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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; 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(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>—<a href="#intp1s2">The +Original Meaning of Mahâyâna.</a>—<a href="#intp1s3">An Older Classification of +Buddhists.</a>—<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>—<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>—<a href="#intp3s2">Examples of Injustice.</a>—<a href="#intp3s3">Monier +Monier-Williams.</a>—<a href="#intp3s4">Beal.</a>—<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>—<a href="#intp4s2">The +Mystery.</a>—<a href="#intp4s3">Intellect and Imagination.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch01s02">Karma.</a>—<a href="#ch01s03">Avidyâ.</a>—<a href="#ch01s04">Non-âtman.</a>—<a href="#ch01s05">The Non-âtmanness of +Things.</a>—<a href="#ch01s06">Dharmakâya.</a>—<a href="#ch01s07">Nirvâna.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch02s02">Seven Principal Features of +Mahâyânism.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch03s02">Buddhism and Speculation.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch04s02">Illusion.</a>—<a href="#ch04s03">Relative Knowledge.</a>—<a href="#ch04s04">Absolute +Knowledge.</a>—<a href="#ch04s05">World-Views founded on the three Forms of +Knowledge.</a>—<a href="#ch04s06">Two Forms of Knowledge.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch05s02">The “Thundrous Silence.”</a>—<a href="#ch05s03">Suchness +Conditioned.</a>—<a href="#ch05s04">Questions Defying Solution.</a>—<a href="#ch05s05">The Theory of +Ignorance.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch06s02">The Âlaya-vijñâna and its Evolution.</a>—<a href="#ch06s03">The +Manas.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch07s02">Buddha’s First Line of Inquiry.</a>—<a href="#ch07s03">The Skandha.</a>—<a href="#ch07s04">King Milinda +and Nâgasena.</a>—<a href="#ch07s05">Ananda’s Attempts to Locate the Soul.</a>—<a href="#ch07s06">Âtman and the +“Old Man.”</a>—<a href="#ch07s07">The Vedântic Conception.</a>—<a href="#ch07s08">Nâgârjuna on the +Soul.</a>—<a href="#ch07s09">Non-âtman-ness of Things.</a>—<a href="#ch07s10">Svabhâva.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch08s02">The Working of Karma.</a>—<a href="#ch08s03">Karma and Social injustice.</a>—<a href="#ch08s04">An +Individualistic View of Karma.</a>—<a href="#ch08s05">Karma and Determinism.</a>—<a href="#ch08s06">The Maturing +of Good Stock and the Accumulation of Good Merits.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch09s02">Dharmakâya.</a>—<a href="#ch09s03">Dharmakâya as Religious Object.</a>—<a href="#ch09s04">More Detailed +Characterisation.</a>—<a href="#ch09s05">The Dharmakâya and Individual Beings.</a>—<a href="#ch09s06">The +Dharmakâya as Love.</a>—<a href="#ch09s07">Later Mahâyânists’ View of the Dharmakâya.</a>—<a href="#ch09s08">The +Freedom of the Dharmakâya.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch10s02">An Historical View.</a>—<a href="#ch10s03">Who was +Buddha?</a>—<a href="#ch10s04">The Trikâya as Explained in the <i>Suvarna-Prabhâ</i>.</a>—<a href="#ch10s05">Revelation +in All Stages of Culture.</a>—<a href="#ch10s06">The Sambhogakâya.</a>—<a href="#ch10s07">A Mere Subjective +Existence.</a>—<a href="#ch10s08">Attitude of Modern Mahâyânists.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch11s02">Strict Individualism.</a>—<a href="#ch11s03">The Doctrine of +Parivarta.</a>—<a href="#ch11s04">Bodhisattva in “Primitive” Buddhism.</a>—<a href="#ch11s05">We are all +Bodhisattvas.</a>—<a href="#ch11s06">The Buddha’s Life.</a>—<a href="#ch11s07">The Bodhisattva and Love.</a>—<a href="#ch11s08">The +Meaning of Bodhi and Bodhicitta.</a>—<a href="#ch11s09">Love and Karunâ.</a>—<a href="#ch11s10">Nâgârjuna and +Sthiramati on Bodhicitta.</a>—<a href="#ch11s11">The Awakening of the Bodhicitta.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch12s02">Pramuditâ.</a>—<a href="#ch12s03">Vimalâ.</a>—<a href="#ch12s04">Prabhâkarî.</a>—<a href="#ch12s05">Arcismatî.</a>—<a href="#ch12s06">Sudurjanâ.</a>—<a href="#ch12s07">Abhimukhî.</a>—<a href="#ch12s08">Dûrangamâ.</a>—<a href="#ch12s09">Acalâ.</a>—<a href="#ch12s10">Sâdhumatî.</a>—<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>—<a href="#ch13s02">Nirvâna is Positive.</a>—<a href="#ch13s03">The +Mahâyânistic Conception of Nirvâna.</a>—<a href="#ch13s04">Nirvâna as the +Dharmakâya.</a>—<a href="#ch13s05">Nirvâna in its Fourth Sense.</a>—<a href="#ch13s06">Nirvâna and Samsâra are +One.</a>—<a href="#ch13s07">The Middle Course.</a>—<a href="#ch13s08">How to Realise Nirvâna.</a>—<a href="#ch13s09">Love Awakens +Intelligence.</a>—<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,—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,—living about the +time of Christ,—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,—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—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—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.) +</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;—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,—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,—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—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! +</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,—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,—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,—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,—</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>,—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—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—</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,—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,—this is +the absolute demand of humanity, the ultimate postulate of +experience,—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,—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, “ ‘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,—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:—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;—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—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—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.’ ” +</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.’ ” +</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.’ ” +</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,—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,—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,—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,—though +the latter gives a slightly different shade of meaning,—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,—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,—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. +</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—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,—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,—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 +<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—no part palpable or impalpable so exist;</span><br> +<span class="i0">No consummation exists without being from some long previous consummation—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!—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,—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,—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”—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. +</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,”—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,—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. +</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,—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,—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,—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 <span class="pagenum" id="p248">{248}</span> 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. +</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>,—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>—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—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 <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,—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;—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,—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,—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,—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.” +</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—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:—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,—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,—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,—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,—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,—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,—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.” +</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—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> +“ ‘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> +“ ‘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. +</p> + +<p> +“ ‘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.’ ” 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—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,—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,—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—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> +“ ‘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> +“ ‘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> +“ ‘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.’ ” (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>),—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—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—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!’ ” +(<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”—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 Binary files differnew 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. 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