Buddhism. The religion known as Buddhism (from the title of 'The Buddha,' meaning 'the awakened,' 'the enlightened,' acquired by its founder) has existed now for perhaps 2400 years, and is, as regards the number of its adherents, the prevailing religion of the world. In India, the land of its birth, it has now little hold, except among the Nepalese and some other northern tribes; but it bears full sway in Ceylon and over the whole Indo-Chinese Peninsula; it divides the adherence of the Chinese with the systems of Confucius and Lao-tse, claiming perhaps a majority of the population; it prevails also in Japan (although not the established religion); and, north of the Himalayas, it is the religion of Tibet (where it assumes the form of Lamaism), of the Mongolian population of Central Asia and Southern Siberia, and of the Tatar tribes on the Lower Volga. Its adherents are estimated at more than 500 millions—or about a third of the whole human race. Yet, till towards the middle of the 19th century, nothing was known in Europe respecting the nature and origin of this world-religion, beyond the vaguest notices and conjectures. About the year 1828, Mr B. H. Hodgson, British resident at the court of Nepal, where Buddhism prevails, discovered the existence of a large set of writings in the Sanskrit language, forming the national canonical books. These books were afterwards found to be the texts from which the Buddhist scriptures of Tibet, Mongolia, and China must have been translated. The books of the Ceylon Buddhists are in the language called Pali; and though not translations of the Nepalese standards, they are found to agree with them in substance, and to be only another and somewhat later version of the same traditions. Translations from the Ceylon standards are used by the Buddhists of Burma and Siam. Copies of the Sanskrit books of Nepal, having been sent by Mr Hodgson to the Asiatic Societies of London and Paris, engaged the attention of the great orientalist, Eugène Burnouf, who published in 1844 his Introduction à l'Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien; and this book may be said to have been the beginning of anything like correct information on the subject among the western nations.
The most diverse opinions had previously prevailed as to the time and place of the origin of Buddhism. Some looked upon it as a relic of what had been the original religion of India, before Brahmanism intruded and drove it out; a relic of a widespread primeval worship, whose ramifications they endeavoured to trace by identifying Buddha with the Odin of the Scandinavians, the Thoth or Hermes of the ancient Egyptians, and other mythological personages. Others held that it could not be older than Christianity, and must have originated in a blundering attempt to copy that religion—so striking are the many points of resemblance that present themselves. Although the materials are still wanting for a circumstantial history of Buddhism, the main outline is no longer doubtful. Oriental scholars now generally concur in fixing the date of its origin some time in the 5th century B.C., and in making it spring up in the north of India. According to the Buddhist books, the founder of the religion was a prince of the name of Siddhartha, son of Suddhodana, king of Kapilavastu, which is placed somewhere on the confines of Oudh and Nepal. He is often called Sakya, which was the name of the family, or Sakya-muni—i.e. the Sakya sage—and also Gantama, the name of the great 'solar' race of which the family was a branch. To Gautama is frequently prefixed Sramana, meaning ascetic. Of the names, or rather titles, given to Siddhartha in his state of perfection, the most important is the Buddha, which is from the root budh, 'to awake,' 'to know,' and which in this connection means 'he who is liberated from existence by the knowledge of the truth;' it is indicative of the leading doctrine of his system. Others are—'The Blessed' (Bhagavat); 'the King of Righteousness' (Dharmaraja); 'the Conqueror' (Jina), &c. The history of Buddha is overlaid with a mass of extravagant and incredible legend; and H. H. Wilson thought it doubtful whether the Buddha was an actual historical personage, and not rather an allegorical figment. Sénant and Kern sought to show that the Buddha of the legend is the sun-god, and that the details of his life have been taken from solar mythology, and that the whole has been modified under the influence of the monastic ideas amid which the legend grew up, though they allowed that Buddhism had a human founder. Few orientalisists are prepared to follow them.
