternal transmigration of birth and death which began
+in the timeless past, is said to be in the state of profanity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(2) The heart that, loathing the misery of wandering in birth and
+death and taking leave of all sinful and depraved conditions, seeks
+the Bodhi in the ten virtues of perfection (<i>pâramitâ</i>) and 84,000
+Buddha-dharmas and disciplines itself in all meritorious deeds, <span class="pagenum" id="p302">{302}</span>
+is said to be the [spiritual] state of a Bodhisattva.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(3) The state in which the heart is emancipated from the obscuration
+of all passions, has distanced all sufferings, has eternally effaced
+the stain of all sins and corruptions, is pure, purer, and purest,
+abides in the essence of Dharma, has reached the height from which the
+states of all sentient beings are surveyed, has attained the
+consummation of all knowledges, has realised the highest type of
+manhood, has gained the power of spiritual spontaneity which frees one
+from attachment and hesitation,&mdash;this spiritual state is that of the
+fully, perfectly, enlightened Tathâgata”.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s11">
+<i>The Awakening of the Bodhicitta.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhicitta is present in the hearts of all sentient beings. Only
+in Buddhas it is fully awakened and active with its immaculate
+virility, while in ordinary mortals it is dormant and miserably
+crippled by its unenlightened intercourse with the world of
+sensuality. One of the most favorite parables told by the Mahâyânists
+to illustrate this point is to compare the Bodhicitta to the moonlight
+in the heavens. When the moon shines with her silvery light in the
+clear, cloudless skies, she is reflected in every drop and in every
+mass of water on the earth. The crystal dews on the quivering leaves
+reflect her like so many pearls hung on the branches. Every little
+water-pool, probably formed temporarily by heavy showers in the
+daytime, reflects her like so many stars descended <span class="pagenum" id="p303">{303}</span> on earth.
+Perhaps some of the pools are muddy and others even filthy, but the
+moonlight does not refuse to reflect her immaculate image in them. The
+image is just as perfect there as in a clear, undisturbed, transparent
+lake, where cows quench their thirst and swans bathe their taintless
+feathers. Wherever there is the least trace of water, there is seen a
+heavenly image of the goddess of night. Even so with the Bodhicitta:
+where there exists a little warmth of the heart, there it unfailingly
+glorifies itself in its best as circumstances permit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now, the question is: How should this dormant Bodhicitta in our hearts
+be awakened to its full sense? This is answered more or less
+definitely in almost all the Mahâyâna writings, and we may here
+recite the words of Vasubandhu from his <i>Discourse on the Awakening of
+the Bodhicitta</i>,<sup><a href="#n127b" id="n127a">[127]</a></sup> for they give us a somewhat systematic
+statement of those conditions which tend to awaken the Bodhicitta from
+its lethargic inactivity. (Chap. II.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhicitta or Intelligence-heart is awakened in us (1) by thinking
+of the Buddhas, (2) by reflecting on the faults of material existence,
+(3) by observing the deplorable state in which sentient beings are
+living, and finally (4) by aspiring after those virtues which are
+acquired by a Tathâgata in the highest enlightenment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p304">{304}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To describe these conditions more definitely:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1) <i>By thinking of the Buddhas.</i> “All Buddhas in the ten quarters, of
+the past, of the future, and of the present, when first started on
+their way to enlightenment, were not quite free from passions and sins
+(<i>kleça</i>) any more than we are at present; but they finally succeeded
+in attaining the highest enlightenment and became the noblest beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All the Buddhas, by strength of their inflexible spiritual energy,
+were capable of attaining perfect enlightenment. If enlightenment is
+attainable at all, why should we not attain it?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All the Buddhas, erecting high the torch of wisdom through the
+darkness of ignorance and keeping awake an excellent heart, submitted
+themselves to penance and mortification, and finally emancipated
+themselves from the bondage of the triple world. Following their
+steps, we, too, could emancipate ourselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All the Buddhas, the noblest type of mankind, successfully crossed
+the great ocean of birth and death and of passions and sins; why,
+then, we, being creatures of intelligence, could also cross the sea of
+transmigration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All the Buddhas manifesting great spiritual power sacrificed the
+possessions, body, and life, for the attainment of omniscience
+(<i>sarvajñâ</i>); and we, too, could follow their noble examples.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(2) <i>The faults of the material existence.</i> “This our bodily existence
+consisting of the five skandhas and the four mahats (elements) is a
+perpetuator of innumerable <span class="pagenum" id="p305">{305}</span> evil deeds; and therefore it should
+be cast aside. This our bodily existence constantly secretes from its
+nine orifices filths and impurities which are truly loathsome; and
+therefore it should be cast aside. This our bodily existence,
+harboring within itself anger, avarice, and infatuation, and other
+innumerable evil passions, consumes a good heart; and therefore it
+should be destroyed. This our bodily existence is like a bubble, like
+a spatter, and is decaying every minute. It is an undesirable
+possession and should be abandoned. This our bodily existence engulfed
+in ignorance is creating evil karma all the time, which throws us into
+the whirlpool of transmigration through the six gatis.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(3) <i>The miserable conditions of sentient beings which arouse the
+sympathy of the Bodhisattvas.</i> “All sentient beings are under the
+bondage of ignorance. Spell-bound by folly and infatuation, they are
+suffering the severest pain. Not believing in the law of karma, they
+are accumulating evils; going astray from the path of righteousness,
+they are following false doctrines; sinking deeper in the whirlpool of
+passions, they are being drowned in the four waters of sin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They are being tortured with all sorts of pain. They are needlessly
+haunted by the fear of birth and death and old age, and do not seek
+the path of emancipation. Mortified with grief, anxiety, tribulation,
+they do not refrain from committing further foul deeds. Clinging to
+their beloved ones and being always afraid of separation, they do not
+understand that there <span class="pagenum" id="p306">{306}</span> is no individual reality, that individual
+existences are not worth clinging to. Trying to shun enmity, hatred,
+pain, they cherish more hatred.”........
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(4) <i>The virtues of the Tathâgata.</i> “All the Tathâgatas, by virtue
+of their discipline, have acquired a noble, dignified mien which
+aspires every beholder with the thought that dispels pain and woe. The
+Dharmakâya of all the Tathâgatas is immortal and pure and free from
+evil attachments. All the Tathâgatas are possessed of moral
+discipline, tranquillity, intelligence, and emancipation. They are not
+hampered by intellectual prejudices and have become the sanctuary of
+immaculate virtues. They have the ten bâlas (powers), four abhayas
+(fearlessness), great compassion, and the three smṛtyupasthânas
+(contemplations). They are omniscient, and their love for suffering
+beings knows no bounds and brings all creatures back to the path of
+righteousness, who have gone astray on account of ignorance.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In short, the Intelligence-heart or Bodhicitta is awakened in us
+either when love for suffering creatures (which is innate in us) is
+called forth, or when our intellect aspires after the highest
+enlightenment, or when these two psychical activities are set astir
+under some favorable circumstances. As the Bodhicitta is a
+manifestation of the Dharmakâya in our limited conscious mind, it
+constantly longs for a unification with <span class="pagenum" id="p307">{307}</span> its archetype, in spite
+of the curse of ignorance heavily weighing upon it. When this
+unification is not effected for any reason, the heart (<i>citta</i>) shows
+its dissatisfaction in some way or other. The dissatisfaction may take
+sometimes a morbid course, and may result in pessimism, or misanthropy,
+or suicide, or asceticism, or some other kindred eccentric practices.
+But if properly guided and naturally developed, the more intense the
+dissatisfaction, the more energetic will be the spiritual activity of
+a Bodhisattva.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch11s12">
+<i>The Bodhisattva’s Pranidhâna.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Having awakened his Bodhicitta from its unconscious slumber, a
+Bodhisattva will now proceed to make his vows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let me remark here, however, that “vow” is not a very appropriate term
+to express the meaning of the Sanskrit <i>pranidhâna</i>. Pranidhâna is a
+strong wish, aspiration, prayer, or an inflexible determination to
+carry out one’s will even through an infinite series of rebirths.
+Buddhists have such a supreme belief in the power of will or spirit
+that, whatever material limitations, the will is sure to triumph over
+them and gain its final aim. So, every Bodhisattva is considered to
+have his own particular pranidhânas in order to perform his share in
+the work of universal salvation. His corporeal shadow may vanish as
+its karma is exhausted, but his pranidhâna survives and takes on a
+new garment, which procedure being necessary to <span class="pagenum" id="p308">{308}</span> keep it ever
+effective. All that is needed for a Bodhisattva to do this is to make
+himself a perfect incarnation of his own aspirations, putting
+everything external and foreign under their controlling spiritual
+power. Buddhists are so thoroughly idealistic and their faith in ideas
+and ideals is so unshakable that they firmly believe that whatever
+they aspire to will come out finally as real fact; and, therefore, the
+more intense and permanent and born of the inmost needs of humanity,
+the more certain are our yearnings to be satisfied. (This belief, by
+the way, will help to explain the popular belief among the Buddhists
+that any strong passion possessed by a man will survive him and take a
+form, animate or inanimate, which will best achieve its end.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to Vasubandhu whom we have quoted several times, the
+Bodhisattvas generally are supposed to make the following ten
+pranidhânas, which naturally spring from a great loving heart now
+awakened in them:<sup><a href="#n128b" id="n128a">[128]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1) “Would that all the merits I have accumulated in the past as well
+as in the present be distributed among all sentient beings and make
+them all aspire after supreme knowledge, and also that this my
+pranidhâna be constantly growing in strength and sustain me
+throughout my rebirths.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(2) “Would that, through the merits of my work, <span class="pagenum" id="p309">{309}</span> I may, wherever
+I am born, come in the presence of all Buddhas and pay them homage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(3) “Would that I be allowed all the time to be near Buddhas like
+shadow following object, and never to be away from them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(4) “Would that all Buddhas instruct me in religious truths as best
+suited to my intelligence and let me finally attain the five spiritual
+powers of the Bodhisattva.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(5) “Would that I be thoroughly conversant with scientific knowledge
+as well as the first principle of religion and gain an insight into
+the truth of the Good Law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(6) “Would that I be able to preach untiringly the truth to all
+beings, and gladden them, and benefit them, and make them intelligent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(7) “Would that, through the divine power of the Buddha, I be allowed
+to travel all over the ten quarters of the world, pay respect to all
+the Buddhas, listen to their instructions in the Doctrine, and
+universally benefit all sentient beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(8) “Would that, by causing the wheel of immaculate Dharma to revolve,
+all sentient beings in the ten quarters of the universe who may listen
+to my teachings or hear my name, be freed from all passions and awaken
+in them the Bodhicitta.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(9) “Would that I all the time accompany and protect all sentient
+beings and remove for them things which are not beneficial to them and
+give them innumerable blessings, and also that through the sacrifice
+<span class="pagenum" id="p310">{310}</span> of my body, life, and possessions I embrace all creatures and
+thereby practise the Right Doctrine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(10) “Would that, though practising the Doctrine in person, my heart
+be free from the consciousness of compulsion and unnaturalness, as all
+the Bodhisattvas practise the Doctrine in such a way as not practising
+it yet leaving nothing unpractised; for they have made their
+pranidhânas for the sake of all sentient beings.”
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch12">
+CHAPTER XII.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">TEN STAGES OF BODHISATTVAHOOD.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p311">{311}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s01">
+<i>Gradation in our Spiritual Life.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Theoretically</span> speaking, as we have seen above, the Bodhi or
+Bodhicitta is in every sentient being, and in this sense he is a
+Bodhisattva. In profane hearts it may be found enveloped in ignorance
+and egoism, but it can never be altogether annulled. For the Bodhi,
+when viewed from its absolute aspect, transcends the realm of birth
+and death (<i>samsâra</i>), is beyond the world of toil and trouble and is
+not subject to any form of defilement. But when it assumes a relative
+existence and is only partially manifested under the cover of
+ignorance, there appear various stages of actualisation or of
+perfection. In some beings it may attain a more meaningful expression
+than in others, while there may be even those who apparently fail on
+account of their accursed karma to show the evidence of its presence.
+This latter class is usually called “Icchantika,” that is, people who
+are completely overwhelmed by the passions. They are morally and
+religiously a mere corpse which even a great spiritual physician finds
+it almost impossible to resuscitate. But, philosophically considered,
+the glory of the Bodhi must be admitted <span class="pagenum" id="p312">{312}</span> to be shining even in
+these dark, ignorant souls. Such souls, perhaps, will have to go round
+many a cycle of transmigration, before their karma loses its poignancy
+and becomes susceptible to a moral influence with which they may come
+in contact.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This accursed force of karma is not the same in all beings, it admits
+of all possible degrees of strength, and causes some to suffer more
+intensely than others. But there is no human heart or soul that is
+absolutely free from the shackle of karma and ignorance, because this
+very existence of a phenomenal world is a product of ignorance, though
+this fact does not prove that this life is evil. The only heart that
+transcends the influence of karma and ignorance and is all-purity,
+all-love, and all-intelligence, is the Dharmakâya or the absolute
+Bodhi itself. The life of a Bodhisattva and indeed the end of our
+religious aspiration is to unfold, realise, and identify ourselves
+with the love and intelligence of that ideal and yet real Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The awakening of the Bodhicitta (or intelligence-heart) marks the
+first step towards the highest good of human life. This awakening must
+pass through several stages of religious discipline before it attains
+perfection. These stages are generally estimated by the Mahâyânists
+at ten. They appear, however, to our modern sceptical minds to be of
+no significant consequence, nor can we detect any very practical and
+well-defined distinction between successive stages. We fail to
+understand what religious necessity impelled the Hindu Buddhists to
+establish such apparently unimportant <span class="pagenum" id="p313">{313}</span> stages one after another
+in our religious life. We can see, however, that the first awakening
+of the Bodhicitta does not transform us all at once to Buddhahood; we
+have yet to overcome with strenuous efforts the baneful influence of
+karma and ignorance which asserts itself too readily in our practical
+life. But the marking of stages as in the gradation of the Daçabhûmî
+in our spiritual progress seems to be altogether too artificial.
+Nevertheless I here take pains as an historical survey to enumerate
+the ten stages and to give some features supposed to be most
+characteristic of each Bhûmî (stage) as expounded in the <i>Avatamsaka
+Sutra</i>. Probably they will help us to understand what moral
+conceptions and what religious aspirations were working in the
+establishment of the doctrine of Daçabhûmî, for it elaborately
+describes what was considered by the Mahâyânists to be the essential
+constituents of Bodhisattvahood, and also shows what spiritual routine
+a Buddhist was expected to pursue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ten stages are: (1) Pramuditâ, (2) Vimalâ, (3) Prabhâkarî, (4)
+Arcismatî, (5) Sudurjayâ, (6) Abhimukhî, (7) Dûrangamâ, (8) Acalâ, (9)
+Sâdhumatî, (10) Dharmameghâ.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s02">
+(1) <i>The Pramuditâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Pramuditâ means “delight” or “joy” and marks the first stage of
+Bodhisattvahood, at which the Buddhists emerge from a cold,
+self-sufficing, and almost nihilistic contemplation of Nirvâna as
+fostered by the Çrâvakas <span class="pagenum" id="p314">{314}</span> and Pratyekabuddhas. This spiritual
+emergence and emancipation is psychologically accompanied by an
+intense feeling of joy, as that which is experienced by a person when
+he unexpectedly recognises the most familiar face in a faraway land of
+strangers. For this reason the first stage is called “joy.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even in the midst of perfect tranquillity of Nirvâna in which all
+passions are alleged to have died away as declared by ascetics or
+solitary philosophers, the inmost voice in the heart of the
+Bodhisattva moans in a sort of dissatisfaction or uneasiness, which,
+though undefined and seemingly of no significance, yet refuses to be
+eternally buried in the silent grave of annihilation. He vainly gropes
+in the darkness; he vainly seeks consolation in the samâdhi of
+non-resistance or non-activity; he vainly finds eternal peace in the
+gospel of self-negation; his soul is still troubled, not exactly
+knowing the reason why. But as soon as the Bodhicitta
+(intelligence-heart) is awakened from its somnolence, as soon as the
+warmth of love (<i>mahâkarunâ</i>) penetrates into the coldest cell of
+asceticism, as soon as the light of supreme enlightenment
+(<i>mahâprajñâ</i>) dawns upon the darkest recesses of ignorance, the
+Bodhisattva sees at once that the world is not made for self-seclusion
+nor for self-negation, that the Dharmakâya is the source of “universal
+effulgence,” that Nirvâna if relatively viewed in contrast to
+birth-and-death is nothing but sham and just as unreal as any worldly
+existence; and these insights finally lead him to feel that he cannot
+rest quiet until all sentient beings are <span class="pagenum" id="p315">{315}</span> emancipated from the
+snarl of ignorance and elevated to the same position as now occupied
+by himself.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s03">
+(2) <i>The Vimalâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vimalâ means “freedom from defilement,” or, affirmatively, “purity.”
+When the Bodhisattva attains, through the spiritual insight gained at
+the first stage, to rectitude and purity of heart, he reaches the
+second stage. His heart is now thoroughly spotless, it is filled with
+tenderness, he fosters no anger, no malice. He is free from all the
+thoughts of killing any animate beings. Being contented with what
+belongs to himself, he casts no covetous eyes on things not his own.
+Faithful to his own betrothed, he does not harbor any evil thoughts on
+others. His words are always true, faithful, kind, and considerate. He
+likes truth, honesty, and never flatters.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s04">
+(3) <i>The Prabhâkarî.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Prabhâkarî means “brightness,” that is, of the intellect. This
+predominantly characterises the spiritual condition of the Bodhisattva
+at this stage. Here he gains the most penetrating insight into the
+nature of things. He recognises that all things that are created are
+not permanent, are conducive to misery, have no abiding selfhood
+(<i>âtman</i>), are destitute of purity, and subject to final decay. He
+recognises also that the real nature of things, however, is neither
+created nor subject to destruction, it is eternally abiding in the
+selfsame essence, and transcends the limits of time <span class="pagenum" id="p316">{316}</span> and space.
+Ignorant beings not seeing this truth are always worrying over things
+transient and worthless, and constantly consuming their spiritual
+energy with the fire of avarice, anger, and infatuation, which in turn
+accumulates for their future existences the ashes of misery and
+suffering. This wretched condition of sentient beings further
+stimulates the loving heart of the Bodhisattva to seek the highest
+intelligence of Buddha, which, giving him great spiritual energy,
+enables him to prosecute the gigantic task of universal emancipation.
+His desire for the Buddha-intelligence and his faith in it are of such
+immense strength that he would not falter even for a moment, if he is
+only assured of the attainment of the priceless treasure, to plunge
+himself into the smeltering fire of a volcano.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s05">
+(4) <i>The Arciṣmatî.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Arciṣmatî, meaning “inflammation,” is the name given to the fourth
+stage, at which the Bodhisattva consumes all the sediments of
+ignorance and evil passions in the fiery crucible of the purifying
+Bodhi. He practises here most strenuously the thirty-seven virtues
+called Bodhipâkṣikas which are conducive to the perfection of the
+Bodhi. These virtues consist of seven categories:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(I) Four Contemplations (<i>smṛtyusthâna</i>): 1. On the impurity of the
+body; 2. On the evils of sensuality; 3. On the evanescence of the
+worldly interests; 4. On the non-existence of âtman in things
+composite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(II) Four Righteous Efforts (<i>samyakprahâna</i>): 1. To <span class="pagenum" id="p317">{317}</span> prevent
+evils from arising; 2. To suppress evils already existing; 3. To
+produce good not yet in existence; 4. To preserve good already in
+existence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(III) Four Forces of the Will (<i>ṛddhipâda</i>): 1. The determination
+to accomplish what is willed; 2. The energy to concentrate the mind on
+the object in view; 3. The power of retaining the object in memory; 4.
+The intelligence that perceives the way to Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(IV) Five Powers (<i>indrya</i>), from which all moral good is produced: 1.
+Faith; 2. Energy; 3. Circumspection; 4. Equilibrium, or tranquillity
+of mind; 5 Intelligence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(V) Five Functions (<i>bala</i>): Same as the above.<sup><a href="#n129b" id="n129a">[129]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(VI) Seven Constituents of the Bodhi (<i>bodhyanga</i>): 1. The retentive
+power; 2. Discrimination; 3. Energy; 4. Contentment; 5. Modesty; 6.
+The balanced mind; 7. Large-heartedness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(VII) The Eightfold Noble Path (<i>âryamârga</i>): 1. Right view; 2. Right
+resolve; 3. Right speech; 4. Right conduct; 5. Right livelihood; 6.
+Right recollection; 8. Right tranquilisation, or contemplation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p318">{318}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s06">
+(5) <i>The Sudurjayâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sudurjayâ means “very difficult to conquer.” The Bodhisattva reaches
+this stage when he, completely armed with the thirty-seven
+Bodhipâkṣikas and guided by the beacon-light of Bodhi, undauntedly
+breaks through the column of evil passions. Provided with the two
+spiritual provisions, love and wisdom, and being benefitted by the
+spirits of all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future, the
+Bodhisattva has developed an intellectual power to penetrate deep into
+the system of existence. He perceives the Fourfold Noble Truth in its
+true light; he perceives the highest reality in the Tathâgata; he
+also perceives that the highest reality, though absolutely one in its
+essence, manifests itself in a world of particulars, that relative
+knowledge (<i>samvrtti</i>) and absolute knowledge (<i>paramârtha</i>) are two
+aspects of one and the same truth, that when subjectivity is disturbed
+there appears particularity, and that when it is not disturbed there
+shines only the eternal light of Tathâgatajñâ (Tathâgata-knowledge).
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s07">
+(6) <i>The Abhimukhî.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Abhimukhî means “showing one’s face,” that is, the presentation of
+intelligence (<i>prajñâ</i>) before the Bodhisattva at this stage.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhisattva enters upon this stage by reflecting on the essence of
+all dharmas which are throughout of one nature. When he perceives the
+truth, his heart is filled with great love, he serenely contemplates
+on <span class="pagenum" id="p319">{319}</span> the life of ignorant beings who are constantly going astray
+yielding themselves to evil temptations, clinging to the false
+conception of egoism, and thus making themselves the prey of eternal
+damnation. He then proceeds to contemplate the development of evils
+generally. There is ignorance, there is karma; and in this fertile
+soil of blind activity the seeds of consciousness are sown; the
+moisture of desire thoroughly soaks them, to which the water of egoism
+or individuation is poured on. The bed for all forms of particularity
+is well prepared, and the buds of nâmarûpas (name-and-form) most
+vigorously thrive here. From these we have the flowers of sense-organs,
+and which come in contact with other existences and produce
+impressions, feel agreeable sensations, and tenaciously cling to them.
+From this clinging or the will to live as the principle of
+individuation or as the principle of bhâva as is called in the Twelve
+Nidânas, another body consisting of the five skandhas comes into
+existence, and, passing through all the phases of transformation,
+dissolves and disappears. All sentient beings are thus kept in a
+perpetual oscillation of combination and separation, of pleasure and
+pain, birth and death. But the insight of the Bodhisattva has gone
+deeply into the inmost essence of things, which forever remains the
+same and in which there is no production and dissolution.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s08">
+(7) <i>The Dûrangamâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dûrangamâ means “going far away.” The Bodhisattva enters upon this
+stage by attaining the so-called <span class="pagenum" id="p320">{320}</span> Upâyajñâ, i.e. the knowledge
+that enables him to produce any means or expediency suitable for his
+work of salvation. He himself abides in the principles of <i>çûnyatâ</i>
+(transcendentality), <i>animitta</i> (non-individuality), and <i>apranihita</i>
+(desirelessness), but his lovingkindness keeps him busily engaged
+among sentient beings. He knows that Buddhas are not creatures
+radically and essentially different from himself, but he does not stop
+tendering them due homage. He is always contemplating on the nature of
+the Absolute, but he does not abandon the practice of accumulating
+merits. He is no more encumbered with worldly thoughts, yet he does
+not disdain managing secular affairs. He keeps himself perfectly aloof
+from the consuming fire of passion, but he plans all possible means
+for the sake of sentient beings to quench the enraging flames of
+avarice (<i>lobha</i>), anger (<i>dveṣa</i>), and infatuation (<i>moha</i>). He
+knows that all individual existences are like dream, mirage, or the
+reflection of the moon in the water, but he works and toils in the
+world of particulars and submits himself to the domination of karma.
+He is well aware of the transcendental nature of Pure Land
+(<i>sukhâvatî</i>), but he describes it with material colors for the sake
+of unenlightened masses. He knows that the Dharmakâya of all the
+Buddhas is not a material existence, but he does not refuse to dignify
+himself with the thirty-two major and eighty minor excellent features
+of a great man or god (<i>mahâpuruṣa</i>). He knows that the language of
+all the Buddhas does not fall within the ken of human comprehension,
+but <span class="pagenum" id="p321">{321}</span> he endeavors with all contrivances (<i>upâya</i>) to make it
+intelligible enough to the understanding of people. He knows that all
+the Buddhas perceive the past, present, and future in the twinkling of
+an eye, but he adapts himself to divers conditions of the material
+world and endeavors to help sentient beings to understand the
+significance of the Bodhi according to their destinies and
+dispositions. In short, the Bodhisattva himself lives on a higher
+plane of spirituality far removed from the defilements of worldliness;
+but he does not withdraw himself to this serene, unmolested
+subjectivity; he boldly sets out in the world of particulars and
+senses; and, placing himself on the level of ignorant beings, he works
+like them, he toils like them, and suffers like them; and he never
+fails all these times to practise the gospel of lovingkindness and to
+turn over (<i>parivarta</i>) all his merits towards the emancipation and
+spiritual edification of the masses, that is, he never gets tired of
+practising the ten virtues of perfection (<i>pâramitâ</i>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That is to say, (1) the Bodhisattva practises the virtue of charity
+(<i>dâna</i>) by freely giving away to all sentient creatures all the
+merits that he has acquired by following the path of Buddhas. (2) He
+practises the virtue of good conduct (<i>çîla</i>) by destroying all the
+evil passions that disturb serenity of mind. (3) He practises the
+virtue of patience (<i>kṣânti</i>), for he never gets irritated or excited
+over what is done to him by ignorant beings. (4) He practises the
+virtue of strenuousness (<i>vriya</i>), for he never gets tired of <span class="pagenum" id="p322">{322}</span>
+accumulating merits and of promoting good-will among his
+fellow-creatures. (5) He practises the virtue of calmness (<i>dhyâna</i>),
+for his mind is never distracted in steadily pursuing his way to
+supreme knowledge. (6) He practises the virtue of intelligence
+(<i>prajñâ</i>), for he always restrains his thoughts from wandering away
+from the path of absolute truth. (7) He practises the virtue of
+tactfulness (<i>upâya</i>), for he has an inexhaustible mine of
+expediencies ready at his command for the work of universal salvation.
+(8) He practises the virtue of will-to-do (<i>pranidhâna</i>) by
+determinedly following the dictates of the highest intelligence. (9)
+He practises the virtue of strength (<i>bala</i>), for no evil influences,
+no heretical thoughts can ever frustrate or slacken his efforts for
+the general welfare of people. (10) Finally, he practises the virtue
+of knowledge, (<i>jñâna</i>), by truthfully comprehending and expounding
+the ultimate nature of beings.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s09">
+(8) <i>The Acalâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Acalâ, “immovable,” is the name for the eighth stage of
+Bodhisattvahood. When a Bodhisattva, transcending all forms of
+discursive or deliberate knowledge, acquires the highest, perfect
+knowledge called <i>anutpattikadharmakṣânti</i>, he is said to have gone
+beyond the seventh stage. Anutpattikadharmakṣânti literally means
+“not-created-being-forbearance”; and the Buddhists use the term in the
+sense of keeping one’s thoughts in conformity to the views that
+nothing in this world <span class="pagenum" id="p323">{323}</span> has ever been created, that things are
+such as they are, i.e. they are Suchness itself. This knowledge is
+also called non-conscious or non-deliberate knowledge in
+contradistinction to relative knowledge that constitutes all our
+logical and demonstrative knowledge. Strictly speaking, this so-called
+knowledge is not knowledge in its ordinary signification, it is a sort
+of unconscious or subconscious intelligence, or immediate knowledge as
+some call it, in which not only willing and acting, but also knowing
+and willing are one single, undivided exhibition of activity, all
+logical or natural transition from one to the other being altogether
+absent. Here indeed knowledge is will and will is action; “Let there
+be light,” and there is light, and the light is good; it is the state
+of a divine mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At this stage of perfection, the Bodhisattva’s spiritual condition is
+compared to that of a person who, attempting when in a dreamy state to
+cross deep waters, musters all his energy, plans all schemes, and,
+while at last at the point of starting on the journey, suddenly wakes
+up and finds all his elaborate preparations to no purpose. The
+Bodhisattva hitherto showed untiring spiritual efforts to attain the
+highest knowledge, steadily practised all virtues tending to the
+acquirement of Nirvâna, and heroically endeavored to exterminate all
+evil passions, and at the culmination of all these exercises, he
+enters all of a sudden upon the stage of Acalâ and finds the previous
+elaboration mysteriously vanished from his conscious mind. He
+cherishes <span class="pagenum" id="p324">{324}</span> now no desire for Buddhahood, Nirvâna, or Bodhicitta,
+much less after worldliness, egoism, or the satisfaction of evil
+passions. The conscious striving that distinguished all his former
+course has now given way to a state of spontaneous activity, of
+saintly innocence, and of divine playfulness. He wills and it is done.
+He aspires and it is actualised. He is nature herself, for there is no
+trace in his activity that betrays any artificial lucubration, any
+voluntary or compulsory restraint. This state of perfect ideal freedom
+may be called esthetical, which characterises the work of a genius.
