THE DHARMA OR DOCTRINE
106. Q. _What is the meaning of the word Buddha?_
A. The enlightened, or he who has the perfect wisdom.
107. Q. _You have said that there were other Buddhas before this one?_
A. Yes; our belief is that, under the operation of eternal causation,
a Buddha takes birth at intervals, when mankind have become plunged
into misery through ignorance, and need the wisdom which it is the
function of a Buddha to teach. (See also Q. 11.)
108. Q. _How is a Buddha developed?_
A. A person, hearing and seeing one of the Buddhas on earth, becomes
seized with the determination so to live that at some future time, when
he shall become fitted for it, he also will be a Buddha for the guiding
of mankind out of the cycle of rebirth.
109. Q. _How does he proceed?_
A. Throughout that birth and every succeeding one, he strives to
subdue his passions, to gain wisdom by experience, and to develop his
higher faculties. He thus grows by degrees wiser, nobler in character,
and stronger in virtue, until, finally, after numberless re-births he
reaches the state when he can become Perfected, Enlightened, All-wise,
the ideal Teacher of the human race.
110. Q. _While this gradual development is going on throughout all
these births, by what name do we call him?_
A. Bodhisat, or Bodhisattva. Thus the Prince Siddhartha Gautama
was a Bodhisattva up to the moment when, under the blessed Bodhi
tree at Gaya, he became Buddha.
111. Q. _Have we any account of his various rebirths as a
Bodhisattva?_
A. In the Jatakatthakatha, a book containing stories of the
Bodhisattva's reincarnations, there are several hundred tales of
that kind.
112. Q. _What lesson do these stories teach?_
A. That a man can carry, throughout a long series of reincarnations,
one great, good purpose which enables him to conquer bad tendencies and
develop virtuous ones.
113. Q. _Can we fix the number of reincarnations through which a
Bodhisattva must pass before he can become a Buddha?_
A. Of course not: that depends upon his natural character, the state
of development to which he has arrived when he forms the resolution to
become a Buddha, and other things.
114. Q. _Have we a way of classifying Bodhisattvas? If so,
explain it._
A. Bodhisattvas--the future Buddhas--are divided into three classes.
115. Q. _Proceed. How are these three kinds of Bodhisats named?_
A. Pannadhika, or Udghatitajña--"he who attains least quickly";
Saddhadhika, or Vipachitajña--"he who attains less quickly"; and
Viryadhika, or Gneyya--"he who attains quickly". The Pannadhika
Bodhisats take the course of Intelligence; the Saddhadhika take
the course of Faith; the Viryaahika take the course of energetic
Action. The first is guided by Intelligence and does not hasten; the
second is full of Faith, and does not care to take the guidance of
Wisdom; and the third never delays to do what is good. Regardless of
the consequences to himself, he does it when he sees that it is best
that it should be done.
116. Q. _When our Bodhisattva became Buddha, what did he see was
the cause of human misery? Tell me in one word._
A. Ignorance (Avidya).
117. Q. _Can you tell me the remedy?_
A. To dispel Ignorance and become wise (Prajña).
118. Q. _Why does ignorance cause suffering?_
A. Because it makes us prize what is not worth prizing, grieve when we
should not grieve, consider real what is not real but only illusionary,
and pass our lives in the pursuit of worthless objects, neglecting what
is in reality most valuable.
119. Q. _And what is that which is most valuable?_
A. To know the whole secret of man's existence and destiny, so that we
may estimate at no more than their actual value this life and its
relations; and so that we may live in a way to ensure the greatest
happiness and the least suffering for our fellow-men and ourselves.
120. Q. _What is the light that can dispel this ignorance of ours and
remove all sorrows?_
A. The knowledge of the "Four Noble Truths," as the Buddha called them.
121. Q. _Name these Four Noble Truths?_
A. 1. The miseries of evolutionary existence resulting in births and
deaths, life after life.
2. The cause productive of misery, which is the selfish desire, ever
renewed, of satisfying one's self, without being able ever to secure
that end.
3. The destruction of that desire, or the estranging of one's self
from it.
4. The means of obtaining this destruction of desire.
122. Q. _Tell me some things that cause sorrow?_
A. Birth, decay, illness, death, separation from objects we love,
association with those who are repugnant, craving for what cannot be
obtained.
123. Q. _Do these differ with each individual?_
A. Yes: but all men suffer from them in degree.
124. Q. _How can we escape the sufferings which result from
unsatisfied desires and ignorant cravings?_
A. By complete conquest over, and destruction of, this eager thirst
for life and its pleasures, which causes sorrow.
125. Q. _How may we gain such a conquest?_
A. By following the Noble Eight-fold Path which the Buddha discovered
and pointed out.
126. Q. _What do you mean by that word: what is this Noble Eight-fold
Path?_ (For the Pali name see Q. 79.)
A. The eight parts of this path are called _angas_. They are: 1.
Right Belief (as to the law of Causation, or Karma); 2. Right Thought;
3. Right Speech; 4. Right Action; 5. Right Means of Livelihood; 6.
Right Exertion; 7. Right Remembrance and Self-discipline; 8. Right
Concentration of Thought. The man who keeps these _angas_ in mind and
follows them will be free from sorrow and ultimately reach salvation.
127. Q. _Can you give a better word for salvation?_
A. Yes, emancipation.
128. Q. _Emancipation, then, from what?_
A. Emancipation from the miseries of earthly existence and of
rebirths, all of which are due to ignorance and impure lusts and
cravings.
129. Q. _And when this salvation or emancipation is attained, what do
we reach?_
A. NIRVANA.
130. Q. _What is Nirvana?_
A. A condition of total cessation of changes, of perfect rest, of the
absence of desire and illusion and sorrow, of the total obliteration of
everything that goes to make up the physical man. Before reaching
Nirvana man is constantly being reborn; when he reaches Nirvana
he is born no more.