The Founder.—Assuming that the Buddha was a real person, and that there is a basis of fact under the mass of extravagant fable with which he is surrounded, the history of Buddhism may be thus briefly outlined: The Prince Siddhartha gives early indications of a contemplative, ascetic disposition; and his father, fearing lest he should desert his high station as Kshatriya (see CASTE AND INDIA) and ruler, and take to a religious life, has him early married to a charming princess, and surrounded with all the splendour and dissipation of a luxurious court. Twelve years spent in this environment only, deepen the conviction that all that life can offer is vanity and vexation of spirit. He is constantly brooding over the thought that old age, withered and joyless, is fast approaching; that loathsome or racking sickness may at any moment seize him; that death will at all events soon cut off all present sources of enjoyment, and usher in a new cycle of unknown trials and sufferings. These images hang like Damocles' sword over every proposed feast of pleasure, and make enjoyment impossible. He therefore resolves to try whether a life of austerity will not lead to peace; and, although his father seeks to detain him by setting guards on every outlet of the palace, he escapes, and begins the life of a religious mendicant, being now about thirty years old. To mark his breaking off all secular ties, he cuts off the long locks that were a sign of his high caste; and as the shortened hair turned upwards, he is always represented in pictures with curly hair. He commences by studying all that the Brahmins can teach him, but finds their doctrine unsatisfactory. Six years of rigorous asceticism are equally vain; and resolving to return to a more genial life, he is deserted by his five disciples, and then undergoes a fierce temptation from the demon of wickedness. But no discouragement or opposition can divert Sakya-muni from the search after deliverance. He will conquer the secret by sheer force of thinking. He sits for weeks plunged in abstraction, revolving the causes of things. If we were not born, he reflects, we should not be subject to old age, misery, and death; therefore the cause of these evils is birth. But whence comes birth or continued existence? Through a long concatenation of intermediate causes, he arrives at the conclusion that ignorance is the ultimate cause of existence; and therefore, with the removal of ignorance, existence and all its anxieties and miseries would be cut off at their source. Passing through successive stages of contemplation, he realises this in his own person, and attains the perfect wisdom of the Buddha. The scene of this final triumph received the name of Bodhimanda ('the seat of intelligence'), and the tree under which he sat was called Bodhidruma ('the tree of intelligence'), whence Bo-tree. The Buddhists believe the spot to be the centre of the earth. Twelve hundred years after the Buddha's death, Hwen-Thsang, the Chinese Pilgrim, found the Bodhidruma—or a tree that passed for it—still standing. Although the religion of Buddha is extinct in the neighbourhood, there are, 6 miles from Gaya town, in Bengal, extensive ruins and a 14th-century temple (partially restored since 1878), which are believed to mark the place. Within the temple courtyard is a pipal-tree, which claims to be the lineal descendant of the original Bo-tree. See BO-TREE.
Having arrived at the knowledge of the causes of misery, and of the means by which these causes are to be counteracted, the Buddha was now ready to lead others on the road of salvation. It was at Benares that he first preached, or, in the consecrated phrase, 'turned the wheel of the law.' (This expression comes from one of the titles of the Buddha, chakravartin, 'a monarch,' being taken in its etymological sense—i.e. 'the turner of a wheel;') hence, too, have arisen, probably, those praying-wheels seen standing before Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and elsewhere. The doctrines of Buddha are inscribed on the wheel, which is then set in motion by a windlass, or even by horse-power. The individual monks have portable ones, with which they perform their devotions.) But the most important of his early converts was Bimbisara, the sovereign of Magadha (Behar), whose dynasty continued for many centuries to patronise the new faith. During the forty years that the Buddha continued to preach his strange gospel, he appears to have traversed great part of Northern India, combating the Brahmins, and everywhere making numerous converts. He died at Kusinagara (in Oudh), at the age of eighty; and his body being burned, the relics were distributed among a number of contending claimants, and monumental tumuli were erected to preserve them. See TOPES.
History of the Order.—The most important point in the history of Buddhism, after the death of its founder, is that of the three councils which fixed the canon of the sacred scriptures and the discipline of the church. The Buddha had written nothing himself; but his chief followers assembled in council immediately after his death to settle the rules and doctrines of the order. About a hundred years later, a second council was held to vindicate these against innovators who seceded and held a rival council. In the reign of Asoka, in 244 B.C., there was a third, in which the canon seems to have been fixed more accurately. Some 150 years later it was reduced to writing, apparently in its present form. These canonical writings are divided into three classes, forming the Tripitaka, or 'triple basket.' The first class consists of the Sutras, or discourses of the Buddha for the laity; the second contains the Vinaya, or discipline for the order; and the third the Abhidharma, or metaphysics. The first is evidently the fundamental text out of which all the subsequent writings have been elaborated. The Buddhist religion early manifested a zealous missionary spirit; and princes and even princesses became devoted propagandists. A prince of the royal House of Magadha, Mahindo, carried the faith to Ceylon immediately after the last council, whence it spread to Burma, 450 A.D., and Siam, 638 A.D. The Chinese annals speak of a Buddhist missionary as early as 217 B.C.; and the doctrine made such progress that in 65 A.D. it was acknowledged by the Chinese emperor as a third state religion. The Chinese Buddhists have always looked on India as their 'holy land;' and, beginning with the 4th century of our era, a stream of Buddhist pilgrims continued to flow from China to India during six centuries. Several of these pilgrims have left accounts of their travels, which throw a light on the course of Buddhism in India, and on the internal state of the country in general, that is looked for in vain in the literature of India itself (see HWEN-THSANG). As to the spread of Buddhism north of the Himalayan Mountains, we have the historical fact that a Chinese general, having about the year 120 B.C. defeated the barbarous tribes to the north of the Desert of Gobi, brought back as a trophy a golden statue of the Buddha.