+There is here no trace of consciously following some prescribed laws,
+no pains of elaborately conforming to the formula. To put this
+poetically, the inner life of the Bodhisattva at this stage is like
+the lilies of the field whose glory is greater than that of Solomon in
+all his human magnificence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Kant’s remarks on this point are very suggestive, and I will quote the
+following from his <i>Kritik der Urteilskraft</i> (Reclam edition, p. 173):
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Also muss die Zweckmässigkeit im Produkte der schönen Kunst, ob sie
+zwar absichtlich ist, doch nicht absichtlich scheinen: d.i., schöne
+Kunst muss als Natur anzusehen sein, ob man sich ihrer zwar als Kunst
+bewusst ist. Als Natur aber erscheint ein Produkt der Kunst dadurch,
+dass zwar alle Pünktlichkeit in der Uebereinkunst mit Regeln, nach
+denen allein das Produkt das werden kann, was es soll sein,
+angetroffen wird, aber ohne Peinlichkeit, d.i., ohne eine Spur zu
+zeigen, dass die Regel dem Künstler vor Augen <span class="pagenum" id="p325">{325}</span> geschwebt und
+seinen Gemüthskräften Fesseln angelegt haben.”<sup><a href="#n130b" id="n130a">[130]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s10">
+(9) <i>The Sâdhumatî.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sâdhumatî, meaning “good intelligence,” is the name given to the
+ninth stage of Bodhisattvahood. All the Bodhisattvas are said to have
+reached here, when sentient beings are benefitted by the Bodhisattva’s
+attainment of the highest perfect knowledge, which is unfathomable by
+the ordinary human intelligence. The knowledge leads them to the
+Dharma of the deepest mystery, to the Samâdhi of perfect spirituality,
+to the Dhâranî of divine spontaneity, to Love of absolute purity, to
+the Will of utmost freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhisattva will acquire at this stage the four Pratisamvids
+(comprehensive knowledge), which are (1) Dharmapratisamvid, (2)
+Arthapratisamvid, (3) Niruktipratisamvid, (4) Pratibhanapratisamvid.
+By the Dharmapratisamvid, the Bodhisattvas understand the <span class="pagenum" id="p326">{326}</span>
+self-essence (<i>svabhâva</i>) of all beings; by the Arthapratisamvid,
+their individual attributes; by the Niruktipratisamvid, their
+indestructibility; by the Pratibhanapratisamvid, their eternal order.
+Again, by the first intelligence they understand that all individual
+dharmas have no absolute reality; by the second, that they are all
+subject to the law of constant becoming; by the third, that they are
+no more than mere names; by the fourth, that even mere names as such
+are of some value. Again, by the first intelligence, they comprehend
+that all dharmas are of one reality which is indestructible; by the
+second, that this one reality differentiating itself becomes subject
+to the law of causation; by the third, that by virtue of a superior
+understanding all Buddhas become the object of admiration and the
+haven of all sentient beings; by the fourth, that in the one body of
+truth all Buddhas preach infinite lights of the Dharma.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch12s11">
+(10) <i>The Dharmameghâ.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Dharmameghâ, “clouds of dharma,” is the name of the tenth and final
+stage of Bodhisattvahood. The Bodhisattvas have now practised all
+virtues of purity, accumulated all the constituents of Bodhi, are
+fortified with great power and intelligence, universally practise the
+principle of great love and sympathy, have deeply penetrated into the
+mystery of individual existences, fathomed the inmost depths of
+sentiency, followed step by step the walk of all the Tathâgatas. Every
+thought cherished by the Bodhisattva now dwells in <span class="pagenum" id="p327">{327}</span> all the
+Tathâgatas’ abode of eternal tranquillity, and every deed practised
+by him is directed towards the ten balas (power),<sup><a href="#n131b" id="n131a">[131]</a></sup> four
+vaiçâradyas (conviction),<sup><a href="#n132b" id="n132a">[132]</a></sup> and eighteen avenikas (unique
+characteristics),<sup><a href="#n133b" id="n133a">[133]</a></sup> of the Buddha. By these virtues the Bodhisattva
+has now acquired the knowledge of all things (<i>sarvajñâ</i>), is dwelling
+in the sanctum sanctorum of all dhâraṇîs and samâdhis, have arrived at
+the summit of all activities.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p328">{328}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Bodhisattva at this stage is a personification of love and
+sympathy, which freely issue from the fount of his inner will. He
+gathers the clouds of virtue and wisdom, in which he manifests himself
+in manifold figures; he produces the lightnings of Buddhi, Vidyâs,
+and Vaiçâradyas; and shaking the whole world with the thunder of
+Dharma he crushes all the evil ones; and pouring forth the showers of
+Good Law he quenches the burning flames of ignorance <span class="pagenum" id="p329">{329}</span> and passion
+in which all sentient creatures are being consumed.
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The above presentation of the Daçabhûmî<sup><a href="#n134b" id="n134a">[134]</a></sup> of Bodhisattvahood
+allows us to see what ideal life is held out by the Mahâyânists
+before their own eyes and in what respect it differs from that of the
+Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas as well as from that of other religious
+followers. Mahâyânism is not contented to make us mere transmitters
+or “hearers” of the teachings of the Buddha, it wants to inspire with
+all the religious and ethical motives that stirred the noblest heart
+of Çâkyamuni to its inmost depths. It fully recognises the intrinsic
+worth of the human soul; and, holding up its high ideals and noble
+aspirations, it endeavors to develop all the possibilities of our
+soul-life, which by our strenuous efforts and all-defying courage will
+one day be realised even on this earth of impermanence. We as
+individual existences are nothing but shadows which will vanish as
+soon as the conditions disappear that make them possible; we as mortal
+beings are no more than the <span class="pagenum" id="p330">{330}</span> thousands of dusty particles that
+are haphazardly and powerlessly scattered about before the cyclone of
+karma; but when we are united in the love and intelligence of the
+Dharmakâya in which we have our being, we are Bodhisattvas, and we
+can immovably stand against the tempest of birth and death, against
+the overwhelming blast of ignorance. Then even an apparently
+insignificant act of lovingkindness will lead finally to the eternal
+abode of bliss, not the actor alone, but the whole community to which
+he belongs. Because a stream of love spontaneously flows from the lake
+of Intelligence-heart (<i>Bodhicitta</i>) which is fed by the inexhaustible
+spring of the Dharmakâya, while ignorance leads only to egoism,
+hatred, avarice, disturbance, and universal misery.
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 id="ch13">
+CHAPTER XIII.<br>
+<span class="chap_sub">NIRVÂNA.</span>
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p331">{331}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+<span class="sc">Nirvâna</span>, according to Mahâyâna Buddhism, is not understood in its
+nihilistic sense. Even with the Çrâvakas or Hînayânists, Nirvâna in
+this sense is not so much the object of their religious life as the
+recognition of the Fourfold Noble Truth, or the practise of the
+Eightfold Path, or emancipation from the yoke of egoism. It is mostly
+due, as far as I can see, to non-Buddhist critics that the conception
+of Nirvâna has been selected among others as one of the most
+fundamental teachings of Buddha, declaring it at the same time to
+consist in the annihilation of all human passions and aspirations,
+noble as well as worthless.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, Nirvâna literally means “extinction” or “dissolution” of the
+five skandhas, and therefore it may be said that the entering into
+Nirvâna is tantamount to the annihilation of the material existence
+and of all the passions. Catholic Buddhists, however, do not understand
+Nirvâna in the sense of emptiness, for they say that Buddhism is not a
+religion of death nor for the dead, but that it teaches how to attain
+eternal life, how to gain an insight into the real nature of things,
+and how to regulate our conduct <span class="pagenum" id="p332">{332}</span> in accordance with the highest
+truth. Therefore, Buddhism, when rightly understood in the spirit of
+its founder, is something quite different from what it is commonly
+supposed to be by the general public.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I will endeavor in the following pages to point out that Nirvâna in
+the sense of a total annihilation of human activities, is by no means
+the primary and sole object of Buddhists, and then proceed to
+elucidate in what signification it is understood in the Mahâyâna
+Buddhism and see what relative position Nirvâna in its Mahâyânistic
+sense occupies in the body of Buddhism.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s01">
+<i>Nihilistic Nirvâna not the First Object.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In order to see the true signification of Nirvâna, it is necessary
+first to observe in what direction Buddha himself ploughed the waves
+in his religious cruise and upon what shore he finally debarked. This
+will show us whether or not Nirvâna as nihilistic nothingness is the
+primary and sole object of Buddhism, to which every spiritual effort
+of its devotees is directed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the attainment of negativistic Nirvâna were the sole aim of
+Buddhism, we should naturally expect Buddha’s farewell address to be
+chiefly dealing with that subject. In his last sermon, however, Buddha
+did not teach his disciples to concentrate all their moral efforts on
+the attainment of Nirvânic quietude disregarding all the forms of
+activity that exhibit themselves in life. Far from it. He told them,
+according to the <i>Mahânibbâna sutta</i> (the Book of the Great <span class="pagenum" id="p333">{333}</span>
+decease, <i>S. B. E.</i> Vol. XI. p. 114) that “Decay is inherent in all
+component things! Work out your salvation with diligence!” This
+exhortation of the strenuous life is quite in harmony with the last
+words of Buddha as recorded in Açvaghoṣa’s <i>Buddhacarita</i> (Chinese
+translation, Chap. XXVI). They were:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Even if I lived a kalpa longer,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Separation would be an inevitable end.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A body composed of various aggregates,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Its nature is not to abide forever.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Having finished benefiting oneself and others,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Why live I longer to no purpose?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Of gods and men that should be saved,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Each and all had been delivered.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“O ye, my disciples!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Without interruption transmit the Good Dharma!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Know ye that things are destined to decay!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Never again abandon yourselves to grief!</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“But pursue the Way with diligence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And arrive at the Home of No-separation!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">I have lit the Lamp of Intelligence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That shining dispels the darkness of the world.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Know ye that the world endureth not!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As ye should feel happy [when ye see]</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The parents suffering a mortal disease</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Are released by a treatment from pain;</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“So with me, I now give up the vessel of misery,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Transcend<sup><a href="#n135b" id="n135a">[135]</a></sup> the current of birth and death,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And am eternally released from all pain and suffering.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This too must be deemed blest.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p334">{334}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Ye should well guard yourselves!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Never give yourselves up to indulgence!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All that exists finally comes to an end!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">I now enter into Nirvâna.”<sup><a href="#n136b" id="n136a">[136]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+In this we find Buddha’s characteristic admonition to his disciples
+not to waste time but to work out their salvation with diligence and
+rigor, but we fail to find the gospel of annihilation, the supposedly
+fundamental teaching of Buddhism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Did then Buddha start in his religious discipline to attain the
+absolute annihilation of all human aspirations and after a long
+meditation reach the conclusion that contradicted his premises? Far
+from it. His first and last ambition was nothing else than the
+emancipation of all beings from ignorance, misery, and suffering
+through enlightenment, knowledge, and truth. When Mâra the evil one
+was exhausting all his evil powers upon the destruction of the Buddha
+in the beginning of his career, the good gods in the heavens exclaimed
+to the evil one:<sup><a href="#n137b" id="n137a">[137]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Take not on thyself, O Mâra, this vain fatigue,&mdash;throw aside thy
+malevolence and retire to thy home. This sage cannot be shaken by thee
+any more than the mighty mountain Meru by the wind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p335">{335}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Even fire might lose its hot nature, water its fluidity, earth its
+steadiness, but never will he abandon his resolution, who has acquired
+his merit by a long course of actions through unnumbered eons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Such is the purpose of his, that heroic effort, that glorious
+strength, that compassion for all beings,&mdash;until he attains the
+highest wisdom [or suchness, <i>tattva</i>], he will never rise from his
+seat, just as the sun does not rise without dispelling the darkness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Pitying the world lying distressed amidst diseases and passions, he,
+the great physician, ought not to be hindered, who undergoes all his
+labors for the sake of the remedy-knowledge.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He, who, when he beholds the world drowned in the great flood of
+existence and unable to reach the further shore, strives to bring them
+safely across,&mdash;would any right-minded soul offer him wrong?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The tree of knowledge, whose roots go deep in firmness, and whose
+fibres are patience,&mdash;whose flowers are moral actions and whose
+branches are memory and thought,&mdash;and which gives out the Dharma as
+its fruit,&mdash;surely when it is growing it should not be cut down.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These words of the good gods in the heavens truthfully echo the motive
+that stirred Çâkyamuni to take up his gigantic task of universal
+salvation, and we are unable here as before to perceive a particle of
+the nihilistic speculation which is supposed to characterise Nirvâna.
+The Buddha from the very first of his religious course searched after
+the light that will illuminate <span class="pagenum" id="p336">{336}</span> the whole universe and dispel the
+darkness of nescience.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What enlightenment, then, did the Buddha, pursuing his first object,
+finally gain? What truth was it that he is said to have discovered
+under the Bodhi tree after six years’ penance and deep meditation? As
+is universally recognised, it was no more than the Fourfold Noble
+Truth and the Twelve Chains of Dependence, which are acknowledged by
+the Mahâyânists as well as by the Hînayânists as the essentially
+original teachings of the Buddha. What then was his subjective state
+when he discovered these truths? How did he feel in his inmost being
+after this intellectual triumph over egoistic thoughts and passions?
+According to the Southern tradition, the famous Hymn of Victory is
+said to be his utterance on this occasion. It reads (The <i>Dharmapada</i>,
+153):
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Many a life to transmigrate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Long quest, no rest, hath been my fate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Tent-designer inquisitive for;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Painful birth from state to state.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Tent-designer, I know thee now;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Never again to build art thou;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Quite out are all thy joyful fires,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Rafter broken and roof-tree gone;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Into the vast my heart goes on,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Gains Eternity&mdash;dead desires.”<sup><a href="#n138b" id="n138a">[138]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+In this Hymn of Victory, the “tent-designer” means <span class="pagenum" id="p337">{337}</span> the ego that
+is supposed to be a subtle existence behind our mental experiences. As
+was pointed out elsewhere the negative phase of Buddhism consists in
+the eradication of this ego-substratum or the “designer” of eternal
+transmigration. The Buddha now finds out that this ego-soul is a
+fantasmagoria and has no final existence; and with this insight his
+ego-centric desires that troubled him so long are eternally dead; he
+feels the breaking up of their limitations; he is absorbed in the
+Eternal Vast, in which we all live and move and have our being. No
+shadow is perceptible here that suggests anything of an absolute
+nothingness supposed to be the attribute of Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before proceeding further, let us see what the Mahâyâna tradition
+says concerning this point. The tradition varies in this case as in
+many others. According to Beal’s <i>Romantic History of Buddha</i>, which
+is a translation of a Chinese version of the <i>Buddhacarita</i> (<i>Fo pen
+hing ching</i>),<sup><a href="#n139b" id="n139a">[139]</a></sup> Buddha is reported to have exclaimed this:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Through ages past have I acquired continual merit,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That which my heart desired have I now attained,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">How quickly have I arrived at the ever-constant condition,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And landed on the very shore of Nirvâna.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The sorrows and opposition of the world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Lord of the Kâmalokas, Mâra Pisuna,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">These are unable now to affect, they are wholly destroyed;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By the power of religious merit and of wisdom are they cast away.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Let a man but persevere with unflinching resolution,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And seek Supreme Wisdom, it will not be hard to acquire it;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When once obtained, then farewell to all sorrows,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All sin and guilt are forever done away.”<sup><a href="#n140b" id="n140a">[140]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p338">{338}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Viewing the significance of Buddhism in this light, it is evident that
+Buddha did not emphasise so much the doctrine of Nirvâna in the sense
+of a total abnegation of human aspirations as the abandonment of
+egoism and the practical regulation of our daily life in accordance
+with this view. Nirvâna in which all the passions noble and base are
+supposed to have been “blown out like a lamp” was not the most coveted
+object of Buddhist life. On the contrary, Buddhism advises all its
+followers to exercise most strenuously all their spiritual energy to
+attain perfect freedom from the bondage of ignorance and egoism;
+because that is the only way in which we can conquer the vanity of
+worldliness and enjoy the bliss of eternal life. The following verse
+from the <i>Visuddhi Magga</i> (XXI) practically <span class="pagenum" id="p339">{339}</span> sums up the teaching
+of Buddhism as far as its negative and individual phase is concerned:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Behold how empty is the world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Mogharâja! In thoughtfulness</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Let one remove belief in self,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And pass beyond the realm of death.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The king of death will never find</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The man who thus the world beholds.”<sup><a href="#n141b" id="n141a">[141]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s02">
+<i>Nirvâna is Positive.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not my intention here to investigate the historical side of this
+question; we are not concerned with the problem of how the followers
+of Buddha gradually developed the positive aspect of Nirvâna in
+connection with the practical application of his moral and religious
+<span class="pagenum" id="p340">{340}</span> teachings; nor are we engaged in tracing the process of
+evolution through which Buddha’s noble resolution to save all sentient
+beings from ignorance and misery was brought out most conspicuously by
+his later devotees. What I wish to state here about the positive
+conception of Nirvâna and its development is this: The Mahâyâna
+Buddhism was the first religious teaching in India that contradicted
+the doctrine of Nirvâna as conceived by other Hindu thinkers who saw
+in it a complete annihilation of being, for they thought that
+existence is evil, and evil is misery, and the only way to escape
+misery is to destroy the root of existence, which is nothing less than
+the total cessation of human desires and activities in Nirvânic
+unconsciousness. The Yoga taught self-forgetfulness in deep
+meditation; the Samkhya, the absolute separation of Puruṣa from
+Prakṛti, which means undisturbed self-contemplation; the Vedânta,
+absorption in the Brahma, which is the total suppression of all
+particulars; and thus all of them considered emancipation from human
+desires and aspirations a heavenly bliss, that is, Nirvâna.
+Metaphysically speaking, they might have been correct each in its own
+way, but, ethically considered, their views had little significance in
+our practical life and showed a sad deficiency in dealing with
+problems of morality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Buddha was keenly aware of this flaw in their doctrines. He
+taught, therefore, that Nirvâna does not consist in the complete
+stoppage of existence, but in the practise of the Eightfold Path. This
+moral <span class="pagenum" id="p341">{341}</span> practise leads to the unalloyed joy of Nirvâna, not as
+the tranquillisation of human aspirations, but as the fulfilment or
+unfolding of human life. The word Nirvâna in the sense of annihilation
+was in existence prior to Buddha, but it was he who gave a new
+significance to it and made it worthy of attainment by men of moral
+character. All the doctrinal aspects of Nirvâna are later additions or
+rather development made by Buddhist scholars, according to whom their
+arguments are solidly based on some canonical passages. Whatever the
+case may be, my conviction is that those who developed the positive
+significance of Nirvâna are more consistent with the spirit of the
+founder than those who emphasised another aspect of it. In the <i>Udâna</i>
+we read (IV., 9):
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“He whom life torments not,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who sorrows not at the approach of death,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">If such a one is resolute and has seen Nirvâna,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In the midst of grief, he is griefless.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The tranquil-minded Bhikkhu, who has uprooted the thirst for existence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By him the succession of births is ended,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is born no more.”<sup><a href="#n142b" id="n142a">[142]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+According to the Mahâyânistic conception Nirvâna is not the
+annihilation of the world and the putting an end to life; but it is to
+live in the whirlpool of birth and death and yet to be above it. It is
+affirmation and fulfilment, and this is done not blindly and
+egoistically, for Nirvâna is enlightenment. Let us see how this is.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p342">{342}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s03">
+<i>The Mahâyânistic Conception of Nirvâna.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the conception of Nirvâna seems to have remained indefinite and
+confused as far as Hînayânism goes, the Mahâyâna Buddhists have
+attached several definite shades of meaning to Nirvâna and tried to
+give each of them some special, distinctive character. When it is used
+in its most comprehensive metaphysical sense, it becomes synonymous
+with Suchness (<i>tattva</i>) or with the Dharmakâya. When we speak of
+Buddha’s entrance into Nirvâna, it means the end of material
+existence, i.e., death. When it is used in contrast to birth and death
+(<i>samsâra</i>) or to passion and sin (<i>kleça</i>), it signifies in the
+former case an eternal life or a state of immortality, and in the
+latter case a state of consciousness that follows from the recognition
+of the presence of the Dharmakâya in individual existences. Nirvâna
+has thus become a very comprehensive term, and this fact adds much to
+the confusion and misunderstanding with which it has been treated ever
+since Buddhism became known to the Occident. The so-called “primitive
+Buddhism” is not altogether unfamiliar with all these meanings given
+to Nirvâna, though in some cases they might have been but faintly
+foreshadowed. Most of European missionaries and scholars have ignored
+this fact and wanted to see in Nirvâna but one definite, stereotyped
+sense which will loosen or untie all the difficult knots connected
+with its use. One scholar would select a certain passage in a certain
+sûtra, where the meaning <span class="pagenum" id="p343">{343}</span> is tolerably distinct, and taking this
+as the key endeavor to solve all the rest; while another scholar would
+do the same thing with another passage from the scriptures and refute
+other fellow-workers. The majority of them, however, have found for
+missionary purposes to be advantageous to hold one meaning prominently
+above all the others that may be considered possibly the meaning of
+Nirvâna. This one meaning that has been made specially conspicuous is
+its negativistic interpretation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the <i>Vijñânamâtra çâstra</i> (Chinese version Vol. X.), the
+Mahâyâna Buddhists distinguish four forms of Nirvâna. They are:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(1) <i>Absolute Nirvâna</i>, as a synonym of the Dharmakâya. It is
+eternally immaculate in its essence and constitutes the truth and
+reality of all existences. Though it manifests itself in the world of
+defilement and relativity, its essence forever remains undefiled.
+While it embraces in itself innumerable incomprehensible spiritual
+virtues, it is absolutely simple and immortal; its perfect
+tranquillity may be likened unto space in which every conceivable
+motion is possible, but which remains in itself the same. It is
+universally present in all beings whether animate or inanimate<sup><a href="#n143b" id="n143a">[143]</a></sup>
+and makes their existence real. In one respect it can be identified
+with them, that is, it can be pantheistically viewed; but in the other
+respect it is transcendental, <span class="pagenum" id="p344">{344}</span> for every being as it is is not
+Nirvâna. This spiritual significance is, however, beyond the ken of
+ordinary human understanding and can be grasped only by the highest
+intelligence of Buddha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(2) <i>Upadhiçeṣa Nirvâna</i>, or Nirvâna that has some residue. This is a
+state of enlightenment which can be attained by Buddhists in their
+lifetime. The Dharmakâya which was dormant in them is now awakened and
+freed from the “affective obstacles,”<sup><a href="#n144b" id="n144a">[144]</a></sup> but they are yet under the
+bondage of birth and death; and thus they are not yet absolutely free
+from the misery of life: something still remains in them that makes
+them suffer pain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(3) <i>Anupadhiçeṣa Nirvâna</i>, or Nirvâna that has no residue. This is
+attained when the Tathâgata-essence (the Dharmakâya) is released from
+the pain of birth and death as well as from the curse of passion and
+sin. This form of Nirvâna seems to be what is generally understood by
+Occidental missionary-scholars as the Nirvâna of Buddhists. While in
+lifetime, they have been emancipated from the egoistic conception of
+the soul, they have practised the Eightfold Path, and they <span class="pagenum" id="p345">{345}</span> have
+destroyed all the roots of karma that makes possible their
+metempsychosis in the world of birth and death (<i>samsâra</i>), though as
+the inevitable sequence of their previous karma they have yet to
+suffer all the evils inherent in the material existence. But at last
+they have had even this mortal coil dissolved away, and have returned
+to the original Absolute from which by virtue of ignorance they had
+come out and gone through a cycle of births and deaths. This state of
+supramundane bliss in the realm of the Absolute is Anupadiçeṣa
+Nirvâna, that is, Nirvâna that has no residue.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(4) <i>The Nirvâna that has no abode.</i> In this, the Buddha-essence has
+not only been freed from the curse of passion and sin (<i>kleça</i>), but
+from the intellectual prejudice, which most tenaciously clings to the
+mind. The Buddha-essence or the Dharmakâya is revealed here in its
+perfect purity. All-embracing love and all-knowing intelligence
+illuminate the path. He who has attained to this state of subjective
+enlightenment is said to have no abode, no dwelling place, that is to
+say, he is no more subject to the transmigration of birth and death
+(<i>samsâra</i>), nor does he cling to Nirvâna as the abode of complete
+rest; in short, he is above Samsâra and Nirvâna. His sole object in
+life is to benefit all sentient beings to the end of time; but this he
+proposes to do not by his human conscious elaboration and striving.
+Simply actuated by his all-embracing love which is of the Dharmakâya,
+he wishes to deliver all his fellow-creatures from misery, he does
+<span class="pagenum" id="p346">{346}</span> not seek his own emancipation from the turmoil of life. He is
+fully aware of the transitoriness of worldly interests, but on this
+account he desires not to shun them. With his all-knowing intelligence
+he gains a spiritual insight into the ultimate nature of things and
+the final course of existence. He is one of those religious men “that
+weep, as though they wept not; that rejoice as though they rejoiced
+not; that buy, as though they possessed not; that use this world, as
+not abusing it; for the fashion of this world passes away.” Nay, he is
+in one sense more than this; his life is full of positive activity,
+because his heart and soul are devoted to the leading of all beings to
+final emancipation and supreme bliss. When a man attains to this stage
+of spiritual life, he is said to be in the Nirvâna that has no abode.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A commentator on the <i>Vijñânamâtra Çâstra</i> adds that of these four
+forms of Nirvâna the first is possessed by every sentient being,
+whether it is actualised in its human perfection or lying dormant <i>in
+posse</i> and miserably obscured by ignorance; that the second and third
+are attained by all the Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas, while it is a
+Buddha alone that is in possession of all the four forms of Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s04">
+<i>Nirvâna as the Dharmakâya.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is manifest from the above statement that in Mahâyânism Nirvâna
+has acquired several shades of meaning psychological and ontological.
+This apparent confusion, however, is due to the purely idealistic
+<span class="pagenum" id="p347">{347}</span> tendency of Mahâyânism, which ignores the distinction usually
+made between being and thought, object and subject, the perceived and
+the perceiving. Nirvâna is not only a subjective state of
+enlightenment but an objective power through whose operation this
+beatific state becomes attainable. It does not simply mean a total
+absorption in the Absolute or of emancipation from earthly desires in
+lifetime as exemplified in the life of the Arhat. Mahâyânists perceive
+in Nirvâna not only this, but also its identity with the Dharmakâya,
+or Suchness, and recognise its universal spiritual presence in all
+sentient beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Nâgârjuna says in his <i>Mâdhyamika Çâstra</i><sup><a href="#n145b" id="n145a">[145]</a></sup> that: “That is
+called Nirvâna which is not wanting, is not acquired, is not
+intermittent, is not non-intermittent, is not subject to destruction,
+and is not created;” he evidently speaks of Nirvâna as a synonym of
+Dharmakâya, that is, in its first sense as above described. Chandra
+Kîrti, therefore, rightly comments that Nirvâna is
+<i>sarva-kalpanâ-kṣaya-rûpam</i>,<sup><a href="#n146b" id="n146a">[146]</a></sup> i.e., that which transcends all
+the forms of determination. <span class="pagenum" id="p348">{348}</span> Nirvâna is an absolute, it is above
+the relativity of existence (<i>bhâva</i>) and non-existence
+(<i>abhâva</i>).<sup><a href="#n147b" id="n147a">[147]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nirvâna is sometimes spoken of as possessing four attributes; (1)
+eternal (<i>nitya</i>), (2) blissful (<i>sukha</i>), (3) self-acting (<i>âtman</i>),
+and (4) pure (<i>çuçi</i>). Judging from these qualities thus ascribed to
+Nirvâna as its essential features, Nirvâna is here again identified
+with the highest reality of Buddhism, that is, with the Dharmakâya.
+It is eternal because it is immaterial; it is blissful because it is
+above all sufferings; it is self-acting because it knows no
+compulsion; it is pure because it is not defiled by passion and
+error.<sup><a href="#n148b" id="n148a">[148]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p349">{349}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s05">
+<i>Nirvâna in its Fourth Sense.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+No further elucidation is needed for the first signification of
+Nirvâna, for we have treated it already when explaining the nature of
+the Dharmakâya. Nor is it necessary for us to dwell upon the second
+and the third phases of it. The Occidental missionary-scholars and
+Orientalists, however one-sided and often biased, have almost
+exhaustively investigated these points from the Pâli sources. What
+remains for us now is to analyse the Mahâyânistic conception of
+Nirvâna which was stated above as its fourth signification.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nirvâna, briefly speaking, is a realisation in this life of the
+all-embracing love and all-knowing intelligence of Dharmakâya. It is
+the unfolding of the reason of existence, which in the ordinary human
+life remains more or less eclipsed by the shadow of ignorance and
+egoism. It does not consist in the mere observance of the moral
+precepts laid down by Buddha, nor in the blind following of the
+Eightfold Path, nor in retirement from the world and absorption in
+abstract meditation. The Mahâyânistic Nirvâna is full of energy and
+activity which issues from the all-embracing love of the Dharmakâya.
+There is no passivity in it, nor a keeping aloof from the hurly-burly
+of worldliness. <span class="pagenum" id="p350">{350}</span> He who is in this Nirvâna does not seek a rest
+in the annihilation of human aspirations, does not flinch in the face
+of endless transmigration. On the contrary, he plunges himself into
+the ever-rushing current of Samsâra and sacrifices himself to save
+his fellow-creatures from being eternally drowned in it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Though thus the Mahâyâna Nirvâna is realised only in the mire of
+passions and errors, it is never contaminated by the filth of
+ignorance. Therefore, he that is abiding in Nirvâna, even in the
+whirlpool of egoism and in the darkness of sin, does not lose his
+all-seeing insight that penetrates deep into the ultimate nature of
+being. He is aware of the transitoriness of things. He knows that this
+life is a mere passing moment in the eternal manifestation of the
+Dharmakâya, whose work can be realised only in boundless space and
+endless time. As he is fully awake to this knowledge, he never gets
+engrossed in the world of sin. He lives in the world like unto the
+lotus-flower, the emblem of immaculacy, which grows out of the mire
+and yet shares not its defilement. He is also like unto a bird flying
+in the air that does not leave any trace behind it. He may again be
+likened unto the clouds that spontaneously gather around the mountain
+peak, and, soaring high as the wind blows, vanish away to the region
+where nobody knows. In short, he is living in, and yet beyond, the
+realm of Samsâra and Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We read in the <i>Vimalakirti Sûtra</i> (chap. VIII.):
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Vimalakirti asks Mañjuçri: ‘How is it that you <span class="pagenum" id="p351">{351}</span> declare all
+[human] passions and errors are the seeds of Buddhahood?’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Mañjuçri replies: ‘O son of good family! Those who cling to the view
+of non-activity [<i>asamskrita</i>] and dwell in a state of eternal
+annihilation do not awaken in them supremely perfect knowledge
+[<i>anuttara-samyak-sambodhi</i>]. Only the Bodhisattvas, who dwell in the
+midst of passions and errors, and who, passing through the [ten]
+stages, rightly contemplate the ultimate nature of things, are able to
+awaken and attain intelligence [<i>prajñâ</i>].