131. Q. _Where can be found a learned discussion of the word
Nirvana and a list of the other names by which the old Pali
writers attempt to define it?_
A. In the famous Dictionary of the Pali Language, by the late
Mr. B. O. Childers, is a complete list.[1]
132. Q. _But some people imagine that Nirvana is some sort of
heavenly place, a Paradise. Does Buddhism teach that?_
A. No. When Kutadanta asked the Buddha "Where is Nirvana," he
replied that it was "wherever the precepts are obeyed".
133. Q. _What causes us to be reborn?_
A. The unsatisfied selfish desire (Skt., _trshna_; Pali,
tanha) for things that belong to the state of personal existence in
the material world. This unquenched thirst for physical existence
(_bhava_) is a force, and has a creative power in itself so strong
that it draws the being back into mundane life.
134. Q. _Are our rebirths in any way affected by the nature of our
unsatisfied desires?_
A. Yes, and by our individual merits or demerits.
135. Q. _Does our merit or demerit control the state, condition or
form in which we shall be re-born?_
A. It does. The broad rule is that if we have an excess of merit we
shall be well and happily born the next time; if an excess of demerit,
our next birth will be wretched and full of suffering.
136. Q. _One chief pillar of Buddhistic doctrine is, then, the idea
that every effect is the result of an actual cause, is it not?_
A. It is; of a cause either immediate or remote.
137. Q. _What do we call this causation?_
A. Applied to individuals, it is Karma, that is, action. It means
that our own actions or deeds bring upon us whatever of joy or misery
we experience.
138. Q. _Can a bad man escape from the outworkings of his Karma?_
A. The _Dhammapada_ says: "There exists no spot on the earth, or in
the sky, or in the sea, neither is there any in the mountain-clefts,
where an (evil) deed does not bring trouble (to the doer)."
139. Q. _Can a good man escape?_
A. As the result of deeds of peculiar merit, a man may attain certain
advantages of place, body, environment and teaching in his next stage
of progress, which ward off the effects of bad Karma and help his
higher evolution.
140. _What are they called?_
A. _Gati Sampatti_, _Upadhi Sampatti_, _Kala Sampatti_ and
_Payoga Sampatti_.
141. Q. _Is that consistent or inconsistent with common sense and the
teachings of modern science?_
A. Perfectly consistent: there can be no doubt of it.
142. Q. _May all men become Buddhas?_
A. It is not in the nature of every man to become a Buddha; for a
Buddha is developed only at long intervals of time, and seemingly, when
the state of humanity absolutely requires such a teacher to show it the
forgotten Path to Nirvana. But every being may equally reach
Nirvana, by conquering Ignorance and gaining Wisdom.
143. Q. _Does Buddhism teach that man is reborn only upon our earth?_
A. As a general rule that would be the case, until he had evolved
beyond its level; but the inhabited worlds are numberless. The world
upon which a person is to have his next birth, as well as the nature of
the rebirth itself, is decided by the preponderance of the individual's
merit or demerit. In other words, it will be controlled by his
attractions, as science would describe it; or by his Karma, as we,
Buddhists, would say.
144. Q. _Are there worlds more perfectly developed, and others less
so than our Earth?_
A. Buddhism teaches that there are whole _Sakwalas_, or systems of
worlds, of various kinds, higher and lower, and also that the
inhabitants of each world correspond in development with itself.
145. Q. _Has not the Buddha summed up his whole doctrine in one
gatha, or verse?_
A. Yes.
146. Q. _Repeat it?_
A. _Sabba papassa akaranm,
Kusalassa upasampada
Sachitta pariyo dapanam--
Etam Buddhanusasanam._
"To cease from all evil actions,
To generate all that is good,
To cleanse one's mind:
This is the constant advice of the Buddhas."
147. Q. _Have the first three of these lines any very striking
characteristics?_
A. Yes: the first line embodies the whole spirit of the _Vinaya
Pitaka_, the second that of the _Sutta_, the third that of the
_Abhidhamma_. They comprise only eight Pali words, yet, as the
dew-drop reflects the stars, they sparkle with the spirit of all the
Buddha Dharma.
148. Q. _Do these precepts show that Buddhism is an active or a
passive religion?_
A. To "cease from sin" may be called passive, but to "get virtue" and
"to cleanse one's own heart," or mind, are altogether _active_
qualities. Buddha taught that we should not merely not be evil, but
that we should be _positively_ good.
149. Q. _Who or what are the "Three Guides"[2] that a Buddhist Is
supposed to follow?_
A. They are disclosed in the formula called the Tisarana: "I follow
Buddha as my Guide: I follow the Law as my Guide: I follow the Order as
my Guide." These three _are_, in fact, the Buddha Dharma.
150. Q. _What does he mean when repeating this formula?_
A. He means that he regards the Buddha as his all-wise Teacher, Friend
and Exemplar; the Law, or Doctrine, as containing the essential and
immutable principles of Justice and Truth and the path that leads to
the realisation of perfect peace of mind on earth; and the Order as the
teachers and exemplars of that excellent Law taught by Buddha.
151. Q. _But are not some of the members of this "Order" men
intellectually and morally inferior?_
A. Yes; but we are taught by the Buddha that only those who diligently
attend to the Precepts, discipline their minds, and strive to attain or
have attained one of the eight stages of holiness and perfection,
constitute his "Order". It is expressly stated that the Order referred
to in the "Tisarana" refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala"--the Noble
Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of perfection. The mere
wearing of yellow robes, or even ordination, does not of itself make a
man pure or wise or entitle him to reverence.
152. Q. _Then it is not such unworthy bhikkhus as they, whom the true
Buddhist would lake as his guides?_
A. Certainly not.
153. Q. _What are the five observances, or universal precepts, called
the Pañcha Sila, which are imposed on the laity in general?_
A. They are included in the following formula,, which Buddhists repeat
publicly at the viharas (temples):
I observe the precept to refrain from destroying the life of beings.
I observe the precept to refrain from stealing.
I observe the precept to abstain from unlawful sexual intercourse.[3]
I observe the precept to refrain from falsehood.
I observe the precept to abstain from using intoxicants.
154. Q. What strikes the intelligent person on reading these Silas?
A. That one who observes them strictly must escape from every cause
productive of human misery. If we study history we shall find that it
has all sprung from one or another of these causes.
