iKtB) BY OlMATir 5ME.':roi.

By
Arthur Lillie. aa

the WORLD'S EPOCH-A^AKERS

EDITED BY
OLIPHANT SMEATON

Buddha and Buddhism
By Arthur Lillie

Previous Volume in this Series : —
Luther and
The German Reformation.
By Thomas M. Lindsay, D.D.
For List of Volumes already issued and tn preparation see end.

the "WORLD'S EPOCH-MAKERS
Buddha and
Buddhism By
Arthur Lillie
Author of
" Buddhism in Christendom " " The Popular Life of Buddha "
etc. etc.

' O God in the form of Mercy ! "
Ancient Stone Inscription, Gaya

New York. Charles Scribner's Sons
1900

HU2.3

PREFACE

The Queen has in her possession a piece of ivory or
bone little valued by her white-faced subjects, but
immensely esteemed by the Buddhists of all lands.
"The possessor of the Tooth of Buddha will have
the dominion of the "World." Thus runs the ancient
fiat, and a thoughtful French admiral told his com
patriots the other day that this proud position had
actually been attained by Britain. But he did not,
of course, attribute it to the possession of the Tooth
of Buddha, or indeed mention that object at all. He
showed that the British fleet possessed an astounding
power, which he strongly advised his compatriots not
to undervalue.
But there is moral force as well as physical power ;
and the position of Her Gracious Majesty in the world
is certainly unique. She holds in her dominions the
most vital sections of all the great religions of the
past. Her subjects pray to Christ, and Buddha, and
Brahma, and Jehovah. They honour Zarathustra,
and Moses, and Mahomet. Benares, the holy city of
the greatest religious section of her subjects, is in
her domains. The most intelligent of the Mussulman
populations flourish peaceably in Delhi and the other
Indian cities, where their creed of old attained its

vi PREFACE
greatest triumphs. The Buddhists of Burmah and
Ceylon are more enlightened than the Buddhists of
other lands. No wonder that thoughtful minds begin
to see in all this a possible mission for England,
namely, to fuse the creeds of the world in one great
crucible and eliminate the superstitious parts. Ancient
creeds had much in common, and it is this common por
tion, the vital essence, that has been allowed to evaporate.
A short time ago a writer in the Revue des Deux
Idondes announced that the Nineteenth Century had
experienced two great surprises. The first was the
discovery, due to Colebrooke and the earlier Sanskrit
scholars, that the poems of early Greece were not
altogether original. Jove and his Mount Olympus
had been anticipated by Indra and his Mount Meru;
the feats of Hercules had been matched by Bhima.
Parnassus and Apollo and the Muses had proto
types in Mount Govudun, redolent with the music of
Krishna and the Gopis ; and that even the great hordes
of gods and men, and their muster to avenge the
rape of a pretty woman, had been previously made
into a great epic on the banks of the Ganges.
The seeond surprise was perhaps more important.
It was discovered that the loftier ideals of Christianity,
its substitution of the principle of forgiveness for that
of revenge, its broad catholicity, its missionary energy,
and even its rites and parabolic legends, were due to
an earlier religious reformer. Of him this little work
proposes to treat. If these last statements can be sub
stantiated, Buddha without doubt may take his place
amongst the " Epoch-Makers of the "World."
There are converts and converts. If a man is forced
to kneel down, if his neck is laid bare and another

PREFACE vii
man with a scimitar then and there induces him to
accept certain creed-formulas, his case in one sense
may be called a conversion. The same may be said
of a man in a combustible dress tied to a stake and
threatened with burning faggots and a lighted torch.
But Buddhist conversions differ in this, that the man
with the bare neck converts the man with the sword,
the man with the combustible dress converts the man
with the torch. Islam in its early strength advanced
to root out Buddhism in Persia, Egypt, Asia Minor.
The result was that half the conquering phalanx
became Buddhists. The Crusaders strove to root out
Islam, with a similar result. The Society of the Eose
made a conquest of the Templars and other Knights
Hospitallers, and these brought back to Europe Bud
dhism and the Reformation.
The first modern study of Buddhism commenced in
one of our colonies. It was conducted chiefly by the
missionaries for missionary purposes ; and great credit
is due to the missionaries of Ceylon for their scholar
ship, their industry, their honesty. But once more the
curious phenomenon began to be noticeable. The
learned works written to "expose'' Buddhism made
no converts amongst the Buddhists, but many in
Christendom. Schopenhauer led the way, and drew
half the intelligence of Germany in his wake. Then
came the startling works of Bishop Bigandet and the
Abbd Hue. M. L^on de Eosny announced a short time
ago that there were 20,000 Buddhists in Paris alone.
If the dead bones of an ancient creed can thus stir
in the valley, it seems certainly worth while to inquire
what that creed was like in the days of its youth and
strength.

CONTENTS

CHAP. I. INTEODUCTORY

II. THE RELIGION OP THE IFIISHI .
III. BUDDHA .
IV. THB "wisdom op THE OTHER BANK"
V. PARABLES 
VI. ATTER BUDDHA'S DEATH .
VII. KING ASOKA 
VIII. PYRRHO-BUDDHA ....
IX. THE APOSTLES OP THE BLOODLESS ALTAR
X. MORE COINCIDENCES ....
XI. RITES ... . .
XII. BUDDHA IN NORWAY AND AMERICA
XIII. CONCLUSION . ...
GLOSSARY AND INDEX

PAOE 19
24 4963
95
113
134
151
169191198
209
219

BUDDHA A¥D BUDDHISM

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
Let us suppose that a " Day of Brahma," of the pattern
imaged by Hindus, has, with mighty flames and vast
streams of volcanic lava, burnt up the present race of
mankind, and that by and by, in further fulfilment of
Eastern dreams, a new race has developed. Let us sup
pose also that some individuals of this new race have
discovered in a cave in Brittany two tractates miracu
lously preserved — the one a sort of ancestor-worship by
a religious reformer named Comte, and the other by one
" Catholicus," setting forth another scheme of ancestor
or saint- worship, with pilgrimages to their shrines and
temples, cures performed at holy tanks, remissions of
future fire torture by the intercession of priests.
This discovery would, of course, make much noise
in learned colleges, and in process of time the tractates
would be deciphered, and it would be seen that one of
these religions had plainly been derived from the
other. "Whieh was the earlier? This was warmly
debated, until by and by the question, let us imagine.

2 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
was settled to the satisfaction of all by a learned
writer named Excelsior.
Excelsior showed that this man Comte (if he was a
real man, and not a tendency) was a man of genius, a
philosopher, a man of science. His main postulate was
that religion, like everything else, must be based on
the facts of experience, not the dreams of the imagin
ation. His motto apparently was: "Man we know;
God we do not know. Let us confine our cultus to
the known. Let us honour the illustrious that have
gone before us. Their exertions have made us what
we are. We, too, may improve the race by our exer
tions here, and by our memory hereafter."
There was nothing really superstitious in the cultus
of the man Comte, because it was admitted that the
saints of this religion were really dead. They had
passed into the great "Temple of Nothingness."
Excelsior then, in a few vigorous paragraphs, poured
out his scorn on those who could imagine a man like
Comte plagiarising the miserable superstitions of the
creed of " Catholicus." It is plain that the latter was
the scheme of Comte turned inside out, vulgarised,
debased — probably by priests, for greed and power
many centuries after the death of Comte.
In our learned colleges a similar topsy-turvy ques
tion has arisen. There are two Buddhisms. The first,
on the surface, seems to have emerged from the rude
saint deifications of the previous Brahminism. The
temple in those days was the sepulchral mound, even
when calcined ashes had replaced the corpse. The
man Buddha was worshipped in such a temple. He
was invoked in the Buddhist litany to appear at the
altar during the sacrifice. He was asked to forgive

INTRODUCTORY 3
sins. He was addressed by the titles that the Hin
doos use towards their Supreme God. In the White
Lotus of Dharma he is made to announce that a
Buddha is an incarnation of Swayambhu, and that at
death he goes back to rule the universe from his
throne in the sky.
The second Buddhism, however, proclaimed that a
dead Buddha was non-existent, and that Swayambhu
himself was non-existent ; but its cultus was the same
as the other Buddhism. Its followers had the sepul
chral ddgoba, or relic tumulus, as a temple, but devoid
of relics. They asked Buddha to appear at the altar
during worship. They asked him to forgive sins.
They addressed him by the titles that the Hindoos
use towards their Supreme God. Does not all this
seem on the surface to have been the outcome of an
innovating school, an atheistical school, altering dogma
but unable to alter ritual ? But the " Excelsiors " of
our learned colleges will not admit of such an explana
tion, and it must be confessed that this topsy-turvy
Buddhism has a real support in topsy-turvy Buddhist
literature. The books, which some five hundred years
after Buddha's death (under the collective title of the
" Great "Vehicle ") revealed the Non-God seated on his
throne of Nothingness, have also puzzling Siitras
announcing Eternal Life for all men in a paradise of
an eternal God. This has allowed English writers on
Buddhism to contend that the second school was the
Deistical school — a privilege, however, that has been
now completely taken away from them by the pub
lication by Professor Max Miiller of the Mahayi,na
Siitras in his collection, the Sacred Books of the
East.

4 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
It is not too much to say that this publication has
rendered obsolete the greater part of our English
disquisitions on Buddhism. It shows :
1. That the innovating Buddhism of the "Great
Vehicle " proclaimed the following : —
There is no God and no material world. Man comes
from the Great Nothing, and after a brief dream of
non-existing worlds returns to it. All this had already
been given to the public by Brian Hodgson and
Rajendra Lala Mitra, and also in my Popular Life of
Buddha. I showed also from Hwen Thsang, the
Chinese traveller, that this innovating Buddhism was
forced upon the earlier Buddhism by King Kani^ka
about A.D. 16.
2. But a new fact of crucial importance has emerged
from this volume of the Sacred Books of the East.
There was recoil as well as revolution. Bound up
together in the same library are two philosophies and
two religions — distinct, antagonistic, internecine. The
eternal Buddha, Amit4yas, is a protest against the
non-existent Buddha.
Brian Hodgson called the innovating atheism "Pyr
rhonism," and by the aid of this Mahdydna Siitras in
the Sacred Books of the East we can have no doubt as
to what the Pyrrho-Buddha was like. From one of
these SMras, entitled the "Diamond Cutter," I will
give a little sketch of him.
But at starting I must point out that Pyrrhonism is
scarcely the correct word for this school of Buddhism.
Pyrrhonism doubted everything. Pyrrho-Buddhism
had no doubts at all. The difference can be made clear
if we suppose that Pyrrho and Sakya Muni were both
asked this question : " Have you seen the disciple

INTRODUCTORY S
Subhiiti this morning, and was his head bald, and did
he wear the yellow cloak ? "
The answer of Pyrrho would be after this fashion :
"I have no sufficient evidence that I exist, nor can I
get it. Such being the case, it must, of course, be
doubtful to me whether I possess two eyes. And if I
do not exist, doubts must also be thrown over the
existence of the disciple Subhuti, his bald head, and
his yellow cloak 1 "
The answer of the Pyrrho-Buddha would differ from
this. " It is an absolute certainty that I do not exist, and
it is an absolute certainty that my two eyes do not
exist. It is another absolute certainty that the disciple
Subhuti does not exist, and a non-existent disciple must
have a non-existent bald head, and a cloak equally
intangible; but stop and listen to the whole of my
revelation. Although it is an absolute certainty that
the disciple Subhuti does not exist, it is also an
absolute certainty that he does exist. It is a certainty
equally absolute that his bald head exists, that his
yellow cloak exists. It is an absolute certainty also
that I, Buddha, do not exist, but it is also an absolute
certainty that I do exist."
Now this Buddhism, which we may call the " Glad
Tidings of Stupid Contradiction," runs through the
whole of the Siitra called the " Diamond Cutter." It
is supposed to record a conversation between Buddha
and the disciple Subhiiti, in the Jetavana grove near
Sravasti. Buddha declares that in the course of his
many transmigrations a Buddha delivers immeasurable
millions of beings, and yet not one is ever delivered
(p. 114). He declares that the coming Buddhas (Bodhi-

6 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
satwas) must have the most distinct conception of
Bharma (spiritual religion), and also no conception of
Bharma at all. They must have understanding, and
no understanding (p. 117). He states that the Buddhas
have preached the highest perfect knowledge, and that
they have never preached the highest knowledge at all
(p. 118). It affirms, too, that the Bodhisatwas who
study the "Diamond Cutter" will be endowed with
miraculous powers, ahd "frame to themselves a true
idea. And why? — because a true idea is not a true
idea ! Therefore Buddha preaches ' A true idea, a true
idea indeed ' " (p. 126). It is said that the treatise is
to be entitled the Prajnd Pdramitd (the Wisdom of
the other Bank), because it is not the Wisdom of the
other Bank. Therefore it is entitled Prajnd Pdramitd
(p. 125).
Here is a specimen of the argument :
" Therefore, 0 Subhuti, a noble-minded Bodhisatwa,
after putting aside all ideas, should raise his mind to
the highest perfect knowledge. He should frame his
mind so as not to believe in form, sound, smell, taste,
or anything that can be touched. And why ? Because
what is believed is not believed. Therefore the Tatha-
gata preaches: A gift should not be given by a
Bodhisatwa who believes in anything. It should not
be given by one who believes in form, sound, smell,
taste, or anything that can be touched."
Now all this could not be the work of an absolute
lunatic. He must have had some motive for these
apparently aimless contradictions. What was that
motive ? After exhausting all possible theories, I have
come to this conclusion. The Pyrrho-Buddhists were
confronted with the puzzling question of the earlier

INTRODUCTORY 7
literature. They could not destroy it. It was deter
mined to neutralise it by flooding it with contradictory
passages ; and to give a colour to this, a few Siitras
like the " Diamond Cutter " and the Brahmajdla
S4tra had to be composed to mystify people. Sir
Monier Monier- Williams and Professor Rhys Davids
prove Buddha to have been an athiest from the latter
Siitra, Its importance shall be dealt with further on.
But I must emphasise one point. Now that the
Mah^T^na Sutras can be examined by all, if any new
writer still insists on depicting Pyrrho-Buddha as the
real historical Buddha, he must give us the complete
Pyrrho-Buddha, — the whole statue, not an arm or a
nose. I will explain my meaning. Says Dr. Crozier
in the Fortnightly Review for February :
" He (Buddha) threw out the Supreme Soul altogether
as a piece of supererogation, finding that he could get
on quite as well without it in his explanation of the
world." Now, if we take the "Diamond Cutter" or the
Brahmajdla Siitra, as representing accurately the talk
by which Buddha democratised the chief religions of
Asia and Europe, Dr. Crozier could no doubt prove his
point ; for if there is no God in existence, and no man
at all, it is certain that no man can be a theist. But
this is scarcely stating the whole case. It would be
just as easy to write down a few other passages like
the following :
"He (Buddha) threw out altogether the visible
Kosmos as a piece of supererogation, finding that he
could get on quite as well without it in his explanation
of the Divine scheme."
Or this :

8 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
" He (Buddha) threw out altogether himself and bis
disciples as non-existent things, finding that he could
get on very well without them in his grand projec6 of
giving Bharma to the world."
In my next chapter I will sketch religion in India
at the date of Buddha's advent. This may help us to
judge whether a Buddha or a Pyrrho-Buddha would
be most likely to emerge. Evolution, not capricious
originality, is the law of religious development.

CHAPTER II
THE RELIGION OF THE RISHI
In the earliest Indian epics, like the Mahdbhdrata, we
find no mention of temples, but a great deal about
Tirthas, or sacred tanks. " It is the greatest mystery
of the Rishis, excellent son of Bharata. The holy
pilgrimage to the Tirthas is more important than
sacrifices to the gods."^
In another verse it is stated that five nights' sojourn
at the Tirtha of Jambum^rya is equal to the fruit of
a horse sacrifice. The horse sacrifice was the most im
portant of Aryan rites. A hundred performances of it
raised the sacrificer to the level of Indra, the Supreme.
" May the pilgrim bathe, O son of Bharata, in all the
Tirthas.'' Illustrious saints resided in Tirthas, the dead as
well as the living. Kapila has his Tirtha, the Rishi
Matanga, the Saint Bhrigu.
"Go where the greatest Rishis Valmiki and Kas-
yapa, Kundajathara, the son of Atri, Vi^vamitra, and
Gautama, Asita Devala, Markandeya and Getlava,
BharadwEija and the Solitary Va^ishtha, Uddalaka,
Saunaka, and his son "V"yasa, the greatest of ascetics,
Durv4sas, the most virtuous of anchorites, J4vali,
of the terrible macerations; go where these, the
1 Vana Parva, t. 4059.
9

IO BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
greatest of saints, rich in penances, are waiting for
thee." What does all this mean ?
Simply that the magical powers of a dead Rishi, or
saint, were deemed mueh more potent than the magical
powers of that saint when living. And that near his
st4pa, or sepulchral mound, or near the modest tree
where he was buried, a tank had been dug to take
advantage of those powers. It gave drinking water to
the worshippers, and could also magically cure diseases,
like the tank of St. Anne at Auray in Brittany, and
exercise other charms.
"When King Suhotra governed this globe accord
ing to the laws of justice, columns of sacrifice and
sacred trees were planted about the surface of the
earth [jalonnaient la terre — Fauche] in hundreds of
thousands. They shone every season with an abund
ant harvest of men and grains."^
" He offered then, O most virtuous son of Bharata,
an hundred solemn sacrifices, bidding gods and Brah
mins. There were columns of sacrifice in precious
stones and chaityas [sepulchral mounds] of gold."
"The Long-Haired God gave by thousands and
millions columns of sacrifice aud chaityas of great
splendour." These allude to the dolmens and stone circles like
our Abury and Maeshow. They are spread all over
India, and Dr. Stevenson, in the Asiatic Journal,
points out that they are still being used. The holy
tree was an earlier memorial of the saint, hero, medicine
man ; and it is very conspicuous at the holy places of
pilgrimage, for it figures in the descriptions of the
'¦ Mahdbhdrata, Adi Parva, v. 3717.

THE RELIGION OF THE RISHI ii
Tirthas that Yudhishthira in the Mah§.bh4rata was
enjoined to visit.
"Where, as Brahmins tell, was born that Indian
fig-tree of which the cause is eternal ? " This was at
Gaya.i At Yamoun^, too, it is announced : " There is the
beautiful and the holy Tirtha, named the Descent of
the Holy Fig-Tree."
And when the heroes of the epic — Krishna, Bhima,
and Dhananjaya — assault an enemy's city, they at
once run and demolish the sacred tree to ward off, most
probably, hostile spells :
"Then they [Krishna, Bhima, and Dhananjaya]
rushed upon the splendid chaitya of the inhabitants
of Magadha, and smote it on the crest as they wished
to smite Jar§,sandha.
" And with the blows of their great arms they felled
that ancient tree, vast, firmly rooted, with airy top,
respected by all, and ever honoured with incense and
garlands." ^
It is to be observed that for the rude earthen dome
of the stupa, for the more modem metal canopy or
Baldechino, and for the sacred tree, the same Sanskrit
word is applied, chaitya (the Kosmical Umbrella).
All this rather reminds us of the days of Clovis and
his relic superstitions.
"How can we hope for victory if we offend St.
Martin ! "
This was his speech when he cut off the head of a
soldier who had foraged a little hay in regions defended
by the bones of St. Martin of Tours. And in his
Spanish campaign the relics of St. Vincent at Saragossa
1 Vana Parva, v. 8307. " Sabha Parva, v. 816.

12 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
proved more potent than many archers and mailed
warriors, for the good king turned aside his army and
fled away from them. Snorri Storlusen records that
Woden gave orders that haugs (the counterpart of the
Buddhist tope) should be erected over the calcined
remains of heroes, and hatausten (standing stones) over
their bravest soldiers. But the tomb of the dead man
was his dwelling-house in life. In India, from the
date of the hymns of the Rig- Veda, the Sraddha or
worship of the dead man, has been conspicuous. Here
is a portion of one of them :
" We have amidst our ancestors, the Angirases, the
Navagwas, the Atharvans, the Somyas ; may we obtain
their favour, their benign protection ! O dead man
[the corpse], come to us ! Come by the ancient roads
that our fathers have traversed before thee. Behold
these two kings, Yama and the divine Varuna, who
rejoice in our oblations.
"Come with the ancestors. Come with Yama to
this altar which our piety has dressed. Thou hast cast
off all impurity. Come to this domain and don a body
of brilliance.
" 0 ancestors, disperse ! Go every one to his own
side. A place has been set apart for the departed one.
Yama permits him to come down and enjoy our
libations morning and night.
"Give our libation to Yama with Agni as a mes
senger. Offer to Yama a holocaust sweet as honey.
" Honour to the First Ones, the ancient Rishis who
have shown us the way."
This ancestor-worship is still prevalent in India, and
the dead man much propitiated. An English magistrate
of hasty temper died some time ago. He was much

THE RELIGION OF THE RISHI 13
feared by the natives, and to calm his spirit they kept
it constantly supplied with glasses of strong brandy-
and-water and very large cheroots.
But in process of time the burning of the corpse
succeeded burial, and a quaint compromise occurred.
Colebrooke tells us that even in modem times the
calcined remains of a Hindoo are put into a pot and
buried in a deep hole, and over the spot of the crema
tion a mound of masonry is formed, and a tree or a
tank or a flag erected. The rich can afford a Chettri
of splendid marble. By and by this pot is dug up, and
it and the ashes are thrown into the holy river. Here
we have the tank- worship, the sM^a- worship, the tree-
worship proving too strong for the cremating reformers.
Perhaps, too, the Brahmins were loth to give up so
lucrative a superstition.
My friend Major Keith, an officer who held a high
post in the Archaeological Department in India, tells
me that at Lashkar, a spot rarely visited by white
faces, he saw the statues of the three last Scindiahs,
each under his Chettri. Daily food and drink was
served to these. Then rich hookahs were filled with
exquisite tobacco, and beautiful dancing-girls jingled
their bangles in front of the marble Rdjahs.
Why places of pilgrimage in India were first called
" Tanks," or Tirthas, and why the name has stuck to
the group of pilgrimage accessories — holy tree, relic
ddgopa, stilpa, etc., we cannot tell, but we may make a
plausible guess. First, the savage medicine man, much
feared in life, was buried under a tree. Drinking
water would be required for the crowd who came to
his grave to gain spells and charms. Hence a pond
would be dug. Then it would be found convenient to

14 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
announce that this water was the main apparatus of
the magic. Drink it or bathe in it and you could put
an end at once to your neuralgic pains or your favourite
enemy. No wonder that from an early date the Tirtha
was the chief word used for the shrines.
Then the dead man's cairn grew and grew, and when
the remains were burnt a dtigopa was required for the
calcined ashes. And soon utilitarian additions crept in.
In point of fact, astronomers and anthropologists in
recent years have let us know the uses that the
sepulchral dolmen or stilpa was put to. It was at once
an observatory, a church clock, an almanac, a farmer's
calendar, in days when church clocks and almanacs
were not invented. And the shapeless, huge, impos
ing stone gods that surrounded it were part of the
apparatus of the astronomer. One of the earliest con
structed dwellings of the savage man in a cold climate
was probably a tiny chamber of boughs and loose
stones, with a covering of earth for warmth. Such
dwellings are numerous in Lapland, and in the Orkneys
and many parts of Scotland their ruins figure under the
title of " Picts' Houses." From the cairn came the tope.
We now come to an important point, the religions
that the man on the top of the stilpa evolved from
watching stars and sunsets and sunrises.
Says Colebrooke of the Rig- Veda : " The deities in
voked appear, on a cursory inspection of the Veda, to
be as various as the authors of the prayers addressed
to them; but, according to the most ancient annota
tions of the Indian scripture, these numerous names of
persons and things are all resolvable into different
titles of three deities, and ultimately of one God."^
' Colebrooke, Essags, vol. i. p. 25.

THE RELIGION OF THE RISHI 15
Wilson, the Orientalist, follows suit and tells us that
it is specially announced by an old Indian commentator
of the Vedas that the various names, Mitra, Agni,
Pushan, Bhaga, etc., are merely applied to the sun in
reference to his various halting - places during his
yearly journey.^
The twelve gods were also called the Twelve Adityas,
or Months. Aditi, the mighty Mother, had twelve sons.
She and Varuna and Mitra — matter. Spirit, and the
Sun — were probably the Trinity in Unity to whicii
Colebrooke alludes.
"They [the Brahmins] have always observed the
order of the gods as they are to be worshipped in the
twelvemonth," says the Rig- Veda (vii. 103).
" The year is Prajapati [the Divine Man]," says the
Aitareya Brahmana.
" Thou dividest thy person in twelve parts," says a
hymn of the Mah^bhS-rata to the divinity, " and thou
becomest the Twelve Adityas." ^
The " God in twelve persons " is another expression
from the same poem.
"These pillars, ranging in rows like swans, have
come to us erected by pious Rishis to the East. They
proceed resplendent on the path of the gods."
The Sanskrit word for an upright unhewn monolith
is " stambha." The same word was used later on for
the temporary " posts " erected during a horse sacrifice.
A monolith is also called " Mahadeo " (Great God), even
in modern times.
Much unwisdom has been written about the hymns
of the Rig- Veda, owing to the fact that the writers
' Wilson's note, Eig-Veda,, vol. i. p. 34.
^ Vana Parva, v. 189.

1 6 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
ignored the close connection between the standing
stones and the hymns. In point of fact, at an early
date the Rishi on the top of the stilpa judged that if
man was to have any outside religious rites at all, he
should seek to combine harmoniously his knowledge
and his lofty dreams. His rites should be at once
utilitarian and theological. He judged that as the
year marched along the ecliptic from stone god to
stone god, the worship of each should illustrate the
changes. The Vedic zodiac, and the rites and sym
bolism attached to it, I have fully treated in my
Buddhism in Christendom, chap, xxiii.
Colebrooke gives us the early Nakshetras (lunar
mansions), and we find each called after Aditi, Varuna,
or some other Vedic god. But the man on the stilpa
soon observed that most of these gods disappeared
after a time, but that the pole star and the Great Bear
never disappeared. They became, the first, the throne
of the Almighty, and the second, the Seven Rishis.
From the extravagant way in which the Seven Great
Sages are talked of in the sacred books, one might
imagine at times that the Hindoos believe in a sort of
Committee-God, seven dead men ruling the universe
by concerted acts. But the stiMpa had become a place
of pilgrimage. Its tank could cure aches and pains.
And the Karma of the dead saint could bring good
fortune to the pilgrim in the next world, or, better still,
in this.
" The holy pilgrimage to the Tirthas," says the Ma-
h§,bh§,rata, " is more important than the sacrifice to
the Gods."
Plainly the Brahmins soon saw this, and see it still.
Indian Rljahs to this day are mulcted of enormous

THE RELIGION OF THE RISHI 17
sums when they go to the shrine of some dead saint
to cure a beloved daughter or straighten a crooked
leg. But if these Seven Great Rishis were taken over by
the earliest Buddhists and worshipped as the Seven
Great Manushi Buddhas ; if, moreover, the outside
religion of early Buddhism consisted almost entirely
in erecting stUpas in their honour and feeding them
daily with food, it is difficult to believe that the early
Buddhists would have done such things if they held
that these Buddhas were non-existent, and the spiritual
world a delusion.
The religions of the world are indebted to the Rishi
and his stOpa for other noticeable ideas.
Says a clever Indian thinker : " No lower conception
than that of an Absolute and Infinite Divinity could
satisfy indomitable Reason. Yet how could such a
Being be brought into relation with matter; and if
perfect goodness is one of his Attributes, whence then
came sin into the world ? Into this labyrinth of
insoluble, obstinate questionings the professors of the
Divine Science plunged deep. They detached the act
of creation from the Absolute Being, whom they could
not conceive as Unconditioned, yet acting upon matter.
They expanded the notion of the Divine Idea hypos-
tatised. They invented the Demi-urge, or secondary
Creative Agent. They bridged over the gulf between
the Intelligible and the Phenomenal by various logical
formulas, and a series of graduated abstractions. They
personified the divine attributes." ^
This is true, and again the man on the stilpa, fond of
^ The "Theological Situation in India," in the Fort'nightly for
November 1898, by "Vamadeo Shastri.
2

1 8 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
symbols, seems to have been at work. It appeared to
him as it did to every one else in ancient days, that the
universe was a large umbrella, with the mighty earth
for a basis and the pole star for a pivot round which
the umbrella whirled. The interior of this umbrella
was lit up by stars fastened to it, but outside was a
dark mysterious Ocean, where the light never pene
trated. Within this was placed the Unconditioned, and
the man on the stilpa invented a Vice-god.
I will condense a hymn of the Rig- Veda :
"There was no breath, no sky, but water only —
Death was not yet unwombed, nor day nor night.
The unimagined THAT ONE, veiled and lonely,
Sate through the centuries devoid of light.
Then from Ms impulse Love came into being.
And through the ebon blackness flung his beams,
That Love which, say our men of mystic seeing,
Bridges the world of fact and world of dreams.
O tell us how this universe was fashioned.
Ere shining gods appeared to men below ? —
He knows — the shrouded THAT ONE unimpassioned !
Or even he perchance can never know."
THAT ONE is Tad in Sanskrit ; Love is Kdma.
These two portions of the heavens in Buddhism, as
in Brahmanism, are called Nirvritti and Pravritti.
Nirvritti is derived from two words — Nir, the Sanskrit
privative, and vritti, action (from the root-word vrit,
to move). Nirvritti is thus the quiescent portion of
the sky inhabited by Brahma. And Brian Hodgson,
when conversing with the intelligent Buddhist, Amirta
Nanda Bandhya in Nepal, was astonished to find that
the bugaboo word Nirvalna, the terror of many

THE RELIGION OF THE RISHI 19
Christian treatises, simply expressed the same idea :
Nir — privative, vdna — breath.
" As a man fond of gay clothing, throwing off a
corpse bound to his shoulders, goes away rejoicing, so
must I, throwing off this perishable body and freed
from all desires, enter the City of Nirvana (Nirv^na-
pura)." 1
And when the gods come to salute this infant
Buddha in the temple, these words were a part of their
hymn : " Like the sun, the sea and Meru mount
Is Swayambhu, the self-existent God,
And all who do him homage shall obtain
Heaven and Nirvritti." ^
In the earliest Buddhism, Nirvritti was the abode of
Brahma. This is what the Buddhas of the Past saj^- to
the young Buddha when they urge him to forsake the
lower for the higher life :
" Stablish thy fiock in the way of Brahma and of the
ten virtues, that when they pass away from among their
fellow-men they may all go to the abode of Brahma." *
In point of fact, Buddha called his followers
Brahmins, and. was a Brahmin himself, though a
reforming one. And the Satapatha Brahmana and
other Indian books used the word Buddha, it must be
mentioned, for the yogi who in the silences of the
forest had attained the great spiritual awakening.*
The word Brahvia Nirvana, or blissful union with
Brahma, occurs several times in the Mah§,bharata ;
and Colebrooke and Goldstucker tell us that in the
earliest days it did not mean annihilation at all.
1 Birth Stories, p. 6. " Lalita Vistara. ' Ibid.
* Satapatha Brdhmana, xiv. 7. 2. 17. See also Manu, iv. 204.

20 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Now, oddly enough, this ambition of the poor Indian
Rishi to solve the mighty mystery of the Uncondi
tioned is the very feature in his philosophy that Sir
Monier Monier -Williams is most angry with him
about. "It is obvious that to believe in the ultimate
merging of man's personal spirit in One Impersonal
Spirit is virtually to deny the ultimate existence of
any human spirit at all. Nay more, it is virtually to
deny the existence of a supreme universal spirit also.
For how can a merely abstract universal spirit, which
is unconscious of personality, be regarded as possessing
any real existence worth being called true life." ^
But is not this rather dangerous ground for an
author whose lectures are, almost avowedly, less an
exposition of an Indian religion than discourses on a
Scotch form of Christianity. St. John tells us that
the world was made by Christ (i. 10), and also that
" the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment to the Son" (v. 22). We learn also from
Hebrews (i. 3) that Christ "upholds" the Kosmos.
Surely here we have the active Logos and the inactive
(Tertullian calls him the "invisible, unapproachable,
placid") "Father." St. Augustine based his entire
Christianity on the text (John xiv. 23) : " Jesus
answered and said unto him. If a man love Me, he
will keep My words: and My Father will love him,
and We will come unto him, and make Our abode
with him." And there is scarcely a doubt now with
scholars that the early Christians borrowed the
solution of earth's mighty problem from India.
Christianity — at least the Alexandrian portion of it —
1 Buddhism, p. 106.

THE RELIGION OF THE ^ISHI 21
is gnosticism, and gnosticism is the word Bodhi trans
ferred to the Greek. Buthos, the abode of the inactive
Father, is Nirvritti; and the illuminated Pleronut,
presided over by Christ, is the Pravritti of the
Buddhists. It was the Father's good pleasure that in Him the
whole Pleroma should have its home (Col. i. 19). In
Him dwells the whole Pleroma of the Godhead in
bodily shape (Col. ii. 9).^
To sum up, I think in this chapter I have shown —
1. That the religious cultus of India at the date
of Buddha's birth was a sort of saint-worship and
ghost-worship. 2. That the first rude temple had emerged from the
sepulchral mound of the saint. This mound had
become an observatory, which taught the proper
seasons of sowing and tilling. It furnished great
tanks when water was scarce. It was a beehive dome
from whence flew many religions and philosophies.
3. That the stars, as viewed from this dome, were
the early gods of the earth. Indeed, the Hindoo lunar
mansions were called Aditi, Varuna, etc.
4. That great prominence was given to the seven
stars of the Great Bear. All other stars seemed to
sink into the earth. Hence the legend of the death
of the gods. But the seven stars of the Bear were
viewed as the immortal homes of seven legions of
spirits, each provided over by a Rishi, or saint.
^ All that is written in this work combating the views of Sir Monier
Monier- Williams was finished whilst he was still alive. If the dog
matisms of the day prevented him from properly sympathising with
Indian thought, it is to be admitted that his work as a great Sanskrit
scholar has been most valuable.

22 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
5. That trees also were worshipped "with incense
and garlands," — an earlier form perhaps of saint-
worship, when the saint's grave was under a tree in a
forest. The seven mortal Buddhas had each his tree.
6. That as early as the hymns of the Rig- Veda we
see the idea of ah inactive god with a vice-god, a logos,
a dead mortal, to do his work. Yama and Manu
figure thus. The latter in one hymn is announced as
the creator of the sun. This meets, I think. General
Maisey's contention that Buddhism was derived from
the Jews. The latter have always hated the triad
conception. I think also that it affects what we may
call Pyrrho-Buddha theories. A man in rags going
about and proclaiming, " You come from nothing, my
brethren ; — you are going back to nothing. Brahma is
nothing; Rama is nothing; Manu, the non-existent,
never created a non-existent sun. Nirvritti is nothing,
and nowhere ; Pravritti is nothing, and nowhere ; the
Seven Rishis are nothing, and nowhere. Your sacred
tanks have no healing powers. The saint's bones
under the stilpa can do no good to your rheumatism,
for they, you, it, and I, are all non-existent." Such
a Buddha would certainly have less chance of being
listened to than a Buddha whose change was a gentle
evolution rather than a root-and-branch demolition
and rebuilding, — one, in fact, who retained the higher
elements of the previous religion and only modified
the lower.
For in hymns of the Rig- Veda, said by Max Mtiller
to have been composed at least three thousand years
ago, we leam that the Rishi Ribhu retired to a forest
to perform penance and gain wisdom.^ Yama, too,
1 ]^ig-Veda, i. 7, 24.

THE RELIGION OF THE RISHI 23
the Indian Adam, we are told, "conversed with gods
under a leafy tree." Century after century has rolled
away, yet still the Indian yogi, clad in his poor
bark, squats on his deerskin, and calmly watches
the panorama of history pass on before him. He
has seen the early cattle-lifters and bowmen of the
Five Rivers. He has seen Alexander clad in shining
mail, and Nadir Shah smeared all over with diamonds
and blood. He has seen the great noses and great
cocked hats of great Wellington and great Napier.
He has seen A^oka the tolerant, Rama the loving,
and the great Tath&gata, Buddha himself. Gods and
creeds and philosophies he has imagined in his mystic
reverie, and scattered them broadcast amongst the
nations of the earth. Calmly he squats on the ante
lope's skin, like John in his raiment of camel's hair.

CHAPTER III
BUDDHA
Buddha was born at Kapilavastu, in the Lumbini
Garden, B.C. 550.
Kapilavastu — the City of Kapila. This is the trans
lation of the word. Much has been made by some
Orientalists of this. The City of Kapila, the author
of the Niriswara, or Atheistic Sankhya philosophy, is
evidently, it has been urged, a non-existent place, and
Buddha a non-existent person. He is a myth invented
to shadow forth the dissemination of Kapila's atheism.
But nothing is certain except the unexpected. The
non-existing city has suddenly turned up, covering
miles of jungle.
Sir Alexander Cunningham, the great Indian archas-
ologist, was of opinion that the site of Kapilavastu was
Bhuila, in the Basti district. But the real site is now
no matter of doubt. It is between Gorukhpore and
the Himalayas.
In 1893 a pillar was discovered in the Nepal Terai,
the mighty forest that surrounds the great Himalayan
range. Deciphered, it proved to be one of the columns
of King Afoka, who covered India with his stone
inscriptions, B.C. 257. It announced that on this
particular spot was the stilpa of Kanaka Muni, one of
the seven great mortal Buddhas. In the year 1896
24

BUDDHA 25
Major Waddell pointed out, in the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, that, according to the
testimony of Hwen Thsang, the celebrated Chinese
traveller, this stilpa was only seven miles off from
Buddha's birthplace, the traveller having paid it a
visit. This brought Dr. Fiihrer into the field, and
he was soon rewarded with the discovery of an in
scription identifying the celebrated Lumbini Garden
where Queen Maya gave birth to her distinguished
son. Then came a second triumph. Choked up in
the luxurious jungle by colossal ferns and creepers
emerged a dead city of stilpas, and monasteries, and
villages and buildings. More important still was
another column set up by King Aioka. This is the
translation of it :
"King Piyadasi (A^oka), the beloved of the gods,
having been anointed twenty years, himself came and
worshipped, saying, ' Here Buddha, S^kya Muni, was
born 1 ' And he caused a stone pillar to be erected,
which declares, ' Here the Venerable was born.' "
I propose now to give a short life of Buddha. It
has curious points of contact with that of Jesus.
Pee-Existence in Heaven
The early Buddhists, as we have seen, following the
example of the Vedic Brahmins, divided space into
Nirvritti, the dark portion of the heavens, and
Pravritti, the starry systems. Over this last, the
luminous portion, Buddha figures as ruler when the
legendary life opens. The Christian Gnostics took
over this idea and gave to Christ a similar function.
He ruled the Pleroma.