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“&hairsp;‘Just as the lotus-flowers do not grow in the dry land, but in the
+dark-colored, waterly mire, O son of good family, it is even so [with
+intelligence (<i>prajñâ</i> or <i>bodhi</i>)] In non-activity and eternal
+annihilation which are cherished by the Çrâvakas and the
+Pratyekabuddhas, there is no opportunity for the seeds and sprouts of
+Buddhahood to grow. Intelligence can grow only in the mire and dirt of
+passion and sin. It is by virtue of passion and sin that the seeds and
+sprouts of Buddhahood are able to grow.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“&hairsp;‘O son of good family! Just as no seeds can grow in the air, but in
+the filthy, muddy soil,&mdash;and there even luxuriously,&mdash;O son of good
+family, it is even so [with the Bodhi]. It does not grow out of
+non-activity and eternal annihilation. It is only out of the
+mountainous masses of egoistic, selfish thoughts that Intelligence is
+awakened and grows to the incomprehensible wisdom of Buddha-seeds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“&hairsp;‘O son of good family! Just as we cannot obtain <span class="pagenum" id="p352">{352}</span> priceless
+pearls unless we dive into the depths of the four great oceans, O son
+of good family, it is even so [with Intelligence]. If we do not dive
+deep into the mighty ocean of passion and sin, how could we get hold
+of the precious gem of Buddha-essence? Let it therefore be understood
+that the primordial seeds of Intelligence draw their vitality from the
+midst of passion and sin.’&hairsp;” In a Pauline epistle we read, “From the
+foulness of the soil, the beauty of new life grows.” And Emerson
+sings:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Let me go where’er I will,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">I hear a sky-born music still.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis not in the high stars alone,</span><br>
+<span class="i1">Nor in the cup of budding flowers,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone,</span><br>
+<span class="i1">Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But in the mud and scum of things.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">There always, always, something sings.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Do we not see here a most explicit statement of the Mahâyânistic
+sentiment?
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s06">
+<i>Nirvâna and Samsâra are One.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The most remarkable feature in the Mahâyânistic conception of Nirvâna
+is expressed in this formula: “Yas kleças so bodhi, yas samsâras tat
+nirvânam.” What is sin or passion, that is Intelligence, what is birth
+and death (or transmigration), that is Nirvâna. This is a rather bold
+and revolutionising proposition in the dogmatic history of Buddhism.
+But it is no more than the natural development of the spirit that was
+breathed by its founder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p353">{353}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the <i>Viçeṣacinta-brahma-paripṛccha Sûtra</i>,<sup><a href="#n149b" id="n149a">[149]</a></sup> it is said that
+(chap. II):
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Samsâra is Nirvâna, because there is, when viewed from the ultimate
+nature of the Dharmakâya, nothing going out of, nor coming into,
+existence, [samsâra being only apparent]: Nirvâna is samsâra, when it
+is coveted and adhered to.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In another place (<i>op. cit.</i>) the idea is expressed in much plainer
+terms: “The essence of all things is in truth free from attachment,
+attributes, and desires; therefore, they are pure, and, as they are
+pure, we know that what is the essence of birth and death that is the
+essence of Nirvâna, and that what is the essence of Nirvâna that is
+the essence of birth and death (<i>samsâra</i>). In other words, Nirvâna
+is not to be sought outside of this world, which, though transient, is
+in reality no more than Nirvâna itself. Because it is contrary to our
+reason to imagine that there is Nirvâna and there is birth and death
+(<i>samsâra</i>), and that the one lies outside the pale of the other,
+and, therefore, that we can attain Nirvâna only after we have
+annihilated or escaped the world of birth and death. If we are not
+hampered by our confused subjectivity, this our worldly life is an
+activity of Nirvâna itself.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nâgârjuna repeats the same sentiment in his <i>Mâdhyamika Çâstra</i>, when
+he says:
+
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p354">{354}</span>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Samsâra is in no way to be distinguished from Nirvâna:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nirvâna is in no way to be distinguished from Samsâra.”<sup><a href="#n150b" id="n150a">[150]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+Or,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“The sphere of Nirvâna is the sphere of Samsâra:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Not the slightest distinction exists between them.”<sup><a href="#n151b" id="n151a">[151]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Asanga goes a step further and boldly declares that all the
+Buddha-dharmas, of which Nirvâna or Dharmakâya forms the foundation,
+are characterised with the passions, errors, and sins of vulgar minds.
+He says in <i>Mahâyâna-Sangraha Çâstra</i> (the Chinese Tripitaka, Japanese
+edition of 1881, <i>wang</i> VIII., p. 84):
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(1) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with eternality, for the
+Dharmakâya is eternal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(2) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with an extinguishing power,
+for they extinguish all the obstacles for final emancipation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(3) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with regeneration, for the
+Nirmânakâya [Body of Transformation] constantly regenerates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(4) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the power of
+attainment, for by the attainment [of truth] they subjugate
+innumerable evil passions as cherished by ignorant beings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(5) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with the desire to gain, ill
+humor, folly, and all the other <span class="pagenum" id="p355">{355}</span> passions of vulgar minds, for it
+is through the Buddha’s love that those depraved souls are saved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(6) All Buddha-dharmas are characterised with non-attachment and
+non-defilement, for Suchness which is made perfect by these virtues
+cannot be defiled by any evil powers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“(7) All Buddha-dharmas are above attachment and defilement, for
+though all Buddhas reveal themselves in the world, worldliness cannot
+defile them.”<sup><a href="#n152b" id="n152a">[152]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Buddha-dharma means any thing, or any virtue, or any faculty, that
+belongs to Buddhahood. Non-attachment is a Buddha-dharma, love is a
+Buddha-dharma, wisdom is a Buddha-dharma. and in fact anything is a
+Buddha-dharma which is an attribute of the Perfect One, not to mention
+the Dharmakâya or Nirvâna which constitutes the very essence of
+Buddhahood. Therefore, the conclusion which is to be drawn from those
+seven propositions of Asanga as above quoted is this: Not only is this
+world of constant transformation as a whole Nirvâna, but its apparent
+errors and sins and evils are also the various phases of the
+manifestation of Nirvâna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The above being the Mahâyânistic view of Nirvâna, it is evident that
+Nirvâna is not something transcendental or that which stands above
+this world of birth <span class="pagenum" id="p356">{356}</span> and death, joy and sorrow, love and hate,
+peace and struggle. Nirvâna is not to be sought in the heavens nor
+after a departure from this earthly life nor in the annihilation of
+human passions and aspirations. On the contrary, it must be sought in
+the midst of worldliness, as life with all its thrills of pain and
+pleasure is no more than Nirvâna itself. Extinguish your life and
+seek Nirvâna in anchoretism, and your Nirvâna is forever lost. Consign
+your aspirations, hopes, pleasures, and woes, and everything that
+makes up a life to the eternal silence of the grave, and you bury
+Nirvâna never to be recovered. In asceticism, or in meditation, or in
+ritualism, or even in metaphysics, the more impetuously you pursue
+Nirvâna, the further away it flies from you. It was the most serious
+mistake ever committed by any religious thinkers to imagine that
+Nirvâna which is the complete satisfaction of our religious feeling
+could be gained by laying aside all human desires, ambitions, hopes,
+pains, and pleasures. Have your own Bodhi (intelligence) thoroughly
+enlightened through love and knowledge, and everything that was
+thought sinful and filthy turns out to be of divine purity. It is the
+same human heart, formerly the fount of ignorance and egoism, now the
+abode of eternal beatitude&mdash;Nirvâna shining in its intrinsic
+magnificence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suppose a torch light is taken into a dark cell, which people had
+hitherto imagined to be the abode of hideous, uncanny goblins, and
+which on that account they wanted to have completely destroyed to the
+<span class="pagenum" id="p357">{357}</span> ground. The bright light now ushered in at once disperses the
+darkness, and every nook and corner therein is perfectly illumined.
+Everything in it now assumes its proper aspect. And to their surprise
+people find that those figures which they formerly considered to be
+uncanny and horrible are nothing but huge precious stones, and they
+further learn that every one of those stones can be used in some way
+for the great benefit of their fellow-creatures. The dark cell is the
+human heart before the enlightenment of Nirvâna, the torch light is
+love and intelligence. When love warms and intelligence brightens, the
+heart finds every passion and sinful desire that was the cause of
+unbearable anguish now turned into a divine aspiration. The heart
+itself, however, remains the same just as much as the cell, whose
+identity was never affected either by darkness or by brightness. This
+parable nicely illustrates the Mahâyânistic doctrine of the identity
+of Nirvâna and Samsâra, and of the Bodhi and Kleça, that is, of
+intelligence and passion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Therefore, it is said:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“All sins transformed into the constituents of enlightenment!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The vicissitudes of Samsâra transformed into the beatitude of Nirvâna!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All these come from the exercise of the great religious discipline (<i>upâya</i>);</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Beyond our understanding, indeed, is the mystery of all Buddhas.”<sup><a href="#n153b" id="n153a">[153]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p358">{358}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s07">
+<i>The Middle Course.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In one sense the Buddha always showed an eclectic, conciliatory,
+synthetic spirit in his teachings. He refused to listen to any extreme
+doctrine which elevates one end too high at the expense of the other
+and culminates in the collapse of the whole edifice. When the Buddha
+left his seat of enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, he made it his
+mission to avoid both extremes, asceticism and hedonism. He proved
+throughout his life to be a calm, dignified, thoughtful,
+well-disciplined person, and at no time irritable in character,&mdash;in
+this latter respect being so different from the sage of Nazareth, who
+in anger cast out all the tradesmen in the temple and overthrew the
+tables of the money-changers, and who cursed the fig tree on which he
+could not find any fruit but leaves unfit to appease his hunger. The
+doctrine of the Middle Path (<i>Mâdhyamârga</i>), whatever it may mean
+morally and intellectually, always characterised the life and doctrine
+of Buddha as well as the later development of his teachings. His
+followers, however different in their individual views, professed as a
+rule to pursue steadily the Middle Path as paved by the Master. Even
+when Nâgârjuna proclaimed his celebrated doctrine of Eight No’s which
+seems to superficial critics nothing but an absolute nihilism, he said
+that the Middle Path could be found only in those eight no’s.<sup><a href="#n154b" id="n154a">[154]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p359">{359}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mahâyânism has certainly applied this synthetic method of Buddha to
+its theory of Nirvâna and ennobled it by fully developing its immanent
+signification. In the <i>Discourse on Buddha-essence</i>, Vasubandhu quotes
+the following passage from the <i>Çrimala Sûtra</i>, which plainly shows
+the path along which the Mahâyânists traveled before they reached
+their final conclusion: “Those who see only the transitoriness of
+existence are called nihilists, and those who see only the eternality
+of Nirvâna are called eternalists. Both views are incorrect.”
+Vasubandhu then proceeds to say: “Therefore, the Dharmakâya of the
+Tathâgata is free from both extremes, and on that account it is called
+the Great Eternal Perfection. When viewed from this absolute standpoint
+of Suchness, the logical distinction between Nirvâna and Samsâra cannot
+in reality be maintained, and hereby we enter upon the realm of
+non-duality.” And this realm of non-duality is the Middle Path of
+Nirvâna, not in its nihilistic, but in its Mahâyânistic, significance.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s08">
+<i>How to Realise Nirvâna.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How can we attain the Middle Path of Nirvâna? How can we realise a
+life that is neither pessimistic asceticism nor materialistic
+hedonism? How can we steer through the whirlpools of Samsâra without
+being <span class="pagenum" id="p360">{360}</span> swallowed up and yet braving their turbulent gyration? The
+answer to this can readily be given, when we understand, as repeatedly
+stated above, that this life is the manifestation of the Dharmakâya,
+and that the ideal of human existence is to realise within the
+possibilities of his mind and body all that he can conceive of the
+Dharmakâya. And this we have found to be all-embracing love and
+all-seeing intelligence. Destroy then your ignorance at one blow and
+be done with your egoism, and there springs forth an eternal stream of
+love and wisdom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Says Vasubandhu: “By virtue of Prajñâ [intelligence or wisdom], our
+egoistic thoughts are destroyed: by virtue of Karuṇâ [love],
+altruistic thoughts are cherished. By virtue of Prajñâ, the
+[affective] attachment inherent in vulgar minds is abolished; by
+virtue of Karuṇâ, the [intellectual] attachment as possessed by the
+Çrâvakas and Pratyekabuddhas is abolished. By virtue of Prajñâ,
+Nirvâna [in its transcendental sense] is not rejected; by virtue of
+Karuṇâ, Samsâra [with its changes and transmigrations] is not rejected.
+By virtue of Prajñâ the truth of Buddhism is attained; by virtue of
+Karuṇâ, all sentient beings are matured [for salvation].”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The practical life of a Buddhist runs in two opposite, though not
+antagonistic, directions, one upward and the other downward, and the
+two are synthesised in the Middle Path of Nirvâna. The upward
+direction points to the intellectual comprehension of the truth, while
+the downward one to a realisation of all-embracing <span class="pagenum" id="p361">{361}</span> love among
+his fellow-creatures. One is complemented by the other. When the
+intellectual side is too much emphasised at the expense of the
+emotional, we have a Pratyekabuddha, a solitary thinker, whose
+fountain of tears is dry and does not flow over the sufferings of his
+fellow-beings. When the emotional side alone is asserted to the
+extreme, love acquires the egoistic tint that colors everything coming
+in contact with it. Because it does not discriminate and takes
+sensuality for spirituality. If it does not turn out sentimentalism,
+it will assume a hedonistic form. How many superstitious, or foul, or
+even atrocious deeds in the history of religion have been committed
+under the beautiful name of religion, or love of God and mankind! It
+makes the blood run cold when we think how religious fanatics burned
+alive their rivals or opponents at the stake, cruelly butchered
+thousands of human lives within a day, brought desolation and ruin
+throughout the land of their enemies,&mdash;and all these works of the
+Devil executed for sheer love of God! Therefore, says Devala, the
+author of the <i>Discourse on the Mahâpuruṣa</i> (Great Man): “The wise
+do not approve lovingkindness without intelligence, nor do they
+approve intelligence without lovingkindness; because one without the
+other prevents us from reaching the highest path.” Knowledge is the
+eye, love is the limb. Directed by the eye, the limb knows how to
+move; furnished with the limb, the eye can attain what it perceives.
+Love alone is blind, knowledge alone is lame. It is only when one is
+supplemented <span class="pagenum" id="p362">{362}</span> by the other that we have a perfect, complete man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Buddha as the ideal human being we recognise the perfection of love
+and intelligence; for it was in him that the Dharmakâya found its
+perfect realisation in the flesh. But as far as the Bodhisattvas are
+concerned, their natural endowments are so diversified and their
+temperament is so uneven that in some the intellectual elements are
+more predominant while in others the emotional side is more pronounced,
+that while some are more prone to practicality others preferably look
+toward intellectualism. Thus, as a matter of course, some Bodhisattvas
+will be more of philosophers than of religious seers. They may tend in
+some cases to emphasise the intellectual side of religion more than
+its emotional side and uphold the importance of prajñâ (intelligence)
+above that of karuṇâ (love). But the Middle Path of Nirvâna lies in
+the true harmonisation of prajñâ and karuṇâ, of bodhi and upâya, of
+knowledge and love, of intellect and feeling.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s09">
+<i>Love Awakens Intelligence.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But if we have to choose between the two, let us first have
+all-embracing love, the Buddhists would say; for it is love that
+awakens in us an intense desire to find the way of emancipating the
+masses from perpetual sufferings and eternal transmigration. The
+intellect will now endeavor to realise its highest possibilities; the
+Bodhi will exhibit its fullest strength. When it is found out that
+this life is an expression of the Dharmakâya which is one and eternal,
+that <span class="pagenum" id="p363">{363}</span> individual existences have no selfhood (<i>âtman</i> or
+<i>svabhâva</i>) as far as they are due to the particularisation of
+subjective ignorance, and, therefore, that we are true and real only
+when we are conceived as one in the absolute Dharmakâya, the
+Bodhisattva’s love which caused him to search after the highest truth
+will now unfold its fullest significance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This love, or faith in the Mahâyâna, as it is sometimes called, is
+felt rather vaguely at the first awakening of the religious
+consciousness, and agitates the mind of the aspirant, whose life has
+hitherto been engrossed in every form of egocentric thought and
+desire. He no more finds an unalloyed satisfaction, as the Çrâvakas
+or the Pratyekabuddhas do, in his individual emancipation from the
+curse of Samsâra. However sweet the taste of release from the bond of
+ignorance, it is lacking something that makes the freedom perfectly
+agreeable to the Bodhisattva who thinks more of others than of
+himself; to be sweet as well as acceptable, it must be highly savored
+with lovingkindness which embraces all his fellow-beings as his own
+children. The emancipation of the Çrâvaka or of the Pratyekabuddha
+is like a delicious food which is wanting in saline taste, for it is
+no more than a dry, formal philosophical emancipation. Love is that
+which stimulates a man to go beyond his own interests. It is the
+mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The sacred motive that induces
+them to renounce a life of Nirvânic self-complacency, is nothing but
+their boundless love for all beings. They do <span class="pagenum" id="p364">{364}</span> not wish to rest in
+their individual emancipation, they want to have all sentient creatures
+without a single exception emancipated and blest in paradisiacal
+happiness. Love, therefore, bestows on us two spiritual benefits: (1)
+It saves all beings from misery and (2) awakens in us the
+Buddha-intelligence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following passages quoted at random from Devala’s <i>Mahâpuruṣa</i>
+will help our readers to understand the true signification of Nirvâna
+and the value of love (<i>karuṇâ</i>) as estimated by the Mahâyânists.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Those who are afraid of transmigration and seek their own benefits
+and happiness in final emancipation, are not at all comparable to
+those Bodhisattvas, who rejoice when they come to assume a material
+existence once again, for it affords them another opportunity to
+benefit others. Those who are only capable of feeling their own
+selfish sufferings may enter into Nirvâna [and not trouble themselves
+with the sufferings of other creatures like themselves]; but the
+Bodhisattva who feels in himself all the sufferings of his
+fellow-beings as his own, how can he bear the thought of leaving
+others behind while he is on his way to final emancipation, and when
+he himself is resting in Nirvânic quietude?..... Nirvâna in truth
+consists in rejoicing at other’s being made happy, and Samsâra in not
+so feeling. He who feels a universal love for his fellow-creatures
+will rejoice in distributing blessings among them and find his Nirvâna
+in so doing.<sup><a href="#n155b" id="n155a">[155]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p365">{365}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Suffering really consists in pursuing one’s egotistic happiness,
+while Nirvâna is found in sacrificing one’s welfare for the sake of
+others. People generally think that it is an emancipation when they
+are released from their own pain, but a man with loving heart finds it
+in rescuing others from misery.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“With people who are not kindhearted, there is no sin that will not be
+committed by them. They are called the most wicked whose hearts are
+not softened at the sight of others’ misfortune and suffering.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When all beings are tortured by avarice, passion, ill humor,
+infatuation, and folly, and are constantly threatened by the misery of
+birth and death, disease and decay..... how can the Bodhisattva live
+among them and not feel pity for them?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Of all good virtues, lovingkindness stands foremost.... It is the
+source of all merit.... It is the <span class="pagenum" id="p366">{366}</span> mother of all Buddhas.... It
+induces others to take refuge in the incomparable Bodhi.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The loving heart of a Bodhisattva is annoyed by one thing, that all
+beings are constantly tortured and threatened by all sorts of pain.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us quote another interesting passage from a Mahâyâna sûtra.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Vimalakirti was asked why he did not feel well, he made the
+following reply, which is full of religious significance: “From
+ignorance there arises desire and that is the cause of my illness. As
+all sentient beings are ill, so am I ill. When all sentient beings are
+healed of their illness, I shall be healed of my illness, too. Why?
+The Bodhisattva suffers birth and death because of sentient beings. As
+there is birth and death, so there is illness. When sentient beings
+are delivered from illness, the Bodhisattvas will suffer no more
+illness. When an only son in a good family is sick, the parents feel
+sick too: when he is recovered they are well again. So it is with the
+Bodhisattva. He loves all sentient beings as his own children. When
+they are sick, he is sick too. When they are recovered, he is well
+again. Do you wish to know whence this [sympathetic] illness is? The
+illness of the Bodhisattva comes from his all-embracing love
+(<i>mahâkarunâ</i>).”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This gospel of universal love is the consummation of all religious
+emotions whatever their origin. Without this, there is no
+religion&mdash;that is, no religion that is animated with life and spirit.
+For it is in the fact <span class="pagenum" id="p367">{367}</span> and nature of things that we are not moved
+by mere contemplation or mere philosophising. Every religion may have
+its own way of intellectually interpreting this fact, but the
+practical result remains the same everywhere, viz. that it cannot
+survive without the animating energy of love. Whatever sound and fine
+reasoning there may be in the doctrine of the Çrâvaka and the
+Pratyekabuddha, the force that is destined to conquer the world and to
+deliver us from misery is not intellection, but the will, i.e. the
+pûrvapranidhâna of the Dharmakâya.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ch_ss" id="ch13s10">
+<i>Conclusion.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We now conclude. What is most evident from what we have seen above is
+that the Mahâyâna Nirvâna is not the annihilation of life but its
+enlightenment, that it is not the nullification of human passions and
+aspirations but their purification and ennoblement. This world of
+eternal transmigration is not a place which should be shunned as the
+playground of evils, but should be regarded as the place of
+ever-present opportunities given to us for the purpose of unfolding
+all our spiritual possibilities and powers for the sake of the
+universal welfare. There is no need for us to shrink, like the snail
+into his cozy shelter, before the duties and burdens of life. The
+Bodhisattva, on the contrary, finds Nirvâna in a concatenation of
+births and deaths and boldly faces the problem of evil and solves it
+by purifying the Bodhi from subjective ignorance.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p368">{368}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His rule of conduct is:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Sabba pâpassa akaranam,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Kusalassa upasampada,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Sacitta pariyodapanam;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Etam buddhânu sâsanam.”<sup><a href="#n156b" id="n156a">[156]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+His aspirations are solemnly expressed in this, which we hear daily
+recited in the Mahâyâna Buddhist temples and monasteries and
+seminaries:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Sentient beings, however innumerable, I take vow to save;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Evil passions, however inextinguishable, I take vow to destroy;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The avenues of truth, however numberless, I take vow to study;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The way of the Enlightened, however unsurpassable, I take vow to attain.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+And an indefatigable pursuit of these noble aims will finally lead to
+the heaven of the Buddhists, Nirvâna, which is not a state of eternal
+quietude, but the source of energy and intelligence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+By way of summary, and to avoid all misconceptions, let me repeat once
+more that Nirvâna is thus no negation of life, nor is it an idle
+contemplation on the misery of existence. The life of a Buddhist
+consists by no means in the monotonous repetition of reciting the
+sûtras and going his rounds for meals. Far from that. He enters into
+all the forms of life-activity, for he does not believe that universal
+emancipation <span class="pagenum" id="p369">{369}</span> is achieved by imprisoning himself in the cloister.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Theoretically speaking, Nirvâna is the dispersion of the clouds of
+ignorance hovering around the light of Bodhi. Morally, it is the
+suppression of egoism and the awakening of love (<i>karunâ</i>).
+Religiously, it is the absolute surrender of the self to the will of
+the Dharmakâya. When the clouds of ignorance are dispersing, our
+intellectual horizon gets clearer and wider; we perceive that our
+individual existences are like bubbles and lightnings, but that they
+obtain reality in their oneness with the Body of Dharma. This
+conviction compels us to eternally abandon our old egoistic conception
+of life. The ego finds its significance only when it is conceived in
+relation to the not-ego, that is, to the <i>alter</i>; in other words,
+self-love has no meaning whatever unless it is purified by love for
+others. But this love for others must not remain blind and
+unenlightened, it must be in harmony with the will of the Dharmakâya
+which is the norm of existence and the reason of being. The mission of
+love is ennobled and fulfilled in its true sense when we come to the
+faith that says “thy will be done.” Love without this resignation to
+the divine ordinance is merely another form of egoism: the root is
+already rotten, how can its trunk, stems, leaves, and flowers make a
+veritable growth?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let us then conclude with the following reflections of the Bodhisattva,
+in which we read the whole signification of Buddhism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p370">{370}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Having practised all the six virtues of perfection (<i>pâramitâ</i>) and
+innumerable other meritorious deeds, the Bodhisattva reflects in this
+wise:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“&hairsp;‘All the good deeds practised by me are for the benefit of all
+sentient beings, for their ultimate purification [from sin]. By the
+merit of these good deeds I pray that all sentient beings be released
+from the innumerable sufferings suffered by them in their various
+abodes of existence. By the turning over (<i>parivarta</i>) of these deeds
+I would be a haven for all beings and deliver them from their
+miserable existences; I would be a great beacon-light to all beings
+and dispel the darkness of ignorance and make the light of intelligence
+shine.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He reflects again in this wise:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“&hairsp;‘All sentient beings are creating evil karma in innumerable ways, and
+by reason of this karma they suffer innumerable sufferings. They do
+not recognise the Tathâgata, do not listen to the Good Law, do not
+pay homage to the congregation of holy men. All these beings carry an
+innumerable amount of great evil karma and are destined to suffer in
+innumerable ways. For their sake I will in the midst of the three evil
+creations suffer all their sufferings and deliver every one of them.
+Painful as these sufferings are, I will not retreat, I will not be
+frightened, I will not be negligent, I will not forsake my
+fellow-beings. Why? Because it is the will [of the Dharmakâya] that
+all sentient beings should be universally emancipated.’