155. Q. In which Silas is the far-seeing wisdom of the Buddha most
plainly shown?
A. In the first, third and fifth; for the taking of life, sensuality,
and the use of intoxicants, cause at least ninety-five per cent of the
sufferings among men.
156. Q. _What benefits does a man derive from the observance of these
Precepts?_
A. He is said to acquire more or less merit according to the manner
and time of observing the precepts, and the number observed; that is,
if he observes only one precept, violating the other four, he acquires
the merit of the observance of that precept only; and the longer he
keeps that precept the greater will be the merit. He who keeps all the
precepts inviolate will cause himself to have a higher and happier
existence hereafter.
157. Q. _What are the other observances which it is considered
meritorious for the laity as such to undertake voluntarily to keep?_
A. The _Atthanga Sila_, or the Eightfold Precept, which embraces
the five above enumerated (omitting the word "unlawful" in the third),
with three additional; _viz._:
I observe the precept to abstain from eating at an unseasonable time.
I observe the precept to abstain from dancing, singing, music and
unbecoming shows, and from the use of garlands, scents, perfumes,
cosmetics, ointments, and ornaments.
I observe the precept to abstain from using high and broad beds.
The seats and couches here referred to are those used by the
worldly-minded for the sake of pleasure and sensual enjoyment. The
celibate should avoid these.
158. Q. _How would a Buddhist describe true merit?_
A. There is no great merit in any merely outward act; all depends upon
the inward motive that provokes the deed.
159. Q. _Give an example?_
A. A rich man may expend lakhs of rupees in building dagobas or
viharas, in erecting statues of Buddha, in festivals and
processions, in feeding priests, in giving alms to the poor, or in
planting trees, digging tanks, or constructing rest-houses by the
roadside for travellers, and yet have comparatively little merit if it
be done for display, or to hear himself praised by men, or for any
other selfish motives. But he who does the least of these things with
a kind motive, such as love for his fellow-men, gains great merit. A
good deed done with a bad motive benefits others, but not the doer.
One who approves of a good deed when done by another shares in the
merit, _if his sympathy is real, not pretended_. The same rule applies
to evil deeds.
160. Q. _But which is said to be the greatest of all meritorious
actions?_
A. The _Dhammapada_ declares that the merit of disseminating the
Dharma, the Law of Righteousness, is greater than that of any other
good work.
161. Q. _What books contain all the most excellent wisdom of the
Buddha's teachings?_
A. The three collections of books called _Tripitakas_ or "_Three
Baskets_".
162. Q. _What are the names of the three Pitakas, or groups of books?_
A. The _Vinaya Pitaka_, the _Sutta Pitaka_ and the _Abhidhamma Pitaka_.
163. Q. _What do they respectively contain?_
A. The first contains all that pertains to morality and the rules of
discipline for the government of the Sangha, or Order; the second
contains instructive discourses on ethics applicable to all; the third
explains the psychological teachings of the Buddha, including the
twenty-four transcendental laws explanatory of the workings of Nature.
164. Q. _Do Buddhists relieve these books to be inspired, or
revealed, by a Divine Being?_
A. No; but they revere them as containing all the parts of that most
Excellent Law, by the knowing of which man may break through the
trammels of _Samsara_.
165. Q. _In the whole text of the three Pitakas how many words are
there?_
A. Dr. Rhys-Davids estimates them at 1,752,800.
166. Q. _When were the Pitakas first reduced to writing?_
A. In 88-76 B.C., under the Sinhalese King, Wattagamini, or three
hundred and thirty years after the Paranirvana of the Buddha.
167. Q. _Have we reason to believe that all the discourses of the
Buddha are known to us?_
A. Probably not, and it would be strange if they were. Within the
forty-five years of his public life he must have preached many hundreds
of discourses. Of these, in times of war and persecution, many must
have been lost, many scattered to distant countries, and many
mutilated. History says that enemies of the Buddha Dharma burnt piles
of our books as high as a coco-nut tree.
168. Q. _Do Buddhists consider the Buddha as one who by his own
virtue can save us from the consequence of our individual sins?_
A. Not at all. Man must emancipate himself. Until he does that he
will continue being born over and over and over again--the victim of
ignorance, the slave of unquenched passions.
169. Q. _What, then, was the Buddha to us, and all other beings?_
A. An all-seeing, all-wise Counsellor; one who discovered the safe
path and pointed it out; one who showed the cause of, and the only cure
for, human suffering. In pointing to the road, in showing us how to
escape dangers, he became our Guide. He is to us like one leading a
blind man across a narrow bridge over a swift and deep stream and so
saving his life.
170. Q. _If we were to try to represent the whole spirit of the
Buddha's doctrine by one word, which word should we choose?_
A. Justice.
171. Q. _Why?_
A. Because it teaches that every man gets, under the operations of
unerring KARMA, exactly that reward or punishment which he has
deserved, no more and no less. No good deed or bad deed, however
trifling, and however secretly committed, escapes the evenly-balanced
scales of Karma.
172. Q. _What is Karma?_[4]
A. A causation operating on the moral, as well as on the physical and
other planes. Buddhists say there is no miracle in human affairs: what
a man sows that he must and will reap.
173. Q. _What other good words have been used to express the essence
of Buddhism?_
A. Self-culture and universal love.
174. Q. _What doctrine ennobles Buddhism, and gives it its exalted
place among the world's religions?_
A. That of _Mitta_ or _Maitreya_--compassionate kindness. The
importance of this doctrine is moreover emphasised in the giving of the
name "Maitri" (the Compassionate One), to the coming Buddha.
175. Q. _Were all these points of Doctrine that you have explained
meditated upon by the Buddha near the Bo-tree?_
A. Yes, these and many more that may be read in the Buddhist
Scriptures. The entire system of Buddhism came to his mind during the
Great Enlightenment.