26 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
"Behold a Virgin shall Conceive"
Exactly 550 years before Christ there dwelt in
Kapilavastu a king called Suddhodana. This
monarch was informed by angels that a mighty
teacher of men would be born miraculously in the
womb of his wife. "By the consent of the king,"
says the Lalita Vistara, "the queen was permitted
to lead the life of a virgin for thirty-two months."
Joseph is made, a little awkwardly, to give a similar
privilege to his wife (Matt. i. 25).
Some writers have called in question the statement
that Buddha was born of a virgin, but in the southern
scriptures, as given by Mr. Tumour, it is announced
that a womb in which a Buddha elect has reposed is
like the sanctuary of a temple. On that account, that
her womb may be sacred, the mother of a Buddha
always dies in seven days. The name of the queen
was borrowed from Brahminism. She was Mayd
Devi, the Queen of Heaven. And one of the titles of
this lady is Kany4, the Virgin of the Zodiac.
Queen Maya was chosen for her mighty privilege
because the Buddhist scriptures announce that the
mother of a Buddha must be of royal line.
Long genealogies, very like those of the New Testa
ment, are given also to prove the blue blood of King
Suddhodana, who, like Joseph, had nothing to do with
the paternity of the child. " King Mahasammata had
a son named Roja, whose son was Vararoja, whose son
was Kalyana, whose son was VarakalyHna," and so on,
and so on.^
How does a Buddha come down to earth? This
' Dipawanso, see Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. vii. p. 925.

BUDDHA 27
question is debated in Heaven, and the Vedas were
searched because, as Seydel shows, although Buddhism
seemed a root and branch change, it was attempted
to show that it was really the lofty side of the old
Brahminism, a lesson not lost by and by in Palestine.
The sign of Capricorn in the old Indian Zodiac is an
elephant issmng from a Makara (leviathan), and it
symbolises the active god issuing from the quiescent
god in his home on the face of the waters. In con
sequence, Buddha comes down as a white elephant,
and enters the right side of the queen without piercing
it or in any way injuring it. Childers sees a great
analogy in all this to the Catholic theory of the per
petual virginity of Mary. Catholic doctors quote this
passage from Ezekiel (xliv. 2) :
" Then said the Lord unto me ; This gate shall be
shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter
by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath
entered in by it, therefore shall it be shut."
A Double Annunciation
It is recorded that when Queen M4ya received the
supernal Buddha in her womb, in the form of a
beautiful white elephant, she said to her husband:
"Like snow and silver, outshining the sun and the
moon, a white elephant of six tusks, with unrivalled
trunk and feet, has entered my womb. Listen, I
saw the three regions (earth, heaven, hell), with a
great light shining in the darkness, and myriads of
spirits sang my praises in the sky."
A similar miraculous communication was made to
King Suddhodana:

28 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
"The spirits of the Pure Abode flying in the air,
showed half of their forms, and hymned King Sud
dhodana thus —
"Guerdoned with righteousness and gentle pity,
Adored on earth and in the shining sky.
The coming Buddha quits the glorious spheres
And hies to earth to gentle Mftya's womb."
In the Christian scriptures there is also a double
annunciation. In Luke (i. 28) the angel Gabriel
is said to have appeared to the Virgin Mary before
her conception, and to have foretold to her the
miraculous birth of Christ. But in spite of this
astounding miracle, Joseph seems to have required a
second personal one before he ceased to question the
chastity of his wife (Matt. i. 19). Plainly, two
evangelists have been working the same mine in
dependently, and a want of consistency is the result.
When Buddha was in his mother's womb that
womb was transparent. The Virgin Mary was thus
represented in mediaeval frescoes.^
"We have seen his Star in the East"
In the Buddhist legend the devas in heaven
announce that Buddha will be born when the
Flower-star is seen in the East."
Amongst the thirty -two signs that indicate the
mother of a Buddha, the fifth is that, like Mary the
mother of Jesus, she should be "on a journey"^ at
the moment of parturition. This happened. A tree
' See illustration, p. 39, in my Buddhism in Christe-ndom
' Lefman, xxi. 124 ; Wassiljew, p. 95
^ Beal, Bom. Eistory, p. 32.

BUDDHA 29
(palasa, the scarlet butea) bent down its branches
and overshadowed her, and Buddha came forth.
Voltaire says that in the library of Berne there is a
copy of the First Gospel of the Infancy, which records
that a palm-tree bent down in a similar manner to
Mary.^ The Koran calls it a "withered date-tree."
In the First Gospel of the Infancy it is stated
that, when Christ was in His cradle. He said to His
mother: "I am Jesus, the Son of God, the Word
whom thou didst bring forth according to the
declaration of the angel Gabriel to thee, and my
Father hath sent Me for the salvation of the world."
In the Buddhist scriptures it is announced that
Buddha, on seeing the light said:
"I am in my last birth. None is my equal. I
have come to conquer death, sickness, old age. I
have come to subdue the spirit of evil, and give
peace and joy to the souls tormented in hell."
In the same scriptures^ it is announced that at
the birth of the Divine child, the devas (angels) in
the sky sang "their hymns and praises."
Child-Naming
" Five days after the birth of Buddha," says Bishop
Bigandet, in the Burrfiese Life, "was performed the
ceremony of head ablution and naming the child"
(p. 49).
We see from this where the ceremony of head
ablution and naming the child comes from. In the
Lalita Vistara, Buddha is carried to the temple.
Plainly, we have the same ceremony. There the
'¦ CEuvres, vol. xl. ^ See Beal, Rom. History, p. 46.

30 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
idols bow down to him as in the First Gospel of
the Infancy the idol in Egypt bows down to Jesus.
In Luke the infant Jesus is also taken to the temple
by his parents, to " do for him after the custom of the
law (Luke ii. 27). What law? Certainly not the
Jewish.
Herod and the Wise Men
It is recorded in the Chinese life^ that King
Bimbisara, the monarch of Rajagriha, was told by
his ministers that a boy was alive for whom the stars
predicted a mighty destiny. They advised him to
raise an army and go and destroy this child, lest he
should one day subvert the king's throne. Bimbis&ra
refused. At the birth of Buddha the four Maharajas, the
great Kings, who in Hindoo astronomy guard each a
cardinal point, received him. These may throw light
on the traditional Persian kings that greeted Christ.
In some quarters these analogies are admitted, but
it is said that the Buddhists copied from the Christtan
scriptures. But this question is a little complicated
by the fact that many of the most noticeable
similarities are in apocryphal gospels, those that were
abandoned by the Church at an early date. In the
Protevangelion, at Christ's birth, certain marvels are
visible. The clouds are "astonished," and the birds
of the air stop in their fiight. The dispersed sheep
of some shepherds near cease to gambol, and the
shepherds to beat them. The kids near a river are
arrested with their mouths close to the water. All
nature seems to pause for a mighty effort. In the
' Beal, Som. History, p. 103.

BUDDHA 31
Lalita Vistara the birds also pause in their flight
when Buddha comes to the womb of Queen M^ya.
Fires go out, and rivers are suddenly arrested in their
flow. More noticeable is the story of Asita, the Indian
Simeon. Asita dwells on Himavat, the holy mount of the
Hindoos, as Simeon dwells on Mount Zion. The
" Holy Ghost is upon " Simeon. That means that he
has obtained the faculties of the prophet by mystical
training. He " comes by the Spirit " into the temple.
Asita is an ascetic, who has acquired the eight magical
faculties, one of which is the faculty of visiting the
Tawatinsa heavens. Happening to soar up into those
pure regions one day, he is told by a host of devatas,
or heavenly spirits, that a mighty Buddha is born in
the world, " who will establish the supremacy of the
Buddhist Dharma." The Lalita Vistara announces
that, "looking abroad with his divine eye, and con
sidering the kingdoms of India, he saw in the great
city of Kapilavastu, in the palace of King Suddhodana,
the child shining with the glitter of pure deeds, and
adored by all the worlds." Afar through the skies
the spirits of heaven in crowds recited the " hymn of
Buddha." This is the description of Simeon in the First Gospel
of the Infancy, ii. 6 : "At that time old Simeon saw
Him (Christ) shining as a pillar of light when
St. Mary the Virgin, His mother, carried Him
in her arms, and was filled with the greatest plea
sure at the sight. And the angels stood around
Him, adoring Him as a King; guards stood around
Him."

32 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Asita pays a visit to the king. Asita takes the
little child in his arms. Asita weeps.
" Wherefore these tears, O holy man ? "
" I weep because this child will be the great Buddha,
and I shall not be alive to witness the fact."
The points of contact between Simeon and Asita
are very close. Both are men of God, "full of the
Holy Ghost." Both are brought " by the Spirit " into
the presence of the Holy Child, for the express
purpose of foretelling His destiny as the Anointed
One. More remarkable still is the incident of the disputa
tion with the doctors.
A little Brahmin was " initiated," girt with the holy
thread, etc., at eight, and put under the tuition of a
holy man. When Vilv^mitra, Buddha's teacher, pro
posed to teach him the alphabet, the young prince
went off:
" In sounding ' A,' pronounce it as in the sound of
the word 'anitya.'
"In sounding 'I,' pronounce it as in the word
' indriya.' "In sounding 'U,' pronounce it as in the word
' upagupta.' "
And so on through the whole Sanskrit alphabet.
In the first Gospel of the Infancy, chap, xx., it
is recorded that when taken to the schoolmaster
Zaccheus, " The Lord Jesus explained to him the meaning of
the letters Aleph and Beth.
"8. Also, which were the straight figures of the
letters, which were the oblique, and what letters had
double figures; which had points and which had

BUDDHA 33
none ; why one letter went before another ; and many
other things He began to tell Him and explain, of
which the master himself had never heard, nor read
in any book.
" 9. The Lord Jesus further said to the master,
Take notice how I say to thee. Then He began
clearly and distinctly to say Aleph, Beth, Gimel,
Daleth, and so on to the end of the alphabet.
" 10. At this the master was so surprised that he
said, I believe this boy was born before Noah."
In the Lalita Vistara there are two separate
accounts of Buddha showing his marvellous know
ledge. His great display is when he competes for his
wife. He then exhibits his familiarity with all lore,
sacred and profane, " astronomy," the " syllogism,"
medicine, mystic rites.
The disputation with the doctors is considerably
amplified in the 21st chapter of the First Gospel
of the Infancy:
" 5. Then a certain principal rabbi asked Him,
Hast Thou read books?
" 6. Jesus answered that He had read both books
and the things which were contained in books.
" 7. And he explained to them the books of the law
and precepts and statutes, and the mysteries which
are contained in the books of the prophets — things
which the mind of no creature could reach.
" 8. Then said that rabbi, I never yet have seen or
heard of such knowledge ! What do you think that
boy will be ?
" 9. Then a certain astronomer who was present
asked the Lord Jesus whether He had studied astro
nomy. 3

34 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
" 10. The Lord Jesus replied, and told him the
number of the spheres and heavenly bodies, as also
their triangular, square, and sextile aspects, their
progressive and retrograde motions, their size and
several prognostications, and other things which the
reason of man had never discovered.
" 11. There was also among them a philosopher,
well skilled in physic and natural philosophy, who
asked the Lord Jesus whether He had studied
physic. " 12. He replied, and explained to him physics and
metaphysics. " 13. Also those things which were above and below
the power of nature.
" 14. The powers also of the body, its humours and
their effects.
" 15. Also the number of its bones, veins, arteries,
and nerves.
" 16. The several constitutions of body, hot and dry,
cold and moist, and the tendencies of them.
"17. How the soul operated on the body.
" 18. What its various sensations and faculties
were. " 19. The faculty of speaking, anger, desire.
" 20. And lastly, the manner of its composition and
dissolution, and other things which the understanding
of no creature had ever reached.
"21. Then that philosopher worshipped the Lord
Jesus, and said, 0 Lord Jesus, from henceforth I will
be Thy disciple and servant."
Vi^vamitra in like manner worshipped Buddha by
falling at his feet.

BUDDHA 35
The Four Presaging Tokens
Soothsayers were consulted by King Suddhodana.
They pronounced the following: —
" The young boy will, without doubt, be either a
king of kings or a great Buddha. If he is destined
to be a great Buddha, four presaging tokens will make
his mission plain. He will see —
" 1. An old man.
" 2. A sick man.
" 3. A corpse.
" 4. A holy recluse.
" If he fails to see these four presaging tokens of an
avatara, he will be simply a Chakravartin" (king of
earthly kings).
King Suddhodana, who was a trifle worldly, was
very much comforted by the last prediction of the
soothsayers. He thought in his heart. It will be an
easy thing to keep these four presaging tokens from
the young prince. So he gave orders that three
magnificent palaces should at once be built — the
Palace of Spring, the Palace of Summer, the Palace of
Winter. These palaces, as we learn from the Lalita
Vistara, were the most beautiful palaces ever con
ceived on earth. Indeed, they were quite able to cope
in splendour with Vaijayanta, the immortal palace of
Indra himself. Costly pavilions were built out in all
directions, with ornamented porticoes and burnished
doors. Turrets and pinnacles soared into the sky.
Dainty little windows gave light to the rich apart
ments. Galleries, balustrades, and delicate trellis-
work were abundant everywhere. A thousand bells
tinkled on each roof. We seem to have the lacquered

36 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Chinese edifices of the pattern which architects believe
to have flourished in early India. The gardens of
these fine palaces rivalled the chess-board in the rect
angular exactitude of their parterres and trellis-work
bowers. Cool lakes nursed on their calm bosoms
storks and cranes, wild geese and tame swans ; ducks,
also, as parti-coloured as the white, red, and blue
lotuses amongst which they swam. Bending to these
lakes were bowery trees — the champak, the acacia
serisha, and the beautiful asoka tree with its orange-
scarlet flowers. Above rustled the mimosa, the fan-
palm, and the feathery pippala, Buddha's tree. The
air was heavy with the strong scent of the tuberose
and the Arabian jasmine.
It must be mentioned that strong ramparts were
prepared round the palaces of Kapilavastu, to keep
out all old men, sick men, and recluses, and, I must
add, to keep in the prince.
And a more potent safeguard still was designed.
When the prince was old enough to marry, his
palace was deluged with beautiful women. He
revelled in the "five dusts," as the Chinese version
puts it. But a shock was preparing for King Sud
dhodana. This is how the matter came about. The king had
prepared a garden even more beautiful than the
garden of the Palace of Summer. A soothsayer had
told him that if he could succeed in showing the
prince this garden, the prince would be content to
remain in it with his wives for ever. No task seemed
easier than this, so it was arranged that on a certain
day the prince should be driven thither in his chariot.
But, of course, immense precautions had to be taken

BUDDHA 37
to keep all old men and sick men and corpses from
his sight. Quite an army of soldiers were told off for
this duty, and the city was decked with flags. The
path of the prince was strewn with flowers and scents,
and adorned with vases of the rich kadali plant.
Above were costly hangings and garlands, and
pagodas of bells.
But, lo and behold ! as the prince was driving along,
plump under the wheels of his chariot, and before the
very noses of the silken nobles and the warriors with
javelins and shields, he saw an unusual sight. This
was an old man, very decrepit and very broken.
The veins and nerves of his body were swollen and
prominent; his teeth chattered; he was wrinkled,
bald, and his few remaining hairs were of dazzling
whiteness; he was bent very nearly double, and
tottered feebly along, supported by a stick.
" What is this, O coachman ? " said the prince.
" A man with his blood all dried up, and his muscles
glued to his body ! His head is white ; his teeth
knock together; he is scarcely able to move along,
even with the aid of that stick ! "
" Prince," said the coachman, " this is Old Age.
This man's senses are dulled ; suffering has destroyed
his spirit; he is contemned by his neighbours. Un
able to help himself, he has been abandoned in this
forest." " Is this a peculiarity of his family ? " demanded
the prince, " or is it the law of the world ? Tell me
quickly." " Prince," said the coachman, " it is neither a law of
his family, nor a law of the kingdom. In every
being youth is conquered by age. Your own father

38 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
and mother and all your relations will end in old age.
There is no other issue to humanity."
" Then youth is blind and ignorant," said the prince,
"and sees not the future. If this body is to be the
abode of old age, what have I to do with pleasure
and its intoxications? Tum round the chariot, and
drive me back to the palace ! "
Consternation was in the minds of all the courtiers
at this untoward occurrence; but the odd circum
stance of all was that no one was ever able to bring
to condign punishment the miserable author of the
mischief. The old man could never be found.
King Suddhodana was at first quite beside himself
with tribulation. Soldiers were summoned from the
distant provinces, and a cordon of detachments
thrown out to a distance of four miles in each
direction, to keep the other presaging tokens from
the prince. By and by the king became a little
more quieted. A ridiculous accident had interfered
with his plans : " If my son could see the Garden of
Happiness he never would become a hermit." The
king determined that another attempt should be
made. But this time the precautions were doubled.
On the first occasion the prince left the Palace of
Summer by the eastern gate. The second expedition
went through the southern gate.
But another untoward event occurred. As the
prince was driving along in his chariot, suddenly he
saw close to him a man emaciated, ill, loathsome,
burning with fever. Companionless, uncared for, he
tottered along, breathing with extreme difficulty.
" Coachman," said the prince, " what is this man,
livid and loathsome in body, whose senses are dulled,

BUDDHA 39
and whose limbs are withered? His stomach is
oppressing him; he is covered with filth. Scarcely
can he draw the breath of life ! "
" Prince," said the coachman, " this is Sickness.
This poor man is attacked with a grievous malady.
Strength and Comfort have shunned him. He is
friendless, hopeless, without a country, without an
asylijm. The fear of death is before his eyes."
"If the health of man," said Buddha, "is but the
sport of a dream, and the fear of coming evils can
put on so loathsome a shape, how can the wise man,
who has seen what life really means, indulge in its
vain delights ? Turn back, coachman, and drive me
to the palace 1 "
The angry king, when he heard what had occurred,
gave orders that the sick man should be seized and
punished, but although a price was placed on his head,
and he was searched for far and wide, he could never
be caught. A clue to this is furnished by a passage
in the Lalita Vistara. The sick man was in reality
one of the Spirits of the Pure Abode, masquerading in
sores and spasms. These Spirits of the Pure Abode
are also called the Buddhas of the Past in many
passages, as I shall shortly show.
Dr. Rhys Davids, in his translation of the Life of
Buddha, calls them vaguely " angels," " fairies," etc. ;
but the whole question of early Buddhism is really
bound up in the matter. In the Southern scriptures
it is explained that the Spirits of the Pure Abode
dwell in the heaven of Brahma.^ I may mention too,
that in a valuable inscription, copied from an old
column in the island of Ceylon by Dr. Rhys Davids
^ Tumour, Journ. Beng. As. Soc. vol. vii. p. 798.

40 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
himself, it is announced that in the reign of the king
who erected it, the Buddha devatas "talked with
men " ^ in the great temple. Here we have plainly the
Buddhas of the past, of the Lalita Vistara. The
disciples of the " Carriage which drives to the Great
Nowhere " have senselessly interlarded this book with
certain "Bodhisatwas of the Ten Regions," which,
figuring side by side with the "Buddhas of the Ten
Regions," confess the cheat. When the "Great
Vehicle" movement dethroned the Buddhas of the
past, it substituted Bodhisatwas (mortals who have
reached the last stage of the metempsychosis), and
transferred the old saint-worship, the sacrifices, pro
cessions, relic expositions, etc., to them.
For another valuable fact we are indebted to the
Southern scriptures. They announce that the answers
of the charioteer were given under inspiration from the
unseen world.^ On the surface this is plausible, for
we shall see that the speeches of the charioteer were
not always pitched in so high a key.
And it would almost seem as if some influence,
malefic or otherwise, was stirring the good King Sud
dhodana. Unmoved by failure, he urged the prince to
a third effort. The chariot this time was to set out by
the western gate. Greater precautions than ever were
adopted. The chain of guards was posted at least
twelve miles off from the Palace of Summer. But
the Buddhas of the Ten Horizons again arrested the
prince. His chariot was suddenly crossed by a phan
tom funeral procession. A phantom corpse, smeared
with the orthodox mud, and spread with a sheet, was
^ Journ. As. Soc. vol. vii. p. 364.
^ Spence Hardy, ^fan^lal, p. 157.

BUDDHA 41
carried on a bier. Phantom women wailed, and phan
tom musicians played on the drum and the Indian
flute. No doubt also, phantom Brahmins chanted
hymns to Jatavedas, to bear away the immortal part
of the dead man to the home of the Pitris.
" What is this ? " said the prince. " Why do these
women beat their breasts and tear their hair ? W^hy
do these good folks cover their heads with the dust of
the ground. And that strange form upon its litter,
wherefore is it so rigid ? "
" Prince," said the charioteer, " this is Death ! Yon
form, pale and stiffened, can never again walk and
move. Its owner has gone to the unknown caverns of
Yama. His father, his mother, his child, his wife cry
out to him, but he cannot hear."
Buddha was sad.
" Woe be to youth, which is the sport of age ! Woe
be to health, which is the sport of many maladies !
Woe be to life, which is as a breath ! Woe be to the
idle pleasures which debauch humanity ! But for the
'five aggregations' there would be no age, sickness,
nor death. Go back to the city. I must compass
the deliverance."
A fourth time the prince was urged by his father
to visit the Garden of Happiness. The chain of
guards this time was sixteen miles away. The exit
was by the northern gate. But suddenly a calm man
of gentle mien, wearing an ochre-red cowl, was seen
in the roadway.
" Who is this," said the prince, "rapt, gentle, peaceful
in mien ? He looks as if his mind were far away else
where. He carries a bowl in his hand."
" Prince, this is the New Life," said the charioteer.

42 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
"That man is of those whose thoughts are fixed on
the eternal Brahma [Brahmacharin]. He seeks the
divine voice. He seeks the divine vision. He carries
the alms-bowl of the holy beggar [bhikshu]. His
mind is calm because the gross lures of the lower life
can vex it no more."
" Such a life I covet," said the prince. " The lusts
of man are like the sea-water — they mock man's thirst
instead of quenching it. I will seek the divine vision,
and give immortality to man ! "
In the Lalita Vistara the remedy for age, sickness,
and death is immortality.^ In Dr. Rhys Davids'
Buddhism the remedy for death is death. If the
apologue was composed outside of Bedlam, it is
plain that the Lalita Vistara gives us the correct
version. If a prick with a dagger is the amrita, why
go through all the tortures of yoga to gain it ?
King Suddhodana was beside himself. He placed
five hundred eorseleted S^kyas at every gate of the
Palace of Summer. Chains of sentries were round
the walls, which were raised and strengthened. A
phalanx of loving wives, armed with javelins, was
posted round the prince's bed to "narrowly watch"
him. The king ordered also all the allurements of
sense to be constantly presented to the prince.
"Let the women of the zenana cease not for an
instant their concerts and mirth and sports. Let them
shine in silks and sparkle in diamonds and emeralds."
MahS, Prajapati, the aunt who since Queen Maya's
death has acted as foster-mother, has charge of these
pretty young women, and she incites them to encircle
the prince in a " cage of gold."
> "Un fruit de vie, de bien gtre, et d'immortalite " (Foucaux, p. 185).

BUDDHA 43
The allegory is in reality a great battle between
two camps— the denizens of the Kamaloca, or the
Domains of Appetite, and the denizens of the Brah-
maloca, the Domains of pure Spirit. The latter are
unseen, but not unfelt.
For one day, when the prince reclined on a silken
couch listening to the sweet crooning of four or five
brown-skinned, large-eyed Indian girls, his eyes sud
denly assumed a dazed and absorbed look, and the
rich hangings and garlands and intricate trellis- work
of the golden apartment were still , present, but dim
to his mind. And music and voices, more sweet
than he had ever listened to, seemed faintly to
reach him. I will write down some of the verses
he heard, as they contain the mystic inner teaching of
Buddhism. 'Mighty prop of humanity
March in the pathway of the Rishis of old,
Go forth from this city !
"Upon this desolate earth.
When thou hast acquired the priceless knowledge of the Jinas,
When thou hast become a perfect Buddha,
Give to all flesh the baptism (river) of the Kingdom of
Righteousness.
Thou who once didst sacrifice thy feet, thy hands, thy pre
cious body, and aU. thy riches for the world,
Thou whose life is pure, save flesh from its miseries !
In the presence of reviling be patient, 0 conqueror of self!
Lord of those who possess two feet, go forth on thy mission?
Conquer the evil one and his army."
Thus run some more of these gathas : —
" Light of the world ! [lamp du monde — Eoucaux],
In former kalpas this vow was made by thee :
'For the worlds that are a prey to death and sickness I will
be a refuge ! '

44 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Lion of men, master of those that walk on two feet, the
time for thy mission has come !
Under the sacred Bo-tree acquire immortal dignity, and give
Amrita (immortality) to all !
"When thou wert a king (in a former existence), and a subject
insolently said to thee : ' These lands and cities, give
them to me ! '
Thou wert rejoiced and not troubled.
Once when thou wert a virtuous Rishi, and a cruel king in
anger hacked off thy limbs, in thy death agony milk
flowed from thy feet and thy hands.
When thou didst dwell on a mountain as the Rishi Syama, a
king having transfixed thee with poisoned arrows, didst
thou not forgive tbis king?
"Wlien thou wert the king of antelopes, didst thou not save
thine enemy the hunter from a torrent ?
When thou wert an elephant and a hunter pierced thee, thou
forgavest him, and didst reward him with thy beautiful
tusks !
Once when thou wert a she-bear thou didst save a man from
a torrent swollen with snow. Thou didst feed him on
roots and fruit until he grew strong;
And when he went away and brought back men to kill thee,
thou forgavest him !
Once when thou wert the white horse, ^
In pity for the suffering of man.
Thou didst fly across heaven to the region of the evil demons,
To secure the happiness of mankind.
Persecutions without end,
Revilings and many prisons.
Death and murder,
These hast thou suffered with love and patience,
Forgiving thine executioners.
Kingless, men seek thee for a king !
Stablish them in the way of Brahma and of the ten virtues.
That when they pass away from amongst their fellow-men,
they may all go to the abode of Brahma."
1 Yearly the sun-god as the zodiacal horse (Aries) was supposed by
the Vedic Aryans to die to save all flesh. Hence the horse-saorifioe.

BUDDHA 45
" By these gathas the prince is exhorted," says the
narrative. And whilst the Jinas sing, beautiful women,
with flowers and perfumes, and jewels and rich dresses,
try to incite him to mortal love.
But to bring about their plans more quickly, the
Spirits of the Pure Abode have conceived a new
project. The beautiful women of the zenana are the
main seductions of M4ra, the tempter, whom philo
logists prove to be closely connected with K^ma, the
god of love. The Spirits of the Pure Abode determine
that the prince shall see these women in a new light.
By a subtle influence they induce him to visit the
apartments of the women at the moment that they,
the Jinas, have put all these women into a sound
sleep. Everything is in disorder — the clothes of the
women, their hair, their trinkets. Some are lolling
ungracefully on couches, some have hideous faces,
some cough, some laugh sillily in their dreams, some
rave. Also deformities and blemishes that female
art had been careful to conceal are now made pro
minent by the superior magic of the spirits. This
one has a discoloured neck, this one an ill-formed leg,
this one a clumsy fat arm. Smiles have become
grins, and fascinations a naked hideousness. Sprawl
ing on couches in ungainly attitudes, all lie amidst
their tawdry finery, their silent tambourines and lutes.
" Of a verity I am in a graveyard ! " said the prince
in great disgust.
And now comes an incident which is odd in the life
of a professed atheist. Buddha has determined to
leave the palace altogether. "Then he (Buddha)
uncrossed his legs, and turning his eyes towards the

46 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
eastern horizon, he put aside the precious trellis-work
and repaired to the roof of the palace. Then joining
the ten fingers of his hands, he thought of all the
Buddhas and rendered homage to all the Buddhas, and,
looking across the skies, he saw the Master of all the
gods, he of the ten. hundred eyes [Da^a^ata I;[ayana]."
Plainly he prayed to Indra. The Romantic Life also
retains this incident, but it omits Indra, and makes
Buddha pray only to all the Buddhas.
At the moment that Buddha joined his hands in
homage towards the eastem horizon, the star Pushya,
which had presided at his birth, was rising. The
prince on seeing it said to Chandaka :
"The benediction that is on me has attained its
perfection this very night. Give me at once the king
of horses covered with jewels ! "
The highest spiritual philosophers in Buddhism, in
Brahminism, in Christendom, in Islam, announce two
kingdoms distinct from one another. They are called
in India the Domain of Appetite (Kamaloca), and the
Domain of Spirit (Brahmaloca). The Lalita Vistara
throughout describes a conflict between these two
great camps. Buddha is offered a crown by his father.
He has wives, palaces, jewels, but he leaves all for the
thorny jungle where the Brahmacharin dreamt his
dreams of God. This is called pessimism by some
writers, who urge that we should enjoy life as we flnd
it, but modem Europe having tried, denies that life is
so enjoyable. Its motto is Tout lasse, tout casse, tout
passe. Yes, say the optimists, but we needn't all live
a life like Jay Gould. A good son, a good father, a
good husband, a good citizen, is happy enough. True,
reply the pessimists, in so far as a mortal enters the

BUDDHA 47
domain of spirit he may be happy, for that is not a
region but a state of the mind. But mundane acci
dents seem, almost by rule, to mar even that happi
ness. The husband loses his loved one, the artist his
eyesight. Philosophers and statesmen find their great
dreams and schemes baffled by the infirmities of age.
Age, disease, death ! These are the evils for which
the great Indian allegory proposes to find a remedy.
The Buddhas of the Past win the victory in spite of
the fact that King Suddhodana offers to resign the
crown to his son if he will abandon the idea of a
religious life. Buddha steals away one night on his
horse Kantaka and enlists as a disciple of a Brahmin
named Arata KMama. But by and by, becoming
dissatisfied with his teacher, he retires to the silences of
Buddha Gay^ and the famous Bo-tree. There occurs
his celebrated confiict with Mira, the Buddhist Satan,
who comes in person to tempt him. Two of the
temptations are precisely similar to those of Jesus.
Buddha is said to have gone through a forty-nine
days' fast, and the first temptation appeals to his
hunger. For the second he is transported to the
neighbourhood of the splendid city of Kapilavastu,
which is made to revolve, like the " wheel of a potter,"
and display its magnificence.^ The third temptation
introduces a prominent feature in a fasting ascetic's
visions. Beautiful females, the daughters of M4ra,
come round him. But Buddha triumphs over them,
and triumphs over their father, and by and by
baptizes both.
For six years the ascetic sate under his Tree of
Knowledge, the pippala, or Ficus religiosa. Then
^ Bigandet's Life qf Buddha, p. 65.

48 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Brahma urges him to go and preach the Brahmo/-
charya, the Knowledge of Brahma. It is called also
the Glad Tidings, Suhhashita.'^ He goes off to the
celebrated deer forest of Benares and begins to make
converts, using the actual words of Christ, " Follow
Me!" ¦¦ On this point see Rajendra L, Mitra, Northern Buddhist lAterature,
p. 29.

CHAPTER IV
THE "WISDOM OF THE OTHER BANK"
If the Roman Catholics were told that St. Fran9ois
de Salis, or St. Jerome, " altogether ignored in nature
any spiritual aspirations,"^ they would feel a little
astonished. This is the view taken of Buddha by
the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford. And yet
the word "Buddha" means, he who has attained the
complete spiritual awakening. And Buddha's Bharma
has for an alternative exponent the words Prajnd
Pdramitd (the Wisdom of the Other Bank).
There are two states of the soul, call them ego and
non-ego — the plane of matter and the plane of spirit, —
what you will. As long as we live for the ego and
its greedy joys, we are feverish, restless, miserable.
Happiness consists in the destruction of the ego by
the Bodhi, or Gnosis. This is that interior, that high
state of the soul, attained by Fenelon and Wesley, by
Mirza the Sufi and Swedenborg, by Spinoza and Amiel.
" The kingdom of God is within you," says Christ.
"In whom are hid the treasures of sophia and
gnosis," says St. Paul.
" The enlightened view both worlds," says Mirza the
Sufi, " but the bat flieth about in the darkness without
seeing." 1 Sir Monier Monier-Williams, Buddhism, p. 149.
4

so BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
"Who speaks and acts with the inner quickening,"
says Buddha, " has joy for his accompanying shadow.
Who speaks and acts without the inner quickening,
him sorrow pursues as the chariot-wheel the horse."
Let us give here a pretty parable, and let Buddha
speak for himself :
" Once upon a time there was a man born blind, and
he said, ' I cannot believe in a world of appearances.
Colours bright or sombre exist not. There is no sun,
no moon, no stars. None have witnessed such things.'
His friends chid him; but he still repeated the same
words. "In those days there was a Rishi who had the
inner vision; and he detected on the steeps of the
lofty Himalayas four simples that had the power to
cure the man who was born blind. He culled them,
and, mashing them with his teeth, applied them.
Instantly the man who was born blind cried out, 'I
see colours and appearances. I see beautiful trees and
flowers. I see the bright sun. No one ever saw like
this before.'
" Then certain holy men came to the man who was
born blind, and said to him, ' You are vain and
arrogant, and nearly as blind as you were before.
You see the outside of things, not the inside. One
whose supernatural senses are quickened sees the
lapis-lazuli fields of the Buddhas of the Past, and
hears heavenly conch shells sounded at a distance of
five yoganas. Go off to a desert, a forest, a cavern in
the mountains, and conquer this mean thirst of eartUy
things.'" The man who was born blind obeyed ; and the
parable ends with its obvious interpretation. Buddha

"WISDOM OF THE OTHER BANK" 51
is the old Rishi, and the four simples are the four
great truths. He weans mankind from the lower life
and opens the eyes of the blind.
I think that Sir Monier Monier-Williams' fancy,
that Buddha ignored the spiritual side of humanity, is
due to the fact that by the word " knowledge " he con
ceives the Buddhists to mean knowledge of material
facts. That Buddha's conceptions are nearer to the
ideas of Swedenborg than of Mill is, I think, proved
by the Cingalese book, the Samanna Phala Sutta.
Buddba details, at considerable length, the practices of
the ascetic, and then enlarges upon their exact object.
Man has a body composed of the four elements. It is
the fruit of the union of his father and mother. It is
nourished on rice and gruel, and may be truncated,
crushed, destroyed. In this transitory body his in
telligence is enchained. The ascetic, finding himself
thus confined, directs his mind to the creation of a
freer integument. He represents to himself in thought
another body created from this material body — a body
with a form, members, and organs. This body, in
relation to the material body, is like the sword and
the scabbard, or a serpent issuing from a basket in
which it is confined. The ascetic, then, purified and
perfected, commences to practise supernatural facul
ties. He finds himself able to pass through material
obstacles, walls, ramparts, etc. ; he is able to throw his
phantasmal appearance into many places at once ; he
is able to walk upon the surface of water without
immersing himself ; he can fly through the air like a
falcon furnished with large wings; he can leave thia
world and reach even the heaven of Brahma himself.
Another faculty is now conquered by his force of

52 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
will, as the fashioner of ivory shapes the tusk of the
«lephant according to his fancy. He acquires the
power of hearing the sounds of the unseen world as
distinctly as those of the phenomenal world — more
distinctly, in point of fact. Also by the power of
Manas he is able to read the most secret thoughts of
others, and to tell their characters. He is able to say,
" There is a mind that is governed by passion. There
is a mind that is enfranchised. This man has noble
ends in view. This man has no ends in view." As a
child sees his earrings reflected in the water, and says,
" Those are my earrings," so the purified ascetic re
cognises the truth. Then comes to him the faculty of
" divine vision," and he sees all that men do on earth
and after they die, and when they are again reborn.
Then he detects the secrets of the universe, and why
men are unhappy, and how they may cease to be so.
I will now quote a conversation between Buddha
and some Brahmins which, I think, throws much light
on his teaching. It is given in another Cingalese
book, the Tevigga Sutta.
When Buddha was dwelling at Manasakata in the
mango grove, certain Brahmins learned in the three
Vedas come to consult him on the question of union
with the eternal Brahma. They ask if they are in the
right pathway towards that union. Buddha replies at
great length. He suggests an ideal case. He supposes
that a man has fallen in love with the " most beautiful
woman in the land." Day and night he dreams of her,
but has never seen her. He does not know whether
she is tall or short, of Brahmin or ^iidra caste, of dark
or fair complexion ; he does not even know her name.
The Brahmins are asked if the talk of that man about

"WISDOM OF THE OTHER BANK" 53
that woman be wish or foolish. They confess that it is
" foolish talk." Buddha then applies the same train of
reasoning to them. The Brahmins versed in the three
Vedas are made to confess that they have never seen
Brahma, that they do not know whether he is tall or
short, or anything about him, and that all their talk
about union with him is also foolish talk. They are
mounting a crooked staircase, and do not know whether
it leads to a mansion or a precipice. They are standing
on the bank of a river and calling to the other bank to
come to them.
Now it seems to me that if Buddha were the un
compromising teacher of atheism that many folks
picture him, he has at this point an admirable oppor
tunity of urging his views. The Brahmins, he would of
course contend, knew nothing about Brahma, for the
simple reason that no such being as Brahma exists.
But this is exactly the line that Buddha does not
take. His argument is that the Brahmins knew
nothing of Brahma, because Brahma is purely spiritual,
and they are purely materialistic.
Five "Veils,'' he shows, hide Brahma from mortal
ken. These are —
1. The Veil of Lustful Desire.
2. The Veil of Malice.
3. The Veil of Sloth and Idleness.
4. The Veil of Pride and Self -righteousness.
5. The Veil of Doubt.
Buddha then goes on with his questionings :
" Is Brahma in possession of wives and wealth ? "
"He is not, Gautama!" answers Velsettha the
Brahmin. " Is his mind full of anger^ or free from anger ? "

54 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
" Free from anger, Gautama ! "
" Is his mind full of malice, or free from malice ? "
" Free from malice, Gautama ! "
" Is his mind depraved or pure ? "
" It is pure, Gautama ! "
" Has he self-mastery, or has he not ? "
"He has, Gautama."
The Brahmins are then questioned about themselves.
"Are the Brahmins versed in the three Vedas, in
possession of wives and wealth, or are they not ? "
" They are, Gautama ! "
" Have they anger in their hearts, or have they not ? "
" They have, Gautama."
" Do they bear malice, or do they not ? "
" They do, Gautama."
¦" Are they pure in heart, or are they not ? "
" They are not, Gautama."
" Have they self-mastery, or have they not ? "
" They have not, Gautama."
These replies provoke, of course, the very obvious
retort that no point of union can be found between
such dissimilar entities. Brahma is free from malice,
sinless, self-contained, so, of course, it is only the
sinless that can hope to be in harmony with him.
Vasettha then puts this question : " It has been told
me, Gautama, that Sramana Gautama knows the way
to the state of union with Brahma ? "
" Brahma I know, Vasettha ! " says Buddha in reply,
"and the world of Brahma, and the path leading
to it!"
The humbled Brahmins learned in the three Vedas
then ask Buddha to " show them the way to a state of
union with Brahma."

