The organization of

64

The Organization of Buddhism.

Gotama died at the advanced age of eighty years; his corpse Buddhism. was burnt eight days subsequently. But several years before this event, his system must be considered as thoroughly established. It shows how little depends upon the nature of a doctrine, and how much upon effective organization, that Buddhism, the principles of which are far above the reach of popular thought, should have been propagated with so much rapidity, for it made converts by preaching, and not, like Mohammedanism, by the sword. Shortly after Gotama's death, a council of five hundred ecclesiastics assembled for the purpose of settling the religion. A century later a second council met to regulate the monastic institution; and in в.c. 241, a third council, for the expulsion of fire-worshippers. Under the auspices of King Asoka, whose character presents singular points of resemblance to that of the Roman emperor who summoned the Council of Nicæa,-for he, too, was the murderer of his own family, and has been handed down to posterity, because of the success of the policy of his party, as a great, a virtuous, and a pious sovereign,-under his auspices missionaries were sent out in all directions, and monasteries, richly endowed, were everywhere established. The singular efficacy of monastic institutions was rediscovered in Europe many centuries subsequently.

Contest between the Brahmans

In proclaiming the equality of all men in this life, the Buddhists, as we have seen, came into direct collision with the and Buddh- orthodox creed of India, long carried out into practice in the

ists.

institution of castes,-a collision that was embittered by the abhorrence the Buddhists displayed for any distinction between the clergy and laity. To be a Brahman, a man must be born one; but a Buddhist priest might voluntarily come from any rank,-from the very dregs of society. In the former system, marriage was absolutely essential to the ecclesiastical caste; in the latter it was not, for the priestly ranks could be recruited without it. And hence there followed a most important advantage, that celibacy and chastity might be extolled as the greatest of all the virtues. The experience of Europe, as well as of Asia, has shown how powerful is the control obtained by the hierarchy in that way. In India there

was, therefore, no other course for the orthodox than to meet the danger with bloody persecutions, and, in the end, the Buddhists, expelled from their native seats, were scattered throughout Eastern Asia. Persecution is the mother of proselytes.

is founded

ception of

The fundamental principle of Buddhism is that there is a Buddhism supreme power, but no Supreme Being. From this it might on the conbe inferred that they who adopt such a creed cannot be pan- Power or theists, but must be atheists. It is a rejection of the idea of Force. Being, an acknowledgment of that of Force. If it admits the existence of God, it declines him as a Creator. It asserts an It does not recognize a impelling power in the universe, a self-existent and plastic personal principle, but not a self-existent, an eternal, a personal God. God, It rejects inquiry into first causes as being unphilosophical, and considers that phenomena alone can be dealt with by our finite minds. Not without an air of intellectual majesty, it tolerates the Asiatic time-consecrated idea of a trinity, pointing out one not of a corporeal, but of an impersonal kind. Its trinity is the Past, the Present, the Future. For the sake of aiding our thoughts, it images the Past with his hands folded, since he has attained to rest, but the others with their right hands extended, in token of activity. Since he has no God, the Buddhist cannot expect absorption; the pantheistic Brahman looks forward to the return of his soul to the Supreme Being as a drop of rain returns to the sea. The Buddhist has no religion, but only a ceremonial. How can there be a religion where there is no God?

In all this it is plain that the impersonal and immaterial predominates, and that Gotama is contemplating the existence

vidential

ment,

of pure Force without any association of Substance. He ne- Nor a processarily denies the immediate interposition of any such agency governas Providence, maintaining that the system of nature, once arising, must proceed irresistibly according to the laws which brought it into being, and that from this point of view the universe is merely a gigantic engine. To the Brahman priesthood such ideas were particularly obnoxious; they were hostile to any philosophical system founded on the principle that But refers the world is governed by law, for they suspected that its ten- to resistless dency would be to leave them without any mediatory func

all events

law.

VOL. I.

F

Doubts the

actual ex

istence of

the visible

world.

Of the nature of man.

66

Its Ideas of God, Providence, etc.

tions, and therefore without any claims on the faithful. Equally does Gotama deny the existence of chance, saying that that which we call chance, is nothing but the effect of an unknown, unavoidable cause. As to the external world, we cannot tell how far it is a phantasm, how far a reality, for our senses possess no reliable criterion of truth. They convey to the mind representations of what we consider to be external things, by which it is furnished with materials for its various operations; but, unless it acts in conjunction with the senses, the operation is lost, as in that absence which takes place in deep contemplation. It is owing to our inability to determine what share these internal and external conditions take in producing a result, that the absolute or actual state of nature is incomprehensible by us. Nevertheless, conceding to our mental infirmity the idea of a real existenceof visible nature, we may consider it as offering a succession of impermanent forms, and as exhibiting an orderly series of transmutations, innumerable universes in periods of inconceivable time emerging one after another, and creations and extinctions of systems of worlds taking place according to a primordial law.