176. Q. _How long did the Buddha remain near the Bo-tree?_
A. Forty-nine days.
177. Q. _What do we call the first discourse preached by the
Buddha--that which he addressed to his five former companions?_
A. The _Dhammacakka-ppavattana sutta_--the Sutra of the Definition
of the Rule of Doctrine.[5]
178. Q. _What subjects were treated by him in this discourse?_
A. The "Four Noble Truths," and the "Noble Eightfold Path". He
condemned the extreme physical mortification of the ascetics, on the
one hand, and the enjoyment of sensual pleasures on the other; pointing
out and recommending the Noble Eightfold Path as the Middle Path.
179. Q. _Did the Buddha hold with idol-worship?_
A. He did not; he opposed it. The worship of gods, demons, trees,
etc., was condemned by the Buddha. External worship is a fetter that
one has to break if he is to advance higher.
180. Q. _But, do not Buddhists make reverence before the statue of
the Buddha, his relics, and the monuments enshrining them?_
A. Yes, but not with the sentiment of the idolater.
181. Q. _What is the difference?_
A. Our Pagan brother not only takes his images as visible
representations of his unseen God or gods, but the refined idolater, in
worshipping, considers that the idol contains in its substance a
portion of the all-pervading divinity.
182. Q. _What does the Buddhist think?_
A. The Buddhist reverences the Buddha's statue and the other things
you have mentioned, only as mementoes of the greatest, wisest, most
benevolent and compassionate man in this world-period (Kalpa). All
races and people preserve, treasure up, and value the relics and
mementoes of men and women who have been considered in any way great.
The Buddha, to us, seems more to be revered and beloved than any one
else, by every human being who knows sorrow.
183. Q. _Has the Buddha himself given us something definite upon this
subject?_
A. Certainly. In the _Maha Pari-Nirvana Sutta_ he says that
emancipation is attainable only by leading the Holy life, according to
the Noble Eight-fold Path, not by eternal worship (_amisa
puja_), nor by adoration of himself, or of another, or of any
image.
184. Q. _What was the Buddha's estimate of ceremonialism?_
A. From the beginning, he condemned the observance of ceremonies and
other external practices, which only tend to increase our spiritual
blindness and our clinging to mere lifeless forms.
185. Q. _What as to controversies?_
A. In numerous discourses he denounced this habit as most pernicious.
He prescribed penances for Bhikkhus who waste time and weaken their
higher intuitions in wrangling over theories and metaphysical
subtleties.
186. Q. _Are charms, incantations, the observance of lucky hours and
devil-dancing a part of Buddhism?_
A. They are positively repugnant to its fundamental principles. They
are the surviving relics of fetishism and pantheistic and other foreign
religions. In the _Brahmajata Sutta_ the Buddha has
categorically described these and other superstitions as Pagan, mean
and spurious.[6]
187. Q. _What striking contrasts are there between Buddhism and what
may be properly called "religions"?_
A. Among others, these: It teaches the highest goodness without a
creating God; a continuity of life without adhering to the
superstitious and selfish doctrine of an eternal, metaphysical
soul-substance that goes out of the body; a happiness without an
objective heaven; a method of salvation without a vicarious Saviour;
redemption by oneself as the Redeemer, and without rites, prayers,
penances, priests or intercessory saints; and a _summum bonum_, _i.e._,
Nirvana, attainable in this life and in this world by leading a
pure, unselfish life of wisdom and of compassion to all beings.
188. Q. _Specify the two main divisions of "meditation," i.e., of the
process by which one extinguishes passion and attains knowledge?_
A. _Samatha_ and _Vidarsama_: (1) the attenuation of passion by
leading the holy life and by continued effort to subdue the senses; (2)
the attainment of supernormal wisdom by reflection: each of which
embraces twenty aspects, but I need not here specify them.
189. Q. _What are the four paths or stages of advancement that one
may attain to?_
A. (1) Sottapatti--the beginning or entering into which follows
after one's clear perception of the "Four Noble Truths"; (2)
Sakardagami--the path of one who has so subjugated lust, hatred
and delusion that he need only return once to this world; (3)
_Anagami_--the path of those who have so far conquered self that
they need not return to this world; (4) _Arhat_--the path of the holy
and worthy Arhat, who is not only free from the necessity of
reincarnation, but has capacitated himself to enjoy perfect wisdom,
boundless pity for the ignorant and suffering, and measureless love for
all beings.
190. Q. _Does popular Buddhism contain nothing but what is true, and
in accord with science?_
A. Like every other religion that has existed many centuries, it
certainly now contains untruth mingled with truth; ever gold is found
mixed with dross. The poetical imagination, the zeal, or the lingering
superstition of Buddhist devotees have, in various ages, and in various
lands, caused the noble principles of the Buddha's moral doctrines to
be coupled more or less with what might be removed to advantage.
191. Q. _When such perversions are discovered, what should be the
true Buddhist's earnest desire?_
A. The true Buddhist should be ever ready and anxious to see the false
purged away from the true, and to assist, if he can. Three great
Councils of the Sangha were held for the express purpose of purging the
body of Teachings from all corrupt interpolations.
192. Q. _When?_
A. The first, at Sattapanni cave, just after the death of the Buddha;
the second at Valukarama, in Vaisali; the third at Asokarama Vihara,
at Pataliputra, 235 years after Buddha's decease.
193. Q. _In what discourse does the Buddha himself warn us to expect
this perversion of the true Doctrine?_
A. In the _Sanyutta Nikaya_.
194. Q. _Are there any dogmas in Buddhism which we are required to
accept on faith?_
A. No: we are earnestly enjoined to accept nothing whatever on faith;
whether it be written in books, handed down from our ancestors, or
taught by the sages.
195. Q. _Did he himself really teach that noble rule?_
A. Yes. The Buddha has said that we must not believe in a thing said
merely because it is said; nor in traditions because they have been
handed down from antiquity; nor rumours, as such; nor writings by
sages, merely because sages wrote them; nor fancies that we may suspect
to have been inspired in us by a Deva (that is, in presumed spiritual
inspiration); nor from inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption
we may have made; nor because of what seems an analogical necessity;
nor on the mere authority of our own teachers or masters.
