History of India/Volume 1/Chapter 28
CHAPTER XXVIII
DOCTRINES OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA
IT is not possible, within the limits of a single chapter, to give our readers anything like a complete summary of the doctrines of Buddha's creed, and our attempt will rather be to present the substance of the great lessons and ideas which Gautama preached and inculcated among his countrymen.
Buddhism is, in its essence, a system of self-culture and self-restraint. Doctrines and beliefs are of secondary importance, for the effort to end human suffering by living a holy life, free from passions and desires, was the cardinal idea with which Gautama was impressed on the day on which he was "enlightened" under the Bo-tree in Bodh Gaya, and it was the central idea which he preached to the last day of his life.
When he went from Bodh Gaya to Benares, and first preached his religion to his five former disciples, he explained to them the Fourfold Wisdom and the Eightfold Path, which form the essence of Buddhism.
"This, Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of Suffering. Birth is suffering, decay is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate is suffering, not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Briefly, the fivefold clinging to existence (the five elements) is suffering.
"This, Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering. Thirst, that leads to rebirth accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here and there, thirst for pleasure, thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity.
"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering. It ceases with the complete cessation of thirst—a cessation which consists in the absence of every passion, with the abandoning of this thirst, with the doing away with it, with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.
"This, O Bhikkhus, is the Noble Truth of the Path which leads to the cessation of suffering—the holy Eightfold Path of Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Exertion, Right Mindfulness, and Right Meditation."
The substance of this teaching is that life is suffering, the thirst for life and its pleasures is the cause of suffering, the extinction of that thirst is the cessation of suffering, and that such extinction can be brought about only by a holy life. It is impossible to convey in a few words all that is implied by the eight maxims into which a holy life is thus analyzed, but to Buddhists, trained in the traditions of their religion, these aphorisms speak volumes. Correct views and beliefs must be learnt and entertained; high aims and aspirations must always remain before the mind's eye; truthfulness and gentleness must characterize every word; uprightness and absolute integrity must mark the conduct. A livelihood must be sought and adhered to which does no harm to living things; there must be a lifelong perseverance in doing good, in acts of kindness, gentleness, and beneficence; the mind and intellect must be active and watchful; calm and tranquil meditation must fill the life with peace. A more beautiful picture of life was never conceived by poet or visionary; and a more perfect system of self-culture was never proclaimed by philosopher or saint.
The idea of self-culture was no doubt developed during the long course of meditation and good works in which Gautama passed his life. On the eve of his death he called together his brethren and recapitulated the entire system of self-culture under seven heads, and these are known as the Seven Jewels of the Buddhist Law.
"Which, then, O brethren, are the truths which, when I had perceived, I made known to you; which, when you have mastered, it behoves you to practise, meditate upon, and spread abroad, in order that pure religion may last long and be perpetuated, in order that it may continue to be for the good and the happiness of the great multitudes, out of pity for the world, to the good and the gain and the weal of gods and men. They are these: the four earnest meditations, the fourfold great struggle against sin, the four roads to saintship, the five moral powers, the five organs of spiritual sense, the seven kinds of wisdom, and the noble Eightfold Path."
The four earnest meditations here alluded to are the meditations on the body, the sensations, the ideas, and the reason. The fourfold struggle against sin is the struggle to prevent sinfulness, the struggle to put away sinful states which have arisen, the struggle to produce goodness, and the struggle to increase goodness. The fourfold roads to saintship are the four means, the will, the exertion, the preparation, and the investigation, by which iddhi is acquired. In later Buddhism iddhi implies supernatural powers, but what Gautama probably meant was the influence and power which the mind by long training and exercise can acquire over the body. The five moral powers, and the five organs of spiritual sense, are faith, energy, , thought, contemplation, and wisdom; and the seven kinds of wisdom are energy, thought, contemplation, investigation, joy, repose, and serenity. The Eightfold Path has already been described.
It is by such prolonged self-culture and by the breaking of the ten fetters of doubt, sensuality, and all other evils that Nirvana may at last be gained. This was formerly believed to imply final extinction or death, but the majority of scholars now hold that Nirvana does not mean death, but only the extinction of that sinful condition of the mind, that thirst for life and its pleasures, which is the cause of reincarnation. What Gautama meant by Nirvana is attainable in life, for it is the sinless calm of mind, the freedom from passion and desire, the perfect peace, goodness, and wisdom, which continuous self-culture can procure for man.
But is there no future bliss and no future heaven for those who have attained Nirvana? This was a question which, often puzzled Buddhists, and many a time they pressed their great Master for a categorical answer.