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p371">{371}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He reflects again in this wise:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“&hairsp;‘My conduct will be like the sun-god who with his universal
+illumination seeks not any reward, who ceases not on account of one
+unrighteous person to make a great display of his magnificent glory,
+who on account of one unrighteous person abandons not the salvation of
+all beings. Through the dedication (<i>parivarta</i>) of all my merits I
+would make every one of my fellow-creatures happy and joyous.’&hairsp;” (The
+<i>Avatamsaka Sûtra</i>, fas XIV).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p372">{372}</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="appendix">
+APPENDIX.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p373">{373}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p374">{374}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+HYMNS OF MAHÂYÂNA FAITH.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p375">{375}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+DHARMAKÂYA (TATHÂGATA).<sup><a href="#a01b" id="a01a">[1]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In all beings there abideth the Dharmakâya;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With all virtues dissolved in it, it liveth in eternal calmness.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It knoweth nor birth nor death, coming nor going;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Not one, not two; not being, not becoming;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet present everywhere in worlds of beings:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This is what is perceived by all Tathâgatas.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All virtues, material and immaterial,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Dependent on the Dharmakâya, are eternally pure in it.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Like unto the sky is the ultimate nature of the Dharmakâya;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Far away from the six dusts, it is defilement-free.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Of no form and devoid of all attributes is the Dharmakâya,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In which are void both actor and action:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Dharmakâya of all Buddhas, thus beyond comprehension,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Quells all the struggles of sophistry and dialectics,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Distances all the efforts of intellection,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Thoughts all are dead in it, and suchness alone abideth.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p376">{376}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE DHARMAKÂYA OF TATHÂGATA.<sup><a href="#a02b" id="a02a">[2]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In all the worlds over the ten quarters,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">O ye, sentient creatures living there,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Behold the most venerable of men and gods,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whose spiritual Dharma-body is immaculate and pure.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As through the power of one mind,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A host of thoughts is evolved:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So from one Dharma-body of Tathâgata,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Are produced all the Buddha-bodies.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In Bodhi nothing dual there existeth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor is any thought of self present:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Dharma-body, undefiled and non-dual,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In its full splendor manifesteth itself everywhere.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Its ultimate reality is like unto the vastness of space;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Its manifested forms are like unto magic shows;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Its virtues excellent are inexhaustible,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This, indeed, the spiritual state of Buddhas only.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All the Buddhas of the present, past, and future,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Each one of them is an issue of the Dharma-body immaculate and pure;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Responding to the needs of sentient creatures,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">They manifest themselves everywhere, assuming corporeality which is beautiful.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They never made the premeditation</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That they would manifest in such and such forms.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Separated are they from all desire and anxiety,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And free and self-acting are their responses.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p377">{377}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They do not negate the phenomenality of dharmas,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor do they affirm the world of individuals:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But manifesting themselves in all forms,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">They teach and convert all sentient creatures.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Dharma-body is not changeable,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Neither is it unchangeable;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All dharmas [in essence] are without change,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But manifestations are changeable.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Sambodhi knoweth no bounds,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Extending as far as the limits of the Dharmaloka itself;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Its depths are bottomless, and its extent limitless;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Words and speeches are powerless to describe it.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Of all the ways that lead to Enlightenment</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Tathâgata knoweth the true significance;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Wandering freely all over the worlds,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Obstacles he encountereth nowhere.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE TATHÂGATA. (1)<sup><a href="#a03b" id="a03a">[3]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Tathâgata appeared not on earth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor did he enter into Nirvana;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By the supreme power of his inmost will,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He reveals himself freely as he wills.<sup><a href="#a04b" id="a04a">[4]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">This fact is beyond comprehension,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Belongs not to the sphere of a limited consciousness,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Only an intelligence perfect and gone beyond</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is able to have an insight into the realm of Buddhas.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p378">{378}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The material body is not the Tathâgata,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor is the voice, nor the sound:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet he is not beyond the visible and the audible:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Buddha has indeed a power miraculous.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">People of little faith are unable to know</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The inmost adytum of Buddhahood.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is by the perfecting of primordial karma-intelligence</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That the realm of all Buddhas is revealed.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All Buddhas come from nowhere,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And depart for nowhere:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Body of Dharma that is pure, immaculate, and incomprehensible,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is invested with a power miraculously free.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In infinity of worlds,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Revealing itself in the body of Tathâgata,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It universally preaches the Law supremely excellent,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in its heart no attachment lingers.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">An intellect that knows no limits or bounds</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Perceives no obstacles in all dharmas,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And penetrates into the depths of the Dharmaloka,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Revealing itself with a power miraculously divine.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All sentient beings and all creatures,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It understandeth thoroughly without difficulty:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Its Bodies of Transformation are innumerable,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And universally revealed in all the worlds.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Those who seek after All-knowledge</span><br>
+<span class="i0">May in course of time attain perfect enlightenment;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Let them above all purify the heart</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And complete their discipline in Bodhisattvahood.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p379">{379}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And then they will see the Tathâgata’s</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Immeasurable power that comes from his free will;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Devoid of all doubts they are, and accompanied</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With sages whose virtue is unsurpassable.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE TATHÂGATA (2).<sup><a href="#a05b" id="a05a">[5]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Tathâgata, in pure golden color,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in person resplendent and majestic,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In innumerable ages past,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All merits hath accumulated.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With bliss and wisdom all in perfection,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the highest enlightenment attaining.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And with great loving heart animated,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He now appeareth in this world of endurance.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Men and devas and the eight hosts of demons,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All pay him homage most reverent,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who, from his inmost self-being,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Preacheth the deepest spiritual Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Which is so unfathomably deep,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That Buddha alone can understand it:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Multitudes of beings, ignorant and blind,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Listening to it, are unable to comprehend.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Tathâgata is the great leader of beings;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With skill that is excellent and marvellous,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Guiding all those ignorant souls,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By degrees bringeth them to Enlightenment.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p380">{380}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The heart of all beings is miraculously bright,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And eternally calm in its being.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Pure and immaculate and defilement-free,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is replenished with all merits.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Its essence is like unto the sky:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Devoid of all limitations,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Knoweth neither birth nor death,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And there is neither coming nor departing.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Eternally abiding in the Dharma-essence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is immovable as the Mount Sumeru;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The oneness in it of all beings</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is indeed beyond finite knowledge.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Vulgar minds from time immemorial,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Blindly clinging to all passions,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Are thrown deep into the ocean of pain,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And know not how to escape.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The most profound doctrine of Tathâgata,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Full of meaning, spiritual and transcendental,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With recipient intellects in all degrees,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In harmony unfoldeth he the Law.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A shower of one taste from above</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Covering all the ten quarters,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Grasses and trees, woods and forests,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Roots and trunks, large and small,</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Of all growing on this vast earth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nothing is there that thereby itself benefiteth not.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Law delivered by the Tathâgata</span><br>
+<span class="i0">May even be likened unto it.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p381">{381}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With one voice which is wondrous,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He giveth utterance to thoughts innumerable,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That are received by audience of all sort,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Each understanding them in his own way.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In this wise among the assemblage,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">None is there but that enters upon Buddha-knowledge</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Such is Buddha’s miraculous power,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Truly called “Incomprehensible.”</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+REPENTANCE.<sup><a href="#a06b" id="a06a">[6]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Those who repent as prescribed by the Dharma,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Altogether their earthly sins uproot;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As fire on doomsday the world will consume,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With its mountain peaks and infinite seas.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Repentance burns up of earthly desires the fuel;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Repentance to heaven the sinners is leading;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Repentance the bliss of the four Dhyânas imparteth;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Repentance brings showers of jewels and gems;</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Repentance a holy life renders firm as a diamond;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Repentance transports to the palace of bliss everlasting;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Repentance from the triple world’s prison releases;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Repentance makes blossom the bloom of the Bodhi.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p382">{382}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+ALL BEINGS ARE MOTHERS AND FATHERS.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All sentient beings in transmigration travel through the six gatis,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Like unto a wheel revolving without beginning and end,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Becoming in turn fathers and mothers, men and women:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Generations and generations, each owes something to others.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ye should then regard all beings as fathers and mothers;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Though this truth is too hidden to be recognised without the aid of Holy Knowledge,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All men are your fathers,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All women are your mothers.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">While not yet requiting their love received in your prior lives,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Why should ye, thinking otherwise, harbor enmity?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Ever thinking of love, endeavor ye to benefit one another;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And provoke ye not hostility, quarreling and insulting.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE TEN PARÂMITÂS.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O ye, sons of Buddha, in the Holy Way trained,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With the Heart of Highest Intelligence awakened,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And living in seclusion at the Aranyaka,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Should practice the ten pâramitâs.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">At daily meal think ye first of almsgiving,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And also distribute among beings the Treasure of Law;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When the three rings<sup><a href="#a07b" id="a07a">[7]</a></sup> are pure, it is called true charity;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Through this practice perfected are the merits of discipline.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p383">{383}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Would ye understand the merits of almsgiving?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Know ye that it comes from the heart pure, and not from the wealth given;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A precious treasure with a heart unclean,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is surpassed by a mite with a heart clean.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wealth giving is a dâna-pâramitâ,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And there are other dâna-pâramitâs:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To give away one’s life, wife, or children,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This is called blood-giving.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Should a man of good family come and ask for the Law</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Let him have all the Mahâyâna sûtras explained,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And awaken in him the Heart of Highest Intelligence;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This is called a true pâramitâ.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With sympathy and pure faith and conscience,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Embrace ye all beings and befree them from greed,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That they might attain to the highest intelligence of the Tathâgata:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The giving of wealth and of the Law is the first pâramitâ.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Firmly observing the three sets of the Bodhisattva-çîlas,<sup><a href="#a08b" id="a08a">[8]</a></sup></span><br>
+<span class="i0">O ye, evolve the Bodhi, distance birth-and-death,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Guard the Law of Buddha and make it long live in the world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Repent the violation of the çîlas, and be always mindful of the true ones.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Subdue ye anger and hate and cultivate in your heart love and sympathy;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Mindful of the karma past, harbor ye not evil thoughts against offenders;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Be not reluctant for the sake of all beings to sacrifice life:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This is called the pâramitâ of meekness.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In practicing what is hard to practice, hesitate ye not awhile;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With ever-increasing energy through three asankheya kalpas,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Defile not yourselves, but always discipline the heart;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And for the sake of all creatures seek ye salvation.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p384">{384}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Entering into and rising from the Samâdhi, spiritual freedom is obtained:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Transforming yourselves and travelling in all the ten quarters,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Have for all beings the cause of evil desire removed,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And let them seek deliverance in the doctrine of Samâdhi.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Would ye desire to attain to True Intelligence?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Friendly approach Bodhisattvas and Tathâgatas;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Gladly listening to the doctrine transcendental and sublime,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Attain ye the three disciplines<sup><a href="#a09b" id="a09a">[9]</a></sup> and remove the two obstacles<sup><a href="#a10b" id="a10a">[10]</a></sup>.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Recognising difference in the disposition of beings,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Apply the medicine proper for each disease:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Love and sympathy, skill and expediency, each fitting the case,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Try the proper means for the benefit of the multitudes.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Would ye know the true meaning of existence?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The middle path lies in non-attachment, neither “yea” nor “nay”;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Intelligence pure is unfathomable and unites in Suchness;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Identify mine with thine, embracing the whole.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">By the force of intellect, grasping the nature of beings,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Teach the masses each in accord with his capacity;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The force of intellect penetrating through the heart of all beings,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Destroys the root of transmigration in birth and death.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Intelligently judging between black and white,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Conscientiously take hold of one and put the other aside, and let each rest in its place;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Samsâra and Nirvâna are but one in their essence;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Fulfilling the meaning of existence, cherish ye not self-conceit.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">These ten deeds of excellence</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Comprise all eighty-four thousand virtues;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Each in its class excels all the others,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And is called the Pâramitâ of Bodhisattva.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p385">{385}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Eighty-four thousand samâdhis</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Becalm the disturbant mind of all beings;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Eighty-four thousand dhâranîs</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Keep away all the prejudices and evil influences.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Great Sage, King of Dharma, with marvellous skill,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Teacheth the Law in three ways and converteth all beings;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Casting the net of the Doctrine in the ocean of birth and death,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He draweth out men and gods to the abode of bliss.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHI.<sup><a href="#a11b" id="a11a">[11]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All things are of the Bodhi,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Bodhi is in all things;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Bodhi and all things are one:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who knoweth this is called the World-honored.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+NIRVANA AND THE THREE EVILS.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Greed is Nirvana;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is hate, and folly;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In these three passions</span><br>
+<span class="i0">There dwells a Buddha-dharma inexpressible.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who severalises, thinking,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">There’s greed, and hate, and folly,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is as far from Buddha,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As heaven from earth.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Bodhi and greed,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">They’re one, not two:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Out of one Dharma-gate cometh all;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Here’s sameness, no diversity.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p386">{386}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">This hearing, the vulgar stand aghast;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Far from the Buddha-path are they.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The heart, when innocent of greed,<sup><a href="#a12b" id="a12a">[12]</a></sup></span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is never troubled.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In whose mind self is lurking still,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And who imagines that something he has,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Greedy is this man called,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And he is bound for hell.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What is the true nature of greed,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That is the nature of Buddha-dharma;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">What is the nature of Buddha-dharma,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That is the nature of greed.<sup><a href="#a13b" id="a13a">[13]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">These two are of one nature;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That is, of no-nature;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who knoweth this truth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Would be the world-leader.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+NON-ATMAN AND PREJUDICE.<sup><a href="#a14b" id="a14a">[14]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There once was an ignorant man;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So afraid of the sky was he</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That piteously crying he wandered away.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Of its sudden collapse he was fearful.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But the sky has no boundary,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And to nobody ’t will be harmful.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It was due to his ignorance</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That he trembled so fitfully.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With the Bhikshus and Brahmans</span><br>
+<span class="i0">It is even so, who are prejudiced.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Learning that empty is the world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Alarmed are they at heart;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And wrongly imagine that if empty were the nature of Âtman</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nothingness would be the end of all work.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p387">{387}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+NON-ACTION.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As the vacuity of sky,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Being so clear and free of cloud and fog,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Upon the earth below,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Betrays no signs a shower to give:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So the enlightened</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Betray no learning, no intelligence:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And we, sentient beings,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Can trace no efforts in their deliverance of the Law.<sup><a href="#a15b" id="a15a">[15]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+SELF-DELUSION.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There lived once a painter,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who such a monstrous Yaksha painted</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That he himself was terrified</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And losing all his senses on the ground he fell:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis even so with vulgar minds;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Infatuated, self-deluded by the senses,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Of their own error they are unaware,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And go from birth to birth without an end.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+ALL IN ONE.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As all the waters in the valley</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Are emptied in the ocean</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Which is of one and the same taste:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So the enlightened,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whatever is</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Good and beneficial,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Turn over to the Bodhi</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And to that Reality</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In which all things become of one and the same taste.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p388">{388}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+NIHILISM.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The vast vacuity of space,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">How limitless and measureless!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But in the midst of the void</span><br>
+<span class="i0">How could a farmer sow his seeds?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis even so with Nihilism:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The past is gone forever,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The future’s not here yet,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in the present no Buddha-seeds have they.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE NIHILIST.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A man who suffers from a disease incurable,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">However excellent his treatment be,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Impossible he will find his health to gain,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For his defies all means of remedy.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis even so with them who walk in the way of emptiness;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No matter whereso’er they be,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">How blindly they are clinging unto it!</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Such I declare to be incurable.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA (1)
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As in its oneness the element earth</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Embraces diversities of objects,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And discriminates not this or that;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As in its oneness the element fire</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Burns everything on earth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And discriminates not in its nature;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p389">{389}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As waters in the vast ocean,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Absorbing hundreds of streams,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Are of the same taste forever;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As the dragon-god with thunder and lightning</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Brings showers on the earth all over,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the rain-drops discriminate not;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BUDDHA’S DHARMA. (2)
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As in her oneness mother earth</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Creates diversities of seeds</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in her inmost no discrimination knows;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As in the cloudless sky the sun</span><br>
+<span class="i0">O’er the ten quarters all illuminates,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in its brightness shows no difference;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As high up in the heavens is the moon</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Beheld by all beings on earth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And there’s nowhere her glory reaches not;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Brahma-râja great</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In thousands of worlds himself all manifests</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And knows in his being no diversities;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">E’en so is it with all the Buddha’s Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p390">{390}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE PASSIONS AND WISDOM.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Only in the filthiness of soil,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Could the seed be sown and grow;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so in the mire of passion</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cherished by all sentient beings</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All over the world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">If by the sons of Buddha well attended to,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">There will grow the seed of Buddha-dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Just as in filth and mud</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The lotus grows and blooms,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so in a heart defiled with evil karma</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The seeds of Buddha-dharma are growing.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT. (1)
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A mansion there was once which was a hundred thousand years of age;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No occupant was there, nor doors nor windows;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Devas and men, all of a sudden,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">There came and burned a lamp;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the darkness that dwelt so long</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Departed instantly without a word.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The inky darkness that the mansion filled</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Resisted not, “I’ve lived here for ages,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And I’ll never be removed from here.”</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even with karma-consciousness and the horde of passions in the heart,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The analogy holds true.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Though there abiding many hundred thousand kalpas,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Their ultimate nature is not true nor real.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When a traveler, day or night,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Enters upon the truthful path,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The lamp of wisdom burns in its full splendor;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the horde of evil passions</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cannot tarry there, even for a moment.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p391">{391}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+IGNORANCE AND ENLIGHTENMENT. (2)
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Bright shines the lamp,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the inky night is gone.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But with the darkness</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The quarters vanish not;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet this illuminating lamp,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">If not in the dark, nowhere doth shine:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For light and dark depend upon each other;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No selfhood having,<sup><a href="#a16b" id="a16a">[16]</a></sup> they’re empty.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis even so with enlightenment.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In comes enlightenment,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And out goes ignorance of its own accord.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But both are like unto the flowers in the air,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For neither by itself exists;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Impossible is one alone, either to keep or to forego.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHISATTVA AND ALL BEINGS<sup><a href="#a17b" id="a17a">[17]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Great Mother Earth</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All creatures</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Provides and nourishes,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But from none of them</span><br>
+<span class="i0">She seeks a favor special, nor is she to any partial:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Since his awakening of the Heart,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Until he gains the depths of the Law</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And realises the highest knowledge,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He toils to save all creatures,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Himself no favor seeking, nor to others granting any;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Regardless of friend and enemy,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Embracing all with single heart,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He fashions one and all for Bodhi.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p392">{392}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The element Water</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All permeating</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Makes herbs and trees</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In luxury grow,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet any favor special it nor shows nor seeks;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With a pure heart of love</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All sentient beings equally embraces he;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All permeating gradually, universally,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The seeds immaculate he nourishes,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Which, breaking down all evils powerful,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Obtain the fruit of Buddha-knowledge.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The element Fire</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Matures and ripens all</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The tender shoots of the cereals;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet the element fire</span><br>
+<span class="i0">From those young plants</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No favor seeks, nor any shows to them;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With knowledge-fire</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Matures he all</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The tender shoots of creatures;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet he from them</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No favor special seeks, nor shows he any.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="spacer">
+* * *
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The element Air,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By reason of its virtue,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Pervades all over Buddha-lands;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With the Bodhisattva</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis even so,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who with consummate skill</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To Buddha’s children</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Preaches the Doctrine Holy.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p393">{393}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHISATTVA.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+<span class="sc">His Firmness</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As Mâra, the evil one,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Commanding his four armies,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even by the devas in the Kâmaloka,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cannot be overwhelmed;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whose heart, pure and clean,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By all the hosts of Evil,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cannot be tempted, nor confused.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+<span class="sc">His Progress</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As the new moon,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In size increasing gradually,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Becomes perfect and full in the end;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With a heart defilement-free,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All the good dharmas seeking and performing,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In virtue gradually progresses,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And finally obtains the Law of Purity, perfect and full.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+<span class="sc">His Enlightenment</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The rising sun,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All illumining,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All forms and images in the world</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In glory are revealed;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The light of knowledge emitting,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And sentient beings illumining,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Bringeth he all to wisdom.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p394">{394}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+<span class="sc">His Fearlessness</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Lion, the king of beasts,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Majestic, overpowering,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in the forest wandering,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Knows he no fear, no terror;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Calmly abiding in Learning,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Intelligence, and Morality,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Throughout the universe,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Wherever he wanders about,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Knows he no fear, no doubt.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+<span class="sc">His Energy</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The giant elephant,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With energy wondrous,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A burden heavy carrying,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Shows not the least fatigue;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Bearing, for the sake of the masses,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The misery of the flesh,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He shows not the least apathy.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+<span class="sc">His Purity</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The lotus-flower,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Though growing in the marshy land,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By dirt, or mire, or filth</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is not defiled;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So is the Bodhisattva:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Though living in this world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No form of passion</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Ever touches him.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p395">{395}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+<span class="sc">His Self-sacrifice</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There lived once a man</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who craftily and skillfully</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Felled the trunks of trees,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But left the roots untouched,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That after due time</span><br>
+<span class="i0">They might once more be growing;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis even so with the Bodhisattva:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">With the upâya that is excellent,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Desires and passions down he fells,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But leaves their seed unscathed</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By reason of his all-embracing love,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And thereby ever and anon comes he on earth.<sup><a href="#a18b" id="a18a">[18]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHISATTVA’S HOMELESS LIFE.<sup><a href="#a19b" id="a19a">[19]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The homeless Bodhisat regards the home life [or the world at large]</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As a hurricane that abates not awhile,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Or as the moon’s illusive image in water cast,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Which the imagination takes deliberately for the real.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The water in itself contains no lunar image [real];</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The real moon, dependent on water clear, a shadow casts;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">So are all beings unreal; only conditionally they exist;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet ’tis imagined by the vulgar that an Atman they have.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Atman is the product of conditions, and real it is not;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">But for a reality the imagination it takes.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Have the two prejudices<sup><a href="#a20b" id="a20a">[20]</a></sup> removed,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And we perceive Intelligence most high and peerless.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p396">{396}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Our confused imagination is like unto a black storm,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Blowing over the woods of birth and death, stirs up the leaves of consciousness:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">By the four winds of fallacy ’tis haunted all the time,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And five damnation-causes it produces,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Entwining are indeed the roots of evil, which are three,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Through birth and death doth transmigration ever onward move.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who to the Sutras listen and in them devoutly believe,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The right view they acquire, removing all the thoughts which are fallacious,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And every instant growing are Seeds of Intelligence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the Samâdhi of knowledge great and of spirituality is awakened.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When well disciplined in speculation deep and subtle,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In the dark no more we grope, nor do we reap the crop of pain;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Perceiving Suchness in the ultimate nature of things,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Subject and object both gone, and vanished are all sins.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Female and male, they’re attributes, and they are void essentially:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The ignorant imagine and create the two which only relatively exist.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Buddha has destroyed permanently the cause of ignorance,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in the ultimate reality nothing particular sees he, male or female.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The excellent fruit of wisdom, if ever attained, remains the same for aye;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The vulgar nathless imagine wrongly and see therein a thing concrete and definite.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Buddha’s features thirty-two are after all no-features;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who sees no-features in the features, the feature true he understands.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p397">{397}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">To wander homeless, and immaculate deeds to practise,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Over the heart to watch, in solitude quietly to sit:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This is the rightful way the Bodhisattva cleanses his heart;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Erelong will he attain the fruit of enlightenment.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BUDDHIST.<sup><a href="#a21b" id="a21a">[21]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Encourage not, for your self-interests,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Heterodoxy and false doctrines;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A merciful heart for all have ye;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Remove stupidity and untruth from your minds;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Be ye Tathâgata’s most faithful servants;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And teach the masses who are ignorant,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To them the Bodhi impart, on yourselves it practising;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And thereby make the Buddha’s name resound on earth;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Deliver the multitudes from sin and initiate them</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To the perfect enlightenment of the Buddha:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Ye by these virtues firmly stand,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And your Intelligence-heart doth never fail.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+HYMN TO THE BODHISATTVA.<sup><a href="#a22b" id="a22a">[22]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With lovingkindness, a Great Being who saves and protects,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Regards all beings impartially as his only child;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Energetically, cheerfully, and without stint,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">His life he sacrifices, uprooting pain, and bringing bliss unspeakable.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Surely he will attain the height of truth and beauty,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Forever be freed from the entanglement of birth and death.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And erelong will he the fruit of enlightenment obtain,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Eternally peaceful, and in the Uncreate joy finding.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p398">{398}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+A VOW OF THE BODHISATTVA.<sup><a href="#a23b" id="a23a">[23]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For the sake of all sentient beings on earth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">I aspire for the abode of enlightenment which is most high;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In all-embracing love awakened, and with a heart steadily firm,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even my life I will sacrifice, dear as it is.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In enlightenment no sorrows are found, no burning desires;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">’Tis enjoyed by all men who are wise.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All sentient creatures from the turbulent waters of the triple world,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">I’ll release, and to eternal peace them I’ll lead.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE TRUE HOMELESS ONE.<sup><a href="#a24b" id="a24a">[24]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Though not wearing the yellow robe,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whose heart is free from defilement,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In the doctrine of Buddhas,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is the true homeless one.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Though not devoid of showy ornaments,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who has cut off all entanglements,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in whose heart exists neither knottiness nor looseness,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is the true homeless one.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Though not initiated by the Rules,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whose heart is clean of all evil thoughts,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And open only to tranquillity, intelligence, and virtuous deeds,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is the true homeless one.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Though not instructed in the Law,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whose insight goes deep into the ultimate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And is no more deluded by sham appearances,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He is the true homeless one.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p399">{399}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The mind that takes no thought of the ego,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That goes beyond the illusory phenomena,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet sinks not into stupidity</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Truly awakened to Intelligence it is.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whose mind, awakened to Intelligence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Sees no substantiality in the ego,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And, not seeing, yet remains firm,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This man cannot be injured.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHISATTVA’S SPIRITUAL LIFE.<sup><a href="#a25b" id="a25a">[25]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Like unto the vast ocean that receives</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All the waters, and yet overflows not;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who knoweth no fatigue in seeking the merits of the Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean that absorbs</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All the streams, and yet shows no increase;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who, receiving the deepest Dharma, nothing gaineth.<sup><a href="#a26b" id="a26a">[26]</a></sup></span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean that refuses to take filth,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And wherein when absorbed doth foulness change to purity;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whom all the filth of passion cannot tarnish.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean whose bottom is unfathomable;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whose virtues and wisdom are so immeasurable</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That none ever knows their limits.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p400">{400}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean in which there’s no diversity,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All the waters and streams pouring thereinto become of one taste alone;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who listeneth to one note of Dharma.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean that existeth not</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For the interests of one individual;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Whose aspirations are for the benefit of all.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean that embosoms the jewel called “all-jewel.”</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Of which all jewels are produced;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the jewel-treasure of the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For it is through this that all the other jewels shine.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean that produces the three kinds of jewel,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And yet discriminates not between them;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the teaching of the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who, equally delivering the three yânas, maketh not any distinction.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean that by degrees becomes deeper;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who, practising virtues for the sake of all,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Forever aspireth after the deepest omniscience.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Again, like unto the vast ocean that harbors not a corpse;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Even so is the Bodhisattva,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who, with the heart of purity and the vow of Bodhi,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Harboreth not a passion, nor the thought of the Çrâvaka.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p401">{401}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (1)<sup><a href="#a27b" id="a27a">[27]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Perceiving all in one,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And one in all,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Bodhisattva diligent in his work</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is never given up to indolence.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Pain he shunneth not, to pleasure he clingeth not,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">As he is ever bent on the deliverance of all beings;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To him all Buddhas will themselves reveal,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And of their presence he is never weary.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">He is in the deepest depths of the Dharma,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Where is found the inexhaustible ocean of merit.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All sentient beings in the fivefold path of existence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He loveth as his own child;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Removing things unclean and filthy,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Supplying them with dharmas pure and immaculate.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (2)<sup><a href="#a28b" id="a28a">[28]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">While to the doctrine most high listening,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Light of Pure Intelligence within me glows,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That shining over all the universe</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All the enlightened ones to me reveals.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who think there are individuals</span><br>
+<span class="i0">They put themselves in the position most difficult;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Dharmas have no ego-master which is real,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">For they are merely names and expressions.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The vulgar and ignorant know not</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That within themselves they have a reality true and real,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That the Tathâgata is not of any particular form;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Therefore the Tathâgata they see not.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p402">{402}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dirt and dust obscuring their intelligence-eye,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Enlightenment perfect and true they see not;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And throughout kalpas immeasurable and innumerable,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In the stream of birth and death they go a-rolling.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wandering and rolling is Samsâra,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No-more-a-rolling is Nirvâna;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet Samsâra and Nirvâna,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Absolutely, exists neither of them.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">To believer in falsehood and sophistry,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Samsâra is here and Nirvâna there;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Clearly they grasp not the Dharma of ancient sages,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor understand the Path Incomparable.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Those who thus cling to forms individual,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Of Buddha’s universal enlightenment, though they hear,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Themselves negate, and away they wander from the right course of thought;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Therefore, they cannot see the Buddha.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who the Dharma of Truth perceive,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Serene they are for aye, and abide in Suchness;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Enlightenment most truthful they understand,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Transcending words and all the modes of speech.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Illusory are all forms individual;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No such thing as dharma here exists:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No enlightened ones</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Seek Truth in things particular.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whose insight to the past extends,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">To the future and over the present,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And who fore’er abides in serenity of Suchness,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He’s said to be a Tathâgata.</span>
+</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p403">{403}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+THE BODHISATTVA’S FAITH. (3)<sup><a href="#a29b" id="a29a">[29]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I would rather suffer sufferings innumerable</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That I might listen to the voices of Buddhas,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Than enjoy all sorts of pleasure</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And not hear Buddhas’ names.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The reason why since ages out of mind</span><br>
+<span class="i0">We suffer sufferings countless</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And transmigrate through birth and death,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Is that we have not heard Buddhas’ names.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A reality that exists in things unreal,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A perfect Intellect synthetising truth and falsehood,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And that which transcends all the modes of relativity,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This is called the Bodhi.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Buddhas of the present are not products of composite conditions,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nor are those of the past, nor those of the future.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">What is formless in all forms,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">That is the true essence of Buddhas.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who thus perceives</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The deepest significance of all existences,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In innumerable Buddhas, he will see</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The truth and reality of the Dharma-body.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The Dharma-body knows truth as true,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And falsehood as false,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And well understands the realm of reality;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Therefore, it is called perfect intellect.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The enlightened has nothing enlightened,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Which is the true spirituality of all Buddhas:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And in this wise they behave,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Neither to be one nor to be two.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p404">{404}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They see the one in the many,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">They see the many in the one</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Dharma has nothing to depend upon;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">How could it be a product of combination?</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The actor and the action,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Neither really subsists:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Who can understand this,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Seeks not reality in either of them.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And here where reality is unseekable,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Buddhas find there the resting abode</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The Dharma has nothing to depend upon;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And the enlightened have nothing to cling to.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p405">{405}</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<h3>
+NOTES<br>
+TO THE APPENDIX.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a01a" id="a01b">[1]</a></sup> This and the following are translations from some Mahâyâna texts
+in the Buddhist Tripitaka, which were rendered into the Chinese
+language at various times from Sanskrit mostly through the co-operation
+of the Hindu missionaries and Chinese scholars. A detailed analysis of
+these texts is most urgently needed, as they contain many informations
+of great importance not only concerning the history of Buddhism in
+India but also concerning early Hindu culture generally. A rather
+incomplete idea as to their contents and material and general character
+will be attained by the perusal of Rev. Nanjo’s <i>Catalogue of the
+Chinese Tripitaka</i>, Oxford, 1883.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>Mahâyâna-mûlajâta-hṛdayabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra</i>, (Nanjo, no. 955,) fas.
+iii.
+(<a href="#a01a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a02a" id="a02b">[2]</a></sup> The <i>Avatamsaka</i>, fas. xiv., p. 73.
+(<a href="#a02a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a03a" id="a03b">[3]</a></sup> <i>The Avatamsaka</i>, (Buddhabhadra’s translation), fas. xiv, p. 72.
+(<a href="#a03a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a04a" id="a04b">[4]</a></sup> To conceive the Tathâgata as a personal being who appeared on
+earth for a certain limited time and then eternally disappeared is not
+Mahâyânistic. He reveals himself constantly and of his own will in
+this world of particulars.
+(<a href="#a04a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a05a" id="a05b">[5]</a></sup> <i>Sarvadharma-pravṛtti-nirdeça Sûtra</i> (Nanjo, no. 1012).
+(<a href="#a05a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a06a" id="a06b">[6]</a></sup> <i>Mahâyâna-mûlajâta-hrdavabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra</i> (Nanjo 955), fas.
+iii, p. 75.
+(<a href="#a06a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a07a" id="a07b">[7]</a></sup> The three rings are: 1. the giver, 2. the receiver, and 3. the
+thing given, material or immaterial.
+(<a href="#a07a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a08a" id="a08b">[8]</a></sup> Precepts. The three sets are: 1. one relating to good behavior,
+2. to the accumulation of merit, and 3. to lovingkindness toward all
+beings.
+(<a href="#a08a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p406">{406}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a09a" id="a09b">[9]</a></sup> The mental (subjective), physical (objective), and oral.
+(<a href="#a09a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a10a" id="a10b">[10]</a></sup> The intellectual and the affective.