196. Q. _When, then, must we believe?_
A. We are to believe when the writing doctrine or saying is
corroborated by our own reason and consciousness. "For this," says he
in concluding, "I taught you not to believe merely because you have
heard, but when you believed of your own consciousness, then to act
accordingly and abundantly." (See the _Kalama Sutta_ of the
_Anguttara Nikaya_, and the _Maha Pari Nirvana Sutta_.)
197. Q. _What does the Buddha call himself?_
A. He says that he and the other Buddhas are only "preachers" of truth
who point out the way: we ourselves must make the effort.
198. Q. _Where is this said?_
A. In the _Dhammapada_, Chapter xx.
199. Q. _Does Buddhism countenance hypocrisy?_
A. The Dhammapada says: "Like a beautiful flower full of colour
without scent the fine words of him who does not act accordingly are
fruitless."
200. Q. _Does Buddhism teach us to return evil for evil?_
A. In the _Dhammapada_ the Buddha said: "If a man foolishly does me
wrong, I will return to him the protection of my ungrudging love; the
more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me." This is the
path followed by the Arhat.[7] To return evil for evil is positively
forbidden in Buddhism.
201. Q. _Does it encourage cruelty?_
A. No, indeed. In the Five Precepts and in many of his discourses,
the Buddha teaches us to be merciful to all beings, to try and make
them happy, to love them all, to abstain from taking life, or
consenting to it, or encouraging its being done.
202. Q. _In which discourse is this stated?_
A. The _Dhammika Sutta_ says: "Let him (the householder) not destroy,
or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, or _sanction the act of
those who do so_. Let him refrain from even hurting any creature."[8]
203. Q. _Does it approve of drunkenness?_
A. In his _Dhammika Sutta_ we are warned against drinking liquors,
causing others to drink, or sanctioning the acts of those who drink.[9]
204. Q. _To what are we told that drunkenness leads?_
A. To demerit, crime, insanity, and ignorance--which is the chief
cause of rebirth.
205. Q. _What does Buddhism teach about marriage?_
A. Absolute chastity being a condition of full spiritual development,
is most highly commended; but a marriage to one wife and fidelity to
her is recognised as a kind of chastity. Polygamy was censured by the
Buddha as involving ignorance and promoting lust.
206. Q. _In what discourse?_
A. The _Anguttara Nikaya_, Chapter iv, 55.
207. Q. _What does it teach as to the duty of parents to children?_
A. They should restrain them from vice, train them in virtue; have
them taught arts and sciences; provide them with suitable wives and
husbands, and give them their inheritance.
208. Q. What is the duty of children?
A. To support their parents when old or needy; perform family duties
incumbent on them; guard their property; make themselves worthy to be
their heirs, and when they are gone, honour their memory.
209. Q. _What of pupils to the teacher?_
A. To show him respect; minister to him; obey him; supply his wants;
attend to his instruction.
210. Q. _What of husband to wife?_
A. To cherish her; treat her with respect and kindness; be faithful to
her; cause her to be honoured by others; provide her with suitable
ornaments and clothes.
211. Q. _What of the wife to her husband?_
A. To show affection to him; order her household aright; be hospitable
to guests; be chaste; be thrifty; show skill and diligence in all
things.
212. Q. Where are these precepts taught?
A. In the Sigalovada Sutta.
213. Q. Do riches help a man to future happiness?
A. The Dhammapada says: "One is the road that leads to wealth, another
the road that leads to Nirvana."
214. Q. Does that mean that no rich man can attain Nirvana?
A. That depends on which he loves most. If he uses his wealth for the
benefit of mankind--for the suffering, the oppressed, the
ignorant--then his wealth aids him to acquire merit.
215. Q. But if the contrary?
A. But if he loves and greedily hoards money for the sake of its
possession, then it weakens his moral sense, prompts him to crime,
brings curses upon him in this life, and their effects are felt in the
next birth.
216. Q. _What says the "Dhammapada" about ignorance?_
A. That it is a taint worse than all taints that a man can put upon
himself.
217. Q. _What does it say about uncharitableness towards others?_
A. That the fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself
difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like chaff,
but his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the
gambler.
218. Q. _What advice does the Buddha give us as to man's duty to the
poor?_
A. He says that a man's net income should be divided into four parts,
of which one should be devoted to philanthropic objects.
219. Q. _What five occupations are said to be low and base?_
A. Selling liquor, selling animals for slaughter, selling poison,
selling murderous weapons, and dealing in slaves.
220. Q. _Who are said to be incapable of progress in spirituality?_
A. The killers of father, mother, and holy Arhats; Bhikkhus who sow
discord in the Sangha; those who attempt to injure the person of a
Buddha; those who hold extremely nihilistic views as to the future
existence; and those who are extremely sensual.
121. Q. _Does Buddhism specify places or conditions of torment into
which a bad man's Karma draws him on leaving this life?_
A. Yes. They are: Sanjiva; Kalasutra; Sanghata; Raurava;
Maha-Raurava Tapa; Pratapa; Avichi.
222. Q. _Is the torment eternal?_
A. Certainly not. Its duration depends on a man's Karma.
223. Q. _Does Buddhism declare that non-believers in Buddha will of
necessity be damned for their unbelief?_
A. No; by good deeds they may enjoy a limited term of happiness before
being drawn into rebirth by their unexhausted _tanha_. To escape
rebirth, one must tread the Noble Eight-fold Path.
224. Q. _What is the spiritual status of woman among Buddhists?_
A. According to our religion they are on a footing of perfect equality
with men. "Woman," says the Buddha, in the _Chullavedalla Sutta_, "may
attain the highest path of holiness that is open to man--Arhatship."
225. Q. _What does a modern critic say about the effect of Buddhism
on woman?_
A. That "it has done more for the happiness and enfranchisement of
woman than any other creed" (Sir Lepel Griffin).
226. Q. _What did the Buddha teach about caste?_
A. That one does not become of any caste, whether Pariah, the lowest,
or Brahmana the highest, by birth, but by deeds. "By deeds," said
He, "one becomes an outcast, by deeds one becomes a Brahmana" (See
_Vassala Sutta_).