A prominent name in the history of Buddhism is that of Asoka (q.v.), king of Magadha, in the 3d century B.C., whose sway seems to have extended over the whole peninsula of Hindustan, and even over Ceylon. This prince was to Buddhism what Constantine was to Christianity. He was at first a persecutor of the faith, but being converted—by a miracle, according to the legend—he became its zealous propagator. Not, however, as princes usually promote their creed; for it is a distinguishing characteristic of Buddhism that it has never employed force, hardly even to resist aggression. Asoka showed his zeal by building and endowing viharas or monasteries, and raising topes and other monuments over the relics of Buddha and in spots remarkable as the scenes of his labours. Hwen-Thsang, in the 7th century of our era, found topes attributed to Asoka from the foot of the Hindu Kush to the extremity of the peninsula. There exist, also, in different parts of India, edicts inscribed on rocks and pillars, inculcating the doctrines of Buddha. The edicts are in the name of King Piyadasi; but orientalists are almost unanimous in holding Piyadasi and Asoka to be one and the same. Not a single building or sculptured stone has been discovered in continental India of earlier date than the reign of this monarch, whose death is assigned to 223 B.C. A remarkable spirit of charity and toleration runs through these royal sermons. The 'king beloved of the gods' desires to see the ascetics of all creeds living in all places, for they all teach the essential rules of conduct. 'A man ought to honour his own faith only; but he should never abuse the faith of others. . . . There are even circumstances where the religion of others ought to be honoured, and in acting thus, a man fortifies his own faith, and assists the faith of others.' The next name of importance after Asoka is that of Kanishka (10 A.D.), king of North-western India, under whose direction a council was held for a fresh revision of the canon. It seems to have been shortly after this that the Buddhists broke up into two schools—viz. the 'Lesser Vehicle,' or conservative party, formed by the southern Buddhists, and the 'Greater Vehicle,' or progressive party, embracing the Buddhists of the north.
For the glimpses we get of the state of Buddhism in India, we are indebted chiefly to the accounts of Chinese pilgrims. Fa-hian, at the end of the 4th century, found some appearances of decline in the east of Hindustan, its birthplace, but it was still strong in the Punjab and the north. In Ceylon, it was flourishing in full vigour, the ascetics or monks numbering from 50,000 to 60,000. In the 7th century—i.e. 1200 years after the death of the Buddha—Hwen-Thsang represents it as widely dominant and flourishing and patronised by the powerful Siladitya, king of Kanoj, who held a council at which the doctrines of the Little Vehicle were condemned. Its history was doubtless more or less checkered. The Brahmans, though little less tolerant than the followers of Buddha, seem to have been in some cases roused into active opposition; and some princes employed persecution to put down the new faith.
It was probably during the first four or five centuries of our era, and as a result of persecution, that Buddhists, driven from the great cities, retired among the hills of the west, and there constructed those cave-temples which, for their number, vastness, and elaborate structure, continue to excite the wonder of all who see them. There are reckoned to be not fewer than 900 Buddhist excavations still extant in India, nearly all within the presidency of Bombay. The destruction of Buddhism in India seems to have been brought about largely by internal corruption, but most of all by the Mohammedan invasion. For several centuries we have notices of it as existing in Kashmir, Bengal, and the Deccan, till it at last disappears in Orissa in the middle of the 16th century.
What, then, is the nature of this faith, which has been for so long, and is still, the sole light of so many millions of human beings? In answering this question, we must confine ourselves here to a brief outline of the intellectual theory on which the system is based, and of the general character of its morality and ritual observances, as they were conceived by the founder and his more immediate followers; referring for the various forms which the external observances have assumed to the several countries where it is believed and practised. See BURMA, CEYLON, CHINA, JAPAN, LAMAISM.