+(<a href="#a10a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a11a" id="a11b">[11]</a></sup> <i>Sarvadharma-pravṛtti-nirdeça Sûtra.</i>
+(<a href="#a11a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a12a" id="a12b">[12]</a></sup> Literally, “when greed is neither born nor dead.” This means, to
+live in the world as not living in it. This subjective divine
+innocence is thought by Buddhists the essence of the religious life.
+The consciousness of one’s worth, or self-conceit, is a great obstacle
+in the path of perfect virtue. As in the case of mechanical work or
+physical exercise, we attain perfect skillfulness only when the work
+is involuntarily done, i.e., without any conscious effort on the part
+of the performer; so in our moral and spiritual life we attain the
+height of virtuousness or saintliness when we identify ourselves with
+the reason of our being. This is Laotze’s doctrine of non-action or
+non-resistance, and also the teaching of the <i>Bhagavadgîta</i>. As
+remarked elsewhere, when a man reaches this stage of religious life,
+he ceases to be human, but divine, in the sense that he transcends the
+world of good and evil and eternally abides in the realm of the
+beautiful.
+(<a href="#a12a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a13a" id="a13b">[13]</a></sup> This is a very radical statement and is enough to frighten timid
+moralists and “God-fearing” pietists. Therefore, it is said that “Give
+not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before
+swine.” But think not that this is expounding antinomianism.
+(<a href="#a13a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a14a" id="a14b">[14]</a></sup> This and all the following are taken from the <i>Kâṣyapa-Parivarta</i>
+(Nanjo, 805).
+(<a href="#a14a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a15a" id="a15b">[15]</a></sup> This gâthâ may not be very intelligible to our readers. The
+sense is: Whatever is done by a Buddha or Bodhisattva does not come
+from logical calculation or deliberate premeditation, but immediately
+from his inmost heart, which, in most natural and freest manner,
+responds to the needs of the suffering. This response is altogether
+free from all human elaboration, for the Buddha shows no painful and
+struggling efforts in so doing. Everything he does is like the work of
+nature herself. His life is above the narrow sphere of human morality
+which is marked with a desperate struggle between good and evil. His
+is in the realm of the divinely beautiful.
+(<a href="#a15a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p407">{407}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a16a" id="a16b">[16]</a></sup> “Having no selfhood” (<i>svabhâva</i>), means that things have no
+independent existence, no self-nature which will eternally preserve
+their thingish identity. This theory has been explained in the chapter
+dealing with the doctrine of non-atman. To state summarily, darkness
+and light are conditioned by each other; apart from darkness there is
+no light, and conversely, without light darkness has no meaning. Even
+so with enlightenment and ignorance: one independent of the other,
+they have no existence, they cannot be conceived. They are like
+imaginary flowers in the air projected there by a confused
+subjectivity. They are nothing but our ideal fabrication. To cling to
+God only, forgetting that we are living in the world below, in the
+world of relativity, is just as much one-sided as to lose ourselves in
+the whirlpool of earthly pleasures without the thought of God. Life,
+however, is not antithetic, but synthetic. Truth is never one-sided,
+it is always in the middle. Therefore, seek enlightenment in ignorance
+and truth in error. A dualistic interpretation of the world and life
+is not approved by Buddhists. Compare the sentiment expressed herein
+with Emerson’s poem as elsewhere quoted, in which these lines occur:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“But in the mud and scum of things,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">There always, always, something sings.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#a16a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a17a" id="a17b">[17]</a></sup> <i>The Kâṣyapaharivarta Sûtra</i> (Nanjo, 805.).
+(<a href="#a17a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a18a" id="a18b">[18]</a></sup> The sense is: The Bodhisattva never desires a complete
+absorption in the Absolute, in which no individual existences are
+distinguishable. He always leaves the “Will to live” unhurt, as it
+were, so that he could come in this world of particulars ever and
+anon. What he has destroyed is the egoistic assertion of the Will, for
+the aim of Buddhism is not to remove the eternal principle of life,
+but to manifest it in its true significance. The wishes of the
+Bodhisattva, therefore, are never egocentric; he knows that
+transmigration and rebirth are painful, but as it is by rebirth alone
+that he could mingle himself in the world of sin and save the
+suffering creatures therein, he never shuns the misery of life. His
+work of revelation is constant and eternal.
+(<a href="#a18a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a19a" id="a19b">[19]</a></sup> <i>The Mahâyâna-mûlajâti-hrdayabhûmi-dhyâna Sûtra</i>, fas. IV.
+(<a href="#a19a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p408">{408}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a20a" id="a20b">[20]</a></sup> The two prejudices or obstacles that lie in our way to
+enlightenment are: 1 that which arises from intellectual
+shortsightedness; 2. that which arises from impurity of heart.
+(<a href="#a20a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a21a" id="a21b">[21]</a></sup> <i>Sûtra on Mahâkâṣyapa’s Question Concerning the Absolute.</i>
+(<a href="#a21a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a22a" id="a22b">[22]</a></sup> <i>Suvarna-Prabhâ Sûtra.</i>
+(<a href="#a22a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a23a" id="a23b">[23]</a></sup> <i>Suvarna-Prabhâ Sûtra</i>, Chap. 26
+(<a href="#a23a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a24a" id="a24b">[24]</a></sup> <i>Padmapani Sûtra</i>, Fas. 8.
+(<a href="#a24a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a25a" id="a25b">[25]</a></sup> <i>The Avatamsaka Sutra.</i>
+(<a href="#a25a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a26a" id="a26b">[26]</a></sup> This means that the heart of the Bodhisattva which is pure and
+eternal in its essential nature has nothing added externally to it by
+studying the Dharma; for the Dharma is nothing else than the
+expression of his own heart.
+(<a href="#a26a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a27a" id="a27b">[27]</a></sup> The <i>Avatamsaka</i>, fas. IX, p. 48. This pantheistic thought of
+the One-All is generally considered to be Buddhistic; but the truth is
+that every genuine religious sentiment inevitably leads us to this
+final conviction. Even in the so-called transcendental monotheistic
+Christianity, we find the pantheistic thought boldly proclaimed and
+put in contrast to the idea of “our Father which art in Heaven.” For
+instance, read the following passage from Thomas à Kempis: “He to whom
+all things are one, he who reduceth all things to one, and seeth all
+things in one, may enjoy a quiet mind, and remain at peace in God.”
+(Chap. III.) The passage in the Gospel of John declaring that “the
+Father is in me and I in him,” when logically carried out, comes to
+echo the same sentiment entertained by Buddhists, who recognise a
+manifestation of the Dharmakâya in all beings, animate as well as
+inanimate. The Christianity of to-day is that of Paul as expounded in
+his letters, but the future one will advance a few steps more and will
+be that of John.
+(<a href="#a27a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a28a" id="a28b">[28]</a></sup> From the <i>Avatamsaka Sutra</i>.
+(<a href="#a28a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#a29a" id="a29b">[29]</a></sup> From the <i>Avatamsaka Sutra</i>.
+(<a href="#a29a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="index">
+INDEX.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p409">{409}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Abhimukî (sixth stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p318">318</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Acalâ (eighth stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p322">322</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Açoka, King, <a href="#p049">49</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Açrava (evil), explained, <a href="#n107b">249 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Açûnya, <a href="#p022">22</a>, <a href="#p095">95</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Açvaghosha, <a href="#p004">4</a>, <a href="#p008">8</a>, <a href="#n020b">61 ft.</a>, <a href="#n027b">65 ft.</a>, <a href="#p111">111</a>, <a href="#p115">115</a>; on Âlaya, <a href="#n029b">66 ft.</a>, <a href="#p129">129</a>, <a href="#n064b">139
+ft.</a>; <i>Awakening of Faith</i>, <a href="#p007">7</a>; on Suchness, <a href="#p099">99</a>; on Ignorance, <a href="#p118">118</a>; and
+Dionysius, <a href="#n047b">102 ft.</a>; <i>Buddhacarita</i>, quoted, <a href="#p147">147</a>; on Mahâyânism, <a href="#p246">246</a>;
+on the Sambhogakâya, <a href="#p258">258</a>, <a href="#p333">333</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Agnosticism, <a href="#p025">25</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Âlaya (or Âlaya-vijñâna), All-conserving Soul, <a href="#p066">66</a>; as depository of
+“germs”, <a href="#p066">66</a>; creator of the universe, <a href="#p068">68</a>; and the Garbha, <a href="#p125">125</a> et seq.;
+its evolution, <a href="#p128">128</a>; and the soul, <a href="#p165">165</a>; and the twelve nidânas, <a href="#p183">183</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Amitâbha, <a href="#p207">207</a>, <a href="#p219">219</a>, <a href="#p269">269</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Anânârtha (non-particularisation), <a href="#p072">72</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Ânanda attempts to locate the soul, <a href="#p157">157</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Ânâpânam, exercise in breathing, <a href="#n015b">53 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Arada, <a href="#p146">146</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Arcismatî (fourth stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p316">316</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Arhatship and Mahâyânism, <a href="#p288">288</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Âryadeva, <a href="#n002b">3 ft.</a>, <a href="#p008">8</a>, <a href="#p060">60</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Asanga (and Vasubandhu), <a href="#p004">4</a>, <a href="#p062">62</a>, <a href="#p065">65</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>, <a href="#p087">87</a>, <a href="#p088">88</a>, <a href="#p153">153</a>, <a href="#p231">231</a>, <a href="#p234">234</a>, <a href="#p263">263</a>,
+<a href="#p354">354</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p410">{410}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Asceticism repudiated, <a href="#p052">52</a>, <a href="#p053">53</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Atman, and Samkhyan Lingham, <a href="#p038">38</a>; and the Vedantic çarîra, <a href="#p038">38</a>; and
+Vijñâna, <a href="#p039">39</a>; and unity of consciousness, <a href="#p040">40</a>; and karma, <a href="#p041">41</a>; and
+impermanency, <a href="#p043">43</a>; and egoism, <a href="#p044">44</a>; and the “old man”, <a href="#p165">165</a>. (<i>See also</i>
+“ego” and “soul”.)
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Atonement, vicarious, <a href="#n123b">291 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Avatamsaka Sûtra</i>, The, on Bodhisattva’s reflections, <a href="#p369">369</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Avenikas (unique features), <a href="#n133b">327 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Avidyâ (ignorance), <a href="#p035">35</a> et seq., <a href="#p115">115</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Balas, the ten, of the Buddha, <a href="#p327">327</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Beal, Samuel, refuted, <a href="#p020">20</a> et seq. <i>Catena of Buddhist Scriptures</i>,
+quoted, <a href="#n074b">157 ft.</a>; <i>Romantic History of Buddha</i>, quoted, on Buddha’s
+enlightenment, <a href="#p337">337</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Bhagavadgîta</i>, quoted, <a href="#n059b">126 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bhûtatathâtâ (Suchness), <a href="#p099">99</a> et seq; and Mahâyâna, <a href="#p007">7</a>; and perfect
+knowledge, <a href="#p092">92</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bodhi (wisdom), <a href="#p046">46</a>; and Prajñâ etc., defined, <a href="#n037b">82 ft.</a>; as perfect
+knowledge, <a href="#p092">92</a>; its meaning explained, <a href="#p294">294</a>; by Nâgârjuna, <a href="#p297">297</a>; as a
+reflex of Dharmakâya, <a href="#p299">299</a>; how awakened in human heart, <a href="#p302">302</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bodhicitta (Intelligence-heart), <a href="#p052">52</a>. (<i>See also</i> “Bodhi.”)
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bodhi-Dharma, of Dhyâna sect, <a href="#p103">103</a>, <a href="#p149">149</a>, <a href="#p155">155</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bodhipakshikas, the seven, <a href="#p316">316</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bodhisattva, above samsara and nirvana, <a href="#p072">72</a>; in the three yânas, <a href="#p277">277</a>;
+the conception of, in primitive Buddhism, <a href="#p286">286</a>; we are, <a href="#p290">290</a>; and love,
+<a href="#p292">292</a>; his ten pranidhanas, <a href="#p308">308</a>; his reflections, <a href="#p369">369</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bodhisattvahood, ten stages of, <a href="#p070">70</a>, <a href="#p311">311</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Bodhisattva-yâna, <a href="#p009">9</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Brahdaranyaka Upanishad</i>, quoted, <a href="#n046b">102 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p411">{411}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Buddha, and his self-relying spirit, <a href="#p057">57</a>; culmination of good karma,
+<a href="#p215">215</a>; in the Mahâyâna texts, <a href="#p243">243</a>; the idealisation of, historically
+treated, <a href="#p249">249</a> et seq.; in the Trikâya, <a href="#p252">252</a>; the human, and the
+spiritual Dharmakâya, <a href="#p255">255</a>; his <a href="#p032">32</a> major and <a href="#p080">80</a> minor marks of
+greatness, <a href="#p271">271</a>; in the process of idealisation, <a href="#p289">289</a>; in the
+Mahâyânism, <a href="#p291">291</a>; and Mâra, <a href="#p334">334</a>; on the ego-soul in the beginning of
+his religious career, <a href="#p337">337</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Buddhacarita</i>, quoted, <a href="#p057">57</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Buddhadharma, <a href="#p355">355</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Buddha-Essence, Discourse on</i>, <a href="#n153b">357 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Buddha-intelligence, <a href="#p364">364</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Buddhism(s), geographically divided, <a href="#p003">3</a>, <a href="#p004">4</a>; two, <a href="#p004">4</a> et seq.; and
+atheism, <a href="#p031">31</a>; and the soul problem, <a href="#p031">31</a> et seq.; and agnosticism, <a href="#p035">35</a>;
+and modern psychology, <a href="#p040">40</a>; intellectual, <a href="#p056">56</a> et seq.; liberal, <a href="#p056">56</a> et
+seq.; and speculation, <a href="#p081">81</a> et seq.; and science, <a href="#p097">97</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Buddhist(s) classified, <a href="#p008">8</a> et seq.; life and love, <a href="#p052">52</a>; ideal, <a href="#p053">53</a>;
+aspiration, <a href="#p368">368</a>; rule of conduct, <a href="#p368">368</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Çâkyamuni contrasted to Devadatta, <a href="#p200">200</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Carlyle’s <i>Hero-Worship</i>, quoted, <a href="#n130b">325 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Causation, universal, and emptiness, <a href="#p176">176</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Christ and Buddha, compared, <a href="#p057">57</a>, <a href="#p058">58</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Christian conception of the ego-soul, <a href="#p166">166</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Christianity, the growth of, compared with Mahâyânism, <a href="#p012">12</a> et seq.; and
+its founder, <a href="#p013">13</a>; not intellectual, <a href="#p079">79</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Çikshas (moral rules), ten, <a href="#n033b">70 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Confucius, <a href="#n026b">63 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Consciousness, subliminal, <a href="#p201">201</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Conservation of energy, and karma, <a href="#p034">34</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Convictions, the four, of the Buddha, <a href="#p327">327</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p412">{412}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Çrâvaka, <a href="#p277">277</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Çrâvaka-yâna, <a href="#p009">9</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Çrimâla Sûtra</i>, quoted, <a href="#p127">127</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Çûnyatâ, (or çûnya), <a href="#p022">22</a>, <a href="#p095">95</a>; and Christian critics, <a href="#p105">105</a>; explained,
+<a href="#p173">173</a>; and universal causation, <a href="#p176">176</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Daçabhûmi, (<i>see</i> “ten stages of Bodhisattvahood”), <a href="#p311">311</a>, <a href="#p329">329</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Deussen, P., quoted, <a href="#p107">107</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Devala, <a href="#p361">361</a>, <a href="#p364">364</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Dharma, its meaning, <a href="#p021">21</a>, <a href="#p221">221</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Dharmadhatu, <a href="#n056b">115 ft.</a>, <a href="#p193">193</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Dharmakâya, Mahâyâna, <a href="#p007">7</a>; briefly explained, <a href="#p020">20</a>, <a href="#p045">45</a> et seq.; the
+highest principle, <a href="#p035">35</a>; and Brahman, <a href="#p046">46</a>; and Paramâtman, <a href="#p046">46</a>; and God of
+Christians, <a href="#p046">46</a>; as love and wisdom, <a href="#p046">46</a>, <a href="#p054">54</a>, <a href="#p055">55</a>; and non-ego, <a href="#p047">47</a>; and
+the Golden Rule, <a href="#p048">48</a>; and Bodhisattvas, <a href="#p061">61</a>; its universal incarnation,
+<a href="#n026b">63 ft.</a>; in the Trikâya, <a href="#p073">73</a>, <a href="#p257">257</a>; as perfect knowledge, <a href="#p092">92</a>; and prajñâ,
+<a href="#p094">94</a>; as a cosmic mind, <a href="#p123">123</a>; a unity, <a href="#p193">193</a>; and Suchness, <a href="#p217">217</a>; as God,
+<a href="#p219">219</a>; as religious object, <a href="#p222">222</a>; in the <i>Avatamsaka Sutra</i>, <a href="#p223">223</a>; its
+detailed characterisation, <a href="#p224">224</a>; in the phenomenal world, <a href="#p231">231</a>; as love,
+<a href="#p232">232</a>; as a loving heart in the <i>Avatamsaka</i>, <a href="#p233">233</a>; its seven
+characteristics, <a href="#p234">234</a>; by Asanga and Vasubandhu, <a href="#p234">234</a>; its five modes of
+operation, <a href="#p235">235</a>; its freedom, <a href="#p236">236</a>; its pûrvanidhânabala, <a href="#p237">237</a>; as
+rational will, <a href="#p238">238</a>; as father, <a href="#p239">239</a>; and its perpetual revelation, <a href="#p259">259</a>;
+the evolution of its conception, <a href="#p272">272</a>; all beings are one in, <a href="#p290">290</a>; and
+the Bodhi, <a href="#p295">295</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Dharmapada</i>, The, quoted, <a href="#p034">34</a>, <a href="#p145">145</a>, <a href="#p336">336</a>, <a href="#p368">368</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Dharmamegha (tenth stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p326">326</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Dharmapala, the Anâgarika, <a href="#n002b">3 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Discourse on Buddha-Essence</i>, The, by Vasubandhu, <a href="#p357">357</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Dûrangama (seventh stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p319">319</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p413">{413}</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Ego, not the source of energy, <a href="#p055">55</a>; noumenal, <a href="#p145">145</a>, <a href="#p163">163</a>; phenomenal,
+<a href="#p145">145</a>; empirical, <a href="#p163">163</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Egoism and the evolution of Manas, <a href="#p134">134</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Ego-soul, and its attributes, <a href="#p147">147</a>; and the five skandhas, <a href="#p149">149</a>; located
+by Ananda, <a href="#p157">157</a>; and the Christian flesh, <a href="#p166">166</a>; and the Vedantic
+conception, <a href="#p167">167</a> et seq.; and Nâgârjuna, <a href="#p168">168</a>; and svabhava, <a href="#p171">171</a>; and
+Christians, <a href="#p212">212</a>; as conceived by Buddha when he started on his
+religious career, <a href="#p337">337</a>. (<i>See also</i> “Ego”, “âtman” and “soul”).
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Ekacitta, (one mind or thought), <a href="#n031b">70 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Elders, the School of, <a href="#p248">248</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Elephant and the blind, <a href="#p100">100</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Emerson, quoted, <a href="#p029">29</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Enlightenment, <a href="#p055">55</a>, <a href="#p119">119</a>; and manas, <a href="#p134">134</a>; two obstacles to, <a href="#n144b">344 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Faith, its contents vary, <a href="#p027">27</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Fatalism, <a href="#p196">196</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Gautama and Christ, <a href="#p029">29</a>. (<i>See also</i> “Buddha”).
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+God, the Buddhist, <a href="#p219">219</a>. (<i>See also</i> “Dharmakâya”).
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Goethe’s Faust, quoted, <a href="#p181">181</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Golden Rule, the, universal, <a href="#p054">54</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Great Council School, the, <a href="#p248">248</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Guyau, French sociologist, <a href="#n012b">50 ft.</a>, <a href="#p084">84</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Hartmann’s Unbewusste, <a href="#p137">137</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Hetus and Pratyayas, <a href="#p033">33</a>, <a href="#p041">41</a>, <a href="#p142">142</a>, <a href="#p148">148</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Hînayânism, <a href="#p001">1</a>, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p063">63</a>, <a href="#p280">280</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Hugo, Victor, quoted, <a href="#p058">58</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Hui-K’e, second patriarch of Zen sect, <a href="#p148">148</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p414">{414}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Iccantika (incapable of salvation), <a href="#p311">311</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Ignorance, <a href="#p035">35</a> et seq.; and evolution, <a href="#p115">115</a>; and consciousness, <a href="#p120">120</a>; no
+evil, <a href="#p122">122</a>; when evil? <a href="#p124">124</a>; and Tathâgata-Garbha, <a href="#p126">126</a>; and Manas, <a href="#p133">133</a>;
+and Prakrit, <a href="#n063b">138 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Imitation of Christ</i>, <a href="#n155b">364 fn.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Immortality, <a href="#p038">38</a>; and Dharmakâya, <a href="#p054">54</a>; karmaic and not individual, <a href="#p214">214</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Injustice, social, and karma, <a href="#p186">186</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Intelligence, awakened by love, <a href="#p362">362</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+<i>Jâtaka Tales</i>, the, quoted, <a href="#p156">156</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Jesus, <a href="#p006">6</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Jîvâtman, <a href="#p145">145</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Kant, <a href="#p006">6</a>; <i>Critique of Pure Reason</i>, quoted, <a href="#p324">324</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Karma, and the law of causation, <a href="#p033">33</a>; briefly explained, <a href="#p033">33</a> et seq.;
+and non-atman, <a href="#p042">42</a>; and suchness, <a href="#p181">181</a>; defined, <a href="#p181">181</a>; the working of,
+<a href="#p183">183</a>; irrefragable, <a href="#p184">184</a>; and injustice, <a href="#p186">186</a>; and the moral laws, <a href="#p189">189</a>;
+an individualistic view, <a href="#p192">192</a>; and the desire to communicate, <a href="#p195">195</a>; and
+determinism, <a href="#p196">196</a>; not like a machine, <a href="#p198">198</a>; and immortality, <a href="#p203">203</a>; and
+Walt Whitman (quoted), <a href="#p203">203</a>; how transmitted, <a href="#p205">205</a>; and Dharmakâya, <a href="#p207">207</a>;
+and productions of art, <a href="#p208">208</a>; and invention, <a href="#p210">210</a>; and “seeds of
+activity,” <a href="#p212">212</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Karma-seeds, <a href="#p134">134</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Karunâ (love), <a href="#p046">46</a>, <a href="#p082">82</a>, <a href="#p238">238</a>, <a href="#p296">296</a>; and Prajñâ, <a href="#p360">360</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Kathopanishad</i>, quoted, <a href="#p047">47</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Knowledge (sambodhi), <a href="#n002b">3 ft.</a>; three kinds of, <a href="#p067">67</a>, <a href="#p087">87</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Kuçalamûla, <a href="#p199">199</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+<i>Lalita Vistara</i>, quoted, on Nirvana, <a href="#n140b">338 fn.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p415">{415}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Lankavatara Sutra</i>, quoted, <a href="#p041">41</a>, <a href="#p130">130</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Laotze, <a href="#n026b">63 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Laotzean <i>Wu wei</i>, <a href="#p285">285</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Love, and ego, <a href="#p055">55</a>; and Nirvana, <a href="#p362">362</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+<i>Madhyâmika</i>, The, on Nirvana, <a href="#p347">347</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Madhyâmika school, <a href="#p021">21</a>, <a href="#p062">62</a>, <a href="#p066">66</a>; and the Yogacarya, on truth, <a href="#p095">95</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Mahâpurusa, Discourse on the</i>, <a href="#p361">361</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Mahâsangika, <a href="#n001b">1 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Mahâyâna, <a href="#p001">1</a> et seq; its original meaning, <a href="#p007">7</a>; and Bodhisattvas, <a href="#p061">61</a>; and
+Hînayâna, <a href="#p070">70</a>; and spiritual life, <a href="#p071">71</a>; and Samkhya, <a href="#p136">136</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Mahâyâna-Abhisamaya Sutra</i>, quoted, <a href="#p045">45</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Mahâyâna-Sangraha Çâstra</i>, <a href="#p354">354</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Mahâyânism, (Mahâyâna Buddhism), defined, <a href="#p010">10</a> et seq.; is it genuine?
+<a href="#p011">11</a> et seq.; as a living faith, <a href="#p014">14</a> et seq.; and its Christian critics,
+<a href="#p015">15</a>; misunderstood, <a href="#p016">16</a> et seq.; historically treated, <a href="#p060">60</a> et seq.; and
+Sthiramati, <a href="#p061">61</a> et seq.; its seven features, <a href="#p062">62</a> et seq.; and
+metempsychosis, <a href="#p064">64</a>; ten essential features, <a href="#p065">65</a> et seq.; in its two
+phases, <a href="#p076">76</a> et seq.; no nihilism, <a href="#n062b">135 ft.</a>; the development of, <a href="#p247">247</a>; and
+individualism, <a href="#p282">282</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Maitreya, <a href="#p272">272</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Manas (self-consciousness), <a href="#p132">132</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Mañjuçri, <a href="#p106">106</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Manovijñâna (ego-consciousness), <a href="#p067">67</a>, <a href="#p069">69</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Masashige, Kusunoki, <a href="#p213">213</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Maudsley, H., quoted, <a href="#p080">80</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Max Mueller, quoted, <a href="#n054b">108 ft.</a>, <a href="#n055b">110 ft.</a>, <a href="#p221">221</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Mâya, subjective ignorance, <a href="#p047">47</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Merits, the accumulation of, <a href="#p199">199</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p416">{416}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Middle path, Doctrine of the, <a href="#p059">59</a>, <a href="#p358">358</a>; of Eight No’s, <a href="#p103">103</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Milinda-Panha</i>, quoted, <a href="#p203">203</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Mitra, Rajendra, referred to, <a href="#n134b">329 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Monier Monier-Williams, refuted, <a href="#p018">18</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Nâgârjuna, <a href="#n002b">3 ft.</a>, <a href="#p004">4</a>, <a href="#p008">8</a>, <a href="#p021">21</a>, <a href="#p060">60</a>, <a href="#p066">66</a>, <a href="#p095">95</a>, <a href="#p096">96</a>, <a href="#p100">100</a>, <a href="#p103">103</a>, <a href="#p168">168</a>, <a href="#p171">171</a>, <a href="#p173">173</a>,
+<a href="#p292">292</a>, <a href="#p297">297</a>, <a href="#p353">353</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Nâgasena and King Milinda, <a href="#p153">153</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+“Na iti,” <a href="#p102">102</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Nânâtva, (difference), <a href="#n034b">72 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Nidânas, the twelve, <a href="#p036">36</a> et seq., <a href="#p179">179</a>, <a href="#p182">182</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Nirmanakâya, (Body of Transformation), <a href="#p073">73</a>, <a href="#p257">257</a>, <a href="#p268">268</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Nirvana, <a href="#p019">19</a>; and its non-Buddhist critics, <a href="#p049">49</a>; briefly explained, <a href="#p049">49</a>
+et seq.; and the surrender of ego, <a href="#p050">50</a>; and Dharmakâya, <a href="#p051">51</a>; and love,
+<a href="#p051">51</a>, <a href="#p058">58</a>; and pessimism, <a href="#p052">52</a>; and ethics, <a href="#p053">53</a>; and Parinishpanna
+(knowledge), <a href="#p094">94</a>; what is, <a href="#p331">331</a> et seq.; not nihilistic, <a href="#p332">332</a>;
+Mahâyânistic, <a href="#p341">341</a>; and Dharmakâya, <a href="#p342">342</a>; the Mahâyânistic conception
+of, <a href="#p342">342</a> et seq.; absolute, <a href="#p343">343</a>; four forms of, <a href="#p343">343</a>; upadhiçesa, <a href="#p344">344</a>;
+Anupadhiçesa, <a href="#p344">344</a>, that has no abode, <a href="#p345">345</a>; and I Cor. 7, 30-31, <a href="#p346">346</a>;
+as synonym of Dharmakâya, <a href="#p346">346</a> by Chandra Kirti, <a href="#p347">347</a>; its four
+attributes, <a href="#p348">348</a>; its religious phase, <a href="#p349">349</a>; and Emerson, <a href="#p352">352</a>; and
+samsara are one, <a href="#p352">352</a>; and St. Paul, <a href="#p352">352</a>; and the Eight No’s of
+Nâgârjuna, <a href="#p358">358</a>; the realisation of, <a href="#p360">360</a>; as the Middle Path, <a href="#p362">362</a>;
+comprehensively treated, <a href="#p367">367</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Non-âtman, <a href="#p037">37</a> et seq.; in things, <a href="#p041">41</a> et seq, <a href="#p170">170</a>; and impermanence of
+things, <a href="#p141">141</a>, (<i>see also</i> “non-ego”, “self”, “soul”, “ego”).