227. Q. _Tell me a story to illustrate this?_
A. Ananda, passing by a well, was thirsty and asked Prakrti, a girl of
the Matanga, or Pariah, caste, to give him water. She said she was
of such low caste that he would become contaminated by taking water
from her hand. But Ananda replied: "I ask not for caste but for
water"; and the Matanga girl's heart was glad and she gave him to
drink. The Buddha blessed her for it.
228. Q. _What did the Buddha say in "Vasala Sutta" about a man of the
Pariah Sopaka caste?_
A. That by his merits he reached the highest fame; that many Khattiyas
(Kshattriyas) and Brahmanas went to serve him; and that after death
he was born in the Brahma-world: while there are many Brahmanas
who for their evil deeds are born in hell.
229. Q. Does Buddhism teach the immortality of the soul?
A. It considers "soul" to be a word used by the ignorant to express a
false idea. If everything is subject to change, then man is included,
and every material part of him must change. That which is subject to
change is not permanent: so there can be no immortal survival of a
changeful thing.[10]
230. Q. _What is so objectionable in this word "soul"?_
A. The idea associated with it that man can be an entity separated
from all other entities, and from the existence of the whole of the
Universe. This idea of separateness is unreasonable, not provable by
logic, nor supported by science.
231. Q. _Then there is no separate "I," nor can we say "my" this or
that?_
A. Exactly so.
232. Q. _If the idea of a separate human "soul" is to be rejected,
what is it in man which gives him the impression of having a permanent
personality?_
A. _Tanha_, or the unsatisfied desire for existence. The being
having done that for which he must be rewarded or punished in future,
and having _Tanha_, will have a rebirth through the influence of
Karma.
233. Q. _What is it that is born?_
A. A new aggregation of Skandhas, or personality[11] caused by the last
generative thought of the dying person.
234. Q. _How many Skandhas are there?_
A. Five.
235. Q. _Name the five Skandhas?_
A. Rupa, Vedana, Sañña, Samkhara,_ and _Viññana_.
236. Q. _Briefly explain what they are?_
A. __Rupa_, material qualities; _Vedana_, sensation; _Sañña_,
abstract ideas; _Samkhara_, tendencies of mind; _Viññana_,
mental powers, or consciousness. Of these we are formed; by them we
are conscious of existence; and through them communicate with the world
about us.
237. Q. _To what cause must we attribute the differences in the
combination of the five Skandhas which make every individual differ
from every other individual?_
A. To the ripened Karma of the individual in his preceding births.
238. Q. _What is the force of energy that is at work, under the
guidance of Karma, to produce the new being?_
A. Tanha--the will to _live_.[12]
239. Q. _Upon what is the doctrine of rebirths founded?_
A. Upon the perception that perfect justice, equilibrium and
adjustment are inherent in the universal system of Nature. Buddhists
do not believe that one life--even though it were extended to one
hundred or five hundred years--is long enough for the reward or
punishment of a man's deeds. The great circle of rebirths will be more
or less quickly run through according to the preponderating purity or
impurity of the several lives of the individual.
240. Q. _Is this new aggregation of Skandhas--this new
personality--the same being as that in the previous birth, whose
Tanha has brought it into existence?_
A. In one sense it is a new being; in another it is not. In
Pali it is--"_nacha so nacha añño_" which means not the same nor
yet another. During this life the _Skandhas_ are constantly
changing;[13] and while the man A. B., of forty, is identical, as
regards personality, with the youth A. B., of eighteen, yet, by the
continual waste and reparation of his body, and change of mind and
character, he is a different being. Nevertheless, the man in his old
age justly reaps the reward of suffering consequent upon his thoughts
and actions at every previous stage of his life. So the new being of a
rebirth, being the same individuality as before, but with a changed
form, or new aggregation of _Skandhas_, justly reaps the consequences
of his actions and thoughts in the previous existence.
241. Q. _But the aged man remembers the incidents of his youth,
despite his being physically and mentally changed. Why, then, is not
the recollection of past lives brought over by us from our last birth,
into the present birth?_
A. Because memory is included within the _Skandhas_; and the
_Skandhas_ having changed with the new reincarnation, a new memory, the
record of of that particular existence, develops. Yet the record or
reflection of all the past earth-lives must survive; for, when Prince
Siddhartha became Buddha, the full sequence of his previous births
was seen by him. If their several incidents had left no trace behind,
this could not have been so, as there would have been nothing for him
to see. And any one who attains to the fourth state of _Dhyana_
(psychical insight) can thus retrospectively trace the line of his
lives.
242. Q. _What is the ultimate point towards which tend all these
series of changes in form?_
A. Nirvana.
243. Q. _Does Buddhism teach that we should do good with the view of
reaching Nirvana?_
A. No; that would be as absolute selfishness as though the reward
hoped for had been money, a throne, or any other sensual enjoyment.
Nirvana cannot be so reached, and the unwise speculator is
foredoomed to disappointment.
244. Q. _Please make it a little clearer?_
A. Nirvana is the synonym of unselfishness, the entire surrender of
selfhood to truth. The ignorant man aspires to nirvanic happiness
without the least idea of its nature. Absence of selfishness is
Nirvana. Doing good with the view to getting results, or leading
the holy life with the object of gaining heavenly happiness, is not the
Noble Life that the Buddha enjoined. Without hope of reward the Noble
Life should be lived, and that is the highest life. The nirvanic
state can be attained while one is living on this earth.
245. Q. _Name the ten great obstacles to advancement, called
Sanyojanas, the Fetters?_
A. Delusion of self (_Sakkaya-ditthi_); Doubt (_Vicikiccha_);
Dependence on superstitious rites (_Silabbata-paramasa_);
Sensuality, bodily passions (_Kama_); Hatred, ill-feeling
(_Patigha_); Love of life on earth (_Ruparaga_); Desire for life
in a heaven (_Aruparaga_); Pride (_Mana_); Self-righteousness
(Uddhacca); Ignorance (_Avijja_).