"WISDOM OF THE OTHER BANK" 55
Buddha replies at considerable length, drawing a
sharp contrast between the lower Brahminism and
the higher Brahminism, the "householder" and the
" houseless one." The householder Brahmins are gross,
sensual, avaricious, insincere. They practise for lucre
black magic, fortune-telling, cozenage. They gain the
ear of kings, breed wars, predict victories, sacrifice life,
spoil the poor. As a foil to this he paints the recluse,
who has renounced all worldly things and is pure, self-
possessed, happy.
To teach this " higher life," a Tathagata " from time
to time is bom into the world, blessed and worthy,
abounding in wisdom, a guide to erring mortals." He
sees the universe face to face, the spirit world of
Brahma and that of M4ra the tempter. He makes
his knowledge known to others. The houseless one,
instructed by him, " lets his mind pervade one quarter
of the world with thoughts 'of pity, sympathy, and
equanimity; and so the second, and so the third,
and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide world,
above, below, around, and everywhere, does he con
tinue to pervade with heart of pity, sympathy, and
equanimity, far-reaching, grown great, and beyond
measure." ^
" Verily this, Vasettha, is the way to a state of union
with Brahma," and he proceeds to announce that the
Bhikshu, or Buddhist beggar, " who is free from anger,
free from malice, pure in mind, master of himself, will,
after death, when the body is dissolved, become united
with Brahma." The Brahmins at once see the full
force of this teaching. It is as a conservative in their
eyes that Buddha figures, and not an innovator. He
^ Rhys Davids, Buddhist Suttas, p. 201.

S6 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
takes the side of the ancient spiritual religion of the
country against rapacious innovators.
"Thou hast set up what was thrown down," they
say to him. In the Burmese Life he is described more
than once as one who has set the overturned chalice
once more upon its base.
The word Dharma means much in Buddhism.
" Obey the eternal law of the heavens. Who keeps
this law lives happily in this world and the next.^
" For the enfranchised soul human suffering no
longer exists.^
" In the darkness of this world few men see clearly.
Very few soar heavenwards like a bird freed from a
net." 3
No doubt the discipline of extasia was expected to
give vitality to this inner quickening. When actual
visions of the Buddhas of the ten regions were before
the eyes of the fasting visionary, it was judged that he
would have a more practical belief in their lapis-lazuli
domains. The heart of the Eastem nations has been
truer to its great teacher than their learned meta
physicians have been. The epoch of Buddha is called
the " Era when the Milken Rice [immortality] came
into the world."* This certainty of a heavenly
kingdom was not to be confined, as in the orthodox
Brahminism, to a priestly caste. A king had become
a beggar that he might preach to beggars. In the
Chinese Bhammapada there is a pretty story of a very
beautiful Magdalen who had heard of Buddha, and
who started off to hear him preach. On the way,
however, she saw her beautiful face in a fountain near
' Dhammapada, v. 169. ^ Ibid. v. 90.
" Ibid. V. 174. ¦• Upham, Hist. Buddhism, p. 48.

"WISDOM OF THE OTHER BANK" 57
which she stopped to drink, and she was unable to
carry out her good resolution. As she was returning
she was overtaken by a courtesan still more beautiful
than herself, and they journeyed together. Resting
for awhile at another fountain, the beautiful stranger
was overcome with sleep, and placed her head on her
fellow-traveller's lap. Suddenly the beautiful face
became livid as a corpse, loathsome, a prey to hateful
insects. The stranger was the great Buddha himself,
who had put on this appearance to redeem poor
PundarL^ " There is a loveliness that is like a beautiful
jar full of filth, a beauty that belongs to eyes, nose,
mouth, body. It is this womanly beauty that causes
sorrow, divides families, kills children." These words,
uttered by the great teacher on another occasion,
were perhaps retailed a second time for the Buddhist
Magna Civitatis Peccatrix.^
The penitent thief, too, is to be heard of in Bud
dhism. Buddha confronts a cruel bandit in his moun
tain retreat and converts him.* All great movements,
said St. Simon, must begin by working on the emotion
of the masses.
Another originality of the teaching of Buddha
was the necessity of individual effort. Ceremonial,
sacrifice, the exertiona of othera, could have no pos
sible effect on any but themselves. Against the
bloody sacrifice of the Brahmins he was specially
remorseless. " How can the system which requires the infliction
of misery on others be called a religious system ? . . .
How having a body defiled with blood will the shedding
' Chinese Dhcvmmapada, p. 35. ^ llid. p. 159.
" Ibid. p. 48.

58 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
of blood restore it to purity ? To seek a good by doing
an evil is surely no safe plan ! " ^
Even a Buddha could only show the sinner the right
path. " Tathagatas are only preachers. You yourself
must make an effort." ^
Buddha's theology made another great advance on
other creeds, a step which our century is only now
attempting to overtake. He strongly emphasised the
remorseless logic of cause and effect in the deteriorat
ing influence of evil actions on the individual character.
The Judas of Buddhism, Devadatta, repents and is
forgiven. But Buddha cannot annul the causation of
his evil deeds. These will have to be dealt with by
slow degrees in the purgatorial stages of the hereafter.
He knows no theory of a dull bigot on his deathbed
suddenly waking up with all the broad sympathies and
large knowledge of the angel Gabriel. Unless in the
next life a being takes up his intellectual and moral
condition exactly at the stage he left it in this, it is
plain that logically his individuality is lost. This
teaching of Buddha has been whimsically enforced by
some of his followers. His own words are trenchant
and clear : " A fault once committed is like milk, which
grows not sour all at once. Patiently and silently, like
a smothered ember, shall it inch by inch devour the
fool." ^ " Both a good action and an evil action must
ripen and bear their inevitable fruit." *
This teaching has been powerfully inculcated in one
01 two fine parables, in which the consequences of sin
are imaged as an iron city of torment, and the sins
themselves figure as beautiful women luring man to his
' Romantic History, p. 159. = Dhammapada, v. 276.
' IHd. V. 71. * Burnouf, Introd. p. 87.

"WISDOM OF THE OTHER BANK" 59
ruin. On the surface all is as bewitching as a scene of
the Arabian Nights. The palm-trees of a soft island
rustle gently, and in a delicious palace the mean seeker
of gold, the bad son, is fanned by women of a beauty
unknown to earth. He has sought the unworthy
prizes of the Kamaloca, and he enjoys them for a time,
because with Buddha the full basket and store of the
Brahmin and the old Jew are not deemed the rewards
of heaven, but of quite another region. From island
to island the wanderer goes, each island being more
delicious than the preceding one, but each being nearer
to the iron-walled city of expiation. But the furies
are cause and effect, and not an eternal Ahriman. There
is no devil that Buddha cannot soften.^
This suggests another great advance made by Buddha.
In his day the beneficent God was deemed the god of a
nation, a tribe ; and all the gods of other nations were
deemed evil demons. This creed is the real " agnosti
cism" and "atheism," because its main postulate im
plies that the reason and conscience of humanity for
thousands and thousands of years have been unable to
discover God, and that if He has been found at all, it
ia to accident alone that the discovery is due ; even if
the discovered god should not upon examination be
found to be composed of very poor clay. But the
missionaries of Tath%ata were sent to every nation,
and Buddha is the first historical teacher who pro
claimed that even in the hell Avichi was no recess
sheltered from Tath§,gata's all-pervading love.
But the crowning legacy to humanity of this pricelesa
benefactor was his boundless compassion. " Buddha,"
' Beal, Romantic History. Comp. Story of the Five Hundred Mer
chants, p. 332, and the Merchant, p. 342.

6o BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
say his disciples, "was God revealed in the form of
Mercy." The theory that Buddha was a myth seems
quite to break down here, for some auch character
muat have existed, that ideas so far in advance even of
modern days could have been conceived. His majestic
gentleness never varies. He converts the Very Wicked
One. He speaks gently to the Daughters of Sin. He
clears out even the lowest of hella when he visits earth,
and makea devils as well as good men happy. A fool
outrages and insults him : " My son," he replies, " out
rage addressed to heaven is like spittle aimed into the
skies: it returns upon the author of the outrage."^
And he explained to his disciples that Tathagata could
never be made angry by foul actions and invectives.
Such can only make him redouble his mercy and love.^
When we reflect that the principle of retaliation was the
rude policy of the day in which he lived, and that aggrega
tions of men were obliged to foster a love of revenge, war,
plunder, and bloodshed in their midst, prompted by the
mere instinct of self -preserv ation, such great sentences
as the following of Buddha are indeed noteworthy : —
"By love alone can we conquer wrath. By good
alone can we conquer evil. The whole world dreads
violence. All men tremble in the presence of death.
Do to othera that which ye would have them do to
you. Kill not. Cause no death." *
"Say no harsh words to thy neighbour. He will
reply to thee in the same tone." *
"'I am injured and provoked, I have been beaten
^ SUtra of Forty-two Sections," sect. viii. ^ jj^^;, ggct. vii.
^ Ibid. V. 129. M. Lfon Feer gives here the very words of Luke
vi. 31.
^ Ibid. V. 133.

"WISDOM OF THE OTHER BANK" 6i
and plundered ! ' They who speak thus will never
cease to hate."
" That which can cause hate to cease in the world is
not hate, but the absence of hate." ^
" If, like a trumpet trodden on in battle, thou com-
plainest not, thou hast attained Nirvana."
" Silently shall I endure abuse, as the war-elephant
receives the shaft of the bowman."
" The awakened man goes not on revenge, but rewards
with kindness the very being who haa injured him, as the
sandal-tree scents the axe of the woodman who fells it." ^
I will now copy down a few miscellaneous sayings of
Buddha : —
"The swans go on the path of the sun. They go
through the air by means of their miraculous power.
The wise are led out of this world when they have
conquered Mara and his train." ^
" A man is not a Sramana by outward acts."
" Not by tonsure does an undisciplined man become
a Sramana." "There is no satisfying of lusts with a shower of
gold pieces."
"A man is not a Bhikshu simply because he asks
others for alms. A man is not a Muni because he
observes silence. Not by discipline and vows, not by
much apiritual knowledge, not by sleeping alone, not
by the gift of holy inspiration, can I earn that release
which no worldling can know. The real Sramana is
he who has quieted all evil."
' Sutra of Forty- two Sections, v. 4, 5.
^ This is claimed by the Brahmins likewise, but it is quite foreign to
their genius, f^ide Hodgson, Essays, p. 74.
^ Dhammapada.

62 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
" If one man conquer in battle a thousand thousand
men, and another conquer himself, the last is the
greatest conqueror."
"Few are there amongst men who arrive at the
other shore. Many run up and down the shore."
"Let the fool wish for a false reputation, for pre
cedence amongst the Bhikshus, for lordship in the
convents, for worship amongst other people."
" A supernatural person is not easily found. He is
not born everywhere. Wherever such a sage is bom
that race proapera."
"Call not out in this way as if I were the god
Brahma " (Chinese parable).
" Religion is nothing but the faculty of love." ^
" The house of Brahma is that wherein children obey
their parents." ^
" The elephant's cub, if he flnd not leafless and thorny
creepers in the greenwood, becomes thin." ^
"Beauty and riches are like a knife smeared with
honey. The child sucks and is wounded." *
The One Thing Needful
Certain subtle questions were propoaed to Buddha,
such as : What will best conquer the evil passions of
man? What is the most savoury gift for the alms-
bowl of the mendicant ? Where is true happiness to be
found? Buddha replied to them all with one word,
Dharma ^ (the heavenly life).
I will now give some of the Buddhist parables, some
almost unequalled for beauty.
' Bigandet, p. 223. " Burnouf, Introd.
^ Hodgson, p. 74. * Sutra of Forty-two Sections, sect. xxi.
» Bigandet, p. 225.

CHAPTER V
PARABLES
The Parable of the Forgiveness of Injuries
In a previous existence Buddha was once the ascetic
Jin Juh, and he dwelt in a forest. " Forests are de
lightful," he subsequently declared. " Where the world
ling finda no delight, there the awakened man will find
delight." At thia time there waa a king called Ko Li,
who was possessed of a cruel and wicked disposition.
One day, taking his women with him, he entered the
forest to hunt, and becoming tired, he lay down to
aleep. Then all the women went into the woods to
gather flowers, and they came to the cell of the ascetic
Jin Juh, and listened to his teaching. After some
time the king awoke, and having missed the women,
he became jealous, and drew hia aword, and went in
search of them. Seeing them all standing in front of
the cell of the ascetic, he became very angry indeed.
" Who are you ?" he said.
" I am the ascetic Jin Juh ! "
" Have you conquered all earthly paaaions ? " pursued
the king.
The ascetic replied that he was there to struggle
with passion.
" If you have not attained Sheung te teng," aaid the
63

64 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
king, "I do not see that you are better than the
philosophers [Fan fuh] " ; and with the cruelty of an
Eastern tyrant, he hacked off the hands and feet of
the poor hermit.
Perceiving a majestic calm still upon the face of the
tortured ascetic, the astonished monarch asked him if
he felt no anger.
" None, king, and I will one day teach thee also to
curb thy wild-beast passions. When, in another exist
ence, I attain Sheung te teng [Nirvana], thou, 0 king,
shalt be my first convert."
In a subsequent existence King Ko Li became the
disciple Kaundiliya.
In the next parable we get, I think, a protest of the
Little Vehicle against the " false teachers " of the in
novating school. The Parable of the Atheist
Angati, a king in Tirhut, had a daughter, Ruchi. At
firat he lived pioualy, but one day he heard aome false
teachers who declared that there is no future world,
and that man, after death, is resolved into water and
the other elements. After this he thought it was better
to enjoy the present moment, and he became cruel.
One day Ruchi went to the king and requeated him
to give her one thousand gold pieces, as the next day
was a festival and she wished to make an offering. The
king replied that there waa no future world, no reward
for merit; religious rites were useless, and it was
better to enjoy herself in the present world.
Now Ruchi possessed the inner vision, and was able
to trace back her life through fourteen previoua exiat-

PARABLES 65
ences. She told the king that she had once been a
nobleman, but an adulterer, and as a punishment she
was now only a woman. As a further punishment she
had been a monkey, a bullock, a goat, and had been
once bom into the hell Avichi. The king, unwilling
to be taught by a woman, continued to be a sceptic.
Ruchi then, by the power of an incantation, summoned
a spirit to her aid, and Buddha himself, in the form of
an ascetic, arrived at the city. The king asked him
from whence he came. The ascetic replied that he
came from the other world. The king, in answer,
laughingly said :
" If you have come from the other world, lend me
one hundred gold pieces, and when I go to that world
I will give you a thouaand."
Buddha anawered gravely :
"When any one lends money, it must be to the
rich. If he bestow money on the poor, it is a gift,
for the poor cannot repay. I cannot lend you,
therefore, one hundred gold pieces, for you are poor
and destitute."
"You utter an untruth," said the king angrily.
" Does not thia rich city belong to me ? "
The Buddha replied :
" In a short time, O king, you will die. Can
you take your wealth with you to hell? There
you will be in unspeakable misery, without raiment,
without food. How, then, can you pay me my
debt?" At this moment on the face of Buddha was a strange
light which dazzled the king. Of the next story there
are many versions. It is very popular in Buddhist
countries.

66 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Buddha's Parable of Kisogotami
Once a humble couple lived at Sravasti. They sold
pulse, rice, and charcoal, laid out in little round flat
baskets, with a bit of poor matting propped up on
bamboos to keep off the midday sun. They had an
only daughter Kisogotami. One day her father sent
her to fetch some wood. She stayed in the jungle
plucking flowers, until in a thicket ahe auddenly saw
the fierce eyea of a cheetah staring at her. She very
nearly died of fright. Suddenly something whizzed
by her and laid the cheetah dead at her feet. It was
an arrow shot by a comely young hunter, a servant of
the R&jah. He wanted aoon after that to marry Kiso
gotami, who was very pretty, but the old parents said
that they could not spare their only child. One day a
blind man paaaed the little shop singing and playing
on the vin&. The old mother listened to his song —
" Without a mate the Kokila grows silent on the spray.
Silent — silent — silent soon for aye."
This led her to watch her daughter, who was really
pining and very sick. In process of time, through the
influence of the mother, the young girl was married.
In those days a fierce tiger ravaged the district and
killed many villagers. At once the Rijah offered a large
reward for his destruction. The husband of Kisogo
tami lured by this attacked the tiger, but waa clawed
to death. The widow and a young child returned to
SrSivasti to meet, alas ! a procession of wailing women
accompanying her parents to the grave. A month
after this the poor widow was seen carrying a dead
child in her arms, and moaning piteously the words,
" Give me some medicine for my suffering boy ! "

PARABLES 67
One answered, " Go to S4kya Muni, the Buddha ! "
Kisogotami repaired to the cell of Buddha, and
accosted him, " Lord and master, do you know of any
medicine that will cure my boy ? "
Buddha answered, "I want a handful of mustard-
seed." The girl promised to procure it, but Buddha added,
" I require some mustard-seed taken from a house
where no son, husband, parent, or slave has died."
Poor Kisogotami, with the dead child carried astride
of her hip in the Indian fashion, went from houae to
house. The compaaaionate people aaid, " Here is mus
tard-seed, take it ! " But when she asked if any aon,
or huaband, or parent, or slave had died in that house,
she received for a reply, " Lady, the living are few, the
dead are many; death comes to every house!" At
last, weary and hopeless, Kisogotami sat down by the
wayside, and watched the lamps of the city being ex
tinguished one by one. At this instant Buddha, by
the power of Siddhi, placed hia phantasm before her,
which said to her, " All living beings resemble those
lamps. They are lit up and fiicker for awhile, and
then dark night reigns over all." The appearance
then preached the law to her, and, in the words of the
Chinese version, he provided "salvation and refuge,
pointing out the path that leads to the eternal city.''
The Story of Prince Kunala
King A^oka had an infant boy whose eyes were so
beautiful that his father called him Kunala. There is
a bird of this name that dwells amongst the rhododen
drons and pines of the Himalayas. It is famed for its

68 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
lovely eyes. The young prince grew up. His beauty
was the talk of the king's dominions. No woman
could gaze into his eyes without falling in love with
him. A Buddhist Sthavira (lit. old man) spoke serious
words to him one day : " The pride of the eye, my aon,
is vanity ! Beware ! "
At an early age Kun41a married a young girl, named
KMchana. One day a royal lady saw the young
husband, and fell desperately in love with his fine
eyea. Kunala was horrorstruck at this.
" Are you not," he said, " in the zenana of the king, my
father?" This speech changed her love to a bitter hate.
At this time the city of Taxila revolted against King
A^oka. The monarch desired to hasten thither, but
his ministers counselled him to send Prince Kunala in
hia place. The prince repaired to the revolted city and
aoon reatored quiet. The people assured him that it
was the exactions and oppressions of the king's officers
that they had resisted, not the king himself.
Soon the king became afflicted with a revolting
malady, and wanted to abdicate in favour of his son.
The Queen Tishya Rakahiti, ahe who hated the prince,
thought in her heart, " If Kun&la mounts the throne, I
am lost ! " She ordered her slaves to bring her a man
afflicted with the same malady as the king. She
poisoned this man and had hia inaide examined. A
huge worm waa feeding upon it. She fed thia worm
with pepper and with ginger. The worm was none
the worse. She fed it with onion, it died.
Immediately she repaired to the king and promised
to cure him if he would grant her a boon. The king
promised to grant her anything she asked him. She
said to him, " Take this onion and you will be well."

PARABLES 69
" Queen," said the king, " I am a Kshatriya, and the
laws of Manu'^ forbid me to eat onion." The queen
told him it waa medicine, not food. He ate the onion
and was cured.
The boon demanded by the queen as a recompense
for this great cure was a week's rule of the king's
dominions. The king hesitated, but was over-per
suaded. Immediately the queen sent an order sealed
with the royal aeal that Prince Kun&la should be
forced to wear the garments of a beggar and have
both his eyes put out. A blind prince cannot mount
the throne.
The good folks of Taxila were thunderstruck at
this command, but they said to each other, " If the
king is ao merciless to his son, what will he be to us if
we disobey him ! " Some low-caste Chand^las were
summoned; they loved the prince, and would not
execute the cruel order. At last a hideous object, a
man deformed and stained with eighteen unsightly
marks, came forward and tore out the prince's eyes.
Soon he found himself a beggar on the high-road.
Hia wife, Ksinchana, also clad in rags, was by his side.
The poor prince now remembered the solemn words of
the Sthavira.
" The outside world," he said to his wife, " is it not
a mere globe of flesh ? "
The prince had always been sickly, and to aupport
himself now he played upon an inatrument called the
vinS.. After many wanderings they reached Palibothra
(Patna), and approached the palace of the king; but
the guards, seeing two dirty beggars, thrust them out
summarily. ' M^nava Dharma S^tra, iv. st. 5.

70 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
By and by the king heard the sound of the vinei.
"It is my son," he said. He sent out officers of
the court to bring him in. His condition filled the
king with amazement. When he understood what
had happened he summoned the guilty queen to his
presence and ordered her to be burnt alive.
But the Prince Kunala waa now a changed man.
When he felt himself deserted, as he thought, by his
earthly father, he had become a son of Buddha (fils de
Buddha).^ His " eye of fieah " had been put out, but
he felt that the spiritual vision had been for the first
time awakened. In lieu of the soft clothes of Kasi, he
now wore the rags of one of Buddha's sublime beggars.
He threw himself at the feet of his father, and pleaded
for the queen's life : " I feel no anger, no pain, only
gratitude. Kill her not."
A^oka, the powerful sun-king, was destined to rule
India with a sway more extensive than that of the
proudest Mogul. He was destined also to abandon his
luxurious palaces, and himself wander along the high
way begging hia food. He too became a Bhikahu.
A Buddha at a Marriage Feast
King Sudarsana waa a model king. In hia domin
ions was no killing or whipping as punishment;
no soldiers' weapons to torture or destroy. His city,
Jambunada, was built of crystal and cornelian, and
silver and yellow gold. A Buddha visited it one
day. Now in that city was a man who was the next day
to be married, and he much wished the Buddha to
' Burnouf, Introd. pp. 365, 366.

PARABLES 7 1
come to the feast. Buddha, passing by, read his silent
wish, and consented to come. The bridegroom was
overjoyed, and scattered many flowers over hia house
and sprinkled it with perfumes.
The next day Buddha, with his alms-bowl in his
hand and with a retinue of many followers, arrived ;
and when they had taken their seats in due order, the
host distributed every kind of exquisite food, saying,
" Eat, my lord, and all the congregation, according to
your desire ! "
But now a marvel presented itself to the astonished
mind of the host. Although all these holy men ate
very heartily, the meats and the drinka remained
poaitively quite undiminished; whereupon he argued
in his mind, " If I could only invite all my kinsmen
to come, the banquet would be aufficient for them
likewiae." And now another marvel was presented. Buddha
read the good man's thought, and all the relatives
without invitation streamed in at the door. They,
also, fed heartily on the miraculous food. It is almost
needless to add that the Chinese book Fu-pen-hing-
tsi-king (aa translated by the invaluable Mr. Beal)
announces that all these guests, having heard a few
apposite remarks on Dharma from the lips of the
Tathfi,gata, to the satisfaction of everybody (except
ing, perhaps, the poor bride), donned the yellow
robes. The next parable is a very pretty one, and shows
that a love that can pierce the limits of this narrow
world and range amongst the Devalokas of the
hereafter could be conceived even in the age of
^§,kya Muni.

72 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
The Story of the Girl BhadbI
When Sakya Muni was in a previous existence, a
certain King Stiryapati invited the great Buddha
Dipankara to visit his dominions; and to do him
honour he issued an edict that all his subjects within
a radius of twelve yoganas from his chief city ahould
reaerve all flowers and perfume for the king and his
offerings to the Buddha. No one was to be in poases-
aion of these offerings on his own account.
Sakya was at this time a young Brahmin named
Megha. He was well versed in the law, although he
was only sixteen years of age. He was incomparable
in appearance ; his body like yellow gold, and his hair
the same. His voice was as soft and sweet as the
voice of Brahma. He happened to reach the city at
the very moment that it waa adorned in expectation
of the coming of the Buddha Dipankara, and having
already vague yearninga after the Buddhaahip in his
breast, he determined to make an offering to the
incarnate Buddha.
He reasoned thus in his heart : " What offering
shall I make to him? Buddhas contemn offerings
of money ; I will purchase the most beautiful flower
I can find."
He went to a hairdresser's shop and selected a
lovely flower, but the hairdresser refused to sell it.
" The king has given orders, respectable youth, that
no chapleta of flowers in this city are on any account
to be sold ! " Megha went off to a second and then
to a third hairdresser's shop, and was met everywhere
with the same refusal.
Now, it happened that, as he was pursuing his

PARABLES 73
search, he aaw a dark-clad water-girl, whose name
was BhadrS,, secretly take a seven-stalked Utpala
flower and put it inside her water-pitcher, and then
go on her way. Megha went up to her and accosted
her. " What are you going to do with that Utpala
flower which I saw you put into your pitcher? I
will give you five hundred gold pieces for it if you
will sell it to me."
The young girl was arrested by the novel appear
ance of the handsome young man. She answered
presently, " Beautiful youth, have you not heard that
the great Dipankara Buddha is now about to enter
the city in consequence of the king's invitation, and
the king has issued ordera that whataoever scented
unguents or flowers there are within twelve yoganas
of the city are not on any account to be sold to any
private individual, as the king will buy them all up
for the purpose of presenting them to the Buddha.
Now, in our neighbourhood there ia a certain hair
dresser's wife, who privately took from me five
hundred pieces of money and gave me in return this
seven-stalked flower ; and the reaaon why I have thus
transgressed the edict of the king is, that I want
myself to make an offering to the holy man."
Then Megha anawered, " My good girl, what you
have said will justify you in taking my five hundred
gold pieces, and in giving me five stalks of the Utpala
flower and reserving two for yourself."
She anawered, " What will you do with the fiowers
if I give them to you ? "
The young Brahmin told her that he wished to offer
them to Buddha.
Now, it happened that this young girl was gifted

74 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
with the inner viaion, and she knew from the youth's
remarkable appearance that he waa deatined one
day to become the guide of men. She said, "Fair
stranger, one day you will be a great Buddha, and if
you will promise me that, up to the day of your
Buddhahood, at each new birth you will take me as
your wife, and that when you attain Nirvana you
will let me follow you as a disciple in your retinue
of followers, then will I give you five stalks of this
Utpala flower."
The Brahmin replied that an ascetic was required
to give all his wealth to his fellow-men, and that if
she consented to auch an arrangement he was willing
to contract that she should ever be hia wife. She
aold to him five atalks of the Utpala flower, that they
might be his own special gift to the Buddha, and she
desired him to preaent the other two atalks as her own
free gift.
When Dipankara approached, majestic and with a
countenance like a glassy lake, the offering waa thrown
to him, and by a miracle the flowera remained in mid
air, forming a canopy over his head.
Amongst the " Fan heavens " of the Chinese is one
called Fuh-ngai (happy love). Let us hope that in
that heaven the pretty Bhikshu Bhadra is still near
her favourite teacher.

King Wessantara
Buddha once lived on earth as King Wessantara.
So kind was he to everybody that it was rumoured
that he had made a resolution to give to everybody
whatever he was asked. He had a loving wife and

PARABLES 75
two children. He had also an enchanted white
elephant. A grievous famine burat out in a neighbouring
kingdom, and the poor died by thousands. Eight
Brahmins were sent to King Wessantara to ask him
for the white elephant ; for fertile rain always falls
in countries where an enchanted white elephant is
staying. The benign king gave up his white elephant.
This so incensed his own people that they deposed
him. Wessantara gave all his wealth to the poor, and
departed in a carriage drawn by two horses, intending
to repair to an immense rock in the wilderness, and
there become a hermit. On hia way he met two
poor Brahmins, who asked him for hia carriage. He
complied, and the deposed king and queen, each
carrying a child, made the rest of the journey on foot.
Their road lay through the kingdom of the queen'a
father, who sought to overcome their resolution, but
in vain.
Meanwhile a Brahmin named Jutaka was living
very happily with a beautiful wife, until one day
some envious neighbours poisoned her mind aa she
was drawing water at a well. They persuaded her
she was a slave, and so incensed her that she attacked
her husband and beat him and pulled his beard.
Moreover, she threatened to leave his houae unleaa he
procured for her two slaves. A foolish king, she said,
named Wessantara, was dwelling aa a hermit in the
wilderneaa; let him go there and ask for two slaves.
He had two children, and had made a vow to refuse
no one any demand.
Jutaka departed, but found all access to the royal

76 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
hermit denied by a hunter placed there by the
queen's father, who, knowing Wessantara's vow, had
desired to screen him from the further importunities
of the greedy. Jutaka told him a lying tale and
contrived to reach the hermit. He demanded the
two children aa slaves, and Weaaantara waa bound by
his oath to hand them over to him. Jutaka, as soon
as he was out of sight of the king, bound the royal
children firmly with cords; but missing his way in
the wilderness, came by chance to the territory of the
queen's father, who was quickly apprised of all that
had occurred.
He summoned the Brahmin before him, and offered
him in exchange for the grandchildren the weight of
them in gold pieces. The greedy Brahmin's end was
not unlike that of Judas, for with his ill-gotten wealth
he made a great feast, and from repletion his bowels
also gushed out.^

King Bambadat
Buddha was in one of his births a merchant of
Benares, and as he was one day passing with his
wife in a carriage through the streets of R£ij§,griha,
the capital of King Bambadat, the monarch saw
his wife and became captivated with her unrivalled
beauty. Immediately he hatched an infamous plot to gain
her. He sent one of his officers to drop furtively a
jewel of great value in the merchant's carriage.
The poor merchant was then arrested on the charge
' This parable and the two following are given by Upham from the
J^takas of the Buddha.

PARABLES T7
of stealing the royal gem. He and his beautiful wife
were brought before the king, who listened to the
evidence with mock attention, and then ordered the
merchant to be executed and his wife to be detained
in the royal harem. Ejng Bambadat was a cruel
monarch, whose oppressions had earned him the
hatred of his subjects.
The poor merchant was led away to be decapitated,
but Indra on hia throne in heaven had witneaaed the
atrocious transaction; and, lo! a miracle was accom
plished. As the executioner raised his sword, the
king, who waa watching the bloody event, was
suddenly made to change places with the merchant
by the agency of unseen hands, and he received the
fatal blow; whilst Buddha suddenly found himself
exalted on the royal elephant that had brought the
king to the spot. This atriking interposition of
Heaven awed the assembled populace, and they pro
claimed the merchant their new king. It is needless
to add that hia rule formed a striking contrast to
that of King Bambadat. It is not mentioned, but I
think it is very plain also, that the beautiful wife
was the girl Bhadra of the former story. Buddhism
has done much evil by its enforced sacerdotal celibacy,
but, on the other hand, it seems to have had the
honour of first conceiving a love of man with woman
that could pierce the skies and be prolonged after
death.
The Hungry Dog
There was once a wicked king named Usuratanam
who oppressed his people so much that Buddha from

78 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
the sky took compassion upon them. At this time
he was the god Indra, and, assuming the form of a
huntsman, he came down to earth with the Deva
Matali, disguised as a dog of enormous size. They
at once entered the palace of the king, and the dog
barked so wofully that the sound seemed to shake
the royal buildings to their very foundations. The
king, affrighted, had the hunter brought before
him; and he inquired the portent of these terrible
sounds. " It is through hunger that the dog barks," said the
huntsman, and again a sound louder far than thunder
reverberated through the palace.
" Fetch him food ! Fetch anything ! " cried the king
in terror. All the food that happened then to be
prepared was the royal banquet. It waa placed before
the dog. He ate it with surprising rapidity, and then
barked once more with his terrible voice. More food
was sent for, the food stored up in the city, the food
of the adjacent provinces, but still the insatiable dog,
after a brief interval, ate all up and barked for more.
The king could scarcely prevent himaelf from falling
to the earth with terror.
" Will nothing ever aatisfy your dog, 0 hunter ? "
" Nothing, O king, but the fiesh of all his enemies."
" And who are his enemies, 0 hunter ? "
" His enemies," said the hunter, " are those who do
wicked deeds, who oppresa the poor, who make war,
who are cruel to the brute creation."
The king, remembering his many evil deeds, was
seized with terror and remorae; and the Buddha,
revealing himaelf, preached the law of righteousness
to him and his people. It is plain that in the

PARABLES 79
original story, as in the laat, Indra alone was the
supernatural agent, and the clumsy introduction of
Buddha is an afterthought. Matali ia the conventional
charioteer of Indra, which, I think, is an additional
proof.
Buddha as a Peacemaker
It is recorded that two princes were once about to
engage in a terrible battle in a quarrel that took place
about a certain embankment constructed to keep in
water. Between these kinga and their aasembled
armies Buddha suddenly appeared and asked the
cause of the strife. When he was completely informed
upon the aubject, he put the following questions :
" Tell me, 0 kings ! is earth of any intrinsic value ? "
" Of no value whatever," was the reply.
" la water of any intrinsic value ? "
" Of no value whatever ! "
" And the blood of kings, is that of any intrinsic
value ? "
" Its value is priceless ! "
" Is it reasonable," asked the Tath&gata, " that that
which ia priceless should be staked against that which
haa no value whatever ? "
The incensed monarchs saw the wisdom of this
reasoning, and abandoned their dispute.^

The Prodigal Son^
A certain man had a son who went away into a
far country. There he became miserably poor. The

Bigandet, p. 191.
TMs is the title adopted in the translation of M. Foucaux.

8o BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
father, however, grew rich, and accumulated much
gold and treasure, and many storehouses and elephants.
But he tenderly loved his lost son, and secretly lamented
that he had no one to whom to leave his palaces and
suvernaa at his death.
After many years the poor man, in search of food
and clothing, happened to come to the country where
his father had great possessions. And when he was
afar off his father aaw him, and reflected thus in his
mind : "If I at once acknowledge my son and give to
him my gold and my treasures, I shall do him a great
injury. He is ignorant and undisciplined ; he is poor
and brutaliaed. With one of auch miserable inclina
tions, 'twere better to educate the mind little by little.
I will make him one of my hired servants."
Then the son, famished and in rags, arrived at the
door of his father's house ; and, seeing a great throne
upraised and many followers doing homage to him
who sat upon it, waa awed by the pomp and the
wealth around. Instantly he fled once more to the
highway. "This," he thought, "is the houae of the
poor man. If I stay at the palace of the king perhaps
I shall be thrown into prison."
Then the father sent messengers after his son ; who
was caught and brought back in apite of his cries and
lamentations. When he reached his father's house he
fell down fainting with fear, not recognising his father,
and believing that he was about to suffer some cruel
punishment. The father ordered hia servants to deal
tenderly with the poor man, and sent two labourers of
hia own rank of life to engage him aa a servant on the
estate. They gave him a -broom and a basket, and
engaged him to clean up the dungheap at a double wage.

PARABLES 8 1
From the window of his palace the rich man
watched his son at his work ; and disguising himself
one day as a poor man, and covering his limbs with
duat and dirt, he approached his son and aaid, " Stay
here, good man, and I will provide you with food and
clothing. You are honest, you are industrious. Look
upon me as your father."
After many years the father felt his end approach
ing, and he summoned his son and the officers of the
king, and announced to them the secret that he had ao
long kept. The poor man waa really hia aon, who in
early days had wandered away from him; and now
that he was conscious of hia former debased condition,
and was able to appreciate and retain vast wealth,
he was determined to hand over to him hia entire
treaaure. The poor man was astonished at this sudden
change of fortune, and overjoyed at meeting hia father
once more.
The parables of Buddha are reported in the Lotus of
the Perfect Law to be veiled from the ignorant by
means of an enigmatic form of language.^ The rich
man of thia parable, with his throne adorned by flowers
and garlands of jewela, ia announced to be TathS,gata,
who dearly lovea all his children, and has prepared
for them vast spiritual treasures. But each aon of
Tath§,gata haa miserable inclinations. He prefera the
dungheap to the pearl mani. To teach such a man,
Tathagata is obliged to employ inferior agents, the
monk and the ascetic, and to wean him by degrees
from the lower objects of desire. When he speaks
himself, he is forced to veil much of his thought, as it
would not be understood. His sons feel no joy on
1 LotiK, p. 45.
6

82 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
hearing spiritual things. Little by little must their
minds be trained and disciplined for higher truths.
Parable of the Woman at the Well
Ananda, a favourite disciple of Buddha, was once
athirst, having travelled far. At a well he encountered
a girl named Matanga, and asked her to give him aome
water to drink. But she, being a woman of low caste,
was afraid of contaminating a holy BrS,hmana, and
refused humbly.
" I ask not for caste, but for water ! " said Ananda.
His condescension won the heart of the girl Matanga.
It happened that she had a mother cunning in love
philtres and weird arts, and when this woman heard
how much her daughter was in love, she threw her
magic spells round the disciple and brought him to her
cave. Helpless, he prayed to Buddha, who forthwith
appeared and cast out the wicked demons.
But the girl Matanga was still in wretched plight.
At last she determined to repair to Buddha himself
and appeal to him.
The Great Physician, reading the poor girl's thought,
questioned her gently :
"Supposing that you marry my disciple, can you
follow him everywhere ? "
" Everywhere ! " said the girl.
" Could you wear his clothea, aleep under the same
roof?" said Buddha, alluding to the nakedness and
beggary of the " houseleaa one."
By alow degreea the girl began to take in his meaning,
and at last she took refuge in the Three Great Pearls.^
^ Burnouf, Introd. p. 138.

PARABLES 83
The Story , of V^savadatta
At MathurS, was a courtesan named Vasavadatta.
She fell violently in love with one of the actual dis
ciples of Buddha named Upagupta, and sent her
servant to him to declare her passion. Upagupta
was young and of singular beauty. In a short time
the aervant returned with the following enigmatic
reply:— "The time haa not yet arrived when the disciple
Upagupta will pay a visit to the courtesan Vasava
datta ! "
Valsavadatta was astonished at this reply. Her
class at this time was a caste, a body organised, and
indeed fostered, by the State, and she lived in great
magnificence. She was the most beautiful woman in
the king's dominiona, and not accustomed to have her
love rejected. When her first momenta of petulance
had passed, she reflected that the young man was
poor. Again she sent her servant to Upagupta. " Tell
him that Vdsavadatta deaires love, not gold and pearla."
By and by the aervant returned with the enigmatic
anawer, " The time has not yet arrived when the disciple
Upagupta will visit the courtesan VElsavadatta ! "
Some few months after this, Vasavadatta had a love
intrigue with the head of the artisans of Mathura, and
whilst this waa in progress a very wealthy merchant
arrived at the city with five hundred horses that he
desired to sell. Hearing of the beauty of Vi-savadatta,
he contrived to see her, and also to fall in love with
her. His pearls and suvernas were too much for the
giddy woman. She assassinated the head of the
artisans and ordered his corpse to be flung on a dung-

84 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
heap. By and by his relations, alarmed at his dis
appearance, caused a search to be made, and the body
was found.
Visavadatta waa arreated and carried before the
king, who gave orders that her ears, her nose, her
hands, and her feet should at once be cut off by the
common executioner and her body flung in a grave
yard. Her maid still clung to her, for she had been
a kind mistress. She tried to assuage her pain, and
drove away the crows from her bleeding body.
Vasavadatta now received a third message from
Upagupta : " The time has arrived when the disciple
Upagupta will pay a visit to the courtesan Vasava
datta ! " The poor woman, in whom an echo of the old
passion still reverberated, hurriedly ordered her maid
to collect and hide away under a cloth her severed feet
and limbs, the poor remnants of her old beauty ; and
when the young man appeared ahe said with some
petulance :
" Once this body was fragrant like the lotus, and I
offered you my love. In those days I was covered
with pearls and fine muslin. Now I am mangled and
covered with filth and blood. My hands, my feet, my
nose, my ears have been struck off by the common
executioner ! "
The young man with great gentleness comforted
poor Vasavadatta in her agony. " Sister, it is not for
my pleasure and happiness that I now draw near."
And he pointed out the " true nature " of the charms
that she mourned. He showed her that they had
proved torments and not joya, and if immodesty, and
vanity, and greed, and the murderous instinct had
been lopped away, she had sustained a gain and not a

PARABLES 85
loss. He then told her of the Tathagata that he had
seen walking upon this very earth, a Tath&gata who
specially loves the suffering.
Hia speech brought calm to the soul of Vasava
datta. She died after having professed her faith in
Buddha.1 She was carried by spirits to the penitential heavens
of the Devaloca. Parable of the Blazing Mansion
Once there was an old man, broken, decrepit, but
very rich. He possessed much land and many gold
pieces. Moreover, he possessed a large rambling
mansion which alao ahowed. plain proofs of time'a
decay. Its rafters were worm-eaten ; its pillars were
rotten; its galleries were tumbling down; the thatch
on its roof was dry and combustible. Inside this
mansion were several hundreds of the old man's
servants and retainers, so extensive was the collection
of rambling old buildings.
Unfortunately this mansion possessed only one
door. The old man was also the father of many children
¦ — five, ten, twenty, let us say. One day there was a
smell of burning, and he ran out by the solitary door.
To hia horror he saw the thatch in a mass of flame,
the rotten old pillars were catching fire one by one,
the rafters were blazing like tinder. Inside, his
children, whom he loved moat tenderly, were romp
ing and amusing themselves with their toys.
The distracted father said to himself, "I will run
1 Burnouf, Introd. pp. 131, 132.