The Doctrine.—Buddhism is based on the same views of human existence, and the same philosophy of things in general, that prevailed among the Brahmans, although it was a reaction against their hierarchy. It accepts without questioning the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which lies at the root of so much that is strange in the Indian character. For a fuller account of this important doctrine, the reader is referred to TRANSMIGRATION; while the peculiar cosmogony or system of the universe with which it is associated, and which is substantially the same among Hindus and Buddhists, is described under INDIA (Vol. VI. p. 106). It is sufficient here to say that, according to Buddhist belief, when a man dies he is immediately born again, or appears in a new shape; and that shape may, according to his merit or demerit, be any of the innumerable orders of being composing the Buddhist universe—from a clod to a divinity. If his demerit would not be sufficiently punished by a degraded earthly existence—in the form, for instance, of a woman or a slave, of a persecuted or a disgusting animal, of a plant, or even of a piece of inorganic matter—he will be born in some one of the 136 Buddhist hells. These places of punishment have a regular gradation in the intensity of the suffering and in the length of time the sufferers live, the least term of life being ten millions of years, the longer terms being almost beyond the powers of even Indian notation to express. A meritorious life, on the other hand, secures the next birth, either in an exalted and happy position on earth, or as a blessed spirit, or even divinity, in one of the many heavens; in which the least duration of life is about ten billions of years. But however long the life, whether of misery or of bliss, it ends when the karma is exhausted, and the individual must be born again, and may again be either happy or miserable—either a god, or, it may be, the vilest inanimate object. One legend makes Bhagavat, in order to impress upon the monks of a monastery the importance of their duties, point to a besom, and, by his supernatural insight, reveal to them that it had once been a novice who had been negligent in sweeping the hall of assembly; the walls and pillars, again, he told them, had once existed as monks, who soiled the walls of the hall by spitting upon them. The Buddha himself, before his last birth as Sakya-muni, had gone through every conceivable form of existence on the earth, in the air, and in the water, in hell and in heaven, and had filled every condition in human life. When he attained the perfect knowledge of the Buddha, he was able to recall all these existences; and that part of the Buddhist legendary literature called the Jatakas narrates his exploits when he lived as an elephant, as a bird, as a stag, and so forth.
The Buddhist conception is peculiar of the way in which the quality of actions—which is expressed by the word karma ('doing'), including both merit and demerit—determines the future condition of all sentient beings. They do not conceive any god or gods as being pleased or displeased by the actions, and as assigning the actors their future condition by way of punishment or of reward. The very idea of a god, as creating or in any way ruling the world, is utterly absent in the Buddhist system. God is not so much as denied: he is simply not known. Contrary to the opinion once confidently and generally held, that a nation of atheists never existed, the Buddhist peoples are essentially atheist; for they know no beings with greater supernatural power than any man is supposed capable of attaining to by virtue, austerity, and science. Indeed some of the Buddhist nations—the Chinese, Mongols, and Tibetans—have no word in their languages to express the notion of God as supreme ruler. The future condition of the Buddhist, then, is not assigned him by the Ruler of the universe; his karma determines it by a sort of virtue inherent in the nature of things—by the blind and unconscious concatenation of cause and effect. But the laws by which consequences are regulated seem dark, and even capricious. A bad action may lie dormant, as it were, for many existences; the taint, however, is there, and will some time or other break out. A Buddhist is thus never at a loss to account for any calamity that may befall himself or others.
Another basis of Buddhism is the assumption that human existence is on the whole miserable, and a curse rather than a blessing (see PESSIMISM). This notion, or rather feeling, is, like transmigration, common to Buddhism and Brahmanism, and is even more prominent in Buddhism than in the old faith. It is difficult for a European to conceive this state of mind, or to believe that it can be habitual in a whole people; and many signal errors in dealing with the Indian nations have arisen from overlooking the fact. The cause would seem to lie largely in the comparatively feeble physical organisation of Easterns in general, together with that want of security and peace, and that habitual oppression of the many by the few, with all the attendant degradation and positive suffering, which was long the normal state of things in India. The little value that Hindus set upon their lives is manifested in many ways. The punishment of death has little or no terror for them, and is even sometimes coveted as an honour. For, in addition to the little value of their present existence, they have the most undoubting assurance that their soul, if dislodged from its present tenement, will forthwith find another, with a chance, at least, of its being a better one.
In the eyes, then, of the Sakya-muni and his followers, sentient existence was hopelessly miserable. Misery was not a mere taint in it, the removal of which would make it happy; misery was its very essence. Death was no escape from this inevitable lot; for, according to the doctrine of transmigration, death was only a passage into some other form of existence equally doomed. Even the heaven and the state of godhead which form part of the cycle of changes in this system were not final; and this thought poisoned what happiness they might be capable of yielding. Brahman philosophers had sought escape from this endless cycle of unsatisfying changes by making the individual soul be absorbed in the universal spirit (see BRAHMA). Gautama had the same object in view—viz. exemption from being born again; but he declared the Brahmanic penances inadequate to accomplish this. His philosophy was utterly atheistic, like that of the original Sankhya school of philosophy, with which it is most closely connected, and ignored a supreme God or Creator; it did not leave even an impersonal spirit of the universe into which the human soul could be absorbed. Gautama sees no escape but in what he calls Nirvana, the exact nature of which has been matter of dispute. According to its etymology, the word means 'extinction,' 'blowing out,' as of a candle; and in the
Buddhist scriptures generally it is equivalent to the cessation of individual existence. Even in those schools which have attempted to draw a distinction, the distinction is of the most evanescent nature.