On this point Gautama's replies are uncertain; nor does he ever appear to have inspired in his followers any hopes of heaven, beyond Nirvana, which is the Buddhist's heaven and salvation.
If a man does not attain to this state of Nirvana in life, he is liable to future births. Gautama did not believe in the existence of a soul; but, nevertheless, the theory of transmigration of souls was too deeply implanted in the Hindu mind to be eradicated, and Gautama therefore adhered to the theory of transmigration by assuming that the karma, or deeds, of man cannot die, but must necessarily lead to its legitimate result. When a living being dies, a new being is produced according to the karma of the being that is dead, and Buddhist writers are fond of comparing the relation of one life to the next with that of the flame of a lamp to the flame of another lighted by it.
But the theory of transmigration was not the only doctrine which Gautama accepted from ancient Hinduism and adopted in a modified form into his own religion, for the whole of the Hindu pantheon of the day was taken over and made to square with his cardinal idea of the supreme efficacy of a holy life. The thirtythree gods of the Rig-Veda were recognized, but they were not supreme. Brahma, the Supreme Deity of the Upanishads, was recognized, but was not supreme. For they, too, were struggling through repeated births, to attain to that holy life, that Nirvana, which alone was supreme.
With regard to the caste-system, Gautama respected a Brahman as he respected a Buddhist Sraman, but he respected him for his virtue and learning, not for his caste, which he ignored. When two Brahman youths, Vasishtha and Bharadvaja, began to quarrel on the question, "How does one become a Brahman?" and came to Gautama for his opinion, Gautama delivered to them a discourse in which he emphatically ignored caste, and held that a man's distinguishing mark was his work, not his birth.
At another time Gautama explained to his followers, "As the great streams, O disciples, however many they may be, lose their old name and their old descent when they reach the great ocean, and bear only the one name of ocean, so also do Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras." A touching story is also told in the Theragatha, which enables us to comprehend how Buddhism came like a salvation to the lowly in India, and how they eagerly embraced it as a refuge from caste. In this tale Sunita, the thera, or elder, says, "I came of a humble family, I was poor and needy. The work which I performed was lowly, sweeping the withered flowers. I was despised of men, looked down upon and lightly esteemed. With submissive mien I showed .jpg)
FOOTPRINTS OF BUDDHA.
respect to many. Then I beheld Buddha with his band of monks as he passed to the town of Magadha. I cast away my burden and ran to bow myself in reverence before him. From pity for me he halted, that highest among men. Then I bowed myself at the master's feet, drew nigh to him and begged him, the highest among all beings, to accept me as a monk. Then said unto me the gracious master, 'Come hither, O monk'—that was the initiation I received." And the passage concludes with the lesson which Gautama had so often preached, "By holy zeal and chaste living, by restraint and self-repression, thereby a man becomes a Brahman: that is the highest Brahmanhood."
Thus the great teacher who regarded nor wealth, nor rank, nor caste, came to the poor and the despised, as well as to the rich and the noble, urging them to effect their own salvation by a pure and unblemished life. Virtue opened the path of honour to high and low alike; no distinction was known or recognized in the Holy Order. Thousands of men and women responded to this appeal, and merged their caste inequalities in common love for their teacher and common emulation of his virtues.
Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that Gautama commanded all to retire from the world and embrace the Holy Order. To conquer the yearning for life and its pleasures was his cardinal aim, and he assigned no peculiar virtue to a mere outward act of renunciation of the world. Nevertheless, as it was difficult to conquer that thirst so long as one was actually living in the midst of his family and enjoying the pleasures of life, Gautama recommended the life of a Bhikkhu as the most efficacious means for securing the great end, and so thousands retired from the world and became Bhikkhus, thus forming the Buddhist monastic system, which was probably the first organized monastic system in the world.
These are the leading doctrines of Gautama's religion, whose great distinguishing feature is that it is a training towards a virtuous and holy life on this earth, and takes little thought of reward or punishment. It appeals to the most disinterested feelings in man's nature, sets before him virtue as its own reward, and enjoins a lifelong endeavour towards its attainment. It knows of no higher aim among gods or men than the attainment of a tranquil, sinless life; it speaks of no other salvation than virtuous peace, it knows of no other heaven than holiness. Small wonder, then, that within three centuries from the time when Gautama proclaimed his message of equality and of love in Benares, his creed was the state religion of India, triumphing for a space over Brahmanism under the sway of Asoka, "Beloved of the Gods."