86 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
in and save my children. I will seize them in my
strong arms. I will bear them harmless through the
falling rafters and the blazing beams ! " Then the
sad thought seized him that his children were romping
and ignorant. "If I tell them that the house ia on
fire they will not underatand me. If I try to seize
them they will romp about and try to escape. Alas !
not a moment is to be lost ! "
Suddenly a bright thought flashed acroaa the old
man'a mind. " My children are ignorant," he mentally
said, "but they love toys and glittering playthings.
I will promise them some playthings of unheard-of
beauty. Then they will listen to me!"
So the old man shouted out with a loud voice,
"Children, children, come out of the house and see
theae beautiful toys. Chariots with white oxen, all
gold and tinael. See theae exquisite little antelopes !
Whoever saw such goats as these ! Children, children,
come quickly or they will all be gone ! "
Forth from the blazing ruin came the children in
hot haste. The word "playthings" waa almost the
only word that they could understand. Then the fond
father, in his great joy at seeing his offspring freed
from peril, procured for them aome of the most
beautiful chariots ever seen. Each chariot had a
canopy like a pagoda. It had tiny rails and balus
trades and rows of jingling bella. It was formed
of the seven precioua substances. Chaplets of glitter
ing pearls were hung aloft upon it ; standards and
wreaths of the most lovely flowera. Milk-white oxen
drew these chariots. The children were astonished
when they were placed inaide.
The meaning of thia parable ia thua rendered in the

PARABLES 87
White Lotus of Bharma. The old man is Tathagata,
and his children the blind, suffering children of sin
and passion. TathS,gata fondly lovea them, and would
save them from their unhappiness. The old rambling
mansion, unsightly, rotten, perilous, is the domain of
K^ma, the Domain of Appetite, the three great worlds
of the visible kosmos. This old mansion is ablaze
with the fire of mortal passions and hates and lusts.
Tathagata in his "immense compassion" would lead
all his beloved children away from this great peril,
but they do not understand his language. Their only
thought is of tinsel toys and childish pastimes. If
he speaks to them of the great inner quickening
which makes man conquer human pain, they cannot
understand him. If he talks to them of wondrous
supernatural gifts accorded to mortals, they turn a
deaf ear to him. The tinsel chariots provided for the
children of Tathigata are the " Greater " and " Lesser "
Vehicles of the Buddhist teaching.
The Sermon to RIhula respecting Falsehood
Of the seven sacred books recognised in the days
of A^oka, one mentioned in the Bhabra edict has
lately come to light; and this has been found not
in the vaunted ancient canon of Ceylon, but in China.
I give thia short work in extenso as translated by
the invaluable Professor Beal.^
"In days of old, before Rahula had attained to
supreme wisdom, his natural disposition being some
what low and disorderly, hia worda were not always
marked by love of truth. On one occasion Buddha
^ Dhammapada, p. 142.

88 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
had ordered him to go to the Kien-tai [Ghanda or
Ghanta?] Vihara, and there remain guarding his
mouth [tongue] and governing hia thoughts, at the
same time diligently studying [or observing] the
rules of conduct laid down in the scriptures.
RS.hula, having heard the command, made his
obeisance and went. For ninety days he remained
in deep ahame and penitence. At length Buddha
repaired to the place and showed himself. On see
ing him, Rahula was filled with joy, and reverently
bowed down and worshipped him. After this, Buddha
having taken the seat provided for him, he desired
Rahula to fill a water-basin with water and bring
it to him and wash his feet. Having done so, and
the washing being over, Buddha asked Rahula if the
water so used was now fit for any purpose of domestic
use [drinking, etc.] ; and on RS,hula replying in the
negative because the water waa defiled with dust
and dirt, Buddha added, ' And such is your case ;
for although you are my son and the grandchild of
the king, although you have voluntarily given up
everything to become a Shaman, nevertheless you
are unable to guard your tongue from untruth and
the defilement of loose conversation, and so you are
like this defiled water — useful for no further purpose.'
And again he asked him, after the water had been
thrown away, whether the vessel waa now fit for
holding water to drink; to which R&hula replied,
'No, for the vesael ia still defiled, and is known as
an unclean thing, and therefore not used for any
purpose such as that indicated.' To which Buddha
again replied, 'And such is your case. By not
guarding your tongue, etc., you are known and

PARABLES 89
recognised as unfit for any high purpose, although
you profess to be a Shaman.' And then once more
lifting the empty basin on to his foot, and whirling
it round and round, he asked Rahula if he were not
afraid lest it should fall and be broken; to which
Rahula replied that he had no such fear, for the
vessel was but a cheap and common one, and
therefore its loas would be a matter of small moment.
'And auch is your case,' again said Buddha; 'for
though you are a Shaman, yet, being unable to guard
your mouth or your tongue, you are destined, as a
small and insignificant thing, to be whirled in the
endless eddies of transmigration, an object of con
tempt to all the wise.' Rahula being filled with
shame, Buddha addressed him once more. 'Listen,
and I will speak to you a parable. There was in old
time the king of a certain country, who had a large
and very powerful elephant, able to overpower by its
own strength five hundred smaller elephants. This
king, being about to go to war with some rebellious
dependency, brought forth the iron armour belonging
to the elephant, and directed the master of the animal
to put it on him, to wit, two sharp-pointed swords on
his tusks, two iron hooks [scythes] on his ears, a
crooked apear on each foot, an iron club [or ball]
attached to his tail, and to accompany him were
appointed nine soldiers as escort. Then the elephant-
master rejoiced to aee the creature thus equipped, and
trained him above all things to keep his trunk well
coiled up, knowing that an arrow piercing that in the
midst must be fatal. But lo! in the middle of the
battle the elephant, uncoiling his trunk, aought to
seize a sword with it. On which the master was

90 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
affrighted, and, in consultation with the king and his
ministers, it was agreed that he ahould no more
be brought into the battlefield.' In continuation
Buddha said : ' Rahula ! if men, committing the nine
faults, only guard their tongue as this elephant
was trained to guard his trunk, all would be well
Let them guard against the arrow that strikes
in the middle ! let them keep their mouth, lest
they die, and fall into the misery of future births
in the three evil paths ! ' And then he added these
stanzas : —
" ' I am like the fighting elephant without any fear
of the middle arrow [the arrow wounding the middle
part]. By sincerity and truth I escape the un
principled man [lawless man]. Like the elephant, well
subdued and quiet, who permits the king to mount on
hia trunk [offers his trunk for the king to ascend],
thus tamed is the reverend man; he also endures
truthfully and in faith.'
"Rahula, hearing these words, was filled with
sorrow for hia careless disregard of his words, and
gave himself up to renewed exertion, and so became
a Rabat." Externals
Against Buddha's teaching two main objections
have been urged:
1. That his Bodhi, viewed from a spiritual point of
view, is mere selfishness. The individual isolates
himself from hia race for his own advantage.
2. The monkish system that he spread abroad has,
in point of fact, produced many grave evils — idleness,
immorality, depravity, etc. — and is, in fact, pure

PARABLES 91
pessimism. One answer meets both objections, that
is, as far as they are unjust.
The problem before a reformer in Buddha's day
was essentially practical. To enfranchise the world,
what possible apparatus was available ? The oratory
of the uninspired demagogue would not have been
listened to by the masses, and would have been
quickly silenced by the dominant caste. Books,
printing presses, even the letters of the alphabet were
unavailable; and the victories of material force in
Buddha's view meant merely the firmer riveting of
chains. So Buddha, himself a king, in commencing
his conflict, handed over an army of soldiers and an
army of priests to his antagonists, determined that
the victory should be a purely moral one. One
weapon alone was within reach — the tree of the
Riahi. Under that tree God apake. Such was the
belief of the people, baaed on the teaching of the
Vedic hymns, as recited at every sacrifice. With
Buddha the Bodhi meant not selfishness, but the
complete conquest of self; and the initiation of the
Rishi under his tree was merely a means to an end.
Instead of being sloth, that end was boundleaa
activity in contributing to the happiness of others.
His blameless soldiers, having given up wife and
wealth, were ordered to march from tree to tree,
never resting for two nights under the same one.
No halt waa to be allowed but the grave aa long
as a king oppressed his subjects, a priest tortured
animala, or as long as spiritual ignorance tortured
priests and kinga.
Viewed from the historical aide, the following origin
alities may be accredited to Buddhism : —

92 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
1. Enforced vegetarianism for the whole nation.
2. Enforced national abstinence from wine.
3. Abolition of slavery.
4. The introduction of the principle of forgiveness
of injuries in oppoaition to the national lex talionis.
5. Uncompromising antagonism to all national
religious rites that were opposed to the gnosis or
spiritual development of the individual.
6. Beggary, continence, and asceticism for the
religious teachers.
These are the aix originalities of the Buddhist
movement, as viewed from the outside.
Up to the age of eighty, the indefatigable old man
carried on his preachings, chiefly in modem Behar (a
corruption of Vihara, the old word for monastery).
The ancient booka acarcely help us here, owing to
Eastem exaggerations and Eastern romance. Kings
everywhere bow to him humbly, and converts come
in, not by thousands but by tens of thousands.
From Patna he marches to RSjS.griha, and from Raja
griha to Kapilavastu, founding monasteries every
where. On this point we have more to say by and
by-
Death of Buddha
Some eighty miles due east of Buddha's birthplace,
Kapilavastu, now atanda a modeat village called Mith^
Kuar (the "Dead Prince"). At the date of the
pilgrimage of Hwen Thsang there was a reaaon for
this. Under a splendid temple-canopy reposed in
marble a " Dead Prince," and this circumstance is still
remembered by the natives. The ruins of this temple
can still be traced. Exactly four hundred and seventy

PARABLES 93
years before Christ the spot was a jangal of S&la-
trees, and beneath the shade of two of theae lay calm
and rigid the gentle teacher whom Indiana call the
" Best Friend of all the World." Buddha was journey
ing from Rajagriha when he reached this resting-
place. Its name was Ku^inagara. At Beluva, near
Vai^ali, he was attacked with a severe illness.
Violent pains seized him. He was very nearly
dying. Ananda was disconsolate, but Buddha com
forted him.
" What need hath the body of my followers of me
now, Ananda? I have declared the doctrine, and I
have made no distinction between within and without.
He who says, ' I will rule over the Sangha ! ' or, ' Let
the Sangha be subjected to me ! ' he, Ananda, might
declare his will in the Church. The Tathagata, how
ever, does not aay, ' I will rule over the Church.' ... I
am now frail, Ananda ; I am aged, I am an old man
who haa finished his pilgrimage and reached old age.
Eighty years old am I.
"Be to yourselves, Ananda, your own light, your
own refuge. Seek no other refuge. Let Dharma be
your light and refuge. Seek no other refuge. . . .
Whosoever now, Ananda, or after my departure, shall
be his own light, his own refuge, and shall aeek no
other refuge, will henceforth be my true disciple and
walk in the right path."
Buddha journeyed on until he reached a place
called P&v4. There he was attacked with a grievous
sickness. Weary, the old pilgrim reached a stream,
the Kakuttha (the modern Badhi, according to General
Cunningham). Buddha bathed and sipped some of the
water ; carts were passing and they thickened it with

94 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
mud. A little farther on, by the side of the river
Haranyavati (Chota Gandak), was a grove of 641a-
trees. Between two of these blossoming trees was
the Nirvana that the sick and weary pilgrim was
sighing for.
Under these two famous trees, with his head lying
towards the north, the old man was laid. " Weep not,
sorrow not, Ananda," he said. "From all that man
loves and enjoys he must tear himself.
" My existence is ripening to its close. The end of
my life is near. I go hence. Ye remain behind.
The place of refuge is ready for me." ^
Before expiring, the teacher entered into the ex
tasia of Sam^dhi; and mighty thunders and earth-
rockings announced the passing away of a great
Chakravartin. Buddha's last words were :
"Hearken, 0 disciples, I charge you. All that
comea into being passes. Seek your salvation with
out weariness." 'Oldenberg, Buddha, p. 199.

CHAPTER VI
AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH
I HAVE found, after much investigation, and I hope to
convince the reader, that the progress and evolution of
Buddhism can best be made intelligible by dividing its
advance into four distinct periods.
1. March of the formidable Parivrdjikas across
India. Their monasteries were trees ; their temples
were forests; their monks' cowls, tree -bark; their
gospel, the inner light.
2. Conversion of King A^oka, whose rule over India
was more extensive than that of any Mogul. A
more official and definite religion was required for
this large empire. Date of King A^oka, B.C. 257.
3. Rise of the Gospel of Flat Contradiction and ita
corollary, the worship of the coming and dethronement
of the past Buddha, two expedients considered necessary
in introducing the Sunyavddi's creed, namely, that
men and gods, even the highest, come from Nothingness
or Sunya, and after a sickly dream of unreal worlda
retum to Sunya.
4. Recoil, and rise of the Aiswarikas, who, finding
Buddha's pedestal vacant, set up the " Eternal Life
Buddha" (Amitdyas or Amitdbha), with his eternal
paradise (Sukhdvati).
When Buddhism came to Europe it waa apread
95

96 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
by a aort of freemasonry. In an early work I sug
gested that perhaps in India a similar expedient may
have been at starting adopted. For this I waa taken
to task in the Indian Antiquary for my "crass
ignorance." The critic pointed triumphantly to the
abundant chronicles of the southern Buddhists, — but
are they quite reliable ? Let us consider the narrative
of the early Buddhist movement aa given by Professor
Rhys Davids in his Birth Stories.
Buddha, as we know, first preached the law in a
deer forest, about four miles to the north of the holy
city of Benares. The spot is called S4mS,th (Sarug-
ganS,tha, the "Lord of Deer") to this day. A^oka
built a splendid temple in this wildemess. The dome
ia ninety-three feet in diameter, and its imposing
mass still dominates the plain. Pilgrims from China
have visited it ; and pilgrims from all countries in the
world go to it still. It is called Dhamek, a corrup
tion for the Temple of Dharma. Now, the Cingalese
historian, evidently writing long after this temple
of Dharma had become famous, makes Buddha put
up in a fine temple and viheira in a "suburb of
Benares"^ during the first rainy season after his
conversion. Benares was already the most holy city of the
Hindoos, and yet it is recorded that Buddha preached
openly againat the Brahmin religion, and made sixty-
one converts.
He then proceeded to the powerful Brahmin king
dom of Magadha, and arrived at the capital, Rajfi,griha,
attended by over a thousand followers. The king at
once became a convert, with a large proportion of hia
1 Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 91.

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH 97
subjects; and handed over to Buddha the grove in
which the celebrated Venuvana monastery was after
wards situated. The Cingalese writer does not take
the trouble to say a word about the building of it,
being evidently under an impression that it waa
already there. Five months after Buddha had attained
the Bodhi, he started off to Kapilavastu, a distance
of sixty leagues, to aee his father. He was accom
panied by twenty thousand, yellow-robed, shaven
Bhikshus ; and he marched along the highroads of
the various Brahmin kingdoms that were on his road
without any moleatation. At Kapilavastu he found
another fine vihara ready for him ; and the bulk of the
nation and the king became converts to hia religion.
He returned shortly to Rajagriha to find a convenient
merchant ready at once to hand over to him the rich
vihara, or monastery, of Jetavana at Sravasti (Sahet
Mahet). Buddha went at once to the spot; and this
time the chronicler allows a vihara to be built, a new
one, he again fancying apparently that one was there.
There was " a pleasant room for the sage," separate
apartments for " eighty elders," and " other reaidences
with single and double walls, and long halls and open
roofs ornamented with ducks and quails; and ponds
also he made, and terraces to walk on by day and by
night."! When Buddha arrived at Sravasti thia convent
was dedicated to him by the merchant, who went
through a formula well known in the ancient inscrip
tions of Ceylon. He poured water out of a bowl,
and made over the land to the monks. Then a
gorgeous festival took place, which lasted nine months.
' Buddhist Birth Stories, p. 130.
7

98 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Exactly five hundred and forty millions of gold pieces
were expended on thia feaat and on the convent;
so that we may presume, I suppose, that most of the
inhabitants of the powerful Brahmin kingdom of Sra
vasti had become converts. Thus, in less than a year,
Buddha had practically converted the Brahmin king-
dome that stretch from Srivaatl (Sahet Mahet) to Gay4.
In a word, his creed had already won what is called
the Holy Land of the Buddhists.
Is all this true ? Even by lopping off Eastern ex
aggerations and accretions, can we reduce it in any
way to a plausible story ? If the Buddhism set forth
by Dr. Rhys Davids, or even by M. Barthelemy St.
Hilaire, be the real Buddhism that waa preached by
Buddha, I say that the taak is impossible. If in the
holiest city of the Hindooa, Buddha had proclaimed
that there was no God, and in a complete and cate
gorical manner had announced that man had no soul,
nor anything of any aort that existed after death, the
cruel laws of the Brahmins against heresy would have
been put in force against him. Dr. Rhys Davids
contends that it ia proved by the Upanishads that
"absolute freedom of thought" existed in ancient
India.! But the Upanishads were secret, — he forgets
that. They were whispered to pupils who had passed
through a severe probation. Megasthenes, the Greek
ambassador to Patna, bears witness to thia.^
To assail a Brahmin, his privileges and class interests
was the one sin in those days for which there was no
forgiveness. We see this from the laws of Manu.
Buddha, in every sermon, assailed these root and
branch. He denounced the caste system, the bloody
^ Hibbert Lectures, p. 26. ^ Cory, Aiicient Fragments, p. 225.

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH 99
sacrifice, the use of wine in the Soma sacrifice, the
lucrative pilgrimages. In a word, the principal sources
of priestly revenue and ascendency were freely assailed.
Another great difficulty about the early years of
Buddha's ministry is this monastery (vihara) question.
It is plain that Dr. Rhys Davids' biography is the
work either of a pious knave giving the sanction of
Buddha to large donations for convents, processions,,
etc., or of a pious fool too dull to draw any picture
except that of the late and corrupt Buddhism that was
under his nose. The real question is. Did the earliest
disciples dwell in any vih§,ra at all ?
From the North we get an important aet of Buddhist
mlea — the "Twelve Obaervanees." The "Mob of
Beggars," aa Buddha called hia followers, are expressly
forbidden to have any covering over them except a.
tree. Their " one seat " is to be mother earth. Their
clothea are to be rags from the dustheap, the dung
heap, the graveyard. The tree that covers the beggar
must be, if possible, in a graveyard. He is to be called
Durkhrodpa (" He who lives in a graveyard "). He is
not allowed to sleep twice under the same tree.^
These rules, if genuine, put the Cingalese chronicles-
out of court. Let ua consider the vih§,ra as an ap
paratus of propagandism. Could it have conquered
India ? Could it have conquered Asia ?
Buddha in person, in Dr. Rhys Davids' translation,,
tells us the functions of viharas :
" Cold they ward off, and heat ;
So also beasts of prey
And creeping things and gnats,
And rains in the cold season ;
1 Burnouf, Introd. pp. 269, 274.

IOC BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
And when the dreaded heat and winds
Arise they ward them off.
To give to monks a dwelling-place
Wherein in safety and in peace
To think till mysteries grow clear,
The Buddha calls a worthy deed.
Let, therefore, a wise man,
Regarding his own weal,
Have pleasant monasteries built,
And lodge there learned men.
Let him with cheerful mien
Give food to them and drink.
And clothes and dwelling-places
To the upright in mind.
Then shall they preach to him the truth." ^
If this translation of Dr. Rhys Davids gives us, as it
professes to do, the truest and most authentic account
available of a vihara in the first year of Buddha's
preaching, we gather that the chief objects of a vihara
were: 1. To afford shelter, clothes, food, and comfort to
a recluse whilat he developed hia individual spirit
ualism. 2. To keep off from the monks the fiooda of the
rainy aeaaon, the great heata of the hot aeason,
the fiery blasts of the season of the hot winds, and
the cold of winter. Moreover, the vihira was to be
" pleasant." Now, if the monk resided in his vihEira in the hot
season, and during the rains and hot winds and in the
cold season, it is difficult to see when he acted aa mia-
sionary, for a monk in a monaatery is called the silent
one (Muni). In his walks abroad he may present
bis begging-bowl, but must not speak. A regulation
1 Birth Stories, p. 132.

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH loi
exists that the monk should devote himself to silent
meditation during the rainy aeason (Varshd);''- but
this rule must have been issued long subsequent to
the issue of the " Twelve Observances," as it stultifies
them. Vihira propagandism may be good for a country
which is already Buddhist; but I fail to see how it
could make a country of Buddhists. And yet some
very active propagandism must have leavened India
from one end to the other before A^oka made Bud
dhism the official creed. The Holy Land of the
Buddhists — and it is to that that Buddha's own
preaching was almost completely confined — was an
insignificant portion of Anoka's vast dominions. He
tells us that G&ndhara (Peshawur), to the north,
and Chola and Pandiya, the extreme southern
provinces of Hindostan, had become converted. On
the extreme west, at Girnar, near the Gulf of
Cutch, a rock inscription was cut. On the eastern
coast, at Ganjam, were the Dhauli and Jaugada in
scriptions. To Ceylon, and to Bactria, and to Egypt
the Buddhist missionaries, as he announces, had also
gone. Biahop Bigandet's history, the Burmese scripture,
gives a different colouring to these early days. It
makes Buddha go not to a suburb of Benares, where
there waa a vihara, but to Mrigadava, the "deer
forest," near Benares. When he leaves Benares he
makes his way towards the " desert of Uravilva." It
is under a tree in a forest that he is found by the
profligate young men whom he converts on his journey.
At Gaya it is on a mountain that he preaches. When
^ Hwen Thsang, Mimoires, vol. i. p. 64.

I02 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
he nears RaJEigriha he repairs to a "palm grove."
The king presents to him, not the vihara, but the
" Garden of Bamboos " (Venuvana). When he visits
Kapilavastu he goes to the " Grove of Banyan-Trees,"
and so on.
Buddha's instructiona alao to hia disciples are more
in harmony with the account given of early Buddhism
in the "Twelve Observances" than in the Cingalese
version. " A great duty is yours — to work for the happiness
of men and spirits. Let us separate and go each in
a different direction, no two following the same road.
Go and preach Dharma."
At the risk of getting a subtle thinker like Dr.
Oldenberg also charged with " crass ignorance " by the
critic of the Indian Antiquary, I must mention that
he also considers that there is little in this portion of
Buddha's life that deserves even the name of "tradi
tion," but "merely collections of countless real or
feigned addresses, dialogues, and sayings of Buddha."
The doctor affirms, also, that from the Cingalese
books, the "tarrying of aacetica under trees might
be multiplied ad libitum." Where else, he says,
could they sit in Buddha's time? The following
citation he givea from the Culahatthi pado pama
autta : —
" He dwella in a lonely apot, in a grove, at the foot
of a tree, on a mountain, in a cave, in a mountain
grotto, in a burialplace, in the wilderneaa, under an
open sky, on a heap of straw." That waa plainly early
Buddhism. The Russian Orientalist, Wassiljew, may here be
cited. He givea a fact from a Chineae translation of

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH 103
a history, attributed to Daranatha, the grandson of
Ai^oka. Daranatha announcea that a diaciple of Ananda
reached Caahmir. Thia means, of course, covert propa
gandism at a very early date.
In the British Museum are the marbles of the
Amar8,vati Tope. I see strangera, with puzzled look,
stop before certain tablets that represent marble
worshippers crouching before a small throne or table
placed before a marble tree. On the altar are often
two footprints. More learned inquirers have been
equally puzzled. But the recent exhumation of the
remains of the Stupa of Bharhut (B.C. 250) has placed
the meaning of tbese emblems beyond the region of
controversy. Similar designs have been there dis
covered, and they are furnished with explanations
incised in the P41i character. One, it is said, is the
throne and tree of Ka^yapa, another the throne and
tree of Kanaka Muni, and so on through the list of
the Seven Great Buddhas. Every Great Buddha has
his tree and his worship. And here I must mention
a curious piece of Chinese-puzzle adjustment, which
shows how closely the ritual fits the ancient temple,
and the temple the ritual. In vol. xvi. of the Asiatic
Researches, Professor Wilson gives a ritual from Nepal,
called the Praise of the Seven Buddhas (p. 453).
Each Buddha is " adored " in a aeparate paragraph, and
it is announced that he found emancipation under a
special tree. Comparing the list of these trees with
that of the Bharhut Stftpa, as given by General
Cunningham,! we find that five of the trees exactly
correspond. The sixth, that of Visvabhii, is obliterated.
Sakya Muni's tree in one list is the a^vattha, and in
1 StUpa qf Bharhut, p. 46.

I04 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
the other the pippala — synonyms for the Ficus
religiosa. This seems to give great antiquity to the
litany. I will copy down one or two of these addresses :
" I adore Jinendra, the consuming fire of sorrow, the
treasure of holy knowledge whom all revere, who bore
the name of Vipaavi, who was bom in the race of
mighty monarchs in the city of Bandumati, who was
for eighty thousand years the preceptor of gods and
men; and by whom, endowed with the ten kinds of
power, the degree of Jinendra was obtained at the foot
of a p4tala-tree."
This is the praise of Selkya Muni :
"I adore S^kya Sifaha the Buddha, the kinsman
of the sun, worshipped by men and gods, who was
born at the splendid ciby Kapilapura, of the family
of the chief of the Sakya kings, the life of which
best friend to all the world lasted one hundred years.
Having speedily subdued desire, unbounded wisdom
was acquired by him at the foot of the a^vattha-
tree." ^
We now come to a valuable piece of testimony,
that of a Greek visiting India. Seleucus Nicator
sent an ambassador, named Megasthenes, to King
Chandragupta (b.c. 302-298). He visited that
monarch at hia capital, Palibothra, or Patna. His
account of the India of that day is unfortunately
lost; but through Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Arrian,
and Clement of Alexandria, some valuable fragments
have come down to us. Patna, it must be remem
bered, was in the very heart of the Buddhist Holy
Land. Clement of Alexandria cites a passage from
' Asiatic Researches, xvi. p. 454.

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH 105
Megasthenes On Indian Affairs. On the same page
he thua deacribea the Indian " philoaophers " : —
" Of these there are two classes, some of them called
Sarmanse and others Brahmins. And those of the
Sarmanse who are called Hylobii neither inhabit cities
nor have roofs over them, but are clothed in the bark
of trees, feed on nuts, and drink water in their hands.
Like those called Encratites in the present day, they
know not marriage nor begetting of children. Some,
too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha, whom,
on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have
raised to divine honours."
The importance of thia paasage is this, that from
Strabo we get the description given by Megasthenes
of the Indian philosophers, and it is made certain that
the earlier part of this passage is from the same source.
Strabo describes the Brahmins and the " Germanes,"
also called, he says, " Hylobii." He gives the same
details as Clement of Alexandria about their feeding
on wild fruits and wearing the bark of trees. He,
too, draws a distinction between the Germanes and
the Brahmins on the subject of continency, the
Brahmins being polygamists.
From this it seems certain that Clement of
Alexandria waa writing with the original work of
Megasthenes before him. We may therefore con
clude that this passage about Buddha, sandwiched
as it is between two genuine citations, was also
in Megasthenes. Strabo has handed down to us
another statement of Megasthenes about the
Hylobii :
"By their means the kinga aerve and worship the
Deity."

io6 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
There can be no doubt that the Sarmanes (Sra-
manas) and Brahmins of Megasthenes were the
Brahmins and the Buddhists. To the first, accord
ing to Megasthenes, were confided aacrificea and
ceremonies, for the dead aa well as the living.
They were a caste apart, and none outside this caste
could perform their duties. The gods would not
accept the sacrifices of such an interloper. Their
ideas on life and death were very similar to those
of Plato and the Greeks. The Brahmina ate flesh
and had many wives. Every new year there was
a great synod of them. They dwelt in groves
near the great cities, on "couches of leaves and
skins." The Hylobii, on the other hand, insisted on abso
lute continence, and strict vegetarianism and water-
drinking. Clitarchus gives us an additional fact.
Megasthenes, we learn from him, has alao recorded
that the Hylobii "derided the Brahmina."
The First Convocation
Buddha died miserably under a tree, but, according
to Buddhaghosa, there were near Rajagriha at the
moment of his death eighteen great monasteries
"filled with rubbish." The monks determined to
repair these great monasteries, and they went to the
King of Rij4griha and said to him: "Maharaja, we
propose to hold a great convocation on religion and
discipline. On the Webhara Mountain is a cave
called Sattapanni. Be graciously pleased to prepare
that cave for us!"
The king at once gave orders that a mighty cave-

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH 107
temple should be scooped out of the rock. A " hall,"
with "pillars" and "walls," was executed as if by
the hand of Vi^vakarma, the architect of heaven.
"Flights of steps, embellished with representa
tions of festoons of flowers and of flower - creepers,
rivalling the splendour of the decorations of his
palace, and imitating the magnificence of the man
sions of the devaa," were constructed. Five hundred
carpeted seats were prepared for the monks, and a
pulpit for the principal. A preaching desk, " for the
sanctified Buddha himself," in the centre of the hall
facing the east, waa erected, and an ivory fan placed
upon it. This incident shows, I think, that the early
sermon-monger was auppoaed to get hia inapiration
direct from the dead Tathagata.
In two montha thia great cave-temple was com
pleted ; and the monks were summoned. A difficulty
arose about Ananda, who had not acquired the
miraculous powers that stamp the adept in the know
ledge of Prajna Paramita, the wisdom of the unseen
world. Thus, as first constituted, the convocation
conaiated of 499 membera, and a vacant carpet was
spread for Ananda. During the night he meditated
on the KayagastS, Satiyi., and in the moming
these powers came; and in proof he reached
his seat through the medium of the fioor of the
temple. Maha Ka^yapa was the chief Ther6, and he
opened the proceedings by requesting Upali to
detail Buddha's injunctions on diacipline. Upali
before answering sat in the pulpit of Buddha, and
held the mystic ivory fan. Three hundred and four
Sikkhapadini on form and rites were wearily gone

io8 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
through. After Upali detailed each aection the monka
at once chanted it forth. When Upali took the mystic
fan in his hand the mighty earth quaked. Aa the
narrative announcea that this was done to give the
assembly a greeting similar to the one that Buddha
used to give his Arhats, I think the idea plainly
waa that, inatead of being annihilated, the great
teacher waa present, obsessing Upali in hia chair.
After Upali had revealed all that he recollected from
Buddha's lips on the subject of discipline, Ananda
stepped into the "pulpit of the sanctified Buddha
himself," and detailed all the utterances that he
could call to mind about Dharma. The Northern
account gives to Ananda the Sutras, and to Ka^yapa
the department of Prajn.a Paramita, or Dharma.
The convocation aat for aeven months. Earthquakes
and other miracles greeted its finish.
Now it seems to me we are here in the presence
of a piece of pure history. The details of the great
cave-temple with its mats, pulpits, ivory fan, chanting
monks, etc., are too lifelike to be absolute invention.
The incident of the eighteen tumbledown viharas
filled with rubbish but hastily got ready is not the
sort of incident that would have suggested itself to a
Cingalese writer of fiction. The Mahsiwanao, describ
ing the great banquets during Anoka's inauguration,
announces that elks, wild hogs, and winged game
came to the king's kitchen of their own accord, and
then expired ; that parrots daily brought nine hundred
thousand loads of hill paddy, and mice husking that
hill paddy converted it into rice. The fine fancy of
a Cingalese historian, if left to itself, would have gone
off into similar flights.

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH 109
But if the convocation described is a bond fide
convocation, it cannot be the flrst convocation of the
Cingalese records; nor yet the second, nor even
the third. The cave, which is thought to be the
Sattapanni cave (though its identity is questioned
by Mr. Fergusson), is, according to that authority,
a natural cave "slightly improved by art."! In
Anoka's day the cave - temple was a amall cave
without sculpture, and with merely a polished roof.
Even in Kaniika'a day there was no cave-temple of
the gorgeous pattern here described. This gives a
very modern date to the narrative. It givea us, I
think, without any doubt, some details of Kaniska's
convocation. Observe that the number of monks in
Kaniska's convocation, and the number of monks in
the first convocation as recorded by Buddhaghosa, are
in each case exactly 499. In each case, also, this is
made up to 500 by a monk performing a miracle.
It must be remembered that if, in the third or
fourth century of our era, a writer in Ceylon were
drawing up a history of the convocations, the details
of the last one would naturally be the most prominent
in his mind. He would aee the panorama of hiatory
reversed. The last convocation would be clear, the
second and firat dim and shadowy. I must point out,
too, that the incident of the chanting monka could
not have taken place, aa described in the Ceylon
books. It would be quite impossible to get 500
monks to learn by heart a voluminous canon, four
timea as long as our Bible, in the time given. Two
contradictory narratives have been made use of — a
story similar to the Northern story, which announced
^ Indian Architecture, p. 108.

no BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
that three disciples collected the scanty scraps of the
remembered precepts of Buddha three months after
his death, and a narrative of Kaniska's convocation,
whieh would have had the incident of the chanting
monks. At that period they could have sung out
all the canonical booka, aa they knew them by
heart. But the evidence that Buddhaghoaa'a account of
the first convocation has been largely made up from
details of Kaniska's convocation is by no meana
exhausted. The chief individual work diacuaaed
was the Brahmaj^a Sutra. Mahi Ka^yapa, the
president, asked Ananda which Sutra should be first
considered. "Lord, the Brahmaj&la Sutra," said Ananda.
"Let us then rehearse first that Siitra," said the
president, " which triumphed over the varioua heretical
faiths sustained by hypocrisy and fraud, which un
ravelled the doctrinal iaaue of the sixty-two heterodox
secta, and shook the earth together with its ten
thousand component parts." When Ananda had
explained all about this Sutra, the earth rocked.
" All the thirteen Siitras," says the narrative, " were
then rehearsed in the prescribed forms."
This little passage lets the cat quite out of the bag.
The Brahmajdla Siitra is the Bible of Pyrrho-Bud
dhism. M. de R^musat,! in his translation of Fa Hian's
Voyages, announces that it is called a Mah&yana
tractate by Hoa Yen, the leading Chinese authority
on the Great Vehicle literature. Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio,
the accomplished Japanese scholar recently employed
at the India Office to draw up a catalogue of the
1 Pilgrimage of Fa Eian, p. 108, note.

AFTER BUDDHA'S DEATH

1 1 1

Buddhist scriptures, also pronounces it to belong to
the literature of the Mahayana movement. This
might have thrown some suspicion in the minds of
those who were making it the brief for their great
impeachment of Buddha.
The facts here stated, if placed in two parallel
columns, will make more convincing still our con
clusion tbat the story of the first convocation is a
dishonest fiction invented to give the authority of
age to the Brahmajala Siitra.

Convocation of Rajagriha,
B.C. 470.
Had 499 members and a vacant
seat.
Excluded monk performs a silly
miracle.
He is admitted and made chief
instructor of the Assembly.
Coimcil triumphs over "sixty-
two heretical sects."
Approves of Pyrrho-Buddhism
as set forth in the Brahmajala
Sfatra.

Convocation of King Kaniska,
A.D. 16.
Had 499 members and a vacant
seat.
Excluded monk performs a sUly
miracle.
He is admitted and made chief
instructor of the Assembly.
Council triumphs over number
less lieretics.
CaUed together, especiaUy to
establish Pyrrho-Buddhism.

The Second Convocation
Of this convocation we need not say much. There
is nothing about it in the Northem recorda, and Mr.
Tumour, in voL vi of the Jowrnal of the Bengal
Asiatic Society, gives good reasons for believing that
its record is a simple fiction invented by Buddhaghosa.
It is said to have occurred at VaisaJi one hundred
years after the first (that is, B.C. 370), or about seventy
years before Megasthenes %-isited Patna, a spot about

112 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
twenty miles from VaiMli. The chief point debated
waa whether monka living in aumptuous mona.steries
might or might not have fringes to their couches.
The monks in thoae regiona at the date of Megas
thenes had couches of mother earth fringed only with
thistles.

CHAPTER VII
KING aSoKA
In Buddha Gaya, in the year B.C. 520, Buddha sat
under a pippala tree dreaming of a Bharma Rdj.
We have all our visions at timea of this Bharma Rdj,
a bright kingdom of Dreamland where wrong ia
righted; but who, like Buddha, aees his dream made
concrete ?
Buddha sat under the renowned Ficus religiosa,
B.C. 520. Two hundred and fifty years after this
appeared King A^oka and the Dharma Rdj.
Asoka, at the age of twenty-four, succeeded to the
throne of Patna. His brothers raised troops, and
sought to upset him. After a sharp struggle he over
came them, and treated them with the usual mercy of
Asiatics towarda brothera near the throne. He was
the grandson of Sandrocottus, who was placed on the
throne by Brahmin intrigue. A^oka was at first a
pious Brahmin, and 50,000 Brahmins were fed by him
daily. Also he was a capable soldier, for he conquered
morklndian territory than Clive, Lake, Wellington, and
Napiek if they were to sum up the area of their
united conquests.
But alter his consecration he had several conversa
tions with a Buddhist monk named Nigrauda. Much
interested in Buddha, he received eagerly the details of

114 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
his life and teaching. Soon the king was converted,
and he made Buddhism the State religion.
Shortly before this, according to the calculations of
Sir Alexander Cunningham and Professor Max Muller,
India received the letters of the alphabet. The gift
was happily timed, because the first use made of it was
to scratch ideas on rocks and stones. In the year
B.C. 251, King A^oka incised his earliest rock edict.
He soon issued a great many more. Some idea of the
extent of his rule and the apread of Buddhism may be
gained from the fact that on the extreme west of
India he cut a rock inscription at Girnar on the Gulf of
Cutch. On the east coast, at Ganjam, were the Dhauli
and Jaugada edicts ; and GUndh^ra, or Peshawur, was
reached in the north; and Chola and Pindiya, the
extreme southern provinces of India, as I have said
before. I have said that it was a fortunate circumstance
that the rude expedient was adopted of cutting the
edicts on stone, because innovators cannot treat stone
edicts like manuscripts on plantain leaves ; and we get
at once an opportunity of finding out at least what
Buddha's disciples thought about God, spirit, and
man'a future.