246. Q. _To become an Arhat, how many of these fetters must be
broken?_
A. All.
247. Q. _What are the five Nirwaranas or Hindrances?_
A. Greed, Malice, Sloth, Pride, and Doubt.
248. Q. _Why do we see this minute division of feelings, impulses,
workings of the mind, obstacles and aids to advancement so much used in
the Buddha's teachings? It is very confusing to a beginner._
A. It is to help us to obtain knowledge of ourselves, by training our
minds to think out every subject in detail. By following out this
system of self-examination, we come finally to acquire knowledge and
see truth as it is. This is the course taken by every wise teacher to
help his pupil's mind to develop.
249. Q. _How many of the Buddha's disciples were specially renowned
for their superior qualities?_
A. There are eighty so distinguished. They are called the Asiti
Maha Savakas.
250. Q. _What did the Buddha's wisdom embrace?_
A. He knew the nature of the Knowable and the Unknowable, the Possible
and the Impossible, the cause of Merit and Demerit; he could read the
thoughts of all beings; he knew the laws of Nature, the illusions of
the senses and the means to suppress desires; he could distinguish the
birth and rebirth of individuals, and other things.
251. Q. _What do we call the basic principle on which the whole of
the Buddha's teaching is constructed?_
A. It is called Paticca Samuppada.[14]
252. Q. _Is it easily grasped?_
A. It is most difficult; in fact, the full meaning and extent of it is
beyond the capacity of such as are not perfectly developed.
253. Q. _What said the great commentator Buddha Ghosha about it?_
A. That even he was as helpless in this vast ocean of thought as one
who is drifting on the ocean of waters.
254. Q. _Then why should the Buddha say, in the Parinibbana Sutta,
that he "has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher, who keeps
something back"? If his whole teaching was open to every one's
comprehension why should so great and learned a man as Buddha Ghosha
declare it so hard to understand?_
A. The Buddha evidently meant that he taught everything freely; but
equally certain is it that the real basis of the Dharma can only be
understood by him who has perfected his powers of comprehension. It
is, therefore, incomprehensible to common, unenlightened persons.
255. Q. _How does the teaching of the Buddha support this view?_
A. The Buddha looked into the heart of each person, and preached to
suit the individual temperament and spiritual development of the hearer.
[1] Mr. Childers takes a highly pessimistic view of the Nirvanic
state, regarding it as annihilation. Later students disagree with him.
[2] _Saranam_. Wijesinha Mudaliar writes me: "This word has been
hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered _Refuge_, by
European Pali scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native
Pali scholars. Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic
philosophy justifies the translation. _Refuge_, in the sense of a
_fleeing back or a place of shelter_, is quite foreign to true
Buddhism, which insists on every man working out his own emancipation.
The root _Sr_ in Samskrt (_sara_ in Pali) means to move, to go;
so that _Suranim_ would denote a moving, or he or that which goes
before or with another--a Guide or Helper. I construe the passage
thus: _Gachchami_, I go, _Buddham_, to Buddha _Saranam_, as my
Guide. The translation of the _Tisarana_ as the "Three Refuges," has
given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists
a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking
refuge in non-entities and believing in unrealities. The term refuge
is more applicable to Nirvana, of which _Saranam_ is a synonym. The
High Priest Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the
Pali root _Sara_ has the secondary meaning of killing, or that
which destroys. _Buddham saranam gachchhami_ might thus be rendered
"I go to Buddha, the Law, and the Order, as the destroyers of my
fears--the first by his preaching, the second by its axiomatic truth,
the third by their various examples and precepts."
[3] This qualified form refers, of course, to laymen who only profess
to keep five precepts; a Bhikkhu must observe strict celibacy. So,
also, must the laic who binds himself to observe eight of the whole ten
Precepts for specified periods; during these periods he must be
celibate. The five Precepts were laid down by Buddha for all people.
Though one may not be a Buddhist, yet the five and eight Precepts may
profitably bo observed by all. It is the taking of the "Three Refuges"
that constitutes one a Buddhist.
[4] Karma is defined as the sum total of a man's actions. The law of
Cause and Effect is called the _Patice a Samuppada Dhamma_. In the
_Anguttara Nikaya_ the Buddha teaches that my action is my possession,
my action is my inheritance, my action is the womb which bears me, my
action is my relative, my action is my refuge.
[5] After the appearance of the first edition, I received from one of
the ablest Pali scholars of Ceylon, the late L. Corneille
Wijesinha, Esq., Mudaliar of Matale, what seems a better rendering of
_Dhammacakka-ppavattana_ than the one previously given; he makes it
"The Establishment of the Reign of Law". Professor Rhys-Davids
prefers, "The Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness". Mr.
Wijesinha writes me: "You may use 'Kingdom of Righteousness,' too, but
it savours more of dogmatic theology than of philosophic ethics.
_Dhammacakkappavattana suttum_ is the discourse entitled 'The
Establishment of the Reign of Law'." Having shown this to the High
Priest, I am happy to be able to say that he assents to Mr. Wijesinha's
rendering.
[6] The mixing of these arts and practices with Buddhism is a sign of
deterioration. Their facts and phenomena are real and capable of
scientific explanation. They are embraced in the term "magic," but
when resorted to, for selfish purposes, attract bad influences about
one, and impede spiritual advancement. When employed for harmless and
beneficent purposes, such as healing the sick, saving life, etc., the
Buddha permitted their use.
[7] A Buddhist ascetic who, by a prescribed course of practice, has
attained to a superior state of spiritual and intellectual development.