Such are his doctrines of a Supreme Force, and of the origin and history of the visible world. With like ability Gotama deals with his inquiry into the nature of man. With Oriental imagery he bids us consider what becomes of a grain of salt thrown into the sea; but, lest we should be deceived herein, he tells us that there is no such thing as individuality or personality, that the Ego is altogether a nonentity. In these profound considerations he brings to bear his conception of force, in the light thereof asserting that all sentient beings are homogeneous. If we fail to follow him in these exalted thoughts, bound down to material ideas by the infirmities of the human constitution, and inquire of him how the spirit of man, which obviously displays so much energy, can be conceived of as being without form, without a past, without a future, he demands of us what has become of the flame of a lamp when it is blown out, or to tell him in what obscure condition it lay before it was kindled. Was it a nonentity? Has it been annihilated? By the aid of such imagery he tries to

depict the nature of existence, and to convey a vivid idea of the metamorphoses it undergoes. Outward things are to him phantasms; the impressions they make on the mind are phantasms too. In this sense he receives the doctrine of transmi- Of transmigration and gration, conceiving of it very much as we conceive of the penance, accumulation of heat successively in different things. In one sense it may be the same heat which occupies such objects one after another, but in another, since heat is force and not matter, there can be no such individuality. Viewed, however, in the less profound way, he is not unwilling to adopt the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul through various forms, admitting that there may accumulate upon it the effect of all those influences, whether of merit or demerit, of good or of evil, to which it has been exposed. The vital flame is handed down from one generation to another; it is communicated from one animated form to another. He thinks it may carry with it in these movements the modifications which may have been impressed on it, and require opportunity for shaking them off and regaining its original state. At this point the doctrine of Gotama is assuming the aspect of a moral system, and is beginning to suggest means of deliverance from the accumulated evil and consequent demerit to which the spirit has been exposed. He will not, however, recognize any vicarious action. Each one must work out for himself his own salvation, remembering that death is not necessarily a deliverance from worldly ills, it may be only a passage to new miseries. But yet, as the light of the taper must come at last to an end, so there is at length, though it may be after many transmigrations, an end of life. That end he calls Nirwana, a word that has been, for nearly three thousand years, of solemn import to countless millions of men,-Nirwana, the end of successive existences, that state which has no relation to matter, or space, or time, to which the departing flame of the extinguished taper has gone. It is the supreme end, Non- And the entity. The attaining of this is the object to which we ought nonentity. to aspire, and for that purpose we should seek to destroy within ourselves all cleaving to existence, weaning ourselves from every earthly object, from every earthly pursuit. We

passage to

Philosophical estimate

ism.

should resort to monastic life, to penance, to self-denial, selfmortification, and so gradually learn to sink into perfect quietude or apathy, in imitation of that state to which we must come at last, and to which, by such preparation, we may all the more rapidly approach. The pantheistic Brahman expects absorption in God; the Buddhist, having no God, expects extinction.

India has thus given to the world two distinct philosophical of Buddh systems,-Vedaism, which takes as its resting-point the existence of matter, and Buddhism, of which the resting-point is force. The philosophical ability displayed in the latter is very great; indeed, it may be doubted whether Europe has produced its metaphysical equivalent. And yet, if I have correctly presented its principles, it will probably appear that its primary conception is not altogether consistently carried out in the developement of the details. Great as was the intellectual ability of its author,—so great as to extort our profoundest, though it may be reluctant admiration,—there are nevertheless moments in which it appears that his movement is becoming wavering and unsteady-that he is failing to handle his ponderous weapon with self-balanced power. This is particularly the case in that point in which he is passing from the consideration of pure force to the unavoidable consideration of visible nature, the actual existence of which he seems to be obliged to deny. But then I am not sure that I have caught with precision his exact train of thought, or have represented his intention with critical correctness. Considering the extraordinary power he elsewhere displays, it is more probable that I have failed to follow his meaning, than that he has been, on the points in question, incompetent to deal with his task.

The works of Gotama, under the title of Verbal Instructions,' are published by the Chinese Government in four languages,―Thibetan, Mongol, Mantchou, Chinese,—from the imperial press at Pekin, in eight hundred large volumes. They are presented to the Lama monasteries,-a magnificent gift.

In speaking of Vedaism I have mentioned the manner in