King Asoka's Ideas about God
"Much longing after the things [of this life] is a
disobedience, I again declare; not less ao ia the
laborious ambition of dominion by a prince who would
be a propitiator of Heaven. Confess and believe in
God [I^ana], who is the worthy object of obedi
ence. For equal to this [belief], I declare unto you,

KING ASOKA 115
ye shall not find such a means of propitiating
Heaven. Oh, strive ye to obtain this inestimable
treasure." !
"Thus spake King Dev&nampiya Piyadasi: The
preaent moment and the past have departed under the
same ardent hopes. How by the conversion of the
royal born may religion be increased ? Through the
conversion of the lowly born if religion thua increaaeth,
by how much [more] through the conviction of the
high born and their conversion shall religion increaae ?
Among whomaoever the name of God reateth, verily
this is religion."
"Thua apake Devanampiya Piyadasi: Wherefore
from this very hour I have caused religious discourses
to be preached. I have appointed religioua observances-
that mankind, having listened thereto, shall be brought
to follow in the right path, and give glory to God." *
" It is well known, sirs, to what lengths have gone
my respect for and faith in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha." *
"Whatever words bave been spoken by the divine
Buddha, they have all been well said." *
"And he who acts in conformity with this edict
shall be united with Sugato." *
" The white elephant, whose name is The Bringer of
Happiness to the Whole World." ^
l^ina is the name that has been selected by the
Sanskrit scholars employed recently in translating
" God save the Queen." Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
make up the Buddhist Trinity, which is precisely
^ First Separate Edict, Dhauli, Prinsep.
' Edict No. VII., Prinsep. ' Second Bairslt Rook, Burnout.
* Second Baira,t Rook, "Wilson. ° Delhi Pillar, Prinsep.
' Final Sentence of the Book Edicts, Kern.

1x6 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
similar to that of Philo and the Gnoatica. Buddha is
spirit ; Dharma, matter ; Sangha, ideal humanity, the
Christ. They figure together as three beings in the
sculptures of Buddha Gaya, one of Anoka's temples.
Later on they got also to mean Buddha, his law and
his monks.
Asoka on a Future Life
"On the many beings over whom I rule I confer
happiness in this world ; in the next they may obtain
Swarga [paradise]." !
" This is good. With these means let a man seek
Swarga. This ia to be done. By theae means it is to be
done, as by them Swarga [paradise] is to be gained." ^
" I pray with every variety of prayer for those who
differ with me in creed, that they, following after my
example, may with me attain unto eternal salvation." *
" And whoso doeth this is blessed of the inhabitants
of this world ; and in the next world endless moral
merit resulteth from such religious charity." *
" Unto no one can be repentance and peace of mind
until he hath obtained supreme knowledge, perfect
faith, which surmounteth all obstacles, and perpetual
assent." *
" In the tenth year of his anointment, the beloved
King Piyadasi obtained the Sambodhi, or complete
knowledge." ^
" All the heroism that Piyadasi, the beloved of the
gods, has exhibited is in view of another life. Earthly
glory brings little profit, but, on the contrary, produces
' Edict VI., "Wilson. ' Edict IX., "Wilson.
" Delhi Pillar, Edict VI., Prinsep. « Edict XI., Prinsep.
« Rook Edict, No. VIL, Prinsep. « Rock Edict, No. VIL, Burnouf.

KING ASOKA iir
a loss of virtue. To toil for heaven is difficult to
peasant and to prince, unless by a supreme effort he
gives up all." !
" May they [my loving subjects] obtain happiness in
this world and in the next." ^
" The beloved of the gods apeak eth thua : It is more
than thirty-two years and a half that I am a hearer of
the law, and I did not exert myself strenuously ; but
it is a year or more that I have entered the community
of ascetics, and that I have exerted myself strenuously.
Those gods who during this time were considered to be
true gods in Jambudvipa have now been abjured. . . .
A small man who exerts himself somewhat can gain
for himaelf great heavenly bliss, and for thia purpoae
thia aermon has been preached. Both great onea and
small ones ahould exert themaelvea, and ahould in the
end gain [true] knowledge. And this manner of act
ing should be what? Of long duration! For the
spiritual good will grow the growth, and will grow
exceedingly ; at the least it will grow one aize and
a half. " Thia aermon has been preached by the departed.
" Two hundred and fifty years have elapsed since the
departure of the teacher." ^
Mysticism
Did early Buddhism " relegate mysticism to the-
regions of fairy-tale," as aome have asserted ?
"There is no such charity as the charity which
springeth from virtue [Dharma], which is the inti-
' Eock Edict, No. X., Burnouf. - Second Separate Edict, Burnouf.
' Eupn4th Rock, Biihler.

iiS BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
mate knowledge of virtue [Dharma], the inheritance
of virtue [Dharma], the close union with virtue
[Dharma]." !
"The beloved of the gods. King Piyadasi, honours
all forms of religious faith, whether professed by
ascetics [pavajitani] or householders [gahathani]." ^
" Whatever villages with their inhabitants may be
given or maintained for the sake of the worship, the
devotees shall receive the same; and for an example
unto my people, they shall exerciae aolitary auater-
itiea."* " And he who acta in conformity with thia edict
shall be united with Sugato." *
Bharma has been translated " the Law," " Virtue,"
" Thought," " Righteousness," by various scholars. Let
the Buddhists give their own translation in their
ritual. " I salute that Bharma who is Prajfld Pdra
mitd (the Wisdom of the Other Bank)." «
Now, it aeems easy enough for bishops and Boden
Professors of Sanskrit to explain away Buddha. He
was an atheist. He "professed to know nothing of
spirit aa diatinct from bodily organism."^ He had
"no religion" (p. xxviii); "no prayer" (p. xxviii);
no "idea of original sin" (p. 114). He had no real
morality, merely " monk morality " (p. 125). He " could
not inculcate piety" (p. 124). AU these state-
menta may be and are accepted by many readera,
but how are we to explain away A^oka ? A king who
professed to be specially Buddha's pupil, and by the aid
' Edict XIL, Prinsep. = Rock Edict, No. XIL, "Wilson.
" Delhi Pillar, Edict IV., Prinsep.
* Delhi PUlar, Prinsep. ^ Baptismal Ritual of NepM.
• Sir Monier Monier-Williams, Biiddhism, p. 105.

KING ASOKA 119
of a chisel and hard stone has placed beyond a doubt
what he thought upon the subject of Buddha's religion.
Could Cartouche build up a Fenelon ? Could a Wilber
force develop himself prompted chiefiy by a robust
admiration of the president of the Hell-Fire Club ?
It may be confidently affirmed that there is nothing
in the world's hiatory like the Bha/rma Rdj of King
A^oka. Imagine Napoleon and Fenelon rolled into
one. He antedatea Wilberforce in the matter of
slavery. He antedates Howard in his humanity
towards prisoners. He antedates Tolstoi in his desire
to turn the sword into a pruning-hook. He antedates
Rousseau, St. Martin, Fichte, in their wish to make
interior religion the all in all.
Here are two passages from his edicts that go beyond
anything to be seen in any modern State.
"Piyadasi, the friend of the Devas, attaches leaa
importance to alma and outside rites than to his desire
to witness the spread of interior religion." !
" Progress in Bharma may be obtained in two
manners — by formal rules, and by the feelings that they
help to arouse in the heart. In this double influence
the first has a very inferior value, the inner quickening
is what is really important." ^
This is what he would have said at the Czar's Peace
Congress :
" Piyadasi, the friend of the Devas, values alone the
harvest of the next world. For thia alone has this
inscription been chiselled, that our sons and our grand
sons should make no new conquests. Let them not
think that conquests by the sword merit the name of
conquests. Let them see their ruin, confusion, and
' Edict XIIL, Senart. " Delhi Pillar, Edict VIIL, Senart.

I20 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
violence. True conqueata alone are the conquests of
Dharma." !
Other Reforms
" Formerly, in the great refectory and temple of
King Piyadasi, the friend of the Devas, many hundred
thouaand animals were daily sacrificed for the sake of
food meat, . . . but now the joyful chorus resounds
again and again that henceforward not a single animal
shall be put to death." ^
" If a man is subject to slavery and ill-treatment,
from this moment he shall be delivered by the king
from this and other captivity. Many men in this
country auffer in captivity, therefore the attipa con
taining the commands of the king haa been a great
want." '
But King Anoka's Edicts throw a strong light upon
one very important point indeed — the date of the rise
of monka in the sense of housed aedentary idlers.
This point I myself have overlooked in my early
examination of these inscriptions.
Anoka's word for the Buddhist monks is Pavajitdni.
This means houseleaa aacetics. The Sanakrit word
for a monastery is Saughardma, the Garden of the
Monks. In point of fact, in the earliest days the
monastery was a forest.
" Everywhere the heaven - beloved Raja Piyadasi'a
double aystem of medical aid is established, both
medical aid for man and medical aid for animals. . . .
And wherever there is not such provision, in all auch
places it is to be prepared and planted, both root
' Edict No. XIV., Senart. " Eock Edict, No. I., Prinsep.
' Dhauli Edict, No. I., Prinsep.

KING A^OKA 121
drugs and herba. Wheresover there is not a provision
of them, in all such places shall they be deposited
and planted. And in the public highways wells are
to be dug and trees to be planted for the accommoda
tion of men and animala."
If we call to mind that in Buddhist countries like
Tibet the monasteries are still the only hostelries,
and the monks the only doctors, it ia plain that the
treea here mentioned to be planted along the high-road
are for aacred groves or Saughardmas.
Here is another inscription :
" Whenever devotees ahall abide around or circum
ambulate the holy fig-tree for the performance of
pioua acts, the benefit and pleasure of the country
and its inhabitants shall be in making offerings, and
according to their generosity or otherwise they shall
enjoy prosperity or adversity; and they shall give
thanks for the coming of the faith. Whatever
villages with their inhabitants may be given or
maintained for the sake of the worship, the devotees
shall receive the aame, and for the example of my
people they ahall exerciae aolitary austerities. And
likewise whatever blessings they shall pronounce, by
these shall my devotees accumulate for the worship.
Furthermore, the people in the night shall attend
the great myrobalan-tree and the holy fig-tree. My
people shall accumulate the great myrobalan-tree
(Terminalia chebula). My devotees doing thus
for the pleasure and profit of the village, whereby
they, coming around the beauteous and holy fig-tree,
may cheerfully abide in the performance of pioua
acts." ! 1 Delhi Pillar, Edict IV., Prinsep.

122 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
If we put two and two together, theae passages
throw light on the monastery question at the date of
A^oka. The Saughardma was a holy grove with an
adjoining village. The grove was peopled with as
cetics, performing their dreamy yoga under treea " for
the benefit of the village." These seem very different,
at firat sight, from Buddha's Parivrdjikas, who were
not allowed to stay more than one night in one place,
but Buddha's commands were probably addressed to
fully enlightened Bhikshus, not postulants.
We must bear in mind the problem that Asoka had
to solve :
1. Having conquered India, he required a vast army
¦of enlightened Bhikshus to wean it to Buddhism.
2. This vast army had to be fed. Hence the vil
lages and the daily food offerings to the Muni, then
.and now the crucial virtue of the laity. Hence the
very extensive plantations of mangoes, banyan-trees,
etc. Some verses in the Sutta Nipdta illustrate A^oka :
" Let the Muni, after going about for alms, repair to
the outskirt of the wood. Let him sit down near the
root of a tree." !
The Eighth Edict of Aioka talks of the mango
groves and the banyan-trees that the king had planted
.along the roada of his dominions. The Queen's Edict
on the Allahabad lat announces that her gifts of
mango gardens, etc., are religious gifts to be credited
to her. The inscriptions show, moreover, that the
worship in these simple times was impoaing and
grand. It was night worship in a leafy cathedral,
with the atara of heaven as lamps. Three grand
' Nalaka Sutta, v. 708. "Trees, caves, and graveyards" are said to
i)e his home in that early work.

KING ASOKA 123
festivals were appointed by the king, dependent on
the lunar mansion Tishya. Again, we have night-
worship " torches," " elephants," " processions," and
other " celestial spectacles." ^ And another point muat
be accentuated. Hia houaeleaa monks (Pavajitdni)
were certainly not the monks of modern Buddhist
convents, contemplative monks not allowed to apeak
at all. " The increase of converts ia the lustre of
religion," says the king in the Twelfth Edict.
" For a very long time there have been no ministers
of religion who, intermingling among all unbelievers,
may overwhelm them with the inundation of religion,
and with the abundance of the sacred doctrines.
Through Kamboja, Gandhara, Surashtra, and Petenica,
and elsewhere, finding their way unto the uttermost
limits of the barbarian countries, for the benefit
and pleasure of all . . . are they appointed. Inter
mingling equally among the dreaded and among the
respected both in Pataliputra and in foreign places,
teaching better things shall they everywhere pene
trate." ^
Edict XII. enjoins that theae teachers are to be
very gentle and conciliatory with the "unconverted
heretic." " By such and auch conciliatory demeanours ahall
even the unconverted heretica be propitiated, and auch
conduct increaseth the number of converted heretics."
" Moreover, hear ye the religion of the faithful, and
attend thereto, even such as deaire the act, the hope
of the beloved of the goda, that all unbelievers may
be speedily purified and brought into contentment
speedily." *
> Edict I"V., Senart. " Edict V., Prinsep. ^ Edict XIL, Prinsep.

124 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
That the Buddhists were at first wandering beggars
without any convents ia the opinion of the Russian
Orientalist Waasiljew, who supports it from Dara-
natha's hiatory in Chinese. It asserts that King
Ajatasatra passed Varsha, or Lent, in a graveyard;
and that until the date of Upagupta, a contemporary
of A^oka, there were no temples. The first was built
at MathurS,.!
In Blackwood's Magazine, for December 1898, Pro
fessor Max Miiller writes thus : —
" According to the Divya-Vad4na, the guide who
undertook to show the king the spots where Buddha
had sojourned was Upagupta. He begun by conduct
ing the king to the Garden of Lumbini, and extend
ing hia right hand he said : ' Here, O King, was the
Venerable Bhagavat born, and here should be the
first monument in honour of the Buddha.' "
Daranatha, who afterwards came to the throne, was
Asoka's grandson, ao he ought to be an authority. It
ia said that A^oka firat raiaed four atHpas — one where
Buddha was born, one where he attained the great
enlightenment, one at Benares where he first preached,
and one at Kusinagara where he died, a fact confirmed
by the archseologista, and also by a paasage in the
Mahd Parinirvd-na Siitra. That A^oka took over this
Brahmin auperatition about the stupa or sepulchral
mound proves much and disproves much.
That superstition I have already explained.^ It was
held that a dead man waa far more powerful than a
living man, and that he might be perauaded to exert
this power by flattery and food brought as offerings to
' Chap, iv., cited by "Wassiljew, Buddhism, p. 41.
= See Chap. IL

KING ASOKA 125
his tomb. In point of fact, all magical rites, and indeed
all religious rites — the ideas are not by any means
unconnected, are baaed on thia belief. That Anoka's
introduction of the stupa into Buddhism implies a
belief on his part that Buddha was non-existent is of
course an absurdity. The stupa, the relics, the ritual,
the entire outside worship are bound intimately
together. The marbles of a Buddhist stupa, the celebrated
Amaravati Tope, are on the grand staircase of the
British Museum, and two of these I have drawn for
my work. Buddhism in Christendom.. The first repre
sents Buddha and the heavenly boat coming down to
the worahippers, who have placed a large rice cake
upon the altar. The aecond represents him coming
down in the same pomp to the incense amoke. Here
is a passage, given by Beal from the Chinese liturgy,
which explains what these aculpturea mean :
" I regard the aacred altar aa a Royal Gem on which
the Shadow (spirit) of Sakya Tath§,gata appears." !
But before we go any further we must settle the
exact position of those whose theories we are consider
ing. Let us take the three most conspicuoua believera
in Pyrrho-Buddha as the true Buddha. These are Sir
Monier Monier-Williams, Dr. Oldenburg, and Professor
Rhys Davids, but these authorities are unanimous in
little beyond that, one point. Dr. Oldenburg rejects
the second convocation, for the sufficient reason that
there is no record of it in the Northem literature. He
accepts, however, the first convocation and a vast
early Buddhist literature, but holds that the early
Buddhists dwelt not in monasteries but under trees.
^ Beal, Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, p. 243.

126 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Sir Monier Monier-Williams, on the other hand, accepts
the second convocation, but will have nothing to say
to the first and its vast library, on the grounda that
the letters of the alphabet were not at that time known
in India, and that the holy books in Ceylon were not
committed to writing until the date of King Watta-
ginini (b.c. 104-76). He also holda that it is flying in
the face of all evidence to maintain that the MahS,y&na
never reached Ceylon.! Of the three Orientalists, these
two last show themaelvea the moat critical, but Pro
fessor Rhys Davids ia certainly the moat logical.
To prove Buddha an atheist, he holds that a chain of
circumstantial evidence is required, every link of which
is vital.
A Ceylon uncontaminated by the Mahely^na is
the first requisite, a Ceylon that received from
Mahinda the vast literature four times as volum
inous as our Bible, which was made canonical at the
Council of RSj^griha, and reaffirmed at the Council
of Patna.
To prove all thia, implicit reliance must be placed in
Buddhaghosa and hia collection of Southern scriptures
(Attha Katha), especially in his Life of Buddha, the best
authority we have, — in fact, the only one that is of any
authority at all. Here, again, he is opposed by Sir
Monier Monier-Williams, who says that in the Southern
literature there is not a single biography of Buddha
worthy of the name.^
But these theories of Professor Rhys Davids will not
bear a moment's historical investigation. From Hwen
Thsang we see that Ceylon was the hotbed of the
Mahayana movement. p. 30. » Ibid. p. 18.

KING ASOKA 127
"In Ceylon," he says, "are about ten thousand
monks who follow the doctrines of the Great Vehicle."!
He says also that Deva Bodhisatwa, a Cingalese monk,
was one of ita most active expositors.^, At Kanchapura
the Chinese pilgrim came upon three hundred monks
that had just fled across the sea from Ceylon to escape
the anarchy and famine consequent on the death of a
Ceylon king. As Hwen Thsang afterwards presided
at a great convocation aummoned by King Siluditya
to attack the Little Vehicle, he, if anybody, would know
the difference between the two aecta.
As to Buddhaghosa, he was alive about the time that
Fa Hian, the Chinese traveller, visited India. He was
a converted Brahmin sent by the great monastery at
Magadha to Ceylon to retranslate into Pali and re-edit
all the Cingalese literature, a feat that he accomplished
in a sweeping way. He was a rank Pyrrho-Buddhiat,
and Fa Hian recorda an important fact. At this
date the great convent of Magadha waa the head
quartera of the " Great Vehicle " movement. He calls
it "the very lofty and very beautiful Great Vehicle
Monaatery." ^
But in point of fact, can any one who has read this
short chapter believe in Pyrrho-Buddha prompting
King A^oka ? Can they believe in the first convoca
tion at Rajigriha, or the second at Patna ? To these
convocations A^oka deals a straighter blow.
The old history of Cejdon, the Mahawanso, announces
that King A^oka was puzzled with the question : " Of
what religion was Sugato ? " which word Mr. Tumour
renders "the Deity of Happy Advent." In conse-
^ Hwen Thsang, Histoire, p. 192.
2 Mimoires, vol. i. pp. 218, 277. ' Pilgrvmage, p. 254.

128 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
quence he determined to summon a council of all the
monka of Jambudwipa, to be presided over by Moggali-
putra. The Ninth Edict talks of " conaultations upon
matters of religion " (Senart's translation). The Third
Edict talks of an Anusamydna (general asaembly). The
convocation is dated by scholars, b.c. 244 Certainly
the following inscription aeems to give us its results :
" It is well know, aira, to what lengtha have gone my
respect for and faith in Buddha, Dharma, Saiagha. All
that our Lord Buddha has spoken ia well spoken.
Wherefore, sirs, it muat indeed be regarded as having
indisputable authority. So the true faith ahall last
long. Thus, my lords, I honour with the highest
honour those religious worka, T^maj/asaTWo-Aia. ("Lessons
in Diacipline "), Aryavasas (" the Supernatural Powers
of the Aryas "), Andgatahhayas (" the Terrora of the
Future "), Munigdthas (" the Metrical Life of Buddha"),
TJpatisapasina ("the Queationa of Upatishya"),ilfo%e2/a-
sllta (" the Sutra on the Inner Life "), and the Admoni
tion to Rdhula concerning Falsehood uttered hy our
Lord Buddha. Theae religiouis works, air, I would
that the Bhikshus and BhiJcshunis, for the advancement
of their good name, ahall uninterruptedly atudy and
remember." !
Thia ia the inacription, and it is difficult to see how
any Orientalist or any non-Orientalist can undervalue
its importance. Would A^oka have had " doubts " and
" consultations " as to what Buddha had taught, if a
literature four times as copious as the Christian's Bible
was already received as canonical ? And supposing
that the canon was fixed before his time, why should
he reject the greater part of it, and only require about
' Second Bair^t Eock.

KING A^OKA 129
1 per cent, of the whole to be learnt and chanted out
by hia monks and nuns ? The " Question of Upatiahya"
has come down to us, and alao the " Admonition to
Rihula regarding Falaehood." ! The two together would
be about as long as the Epistle to Philemon in the
Bible, and the Life of Buddha was also probably very
short. I used this argument in an early work, and it
was thus answered by Professor Rhys Davids in the
Saturday Review:
" His argument, from tbe titles in the A^oka monu
ments, cannot be seriously urged when we know that
they are rather descriptions of contents than fixed
titles, and may be easily varied."
Now, with every desire to do justice to an opponent's
argument, I own that here I am fairly puzzled. Is not
every " fixed title," in design at least, a deacription of
the " contents of the work " ? Is it conceivable that an
intelligent king, having summoned a religious convoca
tion from the moat diatant ends of his vast dominions
to draw up a catalogue of the books to be conaidered
sacred, should deliberately order that no fixed title
should be used. Imagine the Council of Laodicea,
when settling tbe New Testament Canon, forbidden to
use auch titlea aa the " Acts of the Apostles " or the
"Gospel according to Matthew," and forced to adopt
some novel and unknown heading which was not to be
a "title." Moreover, is it a fact that Anoka's seven tractates
had no fixed titlea ? Let ua conaider the " Question of
Upatishya." Upatishya had one supreme fear, the fear of death.
One day, in company with Maudgalyayana (they were
1 See p. 87.
9

130 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
both seekers of truth), they witnessed a festival from
a hilltop. " See," said Upatishya, " in two hundred
years all these living beings will be the prey of death.
If there is a principle of deatruction, can there not also
be a principle of life ? "
Thia was the " Question of Upatiahya," and he pro
pounded it to many teachera, but none aolved it aatis
factorily until he came across Athadzi, a disciple who
expounded to bim Buddha's Dharma.
Here the title is plainly the real title ;, the same must
be said of the Metrical Life of Buddha, the treatise
on Diacipline ; and, in fact, of all the aeven works men
tioned in the Second BairS,t Rock. Dr. Oldenburg, in
treating this subject, is more intelligible than Professor
Rhys Davids, but certainly he is not so cautious. He
holds that the seven tractates mentioned on the Second
Bairat Rock are only a portion of the vast literature
that Mahinda carried to Ceylon ; but as the memory
of the monks was the sole vehicle by which Buddhist
literature in those daya could be handed down, who
committed to memory the remaining literature ? — about
99 per cent, of the whole. Anoka's monks and nuns
were ordered all of them to learn up and chant the
seven Aioka tractates and no others. Mahinda crossed
to Ceylon with four monks and one layman, as the
Mahawanso tells ua. Did thia layman carry in his
brain the rest of the literature, four times aa copioua
aa tbe Christian Scriptures. Mahinda left one year
after the convocation. The layman in this case must
bave been a quick learner with a very good memory.
It is high time that Aioka were properly studied.
Orientalists have been meritoriously industrious over
the accents of some of the inscriptions and the want

KING a60KA 131
of accents upon others. They have differentiated the
letters, "Northern Aloka" and "Southern Aloka."
They have cavilled over the words, poor chisel scratches
wom down by the centuries. Let ua hope they will
now get to the aentencea. I myself plead guilty to
having undervalued A^oka. When I first read him
I found in his " Stiipa of Commandment," his " pro
clamations by beat of drum," a little too much of —
what shall I aay — the conquering general-officer. He
insisted on marching his subjects to Swarga in orderly
time. " Never waa there in any former period a ayatem of
inatruction applicable to every season and to every
action, such as is that which is now established by me."!
In another edict he states that similar arrangements
for spreading religion " have not been known for many
hundred years."
Then, in the First Dhauli Edict, he tells hia rajukcts
that his chief desire is to spread the religion of
Buddha :
"Now, the chief means for effecting this are the
instructions that I give to you. You are placed over
hundreds of thousanda of human beings to win the
affection of the well-behaved. Every man is my child,
and my wish is that my children may enjoy all sorts
of prosperity in thia world, and happiness in the next.
I have the aame desire for all men."
" It is in this design," says the Eighth Edict, " that I
have aet up thia inacription, that it may be read by my
sons and grandsons, and endure as long as the moon
and the sun, that they may follow my teaching and
obtain happiness in this world and the next."^
1 Edict VI., Prinsep. ' Senart's translation.

132 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
" Thua shall the heaven-born king cause Dharma to
flourish."! I own that this sort of writing again prejudiced me
against the king when, for this, my new work, I re
turned to the study of the inscriptions. "The good
king writes as if he were writing a Bible ! " Thus ran
my thoughts.
Then came a sudden flash of intelligence. What if
the king waa writing a Bible ! At once I seized Sir
Alexander Cunningham's Corpus Inscriptionum Indi-
carum, for dates. I read :
" Earliest Rock Edicts . . B.C. 251
Synod under Mogaliputra . B.C. 244 "
There it was plain, enough. Aloka's inscriptions
were the first Buddhist teachings committed to writing,
the firat authoritative Buddhiat acripturea.
This meant much. It proved, to begin with, that I
had done injustice to A^oka in charging him with an
arrogant usurpation of the office of the Buddhist hier
archy. He was merely setting forth to the best of his
literary ability the tenets of a religious teacher who
had changed his life. He says that no such instruction
had been given before, because, in point of fact, it had
not. He says that bis teaching will give happiness in
this world and bliss in the next, meaning simply that
it was Buddha's Bharma. Far from usurping the
office of a Buddhist hierarchy, he was in fact helping
to create one. His rajukas and overseers were ap
parently civil officera and laymen, but they were paving
the way for biahops and superior monks, — in fact, that
hierarchy which Bishop Bigandet has pronounced to
be pin for pin similar to that of the Church of Rome.
1 Edict IV.

KING A^OKA 133
He established a council or "conference on religion,"
that the few poor scraps of Buddhist tradition should
be saved from oblivion. Here was the Buddhist Bible
in embryo. He changed a cairn or two into elaborate
Buddhiat stilpas and, for good or ill, created the temple.
His rest-houses and tbe mango groves that be planted
to save the dreaming yogi from the sun became by and
by elaborate monasteriea. The Nagarjuni inscriptions
by Anoka's grandson, Daranatha, announce that he gave
the Gopi's Cave and tbe " well-cavern " to the dream
ing bhadantas in perpetuity. This reveals much.
Buddha bad forbidden his beggars the use of a house.
With pardonable Jesuitism, it was now argued that a
cavern was not a house.

CHAPTER VIII
PYRRHO-BUDDHA
We now come to Pyrrho-Buddha. The evidence re
garding his introduction is far more complete than the
evidence of the introduction of aome of the leading
novelties into the Roman Catholic Church ; for instance,
transubstantiation. Pyrrho-Buddha and the " Great
Vehicle " teaching, as it waa called, was officially recog
nised at the convocation summoned by King Kaniska
about A.D. 16.
From Fa Hian, the Chinese traveller, who visited
India in the fourth century, we will copy down what
the " Great Vehicle " reformers said of themselves.
The controversy between the " Vehicles " was illus
trated by an allegory. Three vehicles once crossed a
river. The firat, drawn by a aheep, was the " Little
Vehicle," or early Buddhism, and the sheep looked
timorously towards the "other bank." The second
vehicle was drawn by a stag, who ahowed more courage.
He looked back, after the manner of stags when the
hunter's arrows are assailing his does. But the third,
or " Great Vehicle," was drawn by the lordly elephant.
He marched on sure ground.
Here is the controveray in a nutshell. The " other
bank" is the Hindoo phrase for heaven, which was
supposed to be separated from earth by the river

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 135
Vaitarani. The early Buddhiata looked forward to tbe
continuation of the individuality in Swarga. This
waa pronounced by the new teachera to be the " Pride
of Individuality" (Atmam^ada); and Hwen Thsang
records how a foolish monk of the "Little Vehicle"
was sternly rebuked by the great Maitreya himaelf for
holding it.! Tbe philosophy of the reformers (moat
philosophies are aimple contradictions of certain current
views) proclaimed that mighty Nothingness (Mahd
Sunya) was the goal of the truly enlightened myatic.
Buddha was dethroned. His relics were thrown out
of the stupas. And the white statue of Bodhisatwa
Maitreya, the coming Buddha, replaced him on the altar.
The worship of a Bodhisatwa seems at first sight the
worship conceived by a madman. The main design of
the Lalita Vistara is to show how a Bodhisatwa is to
develop into a Buddha. The Bodhisatwa is in the
heaven Tu^ita. He is still in the Kimaloca, or Domain
of Appetite. His "Divine eye" is still closed. Far
from being the Governor of the Universe, for it waa
thua Maitreya got to be viewed, he can do no good
thing. And yet the great allegory ia full of inter
polated passages which call the " Buddhas of the Ten
Horizons" the "Bodhisatwas of the Ten Horizons,"
and so on. The absurdity reaches its culminating
point when, in the Nepaleae litany, although it is en
titled tbe " Praise of tbe Seven Buddhas," an address
to an eighth Buddha, Maitreya, is added. And as
ritual ia a more conservative institution than meta-
physic, some other marked inconsistencies were found
necessary. The corpse -worship of the old Buddhism
had to be retained, because that was tbe outward rite
' Mimmres, tome i. p. 222.

136 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
of Buddhism. But as the prophet that has not yet
come to the world is not yet available aa a corpse,
sepulchral mounds had to be erected, that contained
neither corpsea nor relics. The Bodhisatwa, or future
Buddha, had many stupas erected to bim. They con
tained no relics, but the diaciplea of the " Vehicle that
drives to the Great Nowhere " offered flowers and food
to the non-existent relics. They marched three times
round the stupa, within the mystic altar rails. On the
Gangea, Hwen Thaang waa aeized by pirates. These,
struck by his splendid physique, prepared to sacrifice
him to the goddess Durga. The pilgrim prayed to
Maitreya, and suddenly, aloft in the sky, " in the palace
of the Tu^ita heaven," the dazzling form of the Bodhi
satwa appeared. He was seated on a throne with
legions of spirits around him. A mighty tempest
auddenly arose, which whirled the dust into huge
spiral clouds, and sank all the pirates' boats. They
repented, and released the pilgrim.! p^ Hian, in a
mighty storm at sea, also nearly lost hia life. He
prayed to Bodhiaatwa Avalokite^vara, and the ship
was saved.^
At MathurEi, during bis visit, aa the pilgrim Hwen
Thaang shows, this rival atiipa-worship was very
marked. The disciples of the Little Vehicle paid
homage to the relics of S4riputra, Maudgalyayana,
Ananda, and the other great Buddhist aainta, who had
each one a handsome stiipa in that city. But the
disciples of the Great Vehicle worshipped the Bodhi
satwas, says the Chinese pilgrim.* Fa Hian bears
similar testimony.*
' Hwen Thsang, Histoire, p. 118. ' Fa Hian, p. 359.
' Hwen Thsang, Histoire, p. 104. * PUgrimage, p. 101.

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 137
If a vast nation of subtle thinkers were suddenly
called upon to choose between tbe teachings of a
prophet of the past, and those of a prophet yet
unborn, one would think that the teachings of the
former would have the preference, aa they would
certainly be better available to the general public.
How the quaint cultus of a man who was only to
attain the spiritual enlightenment aome thouaanda of
yeara hence arose, it is very difficult now to say
precisely. We see from tbe writings of Hwen Thsang,
that from its political side the movement was aimed
againat the authority of the Acharya of Magadha,
the Rome of the Buddhists. Kaniska, a powerful
Kashmiri, had conquered vast territories that in
cluded HindA Kusb, and Kabul, Yarkand and Kbokan,
Kashmir and Ladslk, the plains of the Upper Ganges
as far as Agra, tbe Punjab, Rajputana, Guzerat,
and Scinde. Such a large Buddhist empire would
require a strengthened discipline amongst its great
army of monks. Magadha waa not included in this
empire, and the two leading monks of Kaniska,
Par^vika and Vasubandhu, may have wished to
establish an ecclesiastical authority independent of
the " High Priest of all the World," as the Acharya
of Magadha is called in the Mahdwanso.^ Perhaps
the authority of the latter was ill defined ; and perhaps
it had alao become weakened, now that Magadha waa
no longer the headquartera of a large empire. If a
strong religioua controveray were raging, it would be
the manifest policy of the king's bead ecclesiastics to
take the side that opposed the Acharya ("Teacher"
par excellence) of Magadha. The leader of the re-
' Mahdwanso, p. 21.

138 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
ligious movement was a monk of the convent of
Ayodhy^i — a visionary, one Asa^gha, who was trans
ported one night to the heaven Tu^ita, and received
the Yoga Sastra, the principal scripture of the new
faith, from Maitreya himself. Vasubandhu, his pupil,
was also an author. He indited many of the chief
S&stras of the innovating Buddhism.! jjg presided
at the convocation summoned by King Kaniska to
introduce it. The king wanted to hold the con
vocation at Magadha :
"He wished to repair to Rajagriha, to the atone
palace where Ka^yapa had formed the collection of
sacred books. But the honourable P^rlvika (his
senior monk) aaid to him: 'Take care, in that city
are many heretics ! Many conflicting opinions will
be expressed, and we shall not have time to answer
and refute tbem. Why compose Sastras ? The whole
convocation is attached to this kingdom. Your realms
are defended on all sides by high mountains, under
the guardianship of Yakshas.' " ^
It is plain from this that the new creed was estab
lished in the teeth of tbe High Priest of Magadha
and the official Buddhism; but Magadha afterwards
took it up, as its tendency was plainly in the direction
of strengthening the priesthood. At the date of King
SilMitya the Acharya of Magadha, in his headquarters
at Nalanda, was the chief exponent of the new creed.
I will copy down two passages from Hwen Thsang.
Thi.s is what the disciples of the Little Vehicle said
of their opponents :
"They answered that the heretics of the Carriage
' Hwen Thsang, Histoire, p. 114 et seq.
° Hwon Thsang, Memoires, vol. i. p. 174.

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 139
that drivea to the Great Nowhere [Sunyapushpa],
residing at the monaatery of Nalanda, differed in
nothing from the KS,palikas." !
They said, too, that the doctrine of the Great Vehicle
did not come from Buddha at all.^
A KS,palika was a Brahmin, cunning in Tantric rites.
A drama — the Prabodha Chandra Udaya — gives us a
sketch of bim when Buddhism waa the official religion
of India. Talking to a Buddhist, he speaks thua : —
""W^ith goodly necklace decked of hones of men.
Haunting the tombs, from cups of human skulls
Eating and quaffing, ever I behold,
"With eyes that meditation's salve hath cleared.
The world of diverse jarring elements
Composed, but still aU one with the Supreme.
The Buddhist. — This man professes the rule of a KfipSlika. I will
ask him what it is (going to him). O ho, you with the bone and
skull necklace ! — what are your hopes of happiness and salvation ?
The Adept. — Wretch of a Buddhist ! "Well, hear what is our
religion : —
With flesh of men, with brain and fat well smeared,
We make our grim burnt offering — break our fast
From cups of holy Brahmin's skull, and ever
With gurgling drops of blood that plenteous stream
From hard throats quickly cut; by us is worshipped
With human offerings meet the dread Bhairava.
I caU at wiU the best of gods, great Hari,
And Hara's self and Brahma. I restrain
With my sole voice the course of stars that wander
In heaven's bright vault; the earth, with aU its load
Of mountains, fields, and cities, I at will
Reduce once more to water ; and, behold,
I drink it up ! " ^
' Hwen Thsang, Memoires, p. 220. ^ Ibid.
' Journ. Beng. As. Soe. vol. vi. p. 15.

140 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
The KapEilika, or Adept, plainly thought that be
was God on earth ; that at will be could restrain the
movement of the atara and destroy the universe.
Plainly, in the view of the early Buddhist school, the
movement entitled the Great Vehicle was in the direc
tion of tuming the humble " Son of Seikya " into a
pretentious K&pilika. In early Buddhism any one,
without the intervention of any other mortal, could
make a direct appeal to the supreme Buddha merely
by walking three times round a relic stupa. But
Hwen Thaang plainly tella ua that the apostles of
the Great Vehicle discouraged tbis worship of Sakya
Muni and the dead saints.
What was the inner cultus of the SunyavS,di stated
witb philosophical precision. If we could recall and
croas-examine a candid profeaaor of the creed, he would
no doubt tell ua that the worship of tbe babe unborn,
the Glad Tidings of Flat Contradiction, and the tomb-
worship without human remains, were mere outside
accidents. Rajendra Lala Mitra, the prince of modern
Orientalists, in hia Nepdlese Buddhist Literature,
affirma that the philosophy of the Mahdydna was a
servile theft from contemporary Brahmin tractates.
The Bible of the Sunyavadis was the Rakshd Bha-
gavati. Brian Hodgson confirms this.! Tbe Hindoo
writer tells us that tbe Rakshd Bhagavati is an
avowed attack on Hinay^na, or " Little Vehicle," which
is " refuted repeatedly " — or early Buddhism, in
point of fact.^ Let us aee if this work for the
first time in Buddhism preaches a God and immortal
life. That is the contention of Professor Rhys
^ Literature of Nepal, p. 16.
^ Rajendra Lala Mitra, Nepdlese Buddhist Literature, p. 178.

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 141
Davids. I will give the titlea of some of its
chapters. Chap. I. The subject of Nothingness (Sunyata) ex
pounded. Chap. II. Relation of tbe soul to form, colour, and
vacuity. Chap. IV. Relation of form to vacuity.
Chap. VII. How a Bodhisatwa merges all natural
attributes into vacuity.
Chap. XII. The doctrine of Mah§.y&na and its ad
vantages, derived principally, if not entirely, from its
recognition of the greatness of Sunyavada (Nihilistic
doctrine of the Brahmin sect of Sunyavadis).
Chap. XIII. To tbe Bodhisatwa there is nothing
eternal, nothing transient, nothing painful, nothing
pleaaant. All qualities are unreal as a dream.
Chaps. XIV.-XVI. The principle of the Prajnd
Pdramitd imparted by Buddha to Indra. The end
sought ia the attainment of vacuity.
Chap. XXXV. All objects attainable by the study
of Nihilism.!
Hodgson gives a bit of what he calls this "pure
Pyrrhonism" from the same book. Buddha is made
to talk thua :
"The being of all things is derived from belief,
reliance, in this order : from false knowledge, delusive
impression ; from delusive impression, general notions ;
from them, particulars ; from them, tbe aix aeata of the
senses ; from them, contact ; from it, definite sensation
and perception ; from it, thirst or desire ; from it, em-
bryolic (physical) existence; from it, birth or actual
existence; from it, all the distinctions of genus and
^ Nepdlese Buddhist Literature, p. 180.