Arhats may be divided into the two general groups of the
_Samathayanika_ and _Sukkha Vipassaka_. The former have destroyed
their passions, and fully developed their intellectual capacity or
mystical insight; the latter have equally conquered passion, but not
acquired the superior mental powers. The former can work phenomena,
the latter cannot. The Arhat of the former class, when fully
developed, is no longer a prey to the delusions of the senses, nor the
slave of passion or mortal frailty. _He penetrates to the root of
whatsoever subject his mind is applied to_ without following the slow
processes of reasoning. His self-conquest is complete; and in place of
the emotion and desire which vex and enthral the ordinary man, he is
lifted up into a condition which is best expressed in the term
"Nirvanic". There is in Ceylon a popular misconception that the
attainment of Arhatship is now impossible; that the Buddha had himself
prophesied that the power would die out in one millennium after his
death. This rumour--and the similar one that is everywhere heard in
India, _viz._, that this being the dark cycle of the _Kali Yuga_, the
practice of Yoga Vidya, or sublime spiritual science, is
impossible--I ascribe to the ingenuity of those who should be as pure
and (to use a non-Buddhistic but very convenient term) psychically wise
as were their predecessors, but are not, and who therefore seek an
excuse! The Buddha taught quite the contrary idea. In the _Niga
Nikaya_ he said: "Hear, Subbhadra! The world will never be without
Arhats if the ascetics (Bhikkhus) in my congregations _well and truly
keep my precepts_." (_Imeccha Subhaddabhikkhu samma vihareiyum asunno
loko Arahantehiassa._)
[8] Kolb, in his _History of Culture_, says: "It is Buddhism we have to
thank for the sparing of prisoners of war, who heretofore had been
slain; also for the discontinuance of the carrying away into captivity
of the inhabitants of conquered lands."
[9] The fifth Sila has reference to the mere taking of intoxicants
and stupefying drugs, which leads ultimately to drunkenness.
[10] The "soul" here criticised is the equivalent of the Greek
_psuche_. The word "material" covers other states of matter than that
of the physical body.
[11] Upon reflection, I have substituted "personality" for
"individuality" as written in the first edition. The successive
appearances upon one or many earths, or "descents into generation," of
the _tanhaically_-coherent parts (_Skandhas_) of a certain being are a
succession of personalities. In each birth the _personality_ differs
from that of the previous, or next succeeding birth. Karma the _deus
ex machina_, masks (or shall we say reflects?) itself, now in the
personality of a sage, again as an artisan, and so on throughout the
string of births. But though personalities ever shift, the one line of
life along which they are strung like beads, runs unbroken, it is ever
_that particular line_, never any other. It is therefore
individual--an individual vital undulation--which is careering through
the objective side of Nature, under the impulse of Karma and the
creative direction of Tanha and persists through many cyclic
changes. Professor Rhys-Davids calls that which passes from
personality to personality along the individual chain, "character" or
"doing". Since "character" is not a mere metaphysical abstraction, but
the sum of one's mental qualities and moral propensities, would it not
help to dispel what Professor Rhys-Davids calls "the desperate
expedient of a mystery" (_Buddhism_, p. 101), if we regarded the
life-undulation as individuality and each of its series of natal
manifestations as a separate personality? We _must_ have two words to
distinguish between the concepts, and I find none so clear and
expressive as the two I have chosen. The perfected individual,
Buddhistically speaking, is a Buddha, I should say; for a Buddha is but
the rare flower of humanity, without the least supernatural admixture.
And, as countless generations--"four_ asankhyyas_ and a hundred
thousand cycles" (Fausboll and Rhys-David's _Buddhist Birth Stories_,
No. 13)--are required to develop a man into a Buddha, and _the iron
will to become one runs throughout all the successive births_, what
shall we call that which thus wills and perseveres? Character, or
individuality? An individuality, but partly manifested in any one
birth, built up of fragments from all the births.
The denial of "Soul" by Buddha (see _Sanyutta Nikaya_, the _Sutta
Pitaka_) points to the prevalent delusive belief in an independent
personality; an entity, which after one birth would go to a fixed place
or state where, as a perfect entity, it could eternally enjoy or
suffer. And what he shows is that the "I am I" consciousness is, as
regards permanency, logically impossible, since its elementary
constituents constantly change and the "I" of one birth differs from
the "I" of every other birth. But everything that I have found in
Buddhism accords with the theory of a gradual evolution of the
perfected man--_viz._, a Buddha--through numberless natal experiences.
And in the consciousness of that individual who, at the end of a given
chain of births, attains Buddhahood, or who succeeds in attaining the
fourth stage of Dhyana, or mystic self-development, in any of his
births anterior to the final one, the scenes of all these serial births
are perceptible. In the _Jatakat-thavannana_--so well translated by
Professor Rhys-Davids--an expression continually recurs which, I think,
rather supports such an idea, _viz._: "Then the Blessed One _made
manifest an occurrence hidden by change of birth_," or "that which had
been hidden by," etc. Early Buddhism then clearly held to a permanency
of records in the Akasha, and the potential capacity of man to
read the same when he has evolved to the stage of true individual
enlightenment. At death, and in convulsions and trance, the _javana
chitta_ is transferred to the object last created by the desires.
The will to live brings all thoughts into objectivity.
[12] The student may profitably consult Schopenhauer in this
connection. Arthur Schopenhauer, a modern German philosopher of the
most eminent ability, taught that "the Principle or Radical, of Nature,
and of all her objects, the human body included, is, intrinsically what
we ourselves are the most conscious of in our own body, _viz._, Will.
Intellect is a secondary capacity of the primary will, a function of
the brain in which this will reflects itself as Nature and object and
body, as in a mirror... Intellect is secondary, but may lead, in
saints, to a complete renunciation of will, as far as it urges "life"
and is then extinguished in Nirvana (L. A. Sanders in _The
Theosophist_ for May 1882, p. 213).
[13] Physiologically speaking, man's body is completely changed every
seven years.
[14] This fundamental or basic principle may be designated in
Pali, _Nidana_--chain of causation or, literally, "Origination
of dependence". Twelve _Nidanas_ are specified, _viz._:
_Avijja_--ignorance of the truth of natural religion;
_Samkhara_--causal action, karma; _Viññana_--consciousness of
personality, the "I am I"; _Nama rupa_--name and form;
_Salayatana_--six senses; _Phassa_--contact, _Vedana_--feeling,
_Tanha_--desire for enjoyment; _Upadana_--clinging,
_Bhava_--individualising existence; _Jati_--birth, caste; _Jara,
narana, sokaparidesa, dukkha, domanassa, upayasa_--decay, death,
grief, lamentation, despair.