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Non-duality, the Dharma of, <a href="#p106">106</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Non-ego and Dharmakâya, <a href="#p047">47</a>; and the Ganges water, <a href="#p156">156</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p417">{417}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+No’s, The Eight, of Nâgârjuna, <a href="#p358">358</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+“Old man” and Atman, <a href="#p165">165</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Paramârtha-satya (absolute truth), <a href="#p091">91</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Paramâtman, <a href="#p145">145</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pâramitâ, <a href="#n002b">3 ft.</a>; six, <a href="#p068">68</a>; ten, <a href="#p321">321</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Paratantra (relative knowledge), <a href="#p067">67</a>; explained, <a href="#p089">89</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Parikalpita (illusion), <a href="#p067">67</a>; explained, <a href="#p088">88</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Parinishpanna (perfect knowledge), <a href="#p067">67</a>; explained, <a href="#p091">91</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Parivarta, (turning over), <a href="#p019">19</a>, <a href="#p194">194</a>; doctrine of, <a href="#p283">283</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Paul, Apostle, quoted, <a href="#p048">48</a>, <a href="#p166">166</a>, <a href="#p260">260</a>, <a href="#p262">262</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pingalaka, Nâgârjuna’s commentator, quoted, <a href="#p172">172</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Prabhâkarî (third stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p315">315</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Prajñâ (and Bodhi), defined, <a href="#n037b">82 ft.</a>; <a href="#p082">82</a>, <a href="#p097">97</a>, <a href="#p119">119</a>, <a href="#p238">238</a>, <a href="#p360">360</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Prakṛti (Samkyan primordial matter), <a href="#n029b">66 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pramûditâ (first stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p313">313</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pranidhâna, a Bodhisattva’s, <a href="#p307">307</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pratisamvids, the four, <a href="#p325">325</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pratyâyasamutpâda, (Nidânas), <a href="#p036">36</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pratyekabuddha, <a href="#p278">278</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pratyekabuddha-yâna, <a href="#p009">9</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Precepts, the ten moral, <a href="#n033b">70 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pudgala (ego), <a href="#p042">42</a>, <a href="#n065b">143 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Punyaskandha, <a href="#p199">199</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pure Lands, <a href="#p269">269</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Purusha (Samkyan soul), <a href="#n029b">66 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Pûrvanidhânabala, <a href="#p237">237</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Religion, its significance, <a href="#p022">22</a> et seq.; not revealed, <a href="#p023">23</a>; and mystery,
+<a href="#p024">24</a>; its intellectual and emotional sides, <a href="#p025">25</a> et seq.; and science, <a href="#p026">26</a>;
+intellect and feeling in, <a href="#p077">77</a>; and philosophy, <a href="#p078">78</a>; subjective, <a href="#p081">81</a> et
+seq.; not a philosophical system, <a href="#p085">85</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p418">{418}</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Rockhill’s <i>Life of the Buddha</i>, quoted, on Nirvana, <a href="#n140b">338 fn.</a>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+<i>Saddharma Pundarîka</i>, quoted, <a href="#n113b">260 ft.</a>, <a href="#p274">274</a>, <a href="#p277">277</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sadhumatî, (ninth stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p325">325</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Samatâ (sameness), <a href="#n034b">72 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sambodhi, (<i>see</i> “Bodhi”).
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sambhogakâya (Body of Bliss), <a href="#n027b">65 ft.</a>, <a href="#p073">73</a>, <a href="#p257">257</a>; in Açvaghosha, <a href="#p258">258</a>; its
+six features, <a href="#p264">264</a>; a mere subjective existence, <a href="#p266">266</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Samkhya philosophy, and Yogacarya school, <a href="#n030b">67 ft.</a>; referred to, <a href="#n069b">146
+ft.</a>; on Nirvana, <a href="#p340">340</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Samvrtti-satya (conditional truth), <a href="#p095">95</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Samyukta Nikaya</i>, quoted, <a href="#p156">156</a>, <a href="#p185">185</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sanskaras, enumerated, <a href="#p151">151</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Schopenhauer, <a href="#p181">181</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Skandhas, the five, <a href="#n007b">32 ft.</a>, <a href="#p149">149</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Soul-substance, denied, <a href="#p164">164</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sthavira, <a href="#n001b">1 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sthiramati, on Mahâyânism, <a href="#p061">61</a> et seq.; on Bodhicitta, <a href="#p299">299</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Suchness, (<i>see also</i> Bhûtatathâtâ), <a href="#p003">3</a>; the first principle of
+Buddhism, <a href="#p099">99</a> et seq.; indefinable, <a href="#p101">101</a>; conditioned, <a href="#p109">109</a>; in history,
+<a href="#p110">110</a>; in the world, <a href="#p113">113</a>; and the Bodhi, <a href="#p114">114</a>; and ignorance, <a href="#p117">117</a>; in its
+various modes, <a href="#p125">125</a>; and Dharmakâya, <a href="#p127">127</a>; and karma, <a href="#p181">181</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sudurjayâ, (fifth stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p318">318</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sukhâvatî sect, the, <a href="#p004">4</a>, <a href="#p240">240</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Sumedha, the story of, <a href="#p280">280</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Sûrangama Sutra</i>, quoted, <a href="#p157">157</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Suvarna Prabha Sutra</i>, <a href="#n110b">253 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Svabhava, and non-ego, <a href="#p170">170</a> et seq.; and emptiness, <a href="#p175">175</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p419">{419}</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+“Tat tvam asi,” <a href="#p047">47</a>, <a href="#n062b">135 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Tathâgata-Garbha, <a href="#p125">125</a>, <a href="#p145">145</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Teleology, <a href="#p086">86</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Tennyson, quoted, <a href="#p082">82</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Tîrthakas, <a href="#p008">8</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Tolstoi, quoted, in connection with karma, <a href="#n091b">207 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Trikâya, (trinity), <a href="#p073">73</a>, <a href="#p242">242</a>, <a href="#p256">256</a>, <a href="#p275">275</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Truth (satya), conditional and transcendental, <a href="#p095">95</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+<i>Udâna</i>, quoted, <a href="#p052">52</a>, <a href="#n140b">338 ft.</a>, <a href="#p341">341</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Universe, a mind, <a href="#p122">122</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Upâya (expediency), <a href="#p064">64</a>, <a href="#n113b">260 ft.</a>; its meaning explained, <a href="#n125b">298 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Upâyajñâ, <a href="#p320">320</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Vaiçaradyas (convictions), the four, <a href="#n132b">327 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vairocana, <a href="#p219">219</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vasubandhu, <a href="#p087">87</a>, <a href="#p153">153</a>; his <i>Abhidharmakoça</i>, referred to, <a href="#p037">37</a>; on
+Mahâyâna, <a href="#p066">66</a>; <i>On the Completion of Karma</i>, quoted, <a href="#p194">194</a>; <i>The
+Distinguishing of the Mean</i>, quoted, <a href="#p195">195</a>; on <i>Bodhicitta</i>, <a href="#p303">303</a>; on
+Nirvana, <a href="#p357">357</a>, <a href="#p359">359</a>, <a href="#p360">360</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vasumitra, on <i>Various Schools of Buddhism</i>, <a href="#n001b">1 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vedanta philosophy, and the Mahâyânism, <a href="#n054b">108 ft.</a>; on Nirvana, <a href="#p340">340</a>; on
+Atman, <a href="#p144">144</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Vicesacinta-brahma-Pariprccha Sutra</i>, <a href="#p353">353</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Victory, the hymn of, <a href="#p336">336</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vijñâna, and atman, <a href="#p039">39</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vijnânamâtra, (nothing but ideas), <a href="#p070">70</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Vijnânamâtra çâstra</i>, <a href="#n114b">265 ft.</a>, <a href="#p343">343</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vimala (second stage of Bodhisattvahood), <a href="#p315">315</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Vimalakîrti, <a href="#p106">106</a>, <a href="#p350">350</a>, <a href="#p366">366</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Visuddhi Magga</i>, quoted, <a href="#p339">339</a>, <a href="#n148b">348 ft.</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum" id="p420">{420}</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Waddell, refuted, <a href="#p021">21</a> et seq.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Whitman, Walt, quoted, <a href="#n073b">155 ft.</a>, <a href="#p197">197</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Wilson, Dr. G. R., quoted, <a href="#p201">201</a>.
+</p>
+
+
+<p class="idx mt1">
+Yoga philosophy, The, on Nirvana, <a href="#p340">340</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+Yogacarya school, <a href="#p062">62</a>, <a href="#p065">65</a>, <a href="#p087">87</a>, <a href="#p092">92</a>, <a href="#p095">95</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="idx">
+<i>Yogavasistha</i>, a vedantic book, quoted, <a href="#p167">167</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+[The End]
+</p>
+
+
+<h2 id="endnotes">
+ENDNOTES.
+</h2>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+INTRODUCTION NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n001a" id="n001b">[1]</a></sup> According to Vasumitra’s <i>Treatise on the Points of Contention
+by the Different Schools of Buddhism</i>, of which there are three
+Chinese translations, the earliest being one by Kumârajîva (who came
+to China in A.D. 401), the first great schism seems to have broken out
+about one hundred years after the Buddha. The leader of the dissenters
+was Mahâdeva, and his school was known as the Mahâsangîka (Great
+Council), while the orthodox was called the school of Sthaviras
+(Elders). Since then the two schools subdivided themselves into a
+number of minor sections, twenty of which are mentioned by Vasumitra.
+The book is highly interesting as throwing light on the early pages of
+the history of Buddhism in India.
+(<a href="#n001a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n002a" id="n002b">[2]</a></sup> The Anagârika Dharmapala of Ceylon objects to this geographical
+distinction. He does not see any reason why the Buddhism of Ceylon
+should be regarded as Hînayânism, when it teaches a realisation of the
+Highest Perfect Knowledge (<i>Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi</i>) and also of the
+six Virtues of Perfection (<i>Pâramitâ</i>),&mdash;these two features, among
+some others, being considered to be characteristic of Mahâyânism. It
+is possible that when the so-called Mahâyânism gained great power all
+over Central India in the times of Nâgârjuna and Âryadeva, it also
+found its advocates in the Isle of Lion, or at least the followers of
+Buddha there might have been influenced to such an extent as to modify
+their conservative views. At the present stage of the study of
+Buddhism, however, it is not yet perfectly clear to see how this took
+place. When a thorough comparative review of Pâli, Singhalese,
+Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese Buddhist documents is effected, we
+shall be able to understand the history and development of Buddhism to
+its full extent.
+(<a href="#n002a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n003a" id="n003b">[3]</a></sup> Translated into English by the author, 1900. The Open Court Pub.
+Co. Chicago.
+(<a href="#n003a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n004a" id="n004b">[4]</a></sup> These terms are explained elsewhere.
+(<a href="#n004a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n005a" id="n005b">[5]</a></sup> Followers of any religious sects other than Buddhism. The term
+is sometimes used in a contemptuous sense, like heathen by Christians.
+(<a href="#n005a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n006a" id="n006b">[6]</a></sup> The conception of Dharmakâya constitutes the central point in
+the system of Mahâyânism, and the right comprehension of it is of
+vital importance. The Body of the Law, as it is commonly rendered in
+English, is not exact and leads frequently to a misconception of the
+entire system. The point is fully discussed below.
+(<a href="#n006a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER I NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n007a" id="n007b">[7]</a></sup> They are: (1) form or materiality (<i>rûpa</i>), (2) sensation
+(<i>vedanâ</i>), (3) conception (<i>samjnâ</i>), (4) action or deeds (<i>samkâra</i>),
+and (5) consciousness (<i>vijnâna</i>). These terms are explained
+elsewhere.
+(<a href="#n007a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n008a" id="n008b">[8]</a></sup> <i>The Dhammapada</i>, v. 165. Tr. by A. J. Edmunds.
+(<a href="#n008a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n009a" id="n009b">[9]</a></sup> <i>The Dhammapada</i>, v. 127.
+(<a href="#n009a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n010a" id="n010b">[10]</a></sup> This last passage should not be understood in the sense of a
+total abnegation of existence. It means simply the transcendentality
+of the highest principle.
+(<a href="#n010a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n011a" id="n011b">[11]</a></sup> <i>The Kathopaniṣad</i>, IV. 10.
+(<a href="#n011a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n012a" id="n012b">[12]</a></sup> Guyau, a French sociologist, refers to the Buddhist conception
+of Nirvâna in his <i>Non-Religion of the Future</i>. I take his
+interpretation as typical of those non-Buddhist critics who are very
+little acquainted with the subject but pretend to know much. (English
+translation, pp. 472-474.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Granted the wretchedness of life, the remedy that pessimists propose
+is the new religious salvation that modern Buddhists are to make
+fashionable... The conception is that of Nirvâna. To sever all the
+ties which attach you to the external world; to prune away all the
+young offshoots of desire, and recognise that to be rid of them is a
+deliverance; to practise a sort of complete psychial circumcision; to
+recoil upon yourself and to believe that by so doing you enter into
+the society of the great totality of things (the mystic would say, of
+God); to create an inner vacuum, and to feel dizzy in the void and,
+nevertheless, to believe that the void is plenitude supreme, pleroma,
+these have always constituted temptations to mankind. Mankind has been
+tempted to meddle with them, as it has been tempted to creep up to the
+verge of dizzy precipices and look over... Nirvâna leads, in fact, to
+the annihilation of the individual and of the race, and to the logical
+absurdity that the vanquished are the victors over the trials and
+miseries of life.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then, the author recites the case of one of his acquaintances, who
+made a practical experiment of Nirvâna, rejecting variety in his diet,
+giving up meat, wine, every kind of ragout, every form of condiment,
+and reducing to its lowest possible terms the desire that is most
+fundamental in every living being&mdash;the desire of food, and substituting
+a certain number of cups of pure milk. “Having thus blunted his sense
+of taste and the grosser of his appetites, having abandoned all
+physical activity, he thought to find a recompense in the pleasure of
+abstract meditation and of esthetic contemplation. He entered to a
+state which was not that of dreamland, but neither was it that of real
+life, with its definite details.”
+(<a href="#n012a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n013a" id="n013b">[13]</a></sup> For detailed explanation of this term see <a href="#ch11">Chapter XI</a>.
+(<a href="#n013a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n014a" id="n014b">[14]</a></sup> <i>The Udâna</i>, Ch. VIII, p. 118. Translation by General Strong.
+(<a href="#n014a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n015a" id="n015b">[15]</a></sup> This is a peculiarly Indian religious practice, which consists
+in counting one’s exhaling and inhaling breaths. When a man is
+intensely bent on the practise, he gradually passes to a state of
+trance, forgetting everything that is going on around and within
+himself. The practise may have the merit of alleviating nervousness
+and giving to the mind the bliss of relaxation, but it oftentimes
+leads the mind to a self-hypnotic state.
+(<a href="#n015a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n016a" id="n016b">[16]</a></sup> Here Nirvâna is evidently understood to mean self-abnegation
+or world-flight or quietism, which is not in accord with the true
+Buddhist interpretation of the term.
+(<a href="#n016a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n017a" id="n017b">[17]</a></sup> The sentiment of the Golden Rule is not the monopoly of
+Christianity; it has been expressed by most of the leaders of thought,
+thus, for instance: “Requite hatred with virtue” (Lao-tze). “Hate is
+only appeased by love” (Buddha). “Do not do to others what ye would
+not have done to you by others” (Confucius). “One must neither return
+evil, nor do any evil to any one among men, not even if one has to
+suffer from them” (Plato, <i>Crito</i>, 49).
+(<a href="#n017a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n018a" id="n018b">[18]</a></sup> <i>The Buddhacarita</i>, Book IX, 63-64.
+(<a href="#n018a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n019a" id="n019b">[19]</a></sup> According to one Northern Buddhist tradition, Buddha is
+recorded to have exclaimed at the time of his supreme spiritual
+beatitude: “Wonderful! All sentient beings are universally endowed
+with the intelligence and virtue of the Tathâgata!”
+(<a href="#n019a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER II NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n020a" id="n020b">[20]</a></sup> His date is not known, but judging from the contents of his
+works, of which we have at present two or three among the Chinese
+Tripitaka, it seems that he lived later than Açvaghoṣa, but prior to,
+or simultaneously with, Nâgârjuna. This little book occupies a very
+important position in the development of Mahâyânism in India. Next to
+Açvaghoṣa’s <i>Awakening of Faith</i>, the work must be carefully studied
+by scholars who want to grasp every phase of the history of Mahâyâna
+school as far as it can be learned through the Chinese documents.
+(<a href="#n020a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n021a" id="n021b">[21]</a></sup> Be it remarked here that a Bodhisattva is not a particularly
+favored man in the sense of chosen people or elect. We are all in a
+way Bodhisattvas, that is, when we recognise the truth that we are
+equally in possession of the Samyak-sambodhi, Highest True
+Intelligence, and through which everybody without exception can attain
+final enlightenment.
+(<a href="#n021a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n022a" id="n022b">[22]</a></sup> <i>Mahâyâna-abhidharma-sangîti-çâstra</i>, by Asanga. Nanjo, No.
+1199.
+(<a href="#n022a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n023a" id="n023b">[23]</a></sup> <i>Yogâcârya-bhûmi-çâstra</i>, Nanjo, No. 1170. The work is supposed
+to have been dictated to Asanga by a mythical Bodhisattva.
+(<a href="#n023a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n024a" id="n024b">[24]</a></sup> By Asanga. Nanjo, 1177.
+(<a href="#n024a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n025a" id="n025b">[25]</a></sup> <i>Mahâyâna-samparigraha-çâstra</i>, by Asanga. Nanjo, 1183.
+(<a href="#n025a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n026a" id="n026b">[26]</a></sup> Perceiving an incarnation of the Dharmakâya in every spiritual
+leader regardless of his nationality and professed creed, Mahâyânists
+recognise a Buddha in Socrates, Mohammed, Jesus, Francis of Assisi,
+Confucius, Laotze, and many others.
+(<a href="#n026a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n027a" id="n027b">[27]</a></sup> Ancient Hindu Buddhists, with their fellow-philosophers,
+believed in the existence of spiritually transfigured beings, who, not
+hampered by the limitations of space and time, can manifest themselves
+everywhere for the benefit of all sentient beings. We notice some
+mysterious figures in almost all Mahâyâna sûtras, who are very often
+described as shedding innumerable rays of light from the forehead and
+illuminating all the three thousand worlds simultaneously. This may
+merely be a poetic exaggeration. But this Sambhogakâya or Body of
+Bliss (see Açvaghoṣa’s <i>Awakening of Faith</i>, p. 101) is very difficult
+for us to comprehend as it is literally described. For a fuller
+treatment see the <a href="#ch10">chapter</a> on “Trikâya.”
+(<a href="#n027a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n028a" id="n028b">[28]</a></sup> Though I am very much tempted to digress and to enter into a
+specific treatment concerning these two Hindu Mahâyâna doctrines, I
+reluctantly refrain from so doing, as it requires a somewhat lengthy
+treatment and does not entirely fall within the scope of the present
+work.
+(<a href="#n028a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n029a" id="n029b">[29]</a></sup> That Açvaghoṣa’s conception of the Âlaya varies with the view
+here presented may be familiar to readers of his <i>Awakening of Faith</i>.
+This is one of the most abstruse problems in the philosophy of Mahâyâna
+Buddhism, and there are several divergent theories concerning its
+nature, attributes, activities, etc. In a work like this, it is
+impossible to give even a general statement of those controversies,
+however interesting they may be to students of the history of
+intellectual development in India.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Âlayavijñâna, to use the phraseology of Samkhya philosophy, is a
+composition, so to speak, of the Soul (<i>puruṣa</i>) and Primordial Matter
+(<i>prakṛti</i>). It is the Soul, so far as it is neutral and indifferent
+to all those phenomenal manifestations, that are going on within as
+well as without us. It is Primordial Matter, inasmuch as it is the
+reservoir of everything, whose lid being lifted by the hands of
+Ignorance, there instantly springs up this universe of limitation and
+relativity. Enlightenment or Nirvâna, therefore, consists in
+recognising the error of Ignorance and not in clinging to the products
+of imagination.
+(<a href="#n029a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n030a" id="n030b">[30]</a></sup> For a more detailed explanation of the ideal philosophy of the
+Yogâcâra, see my article on the subject in <i>Le Muséon</i>, 1905.
+(<a href="#n030a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n031a" id="n031b">[31]</a></sup> “One mind” or “one heart” meaning the mental attitude which is
+in harmony with the monistic view of nature in its broadest sense.
+(<a href="#n031a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n032a" id="n032b">[32]</a></sup> These ten stages of spiritual development are somewhat minutely
+explained below. See <a href="#ch12">Chapter XII</a>.
+(<a href="#n032a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n033a" id="n033b">[33]</a></sup> The ten moral precepts of the Buddha are: (1) Kill no living
+being; (2) Take nothing that is not given; (3) Keep matrimonial
+sanctity; (4) Do not lie; (5) Do not slander; (6) Do not insult; (7)
+Do not chatter; (8) Be not greedy; (9) Bear no malice; (10) Harbor no
+scepticism.
+(<a href="#n033a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n034a" id="n034b">[34]</a></sup> Mahâyânism recognises two “entrances” through which a
+comprehensive knowledge of the universe is obtained. One is called the
+“entrance of sameness” (<i>samatâ</i>) and the other the “entrance of
+diversity” (<i>nânâtva</i>). The first entrance introduces us to the
+universality of things and suggests a pantheistic interpretation of
+existence. The second leads us to the particularity of things
+culminating in monotheism or polytheism, as it is viewed from
+different standpoints. The Buddhists declare that neither entrance
+alone can lead us to the sanctum sanctorum of existence; and in order
+to obtain a sound, well-balanced knowledge of things in general, we
+must go through both the entrances of universality and particularity.
+(<a href="#n034a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n035a" id="n035b">[35]</a></sup> The doctrine of Trikâya will be given further elucidation in
+the chapter bearing the same title.
+(<a href="#n035a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER III NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n036a" id="n036b">[36]</a></sup> No efforts have yet been made systematically to trace the
+history of the development of the Mahâyâna thoughts in India as well
+as in China and Japan. We have enough material at least to follow the
+general course it has taken, as far as the Chinese and Tibetan
+collections of Tripitaka are concerned. When a thorough comparison by
+impartial, unprejudiced scholars of these documents has been made with
+the Pali and Sanskrit literature, then we shall be able to write a
+comprehensive history of the human thoughts that have governed the
+Oriental people during the last two thousand years. When this is done,
+the result can further be compared with the history of other religious
+systems, thus throwing much light on the general evolution of humanity.
+(<a href="#n036a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n037a" id="n037b">[37]</a></sup> <i>Prajñâ</i>, <i>bodhi</i>, <i>buddhi</i>, <i>vidyâ</i> and <i>jñâ</i> or <i>jñâna</i> are
+all synonymous and in many cases interchangeable. But they allow a
+finer discrimination. Speaking in a general way, <i>prajñâ</i> is reason,
+<i>bodhi</i> wisdom or intelligence, <i>buddhi</i> enlightenment, <i>vidyâ</i>
+ideality or knowledge, and <i>jñâ</i> or <i>jñâna</i> intellect. Of these five
+terms, <i>prajñâ</i> and <i>bodhi</i> are essentially Buddhistic and have
+acquired technical meaning, In this work both <i>prajñâ</i> and <i>bodhi</i> are
+mostly translated by intelligence, for their extent of meaning closely
+overlaps each other. But this is rather vague, and wherever I thought
+the term intelligence alone to be misleading, I either left the
+originals untranslated, or inserted them in parentheses. To be more
+exact, <i>prajñâ</i> in many cases can safely be rendered by faith, not a
+belief in revealed truths, but a sort of immediate knowledge gained by
+intuitive intelligence. <i>Prajñâ</i> corresponds in some respects to
+wisdom, meaning the foundation of all reasonings and experiences. It
+may also be considered an equivalent for Greek <i>sophia</i>. Bodhi, on the
+other hand, has a decidedly religious and moral significance. Besides
+being <i>prajñâ</i> itself, it is also love (<i>karunâ</i>): for, according to
+Buddhism, these two, <i>prajñâ</i> and <i>karunâ</i>, constitute the essence of
+Bodhi. May Bodhi be considered in some respects synonymous with the
+divine wisdom as understood by Christian dogmatists? But there is
+something in the Buddhist notion of Bodhi that cannot properly be
+expressed by wisdom or intelligence. This seems to be due to the
+difference of philosophical interpretation by Buddhists and Christians
+of the conception of God. It will become clearer as we proceed farther.
+(<a href="#n037a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER IV NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n038a" id="n038b">[38]</a></sup> For detailed exposition of the three forms of knowledge, the
+reader is requested to peruse Asanga’s <i>Comprehensive Treatise on
+Mahâyânism</i> (Nanjo’s Catalogue, No. 1183), Vasubandhu’s work on
+Mahâyâna idealism (<i>Vijnânamâtra Çâstra</i>, Nanjo, No. 1215), the <i>Sûtra
+on the Mystery of Deliverance</i> (<i>Sandhinirmocana-sûtra</i>, Nanjo. Nos.
+246 and 247), etc.
+(<a href="#n038a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n039a" id="n039b">[39]</a></sup> When the eminent representatives of both parties, such as
+Dharmapala and Bhavaviveka, were at the height of their literary
+activity in India about the fifth or sixth century after Christ, their
+partisan spirit incited them bitterly to denounce each other,
+forgetting the common ground on which their principles were laid down.
+Their disagreement in fact on which they put an undue emphasis was of
+a very trifling nature. It was merely a quarrel over phraseology, for
+one insisted on using certain words just in the sense which the other
+negated.
+(<a href="#n039a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n040a" id="n040b">[40]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Dve satye samupâçritya buddhânâm dhardeçanâ</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Lokasamvṛttisatyañ ca satyañ ca paramârthataḥ.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Ye ca anayor na jânanti vibhâgam satyayor dvayoḥ,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Te tatvam na vijânanti gambhîrabuddhaçâsane.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n040a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n041a" id="n041b">[41]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Vyavahâram anâçritya paramârtho na deçyate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Paramârtham anâgamya nirvâṇam na adhigamyata.</span><br>
+<span class="i10"><i>The Mâdhyamika</i>, p. 181.</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n041a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER V NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n042a" id="n042b">[42]</a></sup>
+Cf. <i>The Udâna</i>, chapter VI.
+(<a href="#n042a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n043a" id="n043b">[43]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Svabhâvam parabhâvanca, bhâvancâbhâvameva ca,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Ye paçyanti, na paçyante tatvam hi buddhaçâsane.</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n043a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n044a" id="n044b">[44]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Astîti çâçvatagrâho, nâstîtyucchedadarçanam:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Tasmâdastitvanâstitve nâçriyeta vicaksanah</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n044a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n045a" id="n045b">[45]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Astîti nâstîti ubhe ‘pi antâ</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Çuddhî açuddhîti ime ‘pi antâ;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Tasmâdubhe anta vivarjayitvâ</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Madhye ‘pi syânam na karoti paṇditah.</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n045a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n046a" id="n046b">[46]</a></sup> This is the famous phrase in the <i>Brhadaranyaka Upanisad</i>
+occurring in several places (II, 3, 6; III, 9, 26; IV, 2, 4; IV, 4,
+22; IV, 5, 5). The Atman or Brahman, it says, “is to be described by
+No, No! He is incomprehensible, for he cannot be comprehended; he is
+imperishable, for he cannot perish; he is unattached, for he does not
+attach himself; unfettered, he does not suffer, he does not fail. Him
+(who knows), these two do not overcome, whether he says that for some
+reason he has done evil, or for some reason he has done good&mdash;he
+overcomes both, and neither what he has done, nor what he has omitted
+to do, affects him.”
+(<a href="#n046a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n047a" id="n047b">[47]</a></sup> <i>The Awakening of Faith</i>, p. 59. Cf. this with the utterances
+of Dionysius the Areopagite, as quoted by Prof. W. James in his
+<i>Varieties of Religious Experience</i>, pp. 416-417: “The cause of all
+things is neither soul nor intellect; nor has it imagination, opinion,
+or reason, or intelligence; nor is it spoken or thought. It is neither
+number, nor order, nor magnitude, nor littleness, nor equality, nor
+inequality, nor similarity, nor dissimilarity. It neither stands, nor
+moves, nor rests.... It is neither essence, nor eternity, nor time.
+Even intellectual contact does not belong to it. It is neither science
+nor truth. It is not even royalty nor wisdom; not one; not unity; not
+divinity or goodness; nor even spirit as we know it.”.... <i>ad libitum</i>.
+(<a href="#n047a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n048a" id="n048b">[48]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Anirodham anutpâdam anucchedam açâçvatam,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Anekârtham anânârtham anâgamam anirgamam.</span><br>
+<span class="i5">(<i>Mâdhyamika Çâstra</i>, first stanza.)</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n048a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n049a" id="n049b">[49]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Param nirodhâdbhagavân bhavatîtyeva nohyate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Na bhavatyubhayam ceti nobhayam ceti nohyate:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Atiṣṭhamâno ‘pi bhagavân bhavatîtyeva nohyate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Na bhavatyubhayam ceti nobhayam ceti nohyate.</span><br>
+<span class="i10">(<i>Mâdhyamika</i>, p. 199).</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n049a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n050a" id="n050b">[50]</a></sup> He was the third son of king of Kâçi (?) in southern India. He
+came to China A.D. 527 and after a vain attempt to convert Emperor Wu
+to his own view, he retired to a monastery, where, it is reported, he
+spent all day in gazing at the wall without making any further venture
+to propagate his mysticism. But finally he found a most devoted
+disciple in the person of Shen Kuang, who was once a Confucian, and
+through whom the Dhyâna school became one of the most powerful Mahâyâna
+sect in China as well as in Japan. Dharma died in the year 535. Besides
+the one here mentioned, he had another audience with the Emperor. At
+that time, the Emperor said to Dharma: “I have dedicated so many
+monasteries, copied so many sacred books, and converted so many bhiksus
+and bhiksunis: what do you think my merits are or ought to be?” To
+this, however, Dharma replied curtly, “No merit whatever.”
+(<a href="#n050a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n051a" id="n051b">[51]</a></sup> Another interesting utterance by a Chinese Buddhist, who,
+earnestly pondering over the absoluteness of Suchness for several
+years, understood it one day all of a sudden, is: “The very instant
+you say it is something (or a nothing), you miss the mark.”
+(<a href="#n051a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n052a" id="n052b">[52]</a></sup> <i>The Vimalakîrti Sûtra</i>, Kumârajîva’s translation, Part II,
+Chapter 5.