142 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
species among animate things ; from them, decay and
death, after the manner and period peculiar to eacL
Such is the procession of all things into existence from
delusion (avidyS.), and in the inverse order to that of their
procession they retrograde into non-existence " (p. 79).
Sir Monier Monier-Williams gives a sketch of early
Buddhism almost in the same worda :
" The universe around us, with all its visible pheno
mena, must be recognised as an existing entity, for we
see before our eyes evidence of its actual existence.
But it is an entity produced out of nonentity, and
deatined to lapae again into nonentity when its time is
fulfilled. For out of Nothingness it came, and into
Nothingness it must return." !
Has the Boden Professor of Sanakrit here remembered
the passage from Brian Hodgson, and forgotten in hia
mind that it is not by a writer on early Buddhism, but
by one wbo proposed to " refute repeatedly " all early
Buddhist ideas ?
Sir Monier Monier-Williams derives Buddha's atheism
from the Brahmajala Sutra, the brief of so many
modern writers on Buddhism. Thia little work is more
rank in its Pyrrho-Buddhism than even the " Diamond
Cutter." The title means the " Net of the Brahmins,"
and it professes to refute " sixty-two heterodox sects,"
whicb it does by contradicting everybody and every
thing, something in tbis style: The universe ia finite
and infinite, the soul ia eternal and non-eternal, man
remembers hia paat livea and yet never remembers
them, existence is the reault of a previously existent
cause and is not the result of anything of the sort.
Sir Monier Monier-Williams, on the strength of a state-
' Buddhism, p. 118.

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 143
ment tbat no Gods are eternal,! pronounces Buddha
an atheist, and yet in one part of the Sutra there
is a great deal about Brahma's heaven and Brahma
himself which in Buddha's day were both deemed
eternal. Professor Rhys Davids, on the other hand,
fastens on three speeches which I here transcribe :
" Priests among these Samanas and Brahmins are
some who hold the doctrine of future conscious
existence, and in sixteen modes teach that the soul
consciously exists after death. But the teaching of
theae Samanaa and Brahmins ia founded on their
ignorance, their want of perception of truth, their
own personal experience, and on tbe fluctuating
emotions of those wbo are under tbe influence of
their passions.
"Priests among these Samanas and Brahmins are
some who bold the doctrine of future unconscious
existence, and in eight modes teach tbat the soul exists
after death in a atate of unconsciousness. But the
teaching of these Samanaa and Brahmina is founded
on their ignorance, their want of perception of truth,
their own personal experience, and on the fluctuating
emotions of those wbo are under the influence of their
passions. " Priests among these Samanas and Brahmins are
some who bold tbe doctrine of a future state of being
neither conscious nor yet unconscious, and in eight
modes teach tbat the soul will hereafter exist in a
state between consciousness and unconsciousness.
But the teaching of tbese Samanaa and Brahmina is
founded on their ignorance, their want of perception
of truth, their own personal experience, and on the
' Buddhism, p. 106.

144 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
fluctuating emotions of those who are under the
influence of their passions."
Plainly, says the professor, conscious exiatence after
death, unconacioua existence after death, and exist
ence in a state that is " neither conscious nor uncon
scious " are here flatly denied. " Would it be possible,"
he adds triumphantly, " in a more complete and cate
gorical manner to deny that there ia any aoul, or
anything of any kind which continuea to exist in any
manner after death ? "
But tbere is a fourth passage, apparently overlooked
by the profeasor, whicb flatly contradicts the other
three :
"Priests among these Samanas and Brahmins are
aome who affirm that existence ia deatroyed, and who
in seven modes teach that exiating beings are cut
off, destroyed, annihilated. But the teaching of these
Samanas and Brahmins is founded on their ignorance,
their want of perception of truth, their own per
sonal experience, and on the fluctuating emotions
of those who are under tbe influence of their
passions." !
It must be mentioned, too, that the Siitra talks of
monasteries with monks indulging in " large elevated
beds," " embroidered counterpanes," " cushions orna
mented with gold and embroidery " ; which carries it
a long way from A^oka, and still further from Buddha,
who, by the way, aa a Brahmin could scarcely have
bad a revelation of the Sunyavddi's philosophy made
to him. In his day there was no toleration, and the
Brahmins objected to unorthodox fancies about the
supreme Brahma. ' Grimblot, Sept Suttas Pdlis, p. 107.

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 145
Dethronement of Pyrrho-Buddha
We now plunge into a tangle of uncertainties tem
pered by one very prominent fact — Pyrrho-Buddha
was promptly dethroned. The " Ever-living Buddha "
(Buddha Amitdyas) was set up in his place with an
eternal " Paradise of Pure Bliss " (Sukhdvati).
The chief difficulty about Amitdyas ia the fact that
the Siitras that relate to him are bound up with the
Siitras that set up and set forth Pyrrho-Buddha. The
learned amongst the Chinese and tbe learned amongst
the NepS,lese call both Mahdydna literature. And
Professor Max Muller, in bis Sacred Books of the East,
has bound up under the same title the "Diamond
Cutter," wbich builds up Pyrrho - Buddha and the
Siitra about Sukhdvati which demolishes him.
For philosophies are destructive more often than
constructive. The calm philosopher aims his new
shaft at some current idea that diaturba hia calmness.
The Pyrrho-Buddhist proclaimed that there was no
God except Nothingness, no heaven except Nothingness,
no blissful future for man except Nothingness. Life
was a sickly dream of bright suns and green fields
and human joys and human sorrows, but bright suns
and green fields and human joys were non-existent.
Nothing was real except the sorrow. Aa an emphatic
protest against all this, the demolisher proclaimed an
eternal God, eternal heavens, and an eternal life for
man, blissful when he had attained the great awaken
ing. To name his God be picked out the strongest
words in the Sanskrit dictionary — A, privative;
mrita, death ; Ayus, life : Amitayas, the " Buddha of
Deatbleaa Life." The word Buddha waa given to this

146 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
god as an emphatic protest against the theory of
the Pyrrho-Buddhist, that all the Buddhas had gone
to the blissful Nirvdna of Nothingness. And as
a protest against the dreary pessimism that held
all life— the higher life as well as tbe lower — to be
pure misery, it called ita Paradiae the " Joyful Place."
Wbo were those demolishera, and when did they
live ? There we are at fault. We have aeen that the
Pyrrho-Buddhiat described himself and hia opponents
in a little allegory about three " Chariots." Was the
Middle Chariot, Mddhyamika, the " Vehicle " of the
worshippers of Amit4yas? If the Pyrrho-Buddhist
could be credited with strict logic, this conclusion
is difficult. The " Great Chariot," with ita lordly
elephant, had a aupreme contempt for the miaerable
creaturea in the " Little Chariot," wbo sighed for
prolonged individuality in an eternal heaven. The
Middle Chariotiers, on the other hand, are described
as being more noble than this, — they have some
thoughts for their neighbours. But the worahippers
of Amitayas had certainly alao the deaire of a bliaaful
hereafter, and a prolongation of the individuality in
an eternal Sukhdvati, and they certainly proclaimed
this more loudly than the early Buddhists in their
"Little Chariot."
That thia sweeping antagonism between the Pyrrho-
Buddhiata and the Anti - Pyrrho - Buddhists should
have remained unnoticed by several generations of
Orientalists is one of the curiosities of literature,
considering that, by a quaint freak of historical
evolution, there are alive now millions of human
beings who bear overwhelming witness to it. The
absurdities of Pyrrho-Buddhism broke up the Bud-

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 147
dhist ascendency in India. Brahminism revived, and
drove one half of the Buddhists to Ceylon and the
south, and the other half to Kashmir, Nepal, Tibet.
From tbis circumstance a very remarkable fact
emerges :
All the Buddhiata of Ceylon, all the Buddhists of
Burmah, all the Buddhists of Siam, are ready to come
forward and announce that Pyrrho-Buddhism is the
real Buddhism.
On the other hand, even the materialistic school
of Northern Buddhism shows the influence of the
worshippers of Amitayas Buddha.
In the matter of Southem Buddhism, I will give
here a sketch by a clever Siamese statesman. A few
years ago Chao Phya Praklang published a book,
whicb bas been partly translated by Mr. Alabaster
under the title of The Modern Buddhist. Chao Phya
Praklang is a clear and bold writer. He announces
that Buddhiam deniea a God and an eternal here
after. I will condense his views.
There is no God ; nothing but an unintelligent cau
sation called Kam. If I lead a virtuous life through
Kam, in my next existence I obtain the reward of
riches. If I lead an evil life, in my next rebirth,
through pure cauae and effect, I may be a pig. If,
like Augkuliman, I murder " nine hundred and ninety-
nine people," I can " cut off the Kam. " of theae
murders by a saintly life. If as a child I mimic my
parents, and bow to a Praohedi (spire of a Buddhist
chaitya), even then I inadvertently store up meri
torious Kam (Karma of the Indian Buddhists).
Now, it is impossible to state more clearly than this
the creed of the Pyrrho-Buddhist, that human life

148 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
comes from unintelligent Sunya, or Nothingness, and
goes back to Nothingness again. Siam and Burmah
got their Buddhism from Ceylon, and Ceylon got its
philosophy from the frantic Pyrrho-Buddhist Buddha
ghosa. As a contrast to all this, let ua tum to the
Northern Buddhiam, as revealed to Brian Hodgson
by that invaluable Buddhist, Amirta Nanda Bandhya.
Amongst the Northem Buddhists tbere are four great
schools of philosophy. The first, the Aiswarikas,
believe in a " supreme, infinite, and self - existent
Deity." The second, the Swdbhdvikas, are materialists.
Matter, they hold, is eternal, " and so are the powers
of matter, which powers poaaeas not only activity,
but intelligence." ! The two other schools — tbe Kctr-
mikas and the Ydtnikas — are said to be comparatively
modern, and are chiefly modifications of the Aiswarika
school. Amit§.yas, or AmitS.bha, is the popular Buddha of
Tibet and China. In Japan even the Shinto believers
have adopted him.
"I adore Tathagata Amitabha, who dwells in the
Buddha region Devachan." This is from the ritual
of Tibet.2
" One in spirit respectfully we invoke thee. Hail !
Amitabha Lokajit, of the world Sukhavati!" This
is from the ritual of China.^
From the same ritual is the following prayer : —
" Oh, would that our teacher Sakya Muni, and our
merciful Father AmitHbha, would descend to this aacred
' Hodgson, Nepdlese Literature, p. 23.
' Schlangintweit, Buddhism in Tibet, p. 129.
' Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, p. 403.

PYRRHO-BUDDHA 149
precinct and be present with us, who now discharge
these religious duties. Would that the great, per
fect, illimitable, compassionate heart, influenced by
tbese invocations, would now attend and receive our
offerings." I have reserved to the last one more service that
King A^oka has unwittingly rendered to the modern
study of Buddhism. It is, as I judge, the crucial one
of all. It must be borne in mind that tbis worthy
monarch was impetuous, courageous, self-asaerting.
In point of fact, in character he waa not unlike
Buddhaghosa. Both were converted Brahmins. Both
possessed the fiery zeal of converts. If the Buddhism
of King Anoka's date had been Pyrrho-Buddhism,
would there not be some trace of it in the inscriptions ?
Or perhaps the question might be better put in
this way — Would not Pyrrho-Buddhism have quite
deluged the rocks and the Stamhhas ? Imagine for a
moment Buddhaghosa in the king's place. Would not
his " Stupas of Commandment " have proclaimed with
emphasis that there was no God but the Eternal
Nothing, that man has no soul but the Eternal
Nothing, and no body to put it in if he had. Would
he not have impressed on his subjects tbe great sin of
atmamada, or a desire of prolonged life in the next
world. It must be remembered, too, that Pyrrho-
Buddhiam had its outward and viaible aigna as well
as its inv/ard and spiritual grace. These were the
worship of Maitreya, and stupas without relics. Is
there any trace of these in King Anoka's day?
To sum up our deductions from the priceless in
scriptions of A^oka:
1. At his date there were no idle monks living in

ISO BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
buildings. His Bhikshus were missionaries who slept
under trees and preached in all lands.
2. His edicts constituted the first Buddhist Bible,
and the first documents of the religion that were
written down.
3. His convocation waa the firat attempt on the
part of the Buddhiata to make up a religious liter
ature. It was limited to the aeven tractatea mentioned
on the Second Bair&t Rock.
4. It is absolutely certain tbat King A^oka did not
believe that Buddha at death ceased to exist, for he
took over the leading superstition of the Brahmins of
his day, that a dead aaint waa more powerful than a
living saint, and that through his corpse or relics he
could perform miracles. In consequence be erected
stupas all over hia kingdom, in imitation of the
Brahmin stupas. The Buddhist booka are full of the
miracles performed by the relics of Buddha.
5. It is alao certain that the king's creed was not
atheism, and that, far from despising mysticism, he
himself went through rigorous ordeals to become
"one with Buddha."
6. There ia not the leaat trace of Pyrrho-Buddha at
Aioka'a date, nor of the outward indicationa of the
movement, namely, the empty stfipas and sculptures
representing Maitreya.

CHAPTEE IX
THE APOSTLES OF THE BLOODLESS ALTAR
There are two Zoroasters. One of these Zoroasters
lived 6000 years B.C. according to Darmesteter, and
the other about 500 years B.C. The earlier Zoroaster
swathed Persia in a network of ailly rites and regula
tions. A culprit who " threw away a dead dog " was
to receive a thousand blows witb the horae-goad, and
one thousand with the Craosha eharana. A culprit
who slew a dog with a " prickly back " and a " woolly
muzzle " was to receive a similar punishment." ! Tbis
Zoroaster was particular about the number of gnats,
anta, lizarda tbat the devout were enjoined to kill.^
This Zoroaster proclaimed a god who loved to see on
his altar a "hundred horaea, a thousand cows, ten
thousand small cattle," and so on.* But tbe second
Zoroaster proclaimed a bloodless altar, and sought to
tear the network of the firat Zoroaater to ahreda.
What was the meaning of thia ? Simply that the
Buddhist Wanderera had by this time invaded Persia,
and had fastened their doctrines upon tbe chief local
prophet. This waa their habit. A study of this
second religion, tbe religion of Mithras, will help us to
aome of the secrets of Buddhist propagandism.
Mr. Felix Oswald cites Wassiljew as announcing
' Fargard, xxx. " Ibid. xiv. ' Khordah Avesta, xii.
151

IS2 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
that the Buddhiat missionaries had reached Western
Persia, B.C. 450. This date would, of course, depend
on tbe date of Buddha's life and Buddha's death.
The latter is now definitely fixed by Biibler's trans
lation of Anoka's Rupnath rock-inscription, B.C. 470.
Wassiljew, citing Daranatha, announces that Made-
antica, a convert of Ananda, Buddha's leading disciple,
reached Ouchira in Kashmir. From Kashmir Buddhiam
passed promptly to Kandahar and Kabul (p. 40).
Thence it penetrated quickly to Bactria, and aoon
invaded "all the country embraced by tbe word
Turkiatan, where it flouriahed until diaturbed by
Mahomet." Tertullian has two pasaages which deacribe the
religion of Mithraa.
He says tbat the devil, to " pervert tbe truth," by
"the mystic rites of his idols, vies even with the
essential portions of the sacramenta of God. He, too,
baptizea some — that is, bis own believers and faithful
followers. He promises the putting away of sins by
a laver (of hia own), and, if my memory still serves
me, Mithras there (in the kingdom of Satan) sets bis
mark on the foreheads of his soldiers, celebrates also
the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of the
resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown." !
Here is another paasage :
"Some soldier of Mithraa, who at his initiation in
the gloomy cavern, — in the camp, it may well be aaid,
of darkness, — when at the sword's point a sword is
presented to bim as though in mimicry of martyrdom,
and thereupon a crown is put upon his head, is
admoniahed to reaiat and eaat it off, and, if you like,
' Pres. v., Hxr. chap. xl.

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR 153
transfer it to his shoulders, saying that Mithras is his
crown. He even has hia virgina and hia ascetics
(continentes). Let us take note of tbe devices of
the devil, who is wont to ape aome of God'a
things."! From this it is plain that the worahippers of Mithras
had the simple rites of Buddhists and Christians,
baptism and tbe bloodless altar; also an early Free
masonry, wbicb aome detect veiled in the Indian life of
Buddha. Thua the incident of the sword and crown in
the Mithraic initiation ia plainly based on the menac
ing sword of Mara in the Lalita Vistara and the crown
tbat be offered Buddha. In modern Masonry it is
feigned tbat Hiram Abiff, tbe architect of Solomon's
temple, made three efforts to escape from three assassins.
These are plainly Old Age, Disease, and Death. He
sought to evade the first at the east of tbe temple, in
tbe same way that Buddha tried to escape by the
eastern gate. Tbe second and third flights of Hiram
and Buddha were to the same points of the compass.
Then Buddha escaped the lower life through the Gate
of Benediction, and Hiram was killed. The disciples
of Mithraa bad, in the comedy of their initiation,
" aeven tortures," — heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fire, water,
etc., — experiences by no meana confined to histrionics
in the experience of Buddha's Wanderera. A modem
maaon goes through tbe comedy of giving up hia gold
and silver and baring his breast and feet, a form that
once had a meaning. Mithraa was born in a cave ;
and at Easter there was the ceremony called by
Tertullian tbe " image of tbe resurrection." The wor
shippers, Fermicus tells us,^ placed by night a stone
' De Corona, xv. " De Errore, xxiii.

154 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
image on a bier in a cave and went through the forms
of mourning. The dead god waa then placed in a
tomb, and after a time withdrawn from it. Then
lights were lit, and poems of rejoicing sounded out, and
tbe priest comforted tbe devotees. " You shall have
salvation from your sorrows ! " Dupuis naturally
compares all thia to the cierge pascal and Catholic
rites. In Jerusalem the Greek pontiff goes into the
cave called Christ's sepulchre and brings out miraculous
fire to the worshippers, who are fighting and biting
each other outside, imaging unconsciously Buddha's
great battle witb Mara and tbe legions of hell, its
thunder and lightning and turmoil, followed by a
bright coruscation, and by the angels wbo greeted his
victory. This sudden illumination, wbicb ia the chief
rite of Freemasonry, of Mithraiam, and of Christianity,
has oddly enough been thrown overboard by the
English Church.
Tbat Mithraism , was at once Freemasonry and
Buddhism is proved by its great apread. Buddhism
was the first missionary religion. Judaism and the
other old prieatcrafta were for a " chosen people." At
tbe epoch of Christ, Mithraiam had already honey
combed the Roman paganism. Experts have dis
covered its records in Arthur's Oon and other British
caves. A similar Freemasonry was Pythagoreanism in
Greece. Colebrooke, the prince of Orientalists, saw
at once that ita philoaophy waa purely Buddhist. Its
rites were identical with tbose of the Mitbraists and
Essenes. These last must now be considered. They
have thia importance, that tbey are due to a separate
propagandism. Alexandria was built by the great

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR 155
invader of India, to bridge the East and the West.
And an exceptional toleration of creeds was the
result. Neander divides Israel at tbe date of Christ into
three sections :
1. Pharisaism, the " dead theology of tbe letter."
2. Sadduceeism, " debasing of the spiritual life into
worldlineaa." 3. Essenism, Israel mystical — a "comingling of
Judaiam with the old Oriental theoaophy."
Concerning this latter section, Philo wrote a letter to
a man named Hepbsestion, of wbich the following is a
portion :
"I am sorry to find you saying that you are not
likely to visit Alexandria again. This restless, wicked
city can present but few attractions, I grant, to a
lover of philosophic quiet. But I cannot commend tbe
extreme to whicb I see so many hastening. A passion
for ascetic seclusion is becoming daily more prevalent
among the devout and the thoughtful, whether Jew or
Gentile. Yet surely the attempt to combine contem
plation and action should not be ao soon abandoned.
A man ought at least to have evinced some com
petency for the discbarge of the aocial dutiea before
he abandons tbem for the divine. First tbe less, then
the greater.
"I have tried tbe life of the recluse. Solitude
brings no escape from spiritual danger. If it closes
some avenues of temptation, tbere are few in whose
case it does not open more. Yet the Therapeutae, a
sect similar to the Eaaenes, with whom you are ac
quainted, number many among them whose lives are
truly exemplary. Their cells are scattered about tbe

156 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
region bordering on the farther ahore of the Lake
Marfiotis. The membera of either aex live a single
and ascetic life, spending their time in fasting and
contemplation, in prayer or reading. They believe
themselves favoured with divine illumination — an
inner light. They assemble on tbe Sabbath for wor
ship, and listen to mystical discourses on the tradi
tionary lore whicb they say haa been banded down in
secret among themselves. They also celebrate solemn
dances and processions of a mystic significance by
moonlight on the shore of the great mere. Some
times, on an occasion of public rejoicing, the margin of
the lake on our aide will be lit witb a fiery chain of
illuminations, and galleys, hung witb lights, row to
and fro with strains of music sounding over the broad
water. Then the Therapeutae are all hidden in their
little hermitages, and these sights and sounds of the
world they have abandoned make them withdraw into
themaelvea and pray.
" Their principle, at least, is true. The soul which
ia occupied with things above, and is initiated into the
mysteries of the Lord, cannot but account the body
evil, and even hostile. The aoul of man is divine, and
his highest wisdom is to become as much as possible a
stranger to the body with its embarrassing appetites.
God has breathed into man from heaven a portion of
His own divinity. That which is divine is invisible.
It may be extended, but it ia incapable of aeparation.
Consider how vast ia the range of our thought over
tbe past and tbe future, the heavens and the earth.
This alliance with an upper world, of which we are
conscious, would be impossible were not the soul of
man an indivisible portion of that divine and blessed

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR 157
apirit. Contemplation of the divine essence is the
noblest exercise of man ; it ia the only meana of attain
ing to tbe highest truth and virtue, and therein to
behold God is the consummation of our happiness
here." Here we bave the higher Buddhism, wbich seeks to
reach tbe plane of spirit, an " alliance with tbe upper
world" by the aid of solitary reverie. Tbat Philo
knew where tbis religion had come from ia, I think,
proved by another passage.
"Among tbe Persians there is the order of Magi
wbo deeply investigate the worka of nature for the
discovery of truth, and in leisure's quiet are initiated
into and expound in clearest aignificance tbe divine
virtues. " In India, too, there is the sect of the Gymnoso
phists, who, in addition to speculative philosophy,
diligently cultivate tbe ethical also, and have made
their life an absolute ensample of virtue.
"Palestine, moreover, and Syria are not without
their harvest of virtuous excellence, wbicb region is
inhabited by no small portion of tbe very populous
nation of tbe Jews. There are counted amongat tbem
certain ones, by name Essenea, in number about four
thousand, who derive their name, in my opinion, by an
inaccurate trace from the term in the Greek language for
holiness (Essen or Essaios — Hosios, holy), inasmuch as
they have shown themselves pre-eminent by devotion
to the service of God; not in the sacrifice of living
animals, but rather in the determination to make their
own minds fit for a holy offering." !
Plainly here tbe Essenes are pronounced of the same
' Philo, "Every virtuous man is free."

158 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
faith as the Gymnosophists of India, who abstain from
the bloody sacrifice, that ia the Buddhists.
In the Bevue des Beux Mondes, 15th July 1888, M.
Emile Burnouf has an article entitled " Le Bouddhisme
en Occident."
M. Burnouf holds that the Christianity of the
Council of Nice was due to a confiict between the
Aryan and tbe Semite, between Buddhism and
Mosaism :
"History and comparative mythology are teaching
every day more plainly that creeds grow slowly up.
None come into the world ready-made, and as if by
magic. The origin of events ia lost in the infinite.
A great Indian poet haa aaid, 'The beginning of
thinga evades us; their end evades us also. We see
only the middle.' "
M. Burnouf asserts tbat tbe Indian origin of Chris
tianity is no longer contested : " It bas been placed in
full light by the researches of scholars, and notably
English scholars, and by the publication of tbe original
texts. ... In point of fact, for a long time folks had
been atruck with the resemblances, or rather the
identical elements, contained in Christianity and
Buddhism. Writera of tbe firmeat faith and most
sincere piety have admitted them. In tbe last cen
tury these analogies were set down to the Nestorians,
but since then the acience of Oriental chronology
haa come into being, and proved that Buddha is
many yeara anterior to Neatorius and Jeaus. Thus
the Nestorian theory had to be given up. But a
thing may be posterior to another without proving
derivation. So the problem remained unsolved
until recently, when the pathway that Buddhism

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR 159
followed waa traced step by step from India to
Jerusalem." Another eminent French Orientalist, M. L^on de
Rosny, in a lengthy digest of the present writer's
Influence of Buddhism on Primitive Christianity,
in tbe XXme Siecle, writes with equal conviction :
"Tbe astonishing points of contact (ressemblances
Stonnantes) between tbe popular legend of Buddha
and tbat of Christ, the almost absolute similarity of
the moral lessona given to the world, at five centuriea'
interval, between tbese two peerless teachers of the
human race, the striking affinities between the customs
of the Buddhists and of tbe Essenes, of whom Christ
muat bave been a disciple, auggeat at once an Indian
origin to Primitive Cbriatianity."
Tbis raises a great question. I have treated it
at length in my Buddhism in Christendom, and
have little space left. To begin with, — waa Jeaua an
Eaaene ?
Historical queationa are sometimes made more clear
by being treated broadly. Let us first deal witb this
from tbe impersonal side, leaving out altogether the
alleged words and deeds of Christ, Paul, etc. Fifty
years before Christ's birth there was a sect dwelling
in tbe stony waste where John prepared a people for
tbe Lord. Fifty yeara after Christ'a death there waa
a aect in the aame part of Palestine. The sect that
existed fifty years before Christ was called Essenes,
Therapeuts, Gnostics, Nazarites. The sect that existed
fifty yeara after Christ's death was called " Essenes
or Jesseans" according to Epiphanius, Therapeuts,
Gnostics, Nazarites, and not Christians until after
wards.

i6o BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Each had two prominent rites: baptism, and what
Tertullian calls tbe "oblation of bread." Each had
for officera, deacona, presbyters, epbemereuts. Each
sect bad monks, nuns, celibacy, community of goods.
Each interpreted tbe Old Testament in a mystical
way, — so mystical, in fact, tbat it enabled each to
discover that tbe bloody sacrifice of Moaaiam was
forbidden, not enjoined. The moat minute likenesses
bave been pointed out between tbese two sects by all
Catholic writers from Eusebius and Origen to the
poet Racine, wbo translated Pbilo's Conternplative
Life for tbe benefit of pious court ladies. Was there
any connection between these two sects? It is
difficult to conceive tbat there can be two answers
to such a question.
And if it can be proved, as Bishop Lightfoot affirms,
that Christ was an anti-Easene, who announced that
Hia misaion waa to preserve intact every jot and tittle
of Mosaism as interpreted by tbe recognised inter
preters, this would simply show tbat be bad nothing
to do with tbe movement to whicb his name has been
given. Tbe firat prominent fact of His life is His baptism
by John. If John waa an Eaaene, the full meaning of
thia may be learnt from Josephus :
" To one that aima at entering their sect, admission
is not immediate ; but he remains a whole year out-
aide it, and ia aubjected to their rule of life, being in
vested witb an axe, the girdle aforesaid, and a white
garment. Provided that over this space of time he
has given proof of his perseverance, be approaches
nearer to this course of life, and partakes of the holier
water of cleansing; but he is not admitted to their

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR i6i
community of life. Following the proof of his
strength of control, bia moral conduct ia tested for
two years more; and when be bas made clear his
wortbineaa, be ia then adjudged to be of their number.
But before be touches tbe common meal, be pledges
to tbem in oaths to make one shudder, first, that he
will reverence tbe Divine Being; and secondly, that
be will abide in justice unto men, and will injure no
one, either of bis own accord or by command, but
will always detest tbe iniquitoua, and atrive on the
side of the rigbteoua ; that be will ever show fidelity
to all, and moat of all to those who are in power, for
to no one comes rule without God; and that, if he
become a ruler himself, he will never carry insolence
into bis authority, or outshine those placed under him
by dress or any superior adornment; that he will
always love truth, and press forward to convict those
tbat tell lies ; tbat he will keep his bands from pecu
lation, and bia aoul pure from unholy gain; that he
will neither conceal anything from the brethren of
bia order, nor babble to others any of their secrets,
even though in tbe presence of force and at the hazard
of bia life. In addition to all this, they take oath not
to communicate tbe doctrines to any one in any other
way than as imparted to themselves ; to abstain from
robbery, and to keep close, with equal care, the books
of their sect and tbe namea of tbe angels. Such are
the oatha by wbich tbey receive thoae tbat join
tbem."! Aa a pendant to this, I will give the early Christian
initiation from the Clementine Homilies.
"If any one having been tested is found worthy,
^ Josephus, De B. J. ii. 8, 2, 13.

i62 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
then they hand over to him according to the initiation
of Moaea, by whicb be delivered his books to the
Seventy who succeeded to bis chair."
These books are only to be delivered to " one who
ia good and religious, and who wishes to teach, and
wbo is circumcised and faithful."
"Wherefore let him be proved not less than six
years, and then, according to the initiation of Moses,
he (the initiator) should bring bim to a river or
fountain, which is living water, where the regenera
tion of the righteous takes place." Tbe novice then
calls to witness heaven, earth, water, and air, tbat he
will keep secret the teachings of tbese holy books,
and guard them from falling into profane hands, under
the penalty of becoming " accursed, living and dying,
and being punished witb everlasting punishment."
" After tbis let bim partake of bread and salt with
bim wbo commits tbem to him."
Now, if, as is believed by Dr. Lightfoot, the chief
object of Christ'a miasion waa to eatabliah for ever the
Mosaism of the bloody altar, and combat tbe main
teaching of the otaxriTrig, or mystic, wbich "postulates
the false principle of the malignity of matter," why
did He go to an uimrjTrjg to be baptized ? Whether or
not Christ belonged to mystical Israel, there can be
no discussion about the Baptist. He was a Nazarite
" separated from hia mother'a womb," wbo bad induced
a whole " people " to come out to tbe deaert and adopt
the Essene ritea and their community of gooda. And
we see, from a compariaon of the Essene and early
Christian initiations, what such baptism carried with
it. It implied preliminary instruction and vows of
implicit obedience to the instructor.

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR 163
It is plain too that the Esaene Christ knows at
first nothing of any antagonism to Hia teacher.
" Tbe law and tbe prophets were until John. Since
tbat time the kingdom of God is preached, and every
man presseth into it " (Luke xvi. 16).
This shows that far from believing that He bad
come to preserve tbe Moaaiam of the bloody altar, He
considered that John and tbe Essenea bad power to
abrogate it.
Listen, too, to Christ's instructiona to hia twelve
disciples :
" As ye go, preach, aaying tbe kingdom of heaven
is at hand."
Tbis is tbe simple gospel of John :
" Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your
purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats,
neither shoes."
Here again we bave tbe barefooted Essenes without
silver or gold. " He that bath two coats let bim im
part to him tbat hath none," said tbe Baptist. " And
into whataoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire
wbo in it is worthy ; and tbere abide till ye go thence.
And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if
tbe bouse be worthy, let your peace come upon it;
but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor bear your
words, when ye depart out of that bouse or city, shake
off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you. It
shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and
Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of
wolves: be ye therefore wiae aa serpents, and harm
less as doves. But beware of men; for they will

1 64 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
deliver you up to the councils, and tbey will scourge
you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought
before governors and kings for my sake, for a testi
mony against them and tbe Gentiles. But when they
deliver you up, take no thought bow or wbat ye shall
apeak; for it ahall be given you in tbat aame hour
what ye ahall speak. For it ia not ye that apeak,
but the Spirit of your Fatber wbicb apeaketh in you.
And the brother ahall deliver up the brother to death,
and tbe father the child: and tbe children ahall rise
up against their parents, and cause tbem to be put
to death. And ye shall be bated of all men for my
name's sake : but be tbat enduretb to the end shall
be saved."
Tbis passage is remarkable. No Christian disciple
had yet begun to preach, and yet what do we find?
A vaat aecret organiaation in every city. It is com
posed of those wbo are " worthy " (the word used by
Josephus for Essene initiates); and they are plainly
bound to succour the brethren at the risk of their
lives. Tbis shows that Christ's movement was affili
ated with an earlier propagandism.
There is another question. On the hypothesis
tbat Christ was an orthodox Jew, why should
He, plainly knowing beforehand what mistakes and
bloodshed it would cause, make His disciples mimic
tbe Essenes in externals ? The Essenes bad two
main rites, baptism and the bloodless oblation. Christ
adopted them. The Essenes had a new name on con
version. "Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by inter
pretation, a stone " (John i. 42).
The Essenes had community of goods :

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR 165
"And all that believed were together, and had all
thinga common " (Acta ii. 44).
" If thou wilt be perfect, go and aell that thou hast,
and give to tbe poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven ; and come and follow me " (Matt. xix. 21).
A rigid continence was exacted :
"All men cannot receive thia aaying, save they to
whom it is given. . . . Tbere be eunuchs whicb bave
made themselves eunuchs for tbe kingdom of heaven's
sake. He tbat is able to receive it, let bim receive it"
(Matt. xix. 11, 12).
"And I looked, and, lo! a Lamb stood on Mount
Zion, and with him an bundred and forty - four
thousand, having his Father's name written on their
foreheada. . . . These are they which were not
defiled witb women, for they are virgins" (Rev. xiv.
1, 4).
Divines tell us that this first pasaage is to have
only a " spiritual " interpretation. It forbids not
marriage, but excess. We might listen to this if we
bad not historical cognisance of a sect in Palestine
at this date which enforced celibacy in its monas
teries. The second passage shows that the disciples
understood Him literally.
The bloody sacrifice forbidden :
"I will bave mercy and not sacrifice" (Matt. ix. 13).
"Unleaa ye cease from sacrificing, the wrath ahall
not ceaae from you."!
Biahop Lightfoot, aa I have mentioned, conaiders
that Jeaua waa an orthodox Jew, whose mission was
to perpetuate every jot and tittle of Moaaiam ; and
that " emancipation " from tbe " swathing-bands " of
1 Cited from Gospel of the Hebrews by Epiphanius, Hxr. xxx. 16.

1 66 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
the law came from the Apostles.! It might be thought
that this was a quaint undertaking for the Maker of
the million million starry systema to come to this
insignificant planet in bodily form to "perpetuate"
institutions that Titua in thirty yeara waa to end for
ever; even if we could forget tbat human sacrifices,
concubinage, polygamy, slavery, and border raids were
amongst these institutions. But if tbis Christ is tbe
historical Christ, it appears to me that we must
eliminate the Christ of the Gospels almost entirely.
For capital offences againat tbe Mosaic law, the
recognised authorities three times aought the life of
Jeaus, twice after formal condemnation by the
Sanhedrim. Theae offences , were Sabbath-breaking,
witchcraft, and speaking againat Moaaic inatitutions.
According to tbe Synoptics, He never went to
Jerusalem during His ministry until just the end of
it; although the three visits for the yearly festivals
were rigidly exacted.
In my Buddhism, in Christendom I give reasons
for supposing that the "multitudes," whose sudden
appearance in stony wastes have bewildered critics,
were in reality tbe gatherings for tbe Therapeut
festivals described by Philo.
Bishop Lightfoot makes much of the fact that
John's Gospel makea Chriat go up once for the feast
of tabernacles. But did He go aa an orthodox
worshipper, to present Hia offerings for the bloody
sacrifice ? On the contrary, on this very occasion
He waa accused of Sabbath-breaking and demoniac
possession; and the rulers of the people sent officers
to arrest Him. ' Com. on Ctalatians, pp. 286, 287.

APOSTLES OF BLOODLESS ALTAR 167
It must be mentioned, too, tbat Hegesippus, the earliest
Christian historian, gives a very remarkable picture of
James, wbo ruled the Christian body after Christ's death:
" He waa conaecrated from bis mother's womb. He
drank neither wine nor strong drink, neither ate be
any living thing. A razor never went upon his head.
He anointed not himself witb oil, nor did he use a
bath. He alone was allowed to enter into the holies.
For be did not wear woollen garmenta, but linen.
And he alone entered tbe aanctuary and was found
upon his knees praying for tbe forgiveness of the
people, so tbat bis knees became hard like a camel's
through hia constant bending and aupplication before
God, and asking for forgiveness for tbe people."!
Here we bave the chief apostle depicted as an
Essene of Essenes. He rejects wine and flesh meat.
And the " temple " of tbe Essenes was plainly not the
Jewish temple. Tbe temple guards would have made
short work of any one rash enough to attempt to enter
the Holy of Holies.
Epiphanius adds the two sons of Zebedee to the
list of the aacetics, and also announces that James, the
chief apostle, entered tbe Holy of Holies once a year.
He gives another detail, that the Christian bishop wore
the bactreum or metal plate of the high priest.^
Clement of Alexandria gives a similar account of St.
Matthew :
" It is far better to b6 happy than to have a demon
dwelling in us. And happiness is found in the practice
of virtue. Accordingly, the Apostle Matthew partook
of seeds, and nuts, and vegetables without flesh."*
1 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ii. 33. '^ Epiph. Hoer. Ixxviii. 13, 41.
' Pocdag. ii. 1.

1 68 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
The Clementine Homilies give a far more authentic
picture of tbe Churcb of Jerusalem than the Acts. In
them St. Peter thus describes himself :
" The Prophet of the Truth wbo appeared on earth
taught ua that the Maker and God of all gave two
kingdoms to two (beings), good and evil, granting to
the evil the sovereignty over tbe preaent world. . . .
Thoae men who choose tbe preaent have power to be
rich, to revel in luxury, to indulge in pleasures, and to
do whatever they can ; for they will possess none of
tbe future goods. But those who have determined to
accept the blessings of the future reign have no right
to regard aa their own the things that are here, since
they belong to a foreign king, witb tbe exception only
of water and bread and those things procured with
sweat to maintain life (for it is not lawful to commit
suicide) ; and also only one garment, for they are not
permitted to go naked."!
A word here about tbe Sepher Toldoth Jeshu, a
work whicb orthodoxy as uaual would moderniae over
much. It ia a brief sketch of Christ's life, and at any
rate represents tbe Jewish tradition of that important
event. It announces tbat tbe Saviour was hanged on
a tree for sorcery. After that tbere was a bitter strife
between the " Nazarenes " and the " Judeans." The
former, headed by Simon Ben Kepha (who, " according
to his precept," abstained from all food, and only ate
"tbe bread of misery" and drank tbe "water of
sorrow "), altered all the dates of tbe Jewish festivals
to make them fit in with events in Chriat'a life. This
seems to make Peter and the " Nazarenes " or Nazarites
water- drinking vegetarian ascetics.
' Clem. Hom. xv. 7.