The key of the whole scheme of Buddhist salvation lies in what Gautama called his Four Sublime Verities. The first asserts that pain exists; the second, that the cause of pain is desire or attachment—the meaning of which will appear further on; the third, that pain can be ended by Nirvana; and the fourth shows the way that leads to Nirvana. This way to Nirvana consists in eight things: right views, right feelings, right words, right behaviour, right exertion, right obedience, right memory, and right meditation. The immediate cause of pain is birth, for if we were not born we should not be exposed to death or any of the ills of life. Birth, again, is caused by previous existence; it is only a transition from one state of existence into another. A sentient being consists of an assemblage of material qualities, sensations, ideas, tendencies, and mental powers, none of which are permanent, but dissolve at death. What alone is permanent is the being's karma. It does not die. But for it there would be freedom from existence. The cause of existence is a 'grasping state of mind,' or attachments, good and bad. These depend upon desire. We thus arrive at desire—including both the desire to possess and the desire to avoid—as one link in the chain of causes of continued existence and pain. Desire is said to be caused by sensation, sensation by contact, and so on until we come to ideas. Ideas, however, are mere illusions, the results of ignorance or error, attributing durability and reality to that which is transitory and imaginary. Cut off this ignorance, bring the mind into a state in which it can see and feel the illusory nature of things, and forthwith the whole train vanishes; illusory ideas, distinction of forms, senses, contact, sensation, desire, attachment, existence, birth, misery, old age, death!
Morality and Religious Observances.—The eight parts or particulars constituting the theoretical 'way' (to Nirvana), were developed by Gautama into a set of practical precepts enjoining the various duties of common life and of religion. They are all ostensibly intended as means of counteracting or destroying the chain of causes that tie men to existence and necessitate being born again, especially that most important link in the chain constituted by the attachments or desires resulting from former actions; although the special fitness of some of the precepts for that end is far from being apparent. It is easy to understand how the austerities that are prescribed might subdue the passions and affections, and lessen the attachment to existence; but how the exercise of benevolence, of meekness, of regard to truth, of respect to parents, &c. on which Gautama laid so much stress, should have this effect, it is difficult to conceive. Luckily for the Buddhist world, Gautama's moral nature was better than his logic; and as he felt strongly that these things are essentially right and good, he takes it for granted that they must contribute to what was in his eyes the chief good—escape from existence, or Nirvana. In delivering his precepts, the Buddha considers men as divided into two classes—those who have embraced the religious life (Sramanas), and those who continue in the world, or are laymen. These last are considered as too much attached to existence to feel any desire or have any hope of emancipation, at least at this stage. But there are certain precepts which it is necessary for all to obey, that they may not bring greater misery upon themselves in their next births, and rivet the bonds of existence more indissolubly.
There are ten moral precepts or 'precepts of aversion.' Five of these are of universal obligation—viz. not to kill; not to steal; not to commit adultery; not to lie; not to be drunken. Other five are for those entering on the direct pursuit of Nirvana by embracing the religious life: to abstain from food out of season—that is, after mid-day; to abstain from dances, theatrical representations, songs, and music; to abstain from personal ornaments and perfumes; to abstain from a lofty and luxurious couch; to abstain from taking gold and silver. For the regular ascetics or monks there are a number of special observances of a very severe kind. They are to dress only in rags, sewed together with their own hands, and to have a yellow cloak thrown over the rags. They are to eat only the simplest food, and to possess nothing except what they get by collecting alms from door to door in their wooden bowl. They are allowed only one meal, and that must be eaten before mid-day. For a part of the year, they are to live in forests, with no other shelter than the shadow of a tree, and there they must sit on their carpet even during sleep, to lie down being forbidden. They are allowed to enter the nearest village or town to beg food, but they must return to their forests before night.
Besides the absolutely necessary 'aversions and observances' above mentioned, the transgression of which must lead to misery in the next existence, there are certain virtues or 'perfections' of a supererogatory or transcendent kind, that tend directly to 'conduct to the other shore' (Nirvana). The most essential of these are almsgiving or charity, purity, patience, courage, contemplation, and knowledge. Charity or benevolence may be said to be the characteristic virtue of Buddhism—a charity boundless in its self-abnegation, and extending to every sentient being. The benevolent actions done by the Buddha himself, in the course of his many millions of migrations, were favourite themes with his followers. On one occasion, seeing a tigress starved and unable to feed her cubs, he hesitated not to make his body an oblation to charity, and allowed them to devour him. Benevolence to animals, with that tendency to exaggerate a right principle so characteristic of the East, is carried among the Buddhist monks to the length of avoiding the destruction of fleas and the most noxious vermin, which they remove from their persons with all tenderness.