+(<a href="#n052a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n053a" id="n053b">[53]</a></sup>
+Deussen relates, in his address delivered before the Bombay
+Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a similar attitude
+of a Vedantist mystic in regard to the highest Brahma. “The
+Bhava, therefore, when asked by the king Vaksalin, to explain the
+Brahman, kept silence. And when the king repeated his request
+again and again, the rishi broke out into the answer: ‘I tell it you,
+but you don’t understand it; <i>çânto ’yam âtmâ</i>, this âtmâ is silence!’&hairsp;”
+(<a href="#n053a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n054a" id="n054b">[54]</a></sup> It is a well-known fact that the Vedanta philosophy, too,
+makes a similar distinction between Brahman as sagunam (qualified) and
+Brahman as nirgunam (unqualified). The former is relative, phenomenal,
+and has characteristics of its own; but the latter is absolute, having
+no qualification whatever to speak of, it is absolute Suchness. (See
+Max Mueller’s <i>The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy</i>, p. 220 et seq.)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, a very interesting question suggests itself: Which is the
+original and which is the copy, Mahâyânism or Vedantism? Most of
+European Sanskrit scholars would fain wish to dispose of it at once by
+declaring that Buddhism must be the borrower. But I am strongly
+inclined to the opposite view, for there is reliable evidence in favor
+of it. In a writing of Açvaghoṣa, who dates much earlier than Çankara
+or Badarayana we notice this distinction of absolute Suchness and
+relative Suchness. He writes in his <i>Awakening of Faith</i> (p. 55 et
+seq.) that though Suchness is free from all modes of limitation and
+conditionality, and therefore it cannot be thought of by our finite
+consciousness, yet on account of Avidyâ inherent in the human mind
+absolute Suchness manifests itself in the phenomenal world, thereby
+subjecting itself to the law of causality and relativity and proceeds
+to say that there is a twofold aspect in Suchness from the point of
+view of its explicability. The first aspect is trueness as negation
+(<i>çûnyatâ</i>) in the sense that it is completely set apart from the
+attributes of all things unreal, that it is a veritable reality. The
+second aspect is trueness as affirmation (<i>açûnyatâ</i>), in the sense
+that it contains infinite merits, that it is self-existent. Considering
+the fact that Açvaghoṣa comes earlier than any Vedanta philosophers,
+it stands to reason to say that the latter might have borrowed the
+idea of distinguishing the two aspects of Brahma from their Buddhist
+predecessors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Çankara also makes a distinction between <i>saguna</i> and <i>nirguna vidya</i>,
+whose parallel we find in the Mahâyânist <i>samvṛtti</i> and <i>paramârtha
+satya</i>.
+(<a href="#n054a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n055a" id="n055b">[55]</a></sup> While passing, I cannot help digressing and entering on a
+polemic in this footnote. The fact is, Western Buddhist critics
+stubbornly refuse to understand correctly what is insisted by Buddhists
+themselves. Even scholars who are supposed to be well informed about
+the subject, go astray and make false charges against Buddhism. Max
+Mueller, for example, declares in his <i>Six Systems of Indian
+Philosophy</i> (p. 242) that “An important distinction between Buddhists
+and Vedantists is that the former holds the world to have arisen from
+what is not, the latter from what is, the Sat or Brahman.” The reader
+who has carefully followed my exposition above will at once detect in
+this Max Mueller’s conclusion an incorrect statement of Buddhist
+doctrine. As I have repeatedly said, Suchness, though described in
+negative terms, is not a state of nothingness, but the highest possible
+synthesis that the human intellect can reach. The world did not come
+from the void of Suchness, but from its fulness of reality. If it were
+not so, to where does Buddhism want us to go after deliverance from
+the evanescence and nothingness of the phenomenal world?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Max Mueller in another place (op. cit. p. 210) speaks of the
+Vedantists’ assertion of the reality of the objective world for
+practical purposes (<i>vyavahârârtham</i>) and of their antagonistic
+attitude toward “the nihilism of the Buddhists.” “The Buddhists” this
+seems to refer to the followers of the Mâdhyamika school, but a careful
+perusal of their texts will reveal that what they denied was not the
+realness of the world as a manifestation of conditional Suchness, but
+its independent realness and our attachment to it as such. The
+Mâdhyamika school was not in any sense a nihilistic system. True, its
+advocates used many negative terms, but what they meant by them was
+obvious enough to any careful reader.
+(<a href="#n055a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n056a" id="n056b">[56]</a></sup> Dharmadhâtu is the world as seen by an enlightened mind, where
+all forms of particularity do not contradict one another, but make one
+harmonious whole.
+(<a href="#n056a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n057a" id="n057b">[57]</a></sup> The word literally means recollection or memory. Açvaghoṣa
+uses it as a synonym of ignorance, and so do many other Buddhist
+philosophers.
+(<a href="#n057a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n058a" id="n058b">[58]</a></sup> <i>Smṛti</i> or <i>citta</i> or <i>vijñâna</i>. They are all used by Açvaghoṣa
+and other Buddhist authors as synonymous. <i>Smṛti</i> literally means
+memory; <i>citta</i>, thought or mentation; and <i>vijñâna</i> is generally
+rendered by consciousness, though not very accurately.
+(<a href="#n058a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER VI NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n059a" id="n059b">[59]</a></sup> Cf. the <i>Bhagavadgîtâ</i> (<i>S. B. E.</i> Vol. VIII, chap. XIV, p.
+107): “The Brahman is a womb for me, in which I cast the seed. From
+that, O descendant of Bharata! is the birth of all things. Of the
+bodies, O son of Kunti! which are born from all wombs, the main womb
+is the great Brahman, and I am the father, the giver of the seed.”
+(<a href="#n059a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n060a" id="n060b">[60]</a></sup> This is translated from the Chinese of Çikṣananda; the Sanskrit
+reads as follows:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Tarangâ hi udadher yadvat pavanapratyaya îritâ,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Nṛtyamânâh pravartante vyucchedaç ca na vidhyate:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Âlayodhyas tathâ nityam viṣayapavana îritaḥ,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cittâis tarangavijñânâir nṛtyamânâḥ pravartate.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n060a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n061a" id="n061b">[61]</a></sup>
+From the Chinese. The Sanskrit reads as follows:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Nîle rakte ‘tha lavaṇe çankhe kṣîre ca çârkare,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Kaṣayâiḥ phalapuṣpâdyâih kiraṇâ yatha bhâskare:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No ‘nyena ca nânanyena tarangâ hi udadher matâ;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Vijñânâni tathâ sapta, cittena saha samyuktâ.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Udadheḥ pariṇâmo ‘sâu tarangânâm vicitratâ,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Âlayam hi tathâ cittam vijñânâkhyam pravartate;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cittam manaç ca vijñânam lakṣaṇârtham prakalpyate;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Âbhinna lakṣanâ hi aṣtâu na lakṣyâ na ca lakṣaṇâ.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Udadheç ca tarangânâm yathâ nâsti viçeṣanâ.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Vijñânânam tathâ citte pariṇâmo na labhyate.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cittena cîyate karmaḥ, manasâ ca vicîyate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Vijñânena vijânâti, dṛçyam kalpeti pañcabhiḥ.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n061a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n062a" id="n062b">[62]</a></sup> A little digression here. It has frequently been affirmed of
+the ethics of Mahâyânism that as it has a nihilistic tendency its
+morality turns towards asceticism ignoring the significance of the
+sentiment and instinct. It is true that Mahâyânism perfectly agrees
+with Vedantism when the latter declares: “If the killer thinks that he
+kills, if the killed thinks that he is killed, they do not understand;
+for this one does not kill, nor is that one killed.” (<i>The
+Katopanishad</i>, II 19.) This belief in non-action (Laotzean <i>Wu Wei</i>)
+apparently denies the existence of a world of relativity, but he will
+be a superficial critic who will stop short at this absolute aspect of
+Mahâyâna philosophy and refuses to consider its practical side. As we
+have seen above, Buddhists do not conceive the evolution of the
+Manovijñâna as a fault on the part of the cosmic mind, nor do they
+think the assertion of Ignorance altogether wrong and morally evil.
+Therefore, Mahâyânism does not deny the claim of reality to the world
+of the senses, though of course relatively, and not absolutely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Again, “Tat tvam asi” (thou art it) or “I am the Buddha”&mdash;this
+assertion, though arrogant it may seem to some, is perfectly
+justifiable in the realm of absolute identity, where the serene light
+of Suchness alone pervades. But when we descend on earth and commingle
+in the hurly-burly of our practical, dualistic life, we cannot help
+suffering from its mundane limitations. We hunger, we thirst, we
+grieve at the loss of the dearest, we feel remorse over errors
+committed. Mahâyânism does not teach the annihilation of those human
+passions and feelings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was once a recluse-philosopher, who was considered by the
+villagers to have completely vanquished all natural desires and human
+ambitions. They almost worshipped him and thought him to be superhuman.
+One day early in Winter, a devotee approached him and reverentially
+inquired after his health. The sage at once responded in verse:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“A hermit truly I am, world-renounced;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Yet when the ground is white with snow,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">A chill goes through me and I shiver.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+A false conception of religious saintliness as cherished by so many
+pious-hearted, but withal ignorant, minds, has led them into some of
+the grossest superstitions, whose curse is still lingering even among
+us. Our earthly life has so many limitations and tribulations. The
+ills that the flesh is heir to must be relieved by some material,
+scientific methods.
+(<a href="#n062a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n063a" id="n063b">[63]</a></sup> That the Buddhist Ignorance corresponds to the Sâmkhya
+Prakṛti can be seen also from the fact that some Samkhya commentators
+give to Prakṛti as its synonyms such terms as <i>çâkti</i> (energy) which
+reminds of karma or sankâra, <i>tamas</i> (darkness), <i>mâyâ</i>, and even the
+very word <i>avidyâ</i> (ignorance)
+(<a href="#n063a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n064a" id="n064b">[64]</a></sup> This view of the oneness of the Âlaya or Citta (mind) may not
+be acceptable to some Mahâyânists, particularly to those who advocate
+the Yogâcâra philosophy; but the present author is here trying to
+expound a more orthodox and more typical and therefore more
+widely-recognised doctrine of Mahâyânism, i.e., that of Açvaghoṣa.
+(<a href="#n064a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER VII NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n065a" id="n065b">[65]</a></sup> <i>Pudgala</i> or <i>pudgalasamjña</i> is sometimes used by Mahâyânists
+as a synonym of âtman. The Buddhist âtman in the sense of
+ego-substratum may be considered to correspond to the Vedantist
+Jîvâtman, which is used in contradistinction to Paramâtman, the
+supreme being or Brahma.
+(<a href="#n065a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n066a" id="n066b">[66]</a></sup> Mahâyâna Buddhists generally understand the essential
+characteristic of âtman to consist in freedom, and by freedom they
+mean eternality, absolute unity, and supreme authority. A being that
+is transitory is not free, as it is conditioned by other beings, and
+therefore it has no âtman. A being that is an aggregate of elemental
+matter or forms of energy is not absolute, for it is a state of mutual
+relationship, and therefore it has no âtman. Again, a being that has
+no authoritative command over itself and other beings, is not free,
+for it will be subjected to a power other than itself, and therefore
+it has no âtman. Now, take anything that we come across in this world
+of particulars; and does it not possess one or all of these three
+qualities: transitoriness, compositeness, and helplessness or
+dependence? Therefore, all concrete individual existences not
+excepting human beings have no âtman, have no ego, that is eternal,
+absolute, and supreme.
+(<a href="#n066a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n067a" id="n067b">[67]</a></sup> Tent-designer is a figurative term for the ego-soul. Following
+the prevalent error, the Buddha at first made an earnest search after
+the ego that was supposed to be snugly sitting behind our mental
+experiences, and the result was this utterance.
+(<a href="#n067a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n068a" id="n068b">[68]</a></sup> <i>The Dharmapada</i>, vs. 153-154. Tr. by A. J. Edmunds.
+(<a href="#n068a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n069a" id="n069b">[69]</a></sup> <i>Prakṛtivikṛtayas.</i> This is a technical term of Sâmkhya
+philosophy and means the modes of Prakrti, as evolved from it and as
+further evolving on. See Satis Chandra Banarji, <i>Samkhya-Philosophy</i>,
+p. XXXIII et seq.
+(<a href="#n069a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n070a" id="n070b">[70]</a></sup> The passages quoted here as well as one in the next paragraph
+are taken from Açvaghoṣa’s <i>Buddhacarita</i>.
+(<a href="#n070a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n071a" id="n071b">[71]</a></sup> <i>The Questions of King Milinda, Sacred Books of the East</i>,
+Vol. XXXV.
+(<a href="#n071a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n072a" id="n072b">[72]</a></sup> This reminds us of the passage quoted elsewhere from the
+<i>Katha-Upanishad</i>; cf. the footnote to it.
+(<a href="#n072a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n073a" id="n073b">[73]</a></sup> As cited elsewhere, Bodhi-Dharma of the Dhyâna sect, when
+questioned in a similar way, replied, “I do not know.” Walt Whitman
+echoes the same sentiment in the following lines:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“A child said, what is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is, any more than he.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n073a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n074a" id="n074b">[74]</a></sup> There seem to be two Chinese translations of this Sûtra, one
+by Kumârajîva and the other by Paramârtha, but apparently they are
+different texts bearing the same title. Besides these two, there is
+another text entirely in Chinese transliteration. Owing to
+insufficiency of material at my disposal here, I cannot say anything
+definite about the identity or diversity of these documents. The
+following discussion that is reported to have taken place between the
+Buddha and Ananda is an abstract prepared from the first and the
+second fasciculi of Paramârtha’s (?) translation. Beal gives in his
+<i>Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese</i> (pp. 286-369) an
+English translation of the first four fasc. of the <i>Surangama</i>. Though
+this translation is not quite satisfactory in many points the reader
+may find there a detailed account of the discussion which is here only
+partially and roughly recapitulated.
+(<a href="#n074a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n075a" id="n075b">[75]</a></sup> Cf. the following which is extracted from the <i>Questions of
+King Milinda</i> (Sacred Books of the East, vol. XXXV, 133): “If there be
+a soul [distinct from the body] which does all this, then if the door
+of the eye were thrown down [if the eye were plucked out] could it
+stretch out its head, as it were, through the larger aperture and
+[with greater range] see forms much more clearly than before? Could
+one hear sounds better if the ears were cut off, or taste better if
+the tongue were pulled out, or feel touch better if the body were
+destroyed?”
+(<a href="#n075a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n076a" id="n076b">[76]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Nirvikalpo ‘smi ciddipo nirahankaravasanaḥ</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Tvaya ahankarabijena na sambaddho ‘smi asanmaya (31)</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n076a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n077a" id="n077b">[77]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Yathâ bhûtatayâ na ahammano na tvam na vâsanâ</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Atmâ çuddhacidabhasaḥ kevalo yam vijṛbhate. (44)</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n077a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n078a" id="n078b">[78]</a></sup> The following is a somewhat free translation of the original
+Chinese of Kumârajîva, which pretty closely agrees with the Sanskrit
+text published by the Buddhist Text Society of India.
+(<a href="#n078a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n079a" id="n079b">[79]</a></sup> The Sanskrit text does not give this passage.
+(<a href="#n079a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n080a" id="n080b">[80]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Lakṣyâl lakṣaṇam anyac cet syât tal lakṣyam alakṣanam.</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n080a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n081a" id="n081b">[81]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Rûpâdi vyatirekena yathâ kumbho na vidyate,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Vâhyâdi vyatireṇa tathâ rûpam na vidyate.</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n081a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n082a" id="n082b">[82]</a></sup> Abstracted from Pingalaka’s <i>Commentary on the Mâdhyamika
+Çâstra</i>, Chapter VII. The Chinese translation is by Kumârajîva.
+(<a href="#n082a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n083a" id="n083b">[83]</a></sup> The passage in parentheses is taken from Chandrakîrti’s
+<i>Commentary on Nâgârjuna</i>, pp. 180-181.
+(<a href="#n083a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER VIII NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n084a" id="n084b">[84]</a></sup> The Twelve Nidânas are: (1) Ignorance (<i>avidyâ</i>), (2) action
+(<i>sanskâra</i>), (3) Consciousness (<i>vijñâna</i>), (4) Name-and-form
+(<i>nâmarûpa</i>), (5) Six Sense-organs (<i>âyatana</i>), (6) Contact (<i>sparça</i>),
+(7) Sensation (<i>vedanâ</i>), (8) Desire (<i>trṣnâ</i>), (9) Attachment
+(<i>upâdâna</i>), (10) Procreation (<i>bhâva</i>), (11) birth (<i>jati</i>), (12) Old
+Age, Death, etc. (<i>jarâ</i>, <i>marana</i>, <i>çoka</i>, etc.).
+(<a href="#n084a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n085a" id="n085b">[85]</a></sup> From a Chinese Mahâyâna sutra.
+(<a href="#n085a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n086a" id="n086b">[86]</a></sup> The Pâli Jâtaka, no. 222. Translation by W. H. Rouse.
+(<a href="#n086a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n087a" id="n087b">[87]</a></sup> Warren’s <i>Buddhism in Translations</i>, p. 214.
+(<a href="#n087a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n088a" id="n088b">[88]</a></sup> <i>On the Completion of Karma</i>, by Vasubandhu. Nanjo, No. 1222.
+(<a href="#n088a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n089a" id="n089b">[89]</a></sup> <i>The Distinguishing of the Mean</i>, by Vasubandhu. Nanjo, 1248.
+(<a href="#n089a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n090a" id="n090b">[90]</a></sup> “Manhattan’s Streets I Saunter’d, Pondering.” I might have
+quoted the whole poem, if not for limitation of space.
+(<a href="#n090a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n091a" id="n091b">[91]</a></sup> If we understand the following words of Tolstoi in the light
+which we gain from the Buddhist doctrine of karmaic immortality, we
+shall perhaps find more meaning in them than the author himself wished
+to impart: “My brother who is dead acts upon me now more strongly than
+he did in life; he even penetrates my being and lifts me up towards
+him.”
+(<a href="#n091a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER IX NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n092a" id="n092b">[92]</a></sup> The <i>Avatamsaka Sûtra</i>, Chinese translation by Buddhabhadra,
+fas. XXXIV.
+(<a href="#n092a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n093a" id="n093b">[93]</a></sup> That is the Dharmakâya personified.
+(<a href="#n093a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n094a" id="n094b">[94]</a></sup> In Hindu philosophy space is always conceived as an objective
+entity in which all things exist.
+(<a href="#n094a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n095a" id="n095b">[95]</a></sup> This should be understood in the sense that “God maketh his
+sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just
+and on the unjust.” The Dharmakâya is universal in its love, as space
+is in its comprehensiveness. Because it is absolutely free from human
+desires and passions that are the product of egoism and therefore tend
+always to be discriminative and exclusive.
+(<a href="#n095a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n096a" id="n096b">[96]</a></sup> The four views are: That the physical body is productive of
+impurities; that sensuality causes pain; that the individual soul is
+not permanent; and that all things are devoid of the Atman.
+(<a href="#n096a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n097a" id="n097b">[97]</a></sup> That is to say: The Dharmakâya, that assumes all forms of
+existence according to what class of being it is manifesting itself,
+is sometimes conceived by the believers to be a short-lived god,
+sometimes an immortal spirit, sometimes a celestial being of one
+hundred kalpas, and sometimes an existence of only a moment. As there
+are so many different dispositions, characters, karmas, intellectual
+attainments, moral environments, etc., so there are as many Dharmakâyas
+as subjectively represented in the minds of sentient beings, though
+the Dharmakâya, objectively considered, is absolutely one.
+(<a href="#n097a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n098a" id="n098b">[98]</a></sup> Asanga’s <i>General Treatise on Mahâyânism</i>. (<i>Mahâyâna
+samparigraha</i>).
+(<a href="#n098a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n099a" id="n099b">[99]</a></sup> The <i>Avatamsaka Sûtra</i>, chap. 13, “On Merit.”
+(<a href="#n099a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n100a" id="n100b">[100]</a></sup> This is by no means the case, for some of the Mahâyâna sûtras
+are undoubtedly productions of much later writers than the immediate
+followers of the Buddha, though of course it is very likely that some
+of the most important Mahâyâna canonical books were compiled within a
+few hundred years after the Nirvana of the Master.
+(<a href="#n100a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n101a" id="n101b">[101]</a></sup> “Purvapranidhânabala” is frequently translated “the power of
+original (or primitive) prayer.” Literally, pûrva means “former” or
+“original” or “primitive”; and pranidhâna, “desire” or “vow” or
+“prayer”; and bala, “power.” So far as literary rendering is concerned,
+“power of original prayer” seems to be the sense of the original
+Sanskrit. But when we speak of primitive prayers of the Dharmakâya or
+Tathâgata, how shall we understand it? Has prayer any sense in this
+connection? The Dharmakâya can by its own free will manifest in any
+form of existence and finish its work in whatever way it deems best.
+There is no need for it to utter any prayer in the agony of struggle
+to accomplish. There is in the universe no force whatever which is
+working against it so powerfully as to make it cry for help; and there
+cannot be any struggle or agony in the activity of the Dharmakâya. The
+term prayer therefore is altogether misleading and inaccurate and
+implicates us in a grave error which tends to contradict the general
+Buddhist conception of Dharmakâya. We must dispense with the term
+entirely in order to be in perfect harmony with the fundamental
+doctrine of Buddhism. This point will receive further consideration
+later.
+(<a href="#n101a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n102a" id="n102b">[102]</a></sup> “I am the father of all beings, and they are my children.”
+(The <i>Avatamsaka</i>, the <i>Pundarîka</i>, etc.)
+(<a href="#n102a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n103a" id="n103b">[103]</a></sup> To get more fully acquainted with the significance of the
+Sukhâvatî doctrine, the reader is advised to look up the Sukhâvatî
+sûtras in the <i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, Vol. XLIX.
+(<a href="#n103a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER X NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n104a" id="n104b">[104]</a></sup> What follows is selected from a short sûtra called <i>The
+Mahâvaipulya-Tathâgatagarbha Sûtra</i>, translated into Chinese by
+Buddhabhadra of the Eastern Tsin dynasty (A.D. 371-420). Nanjo, No.
+384.
+(<a href="#n104a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n105a" id="n105b">[105]</a></sup> <i>Niyuta</i> is an exceedingly large number, but generally
+considered to be equal to one billion.
+(<a href="#n105a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n106a" id="n106b">[106]</a></sup> All these are unhuman forms of existence, including demons,
+dragon-kings, winged beasts, etc.
+(<a href="#n106a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n107a" id="n107b">[107]</a></sup> Âçrava literally means “oozing,” or “flowing out,” and the
+Chinese translators rendered it by <i>lou</i>, dripping, or leaking. Roughly
+speaking, it is a general name for evils, principally material and
+sensuous. According to an Indian Buddhist scholar, Âçrava has threefold
+sense: (1) “keeping,” for it retains all sentient beings in the
+whirlpool of birth and death; (2) “flowing,” for it makes all sentient
+beings run in the stream of birth and death; (3) “leaking,” or
+“oozing,” for it lets such evils as avarice, anger, lust, etc., ooze
+out from the six sense-organs after the fashion of an ulcer, which
+lets out blood and filthy substance. The cause of Âçrava is a blind
+will, and its result is birth and death. Specifically, Bhâvâçrava is
+one of the three Âçravas, which are (1) kâmâçrava, (2) vidyâçrava, and
+(3) bhâvâçrava. The first is egotistic desires, the second is
+ignorance, and the third is the material existence which we have to
+suffer on account of our previous karma.
+(<a href="#n107a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n108a" id="n108b">[108]</a></sup> Our thoughtful readers must have noticed here that the
+conceptions of the Buddha as entertained by the Mahâsangika School
+(Great Council) closely resemble those of the Mahâyâna Buddhism.
+Though we are still unable to trace step by step the development of
+Mahâyânism in India, the hypothesis assumed by most of Japanese
+Buddhist scholars is that the Mahâsangika was Mahâyânistic in tendency.
+(<a href="#n108a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n109a" id="n109b">[109]</a></sup> The <i>Mahâparinibbâna sutta</i>.
+(<a href="#n109a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n110a" id="n110b">[110]</a></sup> There are three Chinese translations of this sûtra: the first,
+by Dharmarakṣa during the first two decades of the fifth century A.D.;
+the second, by Paramârtha of the Liang dynasty, who came to China A.D.
+546 and died A.D. 569; and the third, by I-tsing of the Tang dynasty
+who came back from his Indian pilgrimage in the year 695 and translated
+this sûtra A.D. 703. The last is the only complete Chinese translation
+of the <i>Suvarnâ Prabhâ</i>. A part of the original Sanskrit text recovered
+in Nepal was published by the Buddhist Text Society of India in 1898.
+Nanjo, Nos. 126, 127, 130.
+(<a href="#n110a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n111a" id="n111b">[111]</a></sup> The notion that great men never die seems to be universal.
+Spiritually they would never perish, because the ideas that moved them
+and made them prominent in the history of humanity are born of truth.
+And in this sense every person who is possessed of worthy thoughts is
+immortal, while souls that are made of trumpery are certainly doomed
+to annihilation. But the masses are not satisfied with this kind of
+immortality. They must have something more tangible, more sensual, and
+more individual. The notion of bodily resurrection of Christ is a fine
+illustration of this truth. When the followers of Christ opened the
+master’s grave, they did not find his body, so says legend, and they
+at once conceived the idea of resurrection, for they reasoned that
+such a great man as Jesus could not suffer the same fate that befalls
+common mortals only. The story of his corporeal resurrection now
+took wing and went wild; some heard him speak to them, some saw him
+break bread, and others even touched his wounds. What a grossly
+materialistic conception early Christians (and alas, even some of the
+twentieth century) cherished about resurrection and immortality! It is
+no wonder, therefore, that primitive Buddhists raised a serious
+question about the personality of Buddha which culminated in the
+conception of the Sambhogakâya, Body of Bliss, by Mahâyânists.
+(<a href="#n111a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n112a" id="n112b">[112]</a></sup> Compare this to the transfigured Christ.
+(<a href="#n112a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n113a" id="n113b">[113]</a></sup> Cf. I Cor. XIII, II. “When I was a child, I spake as a child,
+I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a
+man, I put away childish things.” This point of our ever-ascending
+spiritual progress is well illustrated in the <i>Saddharma-pundarîka
+Sûtra</i>. See Chapters II, III, IV, V, and XI. The following passage
+quoted from chap. II, p. 49 (Kern’s translation) will give a tolerably
+adequate view concerning diversity of means and unity of purpose as
+here expounded: “Those highest of men have, all of them, revealed most
+holy laws by means of illustrations, reasons and arguments, with many
+hundred proofs of skillfulness (<i>upâyakauçalya</i>). And all of them have
+manifested but one vehicle and introduced but one on earth; by one
+vehicle have they led to full ripeness inconceivably many thousands of
+kotis of beings.” As was elsewhere noted, this doctrine is sometimes
+known as the theory of Upâya. Upâya is very difficult term to translate
+into English; it literally means “way,” “method,” or “strategy.” For
+fuller interpretation see <a href="#p298">p. 298</a>, <a href="#n125b">footnote</a>.
+(<a href="#n113a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n114a" id="n114b">[114]</a></sup> This is one of the most important philosophical works of the
+Yogacâra school. Vasubandhu wrote the text (Nanjo, No. 1215) which
+consists only of thirty verses, but there appeared many commentators
+after the death of the author, who naturally entertained widely
+different views among themselves on the subject-matter, as it is too
+tersely treated in the text. Hsüen Tsang made selections out of the
+ten noted Hindu exegetists in A.D. 659 and translated them into the
+Chinese language. The compilation consists of ten fascicles and is
+known as <i>Discourse on the Ideality of the Universe</i> (a free rendering
+of the Chinese title <i>Chang wei shi lun</i>, Nanjo, No. 1197).
+(<a href="#n114a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n115a" id="n115b">[115]</a></sup> May I venture to say that the conception of God as entertained
+by most Christians is a Body of Bliss rather than the Dharmakâya
+itself? In some respects their God is quite spiritual, but in others
+he is thought of as a concrete material being like ourselves. It seems
+to me that the human soul is ever struggling to free itself from this
+paradox, though without any apparent success, while the masses are not
+so intellectual and reflective enough as to become aware of this
+eternal contradiction which is too deeply buried in their minds.
+(<a href="#n115a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n116a" id="n116b">[116]</a></sup> The reader must not think that there is but one Pure Land
+which is elaborately described in the <i>Sukhâvatî Vyûha Sûtra</i> as the
+abode of the Tathâgata Amitâbha, situated innumerable leagues away in
+the West. On the contrary, the Mahâyâna texts admit the existence of
+as innumerable pure lands as there are Tathâgatas and Bodhisattvas,
+and every single one of these holy regions has no boundary and is
+coexistent with the universe, and, therefore, their spheres necessarily
+intercrossing and overlapping one another. It would look to every
+intelligent mind that those innumerable Buddha-countries existing in
+such a mysterious and incomprehensible manner cannot be anything else
+than our own subjective creation.
+(<a href="#n116a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n117a" id="n117b">[117]</a></sup> For a description of these marks see the <i>Dharmasangraha</i>, pp.
+53 ff. A process of mystifying or deifying the person of Buddha seems
+to have been going on immediately after the death of the Master; and
+the Mahâyânistic conception of Nirmânakâya and Sambhogakâya is merely
+the consummation of this process. Southern Buddhists who are sometimes
+supposed to represent a more “primitive” form of Buddhism describe
+just as much as Mahâyânism the thirty-two major and eighty minor
+excellent physical marks of a great man as having been possessed by
+Çâkyamuni, (for instance, see the <i>Milindapañha</i>, <i>S. B. E.</i> Vol. XXXV.
+p. 116). But any person with common sense will at once see the
+absurdity of representing any human being with those physical
+peculiarities. And this seems to have inspired more rational
+Mahâyânists to abandon the traditional way of portraying the human
+Buddha with those mysterious signs. They transferred them through the
+doctrine of Trikâya to the characterisation of the Sambhogakâya
+Buddha, that is, to the Buddha enjoying in a celestial abode the fruit
+of his virtuous earthly life. The Buddha who walked in the flesh as
+the son of King Suddhodana was, however, no more than an ordinary
+human being like ourselves, because he appeared to us in a form of
+Nirmânakâya, i.e. as a Body of Transformation, devoid of any such
+physical peculiarities known as thirty-two or eighty lakṣanas.
+Southern Buddhists, so called, seem, however, to have overlooked the
+ridiculousness of attributing these fantastic signs to the human
+Buddha; and this fact explains that as soon as the memory of the
+personal disciples of Buddha about his person vanished among the later
+followers, intense speculation and resourceful imagination were
+constantly exercised until the divers schools settled the question
+each in its own way.