CHAPTER X
MORE COINCIDENCES
I HAVE shown certain curious points of contact be
tween tbe Buddhist and the Christian scriptures.
Here are a few more.
"Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the
Wilderness, to be tempted of the Devil"
Comfortable dowagers driving to church three times
on Sunday would be astonished to leam tbat tbe
essence of Christianity is in tbis pasaage. Ita mean
ing bas quite passed away from Protestantism, almost
from Christendom. The Lalvca Vistara fully shows
what tbat meaning is. Without Buddhism it would be
lost. Jesus was an Essene, and the Essene, like the
Indian Yogi,sought to obtain divine union and the "gifts
of tbe Spirit" by solitary reverie in retired spots. In
what is called tbe " Monastery of our Lord " on the
Quarantania, a cell is shown with rude frescoes of
Jeaua and Satan. There, according to tradition, the
demoniac hauntings that all mystics speak of occurred.
"I have Need to be baptized of Thee"
A novice in Yoga bas a guru, or teacher. Buddha,
in riding away from tbe palace, by and by reached a
169

I70 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
jungle near Vai^ali He at once put himself under a
Brahmin Yogi named Ar^ta Kalama, but bis spiritual
insight developed so rapidly that in a short time the
Yogi offered to Buddha tbe argbya, the offering of
rice, fiowers, sesamun, etc., that the humble novice
usually preaenta to bia inatructor, and asked bim to
teach instead of learning.!
Thirty Years of Age
M. Ernest de Bunsen, in bia work. The Angel Messiah,
aays tbat Buddha, like Christ, commenced preaching at
thirty years of age. He certainly must bave preached
at Vai^alll, for five young men became his disciples
there, and exhorted bim to go on witb bis teaching.^
He was twenty-nine when he left tbe palace, therefore
he might well have preached at thirty. He did not
turn the wheel of the law until after a six years'
meditation under tbe Tree of Knowledge.
Baptism
The Buddhist rite of baptism finds its sanction in
two incidents in the Buddhist scriptures. In tbe first,
Buddha bathes in the holy river, and M^ra, the evil
spirit, tries to prevent him from emerging. In the
second, angels administer the holy rite (Abhisheka).
"And when He had fasted Forty Days and
Forty Nights"
Buddha, immediately previous to hia great encounter
with M&ra, the tempter, fasted forty-nine days and
nights.^ ^ Foucaux, Lalita Vistara, p. 228. ' Lalita Vista/ra, p. 236.
° Chinese Life, by Wung Puh.

MORE COINCIDENCES 171
"Command that these Stones be made Bread"
The firat temptation of Buddha, when Mara assailed
him, appealed to his hunger, aa we have seen.
The twelve great Disciples
"Except in my religion, the twelve great disciples
are not to be found"!
"The Disciple whom Jesus loved"
One diaciple was called Upatishya (tbe beloved
diaciple). In a former existence he and Maudgaly
ayana bad prayed that they migbt sit, tbe one on
tbe right band and the other on the left. Buddha
granted this prayer. The other disciples murmured
mucb.^ "Go YE into all the World"
From Benares Buddha sent forth tbe sixty-one
disciples. " Go ye forth," be said, " and preach Dharma,
no two disciples going the same way."^
"The Same came to Jesus by Night"
Professor Rhys Davida pointa out tbat YS,aas, a
young rich man, came to Buddha by night for fear of
his rich relations.
Pax Vobiscum
On one point I have been a little puzzled. The
password of the Buddhist Wanderers was Sadbu 1
which does not seem to correspond with the "Pax
1 Bigandet, p. 301. =" Ibid. p. 153. = Ibid. p. 126.

172 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Vobiscum ! " (Matt. x. 13) of Christ's disciples. But I
have just come across a passage in Renan ! which shows
that the Hebrew word was Scbalom ! (bonheur !). This
is almost a literal translation of Sadbu !
Burnouf says tbat by preaching and miracle
Buddha's religion was established. In point of fact,
it was the first universal religion. He invented the
preacher and the missionary.
"A NEW Commandment give I you, that ye love
One Another"
"By love alone can we conquer wrath. By good
alone can we conquer evil. The whole world dreads
violence. All men tremble in the preaence of death.
Do to others tbat which ye would have tbem do to
you. Kill not. Cause no death." ^
The Beatitudes
Tbe Buddhists, like the Christians, bave got their
Beatitudes. They are plainly arranged for chant and
response in tbe temples. It is to be noted tbat the
Christian Beatitudes were a portion of tbe early
Christian ritual.
The " long suffering and meek," tbose " wbo follow
a peaceful calling," tbose who are not " weary in well
doing " are included in tbe catalogue.
Here ia one verae :
"10 Self-restraint and purity.
The knowledge of noble truths,
The attainment of NirvSna, —
This is the greatest blessing."
> Les Apdtres, p. 22. " "Sfttra of Forty-two Sections," v. 129.

MORE COINCIDENCES 173
The One Thing needful
Certain subtle queationa were proposed to Buddha,
such as : What will best conquer the evil paaaiona of
man? Wbat is the most savoury gift for the alms-
bowl of tbe mendicant ? Where is true happiness to
be found ? Buddha replied to tbem all with one word,
Bharma (tbe heavenly life).!
"Whosoever shall smite thee on thy Right
Cheek offer him the Other also"
A merchant from Sunaparanta having joined Bud
dha's society, was desirous of preaching to bis relations,
and is said to bave asked tbe permission of tbe master
so to do.
" The people of Sunaparanta," said Buddha, " are
exceedingly violent ; if tbey revile you, wbat will you
do?" " I will make no reply," said tbe mendicant.
" And if tbey strike you ? "
" I will not strike in return," aaid tbe mendicant.
" And if they kill you ? "
" Death," aaid tbe miasionary, " is no evil in itself.
Many even desire it to escape from tbe vanities of
life." 2
Buddha's Third Commandment
"Commit no adultery." Commentary by Buddha:
"This law is broken by even looking at the wife of
another with a lustful mind."^
1 Bigandet, p. 225. ^ Ibid. p. 216.
* Buddhaghosa's Parables, by Max Miiller and Rodgers, p. 153.

174 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
The Sower
It is recorded that Buddha once stood beside the
ploughman Kasibbelradvaja, wbo reproved bim for his
idleness. Buddha answered thus: "I, too, plough
and sow, and from my ploughing and sowing I reap
immortal fruit. My field is religion. Tbe weeds tbat
I pluck up are the passions of cleaving to tbis life.
My plough is wisdom, my seed purity."!
On another occasion be described almsgiving as
being like " good seed sown on a good soil tbat yields
an abundance of fruits. But alms given to tbose wbo
are yet under the tyrannical yoke of the passions are
like a seed deposited in a bad soil. Tbe passions of
tbe receiver of tbe alms choke, as it were, tbe growth
of merits."^
"Not that which goeth into the Mouth
defileth a Man"
In the Sutta Nipdta (chap, ii.) is a discourse on
the food that defiles a man (Amagbanda). Therein it
is explained at some length that the food tbat is eaten
cannot defile a man, but " destroying living beings,
killing, cutting, binding, stealing, falsehood, adultery,
evil thoughts, murder" — this defiles a man, not the
eating of flesh.
"Where your Treasure is"
" A man," says Buddha, " buries a treasure in a deep
pit, which lying concealed therein day after day profits
him nothing, but there is a treasure of charity, piety,
' Hardy Manual, p. 215. " Bigandet, p. 211.

MORE COINCIDENCES 175
temperance, soberness, a treasure secure, impregnable,
tbat cannot pass away, a treasure tbat no thief can
steal. Let the wise man practise Dharma. This is a
treasure that follows him after death." !
The House on the Sand
"It [tbe seen world] is like a city of sand. Its
foundation cannot endure."^
• Blind Guides
"Wbo is not freed cannot free others. The blind
cannot guide in tbe way." ^
"As YE sow, so SHALL YE REAP "
" As men sow, thus shall they reap." *
" A Cup of cold Water to one of these
LITTLE Ones"
" Whosoever pioualy beatows a little water shall re
ceive an ocean in retum." ^
"Be not weary in Well-Doing"
" Not to be weary in well-doing." *
"Give to him that asketh"'
" Give to him that aaketb, even though it be but a
little."^ 1 Khuddaka Pdtha, p. 13. ^ Lalita Fistara, p. 172.
3 ^^(^_ p_ 179. ^ Ta-chwang-yan-king-lun, serm. 57.
5 Ibid. serm. 20. ° Mahdmangala Sutta, ver. 7.
' Ud&mamarga, chap. xx. ver. 15.

176 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
"Do UNTO Others," etc.
" Witb pure tbougbta and fulneas of love I will do
towards others wbat I do for myself." !
"Prepare ye the W^ay of the Lord!"
"Buddba'a triumphant entry into R&jagriba (tbe
"City of the King") bas been compared to Christ's
entry into Jerusalem. Both, probably, never occurred,
and only symbolise tbe advent of a Divine Being to
earth. It is recorded in the Buddhist scriptures that
on these occasions a "Precursor of Buddha" always
appears.^ "Who did sin, this Man or his Parents, that
HE WAS BORN Blind ? " (John ix. 3)
Professor Kellogg, in bis work entitled The Light
of Asia and the Light of the World, condemns
Buddhism in nearly all its tenets. But he is especi
ally emphatic in tbe matter of tbe metempsychosis.
Tbe poor and hopeless Buddhist baa to begin again
and again "the weary round of birth and death,''
whilst the righteous Christiana go at once into life
eternal. Now, it aeems to me tbat this ia an example of the
danger of contrasting two hiatorical characters when
"we have a strong sympathy for the one and a strong
prejudice againat the other. Professor Kellogg has
conjured up a Jesus with nineteenth century ideas,
a,nd a Buddha wbo is made responsible for all the
fancies that were in tbe world B.C. 500. Professor
^ Lalita -Vistara, chap. v. ' Bigandet, p. 147.

MORE COINCIDENCES 177
Kellogg is a professor of an American university, and'.
as auch muat know that tbe doctrine of tbe gilgal
(tbe Jewish name for tbe metempsychosis) was as
universal in Palestine A.D. 30, as it was in Rajagriha
B.C. 500. An able writer in tbe Church Quarterly
Review, of October 1885, maintains tbat the Jews
brought it from Babylon. Dr. Ginsburg, in his work
on tbe " Kabbalah," shows tbat tbe doctrine continued
to be held by Jews as late aa tbe ninth century of our
era. He ahowa, too, tbat St. Jerome baa recorded
tbat it waa " propounded amongat the early Christians
as an esoteric and traditional doctrine."
The author of tbe article in the Church Quarterly
Review, in proof of its existence, adduces the question
put by tbe disciples of Christ in reference to tbe man
tbat was bom blind. And if it was considered that a
man could be bom blind as a punishment for sin, tbat
sin must have been plainly committed before his birth.
Oddly enough, in tbe White Lotus of Bha/rma there
is an account of the healing of a blind man, " Because
of tbe sinful conduct of the man [in a former birth]
tbis malady haa risen."
But a still more striking instance is given in the
caae of tbe man sick with tbe palsy (Luke v. 18).
The Jews believed, with modern Orientals, tbat grave
diseaaea like paralyaia were due, not to physical causes
in thia life, but to moral causes in previous lives.
And if the account of tbe cure of the paralytic is to be
considered bistorical, it is quite clear that this was
Christ's idea when He cured the man, for He distinctly
announced that tbe cure waa effected not by any
physical procesaea, but by annulling the " sins " wbich
were the cause of hia malady.

178 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Traces of tbe metempsychosis idea atill exist in
Catholic Christianity. Tbe doctrine of original sin is
said by some writera to be a modification of it. Cer
tainly the fancy that the works of supererogation of
their saints can be transferred to others ia the Buddhist
idea of good karma, wbicb is transferable in a similar
manner.
"If the Blind lead the Blind, both shall fall
INTO THE Ditch" (Matt. xv. 14)
" As when a string of blind men are clinging one to
tbe other, neither can tbe foremost see, nor the middle
one see, nor the hindmost see. Just so, methinks, Va
settha ia the talk of the Brahmins versed in the Three
Vedas."!
"Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's Sake"
In the days of St. Thomas a Kempis tbe worshipper
was modelled on tbe Christ. In our days the Christ
seems modelled on tbe worshipper. The Bodleian pro
fessor of Sanskrit writes thua : " Christianity teaches
that in the highest form of life love is intensified;
Buddhism teaches tbat in the bigheat state of exist
ence all love is extinguished. According to Chris
tianity — Go and eam your own bread, and support
yourself and your family. Marriage, it says, is
honourable and undefiled, and married life a field
where holiness can grow."
But history is hiatory; and a French writer has
recently attacked Christ for attempting to bring into
Europe tbe celibacy and pessimism of Buddhism.
^ Buddha, in the Tevigga Sidta, i. 15.

MORE COINCIDENCES 179
This author in bis work, Jesus Bouddha, cites Luke
xiv. 26 :
" If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,
yea, and his own Ufe also, he cannot be My disciple."
He adduces also :
" Let tbe dead bury their dead.
"Think not tbat I bave come to send peace on
earth : I come not to send peace, but a sword. For I
am come to aet a man at variance against bis fatber,
and tbe daughter against her mother, and the
daughter-in-law against ber motber-in-law. And a
man's foes shall be tbey of his own household"
(Matt. X. 34-36).
" And tbe brother shall deliver up the brother to
death, and tbe father tbe child ; and tbe children shall
rise up against their parents, and cause tbem to be
put to death " (Ibid. ver. 21).
"So likewise, whosoever he be of you that for-
saketb not all that he hath, be cannot be my disciple "
(Luke xiv. 33).
Tbe author says tbat all this is pure nihilism, and
Essene communism. "The most sacred family ties
are to be renounced, and man to lose bia individuality
and become a unit in a vast scheme to overturn tbe
institutions of bis country."
" Qu' importe au f anatisme la ruine de la soci^t^
bumaine." Here also is a remarkable pasaage from an American
writer :
" Tbe anticosmic tendency of tbe Christian doctrine,"
aaya Mr. Felix Oswald,! "distinguishes it from all
1 Secret of the East, p. 27.

i8o BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
religions except Buddhism. In tbe language of the
New Testament the ' world ' is everywhere a synonym
of evil and sin, the flesh everywhere tbe enemy of the
spirit. . . . The gospel of Buddha, though pernicious,
ia, however, a perfectly conaistent doctrine. Birth,
life, and re-birth is an eternal round of sorrow and
disappointment. Tbe present and the future are but
tbe upper and lower tire of an ever-rolling wheel of
woe. The only salvation from the wheel of life is an
escape to tbe peace of Nirvana. The attempt to
graft this doctrine upon tbe optimistic theism of
Palestine haa made tbe Christian ethics inconsistent
and contradictory. A paternal Jehovah, wbo yet
eternally and horribly tortures a vast plurality of
hia children. An earth the perfect work of a
benevolent God, yet a vale of tears not made to be
enjoyed, but only to be despised and renounced. An
omnipotent heaven, and yet unable to prevent the
intrigues and constant victories of bell. Christianity is
evidently not a homogeneous but a composite, a hybrid
religion; and considered in connection witb tbe in
dications of history, and tbe evidence of the above-
named ethical and traditional analogies, these facts
leave no reasonable doubt tbat the founder of the
Galilean Church was a disciple of Buddha S&kya
muni" (p. 139).
All tbis is very well if tbe Buddhists by "salva
tion" meant escape from life, and not from sin. A
"pessimist" Buddhist kingdom, according to this,
ought to preaent the universal sad faces of the
" Camelot '' of a modern school of artists, and yet the
Burmeae are pronounced by all to be the merriest and
happiest of God's creaturea. We know, too, that

MORE COINCIDENCES i8i
India never was so prosperous as in the days of
Buddhist rule. The monks carried agriculture to
high perfection; and Indian fabrics were famous
everywhere. A convent meant leas a career than an
education in spiritual knowledge. Like tbe Essene,
tbe Buddhist monk waa not forced to remain for life.
Catholiciara introduced tbat change.
"Then all His Disciples forsook Him and fled"
It is recorded tbat on one occasion when a " must "
elephant charged furiously, " all the disciples deserted
Buddha. Ananda alone remained." !
"If thy right Eye offend thee."
Mr. Felix Oswald^ announces, without, however,
giving a more detailed reference, that according to Max
Miiller's translation of tbe " Ocean of Worlds," a young
monk meets a rich woman who pities bis bard lot.
"Blessed ia tbe woman who looks into thy lovely
eyea ! "
" Lovely ! " replied tbe monk. " Look here ! " And
plucking out one of bia eyes be held it up, bleeding
and ghastly, and asked her to correct ber opinion.
Walking on the Water
Certain villagers, bard of belief, were listening to
Buddha on tbe shore of a mighty river. Suddenly
by a miracle tbe great teacher cauaed a man to appear
walking on the water from the other aide, without
immeraing his feet.^
^Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king, lv. 21. ^ The Secret of the East, p. 134.
* Chinese Dhammapada, p. 51.

1 82 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
"And, lo! there was a great Calm"
Purna, one of Buddha's disciples, had a brother in
danger of shipwreck in a "black storm." But the
guardian spirits of Purna informed bim of this. He
at once transported himself through the air from the
distant inland town to the deck of tbe ship. "Im
mediately the black tempest ceased as if Sumeru bad
arrested it." !
" Why eateth your Master with Publicans and
Sinners ? " (Matt. ix. 10)
The courtesan Amrapali invited Buddha and his
diaciplea to a banquet in tbe mango grove at Vai^ali.
Buddha accepted. Some rich princes, sparkling in
emeralds, came and gave him a similar invitation.
He refused. They were very angry to see him sit at
meat witb Amrapali. He explained to bis disciples
that tbe harlot migbt enter tbe kingdom of Dharma
more easily than tbe prince.^
The penitent Thief
Buddha confronts a terrible bandit in bis mountain
retreat and converts him.*
"There was War in Heaven"
Professor Beal, in hia Catena of Buddhist Scrip
tures (p. 52), tells us that, in tbe Saddharmxi Prd-
• Burnouf, Introd. p. 229. " Bigandet, p. 251.
* Chinese Dhammapada, p. 98.

MORE COINCIDENCES 183
kasa Sasana Siitra, a great war in heaven is described.
In it tbe "wicked dragons" assault the legions of
heaven. After a terrific confiict tbey are driven
down by Indra and tbe heavenly hosts.
"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Mer
chantman SEEKING goodly PeARLS, WHO, WHEN
HE HAD FOUND ONE PeARL OF GREAT PrICE,
WENT AND SOLD ALL THAT HE HAD AND BOUGHT
IT " (Matt. xiii. 45)
Tbe moat sacred emblem of Buddhism is called tbe
mani (pearl), and in tbe Chinese biography a mer
chant-man seeking goodly pearls finds it, and unfor
tunately drops it into tbe sea. Rather than loae it he
tries to drain the sea dry.!
The Voice from the Sky
Thia sounds often in the Buddhist narratives.^
Faith
" Faith is the first gate of the Law." *
" All who have faith in me obtain a mighty joy." *
"Thou art not yet Fifty Years old, and hast
THOU SEEN Abraham?"
In the White Lotus of Bharma (chap, xiv.) Buddha
is asked how it is that, having sat under tbe bo-tree
only forty years ago, he bas been able, according to
^ Rom.. Hist. p. 228. ' See Beal, Rom Hist. p. 105.
3 Lalita Vistara, p. 39. * Ibid. p. 188.

I

184 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
bia boast, to see many Buddhas and saints who died
hundreda of yeara previously. He answers that he
has lived many hundred thousand myriads of Kotis,
and that though in tbe form of a Buddha, he is in
reality Swayambhu, the Self-Existent, tbe Father of
the million worlds. In proof of tbis statement he
causes two Buddhas of the Paat, Prabbiitaratna and
Gadgadesvara, to appear in tbe sky. The first pro
nounces loudly these worda : " It is well ! It is
well ! " These Buddhas appear witb their sepulchral
canopiea (stupas) of diamonds, red pearls, emeralds,
etc. Peter, at tbe scene of the Transfiguration, said
to Christ :
" Let us make here three tabernacles — one for Thee,
one for Moses, and one for Elias." Why should Peter
want to adopt a Buddhist custom and build tabernacles
for the dead Moses and tbe dead Elias? Why, also,
ahould Moses come from tbe tomb to support a teacher
who bad torn his covenant witb Yahve to shreds ?
" He was transfigured before them "
Buddha, leaving Maudgalyayana and another dis
ciple to represent him, went off through the air to
the Devaloca, to the Heaven Tulita, to preach to the
spirits in prison and to convert bis mother. When
he came down from the mountain (Mienmo), a stair
case of glittering diamonds, seen by all, helped his
deacent. Hia appearance was blinding. The " six
glories " glittered on his person. Mortals and spirits
hymned the benign Being wbo emptied the hells.!
In tbe Gospel according to the Hebrews is a curious
1 Bigandet, p. 209.

MORE COINCIDENCES 185
passage, wbicb Baur and Hilgenfeld hold to be the
earliest version of tbe Transfiguration narrative.
" Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by
one of my hairs and bore me up on to tbe great
mountain of Tabor."
Thia ia curious. Buddha and Jesus reach the
Mount of Transfiguration, each through the influence
of his mother. But perhaps tbe Jewish writer did
not like tbe universalism inculcated in tbe Buddhist
narrative. " He began to wash the Disciples' Feet "
(John xiii. 5)
In a vihara at GS.ndbara was a monk so loath
some and stinking, on account of his maladies, tbat
none of bis brother disciples dare go near bim. The
great Teacher came and tended him lovingly and
washed bis feet.!
The great Banquet of Buddha
In tbe Lalita Vistara (p. 51) it is stated tbat those
wbo bave faith will become "sons of Buddha," and
partake of tbe " food of tbe kingdom." Four things
draw disciples to bis banquet — gifts, soft words, pro
duction of benefits, conformity of benefits.
Baptism
In a Chinese life of Buddha by Wung Pub,^ it is
announced tbat Buddha at Vai^&li delivered a Sutra
' Chinese Dliam.mapada, p. 94.
2 See Beal, Journ. As. Soc. vol. xx. p. 172.

1 86 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
entitled, " The Baptism that Rescues from Life and
Death and Confers Salvation."

" And none of them is lost but the Son of
Perdition "
Buddha had also a treacherous disciple, Devadatta.
He schemed with a wicked prince, wbo sent men
armed with bowa and swords to slaughter Buddha.
Devadatta tried other infamous stratagems. His end
was appalling. Coming in a palanquin to arrest
Buddha, he got out to stretch himself. Suddenly
fierce flames burat out, and be was canied down to
tbe bell Avichi (the Rayless Place). Tbere, in a red-
hot cauldron, impaled by one red bar and pierced by two
others, be will stay for a whole Kalpa. Then he will be
forgiven.! The Last Supper
Buddha had bis last supper or repast with his
disciples. A treacherous disciple changed his alms-
bowl, and apparently be was poisoned.^ Fierce pains
seized him as he journeyed afterwards. He was
forced to rest. He sent a message to his host, Kunda,
tbe son of the jeweller, to feel no remorse although
the feast bad been bis death. Under two trees be now
died. It will be remembered that during the last supper
of Jesus a treacherous disciple " dipped into his dish,"
but as Jesus was not poisoned, the event had no
sequence. ' Bigandet, p. 244. ^ ggg Boekhill's Buddha, p. 133.

MORE COINCIDENCES 187
"Now from the Sixth Hour there was Darkness
OVER ALL the LaND UNTIL THE NiNTH HoUR "
The critical school base much of their contention
that the Gospels do not record real history on this
particular passage. Tbey urge tbat such an astound
ing event could not have eacaped Josephus and
Tacitus. When Buddha died, the " sun and moon
withdrew their shining," and dust and ashes fell like
rain. " The great earth quaked throughout. The
crash of tbe thunder shook tbe heavens and tbe earth,
rolling along tbe mountains and valleys." ! The
Buddhiat account is certainly not impoaaible, for tbe
chronicler takea advantage of tbe phenomena of an
Indian duat-storm to produce bia dark picture. At
Lucknow, before the aiege, I remember a atorm so
dense at midday that some ladies with my regiment
thought the Day of Judgment had arrived.
" And many Bodies of the Saints which
SLEPT arose"
When Buddha died at Kusinagara, Ananda and
another diaciple aaw many denizena of tbe unseen
world in the city, by the river Yigdan.^
"To anoint My Body to the Burying"
(Mark xiv. 8)
Tbe newly diacovered fragments of the Gospel of
Peter give us a curious fact. Tbey record tbat Mary
^ Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king, v. 26.
" Rookhill's Life of the Buddha, p. 133.

188 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Magdalene, " taking witb her her frienda," went to the
aepulcbre of Jesus to " place themselves beside him
and perform the rites" of wailing, beating breasts,
etc. Amrapali and other courtesans did the same
rites to Buddha, and the disciples were afterwards
indignant tbat impure women should bave " waahed
hia dead body witb their tears."!
In the Christian recorda are three paaaages, all
due, I think, to the Buddhist narrative. In one, "a
woman " anoints Jesus ; in John (xii. 7), " Mary "
anoints bim ; in Luke, a " sinner," wbo kisses and
washes bis feet with ber hair. Plainly tbese last
passages are quite irrational. No woman could have
performed the washing and otber burial rites on a man
alive and in health.

"They parted My Garments"
The Abbd Hue tells us^ tbat on the death of the
Boktd Lama bis garments are cut into little stripes
and prized immensely. "He appeared unto Many"
Buddha prophesied that be would appear after his
death.* In a Chinese version quoted by Eitel,* Buddha,
to soothe bis mother, who had come down weeping
from tbe akiea, opena his coffin lid and appears to her.
In tbe temple sculptures be is constantly depicted
coming down to tbe altar during worship.^
' Rockhill, Thibetan Life, p. 153. " Voyages, ii. p. 278.
° Lotus, p. 144. * Three Lectures, p. 57.
" See illustrations to my Buddhism in Christendom.

MORE COINCIDENCES 189
The "Great White Throne"
Mr. Upham, in bia History of Buddhism (t^-^. 56, 57),
gives a deacription of the Buddhiat heaven. Tbere
is a " high mountain," and a city " four square " with
gates of gold and ailver, adorned with precioua atones.
Seven moata surround tbe city. Beyond the last
one ia a row of marble pillars atudded witb jewela.
Tbe great throne of the god stands in tbe centre of a
great ball, and is surmounted by a white canopy.
Round tbe great throne are seated heavenly ministers,
wbo record men's actiona in a "golden book." A
mighty tree ia conspicuous in the garden. In the
Chinese heaven is tbe " Gem Lake," by wbicb stands
the peach-tree whose fruit gives immortality.
The Atonement
Tbe idea of transferred good Karma, the merita of
tbe former lives of an individual being pasaed on to
another individual, is, of course, quite foreign to tbe
lower Judaism, wbicb believed in no after life at all.
In tbe view of the higher Buddhism, S&kya Muni
saved tbe world by bis teaching ; but to tbe lower, tbe
Buddhiam of offeringa and temples and monka, tbis
doctrine of Karma was tbe life-blood. It was pro
claimed that Buddha bad a vast stock of superfluous
Karma, and that offerings at a temple migbt cause
tbe worshipper in bis next life to be a prince instead
of a pig or a coolie. In tbe Lalita Vistara'^ it is
announced tbat when Buddha overcame MS,ra, all flesh
rejoiced, tbe blind saw, tbe deaf heard, tbe dumb
1 Chinese version, p. 225.

I90 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
spake, the hells were cleared, and all by reaaon of
Buddha's Karma in previous lives.
St. Paul is very contradictory about tbe atonement.
Tbis paasage seems pure Buddhism :
" As by tbe offence of one judgment came upon all
men to condemnation, even so by tbe righteousness of
one the free gift came upon all men unto justification
of life "(Rom. V. 18).
Contrast this witb another passage :
" Whom God bath set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteous
ness for tbe remission of sins " (Rom. iii. 25).

CHAPTER XI
RITES
I HAVE left myself little apace to write of tbe many
pointa of close similarity between tbe Buddhists and
tbe Roman Catholics.
The French missionary Hue, in bis celebrated travels
in Thibet, was much struck with tbis similarity.
" Tbe crozier, tbe mitre, the dalmatic, the cope or
pluvial, wbich the grand lamas wear on a journey, or
when tbey perform some ceremony outside the temple,
the service with a double choir, psalmody, exorcisms,
the censer swinging on five chains and contrived to
be opened and shut at will, benediction by the lamas,
witb tbe right band extended over the beads of the
faithful, tbe chaplet, sacerdotal celibacy, Lenten re
tirements from the world, the worship of saints, fasts,
processions, litanies, holy water — tbese are the points
of contact between tbe Buddhists and ourselves."
Listen also to Fatber Disderi, who visited Thibet in
tbe year 1714. " Tbe lamas have a tonsure like our
priests, and are bound over to perpetual celibacy.
Tbey study their scriptures in a language and in
characters that differ from the ordinary charactera.
Tbey recite prayera in choir. Tbey serve tbe temple,
present tbe offeringa, and keep the lamps perpetually
alight. They offer to God corn and barley and paste

192 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
and water in little vases, which are extremely clean.
Food thus offered is considered consecrated, and they
eat it. The lamas have local superiors, and a superior
general." !
Fatber Grueber, with another priest, named Dor-
ville, paaaed from Pekin through Thibet to Patna in
tbe year 1661. Henry Prinsep^ thus sums up what
he baa recorded:
" Father Grueber was much atruck with tbe extra
ordinary aimilarity be found, as well in tbe doctrine
as in tbe rituals of the Buddhists of Lha Sa, to those
of bis own Romish faith. He noticed, first, tbat the
dresa of the lamas corresponded to that handed
down to us in ancient paintings aa the dress of
tbe Apostles. Second, tbat tbe discipline of tbe
monasteries and of tbe different ordera of lamaa or
priests bore the same resemblance to tbat of the
Romish Churcb. Third, that the notion of an In
carnation was common to botb, ao also the belief in
paradise and purgatory. Fourth, be remarked that
tbey made suffrages, alms, prayers, and sacrifices for
the dead, like tbe Roman Catholics. Fifth, that tbey
bad convents filled witb monks and friars to tbe
number of thirty thousand, near Lha Sa, wbo all
made tbe three vows of poverty, obedience, and
chastity, like Roman monks, besides other vows.
Sixth, tbat tbey bad confessors licensed by tbe
auperior lamaa or bishops, and ao empowered to
receive confessions, impose penances, and give absolu
tion. Besides all this tliere was found tbe practice of
using holy water, of singing service in alternation, of
' Lettres Edijiantes, vol. iii. p. 534.
^ Thibet Tartary, etc. p. 14.

RITES 193
praying for the dead, and of perfect aimilarity in the
cuatoma of tbe great and superior lamas to tbose of
tbe different ordera of the Romisb hierarchy. These
early missionaries further were led to conclude, from
wbat tbey saw and beard, that the ancient books of
the lamaa contained tracea of the Christian religion,
wbicb must, they thought, bave been preached in
Thibet in tbe time of tbe Apostles."
In tbe year 1829 Victor Jacquemont, tbe French
botanist, made a abort excursion from Simla into
Thibet. He writes : " Tbe Grand Lama of Kanum bas
tbe episcopal mitre and crozier. He is dressed just
like our bishops. A superficial observer at a little
distance would take bis Thibetan and Buddhist mass
for a Roman mass of tbe firat water. He makes
twenty genuflexions at the right intervals, turns to
tbe altar and then to the congregation, rings a bell,
drinks in a chalice water poured out by an acolyte,
intones paternosters quite of the right sing-song — the
resemblance is really shocking. But men whose faith
ia properly robust will see here nothing but a corrup
tion of Christianity." !
It must be borne in mind that wbat is called
Southern Buddhism has tbe same rites. St. Francis
Xavier in Japan found Southern Buddhism ao like
bia own tbat be donned tbe yellow sanghdti, and
called himself an apostle of Buddha, quieting his
conscience by furtively mumbling a little Latin of
the baptismal service over some of his " converts.''
This is what tbe Rev. S. Beal, a chaplain in
tbe navy, wrote of a liturgy tbat be found in
China : ^ Corr. vol. i. p. 265.
13

194 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
" The form of this office is a very curious one. It
beara a singular likeness in its outline to the common
type of tbe Eastem Christian liturgies. Tbat is to
say, there is a ' Proanapboral ' and an ' Anapboral '
portion. Tbere is a prayer of entrance (r^g iiiroiov), a
prayer of incense (toS Ouiz/iupiiOiros), an ascription of
praise to tbe threefold object of worabip (rpiaw/iov), a
prayer of oblation (rrig Tpoff hasag), tbe lectiona, tbe
recitations of the Dbarani ((juvar'/iptov), tbe Embolismus,
or prayer against temptation, followed by a ' Confes
sion ' and a ' Dismissal.' " !
Turning to architecture, I must point out that Mr.
Ferguson, the leading authority in ancient art, was of
opinion that tbe various details of tbe early Christian
basilica — nave, aisle, columns, semi-domed apse, cruci
form ground plan — were borrowed en bloc from the
Buddhists. Mr. Ferguson lays special stress on the
Dagoba and its enshrined relics, represented in the
Christian Church by tbe high altar, the bones of a
saint, tbe baldechino. Relic-worship, be aays, was
certainly borrowed from tbe East. Of the rock-cut
temple of Kelrle (b.c. 78) be writes :
" Tbe building reaemblea, to a great extent, an early
Christian Churcb in its arrangements, consisting of a
nave and side aisles terminating in an apse or semi-
dome, round wbicb tbe aisle ia carried. . . . Aa a scale
for comparison, it may be mentioned tbat its arrange
ments and dimensions are very similar to tbose of tbe
choir of Norwich Cathedral, and of the Abbaye aux
Hommes at Caen, omitting the outer aiales in tbe
latter buildings.
" Immediately under the aemi-dome of the apse, and
' Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, p. 397.

RITES 195
nearly where tbe altar stands in Christian Churches, is
placed the Dagoba.! "
Tbe list of resemblances is by no means exhausted.
Tbe monks on entering a temple make tbe gesture that
we call tbe aign of the croas. Tbe Buddhiata have
illuminated missals, Gregorian chants, a tabernacle on
the altar for oblations, a pope, cardinala, angela witb
wings, saints with the nimbus. For a full account I
muat refer tbe reader to my Buddhism in Chris
tendom, where I give (pp. 182, 184) drawinga of
monks and nuna, tbe Virgin and Child (p. 205), tbe
adoration of tbe rice cake on tbe altar (p. 83), Buddha
coming down to tbe altar witb tbe heavenly host
(p. 210), tbe long candles, artificial fiowers, crosa,
incenae burner, and divine figure with the aureole, of
tbe Buddhist temple (p. 208). Tbe election of the
Grand L4ma I show to be pin for pin like tbe election
of tbe Pope. The liat is endless.
How is all tbis to be accounted for? Several
theories bave been started :
The first attempts to make light of the matter
altogether. All religions, it says, have sacrifice, incense,
priests, tbe idea of faith, etc. Tbis may be called tbe
orthodox Protestant theory, and many bulky books
bave recently appeared propounding it. But as tbese
books avoid all tbe strong pointa of the case, they
cannot be called at all satisfactory to tbe bewildered
inquirer. To tbis theory tbe Roman Catholics reply tbat tbe
similarities between Buddhism and Catholicism are so
microscopic and so complete, that one religion must
bave borrowed from tbe otber. In consequence tbey
' Indian and Eastern Architectwre, p. 117.

196 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
try to prove tbat the ritea of Buddhiam and tbe life of
its founder were derived from Christianity, from the
Nestorians, from St. Thomas, from St. Hyacinth of
Poland, from St. Oderic of Frioul.!
In tbe way of tbis theory, bowever, tbere are also
insuperable difficulties. Buddha died 470 years before
Christ, and for many years tbe Christian Churcb bad
no basilicas, popes, cardinala, baailica worahip, nor
even for a long time a definite life of tbe founder. At
the date of ASoka (b.c. 260) tbere waa a metrical life of
Buddha (Muni G4tba), and tbe incidenta of thia life
are found sculptured in marble on tbe gateways of
Buddhist temples tbat precede tbe Christian epoch.
This ia tbe testimony of Sir Alexander Cunningham,
the greatest of Indian archaeologists. He fixes the
date of tbe Bharhut Stupa at from 270 to 250 B.C.
There he finda Queen M4y&'a dream of the elephant,
tbe Riahis at tbe ploughing match, the tranafiguration
of Buddha and tbe ladder of diamonds, and otber
incidents. At tbe Sancbi tope, an earlier atructure
(although tbe preaent marble gatewaya, repeated
probably from wood, are fixed at about A.D 19), be
announcea representations of Buddha as an elephant
coming down to bis mother's womb, three out of tbe
" Four Presaging Tokens," Buddha bending tbe bow of
Sinhahanu, King Bimbisara visiting the young prince,
and otber incidents.
A man who invents, let us say, a submarine boat, at
once puts bis idea to a practical test. Let us try and
construct a working model here. Suppose tbat the
preaent ruler of Afgbaniatan were paying us a visit,
and, introduced at Fulham Palace, be were to suggest
' See Abb6 Prouv^ze, Life of Gabriel Durand, voL ii. p. 366.

RITES

197

that tbe life of Mahomet ahould supersede that of
Jesus in our Bible, and Mussulman rites replace the
Christian ritual in tbe diocese of London. What
would be tbe answer? Tbe bishop, anxious to deal
gently witb a valuable ally, would point out tbat be
was only a cogwheel in a vast machinery, a cogwheel
tbat could be promptly replaced if it proved tbe least
out of gear. He would show tbat tbe Anglican Church
had a mass of very definite rules called canon law,
witb courts empowered to punish tbe slightest in
fringement of these rules. He would show tbat even
an archbishop could not alter a tittle of tbe gospel
narrative. Every man, woman, and child would im
mediately detect tbe change.
Similar difficulties would be in tbe way of St.
Hyacinth of Poland in, aay, a monaatery of Ceylon.
Tbe abbot tbere would be responsible to wbat Bishop
Bigandet calls bis " provincial," and he again to bis
" supdrieur gdndral " (p. 478), and so on to the Achirya,
tbe " High Priest of all tbe World," wbo, in bia palace
at Nalanda, near Buddha GayS,, was wont to sit in state,
surrounded by ten thousand monks. Buddhism, by the
time tbat a Christian missionary could bave reached it,
was a far more diffused and conservative religion than
Anglicaniam. It had a canon law quite as definite.
It had hundreds of volumes treating of tbe minutest
acts of S§.kya Muni.