There are other virtues of a secondary kind, though still highly commendable. Thus, not content with forbidding lying, the Buddhist strictly enjoins the avoidance of all offensive and gross language, and of saying or repeating anything that can set others at enmity among themselves; it is a duty, on the contrary, especially for a sramana, to act on all occasions as a peacemaker. Patience under injury, and resignation in misfortune, are strongly inculcated. Humility, again, holds a no less prominent place among Buddhist graces than it does among the Christian. The Buddhist saints are to conceal their good works, and display their faults. As the outward expression of this sentiment of humility, Gautama instituted the practice of confession. Twice a month, at the new and at the full moon, the monks confessed their faults aloud before the assembly. If these were slight, some slight penance was imposed, such as sweeping the courtyard of the monastery. This humiliation and repentance seems the only means of expiating sin that was known to Gautama. Confession was exacted of all believers, only not so frequently as of the monks. The edicts of Piyadasi recommend a general and public confession at least once in five years.
Such are the leading features of the moral code of the Buddha, of which it has been said that 'for pureness, excellence, and wisdom, it is second only to that of the Divine Lawgiver himself.' But the original morality of Buddhism has, in the course of time, been disguised by many subtleties, puerilities, and extravagances, derived from the casuistry of the various schools of later times; just as the casuistry of the Jesuits, for instance, perverted many of the precepts of Christianity. The theory on which the Buddha founds his whole system gives, it must be confessed, only too much scope to such perversions; for, on that theory, truth is to be spoken, self to be sacrificed, benevolence to be exercised, not for the sake of the good thus done to others, but solely for the effect of this conduct on the soul of the actor, in preparing him for escape from existence. To teach men 'the means of arriving at the other shore' was another expression for teaching virtue; and that other shore was annihilation. On this principle, the Buddhist casuist can, like the Jewish, render of none effect the universal law of charity and the duty of respecting and aiding parents, on which the Buddha laid such stress. Thus, a Bhikshu—i.e. one who has engaged to lead a life of self-denial, celibacy, and mendicancy, and is thus on the high-road to Nirvana—is forbidden to look at or converse with a female, lest any disturbing emotion should ruffle the serene indifference of his soul; and so important is this, that 'if his mother have fallen into a river, and be drowning, he shall not give her his hand to help her out; if there be a pole at hand, he may reach that to her; but if not, she must drown' (Wilson).
Contemplation and science or knowledge (i.e. of the concatenation of causes and effects) are ranked as virtues in Buddhism, and hold a prominent place among the means of attaining Nirvana. It is reserved, in fact, for abstract contemplation to effect the final steps of the deliverance. Thought is the highest faculty of man, and, in the mind of an Eastern philosopher, the mightiest of all forces. A king who had become a convert to Buddhism is represented as seating himself with his legs crossed and his mind collected; and 'cleaving with the thunderbolt of science the mountain of ignorance,' he saw before him the desired state. It is in this cross-legged, contemplative position that Sakya-muni is almost always represented in that crowning intellectual act of his, when, seated under the Bo-tree, he attained the full knowledge of the Buddha, saw the illusory nature of all things, broke the last bonds that tied him to existence, and stood delivered for evermore from the necessity of being born again.
'Complete' Nirvana or extinction cannot, of course, take place till death; but this state of preparation for it, called simply Nirvana, seems attainable during life, and was, in fact, attained by Gautama himself. The process by which the state is attained is called Dhyana, and is neither more nor less than ecstasy or trance, which plays so important a part among mystics of all religions. The individual is described as losing one feeling after another, until perfect apathy is attained, and he reaches a region 'where there are neither ideas, nor the idea of the absence of ideas.'
The ritual or worship of Buddhism—if worship it can be called—is very simple in its character. There are no priests or clergy properly so called. The Sramanas or Bhikshus (mendicants) are simply a religious order—a kind of monks who, in order to the more speedy attainment of Nirvana, have entered on a course of greater sanctity and austerity than ordinary men; they have no sacraments to administer or rites to perform for the people, for every Buddhist is his own priest. The only thing like a clerical function they discharge, is to read the scriptures or discourses of the Buddha in stated assemblies of the people held for that purpose. They have also everywhere, except in China, a monopoly of education; and thus in Buddhist countries education, whatever may be its quality, is very generally diffused. In some countries the monks are exceedingly numerous; around Lassa in Tibet, for instance, they are said to be one-third of the population. They live in viharas or monasteries, and subsist partly by endowments, but mostly by charity. Except in Tibet, they are not allowed to engage in any secular occupation. The vow is not irrevocable. This incubus of monachism constitutes the great weakness of Buddhism in its social aspect. See BURMA, CHINA, LAMAISM, &c.