+(<a href="#n117a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n118a" id="n118b">[118]</a></sup> Cf. I Cor. XI. 19 et seq.
+(<a href="#n118a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER XI NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n119a" id="n119b">[119]</a></sup>
+Kern’s English translation (<i>S. B. E.</i> Vol. XXI), Chap. III, p. 80.
+(<a href="#n119a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n120a" id="n120b">[120]</a></sup> It should be noted here that the idea of universal salvation
+was lacking altogether in the followers of Hînayânism. But what
+distinguished it so markedly from Mahâyânism is that the former did
+not extend the idea wide enough, but confined it to Buddhahood only.
+Buddha attained omniscience in order that he might deliver the world,
+but we, ordinary mortals, are too ignorant and too helpless to aspire
+for Buddhahood; let us be contented with paying homage to Buddha and
+faithfully observing his precepts as laid down by him for our spiritual
+edification. Our knowledge and energy are too limited to cope with
+such a gigantic task as to achieve a universal salvation of mankind;
+let a Buddha or Bodhisattva attempt it while we may rest with a
+profound confidence in him and in his work. Thoughts somewhat like
+these must have been going about in the minds of the Hînayânists, when
+their Mahâyâna brethren were making bold to strive after Buddhahood
+themselves. The difference between the two schools of Buddhism, when
+most concisely expressed, is this: While one has a most submissive
+confidence in the Buddha, the other endeavors to follow his example by
+placing himself in his position. The following quotation (“the Story
+of Sumedha,” a Jâtaka tale, from Warren’s <i>Buddhism</i>, p. 14) in which
+Sumedha, one of the Buddha’s former incarnations, expresses his
+resolve to be a Buddha, may just as well be considered as that of a
+Mahâyânist himself, while the Hînayânists would not dare to make this
+wish their own:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Or why should I, valorous man,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">The ocean seek to cross alone?</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Omniscience first will I achieve,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And men and gods convey across.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Since now I make this earnest wish,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">In presence of this Best of Men,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Omniscience sometime I’ll achieve,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And multitude convey across.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“I’ll rebirth’ circling stream arrest,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Destroy existence’s three modes;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">I’ll climb the sides of Doctrine’s ship,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And men and gods convey across.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n120a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n121a" id="n121b">[121]</a></sup> This is a very rough summary of the doctrine that is known as
+Parivarta and expounded in the <i>Avatamsaka Sûtra</i>, fas. 21-22 where
+ten forms of Parivarta are distinguished and explained at length.
+(<a href="#n121a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n122a" id="n122b">[122]</a></sup> Warren’s <i>Buddhism in Translations</i>, the “Story of Sumedha,”
+pp. 14-15.
+(<a href="#n122a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n123a" id="n123b">[123]</a></sup> It may be interesting to Christian readers to note in this
+connection that modern Buddhists do not reject altogether the idea of
+vicarious atonement, for their religious conviction as seen here
+admits the parivarta of a Bodhisattva’s merits to the spiritual
+welfare of his fellow-creatures. But they will object to the Christian
+interpretation that Jesus was sent down on earth by his heavenly
+father for the special mission to atone for the original sin through
+the shedding of his innocent blood, for this is altogether too puerile
+and materialistic.
+(<a href="#n123a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n124a" id="n124b">[124]</a></sup> The full title of the work is <i>A Treatise on the
+Transcendentality of Bodhicitta</i> (Nanjo, No. 1304). It is a little
+book consisting of seven or eight sheets in big Chinese type. It was
+translated into Chinese by Dânapâla (Shih Hu) during the tenth century
+of the Christian Era.
+(<a href="#n124a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n125a" id="n125b">[125]</a></sup> Upaya, meaning “expedient,” “stratagem,” “device,” or “craft,”
+has a technical sense in Buddhism. It is used in contrast to
+intelligence (<i>prajñâ</i>) and is synonymous with love (<i>karunâ</i>). So,
+Vimalakîrti says in the sûtra bearing his name (chap. 8, verses 1-4):
+“Prajñâ is the mother of the Bodhisattva and Upaya his father; there
+is no leader of humanity who is not born of them.” Intelligence
+(<i>prajñâ</i>) is the one, the universal, representing the principle of
+sameness (<i>samatâ</i>), while Upaya is the many, being the principle of
+manifoldness (<i>nânâtvâ</i>). From the standpoint of pure intelligence,
+the Bodhisattvas do not see any particular suffering existences, for
+there is nothing that is not of the Dharmakâya: but when they see the
+universe from the standpoint of their love-essence, they recognise
+everywhere the conditions of misery and sin that arise from clinging
+to the forms of particularity. To remove these, they devise all
+possible means that are directed towards the attainment of the final
+aim of existence. There is only one religion, religion of truth, but
+there are many ways, many means, many upayas, all issuing from the
+all-embracing love of the Dharmakâya and equally efficient to lead the
+masses to supreme enlightenment and universal good. Therefore,
+ontologically speaking, this universe, the Buddhists would say, is
+nothing but a grand display of Upayas by the Dharmakâya that desires
+thereby to lead all sentient beings to the ultimate realisation of
+Buddhahood. In many cases, thus, it is extremely difficult to render
+upaya by any of its English equivalents and yet to retain its original
+technical sense unsuffered. This is also the case with many other
+Buddhist terms, among which we may mention Bodhi, Dharmakâya, Prajñâ,
+Citta, Parivarta, etc. The Chinese translators have <i>fang p’ien</i> for
+upaya which means “means-accommodation.”
+(<a href="#n125a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n126a" id="n126b">[126]</a></sup> Its full title is <i>A Discourse on the Non-duality of the
+Mahâyâna-Dharmadhâtu</i>. It consists of less than a dozen pages in
+ordinary Chinese large print. It was translated by Deva-prajñâ and
+others in the year 691 A.D.
+(<a href="#n126a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n127a" id="n127b">[127]</a></sup> This work was translated by Kumârajîva into Chinese at the
+beginning of the fifth century A.D. It is divided into two fascicles,
+each consisting of about one score of Chinese pages.
+(<a href="#n127a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n128a" id="n128b">[128]</a></sup> The above is a liberal rendering of the first part of the
+Chapter III, in Vasubandhu’s <i>Bodhicitta</i>.
+(<a href="#n128a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER XII NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n129a" id="n129b">[129]</a></sup> The distinction between the five indriyas and the five balas
+seems to be rather redundant. But the Hindu philosophers usually
+distinguish actor from action, agent from function or operation. Thus
+the sense-organs are distinguished from sensations or
+sense-consciousnesses, and the manovijñâna (mind) from its functions
+such as thinking, attention, memory, etc. The âtman has thus come to
+be considered the central agent that controls all the sensuous and
+intellectual activities. Though the Buddhists do not recognise this
+differentiation of actor and action in reality, they sometimes loosely
+follow the popular usage.
+(<a href="#n129a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n130a" id="n130b">[130]</a></sup> In this connection it is very interesting also to note that
+Carlyle expresses the same sentiment about the greatness of Shakespeare
+in his <i>Hero Worship</i>. “If I say that Shakspeare is the greatest of
+Intellects, I have said all concerning him. But there is more in
+Shakspeare’s intellect than we have yet seen It is what I call an
+unconscious intellect; there is more virtue in it that he himself is
+aware of. Novalis beautifully remarks of him, that those dramas of his
+are Products of Nature too, as deep as Nature herself. I find a great
+truth in this saying, Shakspeare’s Art is not Artifice; the noblest
+worth of it is not there by plan or precontrivance. It grows from the
+deeps of Nature, through this noble sincere soul, who is a voice of
+Nature.”
+(<a href="#n130a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n131a" id="n131b">[131]</a></sup> The ten powers of the Buddha are: (1) The mental power which
+discriminates between right and wrong, (2) The knowledge of the
+retribution of karma, (3) The knowledge of all the different stages of
+creation, (4) The knowledge of all the different forms of deliverance,
+(5) The knowledge of all the different dispositions of sentient
+beings, (6) The knowledge of the final destination of all deeds, (7)
+The knowledge of all the different practices of meditation,
+deliverance, and tranquilisation, (8) The knowledge of former
+existences, (9) The unlimited power of divination, (10) The knowledge
+of the complete subjection of evil desires (<i>âçrava</i>).
+(<a href="#n131a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n132a" id="n132b">[132]</a></sup> The four convictions (<i>vaiçâradyas</i>) of the Buddha are: (1)
+That he has attained the highest enlightenment, (2) That he has
+destroyed all evil desires, (3) That he has rightly described the
+obstacles that lie in the way to a life of righteousness, (4) That he
+has truthfully taught the way of salvation.
+(<a href="#n132a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n133a" id="n133b">[133]</a></sup> The eighteen unique characteristics which distinguish the
+Buddha from the rest of mankind are: (1) He commits no errors. Since
+time out of mind, he has disciplined himself in morality, meditation,
+intelligence, and lovingkindness, and as the result his present life
+is without faults and free from all evil thoughts. (2) He is faultless
+in his speeches. Whatever he speaks comes from his transcendental
+eloquence and leads the audience to a higher conception of life. (3)
+His mind is faultless. As he has trained himself in samâdhi, he is
+always calm, serene, and contented. (4) He retains his sameness of
+heart (<i>samâhitacitta</i>), that is, his love for sentient beings is
+universal and not discriminative. (5) His mind is free from thoughts
+of particularity (<i>nânâtvasamjñâ</i>), that is, it is abiding in truth
+transcendental, his thoughts are not distracted by objects of the
+senses. (6) Resignation (<i>upekṣâ</i>). The Buddha knows everything, yet
+he is calmly resigned. (7) His aspiration is unfathomable, that is,
+his desire to save all beings from the sufferings of ignorance knows
+no bounds. (8) His energy is inexhaustible, which he applies with
+utmost vigor to the salvation of benighted souls. (9) His mentation
+(<i>smṛti</i>) is inexhaustible, that is, he is ever conscious of all the
+good doctrines taught by all the Buddhas of the past, present, and
+future. (10) His intelligence (<i>prajñâ</i>) is inexhaustible, that is,
+being in possession of all-intelligence which knows no limits, he
+preaches for the benefits of all beings. (11) His deliverance
+(<i>vimukti</i>) is permanent, that is, he has eternally distanced all evil
+passions and sinful attachments. (12) His knowledge of deliverance
+(<i>vimuktijñâna</i>) is perfect, that is, his intellectual insight into
+all states of deliverance is without a flaw. (13) He possesses a
+wisdom which directs all his bodily movements towards the benefit and
+enlightenment of sentient beings. (14) He possesses a wisdom which
+directs all his speeches toward the edification and conversion of his
+fellow-creatures. (15) He possesses a wisdom which reflects in his
+clear mind all the turbulent states of ignorant souls, from which he
+removes the dark veil of nescience and folly. (16) He knows all the
+past. (17) He knows all the future. (18) He knows all the present.
+(<a href="#n133a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n134a" id="n134b">[134]</a></sup> For an elaborate exposition of the Daçabhûmî, see the
+<i>Avatamsaka</i> (sixty volume edition, fas. 24-27), the <i>Çûrangama</i>,
+Vasubandhu’s Commentary on Asanga’s <i>Comprehensive Treatise on
+Mahâyanism</i> (fas. 10-11), the <i>Vijnânamâtra Çâstra</i> (fas. 9), etc.,
+and for a special treatment of the subject consult the sûtra bearing
+the name, which by the way exists in a Sanskrit version and whose
+brief sketch is given by Rajendra Mitra in his <i>Nepalese Buddhist
+Literature</i>, p. 81 et seq.
+(<a href="#n134a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="nobreak">
+CHAPTER XIII NOTES.
+</h3>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n135a" id="n135b">[135]</a></sup> Literally, “to advance against.”
+(<a href="#n135a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n136a" id="n136b">[136]</a></sup> Cf. Beal’s translation in the <i>S. B. E.</i> Vol XIX. pp. 306-307,
+vs. 2095-2101. Beal utterly misunderstands the Chinese original.
+(<a href="#n136a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n137a" id="n137b">[137]</a></sup> The <i>Buddhacarita</i>, Cowell’s translation in the <i>S. B. E.</i>
+Vol. XLIX. p. 145.
+(<a href="#n137a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n138a" id="n138b">[138]</a></sup> From A. J. Edmunds’s translation of <i>Dhammapada</i>.
+(<a href="#n138a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n139a" id="n139b">[139]</a></sup> P. 225. Beal’s translation is not always reliable, and I
+would have my own if the Chinese original were at all accessible.
+(<a href="#n139a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n140a" id="n140b">[140]</a></sup> The gâthâs supposed to be the first utterance of the Buddha
+after his enlightenment, according to Rockhill’s <i>Life of the Buddha</i>
+(p. 33) compiled from Tibetan sources, give an inkling of nihilism,
+though I am inclined to think that the original Tibetan will allow a
+different interpretation when examined by some one who is better
+acquainted with the spirit of Buddhism than Rockhill. Rockhill betrays
+in not a few cases his insufficient knowledge of the subject he treats.
+His translation of the gâthâs is as follows:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“All the pleasures of the worldly joys,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">All which are known among the gods,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Compared with the joy of ending existence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Are not as its sixteenth part.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Sorry is he whose burden is heavy,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">And happy he who has cast it down;</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When once he has cast off his burden,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">He will seek to be burthened no more.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“When all existences are put away,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When all notions are at an end,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">When all things are perfectly known,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Then no more will craving come back.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+In the <i>Udâna</i>, II., 2, we have a stanza corresponding to the first
+gâthâ here cited, but the <i>Udâna</i> does not say “the joy of ending
+existence,” but “the destruction of desire.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to the <i>Lalita Vistara</i>, the Buddha’s utterance of victory
+is (Râjendra Mitra’s Edition p. 448):
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Cinna vartmopaçânta rajâh çuṣkâ âçravâ na punaḥ çravanti.</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Chinne vartmani varttate duḥkhasyaiṣonta ucyate.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n140a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n141a" id="n141b">[141]</a></sup> Warren’s <i>Buddhism in Translations</i>, p. 376.
+(<a href="#n141a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n142a" id="n142b">[142]</a></sup> General D. M. Strong’s translation, p. 64.
+(<a href="#n142a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n143a" id="n143b">[143]</a></sup> The text does not expressly say “animate or inanimate”, but
+this is the author’s own interpretation according to the general
+spirit of Mahâyânism.
+(<a href="#n143a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n144a" id="n144b">[144]</a></sup> There are two obstacles to final emancipation: (1) affective,
+and (2) intellectual. The former is our unenlightened affective or
+emotional or subjective life and the latter our intellectual prejudice.
+Buddhists should not only be pure in heart but be perfect in
+intelligence. Pious men are of course saved from transmigration, but
+to attain perfect Buddhahood they must have a clear, penetrating
+intellectual insight into the significance of life and existence and
+the destiny of the universe. This emphasising of the rational element
+in religion is one of the most characteristic points of Buddhism.
+(<a href="#n144a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n145a" id="n145b">[145]</a></sup> This is one of the most important philosophical texts of
+Mahâyânism. Its original Sanskrit with the commentary of Chandra Kîrti
+has been edited by Satis Chandra Acharya and published by the Buddhist
+Text Society of India. The original lines run as follows (p. 193):
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Aprahînam, asamprâptam, anucchinnam, açâçvatam,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Aniruddham, anutpannam, evam nirvânam ucyate.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n145a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n146a" id="n146b">[146]</a></sup> Literally, that which is characterised by the absence of all
+characterisation.
+(<a href="#n146a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n147a" id="n147b">[147]</a></sup> Cf. the following from the <i>Mâdhyamika</i>:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Bhaved abbâvo bhâvaç ca nirvânam ubhayam katham:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Asamskṛtam ca nirvânam bhâvâbhavâi ca samskṛtam.”</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Or, “Tasmânna bhâvo nâbhâvo nirvânamiti yujyate.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n147a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n148a" id="n148b">[148]</a></sup> In the <i>Visuddhi-Magga</i> XXI. (Warren’s translation, p. 376 et
+seq.), we read that there are three starting points of deliverance
+arising from the consideration of the three predominant qualities of
+the constituents of being: 1. The consideration of their beginnings
+and ends leads the thoughts to the unconditioned; 2. The insight into
+their miserableness agitates the mind and leads the thoughts to the
+desireless; 3. The consideration of the constituents of being as not
+having an ego leads the thoughts to the empty. And these three, we are
+told, constitute the three aspects of Nirvâna as unconditioned,
+desireless, and empty. Here we have an instance in the so-called
+Southern “primitive” Buddhism of viewing Nirvâna in the Mahâyânistic
+light which I have here explained at length.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>En passant</i>, let us remark that as Buddha did not leave any document
+himself embodying his whole system, there sprang up soon after his
+departure several schools explaining the Master’s view in divers ways,
+each claiming the legitimate interpretation; that in view of this fact
+it is illogical to conclude that Southern Buddhism is the authoritative
+representation par excellence of original Buddhism, while the Eastern
+or the Northern is a mere degeneration.
+(<a href="#n148a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n149a" id="n149b">[149]</a></sup> There are three Chinese translations of this Mahâyâna text, by
+Dharmarakṣa, Kumârajîva, and Bodhiruci, between 265 and 517 A.D.
+(<a href="#n149a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n150a" id="n150b">[150]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Samsârasya ca nirvânât kincid asti viçeṣaṇam:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Na nirvâṇasya samsârât kincid asti viçesaṇam.</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n150a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n151a" id="n151b">[151]</a></sup>
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Nirvâṇasya ca yâ kotiḥ kotiḥ samsârasya ca,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Vidyâdanantaraṃ kincit susukṣnaṃ vidyate.</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n151a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n152a" id="n152b">[152]</a></sup> Concerning the similarity in meaning of this statement to the
+one just preceding, a commentator says that the sixth is the statical
+view of Suchness (or Dharmakâya) and the seventh its dynamical view.
+One explains what the highest reality of Buddhism is and the other
+what it does or works.
+(<a href="#n152a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n153a" id="n153b">[153]</a></sup> <i>The Discourse on Buddha-essence</i> by Vasubandhu. The Japanese
+Tripitaka edition of 1881, fas. II., p. 84, where the stanza is quoted
+from the <i>Sûtra on the Incomprehensible</i>.
+(<a href="#n153a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n154a" id="n154b">[154]</a></sup> This is expressed in the first verse of the <i>Mâdhyamika
+Çâstra</i>, which runs as follows:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Anirodham anutpâdam anucchedam açâçvatam</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Anekârtham anânârtham anâgamam anirgamam.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>
+Literally translated these lines read:
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“No annihilation, no production, no destruction, no persistence,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">No unity, no plurality, no coming in, no going out.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n154a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n155a" id="n155b">[155]</a></sup> Compare this Buddhist sentiment of universal love with that of
+the Christian religion and we shall see the truth that all religions
+are one at the bottom. We read in Thomas à Kempis’s <i>Imitation of
+Christ</i> (ch. XIII): “My son, I descended from heaven for thy salvation;
+I took upon me thy sorrows, not necessity but love drawing me thereto;
+that thou thyself mightest learn patience and bear temporal sufferings
+without repining. For from the hour of my birth, even until my death
+on the cross, I was not without suffering of grief.” This is exactly
+the sentiment that stimulates the Bodhisattvas to their gigantic task
+of universal salvation. Those who are free from sectarian biases will
+admit without hesitation that there is but one true religion which may
+assume various forms according to circumstances. “Many are the roads
+to the summit, but when reached there we have but one universal
+moonlight.”
+(<a href="#n155a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<sup><a href="#n156a" id="n156b">[156]</a></sup> The <i>Dharmapada</i>, XIV. 5. Mr. A. J. Edmunds’s translation is,
+</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">“Ceasing to do all wrong,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Initiation into goodness,</span><br>
+<span class="i0">Cleansing the heart:</span><br>
+<span class="i0">This the religion of the Buddhas.”</span>
+</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+(<a href="#n156a">return</a>)
+</p>
+
+
+<h2>
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES.
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+Page numbers are given in {curly brackets}.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following have been left as-printed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Archaic and inconsistent spellings (<i>e.g.</i>, Corea, Nirvâna/Nirvana,
+coördination/co-ordination, efficience/efficiency,
+Âlaya-vijñâna/Âlayavijñâna, etc.).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ellipses of varying lengths.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#p317">p. 317</a>) The Eightfold Noble Path is listed omitting the seventh step
+(Right mindfulness). Also, the sixth step is usually given as “Right
+effort,” not “Right recollection.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The usage of both “fn.” and “ft.” to denote “footnote” in the Index.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lastly, some syntactical errors with possible corrections given in
+square brackets:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#p083">p. 83</a>) “Its foundation lies too deeply buried in [the] human heart to
+be damaged by knowledge or science.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#p104">p. 104</a>) “When Bodhi-Dharma... saw Emperor Wu of [the] Liang dynasty
+(A.D. 502-556), he was asked...”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#p214">p. 214</a>) “In good karma we are made to live eternally, but in [an]
+evil one we are doomed...”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#p215">p. 215</a>) “Pious Buddhists believe that... he enters right into the
+soul and becomes [an] integral part of his being.”
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent mt1">
+<b>Alterations to the text</b>:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Abandon the use of drop-caps.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Convert footnotes to endnotes and add a corresponding entry in the
+TOC.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Punctuation corrections: several missing/invisible periods and a few
+commas, some quotation mark pairings/nestings, etc.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[TOC]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Add missing “Two Forms of Knowledge” subsection under Chapter IV.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Under Chapter XII, change “Bhimukhî” to “Abhimukhî”.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Introduction]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Change “the other schools, which <i>latter</i> became a class by itself” to
+<i>later</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“led to the dissension <i>af</i> Mahâyânism and Hînayânism” to <i>of</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Kant, for instance, as <i>promotor</i> of German philosophy” to <i>promoter</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“a few <i>centnries</i> after Açvaghoṣa, the progressive party” to
+<i>centuries</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“while the <i>Prayekabuddhas</i> and the Çrâvakas are considered” to
+<i>Pratyekabuddhas</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Buddhism cannot ignore the <i>significane</i> of Mahâyânism” to
+<i>significance</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“their rival religion as <i>denegerated</i>, because it went” to
+<i>degenerated</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This fact so miserably spoils their <i>purityof</i> sentiment” to <i>purity
+of</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“his intellect becomes <i>pitiously</i> obscured by his” to <i>piteously</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“<i>refering</i> to the Mahâyâna conception of Dharmakâya” to <i>referring</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter I]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“that, owing to a crime <i>commited</i> by them” to <i>committed</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“do not recognise the evanescence of <i>wordly</i> things” to <i>worldly</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The <i>dotrine</i> of nescience or ignorance is technically” to <i>doctrine</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“sons and daughters, wives <i>aud</i> husbands, all transfigured” to <i>and</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“and which therefore were utterly <i>desplicable</i>” to <i>despicable</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“in response to the pathetic <i>persuation</i> of his father’s” to
+<i>persuasion</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter II]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Sthiramati in his <i>Indroduction</i> to Mahâyânism” to <i>Introduction</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“As the silkworm imprisons itself in the <i>cacoon</i> created” to <i>cocoon</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“realm of the absolute and the abode of <i>non-particurality</i>” to
+<i>non-particularity</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter III]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“satisfy the inmost <i>yearings</i> of the human heart” to <i>yearnings</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“which consists of the inmost <i>yearings</i> of the human heart” to
+<i>yearnings</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter IV]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“World-views Founded on the Three <i>Froms</i> of Knowledge” to <i>Forms</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#n038b">p. 94, fn. 1</a>) “Nanjo. Nos. 246 <i>aud</i> 247), etc.” to <i>and</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“From this, it is to be <i>infered</i> that Buddhism never” to <i>inferred</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter V]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<i>Nâgârjana’s</i> famous doctrine of “The Middle Path) to <i>Nâgârjuna’s</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“is no more than a fragment of the <i>absoulte</i> Bhûtatathâtâ” to
+<i>absolute</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“to be very logical and free from serious <i>dufficulties</i>” to
+<i>difficulties</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Adam with Eve, Buddha with Devadatta, etc., <i>ect</i>.,” to <i>etc</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter VI]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“and <i>Buddi</i> and Ahankâra. Buddhi, intellect, is defined” to <i>Buddhi</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#n064b">p.139, fn. 1</a>) “doctrine of Mahâyânism, i.e.. that of” change third
+period to a comma.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter VII]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“fixed state of things in which perfect <i>equillibrium</i>” to
+<i>equilibrium</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“the noumenal ego as the raison <i>d’ être</i> of our” to <i>d’être</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(literally means “aggregate” or “<i>aglomeration</i>”) to <i>agglomeration</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(saying: “<i>This‘middle’</i> is extremely indefinite) to <i>This ‘middle’</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“the hypothesis of the <i>permament</i> existence of an” to <i>permanent</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(The term “<i>sabhâva</i>” (self-essence or noumenon) is) to <i>svabhâva</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“they are like the <i>will-‘o-the-wisp</i>” to <i>will-o’-the-wisp</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If the Fourfold Noble Truth <i>dœs</i> not exist” to <i>does</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The <i>Buddha ’s</i> teaching rests on the discrimination” to <i>Buddha’s</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter VIII]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He is <i>sufficent</i> unto himself as he is here and now” to <i>sufficient</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“and the accumulation of of merits (<i>punyaskandha</i>)” delete one <i>of</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Every one of these seeds which are <i>infinte</i> in number” to <i>infinite</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter IX]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“than devastation, <i>barreness</i>, and universal misery” to <i>barrenness</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Even so with the <i>Dharkâya</i> of the Tathâgata” to <i>Dharmakâya</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Even so with the Dharmakâya of <i>theT athâgata</i>” to <i>the Tathâgata</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“such as blindness, deafness, mental <i>abberration</i>, etc.” to
+<i>aberration</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It <i>anthroposises</i> everything beyond the proper measure” to
+<i>anthropomorphises</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter X]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#n104b">p. 243, fn. 1</a>) “the Eastern Tsin dynasty (A.D, 371-420)” change the
+comma to a period.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“the work once <i>refered</i> to in the beginning of this book” to
+<i>referred</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“describe the the essential peculiarities of each school” delete one
+<i>the</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#n110b">p. 253, fn. 2</a>) “A part of the <i>orginal</i> Sanskrit text” to <i>original</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Asanga and Vasubandhu will be here <i>refered</i> to” to <i>referred</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“pious Buddhists would be <i>transfered</i> after their death” to
+<i>transferred</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#n117b">p. 271, fn. 1</a>) “eighty minor <i>exellent</i> physical marks of a great” to
+<i>excellent</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#n117b"><i>same</i></a>) “They <i>transfered</i> them through the doctrine of Trikâya” to
+<i>transferred</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter XI]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“which was quite unwittingly <i>commited</i> by him” to <i>committed</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“does not allow the <i>transfering</i> of responsibility” to <i>transferring</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is <i>uncreate</i> and its self-essence is void” to <i>uncreated</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter XII]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“On the evanescence of the <i>wordly</i> interests” to <i>worldly</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“3. Circumspection; 4. <i>Equillibrium</i>, or tranquillity” to
+<i>Equilibrium</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“aloof from the consuming fire of <i>passsion</i>” to <i>passion</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“He practises the virtue of <i>strenuousuess</i> (<i>vriya</i>)” to
+<i>strenuousness</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Chapter XIII]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“And am eternally released from all pain and <i>suffe ring</i>” to
+<i>suffering</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<a href="#n137b">p. 334, fn. 2</a>) “Cowell’s translation in the S. B. E. Vol. <i>ILIX</i>. p.
+145” to <i>XLIX</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“When we speak of <i>Buddha ’s</i> entrance into Nirvâna” to <i>Buddha’s</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“love is a Buddha-dharma, wisdom is a <i>Buddha dharma</i>” to
+<i>Buddha-dharma</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“emancipation of the Çrâvaka or of the <i>Prayekabuddha</i>” to
+<i>Pratyekabuddha</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“hearts are not softened at the sight of others, misfortune and
+suffering” change the comma to a (possessive) apostrophe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“he does not believe that universal <i>emanciipation</i>” to <i>emancipation</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“but that <i>thay</i> obtain reality in their oneness with” to <i>they</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“do not pay homage to the <i>congregration</i> of holy men” to
+<i>congregation</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Appendix]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Devoid of all <i>liminations</i>” to <i>limitations</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“None is there but that enters upon <i>Buddh a-knowledge</i>” to
+<i>Buddha-knowledge</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All <i>senient</i> beings in transmigration travel through” to <i>sentient</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I’ll release, and to eternal <i>pease</i> them I’ll lead” to <i>peace</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“In the stream of birth and death they go <i>arolling</i>” to <i>a-rolling</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“No-more-<i>arolling</i> is Nirvâna” to <i>a-rolling</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Change two incidents of <i>Nonjo</i> to <i>Nanjo</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The Avatamsaka <i>Sutru</i>” to <i>Sutra</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">
+[Index]
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<i>Imitation of Christ</i>, <i>365</i> fn.) to <i>364</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<i>Lalita Vistara</i>, quoted, on Nirvana, <i>339</i> fn.) to <i>338</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(Max Mueller, quoted, 108 ft., <i>111</i> ft., 221.) to <i>110</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(Prajñâ (and Bodhi), defined, <i>62</i> ft.; 82, 97, 119, 238, 360.) to
+<i>82</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(Prakṛti (Samkyan primordial matter), <i>67</i> ft.) to <i>66</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(Purusha (Samkyan soul), <i>67</i> ft.) to <i>66</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(“Tat tvam asi,” 47, <i>136</i> ft.) to <i>135</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(<i>Udâna</i>, quoted, 52, <i>339</i> ft., 341.) to <i>338</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+(Upâya (expediency), 64, <i>261</i> ft.; its meaning) to <i>260</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center mt1">
+[End of text]
+</p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75283 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
diff --git a/75283-h/images/cover.jpg b/75283-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..09549bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/75283-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1ed617
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #75283 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75283)