CHAPTER XII
BUDDHA IN NOR"W^AY AND AMERICA
Norway
One portion of Her Majesty's subjects calls the fourth
day of tbe week tbe " Day of Woden," and a still larger
portion calls it the " Day of Buddha." Is tbere any con
nection between Woden and Buddha ? Professor Max
Muller ridicules tbe idea ; on tbe otber band, tbe great
archaeologist. Professor Holmboe, takes up the opposite
view. In tbe first place, tbe earliest traditions of the
Norsemen and their earlieat biatoriana aaaert that they
came from beyond tbe Tanaqvial (Don or Tanais), from
Asaland, from the city of Asgard ; and tbese Asas are
identified by tbe professor aa tbe Aaioi or Asiani of
Strabo and otber classical writers, certain invaders of
Bactria from beyond tbe Jaxartea. Tbeae Asaa arrived
in Norway, and tbey bave left behind tbem an abund
ance of monumenta wbicb prove tbat their rites, and
temples, and symbols are precisely tbe same as those
of the Buddhists. Tbe hang is a servile copy of the
tope ; and ita concomitanta, tbe atambha or solitary
tower, tbe circles of upright stones, tbe tank or lake
for baptismal purpoaes, and the sacred treea, are every
where found. Inaide tbeae hauga are discovered copies
of the coins of Bactrian kings of the first century A.D.,

BUDDHA IN NORWAY AND AMERICA 199
and alao many Buddhiat aymbola — the Swaatica, the
Nandavarta, and tbe professor migbt bave added, as I
shall show, tbe Triratna. To make bis case more com
plete, tbe professor points to a line of tbese hauga and
circlea stretching across Europe, wbich indicates tbe
pathway of tbese migrating Aaaa ; and tbe w and b in
Sanskrit being identical letters, tbe word Woden, be
points out, could bave easily been manufactured out of
Bodhi, Budb, etc.
A rough heap or cairn of atones was tbe primitive
idea of the tope. In the tope par excellence tbe hemi
spherical ahape waa adopted as tbe most complete repre
sentation of tbe heaven of tbe Buddhists. The tope at
Sancbi, near Bhilai, in Bbopal, is a simple hemisphere,
and waa erected about tbe middle of tbe sixth century
B.C., according to General Cunningham. Tbe next oldest
topes are tbe smaller Bbils^ topes. In these the hemi
sphere ia raiaed up a few feet by the addition of a cylin
drical portion. In tbe Afghan topes, wbich were erected
about tbe Christian era, tbe hemisphere is still farther
elevated. In a fourth class of tope, of which the Skv-
nath tope at Benares is a fine specimen, tbe cylindrical
portion is aa high as the diameter of the tope.
In India the origin of the tope ia attributed to
Buddha ; in Norway tbe bang is attributed to Woden,
Snorro Sturlasen, in his History of the Ancient Kings
of Norway, thus writes : " Woden gave to tbe kingdom
tbe law wbich governs tbe Asas. He ordered tbat all
tbe dead should be burned, and their property should
be carried witb tbem to tbe pyre. In this way each
would reach Walhalla with bis riches ; be would enjoy
also all tbat he bad bid in the earth. The ashes were
to be thrown in tbe sea or buried."

200 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
Let us now compare the haug and tbe tope.
" The tumuli of Europe," says tbe profeasor, " com
posed of stones, sand, and earth, have received tbe most
natural ahape for a heap, tbat of a truncated cone
rounded at the top. The topes of Asia developed
gradually from tbe earliest cuneiform stupa or heap,
which was replaced, to get tbe inner cell more solid,
by a quadrangular wall surmounted by a cone. Then
this construction waa raiaed aloft from its base by a
cylinder. Tbe haugs of Norway and tbe topes of Asia
seem to have had originally tbe same form, and the
sole difference between tbeae ancient monumenta is
the more developed form of the topes, which have,
however, alwaya retained the conic cupola, striking a
mean between the cone and tbe hemisphere. In Nor
way and Tibet square monuments of the same descrip
tion are found, although these are exceptional. " Also,
in Norway we find tumuli witb a little tumulus at tbe
summit of ¦ each, as if to imitate the topes witb their
basement, whicb in Afghanistan is more often a heap
of stones thrown together without order. In Jutland
and at Bornholm are tumuli of tbis construction."
Another point of resemblance traced by tbe professor
is the immense masses of materials heaped up to produce
an imposing effect. The Valders bang at Valderoe, an
island belonging to Norway, is four hundred feet in
circumference, and must bave been once about thirty
feet high. Another bang, tbe Ous Haug, is four bun
dred and fifty feet in circumference ; a bang at Yttre
Holmedel is four hundred feet in circumference. Turn
ing to the topes, we find tbat tbe Amaravati is five
hundred feet in circumference, and now about sixteen
feet high. Tbis is about tbe beight of most of the

BUDDHA IN NORWAY AND AMERICA 201
Norwegian haugs. Tbe Bbils^ tope is five hundred and
fifty -four feet in circumference. Tbe Manikyala tope,
between Attock and Lahore, is three bundred and
twenty feet in circumference. The haugs are con
structed without tbe use of cement ; with tbis exception,
says tbe professor, a "more faithful imitation of the
Eastern construction was quite impoaaible."
When we examine tbe interior of tbe monuments,
tbe similarity continuea. Topes are usually built up by
tbe aid of more than one cupola. A small cupola is
constructed, and then a larger one outside that, the
intervening space being filled up with rough stones.
Witbin tbe smaller cupola are sometimes found smaller
cupolas of metal (gold, silver, and copper), the one
witbin tbe other, boxes holding probably relics and
other precioua treaaures. Tbis custom of making use
of more than one cupola is also peculiar to the bang.
One at Ostreim, in tbe diocese of Bergheim, is made up
of three or four cupolas roughly built, the intermediate
apace being filled in witb rubble and turf, with coal,
and then witb more layers of rubble and turf, and then
more coal. In tbe parisb of Urland, in the parish of
Lekanger, in tbe parisb of Haua, hauga with interior
cupolaa of aimilar conatruction bave been found.
In tbe centre of botb tope and haug is a quadrang
ular cell formed of fiags of stone at a level with or just
above tbe basement. Narrow horizontal passages some
times connect tbese witb tbe outside.
In their accessories tbe tope and tbe bang have fresh
points of similarity. Above tbe haug is often found
a monolith pointed at the top. Thia reminda the pro
fessor of tbe spires of tbe topes, and, indeed, was plainly
the Ch'attra. Then, again, imitations of tbe tope rail-

202 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
ing, imperfect, no doubt, from want of tbe power of
working in stone, have been attempted in Norway,
notably at the Kongs haug at Karmoe. Ranges of cells
are found, too, in botb tope and haug. Ditches are often
found round botb. Tanks, ponds, lakes, holy water of
aome sort, must be near these sacred edifices. The famoua
circlea of upright monoliths are also found near them.
" Tbe articles deposited in tbe topes and tbe bangs
are almost tbe same. In tbe inner cells of tbe topes
fine raked mould is found, or aand and cindera, forming
often a compact maaa. In aome topea nothing else has
been found ; in others, beneath this mass of earth were
urns or vases containing earth of a reddish colour,
mingled with ochre. Sometimea in tbeae uma were
found human aahea and fragmenta of bones, and some
times, in addition, coins and ornaments. Tbese vases are
of gold, silver, copper, or iron. In one case a wooden
vase has been discovered. Many of tbese vases, tbe
one witbin tbe other, and tbe most precious one in the
centre, are found in the same cell. The ornaments
were depoaited aometimes in tbe vase itself, sometimes
in the surrounding earth ; and tbeae ornamenta conaiated
of pearla, precioua atones, rings, golden bella, and otber
gold objects of various abapea, gold leaf, silver rings,
etc. In tbe matter of glaas and cryatal, a few cylindera
have been found, and two little phials, one of which
was upset and bad ita cork alongaide. It contained a
few drops of fluid. In a silver vase a fluid was also
found, brown and of pungent smell. Resinous and
fatty matter bas also been found in aome of the topes,
and fragmenta of bark and leaves. Once tbe bark had
been made into a box. Oval and spherical stones bave
also been discovered.

BUDDHA IN NORWAY AND AMERICA 203
" Having thua enumerated tbe principal objecta that
bave been found in tbe topea, let ua glance at tbe con
tenta of tbe haugs. Their cells also contain fine mould
(mixed sometimes witb red sand and ochre), formed
into a concrete mass. Urns or vases bave also been
discovered, in iron and copper, in wire and in wood.
Glass vasea bave also been found. Tbese vases, of which
several bave been discovered in tbe same cell, contain
human asbea, fragments of gold, ornaments, gold coins,
etc. Tbe ornamenta conaist of pearls, brooches, rings,
etc., in gold, silver, and bronze ; specimens of gold and
gold leaf, fatty and resinous matter, fragments of wood
and bark, and a box made of tbe bark of a tree, have
also been discovered. One bell baa been found, and
also, in a glass vase, some drops of a fluid, brown and
pungent. Once a phial was found also having traces
of fluid. Tbe coins, witb one exception, are all in gold ;
tbe exception was a silver coin."
In tbe topes, lamps are found ; in tbe bangs, never, —
although in tbe cells of tbe latter tbere are tracea of
amoke. In connection witb botb topea and hauga are
traditiona of phantom coruscations seen at night, wbicb
tbe professor connects witb tbe lamps burning inside.
Sacred treea and grovea are near botb topea and hauga
whenever practicable. Tbe vib&raa (conventa) in Nor
way were built of wood, and bave disappeared, but
some traces of tbem still remain. In Norway the arms
of the faithful were frequently depoaited in tbe bangs,
but tbe tope builders always bore in mind tbat tbe
great Buddha detested auch things.
Let us sum up tbe results already established by
Profeaaor Holmboe: —
1. In Norway and the otber baunta of the Norsemen

204 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
are found five religioua erectiona and their concomi
tants — tbe tumulus, tbe broch, the circle of stones,
tbe tank, and tbe oval sepulchral bill, wbicb five
institutions belong to Buddha, and no otber known
faith. 2. Tbe Asas profess to bave come from Asaland and
Asgard, beyond the Tanais, regions whicb from about
B.C. 200 were Buddhist.
3. Thia hiatory is confirmed by a line of circles and
tumuli, indicating their passage across Europe to
Scandinavia. But it is when we tum from monuments to myth
ology tbat our difficulties begin. Iceland bas pre
served for us a rich crop of those myths in tbe " Elder "
and " Younger " Eddas. And in tbeae we cannot fail
to aee at once a faith radically differing from
Buddhism. As in the Bhagavad GitS,, the courage of
tbe hero is apparently the first of virtues. Abundant
flesh of the boar Ssehrimmer will keep bim happy
after death, and many flagons of celestial beer poured
out by the Valkyries. But then it migbt be urged by
Professor Holmboe tbat tbe migratory race that trans
ferred Indra and bis Apsarases to Norway migbt also
have brought the Indian creed tbat upset India. Tbe
most splendid haug in Norway is tbe Valders' bang, tbe
Tumulus of Balder, — and Balder is a gentle god, peace
ful, forgiving, in fact, quite out of touch witb the boosy,
fighting Norse goda and men. Then, too, in Norae
records it is announced that Leif, son of Erick tbe Red,
visited Vinland A.D. 1000. If Vinland ia America, as
is now believed, and if in America tbere are found any
tracea of Buddhism, tbe case of Professor Holmboe
would of course be stronger.

BUDDHA IN NORWAY AND AMERICA 205
Buddha in America
Tbe popular notion that Columbua and bis followers
were tbe first inhabitants of tbe Eastern hemisphere
that reached tbe Western continent is becoming dissi
pated by modern research. M. A. de Quatrefages
maintains tbat tbe discovery of tbe black man, tbe
white man, and tbe yellow man amongst tbe so-called
aborigines is a proof of the distinct migrations of each
of thoae great human familiea. He shows tbat tbere
are many points where geography would asaiat migra-
tiona by aea. At Behring Straita tbe two continenta
are brought cloae together, and tbe pasaage is partly
bridged by tbe group of the St. Laurence Islands.
Kamtscbatka and Alaska, with the intervening Aleu
tian Islands, show another point of passage in tbe
Polar regions wbicb tbe Tcbukcbees on both shores
frequently use. Tbe currents of Tessan, tbe Black
Stream of the Japanese, bave frequently cast floating
bodies and abandoned junks upon tbe shores of Cali
fornia. Tbe equatorial current of tbe Atlantic opena a
similar route, leading from Africa to America.
Tbe Chineae booka apeak of a country called Fou
Sang, to wbich tbey sent Buddhist missionaries in tbe
fifth century. Fou Sang is 20,000 li (a li is 486
yards) from China. In following tbe course of tbe
Black Stream of tbe Japanese, tbese figures would
bring us to California, where the abandoned junka were
stranded. Fou Sang means literally, tbe extreme east.
Klaprotb bas combated tbe idea that Fou Sang is
tbe continent of America, and holds tbat it meant
Japan. But M. de Risny has shown from a Japanese
encyclopaedia tbat tbe Japanese also were aware of

2o6 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
tbeae Buddhist missions to a distant land, wbicb tbey
call Fou So. Tbe Chinese writers apeak of copper,
gold, and silver being found in Fou Sang, but no iron.
Tbis description applies to America, but not to Japan.
M. Para vey gives a Chinese drawing of tbe American
llama in one of his books. " I have beard M. Castelnau
say," says M. de Quatrefages, "'When I waa aur
rounded by my Siameae servants, I imagined myself
in America ! ' " In the Geografia, del Peru, by Paz
Soldan, it is asserted that Chineae recently brought
to tbe province of Lambaydque were able to converae
with the American nativea. In the large folio designs,
furnished by the Abbd Brasseur de Bourbourg, ia one
large bead ao boldly painted tbat it migbt well bave
been one of tbe Japanese embaaay painted by a modern
artist. Pearl fishery, and tbe employment of murex
for its beautiful purple dye, are otber points wbich
show tbe teaching of some Eastern nation.
Humboldt and Laplace bave detected points of aimi
larity between the aatronomy of the Mexicans and
tbat of the Old World far too striking to be tbe result
of mere chance. Tbe Mexicans bad tbe twenty-eight
mansions of the lunar zodiac, wbich, as I bave shown,
is far more ancient than tbe solar zodiac of twelve
manaiona. Humboldt alao was much struck witb tbe
similarity between tbe symbols of tbe Mexican zodiac
and tbose of tbe Buddhist Tartars. He pointed out
that the Mexicans have "nine lords of tbe night,"
corresponding to tbe " nine astrological signa of aeveral
nationa of Aaia " (tbe aeven planeta and tbe two great
serpents). Tbe number nine, be asserts, waa plainly
chosen because it divides into the 360 daya of tbe lunar
year.

BUDDHA IN NORWAY AND AMERICA 207
" Tbe intercalation of twenty-five days in one bundred
and four years," says Laplace, " supposes a more exact
duration of the tropical yeara than tbat of Hipparchus,
and, wbat is very remarkable, almost equal to tbat of
tbe astronomers of Almamon. When we consider tbe
difficulty of attaining ao exact determination we are
led to believe that it is not tbe work of tbe Mexicans,
and tbat it reached tbem from tbe old continent."
It ia to be mentioned tbat in the Mexican zodiac are
the ass and tbe tiger, not indigenous in America, the
serpent, tbe horse, and what is of immense importance,
tbe Makara (cipactli) of Buddhism.
Also tbey bave everywhere tbe topea and atanding-
atonea, and tbe aerpent-aymbola of the Buddhists, and
a tradition of Quatzalcoatl, wbo forbade huraan and
other bloody sacrifices, and substituted offerings of
flowers. The Mexicans bad the Buddhiat rite of baptism.
Tbe Mexicans bad the Buddhist bloodless oblation,
which took the form of little images of maize dough.
They bad processions, a hierarchy, religious commun
ities, periods of penance. They had secret mysteries,
divided into three grades of initiation. They had the
sign of tbe croaa, alao tbe mystic vase. Tbey had a
tradition of a flood, and of tbe escape of one man. In
their narrative of the deluge waa alao tbe incident of
tbe dove. Tbe prieats of Cortes saw in all tbis Satan
parodying the mysteries of Christianity. Even the
intelligent Abbd Guerin, in India, was convinced tbat
the Institutes of Manu were plagiarised from the
Latin vulgate. Regarding the rewards and punish
ments of the future, ideas analogous to those of tbe
Buddhists were found in the New World.

2o8 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
" Those wbo bave gone to the regiona of punishment,
tbey believe to be tortured for a time proportioned
to tbe amount of their transgressions, and tbat tbey
are then to be transferred to tbe land of the happy,
where they are again liable to tbe temptations of tbe
evil spirit, and answerable again at a future period for
their new offences."
Tbey held also tbat the world was supported on a
great tortoise, wbicb animal was one of the most holy
of their emblems.
But tbe beat proof of Buddhiat proaelytiam ia found
in tbe pictures and statues of tbe Mexican Buddha.
He is called Xaca, wbicb word M. Paravey plausibly
identifies witb SS,kya. Tbese can be seen in tbe
designs furnished by tbe Abbd Brasseur de Bourbourg
from Palenqud. M. Paravey showed Burnouf one of
tbese Buddhas without telling him where it bad been
found. Tbe great Sanskrit scholar at once pronounced
it to be a representation of Sakya Muni.
I bave only been able to touch on tbese great ques
tions, not to solve them. How it is tbat the propa
gandism of tbe Buddhiat missionaries bas been so
successful, and tbe work of otber miaaionariea so fruit
less, would be an interesting inquiry. To tbis rule
there is one exception — tbe missionary labours of tbe
higher Christianity before it was tainted and stiffened
by contact with tbe lower.

CHAPTER XIII
CONCLUSION
Dr. Crozier, in tbe Fortnightly Review for February
1899, is very hostile to Buddhism and tbe Indian re
ligions. He announces tbat " thought in its evolution
will no more return to tbem than the animal kingdom
will return to tbe marsupials." Tbe Indian God, be
holds, is an "impotent" God. He is described aa a
" Great Soul," and modern thought requirea a God witb
will and energy, a God wbo can, in fact, look after tbe
world. Tbe Indian Goda diacountenance action and
work on behalf of our fellow-men, and lead their devotees
to occupy themaelvea mainly in aaving their own souls "
by " thinking of this Supreme Soul when in a state of
ecstasy, tbe eyes being fixed on the tip of the nose."
Tbis deserves attention. Tbe Indian philosophers
have no doubt always been a little vague about their
God. Thia ia done purposely. They say that if you
begin to limit the Absolute it becomes the Absolute
no longer. " Un Dieu defini," says tbe French wit,
" c'est un Dieu fini ! "
Tbe East clings to symbols, to metaphor. They break
their God to pieces and make hia attributes into little
Gods. The West lovea a God tbat — wbat shall I say ? —
can be photographed. " From bis tapas," says a Buddhist
book, speaking of tbe Buddha of Buddhas, " tbe uni-
14

2 id BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
verae waa produced by bim. He ia tbe lawara (Creator),
tbe infinite, tbe form of all things yet formless."
Here we are in the presence of two ideas that
elucidate one another. In India tbe JRishi, the
magician, was said to perform his magical acta when
in tapas, tbe myatical, magical trance. Hence the
Buddha of Buddhaa and the Brahmin Gods are imaged
in wbat Dr. Crozier calls " a atate of ecstasy, tbe eyes
being fixed on the tip of tbe nose," and if Brahma
created evolution and then sate still, be really seema
quite as much up to modern thought as, say, Paley's
watchmaker God wbo goes about correcting the works
of bia not quite perfect watches. But tbis Indian
symbolism goes much deeper. Tbe enlightened man
and tbe enlightening God bave the same symbolic
representation, because in a sense tbey are one.
"What ia God?" aaid the miasionary Robson to a
Brahmin :
" He is talking to you."
Tbere lies tbe distinction between tbe East and tbe
Weat. The God of the West is outside humanity. The
God of tbe East is sought for in the human breast.
But in justice to Dr. Crozier, we may mention that
the modern, up-to-date philosophers fare as badly at
his bands as tbe marsupial Goda of India. He citea
a apeech uttered by Carlyle when he called upon that
great sage in Chelsea. " We bave reached the com
fortable conclusion tbat God is a myth, that the soul is
gas, and the next world a coffin." As a substitute for
all this. Dr. Crozier givea us a philosophy of hia own.
He calla it tbe " Scale in the Mind." In every one of
us is a sort of "Judge." He is "in the mind," but
" not of tbe mind." He is neither " conscience, honour.

CONCLUSION 211
beauty, reverence, nor love." He is a sort, in fact, of
subliminal Baron Hawkins, and he tells even tbe
higher animals when they are doing wrong.! But is
all tbis getting rid of the marsupial Brahma, or bring
ing bim back again in a borae-bair wig ?
Tbere are differencea between tbe two Brahmaa, but
ia tbe balance of merita witb Dr. Crozier'a Brahma?
Tbe King of Benin, when hia favourite wife bas tbe
tic doulov/reux, believes tbat Mumbo Jumbo ia angry
becauae be haa broken aome ailly law of tbe Taboo.
At once inapired by bis remorse or bis " Scale in tbe
Mind," be orders tbe massacre of fifty subjects to
appease tbe deity. Does not tbis give us the difference
between Dr. Crozier's and tbe Indian Brahma. The first
is ready to inspire anybody ; tbe second must bave the
mind prepared and tbe soul purified before be can enter.
One chief popular objection to Buddhism runs after
tbis fashion. " It is much better that a respectable
young man ahould toil and till, and marry and raiae up
a healthy family, than abandon bis young wife like
Buddha and sit idly under a tree.
Tbis is true ; but if tbe Indian philosophers had not
reasoned and reflected in solitude, tbere would probably
atill be nothing to till, and the respectable young man
would bave to ahare bis wife witb tbe rest of the
village or, perhaps, monkey gang. Tbe philosopher's
work was at first utilitarian, as well as superstitious.
He fashioned bows and arrows, aa well as imprecationa.
He designed rude strategy and rude politics. He auper-
intended agriculture. He invented rude moral codes.
Three main points are urged by Dr. Crozier against
Buddha : ' Crozier, My Inner Life, p. 433.

212 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
1. He discountenanced work and action on behalf of
our fellow-men.
2. He urged folka to aave their own souls by con
templation and asceticism.
3. Buddhism bad no support in its system for a
doctrine of love.!
I will write down a few of tbe achievements of tbis
inactive Buddha and tbe army of Bhikshus tbat be
directed :
1. Tbe most formidable priestly tyranny tbat tbe
world had ever seen crumbled away before his attack,
and tbe followers of Buddha were paramount in India
for a thousand yeara.
2. Tbe institution of caste was assailed and over
turned. 3. Polygamy was for the firat time pronounced
immoral, and alavery condemned.
4. Woman, from being conaidered a chattel and
a beaat of burden, waa for tbe first time considered
man'a equal, and allowed to develop ber spiritual life.
5. All bloodshed, whether witb the knife of the priest
or tbe sword of tbe conqueror, waa rigidly forbidden.
6. Alao, for tbe first time in the religious history of
mankind, tbe awakening of the spiritual life of tbe indi
vidual was substituted for religion by body corporate.
It is also certain tbat Buddha was tbe first to proclaim
tbat duty was to be sought in tbe eternal principles of
morality and justice, and not in animal sacrifices and
local formalities invented by tbe fancy of priests.
7. Tbe principle of religious propagandism was for
tbe first time introduced witb its two great instruments,
tbe miasionary and tbe preacher.
^ Fortnightly Review, February 1899

CONCLUSION 213
8. By these, India, China, Bactria, and Japan, were
proselytised; and tbe Buddhist missionaries overran
Persia and Egypt. Tbis success was effected by moral
means alone, for Buddhiam is tbe one religion guiltless
of coercion. It ia reckoned that one-third of humanity
ia still in its fold.
9. Without entering any further into tbe great
question of wbat Christ added to or wbat Christ
removed from Eaaeniam, it ia plain that from Buddha
came the main elementa tbat changed Mosaism into
tbe leading creed of Europe.
10. One great gift of Buddha to tbe world is quite
overlooked. In tbe Institutes of Manu are noted down
all sorts of penalties for the heretics who queation the
Brahmin claima. We know, too, tbat Plato waa aold
as a slave for bis opinions, and Socrates put to death.
Buddhism is tbe religion of tbe individual, and from
tbe first it seema to bave held toleration of other
creeda aa a logical outcome. A few yeara ago an
English officer in Ceylon, in civil employ, gained the
affections of bis district. At bis death tbe Buddhists
came forward and offered to build an English cburch
as a memorial. In India during tbe one thousand
years of Buddhist rule all creeds and all pbiloaopbies
were tolerated, a pricelesa and unexampled boon to
tbe thought of tbe world.
Tbe second contention of Dr. Crozier is tbat
Buddhism is pure selfishness; and the tbird, that
Buddha bad no idea of love, whereas Jesus by His
sacrifice aaved the world.
A clever Buddhist answered tbe missionaries a few
yeara ago in a little work called Happiness, and in
hia view tbe selfishness and absence of love and

214 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
charity were to be found in quite a different direction.
Tbis anonymous Buddhist affirmed tbat tbe God of
the Christiana was chiefly an object to be feared.
He lived in a remote " heaven " liatening to perpetual
aongs of praise. He was a "jealous God" ready to
consign almoat all Hia creaturea to perpetual torment,
including "800,000,000 Buddhists in every fifty
years," as tbe author waa assured by a missionary.
Tbis God proclaimed that credulity and subserviency
to Hia prieata waa the aupreme human merit, and
tbat independent thought, reason, philosophy, and
aoul dreams, tbe great aina. Hia motto waa, "Tbe
fear of God is tbe beginning of wiadom."
Upon thia statement the writer pounced witb
much vivacity. There was an Ego and a non-Ego,
and this non- Ego was God. He was not in a remote
heaven but here on earth, and the one object of tbe
Buddhist was to sink the Ego and its petty dreams
and become in harmony with the Supreme Mind.
Witb the Buddhist the fear of tbe Ego was tbe
beginning of wisdom; not tbe fear of tbe non-Ego,
wbicb was wisdom itself.
I do not think it does much good to compare
Buddhism and Christianity under their modem
aspects, and to argue from tbese that Jesus taught
tbis and Buddha that. The bouse of Aaron kept
tbe " key " of tbe great Temple of " Knowledge," with
its hopes and dreams. Tbey refused to go in them
selves, and " them tbat were entering tbey hindered "
(Luke xi. 52). Buddha likewise found a mischievous
hereditary priesthood, and hia great work, like that
of Jeaua, was to democratise religion. His special
characteristic as an epoch-maker I conceive to be

CONCLUSION 215
tbis, tbat he devised less a teaching than an apparatus
for spreading a teaching. Hia famiabed, half-naked
Parivrdjikas marched everywhere, taught everywhere,
openly if possible, secretly if necessary. Their secret
societies, Mitbraists, Hermetista, Pythagoreans, and the
guardians of tbe Kabbalah (a treatise of palpable
Buddhist inapiration) aoon spread over all Europe and
Aaia Minor. They faced, undaunted, Rome (Cbriatian
and un-Christian), tbe Moslem, the Inquisition. The
achievements of tbe Mussulman Society of tbe Rose
and tbe persecuted " Kabbalists " read like a fairy tale.
The Reformation and tbe great French Revolution are
attributed to tbem by the enthusiastic followers of St.
Martin and tbe Ilium inati.
Men bave lived in tbe past whom Plato or Clement
of Alexandria would bave praised. Men have lived
in the past (a distinct group) whom John Stuart Mill
or Professor Clifford would bave praised. Would tbese
last writers bave given Buddha a place amongst tbe
world's epocb-makera ?
Sir Alexander Cunningham, whoae knowledge (and
love) of old India waa unique amongat moderns,
announces! that A^oka was tbe first monarch to
bring tbe whole of India under control of a vigorous
and conaolidated government. He broke up the smaller
States, tbe little nests of brigands. For war, over an
area bigger than Europe, be aubstituted peace; for
border raids, commerce ; for tbe hereditary pretensions
of tbe Brahmina, tbe claims of individual conscience
and reason. His Bharmsdlas were hoatelriea, hos
pitals, secular schools, as well as convenient spots for
mystical dreamers. Tbey were advanced posts for
' Bhilsa Topes, p. 98.

2i6 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
man in bis great struggle witb the potent forces of,
nature, for tbe engineer, tbe feller of forests, the
drainer of swamps, tbe sinker of wells, tbe maker of
roads. From Buddhist rule soon emerged a prosperity!
never known in India before or since. Vast cities
surged up with domes that defy tbe centuries, with
delicate carvings, with rock-cut temples. Pataliputra
(the modern Patna) stretched for nine miles along tbe
Ganges and for a mile and a half inland. Kapilavastu,
Buddha's birthplace, is said to bave been of tbe same
vast proportions. Rij^griba was an enormous city,
Nalanda, the Rome of tbe Buddhist hierarchy, accom
modated thirty thousand monks. From tbe great city
of Besnagur for a score of miles stretches a range still
called the "Mountain of Shrines" (Chaityagiri). It
was crowded with monasteries, topea, buildinga, in
cluding tbe great Sanchi temple.
"The presence of tbese large monastic establish
ments must, for a time at least, bave brought both
wealth and prosperity to tbe country ; and tbe remains
of their embankments thrown across the valleys be
tween Sancbi and Satdhara show tbat tbe Buddhist
monks were aa famoua for practical agriculture aa for
philosophical learning." !
And Buddha's undaunted Pa/rivrdjikas carried
peace and civilisation across tbe aeaa as well as
through the jangala. A^oka himself sent bia son
Mahendra to Ceylon, and that island was promptly
converted to tbe Buddhist faith. At a later date
Java was gained over, a fact teatified by ita fine
Buddhist temples and sculptures. Buddhism invaded
Japan, Burmah, Cathay. Sumatra is tbe Sanskrit
^ Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, p. 865.

CONCLUSION 217
word Samudra. Socotra is also claimed by Sanskrit
acbolars. Profeasor Gustav Oppert, in bis Ancient
Commerce of India, shows tbat Indian merchants
were settled in Alexandria, and tbat a statue in
honour of tbe river Indus waa aet up tbere. A
valuable work bas come down to us, entitled The
Circumnavigation of the Indian Ocean. It is
attributed by Dr. Hunter ! to a merchant who wrote
about A.D. 80, tbe palmy days of Indian Buddhism.
Tbe work givea a " wonderfully complete presentment
of tbe Indo-Egyptian trade," and a list of ninety-five
of tbe chief articles of tbe traffic. Pliny regrets that
fifty-five million aeaterces (£458,000) were annually
drained from the West to go to tbe East. A Chinese
book of botany ascribed to a prefect of Canton
mentions planta growing tbere in tbe fourth century
A.D. wbicb seem to bave been brought by traders
from Arabia and tbe Roman provinces. Tbe "knif-
casb " of China have been traced to tbe Indian Ocean,
if we may trust tbe late M. Terrien de la Couperie,
prince of ainologiats.
How much of tbis material prosperity was due to
lay energy and bow much to Buddha and bis monks
it is impoasible now to settle. Cunningham holds tbat
tbe Buddhist, like the Roman hierarchy, made and
unmade kings. In tbe days of Fa Hian, the Chinese
traveller (a.d. 400), tbe proudest monarchs " took off
their tiaras in tbe preaence of the monks." " All tbe
learning, all tbe wealth, was in the bands of tbe
Bhikshus." It bas always struck me tbat we bave
never beard tbe whole story of Anoka's converaion
from Brabminiam to Buddhiam. If tbe Buddhist
1 History of India, vol. i. p. 42.

2i8 BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
monka of India worked their propagandism in the
form of a secret society, as they undoubtedly did at
a very early date in Persia, in Egypt, in Palestine, it
is possible tbat tbe good king was in tbe first instance
a shrewd politician, and tbat bia hands were forced.
Majestic and calm amid tbe overturned priestly
tyrannies tbat bis Bha/rma has compassed aits tbe
great figure of Buddha, careless alike of idolatry and
misrepresentation. Tbat tbis unique man is entitled
to a niche in the great Pantheon of the World's Epoch-
Makers acarcely admita of a question.

GLOSSARY AND INDEX

Aditi, the Vedic Universal Mother.
Adityas, Sons of Aditi, the months deified.
America, alleged existence of Buddhism in ancient America, chap. xii.
203.
Amitayas, the Buddha of immortal life, 145.
Amrita, P^i Amata, immortality, "bread of life,'' the food of the
sacrifice after consecration.
Arhat, one emancipated from rebirths, an Adept.
Arflpaloka, the heavens where form ceases.
Asoka on "God," the future life, prayer, mysticism, etc., 114 et seq.;
his attitude towards Buddhism, 11 4 ei seq.
Avichi, the ' ' rayless place, " hell, purgatory.
Baptism, the Buddhist rite of, 170, 185.
Bhagavat, lord, God, a title applied to Buddha, Vishnu, and ^iva.
Bhikshu, beggar, one who has adopted the religious life. He is called
also Parivr&jika (wanderer). Muni (silent one), Sramana (vile one),
Son of Buddha, Son of S^kya, Son of Dharma, Man of Pure Life,
Smsls^nika (dwelling amid tombs). Houseless one, etc.
Bigandet, Bishop, on the Buddhist hierarchy, 132.
BimbisSra, advised to destroy the infant Buddha, 30.
Bodhi, gnosis, knowledge of the laws of spirit, annihilation of the ego,
and mystical union ofthe soul with the non-ego, or God.
Bodhisatwa, one about to obtain the Bodhi in his next rebirth.
Brahma, the Great Spirit, the ineffable.
Brahma, the anthropomorphic god.
Brahmacharins, Seekers of Brahma, name for Buddha's early disciples.
Brahmajn^ni, an Adept. 219

220 GLOSSARY AND INDEX
Buddha, esotericaUy God, exoterically Sttya Muni. See !34kya Muni.
Buddhaghosa and the atheism of Ceylon, 111 ; his history of the con
vocations, 111.
Burnouf, ifirnUe, derives Christianity from Buddhism, 160.
Carpet (kusa mat) of Brahma, a mystic state.
Ceylon, vast pretensions claimed for scriptures of, 126.
Chaitya, sepulchral mound, dolmen.
Chakravartin (Ht. "he who turns in the Zodiac"), a king of kings.
Clement of Alexandria, on India, 105.
Colebrooke, Henry, on the burial of calcined remains, 13 ; Vedism a
monotheism, 14 ; NirvS,na not annihilation, 19 ; derives the philo
sophy of Pythagoras from Buddhism, 154.
Convocations, first, 106 ; second. 111 ; third, 127.
Crozier, Dr., announces that Buddha discarded a "Supreme Soul," 7;
condemns Buddhism and other Indian religions, 209.
D%oba (from Dhat<igarbha), relic shrine.
Davids, T. W. Rhys, considers early Buddhism an atheism, 7 ; affirms
that Buddha denied the existence of the soul and a future life,
144 ; affirms that the Buddhism of the Little Vehicle was Agnostic,
126 ; his translation of the Tevigga Sutta, and its great import
ance, 52 ; his Life of Buddha from the Birth Stories 96, 126 ;
supports the authenticity of the first convocation, 126 ; bases
his views of Buddhism on the alleged fact that the Mahsty^na
never reached Ceylon, 126.
Dh3,ranis, prayers.
Dharma, the laws of spirit, the " Wisdom of the Other Bank," 49 ;
personified as a divine woman, 116.
Dhy3.na, the trance of extasia.
Elephant, its meaning, 27 ; Buddha's descent as an, 27.
Essene rites, 164.
Fa Hian cited, 134.
Fasting, Buddha's forty-seven days', 78.
Fergusson, James, on the Sattapanni cave, 109.
Foucaux, Philippe Edouard, his translation of the Lalita Vistara cited,
26 et passim.
Gandharva, a cherub.
GMh^, a poem, a verse.

GLOSSARY AND INDEX 221
Goldstucker, Professor, denies that Nirvana means annihilation, 19.
Grueber, Father, on the similarity of Buddhist and Christian rites,
191.
Guru, 0. spiritual teacher.
Hue, the Abb^, on the similarity of Buddhist and Christian rites,
191.
Hwen Thsang, states objections of earlier Buddhism to Agnostic school,
138, 139 ; on the Convocation of Kaniska, 138 ; Buddhism of
Ceylon belongs to the Greater Vehicle, 127.
Is4na, God, on the Asoka stones, 279.
Jina, a conqueror of his lower nature, a Buddha.
Karma, the effects of sins or good deeds, which are supposed to land
the doer in the hell Avichi or the heavens of the Devaloka, and
detain him until the said Karma is exhausted. He is then
born once more into the world, his Karma influencing the new
birth.
Kellogg, Professor, on the Metempsychosis, 176.
L3,ma, the high priest of Tibet, descended most probably from the
Achirya of Nalanda.
Lightfoot, Bishop, of Durham, considers Christ's movement anti-Essene,
162, 165.
MahMeo, a monolith or menhir, " Great God," a name of Siva.
Mandala, mystic ring.
Mantra, prayer, charm.
Manushi (mortal), Buddhas, seven, 103.
Mira, the Buddhist Satan.
Megasthenes on India, 104, 105.
Nairanjana, the Buddhist Jordan.
NirvS,na, heaven.
Norway, Buddhism in, chap. xii. 199.
Oldenburg, Dr., rejects second convocation, 125.
Pal^a, Butea frondosa.
Ptlramitfts, the ten, the "qualities ofthe Other Bank."

2 22 GLOSSARY AND INDEX
Parivr^jika. See Bhikshu.
Parsvika, a leader in the Agnostic revolution in Buddhism entitled
the "Great Vehicle," 138.
PrajnS. Piramit^, the ' ' Wisdom of the Other Bank " ; wisdom per
sonified by a woman, 116.
Pyrrho-Buddha, set up, 135 ; dethroned, 145.
Rajendra Lala Mitra shows that the " Greater Vehicle'' was plagiarised
from the Brahmin Sunyav&di, 140.
Rishi, prophet, man of God ; his religion, 9.
Rosny, L^on de, derives Christianity from Essenism and Buddhism,
159.
Sfikya Muni, results of his movement, 212 ; comes down to earth as a
white elephant, 27 ; miraculous birth, 26 ; marriage, 36 ; the four
presaging tokens, 35 ; leaves the palace, 46 ; sits under the tree
of knowledge, 47 ; on the Brahma religion, 52 ; his reform, 56 ;
begins to preach, 48 ; the historical Buddha, 56 ; death of, 94.
SlUditya introduces Agnostic Buddhism, 138.
Skandhas, the five (lit. "bodies"), usually applied by Buddhists to the
animal nature of man.
Southern account of Buddha's movement, 96.
St. Matthew an Essene, 167.
St. James an Essene, 167.
Stambha, upright monolith, menhir.
^uiiya, the void, the "Great Nowhere.'
6unya pushpa, the "Carriage that drives to the Great Nowhere,'' a
nickname for the Agnostic or innovating school of Buddhism, the
Buddhism of the "Great Vehicle."
Siitra, discourse.
Swayaffivara, marriage by athletic competition (Ut. "her own
choice ").
Tapas, self-torture (swinging on hooks, etc. ) to gain magical power.
TathS,gata. See Buddha.
Tirthas, tanks, shrines.
Tope, a dolmen, or sepulchral mound.
Tusita, the highest heaven to be reached by unemancipated spirits.
Vaitarani, the Brahmin River of Death.
Varshd, the rainy season, the Buddhist Lent.
Vihara, a monastery.

GLOSSARY AND INDEX 223
Williams, Sir Monier, pronounces Buddhism atheistic, 7 ; it ignores
all "spiritual aspirations," 50 ; general denunciation, 118.
Wilson, Professor, Vedio gods represent halting-places on the zodiac,
iu the sun's annual course, 15.
Yoga (lit. "union"), the conjoining of heaven and earth, spirit, and
matter, the annihilation of the ego and merging of one's will with
the divine wUI. Magical powers were conceived to he a result of
this "union." Hence Yoga also means white magic.

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