The adoration of the statues of the Buddha and of his relics is the chief external ceremony of the religion. This, with prayer and the repetition of sacred formulas, constitutes the ritual. The centres of the worship are the temples containing statues, and the topes or tumuli erected over the relics of the Buddha, or of his distinguished apostles, or on spots consecrated as the scenes of the Buddha's acts. The central object in a Buddhist temple, corresponding to the altar in a Roman Catholic church, is an image of the Buddha, or a dagoba or shrine containing his relics. Here flowers, fruit, and incense are daily offered, and processions are made with singing of hymns. The quantity of flowers used as offerings is prodigious. A royal devotee in Ceylon, in the 15th century, offered on one occasion 6,480,320 flowers at the shrine of the tooth. At one temple it was provided that there should be offered 'every day 100,000 flowers, and each day a different flower.' Of the relics of the Buddha, the most famous are the teeth that are preserved with intense veneration in various places. Hwen-Thsang saw more than a dozen of them in different parts of India; and the great monarch Siladitya was on the eve of making war on the king of Kashmir for the possession of one, which was in consequence given up. The tooth of the Buddha preserved in Ceylon, a piece of ivory about the size of the little finger, is exhibited very rarely. See CEYLON.
There appears at first sight to be an inconsistency between this seeming worship of the Buddha and the theory by which he is considered as no longer existing. Yet the two things are really not irreconcilable; not more so, at least, than theory and practice often are. With all their admiration of the Buddha, his followers have never made a god of him. Gautama is only the last Buddha—the Buddha of the present cycle. He had predecessors in the cycles that are past (twenty-four Buddhas of the past are enumerated, and Gautama could even tell their names); and when, at the end of the present cycle, all things shall be reduced to their elements, and the knowledge of the way of salvation shall perish with all things else, then, in the new world that shall spring up, another Buddha will appear, again to reveal to the renascent beings the way to Nirvana. Gautama foretold that Mitreya, one of his earliest adherents, should be the next Buddha (the Buddha of the future), and he gratified several of his followers with a like prospect in after-cycles. The Buddha was thus no greater than any mortal may aspire to become. The prodigious and supernatural powers which the legends represent him as possessing are quite in accordance with Indian ideas; for even the Brahmans believe that by virtue, austerities, and science, a man may acquire power to make the gods tremble on their thrones. One who is on the way to become a supreme Buddha, and has arrived at that stage when he has only one more birth to undergo, is styled a Bodhisatva (having the essence of knowledge); a mere candidate for Nirvana is an arhat (venerable).
The Buddha, then, is not a god; he is the ideal of what any man may become; and the great object of Buddhist worship is to keep this ideal vividly in the minds of the believers. In the presence of the statue, the tooth, or the footprint, the devout believer vividly recalls the example of him who trod the path that leads to deliverance. This veneration of the memory of Buddha is perhaps hardly distinguishable among the ignorant from worship of him as a present god; but in theory, the ritual is strictly commemorative, and does not necessarily involve idolatry any more than the garlands laid on the tomb of a parent by a pious child. See TOPE.
The prayers addressed to the Buddha are more difficult to reconcile with the belief in his having ceased to exist. It is improbable, indeed, that the original scheme of Buddhism contemplated either the adoration of the statues of the Buddha or the offering of prayers to him after his death. These are an after-growth—accretions upon the simple scheme of Gautama, and in a manner forced upon it during its struggle with other religions. For a system of belief that seeks to supplant other systems finds itself enticed to present something to rival and outdo them, if possible, in every point. Even the Christian church in the middle ages adopted with this view rites and legends of paganism; merely casting over them a slight disguise, and giving them Christian names. Prayer, too, is natural to man. And then the inconsistency of uttering prayers when there is no one to hear or answer, glaring as it appears to us, is by no means great to the Eastern mind. Prayers, like other sacred formulas, are conceived less as influencing the will of any superior being to grant the request, than as working in some magical way—producing their effects by a blind force inherent in themselves. They are, in short, mere incantations or charms. Even the prayers of a Brahman, who believes in the existence of gods, do not act so much by inclining the deity addressed to favour the petitioner, as by compelling him through their mysterious potency—through the operation of a law above the will of the highest gods. The Buddhist, then, may well believe that a formula of prayer in the name of 'the Venerable of the world' will be potent for his good in this way, without troubling himself to think whether any conscious being hears it or not.
The element in Buddhism which more than any other, perhaps, gave it an advantage over all surrounding religions, and led to its surprising extension, was the spirit of universal charity and sympathy that it breathed, as contrasted with the exclusiveness of caste. In this respect, it held much the same relation to Brahmanism that Christianity did to Judaism. It was, in fact, a reaction against the exclusiveness and formalism of Brahmanism—an attempt to render it more catholic, and to throw off its intolerable burden of ceremonies. Buddhism did not expressly abolish caste, but only declared that all followers of the Buddha who embraced the religious life were thereby released from its restrictions; in the bosom of a community who had all equally renounced the world, high and low, the twice-born Brahman and the outcast were brethren. This was the very way that Christianity dealt with the slavery of the ancient world. This opening of its ranks to all classes and to both sexes—for women were admitted to equal hopes and privileges with men, and one of Gautama's early female disciples is to be the supreme Buddha of a future cycle—no doubt gave Buddhism one great advantage over Brahmanism. The Buddha, says Max Müller, 'addressed himself to castes and outcasts. He promised salvation to all; and he commanded his disciples to preach his doctrine in all places and to all men. A sense of duty, extending from the narrow limits of the house, the village, and the country, to the widest circle of mankind, a feeling of sympathy and brotherhood towards all men, the idea, in fact, of humanity, were first pronounced by Buddha.' This led to that remarkable missionary movement, already adverted to, which, beginning 300 B.C., sent forth a succession of devoted men, who spent their lives in spreading the faith of Buddha over all parts of Asia.
In the characteristic above mentioned, and in many other respects, the reader cannot fail to remark the striking resemblance that Buddhism presents to Christianity, and this in spite of the perverse theory on which it is founded. On the other hand, by giving prominence to the extravagances and almost inconceivable puerilities and absurdities with which the system has been overloaded, it would be easy to make it look sufficiently ridiculous. But this is not to depict, it is to caricature. The only fair—the only true account of any religion, is that which enables the reader to conceive how human beings may have come to believe it and live by it. It is this object that has been chiefly kept in view in this meagre sketch of a vast subject.
For the history of the Buddha and his religion, see Burnouf, Introduction à l'Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien (1876); Köppen, Die Religion des Buddha (1857); Oldenberg, Buddha (1881; Eng. trans. 1882); Wurm, Der Buddha (1880); St-Hilaire, Le Bouddha (1862); Wassiljew, Der Buddhismus (1860); Kern, Geschiedenis van het Buddhismus (1884); Rhys-Davids, Buddhism (1880) and Hibbert Lectures (1881); Mills, The Indian Saint (1876); Arnold, The Light of Asia (1882); Feer, Études Bouddhiques (1873); Titcomb, Buddhism (1885); Bastian, Der Buddha in seiner psychologie (1882); Alvis, Buddhist Nirvana (1871); Sénart, La Légende du Bouddha (1875); Bigandet, Legend of Gaudama (1886); Oby, Da Nirvana Bouddhique (1863); Max Müller, Buddhist Nihilism (1869); Lillie, Buddha (1881); Seydel, Das Evangelium und die Buddhasage (1882); Eitel, Buddhism (1873); Kistner, Buddha (1869), with a complete bibliography; Sir Monier Williams, Buddhism (1888); the works of Beal, Edkins, Eitel, Legge, and Schott for Chinese Buddhism; of Köppen and Schlagintweit for Tibetan; and of Alabaster for Siamese.
The following are some of the principal translations of, or compilations from original works in Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese: Spence Hardy, Manual of Buddhism (1860), Eastern Monachism (1860), and Legends and Theories of the Buddhists (1866); Burnouf, Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi (1852); Schiefner, Taranatha's Geschichte des Buddhismus (1869) and Lebensbeschreibung Sakjamunis (1849); Rhys-Davids, Buddhist Birth Stories, vol. i. (1880); Rogers, Buddhaghosha's Parables (1870); Foucaux, Histoire du Bouddha (1868); Fa Hian's Travels, translations by Rémusat, Beal, Giles, and Legge; Hiouen-Thsang's Travels by Stan. Julien and Beal; Lalita Vistara by Raj. Mitra and Lefmann; Dhammapada by Fausböll, Müller, Beal, Rockhill, Weber, and Schulze; parts of the canon in Sacred Books of the East, vols. x. xi. xiii. xvii. xix. and xxi.; other parts by C. Swamy, Childers, and Beal; Rockhill, Life of the Buddha; Beal, Romantic Life of Sakya Buddha (1875).